After Dad's visit and my retirement from the Health Department I thought I would have a less busy life. I had mailed off my application to two area medical schools, was enjoying the fall weather and thought the approaching holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas would pass quietly.  So much for my thinking.

There had been a pretty steady stream of little decorating jobs ever since school started. Most amounted to a pair of drapes here or wallpaper a bathroom there and one or two new construction wallpaper jobs for our builder.  The extra money was nice, Dennis had started travelling some and most of the time five-year old Wally could travel with me. Two things I had not paid attention to was how many people decided the first part of November they wanted to totally redo the house for the holidays or how without advertising how quickly the word of my little business spread. 

Every time the phone rang with a new person wanting drapes or bedding or wallpaper I would ask my self how did this happen?  How come a person who only learned how to do all this stuff because doing  it myself was the only way I could afford it suddenly get over whelmed with requests from other people?  In my widest dreams I never thought of being an interior designer as a career. Real designers have some sort of a degree that includes art and physics believe it or not both of which I was not good at.  Then there is some sort of certification test that I did not care to know anything about.  This was not my career choice.

One beautiful fall day Barney decided it was time for a picnic before the snow started piling up.  Sitting under a tree in the park I was lamenting about the decorating stuff while he was laughing at me.  I told him to stop laughing, that this was serious because I really did not know anything about what I was doing.  He told me to stop and think about it.
Maybe I should look a gift horse in the mouth and welcome it.

First of all he knew I liked having the time to be with Wes and Wally when they were home or had school activities.  He also had noticed that I was not very good at a regular job where I had to show up at a specific time and stay there until the end of the day.  Then he had to point out that the job at the health department had created an emotional wreck of me for three months as I could not leave everyone else's problems at the office. 

He went on to say that if I enjoyed doing it and working for myself maybe I should just stick with it until I heard about medical school.
He said he was laughing at me because I was sitting there acting like I really did not know what I was doing when actually I was one of the best he had ever seen by the looks of his house.  The analysis of my personality kept going and finally ended with him telling me I was the most talented, creative and caring person he had ever met.


Of course I didn't agree with him on all of his points and told him so.  The part I really did not agree with was the talented and creative stuff. When he asked why it was hard to explain but the best I could come up with was a very brief confession that maybe everyone but my Dad had always thought I was pretty stupid or at least made me feel that way.
He wondered if the "everyone" included my husband and I just reminded him that we agreed that subject was off limits.  

Barney also told me about always wanting to work on Wall Street, which he did for three years, only to find out that he didn't really like the regular hours and the pressure.  He quit and came back to Kansas City to start his own business that he did well at besides enjoying everyday of it.  Maybe that day in the park made a big difference in how I looked at a lot of things through the years and it was certainly one I never forgot.

The holidays were a total blur that year.  I do know we did not go anywhere and there is not a picture of Christmas or Thanksgiving.  Perhaps the reason is that my little decorating business was very busy getting everyone else ready for the holidays.  But then maybe I don't remember much about that year as I hated holidays from the time I was really small.  It seemed like I always put on the happy face and trudged my way through all holidays.

Two days before Christmas when I did not want to think or hear about drapes or anything else connected to decorating I got a phone call.  It was a lady with a foreign accent who wanted to know how much it would cost to do one window.  That was a really stupid question and it was difficult not to be really rude and hang up the phone.  I asked what she wanted on the window like drapes or blinds and she didn't know.  She just wanted a price which I told her I couldn't give her without looking at the window. As the conversation went on she wanted me to come and see the house now.  Loosing my patience I told her I was taking the next couple of weeks off but that didn't please her.  So I finally asked where this house was and when she said it was in the newest, most expensive neighborhood in Kansas City I couldn't resist.
I agreed to meet her the next morning even though it was Christmas Eve.

After the excitement wore off about the possibility of decorating a house in the Leawood Addition I had the thought that someone was paying me back for a joke I had played on them. After all wasn't the house my little Gorda was interested in the same neighborhood? Didn't the whole scenario sound as stupid as Gorda wanting to know how many windows a house had?

My appointment that Christmas Eve morning was very interesting.