September 19, 2007
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Captive Audience
About a month and a half ago Ben went to work at an assisted living hospital as one of their two IT guys, about a week after he started I got a call from their activities director asking me to do a program on glass. I, in my usual brian fog way, forgot about it until yesterday.
So today I had a captive audience. I was a little nervous because I HATE, HATE, did I say HATE… talking in front of people. I can do it but I am not great at it and usually I only like doing things I am GREAT at… I am kidding! I have trouble putting up a picture of myself, you think I like it any better when I have to let people stare at the real thing?!
So I carted in my loads of stuff and set up all of my gear and gave a little talk about my glass work, how I got started in it, the tools used, the glass and how it is done. I passed around some books and pictures of my work. We talked about mosaic work and other types of glass work. And then I whipped out my BIG project. I had cut some 2 inch squares of colored and clear glass and taken a small bag of tiny fabric fall leaves. So I had everyone make a little sandwich with one clear piece and one colored and a few leaves in the center then I gave them all a piece of the copper foil and a piece of fish line so they copper foiled them together and put a fish line hanger on them so they could hang them in their windows… It was a hit.
I had about twenty, twenty-five people there for the talk, only two of which were men… about two thirds of the people were in wheelchairs, so even if I had been HORRIBLE… they couldn’t have run far. I also took the opportunity to size up some of the eighty year old women who have been hitting on my husband. I think I can take’em if I have to.
I vaguely remember saying that I’d love to do it again anytime… As I hit my head against the steering wheel all of the way home.
Also! Took the stained glass frog even though I haven’t painted the eyes on him yet and a woman who was volunteering there wants to buy him so… YAY.
Comments (23)
wow, congratulations, Ang!
you never know where this might lead.
oh and i thought of you the other day at the drugstore. they’re already selling eyeball candy.
I have clients in Assisted Living Facilities; and you don’t know how they crave people coming in and doing things, just that contact is sooooo important to them, especially if their families are AWOL … which, sadly, is often the case . And you meet the most interesting people.
wow u can do that glass thing? let me see some pics of your artistic work.
sounds like a lot of fun actually!
well maybe NOT the part where you hit your head on the steering wheel….but the rest of it sounded very nice. 
She wants a blind frog?
good job, ang…kinda felt like that when i volunteered to play my church’s first rock mass, in the seventies…now, i’m a stage whore, loving the attention..and, thank you, for the supportive comment…i’m so very glad you are my friend…peace and hugs…. animal
the five stars, by the way, were for your friendship….say hi to your hubby…peace…animal
I hate stuff like that too,except that I am a natural born talker….blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
……………..that is me!
Glad that you sold the blind frog!
you never know what the results of your presentation will be. all it takes is for one of those in attendance to know somebody who knows somebody…….and before you know it, you’ll be in great demand as a public speaker! No, you’ll be in great demand with your creative talents.
I had to take speech class in collge. That was so hard, but it did help me later in life as a manager. Sounds like all went well.
RYC thanks for the visit and comments. Blessings
frank
I would love to learn glass work! All i have done so far is some very tame mosaic work ,mostly because i wanted a mosaic dining room table.Life, when pretty much confined ,is so boring that any change from routines is welcome.How much better if you make something that you can enjoy afterwards. It was very kind of you especially sonce it involved doing something your not comfortable doing.
You have probably no idea how wonderful your visit was for these folks. Captive audience or not, you being there probably made their day that much brighter. Congrats and thanks for taking the time with folks who generally get ignored… its a wonderful thing you did.
My mother in law works at an assisted living facility. She was activities director for a while and she loved to get the old folks involves in things. She was just telling me yesterday that the AD they have now doesn’t do anything. Sad for those people. So come on over, you can show these old folks a thing or two.
Congrats on accomplishing the dreaded task and selling a piece, to boot. It’s easier to talk about things you love than it is a boring old sales pitch or something.
Good deal, you were a rave!! I would love to see some of your work–any in your photos?! Having big troubles with my daughter, that’s why I wrote the poem–glad you liked it! Take good care.
Thankfully today is Thursday, which means the weekend is nearly upon us…and oh goodness am I in need of some weekend! Ever have one of those weeks that just won’t end? I swear this one week has been three months long. Maybe. Anyway I just wanted to drop by and read what you had to say. Ciao!
- Rebekah
Talking in front of people: Only if it’s something I like talking about or a topic that’s been burning in me.
You joined the practice to the speech and this is good pedagogy . You did well Ang ! Compliments .
I didn ‘ t know you were an artist working the glass . Did you already post some pieces of your art ?
Love
Michel
I have women of all ages hit on me. I don’t fight them off though.
I think it’s awesome that you went and did that and helped them create something for themselves to boot! I’m sure it was the highlight of the day for many of those folks; and YOU made it happen. Even if you were nervous, didn’t really feel like it, or whatever; you still made the effort and helped brighten those folks’ days. You should be proud of that.
Oh, and I bet they’d love to see some of your barn and nature photographs next time, honey!
RYC: Dammit, I forgot about the war. If I go down, I’ll go down as a War Hero- sweet.
I bet you were great! Have a good weekend!
Good for you overcoming your dislike of public seaking in order to do something nice for other people!! I like how you brought a project for them to work on in addition to the talk. I’m sure they really enjoyed they whole experience! I remember going to assisted living centers (they were called nursing homes back then lol) to do classroom choir “concerts” when I was kid and I always thought we sucked and this must be the worst part of their day but in retrospect I think it was a good thing. It seems like the elderly sometime slip throught the cracks in our society; you should be proud for doing your part to reach out and remember an important population.
Thanks for your comment the other day! Although I WAS floating on a benadryl cloud I really did enjoy your pictures! On second look, I have to stand by assessment of inspiring and places I’d like be