19 October, 2015

Blue & Yellow Sailboat….“I can’t believe that I did that!!”

 I’ll tell you, this story is really one of the ones that I definitely will remember forever, because I was completely unprepared for the things that happened that day!!  On my 50^th birthday, I was caught totally by surprise by a number of my MATTEL friends, my friends at XEROX, and just tons of other folks who were in my social sphere at that time!!  My brother (Rob) and step-sister (Regina) had planned a surprise party for me, and I had no idea what was going on when they called me to come in to the apartment complex dayroom that afternoon!!

It was such a nice gathering and I couldn’t believe all those people were able to keep the party a secret for as long as they did….they got me good!!  Foremost, among the many really nice gifts I received was the incredible gift I got from Rob and Regina.  A beautiful Italian plexi-glass sailboat with its massive Blue & Yellow spinnaker sail, and its sleek Black sculpted hull, I was totally dumbstruck.

Just like my “Moda Italiano” sailboat, it had been one of the pieces that I had seen numerous times when I went into the store, and just like always, I would talk to the store clerk (I really wish I could remember his name now), and we would pass the time talking about the pieces that I loved, but could not afford (ha,ha,ha)  Anyway….when the two of them brought out that gift, everybody in the place was silent just looking at that beautiful piece of art, and then looking at the expression on my face!! (smile)

Now I’m shakin’ like a leaf, and I don’t know what to say because I can’t believe that they got this for me right??  Well, they go to hand it to me….and I reach out for it, and I was so nervous and….

YEP….you guessed it….I dropped it!!  It crashed onto the tile flooring, and everybody gasped as the large spinnaker sail broke into two pieces!!  I was absolutely horrified.  Here I had just been given this great gift, that I know had set back my brother and step-sis “a dollar or two”, and I broke the damn thing right as they were handing it to me!!  I felt like I had just been awarded the “Oscar” and dropped it, and had the head fall off on stage!! Not funny….not funny at all!!

It completely devastated me…particularly because I know what they went through to get it.  Man….everybody was just bummed out, and all you could hear was “Damn….that’s messed up!!” and other flowery expressions of that ilk!! (smile)  While it didn’t ruin the party, and everybody was quite probably sympathetic to my immediate feeling of melancholy, we went on to have a really good time, and my 50^th was indeed a blast!!

O-o-o-o-kay, so now the next day the party’s over, and I’m sittin’ here starin’ at my “busted boat” (groan), and I determined that I was gonna find a way to “mend the sail” so to speak.  I thought of simply getting some crazy glue, but I knew that if I didn’t apply it perfectly, the residue would ultimately slip onto the plexi-surface, and make a cloudy looking smudge that I would not be happy about at all!!  Had to figure out another approach for sure.

I went out and bought a roll of shiny black electrical tape, applied it at the base of the spinnaker sail, and it looked as if the sail had been designed like that from the beginning.  I then decided that I needed to add stripes to the triangular sail, so that the sails would look similar in treatment, and so it went!!  If you touch the base of the large spinnaker sail you can feel the slightly raised area where the tape is applied, but unless I told you, there is no real way you would discern that the sailboat was broken….it looks great….AND….has not broken apart in the 16 years since!! (smile)  Score one for creative ingenuity….which found a way to beat out my clumsiness!!

Each time I handle the Blue & Yellow Sailboat I think of that story, and needless to say I’m very careful when I clean it!! It’s still a piece that people comment on when they see it, and it’s definitely one of my very favorite pieces in the collection!!  So-o-o-o, when you inherit it Jodie, just remember that you’ll have to handle it with care!! (smile)  I certainly don’t want you to ever have to say….”I can’t believe that I did that!!”