Scraps from the scrapbooking

A scrap-booking crop at Cheryl’s Office, what better way to spend the last Saturday of the Spring vacation! Cheryl is one of the organizers of the meet up group and sometimes makes her office area available for people to use the space together. There was about 15-20 of us - it fluctuated during the day. Tuesday is Cheryl’s birthday so she used it as “an excuse” to have people “over” although there was no need for an excuse as she has these “events” fairly regularly. The day was an excuse to scrapbook and chat with people she knows. I hadn’t been to one of the events for a while given philosophy on Saturdays and work and travel. I hadn’t really intended going but decided that I could, as Helen and Jude are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. I packed up my gear for the day including paper, photos and sticking stuff. I have a small paper trimmer and another cutter and decided it was all I needed for the day as others have extraordinary amounts of stuff. I was one of the first there at around 10:30. I traveled on the N train as it runs local on the weekends and I got off at 28th St and only had to schlep my stuff two streets. The office building is about 14 floors and the instructions for those going there include “buzzing” the 12th floor and Cheryl buzzes you in. Then once you have made your way up in the elevator to the 12th floor you need to be buzzed in to the office area as well. Quite a secure spot and managed really well.
Cheryl greeted everyone wearing her birthday tiara and pink feather boa. During the morning her brother arrived and brought food for lunch from a sandwich bar with rolls and salad. Some people brought homemade snacks, mainly cookies and another woman made a cake for her but had to smuggle it out of the house so her 3 year old daughter wouldn’t see it as she would have wanted to come to the party too, although the daughter would have loved the day (and her mum wouldn’t have done any scrap booking). Ever the scrap booker Cheryl photographed her cake. She is taking “a photo a day “ which she started on January 1 and is putting them in a simple album but it does involve printing them off and remembering why you took them! Mid afternoon a clown arrived and began making balloon hats for everyone. It was all very silly and not as twee as this description sounds.
The conversations just drifted around during the day with people talking about the things they are doing at the moment or prompted by the pages they were working on.
When one particular scrapbooker arrived (whom I had met on other occasions) people who knew her immediately commented on her changed hairstyle. Long on top and cropped really close to the side- she replied to the comments that she had just finished with corporate America and got her new haircut. Certainly a change from her previous glossy bob but she has quit her job at Deutsch Bank and is moving to New Orleans with her husband as they both love the place and have bought a house in the old city. She has a new job- dog grooming! How far from the financial world and corporate America is that! She moves in about a month and has been doing training as a dog groomer and has a job lined up with a couple’s business in New Orleans.
The clown provided lots of conversation points making very elaborate “hats” for people. One woman asked for a monkey on hers and got not only a monkey but also a whole palm tree. She was on her way out of the building to get some coffee from Starbucks (offices and schools don’t have tea and coffee making facilities as readily available as home) and said she’d wear her “hat” to the store. Another person went along with her to photograph the event but most people agreed that no-one would take any notice as “You are in New York!” Cheryl said that she wore her angel wings home from the last crop and walked from 26th St through Lower Manhattan and no one took a “blind bit of notice” (my interpretation).
Just before I left a young woman arrived and ended up sitting opposite me. She has recently moved to NYC and was making a book/album about her first year in New York. She’s working as a financial adviser in Jersey City (just across the river) and lives on 50th St. She loves it. She’s in a studio apartment and her book is looking lovely. It starts with her farewell party in Tulsa Oklahoma (she was chuffed when I said I had been to Tulsa – last year on Route 66) and then her driving off in the U-Haul truck, the boxes in her apartment, trips to the supermarket etc etc. In all the day truly served the purpose of the involvement in the group for me- that is to meet more Americans.