Maybe Then We'd Remember To Slow Down At All Of Our Favorite Parts

"I am going away for a while
But i'll be back don't try and follow me
Cuz i'll return as soon as possible
You see i'm trying to find my place
But it might not be here where I feel safe
We all learn to make mistakes"
~Misguided Ghosts by Paramore
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6c4q-hqpu0

I LOVE that song. Ever since I got their newest CD (Brand New Eyes) I can't stop listening to that song. It just clicks for me I guess. Anyways, that has nothing to do with this post. So...moving forward!

Brent has started up Quotation Creations again. To refresh some memories, my dad used to run that business before he started roofing in Logan. Once Homer Roofing started up, Quotation Creations pretty much died. It changed hands a few times but no one really did much with it til now. Brent has had a booth at Richmond Black & White days and Logan Summerfest this last weekend. I don't know much about business, but it seems like it did okay. For those who don't have a clue what QC is, let me give you a quick run down. The product is framed and matted quotes featuring a picture of either the person who said the quote or a picture that correlates. ex) temples, Christ etc...

The reason i'm bringing all this up is that i've started working for Brent. I helped take orders in the booth for a good portion of friday and all day saturday. And today I put together the 6 pieces that were custom ordered and finished most of a 20 piece order that had nothing to do with Summerfest. Let's just say it's been a long day. (Literally, it was the longest day of the year. Happy Summer Solstice everybody!)

I got to Brent's at 8 AM and left at about 10:45 PM. He trained me for about a half hour then let me loose. I spent a good chunk of time at the storage unit trying to find the right mattes, frames pictures, glass etc for the custom orders. Then it was time to get started, right? Well it would help if the keyboard worked on the computer so that I could actually type up the quotes. It would seem that all hope is lost, but have no fear. My ingenuity kicked in. The 20 piece order called for all cherry frame 7x16's, 10 of a temple quote, 10 of Hinckley's '' it isn't as bad..". Well we had a few of the right quotes already matted but in the wrong frame. So i disassembled them, put them in the right frame, stapled the cardboard, rolled out the paper backing, put on the protective dots and the company sticker, and nailed the hooks in until Brent came home for lunch to problem solve. I was able to rummage through some of the old pre-typed papers and find a quote or two for the custom orders. And we had a few of the correct pictures at the house. But none of them had all the necessary elements. So Brent brought home a keyboard, found the huge temple picture we needed in a mysterious box, and went in search for a Thomas S. Monson photo. When the company was started, Gordon B. Hinckley was the prophet, so we have TONS of pictures of just him and absolutely zero of just Monson. Sadly, I ended up having to cut up a picture of the old First Presidency. Brent brought me a pita for lunch, which was delish, but he had to go back to work...as did I.

I ended up formatting all the custom order quotes, which is a pain in the rear when you are as brain dead when it comes to Word Processing programs as I am. Then came the fun part. Assembling the product from start to finish! The process goes as follows.
1) Find proper frame thats not chipped or scratched and matte that is the correct color with the corrrect size opening and in good condition.
2) Center picture in matte opening and tape down using the most difficult two-sided tape gun ever invented.
3) Center paper w/ quote in the other matte opening and tape down using aforementioned tape gun.
4) Go outside to avoid suffocating/getting high from spray adhesive and stick the matte to the cardboard backing.
5) Find a pane of glass that's not scratched and Windex the crap out of both sides.
6) Look for dust particles between the glass and the matte and shoot them with the compressed air can thing. Do this about 7 million times as needed.
7) Insert matte/cardboard combo into the frame with glass in front and use the crazy black 'framers point' gun to sorta staple the cardboard into the frame.
8) Measure and cut the brown paper backing and use that darned tape gun again.
9) Place protective felt dots and company sticker on the bottom.
10) Nail in the hook using the most ridiculously small nails you can possibly imagine. Place tape over hook to avoid scratching other things.
Repeat approximately 26 times and you have my day today. That doesn't include printing/formatting/cutting the paper or searching through the slightly unorganized boxes for the proper picture. Much less the most difficult task i've ever faced, which is the main reason it took me til almost 11 PM to finish. That blasted tape gun!

Okay so it's really not that hard to use. Maybe a little annoying at times, but I can handle that. When it comes time to refill the dang thing? That's another story. It probably took me a good century and a half to figure out how to wrap the freakin thing around all the little wheels and crap in the right order. The diagram on the little thing is about as useful as an umbrella in a tsunami. After literally a half hour of trying to understand the arrows, i decided it was time to whip out the iPhone. It's a sad day for humanity when a girl has to look up a YouTube video to figure out how to refill a tape gun. It took me another 20 minutes to even understand that because they were using a different model of the gun in the video. I'm still not really sure how it happened, but I closed the plastic cover and said a little prayer and it worked. Don't ask me to do it again because i'll just have to pull out the phone. By the time I conquered Mt. Requires-A-Degree-In-Engineering-To-Refill-This-Thing, it was too late to hammer the hooks into the last of the 20 piece order unless I wanted the neighbors downstairs to set Brent's house on fire. So I did as much as I could without creating a ruckus.

Long story short, I never knew framing and matting could be so exhausting. But I am totally pooped. Good news is I still get to do the dishes (even though I literally have been home for a total of 15 minutes today...so i'm not sure how that translates into me getting the wonderful opportunity to do everyone else's dishes...?) pack for LTC, and shower between now and 8 AM. As much as i didn't enjoy getting a large slash in my thumb from the framers points, spending all day listening to the neighbors quarrel, and spend one of my precious few free days of summer in a house by myself, I really did learn a lot from all those quotes. Most of them were from Prophets and Apostles who are probably the most wise persons on this earth. I think my favorite was one by Thomas S. Monson.

"Courage becomes a living and attractive virtue when it is regarded not as a willingness to die manfully, but the determination to live decently."

There were a few others that were pretty good, but I like them better in Spanish and I don't see the point in writing in a language that no one (who reads this) would understand. I'm grateful that we have been given such wise leaders in a time and place such as this. I'm also amazed at the way things have worked out for me with this job. With my crazy busy summer, i can't get a normal summer job because of how many sporadic weeks I will be gone. I needed a job with VERY flexible hours and Brent needed someone who could spend bursts of time to fill orders. It probably couldn't get more perfect for either of us. I'm getting paid piece rate so I can take my time and do things right like I like to, and Brent doesn't get screwed over for his employee taking an hour to fill a tape gun. It just goes to show how if we put our trust in His hands, He will take care of us. The only thing that matches my complete and total exhaustion from today is the amount of inspiration i've witnessed through reading the words of His servants. It feels good to feel good :)

"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."