Cups or glasses?

 English is weird. 

Well, I suppose it's sort of colloquial, not necessarily 'English.'  But here in Western Canada the term 'cups' and 'glasses' is often interchangeable.  

I'm feeling bloggy again today ... twice within three days. Sometimes I blog twice in a year. 

Today I had a big paint party workshop out at Ness Lake for a ladies retreat. 

I've been doing paint parties for almost 15 years now. 

Truth be told, I still feel somewhat like an imposter as an artist, and it still blows my mind that I would be one to stand in front of a roomful of people instructing them in anything.  

But here I am. 

In the early days, classes of 4-8 were all I could handle. 

These days if a class is less than 15, I consider it small and intimate. 

Today was a group of 20. 

I'd be lying if I said I no longer get nervous before a class. But honestly the thing that stresses me most is forgetting something. 

Today I packed my supply bags out to the garage and set them behind my car and went back into the house to brew a coffee before heading off. 

As the coffee was brewing I had slight panic attack. Well not really panic, but a clear sensing of "Cups. did you pack cups?" (For a paint party we need cups for water to clean brushes and make paint puddles.) Probably not the most imperative thing to bring, but necessary none-the-less. 

Maybe I should just throw in a sleeve red solo cups to be sure. So I did. 

As I was loading the bags into the back of the car, I saw that there was a sleeve of my regular water cups in the bag. Oh well, I guess I have extra cups. 

Then as I was climbing into the driver's seat, my "cups" warning turned into a "glasses" warning. I had cups. But do I have glasses? 

I knew I always have a pair of 'readers' in my purse. And they can work for paint parties, but with readers I am always taking them on and off. It's not ideal. It's better to have a pair of prescription glasses that I can leave on my face. 

I ran back into the house and grabbed a pair of prescription glasses while having the weird thought, "Cups and glasses can mean the same thing. I was stressed about not having cups, but it was glasses I needed." 

And off to the party I went. 

I put my prescription glasses on and taught the class. (While my favourite red framed reading glasses sat docile in my purse.)

During class, a woman came up to me in a panic. "I just sat on my glasses and broke them. Do you have any sort of glue to fix them? They are just Costco readers, but I cannot read or observe any other seminars this. weekend without them." 

We tried using sticky dots and masking tape to repair her glasses. Nope. Not gonna happen, 

Ahh, yes. I am wearing my prescription glasses and I have a pair of readers in my purse. 

She was overwhelmed as I insisted she take my red-framed readers. She could fully engage in her remaining sessions of the retreat weekend.  

Had I not ran back for my prescription glasses I could not have offered her my readers. 

Cups? Glasses? 

I had a slight initial misinterpretation, but translating "cups" into "glasses" worked out to be the solution.