Considering that we completed our living room remodel in April, I'm a bit behind in getting curtains up in the windows. The problem is, I haven't been able to find a fabric I like to make the curtains I want. I finally settled on a style of curtains.....or more accurately, swags.......but couldn't find any fabric in our pathetically fabric-store-limited town.
Someone suggested Hobby Lobby in Manchester, which is about 20 minutes away. Much as I hate shopping, I figured it would be worth it to try someplace different.
While I was up there, I figured I'd return the TWO horribly incorrect modems that Comcast sent me, since they have a "customer service" center in Manchester. The Comcast saga is a long and involved story, which I will regale you with on another day, lest this post be so long you won't want to read it.
Anyway........I digress. I had a 1/2 day at work but had been assigned to a different office, so had to drive to my own office to pick up the modems. I had spent hours arguing with Comcast to get them to deliver them to my office instead of my home. When I got there and saw that the modems were the wrong ones, I made a little triptik for myself showing me how to get to the Comcast place, since my GPS has decided to crap out on me.
I drove to the location in Manchester, only to be faced with a sign on the front of the building saying the "customer service" center had moved. After inquiring inside, the snippy lady told me there were maps in the lobby with directions to the new "customer service" center.
I grabbed a map and got in the car, only to realize the map was woefully inadequate and I still didn't know where to go. Some poor employee who was out walking for her lunchbreak happened by, and I snagged her to give me better directions. Thankfully, she knew what she was talking about, and ten minutes later I made it to the "customer service" center.
Unbelievably, they were fast and efficient with returning my modems. Not so much on giving me precise directions on how to get to Hobby Lobby. "Go all the way down to the lights and take a right". Does "all the way down" mean the light right in front of the building doesn' t count? Or should I turn right there? I chose to go all the way down, and, although I'm pretty sure I took the long way around, I did find the highway with the help of some signs.
On the highway, I should have gone South on 93 and then North on 293, but since that didn't make sense to me (why go south, then north??) I skipped going North on 293, continued South on 93, and figured out 2 exits later that I was going the wrong way. Get off an exit, turn around, get back on, and I finally made it to Hobby Lobby.
Where they did not have any fabric I liked.
HOWEVER, the lovely lady there told me I should try Martin's House of Cloth, in Bedford, the next town or two north. After getting fairly sketchy directions, I made an attempt at finding the House of Cloth.
There is an area around Manchester that is like the Bermuda Triangle for me. And unfortunately, Martin's House of Cloth was right in the middle of it. After getting off on the wrong exit, driving several miles the wrong way, turning around, stopping at a 7-11 for similarly sketchy directions, totally GUESSING at the next exit......I finally found the Bedford Mall. This was supposed to be my landmark, and Martin's House of Cloth was "just a ways past the mall on the left".
I drove a LONG ways past the mall, and saw no House of Cloth on the left. I stopped at a CVS, where the kid at the counter scrunched up his face and said, "I think they moved". At the look of horror on my face, he called a girl over who assured me that the House of Cloth was RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!
And thank the LORD, she was right! I entered Martin's House of Cloth, only to be disappointed to see the same rows and rows of quilting fabric I've seen in so many other fabric stores. Does anyone do anything with fabric besides quilt? HOWEVER, they had another room with upholstery fabric, which I checked quickly - after all, I wanted sheer material for my curtains, not upholstery fabric. But hey, I was there so I might as well look.
After glancing quickly, I was heading out when a very nice woman asked if she could help me. I said, "I'm looking for a printed, sheer fabric to make curtains for my living room." She said, "We don't have printed sheer fabric, but we do have this printed LACE fabric."
HURRAH!!!!! It was perfect! Even better than the fabric I was envisioning in my head. "Do you have ten yards of it?" No.......there were ELEVEN yards!!! And they gave me that extra yard for FREE!!!
The funniest part was, after paying for my fabric, I asked the woman for directions on how to get back to the highway to go home. She held out her left hand and said, "When you leave the parking lot, take a right................."
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