09/16/2025
(Shameless speaking- copy/ pasted from my personal page/ the original shop page)
No pics for attention today, just a simple apology:
Looking back on the last couple years of the 'Hoard, I realize now how badly I was handling the Covid issue. Sure, I was at work most days, same as before. Sure, I was working the same excessive hours, same as before, etc etc. But what changed was the type of stress and how I handled it!
The longer Covid dragged on, the more I feared for the business. The more I feared, the harder I thought I had to fight. The concept isn't a problem, but how I responded to it was. I looked for trouble, in most anything and everything I could. I had reasons (increased break-ins, threats of violent disruptions, etc), but in my excessive vigilance I created some as well. Folks who were just being aloof while shopping? I took it as a sign of ill intent. Folks I was acquainted with, but couldn't recall seeing in person? I treated with suspicion. Other crafters, coming in (possibly to support another crafter)? I looked for sabotage and mischief! It's not that I hadn't encountered these things prior to Covid, but with the massive reduction in our customer traffic, and the dramatic increase in time alone at the shop, my brain weasels turned these things into much more than I had reason to! THAT is what I'm apologizing for!
I've always had these issues (self doubt, insecurity, unworthiness), and it's times when I'm not vigilant about the warning signs that I get bad with them. Looking back, I can see the symptoms & the signs, that I was treating folks unfairly. I sometimes even saw them then- just convinced myself I was wrong, and that my actions "were" justified!
So if you came in towards the end of the shop, and I wasn't the Happy Shop Owner I tried to be for everyone, and you did nothing to deserve being treated anything but hospitably, it is You to whom I'm apologizing! Might have taken me a bit to realize what I was doing, and work up the "spoons" (am I using this right?) to admit such and type this, but my Apology is no less heartfelt or sincere, and I'm publicly admitting my fault in this. 🙁
Mind you, if I was just being over-chatty, over-sharing, or seeming needy for conversation- that's just my social awkwardness showing itself! A painfully anxious & shy teenager changed his social awkwardness into being overly chatty and such. Still socially awkward- just differently so than I was in my youth! 😕
And for those who took advantage of the Covid situation to be an As***le in various ways? F*CK YOU, this apology isn't in any way for you!!! I'm talking shoplifters, bullies, bigots, 'religiously righteous', etc. If you stole from me (petty or otherwise), came in to disrupt my business, attempted to create a scene/ plant "evidence" (so I'd get in trouble/ be shut down), spread rumours of my selling Illegal merchandise, or anything of this sort- you can Inhale (suck) an overly Large (giant) sack of Ignited (flaming) Richards (dicks)!
I now return you to your regularly scheduled Shenanigans. Many hopes that you Enjoy your Day!
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