Sew Frustrated

Last night was a rough night at upholstery class. I was frustrated, and yeah, a bit angry. It reminded me of one time when I was a waitress: I went to take an order. The lady said she wanted the fajitas, but she was pointing on the menu to the flautas. So I said, "You are pointing to the flautas. Do you want flautas or fajitas?" She stabbed her finger at the flautas again and said, "I'll have the fajitas!" I took a deep breath and said, "Let me get this clear. You want fajitas, but you are pointing to the flautas." I showed her the difference on the menu, "So do you want flautas or fajitas?" She became angry and acted like I was the idiot and screamed that she wanted the fajitas, but she was still pointing to the flautas. I walked away and told the other waitress that it was her table now.

This teacher in the upholstery class is a very nice lady, but she couldn't teach her way out of paper bag. Earlier, I asked her if I needed to buy decking (plain material to go under the upholstery material). She said, "No." Then she proceeded to tell me what all I would be doing to my chair - including using decking. "So I do need decking?" Again, she replied NO and told me again how to do my chair - including using decking. I was confused - it seemed a simple yes would have sufficed.

Last night, she was trying to tell me that I needed to sew something to something, but I couldn't figure out what to what. My friend the Diva struggled with the instructions, too, but was not nearly as frustrated as I was. The teacher never used the words "material" to "decking," which was what was needed. Several times she told me what to do, but it made no sense to me. Then she acted like I was some sort of brick-brain (which I was feeling.) Finally, the Diva got it figured out and explained it to me. The way the teacher wanted me do the upholstery seemed difficult and, well, not right. I was frustrated that I could not communicate my thoughts to the teacher and angry that she seemed to think it was me being stupid and there were other things about her instructions that really irked me. I really wanted to walk out - go home - get the heck out of Dodge. Although I didn't say anything to her, I'm sure my frustration was showing. Finally the teacher snatched up my material and stuff and said she would show me - off to the cutting table we went. She laid it all out on the table, showed me what to do, and asked me if I understood (ya big idiot!) I told her that I understood, but I didn't understand why - when we could do another way easier. And I showed her what I meant. She got this look on her face and said, "Well, you could do it that way." She was kind of huffy about it, so I said that I was willing to do it her way. Then she snatched up all the stuff, carried back to my work station, and said, "No, you can do it the your way." Turns out my way was the right way all along.

After all that frustration and fuss, I finally made a bit of progress on the chair. But then, I had to use the industrial sewing machine and I don't really sew much. About the tenth time the thread broke and I had to re-thread the machine and start over, I was thinking that this upholstery stuff was for the birds. The Diva came over and showed me that the bobbin was messed up and the thread was not right. The teacher had to work on the machine. I just wanted to go home.

Maybe next week will be better. Today is my birthday and I don't want to think about upholstery now that I got that off my chest.