Hey! They gave Lisa the finger!

I’ve mentioned before that the LOLs go to cross-stitching retreats. The retreats are always a hoot, and not just because of the cool stuff the shop(s) provide. Somehow, we LOLs seem to make our own hilarity, and not always on purpose.

Here’s an example. One time we went to a retreat where the shop holding the event had some cross-stitch designers come in to tell us about themselves, give us tips and pointers, etc. It was a really cool event, and we loved the designers. They were extremely personable – hilarious and friendly. They also gave us free stuff, projects as well as other things.

I think the retreat was in late summer, so the next big holiday on the calendar was Halloween. Therefore, the designers (whom I will call The Bees, although that’s nowhere near their real trade name) brought all kinds of Halloweeny stuff for us. When they first arrived, they passed around a big bowl of autumn/Halloween-related trinkets. Every retreat attendee took something from the bowl. I don’t remember what any of the rest of us took, but Lisa took a witch finger. You know what I’m talking about, a green plastic witch finger. We all had them when we were kids – you put it over your own finger. Kids love them.

Okay, so Lisa took a witch finger out of the trinket bowl. That evening back in the hotel room, someone made a comment about The Finger and being our usual over-tired, goofy, giddy, silly selves, we were cracking ourselves up making jokes about how hilarious it was that The Bees Gave Lisa The Finger. (Get it? The Finger? Gave her The Finger?)

We thought it was sooooo hilarious, in fact, that Lisa texted a picture of the green witch finger to her husband and wrote, “The Bees gave me the finger.” Her husband has a great sense of humor, so we were expecting a screamingly funny response. In a way, that’s exactly what we got.

He texted back, “???” Lisa looked at the text, frowned at us, and replied, “They gave me THE FINGER!” We were all looking at each other, wondering why he wasn’t laughing. Then a lightbulb showed up over Amy’s head and she said, “I bet he thinks it’s some kind of stitching tool.”

Sure enough, mere seconds later, Lisa’s phone rang.. Her side of the conversation went something like this:

“A plastic finger. A witch finger.

. . . .

No, it’s not a stitching thing. (hysterical laughter from the LOLs; high-fives to Amy) It’s a kid’s Halloween thing. A witch finger.

. . . .

No, they gave us all Halloween trinkets and I got a finger. Get it? They gave me the finger!”

He didn’t get it. Or maybe he did get it and thought we were nuts. Lisa hung up and said, “Take a picture of me. THIS is what I should have sent him.”

And here’s the picture we took.

He definitely “got it” after she sent the second photo, but I don’t think he thought it was even moderately funny. (As you can tell, he’s a very nice guy, and not anywhere near as rude as we are.)

The next day at the retreat, The Bees were walking around talking to everyone. When they came to our table, we told them how much fun we were having and how great we thought they were, and everyone was laughing and talking and having a high time. Then Lisa told The Bees about trying to make her husband understand our joke about them giving her the finger. They laughed. Then one of us said something about posting the second photo with the caption “The Bees gave Lisa the finger” on Facebook. The Bees looked stricken and one of them said, “Please don’t put that on the Internet! We don’t want anyone to think we gave you the finger!”

We saw their point. That doesn’t sound very good. We didn’t post on Facebook, but I did save the picture. And I can’t help it; every time I start to stitch one of The Bees’s designs, I laugh.

(And, by the way, of all the talented designers we’ve met, The Bees are still my favorites! Sweet, generous ladies, and a LOT of fun!! Their designs are wonderful, too. Too bad I can’t tell you who they are.)