A day with Savor, Part I

I'll break this up in a few parts, since there's lots to share with you about my adventure on Sunday with Lisa of Savor Soap fame!

I "met" Lisa via Etsy, where I became a loyal customer (love love love her soaps and creme fraiches!) and friend. We both belong to two of the same "street teams" - California Crafter's Club of Etsy, and San Francisco/Bay Area Etsy. We've joked that we were separated from birth, enjoying similar TV shows, books, etc.

Lisa's a "top seller!" Which means she has a lot of sales (more than 7,000!!). To celebrate her one year anniversary, she scheduled a special day of sales last week, and the day exceeded her wildest dreams. I'm not sure what the final count was, but she definitely sold more than 200 items in just that day! And she's not able to take time off from work right now, so I offered to came by over the weekend and give her a hand with wrapping, labelling and packaging. I don't think she really believed me, but I was dead serious, and we finalized arrangements.

I live in the infamous Silicon Valley (southern San Francisco Bay Area) and Lisa lives in the Eastern San Francisco Bay Area, just one hour apart. I'm not that familar with the East Bay, but I was confident (arrogant?) that I could find her place in just an hour with the help of my handy iphone. I was bringing my very favorite Vietnamese food for eats, on the way to the pass that would take me out of my valley and into hers.

Hahaha! Famous last words.

I wasn't really thinking ... only following iphone directions. First mistake. So I picked up the food in downtown San Jose (which is 20-25 minutes from my house), already running behind. Then realized I had to double back to take 880 by following the directions. I thought, "hmmm, I should just take 680 (which would save me 20 minutes of backtracking), but maybe this is shorter in the end." Always go with your first instinct. Thirty minutes later, I was following directions to the letter, finding myself on 680 at a point that would have been 10 minutes from the restaurant. Argh!!!

But, OK, no worries, traffic was pretty light, I thought I could make up for lost time. Kept thinking, "Where is (insert town here)? Am I getting close??" I was suddenly faced with a decision between the freeway to Oakland vs. the freeway to Sacramento, panicked, went Oakland, and realized that had to be a mistake. Pulled off the freeway, iphone, new route. Back track. After 15 minutes, realize I'm too far south. Pull off freeway, iphone, new route. Back north again. Driving like a granny in the far right lane (by now we've exchanged texts - you lost? are you OK? and on the way! any minute!), not wanting to miss my exit! After another 20 minutes, YAY, there it is. Then the directions fell apart. I couldn't figure out which lane was considered the "subtle right fork." Argh!

So, I proceeded to spend nearly an hour overshooting where I knew the next exit had to be (I'm on back roads now), iphone, reroute, shaking fist at sky, lather, rinse, repeat.

Poor Lisa.

So I FINALLY reach what I think might be it, nearly weeping in relief, pulled over in a little parking area, called her, and I found the very parking area I was meant to park in! Yay!

TOMORROW: the meeting and the reality behind being a top seller (working 24/7!)!