Saturday was the early day of the Lucketts Market, kicking things off at 8:00, so it meant another early morning after a full day Friday.  I also didn’t sleep very well the night before.  My mind was swimming with the events of the day and the tasks for the next.  Sometimes it’s just hard to shut it off. We drove down to Lucketts and it rained the entire way.  The forecast was so grim, I even packed magazines to read for the down times and scheduled a lunch with a reader Kriste and I connected with last year. When we arrived at the event, there was a hard, driving rain and standing water in our tent. There were a few leaks, but the good news was we were pretty snug with all of the tent sides up and we brought a couple bales of compressed straw to deal with the

Before I continue with the story of Lucketts 2016, let me rewind to one year ago, VIP Day 2015.  We had tons of help lined up, cameras at the ready to capture the frenzy that usually happened when the gates opened.  The anticipation was building as we neared 10:00.  The gates were opened and customers strolled in.  There wasn’t a rush at all.  Everyone was relaxed and took their time.  We had a steady stream of sales through the morning, but never a line, and the traffic slowed to a creep in the afternoon. So, we expected something similar this year. We were mistaken. The gates opened early for the VIP day of Lucketts 2016 and our booth started to fill with customers and it just kept filling.  And the line kept growing and growing until it spilled out of our tent and wrapped through the aisle between the two

My alarm went off at 5:15 am on Friday morning.  I don’t usually do 5:15 am (or anything before 8:30, if I can help it.)  It was like Christmas morning, though.  Your body feels energized instead of groggy.  Exciting things await, so let’s get to it. I showered and put on the linen shirt dress and jeans I set out the night before.  I usually wear a t-shirt to Lucketts, but I opted to wear a “real outfit” this year. I packed some berries and crackers to eat later in the day and took a few bites of a bagel.  I had too much nervous energy to eat very much.  I left the house at 6:15 in a van loaded with topiaries and plants and made it to Lucketts about 7:30. As soon as I arrived, I went into “Marian Lucketts Mode.”  I am not like this the other 364

I’m going to give a full recap of Lucketts once my brain solidifies once again.  It’s total mush at the moment. When I was driving home from the market on Friday, I was trying to articulate to my mom how “out of it” I felt after such a full day.  I almost didn’t recognize the exit for my house! She came up with a perfect analogy… “It like when you get off of roller skates.” I knew exactly what she meant.  On skates, you adjust to gliding with each step, the momentum carrying you forward.  When you take them off, you feel like your feet are getting stuck on the floor with each step. The pace of the last few days have been quick to say the least.  Now that the “skates are off”, I have to readjust to the slower speed and find my ground legs again.  The two hour