Get Shorty

Let’s pick back up on January 21, 2025. My feet were absolutely killing me (I opted not to wear the silver heels in yesterday’s post, but the flat boots I did wear, mostly because of the weather, were shear hell). I still had three hours to kill, so I went back home. During the Go Red event, I somehow snagged my red sweater, creating a visible hole, so I went home to also change. I kept elements of the morning outfit and completely remade my look on the fly, which I was pleased about. A kind of rocker chick look.

I headed back downtown and hit a favorite Happy Hour prior to reporting to work. A friend from past festivals and I worked for about 90 minutes.

I am a seasonal employee of The Cleveland International Film Festival. I guess I am only employable in short time windows and before you argue the point, it is becoming factually true, time and time again. I will be working again this year with the fundraising campaign. This event was a showing of a number of short films, a sold out Ohio Theater, with appetizers and drinks prior. All that meant was no one really paid us any attention as they spent the time prior to the show waiting in lines for each. At least we raised enough money to justify our being there.

There was one memorable experience. I was standing in front of our table being the carnival barker I am and a woman and an older couple came up to me. The woman was very complementary of me and it immediately felt like we knew each other all our lives. It was Amy’s 60th birthday (she looked pretty good for the advanced age…) and I asked her mother, with my tongue in cheek, if she was Amy’s younger sister. So, I think I lost count on the hugs from both Liss (Mom) and Amy. It’s sometimes good to be me, but be careful with the Kandi curse… Life is yin and yang, ups and downs and I remain a very restless soul right now. But this day was a big up, a gift.

This was not the only such encounter I had that evening or even that day. It is quite remarkable how simply owning it, being authentic (and of course, fashionable) and grateful makes one someone people want to know, not someone to be scorned. I have now logged in the tens of thousand such experiences in my eleven years as Kandi. If I could only monetize that…

Plenty of smiles, a few hugs, friends I knew, new friends made. We were welcome to see the show, but both of us were a bit exhausted for various reasons, so we had one for the road and had a nice long chat. Quite the full day!

Thank you all for the kind remarks and comments yesterday! Love you all!