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Post by Freefallfast on Jan 29, 2015 2:02:05 GMT
Any body have any funny or horrible happenings a a crop or a retreat?
I have a few but will start with the woman who came on the 4 day retreat with us and basically just looked at a showed all her pics of her kids to everyone. And cried. Because she missed them.
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Post by 950nancy on Jan 29, 2015 4:48:50 GMT
Hmmmm… My scrappy friend went to a crop and the lady across from her spent 3 days talking about her son who was gifted so he had to be home schooled. He was taking a leadership course because of his obvious strengths. He was also committed to swimming because he had shown such promise and was so competitive and always won at his meets. So my friend is looking at the pictures and notices a young boy in them. She asks how old the pictures were. They were current. This boy was five. To hear her tell the story is a hoot. I am all about a good ol' brag now and then because there are so many reasons to be proud of your kiddo, but this kid was simply amazing.
I went to a large crop with about 150 people. I get extra space and travel two hours to get there. I make two of every layout and bring a lot of punches and embellishments. This woman scowled at my stash and made fun of every single tool I used. Now she was passive aggressive about most of it, but shut up! I didn't comment on her style of making pages.
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Post by jameynz on Jan 29, 2015 6:22:19 GMT
Do we still have the crop nightmare thread from the 'other site' was around 10 pages.....  |
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Post by iammikki on Jan 29, 2015 18:52:49 GMT
It isn't a horror story, but I went to a crop at my local scrapbook store and we had the radio on, there was one of those love songs that they play every hour and we all talked about how much we hated the song. One lady showed up late, and it came on AGAIN and she just raved and raved about how it was the best and sweetest song and didn't we all just love it. Everyone tried to be nice but it was really awkward.
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jan 29, 2015 18:54:33 GMT
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tiffanytwisted
Pearl Clutcher
you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave
Posts: 4,538 
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Post by tiffanytwisted on Jan 29, 2015 19:36:53 GMT
My friend's brother has a beach house that he & his wife let us use for scrappy weekends during the off season. We try to go once a month or so from October thru May.
One of the first times we went last year, we invited a mutual friend who we knew was a little quirky, but thought we could tolerate her for the weekend. Oh. dear. lord. From the minute we invited her (She does not have cable internet, so does not do e-mail. She was expecting me to call her w/every development in our planning) til the minute we got home (She got pulled over on the way home and admitted to us that she told the cop it was me & the other girl's fault that she swerved because she was tired and we had made her stay later than she wanted to) she was a barrel full of crazy.
The driving arrangements weren't to her liking. My friend & I like driving together and Crazy was told we would caravan, but she would have to drive herself as she was leaving earlier than we were. Long story short, she lied & twisted things and I ended up riding w/her.
She labeled her food. There were only four of us in the house and we all knew each other. She labeled her travel mug & water bottles, too.
She wouldn't sleep in one of the five bedrooms. She slept on the sofa in the TV room. We finally decided that she was afraid we would get up early and start w/out her and she would miss something.
We all agreed to do takeout all weekend (we're there to scrap, not cook, is our motto) yet she insisted on bringing a pasta dish one nite and got upset when we weren't interested in sharing it with her. She had no problem refusing my friend's breakfast casserole, however.
She claimed she had to leave early because she had a meeting in the afternoon. She blew off the meeting (and only called her job when I encouraged her to do so) and then twisted things again to get us to leave at the time she wanted us to.
We use the sheets & towels in the house and then do the laundry before we leave. She didn't help because this mother of 2 grown children claimed she didn't know how to use the washing machine.
She did nothing to straighten up the house upon our departure other than heave our bags out the front door to get us to leave when she wanted us to.
There was more, but I've rambled enough.
Needless to say, we've never asked her back again.
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Deleted
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Nov 27, 2024 2:41:45 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2015 20:51:35 GMT
I just have one piece of advice: before you invite a new friend to an overnight all-sleep-in-one-room event...sleep with her.
The snoring made me drag my twin mattress out onto the deck to sleep.
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Post by cmpeter on Jan 29, 2015 22:08:52 GMT
I went to a weekend crop for a number of years that was just a blast. One year the host invited a few new folks, nothing wrong with that. But, these ladies were more interested in partying. They were doing belly shots off each other, some long ski shot thing and just generally drinking too much.
I didn't go the next year, but other friends said it just got worse.
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tiffanytwisted
Pearl Clutcher
you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave
Posts: 4,538
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Post by tiffanytwisted on Jan 30, 2015 13:44:20 GMT
I went to a weekend crop for a number of years that was just a blast. One year the host invited a few new folks, nothing wrong with that. But, these ladies were more interested in partying. They were doing belly shots off each other, some long ski shot thing and just generally drinking too much. I didn't go the next year, but other friends said it just got worse. Maybe they misread the invitation and thought it was a bachelorette party in Vegas?  |
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scrapnnana
Drama Llama
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Post by scrapnnana on Jan 30, 2015 14:21:26 GMT
My story isn't a true "nightmare," but it was pretty uncomfortable when it happened.
When the last LSS closed, my friend and I decided to scrapbook at the public library. We invited a few others to join us. It is usually about four of us who get together for scrapping and paper crafting. There are only four tables in the room we use, so it is perfect for our little group. We occasionally have one or two more come, and occasionally have to share tables. It's slightly cramped, but it works okay.
Although we reserve the room, the library policy is that our meetings need to be open to the public, and we have to leave the door open. Curious library patrons often peek in and sometimes ask questions. One day a woman with a couple of kids in tow showed up at the door and asked what we were doing, so we explained. It was obvious that she was not a scrapper. She asked if anyone could come. We said, yes, but kids would get bored really fast, and everyone brings their own projects, supplies and tools. Then she asked if she could bring 3 or 4 friends with her......
At that point, we were starting to panic a little. We pointed out that there isn't enough table space for more than one or two more people, and even then we would be sharing table space. A couple of us would be willing to share space, but we just couldn't accommodate that many people. She left. We were kind of freaked out for the next week or two thinking that she would come back with all her friends, but she never showed up again.
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jan 30, 2015 21:11:21 GMT
I just have one piece of advice: before you invite a new friend to an overnight all-sleep-in-one-room event... sleep with her. The snoring made me drag my twin mattress out onto the deck to sleep. I read your advice wrong.  I had to read a second time. |
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Post by 950nancy on Jan 31, 2015 2:23:47 GMT
It isn't a horror story, but I went to a crop at my local scrapbook store and we had the radio on, there was one of those love songs that they play every hour and we all talked about how much we hated the song. One lady showed up late, and it came on AGAIN and she just raved and raved about how it was the best and sweetest song and didn't we all just love it. Everyone tried to be nice but it was really awkward. I love when this stuff happens. It is like a gift from the universe. I will internally laugh for hours. |
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Post by myboysnme on Feb 1, 2015 0:15:15 GMT
Pretty much every bad crop story I have, and I've been to hundreds of crops, is on the Crop Nightmares Thread. 10+ years of my crop horror stories. But maybe I can think of a recent one.
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Post by mikklynn on Feb 1, 2015 0:36:02 GMT
One I went to last year was a benefit, so most people only knew one or two others. There was a woman there I'd guess was pushing 70. She was very friendly, but oh my, by the end of the event she had made an offensive comment about just about every race, religion, political group, and sexual orientation one can imagine. It was astounding! She just kept talking to no one in particular.
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Post by alissa103 on Feb 1, 2015 2:11:07 GMT
Oh gosh I went to a crop once when we moved to a new city and I knew NO ONE. It was super crowded and everyone seemed to know one another. But a seemingly nice lady asked me to sit by her. She proceeded to tell me the most depressing stories about her life, abused animals, etc. I am kind of sensitive to that stuff and it was just too much for me to handle. I seriously left feeling depressed and I cried the whole way home. Now I know why no one was sitting by her! I saw her at several events after that and always was nice and said hello & made some small talk, but steered clear of her otherwise.
Another time (and honestly, this was worse), a mom from one of my mom's groups invited me and DS over to her house to scrap and have a play date. Some how it came up that we both scrapped and our kids were roughly close in age so it seemed like an amazing combo. Kids are entertained while moms play! Awesome! I was so, so excited. And then. OMG. Her house was hoarders-quality. I was so scared DS (who was pretty young at the time) was going to hurt himself, eat cat poop, etc. I was HORRIFIED!!! And there really wasn't anywhere for us to scrap. No open desk space or whatever. Not sure what she was thinking! Thankfully I am dreadfully allergic to cats and almost immediately started having trouble breathing in that mess. We sat on the couch and chit chatted for about 15 minutes and then I told her I thought I was going to have an asthma attack and I really needed to leave just incase. After we left she texted me and accused me of taking something from her house. UM NO. Maybe if you cleaned up your house you would know where your stuff was!!!
And then at another crop at LSS all of the ladies proceeded to go into detail about their birth stories from each and every one of their children and LOUDLY. Waaaaaay too much detail and everyone in the whole store could hear it all. A few of us were looking at each other like, "WTH?" I was so glad when the last story was told. THey were seriously trying to one up one another and it was just getting worse and worse and worse. Ugh.
I've also been to crops with poor music choices that make me want to bang my head into a wall.
But yeah, I've been to a lot of crops in my 14+ years of scrapping and they are generally lovely and fun times. Just a few little exceptions here and there!
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Post by myboysnme on Feb 2, 2015 13:23:54 GMT
Oh gosh I went to a crop once when we moved to a new city and I knew NO ONE. It was super crowded and everyone seemed to know one another. But a seemingly nice lady asked me to sit by her. She proceeded to tell me the most depressing stories about her life, abused animals, etc. I am kind of sensitive to that stuff and it was just too much for me to handle. I seriously left feeling depressed and I cried the whole way home. Now I know why no one was sitting by her! I saw her at several events after that and always was nice and said hello & made some small talk, but steered clear of her otherwise. Another time (and honestly, this was worse), a mom from one of my mom's groups invited me and DS over to her house to scrap and have a play date. Some how it came up that we both scrapped and our kids were roughly close in age so it seemed like an amazing combo. Kids are entertained while moms play! Awesome! I was so, so excited. And then. OMG. Her house was hoarders-quality. I was so scared DS (who was pretty young at the time) was going to hurt himself, eat cat poop, etc. I was HORRIFIED!!! And there really wasn't anywhere for us to scrap. No open desk space or whatever. Not sure what she was thinking! Thankfully I am dreadfully allergic to cats and almost immediately started having trouble breathing in that mess. We sat on the couch and chit chatted for about 15 minutes and then I told her I thought I was going to have an asthma attack and I really needed to leave just incase. After we left she texted me and accused me of taking something from her house. UM NO. Maybe if you cleaned up your house you would know where your stuff was!!! And then at another crop at LSS all of the ladies proceeded to go into detail about their birth stories from each and every one of their children and LOUDLY. Waaaaaay too much detail and everyone in the whole store could hear it all. A few of us were looking at each other like, "WTH?" I was so glad when the last story was told. THey were seriously trying to one up one another and it was just getting worse and worse and worse. Ugh. I've also been to crops with poor music choices that make me want to bang my head into a wall. But yeah, I've been to a lot of crops in my 14+ years of scrapping and they are generally lovely and fun times. Just a few little exceptions here and there! Every one of those is a nightmare. No question. What did the lady think you stole? |
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Post by alissa103 on Feb 3, 2015 1:46:01 GMT
Every one of those is a nightmare. No question. What did the lady think you stole? A cup that her kid was drinking out of while we were there  |
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NoWomanNoCry
Drama Llama
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Post by NoWomanNoCry on Feb 3, 2015 1:49:04 GMT
Every one of those is a nightmare. No question. What did the lady think you stole? A cup that her kid was drinking out of while we were there LOL! Yeah because a child's cup is worth stealing..it's such a big ticket item  thanks for sharing your story...gave me a good laugh  |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Feb 3, 2015 5:00:50 GMT
Most of my good ones are on the Crop Nightmares thread, but I remembered one more. My BFF, her mom and I have been on many, many scrapping adventures. One year we decided we were going to go to a CKU that was several states away. Because BFF is always looking for ways to minimize expenses, she found a friend she knew from another state who wanted to go and would meet us there and room with us. Okay, great, we had a double queen room so we had space, and the hotel wasn't cheap. We get to the place and we all meet up and she seemed like a nice enough lady. Get into the room and she mentions that she hoped the pillows weren't down because she's allergic to feathers. Check the pillows, nope, not feathers. Whew. That conversation led to all of the OTHER things she happened to be allergic to, which meant that we were going to be in for an interesting weekend! We weren't disappointed. Several times, her meals had to be sent back because the plate contained something she couldn't have, yet she didn't bother to tell the server in advance what she couldn't eat.  Besides the allergy talk, we were regaled all weekend with countless stories about being a military wife and all of what that entails. Who knew? The event itself was pretty fun, we got a lot of scrapping swag which was great, except we almost didn't have enough room in the van to get it all home because we brought so much crap with us. The time came to go home, and we went our separate ways. BFF was doing childcare for a weird lady who refused to let us take two days to drive home even though we were a good 14 hour drive away. BFF had lined up the neighbor lady to watch the daycare kids (which they had done several times before without any problems, the daycare mom was just being difficult), so we didn't have the option of stopping halfway and getting a room. This was after being up until all hours for the last four days straight with CKU crops, etc. So about three hours in on our drive back, our "roomie" had called on her cell phone to let us know that she wouldn't be home when she thought she would, because she had almost fallen asleep at the wheel! A trucker behind her saw her weaving and honked his horn until she woke up. He then followed her to a wayside rest a couple miles down the road to make sure she would be safe. Scary! She was so lucky. Even though she was a little odd, we sure didn't want her driving into a ditch! We were all exhausted too, and ended up stopping at a Walmart parking lot to sleep in the van for a couple of hours around 3:00 am, even though we still had a few hours left to go before we'd be home. I was falling asleep just co-piloting, so I don't know how my friend managed to drive that whole way. We finally made it back to BFF's house at 7:45 am, 15 minutes before the daycare mom showed up with the kids. It was just insane. BFF's neighbor came over to watch the kids anyway for a couple hours in the middle of the day so my friend could take a nap. Now we always laugh and say, "We're NEVER Walmart Camping EVER again!!!" Yeah, those were some good times. |
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Post by scrapbookwriter on Feb 3, 2015 20:00:35 GMT
Thank you for saving and linking to the crop nightmare thread! That was just too much fun to let die I went to a three-day crop this weekend and it was fantastic. I can't think of a single thing I would change. Good food, perfect facility, well organized, everyone was friendly, great classes, made some new friends, got a lot done. I had a blast! |
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Post by PolarGreen12 on Feb 3, 2015 21:11:18 GMT
I've been cropping at stores in my area since I started scrapping in 2002 when I was 23 years old. And it's usually the same group of women you see most every time, with a few new additions. So we get to know each other, you learn who you like to sit by, who to NOT sit near. ETC. I'm good at tuning people out, except the creepy whistler. There's a lady who used to come to one particular stores crops. Always the 1st crop of the month. She'd bring her stuff in, put on her headphones, not talk to anyone, and crop her heart out. But she whistled along with every damn song! She would never take her headphones out if someone attempted to talk to her. If they tried she just point at her ears and would shake her head. When that store closed she never popped up at one of the others. Thank goodness!
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tiffanytwisted
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you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave
Posts: 4,538
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Post by tiffanytwisted on Feb 4, 2015 21:06:28 GMT
I've been cropping at stores in my area since I started scrapping in 2002 when I was 23 years old. And it's usually the same group of women you see most every time, with a few new additions. So we get to know each other, you learn who you like to sit by, who to NOT sit near. ETC. I'm good at tuning people out, except the creepy whistler. There's a lady who used to come to one particular stores crops. Always the 1st crop of the month. She'd bring her stuff in, put on her headphones, not talk to anyone, and crop her heart out. But she whistled along with every damn song! She would never take her headphones out if someone attempted to talk to her. If they tried she just point at her ears and would shake her head. When that store closed she never popped up at one of the others. Thank goodness! Seriously? Why not just stay home and scrap? People never cease to crack me up! |
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Post by gmcwife1 on Feb 5, 2015 5:01:08 GMT
I guess the worse I can think of was when I went to a late night crop at a store about 40 minutes from my house. It started snowing while we were there, but we didn't think much of it. The crop was deep in the store so we didn't notice that the snow was coming down really fast. By the time we left and I was heading home it was an official blizzard  It all turned out ok, I just drove slowly and carefully. This was about 16 yrs ago, so before the weather was on every channel and everyone had a cell phone. It took me over two hours to get home that night. |
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xeroxcopea
One Post Wonder
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Post by xeroxcopea on Feb 5, 2015 14:50:06 GMT
I guess the worse I can think of was when I went to a late night crop at a store about 40 minutes from my house. It started snowing while we were there, but we didn't think much of it. The crop was deep in the store so we didn't notice that the snow was coming down really fast. By the time we left and I was heading home it was an official blizzard It all turned out ok, I just drove slowly and carefully. This was about 16 yrs ago, so before the weather was on every channel and everyone had a cell phone. It took me over two hours to get home that night. I don't understand why she should have to stay home and crop just because she doesn't feel like socializing. I go to crops to get pages done not to chit chat unless I'm there with a friend. The whistling would get on my nerves so I'm there with you on that?  |
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Post by iammikki on Feb 5, 2015 17:21:39 GMT
This isn't a crop story, but I met a girl on a local meetup board and we thought we would meet up at Michael's for scrappy chat and shopping. We arrived, said hello ect and then for the next hour or so, all she spoke about was her depression, anarexia and her cats... other than the cats, it was HIGHLY personal stuff she was sharing. We literally only exchanged a couple of e-mails/messages and now she was going into the heavy stuff about her anarexia. It was an awkward overshare experience for sure.
I also got kicked out of a local group message board once, we were going to do a layout exchange and I had to drop out because my dad was having heart surgery and got publicly posted nastygrams about how young (20-21 at the time) and irresponsible I was and that I was not welcome any longer.
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thanks for sharing your story...gave me a good laugh 
