I went to the local art store the other day. I only wanted a couple of pens, honest. But my plans were seriously screwed  compromised before I even got in the door.

Before I even got out of the car.

A man and woman caught my eye. Young. Attractive. Matter of fact the guy was seriously h.o.t. In a younger-than-my-son sort of way. But that didn’t stop me from noticing. But what really caught my attention was the stack of canvases the two of them were struggling to carry. Huge canvases. GIGUNDO NORMOUS beautiful blank. white. things. that had me drooling with envy.

My creative lust-o-meter was popping off the charts.

I wanted to be like them. I wanted to wrestle creative potential into the back of my car. I wanted to go to bed that night KNOWING I had five glorious BLANK canvases waiting for me to have my way with them. BIG canvases. Because at this time in my life, size does matter.

I got out of the car. Marched right up to the couple, total strangers to me, and told them I had canvas envy. Then I went into the store .

Oh. My. See where this is heading? Umm-hmm…bet you do. Because my best beloved readers are the smartest ones on the interwebs, aren’t you? So you KNOW I went right past the pens. Straight to the canvases. And you’re right.

Thing about this store, it’s the only game in town. Got to drive nearly 50 miles down the hill to find more art supplies. Gas and time, ka-ching ka-ching. Or order online and pay for shipping. Ka-ching again. The local store knows that and, as a result, they are not kind with their markup.

Except when it comes to canvas. They practically give it away, provided you buy a case. A case of the small things means 10. A case for anything remotely large means 5. When you buy a case they give you 70% off.

Can’t come anywhere near that, even at the cheapest of the cheap source online.

So I found myself in the canvas section where I have been many times. Enough that I could probably qualify for an intervention. But this time I was just there to look. To ooh and ahh over the price list. To pull them from the rack and check out the size. To gaze longingly at their blankness and imagine….

And then I asked for a yardstick. Which I took outside to measure the back of my SUV. Because I was taking this imagining game to the next level. It was such a nice canvas fantasy. I said hello to the young couple on the way out. They were still struggling to fit their purchase in their car. On the way back into the store I talked to them again. Got personal this time. Asked them what size they bought. 4 X 6 feet. Oh. My. They were ambitious.

I was happy with 40X40. They  fit so well in the back of the car, even with all the crap stuff back there. 40X40. Big enough for me. At least for now.

And I didn’t have to strap ’em to the roof of my car. Like some people.