Every once in a while, an idea that seems pretty genius in my head turns out to be not as great as I hoped.
And then bad things happen.
I’m in a bowling league at work, and some of us on my team decided it would be a good idea to make shirts. After all, we clearly need to match in homemade tees every week. We had somewhat of a plan in place, and I didn’t think it would be too difficult of a process. I mean, I used to make shirts in high school all the time. Well, perception changes a little from when you’re a teenager to when you’re a grownup.
And apparently so do shirt-making skills.
For starters, it’s possible I wasn’t quite as prepared as I should have been. My teammate Amanda and I stayed late after work one day last week to start the shirts. She pointed out that the paint I brought wasn’t fabric paint, but it says it’s for all surfaces, so we are crossing our fingers that it lasts. Then there was the paintbrush issue. The paintbrushes were all too thick for the lettering we had traced with a permanent marker and the use of a projector, so I ended up painting all of the letters with the wrong end of the paintbrush—you know, the one without actual bristles. I don’t care to discuss the ridiculousness of this any further.
Again, this is not how I had pictured it in my head.
Then came round two. I took all of the shirts home to paint the backs and to put the patches on the sleeves. I don’t own a sewing kit, and it wouldn’t matter if I did, because I don’t know how to sew anything on anything. They are iron-on patches, but I also don’t own or know how to use an iron. So, really, there was only one option available to me: glue. I have craft glue and super glue, so I decided to use both—for double the durability, obviously.
In “Sparks Fly,” Taylor Swift sings the line, “My mind forgets to remind me you’re a bad idea.” Even though she’s talking about a guy in this case, I feel like I could sing this in my head in so many situations in my life—this one included.
There’s something wrong with my super glue. It was way more liquidy than any glue should be, and it practically exploded when I tried to use it on the first shirt. The rest of the shirts got the craft glue only, and that was a really bad idea, too. Craft glue needs to specify that it is weaker than you might think and does not last on iron-on patches trying to be glued to T-shirts. It’s just a suggestion, but I think a lot of other people out there might appreciate to know this information. Needless to say, none of the patches lasted a full 24 hours, and I ended up stapling mine to my sleeve. Amanda knows how to sew and will be fixing the rest.
This sort of reminded me of when I was in the sixth grade and tried to make kalaches for a school project. The result ended up being a bunch of crumbs divided into squared-off sections with little cherries in the middle of each. Nothing on that baking sheet resembled anything close to a kalache, and my mom ended up having to help me (or make them for me while I sat there and pretended to absorb some of her baking knowledge).
I think this happens more than we’d like—we have these great ideas of how we think things should turn out, and then they don’t exactly go according to our plans. I know for me it’s because I sometimes act impulsively without really applying that whole “logic” thing. But it’s really important to make sure your glue holds. If you’re trying to make something great but attempting to hold it together with something without lasting value, the result will likely end up falling apart. It’s much better to make sure you have a forever glue.
There will be times when our plans blow up in our faces, and there will also be times when we get something way better than we thought possible. Regardless, it’s good to be ready for whatever comes our way.
Which means I probably need to buy more super glue.
