Craftiness is truly contagious

I thought I'd slide a little post in that is about a craftiness of a different kind.  I'm hoping in the end that you might laugh along with me and so the post won't seem as pretentious as it might on first glance.

See, it all started a little over a week ago.  My office at work has one wall which is almost entirely window.  It looks out on a beautifully manicured rock bed of trees and bushes and ultimately over the entire parking lot.  The sunlight pours in all day and I've made a habit of opening the blinds all the way to let in the sunshine.  Often (because I'm probably a workaholic) I don't even notice the outside.  However, when the sage bushes are in bloom I so love the green (my favorite color!) and purple explosion of flowers that I often extoll the virtues of the sage bush.  This happened last week.  The bushes right outside my window were a riot of color similar to this picture.  I happily chirped to my office co-workers how very much I loved the flowers which bloom in a rather random fashion.  I further detailed how very much I love them when they bloom because blooming ruins the shaped grooming that is so prevalent in public and corporate landscaping here in the Southwest.  "The visual asymmetry of the blooming sage is a sight to behold" I might have said enthusiastically.  One might have wondered why I have so much time on my hands to go on and on about the sage bushes.  In my defense, I'm relatively passionate about it. 

Cue the next day.  I'm happily working away (having opened the blinds upon arrival and privately thought to myself "How beeautiful!") when the buzz, hum sound of trimmers fills the office.  Sure enough, the groundskeepers had arrived for the routine grooming of our landscaping around the office.  I watched as one by one my colorful bushes with their sporadic shoots full of blooms were cut off only to fall on the ground as useless waste.  Because I am just that weird, several co-workers now had to listen to my dismay.  "Isn't that too bad", "I was just saying....", "All those beautiful flowers..."

...and another night and morning.  I arrive at work, open my blinds and low and behold, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the sight that greets me outside of my window.  You'll notice all the perfectly manicured bushes.  This bush nearest to my office has sprigs of small purple flowers!  Oh Happy Day!  I probably did an internal dance of joy.  No kidding... no exaggerating!  My co-worker, Jan, stopped by.  I exclaimed, "Look, Jan!  These buds must have been missed.  Can you hardly believe that the only bush they missed just happens to be right outside my office?"  On and on I went.  I pulled another co-worker into my office.  Same story.  We're a small group of 8 or so on any given day.  At least half of the folks heard from me.  The other half probably heard me from afar.  For days, I opened my blinds each morning to find that no one returned to fix their bad job of bush trimming.  My purple flowers were still there.  Joy, on the order of daily hearing an internal rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus.  Please click the link.  You will be stirred emotionally just like I was, every day!

So, imagine my combined embarrassment and amusement (big belly laughs resulting in a red face!) when Jan came to my office yesterday.  She mentioned my bush was still blooming.  She pointed out that it was still the only bush with flowers.  She highlighted the fact that it happened just outside my office, as though it was a blessing meant only for me.  She encouraged me to look closer to see if I could still see the Michael's price tag.

WHAT?!!!

Yes, this lovely woman who is simply the most decent person I have ever had the pleasure to work with had purchased a small stem of fake purple flowers, arrived at the office before me, and stuck those flowers in my bush the day after the landscaping was finished.  She meant it to bring a smile to my face.  When I was so very pleased, she didn't have the heart to point it out right away thinking I'd be wise enough to eventually figure out those flowers weren't going anywhere and maybe weren't real.  After more than a week, she figured I needed a little push to see what was right in front of my window. 

Needless to say, the entertainment lasted a few minutes as more and more people heard our loud guffaws and exclamations.  Soon, more than half of our small group knew my gullibility.  As detailed oriented as I am (and I can manage to keep quite a few details up in the air at the same time), I can be so focused on the trees I've no idea I'm in a forest. 

We use crafty and craftiness here at Contagiously Crafty quite a bit.  If you Google the definition, it doesn't usually include in any definition a mention of paper crafts, etc.  Here's another definition from Dictionary.com:

crafty  (ˈkrɑːftɪ)
— adj  , craftier , craftiest
1.	skilled in deception; shrewd; cunning

Yes, my friends, Jan is definitely crafty.