Well I made it. Me & C. had it's official launch at the 2016 Forest City Flea. And let me tell you, it was one for the books.

The market was outdoors in a parking lot which I now know is one of the more challenging set ups, should you run into any adverse weather conditions like, say, a rain storm.

Which we did. 

My friends had just stopped by my booth with their kids to say hello when the organizer, Paul from Heist, came over and said "You're gonna want to get this booth down as low as it can go. We're about to get slammed."

I looked behind me and the skies were black.

I lowered my tent as much as I could when I realized my fancy-dancy garment rack was too tall. I wasn’t lowering anything with that thing in there.

Which, of course, is the moment the storm hit.

My husband Jim and I held the roof of the tent to keep it from blowing away. My friend Adrian held down the tent itself and my other friend Lisa was focused solely on managing their two children, one sobbing (edit: to this day he’s still terrified of thunderstorms) and the other sleeping soundly in her arms through the entire calamity.

I was pretty sure we were going to have to flee the Flea.

But despite all of us being soaked to the bone, we stuck it out. I laughed through the entire debacle, it was just so ridiculous. There I was thinking I was so prepared for bad weather with my big strong tent held down by expensive sandbags.

When it was all over, you know who came out ok?

Cindy from The Cob Shop, with her simple canopy (held down with nothing but logs of wood) that she lowered all the way down. Well done, Cindy.

The sun did come out again and we squeezed another hour out of the day, but when storm clouds loomed, we bailed. I did manage to sell some shirts, though, and made a few friends while I was at it.

All in all, a wonderful day.

The lesson is this:

When you’re trying something new, take a minute to talk to the people who've done it before. Especially if they've done outdoor markets in parking lots.

Those people know what they're talking about.

Have you ever had something go so disastrously wrong that all you could do was laugh? Have you ever inadvertently traumatized your friend’s children? Tell me about it in the comments.