The other day I went in to the small neighborhood fabric store to ask them if they had any zigzagged blossom viewings. Naturally they were confused as you probably are now as well. What I needed was a pair of pinking shears so I had meant to ask for a pair of scissors with a zigzagged blade. Unfortunately I got the words for blossom viewing (hanami) and scissors (hasami) mixed up and well, you can see why things got a bit out of hand.

But guess what?! I wasn’t done yet, oh no! On Friday I returned to the same store, this time in need of one of those small thingies you can use to insert elastic into fabric casings. The conversation between the sales clerk and I went a bit like this:

Me: Excuse me, but do you have any small animals that can help me put elastic into a fabric casing?

Sales Clerk: (After a long moment’s pause) I’m sorry, what?

Me: It’s a small animal I’m looking for.

One that can go through here (holding up the project) with an elastic.

Sales Clerk: (Possibly contemplating calling the nearest emergency medical team as it can’t possibly be safe to let a woman who expects small animals to help her with her sewing walk around with a baby. Who did I think I was anyway? Cinderella?) Small animals? Umm, we don’t have animals here.

Me: (Sighing patiently) You see, in my country, America, we have special small animals that help us insert the elastics. It makes it much easier.

Sales Clerk: Well…. what about this? (holding up a small tool which was exactly what I’d been looking for)

Me: Yes! That’s exactly what I’ve been looking for!

When I got home and looked in my dictionary  I found out that I’d confused the word “tool” for “animal.” A mistake anyone could make right?