Crap, Crappity, Crap

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What's the point in having a blog if one can't vent? It's almost 10:30 on Monday morning, and I'm sitting in Caribou Coffee all set to get to work on a book proposal that needs done, like, yesterday. I've got two and a half hours until my Masterminds Marketing meeting but just realized (drumroll, please)... I left at home the entire folder I need for the meeting which includes all the handouts and info for my portion of a presentation on author videos.

 This means I get to hurry my ass home, grab the materials, and drive back into Greensboro. Truly, I love wasting $30 worth of gas and an hour and a half drive time on a stupid mistake. No writing time now--and I had a "come to Jesus" talk with myself this weekend about getting my act together and getting some real work done.

I'm upset, but looking for that blue sky. As in, at least I realized I'd left the materials at home in time to go fetch them. That's something, right? Right? I'm also ticked because I pride myself on being organized. I don't know if it's perimenopause, laziness, or the gods are conspiring against me, but my focus, energy, and organization has been for crap for several months now. 

So... I just choked down a multigrain bagel (blue sky again: I wanted a doughnut!) and getting ready to pull the plug and head home. 

I read a quote this morning: "It's not the world's fault you wanted to be an artist. Now get to work."

Nothing Is Ever Simple

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Here's a perfect, recent example of how I back up to work and get bogged down in the process.

Kiss My Kitty Butt - More Life With Cats will most likely be published in Spring of 2009. I decided I need a temporary logo for the book, just something to put on Facebook, e-mails, etc. to start generating some excitement for the book. I asked a friend to illustrate a bored, disparaging looking cat for the logo, and I love what she came up with. I then e-mailed the logo today to my website designer, Melody Watson, and asked her to pull together a logo for me.

In thinking about the logo, I decided I wanted the web address included - wwww.kissmykittybutt.com. Might as well get the advertising in early. I own the domain, but haven't but up a page yet. Problem. I don't want to send people to a blank page.

So I decided to ask Melody if she could redirect the kissmykittybutt.com domain so my www.lessonsinstalking.com web page shows up.

But that only has the old book on it. I need something on there announcing the Spring 2009 arrival of KMKB. So I asked Melody to create some sort of banner or button announcing the new book.

If I get people to go as far as the page, I don't want to lose them. So I need to include an e-mail address where they can either pre-order the book or be put on a list to be alerted when the book is available. I'm debating if I want to use kissmykittybutt@triad.rr.com, or KMKB@triad.rr.com, or spotlightpublishing@triad.rr.com.

You see the mess? I went from one quick e-mail asking for a logo to suddenly needing a domain name redirect, banner announcement, new e-mail address, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

When I sat down, I thought it would be to shoot off a two second e-mail to Melody. It turned into a page of text that ended with, "You know what? Just call me and let's discuss."

For obvious reasons, I make sure to stay on her good side...

The Cabin Diaries - Cancelled Until Further Notice

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We've decided to hold off on building the log cabin on our property in Stokes county. The general contractor's estimate for costs came in at more than DOUBLE what we'd expected. And this is after he nickeled and dimed everything that could be nickeled and dimed, from cheaper kitchen appliances to having Blair and I stain the logs ourselves. DOUBLE. We just can't do it.

Or, we could, put we're not willing to stick ourselves into that deep a financial hole. It's a disappointment. We've owned the land, 38.5 acres, for years and years now, and have dreamed of having a little get-away cabin. (With no kids you might ask us, "Get away from what?" I tell you yet again that owning cats is very stressful...) But the price of everything has sky-rocketed in the past year and also--to put the blame where it belongs--we didn't do a very good job of doing our homework and getting a complete estimate before we started this madcap process.

I'm terribly disappointed for Blair. As always, he is Mr. Stoic. We've decided we'll save money for the next few years and re-evaluate what to do. Maybe put a stick frame there, which is considerably cheaper than log.

At the same time that it's a disappointment, oh my God, we have money again! Sweet Starbucks-mocha-buying money! We have been VERY well-behaved this year, cutting down on eating out and unnecessary expenses. We certainly won't go hog wild but let's just say I'm feeling a whole less guilty about what I spent to look good at my reunion. ;)

Meanwhile, I have to applaud our cabin designer and log home builder. The designer threw herself into overdrive trying to figure out ways to reduce the footprint so we could still afford it, and the log home builder actually offered to give us back some of the money we'd already paid him to use for temporary financing. He was under no obligation to do that. How incredibly sweet and generous is that? There are good people in the world. He also offered to try to hold onto our logs (already cut) for us and store them, but we told him to try and sell or rework them. He let us out of our contract with him based on money paid to date and not based on what was still owed. Nice, nice man.

As with everything, it was a learning experience. We'll be smarter and better prepared next time. And I feel confident there will be a next time. Meanwhile, if anyone wants to do some challenging trail runs, I know the perfect piece of undeveloped property we can go to...