Ar Wahan's home office water cooler

I'm grateful that, despite my griping, I have so much work right now that I don't have time to do daily gratitude posts.

This isn't the result I thought I'd get. El_jefe's answer was that his creative power was Intuition, followed by an explanation that included, "You just seem to have a knack for knowing what's going to work. You can't really explain your creative process. You just get started, and magic happens."

I thought that would be appropriate for me, since I was asked today to explain my creative process, and I can't! Instead, I got this one:

Your Creative Power is Your Logic

You're the type of person who is great at execution. You don't just dream about ideas - you make them happen! You are idealistic and determined, but you are also a realist. You only undertake projects you're pretty sure you can finish. You are a natural problem solver, and you actually think better when you're being challenged. You do best when you work by yourself or when you're in charge. You ideas are big, dramatic, and the best.

But it's pretty accurate! Not the "ideas are the best" part, but how I do my best when I work by myself or when I'm in charge. And I am good at execution, I'm an idealist and determined.

Not much to say here. Another VERY VERY VERY rainy day.

We had a UU Small Group Ministry potluck today. I brought a thai noodle salad with chicken, and realized suddenly (as I was putting it in the more attractive bowl than the one I'd made it in) that I'd brought the same dish last year!

Elizabeth, the wife of our Small Group member, is an avid gardener. Their new house has a greenhouse area, and she started tomato plants there months ago. When she heard that all my tomatoes were struggling and still very small and green with our weather, she offered me one of hers! (They are all still in pots, and have RED, RIPE tomatoes on thsm!!!!) It tipped over in the car ride home, and three ripe tomatoes fell off, but it seems OK. I have rubber floor mats in the car, not the original carpeted ones, so no damage done.

When in town, I checked VM and learned that an AE had left one. I called him from there. He wanted to talk about a letter I'd submitted yesterday -- said he thought it was good, but had a few tweaks. He said to call his office phone when I got home. (I told him I'd be home in an hour.) Just in case he'd already left by the time I got home, he'd email me his cell phone number.

So ... I got home around 4:30 (1 hour, 15 minutes), called his office; his VM immediately picked up. I figured he was on the line, left a message that I was back. Checked email, no message from him with cell phone #.

So, it's now 6:30 p.m. on a Friday. I figure he just forgot to send me the email. Ah well. Too bad. I'm outta my office now. :)

Samurai is going off tomorrow to spend the weekend with Mai and two other girls (including her future apartment mate) in New Hampshire. At least the weather will be nice for her drive! (We have flash flood warnings here at present.)

Do not ever, EVER, renew your service plan with Best Buy for your computer BY PHONE. Do Not Do It. OR if you do, and never get a receipt in the mail, do not think, "Oh, but everything's in their computer system," as the Best Buy people will happily assure you.

I have been majorly screwed, and it is my own fault, because I am a trusting person.

Let that be a lesson to me -- one that I am sad to accept.

I am too weary and pissed to write about this now. Fear not. It will all "be better in the long run," I'll be better off with newer equipment/software, it's good that I was pushed to do this, yadda yadda, but I did not need this NOW.

Details tomorrow.

I just realized I forgot I could send in an invoice for a variation of a letter that was approved back in February! There were lots and lots of variations on the "base" letter, but this particular one was going to be very different, with a lot more new copy and rearrangements of the base copy, and the client was ready to pay me a little extra for it.

*dope slap*

a. People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blog and replace any question that they dislike with a new, original question.

b. Tag eight people. Don't refuse to do that. OH NO YOU DON'T. DON'T TELL ME TO BOTHER OTHER BUSY PEOPLE. Don't tag who tagged you.

1. What are your nicknames?
I don't have any now. When I was in grade school, I was called "Jaguar Jamquis" (have no idea how that last bit was invented!) because I was a very fast runner in PE and at recess. I think some people got cheetahs mixed up with jaguars, and morphed "Janis" (my given name) into Jamquis for reasons unknown. In graduate school, one of my classmates called me "Jeeg" (soft g) as a running together of my initials, J and G.

2. How do you style your hair?
Dunno how to describe it. Very short. It is naturally curly, but inconsistently so, and the straighter parts fall alongside my face, so that's why it's short there. See icon. It's just wash-n-wear. I don't blow dry it.

3. What's new in your life right now?
Having an Account Executive treat me more like a creative director, which is extremely flattering and empowering psychically, but also very time consuming -- and I should be paid more for it. But needless to say, this is not a good time to ask for that. (I know people are probably expecting me to say, "Child away at college," but thanks to LJ and that she doesn't mind me seeing her public posts, the empty nest doesn't feel as empty as I feared it would.)

4. How many colors are you wearing now?
Five (black jeans and tartan shirt with four colors in it).

5. Are you an introvert or extrovert?
I've been told I'm an ambivert (it depends on the situation). I can pull off being an extrovert when I'm, say, the person doing the greeting up at the podium at events. But I like my alone time, and I dislike crowds.

6. What was the last book you read?
American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever is the last book I finished. I am in the middle of a bunch of other books, most recent being Lavinia by Ursula K. LeGuin (my role model as a writer). It's also the most likely book to be finished next!

7. Do you nap a lot?
No. I feel worse after a nap than before I started. If l lie down during the day, it's a sure sign I am really ill.

8. If the person you secretly like is already taken, what would you do?
Mourn a bit and move on.

9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days?
Prop 8 passage, economy, delay in Iraqi refugee family getting here.

10. What was the last thing you ate today?
A spinach and chicken salad at Bertucci's. Very good!

11. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?
Get ready for what? If I have to leave the house, I allow 45 minutes to an hour to feed the gecko, horses, cats (if Spouse hasn't already fed cats), make and drink coffee, read paper, shower, dress, and stick contacts in my eyes. If I'm working from home, I put off the shower-dress-contacts thing until after I check my email. Sometimes the need to respond to clients means this part gets put off for a long time!

12. What websites do you visit daily?
LJ, CNN.

13. What album could you listen to over and over at the moment?
None. I used to like listening to David Gray (no relation) and Rufus (?) Wainwright -- whichever one of the Wainwrights is the son, not the father -- but Samurai took them with her!

14. Do you like to clean?
No.

15. What's the last song that got stuck in your head?
"Honey Lately" by David Gray.

16. The Christmas carol you'd prefer to never have to hear again?
Ask me again in a couple of weeks. I'm sure I'll have an answer once they start showing up again! Can't remember at the moment.

17. Did you or do you play a musical instrument and were you/are you good?
I play piano. I am not technically accomplished at all, and large (in terms of physical span across the keys) chords and fast playing are beyond me. Fine Motor Skills R Not Us. But I was always told I played with great expression.  I also used to play folk guitar. Haven't touched that in years. Bar chords were always difficult for me. (See a pattern here? :P)

18. What would you do if you see saw [this copy editor got cranky!] $100 lying on the ground?
Look to see if there is an identifiable owner... take it to police and tell them where I found it. (I actually found a wallet with money in it once, and did exactly that, and also left a voice message with the mother of the UMass student who'd dropped it because her license was in it with her home address. I was not able to get student's local phone number from directory assistance, because she shared an apartment and the phone wasn't listed in her name. I later got a note from the student thanking me. So that felt nice.)

19. Best time of your life?
Tough pick. Attending UU Northeast Leadership School in 2003. Going to Japan with Samurai this summer. If the economy weren't sucky, it'd probably be now. (See my answer to 3.)

20. Tell me something good.
I love the work I do, even though I bitch about it a lot on LJ. I like to think I am making a difference for some very good causes and nonprofit organizations, and helping people as a result..

I was at the UU meetinghouse Saturday moving in my old kitchen cabinets . . . on Monday carting in tools I own, moving stuff around, setting up dropcloths and beginning to stain a new sink base . . . hanging around Monday checking work-related email via laptop until I could apply a second coat of stain  . . . back in the morning Tuesday to apply polyurethane and help with other odd tasks . . . back again late Tuesday afternoon to polyurethane the sink base before a meeting . . . and back again at 4 p.m. today to help move the new cabinetry into the kitchenette. (I was supposed to be there this morning to paint, but said NO, I had client work to do. As it was, the painting coordinator had found more warm bodies to help.)

I actually did very little real work at the meetinghouse this afternoon/evening, other than to mark out where a hole needed to be cut to get the kitchen sink plumbing into the base (it does not come in through the open BACK, as one might assume. The pipes must enter from the LEFT SIDE. It is UU plumbing, after all! :P)

I did do some grunt work stuff and bought Chinese takeout for a crew of seven at my expense. Set up some card tables and chairs, found plates, napkins, etc. Anne, the woman leading this operation (a professional contractor) had been panicking that we did not have enough volunteers for tonight, so I'd sent out an email offering to bribe feed any volunteers. We had seven people (myself, Anne, and five guys) show up. I got us all fed for only $42! And I came home with leftovers! I'm impressed. I thought I'd be spending a lot more.

My old wall cabinet has been mounted on the wall, and looks terrific . . . except.  Last night, after the meeting on the Iraqi refugee family resettlement issue, I went upstairs to hastily put on a second coat of stain on one side of the cabinet (half of this side had never been stained, since it had been butted up against another cabinet over the fridge). The key word here is hastily. The cabinet was lying on its side.  I was in a hurry, as Alison was waiting to walk out to the parking lot with me (some women have been mugged there at night).

I didn't realize until this evening that some of the stain I put on last night had dribbled over the edge onto the door side (even though I had wiped it with a rag . . . it must have dribbled before that). It made horrid snakey lines. I was crushed -- I'd worked so hard on this project! But Anne has assured me that we will find a way to fix this.

The old base cabinet, which had sagged some over the years, has been straightened with support braces to its former squareness. The doors even close properly now!  Whee! I'm going to go to local building supply place tomorrow to see if I can order a new countertop to go with one Anne had donated for the sink base (it had been a "misorder" a few years ago, and she'd had it lying around. The exact pattern is apparently no longer available from that manufacturer, but I bet I can find something that will work with it).

In between all of this, I managed to do two phone interviews and write a brief fundraising appeal, and deal with another client emergency this morning (not my fault -- another case of this particular client changing its mind yet again).

And . . . I'll likely be going back tomorrow, unless clients jerk my chain. I have to fix those stain dribbles or I will go mad.

That's all.

I was told by the vet to call after 4 p.m., which I did. At 5 p.m., I learned in a second call that he was in surgery, but had a note to call me. It is now 7:40, and still no call. I realize he may still be in surgery with someone's beloved animal companion, and I will gladly give up hearing from him for a successful outcome there, but I wish I knew what was happening with Stella.

Jesse (in icon) may be wondering where she is, too. Or maybe not. Hard to tell with him.

Hard to concentrate on my paid work assignments now. *sigh*

Doctor's appointment went OK. ( Read more... )
After all this, went to a meeting with the guy who inherited the hastily put together, and not well done, church web site made by an amateur volunteer in 1997. K, a recently retired OIT specialist from the university, does know what he is doing. The interim director of religoius education recently made her own web site for her quilting business, and asked for this meeting. I came along as president, newsletter editor, and the various myriad other hats I wear. I got there a bit late, and they'd already come up with some wonderful ideas. I chimed in here and there. I think we're going to have a much better website, in terms of content/usefulness as well as appearance. Cool!

Came home to find lots of emails from clients. I am suddenly being bombarded with work. Good  in many ways, bad in others. I need a little more free time in the next couple of weeks, and won't have it.

Su and I went out to dinner for our mutual celebration of birthdays. She, too, had gone to Ireland last summer with her son (18 months older than Samurai). I showed her my photos (on laptop), and she showed me hers -- because the restaurant had wifi and she could get onto the album at the site of the company where she'd sent her film to be developed and turned into digital images! We are both horse lovers, and enjoyed recalling our horses and equestrian adventures in Ireland.

The Mexican restaurant did not have chili rellenos (guess I'll just have to make some), but I did have a nice spinach-filled enchilada, plus side dishes of rice and beans.. We exchanged gifts, and I ended up with (appropriately) Great Irish Tales of Fantasy (by Joyce, Yeats, Lord Dunsany, others)  that she'd picked up over there.

Su has a new hobby... not ghosthunting (she doesn't call it that, since she believes it is intrusive, and I have to agree), but -- can't remember what she calls it -- ghostwatching or maybe ghostlistening. She had some interesting stories to share. What was nice is that there was one instance where something didn't make sense to her, and I suggested an explanation that clicked.

I'm going to  be very busy the next few days; may not be on much. (Sure, right! you snort knowingly.)

the need to update my resume, the list of nonprofits I've written for (haven't updated since 2001, apparently), and locate appropriate files containing suitable writing samples!

When I got home Thursday night, one of the messages on my answering machine was from a woman I'd never heard of, at a direct mail fundraising/marketing firm I've never heard of, who had somehow heard of ME! I called her back yesterday and she is anxious to get me on board as a freelancer and start flinging projects at me next week.

That means my list of clients just went from three to four. It also means I (happily) was able to turn down a textbook ancillary job (another unsolicited project) that I found was being offered to me when I checked my email Thursday night. If the textbook ancillary (a 20-page fantasy or sci-fi novelette containing certain vocabulary words) was due in, say, November -- my slow season -- I'd have jumped at it, because it would be a lot of fun. But I'm heading into the direct mail (DM) busy season right now, and with a new DM client, to boot. I told the editor that if he still had that kind of work to do in late fall, I'd be delighted to be considered.

So anyway, I was busy today locating, updating and emailing off the materials the new client needed. (She apparently liked me just from what I had to say on the phone, but she still needs the paper trail.)

I still don't know how she got my name -- only that it wasn't from Bonnie (former account executive from another firm who still sings my praises here and there, bless her). But I'm not complaining! Maybe it was Sal. Marcia (the new client's contact) could not remember how she'd heard about me.

I will get around to Ireland updates soon -- tomorrow, perhaps.