Friday, January 2nd was the first tune-up day of the new year. My shoulders and neck really appreciated the mini-massage after all the time I spent cutting and leaning over the table laying out three Vision Boards the day before. And my Greek friend was there with a gift of some homemade sweet breads.
And my holiday loneliness and sadness funk had been worsened a bit just before this. The hiking friend I had tried to get to go see the movie “Wild” with called to ask me if I was “feeling spontaneous” as she and a friend were going to see “Wild” in an hour. At the theater she said she wouldn’t go to on a Friday “Happy Hour” time downtown CS which would make parking crazy difficult and the movie crowded. All the reasons she said she wouldn’t go when I asked. When I talked with her a few days later and told her this had left me a bit disconcerted. I mentioned that it had been the first time I had wanted to go to a movie since Keith. She sort of apologized, but said she could change her mind about things at any time, and her friend really wanted to see the movie before leaving town. Then told me that neither of them liked the movie and how glad she was that we hiked the way we did.
Meanwhile, I had asked my plumber friend to go to the movie, and he had gotten very ill that morning, so we planned on trying later in the week. That time did work. Had a nice visit with him and we both really liked the movie. The ending had me in tears as she spoke of looking back on her life and wouldn’t have changed things as they had lead her to where she was standing now at the end of the trail with her whole life ahead of her to do as she envisioned on this journey.
But before the movie escape time, there was the two Commonwheel meetings. Both were on Monday, Jan. 5th. First, I had to go in and help take down Holiday Market that morning. The coordinator thanked me for all I did to help market it and make it successful, including spotlighting the food items that had been marked down.
The meetings were challenging.
At the Board meeting we needed to have someone step into the role of President. No one came forward easily. Finally one of my Festival Committee members stepped up, but that meant she would leave that committee . . .
Discussions about what to do about the web site with the web master/mistress resigning and it being in a program that is based on HTML and not web based were all over the place. Decided we needed to set a meeting for a smaller group to look into this. And Russ had not gotten me his proposal. Though when I called him the next day, I learned he had sent them to the Festival email, but somehow they were not arriving there. He tried to send it off again while we talked and it never showed up, so had him send it to one of my personal emails and it arrived quickly.
The discussion about hiring a Shop Manager to also do the Marketing got very heated. One member who rarely speaks up did with a very calm and reasonable suggestion. Since we are only committing to doing this for a year, and we have the funds, we have nothing to lose, lets give it a try. Then more discussion, a vote to do it for a year, with another committee being formed. That committee was the one that was to have met tonight, but didn’t due to lots of snow and foggy conditions making driving very challenging.
As much as I would like to step away and not attend these meetings, I just can’t. So will hope the rescheduling of the Manager meeting will work for a time I can attend without having to miss any trainings.
Tuesday the sun was out and I took advantage of it to run errands, including getting food for the Festival meeting. I stopped at a friend’s house for a visit to catch up which was fun and relaxing. At Costco, I decided to buy a “Bullet” and lots of veggies to get a healthier start on the year. I haven’t exactly fallen in love with what it makes. Too much pulp, but working on it. And how else could I get myself to eat 2 carrots and an apple, plus some greens. Drinking them is so much easier. Will keep trying new amounts of water and items to put in it in hopes of making the drinks more tasty. I got home in time for my Laidig training, but had forgotten about the Chamber Marketing Task Force meeting earlier that day. I hadn’t made it on any of my 2015 calendars.
The Festival committee met on Wednesday night, without the President member, but with a couple who always do everything together. I was not as prepared as normal. Still had been working on ads until that day. Had to spend the morning getting the agenda done. Walked to the gallery to make copies and sign checks.
The meeting went well and the new members stayed and we chatted a bit. Their daughter had had a major concussion and I told them some of the things that had helped me heal and get back on track with my brain. They really liked some of the things I told them. (And yes, that is one of the stories I had hoped to write this winter. Well, winter isn’t over yet!) I asked them where they lived and the asked me if I knew the rock formations Gog and Magog. I said yes, I had always wanted to hike to them, but not up the very challenging and not well-marked trail that starts at the end of Ruxton. Well, they live at the top of Crystal Park and there is a not too challenging trail of 2 miles that they hike often. We will have to make a date when the sun is shining in the Spring to hike it. Something really fun to look forward to when the weather gets better.
I did get to see the “Wild” movie on Thursday with my plumber friend and home in time for Tony Laidig’s training on Easy Books Illustrations: Miniatures. On Tuesday, when I was running errands, I had stopped in at the Dollar Store by the Natural Foods Market and saw a bunch of animals. I bought 10 or 12 with the idea they would work well in a story that I used miniatures to photograph to illustrate it. What that story will be, still not sure. And Tony assigned us homework to come up with a story by the next Thursday. So he put a fire under me to create a story. I do have some in mind, just not sure they are ones that would use miniatures to illustrate them. Still have a couple of days to figure this out . . .
More ad work on Friday. Sent one off and the person who got it made a suggestion that she thought would make it look better. Tried her idea and I liked it. That meant going back and make a similar change to all the other ads I had created. Got that mostly done, plus the changes suggested by the Festival committee to an ad for Sunshine Artists. Have to admit, I like them all better now.
On Saturday, I was scheduled to work all day for Pottery by the Pound. The weather on Friday had been pretty nasty, so we expected people who had not made it to the opening day would show up on Saturday. We had 3 people in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. We never got that busy. Disappointing. I had dreaded working on the new POS system for this sale. But our now ex-Pres had figured out how to make this work really well and she worked the computer for the morning shift and the other person who was there all day took it for the afternoon shift. All in all, an easier day than I had anticipated.
I was a bit disconcerted by an email from someone trying to set up a meeting about the web a week out. Especially since I had sent out an email asking people which one of 3 suggested days would work for them this coming week. I called the new Pres and we talked it through. I sent out another email mentioning that 3 people had already said they could meet this coming Wednesday, so could we make that happen. So far most have responded favorably. Now it the weather just gets a bit better so we can meet, that will be a good thing.
My Mastermind for books friend came over on Sunday. She had finally gotten her domain to mitigate and wanted some help getting a WordPress site up. She brought me some Kombucha and another fermented water. Perfect timing to go with eating healthier and the “Bullet.” She is a strong advocate for this type of “juicing” and told me about many of the benefits of using this versus a regular juicer.
After she left, I worked on my Sales Tax Report some more. I had started this last week, but not gotten it finished. This is complicated. And when I got it to the point I wanted to put it on the real form, I pulled it out of the envelop only to discover it looks totally different than it has in the past. Not even sure all the lines are the same . . . so need to get that finalized tomorrow and then file it online, which is also different from past years. But all this work gets me closer to having the information together for my IRS & State Taxes.
My roommate was scheduled to fly somewhere on Monday, today, buy the weather was so bad they closed the airport. This was the trip she had to cancel when she got the flu before Christmas. She hopefully will get to take off tomorrow. This really bad weather is what led to the canceling of the meeting for tonight that I did not get the email about the cancellation.
One of the emails I looked at for marketing reminded me that I need to create some masks to put on the “Journeys” web site for sale. Plus need to make some less expensive one’s in anticipation of sales for Carnivale. I really am looking forward to getting in some studio time this weekend!
Caught another email I missed about the web site. Replied to it. There has been lots of conversations by emails about what we should build it in. I am an advocate for WordPress, others don’t like it and have suggested Weebly, which I find to be very weak and some other site building programs I have never heard of. And with all the coaches I have taken classes with over the last 2 years, they all suggest WordPress and steer people away from Weebly for internet marketing purposes. Should be an interesting meeting on Wednesday.
And yesterday the author of “Sinister Frog” said he would be happy with any of the 3 covers I had created and sent to him to look at over a month ago. Another project someone else’s book on Kindle . . .