Johnny Cash Would Be Proud

At last! The post I had to remove on Oct. 11 when this was originally supposed to run. Of course I have blogged since this went up then came down again so the whole "I've been busy" thing may not work so well now but I don't want to re-write this blasted thing! Pretend it's Oct. 11th.

I've been too busy living my life to blog about it. But that's no excuse, now is it? Bloggers have a responsibility to blog or else they not truly bloggers. I concur. Kerri is posting in a couple of different places now and I told her that my blog saw her OTHER blog, tugged my shirt and said, "Why does HER blog get a post and I don't?" So here I am saying, yes, I am alive but it's been nuts. I can prove it.

You know that Choice Hotel commercial that is using Johnny Cash's song? I've been doing everything, man!

I've been to cub scout meetings business meetings wrapping up a school fundraiser mother-in-law's church award thing selling popcorn at CVS business expo held in New York writing editing and shooting a script and in between dealing with sick girl and working long hours on my job projects - I've been everywhere man. I've been everywhere!

The shoot is something my co-workers and I created for our Boss' Day, which is next week but we're doing it tomorrow because one co-worker will be out of town next week and we're all chomping at the bit anyway. (OK. Clearly that didn't happen. Thus the late posting.) Lady Boss is fantastic and deserves this. We all agree. Three of us are writers so we wrote it. One of us is a video goddess so she and her fiance shot it and edited it and we know it will be hilarious. Stress relief for Lady Boss and us too, we expect. We used sock puppets, people. Yes. I stayed up late one night NOT blogging because I was IMing with my co-workers as we worked on the script and made our puppets. We also created T-shirts to go along with the day. Yes, I am 36, not 6 and no, I am not currently pledging a college sorority. Honest. But it was fun. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. This is me (being animated by Co-worker):



And this is me in the drawer with all of us:



We did this AFTER WORK so no finger wagging in my direction! Nyeh!

Now, in addition I have also helped 2 of said co-workers to create a visual representation of the Battle of the Brides. They are getting married next year - no silly, not to each other! - and they are doing it a week apart at that. One co-worker who knows I hate wedding talk (I didn't do a lot of it for myself either) says, "Oh, can't you play with us for just a LITTLE while?!" You asked for it, missy. So I took her idea for the timeline they wanted to create and said, "Squash that. This is what you do..." And this is what they did:



Can you see them? They are building wedding cakes tier by tier. Each cake represents what they have accomplished on their way to their respective wedding alters. Grimace and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle are racing to the top to ring the wedding bells in victory. Yes, this was my idea folks. I was determined to see it through. Good job, ladies!

Now, the rest is A LOT of cub scout stuff (Son sold lots of popcorn at CVS and his being cute helped a lot. Good for him! [I will not pimp my son. I will not pimp my son!]) and lots of library visits as I try to keep my kids in new books weekly (and me monthly) and me realizing that my business needs me to really put the pedal to the medal because these kids are just expensive! I've said it before and I say it again - kids (not babies, believe it or not) cost mega moolah. I wish I had time for a part-time job.

Oh, and in addition to what I've written here, I've been writing with my crit group twice a week and working on my novel outline for NaNoWriMo. What is it, Theresa asked. Why this, of course! See my little award over there in my sidebar? It's getting married next month. Mark my words - literally. I need 50,000 of them to win.

And then there is Village Works for which I have been working on an email campaign that went out this week. I've been through about 1,000 emails that I had to get added to our mailing list program so that took a few days, plus creating the email itself. You see, the fundraiser was a huge disappointment in that it never got kicked off properly and the kids just didn't do the job. Yeah, we got some orders. Yeah, we're talking high school seniors, which may be more than half of the problem here, but that just gave us a huge task for the next couple of weeks to get those orders bumped up to PROFIT level. We've got a one-week special going on and we'll see what comes of it. For certain all this business stuff going on (we met with an accountant in all this busy time too) and all the kid/family stuff that is breaking the bank is making me think it's time to get on the Ladies Who Launch bandwagon and see if we can make a profitable difference in 2008. It's too soon to give up. We KNOW we have something here. It's just a matter of making it work. Maybe I'll watch a little more Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane so I can get inspired. That woman is truly a dynamo and fun to watch. I don't want her life, just her money!

Oh and just so you know, I am also busy reading at night when I should be watching TV - or sleeping, as another co-worker would say. What am I reading? Two books I dug up from the library.

I got this one at the beginning of September and it's actually not bad but it didn't grab me as hard as I would like. Still it's a little bit of a tease so I hold on. The author is Daniel Wallace. He wrote Big Fish which became a movie. You've got a circus and a black magician who is really white. My favorite line so far from Henry the magician to a racist heckler in the audience as he tried to guess the card the heckler is hiding from him:

Henry closed his eyes and took a deep preparatory breath. A quizzical look appeared on his face. "I'm...I'm having trouble locating it. Your brain, I mean. Where do you keep it? Oh there it is. It was so small that for a moment I couldn't see it!

That had me rolling for 2 days. This is why I hang on.

And there there is his one by British author Sophie Kinsella. It caught my attention pretty quickly, something that is not easily done. But the British text can be a little distracting at times. She has this awful habit of having her somewhat gawky, a little inept character say "Er" and "Erm" a lot and that Erm thing is bugging the heck out of me. What is that, anyway? "Er" I can stand but even that is getting run over repeatedly and stabbed with a big stick in this book. Still, she makes me want to know what the heck is going to happen to this girl. She reminds me a bit of Bridget Jones and... darn it! There is someone else too but I can't grasp her book title. It was about a working mother and the juggling she had to do. Anyone recall it?

I think I am sufficiently caught up until the next time I get behind. See you soon!