The Best of May - Horror Stories From Advertising

Bust your ass - only to be beaten down. That is the way of the company.

Last year in May one of my company's oldest clients was threatening to take their business elsewhere. They gave us 2 days to prove that we were worth what we were being paid. The Boss gave me a few tasks - such as building a chart to compare their previous years advertising costs (by week) to the number of product sales they had - and building a cross-referencing booklet showing how much money we were saving for them in advertising. It was a ton of information considering I was compiling roughly 48 weeks of random stuff from different programs and departments of the building. I worked my frigging ass off to get it done. I stayed past midnight both nights - and was back at work at the crack of dawn each day. It sucked - but I believed in what we were trying to communicate and wanted to help with the solution.

The last night as I was getting ready to drive my weary body home - The Boss told me she wanted me at the office for the presentation to the client the following morning. I had 6 hours to go home, sleep, bathe, and get back to work for the 7 am meeting. Thirty minutes to drive home, then pull my business suit out of the closet and set my alarm. I got up a few short hours later to jump in the shower, dry and style my hair, and drive 30 minutes back to work.

The Boss was late to the office (AS USUAL) - arriving only 5 minutes before the meeting was to begin. She pulled me aside and asked me why I wore a suit, to which I replied that considering we were fighting to keep a client I thought I should dress like I cared (she was wearing her navy blue pants with a beige and ivory octagon pattern on them - which are 2 inches too short - and a pit-stained white t-shirt with a navy blue vest). She then rolled her eyes at me and told me she didn't actually want me to be a part of the meeting since she had the chance to go home and sleep on it... explaining that it would be a bad idea to put too many faces in the room for the client.

I wanted to punch her in her little bull-dog face and see her flabby jowels jiggle. Instead I went for a drive - to contemplate if I wanted to go looking for a new job that day. My husband and I had already made the decision to quit a few weeks earlier - and that was ultimately what brought me back. I wanted to see the look on her ugly mug when she would find out that we were both going to dump her.

It was totally worth it too.

Stimulus

The economic stimulus check was a nice summer bonus in our house, allowing us to move up some purchases we've been saving up for.

My husband got the bulk of the benefit (as he should since he's the breadwinner). He now has a super juiced-up Intel Core 2 Quad computer with 4 gigs of ram, nVidia 8800 GTS, and crazy over-clocking ability. IT'S BEEFY! Just last night he was online gaming and is able to crank up the graphics so much that the screen looks like it's displaying photographs!

For me - I bought a die-cutting machine by Cricut. I got tired of hand-cutting stuff out for my crafting hobbies. Just like in the infomercial - I use it for creative projects like cards and tags, and also in my scrapbook. Besides die-cutting, I can place markers in the machine and it will draw on my pages for me. I've been using my new gadget like mad!

We're planning to get a bed-liner for our truck next, a multi-purpose stone cutting and cabbing machine, and new furniture for our 3rd bedroom. It's so nice to move up items on our wish list, while still saving for retirement, and investing during this time the stock market prices are low.

To add icing on our little cake of happiness - my hubby got a raise, and my home business is getting extra busy with several new out-of-state clients.

Visitors

It's been about 6 months since I last checked my blog status - and not surprisingly I've been getting more visits than ever since I left my former company. My blog here has even been making pretty decent money because I'm getting so many lookers (thanks for the bonus income BTW). Oddly enough - NO ONE BOTHERS LEAVING COMMENTS ANYMORE. C'mon people - if you're going to visit to get the latest scoop on The Boss, Panic Attack, Pretty-Boy, and others, the least you can do is leave a comment! I've got stories to entertain you for at least 2 more years - so share a comment to let me know if you at least are enjoying what you're reading.

Oh - and to The Boss - You should know by now that I only update my blog every 7 days or so. You don't have to keep visiting 3 times a week.

Scraptastic

Being a work-from-home wife has its advantages a plenty! Whenever I have downtime in my business, I have my choices of things to do. Some of these "things to fill my day" include dusting, doing laundry, organizing my digital photos (nearly 5,000), putting paperwork in the file cabinet, washing dishes, sewing my new Renaissance Festival costume, etc.

I've always been the one to carry a camera. I love taking pictures - and when you take enough you capture some of those perfect moments that stick with you throughout your life. I would even venture to say that camera-holics run in my family because in going through Grandma's and Mother's old albums - I have almost 1,000 pictures cataloging the eras of their lives.

Lately I spend a lot of my downtime scrap booking. About 10 years ago I got into the hobby thanks to a co-worker who had Creative Memories parties at her house every month. I purchased a few stickers and a pair of scissors, and was on my way. Over time I've created about 700 scrapbook pages from my birth up through 2002. My latest project is printing digital pictures from the last 5 years since I met my husband. It's fun for me - and I like it more than photo albums because my scrapbooks tell a story.

Looking back through my inherited albums - I know it's going to be a huge challenge scrapbooking the hundreds of old photos because most of the pics are candid shots from when Grandma was in her 20s. She had 14 brothers and sisters - and I only have one family portrait of all of them that tells me who is who. So many names! And then they grew up and had kids and grandkids... The entire project is on hold until I can get everything converted to digital files. The old glue on everything is beginning to deteriorate the back of the photos - and it's too much family history to let go of. (Another thing on my to-do list - SCANNING OLD PHOTOS).

Hopefully that's something I can get off my list in the next week or two :-)

Spring Cleaning

We're nearly done with the expansion in our basement, the back yard has been weeded and cleaned up, sprinklers are working, and I'm almost back to being completely organized.

This year I plan to have spring cleaning include:

1) Getting rid of the BOXES of technology magazines my husband has been holding on to for over 5 years. I think that anything over 2 years old is probably completely obsolete by now - and if it's not it's posted on the internet somewhere.

2) Cleaning out the garage and building a few benches so everything isn't stacked anymore. It would be nice to not have to climb over a band saw to get to our camping gear. Maybe install the garage door opener in the process...

3) Arranging up my fabric drawers in the closet upstairs. If I could find all of my coordinating colors I may actually get a chance to sew up a couple of new costumes for the Renaissance Fair.

4) Seal the driveway so the concrete quits getting the crumbly little cracks all over. BOO!

5) Shred paperwork that's over 7 years old - I have a HUGE filing cabinet for business / personal stuff, but between me & my hubby it's overflowing!