Yesterday at 4:15 I was tying up a project for a co-worker and tying up my hair for ballet. The phone rings. It's one of my clients. A new client actually. "Hi. How are you? I was wondering how that map is coming along. I need to send it out tomorrow."
PANIC ATTACK: Map? Map! The map he told me he needed by Thursday or Friday? The map I totally forgot about and haven't even started yet? That map?! Ack! Ack! Ack!
Welcome to sewing circle.
"Well, the hem needs to be raised. That's for sure."
"We could do a jagged cut around the bottom but I don't think it's the right fabric for that."
"Or the right cut."
"Right."
"We could cut it on a slant so it comes up higher on one side."
"Maybe."
Sounds normal enough, doesn't it? Keep listening.
Now Stretch This:
I don't have a belfry; I have a bat box. In the early summer when the mosquitos descended upon us, Shawn bought a bat box. We mounted it on a tall post in our backyard, against Jenny's garage. Shawn, Jenny, and I looked at it hopefully for a few weeks. Summer, though, is not bat moving season. That's spring. We knew we weren't expecting residents anytime soon.
I got my shopping cart up and running for The Yolo Crow last night. I even sold a subscription already. (Thanks Mom!)
Yesterday I got a call from the local newsstand. "Hey, we're out of magazines. Can you bring us more?" Well, gee, let me see if I can fit that into my schedule. I'll be there in two minutes.
The Yolo Crow is out! Friday I picked up two big boxes of magazines from the printers and I've been working hard since. I've sold 20 copies so far and there are another 28 on consignment at stores around town. I've brushed up the website a bit and now I'm working on an online shopping cart so people can buy subscriptions. I'm trying to set up a reading at a local bookstore for publicity. I've got press releases going out today and some promotional copies going out to local media folks.
Phew!
This morning I had an ArcGIS user group meeting in Sacramento. Map geek stuff. I like these meetings. They're a little holiday for me. It was a nice morning. I like downtown Sacramento in the morning. The buildings aren't so high or so dense as to keep the sunshine off the streets like they can in San Francisco. I parked my car in a garage and walked on sunny sidewalks the 5 or 6 blocks to my meeting with a little bounce in my step. It was early. The shops were quiet. People on the streets were working towards their daily destinations, waiting at bus stops with coffee mugs.
It was an odd weekend of ups and downs, to be sure.
I pulled a late night last night and finished up my pirate bodice. Done. Fits me well too. I'm pleased with it. Now I can stop scaring the neighbors. Let me explain. I made this bodice with a tried and true method known to many a renaissance fair seamstress...duct tape. Yep, duct tape. You put on an old t-shirt (preferably one you're not fond of) and take a deep breath and have a good friend bind you up in duct tape starting at the waist and looping around and around up the chest.
Waiting in the Sacramento airport the other day with grumbling tummies, my mom and I headed over to a Java City counter. Mom ordered a latté for her and one for Dad. I stepped up to the counter. "Excuse me, do you have chai?"
The lady behind the counter said, "No, but we have soy."
Mom and I stared at her, blinked, and then stared at each other. Blink blink.
In my head I ran through a scenario where I walk into a cafe:
