Question: aside from unlimitless talent, does Ryin also have unlimitless time on
his hands to consistently change to yet another great site?

I haven’t had much to say lately. Since Kevin got onto me for over-blogging the
work subject, I’ve tried to steer clear from the apparent taboo and blog other
topics. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s been very hard to do. I feel a major
update is in need, more for my sake than anyone else’s. A written
psycho-analysis of my own state of being, just to make sure I’m heading in the
right direction. So here goes. Home – I think I’m getting a new roof, a la
insurance company, much thanks to April 19th’s record breaking hail storm. This
is fabulous; one last thing I have to worry about coming up with money for. The
rest of the house, comforatable in it’s state of disrepair, sits waiting for
much needed finishing. The house (and all subsequent entertaining plans) is on
hold until the business gets under control. I have visions of scrumptious
carpet, shiny hardwood floors, French furniture and clean bathrooms. Envisioning
it helps motivate me, but I still feel like the hamster in the wheel when it
comes to actually getting anything done. Work – Sorry guys, it’s part of the
analysis. Things are booming, I hope to be in the black in a couple of months. I
owe the current success to part rep/part show in New York, which was paid for in
cash long ago and it’s cash I was happy to put back into my bank account this
past week. I’m designing the Christmas line right now–hard to do in the middle
of May, but I should have done it last December and already sent the samples to
the reps. I’d love to be designing summer, instead of snowflakes, so I’m trying
to hurry through it so I can design summer. The People Part – because I rarely
go anywhere besides my office to work, my house to sleep, and my parents’ to
eat, I’ve been neglecting my friends. Drew is great, but I’ve seen so much of
him since I got back from New York that I actually wondered yesterday if I had
any friends left. It’s my fault, for allowing myself to become closeted away in
the office, and I’m hoping to make some structural changes in my schedule to
make more room for the stuff that really matters. Ok, people, this will get more
interesting. It has to. I’ll try to find something to vent about later on today.

as my gran used to say.

I guess you know you’re doing well when you come into the office on Sunday
afternoon and there are 5 orders just sitting there smiling at you. Things are
going very well. I’m hoping to organize things enough today to have a head start
for tomorrow. I’ve pretty much decided that when Donna moves out of here in July
that I do, too. The one-thousand dollars a month that it would cost to rent it
would be doable, but stretching it, since I’m just getting used to a house
payment. And the house could use a little capital investment itself. Now I’m
going to sit my little butt down and have a Sunday afternoon order-entering
session. After that, probably need to have a little office-organizing session.
Over and out.

Yesterday I made a diagram illustrating company structure (ie, my brain and the
responsibilities it is supposed to be fulfilling on a daily basis). The main
goal was in the center, and little bubbles were scattered all over the page with
secondary goals, the tasks and people it takes to complete them. Basically, it
told me I would end up needing a full time graphic design staff, marketing
person, PR person, web person, packaging and shipping people, and of course, the
personal assistant. What does this leave me to do, you ask? Draw. And draw some
more. The ideas are all over my brain–the only thing I lack is the time to
complete them. Which explains why I’m always running behind on print runs. My
mom is coming in this afternoon to help me package a little bit. We ran out of
envelopes, and I had Lindsey go and pick some up this morning. At this rate,
they’ll barely hold us through today. Donna told me last week she thinks she’ll
have to move out of the office by July; my parents asked me how I thought I
could afford the whole space–at this rate, I don’t know how I could NOT afford
the whole space. I’m completely cramped into this little room as is. As someone
told me in NY, those are high class problems to have, thank the Lord.

Holy smokes. I’m back from New York, and I couldn’t be more glad. The whole trip
was a wild goose chase, minus one very crazy goose. The good part was it got the
company out there; we met some darling people and put faces with names, wrote
some orders, got some feedback, some praise. I hated that city, though–it was
so dirty, smelly, (like the fair), and NOT me. Give me Dallas, any day, or even
give me Atlanta. The New York thing is not one I think I could get used to. So
there is a TON to do. I ran up here to work really quickly to see what I could
organize before tomorrow morning. I’ll probably be here at 6, since I’ve been
waking up at what would be 5 our time for 6 days in a row. On a relaxing note,
Drew and I are supposed to have a date tonight for the first time in EVER. I’m
so looking forward to it.

You know when you have so much to do you just don’t know where to start? I’m
just going to take some stuff to the dry cleaners and hope the day takes off
from there. Lindsey’s here, helping me pack boxes, and hopefully the printing
will arrive soon. The weekend got slightly better with the sister thing. I have
fabulous friends who give excellent advice. Seek to understand, not be
understood. Think win/win. Think freakin 7 habits. Moving forward…

Since I haven’t seen a blog from Ash since early Friday morning, I’m assuming
it’s been a rather boisterous weekend. I debated on making an appearence
Saturday night, and would have been there if a) I hadn’t had to be up at 7 for
Mother’s Day church this morning and b) hadn’t been four working days away from
the biggest investment of my life with way more to do than I know how. So I’m
hoping it was fun. I’m up here at work right now, printing samples and trying to
put labels on boxes. I get an extra run of printing tomorrow, and am probably
going to have to do another doozy after I get back. It’s stressful (I’m sure you
are all tired of hearing about how stressful it is), but I’m really about three
months away from a savings account. Damn goals.

I can’t get along with my sister. Without getting into the whole long, drawn out
issue, let’s just start out by saying we live in two different worlds. Me, 25,
career, no kids, not married, drinks. Her, 23, 1.5 kids, no career, no college
degree, married, doens’t drink. It’s about as polar opposite as people can get.
She prides herself on her ability to see things from other people’s points of
view, and constantly reminds me that I don’t see things from her point of view.
This morning, when she launched off again on, “I know you won’t understand,
but…”, I cut her short. “That’s not fair to me,” I explained, “give me the
chance to understand before you go off on me for my lack of understanding.” She
listened, and replied with the question: “How would you like me to handle this
situation?” I repeated myself: “Give me the chance to understand before you
accuse me of not understanding.” She said OK, didn’t apologize for insulting me,
and proceeded to accuse me of questioning her judgement in an even more previous
conversation from this morning. I had called, asking if I could ride with them
to Stillwater for my cousin’s graduation. She told me they weren’t going because
my brother in law had a meeting. I replied, Ok, but would you like to go? She
says, no, she would still rather stay at home, and I say, Ok, must go get ready,
goodbye. The accusition of the moment was that I had been pressuring her into
going to Stillwater when she had already said she did not want to go. Now if
you’ve understood any of this, you’re in a better situation than I am, because I
am flat out freakin confused as to the whole damn thing. The final straw was me
trying to ask WHAT ON EARTH I was getting griped out for and her cutting me
short saying that I just wasn’t worth talking to, or explaining anything to, and
basically, just all out wrong and not worth her time. I asked her if she would
give me a chance to even talk, and when she answered no, I just got off the
phone. I’m willing to be wrong here, but I’m trying to figure out what I did
that was wrong. Am I wrong to ask her if she wants to go to Stillwater? Am I
wrong to tell her she has got to start giving me a chance? Am I wrong to tell
her I’m trying to understand her situation? Or am I just wrong because I hit a
“holier than thou” spot, that’s really not very holy at all, and she can’t have
that, and so she’s just going to punch me back and tell me I’m not worth her
time?