My illustrator Linda Santell and I teamed up at her booth today for the Professional Women's Forum holiday shopping event at the Painted Plate in Greensboro. Local artists set up booths of jewelry, scarves, lotions, food, carvings, furniture, etc. We had an excellent day, selling a dozen books as well as some of Linda's Whimsical Women creations.
This entry will be a myriad mish-mash (alliteration: the tool of the truly talented writer) of this week's events.
Let's talk about instinct. I am a firm believer that one should always listen to your gut. Rarely will your initial instincts lead you wrong. My problem, however, is isolating that initial instinct before I smother it with my Vulcan-logic. For example, I find it incredibly difficult to turn down writing assignments, even if my gut is screaming at me to do so. I start rationalizing why my gut is wrong. "This is a new opportunity--it's just fear talking." or "Hey, this is income. So you don't feel like doing it. Suck it up and take the work." However, the few times I've listened to my gut and turned down work, I'm convinced I made the right choice.
And gut instinct can work with good things too. I had a writing opportunity presented to me today via e-mail and, on paper, the pay was so low that I thought, "I can't spend time on that." And yet, some small part of me was whispering, "Check it out." So I called and spoke to the woman who sent the e-mail and had an overwhelmingly positive response to her the minute her voice came over the phone. I can't explain it other than it was just that feeling of "good vibes." So I'm going to give the low-paying work a shot. Less for the income and more because I want to honor that little voice that's hinting, "Something more will come of this."
Other gut instincts. I have an assignment due the end of January for a magazine I've being writing for for years. Normally, I would just start the assignment. But a nagging voice kept saying, "You better check and make sure they still want this piece." So I e-mailed and yes, they still wanted the piece, but get this. They had down that I owned them a piece from October. I never turned it in and they assumed it was because they were behind on payments to me and so never contacted me, thinking I was done with them.
I was mortified. I've never missed a deadline in my life. Somewhere the wires got crossed because I had the assignment listed in my assignment database (yes, I am that anal), but I had the due date as October 2006. That's not unusual to receive an assignment that far out and, at the time, I was selecting the articles I wanted to write for them in 2006. So I'm not sure what happened.
The end of this is that I just barely have enough time to get the article to them in time to slam it into the issue going to press. So I'm hustling this week to get interviews and pull it off. But thank God I listened to my gut and contacted this company. Otherwise, I never would have known that they thought I was no longer working for them. Aaaugh!
Another gut instinct. I'm on a tight deadline doing work on a brochure for a company. They want it by the end of this week, at the latest. I e-mailed my first draft Monday and never heard anything. I found it odd my contact hadn't called to discuss but tried to dismiss it. But my thoughts kept returning to it and I had something else to discuss anyway, so I called.
"What do you think of the draft of the brochure?" I asked at the end of the conversation.
"What draft?" she replied.
She never received my e-mail. Again, thank goodness I called so the process didn't get stalled.
I'm really not a very good gut listener, but I'm working on it. Another goal for the New Year.
I go with Blair to get his haircuts because he goes to an old-fashioned barber shop and I like the environment and the fact that every Saturday morning they have donut holes sitting out for the taking.
So I settled into a hair-covered chair (barbers don't clean) with my chocolate donut hole last Saturday to wait for Blair and opened the paper. It was there that I read the article on "tipping."
It had most of the standard fare - $1/bag for airport handlers unless the bag is really heavy and then you must promise them your first-born. 15% at lunch, 20% at dinner, etc.
What caught my eye was the section on tipping your coffee baristas. You know baristas, right? They're the friendly people at places like Starbucks whose goal in life is to get you hooked on a never-satisfied desire for any drink that ends with the phrase "latte."
According to this article, I'm supposed to be tipping my barista $1 per drink for the drudgery of having to mix together milk and coffee with a dash of espresso and have a machine whir it all together. This is after I've already been suckered into paying $3.85 for coffee drink to begin with. So I'm supposed to tip over 20% per java hit? You know what? I don't think so.
I tip waitstaff who bring me my food, refill my drink, and keep the warm rolls coming. I do NOT tip people for standing behind a counter and pouring me a cup of coffee. That's out of control and, I find, rather snobbish. You don't see the cooks at McDonalds leaving a tip jar out for frying up your burgers (don't anyone get any ideas here) so why am I expected to pay a barista other than that it's the yuppie thing to do?
I will occasionally tip the counter staff at local hang out coffee shops like the Green Bean, but that's more because I'm taking up a table for 3 hours with my laptop after having only purchased a .70 coffee and a $1.20 muffin. Guilt kicks in.
But I'll be damned if you'll ever see me tipping the staff at Starbucks or--should it come to that--McDonalds.
Bah-humbug. =)
I just received this e-mail from the volunteer coordinator at Happy Hills Animal Foundation:
I am SO HAPPY I can't even describe it. I LOVE that cat. So soft and calm and when he leaned in and head-butted me and then licked my nose...well. God certainly has his (or her!) angels here on earth and Spooky is one of them. I wish him the very best of best lives.
If by any weird twist of fate Spooky's new owner comes across this site, I would love to hear from you and post an update on how Spooky's taken to home life. It's amazing how one small cat can so quickly touch so many lives. I've had friends and e-mails, asking me about Spooky. So happy to report back with good news.
Author. Humorist. Fitness fanatic. Control freak (working on it). Mentor. Klutz. All-around decent human being.
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