My fingers are pincer tight on that last thread of sanity

What a crazy time. August, is now officially over. Okay…so we’re two weeks into September, but August sort of lingered for me. A normal month of wedding work is made up of a couple of engagement shoots, a bridal, maybe two, and three weddings. That’s at the most! Well…August 2008 found us photographing and/or doing the flowers for NINE weddings. Jon also threw in two family portrait sessions, three bridal shoots, and several engagement appointments. I can’t tell you how little I see of my husband at this point. He tries so hard to meet his deadlines, and he’s getting ahead of the game as we speak so that he won’t be a zombie come October when all those nine weddings hit their due-dates…but that means I never see him.

Work that seems unrelated to anyone but me is that I finally got some shelves and storage boxes to put in them. Bless Ikea. The shelves went up. The stuff and nonsense that makes up my to-dos, tasks, and hobbies all went into the beautiful boxes. Ahh…organized storage. I have two more floating shelves to anchor to the walls above my shelving system, but those will hopefully go up tonight. Ahh. Again. The amount of space that this saves is astounding. Jon is shocked at how much the basement opened up when my supplies went vertical instead of where it had been spread out on the floor.

What made the organization time possible?…my laptop crashed. Oh, there’s LOTS of work for me to do when it comes to weddings too…but until my laptop comes home from the doctor, I’m out of luck. If it’s flowers I’ve done, once they are in place, my work is over and I get to sit at a table eating cake as far as the wedding day is concerned. However, two months later when they’ve looked at their pictures and picked their favorites, I am the one to design and have printed all the final coffee table style photo albums that come as part of the packages that we give to clients. I create files of their favorite photos and then lay out the books in a program we have. The pages can then be emailed, and our clients get to shift or change whatever may be out of place or for whatever photo that they may want to give more attention. It’s actually pretty fun…but time-consuming…and it requires me to have a computer!!! Without my laptop, I’m lost when it comes to my wedding emails, book layout, and flower bids, so this last month has been a barrage of apologies and postponements. So…the organization was a last-ditch effort to make myself feel more productive in the face of total stagnation. Bah.

The organization has another benefit though that we hadn’t considered…Hannah started full-on crawling this week. Sorry everyone that watches her! She’s now big enough to make her way around your house and get into anything you don’t want her to. Leaves from your plants will end up in her mouth. The black remains of dust bunnies from the nether-reaches of your under-couch will be found on her lips. She will probably attempt to pull herself up onto any angled furniture you own in only rooms without carpet. She will end up bruised and broken…I won’t hold you responsible…I know it’s coming. I’m bringing outlet covers to you this week. Use them liberally to at least avoid electrocution. At least now my pins and scissors are up and out of her ability to reach. Poor Jon has to share his office with her and her attempts to get into every nook and cranny. My clean-up couldn’t have happened any later, so that’s a good thing.

My boss asked me to be back to 40 hours in the office as of this week. I had been so enjoying my working-from-home-Fridays. How could I come back to the office 8 hours a day, 5 days a week? I thought we’d talked about this? It’s so odd. Kristy gets softer and more understanding, and then she throws a request like giving up my Fridays at me. She’s needy. I knew that. She’s allowed to be…she’s the boss. Her October looks busy, so she wants me here all the time that she may be here, just in case she needs something faxed or emailed. Okay, but when you hired me I told you that I had a wedding business and a baby on the way and that we’d need to discuss flexibility. This doesn’t sound all that flexible. I’ve stewed all day about how to approach her and get her to understand that I need my Friday’s. I need the next two Friday’s at least! Jon suggested that I compromise…I ask Kristy if I can have the next two Fridays to still work from home, but that I can be back in the office 40 hours a week come October for her business to be covered. Seemed Fair. I did actually take it to her this afternoon too, and she was okay with it. I could tell that she just wished that I didn’t have a life…that I was the automaton that I normally am…gets the work done, doesn’t complain, shows up and all her files are magically clean and organized without her having to do anything…and really, that’s usually how I work. I’m like her file fairy…I come in, get things done and then disappear, logging all of the hours that she’s requested without all of the messy human personality to go with it like most other secretaries. I really am quiet, don’t get sick, play well with others, but don’t talk a lot and tend to get as much done as is humanly possible without complaining about it. Well…I’m a mom now and a business owner to boot…which you knew when you hired me…so once in a while I guess there’s bound to be messiness. I do keep the messiness to a minimum, but there are days. She agreed that life got messy when there was a kid, and she gave Jon total props for even being willing to stay home with Hannah when her husband wouldn’t ever consider it. Apparently, the Mr. Mom thing would never occur to Kirk. And, I’m still her secretary…she pays my bills…I know that too…and I have to respect it and work all that much harder to keep her happy. Jon and I are both so grateful for the next two Fridays, and maybe we can talk again come November, but it’s going to be a tough October.

Here’s hoping the trade show this week is such a raging success that we end up getting used to the nine weddings a month instead of three. Then I’ll just HAVE to work from home and the rest of the discussion is moot. Hannah needs her mom. Jon needs a break. I need to work and our family needs insurance. I just wish there was more work from home so that all of us could get what we need.

At least our little crawling monkey is worth all this stress and bother. Heaven help us! She’s mobile! There goes my grip on that thread!

~ by bylorena on September 15, 2008.