The Problem With Deadlines

How many times have you found yourself working in a frenzy to get some project done before a certain deadline? I've long since lost count, but then, I didn't try to keep count way back in school, when I had reports, science projects and other such things that were due at a certain time. Really, when you were in school, did you learn anything from having to go through a very uncomfortable day or weekend when you were rushing to get a project done? I didn't. I may have started that 10-page report a week before it was due, but I was still rushing to get it done before I had to turn it in.

It continued into my adult life, as well. Let's say I dreamed up a new costume that I wanted to wear at a certain sf convention. It was not at all unusual for me to be rushing, trying to get it done before I had to pack the car to go to that convention. I remember one costume in particular where I was still hemming the legs and arms as somebody else drove across 2 states to get to the convention.

I'd like to say I've finally learned my lesson, but that last week before Villicon where I was not only making prosthetics, but packaging them and packing them as well, that was not a joyful time for me. I spent an entire day standing at the kitchen island, sorting through prosthetics, packaging and pricing them, and then stuffing them into boxes in something resembling order. Since I'm usually sitting at my desk most of the day, it's no wonder I then spent 2 nights and a day suffering from leg cramps.

And the aftermath of that rushing around isn't really pleasant, either. Friday of Villicon, we got up and finished packing the car, dropped the dog at the kennel and drove into Orlando to the hotel. Once there, we spent about an hour unloading the car and carrying all our stuff to our tables - John was there with the Klingons, and I with my dealer's table. Then we each had to organize our stuff on our tables, and finally, about 2 pm, we hurried across the street to get some lunch. That was the first thing I'd eaten that day, and, it turned out, the only thing I ate that day.

I like going to conventions, but they are not relaxing for me. I'm an introvert, and being surrounded by a few hundred strangers grates on my nerves. Imagine spending 3 days listening to fingernails drug across a chalkboard. I need quiet time in my own place to truly relax.

It wasn't until Monday that I got to go back to my 'usual' day at home and could relax. Except I realized I wasn't really relaxed, I kept thinking I had to DO something to meet a deadline. No matter how many times I told myself I had no immediate deadlines, I still had the uncomfortable feeling that I did. That lasted for 2 days.

By Wednesday, I was over that 'Looming Deadline' fear, but I wasn't back to my usual routine yet. I found myself pushing aside almost all my daily chores in favor of... playing games. And not even the games I usually play; I dug up an oldie that I hadn't played in a year or so. Maybe that was the day I actually relaxed.

Now I'm facing another deadline, another convention, in about 3 1/2 weeks. I will be trying to make more product, more prosthetics, because I've got the raw material that is getting old and needs to be used before it goes bad. So I need to get started doing that. Tomorrow I'll be trying to catch up on the chores I didn't do today, and then I'll get started on that.

I hope.

 

Panic Time

This has been a hectic week. I finished editing a book on Saturday, and decided I'd better concentrate on getting stuff together for the convention we'll be at this weekend. This was in addition to the work I'd done last fall, taking inventory of everything I ever took to a convention to sell and organizing them in boxes so I could pick and choose what I wanted to take. My husband encouraged me to make more product (cosplay prosthetics) before the raw materials went bad, so we set aside a couple days to do that. Otherwise, I've been working on them every afternoon since last Saturday, and I've got quite a bit done.

And it's only Wednesday.

Wait, did I say it's ONLY Wednesday? Oh, no! It's already Wednesday! I've got product to package up, and then pack into the proper boxes, and displays to prepare, and table props to paint! AAAARRRGGH! (Run around the house like a chicken with its head cut off, and get absolutely nothing constructive done!)

Okay. That's enough panicking for now. Tomorrow, when I'm trying to finish everything up, plus pack a suitcase and load up the car, I may have a few more panic attacks. I try to keep them short, so I can use most of my time plugging away at what I need to do.

I suppose that since I have some control over how long they are, they might not be true panic attacks. Basically, they are moments when I feel overwhelmed by how much I still have to do, no matter how much I've managed to get done. And when I feel like that, I don't seem able to communicate to anybody else how to properly do one of my chores so that I can hand it off. Been there, done that, wasn't pretty.

I suppose I should train somebody—such as my husband, who's been prepping his own stuff to take for the Klingon table—how to do some of these chores for me before I'm overwhelmed. Then we can both be overwhelmed together!

No, I'm not sure that's a good idea. Better that one of us manage to remain calm even when one of us is being a headless chicken.

I am grateful that I did, once upon a time, sort through and organize all the boxes, and labeled them, so I know what boxes I want to take. You know, books are in boxes 4, 5 & 14. Prosthetics are in boxes 8, 10, & 12. Made it so much easier to sort out the ones I wanted to take with us.

Anyway, we're both going to be at Villicon this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the DoubleTree at the Entrance to Universal, 5780 Major Blvd in Orlando. If you're going to be there, stop by our tables and say hello! John (Lars Shoberg) will be at the Klingon table, and I (Trudy V Myers) will be manning the MoonPhaze table (basically across the aisle and down a table from the Klingons), selling prosthetics and books. We'd love to chat with you! 

Hope Springs...

Well, here it is, a new year. And even though the pandemic is still with us, making life miserable, I still keep hoping that Things Will Be Better This Year.

You know, that all my Loved Ones (including myself) will stay healthy, that Truth and Justice will win in the end, that I will get better at getting our books published On Time, and not have to keep delaying the publication date. Mostly, that we will sell more books. Or cosplay prosthetics. That we will sell more of something.

I seldom write about how we are doing, sales wise, because I'm embarrassed. Strangely, it never seems to matter that we get payments from our distributor regularly. They aren't for 1000s of dollars. And yet, everywhere I look, I see ads proclaiming things like, "Sell thousands of books overnight with no effort!", or "Learn from this fledgling author who hit #1 on the Best Seller Lists!", or something similar.

If it's too good to be true...

But hope springs eternal, right?

I've fallen for a couple of these, trying to learn how to market more effectively. I mean, if people don't know about our books, how can we hope to sell more of them? Alas, these programs all seem to call for skills I don't really have.

I mean, if I had an IT department I could go to and say, "Here are 3 pages I need added to my website. How long do you need to get them functional?" That would be one thing. I'd even give them exactly what the page should look like and what it should say. I can do that much. But it's the behind the scenes type of stuff that often leaves me confused and feeling inadequate. Where does this button link to? How do you set up a link between a file-sharing website and the buttons on this webpage? How do I include detailed instructions for doing something I've never done?

Okay, pity party is over. I am not my only resource. I have friends and family and groups who can help me figure out all those things I need to figure out in order to do what I want to do. No, I don't like marketing, but I can't afford to have somebody else do it for me. And, most of the marketing plans I've listened to are simply more of the same stuff I've already tried. So, time for new stuff. Time to get a little creative. That I can do. 

Italian Cruise 2021 - Day 9

Sunday, 10/24 - Getting Home

Remember, I said we had to get up by 5:30 on this morning? And that that was the equivalent of 11:30 the night before at our hometown? This truly was to be a lo-o-ng day.

We went to the only place to eat that early; the Irish pub in the casino. We got there before the big rush as others came in to eat before getting off the ship. After eating, we left the ship and claimed our luggage. The Barcelona port actually had luggage carousels for claiming your luggage.

After that, we took our bags outside and got on a bus to go to the airport. It was, of course, very dark. The bus dropped us off outside the ticketing center for the airport. We went inside and had visions of 'Grand Central Station' in our head, though we've never been there. I'm not sure 'Grand Central Station' does the place justice. Each airline had 1-2 windows to take luggage and issue tickets, and hundreds of them were packed into peninsulas sticking into the lobby. But we couldn't figure out where to find the window we needed. Thankfully, John wandered off to the restroom, and when he came back, he had found the window we needed! Hooray!

I honestly don't remember how we got to the gate to wait for our airplane. From the time we left that window until the time we boarded the plane is a big blank spot in my memory. Did I fall asleep? I doubt it. I vaguely remember getting up out of a chair to try and figure out if it was time for us to get into line to board the plane. It's hard when you don't speak the local language, but the airlines made it easier by holding up signs as to what group could now get in line.

The economy class of this plane had 9 seats across; 3 on the left, 3 on the right and 3 in the middle. John and I were in the middle seats. I wanted to sleep, but I don't think I did. Shows I had been watching on one airline going over were not available on this airline coming back. In fact, there was very little of interest for me to watch. I know they fed us once, but I don't know if they fed us twice, like the trip over. Maybe it was a meal and a snack.

Anyway, we got on the plane about 11 AM, and we got to the Atlanta airport about 6 PM. We had about an hour to get to the gate we needed for the next leg of our journey, and it seemed to be on the opposite side of the airport. Before that, we had to claim our luggage, take it to the next room and turn it over to catch our next plane, then we had to go through another TSA checkpoint. Then we walked forever (with memories of Rome going through my head) and then I finally convinced John to take the train, or we would never make it to our gate. We barely had time to sit down when we reached our gate.

Times are approximate here; I've thrown out the paperwork that would have confirmed them for me, and we were very tired, having been awake for about 18-19 hours. But we got on the next plane about 7 PM and probably got to the Orlando airport about 8 PM. It probably took us an hour to claim our luggage and grab the bus to where we had parked the car. I remember it was rainy in Orlando, and when we got to where we had parked our vehicle, it was standing in at least 4 inches of water. The 'pond' was bigger than just our vehicle, too, there were several cars sitting in it.

So about 9 PM, we got in our car with our feet all cold and wet, and the windows quickly steaming up, and we started home.

We stopped for hamburgers to go on our way, and ate them when we got home, then watched a little television to relax. We finally got to bed about 11:30 PM - 24 hrs after we had gotten up!

And that was our trip to Spain and Italy, mostly Italy.

PS. Remember when this journey began, and we were rushed to get through TSA, and lost John's shoes and my belly bag? We couldn't claim them when we got in on this day, because the Lost and Found department had already closed. But we drove back the next day about noon, and I was able to claim both items. Phew! What a relief!

Italian Cruise 2021 - Day 8

Saturday, 10/23 - Day at Sea

At last! A day with no excursions as the ship made its way back to Barcelona. We could sleep in!

Well, not really, because this was the day they were giving people a covid test so they would have the (hopefully negative) results to get on their planes to go home. And although we weren't scheduled for that until 10 AM, we got up about 7 so as not to miss our place in line.

I don't remember where we had breakfast, or what we had. I continually felt like I had to hurry and get to the theater, and then I would remember that there were no excursions. By comparison, taking the test was easy, no last-minute cramming to get the answers right. We were told the results would be sent to our cabin that evening.

John wanted to read, but knew from experience that the library/computer space was too noisy for him to get any reading done there. I have a little better luck blocking out noise when I'm writing, so I went to the library to try to get caught up on these blogs. Alas, the library was awash in people panicing over getting their e-paperwork ready for Spain, and the (at this point, 2!) computer specialists were loudly and repeatedly explaining that the website didn't work, hadn't worked for weeks, that Spain was aware it wasn't working, and noone would be asking us for that paperwork this time. Even I had trouble thinking in that madhouse.

So when John came to tell me he had found a quiet place on an upper deck, I grabbed my laptop and followed him there. It was much quieter than the library, but I had to pick and choose what table to sit out, so I didn't get a bunch of glare off my screen. But we spent a couple hours there, each doing our own thing, until we decided to go have lunch.

We ate at the Irish pub in the casino. John had enjoyed the Korean wings so much the first time, he repeated it. I had had their corned beef stew during our first visit, and opted for something else, possibly a hot dog. I really can't remember.

In the afternoon, we spent some time in the hot tub. Okay, in the warm tub. We hadn't found a 'hot tub' during the entire trip that was actually hot. Disappointing, but not enough to make us decide not to do it.

Eventually, we wandered back to our cabin and packed our bags. New tags had arrived for us to use, and we had to get the luggage out into the hall by a certain time.

We were one of the first people scheduled to get off in the morning. In order to have time to eat, we had to get up by 5:30 AM, which was 11:30 PM the night before in our hometown. So even though we weren't that tired that night, we were climbing into bed almost as soon as we finished supper.

We had a long day ahead of us.