… Really, a 23 cent jump in gas prices in a matter of four days? 10 cents of that in less than nine hours today? I get oil prices (by the barrel) went up and all hell has broken loose (or close enough) in the Middle East with the string of uprisings, but what happened to the gradual increases we saw the last couple of times gas prices were jacked up? I conceded defeat and stopped at my normal station since I figured by the time I actually needed to fill up again (tomorrow night), it probably would be higher. Get to the town where I turn off to go to my house and they were still 10 cents lower. The one word curse words I was muttering before that turned into a whole string of ‘em as I verbally kicked myself for the last few miles home. Just glad I don’t drive a diesel at this point, that per gallon rate is even higher.

… My patience had already been tested and ran out (for the rest of the month) earlier today. Not even five minutes into an appointment, the person (not one of my side business clients) managed to do what no other individual had been able to do in well over a year. When I have to sit down my pen, cross my arms, and give you a not so impressed/happy expression, its a sign the rest of your responses better be direct replies to the questions being asked and not smart responses that are not funny. Its probably a good thing those reports are factual based and not observation based.

… I splurged and upgraded to a wi-fi internet account at home because of the business and other needs for a faster connection than dial up (but at a rate cheaper than satellite, my only other option out in the boonies). First couple of weeks the signal was fast, fairly comparable to the local deli (but not as fast as McDonald’s or the university I graduated from). This week, however, I swear my dial up connection is faster than this snail’s pace I’m on right now. My computer keeps updating crap despite switching every preference not to in order to prevent eating up my limited bandwidth. Haven’t exceeded 2/3rd’s of the limit with five days to go and I’m ready to scream. At least I had the sense to keep the dial up account as a backup …

… there a few more things I’d like to vent, but for the sake of privacy and other factors I won’t be doing so publicly …

On another note, gonna try to blog here a bit more often … including images from the list of theme challenges I’ve posted on the biz blog but not here and some other stuff I just haven’t had the time to share!

Numero Dos: I’m exhausted. It was *feast* week at work and somehow in the three days I was in the office (we had an out of the office event dept wide on Wednesday and I was out today because of numero uno above), I made a huge dent in what has to be done between now and the middle of the first week of October. Don’t know where the energy came from other than sheer motivation to not have but a few things left to worry about next Monday!

Numero Tres: This week’s mantra is “you can’t please everyone” — and in all honesty, I’m not in the mindset/mood/motivation to bend over backwards anymore. Policies are for a reason, and its not like it wasn’t in writing. Some people nowdays don’t read, just sign, or assume that if they pitch a fit or complain, people will bend to their will. No longer will I — I put it in writing in multiple places and have clients sign documents acknowledging it so when they pitch fits, etc, I can refer to said document and hold my ground without budging.

Numero Quatro: Trying to find locations to fit this week’s assignment in my photography class — while I think I might have found two that fit what I have to photograph, I need to find the third one. Guess I’ll be driving around the countryside tomorrow in search of task #3!

Numero Cinco: I need a vacation already … *zonk*

Lousy. No. Good. Lousy. Day.

If I didn’t make my point with the first three lousys, there was a fourth. Sorry I can’t go into details … not for public consumption.

At least I knocked out a chunk of stuff at the day job. But unfortunately I can’t please everyone and well, that’s just how it is

Because you had a bad day
You’re taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don’t know
You tell me don’t lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don’t lie
You’re coming back down and you really don’t mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day
-Daniel Powter

… horrible sinus headache that has killed my appetite for two meals + made me feel like puking since I woke up.

… slick streets + driving work car (cautiously) + brakes/tires that obviously haven’t been inspected recently + yellow light … no, no wreck, it was avoided narrowly, but hours later my heart hasn’t stopped racing.

I kid you not. I couldn’t make something up like this. And no, its sure as heck isn’t funny either!

Anyway, I normally park at the back of the lot along the tree lined fence row. Some days I’ve seen ants on my hood, but that’s it.

In the hour it took to find where they were coming from, vaccuum and spray down (with ant spray) to get rid of them, we determined that leaves (and bugs) had gotten down between the area where the hinge of the door is and the driver’s side tire backsplash, and the ants went in for them. Ants apparantly also like electricity, which is why they clustered under my seat … on top of the electric cables for my seat!

Thankfully the only ones that stung me were the ones I was trying to kill … but still the paranoia and hysteria of driving 40 minutes towards home with ants was not fun in the least.

And now I’m exhausted. And what I needed to do tonight isn’t getting done …

Numero Dos: … and am glad this weekend’s sessions are of dogs

Numero Tres: I own way too many templates and what not. I’m not even a third of the way through sorting through all the places I have biz files stored (usb drives, laptops, external drives) and already I have nearly 30 GBs of files sorted. Yeesh!

Numero Quatro: Stress has finally caught up with me this week … both my TMJ and intestinal track had enough and rebelled back. Time for some more changes …

Numero Cinco:  see the recent What the Duck strip below … so very true!

What I want to post about tonight, a little rant, I can’t. If this were a completely anonymous blog and I didn’t have my business linked and all, I’d have a bit of a public rant going right now.

But instead, I’m refraining from saying what I can at least vent to a few trusted people.

All I’ll say for now is that it seriously frickin sucks. But there is a bright side and that’s what I’m focusing on for now …

Well I ignored him in undergrad but heeded his advise when I changed majors for grad school … and I do lots of writing daily at the day job. Being wordy is good in that case.

For my biz site, not so much. I try to provide full disclosure on the aspects that clients need to know about (well short of my full pricing guide due to copycats who don’t do their own research on services and products). However, despite the fact I answer the same questions a gajillion times in emails and therefore put said info on the website in hopes they’d read it, they still don’t read. People are lazy I’ve concluded. They’d rather ask me than to take five minutes, click one more link, and find the answer.

So, I’m tired of being wordy.  I’m working on de-wordifying (if that’s not a word, it is now) my biz site. Only the critical info is there. And I hope they don’t mind ‘form’ like emails that I’ll copy and paste in with minor customization in response … because this wordy girl is becoming even more efficient than I already was working on becoming

Real Life Example: Cost of business + cost of time dedicated per client + cost of goods sold + federal income taxes = more than some people want to pay. Some people, however, will drag out their consideration of booking you, telling you what all they want, a great idea for the session, what they anticipate spending, then back out. Sometimes its a spouse bringing them back down to reality, sometimes its because they assume if someone advertises on Craigslist for pennies, they’ll forgo quality for price. Or try to negotiate. Sorry, I’m not the low price leader and I’m not a flea market. I’m a legitimate small business owner providing a quality product at a slightly premium price.

Because I am a legit business, I have legit expenses. I pay taxes totalling approximately a third of what each session fee and product is priced at. Add in the overhead, product costs, marketing, and future re-investment costs, and double what’s set aside for taxes. Now triple that original amount. That’s my pay. Sometimes I clear a pretty nice sum with a client who spends a pretty penny. Other times, I make less than minimum wage when I calculate how many hours I gave to a client who spends as little as possible but eats up a ton of time with emails/calls, etc.

And then there are those that think I charge too much. Really? Have you owned a business? Paid in self employment taxes? Figured in ‘profit’ to put back into gear that’ll have to be replaced due to wear and tear over time? Covered basic expenses? If you want a crap product at a cheap price, there’s plenty of newbies and undercutters out there willing to deliver. Been there (newbie, not undercutter), done that, and should own the tee shirt. I’d like to recoop something for the thousands I’ve invested of my own money. Money that would have made a very nice down payment on a house instead of starting a business.  

Guess how I’m considering turning this negative into a positive …

Dudes (or dudettes), you were quite a ways out from the nearest airport with a long enough runway for that sucker. Don’t fly that low when you’re not getting ready to land, please. My racing heart (and already pounding head) kindly thanks you for your consideration.

(and by roaring, I mean it sound like a calvary of lawn mowers about to attack. Over 40 minutes after the fact, my heart rate hasn’t slowed back to where it was before thinking a plane was coming at my house)