Mishmash Musings

I had a face-to-face meeting with one of my local clients today to discuss some upcoming writing projects that he wants to get done in the next year. Everything went very well and I’m excited about putting the sales brochures and marketing letters that he wants.

The only snag came at the very end when he asked me for another card since he lost the first one I gave him. I still haven’t gotten around to ordering professional business cards yet, so I had to give him one of my old ones — with the cell phone number and email address scratched out and the new ones written in by hand. That was pretty embarrassing, to say the least!

I’ve got to buy some new cards soon!!

Did you hear that story about the parents who couldn’t get their 3-year-old daughter to take her seat on an airplane? The Air Tran flight crew waited for about 15 minutes before kicking the family off the plane. The family was bumped to another flight (the next day) and given three round-trip tickets to any Air Tran destination as compensation.

As the parent of a young child myself (my son will be 4 next month), I know how difficult it can be to handle tantrums. We frequently fly back and forth between Chicago and Tokyo, so I’ve had my share of airplane antics as well. But I simply cannot imagine how these parents couldn’t get their child to SIT DOWN in her seat so they could buckle her in. The airline wasn’t demanding that she be quiet or stop screaming and crying; they just wanted her to sit down. What the heck were the parents doing???

The news stories make it sound like Air Tran was being pretty harsh, but let me tell you, if I were a passenger on that plane, I would have stood up and applauded their decision. It’s not fair to keep a couple hundred people waiting because one set of parents insisted on coddling their child. The way the article was written, it sounds like Air Tran only gave them 15 minutes to settle the child down. But people board at least 30 minutes before takeoff time, so I’m sure the tantrum was going on a lot longer than that.

I think they did the right thing, and if that couple never flies with Air Tran again, as they’ve threatened, then so be it. Good riddance.

Well, that project was almost too easy and probably shouldn’t have been my featured task, but whatever. At least I am now completely unpacked a full seven months after I used those suitcases. Talk about procrastination and/or laziness!!!

Today’s project is kind of an embarrassing one. My family took a long vacation at the end of May last year, and there are still two suitcases that I haven’t unpacked from that trip! They are just sitting on the floor in the guest room. I can’t believe that those bags haven’t been touched in 7 months, but there they sit. Today, I’m going to unpack them and put the (empty) suitcases back where they belong.

I know a lot of people who have several recurring dreams, but I only have one that comes up again and again. It’s kind of weird: I dream that my teeth get very loose and then basically crumble in my mouth and fall out.

I looked up the symbolism of losing teeth, and was surprised to discover that it’s actually a pretty common dream. Here’s a page that gives several interpretations of what the dream could mean. Some of them are: sensitivity about appearance, powerlessness, inability to express yourself, or anxiety and worry.

I am happy to report that I’ll be eligible to submit Mishmash Musings to PayPerPost on February 2! I started this blog almost three months ago and have had fun bringing it along. I can’t wait to get it into the PPP system because — judging from the experience I’ve had with my other blogs — that means I’ll get more pages indexed in Google, I’ll get more traffic, and I’ll eventually acquire a pretty good page rank!

Just 6 days left!!!!!

I’ve been counting calories for the last couple days because my diet is going absolutely nowhere. It’s a pain in the butt to monitor my food this closely and to weigh everything before I eat it, but I have to admit that it does force me to be more aware of what I’m consuming.

For example, yesterday I was at a 7-11 and wanted to buy a snack. Ordinarily, I would have grabbed a huge danish, but I looked the label and saw that it was a whopping 615 calories!!! So I instead went with a slice of banana bread that set me back just 164 calories.

It’s actually kind of scary to think of all the junk I’ve been eating without even knowing it. Yuck.

I live in a quiet neighborhood with lots of other young parents around. Even though I haven’t met many of my neighbors personally, I know that a good number of them run home businesses. How do I know this? Because they advertise with yard markers! I’ve seen this little signs sticking out of lawns all over the place, and they tell me about babysitting services, cleaning services, painting services and more.

I think that’s a pretty neat way of promoting a home business, so I might have to check these yard markers out for myself!

As a parent, I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about the elaborate birthday parties that parents stage for their very young children. I absolutely REFUSE to get into all that, and I’m glad to see I’m not the only one.

I recently read an article on Yahoo about a group called Birthdays Without Pressure that advocates very simple, low-cost parties for kids. I’m not going to join the group or anything, but I am definitely glad that they exist. I think it’s insane to spend thousands of dollars on a party for a 6-year-old or whatever, and I won’t even let my son attend events that I think are too elaborate. Keep it simple, stupid!

I’m still in the process of gathering materials for my upcoming direct mail campaign, and I suddenly realized that I don’t have a real plan in place in the event that one of these businesses contacts me to come in for a meeting to discuss a possible project.

What I’m thinking I should do is develop a professional presentation for each potential client to highlight all the ways that I can help their business. I checked online and saw that there are several websites that offer quick turnaround on presentation folder printing, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to pull this off.

A couple of weeks ago I told you that I’m trying to get my act together and put on a more professional front when it comes to freelance writing. I’ve been looking at business cards this whole time, but since there are so many different options to consider, I haven’t been able to make a decision yet. How many colors do I want, which font style do I prefer, logo or no logo…. these are questions that I am still wrestling with. Hopefully I can take care of this soon!

My Tackle It Tuesday project for today was to write emails to 15 friends or family members that I haven’t contacted in awhile. I’m sorry to say that I failed miserably at this project, sending out only TWO personal emails today!! I got so wrapped up in other assignments that came up suddenly that I didn’t have time to take care of my personal emails. A pretty shoddy excuse, but what can I do? Looks like I’ll have the same project next week :(.