I am a slave driver

I make my only employee turn on her laptop while she’s still rubbing her eyes and stumbling from bed to kitchen. I let her take five minutes to brew a cup of Tazo Awake tea, toast a homemade Strawberry-Blueberry Muffin, and fish a vitamin from the jar, but then I crack the whip. “Sit yerself down in that chair, missy, and don’t get up until you’ve processed every new order and answered every new message in that inbox. And for heaven’s sake, don’t open Google Reader!”

See, I know this girl, and I know that given the chance, she’ll start reading blogs and getting all social while she’s still in her pj’s and before she knows it, it’ll be noon and one of her children (goodness knows why I let her bring them to work) will be pointing out that it’s lunch time and they never had any breakfast. She’ll glance at the clock, note the time with a start, and go take care of her kids and the hunger pangs that she only just realized she was experiencing.

That is why last night before bed, I left a note on her laptop, instructing her not to fall into her bad habits. Who knows? If she actually puts her nose to the grindstone every morning, maybe I’ll start actually paying her a salary… heh. I am a slave driver.

So, today was all about business. I cracked the whip over my lone employee who, if you are feeling a bit foggy and haven’t figured it out by now, is actually Me. (I am hoping to also hire Myself and I one of these days, but they’re not big on working for free) I then took a brief break for bagels with the boys. This afternoon, I worked on writing up a little blurb to describe myself and my art, because I thought I should have something like that alongside my wares, when I set up my library display. Which I did, this evening.

It’s not perfect – I didn’t know what I was going to do until I got there, and I think it could use a few more things up on the walls – but it’s fine. And really, no matter how you slice it, it’s pretty cool to have a display case of my own at the library. Online, in this space, I’m crazy outgoing, in terms of show-and-telling my stuff, but the library is Real Life(tm). In real life, I carry my business cards in my wallet, but never hand them out, even when complemented on something I made and am wearing. In real life, I bring a sampling of my latest creations to a friendly gathering, but I leave them in the car, too timid to say, “hey, want to see what I’ve been working on?” For someone like that, a small gig at the library is kind of a big deal.

I hope a few people take my business cards and drop by my website. (If you’re someone who did just that, be sure to leave a comment and say hi!)

More business on tap for tomorrow. I’ve got orders to ship. I’d hoped that by whipping my employee into shape this morning, she’d have had enough time to pack things up today and put them out for the postal pickup, but it just didn’t work out. She’s apparently a slow poke, even when she’s full of caffeine and has skipped her shower to get a twenty-minute head start on work. Tomorrow, maybe I’ll be less of a stickler and let her bathe before cracking the whip. I kind of like the smell of honeysuckle soap wafting in and out of the packing/shipping materials.