An Update

Well, it has indeed been some time since I last posted. However, life has been beyond insane for me and it doesn't look to be slowing any time soon. I am only about two weeks away from my company launch and it's absolute mayhem in my life right now. To top it off, I had to deal with the vet for two days over Matza's care (or lack thereof) as they ended up giving the poor little pooch a chemical burn from the shampoo---which I told them not to use in the first place. $364 and a whole bunch of steroid shots and stress later, she's doing much better. However, she's also now on Prozac as she's a very anxious little dog that bites her own fur off her back. It actually seems to be helping, but it's kind of a pain as I have to put that and her allergy pill inside a little dollop of peanut butter on top of one of her treats so that I don't have to shove the pills down her throat. She just thinks she gets a treat every morning. Little does she know. :)

In other news, the seamstress I had hoped to use has turned out to not be completely what I had hoped for. She sent me an estimate last night for $5000 to draw four patterns--and that doesn't include materials cost or the fact that I'm the one who came up with the actual designs. So, we're back in negotiations, but I have a feeling my kick-off date might be affected a little. Well, that or I'll just have to open without that part of my product line (which was the whole inspiration to begin with, so it's kind of a bugger). However, I have enough other vendors and items I'll be utilizing that it won't really destroy everything. I am just stressed on that one. Despite this, everything else is going very well--I just wish I had about three of me and 50 hours in a given day so that I could sleep AND get work done. I finally have all the inventory shelving and storage in place--after dropping the metal storage shelving on my big toe last night, crushing the thing and skinning the top of it off. That kind of hurt. However, the shelving racks look great and not at all tacky in my room. I had to spend a small fortune to pull this off, but I think it was worth it as I worked very hard to get my room to look how it does so I don't want to ruin it now.

I also got my new laptop (which I'm using now to write this) and I am beyond in love with it already. It is beyond fast--plus it has 250 GB of hard drive memory and a 500 GB back-up hard drive, so I think I should have enough memory space there. I also got my color laserjet printer, shipping scale and postage/label printer (they print side by side so I don't have to change out the label rolls to print both), my VOIP phone (which doesn't have to be hooked directly to my computer, as the base of it hooks directly to my wireless router while the cordless phone sits in the other room on my desk), my phone lines are good to go (toll-free, local, fax), the merchant account is all ready as soon as I get the final info back on my business checking, the zoning permit, LLC certification, and business license are all official and back to me, I got my business Visa card--but also had to bump my personal card to a $10,000 limit in order to cover all these crazy start-up expenses, I have my contractor and consultant agreements and confidentiality agreements all in place, my accounting software, etc., is all set up, and I have wholesale accounts set up with more vendors than I will possibly use at the beginning. I will order in about 750 t-shirts by the end of this week, once I narrow down which of the 70+ sayings I want to start with. I have my Duds for Studs, Stitches for Bitches, and Couture for Charity lines to divy those sayings amongst, but I still am not going to use all of them at first.

Oh, and in the middle of all of this, I've still been getting law school apps together (I have no idea at this point if I will go this fall or if I'll postpone, as it all depends on how the business is going--but I want my options open), and I have also been designing new product lines I hope to roll out soon too. My actual full-time job has been, um, interesting, to say the least. So, I'm looking at some options for change there. Essentially, my life is one big upheaval at this point. I spend so much time working that the rest of my life gets neglected, but at this point I don't have much choice. I found myself having friends over the other night for movie night--but I ended up sitting on the couch with my laptop, typing away while the movie played. I'd like to just have one night where I could relax without stressing over what's not getting done. I just keep reminding myself of how much progress I've made and how great the final product will be because of this work--somehow that helps to offset the lack of sleep and the stress I feel.

Other than that, there's not much to report. I wish I had my own apartment with no roommate, but that's a story for a whole other time. Meanwhile, I have to finish up some vendor stuff and then get to bed since I have an early morning meeting with the Durham Bulls marketing person, since we just signed to be their group sponsor again this season. I have been trying to get that marketing strategy put together, but then I also have a lot of other projects and a complete revamp of this quarter's contractor newsletter that I thought I was done with...until the senior VP wanted even more added. So, today was spent writing article after article in an effort to cover all the new material and double the size of the newsletter. Granted, this will be one of the few times the newsletter is this big, but it's just a lot of work to get through in two days as I want it completely finished and sent to all 750 contractors by this Friday. Anyway, enough chit chat. I'm going to work and then off to bed.

I hope all is well with each of you! And, remember, no dog deserves to be naked! (hint. hint.)