When I was a kid, I used to get SO excited about Christmas. It wasn’t just about Santa’s visit for me, although that of course, was a big part of it. I remember one year I asked Santa for a big, stuffed Garfield (It was the 80’s. Garfield was HOT). Thinking back, it wasn’t even that big. But to me, at the time a stuffed animal connoisseur and huge fan of Garfield, it was, like, totally awesome. Anything less was, like, gag me with a spoon! I was obsessed. I re-read my letter about 100 times, and even after it was sent, I worried that maybe Santa would misunderstand my request. What if I got the smaller one? What if it didn’t fit in his sleigh? This, was my holiday stress. As I’ve gotten older, my Santa list has become less of a stress, and my focus has shifted to the giving. I love to give people gifts. It’s fun, and it makes me feel good. And that is really what it’s all about, right? In recent years, I’ve backed off from buying a gift for every single friend I’ve talked to during the year. It was getting a bit ridiculous, my credit card was about to catch on fire from overuse, and I didn’t like to make people uncomfortable if I get them something and they don’t get me anything. Not that I care if I get anything in return, but I know it makes some people feel bad (including me, if I’m the non-giver). So this year I have taken a different approach to giving. For instance, I was in the mall the other day and my friend called. We were planning to get together for a drink later, but she was going to be late because she needed to buy a new pair of gloves. She was absolutely dreading going to the mall (my friend hates shopping as it is!) but it was a necessary evil. Without missing a beat, I said to her “I am at the mall, in the craziness already – why don’t I just buy some gloves for you, save you a trip?” She was thrilled. So off I went, feeling like a little elf, and picked out a fabulous pair of gloves. She was so happy to see me, and the nice new gloves. I didn’t expect anything in return, and I felt great! And it works both ways. After the big Ottawa snowstorm this week, we ended up with the usual snowplow dump at the end of our freshly shoveled laneway. I was at work, dreading having to dig out the 5 foot snowbank when I got home just so I could get near the house. As I rounded the corner on my street, I noticed that some good neighbour had snowblowed the end of not only my driveway, but everyone’s driveway on the street! Now I don’t know who it was, but I was extremely grateful. I wish I could find out, so I could thank them personally. But they weren’t looking for anything in return, and I bet he or she felt much like I did when I gave my friend her new gloves. Christmas does not have to just be all about the gifts. And it certainly doesn’t have to stress you out. Doing a favour for a friend, like braving the malls for a pair of gloves, or helping someone deal with all this crazy snow, can bring as much joy as that new iPod or video game. It’s important to remember at this time of year, as we stress about what to get someone or worry about how expensive this season is, that it doesn’t have to be that way. It is easy to do something nice for someone, and it’s free. But it is, I think, one of the best gifts of all. Merry Christmas!
Are you busy or productive
Love this post from 30 Sleeps. I think most people fall into the “busy” category, including myself, at times. Which are you?
Zen and the Art of Playing Guitar
My fingers are numb. But it’s a good numb. Tonight, for the first time in over a year, I looked over at my lonely, dusty little red Fender guitar and I think it actually spoke to me. “Susan, pick me up…dust me off…play me badly…I don’t care!” And I did it. I dug out the old song book, flipped open to “Wheat Kings” (3 chords, how hard could it be?) and stretched my fingers into the squeakiest, crankiest G Chord you’ve ever heard. But you know what? For the first time since I ever tried to awkwardly pluck a guitar in the 6th grade…I didn’t care how bad I sounded. I just played. And it was fun. Now, much to my relief, and I’m sure, the relief of my pets, I’m a pretty decent singer. So if I sing loud enough, it kind of drowns out the squeaky, off tune, cat-dying drone of my playing. About 1 verse in, the pain started. First, the hand cramped up. Then, the fingers, callous-free for over a year now, started to scream as if being sliced by a dull knife. But I just kept playing. I somehow muddled through the song and for the first time in weeks, my mind felt clearer. I eagerly flipped to the next page – “Far Too Canadian” by, I think, Spirit of the West. But I can’t remember how to play Fm7, so I just play the chords I know. Now, normally, I’d have just stopped and moved on to something else, or struggled to find Fm7 somewhere, or just given up. But I didn’t. I was having too much fun. And my guitar (and the dogs in the room) don’t seem to care that I don’t know the chord. Or that the guitar playing literally sounded like a bag of cats. I just kept playing. Something transformed in me tonight when it comes to playing music. Singing, for the most part, I find relatively easy. I can do 4 part harmony, blues, jazz, folk…it all kind of comes in stride. But playing guitar…that is something I have always wished I could do well. I’ve taken lessons, farted around, tried to figure it out on my own..but I always get discouraged. Tonight, I realized one thing…just play. Maybe it’s that I have so many friends that are brilliant at it. Greg Wyard, Pete Webb, Tony D…as if I could ever be THAT good! Of course, I am fully aware that these guys combine their God-given talent with one thing that I have NOT done…PRACTICE. I’m not saying I couldn’t get good if I worked at it as hard as they have – then again I’m not looking to get that good at it, really. I just want to play. There is one thing I do share with my musician pals. That is passion – passion for creating music…no matter what – just playing. I’ve suddenly realized it’s about the process, not the end result. About doing it because it’s fun, relaxing, stimulating, rewarding. I may never play guitar in public. I may never even play it around a campfire. My only audience may be my dogs. But I will…just play. And sing. Because it’s piles of fun for me. Because I can. And darn it, if I figure out how to play Fm7…you bet I will blog about it.
Things I have learned since starting my own business
It’s been 8 months, its seems like 3 years. We opened our doors in April, and it’s been a whirlwind since then. So much so that I’ve been very negligent at keeping up with my blog. I wanted to share some things I have learned since becoming a full time small business owner. – Don’t be afraid to ask for help. No matter how small the task. Painting, lifting, hauling, cooking, cleaning, assembling, proofreading, or just listening – friends, family and employees are all eager to pitch in, especially when you are starting out. – You really DO have to spend money to make money. Don’t be afraid of it. Know your goals and make informed decisions about when and where you spend money. Don’t be a cheapskate. People will notice. – Giving birth to a business is like having a baby – the first 3 months, it demands all your time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You are sleep deprived and stressed, but you wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. After about 6 months, it starts to become a bit more independent. It’s sleeping through the night now, and so are you. But it’s still taking up so much time and energy. And its still totally worth it. At 8 months, it’s starting to crawl around a bit on its own. It’s growing rapidly, and you have to keep up with all the changes. But know that as it grows it will eventually walk on its own. You will still need to be there to nurture it, take care of it, but it has its own life. – Don’t forget to shut off the Crackberry once in a while. – You can’t do it all. That’s why you hire people. – Keep your staff ecstatic. Make sure they are as passionate about the business as you are. And they will be around for years to come. – Call your mother if you have a bad day. It’s taken me 37 years to figure this out, but she almost always knows what to do to make things better. – Eliminate the people from your life who are dragging you down. Don’t let anyone hold you back. – Think outside the box continuously. There is no model for a perfect business. Let it become what it needs to become. Anyone have any other lessons they’d like to share? I’d love to hear them!
Logged Off
I have been out of the online community loop for the past few weeks, and I’m sitting here trying to figure out why it happened. OK, so I’ve started a full time business, and yes, we’re very busy already…but is that any excuse? If anything I should be writing all the time, telling of my great adventures. But I’m not. Frankly, it just hasn’t occurred to me to blog, or Twitter, or even to keep up with my newsreader. I could say I haven’t had the time, but I don’t think that’s it. Am I bored with it? No – the stuff I read on blogs and the people I chit chat with here and there are FAR more interesting than anything on TV or in the newspaper. Hell, people – I live in Ottawa! All we are bombarded with right now are the frickin’ Stanley Cup playoffs and I could really care less about that whole thing. On the web, people are talking about something other than hockey – what a relief! I think it’s just that I haven’t had the brain space for all of this information. My business partner and I have been on a path of drastic change…new jobs, new office, and hey I even have a new wardrobe and new hair! It’s big change. My brain is full of all of the stuff we have to do, have to learn, and at the end of the day I simply can’t absorb any more. So what am I to do with all of this extra information? I feel like I’m missing out, but at the same time I feel like one more blog post and my head will explode. I’m sure it will settle down, my partner and I will get into a groove and I will be able to make space for my online world again. Until then, fellow Webernetters, I will have to just pop in and out, and try to get back some of my brain cells in the process.
Introducing jestercreative.com
The wait is over! Jester Creative Inc. has officially launched its brand new web site! Check us out at www.jestercreative.com and let us know what you think.
Safety First!
I just thought this was funny.
Take the Blinders Off
It’s never been my intention to use this blog as a bitch session, but there has been something bugging me lately and I need to get it off my chest. Have you noticed that people these days seem to be very self absorbed? I mean, there are plenty of people I know who are always self absorbed..selfish…self centred. But I’m talking in general. It’s not just people I know – in a lot of cases it’s total strangers. For example, I’m in the mall today. And I have to tell you I don’t know how many times I was bumped and pushed by people walking towards me in the other direction. Or they just stare at me like I’m some kind of rude bugger who won’t get out of the way. How many times people stood in line behind me, huffing and puffing because the girl was taking too long to ring up the order. What really bugs me about all of this is that many people these days don’t seem to pay any heed to what is going on around them. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the rude shopping mall people or the ones that just don’t pay attention to the important people in their lives. With most people these days – It’s all me me me. What I want to do. Where I want to go. The drama that is unfolding in my life. People seem to have no concern for how someone else might feel about their incessant whining, complaining, and negativity. Or for how someone might feel if they don’t honour their commitments, or take that little bit of extra time to make someone important feel special. In addition, for all of the positive things happening in my life these days, I’m still getting a lot of “must be nices”. I hate “Must be nices”. Must be nice you got a new office. Must be nice you get to work for yourself. Must be nice you own a house, or a pool, or a black lab…or whatever! So here’s what I’d like to see happen. I’d like people to just take a step back out of their own heads for a second, take the blinders off, and have a look around. There are a lot of fascinating things going on outside of your house full of kids, your shitty job and your bad relationships. It’s a challenge to do this sometimes, because most of us are in the habit of feeling sorry for ourselves…(“nobody has it worse than I do!” – heard that one before?). I think everyone who reads this (myself included) should do at least one thing this week that is totally for someone else. Here are some ideas: Call a friend just to find out how they are really doing (not to bitch about how crappy your life is). Go see your Mom on Mother’s Day and bring her something really nice, that you know she will genuinely love. Organize a street hockey game for the neighbourhood kids…just so they can have some fun. Take your kid(s), niece(s), nephew(s), to a movie that you know they will really enjoy. Make dinner for your best friend, just to show how much you appreciate her/him. See? It’s not that hard, and I guarantee, stepping out of the self absorption for awhile will make you feel better, and make those around you feel better about you. Oh, and for anyone out there who tends to think or say “must be nice”….stop it NOW. It serves no purpose whatsoever except to show your jealousy (a truly useless emotion). Instead, replace the “must be nice” with “I am soooo happy for you! You truly deserve everything you have!” Everyone will be better off for it – including you. But I want to hear from you, dear blog readers…why do YOU think people are so self-absorbed these days? Or do you even think that at all?
In the Midst of Chaos…
It’s a good thing us TV producers thrive on chaos, because we got our fair dose of it today. Let’s see, where to begin…at the beginning I guess… 9am this morning, my partner and I headed off to the office. We had an important meeting at 10am so wanted to get there in time to make the coffee, print up our paper work and tidy up before our guests arrived. Plus we had the window cleaning company coming at 10:30 to clean our filthy windows. We walked in the office and it is HOT. I mean stifling. The A/C has been acting up the past few days and the landlord was looking into it, but today it seemed to have failed altogether. And with a high of 27 degrees today, it wasn’t looking good. We go next door to check the thermostat and discover that overnight there has been a massive leak and water is everywhere! Thank goodness not in our suite, but the rest of the tenants have had some pretty significant flooding. The landlord is called and he’s on his way when we realize that it’s now 9:55 and our guests are due to arrive at any minute to our beautiful, but hot and damp office that is filling up fast with various service technicians. The phone rings and it’s the window cleaners, who are at my partner’s house doing her windows and have accidentally let the dog out of the backyard. So now the little 10 pound brown dog is roaming the neigbourhood, collarless. And guess what – our guests have just arrived. Fantastic!!! We go in the boardroom and start our meeting, amidst the loud water-sucking machines and fans next door, the landlord running in and out of our office on his cell phone, the mail man (who we know from a previous life) stopping in to say hi and the various other tenants in the building coming down to discuss the situation with us. A fire truck screams down the street (did I mention we are two blocks from the fire station?), my partner’s husband calls to say he can’t find the dog anywhere, and of course, the window cleaners show up to clean our windows. In spite of it all, we had a very successful meeting. An hour and a half later, we and our guests were all very happy with what we had accomplished. They left with a smile on their faces. The chaos had subsided. Until we realized that the dog was still missing. CRAP!! We jumped in the car and booted home, and spent the next 45 minutes searching the neighbourhood for the dog, but to no avail. I decide to go home and make dinner for me and the hubby, as my partner and I will definitely need to work tonight to make up for the fact that we got nothing accomplished but a good meeting today. And I’m of course terribly worried about the dog, as is everyone – but there’s nothing we can do for now. As I’m driving up the road towards a main intersection (Churchill Avenue for you Ottawa folks) I notice two people standing on the corner pointing and staring at something down the road. I glance and to my disbelief, it’s the dog. He’s about 3 blocks away and running fast, so I do a fast u-turn, run a red light, pull over and jump out of the car. I run down the street after him, severely hampered by my 2 inch high heels (curse business attire!!) so I whip them off and I’m down to bare feet on pavement. Ouch. I hightail it after the dog (reminder – he’s only 10 pounds, but he’s a fast little bugger and I am in bare feet) and I can’t catch him to save my life. People are encouraging me, trying to help..”He went thataway”…”Just saw him run behind that building!”. One woman even got out of her car and joined in the chase. I have now run about 6 blocks at high speed in bare feet, but I still have the dog in sight. He’s far ahead of me, so I call my partner’s husband to come in his truck and nab the pup. 20 seconds later he’s there and he scoops up the dog. I am completely winded. He swings back around and picks me up and takes me back to my car. Then I went grocery shopping. In the midst of chaos, we are thriving still. Sometimes I think the universe is testing us, to see if we are really ready for all this. If today is any indication, I think we totally, totally are.
The Woodwork
It always seems that when something big and important happens in my life that people come out of the woodwork. I don’t mean people that I don’t know that well – I mean long time, close friends who live in the same city as me, but with whom I’ve lost regular contact with for the past few years for one reason or another. On Saturday, we were at the office, painting, patching and getting ready for this week, when in walks my very close friend Dave, who I haven’t seen in nearly two years. Definitely haven’t seen him since before I got married in 2005. He and his girlfriend were going to lunch on Preston Street, and my partner’s husband spotted them. In they came to the new office and I just about fell off my chair! Dave and I have been very good friends for nearly 18 years…he is the kind of guy that you could literally not speak to for 2 years (as I did) and then can just pick up right where you left off…which is pretty much what we did. A lot has changed in that time…I got married, bought a house and opened a business, he is going to be a Dad in August and just bought a house. But, the way we were talking, it was like we had just seen each other last week. And the best part – he is as genuinely happy and supportive of me and my new adventures as I am of his. He is the real deal (see my post on Authenticity) and I am proud to call him a true friend. Then tonight, my other longtime, very good friend Dennis, whom I also have not seen or spoken to in nearly two years, calls me out of the blue. I have also known Dennis for 18 years. And even though we have not spoken for so long, it was like I just talked to him yesterday. In that time, his father has passed away, and he’s started to think about retiring. I’ve done all the things I’ve done, and again, he is genuinely thrilled and happy for me. He too, is a true friend. Whenever something major happens in your life, pay attention to who comes out of the woodwork. You will find two kinds of people – the naysayers, the jealous types who aren’t your real friends anyway. They are the dead wood of the woodwork – get rid of them! Then you’ll find guys like Dave and Dennis, true friends, who’ve been there for me through thick and thin, and who will continue to be the real deal.