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all the news that I have time to type
Long time no blogging! Isn’t that always the way? When things are busy you have no time to report on them but when things are slow you have all the time in the world to write about nothing. I sort of miss those nothing days.
Anyway, I suppose you want to hear about my latest haircut. My fairy godmother popped into town the other day and offered to take me to get my hair cut. She’s so sweet like that. She’s always rescuing me from the eternal how-do-I-find-a-babysitter dilemma and sweeping me off for a day of pampering and eating out. I just love her. I wish everyone had a fairy godmother. I also wish she didn’t live so far away.
So I wasn’t planning on getting my hair cut. I’m actually starting the two-year grow-it-out plan again but I recently hacked myself some bangs and figured they probably needed to be fixed by a professional. And by professional I mean somebody who doesn’t hack away with nail scissors while they are pms-ing and suffering from the toddler-attached-to-shin disease.
I told her I wanted to be able to pull my hair back into two ponytails and have my bangs hang out sort of fringe-like. Something very low-maintenance and mom-proof (i.e., I can NOT wash it for a week and it will still look okay). I also might have said something about how I have so much hair and it grows more on one side so I always feel like a bomb went off over one ear. Anyway, she interpreted my gibberish as: hack all her hair off but leave a few wisps so that it still feels long.
At first I hated it. HATED IT. But then I narrowed my feelings down to the simple fact that I was hating my round face more than the hair cut. I miss those days when I could wear any hairstyle and still liked the way I looked. Those days are gone. Hello, middle age!
Also she styled it all straight and I looked like some sort of banger-sister rocker chick from the 80’s. While that’s a nice look, it’s SO not me.
Okay. Enough about hair.
Another issue that has been taking up a giant portion of my brain is this letter I received from China. It’s a little convoluted because it’s translated from Chinese to English but the gist of it is saying that some company in China wants to trademark the name “Secret Agent Josephine.”
I know? Why would anybody want to do that? It’s been a difficult-enough name for me. I can’t imagine what anybody else would want it for. A movie? Are they making secret-agent dolls? I have no idea. A lot still needs to be investigated. But I do know this: If I want to keep this identity I’ve been doing business under and parading all over the internet with, then maybe I need to trademark it myself while I have the chance. I might even be too late.
Why would this company write me a letter to warn me that they are thinking of taking out a trademark with my name? Just out of politeness? It seems fishy.
The whole thing has sent me into a bit of an identity crisis. Who am I? Do I want to start over with a new name? If so, what name? Is it worth the $1000 to trademark? If I start over, this means I have to halt all work on my party site that I’m working on. I’ll have to change my Etsy shop and my Flickr screen name. Ack! Too much! I don’t know what I’m going to do.
I might just have to take a month off to figure it all out. But then I’m afraid I might never come back. I doubt that. While I don’t have much time to figure out the direction of Secret Agent Josephine, I do still have a crazy kid at home to supply me with plenty of anecdotes to write about.
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my box rocks
I got a new office box today and I think it is post-worthy. I had to give my old one to the kitten. My office box rocks. It really does. I just love it. I could write a poem to my box. Maybe I will.
I love my box
my box is tops
in all the world my box rocks
my socks…or something something something…Okay that’s enough. I was channeling this book but you probably haven’t read that book so the cadence is lost on you. Not a big deal. What is a big deal is my box.
Why is it so wonderful? A lot of reasons. Mostly because it is allowing me to be soooo productive. I love working in my box. When I stick my head in there, it’s like I become Robo-Designer. I work work work and hardly ever goof off. I’m still swamped and there is no hope in sight that I will ever catch up but I feel just the tiniest bit of control over my freelance work load. And believe me, that is a good thing.
It might just be the natural rhythm of things. Maybe it’s normal for me to go through cycles of frustration and then after the lows, feel exceptionally happy and productive. Maybe I just have to learn how to roll with a toddler’s schedule that changes every three months or so. Maybe I’m just not pms-ing for a change. Or maybe it really is the box. I’m just happy right now. I have a routine. I get about two hours of box time a day and that makes me happy.
I also have started a public list. I’m not going to link it here because even though I write in secret code, I don’t know if all my clients want the whole wide internet to know what I’m doing for them. But I’ll just say that if you poke around on this page, you’ll find it. It’s nothing really. Just a short quick list of what I’m working on in May and then June and then July. But this list has changed my life.
It’s silly really. I’ve always had lists. I have paper lists and electronic lists and two calendars to keep track of my life. Why does this public list on the internet work so much better for me than all of those others? I think because it is always there. It never gets lost or forgotten to be turned on (like that other list program I have on my computer) and it’s public. I know you guys are looking at it and it forces me to stay in gear. It holds me accountable. I love it.
So between my office box and my new public list, I am 100% more productive. It’s the best feeling in the world. It also could help that Baby Bug has been taking three hour naps lately. She must be growing. That said, I better appreciate this productiveness while it lasts because nap changes, pms and other naturally-occurring catastrophes are always around the corner.
In the meantime, I’ll just sing my happy box song.
“I love my box! My box is tops. In all the world, my box rocks.”
p.s. It has been brought to my attention that the word “box” is sometimes used to refer to something else. That was not my intention at all. Please get your mind out of the gutter, Bethany.