| Mary's Blog Has Moved | | Date Created: May 21, 2007, 10:36 AM |
| I apologize for not alerting readers sooner, but my blog has moved to our new site. Catch up at http://secure.wonderfulgraffiti.com/About/20:Mary's_Blog. M. |
| My Hair | | Date Created: May 07, 2007, 02:25 PM |
I got my hair cut today. It hadn't been cut since December. I had hacked at the bangs a few times with my dull sewing scissors, I'm not kidding, but it was time.
I ride my bike to work sometimes, I don't have time in the morning to fuss with my hair, sometimes I skate when I'm not feeling too old and feeble, plus I have a long face, so I don't really go for the long hair look. So now it's very short. Like, guy short.
No hair stylist believes me when I say, "Go nuts." You'd think they would love creative freedom but I don't think most of them think I'm serious. Maybe too many freaked-out clients in the past. Anyway, I went to a new stylist named Jessie. Nine months out of beauty school.
I said, "I like my bangs to look as though a crazy person went at them with a weed whacker." She gave it her best shot, I considered and said, "Maybe not a weed whacker. More like a hedge trimmer."
She got it right. Now I have almost no hair but I really like what I have. I literally feel as though a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Hair cuts are miraculous things. M. |
| Radio Interview | | Date Created: May 05, 2007, 05:05 PM |
Well. I can officially say that I've been interviewed on a radio show. Yesterday I was a guest on Pamela Slim's show on Voice America Business. She has a terrific blog at EscapeFromCubicleNation.com about "how to go from corporate prisoner to thriving entrepreneur."
I want to go to lunch with Pam. She and I sound like we have so much in common, plus she's entertaining and I need constant entertaining.
The questions were good questions, although since I'd been asked similar ones before, I knew most of the answers. One thing disconcerted me, though. I always thought that the interviewer and the interviewee chatted a bit before the show and during the breaks. But no. I called in to the number they gave me five minutes before the scheduled show and just in the nick of time I realized they meant 11am PACIFIC time, which meant I had to do math to calculate what time it would be EASTERN time, and you know me and math. I asked three people just to be sure!
So I called in and they put me on hold, and when Pamela said, "I'd like to introduce my guest, Mary McPhail..." they took me off hold. Then when there were commercial breaks, they put me back on hold! When the interview was over, they hung up.
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| Graduation Party | | Date Created: May 03, 2007, 02:30 PM |
When Geord and I were engaged, we invited our families, as engaged people will, to our wedding, which we wanted to be in Miami where we were living at the time. Since it was so far for Geord's family in British Columbus, and my family all over the continental US, we didn't think more than our parents would come. Surprise. Everyone came.
Our daughter, Mackenzie, is graduating from high school this spring. A few months ago, I sent an email to close friends and family, letting them know that we were going to celebrate but it was just a high school graduation, didn't expect them to drop everything and come.
Guess what.
Party!!!!
I love to plan parties. I'm pretty much all done planning this one. I planned the menus for the weekend, assigned bedrooms, ordered paper lanters and confetti, booked a restaurant and a SHUTTLE BUS TO TAKE US ALL THERE. (I love that little detail.) After dinner the bus will take us all back to our good friends, Allison and Chuck's, house for champagne and cake. As the crowning touch, and our gift to Mackenzie, Geord and I are making a cheezy video of her growing up.
It's a lot of work. I started it because I thought it would be a way to give Mackenzie all of my favorite photos of her. But what's happened as I've gone through all of them is that I've gotten another chance to see her grow up again. With both Mackenzie and Ryder, Geord and I can remember when they were babies and toddlers, but not so much of any of the rest. I don't know why. Going through all the photos–and I mean all the photos–has given me a chance to relive times I've forgotten.
Sometimes I feel so guilty about the time I've spent on my jobs and the company, and I often feel as though I couldn't possibly have given our kids all the time and attention I think I should have given them. But looking back at all those photos reassures me a bit. I remember how much we loved them at each moment those photos were taken.
Maybe Mackenzie's life hasn't been so hellish after all. M.
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| The Turning Tide | | Date Created: May 03, 2007, 10:02 AM |
"This too shall pass" is beginning to become our mantra. We're entering into our busy season, sales are good, I got a big, fat freelance check and I discovered that there's more in Mackenzie's college savings fund than I thought.
The new site is scheduled to go live to the entire world (no, really) a week from today. All teams are working out final bugs between now and Monday, then from Monday through Wednesday, Workstate will be taking the cart "out of the sandbox" and hooking it up to VeriSign, our online credit card processor. All very technical. We'll send out a blast announcing the new site on Thursday morning. Statistics show that most people are most likely to open and read commercial emails at work, late in the week, late in the day, so we usually try for Friday afternoons around 3pm. But we don't want TOO many people on the site at once, so we don't want a maximum "open" rate. Well, Geord doesn't. I'm always over optomistic and think the new site will work perfectly so everyone should know about it right away. But that's just me.
Tonight my designers and I are going to the Wexner Center For The Arts here in cosmopolitan Columbus, Ohio, to see "Helvetica: The Movie." I called ahead and get this; the Wexner Center DOESN'T HAVE A SNACK BAR!!! What's a movie without a snack bar? Come to think of it, what's LIFE without a snack bar? I just love the whole idea of a snack bar. I love the words "snack bar." I love the word "snack." M. |
| Small Business News | | Date Created: Apr 25, 2007, 11:33 PM |
We got the latest Newsweek at home today and I mentioned to Geord that I really liked it but I didn't like Businessweek so much. And he said, "Yeah, and Fortune Small Business is just depressing." I thought I was the only one who thought so!
What Geord doesn't like about it is that he thinks they only write about companies started by twenty-year olds. Apparently the age thing gets him down.
What depresses me is that "small business" to Fortune magazine means companies that do millions in business each year, are growing at huge percentage points each year and blah, blah, blah.
An editor of Fortune Small Business interviewed me awhile back. She ended up not doing a story because she couldn't find a reason to do the story now instead of a few years down the road when we were more successful.
Well, what do businesses the size of mine do for reading material? What about the owner of Carol's Cakes down the block from me, and the Asian drycleaner next to her, and the guy who owns the diner next to him? We're businesses too, and we're more in need of expert monthly insights than the big guys. No wonder so many small businesses fail! We don't have our own periodical! Do we? I don't know of one.
Maybe Fortune should start publishing Fortune Micro Business. M. |
| UPS | | Date Created: Apr 25, 2007, 11:12 PM |
I can't remember if I've written that UPS has a magazine that goes to all of their small -business customers and they just did a story on us which will appear in about two weeks, I guess. I don't know how they got our name, but I think they should dedicate the entire article to our carrier, Michael.
First of all, Michael has worked for UPS since he was in kindergarten (kidding) so he gets vacation like every other week. When he's around, though, we love him to death. He is the nicest man. Curious about our business but not too chatty. (You really don't want a chatty UPS person popping in twice a day.) Always mellow, no matter how many packages we have, no matter that our shipping cart doesn't easily go from the production area to his truck, no matter that the weather is hot or cold or wet.
What I really love, though, about Michael, is that because our house and our offices are in the same neighborhood, he's also our home delivery person. Sometimes he'll pop his head in my office door and say something like, "Hey, Mary. I left your Victoria's Secret package in your garage so it wouldn't get rained on." Now that's service. M.
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