Thursday, May 6, 2010

I really loathe design flaws that make one item seem like another.

For example, some genius came up with the idea to make Neosporin spray in the same portable, purse-size spray as breath freshener. When you're reaching blindly into your purse while driving, these feel EXACTLY.THE.SAME.

(Trust me, I know.)

I also hate when shampoos and conditioners are in the same shaped bottle. Hello? How else am I supposed to tell them apart when I have a face and head full of soapy bubbles?!?

So this morning, I reach into my makeup drawer to extract what I *think* is a sample size of a favorite lotion--same colors, same writing, same...everything. (Well, almost.)

After rubbing generous amounts on BOTH my arms, I knew something was amiss. This lotion was thick and wasn't soaking into my skin like the regular stuff. I pick up the bottle to discover it was, in fact, BODY WASH.

IN THE SAME PACKAGING AS THE LOTION.

In case you've never tried rubbing body wash into your dry, non-showery skin (I don't recommend it, BTW...), it does...NOTHING. It just sits on top of your skin in a big, thick, non-lathery way and YOU.CANNOT.WIPE.IT.OFF.

After several minutes of wetting and scrubbing, it finally came off. However, it's supposed to rain later today while I'm out, so we'll see...

(Remember that time on Brady Bunch when Bobby put too much soap in the washer? EXACTLY.)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Lest you think that mommy bloggers do not spend enough time with their kids...BAM! Living proof:

(This was a quality 6 minutes of face-to-foot time, let me tell you...)

Take that, MomBlaters!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Apparently, mommy + blogging now = hate.

That's funny, because for me, mommy+blogging always meant "be at home for your child while doing something you love."

How silly of me to be out of the know.

Unless you're a blogger or heavy into the social networking thing, you may not know about the recent New York Times article that cast a negative light on mommy bloggers and stirred up a whole bunch of...well, you know.

So imagine my surprise when yesterday I found myself smack dab in the middle of all the mommy blogger hating, which was as much of a surprise as being in a Detroit Free Press article called World of sex, lies and mommy blogs.

When I spoke to Georgea Kovanis (the author of the article) a few weeks ago for an interview, I had no idea the slant of the article (she hadn't figured it out yet, she said).

After speaking with Kovanis at length about blogging and the need for women to lift each other up, I was shocked to be included in an article that perpetuated such negativity about mommy blogging. I felt that was only a very small part of what I was trying to convey about blogging, being a mom and being a woman.

And then the comments began.

There was an onslaught--mostly negative (go figure)--of comments about how "we" (especially those of us interviewed in the article) needed to (in no particular order):

• Get a real job.
• Lose weight.
• Enjoy parenting.
• Pay more attention to our kids.
• Get a life.

And then it started to get really nasty. So I did what any self-preserving blogger would do: I stopped reading.

Look, everyone is entitled to their opinion (and mostly I don't care about them), but people, you just made my whole point about women not really supporting each other.

Each time I write a blog post, do I need to run through my qualifications--being college-educated, a director at a hospital at 25, a college instructor and academically published--and then list the number of hours I spend face time with my child before being worthy of blogging?

Did you know that, for many moms, blogs are their business (or an avenue to drive clients to their business)? Or, that many moms make major sacrifices and use blogging as a business so that they can be home with their children, as I covered in my recent Understanding the WAHM Evolution post. Or, that many WAHM and mom bloggers do spend most of their day with their kids and do the majority of their writing during nap times, school time, or at night, after everyone has gone to bed (and in lieu of any sort of social life)?

More importantly? Why do you even care?

And, why do we have to rip each other apart just to feel better about ourselves?

Thankfully, the awesome Melissa Ford had enough sense to realize that a well-rounded piece needed to follow negative campaigns. She promptly interviewed several of us and posted here and here.

It all boils down to this:

Mommy blogging is way more positive than negative. Yes, there are those who leave nasty comments and make a big stink to tell us we're not good moms whenever we post that we have a bad day and wish little Johnny would visit grandma until...college age. However, there are amazing moms blogging their every day lives...some to make money, some just to share their journey.

Many of us mom bloggers say things that others may not. If it gets a laugh, great. If it helps others realize they're not alone, even better.

What's wrong with that?

As I said to Melissa Ford yesterday:

I would like to live in a mommy world where we could discuss things reasonably and see other points of view instead of reverting to high school and going straight for the proverbial jugular. But I guess that only exists in the world of marshmallows, unicorns and rainbows. It sounds nice, though. I'd like to visit there sometime.

Tuesday, April 5, 2010

OK, we're really not, but it's been an interesting past 24 hours of press for the Wilson household.

First, my darling two-year-old daughter was pictured in the paper with the Easter Bunny at the marshmallow drop. (If she looks all sweaty, it's because she had to stalk the Easter Bunny a half-mile and then throw-down some one year olds to get to him all while trying to keep her bunny ears straight.)

And then Dawn featured our 'tie-dyed' Easter eggs on her fabulous PartyBluPrints entertaining ideas blog.

Then, I was quoted in a *controversial* mommy blog article in the Detroit Free Press called (SURPRISE!) World of sex, lies and mommy blogs, which then led to a nicely balanced follow-up interview and blog post with Melissa Ford over at BlogHer.

(I'll SO being doing a post about the whole mommy-blogging-hater-thing later, but first I probably need to ignore my child and then eat some more ice cream while watching DWTS...)

Anyway, like I said, we're kind of a big deal.

In our own minds.

(And in case you didn't know, the 'I'm kind of a big deal' is really a movie quote.)

(And now you do know.)

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Something was proven to me this weekend that I (and some of my closest friends) have suspected for quite some time:

I'm not really a girl.

If you've been around me for any length of time, this fact quickly becomes clear. I just don't like to do any of the stereotypically women (or woman-bonding) things.

I don't like spa days where you get facials and massages ("Please don't touch me. Thanks.")

Manis and pedis? *gasp*

Sitting in a salon for 2 hours getting my hair highlighted and cut?
A fate worse than death.

I don't like chocolate truffles, candy at Valentines Day, talking on the telephone, shopping (yes I said it, "I.DON'T.LIKE.SHOPPING!"), soap operas, Tupperware parties, changing handbags with every outfit, books and movies about vampire romances, gossiping or drama. (Seriously people, this is a NO.DRAMA.ZONE.)

I don't even really like jewelry.

I wear my wedding rings, a necklace from my husband, and the same hoop earrings--a gift to celebrate Ella's birth--daily.

That's it.

Which brings me back to this weekend's concrete proof.

My friends hosted a jewelry party--a fantastic company that will be a great side business for them.

As I walked into a room full of OOO-ing and Ahhh-ing women, I immediately realized something I already suspected:

This just isn't for me.

I was overwhelmed by the tables full of hundreds of pieces of jewelry. I didn't understand the need to fondle and try pieces of jewelry like the other women. I was even more perplexed at the need to discuss where you would wear it and with what outfit ad nauseum.

Don't get me wrong, it was a completely fantastic party with absolutely beautiful pieces of jewelry.

It's totally me.

I'm obviously missing that notch in an X chromosome that makes me giddy with joy over girly things.

I divulged this personal information to another mom over lunch this week when I said, "I don't like to talk on the phone, and I really don't like to shop."

At which point she said?
"We can no longer be friends."

See? I told you...

Angelou's legacy: 'uplifting courage'

By STEPHEN TAIT
Times Herald (Port Huron, MI), February 14, 2009

Maya Angelou may be a writer, may be black and may be a woman, but people such as Jackie Wilson say Angelou transcends each of those distinctions.

"She is very strong in saying you need to stand up for yourself," Wilson, a writer and bookstore owner, said. "Uplifting courage, that is her legacy.

"She has the ability (with her writing) to blur the lines, to say this has nothing to do with race and sex and color, but this is just who you are."

Angelou is a writer of prose and poetry, a playwright and actor, a civil-rights activist and black woman.

She is known best for her autobiographies and poetry, for which she has won numerous awards.

"She's certainly a person who's had a tremendous impact on the literary world," said Jim Warwick, director of the St. Clair County library.

Wilson...said Angelou's writing has stretched through several generations of Americans.

She says Angelou's writing is able to do that because it is as powerful today as it was in the 1950s.

Wilson said the topics are broad and brutal: forgiveness, childhood starvation and Angelou's own childhood rape.

"I think a lot of people connect with that sort of haunting truthfulness," Wilson said. "But she also has this strange ability to be uplifting about it."

Contact Stephen Tait at (810) 989-6275 or at stait@gannett.com.
http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009902140318

PUBLISHED: Wednesday, January 28, 2009, The Voice News

Creative entrepreneurs secure online customer base
Business owners work right at home

By Jeri Packer
Voice Staff Writer

As the World Wide Web continues to address consumer needs, a new window of opportunity has opened up for entrepreneurs - online businesses.

In this economy, where many conventional stores are being forced to close their doors, business owners are coming up with creative alternatives to connect with potential customers. Laurie Riehl of Algonac found a way to reach her clientele six years ago when she began an online jewelry-maker's supply store called FineDings.com.

"I'm not sure how it exploded like it did," she said, "but it's ballooned beyond my wildest dreams."
To get started, she tracked eBay sales for 20 different product items - paying attention to who was selling what and what was selling, she said. She also researched sources for inventory and made a spreadsheet to record her findings.

She started small, to keep her losses to a minimum, in case the business went belly up.
"I started out with $200 cash and eight inventory items," she said. "I thought, 'what the heck. If I end up losing the money, it's only $200.'"

Her gamble paid off.

"Everything sold, so I turned it around and added another product and slowly started growing," she said. "I had 700 customers in the first year on eBay and it's definitely growing."

She now has 4,700 mailing customers and has gone from eight to 2,100 inventory items, opening an online store through Yahoo.

Riehl advised any future online entrepreneurs to sell a product versus a service.

"More than likely, they'll have a better start," she said. "With products, customers can compare apples to apples. With service, nobody knows the quality of your work."

Riehl also said people need to be patient and keep expenses to a minimum at first, unlike a friend of hers whose business didn't make it.

"I had a friend selling gourmet salts," she said. "She did the whole thing - the logo, a business banking account - all right away. Don't do it."

Bookstore goes online

Jackie Wilson checks her online book and women's boutique businesses on her home computer.
Courtesy Photo

The small mom and pop stores seem to get hit the hardest when the economy takes a dive. Todd and Jackie Wilson closed their downtown Marine City bookstore, The Book Blues, after more than two years in the community and reopened the business online only - well, almost online only.

"We still want to maintain a community focus," Jackie Wilson said. "We plan to continue sponsoring book-signing events as well as offering free classes on topics including marketing small businesses and building Web sites. There's a huge audience for it, especially in this economy."

Wilson is no stranger to online sales, which made it easy for the East China Township couple to transition the bookstore online. For the last six years, she has operated an Internet business selling a rather unique specialty item centered on a sentimental theme.

"I have a trendy women's T-shirt boutique based on lips or a kiss," she said.

The idea started out one Christmas when she made gifts for her family, using her lips for the creative design. It was such a hit that her husband encouraged her to market the item - hence the birth of the Explosive Kiss Web store.

Wilson said there are businesses, called fulfillment companies, already in place that provide all the services needed to run an online store.

"They take care of everything," she said. "They set up the online store. They warehouse your items so you don't have to rent a warehouse, and take care of credit cards payments, even detecting fraudulent cards. It runs itself."

That frees Wilson to do what she loves best.

"I do the creative, artsy stuff," she said. "I create the product designs and the Web site that I link to the store."

Besides the lagging economy, there was another reason the owners decided to change the way they were doing business - daughter, Ella, who celebrates her first birthday next month.

"With a new baby, it made more sense for our family to close the physical retail storefront completely and go online only," she said.

Wilson also has a background in corporate education and operates a consulting business. She has some practical advice for future online entrepreneurs that began with - of all things - education.

"The biggest thing I can recommend is do the research for the industry," she said. "Great ideas are nothing if you didn't understand the business aspect. It's just not going to work out. Take a basic business class. It all might seem boring, but you have to go through all the boring stuff first. And it comes in handy later when the creative ideas run out."

Contact Jeri Packer at (586) 716-8100, ext. 302 or jeri.packer@voicenews.com.

So I get this invitation to submit my blog for approval so that I can review items on my blog. I figured, "Hey, I give my crappy opinions for free on my blog, why not get paid for it on occasion?" So I submit my blog FOR APPROVAL.

A few hours later, I get a REJECTION. The stated reason? "The website is a suspected fake."

Yep. That's a quote.

WOW.

You know, I always knew that my life was way, way out there, but never (in a million years) considered fake.

SPEAKING OF WAY OUT THERE: Who gets a foreclosure notice on their waterside property -- basically a DOCK -- for $18. The same $18 that was supposed to be taken out of our mortgage escrow. The same $18 that we were never alerted was overdue BECAUSE? The township had the wrong address on the waterside property. The same township that told me "It doesn't matter that the address is wrong, it's still in your name" (Uh...whaaa...huh?!?!).

I can't imagine why someone would think I make this crap up...
(Sometimes even I can't believe this is my own life).

Addendum: I was just wondering, do you think THE REJECTION NAZIs think that those links to my THREE BUSINESSES on my blog are FAKE TOO?!?!

(But I'm not bitter...)

I really hate rejection.
In any form.

Addendum to the addendum: I think I'll review the rejection site on my blog. MWAHAHAHAHA...

Final Addendum: I SERIOUSLY need to get out more...

Shhhh....
I have a dirty little secret:
Blogging makes me feel validated.

I don't know what it is about blogging, but it makes me feel important. Like I really exist in this world. Something special in a universe of other special things. Like I'm "someone" in this big ole bad blog-o-sphere black hole.

I don't know who reads my blog. I don't even know how many people access it. I rarely even look at the statistics that tells me these things (the last time I looked was months and months ago). However, I still feel some kind of existence just blogging. Maybe it has something to do with my lack of adult contact and spending 12 hours a day babbling, "SAY MAMA! Come on MAAAA-MAAAA. I KNOW YOU CAN SAY IT! SAY MAAAAA-MAAAA" to a 5 month old.

But I could be wrong.
It could be that I'm just completely egocentric.

HM.

PUBLISHED: Wednesday, December 26, 2007, The Voice News

MC entrepreneurs ask for community support
Book Blues owners urge, 'shop local'

by Jeri Packer
Voice staff writer

Jacqueline and Todd Wilson, owners of The Book Blues Bookstore in Marine City aren't shy about expressing their passion to keep their local family-owned business alive.
"In the movie, You've Got Mail, Meg Ryan starts a 'Save the Shop Around the Corner' campaign when the viability of her independent children's bookstore is threatened by a big box chain store moving in across the street," Jackie Wilson stated in a recent press release.

Now, she insists, it's their turn to fight.

The couple swallowed their pride and recently wrote a letter to the community they have grown to love, letting them know that their store was in danger of closing.

"It was a tough decision, but basically we decided to let our customers and the community know what was going on," Wilson said. "We felt that if the community really wanted us to stay, then we should give them the chance to exhibit that. We especially owe it to the loyal customers."
Wilson said the customer response was overwhelming, but they are being "cautiously optimistic" about the current support being enough to carry them through the coming months after all the publicity dies down.

The Wilson's moved from the Washington D.C. area to open The Book Blues in downtown Marine City in June 2006. The store is on the corner of Water and Broadway streets, two of the main arteries into the downtown area. Jackie Wilson is also a writing consultant and published author. In addition, she runs an online women's tee shirt boutique called Explosive Kiss T-shirts at explosivekiss.com.
"All the merchandise is kiss-based," she said. "They all have lips on them in some creative way."

Wilson said The Book Blues is not just your average, run-of-the-mill bookstore.

"We're a pretty unique used bookstore," she explained. "The majority of our books are used, but they are of a quality superior to other used bookstores."

She explained that the store is set up to look and feel like a bookstore that sells all-new books.
"People come in and ask where's your used books?' she said. "That's how good they look."
The store carries a limited amount of new book releases, but they will order new books at a 15 percent discount to the customer, with no shipping costs added.

In the year-and-a-half they have owned the store, the local entrepreneurs have become known for their community involvement by sponsoring classes and organizing local events.

They organize community events like the recent Trick or Treat Trail that brought more than 300 people to local businesses in Marine City, said Wilson.

The couple also makes it a point to bring in local authors to the store, such as Roger LeLievre, author of "Know Your Ships," and New Baltimore Officer Tim Lindstrom, author of "The Adventures of Cubby."
They also consider "cross-promotion" to be a strong focal point for their store and encourage their patrons to also shop at other local businesses in town.

"We've been one of the strongest business supporters in the area," Wilson said.

What can the community do to show their support?

"Buy your dog food at the local pet store. Get your books at the local bookstore," Wilson said.
"Independent businesses can turn around quickly. It's only been in the last three months that we've had any trouble. It's easier to shop at a one-stop big-box store and it may be cheaper and more convenient, but if you like to live in a small community, you have to shop in the community. If you don't shop at our stores regularly - and not just every few months - we're going to be gone."

Wilson added that much of the real character of a historical community derives from the independent, private-owned stores lining the streets.

Christine Kadey is a regular customer at the corner bookstore and said she would miss patronizing the "delightful" shop, situated across from the St. Clair River, should they be forced to close. She believes the family-owned businesses are part of what makes Marine City the town that it is.

"I have a real heart for Marine City and I want to see it prosper," she said. "I try to shop Marine City first always. It's like being patriotic."

Judy White, President of the Marine City Chamber of Commerce, works with local businesses, providing support and education to local business-owners.

"Speaking as a dyed-in-the-wool 'bibliophile', any hint of a bookstore closing is cause for alarm," she said. "Recent economic news shows sales better than expected in November so hopefully that trend will continue and boost business for Book Blues and all retail in Marine City."

Whatever the future economic trends, the Wilson's will have to decide quickly whether they will continue to work and serve in Marine City. Their lease, with a one-month extension, expires the end of January. And with their first baby due in March, these "mom and pop storeowners" will be making some major family decisions soon.

Struggling bookstore makes plea to patrons
Marine City's Book Blues faces closure

By NICOLE GERRING, Times Herald

MARINE CITY- For a year and a half, the cozy bookstore on the corner of Water and Broadway streets has been a haven for young moms, retirees, teenagers and other community members.
Now, like many locally owned shops, the Book Blues is feeling the pinch of Michigan's struggling economy.

Earlier this month, Book Blues owners Jackie and Todd Wilson sent an e-mail to loyal customers with some bad news. If business doesn't improve by late January, the popular bookstore will close.
The Wilsons are turning to their loyal customers for survival and have launched a campaign called "Save the Book Blues: Shop locally or there will be no local shops."

Although Jackie, a former college instructor and marketing manager, acknowledges it was an unorthodox move to make the store's status so public, she said she wanted to inform her regular customers of the precarious situation.

"The people who have supported us deserve to know instead of what many businesses do, which is packing up in the middle of the night without an explanation," she said. "Now's the time to show your love or we won't be here."

The Wilsons prize themselves on their connections with customers and on the store's inviting atmosphere. The store, which sells used and new books, offers free coffee to customers and features comfortable chairs and couches where people can rest their feet while turning pages. A children's area includes small chairs, bean bags and plush toys and allows young customers to scope out books filed away in a cubby.

Kim Mucciante of St. Clair dropped by the store Thursday morning looking for the latest Harry Potter novel.

"(My kids) love the children's section," she said. "It's really cozy in here. This is a nice cultural thing. It's more cultural than what we usually have around here. It's a great bookstore."

Mucciante was surprised the store may have to close its doors. The "nice personal touch" makes the Book Blues stand out from big box retailers such as Barnes & Noble Booksellers, she said.

"There's nothing here like this," she told Jackie. "I hope you stay."

The Wilsons, who on a whim moved to Marine City from northern Virginia a few years ago, don't want to close. Before a lull arrived this fall, the store was doing pretty well, Jackie said.

The business usually brings in only a little more than what it spends, so even a short slow spell can have a large impact, she said.

"It can change overnight for a small business," she said. "We run pretty close to what we make."

Recently, the family has had to subsidize the business with their own money.

Todd Wilson works full time as a sales director for a home entertainment company. Jackie, who manages the store, never has paid herself a salary.

As the couple prepares to have their first baby in March, they can't continue running a slow business, she said.

"How the community reacts and continues to support us could really save us," she said.

Contact Nicole Gerring at (810) 989-6270 or ngerring@gannett.com.
Originally published December 22, 2007

Shockingly, this is going to be a serious post (you've been forewarned).

Please keep Todd and me in your prayers over the next few weeks. We have some serious things going on in our lives that are going to take some serious, grown-up-like decisions (and I HATE that).

Maybe over the next few weeks I will blog about it (or maybe not). For now, we need prayers in helping us make some decisions in our lives (and receiving answers). I just thought I would throw it out there to the big, wide Internet-o-sphere.

Sorry, but that's really all I want to say about it for now.

Thanks.

Thanks to Michelle for this little gem of a test.

You Are a Werewolf

You're unpredictable, moody, and downright freaky. You seem sweet and harmless, until you snap. Then you're a total monster. Very few people can predict if you're going to be Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. But for you, all your transformations seem perfectly natural. Your greatest power: Your ability to tap into nature Your greatest weakness: Lack of self control You play well with: Vampires

What Kind of Monster Are You?

(In case you were wondering: This assessment? TOTALLY on.)

As I've discussed previously, I'm a little disappointed with what CNN decides to send me as breaking email news alerts. Take today for instance:

"President Bush's daughter, Jenna, is engaged to be married, the White House says."

Should this REALLY be a CNN breaking news alert?

Honestly, the people that I sent engagement announcements to were also the people who received wedding invitations. So, I consider this my invitation and thank you, Bush family, I am honored and I accept.

What does one wear to a White House wedding?
Hmm...what to wear...what to wear...

I love Dog the Bounty Hunter. Well, not Dog himself, but his TV show on A&E. (However, there might be a little, teeny, tiny bit of lust for his son Leland, but I certainly wouldn't call it LOVE...)

I'm not quite sure why I like the show (of which I ponder almost nightly when I am asked this question by my husband while watching 4 Dog re-runs each week night. Hey, don't blame a girl, it just happens to be on while I'm settling down for my nighty-nighty. What else am I supposed to watch while falling asleep?!?). Anyway, I really don't know why I like the show so much. He often comes across almost (but not quite) illiterate with his poor grammar. And, I certainly hate mullets, especially on 50-year old men. And there's a weird mish-mash of family dynamic with his extra ample-bossomed wife and 87 kids from different baby mammas. However, you just gotta love someone who kicks a** one minute and then prays with said person that just received a beat down the next. Bless his stringy little mullet head.

Haven't seen it? Oh, seriously, you gotta watch it. It's just plain good TV. I mean, what else do you have to watch? The latest episode of My Super Sweet 16 on MTV?

If you are a fan of South Park** then you'll love their Dog the Bounty Hunter spoof.

Next time: Katie and Peter (shame on you if you don't know who they are...)

**In full disclosure, I must tell you that I've never watched an episode of South Park. I do know who they are and ran across the Dog spoof on You Tube one day (shut up).

Addendum: I really don't yell out at my husband, "STOP IT! You're not singing it right and you're ruining it for me!" everytime he tries to sing the Dog theme song. (I mean, how hard is it say Hunta at the end instead of Hunterrrrr *sheesh*)

For some reason, this article tickled my funny bone:

Experts warn of lightning-strike injuries with iPods

I don't know why. It's yet another insight into my warped sense of self (but I did get a good chuckle out of it...)

We're a dog-friendly bookstore here. As a matter of fact, we put out a dog bowl of water everyday and I keep dog treats under the counter. It's just how we are (yes, this IS a cool bookstore, we know...).

The temperature has been in the 90s here. I get a call and a customer asks, "If we come to the store and bring our dog, do you mind if we bring him in the store?" I answered, "No, of course not. We're dog friendly here" (plus I would cringe at someone bringing their dog then leaving it in the car with the windows rolled up in this heat). Now, I made two very important, seemingly innocent assumptions:

1. That the dog was potty trained.
2. That the dog's "parents" were semi-intelligent human beings.

So...
They bring a homely little dog in here, but hey, I don't discriminate, so I gave the animal as much attention as I give others. The dog runs around the store as the owners look at books. The next thing I know, the male owner is yelling the dog's name and the female owner is dragging him out the door. Before the male owner could get out the full sentence of "Do you have any paper towels?" I already knew. I couldn't see, but I could smell why he needed paper towels. The foul odor penetrated our store and rested upon every surface (including my tongue) in just a matter of seconds.

And, let me tell you, this wasn't just any usual dog bowel movement (I have dogs, I consider myself well versed in the subject) -- this was a big pile/puddle of runny dog poop creating a growing 6-inch diameter on my carpet. I watched in awe/disbelief/revulsion as the male dog owner scrubbed this runny mess into my carpet while I was trying not to gag from the smell.

After all was said and done, the male owner looks at me and says,
"Huh. That's weird. He does this ALL THE TIME at home, too."

My day went something like this:

9:03 a.m. Politely ask construction guys if they are going to be parked in my customers' parking spots all morning.
9:03:06 a.m. Construction guy gets attititude
9:03:10 a.m. Different guy (who has absolutely nothing to do with situation) gets in redneck truck, backs into the middle of the street, rolls his window down and proceeds to scream at me about lack of parking in city.
9:04: Moments of "communicating" with redneck guy.
9:05 a.m. Bid insane redneck guy a good day and go into store before I lunge through the window of his big ole truck and strangle him with bare hands.
9:05:10 a.m. Locks store door and turns to go in back to prepare for opening when she hears knock.
9:06 a.m. Unlock door for Chamber of Commerce group and has to tell them NO, I cannot do your newsletter because I already commit to several volunteer efforts in a community that may or may not appreciate them. Does agree to host a business networking event next week (out of sheer guilt).
10:00 a.m. Opens store emotionally exhausted and having yet to eat breakfast.
10:10 a.m. First telemarketer call asking for money.
11:00 a.m. A mom comes in to ask me to donate gift certificates and my time to two different events to local elementary school. Agree to gift certificates and time for one event. Add event to PDA.
11:45 a.m. High school kids come in to sell me a yearbook ad. Promise to buy an ad, but artwork is not ready. Add reminder to PDA.
12:02 p.m. Local paper salesperson leaves message reminding me that ad for paper should be in (more $$).
1:00 p.m. Husband, who got up this morning, let the dogs out, and then went back to bed as I was leaving for WORK delivers lunch and proceeds to bitch about his lunch experience for 20 minutes.
2:20 p.m. Get email from college I work for asking me if I can do more work for them (translation: your 90 hours/week at your bookstore ain't doin' s*** for us). Add reminder to PDA.
4:00 p.m. Customers who used to come in all the time but now frequent another store (due to husband's influence) stop in to ask me to buy something from their kid's school catalogue. Oblige (only because it was a VAT of cookie dough and I was pretending I was eating it right then).
5:10 p.m. Husband calls to say he can't relieve me and work tonight because (get this) HE HAS A JOB, TOO. (How was that extra couple of hours of sleep this morning, honey?!?)
5:45 p.m. Act as sounding board for several friends who needed to talk (and I was glad to do it!)
6:00 p.m. Retrieve cell phone VM from college mentioned above (different department) about contract writing I'm doing for them and why I'm not answering emails and voicemails (even though I have answered every email).
7:10 p.m. Vent on blog in hopes of feeling better.

(In case you were wondering: It didn't work. I still feel like I have had the life sucked out of me by 1000 leeches.)

Enough about me. What do you think about me?

So.
There's a published author with my same name.
Lucky me.

It is strange: I'm a published author, she's a published author. I write children's stories, she writes children's stories. As far as I can tell, that's where the similarities stop. I am painfully aware that she exists, while I'm pretty sure that she doesn't even know (or care) about my existence.

I receive about 10 emails a month for her from children on my web site telling me how much they love my childrens' books. Unfortunately, these are not my books they are talking about. How do I know this?
1. I'm currently only published in the academic arena.
2. I've never even submitted my children's stories to a contest, let alone published them.

Not wanting to discourage any young children from reading their favorite author (I was afraid when the children didn't get a response they would lose interest in reading), I did the research and found Jacqueline Wilson's agent in the UK. I now forward all the children's emails to her agent. I'm pretty sure she still doesn't know I exist. I mean, that effort alone should net me some personally-signed copy of one of her books, but who am I?

How do these children even find my site? This is a phenomenon that I can't explain. One night while trying to answer this question, I Googled myself (yes, I'll admit it). There were pages and pages about Jacqueline Wilson (yes, the other Jacqueline Wilson). After about page 27 and no mention of me anywhere, I gave up.

So, here's the conundrum. What name do I publish my fiction mystery novel under? (Yes, I am hopeful that it will be published). If I use "Jacqueline Wilson" I risk the mix up between the two published authors. If I use "Jackie Wilson", you guessed it, people searching for my book will only come up with the famous R&B vocalist. I mentioned using my maiden name to my husband. The silence alone told me that didn't go over well.

I'm pretty sure the other Jacqueline Wilson doesn't lose sleep over having the same name as me.

Dang.

Today is my birthday. That's right, one day after New Year's. As you can imagine, I got cheated out of all the cool birthday stuff as a kid because everyone was "celebrated out" (or still out of town) by the time my birthday rolled around. Anyway, I digress (and I'm obviously not bitter).

I'm writing a fiction mystery novel. I have made a resolution that I will start submitting my book for publishing this year. HM. Interesting. Especially since I generally regard new year resolutions only for those who can't set and make goals for themselves the rest of the year. But this year I've jumped on the proverbial band wagon of resolutions. Hopefully this won't be one resolution that gets broken. Wish me luck!