Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry because I must be up at six in the morning to announce the new Kritzerland release. Right now, I am agitated, oh, yes, right now I am agitated and getting more agitated as the minutes go by. Ever since the helper had to go away for a while, it’s been chaos. I do not like chaos. I hired another helper, but agreed to let the old helper’s boyfriend keep on helping, too, because they all want the old helper to have the job when she can come back. Unfortunately, every day I’m getting e-mails from people who were not shipped discs or shipped the wrong discs (I got two this evening from people who ordered Fear Strikes Out and received Gone With The Wind, and I do not know how widespread or big a problem THAT’S going to be and no one – surprise of surprises – wants to call me to discuss), and it is driving me crazy. I’ve told the old helper’s boyfriend that if I don’t hear from him this evening, then it’s over for them. The new helper is very conscientious and she’s just going to have to do everything from now on. And I’ll have to help her a lot over the next few releases, which is exactly what I’ve been trying not to do. But we never ever used to have these problems and now not a day goes by without three or four e-mails coming in, and it’s making us all look like bloody idiots and I will not have it. Other than that, I had a lovelier than lovely day. I worked with the new helper a little, got some stuff shipped, then ate some lunch. I went to pick up packages I knew were coming, but UPS hadn’t been there and so I was not able to get them because our rehearsals began at three-thirty.
The rehearsals were, as always, fun – a really good group of artistes, some of whom are new to me. The MD is doing fine, although he kind of forgot an arrangement we did the other day and I get terse when things like that happen. So, he has a little homework to do before Friday’s rehearsal. We have a five person ensemble for this show – they sing backup on one song, and they’re great, too. Little Melody Hollis made some cookies, which she brought with her and which we shared with the other performers. She’s doing the number she did in White Christmas on Broadway, so that’s fun.
After that, I had to do an edit road map for our next project, and that took quite a while, and then I had to deal with all these e-mails we’ve been getting and this problem of wrong discs. And here I sit, agitated, while no one is calling me. If this slides until tomorrow, no one is going to be happy because it means I will go to sleep agitated and probably be up most of the night.
Have I mentioned that I am agitated? I am moving to beyond agitation territory and it’s not going to be pretty, that’s all I can tell you. There is a potential for two hundred something CDs to have been incorrectly sent (GWTW for Fear Strikes Out) – that would cost me so much money in redone postage, not to mention two hundred GWTW discs that I’d be out – I’m just praying it’s isolated to a few copies, but not many people have gotten their discs yet, so we’ll have to see how it plays out. But this will not be happening again even if I have to go back to the old way of doing things and do everything myself. It’s sickening and it’s going to stop. What happened with this is that the old helper’s boyfriend took all the invoices home. He printed out shipping labels for all the domestic Gone With The Wind orders and brought the labels (but not the invoices) to the office for the new helper to ship. So she naturally assumed it was all GWTW. So, this has the potential, as I said above, to be a major disaster – over 150 mis-shipped discs could be the problem, but since no one is calling me back I have no way of knowing what’s what. I guess we’ll just have to see how it all shakes out, but we’ll be prepared to re-ship if we have to and hope I have enough discs left on Fear Strikes Out to do so. I’ll have to order more boxes and on it will go. Pray for Rosemary’s Baby – we need all the excellent vibes and xylophones you can send that this isn’t going to be that huge.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I am agitated and about to have a heart attack, and I must get these here notes posted and try to get my beauty sleep or as much as I’m able. And believe me, I don’t look beautiful right now.
Today, I may or may not be agitated depending on what happens. I must be up at six to announce our new title, and then I will hopefully be printing out a LOT of orders. And let me tell you, those orders will be shipped CORRECTLY. I just got off the phone with the helper’s boyfriend, who assures me that the labels he brought to the office were all GWTW domestic orders. Of course, he might have slipped in a couple of mistakes in there, depending on how fast he was working. He also did the rest of the GWTW orders himself and then moved on to Fear Strikes Out, so maybe we’ll luck out and he just had a little pilot error on a few orders – that would be the optimal outcome. But I have not heard from one person who’s actually gotten a Fear Strikes Out CD – hopefully I will today. So, we’ll just see how everything goes today.
Tomorrow, I have a lunch meeting, and Friday we have our second rehearsal. Don’t know what’s happening on the weekend yet. And how can we already be in the third week of February??? Stop the madness.
Let’s all put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, let’s all break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, let’s all dance the Hora and the Charleston, because today is the birthday of our very own dear reader Druxy. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own dear reader Druxy. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN DEAR READER DRUXY!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, announce our new title, print orders, pick up packages, do errands and whatnot, and hope for the best with this mess we have. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland and hope to have my agitation in remission when I awaken.