I love doing. I love being done.
11:00. Draft cover letter. Edit cover letter. Print cover letter. Correct cover letter. Print cover letter. Smudge cover letter. Print cover letter.
Find “about ” and ” credits” files. Waffle over how much to use. Or how little. Copy and paste. Edit. Format. Correct. Print. Correct. Reformat. Print.
Copy and paste seven files. Edit. Format. Print draft. Damn. Fight with Word. Curse Microsoft. Curse again. Oh. There must have been a page break there. Delete that. Argh. There are two copies of one file – where did the second one come from? Print. Proof again. S**t. Yet another not-so-elegant transition. Forgot a notation. Take a break before I print. Review. Print.
Find camera. Photograph the subject. Upload. Where are the photos?!! Oh, I’ve updated operating system since last upload. Poke around. Find photos. Import to iPhoto. Edit. Blah! Bad shadows. Rinse and repeat. Matte or gloss? Print. Border is inconsistent. Print again.
3pm. Did I have lunch? How do I indicate which image goes with which story? Oh. Doh: number them. Search for razor-point Sharpie. Great gussie! Where are my mailers? Mad search ensues.
4:45. Dash to post office. Address one of their mailers at counter. Hand to clerk. Swipe debit card at 4:58 pm.
5:15. Pour wine. Sit on screened porch. Stare into space. Stare into space.stare into space. stare into spacestareintospace. . .
It took SIX hours to get a twenty-page proposal printed and mailed. SIX. (Well, really five, plus the hour looking for my stash of Priority Mail mailers and the Sharpie. But still.)
Twenty years ago, this project would have taken nearly a week to prepare. Remember when we had to type, and use correction tape or liquid, and retype (and retype) to get it perfect? Then save to a floppy disk and go to Kinkos to print and copy en route to the post office? (I’m still too ticked at HP to give them any credit.) But remember when you had only a dot matrix printer?
I LOVE MY MAC.
His name is Newton. He works hard for me. He holds my data, and he finds it when I ask, nicely. He makes me look good. And he does it quickly. Usually.
Rebecca Ewing gives all her clients red briefs. Or blue. Or green or yellow. Combine over 30 years in interior design, her specialty in the psychology of color, 26 years of teaching, and over 10 years forecasting trends, and you get a color diva who knows how to work it to make you feel good, look good, be good and do good. With randy wit and acute awareness of human foibles, she’ll take you way beyond the rainbow. Rebecca Ewing Color&Design
Good job, beautiful friend!!! Love it, love it, love it. Love you, too!
I LOVE IT ! and Better yet, I can remember when there wasn’t a “dot matrix” printer, it was just me and my electric typewriter. And then along came the IBM Selectric Memorywriter (not sure that’s exactly what it was called). Now THAT was landmark!
A proposal… all this – opens you to the hopes of getting opportunities to do more….
way to go!
My friend Sunny just asked about my iMac’s name: Isaac Newton discovered that light passing through water—or a prism—creates a rainbow, AND the friend who gave it to me lives on Newton. His name is a nod to color and to that very dear friend.
My MacBook was named Fergus. When he got a new hard drive (my first crash EVER, in twenty years and five Macs) I called him Ferguson, or son of Fergus.
The last laptop was Fiona, and my very first little Mac Classic, in 1989, was named Oscar.
Oh, Jeanne, I remember that honkin’ big IBM Selectric. I think it weighed about 300 lbs. I finally let go of my dear little electric Brother when I moved from Decatur.
Thanks, Claire and Linda.
I love life through your eyes, Rebecca. Love it! And now I want to name my computer. Maybe it’ll make me more patient it with it!