I’m working late, which isn’t really accurate. It is late out, but I haven’t done any work today. So, technically I’m just getting started on work that I should have finished hours ago. Fortunately, I am free of client work for the entire week. Unfortunately, that means that the work that I should have finished hours ago is part of some project I made up for myself in an attempt to stay productive, sharp and dare I say, innovative. I’m having trouble getting started, though. It’s hard to concentrate and focus on anything when you’ve been surrounded by fifty or so anatomically incorrect little people all wielding the greatest fashions of their time and purses too tiny to ever carry anything practical. As I write a song on a pink baby grand piano, I can’t help but feel like I’m at home.
When my mom started talking about quitting her job and selling Barbie dolls on Ebay, we all thought she was crazy. This is the sort of inevitable thing that happens when you work side by side with the elderly, day in, day out. If you keep at it long enough, you become one of them. It’s a vicious cycle, but my mother has always enjoyed caring for people in her various roles as a Licensed Vocational Nurse. Which is why the thought of her sitting behind a computer, pushing Barbie product onto the open market seemed far fetched.
There are many things that you should do before you die. I don’t claim to know what many of them are and certainly have not done near enough of them. That being said, if you ever have the chance to walk in on an amateur photoshoot with a 53-year old photographer shouting direction at eight inch plastic super-models named Francie, Midge, Skipper and Barbie, I think you’ll find a smile on your face, content, now that you’ve seen it all.
In retrospect, it amazes me that she (my mother) was ever able to list her first doll. She having never used a computer for anything up until a little over a year ago. This was a woman (and one that I love) that had once called me long distance because she couldn’t get the television to turn on and my dad was out. Learning to navigate the infinite depths of the world wide web and becoming an internet mogul wasn’t a concept I was prepared to associate with my dear mother.
I should have given her more credit.
Fast forward to present day, where I’m avoiding real work to feel nostalgic in my parent’s house, while supposedly on some kind of “business trip.” Business trips are, often times, my way of getting away from people that are annoying me in whatever particular city I happen to be residing (not from clients, I love my clients). And biz trips really can be productive. I get in my car and start driving in the opposite direction of the people I can’t stand and when I decide where I’m headed, I use the drive time to set up meetings in my destination city. My company was pretty much founded on this philosophy. I’ll return to Austin in a few days and no longer be annoyed with the people I up and left. If all goes well, I’ll have a few new client accounts that will come back with me.
Of course, that doesn’t explain how my mom was able to quit her nursing job and run an antique Barbie business out of her living room. It also doesn’t explain how they make such tiny little clothes with matching accessories. But, what it does explain is that it is possible for ANYONE to learn how to navigate the internet and utilize the tools and resources available there.
Learning this stuff (social media) is not hard. You just have to want to learn it. So, to the person who hired me to teach you and then gave up after a day and a half: I’m still willing to teach you, if you’re still willing to learn. And guess what? If you’re that person and you’re reading this, then you must have figured out how to use an RSS feed reader! YAY! See, I knew you could do it! Now let’s figure out how to alter the cascading stylesheet on your Wordpress blog… :)
In conclusion, how awesome is my mom?
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