monday came 'round as usual, and our visitors, who thought they would just stay friday night, ended up improving our lives for the whole weekend. they're a super cool couple doing their second central-american tour, this time down into south america as well. you can read all about them, if you're so inclined (in a former life, i too did the drive-around-central-america-for-a-year thing, and in so doing, became a lifelong member of a certain group of people who like to do this sort of travel). but i digress, monday was likely uneventful, as i really can't remember anything about it, except for the phone message that the phone company decided to tell me about six or seven hours after it was left (this is actually a pretty good time record, it often takes days for messages to show up, sometimes getting lost forever in the ether) on my cell phone. the message consisted of a girlfriend asking me if i wanted to indulge in a spa day at the incredibly luxurious and beautiful altos de eros spa up on the hill. they sometimes invite my friend, as a thank you for sending people their way. she runs Sueno del Mar, a high-end bed and breakfast here in town, and often recommends the spa to her guests. i did hem and haw for about two seconds, then called her back and said yes.
so tuesday found me up very early and in the studio (this is about the only time i find it convenient that new york is two hours ahead of me) taking care of about four hours of work in two, and then blissfully being massaged, facialed, scrubbed and fed for most of the rest of the day.
wednesday was a crazy long day, making up for skipping school on tuesday. it was a fun day though, a rarity in that i actually designed and made some jewelry. i'm working on a wedding and am doing the bride's earrings. we've narrowed it down to a few choices and though she's picked a favorite, i will likely make the top three, so that she has a choice when the wedding gown is actually with the jewelry.
thursday came and went with me seemingly busy, but not having a lot to show for it. i did, however, in the early evening, go next door to one of my best friend's houses for a glass of wine with the girls. there is a trend with the people who live here to hop around from place to place. it is a rare month when all of my girlfriends are here at the same time.
friday has been very productive, and now i'm off to play wife at dinner with some of my husband's clients. we're feasting at the new restaurant of a good friend, who is such a fabulous chef, i'm worried he won't be gracing us with his talent for more than a couple more years. but lucky us, he's here now!
p.s. i've gone ahead and posted some random picures that really have nothing at all to do with my post. amber is a fabulous friend who put me up for a week during my first stay ever in miami. her digs are gorgeous and i awoke daily to views of the bay and downtown beyond. the picture of my first studio is pretty self-explanitory, it was, well, small.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Friday, August 8, 2008
how to cram two months of work into three weeks
i really didn't get to see or hardly even talk on the phone to anyone i love (or even just like) for the entire three weeks i was in the US. i'm sure some of my loved- and liked-ones have also realized this fact, so, in my own defense and in hopes of garning large amounts of sympathy for my poor overworked self, i feel encouraged and even obliged to give you all a blow by blow of the daily life of a quasi-famous, emerging-status, travelling-like-crazy jewelry designer on tour.
tuesday, july 15, 2008. leave home in tamarindo at 9:30am mountain standard US time. arrive atlanta 7:05pm eastern standard time. get off plane. go through immigration. wait for bags. get bags. go through customs. recheck bags (a rediculous ATL international airport task). wait again for bags. reclaim bags. take shuttle to rental car agency. wait. wait. wait. get car, but not the one i reserved 15 days in advance. wait more to get non-gas-guzling econobox. wait. 9:53pm eastern standard time get the keys to my car. get in. call the friend i was supposed to have dinner with. we're both too tired and half-asleep at 10:05pm on a tuesday. drive instead to my home in atlanta (i don't actually own the place, though i'm sure i act as though i do!) which is a very welcoming house of very good friends who put up with me on a bi-monthly basis). proceed to show one of my very closest girlfriends the new jewelry i just barely created in time to come to the US. we talk about the jewelry party she's hosting for me on thursday. we drink half a glass of wine, i unpack and fall into bed.
wednesday, july 16, 2008. get up around 7:00am with the doggies. make coffee. talk to katie, my friend, confidant, supporter and coffee supplier (for this, i love her above all things.) shower, call my too-tired-for-dinner-last-night friend. he's moving his photography studio (www.pisarriproductions.com) and i offer to help. that is, between the hours of 12:00pm and 2:00pm. otherwise, i am in a meeting at 10am, picking up cupcackes for the Market trunkshow at 2:30pm, setting up from 3:30pm to 6:00pm, meeting, greeting and selling jewelry from 6:00pm to 11:00pm. then cleaning up and driving home around mindnight. i proceed to eat dinner just as we welcome in july 17, drink a glass of wine while doing so, and fall into bed around 1:00am.
thursday, july 17, 2008. get up around 7:00am with the doggies. run errands for the jewelry party my coffee-providing, house-welcoming, problem-solving-friend is hosting tonight. meet with potential clients. drive around an area of atlanta (buckhead) that i don't know for squat, looking for potential clients to meet with later. take an hour, totally, regrettably, painfully and unintentionally not helping my too-tired-for-dinner-last-night friend, so i can go swim laps with coffee-and-house-providing katie. swim. ignore everything around me, blissfully mindless due to the fact that my head is underwater for 25 or so minutes. rinse. dress. go to trader joe's to pick up flowers, fruit and adult beverages for the jewelry party at katie's. get home. set up jewelry, which takes just as long as last night at the trunk show. 6:00pm i finally shower, katie goes for ice, the girls come, they drink, shop, eat, and i work until 12:30 when the last girls leave. i stay up until about 2:00am, breaking down, repacking and getting ready for the upcoming road trip.
friday, july 18, 2008. get up around 7:00am with the doggies. yeah! it's friday! wait. i have stores to visit, orders to write up, checks to record and deposit and credit cards to process. i work until 2:00pm, and when i just can't think anymore, katie and i go shop for something she needs for her upcoming nuptuals. we go to the park for half and hour. i come home and work, bailing on a date with kaite and her fiance brad, who plays a mean sax and is delightful to be around and is playing at a local club. i eat around 11:00pm and go to bed.
saturday, july 19, 2008. get up around 7:00am with the doggies. yeah! it's saturday! wait. i have three appointments, jewelry to retag and set up, maps to print out, errands to run, calls to make and details to confirm regarding the sales road trip that amanda and i are embarking upon tomorrow. i am trying simultaneously to think, and not-think, about my upcoming tradeshow in vegas, for which i have made zero calls, and prepared even less. i do all that i can to prep for the road trip. i'm packed, so is the jewelry and i finally get to sit down with michael (my
too-tired-moving-his-studio-incredibly-fabulous friend) for a glass of wine. we end our wine drinking around 10:00pm, regrettably, but practically, so we can both get on with our sunday without a hangover.
sunday, july 20, 2008. i sleep in! oh wait, no i don't. i get up around 7:00am with the doggies. dont' get me wrong. i truly like, adore and cuddle at any given moment these dogs. but i am a very light sleeper and when they're up, so am i. which, in truth, is a good thing, as there is really no time for frivolities such as sleep when i'm in the states. i get all the loose ends ready for the trip and realize that the maps i ordered never came. hmmm. maybe no-dinner-moving-late-wine-drinking-fabulous friend has one. i'll have to see. but after requisite large amounts of coffee, i am off to a massage that i earned in trade for jewelry at the katie party on thursday. mmmm. massage. a luxury that we all should consider a neccessity. i am much more relaxed and feeling very able to tackle the four-hour drive to asheville, where one of my most favorite people in the whole word resides. we get into asheville around 6:00pm. i am on the phone intermittantly with cocktoaston (anyone who reads the sandcruiser journals will immediatly know and love this true-life character) who fuzzily and choppily informs me that virginie, his pregnant wife, is in the hospital with something painful, but as of yet, undiagnosed. aaak. not good. but in true cocktoaston formula, he is cool, collected, sure of himself and his wife and their rightful, happy, unscarred place in the world. we get to his incredibly adorable cottage on the pond/golf course and proceed to unpack and change into running clothes as quickly as we possibly can. we enjoy a breathtaking run (we later learn our little sea-level lungs were running at 3,000 feet or so) around the golf course, we eat country apples, giggle at the bunnies running around and watch the ducklings dive in the pond. we go into town for a late snack and sleep very well in our matching twin beds that remind me of my grandma's house.
monday, july 21, 2008. amanda and jocelyn are both running behind, but as a result, get to see john (aka cocktoaston) briefly before we take off to visit our possible new accounts. we make plans to see him later, and go the wrong way towards asheville propper. we turn around for not the first, and most certainly not the last time. we find asheville (and yes, we were just there last night. a testimate to just how directionally challenged we both are). we meet several lovely store owners, get lost, turn around - i told you - finally get some food around 4:00pm from an adorable corner grocery, and meet up with john for cocktails and dinner. virginie is fine, and is on her way home. we spend a couple hours with john, wake virginie up when we get home (luckily or otherwise i would not have seen her) and you guessed it, fall into bed.
that concludes the first week and suffice it to say each day following was just as busy. but amanda and i are fabulously suited to one another (i believe at one point, probaly while turning the car around, i asked her to marry me and she said yes) and we had a very productive, tiring, fun trip and have already begun to plan out next one.
on that note (or rather novel) i'll leave you biting your nails, leaving the lights on, wondering how vegas was. but in a word (or two), it was vegas, baby.
tuesday, july 15, 2008. leave home in tamarindo at 9:30am mountain standard US time. arrive atlanta 7:05pm eastern standard time. get off plane. go through immigration. wait for bags. get bags. go through customs. recheck bags (a rediculous ATL international airport task). wait again for bags. reclaim bags. take shuttle to rental car agency. wait. wait. wait. get car, but not the one i reserved 15 days in advance. wait more to get non-gas-guzling econobox. wait. 9:53pm eastern standard time get the keys to my car. get in. call the friend i was supposed to have dinner with. we're both too tired and half-asleep at 10:05pm on a tuesday. drive instead to my home in atlanta (i don't actually own the place, though i'm sure i act as though i do!) which is a very welcoming house of very good friends who put up with me on a bi-monthly basis). proceed to show one of my very closest girlfriends the new jewelry i just barely created in time to come to the US. we talk about the jewelry party she's hosting for me on thursday. we drink half a glass of wine, i unpack and fall into bed.
wednesday, july 16, 2008. get up around 7:00am with the doggies. make coffee. talk to katie, my friend, confidant, supporter and coffee supplier (for this, i love her above all things.) shower, call my too-tired-for-dinner-last-night friend. he's moving his photography studio (www.pisarriproductions.com) and i offer to help. that is, between the hours of 12:00pm and 2:00pm. otherwise, i am in a meeting at 10am, picking up cupcackes for the Market trunkshow at 2:30pm, setting up from 3:30pm to 6:00pm, meeting, greeting and selling jewelry from 6:00pm to 11:00pm. then cleaning up and driving home around mindnight. i proceed to eat dinner just as we welcome in july 17, drink a glass of wine while doing so, and fall into bed around 1:00am.
thursday, july 17, 2008. get up around 7:00am with the doggies. run errands for the jewelry party my coffee-providing, house-welcoming, problem-solving-friend is hosting tonight. meet with potential clients. drive around an area of atlanta (buckhead) that i don't know for squat, looking for potential clients to meet with later. take an hour, totally, regrettably, painfully and unintentionally not helping my too-tired-for-dinner-last-night friend, so i can go swim laps with coffee-and-house-providing katie. swim. ignore everything around me, blissfully mindless due to the fact that my head is underwater for 25 or so minutes. rinse. dress. go to trader joe's to pick up flowers, fruit and adult beverages for the jewelry party at katie's. get home. set up jewelry, which takes just as long as last night at the trunk show. 6:00pm i finally shower, katie goes for ice, the girls come, they drink, shop, eat, and i work until 12:30 when the last girls leave. i stay up until about 2:00am, breaking down, repacking and getting ready for the upcoming road trip.
friday, july 18, 2008. get up around 7:00am with the doggies. yeah! it's friday! wait. i have stores to visit, orders to write up, checks to record and deposit and credit cards to process. i work until 2:00pm, and when i just can't think anymore, katie and i go shop for something she needs for her upcoming nuptuals. we go to the park for half and hour. i come home and work, bailing on a date with kaite and her fiance brad, who plays a mean sax and is delightful to be around and is playing at a local club. i eat around 11:00pm and go to bed.
saturday, july 19, 2008. get up around 7:00am with the doggies. yeah! it's saturday! wait. i have three appointments, jewelry to retag and set up, maps to print out, errands to run, calls to make and details to confirm regarding the sales road trip that amanda and i are embarking upon tomorrow. i am trying simultaneously to think, and not-think, about my upcoming tradeshow in vegas, for which i have made zero calls, and prepared even less. i do all that i can to prep for the road trip. i'm packed, so is the jewelry and i finally get to sit down with michael (my
too-tired-moving-his-studio-incredibly-fabulous friend) for a glass of wine. we end our wine drinking around 10:00pm, regrettably, but practically, so we can both get on with our sunday without a hangover.
sunday, july 20, 2008. i sleep in! oh wait, no i don't. i get up around 7:00am with the doggies. dont' get me wrong. i truly like, adore and cuddle at any given moment these dogs. but i am a very light sleeper and when they're up, so am i. which, in truth, is a good thing, as there is really no time for frivolities such as sleep when i'm in the states. i get all the loose ends ready for the trip and realize that the maps i ordered never came. hmmm. maybe no-dinner-moving-late-wine-drinking-fabulous friend has one. i'll have to see. but after requisite large amounts of coffee, i am off to a massage that i earned in trade for jewelry at the katie party on thursday. mmmm. massage. a luxury that we all should consider a neccessity. i am much more relaxed and feeling very able to tackle the four-hour drive to asheville, where one of my most favorite people in the whole word resides. we get into asheville around 6:00pm. i am on the phone intermittantly with cocktoaston (anyone who reads the sandcruiser journals will immediatly know and love this true-life character) who fuzzily and choppily informs me that virginie, his pregnant wife, is in the hospital with something painful, but as of yet, undiagnosed. aaak. not good. but in true cocktoaston formula, he is cool, collected, sure of himself and his wife and their rightful, happy, unscarred place in the world. we get to his incredibly adorable cottage on the pond/golf course and proceed to unpack and change into running clothes as quickly as we possibly can. we enjoy a breathtaking run (we later learn our little sea-level lungs were running at 3,000 feet or so) around the golf course, we eat country apples, giggle at the bunnies running around and watch the ducklings dive in the pond. we go into town for a late snack and sleep very well in our matching twin beds that remind me of my grandma's house.
monday, july 21, 2008. amanda and jocelyn are both running behind, but as a result, get to see john (aka cocktoaston) briefly before we take off to visit our possible new accounts. we make plans to see him later, and go the wrong way towards asheville propper. we turn around for not the first, and most certainly not the last time. we find asheville (and yes, we were just there last night. a testimate to just how directionally challenged we both are). we meet several lovely store owners, get lost, turn around - i told you - finally get some food around 4:00pm from an adorable corner grocery, and meet up with john for cocktails and dinner. virginie is fine, and is on her way home. we spend a couple hours with john, wake virginie up when we get home (luckily or otherwise i would not have seen her) and you guessed it, fall into bed.
that concludes the first week and suffice it to say each day following was just as busy. but amanda and i are fabulously suited to one another (i believe at one point, probaly while turning the car around, i asked her to marry me and she said yes) and we had a very productive, tiring, fun trip and have already begun to plan out next one.
on that note (or rather novel) i'll leave you biting your nails, leaving the lights on, wondering how vegas was. but in a word (or two), it was vegas, baby.
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