Running a vinyl graphics business is tough. There are big companies that do everything I do and more, and also numerous home-based businesses (there are at least two within ½ mile of my house). To be fair it’s an easy business to get into, it just takes some money to buy equipment. But now instead of spending a few thousand dollars on hardware, you can buy small desk-sized machines on Amazon for under $300. Rather than being intimidated, I’m wondering if I can use what I’ve learned from my existing business to incorporate these new devices into my current workflow.

I’m sure I could analyze my childhood to determine how my modern day spending habits developed, but long story short I somehow ended up living a life where it was important to always buy the most economical option, like, say, the giant jar of marinara sauce. Sure there’s more work to store the extra sauce, but economy of scale, yay! (Is that term is relevant here?)

I’ve since decided that this isn’t always best. Big jars of marinara sauce that go bad waste money. Tiny jars that get used up are perfect, even if they do cost more per ounce.

I had this great post on Facebook written out but it was over 100 words and I decided that rather than condense it, I could just as easily copy the words “I hate Facebook” enough times to meet the word quota. Today’s rant was about how I don’t want to accept friend requests from family because there are parts of my life that I don’t want to share with them, and Facebook doesn’t give me an acceptable way to filter who sees posts. Actually, since I don’t pay Facebook anything they never let anyone see my posts anyway. Problem solved?

There are people in this world whose job it is to design adorable items for stores to sell. These items often end up in Target’s holiday display section, or at gift store next to cages of hermit crabs at the beach. Part of me wants to buy all the things, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve learned that a picture is better than spending money on something that will eventually just clutter my desk. The exception is small pumpkins. I truly believe the cuteness of small pumpkins outweighs their clutter factor.

Wow, that was random. Now back to…something less random.

What is it about the beach? I’ve been trying to pin down what makes it so much more novel than any other vacation destination, but apparently it just is. And lots of people agree, judging by the fact that my favorite hotel is completely booked on the one weekend I want to visit.

Something about how the air is very crisp, there’s a different color palette that only comes from sun and sand, and the vastness of the ocean in front of you? (Strangely, California beaches were lacking that vast feeling, the ocean seems smaller with islands right off shore.)

Wednesday. I did so many things today. I left the house and accomplished three different things in one trip. And then I went out again. Afterwards I spent hours trying to make an ad for my business and then I worked on a mockup of a creepy skull decal. I really hate skulls. So now, at bedtime, I can safely say that I was in motion for most, if not all, of the day, but I really don’t feel like I accomplished anything. Casey’s most recent vlog said something about focus, that was the main thing lacking today, I think.

The past week or so has been great for work. I wake up, go for a walk, and then get my orders done first thing in the morning. I even figured out a good workflow for the packing portion which has always been the bottleneck of my workday. The remaining problem now is that I finish my work and I’m out of energy for anything else. I can’t be bothered to make food, or do chores, or work on growing the business instead of just keeping up with demand. Maybe ingesting an excessive amount of caffeine is the next step?

It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve started walking every morning. I really hate waking up, morning is not my favorite time.

However it’s now been several days since I last remembered to take my antidepressant-type medicine and I haven’t really been sad. Sleeping and waking up on a schedule, even if not an ideal one, and daily sun and exercise seem to have helped way more than I expected.

I’m thinking that if I can remember I’ll try adding my medicine back in to the mix and see if it gets rid of the constant hopelessness once and for all.

When I started this blogging adventure I thought the biggest problem would be committing the time to do this every day. It turns out that finding time to write just 100 words is the easy part, while thinking of something to write is the real challenge. Daily routine is boring, adventures are hard to condense, and um, what else is there? I suppose I can write about a different animal every day (axolotl!), or my favorite words (splay!) but that doesn’t seem to be the point. Wait, what is the point? Why am I doing this? Axolotl it is then.

I’m working on a new website, so rather than continuing to save pictures from the old website I decided to look for the original files. Great idea in theory, but if there was a show called digital hoarders I would be the subject of their first episode. I think I made it through 4 folders with many, many more to go. And the number of duplicates in just those 4 folders! Yikes. I think I’ll grab pictures from my old site after all, if I have to sort all my old pictures first the new site will never get done.