Seeing Past the Shipping

It is Sunday morning and for the first time in weeks, I have a space where I feel like I am allowed to set aside shipping thoughts for a day. I worked all last week and even more yesterday to make sure I had this space. Invoices for next Tuesday’s shipping are printed and sorted. I can’t begin printing postage until tomorrow. All the supplies are either in hand or enroute. I already know what lists I will ship on Thursday. There is email I could manage, but it can wait until Monday morning. I have space to breathe and to contemplate the fact that by the end of this week I will have shipped almost everything. What remains will be international orders and orders containing handbrain screens.

For the first time in months I’m able to contemplate my upcoming trip and make plans for it. Howard and I will be traveling to Europe to take part of the Writing Excuses conference and workshop on a cruise ship in the Baltic sea. I have never been to Europe before. It was always something that was out of reach both financially and in terms of schedule. But the Writing Excuses conference has made it possible. I don’t know what the trip will be like. I expect to see and experience amazing new things. I expect to have to eat unfamiliar foods some of which I’ll like and others I won’t. I expect to get homesick and to come home with my head full of new thoughts. It is going to be a good trip.

Howard’s trip will be more extended than mine. He will stay in Europe after the cruise to tour some castles and then attend WorldCon in Helsinki Finland. I’ll return home to check on the home front, answer emails, manage business things, likely ship some packages, deal with school registration issues, and dozens of other small management tasks. From Helsinki, Howard will fly directly to Indianapolis for GenCon. I will join him there for a week of convention. At the end of that we’ll fly home together and won’t want to leave the house for a good long time. I arrive home the day before my kids begin school and six days before I have to drop my college kid off for her (hopefully) final semester on campus.

I’ve watched these trips coming on the calendar. I’ve felt the pressure of them. I worried that I wouldn’t get enough shipping done before time to go and that I’d then feel guilty for running off on a big trip while backers were waiting for their packages. Now it looks like I won’t have to carry that guilt. I’ve got two weeks of hard work ahead to make sure that I have shipped everything I can possibly ship before departure.

5 thoughts on “Seeing Past the Shipping”

  1. I’ve just read the Steve Jackson comment on the Daily Illuminator. I’m drooling in eager anticipation!

    And don’t feel guilty about things, I am content to wait for it all to arrive together when it comes!

    At least your Kickstarters get there!

  2. Here’s the thing that surprised me.

    Pizza, and Chinese food are different.

    As in the USA is different from here in NZ, and Germany was different again.

    I was all “but why, all this food was invented over there”

    And in NZ we have streets number odd on one side, even on the other, numbering away from the post office.
    In Germany they are numbered in sequence, up one side and down the other. Which made finding places hard sometimes.

    Also, most sobering experience:
    Walking the streets of East Berlin. It took me a few minutes to realise that those funny dimples on the stone walls of buildings were in fact the marks of machine gun bullets from WWII.

    West Berlin bombed out church -> Kaiser Wilhelm Cathedral, major tourist attraction.
    East Berlin bombed out church -> overgrown pile of rubble on a roundabout in the middle of the street.

    Enjoy the trip.
    My mother’s done loads over there (currently cycling around Galway with her cousin, both over 60 years old)

  3. Hey Sandra, I just wanted to let you know that you and your family are NOT forgotten by me. I’ve just been very busy trying to figure out how to live long and prosper. I very much hope all is well with your family!!!!!

    I know this is crazy, but send me a Facebook PM if you ever need anything. (Or call/text, assuming I’m in a WXR database.) Seriously, I know I don’t live close, but I know how it can suck when you need something and no one is available. *hugs*

    Besides, I will NEVER forgot how awesome it was that Howard REMEMBERED me from LTUE when I saw him at World Con in San Antonio. He was so nice, even though I know (now) that he was (probably) stressed. I’m totally willing to return the good karma. 🙂

    1. Peggy, I’ve been following along via facebook and my heart hurts for what you’re going through. You are such a warm, loving, and good person who deserves to live a long long time. Thank you for your offer. I think we’re covered for right now. I wish there were more I could do for you.

  4. Well, I’m planning to live to be 80, so the plan is just to do whatever is necessary to make that happen. 😀

    Your kind words are good enough. 🙂

    Seriously though, the offer is open ended. I’m not always available, as happens with everyone, but I will help if I can.

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