Julie Barrett is a freelance writer and photographer based in Plano, TX.

Frustration in the morning

Fresh when it gets here from Julie Barrett
Thursday, February 16, 2006


Nothing like starting the moring thoroughly ticked off. I'm sorry to say that I've just had to strike a charity off of my list. They're getting my last in-kind donation today. I gave up on this charity once because their trucks never arrived as promised. They finally got their act together, but this time I was practically browbeaten into leaving a donation. This image of Puss-in-Boots with the big eyes would not leave my head. That is not a good thing, folks. I will donate if I can, but whining on the phone doesn't get the job done. To top it off, recently a relative told me that she has a friend who makes calls for this charity and said friend only gets paid when a donor leaves 27 items or more for the truck. Okay, I know gas prices are high and I know this charity does some very good work. But 27 items?!? Gosh, wouldn't one gently-used name-brand designer handbag fetch at least as much as 27 pairs of jeans that kids have worn to death? It makes no sense to me.

No, I am not mentioning the charity. But I will say that when they used to call for donations that the caller ID showed the name of the charity. Now I guess their people make calls from home. At least the name they give me matches the Caller ID.

Deep, cleansing breath. Time for other things.

For a theoretical day off, Wedensday was busy. Along with my bowling I put together a lot of updates for the HouseFans.net site, took Chris to make up his missed bowling games last week, did grocery shopping and rent many garments over the lack of paychecks in my P.O. box. I have not had a paycheck at all this year. One client has a new payment scheme, and I found out at the last minute that I have to fill out new paperwork and wait for all that to go through. OTOH, when it's all done payment should be very fast. Another client ... I don't know. I'm doing other work that won't see the light of day (or a paycheck) for some time. Such is the nature of freelancing. But dang, I have bills to pay. I don't expect to get paid the day after I send out an invoice, but there is a limit. And I have bills to pay as well. The electric company and the mortgage company don't understand "the check is in the mail."

Yep, I'm very frustrated today. There is some good news on the horizon, but I can't talk until I've signed contracts. I've been waiting word on one for two months, but that's typical for the publishing business. I honestly don't expect anything on it until spring. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

We've got more radio shows (writing and performing) coming up, and I'll have more on those as we get the details firmed up. Some of this will be through the Generic Radio Workshop, and I'll start using a GRW tag on those posts so people looking for audition and performance information can find the posts.

Now I'm off to look at the other Round Robin entries. Thanks for the comments so far. I'm sure I'll see some great work.

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Filed under: Life   Writing         

 

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