a little bit of work… a little bit of fun

Slowly catching up on work. I’ll still be busy through at least the end of the year. And I’ve had two potentially lucrative referrals in the past week, which won’t kick in until after the holidays. And still a dozen jobs on back burners.
No… I don’t have a personal life. Why do you ask?
I think I will have to institute some news rules, for a couple clients. I still very much want to be available whenever and wherever my clients need me. But some of them seem to take more advantage of that than others. If you call me at 11:30 PM, it better be a major deadline. If the only time you call me, it’s after 7 PM on a weekday or before 9 AM on a weekend, you better be paying me well, on a regular basis. I can deal with the occasional or irregular call or email. Hell… email at 3 AM on Christmas for all I care. I can ignore those. But I think I’m going to have to set thresholds for proper communication, and when a client exceeds those limits within a specific range of time, I’ll stop taking their calls at unreasonable hours. You can leave a message, and I’ll get back to you at the next possible chance. I’m not trying to punish the clients. The major benefit will actually be keeping me from cringing every time my phone rings, and getting snarky with clients who are paying me good money.
And god’s honest truth… if you’re going to hire someone to do work for you, you should really be AT LEAST as prepared as you expect them to be. Really nothing irks me more than to have clients repeatedly come to me, completely unprepared, needing rushed work, with specs that change every couple hours… and come back again, and again, and again,… in the same manor. Do you have any idea how much money and time you could save; how much better the quality of your finished product would be… if you simply planned ahead far enough? I’m not asking anyone to be anally organized. But don’t tell me you need an ad in 3 hours and expect me to write it and design it. Don’t tell me the black and white tri-fold brochure we abandoned weeks ago now will be an 8-page letter-sized booklet in full color going to press tomorrow. And god… if you really can’t help yourself… don’t balk when I charge you less than any other respectable designer would for half as much work. I want to do the best work possible for you. All I ask in exchange is enough to live comfortably. And my standards for comfort are pretty damn low.
Eh.
I had a good weekend. Holiday dinner with friends on Friday night, followed by ice cream cones in 20 degree weather, and the biggest love sac I’ve ever seen. (It may have even given Kier a back injury). It’s nice seeing friends from school. Just wish we got together often enough to be able to talk about things other than college. (We do stray into the occasional geekiness, but…)
Finally found that last Christmas gift on Saturday. After the usual awkward apartment building party that night, I went to Chiaroscuro for their closing night. Talk about a complete blowout. Over 500 people showed up. It took 5 minutes just to find somewhere to sit at one point. But the music was great, and everyone came out. So many people, that I didn’t even get to talk to some of those I knew. Took off at an “early” 2:30 to catch the last train home, though I hear the party went ’til at least 4 AM. I can’t complain about any night that ends with a kiss on the cheek from a beautiful woman, though.
Sunday was incredibly lazy, though. Really… don’t think I can point to a single productive accomplishment, outside of some text edits to a catalog I’m working on. Never touched the painting. I still want to work on it. I’m thinking if I can get enough work done during the next couple of days, I’ll cut out in the evening and paint. Or at the very least, draw.
Am I really an adult?