All I have to say is, McCain must not want to win. Can you imagine what could happen if something happened to him and SHE became our president?? Oh, my gosh. It doesn’t bear thinking.

The Tutor Connection

When I quit my job, I think I went into some kind of traumatic shock thing or something. The first week was great, of course, but then, I became depressed, and had no motivation for planning my new business. I began to get scared that it wasn’t going to work. That I’d made a horrible mistake and what was I going to do NOW?!? There was a bit of a glitch up w/my IT partner (not my husband) at the time that also had me freaked out (it’s all okay, now). He’s the one providing the tutoring interface. I met him at the NTA convention this past April, and he’s really a cool dude. I couldn’t do this if it weren’t for him, and he’s working his buns off doing things for me that he hadn’t originally intended, simply because I’m ignorant and thought I could do things I couldn’t do. Eli is more than cool, he’s awesome, and I highly recommend his talents and want to see him succeed. (His business site) You see, he’s just beginning in his business, too. So we’re helping each other, because if I succeed he succeeds, but without him, I can do nothing. Not so with him, actually. He could maybe find another client that isn’t so needy, someone who doesn’t require quite so much in the way of how she wants her site to work. OTH, he’s learning how to do things that he’ll need to know, and he’ll be able to offer those things to others, and I think that he’ll have an edge that way, because most of the online tutoring interface companies don’t supply the payment option integration that Eli’s doing for me because they mostly cater to colleges and universities, not entrepreneurs like me. Those companies that do what I’ll be doing have inhouse IT guys who create their stuff for them. So what Eli and I are doing is new, yet not.

ANYWAY, as I was saying, I was going through this traumatic depression thing. But I pushed through, kept plugging away doing the things that I needed to do, though I was a little behind. But finally, FINALLY, and it happened the week I got ready for a meeting with the tutors I’d lined up, I began to feel good about it all again, to be motivated, and to spend more time on the things I should be spending my time on. Of course, it’s typical me behavior to end up doing the bulk of my work as the due date approaches because I seem to thrive under pressure, even though I’m stressed and quite frantic that it will never all get done, and I drive my family crazy with it all and swear I’ll never let myself reach that point again-until the next time, of course.

But I’m on track with my business, and I’ve finally started my healthy lifestyle habits as well. I started an exercise regimen of yoga and strength exercises that my trainer had given me (sparkpeople.com is awesome, too, at helping me to develop routines), and I’ve been tracking my eating for an entire week now. At first I wasn’t trying to limit my intake, I simply wanted to see where I was and get back into the habit of writing it all down. That truly is the best habit for me to cultivate w/regard to staying in control of my eating. It’s too easy to forget things you’ve taken in and to mess up if you just estimate it each day. Yesterday and today, though, I finally stayed within my limits. Yay!

I’ve also finally slipped into a routine for my work day. It gets messed up a bit when I have to go out to meet prospective tutors, however, I’ve decided that I won’t do that any more. If they can’t come to my office, they’re just not for me. I can’t be driving all over the city to meet with people. Can’t afford it, and it wastes too much of my time.

This next week will be full of hitting the pavement, though, because I have to visit schools and colleges and put up flyers and drop off business cards so that I can drum up business. I have enough tutors to start. Yay! I thought I might only have 6 or 7. It looks like I’ll have at least 15! Woohoo! And I’ll be able to cover the basics-English, Math, Chemistry, Physics, Spanish, and Accounting. Those are the subjects most asked for. Humanities topics aren’t often requested. Anatomy/Physiology and the Biologies are requested on a limited basis, though my experience may change now that I’m going to be working with 4 year schools.

You all will have to check out my site The Tutor Connection when it goes live on Monday, September 1st.

Thank you so much to Roy for the name. It’s perfect for what I plan to do with it. I’m still working on the café idea. I plan to reach that point 5 years from now. I even have hopes that I can buy our old house, the one we lived in before this one. It occurred to me that it would be perfect. Of course, the young man doing business there now would be affronted to hear that, so thank goodness he doesn’t know of my blog! He knows me, though, because I drop in there every so often, and he knows I used to live there. I love what he’s done with the place, and it fits in perfectly with what I want for the future. I’d have to add on to it, but it’s on a very busy road in a central location for all the schools in the area, fairly close to the interstate for easy access. It’s two stories, so I could have the café downstairs, along with a lovely patio outside, and for those who don’t deal well with distractions, I could divide the upstairs into tutoring rooms. It has a kitchen and two bathrooms and is zoned residential and commercial. It’s on a corner lot with lots of space for parking. It really would be perfect.

When we lived there, I always wanted to buy it, and it kills me that we couldn’t when it was being offered for only $54,000! Of course, it needed a lot of work, and the present owner has taken care of all of that. When I first spoke to him, he said that if he ever sold the business, he wouldn’t take less than $500,000 for it. Ha! But that shows he has thought of selling, and when I visited him a few days ago and asked how business was going, he said it had its ups and downs, and his tone of voice and expression seemed to shout that presently he’s in a down time. I’m not surprised. The building really isn’t suited to what he’s doing. He sells shabby chic furniture for indoors and out, as well as other furnishing odds and ends. The place is cram packed with stuff, pieces on top of pieces, and it’s not easy to navigate without fear of knocking something over. Plus, it’s not really quality shabby chic. It’s shabby dressed up to look shabby chic in some instances, though he does have some nice pieces, and he’s not over-priced the way some places are. He has this one mahogany and wicker screen that I just love and wish I had a place for. Also, he had a rug that I wish I’d seen the day before because I’d already purchased some rugs to make do for my studio/office. It was within my price range and just the colors and style I’d been looking for! Oh, well, with throw rugs I’ll be able to take them up when I want to paint and not worry about getting stuff on the carpet. I don’t think I’d like having to roll up a rug.

Always a silver lining, which really is the point of this post. I’m over my trauma and back in the game, enjoying my life and what I’m doing! Now, if only I had some money, life would be perfect.

HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO ME??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I’m going to try out their new nail color auburn rose because I know that sometimes they simply change the name of the color, but it’s essentially the same. However, their lipstick of the same name looks all wrong. The champagne rose looks more like mine. But how can you tell online, you know? If I order enough, I get a free gift of mini-lipsticks, so maybe those colors are in there, and I can try them out w/o having to buy a lipstick I may never use. Their free gifts and free shipping are the best part of the deal. I love shopping Yves Rocher. Or I did. Until they let me down like this.