I never thought it was humanly possible, but this both sucks and blows (Bart Simpson)
I didn’t want to write about this, but I think I should. I just took a pill. A little tiny, 25mg pill. If you’ve been around long enough, you know I am an epileptic (since 2005). For the past year, though, I hadn’t had any seizures and had actually stopped taking medicine at all once we got back from Iraq.
Beginning in March, I started feeling as though I was having auras again. They got worse and worse, until I finally told Bob. We talked about it and decided that it would be best if I didn’t keep working full time at the office. So, I handed in my resignation, and we set about finding my replacement. I told my boss, as I usually do, that I would stay on until he 1) found my replacement and 2) I’d had a chance to train her.
That didn’t happen. I went from having small auras to small seizures, and then morning, I woke up late for work feeling as though I’d been run over by a truck. I came downstairs, and the first thing I asked Bob was, “Did I have a big seizure last night?” He said, “Two. You don’t remember?” I didn’t. Apparently, I’d even fallen out of bed. I was fine – just bit my tongue and was sore. Since then, I’ve realized that I hurt my shoulder somehow, because I can’t lift Nila above my head anymore at all. I had another big one a few days later, and continued to have the smaller ones.
So, I made an appointment with my GP, and he referred me to a new neuro, and ordered an EEG. I haven’t seen the results of the EEG, but I assume they were normal because it usually is. I saw the neuro last week, and at the end of our meeting he said, “Well, from what you’ve told me, you definitely have seizures, real true seizures. So what do you want to do about it?” I said, “What are my choices?” “Well, you really only have one. Medicine. There is brain surgery, but you’re nowhere NEAR bad enough for that! So, since it’s is safe to assume you’re going to continue to have seizures, and I assume that you would rather that didn’t happen, medicine is really your only choice.”
So today I took a pill. I have to start this medicine very slowly – I will not be a full dosage for at least a month. This med also is not the weight loss wonder drug that the other med I took was. It’s weight-neutral, meaning I won’t gain or lose. Too bad about the weight loss, that would be helpful. This neuro actually explained to me what happened with the other med as it relates to weight loss. He said that it blocks the part of the brain that tells you you’re hungry – and instead creates a pre-satiety response (feeling full before you’ve even eaten). Add to that that it blocks the taste recieving part of the brain, and you can see why there was some weight loss! No worries, I will lose the weight on my own this time and be better for it.
So anyway. Just thought I’d share. Those of you who have been around awhile sometimes like to follow this storyline, I guess. Please don’t comment with pity, you know I don’t like that. 
Feel free to send helmets and wall padding jokes!
Here is a link to a short presentation I gave last night at Ignite Columbus (#ignitecbus3). The idea is that each speaker has 20 slides which advance every 15 seconds, for a total of 5 minutes. If you want to watch the entire video, you’ll see a variety of topics presented, from mathematical infiniti to patent law to my topic, Kurdistan.
I was planning on wearing one of my three jili kurdi we got while we were there, but let’s just say I’m a little fat for jili kurdi these days. BUT, that didn’t stop us from putting Nila in hers! She loved it. She also has three, but I think this is the only one that fits. The others would fit, but she can’t get her head through the top. Isn’t she cute!
I haven’t written much about what is happening at Not In Kansas. Probably because we’re a little sketchy about HOW it’s all going to happen, but I KNOW that it’s going to. A while ago I wrote a small series called “Defining Moments.” You might remember it as some of you participated. I never said at the time what my defining moment was. I still am not sure that I will be able to put it all into words, so I’m not going to try just yet. But the end of that realization was that I needed to try to kick start my website design business.
I had a MOMENT (literally, a moment), where I felt as though strengthening the website design business that had sustained us over the past year was simply what I was supposed to do. I’m by no means a design or coding genius. But, if you follow Not In Kansas, you know that I don’t have to be because I use WordPress. When we first got back from Iraq, we 1) had a terrible time making ends meet and finding real jobs and then 2) once we did find them, we didn’t like them. As you can imagine, it’s pretty hard to compete with Iraq. So, I worked at an insurance office and Bob is still working a contract position helping to flip the computer systems of the Chase/WAMU merge. It wasn’t long after my defining moment though, that Bob and I talked (a lot) and decided that I could quit my day job in order to focus on the company.
Since then, we have had confirmation after confirmation that this was the right decision. The business is not yet sustaining us, but if all goes well, after the national Crime Stoppers conference/cruise in August, it will be. And well. Through a previously unknown-to-me LinkedIn connection, we have the opportunity to partner with a national Crime Stoppers board member, and his partner (one of the six presenters at the conference,) and present our websites to the entire organization at the conference. We went from thinking we might be able to offer a WordPress site to Ohio affiliates to now having the opportunity to reach ALL of the Crime Stoppers. It is an amazing opportunity.
And, it’s not just an amazing opportunity for US. In regards to Crime Stoppers in particular, I really feel as though we have the BEST site to offer the organization. Initially, we were going to offer individual affiliates their own sites using separate WordPress installations. WordPress is the best option for theses affiliates because it is so easy to manage, and the sites are so easy to update or expand. NOW, we are going to offer the national organization a WPMU site, and allow each of their affiliate to gain a micro-site from that installation. This is THE way to implement organization wide sponsors, advertisers and revenue bases, in my opinion. Also, since a site created with WordPress is designed out of the box to have a good standing with the search engines, the BENEFIT to the visibility of the Crime Stoppers program could be IMMEDIATELY and EXPONENTIALLY increased.
Robert and I are literally building our lives for the next few years around WordPress. I am hoping to build my buisiness by focusing on non-profit associations.
If you’d like to read all of the details of the contest, you can here. Here is what I’m hoping to win:
1st Prize Winner: $300 Cash (via PayPal) + WP Review Site Developer License from wpreviewsite.com worth $299 + Advanced WordPress Membership Plugin Site License from wp-member.com worth $32.99 + 6 Months Plus Membership from tutsplus.com worth $54 + 1 Year Themes Membership from elegantthemes.com worth $19.95 + WP Buddy Plan 1 Year Hosting Sponsorship worth $160/year.
These aren’t just petty little prizes. These are THE plugins and packages I NEED in order to truly establish the technical side of our business. Robert and I sit around talking about we need to earn the money to purchase these things still, so winning them would mean so much.
Once the contest reaches a certain point, they’ll (hopefully) post this entry, and you’ll be encourage to go vote for my story! I’ll let you know when! Thanks for reading!
I wish I could write about all that is happening in our lives in a truly engaging way. But, I don’t think I have it in me tonight. If you’re a fan of Not In Kansas, you’re a fan, whether I’m engaging or not! SO, what IS happening?
Bob, Nila and I went for a walk this morning into downtown Grandview (which is the little neighborhood where we live). We stopped at the French Loaf and had a little pastry, then down to Trader Tots where we got Nila a new (used) dress, and a POTTY. She has been interested in the potty lately…frequently pointing up the stairs to the bathroom and saying, “Potty? Peepee. Poopoo.” So, since she knows what it is and what to do there, we figured we might as well get this show on the road. Her Potty is much fancier than we would have purchased for her new ourselves… it lights up, plays music and spits out stickers. Well, it would. We don’ t have any batteries for it yet. On our way home, we stopped into Walgreens and grabbed a few things. Among them, a package of Smooth Away. Have you seen this – a hair buffing pad for legs and other parts? Brandi used them recently and didn’t like them. I LOVE THEM. She said they didn’t work, but we think they totally do! I will seriously NEVER shave again, and I will raise Nila to use these rather than shaving. Halle-freaking-lujah.
Then, after lunch and a quick nap for Nila, we spent the afternoon at the Columbus Arts Festival (love the new location, btw – I wish they’d leave it there even after the riverfront is done). Nila enjoyed herself, er… mostly, she enjoyed the balloons. After the festival, we stopped by our favorite furniture store, called Show and Tell. We are promising ourselves that we will have new furniture at some point this summer, and there is a possibility that we will be able to get some in the next month, so we wanted to take a peek at their leather sets. We found a set we love, of course, but we can’t get it just yet. I’m also determined that we’re going to paint and do something about the flooring in our kitchen and bathroom soon, too. I figure if we’re going to live here for a while, we might as well like it. There is hardwood under our carpet, but we can’t tell if it’s in good condition or not. It might JUST need refinished, or it might need more work than that. We think we can get our landlord to let us slide on the rent a little in order to make some improvements here. Cool, huh?
Bob is still working at his temporary tech support job with Chase. He hates it, but he’s totally hanging in there. Hopefully, he won’t have to much longer. We have had some exciting developments come about for our website design business lately. Among them, the possibility of a site design and maintainance contract that for just 10 hours of work a week, would pay more than we’re making working our full time jobs. We’re also picking up a new Crime Stoppers site, and that Crime Stopper’s director has another site she’d like done, too. It has been truly encouraging to have this business come our way so quickly… it feels very much like a holy confirmation that we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing.
Assuming that I get the first site mentioned above, Bob and I will have the opportunity to go to the National Crime Stoppers Conference this August (the proceeds from the first site will pay for us to go). Did I mention that the conference just happens to be a CRUISE from LA to Mazaltan, Puerto Vallarta, and other points south of the border? Yeah. It is an incredible opportunity for us to be a part of something BIG at the conference, so we’re fingers crossed that everything works out for us to go. I’ve never been on a cruise.
My mom is coming to visit later this summer, too! I don’t think I mentioned that. I just had dinner somewhere tonight where I think I’d like to take her when she visits. It’s called the Pig Iron BBQ in Clintonville. It was SOOO good! I have had a bit of a hankering lately for BBQ and have been sorely disappointed each try to stop it… but their food was really good. BUT it was REALLY loud! A bunch of school bus drivers were lighting it up on their last day of school. Nila ate dinner with her hands over her ears almost the entire time.
OH, speaking of food. Aimee and I are going to have a little encouragement competition for dropping some weight. I can’t take it anymore. I saw myself today in a storefront and didn’t recognize the reflection. Ugh. That can’t be good. I told Bob today that I’ve been fat before, but it’s different now. Before, I was a solid fat. NOW, I’m a flabby gross fat. I just lost all of my muscles somewhere along the way.
Related somewhat… Bob and I are considering getting Nila into daycare for a few hours a week. She needs to play with other kids her age, and if we had a few hours sans baby, we could go work out together somewhere. It’s also possible that we could join a gym with a daycare, and kill two birds with one stone. I told Bob today that I need to get better about meeting the other families in our neighborhood who have children. Again, if we’re going to live here, we might as well LIVE here.
Ok, well that’s all for now. I told Bob I’d be in bed by 10PM, and I will. I hope all is well with you!
1. Bob, Nila and I had lunch twice at the North Bank park. He came to get me from work and we took our lunches (along with Nila’s booster chair) to this wonderful park by the river. This week has been beautiful here in Columbus, and it was nice to get out in the middle of the day and enjoy it. On Thursday, we even went back with our tacos at dinnertime. I think tacos are my favorite meal.
North Bank has dancing fountains. We got Nila a new swimsuit and let her play around there. You can see a few more pictures on her blog.
2. I just did the “Rock Hard Arms” workout on Exercise.tv. I should say I did the “Jelly for Arms” workout because I only made it 3/4 of the way through before I couldn’t lift the weights anymore. Slow and steady wins the race.
3. Nila is awake upstairs, playing in her crib. I can’t believe she’s awake already. I wanted to write an actual post and take a shower before Bob goes to work. Oh well.
Last weekend, Bob bought me a watermelon, and shampoo and conditioner. I didn’t even ask him, he just did it.
I’m pretty sure that I could make a video at least this quality if I had a flip mini. If you could make a video series about anything, what would you do?
You may remember that I was geeking out and going to a conference just for WordPress. I did, and I thought I’d share a little about what I learned there.
1. Wordcamp, like conferences in any field, is not MOSTLY about the content of the conference. It’s more about the people that you meet at the conference and the connections you make. Conferences are a great opportunity to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Will you talk with people you don’t know? Complete strangers? Will you contribute to the conversation by sharing what you know, even if you’re not the “expert” in the room? Will you ask for help from those who are? Read Never Eat Alone for encouragement in this area.
2. But, about the CONTENT. Apparently, some attendees thought it was a little low-bar for a WordCamp. As a decidedly UN-expert with WordPress, I found some sessions VERY helpful (Legal Issues), and some not so much (WordPress in the Corporate World, and Social Media). Some were just over my head (unfortunately, it was the very session I needed to understand most: WordPress MU and BuddyPress).
Break in the action: Watching Glee premiere, and love it.
I can understand, though. In my previous life, if I would have gone to a youth ministry conference, and all they talked about was the Four Spiritual Laws, I might have felt a little offended. Even if it would have served as a good reminder of where we all came from. As another WordCamp reviewer has written, “Everyone had to start somewhere.”
Glee update: the show is set in Ohio. Awesome.
3. Having said that, I enjoyed WordCamp. It encouraged me to continue building my business knowing that I have the experience and tools to do so. I suspect that somewhere down the line, I’m going to need to partner with a developer who understands the platform’s backend better than I do. BUT, that’s the great thing about WordPress. You can build some really amazing sites without knowing the details of the backend, necessarily.
So that’s all. No huge smackdown, and no HUGE love. I was encouraged and got the exact answers I was looking for. Thanks to wyliemac for organizing it!
If you are having YOUR best year yet, then you know that having your best year yet doesn’ t just happen. You have to really work for it. For our family, that means that Bob works nights at a job that…well let’s just say it’s not best suited for skills. He goes to work at 6:30PM four or five days a week and gets home anywhere from midnight to 6AM. After he goes to work, I put Nila to bed around 6:45PM or 7PM, and I get to work on AngieMeekerDesigns.
Last Saturday, I spent the entire day at the library working on two new sites that the Central Ohio Crime Stoppers are rolling out. On Sunday, I lost everything I’d done because of a problem with the hosting servers, AND at the same time, lost the existing site. I was on the phone with tech support for at least three hours both Sunday and Monday night, and finally got it back up around 1AM Monday night. I spent another hour Monday setting up one of the new sites (again). Good thing, because on Tuesday morning while I was continuing to work on it, a local news station called and wanted to do a story on it. I told them I didn’t think it was complete enough yet, but they wanted to because it’s sweeps week, and the company’s pres wanted to do it, too. So, “we” were on the news again (third time in six months). Not bad.
We’re also in talks with a consulting firm about the possibility of joining their team. They already have some inroads into the national crime organization and could easily send a lot of business my way, if their ideas (and my implementation) are accepted by the national org. At the same time, I was already doing and planning on expanding the same services myself. I suppose the primary benefit is the fact that they are positioned to market what I’m already doing and can do (and, they DO bring an additional element to the table which I’m not offering, donor development and fundraising strategy). The primary con of working with them is that I will make a lesser initial profit as we change the pricing structure for their package. Ugh. I don’t know.
Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
I went to the library last weekend to work on Saturday (I can get a lot done there because it is quiet and sans – bebe). On the way out, I noticed they had a sign which read, “#1 Library in the Country. Again.” So modest, our Columbus Public Library.
Not at all what I intend to write about, just wanted to share. The book above, I’m reading it now and I got it from the library, in case you wanted to follow that rabbit trail.
Here is an excerpt from the book. The author is speaking about how he grew up as a have-not and caddied at a local golf course.
As a kid, I caddied at the local country club for the homeowners and their children living in the wealthy town next to mine. It made me think often and hard about those who succeed and those who don’t. I made an observation in those days that would alter the way I viewed the world.
During those long stretches on the links, as I carried their bags, I watched how the people who had reached professional heights unknown to my father and mother helped each other. They found one another jobs, they invested time and money in one another’s ideas, and they made sure their kids got help getting into the best schools, got the right internships, and ultimately, got the best jobs.
Before my eyes, I saw proof that success breeds success and, indeed, the rich do get richer. Their web of friends and associates was the most potent club the people I caddied for had in their bags! Poverty, I realized wasn’t only a lack of financial resources; it was isolation from the kind of people that could help you make more of yourself.
I would like to provide a commentary on this excerpt, but I’m honestly at a loss for words. If I can get the thoughts together over the next day or so, I will share them here. Otherwise, if you want to provide the commentary yourself…here’s my offer. Get the book from your library or buy it at the link above. Read it, and I’ll invite you to be an author here. You can write your very own commentary here as we read the book together.
Or you can just post in the comments. Whatever.
