When It Rains, It Pours

I have been having quite the week! This morning I woke up feeling yucky, both freezing cold and drenched in sweat…I’m not sure how that even happens. Barely on time to begin with, I turn on my engine and there’s a new light on the dash. Greaaaaaaaaaat. Turns out, I have a screw in my tire.

(Oh no! I'm screwed!...ugh, that's too much time with Teddy right there. Sorry.) Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that I had to take a personal day…and the fact that the screw hit a spot that was irreparable and I had to buy a whole new tire, that’s a blessing too. As was Banjo’s allergic reaction to the Lymes vaccine and twisting my ankle on Monday.

Regardless, I am determined to remain positive. So, on to good news! I have booked another show! Granted, it won’t be until March of next year, but that’s okay. Now I know that I will have more than a year of being in business. That’s a positive right there. Yesterday, I was able to go to the post office and mailed a whole pile of advertisements to private schools throughout New Jersey, thanks to some lovely young friends of mine, whom I shall re-name…Colleen and Faith. They are lovely girls and I owe them much thanks! I was also able to mail the invoice for my first show, so I should receive payment soon, also a positive. On top of that, I was able to mail a letter to one of my bestest best friends, an archeologist studying for her doctorate at Johns Hopkins University…I shall call her…New Jersey Smith. Or something of that nature. Lots of positive stuff going down at the Post Office, I even had some junk mail. Now, this isn’t usually cause for positive feelings, but I usually don’t have anything in my post box, so I like when I get junk mail cause then I didn’t drive out for no reason.

Looking to the future, I am branching out with advertising and, hopefully, new programs! Advertising first: I am planning on writing a press release on my new business this afternoon. I happen to have some nifty press connections, so I am hoping something will come of this. If you do happen to come across one in a local paper, please, oh please, let me know! I don’t read the paper too often myself…mostly because I don’t receive one, but when I do, I just don’t have the time to read it in it’s entirety. If you are unfamiliar, press releases are free “filler” articles people (poor-ish ones, like myself) write and send the press. If there is some extra space on a page, the press goes through the press releases and plugs up the extra space with one. The only problem is, you never know if and/or when your press release will be chosen or by who. It’s kinda like throwing a handful of business cards into a crowd. Hopefully someone will catch one and give you a call.

I am also super, super excited to announce that I am planning on making a commercial. Alas, as aforementioned, it will not be airing on television, at least not yet, but it will be posted on Facebook, here, my webpage (www.maryshistoricalprograms.com) and on my Youtube account…which is not yet created. I’m going to try my hand at some simple ones myself, but I have am so so so fortunate to know a wonderful young man who, like me, is struggling to get his name out there. He has a lot of potential in my humble opinion and, hopefully, within a few weeks, I’ll have a whole blog dedicated to him and his work. Do stay posted.

Commercials and press releases are fine and dandy, but I’m still looking to spread the word more. I’m tossing around the idea of renting a hall or something and having an open house. I have had people comment about wanting to see a show, but weren’t in the school/senior center venue. I think this could be a great chance to network, but at the same time, I would probably have to charge admittance to afford the hall. Thoughts on this?

Also, I have been advised to advertise on free websites, like Craigslist. I’m on the fence on this one. Craigslist can be kinda shady and I’m not sure teachers or senior center directors would be trolling this site looking for someone to bring into their facility. On the other hand, it may open up so new doors and it is free. Does anyone know a similar site to advertise on? I’d love to try something like this, but feel like Craigslist can leave a bad taste in one’s mouth. I’m also looking for email lists. I don’t ever, ever, ever want to be a spammer, but paper and postage can be super costly and it’s not eco-friendly either. Perhaps I can set up an email list?

On to new programs…well, first I just have to say, I have a love affair with historic clothing. If I won the lottery, after paying off student loans and the like, I would have a room full of historic clothing. If I were a rich girl, I would still run this business so I had a reason to buy and wear historic clothing. Just thinking about buying period clothes makes me like get the shakes and stuff, it’s really bad. BUT, Teddy, his brother, his sister’s fiancée, they’ve all been tossing around the idea of joining SASS (http://www.sassnet.com/). Teddy mentioned this to me and I was like, “Sigh, always in the boys club, but never a boy.” (Yeah, that didn’t make much sense, I realized in retrospect.) Teddy goes, “oh, you’d be interested too?” Now, I just have to say, I told him about SASS in the first place, but a mutual friend of ours planted the seed of joining in his mind. Anyway, I’m like, “Theodore, darling. You want to join an old west era shooting society and you are asking me if I’m interested? That’s a whole new wardrobe and a gun! Of course I’m interested!” I am fairly certain I was wearing an NRA t-shirt at the time.

I then went online an began scouring for authentic old west clothes. Good thing I am currently broke (Thank you tire!) or else I’m pretty sure I’d be waiting for an order already. If and when I add to my historic clothing collection, you will be among the first to know. My neighbors will hear the unearthly high pitched squeal when packages arrive, but they won’t know what caused it…or that it was, in fact, me.

I suppose that’s quite enough for know, so…on to the Press Release!!! Before I go though, what do you think my next three eras should be???