Help Wanted!

After a meltdown last week, where I soaked the shop’s Persian runner with tears, I am finally to a point where I can breathe without pains in the chest.  Missing so much work in October and into November I filled with anxiety, it welled up like phlegm, choking me with its mass.  I really need to acquire a relaxed attitude because all this worry isn’t good for my hair follicles, which have deserted me once again.  This time even more hair fills my brush, hundreds, possibly thousands of strands are dropping daily like rats from a sinking ship.  In the wind, well actually a light breeze, my thinning mop parts like the red sea showing off large patches of white skin, not a look any woman strives for. If only more gray would move in, the contrast would be less.  If this alarming rate of fallout is a sample of what’s to come, I’ll have to entertain buying a wig, good gravy, is this the reward for hard work....someone’s dead or donated hair on my head?   

One must prepare for the worst, I guess, because this odd shaped head is no candidate for the Shenaid look, with bumps and hollows and the back, the flat as a pancake vertical cliff.    Side on it looks like the back of my head took a whack from a paddle and is the reason why I wear it up and clipped, to fake a natural contour.  Shane says I need a vacation but after being home for weeks with sick dogs and an angry nerve dancing against the bone of my hip hollow, I don’t need a rest, what I do need is more help at the shop. 

So I have posted a Help Wanted add.  I need a team!!! I need to knock out the stress of having to do it all.  Like a save the whales program, think of working for me as saving my hair, because it’s an endangered species.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind jumping in and doing all those little jobs that need to be done, but I can’t be doing them day in and day out, as it takes too much time away from what I should be doing.   No job in the shop is menial, they are all a process to an end product, but my talents are much better served in the creation department, not sticking labels on sales bag,  sewing patterns or wrapping parcels, vacuuming and pushing wool dust around with a rag. I need to know if this old body acts up again, or a pup needs care, everything won’t grind to a halt or swirl down the drain because I can’t make it to work.   

Shane is my only full timer and he needs someone in the shop in my absence.   We have a part time pattern maker that is invaluable, but she has to leave at 2:00 for her daughter getting out of school so we can’t spare her to help with other jobs.  We have a second part timer but she can’t give me a steady commitment to rely on.    It’s time to act and get a team in place before the summer trade creeps up because this  gal is going sailing with her hubby on nice afternoons and I want to do it stress free, leave the shop in capable hands, walk out that door to smell the roses, sniff those proverbial petals right up my nose!     

There has to be room for me to have a personal life because up until now it’s been all about the business. I no longer suffer the burden of house work and I have a book keeper taking care of the paper landslide at the shop.  I’m getting my ducks in order so I can dump the big sack of worry of the daily grind that grows like a prize pumpkin on my back and do the jobs that inspire me.  I’ve been juggling it all and I’m not doing it well because every now and then an extra pin comes hurdling at me to upset the equilibrium and then I have a hissy fit.   I don’t understand why I’m such a putz, I’m not catholic but man do I store up guilt and stress like a squirrel with nuts.   I care too much about being the best we can be, which is a heavy burden. To lighten the load, we need more help.

Happiness is doing the jobs that excite me and at 55, I should be the organ, not the grinder.  I should have the time to meet with customers, design at least a half dozen patterns every week, write books and articles for magazines.  Every now and then it would be fabulous to go off and hook with other groups in the area for the day, especially the museum just down the road that I’ve never had time to visit.  This girl just wants to have some fun and if that doesn’t start happening, well what’s the point. 

I can’t deny I’m the nuts and bolts of the business and that’s a good thing, but as I sew patterns and write up labels, or wrap parcels, or clean, I am reminded of all the things I need to be doing to keep us current and bring business through the door and then anxiety sets in.  People want to come in and see new things, designs and product, and that doesn’t happen when I’m doing jobs that anyone can do.   I’m not trying to raise my importance to the level of royalty, but the Queen doesn’t clean her own toilet, am I right?    

So after the meltdown, I decided to do something for the shop and me that brings joy.  Despite orders on the board, I decided to go into work on Saturday, take care of customers and in between create a new design.  An pattern request for a Mummer design intrigued me and ideas danced around in my head bursting for a pencil to draw to release them.

These are fun jobs, jobs that stimulate my imagination and excited me to the bone, bring meaning to why I do this.  Someone came in and ordered a copy of the Mummers rug right off the design table.  I say WOW!  I haven’t had this much excitement since, well since I designed the last new pattern!   

FYI - I am looking for a production, shipping, sales person.  A high energy, self-motivated, team player.   If no one comes out of the woodwork, I’ll consider cloning Shane, or myself, a few Minnie ME’s around the place is just what the doctor ordered.  If anyone is interested, please forward  a resume and we’ll chat.