Mountain Moving

Today I worked on a target catalog.

By this I mean that it is supposed to be printed and ready to go in an insertion order by next Wednesday. This makes it my number one priority, because in order to get there by then it should have printed ... yesterday.

From 11am until 6pm, I was typing and clicking and answering the phone as fast as I could. The owner of the retail store was calling me, giving me updates on his own efforts. His son was in on the deal, too. I called the president of our company in an a couple issues. Our entire team was focused on getting that catalog, and that catalog alone, ready to go to press and 100% signed off on. As soon as changes came in from the vendors featured in their pages, I would forward it to our art director or retoucher, and then trot down the aisle to follow up and either explain or oversee the changes. Once made, I would make a pdf and whip it right back to the marketing person on the other side, all the while answering e-mails, making phone calls, and occasionally checking my own personal e-mail to see how the ongoing "conversation" between myself and some friends planning a Murder Mystery Dinner night was going.

I still don't have approval on a few pages from different vendors whose merchandise is featured in the retailer's catalog, so I a have to send urgent e-mails, and make last minute phone calls, and sic my boss on the non-responsive ones!

I had 5 companies I was working on getting copy and approvals from today. I got copy from 4, and approvals from 3, and I should see the final fruit of my labor in the morning, when the Advertising & Marketing director of a Big Company has promised to have an approval of the layout and copy waiting for me from their Merchandising department.

So, tomorrow at noon we send the files to the printer. They will burn the plates, load the presses, and get that baby off to the mailing house ASAP, and I will desperately wish for some down time to relax, but will instead IMMEDIATELY begin working just as hard on the next one. Back to moving mountains. I have to admit, my adrenaline starts pumping hard a few hours before deadline. My mind clears, and my actions are all focused on that one task ahead of me: get the catalog approved. But once that file is off to the printer and out of our hands? I wilt. The adrenaline is gone. The fatigue sets in. Suddenly, I long for my bed and a good book.

Incidentally, the Murder Mystery Dinner night is going to be fantastic. Now that we've all rehashed the stories the last time we did one, I'm psyched to find out who my character is and plan my costume and have a blast.

I might even post pictures!