The Infamous "Minibook" Fiasco of 2008

Moderation has never really been my strong suit... I'm not sure why that is exactly, but it began sometime in my early childhood... and... I think I'm going to go ahead and blame my parents.

Kidding... sort of.

Anyway, I've recently experienced a wicked bout of déjà vu as my mom and I were frantically assembling our 133 promotional packets before this year's Fall Market... The following entry describes the source of this déjà vu.

Exactly 1 year ago, immediately following my graduation from the Portfolio Center, our entire class, flew to New York City for a Portfolio Review. The night before my flight, I was frantically trying to design, print, and assemble 10 "minibooks" to hand out at the review. After months of sleep deprivation... I found that I wasn't in the correct state of mind to begin this task 7 hours before my flight.

After the panic set in, I cried for a few minutes, then called and woke-up a team of helpers at 3:00 in the morning: my boyfriend, Beau, my sister, Carrie, and her boyfriend, Jon. Over the next two hours, we all printed, folded, and cut out the first three pages of sed minibooks, at which point, I came to terms with my inevitable defeat... the minibooks had won.

Carrie and Jon volunteered to make a Kinko's Run... it was 5:00 AM.

Kinko's did an amazing job for the minimal fee of $400, but I still had to cut, fold, and assemble these books once arriving at the hotel in New York... Thankfully, I had Carrie with me, who turned out to be quite the little trooper...

She stayed up with me until midnight in order to finish these before the review the next morning... even after being rudely awakened at 3:00 AM to help me the night before... AND despite her plans to wake up at 4:00 the next morning in order to stand outside of the Today Show with a "Please Hire Me" sign.

And, my story doesn't end there... after not having slept more than 5 hours in the last three days, my phone alarm wasn't quite enough to get the job done the next morning... Carrie had to leave her much anticipated Today Show at 8:00 that morning, and walk the 26 blocks back to hotel, in order to wake me up in time for the Portfolio Review. I'm a terrible sister.

Carrie fondly refers to this course of events as the "Infamous Minibook Fiasco of 2008"... and rightfully so. I'm still trying to make it up to her!

And on a more positive note... I'm happy to report that I must be getting better at these last minute projects from hell... because my mom and I finished up our promotional packets at 11:30 the night before our flight... we had a full 3 hours of sleep before having to wake up and go to the airport the next morning!