16th December, 2006
Complete Bedlam
by
I re-read my last entry, and chuckled to myself at how innocent I was one week ago. I have just had a week that would test the mightiest person, and yet here I sit, still alive.
First of all, I did the Shaw Cable interview. Then, on Wednesday, the 13th, a great supporter of my business, Steve MacNaull wrote a wonderful article for the Kelowna Daily Courier. It came complete with a colour photo, and was on the front page of the business section! This totally opened the flood gates, and I have been working like a one-armed paper hanger ever since.
On Thursday I was filmed for an on-line news channel called okbc.tv. On Friday, I was invited to be on CBC Radio’s local morning program called Daybreak!! This precipitated the entire Interior of BC emailing and phoning me, wondering how to get the fruitcakes.
The orders are coming in like this from the stores: “We need 200, stat.” In my mind, I am like, okay, give me a minute here. Then I race downstairs, grab a handful, and sweating and weeping softly, I package them like I am on speed. Two hours later I arrive at the store, composed and cheerful, “here you go.”
But all of this would be relatively easy, if I didn’t have to deal with things such as Arnie being diagnosed with diabetes, and having to learn this week how to give him injections. Then, Nicky decided to back into a kid who drives his parents’ turbo-charged Volvo, so we have to explain around $2,000 worth of damage to ICBC next week, of all times.
But let’s add more annoying appointments, so we are also transferring the mortgage to a rental house downtown, so have to deal with the appraiser, bank, mortgage broker, and lawyer. Hell, that’s not good enough, let’s also do another store demo (today at Quality Greens in Vernon) and don’t forget the Christmas letters, baking and the rest of the shopping. Why sleep?
I believe I will probably make my goal of 3,000 fruitcakes this season, and so that gives me a good indication that next year is going to be big. Perhaps in 2007 I will be crowned the Fruitcake Queen! It was only a dream two years ago, and here it is, looming.
However, in the meantime, I’m now scared to answer the phone, as each time I do, it’s a store placing another order. I’m searching my shelves for fruitcakes that may have somehow gotten lost in the back somewhere, and cursing myself for not having made more. But how in the name of God in Heaven was I possibly to know that I would become a media phenomenon?