With My Best Friends….

There is this CLASSIC Depeche Mode song, if you’re familiar. “Never Let Me Down Again.” GREAT tune, wonderful song with the catch, “I’m taking a ride with my best friend….I hope he never let’s me down again….” Keep that in mind.

So, let’s start with Thursday night. I hadn’t seen nor heard from anyone in days. It does tend to get lonely here in my little apartment. I work so much, I rarely get out. And when I do, it’s just to run up to the store for food, or to buy yarn, then rush back again. But, it seems everyone has been so busy with their lives that everyone has been scarce. That does get me down a bit. So, on Thursday I called up George and told him, “Dude, I haven’t seen anyone in days. What are you up to?”

“Well, if you make a pot of coffee, I could be tempted to come over.”

“Be here in 30 minutes….”

He came round, we had coffee, and surprisingly Kara showed up a little while later. (I could be wrong, but I think George may have called Kara and said, “Gregory seems lonely. Head over if you can.” But, I could be wrong. It was just surprisingly coincidental).

Anyhow, we had a wonderful time hanging out and gossiping and being ridiculous until about 11 in the evening. As the two of them were disbanding, George asked me if I needed a ride to the store in the morning. I accepted and he said, “Good! I just need to go the doctor to get some blood work done, and when I leave I’ll swing by here and pick you up. By the way, are you ok? You seem down lately. Something you need to talk about?”

I confessed that there was, and that we could talk about it when we were driving to the store.

Well, George came by at about 10am to pick me up….and man….oh, man. He was loopy and wild. “How much blood did they take anyway?”

“I dunno. But they had to switch arms cuz I ran out of blood in this one. Let’s go!”

So, there we were driving up to the store (only a half mile away) with George all weirdly light headed and giggly, phone in one hand, bag of peanuts in the other. I was clutching the “oh-shit” handle for dear life.

We made it safely to the store, grabbed our groceries. (Actually, more like George wandering the store whispering to himself, “Do I need anything? What was it I needed….I know there was something.”)

“Hey, man. Let’s get you an orange juice or something.”

“OJ??? Hell, no…You know what I want? I Cuban sandwich. Let’s go get a Cuban sandwich. How much more do you need here?”

“We’re done, dude,” I said shaking my head. “Yeah, we’re done. We need to get you home.”

“NO! I want a Cuban Sandwich. Who has the best.”

“Black Bean Deli. Cheap. Delicious. Authentic.”

“Good! How do we get there?”

And there we were bum rushing traffic, no turn signals when needed, unable to pick a lane, and me flipping out and using more profanities than Richard Pryor at his height of fame. Or the other half the time I was shreaking like Hyacinth Bucket from Keeping up Appearances. “Richard! MIND THE CYCLIST!!!”

We reach the Black Bean Deli (in one thankful piece) and George asks me to go in and get one for him, because he doesn’t have the strength. No problem. Got the sandwiches, ran back to his truck, and he drove me home.

WHEW! I was so THANKFUL to be out of that truck and called him to make sure he made it home ok. “Sure! I’m fine….wait. Wait a minute. Wasn’t there something you wanted to talk about?”

“Yeah….but, we can do it some other time.”

“Let’s do it soon. You seemed really down.”

Well, I saw him today….and I finally just let it all go.

You see, George and Kara don’t read this blog. Oh, don’t worry, they do know I write about them. But, I guess they never really know what goes on here. I never really tell them what is REALLY going on. They don’t know how some people are angry because orders are running behind. So, I let George know. I finally just started talking, and the next thing I knew I was teary eyed talking about how I was losing it. Wasn’t going to be able to keep up. And that my reputation was going south. That the money from teddy bears isn’t coming in enough to keep up with expenses….and I just kinda crumbled. I needed to get it out, you know. I confessed that I didn’t think I was going to survive. And then I said, “I think I’m letting everyone down….again.”

And he looked at me and said, “….wow. When we were driving around yesterday I thought everything was fine. The only way you could let us down is by not letting us know what’s going on. Tell us what’s going on….and you won’t be letting us down.”

For a good two hours we had a really great heart to heart. I got to shed a few tears out of my own self disappointment, and he helped me figure a way out. And we did. We came up with what I hope will be a great solution to everything, a way to keep me afloat, and get everyone’s bear out before selling anymore.

My book. My patterns.

I need to stop selling teddy bears for a while. I need to get everyone that has ordered a bear what they deserve. But, if I stopped selling them, the income would drop to nothing and I’d be screwed. So, here’s what we decided to do….

My made to order bears are no longer for sale.

They won’t be for quite sometime. At least not until I get caught up. I have a couple of “One of a Kind Bears” that I have been working on from some great stash that was donated to me, but there will be no more bears in my shop. So, if you see a few more bears posted on my blog as “One of a Kind” that’s just me trying to deplete this stash of yarn for now and raise a few more dollars for the next month.

However, I have about 5,000 plus followers on Facebook, and 9,000 following my blog. I’m not sure how many of those numbers are redundant, so we’ll just go with 5,000 people. If each of you were to just buy my book or my pattern, that would help keep me from selling bears for at least 2 to 3 months and I can get everything caught up, get everyone their bears, and keep everyone happy. I won’t have to over extend myself.

The book is downloaded instantly on Kindle, and the pattern is ready for you to snag as soon as soon as its paid for. And they’re both only $3. Less than that actually. A measly $3. Now Kindle has this lag time for payment of two months, so anything bought now, I wouldn’t receive royalties for until July. But, I get paid for the pattern instantly.

And once I get caught up I won’t be doing anymore Made to Order bears. I’ll only be doing available and ready to ship bears. So, if everyone here within the sound of my voice (or the clambering of my keyboard) can hear me, this is the best option for surviving, keeping this alive, without over extending myself and potentially ruining myself in the process.

At some point, when I’m all caught up, and this is all tended to well….I can help out my friends, too. All of you, anyone of you whom have been with me here to support and encourage me. I can actually be caught up, and start giving back all the kindness and support that has been shown to me.

It can be done….a simple $3 at a time.

Click here to buy my book.

Click here to buy my pattern.

Or if you’d just like to help out:

 

“See the stars? They’re shining bright. Everything’s alright tonight….”