Is everyone slow for the holidays?

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

I am absolutely dead. No work. Anyone else feeling it?

[Janiece Young]

It's pretty busy in Kansas City. It's not CRAZY busy but I'm chugging along. I'm grateful. Sometimes December can be really slow, so slow you start cleaning out closets. Now that's really slow.
Janiece

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

Well, we've got to attend to our closets sometime! Out with the old, in with the new! And switching to the extra thin velvet hangers that I bought 3 boxes at Costco: 50 for $15.69. Really creates more hanging area with the thin hangers. I'm switching every hanger to these. Closet never looked so good and organized. They come in packs of 10 so I'm giving a pack to all my people as a throw-in gift!

[Jennie Ann]

Oh, Marge, I got those velvet hangers about a year ago from the Home Shoppers Network channel. They came in different colors, and I always liked green. So I got over a 100 of them in an olive green. My closets never looked so GREAT. I also gave them away as gifts to good friends, and now they bought their own.

The funny thing for me about the Joy Mangano Huggable Hanger brand is that she has her initials on all of them in gold print. Well, "JM" happens to my initials too. So my hangers look as if they were customized for me. LOL

Back on topic, when my phone doesn't ring, I do get nervous. This happened to me about a year ago in November, and I started getting pretty depressed. The economy was tanking, and I was wondering how I was going to pay my bills. Every year, my medical insurance goes up.

They did it to me again this year, beginning February. I switched from a $628-per-month plan to an HSA that was $2,500 deductible for $177 per month. Carefirst raised me to $250 per month with a $2,500 deductible. I think they're crooks.

Now I have to figure out where I can save by eliminating another expense in my life. I am thinking about trimming my $220 cable bill, which includes all the channels and a DVR for my daughter. It includes my high-speed cable, which I need, but I do not need all those movie channels. I never watch them.

[Mary Ann Payonk]

Kelli, just the opposite. I kind of hesitate to read and post about whether it's slow or crazy-busy, because reporters who are slow might think, "Is it ME?" I know that's the kind of feeling I get sometimes. But I peeked in, and let me just say that from my own experience, I've noticed a definite and steady increase in work since the middle of summer. And the closer we've gotten to holiday time, the busier and crazier it's gotten -- crazy-busy. Looking at bookings for the coming year, and comparing this year to last, and the year before that, I see a steady increase in work, and I predict that'll be true for everyone! I'm hoping that, for each and every one of my reporting friends! The other thing I'll say is that even when it's busy, I refuse to buy into the reporter shortage myth anytime again soon ... not that I believed it in the first place. What would be wrong with everyone being crazy-busy like we were in the '80s and '90s? I'm certainly not complaining. Best wishes for a happy holiday to all!

M.A.

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

Boy, I would have to be in bad shape to go through and clean the closet. I am not to that point yet. That project would take days and days.

[Judy]

Busy, busy, busy for me in So Cal.

[Peggy Linhorst]

I've been really busy scoping for my South Dakota reporter and I have another 350 pages from her that just came in last night. I'd actually welcome some slow time right now. Don't think my creditors would be too happy, though.

[Deborah M.]

I've been sort of busy too. I've been taking as much as I can get, knowing for me January and February are usually SUPER SLOW (in So.Cal.) Then I start freaking out that I have too many jobs to get out in time and I don't want to spend my Xmas working. Ya just can't win sometimes, but I am so thankful I am working and not laid off like a few of my friends.

[Mary Ann Payonk]

Hi, Deborah. I think we all feel the pain of feast or famine. January usually IS super slow, but basing it just on the look of my schedule book, I predict an exceptional January that will begin an exceptional year for many reporters. We do have a lot to be thankful for, don't we?

M.A.

[Judy]

I agree with M.A. Since I have my own clients, I see the whole future of my calendar and see how many new sets a day I'm receiving. January is going to be a fantastic month, is my prediction.

[Deborah M.]

Oh, boy, Mary Ann, I sure hope you're right! I do hope it's an exceptional year -- Jan. 3 will be the 20th anniversary of the first depo I took. I can't believe it's been 20 years. I remember sitting at a table with some other reporters in my first agency, listening to them talk, and one of them saying she couldn't believe it had been six years already. I thought, wow, I can't imaging having reported for SIX years, LOL.

[S. Arielle]

Deborah, it's going to be 20 years for me too in March. LOL LOL That's so cool!!