I had a self-imposed arbitrary deadline of May 1st for a new website and all of a sudden my Google Calendar displayed May 4th on Friday. So I did what any highly competitive procrastinator with ADHD and a lack of respect for sleep would do. I Googled "creating websites," then "best website platforms," and then began my "trial and error" education with website creation.
Like with starting my first business, I was just naive enough to not know what I was getting into when I said to myself "How hard can this be?" That was Friday afternoon. After hours hunched over a desk, with the only break being a quick hotel meal, I found myself hitting the morning hour that in the 1980s would have caused static to blare from the TV signifying that it had nothing more to air.
Saturday was a full day attempting to harness my inner creative side in a hotel room with my only break being to enjoy a nice dinner and the company of some wonderful ladies at the State Convention of the Virginia Federation of Republican Women. I learned two things on Saturday: The concept of an inner creative side is more of a cliche than a reality for some of us, and the closer you get to daybreak, the more your writing begins to sound like "See Spot Run."
Sunday brought more web development until Chelle was finished at the Convention (did I mention I'm very proud of my new 2nd District rep to the VFRW?), then a drive back to Virginia Beach. By dinner time I was again facing a new set of website creation challenges, mostly consisting of colors not matching and a developing product that looked more like a madras quilt (don't worry, I didn't know what that was either until I married Chelle), than a professional home page.
I saw my first sunrise in a long time Monday morning as I tried to put the finishing touches on the website. As the clock struck 5AM, I thought I was just about finished. Then I remembered that although cars can drive themselves, home appliances can be controlled from the other side of the world, and TVs are smarter than the computers used to launch our first spacecraft, webdesign software can not resize a website for different screen sizes without numerous errors. After another hour or so, the site was done and the bed was calling.
You'd think, like I did, that after 2.5 days of writing and designing followed by rewriting and redesigning, that nothing else could be necessary or would have been forgotten. However, upon awaking at 9:30AM, I realized the most important piece of the website had been left out. I had included categorized pictures, a map, a self launching in-frame video, and cool spinning forms, but I forgot the contribution page. Setting up and integrating that functionality was another half day experience in itself. "iframe"code, really! Why can't it just be referred to as the "Code Needed To Embed A Form On A Web Page""? Heck, call it the "embed code" for short! I won't share the amount of time wasted on one line of code.
So all that's the long way to say I'm not taking anything for granted. We're starting our grassroots outreach initiatives now, and I just spent a weekend cramming
into a couple sleepless days what most professionals need a few weeks to do so I could ask for a contribution (if the guilt trip worked, the button is on the upper left of this page
). And yes, if you click the "contribute" button you will see an option to help make sure I have enough coffee for my next creative all-nighter. After just reviewing my Facebook layout, it may not be that far off. And, to check out this new site
Click Here.
In all seriousness, thank you for your past thoughts and support, and here's to starting another campaign cycle!