A Woman’s Place…The Final-ish Chapter

After a day-and-a-half of nursing my computer back to health, I’m happy to say that I am sending this post from my newly revived system. (Woo Hoo!) Public Service Announcement — Now would be a good time to say that if you don’t currently have a back-up system in place, do your future self a favor and get on that!

While it was no fun spending the last few days watching the status bar on my screen slowly creep along, I did find comfort in knowing that we had a system in place for just such a disaster and ultimately everything was recovered.

In fact, I thought that I was going to lose some of the videos that I had recorded showing the final steps of sending the 50 shirts because my system had crashed just after I had put them on my computer, so I thought they weren’t on the backup.

Of course, during my grieving period of thinking that those videos would never see the light of day I did have a brief moment of thinking that I may have to re-enact the videos with hand-puppets (it would have been epic). Lucky for all of us, Dean is basically a wizard and was able to retrieve them all. (He’s available to entertain at parties for a small fee, if you call lectures about computer backups entertaining)

We use an Apple backup program called Time Machine and it has saved our hides on more than one occasion. Depending upon the kind of files you work with you may not need something as robust, but just make sure you have some kind of backup system in place to give you peace of mind.

As I mentioned on Monday’s post, we have shipped 41 shirts! (Cue the happy dance) It really does feel so good to have them out the door. However, I consider this the “Final-ish Chapter” because while this is a major milestone, there will still be more of the story to come.

But before I get ahead of myself, let me get you up to speed. First up, I want to share video regarding the note that accompanied each shirt. The gist of this video is as follows —  I give a little background on how I wrote the note, I read the actual note (complete with emotional hook at the end), give updates on some of the leaders I’ve contacted and then end the whole shebang with a series of bloopers. (cuz there were plenty to choose from)

 

After I landed on the text for the note I needed to get them all printed and put together to accompany the shirt. There was a moment when I actually considered writing out all of the notes BY HAND. (Yup, sometimes I drink very deeply from the crazy fountain)

Fortunately wiser heads prevailed and I decided to print shells of the note and only write the greeting, the p.s. and my signature.

Here are the 41 gals who we shipped to as well as the video of me putting those 41 notes together.

The House of Representatives
Name	State		Name	State
Martha Roby	Alabama		Sharice Davids	Kansas
Ann Kirkpatrick	Arizona		Chellie Pingree	Maine
Debbie Lesko	Arizona		Rashida Tlaib	Michigan
Katie Hill	California		Ilhan Omar	Minnesota
Nancy Pelosi	California		Susie Lee	Nevada
Jackie Speier	California		Bonnie Watson Coleman	New Jersey
Maxine Waters	California		Xochitl Torres Small	New Mexico
Lisa Blunt Rochester	Delaware		Alma Adams	North Carolina
Debbie Wasserman Schultz	Florida		Marcia Fudge	Ohio
Lucy McBath	Georgia		Kendra Horn	Oklahoma
Tulsi Gabbard	Hawaii		Suzanne Bonamici	Oregon
Cheri Bustos	Illinois		Mary Gay Scanlon	Pennsylvania
Robin Kelly	Illinois		Veronica Escobar	Texas
Jan Schakowsky	Illinois		Kay Granger	Texas
Lauren Underwood	Illinois		Abigail Spanberger	Virginia
Susan Brooks	Indiana		Kim Schrier	Washington
Abby Finkenauer	Iowa		Gwen Moore	Wisconsin

 

The Senate
Name	State
Lisa Murkowski	Alaska
Kyrsten Sinema	Arizona
Kamala Harris	California
Joni Ernst	Iowa
Deb Fischer	Nebraska
Jacky Rosen	Nevada
Kirsten Gillibrand	New York

 

I’m also excited to share that the final video of this process features my hubby, Dean, who is basically the behind-the-scenes engine that helps make some of my wacky ideas come to life. (don’t worry I’m using my powers for good)

So, while we chatted the whole time, I spared you from the boring couples stuff like talking about clearing that clog in the shower or what ARE we going to do about that smell in the garage?

I did leave in some of our chat about this project and of course my signature question “what did we learn?” (is THAT why my kids told me I wasn’t needed for that carpool?)

The final part of the video (see below) shows us delivering the packages and be sure to watch for my heroic dive across the counter at the post office. (true story)

It feels so good to have finally shipped off a majority of the shirts and I will let you know when the final nine head out the door.

We have received confirmation that all of the packages were delivered in Washington TODAY! However, the process of going through security could take a couple weeks. Ultimately, I’m hoping that I can count on a number of you to help with keeping an eye on the various social media channels of these gals to see if we spot them sportin’ our shirt.

Thanks again for following along. My dream is to create art that has a purpose, whether that is bringing encouragement, inspiration, or just a giggle. I am so thankful to continue to hone this vision and share it with others.

Of course I’m already in process with my next idea (more to come on that) but I just want to thank each of you for being a part of this with me. Your following and sharing my posts, sending messages, shopping my store, and just giving an encouraging word when you see me means more than I can express. (cue musical crescendo and inspirational image of me at my keyboard, my eyes glistening with tears)