October 8, penciling, inking, businessing

When I came home Monday evening, Matt told me he wasn't feeling great. He felt anxious and uncertain about what his day-to-day tasks should be, as someone who's working on OJST full-time. There's plenty to do now, but what about the long term? What should he be accomplishing on a daily basis? He was feeling uneasy, not having to be accountable to anyone else. He felt unmoored, ungrounded. 

Tuesday I had lunch plans with some studiomates, but Wednesday, I told him, Wednesday he and I would go to our favorite coffee shop and make a Christmas Attack Zone* for what his day-to-day operations on OJST should be. 

*"Christmas Attack Zone" is a phrase we swiped from 30 Rock, which is how Jack refers to his plan-making for dealing with his mom during the holidays. So now whenever we've gotta plan stuff, we enter the Christmas Attack Zone. We're not even saying it as a joke any more, that's honestly what we call it. And we use it a lot. 

Even though the power went out in the coffee shop for about half an hour and I had to pee in a completely pitch black bathroom (Pro Tip: Hold the door open long enough to memorize where all the essential equipment is with light from the outside illuminating it, so that when it's closed and you're plunged into darkness, you have a basic context for where to perform the necessary activities with minor inconvenience), we had a hella productive meeting this morning. 

Wow. 

We've plotted out basically all the conventions/events I'll be doing during 2015, set up timelines for various projects, brainstormed about books and budgets, and, most importantly, set up a daily/weekly schedule for the both of us, so we're both accountable to the other. 

He has such a good mind for this stuff. My ideas float around in my brain like the letters in an alphabet soup, but Matt is so organized and... I'm not even sure what word describes it. He's a planner. He breaks down an idea into all the components it needs to become do-able, and then he lays them out in clear, simple charts and lists. Like some kind of fucking project managing wizard. 

We made plans for running our small business during 2015. 

This feels do-able. 

This feels real.