Unlimited Sick Days and No Health Insurance

Has it really only been 1.5 weeks since I started this new venture?  Somehow it seems so very much longer!
  
I had a vision of how my life would be when I opened my own business.  In my mind I was always impeccably yet casually dressed with killer shoes, perfect unfrizzable curls, and the grace and ease which always characterizes the truly brilliant.  Ashley and I would meet every day in neat orderly space and discuss the hilarious card concepts we developed over a cup of freshly brewed coffee.
  
As it turns out, I'm an idiot.
  
JA Greetings' first official meeting took place last Tuesday in Ashley's kitchen.  I showed up hot and sweaty from the gym with decidedly frizzy hair, and my brother-in-law and nephew were watching Star Wars in the adjoining family room.  The meeting mostly consisted of writing down a list of the card concepts we already had, setting an impossible deadline, and trying to block out the fact that Jack (the nephew, not the brother-in-law) was running around us in circles screaming, "The rest of them are dead!"  (Side note: He was talking about wilted blueberries.  Really, our family is just overly dramatic, not creepy.)  The whole experience was nothing like I pictured it, except Ashley did make me coffee.


The next day we learned that (part of) the reason Jack screamed so much was that he was getting sick.  Consequently, Mommy, Daddy, and Aunt Jamie all got quite sick as well.  The next afternoon I felt like someone had kicked me in the face, and very little was accomplished for the rest of the week.  The original plan was to have three cards for sale in our Etsy shop by Aug. 17.  Of course, that has not happened.  As I was laying in bed getting woozier by the minute, I thought, "It's a good thing I don't have a regular job anymore.  I was running out of sick days!"  Later I came back to my senses enough to know that the thought was ironic at best and incredibly depressing at worst.  The thing that brought me back to my unfun senses was a letter reminding me that my health insurance coverage ends this month.  I can pay an arm and a leg for COBRA, but I also have no income.  Plus I'm not sure that COBRA covers the prosthetic arm and leg I would need after sending the payment.  The whole situation is like a missing verse from an Alanis Morissette song.
  
Once I recovered from my nephew-induced illness, I learned something very important about my new business:  I have no idea what I'm doing!!!  I've lost track of the amount of time I've spent researching business regulations and tax requirements and shipping rates; if I had the money to pay myself, I'd be making a lot of overtime.  Then again, hiring an employee required a lot more paperwork (I recently discovered)!


I met with Ashley again today for many many many hours.  The background movies today were Up and The Incredibles.  While we made some progress--for instance, the printer works on vellum (yay!) and we're now registered with the Virginia Department of Taxation (yay?)--we still aren't ready to list our cards online.  It turns out we're missing some important elements, like envelopes and stuff.
  
Also, Jack started crying that he wanted Aunt Jamie back in her car.  Sheesh!  The first meeting he makes me sick, and the second meeting he insults me.  This kid seriously needs to get his own business and stay out of mine!