Here are a few things I’m grateful for today that have nothing to do with my business, but they do relate to today’s other post:

1. Grateful for timing:
   The orthopedic surgeon’s office took pity on me and let me sneak in this morning for an appointment. If I hadn’t seen him today, it would have been more than a week.
2. Grateful for a diagnosis:
   I have a nasty case of a fairly common running injury: patellar maltracking. It’s in both knees. The x-ray was cool because it looked like two mountains that had had the tops blown off. My knees look a little worse than the bottom picture to the right.
3. Grateful for perceptions:
   The cute lab tech looked at me and handed me a SMALL/MEDIUM pair of hospital shorts to put on for the exam. SMALL/MEDIUM! Not PUDGY/RIDICULOUS! I love that man.
4. Grateful for knowledge:
   Now I know what’s wrong with my knees. I know it’s not all in my head. It’s repairable, but it’s going to take some time and patience. I have neither, but at least I know.
5. Grateful for being back on track:
   The doctor told me I can keep training with the running team. I just need to start physical therapy to make my inner thigh as strong as my outer thigh and perhaps get my hips into alignment.
6. Grateful for small chances:
   There’s a chance I’ll have to have surgery, but it’s small. PT should fix things, he hopes.
7. Grateful for bad hearing:
   My left ear seems to be losing some hearing. If I lose a little more hearing, I probably won’t hear the grinding like I do now. The grinding won’t ever go away, the doctor said.
8. Grateful for stubborn boyfriends and supportive coaches and running buds:
   D.J. bugged the heck out of me to get to the doctor. Pete gave me the name of this specialist and helped keep my spirits up. Coach James (who is in the March issue of Runner’s World) keeps checking on me, and Coach Joe said I better keep smiling or else. What wonderful friends to have.

Ouch. My knees hurt.

Let me clarify. Several years ago I must have swallowed two tablespoons of ground glass. Ground glass is indigestible, of course, so each of my knees thoughtfully stored a tablespoon of ground glass behind each patella. The sound, the feeling, the grind…. it makes ME sick. My knees have grossed out ex-boyfriends at inopportune moments. I once made a general practitioner wince.

As I add more and more miles on in my marathon training, my knees get more inflamed. It makes me cranky. It makes me want to stay home and live on cupcakes and give up my running, my social life and sleeping, which is often disturbed when I turn over and hit a patella.

My knees hurt.

Yesterday I visited a sports masseuse, and he, a specialist in runners, said he had never seen anything like my knees. Sidenote: he also said I had a tighter ass than LaDanian Tomlinson, a star football player for the San Diego Chargers. The therapist said this was not a good thing, of course, but STILL. I’ll take it as a compliment, dang it.

At any rate, the pain I feel in my knees will not go away with the wave of a chiropractor’s wand. It’s a systemic problem. My knees are flawed. And someone probably has to rebuild them to make them work correctly.

How does this relate to copywriting? I’m getting there….

In the last two weeks, three groups have come to me with pieces they want fixed immediately. They want one trip to the copywriter to make all their marketing problems go away. But the problems the pieces have are systemic. I can’t just change a few words here and there and POOF — perfect, effective copy appears.

Example: A group is putting together a demo of their services. “We’ve gotten all the copy approved, and we’re in the final stages,” the coordinator told me as he handed the copy to me for the first time. Oh dear. This means that I can’t do what I do best, which is to organize thoughts, group topics, make recommendations on length, style, tone, etc. It means that I should change the president’s “its” to “it’s” and hand it back with a smiley face. I couldn’t do that. The piece was in big trouble, and I tore it up.

I feel their pain. They’re going to the expert (me) to make everything work right again. My clients know their projects have problems, but it’s up to me to tell them that their projects are intrinsically flawed. And this is painful for both of us.

If I didn’t care so much, I’d probably just throw the bandage on the copy, invoice and move on. But they will not have an effective piece, and they sure won’t keep using me if the copy I help them with is not effective. So I grimace and attack the copy with a fire red pen. And I go back to the client with justifications, apologies and a heartfelt request that they don’t undertake the next project until we’ve had a chance to organize it. And most of the time it works.

But then you get clients like me who get the news that their systemic problem is going to take time, money and patience to fix, and we pay our bill so we can go home and cry.

By the way, since I’m fighting through pain, cupcake cravings and sleepless nights, don’t you want to donate to my marathon fundraising? Click here, pretty please!

The engine light on my car was on for several weeks. A friend recommended a mechanic, and I stopped by for a quick diagnosis.The mechanic spent about 10 minutes with his sensors and gadgets. He said my oxygen sensor was probably ill, and he reset the light for me. He told me my sensor should be under warranty, and I should go back to the dealership.

At my request, he also put air in my tires as I was getting out my wallet.

“No charge,” he said. “I didn’t really do anything.”

No charge? What? He spent at least 20 minutes with me, and he gave me valuable information that saved me money and time. Later on, I found out I could take the car anywhere for the repair so I called him to make an appointment. He said, “No — it should be under a different kind of warranty, and if you bring it to me, it won’t be covered.”

I love this man! I want to give my business to this man! He’s cooler than Fonzie!

I want my clients to feel the same about me….

Today I’m sending out my monthly newsletter, and this issue has an article about tradeshow giveaways. I did an informal survey of people who organize conferences to discover what they give away as promotional items. But I also wanted to know what they picked up themselves.

Turns out people give away lots and lots of pens, but people are tired of picking up pens. And people hate cheap glue on sticky notes, and they’re tired of stuffed animals.

Obviously I don’t make my living as a person who sells promotional products to exhibitors. I’m a writer, and I specialize in the nonprofit and association community. But my philosophy here is that when I provide information that people find helpful, they’re more likely to think of me when they need help.

I received an email from my old boss today, and I realized that it was the first time in a LONG time that an email from him didn’t give me any fear. Especially after I left, each email made me throw up, just a little, in the back of my throat.

He didn’t even say anything in the email (it was just a forward), but I used to tense up as soon as I saw his name in the from field.

I LOVE owning my own business now.