The Great Big Do Fun Stuff Update

The Bad and the Good News. I picked the order. Bad news first...

When I first woke up the morning after my 24 hour visit from the flu, It took me a minute to realize that I was upside down on the couch, I woke up from some freaky noise that I think came out of my throat, I was laying in a twisted up mess, some position that I had put myself in that convinced my stomach to leave me alone enough to sleep. The more I woke up, the more afraid I was to move. The noise I heard was this crazy weird low moan groan that pushed up from my guts and out of mouth, like I was some fresh corpse with a last gasp stuck in his throat. I was a mess. Cole was no better, she was off shivering in another part of the house. We had divided up late in the night and manned separate bathrooms. Puke and gross stuff happening around the clock. We were disgusting.

I am writing to tell you all of this, because no matter how bad I felt when I had the flu, it does not compare to how bad that I feel that we cannot deliver the physical copies of the Do Fun Stuff CD's. We just can't. We could not pull it off. There was too much travel for work, and crazy season at the salon, and the kids being sick, and us being sick, and we just lost the chance to make it happen.

Let me explain: Once Cole made the first CD and we saw how great it looked, we were hell bent on hand making each one. We wanted to be the ones that made them. Mainly because I am psychotic and really thought it would mean more if we made them. Each CD took a good couple of hours to make. We just kept trying to find the time and could not. So I am writing to apologize to anyone that was waiting on us, and our last push to try and make it happen was Monday, the day we both caught the flu. We were going to try and get as many done as we could Monday and Tuesday, but it didn't happen.

NOW.

For everyone that wrote me and gave me your mailing address for our thank you letters that we promised to send you. I am afraid I have to spoil the surprise for you, and let you know that I am waiting on the first copies of the Do Fun Stuff poster, as I was going to send you a copy of the first run for your help. This will still happen, I know it has been awhile.

So with all that said, please try and remember when you write an annoyed or frustrated email to me about the CD, that we are not a manufacturing house, or a production team, or an assembly line-- we are a regular old family with kids, and jobs, and daily catastrophes and triumphs, and we are trying to create time. How many of you can manifest a couple extra hours a day? You know how tough it is. So for real. We are not trying to be jerks on purpose. The big crappy thing I did was make a huge promise and then wait so long to realize I couldn't make good on it. So sorry for leaving you in the dark about it.

I am sorry for the excuses, I should have known better when I started pushing for the physical CD that we couldn't pull it off in time. So I will leave it at this, we asked for some help from our friends, that have the tools and setup, and laser cutter, to help us with a huge piece of the production, and when we finally get it all done I will post a link. I have no idea when that will be. I won't even guess.

It has been the ultimate frustration for me. I hate being a disappointment, and even more I hate doing shit wrong. This was a big learning experience for me, as I am sure I lost out on a ton of momentum and the chance to raise even more money for the charity. Which by the way...

Many of you have asked: "How did the CD do?" And that I am happy to say is the very good news.

The store reports I get from i-Tunes take forever. The way it works is that I don't see a report on a purchase for two months after that purchase is made. So when the CD came out at the end of August, we had no idea how the CD had done financially until November. So it has been a long wait. So far as much as we can tell from the last report Do Fun Stuff has raised around $11,000, and the album still has another 7 months to find homes and raise money before the year is up. So I feel like it is totally possible to hit the end goal that I had set for the charity. This is a huge first burst of funds for the fellowship and it is just from the first two months the album was out. Everyone should be really proud of this figure as it is one of the hardest things you can do on the internet these days, get people to actually purchase music. Do you realize how many albums were released on labels that won't make that all year? We did good and I hope you are as proud as I am.

There were a ton of single song purchases at .99 a pop, and after you factor in iTunes taking their cut, and you do the math, that is a whole mess of people clicking through and buying a song. I wish I had the connections to get to someone at Apple to appeal to the higher powers, that since this is a charity and nobody else that was involved made a dime from this, perhaps they would consider waving their fee. That would indeed be a Christmas miracle for this charity.

So this is where we are at. I have a ton to be happy about, but it feels sour because I also feel like I let a lot of people down. This blog took a big hit in traffic from pushing Do Fun Stuff over the months. There is only so much charity talk people can take, and with all my relentless Ellen Bombing, and the asking to join in the push for the CD, it was a turn off to a lot of people that just wanted to see cute pictures of kids, and more maternity series. To be honest that reaction made me want to blog less, it was like a standoff. I would get emails saying shitty things, like: "I get that the CD is important, but I miss the old Pacing the Panic Room." So my reaction was to blog about my personal life less. I have just recently started warming back up to the idea of sharing more here. At the end of the day, i don't give a crap, doing this charity is the best thing I have ever worked on. I wish it was my job every single day to just raise money to fund more research into Smith Magenis Syndrome. Everyone that helped with this is in my heart, and I can never say thank you enough times for all that you have done, and some of you that continue to push the CD you are fighters. I love it. Every time I see Do Fun Stuff mentioned, or hear a story about a happy kid, or a happy parent, it makes me totally light up. It is the greatest thing I have ever been involved with. It is overwhelming to ask for help and actually receive it from so many people and all I can keep saying is thank you.

More updates to come as they are needed.

All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

P.S. And speaking of charity, there is a gorgeous display of brotherhood and goodness going down OVER HERE. Whether you need help, or you are looking to help, you should go HERE today. I am way late on this but saw it last night when I was catching up on blog reading.

Don't forget you can still buy Do Fun Stuff by clicking the store link of the widget. You can also gift the CD electronically on i-Tunes. Not as special as a stocking stuffer but it still makes a big difference.

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