I swear that this has been one of the best weeks of my life. On Sunday (October 25, 1998), I saw the movie “Pleasantville.” It was charming and delightful. I was accompanied by a friend with whom I’ve recently resumed contact.

After the movie, we walked on the beach and sprinted into a flock of standing pigeons. We watched the sun set over Santa Cruz with his buddy John and Calvin, John’s dog.

After the sunset, my friend and I went out for really good Chinese food, and went back to his place for “The X Files.”

On Monday, I called my potentially first client to set up a time the next day to have our final negotiation.

That afternoon I posted a request to alt.games.tombraider for survey participants. I’ve been asked by www.rightgrrl.com to write a bi-weekly column and knew who I wanted to write about, but not the focus of the article.

On Tuesday, Oct. 27, Motormouth Marketing signed its first client. The contract represents one-quarter of my time. I got what I asked for and couldn’t be happier. Especially considering that the client is the Better Business Bureau of San Mateo County. Woo hoo!!

You don’t know how difficult it was for me to keep my lips clamped shut during the meeting once the president said, “well, when your company is doing work with us…”. I’m certain that anyone who watched me drive home after the meeting while I talked to my mom on my cell phone and waved my arms like a banshee thought I either a freak or a drunk. 🙂

So anyway, Tuesday afternoon I had a celebratory lunch with my newly resumed friend and talked to Kevin, who congratulated me. I called a few people at my client’s office (I love saying that) to set up interviews for the next day.

By Tuesday evening I was still pretty wild from the adrenaline, so I sorted through all my Tomb Raider/Lara Croft surveys. I got nine responses and was thrilled with them, and inspired, I wrote the first draft of my first-ever www.rightgrrl.com column. It’s called “Lara Croft for President” and I’m *very* happy with it.

Wednesday I interviewed a couple of BBB people and handed the president the rough draft of a promotions flyer he asked me to rewrite. That evening, I picked Kevin up in the city (after having a smoke break with two of my favorite former co-workers and reaffirming that my decision to start my own business was indeed correct) and we drove to the Palace of Fine Arts for “The Next 20 Years.” It was billed as “An Industry Insiders’ Sneak Preview of the Future,” but I figured it would just be an excuse to have a cocktail party in the Palace of Fine Arts.

I was right. There were a bunch of companies with tables and stands, and I made a couple of pitches for Motormouth Marketing which were received fairly well. Four bucks for a glass of Mondavi wine wasn’t cheap, but I’d wrangled a free ticket to the event so I figure I still made out ahead.

At 7:00, we were ushered inside to hear from our industry’s experts. Dr. Merkle, a Ph.D. from Xerox PARC, discussed nanocomputing and I found his comments disturbing.

I found fault in The New York Times’ columnist Denise Caruso’s comment that “people don’t want to interact with music.” If that’s so, then why is Karaoke so darned popular?

I shared my opinion with the gentlemen on my left and my right and they laughed. They were making similar wisecracks. It was almost like a really geeky “Mystery Science Theater 3000.” Or is that statement redundant?

After the Q & A session, I approached the stage to talk to Dr. Merkle. “Dr. Merkle, if things start getting smaller and smaller, and cheaper and cheaper (he’d discussed “self-replication and low-cost” as the quest for the future), then where does spirituality fit in?” He said, “That’s a good question. It will be more of an individual movement than a societal one. As people accumulate more and more material wealth, it is likely that they will each come to the point where they say ‘OK, now what?'”

I thanked him for his time. I don’t agree that spirituality will become an individual movement, though. I see people coming to spirituality and God in small clusters that congregate together.

After the event, I drove Kevin to his office so he could get my leather jacket and then dropped him off at his apartment. He said, “Thank you, Sweetie,” gave me a kiss and left my truck. Whatever.

On Thursday, I worked on the BBB’s flyer some more, then drove to Millbrae for another interview. Had what I think was a brilliant idea, presented it to the president and he went for it. I’ll be interested to see what type of response we get.

Thursday night was a rarity because I was actually home! The youth group for which I advise usually meets on Thursdays, so I’m at church from 6:00 till 9:00 on those evenings. But since they were doing an event the next night, we opted not to meet the night before.

I spent the evening making chicken soup from scratch and it turned out liquid gold.

So today is Friday. I went through a final edit on my Lara Croft article with my buddy John, and then sent it to the Rightgrrl founders. Tonight I’m going to Pleasant Hill to see my friend Dean, who I’ve known since we were freshmen in high school and I was taller than him.

Ever since that time he’s talked of wanting to do nothing but fly for the Air Force. He got his wings on October 2, 1998 and my heart just swells for his accomplishment.

It’s just been amazing.This week has gotten to the point where whenever I get in my truck and turn on the radio, one of my favorite songs has just begin playing. It’s crazy.

I think I know where some of this is coming from. The past few weeks I’ve made it a goal to make my faith a daily part of my life. Many of my friends have come to a similar point, and so I’ve had many discussions about it. I’m praying every day before I get up, and all the way to my final BBB negotiation meeting I kept repeating, “I will fear no evil, for THOU ART WITH ME!” The phrase and its spirit simultaneously calmed and exhilarated me.

So with that, I wish you all a satisfying and fulfilling Halloween weekend. May your next week be as good as this week has been for me!