The Annual Frenzy, and Belly Flops

Being a Stampin' Up! Demo definitely has its advantages - previews of new stuff, getting discounts on our habit, boxes arriving at our doorsteps on a regular basis, supplying our faithful customers, etc. But at this time of year, it is sheer frenzy. What do you think will be in the new catalog? ... Do you have yours yet? ... Who do you think will get theirs first? ... If you get yours before me, will you share the new secrets? ... Should we read the SPOILER threads? ... Should we be surprised? ... Do we really have nothing else to do but TALK ABOUT THIS?!?!?!

Every year I say I will NOT get caught up in the frenzy, and so far, so good. I am actually not reading the SCS Demo Forums. They even set up a separate forum just for New Catalog Chatter, and people are STILL posting new-catalog threads in the regular chatter forum, so I had to look away...there is simply nothing else to read there!

I told myself I'd get my catalog when I get it, and there is nothing I can do to speed that up. Same with the pre-ordered boxes of catalogs - they'll get here when they get here. I actually feel much better about the whole thing, too. Really, I do!

Until today. On my way home, as I was sitting on the expressway (what a misnomer!) trying to figure out why we were STILL not moving, I happened to look over to the Local lanes and saw a Brown Truck. My first thought was, "Oh, NO! He's broken down! Could that be my UPS guy!??!?!? Does he need help!?!?! Should I try to take out some of that excess weight from the back of his truck?!?!" Turns out he was just stopped in traffic, too. Ahem...

Then, as I pulled onto my street, my UPS guy WAS PARKED IN FRONT OF MY DOOR!!!!! WITH BOXES!!!! Oh, sorry...forgot myself there for a sec. Then I realized he was moving too quickly to be carrying boxes of catalogs, and I spotted my much-anticipated box of Belly Flops in his arms.

This is still a good thing. You see, I seem to have single-handedly addicted the people at work to Jelly Belly jelly beans. And we're not talking about 5 or 10 people...more like a LOT of people! And at $16 a bag, shipped direct from jellybelly.com, of course, I was starting to feel the pinch. Then one day, I got some SPAM (aka: Marketing email) from jellybelly.com telling me they now had their outlet store online. YAY! I checked it out, and they sell Jelly Belly seconds called Belly Flops. Big bags, and at half the price of the regular Jelly Belly's, I jumped all over that baby!

Now I have them all hooked on Belly Flops because you really never know what to expect - weird sizes and shapes...way more fun than those plain ole' boring regular-shaped ones that are just different flavors! Bah to that, we say!

So anyway, the arrival of my latest shipment of Belly Flops will be warmly-received tomorrow by my co-workers, especially since we are down to our last 1/2 bag.

As for those catalogs, they'll get here when they get here. (Did you hear a truck ... 'scuse me...)