I have put a stupid number of hours into NAJ Themes. (a few minutes until I hit 300 hours…)
Not “I tinkered with it over the weekend” hours. I mean days that somehow became nights, nights that became mornings, and stretches of 17-plus-hour workdays spent building, testing, breaking, rebuilding, questioning every decision I have ever made, and occasionally questioning whether computers should have been invented at all.
I have slept 1.5 hours in 48 hours, if that helps you understand how I am a slave to inspiration.
I have also had to start over a few times.
There is nothing quite like pouring yourself into something, finally believing you can see the finish line, and then discovering that the structurally sound thing to do is turn around, walk all the way back to the beginning, and rebuild the damn thing properly.
It must be nice to have a whole development team helping with something like this.
I wouldn’t know.
My team consists of me, my ideas, and an unnamed AI who is currently experiencing the digital equivalent of having its name badge confiscated.
That’s it. That’s the staff meeting.
Still, somehow, two of my four sites are now completed.
MoonlitHub.com has its client backend and portal ready for my web hosting, custom work, and business solutions business. It isn’t just an idea anymore, before, I had no way to take care of my clients without paying massive money for plugins. It is built, organized, and ready to do what I created it to do.
NobodyAskedJudy.com is also essentially complete. At this point, that site mostly needs updates, new opinions, and whatever whims possess me next. In other words, it is functioning exactly as intended.
That leaves NAJ Themes and its demo site – the two projects currently eating the remaining hours of my life.
But tomorrow, I am taking at least a little time (or a day) for football.
I am looking forward to collecting the 12-pack of Dr Pepper I am going to win from Proverticus when the Vikings beat the Packers. The bet is also in memory of our late best friend, which makes the game mean more than bragging rights and carbonated treasure.
My actual team is the Dallas Cowboys, and I will absolutely be watching their games. I have priorities, even if my recent browser history suggests those priorities are WordPress errors, theme architecture, and increasingly aggressive search terms.
But the best part of football season isn’t even football.
It is getting extra daytime hours with Ramses. Those hours are bonuses football season gives me, and I treasure every one of them.
So yes, I am exhausted. I have restarted more than once. I am doing the work of an entire team without actually having one, and there are still two sites left to finish.
But two out of four are done.
The other two are getting there.
And tomorrow, there will hopefully be football, Ramses, bragging rights, a memorial to someone we still miss, and a free 12-pack of Dr Pepper.
Honestly, that is a pretty damn good halftime.