Burnout while waiting

waiting does suck, surprisingly I didn't have to wait long I thought I wouldn't have her by May, but she came in 8 days

 

I got the shipping notice for my first doll today. On the absolute worst day EVAR for my son's behavior - he had an hour tantrum earlier, and then there was a lot of conflict with an acquaintance that resulted in some more unpleasantness. I'm trying to be excited, but there's just something about getting the notice today of all days... It's really soured it for me. I hope I can be happy about her when she arrives.

 

I think the wait teaches an important value, afterall patience is a virtue...right? lol Unfortunately for me I get exhausted and lose interest when I wait for over a month. I stop looking for the coveted tracking number or the ready to ship statement. I just go on with life till one day I hear a knock on my door and lo and behold there is a huge box holding that very expensive doll that I waited 6 plus months for sitting on my living room floor asking me to breath life into my new hunk of resin. Is the wait obnoxious? Heck yes! But if you think about it these companies are making a special doll just for me, they are casting a full doll just for me and that makes me feel rather ok with waiting a few weeks to over a year.

 

I actually just finished my sixth week of waiting for my doll. I still have 4 or 5 more weeks to go but even so, I'm really excited about it. I try not to think about how long I have before my doll arrives. I actually concentrate on other things to keep me busy, which works since I have cosplays to do and such. But what helps me cope better with the wait, even though I'm a rather patient person, I just ordered what I need one by one. I just ordered her wig and wig cap and waiting for those to arrive. Then after they do, I'm going to buy her shoes. And then after they arrive, I'll get the eyes I've been dying to get. It actually helps a lot in preparing for the doll as well as with keeping myself from getting "burnt out" from the wait.

 

My wait was only around 3.5 weeks, and I. Was. Terrible. I will admit that I'm a little bit of a compulsive buyer. Don't ask me about what I've done, just trust me on this one. I'm usually used to stuff coming in three or four days from US companies, and anything overseas takes FOREVER because of customs delays. The whole BJD ordering experience was totally foreign and new to me, no matter how much I read, or thought I knew.

It actually started off before I even paid for her.

Once I decided to save for her, I started getting these weird, naked BJD dreams... it was something I had been wanting for a while, and never thought I'd ever be able to save for. After a week, the dreams went away, but I got super invested in DoA.

SUPER invested.

I wanted to know absolutely everything about the doll I intended to buy: shipping times, company reputation; how were the dolls? Were they hard to string? Were clothes easy to find for them? How well do they pose? I wanted to know how to protect my doll from stains, and yellowing. I wanted to learn how to sew.

I probably drove some people crazy in the Dollmore waiting room saying that "It's been two weeks, and it still says 'before shipping!!!'" Yeah, I knew most of the time people wait months (something I don't see myself doing, ever), but I was new at the game. I didn't know that Dollmore meant 7-15 days BEFORE they shipped her out. Once they changed her shipping info to "shipment completed", she was here in 4 days.

I felt totally unprepared. I didn't have some stuff that everyone tells you to get, but it's not an issue yet - except for a carry case to let me sneak my doll from home to school (so my parents didn't tell me not to, with a list of reasons).

 

First doll was agony. I'm only two weeks into waiting for doll number two so I can not claim to be an expert. I do find though that the second doll is much easier to wait for then the first one. I was expecting about two months, but got lucky on doll one with a one month wait. Then I didn't even know what to expect and was on pins and needles. Now I am having fun planning. I hope I don't get burned out waiting the rest of the time.

Either way I don't think when you get your doll burn out will be a problem. Have fun! The wait will make it so worth while to hold get your doll in your arms.

 

I received my first bjd 5 days ago. I was fine with the wait*, up until the time she shipped. There were huge (well, they felt huge at the time) lags between tracking updates. I went from being ridiculously excited to being downright snarly. I had to remind myself to chill the hell out, because I didn't want her arrival to be tainted by my own bad attitude.

Now she's curled up in her very own rocking chair, petting her very own mallard duck decoy (I do my best), and looking so friendly and at home that I feel silly about ever having been cranky.

*spent buying wigs and other goodies for da bebe

 

from my experience... it doesnt get any better. The first doll is TERRIBLE to wait for, but once you have them you have at least one to keep you busy while others are in the mail.. but still... often times while im waiting for one doll im already planning the next one lol its a vicious cycle really.. but still i love them all and waiting for that naked little resinoid to come a knocking on my door is the most exciting part of the hobby

 

No, I've had long waits for the majority of my dolls, probably averaging 3 months each... so I've gotten used to waiting. The wait only bothers me until I actually have the doll in hand, at which point I cease to care about how long the wait was. It's a sort of idiot-Zen-savant path to serenity.

I don't stalk tracking numbers, I don't check my shipping status until it's getting close to shipping-time, I try to ignore the calendar completely. Sometimes I join Waiting Room threads for general squee-support, sometimes not. And if, at some point during a heinously-long wait, I forget that I'm waiting for something... so much the better! When the doll arrives, I am always happy to see him, and so far I've never been disappointed with what I receive. Much of the time, I don't even remember the circumstances that surrounded his shipping-notice/ arrival day/ journey home from the pickup / etc. (having a rotten short-term memory only contributes to the success of an idiot-Zen-savant).


Still, those eBay sales where I had the doll in hand within a week, or those local sales where I got to just go across town to hand over the money & pick up the doll, those waitless sales-- those were pretty sweet. ^^

 

I ordered a Soom Amber when she originally come out in January 09, and I didn't receive a shipping notice until November 09. Needless to say, I fell out of love with her by the time she got here, and sold her to a close friend. I regretted it ever since and have only just recently bought a second hand Amber from the marketplace.
So yes, I did get burnt out while waiting, and still do. While I'm not normally such a fickle person, I just find I go in and out of phases when it comes to waiting or dolls. Strange really..

 

With my first three dolls, and even the fourth I was incredibly patient and went about daily life as though nothing were any different. I'd draw, paint, scheme about what outfits to buy and what shoes would look best. I spent a great deal of time finding out anything and everything about the sculpt I was buying, thus I was so preoccupied with preparations that the wait became non existant.

Then came my fifth. My grail doll. After putting money away for over a year, I bought her from a lovely user here on DoA and had her sent to stay with a friend in Wisconsin while I got the shipping fees together to have her sent to Iceland. I thought everything would be peachy keen, and that my girl would be home around the middle of october, however Icelandic customs (after being told by the government that their plea for more money was going to go unanswered) decided to increase their already unreasonable charges. My girl is still being taken good care of in Wisconsin and she'll be sent to the UK at the end of this month, so I'll probably get her around christmas time.

I was really looking forward to her arrival, and whilst I'm burnt out because of the wait and the niggling issues I know that when I actually have her I'll adore her and spoil her just as much as the others :3

I'm also waiting on a Resinsoul Bei, ordered through Featherfall as a Christmas present for my little sister. I really do try not to check the order status obsessively as it's only been a month and Featherfall cited a 45 business day waiting period, but there's always the niggling worry that even though I thought I'd ordered the doll in good time, she won't arrive in time. I'll be so dissapointed if my sister gets a box with just the wig, eyes, clothes and shoes in. The gift I wanted her to open will only be half complete. x.x

 

I waited a *horrendous* 109 days for my girl. I hadn't been in the hobby very long when I ordered her, and although I knew wait times were long I didn't think it would be much more than 60 or 70 days. Unfortunately it wasn't. I spent most of my waiting time ranting in the Dollzone Waiting room, hehe

 

It's extremely difficult for me. I find it's much easier to order a doll during school, because then from 9-3 I'm in school and have something to keep my mind off it, and then when I get home I have homework to do. I also just got a job, so that will help me pay off my debt to my parents for my incoming doll and also keep my mind occupied.

Talking with other doll owners I find also helps, because it helps me get out all of that pent out doll excitement through talking about them.

 

I am so with you on this right now! Before ordering from Bambicrony, the longest wait I had was about 1.5 months. But tomorrow I'll have been waiting 3 months for my doll, and so far it's been 26 working days longer than the estimate on the product's page. It's really frustrating because other people who ordered similar things are having a month long turnaround... Apparently they didn't order enough of all of the pieces of the fullset, so I'm waiting on the whole order.

 

the waiting times really make me ...tired of waiting. but when they're here, i'll just forget about the wait. then i'll just go crazy over my dolls. Haha.

but i have a cycle when waiting. like, in the beginning, i'll check obsessively, then after a while (2 weeks or so) i'll ask myself to stop checking. and erm, by then, something should have arrived. haha. but yeah. if i had to wait longer, i'll probably want to have some distraction at hand. the net gets boring when you're on it almost the whole day. school holidays are ... wasted on things like surfing the net. lol.

 

Having experienced real live clinical burnout (the fun condition where the name came from) I think I can safely say that what we experience waiting for dolls is NOTHING even close to burnout.

Loss of interest? Discouragement? Anger when the wait turns into utterly ridiculous amounts of time and you're not getting any kind of response from the other end? Yep. Boredom, change of plans, buyer's remorse -- all of it. Yep, I've been there waiting.

and nope, it's nothing at all like burnout. Trust me on this one. If you haven't been there, you not only don't want to know, you're a fortunate person indeed.

On the other hand -- the word is a handy little "you know what I mean" to use. Like "bonding" and so many other things we toss around in dolly-code.

Just thought I'd point out that there is another whole dimension to it...

 

Yes! A topic I can relate to!
I am still saving for my first doll but also I am awaiting for me to be an active member for 25 days so I can finally access the marketplace so I can have a look around to see if there is a doll already there and would like to get adopted ! The money saving process some days is burning me out and other days I am just fine as long as I keep working and saving o.o. I guess it depends honestly of what "mood" I'm in that day.
It has already been close to 2 and a half weeks already since I have started saving for my first doll and it's really getting to me. I am glad though since this hobby is truly teaching me patience. I had a lot of it years ago but now I feel like I want things "now now now!" cause now a days we get things that are fast and don't have to wait much. And when we DO wait its so painful that we get frustrated. I am thankful since patience truly is a virtue and I am still learning. Also, since it's my first doll I want to hold my first friend/child badly and take photos and even show her off to my family. Nothing is wrong with that of course. Just need to learn patience. Thank you for sharing this thread with us!

 

Wow! I'm so sorry to hear about your experience with clinical burnout, Baakay...sounds like an absolute nightmare to have to go through.

And to think, I don't even do very well with the mild dolly kind of "burnout". Problem is I just can't stand not to be upbeat and happy, so I've trained my brain over time to focus on creative pursuits to get me through long bouts of waiting. (And I've developed an entire repertoire of them.) I'll run for the power tools immediately to create a new display space for my incoming doll, then go about the lengthy process of decorating it a little every day over time. I'll make clothing and search for the perfect eyes, the perfect wigs. I'll haunt baby name sites looking for the perfect name and think endlessly about their characterization...what their story will be, how they'll interact within their display space, how they'll interact with my other dolls. I'll go on DoA and hang out in discussion threads for my incoming doll. I'll hang out in the gallery here and amass a clip file of inspiring faceup possibilities (multiple examples of possible eye shading, lips, etc.) Basically, anything to keep me upbeat, happy and creatively active along the way. For me, it's a way of enjoying my doll even before they get here!

 

I'm much more likely to get burned out before ordering the doll, rather than while waiting. Sometimes it takes so long to save up, and by the time I'm ready to order, I look at the doll again and go "Huh... not really what I thought I wanted." And then I order something else.

 

I start burning out straight after ordering/buying a doll. Plus I get anxiety. It's terrible.