The grind explained

For anyone who's wondering, the small (15 employees) company I work for publishes and distributes newsletters for homeowners' associations, small cities, neighborhoods, etc. I design ads, lay out newsletters, update the website (sort of), offer pranking suggestions, and keep the profanity to a minimum in my general vicinity. I got this job by Google-mapping "publishing" and showing up completely unsolicited with my resume, which is pretty nerve-racking; you should try it. (I did this at several places, and you would think it would get easier each time. Nope: each time I sat in the car thinking, "What am I doing!?") The job they happened to have open in September wasn't for me, but they surprised me by following up in February with an offer I couldn't refuse. So I quit my previous job after being there only three months and I haven't looked back. It was Divine intervention with a capital D.

PS - Scotty, do you note the green garb in the first picture below? That's right--I'm still sporting my Green Gladiators shirt. Green team for life!

The grind part II

My new* job is about as good as 40 hours a week can possibly be.

• I’ve managed to be pretty dang organized. (It helps when you get to start from scratch, and you don’t inherit someone else’s disorganization.)
• Multitasking rocks.
• We can have a heated work discussion involving raised voices and cussing** and then we’re all still friends two minutes later.
• I found out that you can listen to too much NPR.
• Try Pandora.com and love it.
• I went to Italy for a month and still had a job when I got back.
• It takes 10 minutes to drive to work, including dropping Mark off.
• All-expenses paid trip for a conference in L.A. ...what?!
• I can wear jeans.
• Or shorts.
• And T-shirts.
• Chacos every. single. day.
• I pretty much come and go when I please as long as I total 40 hours a week.
• Did I mention I went to Italy for a month? Is that crazy or what!?
• Office politics? The politics around here involve who can talk loudest in the staff meeting.
• Projects, projects, projects. I do projects all day long.
• Can you say Adobe CS3? I’m in love.
• I have zero formal training in what I do, but it’s what I love to do, and I get paid to do it, and every day I learn something new. It's a beautiful cycle.
• Humans are not meant for little windowless offices with buzzing fluorescent lights, but when I’ve got my own music, the ability to shut the door, and no one cares that I never turn on the light anyway, I’ll take it.
• They decided to add fish to my fishbowl:

• Office pranks abound (like the toilet papering, stuffing a couch into the little office, messing with shortcuts on the computer, and an asbestos warning waiting for me when I got back from vacation):

I’m pretty happy here.

*new being newER. Um, 5 months new.
**Though tempting, I never cuss.

Dear...Someone Connected with This Address

This was waiting for us in our stack of mail when we got back from Italy. I enjoyed it so much that I really wanted to keep it, but I'll document it here instead.

It came in this envelope:
(front)
(back)


Here's the meat of it:
[click to enlarge]

Here's the "rug" in question (really a 10x16 piece of paper):


I was supposed to send it back (the next morning) in this:




Also included were some product offers:

...and testimonials:

I think that anything that helps someone to sincerely draw nearer to the Lord is a good thing on some level. But questionable grammar, alarming punctuation, and creative underlining deserve a good ribbing.

Long Sunday Walks

I told Mark I was getting a ride home from church so he could keep the car for his presidency meeting. But he forgot about that and got a ride instead. And he was home for almost 10 minutes before he realized it. "Um, guess where the car is right now..."

Long pause. Cue laughter.

"You're a moron."


By the way, it takes about 40 minutes to walk from our apartment to the church at a moderate pace, which is a lot longer than I had anticipated. But it was a lovely walk!