It's HOT

All Together Now
Work picked up again this week, but it's been great. We've had a whole week to brainstorm and work on theme and image solutions for an upcoming show. We have 4 really solid concepts and I'm excited for Tuesday's presentation.

In my job at Science Devices International, my design director constantly made remarks about how I wasn't acting like a senior designer. She wanted me to go off into my cube and come out with The Solution. I've realized that my style is much more collaborative. This week has been perfect. I've had three other people involved who each came up with great concepts. Once I started putting the pieces together, I got other ideas to further what they'd begun. In the end, it's to the entire department's credit, not mine. I like it better that way; plus, the client gets much better options.

On-line hook-up attempts
When we moved here and decided to share a car, it really limited my ability to climb. If I have the car, that means I also have to walk the dog, so I can't head to the gym after work. If I don't have the car, then I have to ride 1-2 miles from the train station to the gym. For over a year, I was ok with not climbing. I waited and hoped that Jrex might decide he'd like nothing better than climbing with me (thus far, nope). Going to Yosemite changed all that. As I watched groups of women with wiry arms pulling gear out of their cars, when I looked up at the most amazing cliffs I've ever seen, while I played around on the rocks every where we hiked, I realized how profoundly I miss it. I discovered that if I don't climb outside while living in California, I will regret it the rest of my life. I try to live without those kinds of regrets, so, I posted an ad on Craigslist so I can meet up with some strangers. Crazy!

I said I was out of shape for climbing, but when I was in shape was doing 5.10's. I've only had three responses, one woman and two men. I did specify that I was married and in my 30's (lest anyone get funny notions). They all sound like great potential partners. The woman is also out of shape and was climbing at a similar level when she was in shape so she's my first choice. She had to cancel on me tonight, but that's fine--it was 106 degrees when I rode my bike to the train--I'd rather just stay home tonight. We've got another time scheduled for next week.

When all the on-line community stuff started happening, before I was a part of it, I thought anyone with an on-line life was a loner. Like they couldn't handle the real world. What I've discovered instead is that it's made my circle much wider than ever before. Since 10th grade, I've been comfortable going up to strangers to start a conversation. This is just a different format.

Do these Girl Scout cookies make my butt look big?

They say it takes 21 days to break a habit. I find that 40 seems to work for me. Each year I look around at my life and find the one thing that's begun to dominate my time or my thinking, and give that up for Lent.

One year it was TV. I'd reached the point where Jrex would come home from work and I wouldn't go say hi and would get pissy when he came to the TV room to say hello to me, "Wait 'til ____ is over!" I saw that and thought, "Hmm...warped? Yes. Acceptable? No." So I just stopped watching it. Ever since, it hasn't had the same hold over my time.

Another year I gave up novels. Read lots of magazines, watched lots of movies, but no novels. With that one, I'd reached a state where I read a novel every day or two. My job was boring, the computer files I worked with were huge, and my computer didn't have enough RAM. I'd read as a file opened, as I applied a filter, changed a color or saved. I saved frequently!

The hardest year was the one where I gave up all forms of media. I decided that for 40 days, the only thing I would read was the Bible. I didn't watch movies or TV either. I know I'm supposed to tell you it's my favorite book and how much I love it, but it's just not true. I usually read to get away from my life and reading the Bible is NOT brain-dead reading.

This year, I gave up sweets. I'd started going by the receptionist's desk just to raid her chocolate stash. Anything that was brought into the department, I 'had' to eat. I 'had' to have chocolate and pecans for dessert. I 'deserved' that sweet snack. On and on. In many ways this has been my least constructive fast: I'm breaking a habit, but not really altering my character much. However, it's been the most public one. Someone at work bought 30 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to help out her niece. They've been EVERYWHERE. All the people in my department know I've given up sweets for Lent. We eat together too often for me to get away with not eating sweets 'just because'. At meeting after meeting, the Girl Scout cookies are on the table and one of the other Creatives is laughing at me because I look so wistful.

It's been an interesting conversation starter. I'm sure most people assume I'm Catholic. The truth is, I'm following my Mom's footsteps and being a magpie of traditions. Fasting is one of the spiritual disciplines and I've seen how powerful it can be. The 'season of Lent' has become a convenient time to reconfigure my character.

I must say, Easter and the eruption of LIFE has taken on a whole new level of joy since I started my Lenten 'celebration'. Usually by Easter I can receive back the thing I gave up as a gift instead of demanding it as a 'right'. I tell ya, that box of Thin Mints in the freezer is sounding like a mighty fine gift! ;-)

WAY too much info for the men...

I'm telling you now, Dad, Uncle Quip, Uncle Deer Slayer, move away from this blog post. Do not proceed any further...

(though, Uncle Quip, as a family doc, this might be good to pass on to your patients)

Saturday morning, Snickollet mentioned The Diva Cup in this post. I checked out the website and decided I should try it. An easy bike ride gets me to a Whole Foods which sells it. However, as a woman skilled at Good Intentions with little follow-through, I would have normally have forgetten about it by Sunday.

Friday night I'd called Workaholic's Wife to see if she had time to hang out on Saturday. This new friend is married to a guy who runs a start-up company. She's struggled a great deal with what marriage is supposed to look like when an 'early' dinner is at 7:30 pm. Hey, welcome to my world, sistah! Needless to say, she was quite happy (and available) to hang out.

Now, SHE's the one who suggested window shopping at Anthropologie and wandering around Palo Alto. The fact that we walked by Whole Foods on the very same day as my Diva Cup Discovery meant that she had to endure my quest to procure it. I told her what I was looking for and was surprised she'd heard of it from another friend. She said, "You have to let me know if it works. They must be really popular if I've heard about it from more than one person," she paused as a thought struck her, "Oh wait, we live in California."

[Gentlemen: Don't complain that I didn't warn you.]

All that is to tell you that my cycle started today and I LOVE The Cup. You only have to change it twice a day, no risk of Toxic Shock, no leaking, no more land-fill contributions, no risk of running out of supplies and no smell. I can't really run around work and evangelize my new discovery, so I'm inflicting it on you. As Snick said, 'you have to be comfy with your girly parts, but then, shouldn't we all be comfortable with them?' I feel like I've entered a whole new era of freedom from the tyranny of Bloody Bondage!!

OK. Sorry. I got a little carried away there. Um. What I meant to say was, you should check it out. NOW! I mean, that is, if you want to.

Aaaaannnnndddd more news only interesting to me...

Email from the headhunter:

Just wanted to touch base with you. I have heard very positive feedback from [Company Initials] regarding your interview. They are looking to hopefully make a decision by the end of the week. I will be in touch as soon as I have more information.

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The good news is that they gave her the positive feedback BEFORE the Fabulous Hand-made Thank You cards that I sent on Friday.

This one is for the first guy I interviewed with. Content/Concept: 'I would love to continue the conversation.'

For the nice California-man. Concept: 'I'd love to work among such able craftsmen.'

For Cynical Man of the famous "What scares you?" line of questions. Concept: 'I would love to join such strategic thinkers.'

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What? What's the job, you ask? Here's Earnest Man's answer when I asked what they were looking for:

"Well, there are a lot of great designers out there. We know that, our clients know that. In many ways we're forging new design territory. We're more than just trade show or event designers. Instead of our clients coming to us to say, 'here's what we want', we're going to them to say, 'this is what you should do'. We need someone who can think strategically, who can design where nothing exists, who can write phantom text and then design around it. Someone who can interact directly with clients with persuasive pitches, who can work with a team but then run with it individually."

I continued with another well-articulated, scinillating question while inside I was jumping up and down, "It's me!! Pick ME!"

At least I used the insomnia well

I never, well hardly ever, dream about work. Last night I woke up from a dream about a job I don't even have. I dreamt I returned for a third interview and brought with me a former client from Baltimore, Ms. Intensity. I kept asking her to tell them how far above and beyond the call of duty I'm willing to go in my work. In the dream, everything seemed normal. For some reason though, I woke myself up. Once awake I realized what was bugging me:

Ms. Intensity is dead.

In fact, she had an aneurysm during one of our client meetings. It was nothing I said, really!

The short version is that we got her to the local hospital just before the aneurysm burst. We'd called an ambulance while she was moaning that her neck hurt. When she broke out into a cold sweat, I told RyGuy to bring my car around, then my boss carried Ms. Intensity out to my car. While murmuring, "Keep talking to me, Ms. Intensity" and checking both ways at red lights, I didn't stop once on the way to the hospital. My boss carried her into the ER and while we were filling in the triage nurse, "Smoker, post-menopausal, hormone replacements...", Ms. Intensity's head came back and her pupils dilated. They rushed her and me to a room and I stood in the corner re-telling her symptoms while they stripped her clothes. My last memory of my client, and my friend, is of her lying under the white glare in her matching black bra and panties.

Understandably, seeing her in my dream was enough to flash a red light to my subconscious. Wake up!! Something is NOT right.

Is it a bad sign that I'm already dreaming about this job? I did go to sleep thinking about what I wanted to do for the three thank you cards. Three guys grilling me with questions like, "What are you scared of?" "If you weren't in a creative field, what would you be doing?" "What's on your iPod?" means I get to make three cards. After the dream I couldn't fall back asleep, so I spent the rest of the night working on the cards. The Mutt sighed copiously and repeatedly during our exile from her nice, dark bedroom.

Here's where I need help: they haven't called me back. The interview was Tuesday. I got the interview through a head hunter and she hasn't told me it's a NO, but hasn't called with any encouraging news, either. How long before I hide in my room in a black despair? (I really want this job. It sounds like a great fit for my skills and interests.) Is it normal to wait this long before you say, "We love her!"? I'll be sending the cards tonight, but otherwise all I can do is wait. Sighing copiously.