10 posts tagged “work”
Great news. We-Care.com made USA Today's Technology Live Blog!
So, Laurel The Penguin (not to be confused with Laurel The Person) is adapting well to life in Manhattan. (Despite a short-lived affair with an actor that really broke her heart.) There's a costume wholesaler a few floors below our office. My co-workers Bryan and Gina took Laurel down and bought her a Halloween costume. They also bought a smile to my face.
I have been a bad Vox neighbor. In the eight months I've lived in Brooklyn -- has it been eight months already -- I have barely blogged, rarely read others' blogs, and rarely commented. Truthfully, I've rarely logged in. I've thought about it. I've ridden the train home with great posts running through my head only to eat and pass out from exhaustion. I've missed blogging, and promise to put more effort into this little corner of the internet. And I've missed hearing from all of you.
So, here's the past eight months in a nut shell:
• February 1: Land in Newark, and stay with my dad while I apartment hunt.
• February 2: Go to my second cousin's bat mitzvah.
• February 3: Watch the Giants win the Superbowl!!!!!!
• February 4: Find my apartment on my second day of looking, and sign a lease on a one bedroom with a price tag that would be considered obscene elsewhere, but is a bargain here.
• Went in for the first of two MRI's which never should have been prescribed, but did freak me out.
• February 15: Move into my apartment, and begin the insane task of furnishing it, including two stressful trips to IKEA -- a special form of hell.
• February 18 — Start my new job as General Manager of We-Care.com, a startup company.
• Start a whirlwind romance that crashed in 3 weeks (or was it 2?).
• Realized how fucking expensive NYC is. Really. I thought I knew, but it took some adjusting.
• Realized that my Start Up's product was not ready for prime time, as previously believed.
• March - July — Rebranded, re-architected, redesigned, rebuilt, and relaunched We-Care.com.
• August 1: We-Care.com is live. Shortly after, I take a much needed vacation, but really don't relax because I can't stop thinking about work.
• Realized what Start Up meant: lack of sleep, stress, uncertainty, and the need to do a whole lot with very little. Gratefully, I had a great staff (of two), amazing interns, and very supportive owners.
• March — Remembered that years of living away from here allowed me to forget what a difficult place NYC is to live — that's difficult as in realizing your 45 minute commute is only 4 miles.
• Found a therapist.
• Summer — Went on too many dates with too many rude, ill behaved women. Seriously, there are stories I could tell. (I also went on dates with some very nice women.) Began to wonder why I was spending large amounts of money on rude women, and decided I needed a break from dating.
• Labor Day Weekend: Finally finish decorating my apartment, so it looks like a home instead of a crash pad.
• September 20 — Go to Bob (my brother) and Mandi's wedding. It was possibly the nicesest wedding I've ever been to, and I've never seen my brother — the brother who said he'd never get married — this happy.
• Late September: Watched the economy crumble.
In all, I left 19 years of life in Minneapolis behind, and with it, 19 years of friendships, and all the places that felt familiar. I left a stable dead-end job for an uncertain one with lots of possiblities. I've learned what it's like to be lonely in a new place, and what it's like to slowly -- and it is slow -- build new relationships. I've become jaded about dating, worried about money, and very tired. I've revisioned and rebuilt a web product from the ground up in less than five months, with only two employees, two interns, and three contractors — and I'm damn proud of that (and the people who worked with me). And, I've learned that being close to my family is good and bad, but mostly good. (And I'd say "mostly good" even if I didn't know my dad read my blog.)
It will probably be two years before I can look back and say whether I'm glad I moved back here. But there is one thing I'm sure of: Not moving here would have always left me wondering.
Now, if anyone knows any single women in this area, roughly between 36-44, who don't want to be single, and aren't rude, inconsiderate, or blatently offensive, do let me know. ;-)
Tuxedo came home from NTC in DC with me, and has joined our staff. He's been trying to preach the virtues of open source software to my coworkers, and he's been finding it frustrating. Try explaining Joomla! to someone who doesn't know what HTML is, or going off on Linux only to find out your coworker doesn't understand what an OS is. I thought he was going to lose it when someone asked, "Isn't Windows part of the computer?" but he's amazingly patient.
He's also learning about Minnesotans. We road on two buses together, and nobody seemed to notice there was was a 3' 6" penguin on the bus.
Anyway, Tux has become a real part of the team, offering tips and filling in wherever he can. He's also spreading his penguin love around the office, and moral is up.
OK. I'm having a blast in DC -- in every sense. The workshops have been amazing. I've met with some really great potential employers. And today, work was followed by a reception, which was folowed by and after party (the conference folks slipped me some extra drink tickets, so i think I had 5-7 glasses of wine), which was followed by a bar in Adams Morgan. I got to flirt with a really beautiful woman, who, when I bought her a drink I explained it was biologically ingrained behavior for a guy to get the cute girl drunk. She said she didn't think I was supposed to tell her that, but she got a real kick out of it. And this is the first conference I've ever been to where the food was good.
If I wasn't drunk and exhausted, I'd be giddy.
Oh, and I got to bring Vox up in a Mash Up workshop this morning. Morning? Fuck. Got to sleep this off and get up.
ttfn.
OK. So, my room gets stocked daily with a Restoring Facial Bar and Renewing Body Lotion. I've been using them for three days now, and I've been neither restored or renewed. If anything, I feel worn down and exhausted. Can I refuse to pay the hotel for not following through on their claims?
It's 12:45 a.m. I need to be charming and a wake by the time I get to a breakfast hosted by our biggest funder at 7:30 a.m.
When I stopped back at my room around 8 p.m., I heard an odd clunking from the pipes. Hmmm. OK. I had a meeting, not time to think about it.
15 minutes ago, I was getting ready for bed, walked into the bathroom, noticed a sort of sulfur or rotting egg smell. Then looked in the bathtub and there was black ... um ... stuff around the drain. My bathtub is now being snaked.
I've had a muscle-tension headache for two days. I seem to be eating ibuprofen for most meals.
And they only server Starbucks coffee in the hotel. (Oh, wait, they "proudly" serve it.) Grrr. Starbucks over-roasts everything for that "strong" taste people love. I've been drinking a lot of chai.
At 6:30 room service will deliver a pot of Starbucks coffee, proudly I suppose. Why drink coffee I don't want? Opening the door for room service is the only way I'm sure I'll make it to breakfast.
And per diam is $52 per day. Not really that bad, when you consider 1) everything is covered except food, 2) federal guideline for Albuquerque is $49, and 3) some meals are included int the conference, but I think I could spend that amount of caffeine. Let's see ...
Morning pot of coffee with delivery: $7.50
afternoon ice-chai: $6
hot chai to get me through 9 p.m. meeting: $6
OK, not quite $52, but nearly $20.
Alas, I bitch and moan, but actually the conference is going well, the work is hard, but fun, and the hotel staff is really wonderful (dare I say, unusually nice, and I'm not the only one to notice this), and if only this damn headache would go away, I'd be happy.
I'm putting some cool photos on our website tomorrow. I just emailed them to my mobile blogging address, so they should be up soon.
Drain is done. Time for sleep. I must be charming in 6.5 hours.
Yes. It's been a day of introspection. The office was closed due to snow, but I was still there, at least from noon to 6 p.m. The end result, with nobody to bother me, I was able to catch up on email. I also nailed down some deals with printers. But I, by no means, feel caught up.
So, I'm changing careers. I'm going to be a dog, and I would love one of you to adopt me.
I do everything you want a dog to do:
- Sleep on the foot of your bed
- Remain unswayingly faithful
- Lick your ear while your trying to sleep
- Go for walks
- Lie around in a sun beam
- Remind you that you are loved after a bad day.
- Bark at people trying to break into your home (and hide under the bed if the actually come in)
I have other qualities that other dogs don't have. I ...
- Cook
- Pick out a bottle of wine
- Walk myself
- Drive and run errands
- Handle assorted tasks that require opposable thumbs.
- Use a bathroom
- Refrain from humping your friends legs
- Watch kids and other pets
- Tell people trying to break into your home to "get the fuck out before I call the police."
- Give good back and foot rubs (show me a spaniel that can pull that off)
Interested? Let me know. (Serious inquiries only.)
White boards are wonderful tools for outlining strategies. right? I mean, this makes perfect sense to you. Doesn't it?
