Job Job!

Today we're posting a new job opening, and I was asked to write about it in the company blog. I was tempted to post something like this:

But instead I posted it with the air of professionalism required of me:

Yeah, it's still kind of cheeky.

Decisions.

We ate food off the floor in China more often than we care to admit.

A Little List

As seen in other blogs, I now present: things that make me happy.

1. It's Friday!

2. I'm seeing a 1950's Japanese film with my husband at Foreign Film Night!

3. Modern Family

4. My new, personal Twitter account (work got me hooked . . . more to following celebrities than tweeting myself)

5. My new headband (is this a shout-out to Panache? Yes it is!).

Also, Seve and I went to the temple last night and had the most wonderful time. We hadn't been in four months (because, you know, Russia) and for some reason I was nervous to go. Like I was going to forget everything. But it wasn't like that at all; it was great, and rejuvenating.

Express Yourself (hey hey)

Dear Mid-January,

You've been good to me.

I've never seen Glee, but apparently an all-Madonna episode is coming up (thank you, Gawker).

I love Madonna. Not the current Madonna, but the 1991, Blonde Ambition, Girlie Show Madonna. You know, pointy booby bra and all that. And though I consider myself a pretty reserved, conservative person, the risqué Truth or Dare doesn't really bother me. It's more funny than anything. I don't consider sex in art to be pushing the envelope, because you can only go so far until the "surprise" is ruined and everything's just kind of said and done. It's limited material. I think sex in the media doesn't make it bad, it makes it trivial. That being said, Madonna's erotic antics of the 90's were super silly and it just . . cracks me up, haha.

I also love Michael Jackson. I grew up on Moonwalker.

This must be the place

Seve and I have moved back in to our apartment and I've been trying to really clean it out, organize and whatnot. As much as I love our place, there's no ignoring the fact that it's teeny tiny. Seve's been trying to remind me that we really don't own that much stuff, it just seems that way because of the little space we're given. We got a new bed that we love, but it's so big in comparison to the bedroom that I think they're having a silent battle for dominance and the bed is winning. I think it gets bigger every time I wake up.

While cleaning out I've come across little trinkets and memories of my life in Oregon, which are strange and not necessarily welcome. Oregon was a weird, naive, selfish time in my life that I'm glad has ended. I was a big jerk in Oregon and now I'm a, I don't know, grown up, in Idaho/China/Russia and beyond. But I guess I owe it Oregon for helping me with the growing up part.

And now for my favorite song:

Oh, dreamweaver!

There's something to be said for just going for it. So far at work I've been pretty conservative with my ideas, thinking that's where my team wanted me to be. But when yesterday's meeting didn't go so hot, I just decided to throw caution to the wind (and cliches . . . oh, wait . . .) and develop an idea that, in all honesty, was just silly and cheeky.

Yeah, uh, they loved it.

So, I think I'm going to spread my wings here and take my copywriting-flight to the next level. Like heaven or something.

Actually, I was so focused yesterday on my idea that my creative juices are really spent today. I can't get my mind to harbor any of the things bouncing around in there, thus this detour for a blog post. I guess I'll just start looking up more trade shows to attend until I can harness my thoughts. Currently two members of our team are at a show in London. I'd be jealous, except I just got back from Moscow myself.

Death Bear

You've got to check this out.

Also, before Russia I signed up for Harlequin's Teen Reader Panel (pretending to be a 16-year-old version of myself just so I could be on the panel) to receive new books to be "test read" for my opinion before they are sold to the masses. Currently reading Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder. Unfortunately, this book arrived at my American doorstep sometime during my adventure in Russia, so I missed out on the whole chatting with Harlequin part, and the book is already released (and already "new and improved" from the copy I have). Looks like my 16-year-old opinionated reader self will just have to wait for the next book and panel chat.

For those wondering why I fake I.D.'d my age to join a panel that belongs to, of all publishers, Harlequin, answer: BECAUSE IT'S FUNNY!

Home again, home again

For those who haven't heard, the Kiev trip was less than stellar. The best way I can sum it up is in one particular experience: the electrichna, or electric train. It had plush seats, so we figured its overnight ride wouldn't be that bad. But the seats were back to back, and didn't recline. The frost on the windows extended to really being just lots of frost on the seats. That we were sitting on. And we were sitting by the doors, which couldn't lock and slid open and closed all night so we had snow hitting us in the face. And I didn't even get to sit with Seve. Instead I sat the whole ride next an old man who farted the whole time.

Le sigh.

But Kiev really was a beautiful, amazing city. And we were able to visit Lutsk, which I liked even better. I even made some pen pals.

Also, I started my job this week! To put my duties plainly: write scripts for ads, create flyers, design brochures, write customer case studies, look up 100 trade shows to attend this year, create a Big Idea for our sponsored baseball event in June, create PR buzz for our official release of . . . shh! It's a secret. On a funnier note, I also update the Twitter, our official Blog, and maintain the Facebook.

Coming back to America has been a big whirlwind, though.