The rise of the Temp!

As stated in the previous post, I have been offered a fulltime position at McCann. I’m pretty stoked about it. The position isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but I’d rather be a salaried proofer than a copywriter hopeful. The whole thing is pretty surreal actually. The guy that hired me made it clear that the position wasn’t a dead end. He told me that people get maxed out in positions and need to move to other things and that was totally ok with the agency. And today one of the art directors I sent my portfolio to here at McCann came over and told me he liked my portfolio. He told me that proofers get a lot of over-flow writing assignments and all I needed to do was ask to be included. He also said that a lot of the current writing staff started as proofers. So that is really encouraging.

Advertising is a volatile industry, but I’m pretty sure Micorsoft, Verizon Wireless, Exxon mobile, and GM will continue to advertise so I think I’m pretty secure. Last night I slept better than I have in a long time. I always had the nagging suspicion that I wouldn’t have a job in the morning. But my mind is at ease now that I have an actual salaried position. We can pick up our plans again, which is fantastic. We are looking at houses again and are hoping to be in a new domicile sooner than later. Things are good. I’m super excited to be working fulltime again and to be able to think further in the future than next week.

And for the record, yes my situation is not dissimilar from that of a certain famous (now infamous) Pennsylvanian temp. He enjoyed a meteoric rise to the big time with a new office and airbrushed 5 O’clock shadow. I’m not going to say I’ve experienced meteoric success (Yet. I’m coming for you Steve Jobs!). I have, however, been given a new desk; interpret as you will (in your face Dilbert!). As for the 5 O’clock shadow, come on I’m an Ormond, I eat 5 O’clock shadows for breakfast (so does my razor). I’m going for the solar-eclipse-on-a-leap-year-shadow. Or if I dare (and I do) the center-of-a-theoretical-but-empircally-proven-blackhole-shadow (so that’s why all matter is attracted to my face). Anyone want a cheesy quesadilla? I’ve got one cooking in the microwave right now…oh man!

Yay Josh!

Josh is no longer the sexy temp (ill let Josh explain, but if you watch the office you know what i mean)!
He is full time at McCann Erickson!!!

Indie Music

So this week I stumbled upon Stuff White People Like.com and I found this article. This site is absoultly hilarious. Its scartastic and really hits to the core of well, stuff white people like. So I found this article called #41 Indie Music.

I am totally in Love with Indie Music. It is my ultimate favorite because its awesome. Josh and I are pretty much guilty of everything this article brings up. I just find it really funny.

I'll admit it. I'm a music snob. I know what I like and I like it because it creative. I find Rap/hip hop/R&B and (most) Pop Music to be equivalent to McDonalds. Yes Mcdonalds. Its cheap, not that tasty, and you can get (hear) it anywhere.

Ex: Lil Waynes - Lollipop song. Ground breaking...NO! Im pretty sure hes not actually referring to a "lollipop" in his song. Yep, just like Mcdonalds. Down right disgusting.

A day in the life

Mandy inspired me to do a “day in the life” blog entry. So here goes. You are all aware of my current employment situation and let me tell you being laid-off isn’t as glamorous as you think. It’s like a lumberjack sawing through the trunk of your ego and then two weeks later sending you pieces of your bark (they call that severance)—way fun. Anyway I am now a “temp” (that’s short for employed prostitute) at McCann Erickson, which is one of the largest ad agencies in the world. If you have seen any Verizon Wireless, Microsoft, or Exxon Mobile commercials recently, that was McCann. I work mostly on the Microsoft account. My building is located just off State St. in down town Salt Lake, right across the street from the Wells Fargo monolith actually. It’s a cool building. It was built in 1908 and was a gentlemen’s sports club. McCann fills all six floors and the basement, or bomb shelter as I have come to call it. As you can probably guess I work in the bomb shelter with the rest of the Creative Department. I may be sounding a bit cynical right now, but I really do enjoy working for a pay check instead of sitting at home going out of my mind with worry and boredom.

Ok so that’s the physical description of the work place. Now the “day in the life” part of this entry. My day begins at 8:45 when I wake up and take a shower. That part of the day is pretty common to most people I imagine so I’ll skip over it. I’m on the road by 9:15 and in the office by 9:45. My official work day begins at 10:00. So I’m going to break it down hour by hour for you. This entry will be written throughout the course of the day. So hang on to your shoes, here we go.

10:00 A.M.: Arrived at work and booted up my computer. I checked e-mail (newsletter from world headquarters in NYC and a meeting reminder) nothing too spectacular. I had a Verizon Wireless account status meeting at 10:15 (I was asked to attend in place of my boss because she’s in Alaska at the moment). At the meeting we discussed projects that are due today and work load expectations for the rest of the week. Also talked about “The Dark Knight” and how amazing that movie was. Meeting was over by 10:45 and I was back at my desk. Pulled up a Microsoft product guide to read (it’s 150 pages of trademark information for Microsoft’s thousands of products). I should have a project drop on my desk by 11:30.

11:00 A.M.: My first project came around 11:30 as predicted. It was only a one page document from Microsoft so it took about 15 minutes to get it ready for versioning. You may wonder what I did with my down time, well let me tell you. I read the fascinating Microsoft product guide. It’s a real page burner; can’t put it down (like a horrific car crash in print). I also thought about other possible campaign ideas for my portfolio. So far I have thought about doing something for LEGO and Nasa’s new lunar initiative.

12:00 P.M.: Just finished an online training course for new employees. The course was about the company code of conduct. So now I know how to act “in the best interest of the company.” I should be seeing a large project around 2 this afternoon. Hopefully something will drop before that but you never know.

1:00 P.M.: This is my lunch hour. I took my leftover pasta from Mimi’s Café and enjoyed it outside in the plaza. There was a Rasta band playing in the plaza this afternoon, which was kind of weird to be honest. There were a bunch of professionals bobbing around and swaying to the frequency of spiritual liberation. It was an excellent people watching opportunity. The Rasta lovers scattered when it began to rain though (real Rasta lovers would have cheered with joy [as in the laundry detergent because that’s the only time Rastas get to do laundry, when it rains]).

2:00 P.M.: Just received a large project that will probably take the rest of the day. It is a Verizon Wireless project which means there will be a lot of things wrong with it. I’m looking forward to this because thus far I haven’t had much to do today aside from reading the fascinating Microsoft product guide of course.

3:00—6:00 P.M.: The Verizon Wireless project took longer than I thought it would, which was nice. I finished up the project with minutes to spare. I got some last minute e-mails about upcoming projects tomorrow morning. So I will have stuff to do first thing in the morning. After taking the project back to the creative director I closed out my computer and headed for the door.

6:00—6:45 P.M.: Driving home in traffic. Natalie says this is the worst part of her day. She hates traffic. And I don’t enjoy it much either; however, I make good use of my time in traffic. I call it my zen time. While waiting in stop and go bumper-to-bumper traffic between Bountiful and Farmington (thank you Utah Department of Transportation for tearing the crap out of I-15), I take the time to clear my head. Traffic is when I’m able to forget about all the comma drama at work (that’s a word nerd term). My zen traffic time enables me to clear the old noodle so I can come home and devote all my energy to my little lady.

So that’s pretty much it—pretty boring actually. The world of advertising is a lot like traffic now that I think about it. You hurry up then wait for a while, and then hurry up again then wait and then you’re home. I was going to do some fun little stick figure animations to go along with this post but I’m too tired; maybe next time.

Crocs: I frown

I really do not like these "shoes". I don't care how many colors or styles they make they are not appropriate to wear if you are not a child.

10 Reasons why I do not accept these "shoes":

1. They are just ugly
2. They resemble swiss cheese
3. They cause sweaty feet (synthetic materials)= gross odor
4. Are you really going to be gardening at the grocery store? They look like gardening shoes
5. Everyone says, "they are comfortable." If you want "comfort", try slippers.
6. They are dorky
7. They are duck like
8. They also resemble the style of the Mule shoe
9. People sometimes wear them with socks.
10. Again, they are just ugly

Thank you Nina Garcia (project runway) for inspiring me to post about Crocs.

I heart Music

I always think its so great how music can guide you to memories. Right now I'm listening to Unwritten Law. Random, huh? I had some great times with their CDs. I listened to them a lot in High School. Elva was one of my standard car CDs. It was always on rotation. I really don't listen to them much anymore, but I still LOVE their old songs. It reminds me of being 16 and thinking I was so awesome, driving around with friends, camping at the beach, doing homework (and not ever really learning much because the songs were way more interesting), 91x, and having fun.

I could make a lot of posts about how certain songs/CDs/bands connect to a certain time in my life. Maybe i'll try it out.

Natalies Work

Go to Natalies Patterns Then click on the link on the post which will take you to the rusty Pickle chef Blog. Download the catalog to see all of the cool stuff she has created!

The Birthday Boy on His Birthday

Yes this post is totally late, but I'm slowly catching up. Joshes Birthday was last month on the 24th. I love celebrating birthdays. They are so fun! This was my attempt at decorating. I had more balloons taped to the wall but they fell off. I was sneaky about decorating. I woke up early to do this so when Josh woke up he would be surprised! And he was. This is a very staged picture. Maybe ill send it to getty images to make some extra cash.

I love Josh. He is so cute.

Josh really liked his candles. Don't you love my home bought cake? Its german chocolate and it was yummy! I made Josh light his own candles of course because of my fear of matches. They are just so unpredictable. All of the sudden they loose their red tip and then they have a flame!

I got Josh new Annon Goggles. He begged and begged for a new pair last winter and I kept telling him no. He forgot that he wanted them and was really excited about them again when he opened his present. Too bad its 100 degress!

For my sentimental present I compiled all of his LiveJournal entries into a leather bound book. I found a web site called pyxlin journal which takes blogs and makes your entries into books. It turned out really nice and wasn't pricey at all. This is something which will last. 

HMS and Elder Romney

Michelle is a HUGE High School Musical fan. So after the zoo we went over to East High School. They are currently filming HSM 3. We weren't allowed to go inside so we took some shots outside. One of the security guards let Michelle wear the movie pass for a picture. 

I wasn't supposed to take this picture. When I'm told that I can't do something and I think the reasoning is stupid, I almost always do it. I could have totally driven by and taken this picture!

For dinner we meet up with Elder Romney and his family. We went and had really good Chinese food in Bountiful. Elder Romney is really important to our family. He was one of the Elders who taught us the discussions and brought the Spirit into our home. He also baptized us. We hadn't seen him in several years and it was really great to spend time with him and his family. 

It was funny to hear his side of our conversion story. He said Natalie was on board. She knew all the answers. He said that you could tell Michelle felt the Spirit and knew that the Church was true as well as my dad. He said my mom was hesitant. This was because she had been baptized in another church when she was younger and she didn't want to offend my grandparents by getting baptized again. My grandparents were fine with her getting baptized. So on April 20, 1997 Me, Mom and Dad were Baptized. Michelle was scared because she had never witnessed a baptism before and she is very hesitant to do things unless she has seen them performed and knows exactly what happens. This gave a great opportunity to my dad. He received the Priesthood a few months later which gave him the authority to preform baptisms. So he was able to baptize Michelle and Elder Romney came back for that.

It was really cool to spend time with one of the people who helped my family join the Church. My life would not be as fulfilling as it is with out my membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   

Antelope Island

We had Breakfast with Uncle Boyd. He is my Gradma Lois Brother. He is so good about staying in touch with us. it was nice of him to come down from Vernal, UT to see us.

Here are antelopes on Antelope Island. This is the Largest of 12 islands on the Salt Lake. They just roam around. 

Classic shot of my dad with his crazy hat. This was one of the beaches. Its crazy how big the lake is. You can't always see across it so it makes it seem like the ocean. 

Here are Bison. We drove by them and got some good shots. The babies were so cute! They were chasing and playing with each other.

Its cool to see animals running free. Even if it is across a paved road. 

Animal Adventures

This picture is true Michelle style. She never ever looks at the camera. This is at Josh and I's favorite park in Layton. There are ducks and swans. We went here on Fathers day for a stroll.

A family shot. Josh was the photographer. 

Me and the Michelle at the Hoggle Zoo. This zoo was awesome. I was a bit skeptical because most zoos suck after having the San Diego Zoo as "your" zoo. They had all sorts of big cats and animals that I has never seen before.  This picture was taken right before we saw (as they called it) The Ghost of the Bayou. it was an albino Alligator. 

 

This leopard was awesome. He was pacing by the glass.