Things That Are Awesome!

This week has been so dull, lame, boring, miserable, (your adjective here) that I’ve put off going to bed at night for fear that each day would bring more of the same. But I didn’t spend all my time wallowing in the grumps! I also put together this list of all the happy things that I’ve got going on. At first I’d planned on calling it “Things That Don’t Suck,” but in the spirit optimism, I went with “Things That Are Awesome!” instead:

1. After a long, blistering summer, the Ember months (and October! God forbid we forget October!) are here again, meaning the beginning of autumn is nigh! While the first day of every other month barely registers on my radar, the first day of September is always a big event. It’s sort of like the finish line to a marathon that begins allllllll the way back in January. (I’m fairly sure I even fist-pumped once or twice yesterday morning.) The first day of fall technically isn’t until September 22 (It’s a little early this year! Fist-pump!) but no matter, I can smell the pumpkins and feel the breezes already. 
2. I found alfalfa sprouts in my non-alfalfa-eating parents’ fridge on Tuesday night, so I had the distinct and unexpected pleasure of eating a turkey, alfalfa, and ranch sandwich for lunch on Wednesday and a turkey and alfalfa salad today.
3. I’ve had a secondary source of income since I started my big girl job three months ago. (A freelance writing job, y’all, nothing untoward!) Having two sources of income has been a treat, and having a boss who appreciates my writing abilities has been the cherry on top!
4. I’m saving boo-koos of money by living with my parents. Instead of spending every other paycheck on rent, electricity, and groceries, I stick every other paycheck in a joint savings account and then sit back and watch it collect interest. And what of the paychecks that don’t go into the joint account? They sit in my checking account and dream about the day their miserly master will finally let them out to play.
5. My coworkers. Six beacons of Fabulous! in a company full of Can-I-Buy-You-A-Drink?s.
6. I’m finally eligible for my 401K and paid time off! Retirement’s nice and all, but PTO is the stuff of fairy tales—you mean I can get paid to watch HGTV in my underwear, pick the cookie dough chunks out of the ice cream, drink Ballatore from the bottle, and brush my hair with my fingers? Well why in the hell did I ever do those things for free? Even though I haven’t been allowed to use it, I’ve apparently been accruing time off since day one, meaning if I wanted to call in too-sloshed-off-mimosas-to-put-down-my-book-and-get-out-of-my-bubble-bath tomorrow morning, I totally could.
7. The movie Chicago. It’s been off my radar for a while, but I decided to re-watch it yesterday while I was on the wedmill and durn near fell off three times because I was too busy singing along and shaking my hips to put one foot in front of the other.
8. My mom walked into my room this morning and announced that today would be the perfect day for me to call in sick to work. A little perspective: my brother and I were not allowed to skip school unless we were puking up stomach lining and shooting blood out of our pores. But a little inclement weather on a workday and I might as well have woken up headless. Due to a rare genetic condition, I only get sick on Mondays and Fridays (weird, right?), so I had no choice but to trudge to work in the rain this morning. Still, it’s nice to know my mom has her priorities straight.
9. My Labor Day weekend plans! Saturday drinking wine in the Hill Country, Sunday shopping for antiques and eating German potato salad in Fredericksburg, and Monday doing a little bit of both. And how’s this for spontaneity—Sean and I planned the trip Monday morning, booked the trip Monday night, and will leave on the trip tomorrow at 9:00PM. Not bad for a couple that usually starts mulling over vacations three months in advance!

Sunday Funday

My parents spent all of yesterday moving the youngest into his new house in the Promised Land. (Don’t even get me started on how jealous I am of his return to college. I may be 1.5 years a post-grad, but that doesn’t make me any less heart-sick for the glory days. Heck, I was even jealous of the elementary kids who were waiting for the bus when I left for work this morning—all those wonderful years of schoolin’ ahead of them that they won’t even appreciate until they’re standing in the break room on Monday morning, waiting for the coffee to perk, jabbing plastic forks into their eyes, and hoping they’ll come down with something—rabies, Ebola, leprosy—to keep them in bed until 5:30 on Friday. That’s how I’ve heard it works, anyway…)

As I was saying, my family left me to hold down the fort yesterday, so I spent the better part of the morning putzing around in my underwear (J/K! Brain bleach, anyone?) before paying (boy did I!) a visit to my therapists, New Dress and Work Jeans, at Nordstrom Rack. Two hours later, I returned home for a little bit of this:

(You can probably tell by the pear that I’m trying to stay healthy.) My one and only stopped by during pool time for a surprise visit, and the two of us proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon lazing around the empty house baking a pie (me), recovering from a booze-soaked guys’ weekend (him), noshing on homemade quesadillas, watching whatever we wanted on my dad’s sacred television, and trying to contract malaria so we could do it all over again today.    

Up for air

Joining the throngs of Americans in a daily slog to and from the office has really thrown me for a loop! I thought working 10-hour days at home was rough, but back then I had no concept of a daily shower, a morning commute, or an alarm clock that rang before 7AM. Riddle me this: how does an eight-hour workday last six months when a five-hour evening lasts 10 minutes? It’s like I get off, get home, change clothes, and BAM! bedtime.

When I was working from home I would regularly tisk tisk Sean from my high horse of veggie burgers and P90X for not eating right and working out consistently. Now that I’m a commuter, however, I’m lucky if I even get to sit down to dinner, let alone figure out how many Points are in it. And exercise? Forgeddubouit. 

Sean and I get off around the same time every day, so we usually call each other to chat while we’re sitting in traffic. After a particularly tiring day last week, Sean mentioned that he was driving past Canes on his way home and OMG chicken fingers, Texas toast, Canes sauce! Ho boy, did that sound good! Freelance Sarah would have rolled her eyes and whined about fat, calories, and a 12-mile run for dessert. All that 8:30-5:30 Sarah whined about, however, was how unfair it was that none of that tasty comfort food was available in her neck of the woods.

Of course, diet and exercise aren’t the only things that have fallen by the wayside since I got my big girl job: gainful employment has also set me back about 20 years, technologically speaking. I haven’t logged into Twitter in nearly three weeks; I’m lucky to make it through my News Feed every day and even luckier if I can muster a status update; I’m equal parts annoyed and worried by my email inbox, so I avoid it; I frequently forget about Google Reader until it’s so full that I have to set aside 45 minutes to just get through it; and (perhaps worst of all) I’ve become a bad blogger. I used to take great pride in my ability to rattle off three posts per week. Now all I feel is shame that I’ve barely felt compelled to post since I arrived home from NYC.

I hope that in the coming weeks I’ll settle into a routine that’ll allow me to return (at least in small part) to my former glory. Perhaps then I’ll finally be willing to eat cabbage and climb up on the treadmill. Perhaps then I'll finally be able to respond to messages and friend requests on Facebook (hi, Facebook friends, I haven’t forgotten you!), check emails and Google reader more regularly, and blog about something other than how I never blog anymore. If I’m really feeling crazy, perhaps I'll even set up mobile Twitter so I can update my followers with important deets about my day: “I am sitting in my cube.” “Man, Keurig hazelnut coffee is good!” “My co-worker is fluent in barrio.” Until then, please forgive my negligence. Growing up is hard to do.

Trending

Current Book(s): I started reading Surfacing by Margaret Atwood about three months ago, I'm 150 pages in, and I'm considering giving up. I almost never do that because I hate investing all that time into a story and then not finding out how it ends, but Surfacing is just so dull. And it's a darned shame too, because Margaret Atwood writes beautifully.

Current Playlist: A Fine Frenzy's Bomb in a Birdcage and Mates of State's Re-Arrange Us have been on rotation recently. Re-Arrange Us is absolutely fantastic! It's catchy and upbeat and I highly recommend it. Bomb in a Birdcage is ok, but A Fine Frenzy (aka Alison Sudol) changed her style from ethereal to Regina Spektor for this new album and I liked her old, unique style better.

Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure: Ok, so Lady Gaga's The Fame is also on my current playlist, but I thought it'd be better to mention that here. I dance like a complete moron at the wheel every time "Poker Face" comes on, I like "Just Dance" and "Paparazzi," "LoveSong" and "Boys Boys Boys" are good, and the rest I'm sort of meh about. Oh well, POKER FACE!

Current Color: Aubergine! Sean and I've decided to make a dark shade of purple the dominant color in our eventual nuptials for a few of reasons: 1) We both look nice in it, which I realize won't make a lick of difference when I'm choosing my outfit for the day, 2) The members of our wedding party will all look nice in it too, and 3) When coordinated correctly, it'll feel warm and October-ish without screaming "THIS IS A FALL WEDDING! JUST LOOK AT ALL THE ORANGE AND YELLOW!"  

Current Drink: I recently started keeping flavored, carbonated water in Sean's fridge--it's tasty, it's sugar-free, it's cheap at Wal-Mart, and it burns so good! Since we don't have any at my parents' house, I look forward to visiting my beau and raiding my stash. 

Current Food: I'm addicted to Gardenburger brand veggie patties and frozen shrimp wonton soup at the moment--they're both delicious, low calorie, and available from Costco, which means I can eat them every day for a month before I have to go back for more. I also eat two or three sugar-free topical Popsicles every night.

Current Favorite Show: LOST I suppose, it's the only one of my shows that's airing at the moment, and not even for much longer! I watch Dancing With the Stars with my parents now that they've narrowed it down to only the good dancers (and/or good personalities/good lookers). Top Chef and Mad Men start up again in the summer and I cannot wait! 

Current Wishlist: I would trade my cat child for an iPhone! My current phone is and has always been a piece of crap, but until recently I've been too cheap to pay for fancy services that I didn't think I needed. Now, however, I crave an iPhone, (even though I still doubt that I need all those fancy services). I was planning on purchasing one next month, but then my mom (who is also craving one) discovered that we have to wait until we've fulfilled at least 1 year of our contract with AT&T before we can go purchasing another phone (unless of course we want to pay full price for the iPhone, which we do not). Now it's no iPhones for us until August :(

Current Needs: I need to go shopping for work wear! I don't think sweats, t-shirts, and slippers will cut it in the corporate world, nor will 4-inch heels cut it in the city that never sleeps. But basically I'll come up with any excuse to go to New York & Company.

Current Triumphs: Landing an amazing job, of course!

Current Bane(s) of my Existence: My hair! It is so long and thick and split and shapeless and dull that I can hardly stand it! (Plus it obscures the girls, which is grounds for being buzzed off completely.) Thankfully I've got an appointment to have it lopped off and colored in less than two weeks, so there will be no need for me to go Britney Spears on it.  

Current Celebrity Crush: I'm not actively crushing on any celeb, but I guess I'll say RDJ since I just saw Iron Man 2. He was fabulous as usual, but I thought the movie dragged and was nowhere near as good as the first, which was such a bummer because original flavor Iron Man is easily my favorite super hero movie ever. 

Current Indulgence: Online window shopping. Now that I'll finally be able to move out on my own, I've been doing nothing but browsing home goods and DIY sites for furnishings and decorating ideas.

Current #1 Blessing: It's a multi-parter--1) I am blessed to have a steady source of income 2) That enabled me to buy those enhancements I've always wanted 3) Which have not ruptured, bled profusely, fallen off, or caused any unanticipated financial stress 4) And can be lavished with pretty bras and outfits now that my steady source of income has just increased by leaps and bounds.

Current Slang or Saying: I've been say "in any case" a lot. I don't know why--I guess it just reminds me of an antique store or something.

Current Outfit: Brown shorts and a white v-neck. Like I said, I need to go shopping.

Current Excitement: Going on vacay with my love and going to NYC. (That's definitely nervous excitement, but nervous excitement is better than no excitement at all.)   

Current Mood: Grown up. Is that a mood? It is now, because I'm feeling it! I finally have big girl boobs and soon I will have a big girl job, a big girl wardrobe, a big girl salary, and a big girl abode to match. 

Current Link: Twitter.com. Once upon I time I said Twitter was silly and pointless, but now that I've started using it heavily, I think it's silly, pointless, and totally addicting! I update all the time, I check my feed more often than that, and I'm always on the lookout for someone new to follow so that I'll have even more reasons to check my feed.  

(Source: LaurenFromTexas.com, otherwise known as @LaurenFromTexas)

Pinch me

This Sunday, May 16, 2010, will mark the one-year anniversary of the day I graduated from the happiest place on earth. I'll spare you the torrid details of how my life has changed since then because A) if you've been tuning in regularly you are probably already familiar with them, and B) I'm planning on recapping them on Sunday anyway. However, because it's pertinent to this post, I'm going to give you a quick and dirty review: I graduated, I had plans, I cried, I changed my plans, I cried, I was broke, I cried, I bad-mouthed my major, I cried, I cursed myself for graduating, I cried, I applied for jobs, I cried, I spent a lot of time in employment limbo, and all of a sudden people started calling me for interviews! And recruiters were seeking me out for positions I'd never even heard of! And a few people I interviewed with seemed to like me! And then on Monday, May 10, 2010--a day that will live in infamy--I got my first true job offer.

Without getting too specific (or dooced before I've even started) it's like this: a large company with an office in the Metroplex  wants me to join their marketing team and write just about everything from web content to creative copy. They want to give me more benefits than I'll know what to do with, and oh yeah, they want me to spend my first week on the job (as well as a few weeks of every year) training and mingling with the rest of the marketing team at their headquarters here:

 [Source: MetroScenes]

Hum...I don't know let me think about it ok I accept! But wait, how is this happening to me? Are you sure you called the right number? When am I going to wake up? Never mind, don't answer any of that, let's just go with it.

I'd like to apologize to God for considering giving up on writing and on finding full-time employment--sorry, Lord, I never should have doubted that the abilities you gave me would eventually lead to something sort of perfect; to my parents for being a moody boomerang child--thanks for the living quarters, free food, and laundry service, mom and dad. Kitty and I will be out of your hair before you know it; to my intended for being wishy-washy and weepy--you are a rock and an angel, love, especially since you found the job posting for me; and most of all, to my major for the unkind words I've had for it--if it weren't for you, English rhetoric, I would not be set to spend week one of June in my favorite city in the world.

One week.

- Sarah, Sarah, what a boob you are! I spent all of Tuesday thinking it was Wednesday and all of Wednesday thinking it was Thursday (even though I reminded myself of the actual day just before bed on Tuesday night). Not only has my confusion made my week seem longer, but it has also interfered with the timing of this post. Worry not, though, the title is correct.

- Until very recently, I'd been stuck in a breakfast rut--nothing passed over my lips but yogurt before 11:00AM. I liked yogurt because not only was it tasty and varied, but it was also full of satiating protein and low in calories. Eventually, though, it became a bit monotonous. It got so bad, in fact, that I finally started skipping breakfast all together, and any nutritionist'll tell you that this is not a habit to get into--not only do you not jump-start your metabolism in the AM, but you also set yourself up for a binge in the evening. If I wanted to keep my diet on track, I had to nip that practice in the bud. Enter apples and peanut butter: it's high in deliciosity and hunger-busting fat and protein and still low enough in calories that I don't feel guilty om noming it every single morning.

- Right around the time I graduated, I thought that self-employment would be a hoot! After all, I could make my own hours, work when I needed to, and generally lead a pretty relaxed life. WRONG! I'm currently juggling 2.75 jobs to ensure that I rack up enough hours to pay the bills (and buy pretty clothes and entertain myself). Whatever could that mean? Well, I still have my web job (that's one), I was recently hired for a new writing job (that's as much as I'm allowed to reveal about job two), I still drive my sweet freshman home from school every day (that's job .5--not hard or particularly time-consuming, but a daily task none the less), and I'm an occasional Spanish tutor for some kiddies in the area (that's job .25; I said "occasional"). I get up early and work super late just to keep up, which means...

- Good golly I'm tired! All of the responsibilities and late-nighters make me feel like I'm in college again, and not necessarily in a good way (there's no summer break or bar in sight!). I'm cleaving to the idea that I can sleep when I'm dead. Or maybe on my vacation next month!

- Egads, Mad Men is a good show! It's nostalgic, artful, and absolutely titillating! (Not to mention subtly offensive and enjoyably enraging.) Sean and I started Netflixing it a couple months ago and just received our last DVD in the mail yesterday. I'm down right depressed that I'm going to have to wait until the new season begins to find out what happens to the marginalized girls and macho boys at Sterling Cooper. Who thought it would be a good idea to make the seasons of such a well-written and well-dressed show just 13 measly episodes long?

- Remember when I said I was going to try to figure out a way to push up the wedding date? Fuhgeddahboutit. With all the other things that are going on (including but not limited to the aforementioned 2.75 jobs), it seems impractical to throw wedding planning into the mix now as well. Besides, Sean and I are both gung-ho about having the exact wedding we want, and I'm afraid that if I tried to plan it in six months some of the details would be left out. My mom's friend wondered if Sean and I would be able to live separate lives for the next year and a half, to which my only response was a series of "I think I cans." In any case, I appreciate all of the so sweet comments a few of you ladies left on that post!

- Yesterday I had to exfoliate my knees. MY KNEES! Why? Because they looked and felt like neglected elbows. Why? Because I bust my butt doing a TON of girly push-ups every other day as part of the Power 90 regimen, and the carpet in my workout room is very rough indeed. However, while my knees may say "floozy!" my guns totally say "bang!"

Sarah Elizabeth and the THNGVBD

I was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (replete with tear shed at the most inappropriate times--on the way to pick up my girls, on the way to a meeting, thisclose to in a meeting [omgwtf, Hump Day + post-grad angst + PMS!?]) and then the craziest thing happened! I got on the dreadmill, watched the first 45 hilarious minutes of Too Young To Be a Dad, and received a veritable treasure trove of job postings from my sweetheart-cum-personal-job-hunter, and wouldn't you know it? I don't feel so bad anymore! Bless you endorphins, Lifetime, and best boyfriend ever. Bless you.

Annnnd wouldn't you know, my mom just walked in from her Wal-Mart run and handed me a Martha Stewart (eeee!) Weddings magazine and a tub of cotton candy, presumably as balm for my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Suddenly I'm feeling even better! I'm also so eating all 4 Points of that cotton candy. In bed. With Martha. Bless my mom and her Band-aids, too.

Color Career Counselor

I just took this color quiz with the vague hope that I would find out what career I'm suited for (because I'd like it if rest of my life did not suck). It's a little voo-dooy (my preference for yellow and black over red and white can tell you what?) but heck, I'm about ready to sell my soul for guidance, so I appreciate this quiz for being a less dramatic alternative. And bonus points--the results are actually pretty much right on the money! Here are the highlights, in case you're wondering how a quiz and I perceive my professional self [Note: Text that looks like this is my own.]:

Best Occupational Category
You're a RESEARCHER

Keywords
Independent, Self-Motivated, Reserved, Introspective, Analytical, and Curious

They have a strong scientific orientation, enjoy academic or research environments and prefer self-reliant jobs. Dislikes are group projects, selling, and repetitive activities. [Boy do I ever! (Except for the strong scientific part, YUCK!) I don't know how many times I've kvetched about group projects or whined that I didn't want to do the same dadgum crap every day for the rest of my life.]

RESEARCHER WORKPLACES
Task-oriented careers where you can become absorbed in the job, be original and creative, and not conform to rigid company rules will work best for you. Unstructured organizations, for example, that allow you to sail your own ship are vital. [Right on! My favorite thing about my current job is that I have so much control over what I do.]

Suggested Researcher workplaces are universities and colleges, home office positions, medical facilities, computer-related industries, scientific foundations and think tanks, research firms, and design laboratories.

If you take the quiz, I'd love to know what results you get! P.S. You get two results; my second was just so off that I hardly noticed it.

Playing catch up

- For the past month I've been driving two freshmen girls home from track and soccer practice every day and three days a week (respectively) to earn a little non-taxable income (aka: the best kind). Both of the girls are complete darlings and I actually quite love talking to them on their rides home (I've even taken to referring to them as "my girls" in conversations with my family). I've determined that I don't necessarily dislike kids as individuals (in fact I'm actually quite fond of them), what I hate are kids as a raucous group. As such I'm prepared to redact my statement about never having kids, so long as the kids I do have don't have any friends.

- I dearly love Maybelline Express Finish nail polish. It goes on smoothly, drys (dries? Did you know that both forms are acceptable? I had to look that up.) in about a minute, and stays on just as long as the more costly brands that I used to buy until I realized that all I was really doing was paying top dollar for the exact same chips in my color, and I'm way too chintzy to do that. ANYWAY, I was in the market for dark purple nail polish recently, but when I discovered that such a color was tragically unavailable from Maybelline, I cheated on it with Revlon Nail Enamel (first mistake--buying a nail polish brand that did not have a kicky name like "Express Finish"). The color I got is LOVELY, but it chipped an hour after I applied it the first time. "No problem," thought I, "I only applied one coat because I didn't really want it to last anyway." (It was a Friday, you see and I didn't want to have purple nails the following Monday.) So I tried again a week or so later, and this time I didn't skimp on the coats. It didn't chip, which turned out to be a darned shame because somehow applying the second coat made the color look less saturated. In other words, buyer beware.

- Did you know I write a second blog? It's true! It's also for work, but if internet marketing, web copy writing, and search engine optimization tickle your fancy, you can catch a new post every Thursday. And that, folks, is all the shameless self-promotion you'll hear from me today!

Food, mostly

- As I was browsing the Central Market food court on Saturday night, I happened to notice a sign for "Greek Yogurt & Cucumber Dip," which some of you may know by its more official name--"Holy Buckets, This Tzatziki is Amazing! Is it Available in a Big Gulp?" And that's when I started craving a gyro. I would have gotten one, too, when Sean and I decided to have something exotic for brunch on Sunday, except Sean doesn't like Greek food, so we went to an Indian restaurant instead. And green curry, while delicious, does not a gyro craving satisfy. So I did a little research and lo! Recipes for gyros and tzatziki! Extra points for my mom if we have a pound of ground lamb in the freezer...

- For perhaps the first time in the history of new years, I did not resolve to lose weight. Hooray! Except then I ate a couple of doughnuts for breakfast, cheese fries and a hamburger for dinner, and a few dozen left over chocolate chip peanut butter cookies for a snack, and all of a sudden my jeans didn't fit quite right. The trouble with me is that while I can get down to a satisfactory weight and size fairly easily, my motivation to do so ebbs and flows in conjunction with major events in my life. For example, I wanted to look decent in my Halloween costume, so I chose food wisely (flow). Then I didn't have anything immediate to look forward to so I ate some full-fat ice cream (ebb). Then Thanksgiving was around the corner so I was careful again in the weeks leading up to the gastronomic deluge (flow). You get the idea. I had a pretty good system going this summer that kept me on track in spite of my relatively clear schedule--whenever I looked in the fridge or wanted to sleep through Jazzercise, I just imagined myself in a bathing suit and ho boy did those carrots look good! I'm implementing a similar strategy now that I'm trying to drop a few holiday pounds--whenever I think I'm about to drop dead on the treadmill, I pretend that I miiiiiight end up in some engagement pictures soon (I'm nothing if not delusional. Do not derail my efforts, SEAN!) and I crank that sucker up to 11.

- Speaking of which, I was so sore today after two days of working out (by which of course I mean "walking briskly on an inclined treadmill for 30 minutes") that I had to pop pills just to stand up straight. Oops, out of practice.

- My dear beau is a genius at practically everything. Thinking about putting your mature bonds in a savings account? Sean says: Buy mutual funds, you'll see a better return. Want to buy the large new house with four bedrooms at a bargain basement price? Sean says: What are you going to do with the three extra bedrooms besides pump them full of electricity? Buy a smaller house for the same price and you'll save money in the long run. Having trouble finding a job that you're qualified to apply for? Sean says: In the thirty seconds I just spent searching, I was able to find five jobs that would be perfect for you! I'll find ten more tomorrow! Two things he is not a genius at? Housekeeping and kitchen management. Sean and Sarah--an exercise in symbiosis and traditional gender roles.

Macro-blogging about micro-blogging

As the Manager of Social Marketing for The Company that I work for, it's my job to set up and maintain Facebook and Twitter accounts for The Company's clients (among other things). It's a pretty sweet deal, except for one baby hiccup--I've never used Twitter. Oh, I joined of course when all the hoopla started, but I never did manage to write that first tweet, and I've been lambasting the service as pointless and self-indulgent ever since.

"But wait," say you, "You are an avid blogger and a fairly consistent Facebook user--140 characters wouldn't even begin to cover all of the shameless self-promoting you do!" "Right on," say I, and after setting up a couple of accounts on Twitter, I'm suddenly overwhelmed with a desire to express my own opinions with "r u"s and "want 2"s. So I've decided to just go ahead and tweet already, and ho boy, it's amazing how much nicer hypocrisy feels after you've owned up to it in front of God and the Internet!

Everybody's working on the weekend

So it's a Saturday, and I'm currently at work. Thankfully, my place of business is my bedroom, my desk is my bed, and my only colleague is perched on the windowsill surveying the cul-du-sac and flipping her tail whenever a breeze blows in, so I'm happy to log hours on a Saturday. Oh, and by "work," of course, I mean transcribing an hour-long interview that I conducted last Thursday with a freaking awesome Australian ex-pat sculptor and updating my employer's Facebook Page. Childhood fantasy, meet reality.

Want to get a better idea of what I do to make a buck? Check out the new i5ww Page on Facebook (you can find a link to it on my profile) and subscribe to the i5ww blog! Shameless promotion? It's just part of the job.