Author: Christine

I love my blog.

I have been thinking about that for the past 24 hours, and I just had to say it. I met Mike because of my blog – along with a lot of other fantastic H-Town bloggers. I’ve made close friends that I adore through my blog. And the latest? I got to work today doing something I could absolutely love – and I’m there because of my blog. Leslie, the owner of the company, is a long-time reader of my blog.

So, what am I doing? I have a feeling it will be a matter of “you name it!” – and I love working like that. Today I wrote copy for an advertisement postcard for a pigeon hunting trip in Paraguay. Who knew that there are something like 8 million pigeons there and that people hunt them? Then I worked on gathering content for newsletters for two different companies. I started working on gathering information for a client that is working on applying for grants and needs a comprehensive list of companies, requirements and deadlines. After that, Leslie & I discussed a client that needs a website created in 4 weeks. We’re writing all the content for it. My task? To determine what pages we will need and come up with the content (they have an existing site and brochures which is done by a brochure design in NYC) to fill it up while keeping it nice and clean.

The office is in a small house just inside of the loop, near Memorial Park. I could take my bike down there and go ride it in the park. There are four of us set up in the living room, and while I would have assumed it would be loud or annoying, it really wasn’t. I have yet to meet the graphic designer, but my other two co-workers were great. I was quite instantly at ease.

There is even an office dog, Ramona. Just like Ramona from the Beverly Cleary books. She is adorable, and I’m normally a cat person. An office dog – how cool is that? An office dog. That just rocks!

Seriously, I don’t think it could get any better. I get to work with nice, hard-working people. It is already obvious that Leslie truly believes in keeping everyone informed as to what is going on within the company. I get to do work that not only requires thinking, but creativity. I’ve learned that the combination is key to my happiness, and I left there today quite happy.

Mike is in an a cappella group, the Lager Rhythms, and we were discussing whether or not they would be performing at our wedding ceremony. (Minus Mike, of course.) They just did a wedding in January, so we were talking about what music they did for that wedding.

Then I had an idea – quite a brilliant one, considering my love of the Bee Gees. They could sing Bee Gees’ songs! Just think, I could walk down the aisle to “How Deep is Your Love”. Maybe the bridesmaids could come in to “Jive Talkin'”? And we would have to fit “More than a Woman” in there somewhere. Really, could it get any better than that? Can’t you see it? People could stand up and dance in the aisles – nothing gets you moving like some good disco!

Yeah, Mike didn’t think it was a good idea either. Plus they don’t know any Bee Gees songs. Oh well, at least I tried…

So, what is the most outrageous thing you have ever seen at a wedding?

The more I thought about it, I realized that I’m a “get along” type of person – I want to get along with everyone I work with, I want everyone to get along with me. I’m all about keeping the peace. From everything that Leslie told me earlier about her company and the job opportunity – it all sounds like a perfect fit. So I called her back and asked her if, instead of coming in to meet everyone tomorrow, if she just wanted me to come in and start temping. It would give me a chance to decide if it works for me in the long run, and give her a chance to test me out – a win-win situation for everyone. She said it sounded like a great idea – so I’ll be there by 9:00 tomorrow morning! I’m so excited, I can hardly wait!

Years ago, I temped for someone that was on vacation at M.D. Anderson in the department that handled the writing and editing for a lot of the doctors there. I loved it, and I was so good at it that they actually offered me a part-time job working with the department that handles promoting their annual Christmas cards. Unfortunately, I needed a full time job at the time, so I couldn’t take something part time.

Over time, I worked at the law firm I was at for 5 years for some time with the Corporate Communications department, helping them out with making demo websites for some of the largest clients. I handled writing up content for the sites, and I also helped them with their descriptions of what we could offer. I loved the creative aspect of the work.

When I started Sudsalicious, I wrote all the content for the site. I also helped out with my fragrance supplier’s website, Bramble Berry, both doing design work and writing content and fragrance descriptions. Some of my work still exists on the site, even years later.

Moving on to working in the web world, I was in sales – writing proposals and working with clients. I never knew what type of website I would be working with in any given day – I had corporate sites, sites related to printing companies, and even one client that wanted to set up a gay matchmaker site. (Including porno shots that people submitted of themselves.) Fast paced and changing was my favorite thing. Eventually, I moved in to project management – and thanks to the poor attitudes of many of my co-workers (2 hour lunches with no regard to the project deadline will drive me mad pretty fast!), working in the web world lost it’s luster – even though I loved what I did.

That moved me back in to the legal world – but there isn’t much creativity required in drafting discovery responses. I loved it in many ways – people respect deadlines, I find the law very interesting, and the variety of clients was fun – but I really needed this creative outlet on the side.

(Leslie, if you’re reading this – stop now. I don’t want to come across as too zealous! *wink*)

Last week, Leslie e-mailed me about a need for a temp copywriter at her company. I didn’t know a lot about the company, but a chance to WRITE? I mean, really? Could it be a dream come true?

Then she called me today and told me more details, and even now an hour later I’m buzzing like a bee. They do a huge variety of work, and she needs someone that can shift gears as needed. I’ve checked out their website to get a feel for what they do, and … wow. I’m just giddy! They actually had an employee leave last week (thus explaining the sudden need for someone to fill in) and who knows – maybe if it is a good fit for everyone, it could turn in to more than just a temp job. Yes, a shift in my plans – but we have always said that if the right job came along we would rethink our plans. Even temping over the next few weeks or months would put us over a minor hurdle of running two households on one income between now and the wedding.

I’m meeting with her and her co-workers tomorrow at 10:30 – we’ll go from there. One perk? I don’t need to send her writing samples because she reads my blog every day. Seriously now, could it be a dream come true? I feel like I’ve gone full circle – I have always loved to write, and I love getting in to a project to learn all I can about it to learn what I need to create for it. I’m still almost speechless.

I’m telling you – door closes, window opens. Seems to happen every time. I’m so giddy that it makes me want to wiggle in my chair! (tm Emily)