Shameless

Here are a few of the amazing pictures that photographer Stephanie Mosher took of Jason and I at the Duke Gardens in Durham, NC for our engagement session. You can see more on her blog if you're interested! Jason and I had such a great time working with her - we had *perfect* weather and it was so much fun! Cheeks were a little sore - but I think Stephanie did a fantastic job capturing the essence of our relationship. I can't wait for her to work her magic at our wedding!

Recently, 'Mad World' by Gary Jules came on my radio station on Pandora - made me think of Donnie Darko - anyone remember that movie?? Erica, my roommate freshman year of college, and I LOVED it. Netflix queue? We'll see! :)

Creative ADD?

Does this exist? I fully intended on getting into more detail about the other things I have learned since I've moved to Raleigh - I thought they were pretty insightful and worth elaborating on. However, 4 days removed, I look back at my list and think they are rather generic and lame. Maybe I should have gotten all my thoughts down on Monday? I find I have this problem with a lot of my creative endeavors. I get great ideas swimming in my head and get excited to see them through, and then I get bored with them. If the time to fully pursue my ideas doesn't present itself at the precise moment that they are bewing inside my head, it's almost a lost cause.

Scrapbooking is a perfect example. I have wanted to get into scrapbooking for months, years even. I'd love to have the events of my life documented by printed photos creatively laid out on patterned paper and my poor excuse for a humorous explanation or some badly chosen quote written below to tie it all together. No really, I would. But I get bored with that idea before I find the time (and the money) to get to the store to buy the necessary supplies.

I thought blogging might be better. Apparently not. I will complete my list briefly, and perhaps the next time I get the desire to write and have nothing particulary interesting to ramble about, I'll come back to the list and elaborate. Without further ado (as I know so many people were waiting with much anticipation):

3. Social media marketing, social networking - all extremely fascinating! There is so much out there to read about and to learn. Here's a list of some social media blogs I try to check from time to time.

4. Tofu BBQ is f'ing amazing!! Brooks gave us a holiday present in the form of gift cards to The Pit, a BBQ restaurant downtown. I went with some of the girls from work for Victoria's birthday. V is vegan (in addition to being awesome) - and lemme tell you, she makes some kickass raw tiramisu! But I digress...in addition to trying Bells beer for the first time and L-O-V-I-N-G it, I was privilidged to get a bite of V's tofu BBQ. Oh. My. God. It tasted juuuust like BBQ chicken! It blew my mind. (I have also become extremely dependent on my Morning Star Farms maple flavored veggie sausage patties for breakfast...which are apparently now available at Helio's on their kick ass bagel sandwiches. My mornings may never be the same again...)

5. I have books on my "to-read" list that aren't by Malcolm Gladwell, David Sedaris, or about vampires. Although, as my list was created on Monday, this has since changed after watching a talk with Malcolm Gladwell from 2004'sTED Conference on spaghetti sauce (Watch the talk here...) this morning in class. Gladwell's book Outliers has now rapidly been moved from a book I "will read at some point" to the book I plan on going and buying on my way home from work today.

6. ACC Basketball is a BIG deal. I live in the Triangle of North Carolina, I'm not sure I need to elaborate much more. Go 'Heels!

7. It's much harder to make friends as an adult than it was as a child. I always considered myself a social person and I always found it easy to make friends. I guess before I moved to a brand new city where the only person I knew was the person I was moving for. It's not like college and not even like my last company where there were 10 other new people that started within the same month or 2 as me. Don't get me wrong, I have some friends here. And I'm lucky that the 20-person company I work for is comprised of 20 people I enjoy spending time with - over 1/2 price martinis at Boggarts or at late-night McDonalds runs or onnnneee too many vodka-cran's at Lynwood Grill. Just as a general statement - it hasn't been the 'walk in the park' I imagined it would be to find my niche here.

8. Gold's Gym rocks. I never believed the hype, but good god that place is amazing. The classes are tough, there are always machines available no matter how busy it is, and I especially enjoy watching Little Miss Sunshine while elliptical-ing it up.

9. Life moves fast. I didn't think the day would come where a new dish rack and pizza stone would make me insanely happy! The day has come. Not much gets me smiling like the smell of chili cooking all day, filling my wine rack and then depleting it (repeat, repeat, repeat...), and taking a long walk with the dogs and Jason. Not to mention I'm getting MARRIED. Settling down? Eh - I'd prefer to call it 'calming down,' I've got more than enough spice left.

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Currently listening to 'Everything'll Be Alright' by Joshua Radin. All week I've been addicted to my Ryan Adams station on Pandora...still in much anticipation for my PINK-infused, shopping and sushi-fest of a weekend with 2 of my best friends in Richmond coming up. The sun's out and it may be about 60 in Raleigh, I'm in a skirt and my "summer jean jacket" and I'm happy.

I also joined Twitter this week - it has been everything and nothing like what I anticipated. :)

Getting my feet wet...

I've been meaning to start blogging for quite some time but several things prevented my initial leap, the primary reason being lack of interest from anyone aside from myself...apparently my narcissism won out.

Ever since I've moved to Raleigh, I've been learning a lot of interesting things that I thought might be worth sharing - or at least getting out of my head for me to chew on with a bit of detail. I'm sure with time this blog will morph into a different kind of beast with several different heads - but it is my hope that, if anything, I learn to tap into the creative side of my brain a bit more. And it is with this mention of creativity, that I jump into the 9 things I've learned since moving to Raleigh. As I have a tendency to ramble - I plan on taking a few days to discuss these nuggets in a bit more detail. In celebration of a dreary Monday, I'll start with some work-related learnings:

1. My creativity gauges far, far below that of my colleagues.
I work with some smart, insanely creative people! Mind you I fully realize I was hired to manage projects - or, as my title states, interactively PRODUCE all this creativity these people are churning out. But even so, there are some sharp tools in this shed. (more on my obsession with the word 'tool' at a later date...) They work on designing outfits for Sponge Bob, they create interactive games for Monsters Vs. Aliens, they improve email layouts and design flash banners that have all sorts of visual effects - all of which contribute to more clicks for our clients. It's absolutely fascinating to me the things that the designers here can create on a computer.

And then there's more. The creative director here maintains over 6 websites - my personal favorite being his video frozen food blog - Freezer Burns. Here I thought "micromeals" were Kristin and I's quasi-lame attempt at eating healthy and saving some $$ by not going out to eat at RoCo - and now I can find REVIEWS on some of the very meals I purchase on the reg, as well as other stuff all up and down the frozen food aisle. Another one of my co-workers has a food blog as well, one is a romance novelist, and another designed the invitations I'm using for my October wedding.

2. The agency life is a good one.
I should also add that I am an ardent supporter of small companies. I get frequent face time with some smart people and my interactions with our clients have helped me immensely in my professional development. We've recently been watching some thought-provoking lectures on things like lazy innovation and serious play and their usefulness in the workplace. We listened to an author by the name of Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote 'Eat, Pray, Love' talk about the concept of creativity being a separate being - it was very interesting. And if she's correct, as I previously mentioned in #1 above, that being hasn't graced me with its presence um...ever. You can check out some of these lectures and other talks by some extremely innovative people at TED: Ideas Worth Spreading.

The laid-back, creativity-driven atmosphere is the landscape for a level of productivity that I had previously not experienced, and where extreme sarcasm and wit are prevelant, they are in addition to intelligent conversation about topics ranging from client revisions and industry best-practices to Twitter updates, the Bachelor, and homebrew. Then there's the snack closet that stays full as long as we hit our revenue goals each month - the football tossing, the washers game, the coloring pad, and the Wii room.

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That's all for now. I'm listing to Ryan Adams and it's making me quite excited for my weekend in Richmond coming up in about a week and a half! Interactive producing and project managing are both calling - till next time...