The big red dog

A girl whose last name is Clifford has to be careful when she chooses hair color don't you think?

SNIP!

California has enough long haired girls.

All in the Family

Emily, Christopher and Tasha ran some CRAZY 30 hour race in Utah last weekend. It was relay so they weren't actually running the whole time but still, when you are calling people for two days and all they are doing is RUNNING-you have to either really admire them or think they are a little insane. Or maybe a little of both. (And uh Logan? It looks like maybe I committed us to being on the family team for next year. Oops.)

Of course I had stocked the girls up with all sorts of RYKA wear and was excited to see this cute picture of Emily and Tasha all decked out.But I was even more excited to see that apparently Christopher hadn't let the fact that I work for a women's athletic brand stop him.
That's right folks, Christopher and the girls ran in matchy matchy girl pants.
Go Team Clifford.

so good, so good, SO GOOD

Corey has been visiting from Boston this week, looking for a job and a home as she is moving to Huntington at the end of the summer. Corey is really a Red Sox fan but she has a little soft spot for Orlando Cabrerra, who she still believes won the World Series for the Sox. Since he now plays for the Angels, we decided to go to a game while she was here. Some nice season ticket holding boys we know let us use their seats last night when the Angels took on the Rockies.
Corey picked me up at work and we headed to Jack in the Box to fill up on those healthy diet staples, curly fries and Diet Coke. I still have vague memories of the E. Coli outbreak in the mid-eighties at Jack in the Box and always feel obligated to bring it up when I go there.
It didn't stop either of us from enjoying our drinks though.
We got to the game in plenty of time for the first pitch. So much time in fact that it looks like we are the only people there.
Some people think baseball games are boring but there really is alot to do.
You can play with your food.
You can enjoy lame animation on the scoreboard that wouldn't entertain you at home but somehow has you laughing out loud right now.

We were sort of bummed because we didn't get to sing the Neil Diamond classic "Sweet Caroline" at the top of our lungs like you get to at Fenway. But then the infamous Rally Monkey appeared at the bottom of the seventh inning and all the little kids in the stadium went out of their freakin' minds. It was pretty hysterical.




The greatest thing about the appearance of the Rally Monkey is that apparently, he works. The Angels responded to the screaming kids by putting five runs on the board in the eighth inning and ended up winning the game. Here you see Orlando just before he gets on base for the 54th straight game. The fifth longest streak since 1960. (thank you ESPN.com for providing all manner of semi-useless baseball stats). This was when Corey and I joined the kids and lost our minds as well

Hooray for winning!

Tom Doesn't Look Like Chris Farley

Not even a little bit.

Watermelon Winner

A couple of weeks ago my friend Carrie, who used to design shoes for my company but who I now simply refer to as "one of the world's best humans", suggested that we run the Summer Solstice Watermelon 5K in Long Beach. I said "great" and signed up. What both of us failed to notice until we had already registered was that it was a 5 MILER, not a 5 KILOMETER. It's not so much that two more miles really makes that much a difference, but the fact that neither of us noticed made us wonder if we ought to have our brains checked. It just so happened that Boston Corey was also here last night so she joined us for the race. I say "joined" when really I mean "smoked". Here we are at the end of the race, Corey had been at the finish line for almost 15 minutes when the snail and the turtle showed up.She was delighted to discover that she had placed 80th. Carrie and I will not be revealing our places.My favorite part of the Watermelon Run was that we all got to take one home with us.
My second favorite part was that we all went to Rubio's afterwards for fish tacos where I managed to get back all those calories that I'd foolishly let go on the run.

Not too shabby for a thursday evening.

Crushed

Dear skate boy who works in my office,

First of all, I'm really sorry that I thought you were an intern or something and didn't pay more attention to you. Imagine my surprise at Sales Meeting when they introduced you as the NSS designer. You'll have to excuse me-after spending the last four years working almost exclusively with women and middle aged male sales reps, I just didn't know how to react to someone in the office under the age of 45 with no wedding ring and great hair.

You may have noticed that I have gone from just saying "hi" and passing you by in the hall, to stuttering and being unable to form complete sentences around you. This is entirely your fault and I attribute it mainly to the afternoon you decided to take your shirt off and jump in the swimming pool. Although it's summer and I live by the beach, I had forgotten that male abs could look like that. Also, did you really need to bring your skateboard in and do tricks for us at the product fair?

I know you have a girlfriend and frankly, I've had my fill of dating coworkers, but I would really appreciate it if you could just indulge my twitchiness when you walk into a room as it's been a long, long time since I've had an acceptable work crush. You can't really count that guy in Boston who worked next door and who I never actually spoke to.

Cheers!
the marketing girl

Calling all Angels

Last friday I got some tickets to an Angels game from a friend at work, so I rounded up Tom

and Sean

and Sean's roommate Brady
and we all met up at Angel's stadium in Anaheim.
The weather was perfect, the game was pretty good (although the Angels lost), the seats were great, the fireworks were alright

But the highlight was watching Cody here dance with the Rally Monkey.

Go Angels!

p.s. i miss Fenway : (

On company time

Not a bad way to spend the day.

Take it all off

Now that summer has officially arrived and I live close enough to the beach to go regularly, I decided it was finally time to submit myself to the female maintenance nightmare that is the bikini wax. I've been waxing my eyebrows for years and although it's not an altogether pleasant experience, having clean brows has always been worth the discomfort. So I got a spa recommendation from my roommate Mariellen and booked an appointment.

Lest you think I am going to share with you the graphic details of what a tiny, overly cheerful, and completely sadistic vietnamese wax professional did to me yesterday, let me put your fears to rest. I am not going to talk about the waxing itself, instead, I would rather discuss how much fun women seem to have talking about waxing. Starting with Mariellen as soon as I asked for the salon's phone number (which she has on speed dial I might add), this week has been all about the waxing. All you have to do is say, "I'm getting my first bikini wax on Saturday," and suddenly girls you've hardly said a word to are describing in detail their grooming routine for the most intimate body part. It's absolutely amazing. We love it. I emailed my most experienced friend to get some pre-wax advice and she came back with six paragraphs worth of tips. Women at work told me stories, other friends offered up suggestions. The night before I asked Mariellen a couple of final questions and she finally got so frustrated trying to figure how to describe things that she said, "whatever, I'll just show you." And she did.

The day finally came and yes, it hurt. It hurt alot. Taking off my pants and laying half naked on a table in front of stranger didn't phase me one bit. Having hair ripped out of the most sensitive part of my body by the roots, however, almost made me pass out. But once the pain was over, I couldn't WAIT to start making phone calls. First to Kersten to tell her thank her for her words of wisdom, then to Corey to give her a hard time for leaving out the part where it hurts so bad you could bite through a steel rod, to my sister who wanted to know exactly how the process went. Then I got home where Mariellen demanded to see how much I had taken off (she was impressed, apparently I was braver than I thought). I called Emily to give her the news since she one of my favorite Emily quotes is, "I'm so glad you asked me that because I can talk about waxing for days!" I traded a few posts back and forth on a web forum with some other women about the pros and cons of brazilian waxing. I went to a birthday dinner and happened to mention it (or couldn't keep my mouth shut about it, whichever) and it launched yet another spiritied discussion of preferences and advice.

All day long, as I literally could not keep myself from talking about bikini waxing, I was giggling at all of us, who normally do not talk about our private parts over dinner, or drop our pants in front of their roommates, but who suddenly can't seem to stop ourselves from gushing about how we low we go and what shape we like best.

I certainly can't explain it, but I'm so glad I can finally join the discussion.

Set to Shuffle

I can't look at another Sales Meeting related item right now so I'm talking a break and playing a game I stole from someone else. I'm going to put my iPod on shuffle and explain the first 10 songs, no matter how lame or embarrasing they may be.

1.Tired of My Tears-Susan Tedeschi

Not a bad way to start. I heard this song one day on the radio as I was heading to dinner at Corey's. I thought it was an old girl group track I'd never heard. It just has a sort of old Motown feeling to it. Plus I like the chorus, "I'm sick of your lies, tired of my tears. Boy if you want me, you'd better tell it like it is." Amen sister.

2.Touch, Feel and Lose-Ryan Adams

Yep. I'm fully obsessed. I'll be surprised if he doesn't show up again on this list.

3.Cry Love-John Hiatt

Arrested Development, season one. The episode where Gob ends up in the hospital. We watched the entire first season on DVD last winter in the space of about a week. It was like crack. This song reminds me of Jason Bateman, and how I had a crush on him back in the Hogan Family days and um, still do.

4.Bailamos-Enrique Iglesias

Tempted to cheat and skip this one but...whatever, my sister Emily OWNED the ALBUM so I'm transferring blame. All I'm going to say is that there is alot of passion in this song and it's great for singing along.

5.Sunlight Hits The Snow-I Am Kloot

This song was on a mix CD from a club I belonged to for a spell. We went four rounds where we all made a mix and then sent it out to everyone else on the list. It got a little time consuming and a little pricey and since someone inevitably flaked on sending a disc, it died out after the fourth edition. But I have probably 50 mixes from that club that I still listen to.

6.One Bedroom-The Sea and Cake

I had an iTunes gift certificate and went on a rampage one night. It all started with me hearing "Car" by Built to Spill and looking them up in the music store. That led me to buy "Three Years Ago Today", which led me to "Days Were Golden" by Sunny Day Real Estate, which led to "And Then I Dreamt I Was an Architect" by the Decemberists, and finally to this little Sea and Cake ditty that is so perfect for driving along PCH.

7. Death on the Stairs-The Libertines

I really love this song. Two years ago my friend Corey and I had tickets to see The Libertines at The Paradise in Boston. The show ended up being the same night as the famous Game Four of the MLB playoff series between the Red Sox and the Yankees. The Red Sox were down by three games and it was looking pretty dismal. Corey and I decided to catch a few innings at the bar next door until the show started. You can guess the rest-we ran over to the club for one song so as not to complete waste our tickets, the song was this one, the crowd was thin, and seven minutes later we were back in our seats at the bar watching the Red Sox make playoff history. Totally worth it.

8. Ageless Beauty-Stars

Oh this band-they are so sweet and romantic and melodramatic and I love every minute of it. I saw them in Boston about a year ago and it was one of my favorite shows ever. In fact, there was a time years ago they played with Broken Social Scene in LA and my friends Keith and Dave "forgot" to call me and I have yet to forgive them. It's possible I never will.

9. Love Will Come Through-Travis

I was obsessed with this song the summer I was obsessed with the movie "Garden State". That movie has alot of haters but that summer was awesome. So is this song.

10. All I Want-Joni Mitchell

Speaking of that summer-my sister sent me this song after things unraveled with a boy I was sort of excited about. "I hate you some, I love you some. I love you when I forget about me. I want to be strong, I want to laugh along." The best part is that she sent the song to me, and to her friend Tasha who happened to be in a similiar state of boy unrest. And now Tasha is married to my brother. I love when sad stories have happy endings.

Alright, time to get back to work before some Jennifer Lopez track shows up.(too late).

Sarah Jane takes pictures

Is there anything as cute as this picture? I submit that there is not.


See more of Sarah's brilliance here.

Sounds of Summer

My friend Greg has a band called Moon School and I'm just the tiniest bit obsessed with them right now. Check out their My Space page and download my personal fave, "Starhunter". I'm useless when it comes to reviewing music or even really explaining why I like it. But as Steve Martin once said, "talking about music is like dancing about architecture." So go have a listen. I promise you'll be glad you did.

hello weekend

my company is having it's semi-annual sales meeting in two weeks. I am in the midst of catalogue and binder prep hell. but no matter-look at how awesome our ads turned out



hell yeah.

I don't drink...

...which is why this photo is so funny.

What the?

Days Were Golden

Last weekend I had the pleasure of playing hostess to a couple of friends from very different parts of my life. Damian, who I have known since the fifth grade, and Bev, who I worked with at the Olympics.
Saturday morning we went to breakfast and then to American Apparel to buy some t-shirts for Damian to draw on for us. Although Bev got a little side tracked.
Then I fell in love with a pair of wildly sexy shoes that were just a little too big. The good news is that later that week I went back and found them in my size. I know you are all really relieved
We headed back to my house and flipped through Damian's sketch book to find designs for our shirts
Then Damian drew the designs we picked onto the tees with a bleach pen
And then he rinsed them off and put them in the washer.
While our t-shirts dried we went to Balboa Island to get frozen bananas
Chocolate covered frozen bananas that is
Here Bev models her one-of-a-kind-dinosaur-on-her-side-bleach-pen-shirt-extraordinaire
After we enjoyed fish tacos at Wahoo's, Keith came down from LA to say hello. Look at Damian and Keith innocently catching up.
But as soon as you turn your back on these two-your kitchen will never be the same
Seriously, is this a face you should trust?
The boys made us laugh for a bit and then Damian had to leave to meet up with his parents who also happened to be in town. Keith lounged around on my couch for awhile.
The next day Bev and I went to the beach, did some work, and ate some yummy sushi
Bev left late Sunday night to get back to Atlanta. One of these days I'm making good on my plan to make everyone I love live in a giant compound somehere. This whole only seeing them every once in awhile is really starting to get on my nerves....

blah!

This day started with me getting all the way to work before I realized I had left my computer at home and had to go all the way back for it. I caught a cold from a sales rep in Indianapolis this week, my Outlook Express had a meltdown, and now blogger won't let me upload my images.

Good thing today only has 30 more minutes.

How it Ends

I had a really delightful weekend and a more in depth post will follow when my iphoto program gets fixed but for tonight, I just wanted to share the picture that is wreaking all manner of havoc with my emotions. I worked for the Olympics in Salt Lake in 2002. I was a Sport Coordinator for Short Track and Figure Skating. My little team was responsible for anything athlete and official related in the competition venue. Bev, who was part of that team and remains a dear friend of mine, was visiting this weekend and she gave me a bunch of photos from the Games. All of them have had me either laughing or crying but I have a particular affection for this one.

First of all, I love Short Track Speed Skating. I didn't even know what it was before I got my job but in my two years at the organizing committee, I fell in love with it. My boss was a four-time Olympic short tracker who was incredibly passionate about the sport and was very respected in the short track community. It was sort of like if you didn't know a thing about basketball and you got to learn about it from Michael Jordan. So I love that this picture was taken on a short track night. But the thing I really love about it is the two girls dressed in black there in the right hand corner with the dorky headsets. Those girls are Bev and me. We were pretty vigilant about making sure that volunteers and staff didn't take photos during competition. Take them all you want outside the venue or during a medals ceremony, but during the competition, we wanted the athletes to be able to do their best, and not feel like circus animals. And because we were so strict about it, I have hundreds and hundreds of Olympic snapshots logged in my brain, but none that I can physically hold in my hand. Nothing to prove that I was there and that I did that. Bev got these from a guy on the event services staff who had worked enough Games to know that there were ways to be unobstrusive in your photo-taking, and also knew that you would be sorry if you ended up without a photo of yourself behind the big blue curtain.
I love this picture because although I have no idea which night that was, or what I was doing right then, I know that I was enjoying absolutely every second of it. I was with coworkers I adored, dealing with athletes I admired, doing a job I loved like I'm not sure I can ever love a job again. I love that I have a little souvenir of the tiny tiny part I played in a big world event. I love that four years after the Games ended, seeing them again can have me as worked up as I am right now.

One reason I like my job

is that sometimes you get to hire your incredibly talented friends to do a project for you.

And then after your big meeting you go out for milkshakes.

And you see that they are pretty much still the same boys you have known since you were 12.

Grownup jobs are awesome.