2nd Star to the Right :: Neverland. I think I want to live there.

A new day, a new week...almost a new month. Things are a changin', baby. After being told on Friday I needed to work on my attitude, I decided I'm gonna be so damn nice and helpful, Jason won't be able to stand it. I'm not going to let him upset me anymore - he's not worth it. Not even a little bit. I'm going to just do my best and work even harder than I have before.

That said, I had a great weekend. I spent most of Saturday sleeping, which was wonderful, followed by a thourough house-cleaning and a night out with Chris. He took me to the Boulevard Bistro and then we caught a late showing of The Four Feathers. It was bloody, but good. And I had a great time with Chris - he's smart and funny and he makes me laugh. He works nights which will make it a little more difficult to spend time with him, but if it's in the cards, it'll all work out. And I'm hoping it will.

Yesterday was as lazy as they come. I watched Dallas win and unfortunately, Green Bay won too, so I couldn't call daddy and tease. He was probably at rehersal anyway. Which reminds me, I need to work out some of the ideas I had for his publicity of the show. Hmmm, maybe I can do that during lunch today. I also took in a movie yesterday aternoon, Sweet Home Alabama - it was ok. Formulaic, but lots of cute guys to look at, so my money wasn't all wasted. And I took in the season premieres of Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Boomtown. L&O was good but I fell asleep during Boomtown - what does that tell you?

8:30 AM | allison | # |

Going to work isn't fun anymore. Sure, there are good days, but they seem fewer and further between than ever before. You know what I'm reminded of? Pizza Hut. I worked there throughout most of my college days and hated almost every second of it. I stayed because the tips were good (most of the time) and it was easy, not because I enjoyed it. I'm staying here because I don't have another job yet. But it's the same feeling of dread when I wake up and know that I have to literally drag my ass to work. That isn't how it should be. I should get at least some minor enjoyment out of my job. And it's become that too - a job.

I keep telling myself this is just a phase that I'm going through - I'm lonely and tired and am just blaming it on work. But this "phase" seems to be happening more and more frequently. I'm not really sure what to do anymore. Except maybe go home and crawl back into bed.

8:27 AM | allison | # |

Some good news. Sara beat me to the punch. Somehow, she and Jason got to talking about what she wrote (see earlier post) and Jason is totally going for it. So, phew! I'm still a little skeptical about it actually happening, but this seems to be a step in the right direction.

And now, back to work. Soon anyway. There is a Twix bar in the vending machine - I can hear that cookie crunching goodness calling my name all the way over here. I think I'm going to go liberate it.

2:55 PM | allison | # |

Ok, daddy, so here's the scoop:
Jason and I finally got to talk about the proposal I wrote, where I would move more into a Traffic position than what I'm currently doing now. He hemmed and hawed and put me off and I think it was mostly because he was afraid of losing control - not that he has much to begin with; he's not well-respected among the folks here in the department.

So, we talked - I'll get to do most of what I wanted, but Jason's version of what I wanted. Like I said, he's afraid of being kept out of the loop. He actually got angry with me when I sent comps to new VP man before sending them to him. But you know what? Good 'ol boy Jason was out playing golf. So poop on him.

We've got to a partial agreement on what it is I'm going to do - I'm afraid he's not giving me as much of a free hand as I think I'll need. And I'm becoming more and more apprehensive about working for him. When Carolyn and I spoke last week, she was telling me what Jason had told her when she moved into his group, about how he was going to do everything he could to help her grow and stuff and it turned out to be a lot of lip service. I'm not sure if it was RIF angst, but I'm betting what she said was true. And I refuse to take that.

On top of all this, I found this today:
PROCESS OF AN ASSIGNMENT FROM BEGINNING TO COMPLETION

STEP ONE: The Creative Director has an assignment - i.e. print ads, direct mail, video, etc.

Note - all projects that do not come from the CD must be coordinated through the Traffic Manager first, who informs the CD and establishes a realistic priority of assignments, so that the person making the request will be aware of the timeline of their job based on the Traffic Manager's knowledge of the creative's workload. This important measure prevents creatives from being bombarded by "outside" requests on top of the CD's priorities and keeps CDs abreast of ALL that is going on within their department. The Traffic Manager is also the point of contact between the creative and the person requesting work which enables creatives to work rather than field calls on when they can finish the requester's job.

STEP TWO: The Creative Director gets together with the Traffic Manager and discusses which TEAM will complete an assignment.

STEP THREE: After a Copywriter & Art Director team are chosen, the Traffic Manager and Creative Director call in the team to discuss the assignment, i.e. what the CD believes the message should reflect and what the piece is designed to accomplish. This is also the time to discuss budgets.

STEP FOUR: After the meeting, the Traffic Manager then coordinates all due dates and establishes a schedule for work to be completed in, i.e. rough ideas to be shown to CD, when the final must go to legal, and any extensions or drop dead dates an Art Director may need to get the work completed.

STEP FIVE: With a deadline in hand, the Copywriter and Art Director meet on their own and discuss initial ideas. For one project they will usually brainstorm for two to three days and then meet again to share ideas. They weed out bad ideas and then the best ideas are selected to rough out. Once best ideas are chosen the Art Director creates the various layouts and the Copywriter works within those layouts.

Note- One of the benefits to everyone working in Quark is it enables a Copywriter to know how much space they have to work in based on the Art Director's decisions of font, type size, kerning and leading.
Also, if everyone had access to one server where a job folder for the layout resides, then copywriters can help look for visuals and everyone can access a job when they need to, rather than waiting on emails.

STEP SIX: When the deadline for rough ideas arrives the Copywriter and Art Director present them to the CD, who then selects what will be executed as a final idea or sends them back to the drawing board.

STEP SEVEN: Once the edits and tweaks have been made the Copywriter and Art Director meet with the CD again and show final comps. If the CD approves the comps, then the final layout is given to the Traffic Manager.

STEP EIGHT: The Traffic Manager has two different copywriters (a job cannot be proofed by the original copywriter) proof the work for grammatical errors and then sends the suggestions to the original copywriter. The original copywriter then returns the final corrected version to the Traffic Manager who sends it to legal.

STEP NINE: Once legal has made their changes, the Traffic Manager sends those to the Copywriter, Art Director and Creative Director, so everyone is aware of all final edits.

STEP TEN: The Art Director prepares the piece to be shipped and the Traffic Manager coordinates any shipping needs, i.e. FedEx, UPS, etc. A final copy of the work is given to the Traffic Manager to keep for records.

Our department could totally work like this. I'm just not sure how to approach the subject. Do I go to Jason first? or new VP man?

12:34 PM | allison | # |

Ok, so after a pretty good morning, my afternoon has been shot straight to hell. My morning was good because Jason finally came around the bend and talked to me about the Traffic position and I think it's going to happen, pending an ok from the Powers That Be, a.k.a. our EVP and HR. We talked a lot about the position and while it's not exactly what I had envisioned, I think it's certainly a step in the right direction. It was very clear to me today how afraid Jason is about being cut out - I think he feels his job is un-needed if I move into this traffic position. I don't have anything nice to say about that, so I'm not going to say anything at all.

This afternoon went from bad to worse - the PLI contract pretty much blew up in my face, I had to go the bathroom for two hours and didn't have time to go and I can feel a huge pimple forming right in the middle of my chin. Bugger.

One good thing though - I get to head over to the Woodlands tonight and see Scott - he's still hobbling around on crutches, so I'm going to head over and take him some dinner and watch some of the premiering shows tonight. And I will be out of here by 5 PM. Really. I will.

4:24 PM | allison | # |

Yesterday I got one of the nicest e-mails from a co-worker after helping him out on a project:

You make everything not only easy, but better.
Thanks,
name omitted

He totally made my entire day.

8:29 AM | allison | # |

Looks like someone has a case of the Mondays. Bugger. You know, I think this is the first Monday in ages where I haven't really wanted to drag my ass out of bed and go to work. I used to look forward to going to work and I can't decide if I just had a really good time this weekend or if I'm really starting to hate my job. Both are distinct possibilites.

I did have a good time this weekend - Friday I spent home, sleeping, which is always good. Saturday I spent as much time as possible outside because the weather was so beautiful. I even opened up the house, allergies be damned. That night I headed to Houston and met up with Carolyn and Andrew and Andrew's cousin, Chris. We hit the Laff Stop and saw Bobby Slayton who is about as politically incorrect as they come; he even offended a couple enough to get up and walk out of his show. We had dinner at Romano's and then sat around talking and waiting for a midnight showing of The Big Lebowski. I got home really late, but had a really good time. Chris was a lot of fun and I hope I get to see more of him in the future.

I spent Sunday finishing laundry and picking up the house and I headed over to Carol and Scott's to see them and then drive Carol to the airport. She's in Denver all week and Scott is home on the couch after his surgery, so I'm going to go over on Tuesday and Thursday to visit and collect mail and other stuff he isn't able to do on cruches.

I'm going to corner Jason again and tell him I really, really want to talk about my proposal. I'm tired of being blown off. If he skirts the subject or puts me off again, I'll go back to new VP man. It's the only way I can think of to really get his attention.

Oh, and I lost 3 pounds last week. Yay me!

9:18 AM | allison | # |

My head hurts, my desk is a mess. I think everyone should just take today off and go back to bed - what do you think?

Or I could just do my Friday Five:

1. Would you say that you're good at keeping in touch with people? Depends on who it is - my family I call every week, sometimes multiple times in a week. Friends I'm a little less consistent with. But I do go through phases; sometimes I don't want to talk to anyone and sometimes I'll run up a huge long-distance bill calling everyone in my book. I find it a little oronic - I work in Marketing and get paid to communicate with strangers, but have a hard time communicating with those I love.

2. Which communication method do you usually prefer/use: e-mail, telephone, snail mail, blog comments, or meeting in person? Why? I prefer face-to-face above all else, but sometimes that's just not possible. My family is far away and my friends are spread out all over the world. When meeting isn't possible, I phone family or email friends.

3. Do you have an instant messenger program? How many? Why/why not? How often do you use it? Yes, I've got Yahoo! Messenger. I used to have AOL IM, but our firewall at work wouldn't let me upgrade it, so I deleted it. My Yahoo! Messenger is on now, and I use it mainly at work. I only have two people on my buddy list - daddy and Leanna.

4. Do most of your close friends live nearby or far away? Far away - C is in Little Rock, Leanna and Mel are both in Missouri, Lynn is headed to Brazil and I've got other friends spread out across the rest of the country.

5. Are you an "out of sight, out of mind" person, or do you believe that "distance makes the heart grow fonder"? I probably fall into both categories a little. I do tend to not call and go for long periods of time without contacting some friends, which I know I shouldn't do. On the other hand, when I do get to see my family and friends, I try to spend every waking minute enjoying my time with them.

9:17 AM | allison | # |

You know, sometimes during my lunch hour I sit at my desk and read other people's blogs and then begin to think my life isn't so bad - some folks are struggling with life a lot more than I am. I've got it pretty good in fact. It made me think of last night - my mom called and we talked for a while and then my dad called me not long after because mom had hung before he got a chance to talk to me. Which made me feel really, really good. My folks and I are getting to the point where we're moving beyond just the parent-child relationship and becoming good friends. I really like that. I like it a lot.

Today has been pretty quiet so far - JC is driving my nuts as per usual. I went over a contract with him that I know he's had sitting in his inbox for days, because I got a copy of it at the same time. I honestly think he really never read the original contract which is why he didn't understand any of the changes that had been suggested. Growl. Why is it that I have to do my job and his and he's the one who gets to go golfing? Oh right - it's because I'm doing my and his. Silly me.

I'll be talking with JC again this afternoon about my proposal. It seems I have the backing of new VP man and most of the department. But JC is taking a little convincing. I think he's afraid of losing some control or that I'd be doing the job he's supposed to be doing now. Either way, I'll get what I want, even if I have to go around JC and back to new VP man to get it.

12:10 PM | allison | # |

Damnit. I was so gonna be out of the office by 5:00 PM today. Damn. Damn. Damn.

Now I've missed King of the Hill.

6:06 PM | allison | # |

You know what? I am not going to stay late tonight. That's right folks, Allison is leaving the building at exactly 5:00 PM tonight.

I gotta make sure I'm home in time for King of the Hill.

4:20 PM | allison | # |

Hmmm, ok. So I threw up this morning. No warning, no rumbling of the tummy. Just WHAM - get your head to the toilet pronto, sister! What a wonderful way to start my week. And my horoscope isn't promising either. One more thing and I'm going back to bed.

8:45 AM | allison | # |

I just saw this posted on our intranet at work. He took the words right out of my mouth.

“I smile a little brighter. I laugh a little harder. I hug a little more. I forgive a little deeper.”
– Patrick Villella, Sales Consultant, Boston, on how we have changed since 9/11/01.

1:39 PM | allison | # |

I freakin' love Fridays. I know I've said it before and I'll say it again and again. I freakin' love Fridays. And today is going to be good - I'm having lunch at the OG with the ladies from work, it's a calorie-counting free day, I have a meeting with new VP this afternoon to discuss my future and tonight I'm gonna go home and crash in my snuggly warm bed. Sweet.

Friday Five:
1. What was/is your favorite subject in school? Why? Until I hit college, history/social studies was always my favorite - I loved learning about the world around me and then visiting the places I had read about in books. I think the biggest impact was the first time I set foot in the Tower of London, and I remember thinking, oh my god, think of all the people, the real people that have walked down these paths and run their fingers along the wall like me. It gave me a real perspective and I began to realize how young the United States actually is.

2. Who was your favorite teacher? Why? Hands down, Spence. Her real name is Kathy Spencer, but everyone always called her Spence. She was my Latin teacher for four years in high school and probably made the biggest impact on me than any other educator (except my mom) that anyone ever has. She never, ever let me believe I couldn't accomplish anything I really wanted.

3. What is your favorite memory of school? I don't know if I really have one - school almost always came pretty easy to me. Everyone has something they're good at; some people have sports or music or art, I had school. I enjoyed the classtime, studying for the tests. It never really seemed like work to me. I just enjoying learning. And yes, I am a nerd, thankyouverymuch.

4. What was your favorite recess game? It wasn't really a game, so much as a piece of playground equipment. In gradeschool, there was a huge wooden jungle gym that had a slide, a rope net, a sliding pole, a tire swing and tons of ways to climb to the top, which everyone at school just called the Big Toy. And it was that tire swing - we would go so high and spin in circles so fast that I always went back into class feeling a little nauseated. It was great.

5. What did you hate most about school? I never really fit in and felt it throughout all my schooling. It wasn't as bad in college, where we've all grown up a bit and are more open to the differences in others, but man, grade school and junior high totally sucked.

8:40 AM | allison | # |

If you haven't seen this yet, please do so now. If you've already seen it, watch it again.

4:09 PM | allison | # |

We come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow, this ground -- The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth. --Gettysburg Address, November 1863

In Memoriam.

8:28 AM | allison | # |

I found out tonight that a friend of the family has passed away. It's the husband of one of my mom's old friends and of the woman who I worked with and loved for more summers of my life than I can count. Jo was one of the reasons that I went back to the theatre summer after summer - she even helped me get my very first job working at the local television station where she was the Arts correspondant. I remember her husband, Bob, never was involved very much in the theatre and by the time I knew them, was already enjoying his retirement. But was always at our shows and always had a kind word for me and my friends after our performance, no matter how terrible we actually were.

Mom said that she and daddy will go to the memorial this weekend, which makes me wonder a bit. I know that mom and Jo had drifted apart over the past couple of years - something Jo said about someone else and so on. How do you handle that now? Will mom and Jo suddenly be good friends again because of her loss? I think that would be terribly awkward, and I can't imagine being in that situation myself.

Something else that I remember about them - Jo had a license plate that read ACT JO 1 and Bob's read RUN BOB 1 - for her love of theatre and his love running. He used to race like daddy does. I hadn't thought Bob to be ill, and mom said that he wasn't - it was most likely a massive stroke while he was sleeping.

Rest in Peace, Bob. My thoughts are with you and your family.

9:24 PM | allison | # |

This weekend has been quite an experience - not the rest and relaxation I had planned on. Christy had her baby, we drove to Austin and back with Gabe, today we moved into the new building (I am sooo getting paid overtime for coming in on a Sunday to unpack). The baby is gorgeous - Miles Whitman Hanson. This was in my email:

Baby Hanson was born at 2:25pm today. He is 8 lbs. even, 20 1/2 inches long, and has a 13 1/2 cm. round head! He is BEAUTIFUL.

Mom and baby are doing well, and so are Dad and Gabe.
More soon!

How fun is that? And he is beautiful - all pink and wrinkly. I was afraid to hold him. I've never held a newborn before, let alone been that close to one. I stuck mostly with Gabe.

Coming to the office this afternoon has been quite an adventure. My cube is pretty good size, but I was working in a gigantacube before, and trying to fit all that stuff into this space just isn't going to happen. And we got a new member of marketing that no one knew about until today because we all got here and her name is on the door. All this creeping and secrecy is really bad form.

I had begun to think that maybe things were going to get better for a while, but I'm more convinced than ever that its time for me to move on. I'm not being left any room to grow here, which is too bad - I'm a good worker and I like this company.

So, if you hear of any job openings in Marketing, let me know. I'll move if the job is worth it.

3:01 PM | allison | # |

Enough changes for now. I'm tired and need to sleep.

I did get to see the new baby today - Miles Whitman Hanson, a.k.a. uber-cutie.

11:07 PM | allison | # |

Christy had her baby today! Carol (Christy's mom) called me at around noonish and told me she had gotten a call from Christy's husband, saying that she had gone into labor about 11:00 this morning. And then I got another call this afternoon, close to 4 and she had another boy!

Carol and I are driving to Austin tomorrow morning to pick up her other little one so she and her husband can have some quality time with the baby and each other for a few days. I'm excited cause I get to see the new baby and spend some time with my favorite kiddo.

Congrats, cuz!

3:54 PM | allison | # |

Hmm, ok. I just got my NY Times email and this is the quote of the day today, "Will someone please explain to me the logic that says we can trust someone with a Boeing 747 in bad weather, but not with a Glock 9 millimeter?" Senator Zell Miller,in support of a measure allowing the arming of airline pilots.

I'm not sure yet how I feel about pilots carrying loaded weapons in the cockpit, but it's an interesting statement nonetheless.

10:14 AM | allison | # |

We're moving today! Hooray! I'm almost finished with all the packing - I just have to pack up all the audie cassettes and empty a couple of shelves. I stayed late on Wednesday to do the rest. I'm really looking forward to catching up on some missed sleep this weekend. I am going to come into the office on Sunday to unpack after the move, because I just won't have time on Monday.

Friday Five:
1. What is your biggest pet peeve? Why? I think it's a tie between two: 1.) Folks who don't know that the gas pedal is the one on the right; and 2.) folks who waste my time because they didn't take the time to do something right the first time around.

2. What irritating habits do you have? I interrupt other people when they're talking. And I talk with food in my mouth. I know, I'm sorry.

3. Have you tried to change the irritating habits or just let them be? Yes, and both attempts have been so far unsuccessful.

4. What grosses you out more than anything else? Why? Green peas, congealed macaroni, documentaries of live operations and other people's blood. I don't know why any of these things gross me out. If I knew, I'd do something about it.

5. What one thing can you never see yourself doing that other people do? Abusing family members. I could never do that - they're too special.

9:38 AM | allison | # |

I was at work until after 8 PM last night. Thank goodness for overtime. I wasn't actually "working" during those extra three hours last night. I was packing. Our group is moving over to the new building as of close of business on Friday, and I have about million and a half files to go through, throw away, send to storage or take with me. And just so you know, yes, I am a pack-rat, but most of these files were inherited - I did not create them all myself.

Staying late last night really helped too. I only have the audio tapes to pack up and one more set of shelves to go through. Not too bad if I do say so myself. Terry and Marsha and Donna all stayed late last night too, so I wasn't here all by myself. Today is going to be crazy busy, so I won't get much packing done. I'm hoping what I have left, I'll be able to finish up tomorrow.

My cubemate hasn't even really started packing. Not that I blame her. I'd have a hard time packing too if I knew I was only just gonna unpack it and then not work here anymore.

8:49 AM | allison | # |

Hmm, ok, so maybe I won't submit that proposal to new VP man after all. My cubemate got laid-off yesterday afternoon.So, in addition to no promotions and our hiring freeze, "normal attrition" includes laying off a few people here and there. Now I get it. This Fortune 500 corporation stuff is tricky.

9:03 AM | allison | # |

Well, I'm back. And my way-expensive plane ticket was well worth it. I got all the hugs I wanted, got to visit with some of the folks from the theatre group, went on a picture-taking adventure in a house that needs to be condemned (sorry, Carl) and got to have dinner at Portillo's. Yum.

I really, really needed that time at home. More and more I want to live and work closer to my family so I can just jump in the car or on a train and be there within an hour or so. This 1,800+ miles away just isn't any fun anymore. But for now, I'm gonna suck it up and work as hard as usual - if and when the opportunity to move comes, I'll take it.

While I was home I also got a chance to work on a proposal I'm writing for new VP man about how I think this department needs a full-time Traffic Manager, which I already do, just on a smaller scale. I'm going to work on it some more this afternoon and then ask one of our writers to take a look at it and help me iron out the gaps a little. Look at me go.

3:17 PM | allison | # |