Adventures in Advertising

Advertising is not brain surgery. Although, millions (or billions) of dollars may be lost by a wrong move, it's pretty unlikely that anyone dies. That being said, there is often a lot of stress flying about in a media agency.

There are a lot of perks, working in advertising, you get a lot of small free things (or tchotchke) like t-shirts, pens, note books, mostly covered in company logos. Then there are sponsored lunches, dinners, breakfasts, sporting events, theater, concerts and, of course cocktails.

But occationally, you get to do something truly special and original. For instance, on Thursday me and the team I work with were taken out for a night on the town, including a trip to the Puma Store to create a custom pair of Pumas (my design pictured to the right).

And then there is then there was massive amounts of alcohol consumptions, which is almost always part of an evening out with ad people. We had a really good time watching NCAA basketball, talking, smoking, doing shots, and we all paid the price for it the next day. But that's just the way it goes, just one of the perks.

On Friday evening, last minute, I got invited for my first ever mani/pedi (Easter egg purple pictured to the left). It was exactly what I needed after the hangover I indured all day and yet another perk to the stress-filled 13 hours days we occationally have to indure to get something done that doesn't really make any bit of difference in the world.

I'd say it's a pretty fair trade off, now that I have spa trips and lunches lined up for my birthday week...but ask me during one of those 70-hour work weeks.

Slainte and Guid Forder!

I probably have some Irish blood in me, being the mutt that I am, but Saint Partick's Day has never really meant a great deal to me.

An excuse to drink Guinness, yes, of course. But I don't need many excuses for that. Guinness is usually my drink of choice an any Irish pub or everytime my father comes to town and we visit Christina's (a pub in my neighborhood which serves $2 draft Guinness pints with shamrocks poured into the head).

So, first, there is drinking. I stated 2 years ago, when this blog began, "...as much as I love holidays that focus on getting really drunk, this holiday has always been the 2-weeks-to-go-until-your-birthday Day." Drinking, for me, has never really needed the excuse of holiday, vacation or special occation. It does make me wonder how those of us who don't drink deal with these sorts of occations and weddings and other times when drinking is the normal and socially acceptable default behavior. I'm in awe of these people, like a rare speicies of bird lizard, not sure if I believe everything the Discovery Channel tells me.

I don't really feel like my birthday is on its way. I can hardly believe that it almost April. Time is getting really screwed up in my head and my mom just keeps telling me that it will get worse with age.

Last year, my birthday was pretty uneventful. I was thinking this year would be a great birthday. To tell you a little childhood secret, when I would play house with my friend across the street, I was always 26, so there are a lot of expectations riding on this birthday. I guess I just thought I would be someone by now.

Then I started thinking about how "cheers" in most languages means "to your health" or "good luck" and how that's a weird thing to say as you suck down another beer to make you forget your bad luck and worsening health.

But let me end this post by saying I hope you enjoyed a happy and safe Saint Patrick's Day and all the luck of the Irish is with us both as I drink to the end of my 25th year and surrender my childhood fantasy of being 26 forever.

So kiss me, even though I may not be Irish.

Cheers!

piecing it back together

I'm sad to report that 2007 has had a bit of a rocky start and I'm not currently much of a fan.

I had a great New Year's staying up all night with my hubby, Wade, drinking, smoking, playing cards, laughing and talking.

Mid-January we had a nice , our first since moving to Chicago, and got to spend time with friends and family on the coast at Seaside and in the valley in Portland.

I got to see Troy & Amanda, Adam, my uncle Jack & his family, Wiggy Bill, and then we went to the coast with my father in-law, Jerry, his wife, Gretchen, her adult-children, Amanda and Chris, Amanda's husband, Rick, their daughter, Brittany and Chris' son, AJ. This was all in 4 days.

I rented my first car in Portland for the trip to the coast, which was exiciting and very simple. It was the first trip I took since being old enough to rent a car and one of those last birthday milestones, so I charished it.

And am I glad I took the special 4-wheel-drive offer they had at Dollar, because there was more snow in Portland when we landed than there was in Chicago when we took off. And if you've ever driven from Portland to Seaside during the winter, you know that the mountain pass can get pretty slick.

Since our brief trip, I have missed Portland even more, but I've also been so busy at work that it makes it hard to think of anything else. I've been working 12-hour days at least 3 days a week, plus 9-hour days the remaining 1-2 workdays. We just got some new team members and I think they're working out fine.

So far not so bad, so what is Eva bitching about?

Well, I guess it started on a Tuesday night about 5 weeks ago, when I barely caught my finger tip in a bathroom stall door and within 24 hours my nail was completely black and the throbbing pain had brought me close to tears. I don't know about you, but I had a natural birth and it takes a lot of pain to make me cry.

So, because work was so crazy, I doped myself up on ibuprofen and trucked along. By the time Saturday rolled along I couldn't imagine living another day with the pain and I thought that my finger was possibly getting infected, so I took a trip to the ER.

I've never been admitted to an ER before and I've only been in the hospital once (see natural child birth, above). I'm not a fan of needles and doctors or waiting for long periods of time. That being said, it went fairly smoothly. They did exactly what WebMD told me to do myself, but I didn't have the cojones and I got the reassurance of the x-ray too.

I haven't lost the nail, as of yet, but I am 99% sure that I will soon. Okay, on with the sob story. So about 4 weeks ago, I lost my bus/rail pass. I went and got it replaced in the middle of the day because they close at 4pm. Only it was much further away than I had thought. Then a couple of weeks after that, I was out drinking and lost my cell phone and DRIVER'S LICENSE and my bus/rail card again the next day.

I guess I should consider myself lucky because I've never lost my DL before. It is an absolute nightmare, especially if you don't live in the state that issued your previous DL or you birth certificate or your marriage certificate, etc.

I did finally manage to get a hold of my Birth Certificate, my Social Security card, my lease and my marriage certificate to get an Illinois ID Card. You see, I hadn't switched my DL over from Oregon, so had to get an ID card for now, until I can take the driving test.

While we were in Portland, my uncle offered me his car (which very close to the model I learned to drive on), so we are getting a car this summer, but Wade and I both need to get our license first. Oh, and I've NEVER taken a driving test before, so I am sort of nervous and I don't really know how it works.

The silver lining of all these lost object is that now I have finally joined the respectable 21st century people who have camera phones. I've been having a lot of fun taking pictures and uploading directly to my flickr.

So here's to hoping that the rest of 2007 sails a little more smoothly. Now that it is my birthday month, I'm sure things will start to look up...Here's to a year full of regular updates to this here blog.