What's up?

I know you have all been wondering what the heck I am up to.

First I'm a nostalgic blogger telling charming stories about my New England childhood.

Then I'm a copywriter blogger giving tips on how to make a comfortable living in your pj's.

Then all of a sudden I'm a working woman blogger adjusting to the 9-to-5 routine while dealing with coworkers who I'm sorry I really can't tell you about because they just might stumble upon this blog but trust me I have some totally hilarious stories to tell you at some point. Trust me. You will fall on the floor laughing. I know you will.

In the meantime, here is what I have learned lately:

- Karma is alive and well in the workplace. As soon as I pounce upon a mistake made by a sincere and well-meaning coworker, I am bound to make a much worse mistake myself.

- There is no use trying to cover up my large, horrible, unforgivable mistake, even if it is a very small detail in 8-point font in the last disclosure at the bottom of the back page. The client will find it. They always do.

- An abject apology is a good start, but forgiveness is hard to come by. One mistake can wipe out an entire year of competence.

- Not that I've made any mistakes lately.

- But just theoretically, it could happen to anyone.

- Did somebody mention working in their pj's?

- That sounds awfully nice.

~~~

Dear Me:

(i heart sticky notes)

I am totally not complaining, but my life is crazy. Now that I'm working full time, my feeble old brain needs to go in 10 different directions at once, for 10 straight hours every day. This is not easy for a feeble old brain.

My solution? Sticky notes.

In fact, I have quite a variety of sticky notes:

1. Job folder sticky notes: My co-workers love my helpful sticky notes, which say helpful but extremely vague things like "Not crazy about this" or "Not feeling this" or "Please change." I simply have no time to be more specific. Read between the lines, people.

2. Project management sticky notes: These are the sticky notes which are stuck all over my computer monitor. I put each one there for a reason, but at this point I have no idea what that reason was. Fortunately, it is a very large monitor. So my system is intact for now.

3. Bedside sticky notes: I keep a fresh supply of sticky notes on the headboard of my bed at all times. This way, when I wake up at 3 am and realize that we are planning to mail 20,000 letters next week but I totally forgot that we need to design an envelope to mail them in, I can bolt upright in bed, grab my little sticky notes, realize that I have no pen, go into the bathroom, grab my eyeliner, and scribble "JOB VPB2 NEEDS ENV" which immediately blurs into something totally undecipherable which hopefully I will be able to decipher in the morning.

Perhaps I need to develop other sticky notes, which might help me remember to throw some towels in the laundry, check up on my kids and eat lunch at least once a week.

But for now, I'm just too busy.

I have some envelopes to take care of.

Catch ya later.

~~~

Insomnia

(count me. i dare ya.)

Insomnia:
The inability to sleep.

Symptoms:
Waking up at random times during the night for absolutely no reason, and then finally getting out of bed at 5 a.m. just like my dad used to do when he was like 80 years old even though I would kindly tell him just go back to bed for pete's sake, what the heck is wrong with you.

Causes:
1. For other people - getting old.
2. For me - the stress of my extremely demanding job, which is not all that extreme or demanding but clearly #1 cannot possibly apply, so there you have it.

Treatment:
Warm bath
Warm milk
Relaxing music
Boring movies
Counting sheep
Darned if I know. Any suggestions?

~~~