Novel Eye

On Wednesday my boss put me in a terrible position with our PR firm. I won't go into the details, but I had to rant for nearly an hour before I could call him back. And he, of course, felt that everything was fine. We are all miserable, and stressed and he thinks that's our problem not his. That night I had a dream that wandered a bit, but eventually I ended up in a room in a museum filled with cases of live snakes, tarantulas, scorpions, beetles, etc. Creepy, crawly, you name it. And I knew in the dream that a friend was in the next room working on this exhibit. I was extremely freaked out, even though I don't have pronounced phobias about any of these things, just normal unease. The floor was sand and I found myself scooting, crawling out of the room, calling to my friend that I couldn't stay in there. There was a sudden sharp pain in my hand and I looked down to see a beetle biting me--a beetle about as large as my hand with half inch pincers. It was very painful and...

I went on a job interview on Friday. This should be a good thing as I must, must, must get away from my current job, but it's not the ideal job for me. Basically I would be a wholesaler for a home health aide company. I would dine and schmooze people who could/would refer patients to this home company. But here's the thing. I hate schmoozing. I hate making phone calls. I barely call my friends. I can be that person--act like that person--that extroverted person, but it's only an act, and I find it tiring--Novel as people person. I do it for interviews, auditions, etc. I think I do it pretty well, but it's not who I am. The friend who recommended me thought that I was a people person. But, the boss was sane and pleasant and quiet and calm, and committed to working together and helping grow the business, and focused and intelligent. I'd be working with an old friend (who called me in for it) and I wouldn't even have to work in the office as long as t...

So now I have to get a crown (which I didn't realize was almost always necessary after a root canal--especially in a molar) and I have to decide whether I should go to my regular dentist or to my new dentist. This is my post on trying to figure out the pros and cons of either and it brings up an interesting point that relates to my job. Part of what my company does is coach financial planners on how to get and retain high net worth clients (or any clients, for that matter), and we've had some speakers talk about presentation of office etc. My old dentist, let us call him A, has a beautiful private office in the first floor of what was once a house outside of Davis Square in Somerville . This used to be relatively easy to access from my old address, but is somewhat harder now (it is where I learned to ride a bike ). The waiting room has a TV , and a large array of magazines and some lovely art (because the dentist owns a share in an art gallery on Newbury St.). There are s...

when a link on a cutting edge site doesn't work? Like if a web company's site has glitches? http://directcreative.jobamatic.com/a/jbb/find-jobs Since I'm looking for work, I thought I'd subscribe to the RSS --and this is what I got: http://directcreative.jobamatic.com/a/jbb/find-jobs-rss?sb=1& sbo =1 f(O.0)

I know I said I wasn't going to write about work--but this is an accomplishment of sorts, and more working things out. The week of the 7 th -9 th was the bi-annual Summit, here in Boston this time. It went well and I received some praise. I met some very nice affiliates and sponsors and speakers, and some really, really strange ones. Like the one who wanted to be The Chairman of the Board. In fact, on the little humorous questionnaire we passed out he admitted that he worshiped ol ' Blue Eyes. He's 35... Then the one who found Atlas Shrugged a seminal novel--which I guess it is, it just depends on how you take it. I'll pass over those who listed Da Vinci Code as one of their favorite books, or "anything by John Grissom ." And move on to the two older male affiliates --one who's favorite movie is "The Neverending Story" and the other who's favorite is " Ladyhawke ." His favorite book is "The Princess Bride." A ...

I have decided that it might be better if I don't rehash work problems here and get back to some basic reviewing. The BIG summit is May 6-9, so I might not really be back to it until after, but before I finish with work, I do want to show one thing I am proud of: The Paragon Advisor Created entirely and edited by yours truly. It's a newsletter for aspiring financial planners, so not so exciting, but hey, I made it. There are also blogs being launched at http://www.makingcentsblog.com/ and http://www.theparagonadvisorblog.com/ . I actually didn't set these up, but have tweaked them some. I am editing most of the pieces at Making Cents, which IS for the general consumer, so feel free to comment and make my boss happy and keep me in a job. Edit: Annoyingly Making Cents is not showing the way that it should. Will have to do some checking on that on Monday. Have had some weird bugs in TypePad. Like I said, I didn't set them up.

You get bawled out and you can't cry (or kick them in the shins). Well, I stood my own at least. And I'm more angry/annoyed than sad. I have three major projects going on at work: Planning the conference for May 6-9 Overseeing the development of the two new websites which are supposed to go live on May 1 Building myself a Practice Development Newsletter that will go out monthly and collects articles from several sources Then I have several small projects: The general weekly Newsletter which takes most of Wednesday Transition work for JT Other updates and projects etc. The first three depend on my boss. Today he informed me in no certain terms that he wasn't happy with the second project--the websites. He already had major "corrections" to item 3 that took most of yesterday, last night and this morning. Now, the stupid thing is that he's had a chance to offer input on all of these things at several points along the way, but through his own stupidity didn't ...

I had a dream over the weekend that I ran into someone I used to work with and was complaining about my job and he said that when he was stressed he joined merchant shipping vessels for a three month tour. The pay was good and it was only three months. So he and I went down and somehow he was turned away (maybe don't ask, don't tell?) but I was taken (even though I'd be lucky if I could carry 50 pounds a foot) and I had a half an hour to go home (and it was close to my home) throw some t-shirts and scrubs into a bag, tell my husband I'd wire him money for the rent and I'd be home in 3 months. Now the weird thing is that I could see my old co-worker doing something this bizarre. He was always jumping on schemes. But me? Do I really want to leave my job that much?

I have a lovely rubber stamp which says that. I'm typing this in Nashville. So Not dead, just in Tennessee. On a hotel "business center" computer because I didn't want to pay for the internet . Although...it just occurred to me that the rep gave us some codes to use to log on for the conference... Probably get charged twice. I'm debating whether to go swimming or just go pass out. Passing out is sounding more and more appealing. So I am in the midst of my conference--my raison d'etre as far as the company is concerned. So far DHL lost a box we shipped on Friday and refused to deliver it when found--containing many things I needed for Sunday's session. Frantic photocopying on the hotel equipment. The case arrived broken, and the brand new booth had a broken bit too, leading to looking for super glue at 7:30 in the morning. Fortunately the hotel store opens early. Didn't realize someone needed a kosher meal. Erased a presentation from the ...

After working for two nights to clean up the guitars and play with the colors of the dollar signs (I'd shown my boss a rough with only a few styles of guitars on a white background before continuing) I took what I considered the finished product into my boss and he said, "It seems busy. Don't you think it looks busy? Can you make the guitars smaller and the logo bigger and maybe the guitars could be fainter. But I like the concept." Well, that's good, I guess. So this is the new version that I'm taking to him tomorrow: I don't like it as well, I think that the grouped guitars worked as a single image, while this just looks scattered, but I don't pay the bills. I also know better what he wants for the future--an image that suggests but then disappears instead of a strong signature. Good things to learn. What I have to work at is trusting that a) just because the client doesn't want it doesn't mean it's a bad design b) the customer is al...

One of the things I've been doing at home for work is developing the theme for the company's fall conference. This is what I came up with: I've blocked out the company name. I realized that I seem to have a thing for weaving dollar signs with objects. This is the image I drew by hand for my high school production of All My Sons (forgive the photo--it's a camera phone in night mode of a t-shirt that's become a quilt top. The original shirt is actually red): Obviously, in All My Sons, the pursuit of the dollar is a bad thing. I would imagine that my boss sees dollar signs as a good thing. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I am not obsessed with using dollar signs in graphics (these ARE 20 years apart), but I realized, what I do like is the shape of text as it relates to an image. I like picking just the right font to fit with the image and arranging them--puzzle like on the page.

I'm never sure. Anyway--the big boss at my organization has decided that guerrilla (read free or cheap) tactics in marketing are the way to go. We, me, his assistant and he, are reading a book on blogs, podcasts , news releases, viral marketing and online media to grow the business. This is strange for me and while the cynic in me wants to resist, it's hard not to get caught up in JN's enthusiasm. I can find most things fascinating, so trolling through websites, even on marketing and PR is interesting. Unfortunately, it can also eat up a lot of time (as we all know, you go to a site, and then follow a link, and another link and... down the rabbit hole). He's paying me, but he's also paying me to do a lot of other things. Soooo , this blog may become tied in with those blogs at some future point.

Well, I've started my new job. First day went like most first days--setting up the desk, learning the systems, finding out if I could order supplies (I can). I already knew where the bathroom and kitchen were. There was panic that I'm in over my head, frustration that people weren't there to point me in a direction, more panic that I will have to find my own direction and then calm as I simply started doing things. Come on in, the water's fine.

So I have a new job--Marketing and Coaching Coordinator at an Independent Financial Firm, starting at end of June. It's a very good salary. It's got the potential to be anything I can make it (there is NO marketing department now--I'm creating as I go). It has the potential to be a train wreck. It's funny, because it's the kind of job that I sort of expected an Amherst degree to provide me when I graduated. Not that I expected this salary straight out of college, but I expected to be considered for this kind of renaissance position, a little writing, a little design, a little management, a little planning and coordination--liberal arts, in other words, and of course, there really were no positions like that going or company's willing to take chances on untried talent--at any salary. Or none that I was able to find. Of course, I'm over 10 years out of school and I've done lots of things that give me added value, but I'm actually not that "...

Lots of first days of school, one of having apparently skipped a class for a month and being offered a way out by a teacher. Probably stemming from the fear of this new job. Dreamt I was a celeb (or treated like one) and went to see the Rolling Stones with Mirror's wife. Met Mick in the dream and someone else famous like it was no big thing and neither had accents. Lovely time chatting with Mirror's wife, my friend A, which I did in fact do Friday last, but cannot imagine a universe where she or I would go see the Rolling Stones. Dream where I was sitting with two friends from high school who were popular (I was not), when current boss came up, asked for something and offered to dig in my purse for it. I knew I couldn't let him see what was in my purse--stemming from secrets having to be kept re: new job. The two girls--well, my mother always holds them up as examples of " successful " classmates--do I think I'm successful now? Popular? Grown-up? with m...

I sort of wrote this in my head as I was going but have added and amended since I've been back so the tenses may not all agree. I enjoyed the conference. I really did. (DS (a boss) and I discussed on my return how we both find value if we learn or reinforce something even if the whole thing is not life changing.) What I discovered though, was that based on first impressions I would have been friends with maybe two of the other assistants there, could have worked with about half of the people there and really, really would have trouble being in the same office with the rest of the them (18 total). In the reception and the dinner the most literary of the discussions led to Idol, House and Blades of Glory. Whipping out Moby Dick at lunch led to some strange stares and one person exclaiming that she had never been able to get into reading books (as opposed to cereal boxes perhaps?). [Side note: I remember years ago riding back from California after visiting my father and reading Balza...

So we are in our new office--good things, bad things. On a server now, which objects to Blogger.com so no more spur of the moment posts in the middle of the day unless I develop a better system for mobile blogging. Of course I can write something down in the middle of the day, "They may control my Internet , but they'll never control my mind!" At least now I can clean all the work related crap off of my own laptop. I'm right under a fluorescent light which I hate. We were kidding about my adding a curtain across the opening of my cube and I said I needed a canopy. I'm wondering what they'll do if I actually put one up tomorrow. One of my bosses brought lamps into her space and isn't turning on the overhead light at all. I still have to put the file room in order--really dreading that. Prob. Friday. No profound thoughts here, sorry.