This is not a cautionary tale for anyone else but myself.
I really enjoy telling the story of the time I realized how bad procrastinating can be.
I remember one Friday, back during sophomore year, where I stayed in to do work and it payed off handsomely. Imagine that: one night of not going out and I was no longer living behind the eight-ball. As much fun as the Sunday rituals of sitting around frantically scrambling to complete the previous week's reading was you can only take so much of that.
If only I learned, I was so young.
Fast forward to last semester Senior year, a scant three weeks before graduation. Think about that for a second. Practically everything was done. The crowd was leaving, the bus was idling and the Jell-O was jiggling. I was done. All I had to do was complete one last assignment for my Advertising Management class. It was a piece of cake. My chosen topic: the proliferation of childhood obesity and advertising's effect upon it. It was incredibly interesting subject matter and there was some amazing pieces of literature on it. In fact Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation made quite the impact on me, leading to a year plus long hiatus on eating McDonald's.
Somehow I kept on putting the paper off the entire week. I had gotten my research and outline done, but somehow the paper was not written yet. That's okay because I knew I could turn it on whenever I wanted. And besides I know I work best under pressure. My prof. John Verret is perhaps one of the smartest men I have ever met and by no means was I going to give him a slapdash paper; he would see right through that.
Sunday night was my time to get the paper done. It was due Tuesday afternoon and I had tickets to see the Gorillaz on Monday night.
Long story short: I ended up giving the tickets to my friend Tim and stayed up till 4 am working on the paper; B+ on the paper; eating more Wendy's; and the lesson of not putting things off till the last minute, learned after essentially 4 years, 100K + worth of education... Fantastic!
So I just got off the phone with the Poet and I'm really not quite sure what's going on between us. We've gone out twice so far and have talked on the phone a few times. So in theory things should be progressing well, but I'm not one hundred percent sold on her yet. Actually what is troubling me is that I am not sure if she is into me as much as I am into her. Maybe I've been out of school for a while, but she certainly seems to have quite a bit of reading/work on her docket. Of course it's not as bad as "washing her hair" but no one really says that.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to see her and go out. I just wish that we could agree on a Friday or Saturday night. Week day nights are fine and all, but quite frankly getting up early for work really puts a damper on things. Plus as roommate Kate alluded to, extra curricular relations are rather difficult to pull off on a school/work night.
My other concern is that I pretty much only have 3 1/2 dates worth of good material to use. All my stories, banter and jokes, etc. are bonafide tried and true quality stuff; after that it's all improv and free-lancing. And by no means am I about to pull a Mike Vick and scramble for a 45-yard gain.
This whole dating thing is also really testing my New Year's resolutions of not lying. Not embellishing my stories is really novel.
We have tentative plans for this coming Tuesday. We'll see how it goes.
While the WMDs were never found, the U.S. certainly had their hands full in their alternative weapons development program. Seriously, this is straight out of ACME or something.
It's incredibly quiet and empty around the office, almost serene. Man, I really need to decorate my cube.
My manager said we may get let out early, but as much fun as that sounds I'm really hoping to get cracking on writing something other than these blog entries.
Now sit down and let me tell you about my day. As you may, or may not, know Monday was my first day working as a copywriter. But more importanlty it was my first indoctrination into large corporation culture. Office Space-esque, a bit Dilbert. Yes, in the sense it's a large corporation and no in the fact that I work in Creative. Regardless my day was as follows:
8:15-10: breakfast and introuductions. Nothing like out of season fruit, muffins and ice breakers to start your day off. Although the coffee was rather tasty, I do regret drinking 2 1/2 cups, as I'm sure I missed something while in the bathroom.
10-11: tour of the grounds. Imagine that you are at Disneyland and are taking part in the Jungle Cruise ride. Now imagine all the giraffes, hippos, tunnels and natives have been replaced by conference rooms, copy centers, lunch rooms, and water coolers.... good times!
11-11:55: in theory I should know exactly what sort of health, dental, life, stock option, 401 (k), etc. that I want. Let's just say I have a bit of reading to do this week.
12-12:45: lunch with my sponsor Matt. Good guy. Me: pepperoni and feta calzone. Him: pasta, sauce and steak concoction that looked pretty good.
1-2: wandering around with Matt, meeting and/or greeting. Attempt at establishing voicemail & email, but alas it was all for not, as Tech did not set me up with an account. It's cool.
2-4: My first assingment! Unfortunately my new manager was caught in the storm and was unable to come in to talk to me in person. So tomorrow is First Day part II. And she told me I have a Meeting with the content group!
4:02: And I'm in the parking lot on my way home from my first day at work. All's left is to pick up my speed pass and make it home in time to meet the Poet for dinner.
So that was my First Day's Running Diary and here is a brief synopsis of Date #2:
Again a few minutes late because of the slush, underestimation of distance and my general lack of dircetions. Had a pretty good dinner at this new Italian restaurant I've been meaning to try out for some time. Grabbing drinks at the local Mexican watering hole. And back to her place to catch some Family Guy Season 2. A fine night indeed.
I just finished shoveling my own freaking driveway out. That's right 15 feet by 8 feet of waist deep snowdrift, all so I can park my car and drive to my first day of work tomorrow. HELL YEAH!
I put the hazards on my car, pulled it up alongside the front of my apartment, cranked on Gino and Gil and have been listening to the Pats put the hurt on Pittsburgh for the better part of 90 minutes. Then I had myself a PBR and just sat in the snow listening to the game. Now I'm going to eat some red meat... RARE. Why because I'm so full of testosterone right now.
Oh and I don't care who it is... if anyone takes my space, that I shoveled out, there will be HELL TO PAY! Any car, neighbor, roommate, firetruck, ambulance, clown car, Mayor Menino himself that ends up in my spot will be beaten severely with a hammer.
Despite all the snow today, we had a really wonderful dinner for my mom. Continuing in the grand family tradition we had an epic amount of food. Of course we were expecting four more people, but again the snow threw a wrench into those plans. But nonetheless it was a lot of fun. Well anytime that you have filet mignon on the menu you can't go wrong. My dad did an amazing job with the meat. Having a dad who works as a butcher has been such a bonus to my culinary palate.
Sidenote: Over my last three meals I have progressed from hot dogs to prime rib to filet mignon. I like how things are going.
I'm really happy that my parents are taking some time to enjoy themselves. They worked so hard and for so long at the restaurant, they deserve this. I know my parents will never be the type of people that entertain on a regular basis, but it feels nice having a few friends and family over every once in a while. I guess I'm feeling in a really good mood, very comfortable and at ease with things.
I don't know why I'm up this early, but I am. I should be in bed for at least another two hours... at least. I think it had something to do with drinking last night. Whenever I drink, I always get sleepy but for whatever reason that sleep never translates into anything meaningful. So alas I am up and very tired. At least I got to see the room mates for a bit. I haven't seen them for a while and was starting to miss them.
I'm going to stay in my pajamas for a bit longer though.
Ah, I am so smitten already. I know it's early, but I had the most wonderful date tonight. It started off on shaky ground. My ad class ran a bit over tonight so I was a few minutes late, but none the worse. She was totally cool. And really cute. I guess I am so giddy (like a schoolgirl) because this was a blind date. And I've never been on one before.
But anyways, it was a lot of fun. Things were so fresh and interesting. We were able to discuss politics (she's a Blue Stater), literary feats (English major), Star Trek (dork like me) and she actually knew what being a copywriter is all about.
As I'm sure you can tell I had a great time tonight and I definitely plan on taking her out again. Crank up the DATE PACKAGES!
This was the perfect end to my month-long "sabbatical". Enjoyed it to the fullest.
Mark this day as the official start to my new year. Got the final paperwork from work as they made their official offer. That's Mr. Copywriter to you! Starting next Monday.
ATTENTION:That means I have just a week left of living the Life. So if you are free to grab a drink/meal/flick give me a ring. Anyone whom I have shared a sandwich, a cube, a class, a room, a movie, a bed or a smile with, please apply here.
The tour de Quan is packing up and going on the road this weekend, as I will be making a swing through New York. Yee-haw Chinatown bus!
I'm really excited about the chance to visit NYC. This will be only my third time I have ever visited the City: once for a high school field trip and a second time when Krissy took me to see Rent. Frankly the place scares me. Well at least the idea of it. It seems so large and so excessive. But you know one day I may end up there so it's worth exploring. And that's what I want to do: explore. MOMA; Statue of Liberty; Times Square; the Naked Cowboy; the largest slice of NY style cheesecake/pizza around. Not to mention the nightlife. I want to see what all this 4 am nonsense is about; I hope my puritanical upbringing can handle the fun.
Taking some time to visit Marc/Chloe, Samir and the gang to catch up on old times. Also, trying to meet Fei and her harem of cute Asian friends. All the while wearing my Red Sox hat.
Hallejah! I finally have internet access in my room.
No more hassling Kate to use hers.
I will no longer be faced with tons of email, due to the fact I check sporadically every few days.
I can once again make daily, nay hourly, transactions to my fantasy teams. With baseball just around the corner you have no idea how valuable this is. (Side note: I think my baseball team contributed to the loss of one job, a B+ in my Design in Com class instead of an A and at least one relationship. But those are the breaks when you are the 2003 BUMLB Champion).
More blogs!
[Insert porn reference here.]
This is what I will do with my time. I came recently came across this website. I love maki.
Just got back from a lovely dinner with Mike D and Lisa. They are really great people. I would consider them my one set of married friends that are actually fun to hang around with. I do have quite a few couple friends, but Mike and Lisa are married, but they aren't "parents" in the dreadful boring sense of the word. I don't know if kids are on the horizon or not, but there we were eating/drinking/debating/enjoying ourselves on a Monday night and it was past 10 PM! This really assures me that coupledom and eventually marriage won't descend my life into the quintessential hack-jobed sitcom of a life that I know possibly looms.
"Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time."
A lovely dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in celebration for my "liberation" from the Hive. Gossip, spinach dip and cheesecake... good times.
Tonight with Mike and Lisa, dinner with V Friday and tomorrow lunch with Keith and Val... I'm glad that I am keeping in touch with the people that I enjoyed spending time with.
So I just finished taking a personality profile test for my prospective employer. They say that there is no right or wrong answer and that I should just answer as honestly as possible, but we all know that they are just trying to weed out the psychopath and those who are most likely to steal office supplies. While I will try not to be guilty of the later I think that this is all that stands in my way.
Then again I did fail one of these once, back in 01 when I was going to work at Urban. What was I supposed to do? The first question they asked was: "If your mother stole something would you tell?" Hmmm... I had to think about that for about a zillionth of a second before I answered a resounding NO. I wasn't about to throw my mom under the bus, for a glorified part time job.
Back to present day. Filled out certain demographic info and then it was onto the fun stuff. There was a list of roughly 60 descriptive adjectives. "Pick the ones that people have used to describe you and then pick ones that you describe yourself as." Obviously I erred on the side of dedicated, passionate, works well with others, etc. But I answering honestly I included moody. I also balanced it out with good looking, witty, and flirtatious. Yeah I guess I'm signing up for a new girlfriend too.
The final part was an open ended question: Describe yourself. Now if this part didn't have "What I did on my summer vacation" written all over it. I hoped I answered everything up to par and to their liking. Honesty and creativity... yeah I got that covered.
But dinner and a movie with Frank and Veronica was a lot of fun. I used to very anti "worlds colliding" but last night proved me wrong. We started with dinner at my local sushi joint (I'm well on my way to becoming a regular, now I just need to establish a "usual" and I'm golden) and ended with a late showing of Closer.
The movie surprisingly lived up to my expectations and there was a little bit of something for everyone involved. The rugged hurly burly Clive Owen for V and the nubile and oh so talented Natalie Portman for Frank and myself. Not to mention another stunning turn by Jude Law, continuing his cinematic tour de force of late.
It was a good night. Frank finally made his way up to the apartment post-move-in and I haven't seen V in quite some time. I love the fact that we are practically neighbors now, well in that growing up in suburban Mass way, where living a scant ten minute drive qualifies as right down the road.
While not exactly as I would have planned my master plan seems to be unfolding, albeit with a slight hiccup: The whole get a new job; take my vacation time and give notice. But in my mind some pre-work "sabbatical time" is just as good.
That interview way back when (pre Thanksgiving) seems to have paid off. Out of the blue I get a call from the HR guy and as if nothing happened, he asks if I am still interested. Hmmm... YEAH. Well it seems like things are on the fast track regarding that position. All of which strengthens my conviction to let things happen as they will. My favorite fortune cookie wisdom states: "Others will pursue that which will retreat."
Oh, and I had a chance to meet with a Creative Director at Mullen the other day. That was HUGE. Anytime I can have someone take a look at my book, I'm all for it. I would say it went pretty well. He said I showed some promise, but obviously am a little rough around the edges. But all I want is a Jr. position. A place to hone my craft and get quality/honest feedback. Tear me to shreds if it will make me better.
There was also a firedrill during my interview so that was interesting. Thanks for helping out Alex. You da man!
Alright, I know it's a bit late, but life has been rather disheveled of late. So here it is: my take on my past year's events.
Last Jan. 1 I woke up in a sketchy roadside hotel in Watertown, MA. This year I again woke in Watertown, but in my very own apartment sans free-continental breakfast and voluptuous coed girlfriend. Push?
Year plus relationship; DC; becoming closer to family; attempted stab at finding religion (still pending); First "real" job; exponentially increased number of relations; reacquainted with good friend; fantasy firesale; lost contact with very special person (pending); new apartment; blog becomes habit forming; They call them first jobs for a reason...; having a catch; realizing I've grown up; knowing I can always go home; 40k miles/losing the new car smell; the OC; etc.
Highlight: Funny, I finally saw Aaron Boone's walk-off homerun about two weeks ago. I don't know how I managed to miss it, but I guess it was just my little bit of superstition that I have managed to go a year plus without seeing the most painful Red Sox moment of my young life. For whatever reason I knew to leave before the 12th inning of the 2003 ALCS Game 7. But watching it on the Red Sox WS DVD made it feel ok. Driving (crawling) down Boylston St. with only the sounds of horn honks, shouts and "Tessie" blaring is an incredible feeling.
I'm keeping the same New Year's Resolutions as I do every yeah which is better myself. Rather vague and almost a cop-out, but whatever... It breaks down this way:
Stop lying so much.
Run. Do you know when you join a gym and they ask you why you want to start working out? People always put to have a better sense of self-worth or to get more energy, well in keeping inline with the above resolution I'm putting "to get hot to meet women".
Roadtrip.
Make out with Asian girl.
Stop flaking out on friends because in the end they'll be there for me.
Create, concept, write, brainstorm. I'm too old to put this dream on the backburner; it's time to devote myself %100.
Well there you have it. I never really understood the concept of an entirely fresh start, but 2005 is the impetus for a new Mike in town.
