Hooray for Perquisites

Date: September 28th, 2011

I've worked a lot of places.  It goes without saying that some have better perqs than others.  Also, shame on society for making the shortening of perquisite into "perk" instead of "perq".  I don't think this is sending the right message to the letter q.

Anyway.

One common activity among companies is an early evening Happy Hour, light dinner or series of amuse bouches at a local restaurant.  For potential participants, these are generally well received, but are not without criticism.

Seriously?  Lobster brioche with mango chutney, again?  What are we?  Animals?

In any case, my department hosted one at a local restaurant and I was somewhat nervous about going.  I could gab for hours about work.  I find it genuinely interesting and there is so much going on that the conversation is never lacking.  But as for children, kitties and a picket fence?  I am utterly lacking in experience here.  Like most people, I'm not a fan of being uncomfortable; and I was convinced I would be.

Uncomfortable?  Gosh no!  This is how we watch TV.

I decided to do what any self-respecting, mature, career-oriented professional would do.  I called my mommy... who immediately told me to L2D and get to the restaurant.  I'm not sure where my mom learned the obscure internet shorthand for "learn to deal" and its probably better that way.  In truth I called because it had been a long day (in that good, tiring, but productive way) and I was debating whether or not to go back out.  Both she and my dad had great advice that pretty much boiled down to: "this is important, rest later".

It was good they did too.  In addition to getting to see an old family friend; I got to see a colleague get promoted and have great conversations with people I don't usually work with directly.  And really that's the purpose of those dinners.  Its not just a reward for hard work (though there is some of that going on).  Its a chance to talk to people you rarely interact with during the day and form a connection with them.

And, lucky for me, there was very little talk of picket fences.

To me, you are an enigma...

Oh Right, I Have a Blog

Date: September 18th, 2011

Ahh, "married" life.  For the past nine months, the unofficial hubby and I have been basking in the glow of my completed project.  The story after the story is what we did in the days and weeks after the project wrapped up.  For about the first week I did all of the most comfortable, familiar, easy things that I knew of.  Included below is a partial list:

- Eat Velveeta macaroni and cheese
- Nap on the couch with the sun shining down on my face
- Watch 27 hours of DVRed television
- Wrestle a bear
- Make a snow angel in my driveway
- Go for a pleasant camel ride

Of course, those are only the least epic things I did after the project wrapped up.  I don't want to scare you all away with the sheer awesomeness of my post-project activities.  I tease, but the truth is that life is 100-million-thousand-billion times more amazing since starting the project.  I spent a year in Being Joyful Boot Camp.  I reminded myself that being bad at things can still be fun.  I stretched myself beyond what I thought I could do.  And most sappily, but importantly, I found the love of my life somewhere in the rubble of my 17th variation on children's art projects.

A lot of things have happened since the project, but one thing that has remained constant is that both the unofficial hubby and I tend to notice the beauty in the world a lot more than before the project started.  There has been a near constant refrain of "oh, hey, I've never done that before" for the past nine months.  Seeing how much we were still experiencing, just because we approach the world differently now than before, we decided it seemed silly not to continue sharing the adventures.

That will not take the form of a new, structured project cause, well, it was, like insanely expensive.  I mean, I flew to California, drove to Washington DC, went to Chicago for a weekend, went to DC again, drove to Tennessee and flew to Vegas, all in one year.  And that doesn't count all the admission fees, short drives and souvenir costs (which I fully acknowledge to be frivolous).  In short, the daily new experience model is best left as an amazing series of memories.

Instead we're going to take a slightly less frenzied approach and just do awesome thing on the "when we freaking feel like it" schedule.  I'm guessing, since we have the "oh neat, that was a new experience" epiphany about once every two weeks, it'll be on that frequency.  Hopefully the entries will be as enjoyable as they were last year.  I'm sure they'll be just as fun to experience and capture.  So, without further ado, here's what we did for the past nine months.

Day 365 - Get Married in Vegas

Date: January 6th, 2010

I woke up in a surprisingly dingy room at the Luxor to the realization that in less than 24 hours I'd be 26 and my project would be complete.  I definitely had one of those "how did I get here" moments as I started acknowledging my surroundings.  The room was freezing, the carpet was musty and there was water damage on the ceiling.  But it was Vegas and Justin was asleep next to me.  I couldn't think of anywhere else I'd rather have been.

Day 364 - Hold a Newborn

Date: January 5th, 2011

On the second to last day of my project I was blessed with an opportunity to be with Justin's family at one of the most beautiful and personal events a family can experience.  After the baby was born it occurred to me that I'd never seen anything as beautiful as a newborn baby (and, by extension, certainly hadn't held one).

For, well, the entire time that Justin and I've been together, his sister-in-law and brother have been expecting their second child.  They have a 3 year old named Christian who is, quite possibly, the most adorable child on the planet.  Granting I haven't met every child on earth, but I'm still relatively sure of this one.

The Final Stretch

Days 364 and 365 get their own entries.  Those are in the works.  And... double plus bonus - they'll have pictures.

Day 355 - Finish Law School
Date: December 27th, 2010

I know I graduated already, but like most of my classmates, I had a few loose ends to wrap up.  I had a paper that wasn't finished yet that was particularly difficult to motivate myself on.  Mostly because it was the last paper of my school career.  I couldn't help but think that I was ready to move into the next phase.  It took the whole day and, quite frankly, the only reason this counts as a new thing is that knowing it was my last ever school assignment made it incredibly, insanely difficult to finish.  I started to wonder, about midday, if I was just afraid to finish.  By the early evening I'd pushed through and finished the paper, so I spent the rest of the evening basking in having truly, actually and completely finished my school existence.

Day 356 - Take a Bus to Work
Date: December 28th, 2010

I'm not good with public transportation.  The last time I tried to take a bus it was to the grocery store from campus.  I ended up at the bus depot in Ypsilanti four hours later, cold, hungry, tired and confused.  I ended up calling a cab.  So that makes it all the more ironic that I've gotten a job (temporary, sadly, as I rather like the work so far) at SMART (the bus company for the Detroit Metropolitan area).  One of the perks of working there is that employees ride the bus for free.  This has the insanely lucrative benefit of allowing me to drive to a park-and-ride rather than paying for parking in downtown Detroit.  It has the concerning side effect of forcing me to not mess up what bus I take.  With my car now being stranded a solid 20 miles from my job, getting on the wrong bus is... less of an option.  Despite, or possibly because, of the fear of losing myself downriver, I made it back to the park-and-ride without issue.  Its good to know that I'm able to do that.  I wasn't actually sure I could mange it before.

Day 357 - Go to BarBri
Date: December 29th, 2010

My basking in the end of law school lasted for a little under 48 hours before I remembered that I still have to pass the bar if I want to, ya know, be an attorney.  I back to class for me.  Luckily there are no papers or grades (not until the big test in February, that is).  It is, however, several hours a day, almost every day of the week.  Its definitely like sprinting the last mile of a marathon.

Day 358 - Do a 3D Puzzle
Date: December 30th, 2010

I thought there might be some magical new joy associated with adding another dimension to my puzzle building.  In fact, there was not.  On the bright side, I have a pretty little elephant for my project shelf.

Day 359 - Plan My Wedding
Date: December 31st, 2010

I was never one of those little girls that tried on dresses and ogled rings when I was younger.  I just never had the personality type to be planning for something that I don't know will happen.  That being said, I do like party planning.  I just never allowed myself the specific indulgence of planning a wedding.  That being said, as things have progressed with Justin, we've gotten to a place of planning and trust in the relationship that made me decide it might be okay to open up and plan things out a little.  We're still years off, but we spent a few hours that day talking about what we'd want in a ceremony.  Turns out we have the same idea.  An idea that I will refrain from sharing publicly.  Best to wait for the surprise.

Day 360 - Do a Paint by Number
Date: January 1st, 2011

It had to happen at some point.  I found paint by number to be deeply personally satisfying to my OCD.  I also noted that my utter lack of artist talent was not to my detriment in doing the paint by number since, well, all I had to do was color in the lines.

Day 361 - Make a Popsicle Stick Sculpture
Date: January 2nd, 2011

One of the things I missed out by not going to summer camp when I was younger was that I never did the cute little popsicle stick sculptures that most people did when they were younger.  It felt delightfully immature.

Day 362 - Go Clothes Shopping for Someone Else
Date: January 3rd, 2011

I never really gave my parents the credit they deserved when it came to buying clothes for me when I was a kid.  It is deeply concerning to buy a pair of pants for someone and not knowing if they're going to fit.  On the bright side, I got lucky.

Day 363 - Cook a Lobster
Date: January 4th, 2011

Another thing I took for granted from my folks was lobster cookin'.  I didn't know how difficult it would be to cook one.  I got myself a nice 2.75lb monster cause, well, I love me some lobster.  Unfortunately, upon getting it home I realized that it wouldn't fit in the pot I have.  So, after a quick emergency call to dad*star (I have mom*star and dad*star... its a great system), Justin and I headed over there to have dinner at my folks' house and relax.  The biggest thing that surprised me was that it did bother me a little to cook the lobster.  I'm a meat eater, by trade, and I love lobster, but having never cooked one before, I didn't realize I'd have a twinge of sadness at putting it in the pot.  I know its a little silly since my ham has been alive, as has my turkey, as has my steak.  But being the one to put the creature down was, well, different.  Not different enough to stop eating lobster though.  Just saying.