2012

My So Called (Unicorn) Life

| Viciously Sweet

Earlier this year I adopted a life motto I couldn’t have said better myself:

“No one looks stupid when they are having fun.”-Amy Poehler.

And since then I have really embraced it, I accept all offers if they sound like fun. Sometimes even if they don’t… and I know I can make them fun. And since then I have realized a few things.. the most important is, I live a fabulous and rare existence.

I really do.

I love to dance all over my house to Aretha Franklin songs. Drive to work singing along with Pitbull, drive home singing the songs of Phil Collins. And I draw for hours, sometimes I get paid for it… And then I also doodle in addition to that, just for fun. I can and do decided to go on super fabulous adventures on the drop of a hat… but not to Sea World on a Saturday (you can’t win them all.) I have a closet full of fabulous threads. Tons of lip-glosses and nail polishes… scads of jewelry and shoes. I also just got a pair of sparkly tights in the mail… I really do live a charmed life. And best of all is I have some fabulous friends who let me exist in my sparkly universe, and stop on by on occasion to watch it in real time. And my friends are all so different and deliciously brilliant, I get the thrill to appreciate each wonderful thing about them!

Now about a month ago if anyone had mentioned the fact that I live a rare magical existence I would have burst into tears, because I desperately wanted to be grounded like everyone else I know*.  But lately I realized through a few fantastic people… that I make their days a little brighter. And that really changed everything. I thank you friends for making me feel like the most magical unicorn that has ever existed. I may care more about concerts and charities than business and finances and I don’t know stock options and refinancing… or whatever serious people are into… but I do know that sometimes there is nothing better than watching a Disney cartoon and eating pizza after a hard day.

The world doesn’t have to be such a serious place, it can be full of the joy we make. And I think that is a choice that we make… I choose the fun, even if I look stupid.

 

Thank you friends for letting me be your unicorn.

♫Lauren

Get thee to The Tannery

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A few weeks ago Jimmy and I went to Explore the most savory of all the California missions… Santa Barbara. Now we like to go around look at the stunning artifacts and watch YouTube videos in the cemetery… like everyone else.

That may sounds like a weird/ fabulous way to pass an afternoon to most people… and it really got me thinking Jimmy is crazy about Santa Barbara, and maybe he should leave the world of Construction and mosey on up to a new career in Santa Barbara.

But I have different goals for Jimmy than he does:

He could do so much for the area as a monk… he could start the tannery back up and create a new craze of monk made leather, or form a musical group of monk’s and become the monk-ees… He could run around with chips and call himself a chip-monk… I have a million ideas… But anyways this gets you to Santa Barbara…

And… I’ve always wanted a friar friend. Especially if he friar-ed me some chicken.
♫Lauren

*P.S. the “tannery” really smells

Confessions Pt. II now with Giggles

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I am a very bubbly happy person. You know the sort, the eternal optimist that thinks everyone and everything is just fantastic…

Basically everyday I wake up and float to work on a cloud. And then I chit chat a bit at the office, and carry on with my giggly day. Drawing, laughing, keeping secret wishes of joy that I keep to myself.

And then things happen. People all my life have called me “trouble,” and I have never willingly gone out to look for it. I don’t walk around dressed like a “Thunderbird,” I don’t ask the warriors to come out to play, and I rarely Ferris Bueller style my days. However it still lingers, I guess I attract weird things/events/people. And this is not limited to jovial Rastafarian’s telling me to carry on with my bad self in the streets, children thinking I am a Disney princess, or even Enrique Iglesias getting a little too up close and personal with yours truly (up coming post, seriously.)

Well anyways, today one of those kinds of things happened and I hope I don’t get my very good friend in trouble because of my girly ways. And honestly it was all just an innocent event, we just went out to lunch… but we didn’t expect to run into people he knows. Our lunch was a lunch of friendship… but it felt so embarrassing. You know… the grown up shame of being friends with a person of the opposite gender. Now this is not especially bad until you involve me, the giggliest person ever, who was wearing a rather comfy but a little snug tank top and breezy summer skirt… with my hair actually done and my makeup as nice as I could do. In the world of 13 going on 30 I really knocked it out of the ballpark today! However, in the world of eating with a guy friend at lunch… I made a HUGE mistake. We have both never eaten lunch so quickly and while simultaneously the color of a raspberry.

And then I realized it all these strange events in my life happen because of me! And all my friends and I have events that we don’t want to share with other people. I feel like there is something wrong with that… does everyone have secrets like this? Do I just make average events so much worse with my awkwardness? Does anyone want to sing an Usher song about this with me?

Here’s to a less eventful evening…
♫Lauren

Simple Joys and Thursdays

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Today is Thursday and my favorite day of the week!

Because I love a Thursday so much I decided to share a little doodle about my cat. His name is Rocket and one of his favorite hobbies is… chewing all my belongings:

image

And one of my favorite things is simple joys, so we are a fabulous match.Right now he’s chewing on my eraser, he looks like this may be the best thing that has ever happened.

And now I’m going to indulge in my own joy… Fried chicken!
Happy Thursday everyone :)
~Lauren

Wool Gets In Your Eyes

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I have been growing up a little more lately. I still want to be a goof, but I realized to “get along” with a broader spectrum of people I have to pretend to be a “professional”.

I know, I know that is a total blurgh in the face. Especially when your initial thought of a great day is show up to work and tell your coworkers that it is time to Wang Chung tonight, and hand everyone a bag of chiclets! And when you know in reality, they just want you to greet them with a “Hello. Business is splendid.”

I think that because of recent events in my life, I have been seeing the world more clearly now… work is not supposed to be a place where you have fun, because most people aren’t satisfied with what they do, they just do it because that is what they think they should be doing. (I like what I do though, it’s beyond rad to draw for a living!) And this has further led me down a path of understanding what I am expected to do in certain situations, and understanding what I want to do. And guess what? In true Lauren fashion, they are very different things.

And lately to get through the days at work I have turned to television to help a girl out. And what is a better learning example about working in an office, than “The Office”? I’ve been taking advice from sassy Pam Beesly of season 3. I want to be more honest and gutsy, I want to have an art show, I want to tell Jim that he should be my friend. And I want to stress like Pam did, Jim isn’t the important part of being a shiny new Beesly… being happy with yourself is the answer for that. You can hear her say this in the link below:

Pam’s Awesome Beach Speechs.

Here’s an important part of her speech for you non link clickers:

Anyways, I’m done with the woolly eyes. I want to see the truth, and I want people to respect that. I want people to know that I like me, and I can do anything, and not because I have to… Because I want to. And maybe sometimes I will be too helpful and emotional… but that is how I am, and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that!

♫Lauren

Also I really love to draw little doodle sheep.

Work Confessions: The Hive

| Viciously Sweet

Today’s post is short and sweet (just like me!)

I go to the bathroom a lot at work. Sometimes it’s because I drink too much water, other times it’s to calm myself from being stressed, sometimes it’s because I have to cry in a private situation… and sometimes:

I can’t be the only person in their mid-twenties thinking about beehives during work hours. Think about how big you could make it… maybe it could hold office supplies… or a switchblade like that girl from La Bamba.

I was briefly worried this doodle would make me sound weird, but we all need a little work relief sometimes… and I know someone who has eaten lunch in the bathroom to escape their office.

♫Lauren

The Legend of FANGUIN!

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This morning I was so excited that I was going to Seaworld tomorrow… only to find out my ticket is not Valid for tomorrow!

At first I thought maybe tomorrow is blocked because of the summer, or some event that involves a private Christina Aguilera Parade, or perhaps Sea World is releasing all their animals back into the world Free-Willy-style and is spending the 4th recapturing them… But then through not a lot of deduction I realized the real culprit is…

FANGUIN!

He’s rather evil, and he’s turning all the fishes against the trainers and what not, they are all just little floating zombies. I hope they don’t get to the mermaids!
♫Lauren

Get into my cubicle groove!

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If you are a person and were on the internet today… Madonna did a Youtube concert.

I made my coworkers listen to the whole thing… I think my cubicle neighbor was moved to the “Borderline” of insanity as he would not like to hear me play “Material Girl” just one more time… and he’d prefer if I listened to some Led Zepplin instead. He was a good sport to listen to 4 songs in a row before turing on his own music.

And I think on the other side of the office Amber is trying to crimp her hair and get some stretchy bracelets. And the professional is ignoring this not scheduled musical attack.

But come on, what is Thursday without having a Madonna party?

I’m not the biggest Madonna fan, but there is something about her music that makes me smile… some of it reminds me of Childhood, or of Dick Tracy, or All those MTV Music Award shows, and some of it makes me wish I too had a bit of a fake British accent.

And you know what is really wonderful about Madonna>? She could care less about what I am writing about her. And that is something I would like to take from her as a lesson about being a grown up. It’s fun to be yourself… sometimes, it’s better when being you makes people a little mad too.

Now back to my office:

While we are celebrating the magic of Madonna’s music I would like to dedicate a few songs to a few people I work with:

-To Amber I send you “Like A Prayer”, for several reasons… Firstly you like Jesus (thumbs up to the Lord) and secondly, I want to see you dance like this in the office in front of our printers, and I want to drink Pepsi Cola with you:

-To Dabby I dedicate to you “La Isla Bonita” because it’s the only Madonna Song that has Spanish in it that isn’t from Evita. And you are spicy and not Argentinian:

-To the Professional I dedicate “4 minutes” because it seems like a quantitative professional time in it, I think it is the equivalent of like updating a few contacts in your outlook, or just meeting a deadline. And I emphasize that sentence with no humor… because that is the professional way:

And then I dedicate this song to me because I really am feeling what she is saying in this song.
And I need to post it, because our lady Madonna would want me to be honest:

And I’m not sorry… for listening to Madonna for hours in my cubicle either, thanks for making my windowless cubicle a little more fun today Madge!

♫Lauren

A Lack of Inspiration

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I work in a very interesting office.
The people I work with would make great characters if anyone decided to write about them. (Which I sometimes do!) We all seem to be complex creatures, and more than a little out there. But lately, there has been a lot more work and a lot less fun…

Yeah, yeah I have more project responsibility, but quite frankly I’m not an architectural Spiderman.

And then to make it worse, everything has been so quiet in here that I feel my office mates may have been replaced with scarecrow versions of themselves. Just propped up to the computer with an occasional mouse clicking sound being emitted from them.

I cannot exist happily in an environment like this… it makes me very sad and makes me lack any sort of inspiration. Which is a total bummer when you are making spaces for people to work in, I feel like they suffer secondhand depression spaces to work in because, of this lackluster environment I am stuck in. And then I looked around my actual office and realized the actual windowless cubicle I work in is not helping my office depression either, I hardly ever see outside during actual sunny hours. I remember it being very lovely:

Now I’m not completely dissing my office. It is in a great location… once you get outside. And by that I mean, it’s next to a bar. And my boss is wonderful and I work with a couple of really great people. But really, the walls that block the vision from the windows seems like a cruel joke. The fact I am the only person that doesn’t have a window… is a crueler joke. Why did the person who drew up this building hate people so much, why not make sitelines so I can see the beautiful mountains just outside the building? Why did you set the lobby on the most blinding side of the building? Why has no one ever replaced the pink marble tiles that have cracks big enough to get your heels stuck in? Why is everything outside of our rented space mauve and brown?

It’s not like I need the circus at work.. I just need a little more joy.

♫Lauren