These posts are so heavy lately they are reminding me of the impending gravy for our approaching turkey day.
So today I send you a doodle from fluffy doodle heaven… Maybe take a moment to think about how you spend your time:
Spend it well!
♥Lauren
good fun
The Secret Professional
So a few people have been asking… what is going on with the professional? Why are there no posts any more guiding me to the professional promise land? This has a complicated answer… as earlier this year the professional we knew did a King Edward VII , and abdicated his professional throne. The Kingdom of Professionalism was then thrown into anarchy and professional turmoil, after the great battle and the “Treaty of Dab and Lauren” an interesting event transpired…
I think there is a new professional in town… and her name is my name too.
And I don’t know when it happened. I feel like some sort of were-professional…
In the last week:
♥ I have been carrying business cards in my purse
♥ I was caught updating my contact list
♥ I’ve worked late 2 nights in a row
♥ I’ve had a business meeting after work hours
♥ I used the term “collated” more than once in the last 8 hours
♥ I’ve been making lists with bullet points! (Although, the bullets are love hearts ♥)
Anyways the polls are in and it looks like I’m the new professional in town:
And on a “I work in a weird place” side note yesterday Amber and I took a quiz about who we are in the office and this was my answer:
And I was not surprised. That description is my 8-5, every Monday-Friday. The only difference is I have no Jim to giggle with all day… Okay, I’m going to go CC: people on some work like things ;)
♥Lauren
Yardy Harg! It’s Leif Erikson Day!
Now here’s a widely known fact… I love strange holidays. I like them obscure and delicious (ahem, taco day). And today is my favorite holiday of them all… Leif Erikson Day! And where the silly government likes to celebrate Columbus Day around these parts of the United States (and gets the day off for this). I have learned enough history from my college years, and from Spongebob Squarepants to know that Leif Ericson was the true discoverer of the Americas in which I live. My good friend Leif was like the Dark Knight of America discoverers finding America in the year 1,000 calling it “Newfoundland” (not a good namer was he) and he was like the discoverer we deserved, just not the one we need right now… hence we celebrate Columbus Day.
Also, true story… I have a personal vendetta against Christopher Columbus because I really hated having to color him in a stupid boat every year for 7 years in a row, just because Fall happened. And not one teacher would let me cover him in glitter… NOT ONE! Also don’t get me started on those cornucopias…
And a bonus over the Spanish discoverers to all of you Spanish supporters*, Vikings have better accessories, grog and far less smallpox.
Now that I have you 98.4% viking approved:
But can anyone explain why his name is Leif Ericson, but his day is “Leif Erikson Day”? Is that Columbus’ final joke? Dude, that guy is totally evil!
♥Lauren
*I bet I was related to some of his traveling buddies as my family comes from that part of the world… And everyday I dress like a flamenco dancer…but, eh go VIKINGS!
My inner Jenna Rink
I have some art to work on after work so I’m going to make sure I have a Lauren-y movie to watch tonight and it’s all about “13 going on 30” tonight. No matter how many times I see it, I always get sucked in to all the fun and joys of Jenna Rink dealing with being a grown up.
I always find myself relating to Jenna. I somehow feel like the rest of me grew up and left my brain somewhere else. I mean I just learned today that Shepard’s pie is a meat pie, and not a pie made by a Shepard (and I’m envisioning one of the guys who hangs out with baby Jesus here.) And that is really just the tip of the iceberg of things I don’t get, that everyone already knows.
And that dream house…
Oh, I still want it. I don’t know if it’s because I’m working on being a licensed architect and I love movie houses… or just because I want some of that wishing dust, and to have a slumber party with my girlfriends where we sing Pat Benatar songs until we pass out.
Anyways I have some art to make and some Mark Ruffalo to watch. So just remember:
♥Lauren
Turning Back time on technology!
There is no doodle today because I have been working like a mouse making a Cinderella’s dress!
I am still at work and my brain hurts a bit. I have to take PDF’s and make them into a power point. When I asked if I could just make a multiple page PDF. I was told the person did not comprehend it…
So I’m being the Cher of technology and turning back time on it’s butt. Hey there power point!
Next Goal take away all the Xbox 360s with Call of Duty and replace them with DOS computers with the Oregon Trail!
UPDATE: Everyone in my Target audience was amazed with my hysterical story!
♫Lauren
My So Called (Unicorn) Life
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
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
Wool Gets In Your Eyes
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:
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.
A Lack of Inspiration
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
Viciously Sweet 