work

The Fortress of Solitude

| Viciously Sweet

I have been having a bad time at work. Because I haven’t been being myself or being honest. I have not been giggles and Wang Chung. I was being the person I thought everyone would rather me be, and I was making myself miserable.

Yesterday, I found out that even though you make situations really bad, it can all be fixed. And sometimes that person you think hates everything about you, doesn’t really… just some where your words and actions got lost in translation and made things worse than they ever had to be. And sometimes you can’t choose how important certain people are to you, and although it can really suck. It can also be really awesome sometimes…

Anyways, last week and yesterday until lunch I really just wanted to be alone… Because 6 personalities in 1,000  S.F.  (that is including a bathroom and storage) is very hard to deal with. Especially when you are fighting with 1/5 of the people you work with.

I contemplated working in a more secluded spot… so logically I thought working in the Fortress of Solitude could really work out for me:

But alas… we couldn’t figure out how to link up the phone with all those large ice crystals. And, I don’t think I would have survived very well in solitary confinement. and none of my coworkers agreed with this doodle.

Here are the reactions of my coworkers:

Dab: “That’s such a freaking lie! I just don’t see that working out for you”

Professional: “I think it wouldn’t be solitary for very long. Actually you are the only person who could probably unsolitude the fortress of solitude”

Amber just knowingly giggled.

I guess I should probably invest in a batcave… especially if I can be there with Joseph Gordon Levitt.

 

Today was a good day. I hope you had a good one too.

♥Lauren

Where is my mind?

| Viciously Sweet

I have been very scattered lately. I have all these ideas floating around on loose leaf paper, and post-it notes. I have accumulated so many of these scraps my desk at work and at home is beginning to look like I’m starring in a remake of “Memento.”

I actually even have physical post-it notes on my phone. and they are written on front and back. I am aware of them every time I pull my phone out… because as many people have told me they make apps that negate my use of actual post-its. But lets just be honest, if I have to click around on a screen to find this graphic post it note… I’m not going to remember it if I’m in a rush. And true story I have digital post-its on that program from May, and those things are still incomplete.

No problem in 3 months I’ll be wondering what I meant by “incandescent toboggan” and your digital reminder will be lost to the world…

You may be saying to yourself right now… why are you having a traffic jam of thoughts in your imagination? And I will tell you, I have let myself get busy. I tell myself that if I get it half done I can finish it later. And later just isn’t showing up. I’m so stressed at work my hair is graying, and I find myself nearly passing out from exhaustion at 7:30. Yes 7:30, I can barely make it past the time the elderly are watching Wheel of Fortune. Also trying to figure out the business end of all the projects I’m trying to start right now is also killing my brain. I realize the reason I didn’t go into business is because I frankly find it confusing. Numbers and marketing? No thanks, I just want to bust out some of my thoughts with the free crayons I got at lunch.

And they are freaking crayola’s… FOR FREE. I FEEL LIKE I JUST WON PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE OF CHILDISH ART SUPPLIES!!!! In my day they would just give you those knock off really waxy crayons… kids these days are all about the name brand.

The only thing that has been calming me the last few art-less days is listening to music. However now my imagination is mixing with the sweet sweet melodies and the next thing I know I am preoccupied with my ideas again, and then out comes another sheet of paper, another post-it. And the vicious cycle continues. You can’t comprehend how much I don’t want to be looking at these ceiling plans and renderings. They are trying to consume me with their evil stringent rules and budgets.

Anytime my coworkers have talked to me in the last few days they first have to break me from the spell of Joy Division, New Order or Of Monsters and Men to get in a word to my brain… and even then it’s questionable if I can soak in what they are telling me. My brain is lost in the music:

Tonight I vow that I will make time for my artistic needs. Hopefully this will clear up my brain so I can get more done for the big Friday rush. And seriously… does anyone have a post it? I have this great idea about a…

♥ Lauren

Crimes Against Professionalism

| Viciously Sweet

Today I accidentally put the subject line as a CC:’d correspondent. This is a big problem, not just because the email would send me one of those undeliverable pings, and everyone would see my error… But because of the “Proclamation of Professionalism”

That means there is a “Professional” imposed  moratorium of my mischief at work while our new coworker acclimates to the environment, that means not mentioning the 3 Professional NoNo’s:

1. Oprah

2. Doodling/This website

3. No excess giggling, etc.

The lack of these 3 things totally activated the Lame-o-meter in my brain. So until I am released.. my next posts will be from professional prison. Where I spend my time whittling architectural scales, cleaning up the world’s filthiest kitchenette and of course singing rad 1980s/ early 90s songs (they can’t take those from me):

 Someday, I will be free again to doodle and cavort around… And then I shall sing “I wanna dance with somebody” for all the office to hear!

Until then… I will work on my underground doodles…

 ♥Lauren

It’s never too late… for lobsters

| Viciously Sweet

Today I’m really excited because of several things.

-Being at work was a real dream today. I witnessed my coworkers get in a really heated conversation about religion, I somehow changed the subject to Greek Mythology… I got a lot of work done, and checked over. And did mention I sneaked in some creative moments while my computer over-reacted to life.

-Tonight, I eat clam chowder. And since the weather is a little crisper in California now than it usually is… this chowder is going to be a real treat.

– I am wearing a red leopard sweater that makes me feel like a million dollars! Which I got from Vintage Dreams… and I love it and I love Lucy, the owner of the store. Who earlier this year gave me some great advice about being worth more than the mess I found myself in at the time, and to “Never waste your prettiness on people who don’t deserve it”. I am eternally for those kind words, also I blush ♥.

-I get to see my bff in all her glory today, and she will have a plethora of pens to my notebook of paper. I hope we laugh so hard that we cry. And cry so hard we laugh, and eat candy… I could use some candy and a drink.

– Yesterday I received 3 books in the mail! 3 WHOLE TANGIBLE BOOKS!!!! Now I may not be Belle or anything like that, but I felt like singing when I saw that Amazon box sitting in my living room filled with leafy knowledge. I brought one of those books to work, and I feel like a queen.

– I was reminiscing about an art exhibit I saw early this year the California Modern Exhibit at LACMA and created a new goal for myself. To own an incredible swimsuit that has an incredible lobster on it. I would wear it all the time, and probably under my clothes so I can Superman into my lobster swimsuit when necessary…

“Is that a lake? I feel some swimming coming on”. *rips off dress to reveal lobster swimsuit, and proceeds to jump in water*

This could be a really cool thing actually…

And to my coworker that keeps calling me a lobster… I think this was inspired by you. Also I still don’t get why I am a lobster? Is there any reason for this?

And if I am a lobster because of a reference to “friends” you suck so much, that I cannot fully explain with words. Also you don’t really suck, I just don’t want to be that person’s “lobster” they are too much to deal with.

♥Lauren

Classy Pony Afternoons

| Viciously Sweet

I’m working on a really important doodle right now, and *hint hint* it’s about my wonderful friend Isabel. While it is not done right now I feel sad neglecting the doodle-hood of the internet… So I drew a pony. A pony that wants to be shared with the world.

And in related news Isabel is trying to lure me into leaving the San Gabriel Valley for the lush oceany wonderland of San Diego. And it does sound promising. My Brother and Sister-in-law are luring me with Seattle. For some reason I’m eternally lured to Chicago. And somehow Christine and I ended up discussing Boston. Does anybody else have any ideas of where I should relocate? Maybe France? Australia? The Moon…. of Jupiter?

All I know is that I can’t stay where I am anymore. I just know I won’t make it. I don’t know whether to put a song in this place to describe how I feel about where I am at work and in life or a picture. But since my picture idea can have Jim from “the Office” I’m going to go with picture. And if you watch “the Office” even the context of this picture is right:

I need advice to figure out what I really want, I guess. Or a transfer to Stamford.

♥Lauren

I’m no Superman

| Viciously Sweet

Today I’m out in the world away from the old computer, and even more so away from the office. It’s not like I don’t like work. I just needed some time to be away, recharge. I foresee some trying times ahead, and well I might as well have fun before I have to face those problems like I’m a Spartan in the  Peloponnesian War.

I’m sorry to burden the good people of the internet with my silliness… But here it is: I see all the imaginary train tracks of my problems are pointed towards each other and are poised to crash at any minute. Simply because I trusted the wrong person for too many years, never thinking someone would have bad intentions towards a-this-gal. And all I know is that I have to soldier on through this bad time, and maybe the trains/problems won’t crash at all, maybe the train full of problems will make it through in the nick of time missing the collision with my everyday good time train. And somewhere some evil villain will curse the sky.

I just know as I was told there is not going to be a knight on a white pony to save me from it… I mean seriously, how would a guy in metal and a pony be helpful in that situation… I’ll just be optimistic that Superman will swoop in and save the day, he always saves people at the last moment.

I hope Lois doesn’t get all jealous. Because I will supply him with many doodles as payments.

Maybe I need to listen to my sister in law, maybe I need a more permanent change of scenery… but for now… vacation.

♥Lauren

The Secret Professional

| Viciously Sweet

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

Friday I’m a chicken… in love

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I don’t care if Monday’s blue…

Today I am so happy, I have to make a post. But I’m not exactly in the best position to be scanning doodles because I am making a set of drawings for work… it’s so hard to be an adult on a FRIDAY!

So to get to the meaty part of the post. I will say this doodle was inspired by several things… talking about drawing a Rooster in love with my wonderful sister-in-law, Season. And also by the department stores telling me that I should already be Christmassing (what is up with that?)

Any who, lets get to the first wintery chicken of 2012:

And a special request… if anyone out there does encounter snow.. can you make me a snow chicken?

Oh, and have a nice weekend… I’m going to!

♫Lauren

The Eternal Sunshine of My Spotless Mind

| Viciously Sweet

Some people are happy people. I have a confession… I am one of those happy people.

I know many of you are gasping, because your like… can that really be true? Does that mean all her giggles aren’t lies? Does that mean her sketchbook is really full of kittens and an occasional unicorn? Do you really not sit around all serious like a … professional?

The answer my dear readers is… YES!

And above all, I hope you have gleaned that I’m a huge dork, and unapologetic for it. I realize that most people who had a job that didn’t pay them much, and living with your parents after living without them for 5 years would not be as chipper as me. But sometimes we have to just appreciate it, we may not have all we want but what we have is good. And I’m not talking about settling for what we have (we all know how I feel about settling.)

But sometimes we can wear really pretty shoes, listen to some tunes that totally rock our world (Shout out to the Cure) and just appreciate a nice fall day. And that is what I choose to do today. For some reason I feel that today life is extra beautiful. Maybe it’s because I watched my favorite movie this week, maybe it’s because I’m an “adult” cherishing my new Hello Kitty wallet, maybe it’s because tonight I’m eating chicken. Mostly, it’s because I am in love with how I feel, when I feel optimistic about my future. I hope you find something beautiful today that makes you realize how wonderful the world is:

And if you need a little boost to give you some more happy read this article. Every time I do, I find something instantly to be happy about. Friends, smiling, music and sex… you really cannot go wrong reading it. It will make you want to take the boat of happiness the world sends you and sail about with joy in your heart!

♥ Lauren