Stupor

I'd blog more, but I'm still in a bit of stupor over yesterday. I even had boss-approved plans to take it easy getting into work this morning as a result of yesterday, but when my alarm went off at 7:30 and I checked my phone, there were lots of urgent things to do.

At least I was able to drag my laptop into bed with me and work from there, so there's that. Of course, the irony of an "easier" day beginning an hour and a half before work is supposed to start is not lost on me. At the same time, though, we got to hear more from the client today about how great everything went yesterday. Did I mention that we were still trending as one of the top 10 trending topics on Twitter today? Considering the speed of that medium, that's pretty amazing. So, not that I would want to do this every day (in fact, the idea that E3 is just a few weeks away makes me tired just thinking about it), but at least all that hard work is paying off.

I promise to have more fun things to blog about tomorrow. Maybe.

One

I'm currently writing to you from the middle of Lake Washington, which sounds way glamorous until I reveal it's because they closed the bridge for the next half hour for boat traffic. I mean, no biggie, it's not like I've already been rocking a 13 hour day, on the client's campus since 6 am!

Seriously, I am practically tripping out on exhaustion, both physical and mental, from what a ginormous day today was.

In case you've been under a rock, we revealed the new Xbox today. It's something we've been working on tirelessly for months, and by some small miracle, everything went off pretty flawlessly. Nothing, not even a hint of the name, leaked ahead of time. I spent the day in a huge marketing "war room" with people from the website, search, paid media, et cetera et cetera et cetera. (You know it's a long day when the same room feeds you breakfast, lunch, and dinner.)

There have only been three Xbox reveals in the history of the company, so today was a pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty big deal. In terms of social, we couldn't have asked for a better day. On Twitter, we trended worldwide and in the US all day, with over 20 different terms, sometimes taking 7 out of the 10 top spots concurrently. We had over 2 billion impressions. We had hundreds of thousands of likes on Facebook. For example, this photo has over 200,000 likes and 68,000 shares. If you're not in social, this means nothing, but trust me, it's huge. Huge. Huge huge huge.

If I wasn't so exhausted, I'd spend my night drinking up in celebration. However, not only did I have a very early start this morning, but last night's sleep was anything but restful. For example, I awoke at 1:30 in the morning in a panic from a dream where I had meant to schedule in advance a post to go out on Facebook, but instead I accidentally posted it right then, complete with the super secret name of the new console. My heart pounding, I laid in bed telling myself, "OK, you know that's just a dream. It's just a dream. You've literally been laying in bed, so there's no way that just happened."

But then my brain kept saying, "OK, sure, that didn't actually happen, but you did schedule a post for 6 a.m. And what if you accidentally used copy that has the name in it (since they weren't revealing it until 10 a.m.)?" And then I couldn't stop thinking that maybe, just maybe, I had done that. I was sure I hadn't, but what if? Finally I knew I wasn't ever going to get my heart back to a normal speed if I didn't just get up, go upstairs, fire up the computer, and check each of our social accounts to ensure I had posted the correct copy. (Hint: I had.)

So anyway, long story short: crazy awesome day. One of the biggest in my company and client's history. Wonderfully successful professionally. Time to collapse.

Oh and also? Since I was stopped on the bridge for a half an hour (I'm currently finishing this up from home later), I texted one of my coworkers who was heading home at the same time, cursing myself for stopping to get gas and missing the bridge closure by mere minutes. It turns out he got stuck too, so we texted back and forth as we waited, cursing the boats that needed to pass.

Him: "It was just for one dumb sailboat, too."
Me: "There has to be something more. Couldn't a sailboat just go under the bridge further to the west?"
Him: "It had a pretty tall mast."
Him: "...Still bullshit though."

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:WA-520 W,Bellevue,United States

King of the World

Happy birthday to my niece Claire, who is embarking on her final month of grade school and getting ready for the big jump to high school. I am awed by her wit, sensitivity, intelligence, gymnastic skills, and social ethics. Her inquisitive, compassionate nature toward social justice issues and politics is rare and awesome in someone so young. Lengthy phone calls around last year's debates and elections to discuss positions and sound bites and platforms were a treat for me.

Claire, I can't wait to see what high school holds for you. Happy birthday!

Bedtime

It's 8:30 and I'm already in bed, contacts swapped for glasses, tucked in under the covers, with some Netflix waiting to lull me to sleep. We have kind of a big day tomorrow at work with a very early start, as you might know if you've been reading this blog (or watching the news - I've seen it covered on three different stations so far today).

I'd write more, but it's already past my bedtime.

Note to Self XIX

Brunch should always start with oysters.

Curses

As I've complained - er, mentioned - several times, Seattle has a plastic bag ban. In theory, this is all fine and dandy, except it's really, really annoying. I love saving the planet and all, but sometimes I just want a freaking bag and not to pay for it. 

In fact, I've actually given up caring when I go to Whole Foods because they automatically put the paper bag charge on your bill, and then after everything is rung up, ask you if you want to donate your bag charge or get a refund. And really, what kind of person is going to ask for the 5 cent refund? I mean, come on. We're already shopping at Whole Paycheck. 

I do still try to remember to bring my reusable bag, but I usually go on the way home from work and if I haven't brought a bag with me, oh well. I'm going to pay for it one way or another is how I look at it now.

Safeway is a different, much more obnoxious story. I thought I blogged about this awhile back, but I can't find it in the archives, so here goes the last time I went to Safeway: I completely forgot to bring any kind of bag with me. (Can I also state that I dislike this Safeway to begin with because the time before that, I couldn't get my "club card" to work, and the cashier just shrugged and said, "Oh well." You know, in Chicago when I go to Jewel and forget my Preferred Card, they always just swipe theirs in, jerks. Anyway.)

The cashier asks if I need a bag, and I sigh and say yes. "Paper?" he asks, and I say yes. He then informs me, "Well, you know our paper bags don't have handles." At least at Whole Foods, they give you the nice handle kind. Here it's just one of those standard old school sacks, which will be oh so easy to carry more than one to the car and up to the apartment. Not. Then he offers me a plastic bag. 

Wait, what? Okaaaay, I'll take a plastic bag. 

"Plastic bags are 25 cents." 

Seriously?

I know it's 50 stupid cents and I spend a million more cents on things way more trivial, but for some reason it irks me to no end. Oh, we can't have plastic bags? Oh, they're OK for the environment if you charge me 25 cents? Give me a break. 

Clearly, I am still irked.

Anyway, this happened weeks (if not months) ago, but I learned my lesson and brought my biggest, best reusable bag with me today. I get to the checkout and the cashier asks if I need a bag. "I sure hope not," I say as I hand her my bag.

Halfway through ringing up my groceries (mind you, I'm only buying stuff for spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, a chopped salad, a 12 pack of Coke, and an impulse bag of chips - not exactly cleaning out the store here) she asks again, "Do you want another bag?" 

"Let's see how it fits." (I'll be damned if I'm spending another 25 cents on their plastic bags, and the 5 cent handle-less paper bag wouldn't help at all.)

Three quarters of the way through bagging my groceries, the cashier asks again, "Do you want another bag?"

"Let's see how it fits."

The bagger has most everything in, except for the bread, the chips, the Coke (obviously), and a head of lettuce. I sometimes wonder if there's some sort of paper/plastic bag racket going on, because there's a ton of room in the bag and they're still asking. She finally picks up the bag slightly so the edges stand up, and voila! The head of lettuce fits in with room to spare, so I just have to carry the reusable bag, the bag of chips, the bread (in a bag), and a 12 pack of coke.

As she proceeds to tip my bag over twice and roll my head of lettuce on the conveyer belt and then into my cart, they ask once more if I want another bag.

Seriously? At this point I don't care if the head of lettuce falls out of the bag in the car and plays its own game of pong around the back seat, I wouldn't be buying another bag.

Of course, I magically have no problem keeping the head of lettuce (and everything else) in the bag the entire ride home even though I had to stop short twice.

Yay for the plastic bag ban!

Shredded

Flowers: the gift that keeps on giving.

Both bouquets were shedding a bit on the table before I pitched them, but ohmigaw, the act of jostling them out of the vases and into the garbage bag was just a hot mess.