Cougar by Association

Today I invested in a Wazzu sweatshirt, upsetting my Dolphin Sisters (both UW grads) and half my office.

I've never felt much affiliation with either school, but now my adorable and beautiful little sister is attending WSU and is a Crimson Girl. What's a Crimson Girl, you ask?

The WSU Crimson Girls Dance Team, now entering its sixth year, is a group of 16 highly experienced dancers who perform at all home football, volleyball, and men's and women's basketball games. They also compete at USA Collegiate Nationals each year in the hip hop division, and make appearances at many campus events, fundraisers, and alumni gatherings.

The Crimson Girls, which together with the cheerleaders, make up WSU's "Spirit Squad," will be performing at the WSU vs. Oklahoma game at Qwest field on Saturday. My little sister was the only new sophomore to be added to the team this year! I'm mucho proud of her, so the boyfriend and I are going to the game with my parents to support her.

So damn straight I'm going to buy a sweatshirt to wear to the game in her honor. Even if they are $60. (Can you say overpriced.)

That's her second from the left in the third row!

Currently Feeling: So unproductive and unmotivated. Bring on the weekend already!
Currently Anticipating: Catching up on laundry and cleaning tomorrow.
Currently Hating: My jeans feel tight. Yick.

Ladies and Gents, I do believe we might have just officially entered the WEB 3.0 era...

I'm probably going to geek out a lot about Social Media lately cause it's what I've been spending most of my time researching.

So, I've been exploring Twitter a bit more, even though I've been using it on the blog for awhile now. I've graduated to searching for things people are talking about, or even better--clicking on the "Nifty Queries" links on the Twitter Search page.

This led me to Ubiquity, which was launched yesterday.

And wow. Oh my gosh wow. Please watch the video all the way through. I do believe how we use the Internet will be completely transformed very shortly.


Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Totally Backwards Perfectionism

Yesterday I totally rocked a presentation that I'd spent countless hours preparing for--in the office until 7 p.m. Monday, working from home till 10 p.m., then back in the office the next morning at 7 a.m. I felt that in some ways, I out-shined myself, and it feels really great. I'm finally making a name for myself on my team and breaking through those first, tough three months on the job. For me, it's been kind of a bumpy ride.

Something I've come to know about myself is that I'm a ridiculous perfectionist, but in a totally backwards way. Such as--I can go a couple months with dark roots, my toenail polish is often chipped, my room looks like a hurricane went through it, my cars are always in a various stage of progressing disarray, and too often I let myself indulge in pizza and beer, which eventually turns into a totally-not-perfectionist type belly.

But, when it comes to my personal work and job--I'll break my back to put out the best product I could possibly EVER do. I've been like this since 3rd grade when I created posters with glitter, made cupcakes and dressed up for my book reports when most kids sat in front of the room with half a scribbled page of notebook paper.

Sometimes this work ethic of mine is really great; sometimes it's exhausting. I don't know if it's exactly healthy to worry yourself into a frenzy about screwing up or doing something wrong... but occasionally it all pays off.

In celebration, I'm going to spend a totally stress-free weekend to myself. My team has been given Friday off, so the three-day weekend has now turned into four (yippee), and for two of it, I'm heading to Orcas Island for a solo camp trip with my boyfriend. We're staying at a little camp/cabin resort on the beach with crabbing, clamming, fishing, kayaking, canoing, whale watching, beach bonfires and a hot tub. I'm quite looking forward to it. (And I'll pick up my party ways in a couple weeks for the End of Summer bash we have planned at Lake Chelan--seven campsites and approximately 30 friends. Stay tuned.)

Currently Feeling: Need. To. Get. Back. To. Gym.
Currently Anticipating: Getting this pro bono copywriting thing over with. Yuck.
Currently Reading: "More Thank You Know," by Beth Gutcheon. Oh my gosh. So good, so good, so good! It's a little love, a little mystery and a lot of ghost story. I can't put it down!

Mmm Mmm, I Love Me Some Social Media

I freakin' love any Presidential hopeful who is involved in social media to this degree:

Hi, [20-Something].

Barack Obama (BarackObama) is now following your updates on Twitter.

Check out Barack Obama's profile here:

http://twitter.com/BarackObama

Best,
Twitter

I read a number of articles on how Obama has a Twitter page and regularly updates it, so I decided to follow good ole' Obama and the above is the e-mail I received back. It's slightly intoxicating to feel like you could be this close to having a President hear your voice, even if they are just "tweets," and I'm one of 64K+ that he's following.

Oh, and I freakin' love any job that lets me get this close to Social Media, which I've become increasingly more and more obsessed with. I've been finding and researching this Social Media stuff (hence learning of Obama's Twitter page) all week for a presentation I'm giving next Tuesday. Looks like I'll be heading all Social Media Initiatives for [insert my company name here]'s North American markets in 2009 - from the grassroots level up. If that's not a good resume builder, I don't know what is.

Onward and upward to that dream job!

Currently Feeling: Ready for the weekend!
Currently Anticipating: Getting caught up since I don't have too many pressing plans for the weekend.
Currently Wishing: I could see results RIGHT. AWAY.

A Simply Genius Dress

Every day on my lunch hour, I walk past American Apparel on my way to the gym. The store has never really interested me much since it's a bunch of plain t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc. Not really my thing. But, for some reason I stopped in a couple weeks ago, and found the most genius clothing item ever--I had to purchase it.

It's their new Le Sac dress. It's really rather simple--a long, plain cotton dress with a very long ribbon through the neck. But it's totally awesome. The dress can be tied and worn in numerously different ways--as a halter, strapless, shortened as a top, Grecian style, with a belt, etc. You can even buy new ties and swap them out to update the dress. Here are some of the examples:

There's even step-by-step guides to tying it on the Web:

Anyhoo, I'm pretty much in love with it. So much that I bought TWO--a red one with a dark denim ribbon and a bright pink one with a hot pink ribbon. Now the weather has to just get nice again so I can get some freakin' use out of them before fall...

Currently Feeling: Needing coffee cup number two.
Currently Anticipating: Hmm. Not sure. Plans for the weekend are rocky.
Currently Loving: Goldfrapp. I want to go to her concert September 17th!

You Must Yearbook Yourself Immediately!

I found this on one of my favorite blogs, Pretty In The City.

It's a Web site where you can upload a standard photo of yourself and adjust it to fit yearbook-style, black-and-white photographs from the 1950s through 2000. I used my dorky work photo, and came up with "Jeanna Through the Years":

1952

1960

1962

1964

1966

1968

1978

1984

1992

1994

Gosh, I really have evolved through the years, haven't I? I think I had cancer in 1992, so don't laugh. I still think I looked the best in 1964. I really should look into sporting those glasses again!

(Clearly, I've had some extra time at the end of my day today... but it's just so much fun! You must Yearbook yourself immediately and e-mail the best one to me!)

A Comment From My Boyfriend

When he saw me before heading out to dinner last night:

"You look cute. You look--clean."

"Clean" is not exactly the adjective you want a boyfriend searching for when he's trying to figure out why you look better than all the other 100 times he's seen you.

Currently Feeling: Stuffed. Yuck. I hate going out to lunch at work!
Currently Anticipating: Walking Greenlake with Larisa tonight.
Currently Hating: That they might shut Pandora radio down!

You Can't Be Crabby When You're at the Beach...

...but you can be cold!

After Luke & Jana's wedding Friday night, Baby Daddy and I drove to Ocean Shores to stay at his family's condo on the beach.

I've been to the Oregon and Washington coast a handful of times in my life, and nearly every time it was freezing cold with grey skies. One would think that the hottest weekend in Seattle (up to 100 degrees) would mean that it would be at least a little sunny and warm on the coast. Nope. We drove through town after town with stifling weather, and it seemed as soon as we neared the limits of Ocean Shores, the weather changed to grey, cloudy and windy.

But, we made the best of it--seafood meals with his family, plenty of dips in the hot tub, an early night in, snuggling under a blanket on the couch with the gas fireplace, saltwater taffy and fudge of course--and a sand castle, made from scratch!

Walkin' to the beach with our pail of sand-castle-makin' tools...

Carefully sculpting our walls and center fortress...

We dug out a moat...

...and stuck crab claws we gathered in the moat's "water."

Ta da! Claw Cast

Super proud of our homemade sand castle...

...even if we wouldn't have won any contest with it and are huge dorks, it was still fun!

Currently Feeling: Really unmotivated to finish this pro bono copywriting project today.
Currently Anticipating: Black Bottle for a dinner date and wine tonight!
Currently Loving: The quiet office today--my whole team is gone!

Luke & Jana Lamon - August 15, 2008

Friday evening I attended the wedding of two of my favorite friends--Luke and Jana Lamon.

I met Luke the summer after my senior year of college when I moved to Fremont to live with Amanda. Amanda flirted with a guy one night at Ozzie's, who asked for her number. Later that week, we agreed to meet this guy and his friends at The Dubliner, which was down the street from our apartment. One fun night with beers, dancing and conversation led to partying together nearly every night that summer, led to what is now a four-year friendship with this group of guys (Luke being one of them). And now--friendships with each one of their significant others.

So, I've been really lucky to have grown as friends with both Luke and Jana. I can't express what an amazing and perfect couple they are--if you know them personally, you just know. I hope someday to marry my best friend...we should all be so lucky to have a perfect evening with close friends and the one we couldn't imagine living our lives without...

Boozin' it up with champagne and wine in the car before the ceremony

Me, Jill, Ashley and Sue all dressed up and ready to party!

My sexy, twin date!

And another... I couldn't resist!

Me and Luke--the groom!

Caitlin and Josh--such a pretty couple!

Outside, waiting in the receiving line

BAR SERVICE!!!

Me and the lovely, lovely bride

Wedding presents!

And the crazy limo ride back to Seattle after the wedding

Caught makin' out in the limo! Whoops.

An homage to the end of our night...

CONGRATULATIONS JANA & LUKE!
I love you and wish you all the best!

Swimming, It Does a Body Good

Last night I went for a quick dip after work at Madison Park--my favorite swimming destination in all of Seattle.

There is something so summer about swimming in the twilight hours; it's a feeling I crave all year long.

The pebbles and sand between your toes...sucking in your breath as the lake water inches up your thighs toward your tummy...shade from the trees casting shadows over the water as you frantically try to paddle toward the patches of warm, evening summer sun that you dry yourself in later...goosebumps breaking out over your arms and legs as you wrap a towel tightly around your shoulders...and the sleep that envelops your tired body after a night in the water.

I wish I could grasp onto the simple satisfaction of it for all my days.

"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Currently Feeling: Super stoked for kickball tonight, my three day weekend, the wedding tomorrow and Ocean Shores for the rest of the weekend!
Currently Anticipating: Getting dolled up tomorrow--gettin' my hair did!
Currently Loving: Feeling stronger by the minute!