Gratitude

Fourteen years ago today, the world was forever changed by the attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center. So many innocent men and women lost their lives, both those who went to work that day and those responded to the crisis. I will always have the utmost respect for those brave individuals.

On this September 11, I am again grateful. Yesterday my aunt and uncle were evacuated from their home on Pine Bark Drive off Jesus Maria Road in Calaveras County. Today, we heard they have likely lost their home.

It could have been much worse. They hadn’t planned on leaving.

Usually, the cooler weather at night abates the flames. And their home was on the downhill side of the fire, which usually makes for slower progression. The thought they could safely wait out the night.

An official came to the door and told them they had 30 minutes to get their things and flee. Annie was able to rescue her two cats, irreplaceable family photo albums, and an Indian rug from Arizona. She left all the lights on and the doors unlocked as they drove away. In the distance, the sound of propane tanks exploding sounded like bombs. As they passed the fire station, Annie noticed they too were packing up and pulling out.

While losses won’t be confirmed until the Damage Assessment teams can safely begin evaluations of damaged and destroyed structures, it’s not looking good. CalFire is updating maps of the affected zones and a significant area around their home appears to have been engulfed. The insurance company has already contacted her and is sending an initial compensation payment.

Mom and I performed our own reconnaissance, independently we both attempted to call their home phone which rang and rang and rang before disconnecting.

I can’t help thinking that if the fire safety personnel hadn’t gone door-to-door, Carina and I might have gotten a very different update from mom today. There are families who won’t be as lucky as ours. One of Anne and John’s good friends decided not to evacuate and his fate is unknown.

Tonight, I am overcome with gratitude for the many firefighters, police, and military service people who put their lives on the line against the many threats we face. It is because of them that so many of us can live our lives, safely going to work, the grocery store, and even to bed at night. I cannot help feeling incredibly thankful that Anne and John are safe in Modesto. They will hug their grandchildren, snuggle their kitties, and see the sunrise tomorrow.

The State of Me

It seemed time for a life update. There have been so many changes so far this year, and yet I'm still not achieving all that I hoped I would. (Disclaimer, I may be a bit of an overachiever.)

I can't believe that Top Shelf Digital & Social Media Marketing has become a reality. I've been dreaming of this for nearly two years, and yet it took the perfect storm of circumstances for everything to fall into place.

Sam's getting ready to decide where he'd like to match for his orthopedic hand fellowship, and his final interview (at UC Davis) takes place next week. We'll know where we're heading next at the end of May 2015 and we'll make the transition in July 2016.

There is a lot of travel on the horizon. Much more than in years past. Sam and I are headed to Italy in May to celebrate the wedding of two very dear friends of ours. A few weeks later, I'm visiting France and Spain for the first time with my parents and sister.

We have some BIG weddings to look forward in upcoming months as well. Ryan and Jen will tie the knot in May followed by Kip and Elya (in Italy), then Ryan and Amanda are getting hitched in June, Nathan and Jasmin in August, and finally Lorin and Kathryn in September.

We are salt-n-peppering some family time in between these exciting events - my family will be here at the end of this month and Sam's parents are treating us to a weekend staycation in Laguna Beach next month.

Trip to NorCal

I was MIA last week because Hunter and I went up to NorCal to visit my family while Sam was in Mammoth for a convention and San Diego for a bachelor party.

Our family is incredibly tight-knit and I'm lucky to have a close relationship with my parents and grandparents as well as my aunts, uncles and cousins.

Last week, Dad and I were supposed to go skiing, but the weather has been so warm the Sierra Nevada mountains are struggling to keep their ski lifts open. We decided to stay in Lamorinda and conduct Spring Training for the softball team I've joined. I also figured out that Mom and Dad have wireless internet, which made working from their house so much easier! I also showed them the magic of FaceTime with Carina and I think they enjoyed that, too.

I spent last Wednesday with my grandparents fixing a few of their technological issues and sharing book recommendations. We all went out to dinner in San Francisco to my favorite Italian restaurant to celebrate Nonna's birthday (which was yesterday).

It's times like these that I'm sad we don't live in closer proximity to our families, although, I realize that would require even more juggling of time and priorities than we have to do now. One thing is for sure, if we move to the East Coast for Sam's fellowship year I will definitely miss being able to drive 'home' to visit my amazing family.

First Freelance Client

It really is a small world, a point that was proven yet again as I set out on my own to provide freelance digital and social media marketing support to brands that needed help improving their online presence and performance.

In the days leading up to my departure from the marketing & public relations agency, I saw on Facebook that a friend from my hometown was looking for digital and social media marketing support for her two fledgling companies. I considered it over the weekend and figured I had nothing to lose, so I sent her my resume and some examples of my work.

Sure enough, we set up a time to Skype the week I left the agency and 11 days after striking out on my own, I officially landed my first client. Woohoo! 

I've formed Top Shelf Digital & Social Media Marketing LLC and am working on personal branding as well as work for my inaugural client. Hopefully this is the first of many wonderful business relationships! 

Creating a Digital Portfolio

I have long avoided creating a digital portfolio. I didn't want another digital platform to manage and maintain, being that I'm a perfectionist and doing something half-way isn't an option for me.

The time and energy held me back for quite a while, and I even opted to create a PowerPoint PDF portfolio when I decided to launch Top Shelf Digital Marketing. It took me two pitches to realize that I wasn't doing myself or my new brand justice, and I called upon the expertise of a dear friend.

This friend, one of my housemates in college, recently launched a digital portfolio which she used (in addition to her remarkably quick wit and superior copywriting skills) to land a job at Big Spaceship in New York City known for its work with Google, Lucas Films Ltd., and 20th Century Fox among a long list of seriously impressive global brands.

I signed up with Squarespace, which was the same platform my elite copywriting maven used, and voila, I had my very own pretty cool looking digital portfolio. Of course, I'm already guilty of revising and rewriting the content of my digital portfolio as per my own set of guidelines culled from several digital portfolio blogs. As a self-aware perfectionist, I expect this to be a constantly evolving web presence, something fluid that changes to reflect new projects and client work as I go forward in my career. And that's okay. It's a helluva lot better than doing nothing.

Freedom and Freelance

Freelancing is incredibly different this time around. I have such a better understanding of how to pitch new business, what kinds of documents clients want to see, etc. I'm also a lot better equipped to assess what jobs and projects are a good fit or something that I'm not likely to enjoy/excel at. I am incredibly thankful for my taste of agency life, and it's absolutely helped me grow in my never-ending quest for self-improvement and career advancement.

One skill that I've always been very strong at is organization - even at the agency I was consistently complimented on my mastery of details and project management. I find that organization is a blessing and a curse, because if my work space isn't organized I have a very hard time focusing. Over the years, I've learned that time spent improving my environment on the front-end usually translates to success at the back-end. For that reason, I spent most of my first week "off" putting my things away and reorganizing my desk in our guest room. Things are now exactly as I want them and I'm able to focus on potential projects without the clutter of piles of paper all over. 

Another thing that's changed this time through funemployment is how exhausted I am. I think that agency life took a much greater toll on my emotional health than I realized, and my body is trying to recuperate and acclimate to its stress-free state. I used to be able to get to bed at 9-9:30 and be up at 4:30 for Kaia, but I didn't even make it up by 6:45 the past two days.  I am hoping that my energy level rebounds soon so that I can get into a routine. 

One of the things that is always challenging working from home is time management. I've had a significantly more challenging time with that this time around, probably because I'm much more serious about launching a freelance career, improving my fitness and finding that ever-elusive work-life balance than I was last time around. I think I have a huge fear that I'll repeat my history of focusing 110% on work and going down the rabbit hole of poor eating habits. Then again, I am so much more aware of my personal needs than I have been at any other point in my career. Perhaps I've done more growing up more in the last 18 months than I realize. 

Saying Goodbye

I'm not thrilled at the way my last day at the marketing and PR agency played out. 

I don't know what I could have done to have improved things, and I've thought about it a lot. There is so much that's out of our hands as employees and it is so frustrating. Our agency principal left the office early on Friday without so much as telling me goodbye and she didn't come in yesterday, which ended up being my last day.

I didn't manage my resignation as well as I could have, and I allowed my superiors to dictate my last day. That wouldn't have been so terrible except that I never was notified what my last day would be. Instead, our agency principal called me yesterday morning and let me know that she felt that we could wrap things up and have that be my last day. Okay, fine. I take some responsibility in that. I really do. I should have called out a final date and then offered to be flexible in pushing it back if need be. 

What really disappointed me, was the fact that I wasn't given an exit interview and there was no in person farewell from the agency principal, who knew she would be out of the office on Monday and Tuesday, one of which would be my final day. 

Life goes on, and this whole experience has definitely taught me a lot of lessons in what I don't want to be as a manager. It also taught me the value in being the bigger person and taking the high road. Each of my co-workers was equally outraged by the poor performance set by the agency principal and I know that I left in good standing with my head high.

I will absolutely miss the incredibly talented team of girls I was able to work with - I wish them nothing but the best and anticipate they will all have incredibly bright futures ahead of them.