Lately...

1. I have been super busy making awesome things for these awesome etsy stores my husband and I started etsy.com/shop/domrockstar and etsy.com/shop/metalbeards

2. My band got to play an awesome event called Forgotten City on Saturday and we shared the stage with DAFT PUNK. On top of all the other awesome things my band has been keeping me busy doing.



 3. I also have been super busy helping my husband run his business Ink&Beats

4. I also have a regular full time job as a digital account executive.

So yeah, blogging has fallen by the wayside.

If I could clone myself I would, then maybe I'd have some time to relax, workout, read some books, go on vacation, etc.

New-ness

I've been at my new job for almost 3 weeks now. It's been pretty amazing and the honeymoon hasn't worn off yet.
I have a wonderful office with a view of Red Rock Canyon and some posh Summerlin houses in the foreground.

I got a massage my second week and I have pretty awesome company during lunch. 

Also we do fun stuff like watch the World Cup in the conference room and I got to play softball with a client on Sunday.  Overall things are great and I am very happy I made the decision to switch when I did.

The band is doing quite well too. We have a crap load of shows this Summer and we're prepping to record a new ep soon.
The balance of family, job, band has been pretty easy as of late.

Hiatus over

Blogging for me isn't just about putting a bunch of words onto the screen and hoping people read it. I write from my heart and try to share my experiences to better help those maybe dealing with the same type of stuff. So I took a break to deal with some stuff and in turn had sort of a writers block.
So now that the stuff has been dealt with I can clear away the blockage and share once again.

A few months ago new management came in at my job and started rearranging things, changing things, and in turn I started to not feel comfortable in my career there. Without getting into the dirty details I felt it necessary for me to move on.
This wasn't an easy decision for me. I am walking away from the newspaper industry that I have been in for 15 years. Switching jobs is nerve racking and has been giving me some pretty weird dreams.

Yesterday I accepted a position at a new company that I am super excited about. I start in a week and a half. I have a few days off so I am catching up on some needed ME time.

I also need to share our awesome new addition to the family. Our new puppy Daenerys.

She's the most awesome little puppy and she's getting spoiled by all of us. Its been nine years since we had a puppy in the house and I think the cuteness made us forget about the every four hours pooping, the little sharp puppy teeth and the shots. But it's definitely worth it in the overall.

I will be trying to post on a regular basis now that the smoke has cleared.

Yes, I like my job

I was asked yesterday what I like about my job. As most salespeople my first thought was "the money," but my words came out as "I enjoy working with a client to come up with a unique campaign and targeting the right audience for that campaign to be successful." Both are the truth but the latter is definitely more satisfying.

I work at a newspaper as a digital salesperson. I sell online marketing to big and little companies.

When I was in high school I wanted to work at a newspaper or a magazine. It was my dream.
At fifteen I wrote for a newspaper in Washington's youth page. They wrote a bio about me and asked where I saw myself at twenty five. I said " Working at a newspaper or magazine and living in San Francisco." 

 At twenty five I worked at a newspaper as a graphic designer about 40 miles from San Francisco. After years as a zine publisher and over a decade as a designer I made a huge switch to the digital part of the newspaper and then to the sales part. I accomplished those dreams or rather a slightly different version of a better paid dream.

I really do enjoy my job. I enjoy being on top of the constantly changing digital world.

For so long I just wanted to be a graphic designer; a creative guru I didn't think I would enjoy the dark side of selling advertising to people. I was wrong and I was broke back then. There are many other ways I use my creativity in my job. And it pays the for my wonderful hobby of singing in a band.

A quote I found a couple weeks ago from the great Maya Angelou-
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

Find what you like and do it. Be direct , be a bitch with what you want and need to be happy. It's your life only you can control your destiny. 

Allergies and great things.

With the month of May comes my horrible affliction of allergies (thanks mom). It's as if my sinuses are revolting and attacking me from the inside.
This makes meetings with clients kind of embarrassing. Especially first meetings where my nose is constantly running, my hands are full of tissue and I look like I wiped my nose with sandpaper.
Yeah, not very attractive. It also eliminates my chances of being able to attend band practice. Nasally, mouth breathing singers aren't very awesome.
I've been super busy at work but when I get home I crash on the couch with a box of tissue and a humidifier.

I recently was given EVEN MORE responsibility at work and have developed a nice career over here in the digital world of advertising.

It's odd how things work out sometimes.

Last year I was unhappy with the state of things in my life. Over-stressed, over-worked and under appreciated. I got the balls to ask for what I wanted and I got it.

Now here I am less than a year from when I got my promotion and I am beyond the moon with the progression of my career.

I feel all grown up and professional sometimes, and then I go home and play Saints Row the Third.

I may have a better career but I'm the same person I always was.

YAY for great things.

Like Nicole over at a Life Less Bullshit says. Do Whatever You Fucking Want!

It worked for me.

Boring, Eight Teeth, and Valentines

The last couple weeks have been super busy for me with work and stuff.  I participated in an Advertising and Marketing expo last week working late every day and taking care of house work, homework, errands, and then played a show on Friday.
I also took on more accounts which have required much more of my time.
I have been truly balancing work, mommyhood, and the band full time. Which I know is boring but I have to throw in my damn tag line every now and then.

But this evening I am alone watching Project Runway and catching up on my blogging.

Brian had eight, that's right EIGHT teeth removed yesterday that's right on VALENTINES DAY.
He had originally only scheduled to have six, but after consultation with the oral surgeon it became eight. You would think the man never brushed his teeth, but the oral surgeon told him to blame his parents. That guy gets a Christmas card.

We actually got to celebrate our Valentines early. Brian bought me beautiful roses (that we actually picked out together) and we made each other an amazing dinner of New York steak, mashed potatoes and peanut butter ice cream for desert. 

Hayden had a pretty great Valentines as well. He scored a whole bag of candy and cards, but the best prize of all was a cute little hug he got from the little girl he's been friends with since last year. He had forgotten to give her the card he wrote for her the night before. When I picked him up and they were playing in he after school program I asked him if she liked the card. His eyes got big "I FORGOT!" He ran over gave her the card and stood back with a half-worried look waiting to see how she would respond. She smiled big and gave him a hug. He hugged her back, his whole face lit up and then skipped out the door with me to the car.

I get busy balancing all of these things that make up my tagline and the routine sometimes makes my life seem dull. Then magical moments like this happen when I get to witness my son's heart get all warm and fuzzy.

I am self taught

I didn't go to college. No university, no community college, no online college.
I used to blame my parents. I had been accepted to five colleges by the time I graduated high school. Not one of my four parents seemed to care enough to take the time to help me forge a path to higher education. In high school, college was my ultimate goal. I worked hard, got good grades, took university prep classes. I got the big letters of acceptance, but unlike the teen movies no one watched over my shoulder with excitement, helped me rip open the letters and shouted in glee with me. I opened them up alone and wondered how I could fly to the campuses for tours and meetings and register if no one else cared..
One of the colleges offered me a half scholarship and sent me plane tickets to fly to California to meet with the admissions director as well as the choir professor. For weeks my dad said he would go with me. Then one day he said he wouldn't, he wouldn't take the time off work and he forbid me to go alone.
I was devastated. That was a catalyst for months of living hell with him and his wife (his ex-wife now) that eventually ended in violence and me being homeless at 18. While working and trying my damnedest to find a home, I applied for community college but couldn't afford the cost.

About seven months later I ended up at my grandmother's house in Northern California. I had planned to go to community college there as well, then ended up working at the newspaper. Within a few months I had a full time job as a graphic designer. I taught myself how to be a graphic designer. I learned all the programs hands on.
It's been 13 years, and even though I never got a college degree I have a career 13 years deep and an extensive portfolio. I also have NO student loans looming over my head. As far as the college parties, I replaced that life experience with the band, and it's still going.

The idea of college comes up all the time. At this point I don't know what I would want to study besides the obvious literature that I love. I truly believe this path wouldn't have led me here if anything else would have happened differently.

Mad Men and Me.

(photo source)

'Tis the season of dull tv in our house. True Blood, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, and the other good shows are off season. We cancelled some of our movie channels because of this and switched our Netflix to streaming. I succumbed to the hype of Mad Men last week and have been hooked ever since.
Unlike most the bloggers whose praise I've read, I'm not really into the fashion. Vintage just isn't my thing since women didn't rock skulls and Converse in the '60s,
What draws me in besides the obviously seducing story lines is that I have been in "advertising" for thirteen years now.
Having worked as a graphic designer at a newspaper in California for ten years and now at a newspaper in Las Vegas as an online ad coordinator/designer/project manager, I can relate. Well, for the most part, I mean I'm definitely not a chain smoking man from the '60's working at an ad agency in Manhattan.
I have had to pick my brain for campaigns, design entire series of full page newspaper ads selling cars I could never afford, come up with tag lines using words like Amazing or Extravaganza, and change the color of a car in a picture using photoshop because the car dealer didn't have an orange one in stock.
It's a strange machine, advertising and honestly not where I thought I'd end up when I was 17 copy and pasting together my writings of teen angst to make zines.
It is interesting to see the politics of advertising in the '60s and kind of frustrating to know that guy 52 years ago is making more money than I am now.

What I learned in '11

Each year I like to look back and evaluate what I've learned. This year was full of growing, accomplishing, reconciliation, healing, determination and most of all love.

January 2011

We celebrated last New Years in Florida with my mom and stepdad. When we returned we settled in for a couple weeks then headed for our second trip to NAMM. Where we got to learn about a ton of music gear and meet a lot of talented people.

February 2011

I participated in a Community Couture Challenge Fashion show where I made an outfit out of tshirts and candy. My wonderful model Sarah Spraker rocked it and all the proceeds from the show went to the Nevada Children's Heart Foundation. You can read about it here. I learned that I can sew, somewhat at least. 

I was unhappy with my job for months. After weeks of sending out resumes and interviewing  a new position within the company I was already employed opened up. The new job has been great and I learned that if I kept trying I would find the right one. 

March 2011

The highlight of March was throwing myself an 80's Prom Themed Birthday Party. My friends all participated and we had a grand time! Definitely one of the best birthdays I ever had.

April 2011

We were treated to a traditional Russian Easter feast from our friends Chris and Lauren. They made a perogies with mushrooms, vodka soaked prunes, potatoes with cheese and bacon, and sauerkraut. They also made a ham, creamed cucumber salad, kielbasa, and made us take shots of Vodka with a pickle chaser.

It was a good time with friends and good food.

My dad got me an iphone and thus started my obsession with Words with Friends and Stupid Zombies.

May 2011

In May I learned that I needed to work harder on fixing myself. For over a year at this point my relationship/marriage was not in a happy place. 

Things were on the verge of being repaired but the overall state of our marriage was fragile. 

Then a good friend of ours passed away. This friend had given the toast at our wedding. He had known us both prior to us knowing each other and had taught us both a lot, as well as everyone else who had known him. It made me realize that I had lost my previous self in the fog of my stormy marriage and needed more than anything to fix myself no matter what the outcome of my relationship would be. 

I also learned that month that dressing more like a chick for our shows would get me free drinks.

June 2011

I got to watch one of my best friends from high school get married. 

Hayden and I had a date night and we discovered an awesome park just right down the road from our house. I got to see my two favorite bands at the Joint in the Hard Rock ; Deftones & Dillinger Escape Plan and on that night learned that fate sometimes comes when you least expect it. That evening we met Rob, a guy who was parked next to us and would later become our new guitar player. 

July 2011

In July we celebrated Hayden's 5th birthday and Brian's Birthday. It was a month of parties, some good shows, and valuable lessons in real friendships.

We got to see Queens of the Stone Age at the Cosmo pool and had a great time! Our guitar player Dave quit bipolar and we soon after got Rob to replace him.

August 2011

I bought myself a long board and promised to start skating again. I did as much as I could, but should do it much more now that I'm calling myself out. 

We played an awesome show on the Colorado river in Bullhead City, AZ with our pals Shrapnull. My first experience playing a show in my bathing suit.

We got to meet Jason Mewes of Jay and Silent Bob and learned their friendship was helping 

Jason stay sober.

Hayden learned how much getting shots before school sucks, but then how sweet a reward ice cream is after the pain. Hayden started kindergarten at the end of August. It was a hard day for both of us.

September 2011

The highlight of September was camping in Zion National Park. Hayden learned after getting into a routine that school wasn't so bad after all. 

October 2011

October was a great month all around. We got to visit Brian's family in Washington. We got to play an amazing show at the House of Blues inside Mandalay Bay and we had a great Halloween.

November 2011

We had a mellow November. Full of snuggling, cooking, video games and being thankful.

We worked through a lot of our problems during the rough patch and things started to get back to awesome.

December 2011

This month was also full of awesome. We started the month off with a road trip to Sacramento. We hadn't been back in three years and I realized how much I missed California. The road trip was great. Hayden and I were stuck in the back seat of a truck for almost 20 hours and no one got hurt.

The show was AMAZING! We had a great time playing with such talented bands and seeing friends we've missed so much since our move. We got to stay at our good friend Jimmy's house and he let us rock his RV to the show which was pretty sweet and a first for us. We also had an amazing Christmas weekend full of love, fun and friends.

I am excited for the New Year. I have a list of goals, a book of blank pages to fill with love and adventure and a mountain of dreams I would really like to tackle in 2012. 

I'm in a great place right now and 2012 will be my year!

Dreams and jobs

Last year I was completely unhappy with my career. I had spent 9 1/2 years at a newspaper in Northern California as a graphic designer and after relocating to Las Vegas had the worst time finding a new job that was half as awesome as the job I walked away from.
I ended up in classified ad sales here at the newspaper. I liked it at first but soon learned I was not a sales person and I did not like to be micro-managed.
About three months ago I moved into a new position at the newspaper handling online ad coordination. I can honestly say, I LOVE MY JOB.
It's got all the elements I was hoping for when I started sending out the millions of resumes that I did. I made a dream job wish-list last year. 5 out of the 6 things I was looking for were found with this new job.
1. Provoke creativity. I want to create something that is awesome on all sorts of levels and inspires others to be creative as well.- I have been able to create awesome presentations and some online ads that my co-workers and boss have all appreciated.

2. Keeps me busy. I don’t want down time during my work hours. I want to be busy and on my toes as much as possible. I have been extremely busy. I have a ton of stuff that keeps me challenged and helps make my work day go by much faster.

3. I want to be happy. I want to be glad to get in my car and drive to work everyday. Not a job I dread and makes me cringe at the thought of Monday morning. I am obviously very happy with this new job. I love the people I work with who all appreciate me for what I get done.

4. I don’t want to be micro-managed. I don’t want unrealistic expectations hovering over my head like a scythe. I want to be able to do my work efficiently, enjoy my work and feel good when the work is done. I am no longer micro-managed. I have my work load, my Pandora going, take my lunch whenever I want, and don't have to worry about making cold calls anymore!!

5. I love challenges. I want something that challenges my abilities and teaches me new things. I am challenged every day. I am learning a whole new aspect to the newspaper industry as well as design with all the online differences, after years in print.

6. I don’t want to sit in a cubicle anymore. An office or a real desk would be nice. No more gray walls please, I need a little color. I may still be in somewhat of a cubicle, but it's a lot less drab than my last one. I have skulls, pictures, and paper flowers from my son to spruce it up.

It's nice to have the these elements in my life again. So many people I know are still looking for work, or their dream job. The advice I have is to NEVER GIVE UP! Send out millions of resumes, go to hundreds of interviews, you never know which opportunity could be THE ONE!
If I can do it, ANYONE CAN!!!