Day 189: New Medium Art

As I said a long time ago when I learned how to make a paper crane at work, I regaled to you the woes of working in a boutique business advisory and marketing firm; it's feast or famine. When we're busy, we're slammed, and I'm writing white papers, meeting clients, presenting research findings, constantly on the phone arranging conversations with CEOs and reporters. It's bliss.

When we're light, we're REALLY light, I can go for days without anything but busy, administrative work. Then, I start feeling very anxious and unhappy. It's a cycle, and one that I can't say I've gotten 100% used to yet.

Yesterday, while in a starkly light period, I found myself making art in Excel. Yes, you read that right. I filled cells with color until I made a beautiful flower!!!

Feeling Silly

My "something new" practically fell into my lap today when my co-worker walked into our office with her daughter. Her daughter K and I get along remarkably well, I think mostly owing to the fact that we are only children, and, truthfully, that I get along with just about every kid under the age of 10. 

When she walked in the door, she asked me what my favorite color was, to which I promptly replied purple. Out of a little yellow pouch she produced a purple terrier-shaped rubber band and told me it was all mine--my very first Silly Band.

I was simply dazzled and thoroughly amused by what followed, she drew out of the pouch a wide array of outlines of creatures, shapes, and words. She had dogs, zoo creatures, a unicorn, an outline of Woody from Toy Story, the words "Peace" and "Fun," a basketball player, a clarinet, and on and on. Oh, and those little things aren't limited to bracelets: they come in rings and necklaces too!! It was like Mary Poppins' Magic Silly Bandz Bag.

So, of course, as any novice to this novelty would do, I donned her entire collection of SillyBandz.

Please ignore the fact that I was talking during this whole picture-taking exercise

Sadly, after the little one left, my purple terrier broke and I was left Silly-Band-less. It's really too bad--I had a shirt that would've matched.

Turning Japanese

The beauty and curse of working in a boutique business advisory and marketing firm is that work is feast or famine. When I was hired in January, I was put on a huge research project where I could come in two hours early and leave two hours late and still have work to do the next day. Now, work for me is in famine mode (since I do not have my own clients), meaning most days I have only a couple hours of tasks to do. To occupy my time, I did my 'something new' today at work, and kind of felt devious/cool doing so.

Today, I crafted an origami crane using printer paper and an online "how-to" guide. These little buggers are all over Japan, and apparently if you make 1,000 of them, all of your wishes will come true. Well, I'm one in, so if the work stays slow, I'll get to work on 999 more!

I'm stupidly proud of this little guy...