August 2007 Archives

I wish I could, but I really can't put this post off any longer. Well, I could probably put it off indefinitely, but it would be the kind of thing that would wake me up in the middle of the night and stay with me until the wee hours: that I never blogged again.

Some of you might already know this, some of you may have heard something about it and some of you will be learning for the first time that I have taken another job. As in, a 9ish to 5ish, I have a boss and someone else writes the paycheck job-type-job. An exciting job, a job I barely knew existed a month ago, a job in an industry I have no previous work experience. I will be doing Creative Recruiting for Wieden+Kennedy, a modest advertising agency. Creative What? Recruiting. Finding people, specifically writers and art directors, for the creative department of the agency. Do I have experience? Well, yes and no. I've never worked in advertising, but a good deal of the job is about finding talent and making connections and that is what I do, more or less naturally, already.

Actually, I started 3 weeks ago. A soft opening. Jeff and I weren't sure how to make the announcement. Most of our employees were tipped off while I was still in the interviewing process when I would emerge from the bathroom, in a clean outfit and wearing lipstick. It's been a challenge telling people for several reasons:
1) It' s hard to contain my excitement for something new, when I am leaving something very personal and special.
2) Often the reaction is, "how are you qualified to do that?"
3) There is the occasional expression that I am selling out/letting down.
Naturally, I'm a little defensive. I've been doing the same thing for 7 years and although my days are filled with the kind of priceless moments Mastercard tries to exploit (not a Wieden ad), I always assumed there would be many more things I would do, career wise. I was getting to that stage of restlessness and desperation that some of you will know and many of you have yet to experience. Turn 34 and you will.

The good news is that Jeff will continue to run Half & Half and Acorn. Give him a hug, he'll need it. He is getting his ass kicked right now as he tries to bring 2 cafes and a commercial kitchen under some order, while catering the filming of Kelly Reichart's next film (I don't think I'm going to get a cameo in this one, sadly). People are really freaked out about the pies going away. Well, you know what? They're not. I spent a lot of time over the last several years on my recipes. If I gave you my recipe for pie crust and marionberry filling, and told you how to do it, you could make a marionberry pie just as well. But I won't. So you'll have to keep buying it.

Urban Honking's Mikey and I have talked about making this a Half & Half / Acorn blog and changing the format a little. I think that will be a breath of fresh air. In the meantime, I'd like to publish some "greatest hits of Half & Half" posts, as the departure has made me nostalgic. Lots of great memories have returned and I want to do them justice. Anyone who feels like sharing, please let me know and we can do some guest posts. I won't say goodbye. My office is halfway between Half & Half and Acorn, and I visit both at least once a day; while I continue to do the bookkeeping, I'm still earning my free food and drink.