This is a sketch of a poem I started earlier this year. I wanted to show you all the starting points. I hope to eventually add to this and play with more nature-like comparisons. Once it is revised and polished, you can see the differences and evolution of the poem.
Title is still yet to be imagined
You're a big gulp of fresh air.
The kind after a spring rain that lasts all day.
When the lungs are woken up from winter.
You're the breath that's caught
after stepping out of the car for the night.
When you look up at the sky sprinkled with stars.
You're the vines I want to get tangled up in.
The ones that grow together.
I sat in a modern type chair in the new Rodman Innovation Pavilion at Black & Veatch. I was wearing a new outfit from Express and black heels from Target that easily made me feel fabulous.
I was nervous.
I checked my phone again. I was anxiously waiting for my new boss to come get me from the lobby and whisk me away to my new floor and my first cubicle ever.
An email notification appeared on my phone's screen. And then another popped up right after. I had my first meeting at 10AM and another at 11AM.
I still hadn't even seen my desk yet.
I didn't get to dip a toe in or ease my body into the waters of corporate life. I was shoved in.
I needed to learn how to swim fast.
The 9 o'clock hour was a blurred rush of office supplies and computer setup before my first meeting in which I sat at a large table in a conference room with a few glass walls. I immediately felt like I was sitting in an episode of Mad Men as our client walked in bearing cupcakes and a formal presentation on what they had to offer us.
They were going to be helping us with the planning, set up, logistics, contracts, and so much more in between for the 100 year anniversary celebration at Black & Veatch World Headquarters.
More times than I can count, I struggled to wrap my head around the idea that my job at the moment was solely focused on this one event and that I was communicating with close to 100 offices across the globe to ensure they held their own celebration as well.
Emails were sent to Australia, to South Africa, to Russia, to Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and more.
A little over 3 months later, the event came to life. The maps and the diagrams and the layouts were no longer on just paper and sent in emails and discussed in meetings. I watched a man on stilts entertain kids, ate from one of the 28 food trucks, danced to the live band, and wondered among 6,000 guests in attendance.
I couldn't have been more thankful for the shove and learning how to swim and keep going in my first corporate job. I got to be part of a team and meet new people. The Excel sheets, stress, last minute changes, meetings, details were all right before my eyes. I learned what my 23-year-old-self could be capable of.
I sat at a picnic table and listened to the CEO tell the crowd, "The sun never sets on Black & Veatch today"as he explained that celebrations would start in Melbourne and end in San Francisco.
A highlight from the event was having Ed Eilert, Johnson County chair, in attendance. He is an Emporia State alum and was part of the Blue Key charter class back in the 60's and inducted into the Hall of Fame. He was at ESU when I was inducted at the re-charter ceremony in 2012. We were able to connect and chat quite a bit about my role at Black & Veatch, the event, and Emporia State.
Ed Eilert and I at the B&V 100 Anniversary event
The weather was perfect and a classic Kansas sunset made an appearance as the event was winding down. By the time I was about to leave, it was already dark and I grabbed my things from the front desk of the Rodman Innovation Pavilion. Where I once was nervous, I was now relieved, tired, and a huge event for a global corporation was now under my belt.
You can also read about the event here and here. Want to know more about Black & Veatch? Watch this really cool video!
This might be one of my favorite parts of my room.
Shortly before finding our apartment, I had come across this blog post on "But First, Coffee," which sparked my inspiration to create a corner in my new room that would be for writing, reading, and relaxing.
I had a lot of fun finding different pieces that would be included in my gallery wall. I had never heard of the term "gallery wall," until I finally used Pinterest for what it actually exists for and stumbled upon this blog post, which stoked my creative sparks.
I wanted a variety of things to be included on my wall. Things that would inspire me, make me smile, remind me of things, and be quirky and fabulous all the same. I was excited to find pieces from various places. I also wanted the frames to be different varieties. The black framed "Keep It Real" is actually glittery, but doesn't show well in the picture. The Sex & The City frame is a 3D acrylic frame. A cool effect that also ties in with my acrylic desk chair.
To hang them up, I first brainstormed by placing and sorting them on the ground as a way to start to get a vision going. I wanted a balance between colors and then it turned into different themes between the two walls, which was a nice added bonus. I pretty much free handed and eye balled when I hung everything up. It was nice to get messy and not so perfectly lined up. One of the cool aspects of gallery walls.
This wall reminds me to be myself, to keep it real, and also represents family and friendship, which I cherish dearly. And it might also remind me to be fabulous and funny too! (A great combo in my book)
The toucan bird and "Don't quit your day dreams" quote - Hobby Lobby
Keep It Real artwork - Shop Ban.do
Sex & The City picture - Amazon
Cats and Sprinkles artwork - Just Daydreaming (a small business from the UK!)
Can I tell you how much I love this chair?! I fell in love pretty easily. It was grey, which was in my color palette I wanted to work with and the studding gives it that extra dash of style that makes it me. I found it Nebraska Furniture Mart. The white pillow is probably the best pillow I have ever met in my life to date. It is super duper soft, plush, and a larger size for a throw pillow. The black pillow accents it very well with sequence and beading to give the whole look a touch of sparkle. Both pillows were from Pier 1. (The black one was on clearance for $9.95!) One thing that I have liked about the chair so far is that Anna and friends will sit in it when they visit me in my room. :)
The wall containing "Don't Quit Your Day Dreams" also includes my picture from graduating college, our class picture from the re-chartering of Blue Key, my Blue Key certificate, as well as my I'm So Glam I Sweat Glitter decoration I got for a birthday present a couple years ago. This wall has a theme of chasing your dreams, but also remembering that it takes hard work. And you just might break a sweat doing it!
Needless to say, I am in love with my cozy little nook.
This poem is an old favorite of mine. I wrote it as an exercise and practice for myself while I was taking poetry classes in college. It's an imitation poem of Kim Addonizio's "A Childhood" from her book, Tell Me. The lines follow a specific ABCD pattern and are repeated in different ways. It was really fun to follow such a narrow structure with repetition while trying to show a story.
Currently: Singing to the Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga Cheek to Cheek album while I type.
I am pretty much settled into the new place now (finally) and now we are one week and a day-ish away from the big event at work! (holy smokes)
You can imagine with the celebration right on the horizon, I have been living in a stress fest and here are some results of that stress fest:
I have been trying to relax when I can so I asked my lovely Facebook friends for recommendations for bubble bath. And of course, they delivered. I ended up getting bubbles from Lush cosmetics. I love that the blue one was named Dorothy and was described to take you "Somewhere over the Lush rainbow." (clever)
Bee tee dubs...Bath & Body Works has a couple new lines of candles out and it was hard to pick just one two.
I've been working really hard and also haven't bought new tennis shoes in over a year (it's about time for new ones anyway), so I treated myself to new kicks. Day dreaming of future beautiful runs and sweat sessions at the gym.
Anna and I ordered take out cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory and picked it up in our sweatpants.
I started reading Gala Darling's Radical Self Love book and I loved this quote so much, I tweeted it.
You may think that you want to look different, but what you really want is to feel different.
And then Gala Darling favorited and retweeted it and I might have freaked out just a little and tweeted about how ecstatic I was that she did that and then she favorited that too so it became a vicious cycle of excitement. It was a lot to handle in just a few minutes.
The last couple weeks have consisted of:
Two Sporting KC games | Westport nights | Trying a new coffee shop | New food places | Visits from out of town friends | Bubble baths | Glitter nail polish | Big Brother | A lot of work | Pretty Kansas sunsets | My nephew turning 16
Current obsessions: My new super duper soft blanket from Target & V8 tomato juice
This piece is from November 2013. I remember the process of creating this. It took a weekend to crank this out and the whole time drafting and revising, I only listened to Say Something by A Great Big World featuring Christina Aguilera. I like thinking about the writing process and the weird things that spark our creativity. It's also fascinating how a song can put a visual in your mind and heart through your ears.
Redecorate
I sit alone with my knees
to my chest.
Sitting alone in my
heart. It’s big.
And it’s turning cold.
The posters of my past
hang on its walls.
They’re starting to
crumple & peel away too.
It’s silent. Colors
fading.
It feels empty. I’m
empty.
I look around at the
dust.
The sea of gray all over.
The floor is worn from
the people that have come through.
I graze it with my hand
thinking about all the possibilities we had
and the moments that made
me believe it might be something.
Hurt shows up too.
I throw one of their
t-shirts across the room.
It slides against the
floor.
I watch it go away like
they all did.
I lay down on my side and
let my head touch the holy ground.
A blogger, contributing writer, and social media enthusiast. A Kansas City sunflower and self-proclaimed girly girl discovering life the girly way. Obsessed with all things that glitter as much as cats. Wish traveling was a profession. Has never seen Star Wars. Taylor Swift all day. An advocate for women to collaborate rather than compete. Graduate of Emporia State with a degree in Communication.
