It was crunch time at work this week which meant staying late and finding new places to focus and get things squared away during the day. I worked from 7:30am to 9pm today to tie up loose ends and have at last put up an out of office message! I also thought ahead and packed yesterday, so now I can relax tonight and go to bed early.

Also tacking on a random photo of my room, which looks very organized since I tend to clean everything before going away.

The company I work for recently added another building to our Kendall Square campus; we now have five floors in the former Microsoft building. My parents and I toured it recently (read: I walked them around without knowing where I was going) and it is pretty swanky! I also enjoyed the gender neutral bathroom options and the very clear signage about this choice.

Also including a couple photos of buildings downtown, back when it was still light when I got out of work. And a photo of me as Han Solo during our office trick or treating event. Some of my friends call me Han, but I don't think many people got why I chose it because Star Wars is once again a big sensation these days. One of my roommates was also Han Solo this year and it was totally unplanned.

Another busy weekend ahead! I’m taking off tomorrow to head to New Haven to babysit Juliette. Yay baby time! Today I was really behind on a bunch of work, but we were also having an annual summer work outing/celebration, so I somehow still dropped everything and did that. I imagine my inbox on Monday will retaliate, but I think it was worth it otherwise. We all went kayaking (it was a bright, warm day for it) and then had food at a rooftop garden in Kendall Square. Also, I won a souvenir blanket form a raffle, so that was pretty great.

Earlier this week I helped inflate some balloons for a proposal on the MIT campus, the proposee (?) is a former coworker who worked in HR before I started working in Talent Acquisition. The proposal went well and she said yes!

Also been trying to bike into work more, now that it's warm. We have a new bike garage at work which is pretty cool. I store my bike on my deck and have to lug it down the stairs and up the stairs whenever I want to ride though. It really hurts my wrists because of the awkward angles.

Fun fact: my friend Thomas lives in Detroit and sold me this bike a couple years ago. It has a sticker from a bike shop in Geneseo, NY, where my parents met, went to school for their bachelors in history/political science and masters of Library Science, and got married - almost 40 years ago. As a kid, they took us there every year to walk around the campus and get subs at Aunt Cookie's Sub Shop. As a teenager, I started putting a notch with my fingernail in the sub shop's wooden-framed order window to track my visits over time. When I stopped by last month after my sister-in-law's baby shower, I found they had replaced the order window with a new one. But I added a new notch to that one.

Anyway, this bike is kismet.

For the last year and a half, I've worked in operations at my company. About 7 months ago though, I started transitioning onto our in-house hiring team. The move was made official this past week, when I moved into a new office permanently and am working on the talent team full-time as opposed to a few days per week. My former team called me up for a question "about hiring" today and when I got upstairs, they surprised me with pastries, a pothos plant, and a number of goofy guinea pig photos! Already settling into my new office and team and figuring out my new setup, but I'll miss my operations teammates a lot!

Each Halloween at work, we invite clients to bring in their kids and visit our offices for festive activities. This year we went a bit overboard and decked out our office with spooky bats, bugs, cobwebs, rags, and a creepy soundtrack. We built a bunch of soft barriers creating a winding path/obstacle course into the back corner where kids would be rewarded for their bravery with candy. Thinking back on how sensitive I was as kid, I empathized with the kids who refused to go in without a parent as a chaperone. (We got that response a lot... heh heh!)

At work, I sometimes have the freedom to do some design work. It started with the Calendar Wall in the cowering space, where we advertise upcoming events on magnetic panels. I would get up on a step ladder every month and individually write the month, days, and dates with paint markers. This became very time-consuming, so I created magnets for both the months and dates (the days shouldn't need to move, so those are written directly on the panels). I don't have photos of the final month signs, but we keep the 11 that are not being used in a portfolio in the team office. The June/July/August image includes three of the magnet signs.

There are also a few chalkboard paint walls, which we've used to advertise big events and keep team projects organized. I posted a time-lapse a little while back of that process. When I first started, I also made a task calendar with velcro detachable name tags. I've since remade the board with magnet strips.

Aside from that, occasionally I've gotten pulled into projects to design a card or a logo for an event or program. While most of my job is office related, it's fun to be able to incorporate my design interests here and there. :)

We get up to some fun stuff at work.