This may be a little late for a year-in- review, but here on words, I’m the boss. So it’s year-in-review time.
2005 began well. I had just graduated from college in three and a half years, finally catching up educationally to a lot of people my age who didn’t go through kindergarten twice. I also finally found out the real reason I repeated kindergarten. And it wasn’t what my parents had been telling me my entire life. More on that at a later date.
I started the year in Denver, working on the production crew for a conference of college students. A lot of fun. A lot of work. And some very complimentary attempted recruitments. Which I refused.
I got a D70.
In February, Aimee had my baby. Very cool. Extremely disturbing. Not for the faint of heart. But the baby’s pretty cool. She’s so close to walking now that it almost hurts.
Then, just as I was pulling the hospital bill from the mailbox, I got a call from my boss. He said that there was no more money to pay me. So I lost my job.
Then I found one. They took me back days later at the ad agency where I had worked all three summers I had been in college. It was very generous. Fortunately, I had money again. Unfortunately, I had very little of it. And quite a bit of debt from the baby and the doctor’s visits for Aimee. I told her that they did it fine without doctors in Bible times, but would she listen? Noooo.
While in employment limbo, I had sent my resume and some writing samples to The Big Agency in the city. I knew it was a long shot, but thought that it wouldn’t hurt to try. I didn’t hear from them, so I went to work at the small agency [not even big enough for the Shift key].
Work at the small agency got boring. They had evolved into more of a design studio and less of an agency. I was writing about a line of text a week. In my emails. To myself. I started this blog to force myself to get at least some writing done every day. And then a couple people started reading it.
I thought about joining the circus.
And then The Big Agency called. They needed another writer. We met. I wrote some stuff for them. They liked it. They offered me a job. I didn’t take it.
Just kidding. I totally took it.
I started August 1st. I found out when I was leaving the small agency that my boss had been considering letting me go. In English, that means he was going to fire me. It’s hard to justify having someone on the payroll to not do their job.
I started the new job a little scared, but got into the swing of things. A lot of work came across my desk. Including the writing for a couple real big accounts. National ones. Which was awesome.
I got a second D70 for my budding photography business.
In late November, The Big Agency gave me a raise. That seemed really fast to me. And awesome.
I got press passes to both the X Prize Cup and the Sun Bowl. More awesomeness. At the X Prize Cup, I watched a rocket engine explode from 300 feet away. And I didn’t die or end up severely disfigured. At the Sun Bowl, I got to watch Brandon Breazell return two onside kicks for touchdowns. Two in a row. That hardly ever happens.
We’re building a house. I’m frustrated because it’s taking forever and our builder’s rep is an ass, but I’m also pretty excited at the idea of owning a home.
A lot’s happened this year. Way more good than bad. Thanks for being part of the good.
2005 began well. I had just graduated from college in three and a half years, finally catching up educationally to a lot of people my age who didn’t go through kindergarten twice. I also finally found out the real reason I repeated kindergarten. And it wasn’t what my parents had been telling me my entire life. More on that at a later date.
I started the year in Denver, working on the production crew for a conference of college students. A lot of fun. A lot of work. And some very complimentary attempted recruitments. Which I refused.
I got a D70.
In February, Aimee had my baby. Very cool. Extremely disturbing. Not for the faint of heart. But the baby’s pretty cool. She’s so close to walking now that it almost hurts.
Then, just as I was pulling the hospital bill from the mailbox, I got a call from my boss. He said that there was no more money to pay me. So I lost my job.
Then I found one. They took me back days later at the ad agency where I had worked all three summers I had been in college. It was very generous. Fortunately, I had money again. Unfortunately, I had very little of it. And quite a bit of debt from the baby and the doctor’s visits for Aimee. I told her that they did it fine without doctors in Bible times, but would she listen? Noooo.
While in employment limbo, I had sent my resume and some writing samples to The Big Agency in the city. I knew it was a long shot, but thought that it wouldn’t hurt to try. I didn’t hear from them, so I went to work at the small agency [not even big enough for the Shift key].
Work at the small agency got boring. They had evolved into more of a design studio and less of an agency. I was writing about a line of text a week. In my emails. To myself. I started this blog to force myself to get at least some writing done every day. And then a couple people started reading it.
I thought about joining the circus.
And then The Big Agency called. They needed another writer. We met. I wrote some stuff for them. They liked it. They offered me a job. I didn’t take it.
Just kidding. I totally took it.
I started August 1st. I found out when I was leaving the small agency that my boss had been considering letting me go. In English, that means he was going to fire me. It’s hard to justify having someone on the payroll to not do their job.
I started the new job a little scared, but got into the swing of things. A lot of work came across my desk. Including the writing for a couple real big accounts. National ones. Which was awesome.
I got a second D70 for my budding photography business.
In late November, The Big Agency gave me a raise. That seemed really fast to me. And awesome.
I got press passes to both the X Prize Cup and the Sun Bowl. More awesomeness. At the X Prize Cup, I watched a rocket engine explode from 300 feet away. And I didn’t die or end up severely disfigured. At the Sun Bowl, I got to watch Brandon Breazell return two onside kicks for touchdowns. Two in a row. That hardly ever happens.
We’re building a house. I’m frustrated because it’s taking forever and our builder’s rep is an ass, but I’m also pretty excited at the idea of owning a home.
A lot’s happened this year. Way more good than bad. Thanks for being part of the good.
Love you too, brother.
Sounds like an exhausting year, but a very good one. Congratulations to you both.
I'm getting there. It's a lot more time consuming to weed through that many photos and process them all than it is to write a post.
hey r
catching up on your blogs here and still enjoying them. i didn't know about the agency work. can you fill me in? do you work from home or go into the office? are you writing or editing or reviewing submissions or what? and who buys your work? do you sell all rights?
obviously, i'm quite curious.
:-)
~katey
I work Monday through Friday from 8 to 5 (sometimes... well, a lot of times... later) in a building downtown. I'm a copywriter. When you see or hear words in an ad, they were written by a copywriter like me. That includes everything from the headline in a magazine ad to the dialogue in tv or radio. The agency owns my work since they pay my salary. If I left the agency, I could use the work in my portfolio, but I couldn't sell the concept to a new client.
awesome year, congrats.