Bittersweet.

Today was my last day at work. It is always a little sad to leave a place that you know so well. Walking through the doors of 520 Elliot Street has had a certain measure of comfort to it that I will miss. The brick walls. The wooden floors. The leaky roof. I love all of it.

Things have changed a lot in the last two-and-a-half years... the creative department went from a team of ten to a team of three. There has been an ebb and flow that happens in every company {especially in a recession}. But through it all I have grown tremendously. The good and the bad have been a part of molding me into who I am today and I am thankful for that.

I have been able to take a magazine and make it my own. I have had the opportunity to be a part of a television show. And most importantly, I have made good friends and have found wonderful mentors who have encouraged to pursue my personal dreams and to value my professional worth.

Thank you all. I will miss you.

Around the office. 

Photos from enventys.com

Everyday Edisons Season 2 Premiere

This is a note to brag on where I work. I think that I work at a pretty great place and I want to share that with all of my family and friends...

About tonight's premiere. I am glad that our internal premiere was low key and a not red carpet extravaganza. I like that I can show up in blue jeans and flip flops and enjoy good food with friends. Last year they did go to DC for the red carpet premier of season 1, but as far as I am concerned, it was nice for it to be here.

Anyways, after dinner we enjoyed watching a reel of the last 3 years of what Enventys has accomplished with this little PBS tv show. As someone who is a fairly recent addition to the company it is amazing to see a group of people genuinely like each other so much and generally enjoying working together. I have never had a job where I enjoyed showing up every day. I know it has its ups and downs, but it is hands down the best place I have ever worked.

After the reminiscent reel, we watched episode 5 that showcased a lot of our staff. There were some comical scenes and I enjoyed seeing what the film guys had put together. Overall it was a nice way to spend a Thursday night AND I didn't have to cook which made it even better.

If you are interested in watching the show or just interested in seeing some of what I do, where I work and who I work with, the first episode of Season 2 of Everyday Edisons airs this Sunday (June 22). Note that I am not actually in the show since I did not start working there until late in the season.

A schedule of show times is below. If I didn't list where you live, feel free to look it up at pbs.org.

In Charlotte the show will air SUN at 7pm & FRI at 10:30pm on WTVI.
Statewide in North Carolina the show will air on UNC-TV SUN at noon.

In Memphis the show will air on SAT at 3pm on WKNOHD (Channel 10.1)

Unfortunately the show does not air in Arkansas or Nashville.

Exhaustion Sets In...

We are finally home from the final casting call of the year in Providence, RI. Actually we have been home for a few hours, but have just managed to get up from naps.

This was by far the best casting call of this year and I am so glad that Daniel had the chance to go with me and experience it. Here is a recap as best as I can currently remember it...

Friday morning we were up incredibly early (4:30-ish) in order to drive to the airport and catch our 6:30a.m. flight to Boston. The plane we flew on only fit 35 people and at least half was our group. Somehow we were on the "good" flight through Newark which only had a one hour lay-over before going on to Boston. The other half of our group ended up flying through Cleveland where they had a much longer layover which meant less time for sightseeing in Boston.

We arrived in Boston around 11 where we were picked up by a bus and dropped off in downtown Boston at Fanuill Hall with instructions to meet back for a 5p.m. pick up.

We were lucky to be with Mary who had gone to Boston College - we let her be our tour guide for most of the day. We started out by taking the subway out to where Boston College was and eating lunch at her favorite restaurant... a little local Mexican place. Arcaddio was with us (he is from Mexico) and she informed him that if he did not like her favorite restaurant that he should keep his comments to himself. Afterwards he told her that he was "pleasantly surprised."

 

After lunch, we walked for 4 hours, taking our time sightseeing and making it back towards Fanuill Hall. The architecture of the city is fantastic. Charlotte's buildings are so new, it was refreshing to see the oldness of the architecture.  

We walked around Fenway Park and then meandered through Boston Garden. We stopped in a graveyard where Paul Revere was buried (and also Mother Goose (?) and some other famous people).

  

When we made it back to Boston Commons, Daniel and I went off on our own for the last hour. We wandered over to Little Italy and visited Paul Revere's home. The last 20 or so minutes of the day, it began raining, so we escaped into Quincy Market where we saw the Cheers bar. Then finally we made it to the bus. We really enjoyed getting to see so much, we could definitely come back and spend more time here.

 

  

Our bus ride to Providence took about an hour. It rained the entire way and I slept. The temperature was fairly cool and I was thankful to have brought a coat.

 

We checked into our hotel - Daniel and I had a view of the capital building. Then we hurried downstairs to walk to Murphy's Pub for our group dinner. Murphy's is the oldest restaurant in Providence. As usual, we all crammed into the restaurant.

Friday night dinners are always a little crazy - all of the retailers are there and everyone is trying to get tables. This casting call there were retailers from Staples, Dicks, The Home Depot, Sharper Image, QVC, Spencer's Gifts, and Bed, Bath and Beyond. There may have been a few others, but I can't remember.

Dinner was great, but after all of the walking, we were exhausted and headed for the hotel and were in bed by 10.

Saturday morning, we had a 6:30 wake-up call. This signaled the beginning of an incredibly long day. Breakfast in the hotel lobby was excellent, but over all too soon. Daniel met his co-p panelists over breakfast and then we all headed for the convention center.

I was in the studio for filming (my favorite place to be). Everything seemed to get off to a slow start - it was 10:30 before we filmed the first inventor. But after that, we were soon in a groove. I wish I could tell you all of the incredible inventions we saw, but for now I will keep quiet about it. The ideas were amazing. We had 125 people come through filming and we only turned away 10 of the ideas. This casting call blew the others out of the water.

There were two inventor's who had been in Chicago that came to Rhode Island. I remembered them both because I had ridden with them in the limo in Chicago. They both told me they had remembered me from Chicago and that they had come to this casting call because of me - that was pretty cool.

Daniel was a panelist in one of the rooms reviewing ideas. He really enjoyed the experience. He said the best part was hearing the really good ideas as well as the really bad ideas. The mediocre ideas were where things got boring.

Best bad ideas that I heard of... The thong diaper. A box that holds chewing gum with a compartment to hold used gum. A trap door in the shower to pee in (to conserve water so you don't have to flush). The automatic zipper (for your pants - Daniel says youch). A new idea for knowledge (?) ... this one had us all scratching our heads.

There were many others, but those are all that come to mind right now.

Saturday night, filming went until 11:30. Since Daniel was with me, they let me leave early which was nice since in Chicago I was there until midnight. Daniel and I went with some friends to eat seafood at a fantastic restaurant called Hemenways. The place was booked for the night, but we managed to get a table on the patio.

I was a little disappointed, starting next weekend, Providence has an event called Waterfire where they light the river on fire. We walked along the river, but it was not lit up. I would love to see that someday. Providence is a beautiful city, I would have loved more time to explore it.

Today was another early morning. The bus was there to pick us up at 6:30. We drove to Boston for our 9:30 flights. This time our group flew through Cleveland and the other group flew through Newark - go figure.

We landed in Cleveland with less than 10 minutes to catch our next flight, which happened to be in Terminal D and we were in C. This meant that 20 of us were literally running through the airport at a dead sprint. Todd ended up tearing something in his calf muscle. KP got knocked down by another passenger. But somehow, we all managed to make it to the next flight.

Again the plane was tiny. We actually had to walk out on the tarmac to board the plane.

The weekend was a lot of fun, but I am glad to be home and I am looking forward to next year's casting calls. I don't think I posted this yet, but Season 1 of the TV show found out last week that we won an Emmy - so that is pretty exciting news...

Chicago and Many Modes of Transportation

This past weekend I was in Chicago for work. I thought I would share the plethora of different transportation that I ended up using during the weekend.

1) We flew by airplane to Chicago (US Airways to be exact - this caused me some confusion as we normally fly American Airlines and I did not read my email regarding flight information clearly enough. I ended up trying to check in with 3 different airlines before finding the proper one.

2) We landed at O'hare in Chicago and proceeded to get on the Metra - the commuter rail train that took us from the airport to downtown Chicago.

3) We got off of the Metra at Lake and Clark and proceeded to walk at least 3 city blocks with all of our luggage to 505 Michigan Avenue. This was an interesting way to see the city. However the day was warm and the blocks were long. I was thankful to be carrying a backpack instead of a suitcase. Our hotel was the InterContinental - extremely nice and I had a great view from my room.

4) After checking in, we (around 40 of us) got on a city bus to ride to the convention center. It took awhile to get that many people loaded onto the bus.

5) After the convention center, I was one of the last to leave and ended up riding in my boss' rental car back to the hotel.

6) More walking - several blocks to our Friday night dinner. On the way back to the hotel (at 11 p.m.) the person who I was walking with and I were so engrossed in conversation that we missed our turn and had to do some backtracking - oops.

7) Saturday morning, the company had rented 2 limos for the casting call. Normally we film our finalists at the convention center. I don't know the details, but for some reason they could not film at the convention center and chose to film at the hotel. Therefore the limos were used to move finalists back and forth. They were also used to transport us to the convention center at 6 a.m. Saturday morning. This was actually my first ride in a limo.

8) Another ride in the limo at the end of the day - I brought a group of 9 inventor finalists back to the hotel for filming. I enjoy talking with the different inventors - it can be an interesting process.

9) Sunday morning, we ended up riding in taxis back to the airport.

All in all, I think that I just needed to ride on a boat, on a bike, maybe a horse and buggy and I would have covered about every mode of possible transportation in one weekend.

I wish I had actually had time to see Chicago - I will definitely have to go back in the future - and take Daniel with me.

Dallas Casting Call

I am in Dallas, TX for the weekend for the Everyday Edisons Casting Call. It is really hot in Dallas (I think it reached 90 today) - wish I brought something to wear besides blue jeans.

This time our flight left at a reasonable hour which was nice. We made it to Texas with no hitches. Checked into the Magnolia hotel in downtown, made a lunch run to Schlotzsky's then went over to the Convention Center to get a tour and discuss what will be happening tomorrow.

Fun Fact 1: The Dallas Convention Center is 1.5 miles long and 0.5 miles wide. Thankfully our event will only be in one portion of the center.

Fun Fact 2: There is an unconfirmed rumor that WWF will also be at the Convention Center tomorrow... if true, that should be interesting.

After the touring the Convention Center, we headed back to the hotel. My roommate and I walked around the West End Market District. Tonight is dinner with the group and then probably an early bed time for me as we have to be up at 5 a.m. tomorrow.

Tomorrow night I will get to see Taryn and Troy which I am very excited about.

Quick Update: Dinner was great. Complimentary cookie and milk bar at the hotel was cool - dipping cookies in milk before bed rocks.

Everyday Edisons Weekend

The past 3 days have been a bit of a blur - was I really just in San Jose, California??? I actually had a really good time at the Everyday Edisons casting call and feel very well bonded with all of my co-workers.

As you might have read in my last note, this past Friday, 40 of us headed out of Charlotte, NC for San Jose, CA for the second of 5 casting calls for Season Three of Everyday Edisons.

This was my first one, so I really wasn't sure what to expect. I ended up doing a little of everything. I spent the morning taking pictures - my favorite was an inventor who was dressed like Elvis. I also spent time being a runner - this means taking paperwork from people who made it through round 1 down to our attorneys to make sure that patents were in order and that there was no legal issues. Following this I spent time with the attorneys helping them catch up on paperwork. I spent time being a gopher. And in the afternoon until early evening, I helped in the studio where approved contestants were filmed on a set with the final judges.

I really enjoyed the whole process. I was able to help in a lot of different ways as well as talking with all of the inventors. I would love to share some of the ideas (both good and bad) but I am not sure if I can or not...so I will hold off for now.

I had an excellent time. Yesterday was a 12+hour work day so I was pretty tired. Today was another travel day and I am wiped out, but happy to be home. Just wish I had a little more time to explore San Jose.

Next month we are off to Dallas, TX...

My Exhausting Day

I am in San Jose, California and feeling very out of it. This morning started with a 4:30 a.m. wake up followed by a quick shower and hurrying to the airport.

Leaving Charlotte was uneventful. Connection flight in Dallas proved more exciting. Our flight had problems. We waited an extra hour. The plane was fixed. We boarded. Then were told the problem was not fixed and to deboard. More waiting followed. Finally we got a new plane and were on our way to San Jose - a couple of hours behind schedule.

Once in San Jose, we made our way to our hotel. Which is incredibly nice and in the heart of SJ. We had a little while to check-in before reconvening to go to the convention center to set up for tomorrow.

After setting up for the casting call for Everyday Edisons, we had more free time before a 7:00 (PST) dinner. Dinner was at a little Italian place that we rented for all 40 of us. Lets just say it was a little small and I am sure we were breaking plenty of fire codes.

It is now 8:20 p.m. Pacific time and I am about to drop dead because it is 11:20 p.m. Charlotte time and I have now officially been awake for 19.5 hours.

Everyday Edisons

This weekend is the San Jose, California casting call for Everyday Edisons. EE is the PBS television show that the company I work for produces. Most of the staff is going for the weekend.

Today I found out that there was an extra ticket available and was asked (late this afternoon) if I would be interested in going to the casting call. After making sure that all of my work was caught up and that Daniel didn't mind me running away for the weekend, I decided that I would go.

So tomorrow at 5 a.m., Daniel will take me to the airport and I will be heading for California. It should be interesting and I am looking forward to learning more about the show.