it’s ok, you know, for me to say that i quit my full-time job but also that i miss it sometimes. that doesn’t mean i want it back and leave where i am now, it just means i miss it. when you’re working in an office, daily waking hours filled with adult interaction > daily waking hours that aren’t filled with adult interaction. simple math. that is sometimes worthy of missing.
so hilary emailed me today and asked me if i missed NIWeek. this week is the single most giant week for the company I used to work for. we hosted NIWeek, this global conference in Austin the first week in august each year that brought thousands of customers. execs gave flashy, witty, technical keynotes each morning and many (which i say because i was specifically trained never, ever to disclose how many – and a lady sticks to her word) editors and journalists from around the world would come check it out. we planned and prepped for months and there was little sleep the last weeks of July (or June if you were a writer on a launching project or a PR professional on messaging). when NIWeek was over, it never failed that you realized a lot of accomplishments, but also that you’d lost your summer to late nights and early mornings and launch preparations.
what was funny about hilary’s email was that i had gotten a text a few minutes before i read it from someone on the team. a question about finding something at the convention center. a question meant for the other morgan on the team. regardless, it made me remember that it was 1pm and everyone was probably due in the pressroom about now, shuffling bags and showing newbies where to put their things. it made me feel kind of bittersweet.
20% buttersweet, i wrote to hilary. which didn’t do it justice. so i broke it down:
- 51%: thursday afternoon bikini-tini. have you been to the Austin Hilton bar? i don’t know what the bar is called but they have a drink called the bikini-tini. i don’t know what is in it, but it is delicious. four four years, deirdre, hilary, and i met there on thursday afternoon when the conference was over and the pressroom was packed up to get one. after the first year, andria joined, and then emilie, and blake. i don’t know why i was even invited the first year – i was new and awkward and barely able to order for myself. but there were girls who i wanted to learn from and they brought me along with them, kindly. and i loved them. i still do. and thursday afternoon bikini-tinis mean you have finished a job well done. i haven’t had one since and i wouldn’t want to without them. some things just aren’t the same.
- 29%: Rooming with Hilary. “Living” downtown for the better part of a week. Feeling like college. All my clothes are on dumped on the floor and I ask, Does this scarf look weird? i forgot my mascara but that’s ok. i am living with a lady this week and she shares.
- 13%: Solving people’s problems. There’s something about running the pressroom as a tight ship and figuring out how to squeeze in a meeting reschedule that needs to take place in 5 minutes with a PMM who is .75 miles away yet still in the conference center and cannot be contacted via phone because, oh, phones don’t work in the conference center. where businesspeople are. 3000 businesspeople who rely on phones.
- 6%: wondering if we will get Whataburger. or, just generally reliving the Whataburger incident of 2006 when a ketchup container got smashed in the drive-through window and splattered all over our taxi. at 2am.
- 1%: seeing excitement. happy engineers making business deals with happy customers. hard work paying off. news coverage coming in. I should have given this one more than 1%. It is a happy place down there.
- 84%: Being an unnamed executive’s personal assistant. I do love that a once-nervous-engineer-turned-cocky-executive can enter a room with so many demands. Here. I need you to put those clothes on some hangers. I also need you to find me some toothpaste. And I am hungry. And I lost my cell phone. i look around frantically for our dept manager, with a few swift but tactful words, she reminds anyone who needs reminding that PR professionals aren’t just your hired help for the week. she is not in eyesight and must be putting out more important fires, so i suck it up and begin helping. i grab my bag from the back cubby of the pressroom, dig out my toiletries, and hand over my toothpaste. i also hand over my last protein bar and cell phone and begin to let everyone who has meetings with this man to…call me, i guess. not to worry, i will just eat these complementary mints for lunch. and why are you carrying around random clothing and hangers? you should have someone like hilary as your roommate. she would help you decide what to wear so that you don’t have to bring all of your clothes into the conference. sheesh.
- 12%: OMG so cold at the ACC. it is 107 outside today and i bet you’re pulling out your scarf and jacket from your bag when you enter that conference center each morning. icebox.
- 4%: solving seemingly unsolvable problems. We lost some hardware from the pressroom. Please find it in the 200-acre ACC. Where’s Waldo-style.
that being said, good luck, ladies. i am excited for you. julia, leanne, jenna, jess, and trisha, i am sure you have worked hard and been led well. i wish you all the success you hope for!
hilary, deirdre, emilie, andria, johanna, and blake…i miss you. it’s good now but it’s different. see you soon!
