Congratulations, Lauren!

Lauren is one of my co-workers who started around the same time as I did. As co-workers who started together on the same track, Type A girls and movers to the city at the same time, we were quick friends. Last Christmas, Lauren’s fiancé Lee proposed and voile, they scheduled a November 30 wedding (their 5^th anniversary of dating).

Although I’ve been to other weddings and seen plenty of people get married, Lauren and Lee’s wedding was close to me both sentimentally and physically. Lauren and I sit two rows apart at work, and I really had the chance to experience wedding planning with her. Whether it was browsing Etsy links throughout the day, watching the invitations arrive at her desk, evaluating the bridesmaid gifts and watching her DIY create the bouquets, Lauren and Lee’s wedding showed me just how much work a wedding is.

Top lessons:

• Every little detail matters. Whether it’s the centerpiece, the table number, place card or weight of the paper, these are all decisions that you consciously have to make (as unappealing as some might be!).
• Every bride needs a hot glue gun.
• The rehearsal dinner and wedding guest list grow quickly, especially once you calculate your friends that need to bring +1s to both events. :). 

Lauren and I at Salvatore's

Starcom crew!

What's in for 2015

Re-post from Digiday.com, a digital media website I follow!

Source: Romenesko blog
http://jimromenesko.com/2014/12/05/lists-for-2015-already/digiday/

While discussing Mizzou's bowl game in Orlando

Fear of missing out is a thing, even if Andrew doesn't know it:

Free food at work

I'm not crazy, research proves this out! According to this Mashable article on boosting employee morale:

A survey by Seamless revealed 60% of respondents say having food at the office makes them feel more "valued and appreciated." In addition, 40% say that having food in the office reduces personal stress levels.

Working at a media agency, there are plenty of things you never have to pay for in everyday life because they are continuously delivered to the office. Some of these include:

• Office supplies,
• notebooks,
• chapstick,
• mints,
• movie tickets,
• candy, and most of the time - 
• lunch. 

Even if the food is not the healthiest option, it does reduce stress and make me feel valued (or lucky) that I can save some money by eating at work. If there is anything I have learned in the past year, moderate the amount and type of office food you eat to not overload on carbs or sugar. With the holiday season coming up and plenty of sweets around the office, it's time to be careful! 

Immersion: Your email community

I recently came across of the tools that the MIT Media Lab released a few years ago, called Immersion.

With your Gmail, Microsoft Exchange or Yahoo accounts, Immersion aggregates the To, CC and BCC field of your email to visualize your email community. It creates circles to show you a people-centric view of your life, and how who you email reflects your "social" circles.

It worked well for me, creating circles and individual communities for groups like fellow Greek Young Adult board members, and the 4A's class I took earlier this year.

Check it out here: https://immersion.media.mit.edu

Welcome to New York

"It’s been waiting for you." -Taylor Swift

This year, the Artemas sisters decided to spend Thanksgiving in New York. Maria has never come home for Thanksgiving with tight timing and over-priced flights around her class schedule, and this is one of the first times Dad’s priest schedule felt real when our parents couldn’t come due to sacraments at church.

Needless to say, Thanksgiving with the sisters turned into nine days in New York, and seeing more than 20 family members and friends across the city. We explored Midtown, went to the Thanksgiving Day parade, cooked ourselves and relaxed to make it a great holiday.

Eleni, Maria and I in Central Park in the evening

Becca, me, Laura, Kathryn, Sherman and Maria at dinner in the East Village

Watching Mizzou beat Tennessee at Percy's, New York's Mizzou bar

Meeting our godsister Marie for happy hour in Murray Hill

Flat Iron building with Kira & Sophia, our cousins 

Laura and I at the outside viewing area during the parade!

October + November quotes

I accidentally skipped October, so decided to combine the past two months' quote lists. 

“What gift did you get them Alex?”

“It’s still in [my hometown]."

"Did your mom get it?"

"Oh yeah.”

  

“And you count and we have 11 different kinds of cookies.” -Yiayia Nikie

  

“Half the people from the wedding are from Dallas.” 

“You better not get Ebola.”

  

"What's the first thing you do when you see him…jump in his arms?" -Romantic girl 

"Probably hand him my suitcase." -Kalyn’s roommates

“I think the saddest thing I’ve ever googled is cooking for one.” -Andrea

“So we can be on the outlook. I don’t even know what that means, that’s not even English.” -Shaina, on someone who works in her building

  

“Who wants cheese blintzes? You guys are probably the only table here not susceptible to heart disease.” -Man at church 

“You were in a sorority, you know how to be around people you don’t like.” -a friend 

“If you think about most of the Greeks we know, they’re really good at backing out last minute.” -Helen

  

“And then I started shoplifting so there's that. Carrots were the token vegetable.” -Jewel

   

“How was the wedding?” -Meredith

“Their bunny was the flower girl so that’s good. Someone had to pull it in a wagon.” -Meredith’s coworker

  

“Is that literally the premise of the show? She accidentally got artificially inseminated? Doctors must hate this show.” -Shaina

“And you got diabetes. From the ice cream maker you got at your wedding.” -Kathryn

  

“I wish there were more hours in a day and that boys were nice and bread didn’t make you fat.” -Shelley's students 

“So if I knew my boyfriend’s social security number, I could add him here and he could get engagement ads?” -Girl at work, on a way to refine targeted advertisements 

“There's a new preacher man in the blue line who says a lot. You shouldn't sleep with people before you're married, that one went really well on the train.” -Brigette

“The thing that bugs me the most is he has improper grammar.” -Barbara

“I accidentally got on the green line once instead of brown and I was like this doesn't feel right.” -Anne

“I got on pink once and there were a lot of Latinos and I was like whoops. Then you get in brown and it's like a fraternity & sorority party.” -Chad

“Why don't I get empathy? I'm assaulted by stupidity.” -Chad, on dumb trick or treaters

“It’s good communication skills which I lack at.” -Dean, on sitting at work without getting paid

“Let’s call the river the splash zone.” -Dad, on the Wallenda walk

“Why do Millennials move in odd numbers?”

“Because they can't even.” -Liz

"I want friend chicken." -American man at an all-inclusive hotel

"Go to Kentucky." -Dominican Republic man

"Everyone on this flight still seems to think they're at their all-inclusive hotel." -Southwest flight attendant

[As we argue over taking Lake Shore Drive or 94]

“At least you know where you’re going. People get in cabs at O’Hare and say they’re going downtown and I go yes, at least $40. And then they go, the address is 3624 W Addison. EEK.” -Cab driver

“People who live in the burbs and are married don’t do things.” -Kelly

“I live in the burbs.” -Cab driver

"How about barbecue at Bub City?" -Nick, on dinner plans 

“Don’t tell your parents. It’s a fasting period.” -Christy

“That’s the other reason you’re a Yiayia, because I don’t know what I’m allowed to touch in this house.” -John, to Penelope

"Don't we all want our hobbies to be our jobs? Like if I could get paid to watch Netflix...YEAH." -Lauren

"And I woke up at 6:30 am to take the turkey out of the refrigerator." -Brock

“His name is Dan Ryan? Like…the highway!” -Meredith

“Seven minutes til Wisconsin. My GPS will be your host for tonight. His name is Richard.” -Uber driver who pretended he didn’t have a license

“If I were homeless, I’d move into my parents’ lakehouse.” -Prentice

“I’m sure they would do the same if they had that option.” -Brigette

  

“For 8 people RSVPing ot this on Faebook, this is pretty good!” -Sherman, on his birthday dinner

  

"It could be worse. He could have a fat sister." -Ted on bridal parties

  

“He offered to drive me to airport. All about that boyfriend life.” -Ted

“Weirdest things on my Top 25 most played are two songs from Pitch Perfect. And I won’t say I’m in love from Hercules.” -Kathryn

“That’s a great wedding story if you’re there. Except if you’re the bride.” -on a hungover groom getting sick, Maria

“The only bad things about North Carolina are poisonous snakes and sales tax.” -Sophie

“We have like two feet of snow.” -Thea Stephanie

"Where do you live, Buffalo?” -Waiter

“This is the best bat mitzvah I’ve ever been to!” -8-year-old at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade watch party event

  

Funny family things

“Why travel before when you can travel the day of?” -Kira, on Thea always booking day of holiday flights

“Dad and I diagnosed Mom’s new kid as the house.” -Eleni 

“She's been a waterfall lately.” -Marie Ellias, on Laila

“My dad recently introduced him as his son-in-law, so there’s that.” -Marie Ellias, on her boyfriend

We give out king-size candy bars now so the trick-or-treaters really need us here. -Dad to Maria

“I think more of your friends than my friends are going to be at my wedding.” -Eleni

“I'll take the check.” -Thea Stephanie

“It's not like they were going to fight you for it.” -Sophie, on my sisters and I

"Where are the Reese's Puffs?" -Katie

"Probably in Maria's room." -Eleni

(Look and they're sitting on Maria's bedroom floor)

“The tardiness of people to church is a trauma to my soul.” -Papou

“The church has a bock sell next week.” -Yiayia Nikie, trying to say bake sale

“I’m really bad at airports so I need a lot of time. I always go to the wrong gate, or random things like that.” -Eleni

Instagram likes rule

“I feel so inferior when I get 43 likes. And she got 168 on a selfie.” -Maria, on our cousin Sophie

“I got 55 likes on our family picture with Katie’s headgear, which was good.” -Maria

“40 likes in 5 minutes? 17 in 13 minutes is nothing compared to that!” -Maria

“Maria's like my 17 likes in 13 minutes is not enough!!” -Katie

“Yeah me and my friends get super competitive with selfies and stuff.” -Sophie

A trip to our Nation's Capital

At the beginning of October, I cashed in some Frequent Flyer miles to visit friends in Washington D.C.!

I had visited DC two other times before while Kara was at Georgetown, but finally go to go when I was 21 and could see what post-grad life is like in Washington.

I had only ever flown into Dulles or taken a train, so there was nothing like landing into Reagan Airport, as it is right against the Potomac River and feels like the plane is going to land in the water.

Kalyn, who I stayed with, lives in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, while Amy lives closer to the Capitol. For just a few days, we got to do quite a lot. While both of them were at work, I went to the Newseum and four Smithsonians- Air & Space, American Indian, the Art Gallery and American History Museums. Amy & I checked out H Street for Dinner, and then Kalyn and I joined her friends on U Street for the evening.

The next day, we hung around Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, DuPont Circle and even got to see Kara who was coming through town with her boyfriend to see their college friends. Sunday, after getting to see St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral, we shopped the Eastern Market and biked the Capitol area to see all of the memorials. It was a packed 72 hours but exciting to see all DC has to offer, especially for free.

Kalyn and I by the Capitol

Amy and I at Fox News, where she works

Kalyn, me and Amy while we Capital Biked the monuments

Eastern Market in Washington D.C.

Agency

The New York Times headline “agency” caught my eye in this article, as I tend to follow agency news working at a media & advertising agency. After reading the first few grafs of The Agency Moment, I quickly learned the piece was discussing a different type of agency.

The first Merriam-Webster definition of agency that I am familiar with is a business that provides a particular service, but the second was something interesting: the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power. 

The columnist David Brooks writes:

"Among the privileged, especially the privileged young, you see people who have been raised to be approval-seeking machines. They act active, busy and sleepless, but inside they often feel passive and not in control. Their lives are directed by other people’s expectations, external criteria and definitions of success that don’t actually fit them." 

“So many people are struggling for agency. They are searching for the solid criteria that will help them make their own judgments." 

"Agency is not automatic. It has to be given birth to, with pushing and effort…It’s having engraved inner criteria to guide action. The agency moment can happen at any age, or never. I guess that’s when adulthood starts.”

Take a moment to reflect on all of that, incredibly relevant to people in their 20s, and think of how it relates to you. 

What does your zip code say about you?

I spent some time playing around Esri's zip code lookup feature on its website, which lets you type in your zip code and learn about geographic areas.

Esri is a geographic information systems company with mapping software that visualizes data, and this is a perfect example of a user-friendly interface providing interesting and worthwhile information.

This site shows each zip code's "Tapestry segment" (a type of segmentation), income, age and population density.

Check out some of my quick findings!

The top segment for where I work downtown, which I checked just to understand who actually owns property there. 

In the 60601 Loop / River North area, the median age was 33.1 with a median income of $104K. 

This differs from Northbrook (60062), whose zip code search shows an average of $107K household income, but an average age of 49.2. Eighteen percent are "exurbanites," married couples who are empty nesters, just like the Artemas parents!

The top segment for Lakeview, sounds pretty accurate!

My current neighborhood

The top segment at Mizzou is "Dorms to Diplomas."

Check yourself

I recently read about this app called Checky on Dot Complicated. Checky runs in the back of your phone to count how many times you check your phone screen throughout the day. 

Although it might be a battery hack long-term, it’s worth checking out to understand your own phone-checking habit and quantify how many times you do look at your screen each day. Check it out!