2005 highlights: January - July
I’m supposed to be on holiday in France today. But I woke up with no voice and a serrated steak knife twisting around in my throat (at least that’s what it felt like), so I’m sitting in front of the computer at home. Good thing, because there’s some work that can’t wait for me to go shopping in Boulogne-sur-Mer or convalesce! It’s nice to feel needed.
I’d probably be a lot more bummed out about this turn of events if the last couple of weeks hadn’t been so totally awesome. Sure, things have gone wrong, but the truth has slowly dawned on me that no matter what tedious and annoying things life demands of me on a daily basis…I actually have it really, really good. I don’t mean that I have it good compared to, say, someone who’s dying or who lives in heartwrenching poverty; of course I do. By any measure - and believe me, I’ve got a bountiful supply of yardsticks - I have a great life. I don’t know how it happened (wasn’t paying attention) or what I did right (perhaps nothing), but now I’m obsessed with keeping it this way.
One of the ways I stay fully aware of all the good things happening is to catalogue them daily. It sounds cheesy, but if my cheesy habits keep me on cloud nine, I’m going to stick with them. In the same spirit, I’m going to take a cue from Hugh Macleod and go through my highlights of 2005. (This is going to be unbearably positive, so look away now if you don’t go for that sort of thing.)
January: I met Clive Davis for the first time, at a blogging bootcamp for journalists that I’d organised for the Big Blog Company. (Yes, as recently as January, there was scant awareness of what blogs are all about - Clive was an exception to that. At this point, there was still a very strong need to inform journalists about what blogs are and what is possible using the network effect of the blogosphere. I have no qualms about claiming credit for helping to raise that awareness in the UK, especially amongst certain journalistic circles.) Mena Trott (and Barak Berkowitz, and Loïc, and Tom Coates) came for dinner. (Mostly, I worked and stressed out a ridiculous amount in January, which was actually a positive thing, as it moved me in this - and the months to follow - to attempt to live a more sane life.)
February: Antoine decided that he would like to put up with me, my bad attitude, and my over-abundance of skincare products for the rest of his life. I re-affirmed that, as I have been telling him since we started dating in August 2004, I would like to enjoy the benefits of being with his calm, generous, clever, gorgeous self until I die. I picked out a big rock in Brussels, where we spent a relaxing and happy weekend for the Capitalist Ball (band playing at right). Many hours were devoted to Scrabble this month, which I enjoyed hugely - except when I lost.
March: I attended a blogging event at the LSE which pointed out to me how much more I know about this conversational market and social networking stuff compared to a lot of people with big titles (and big money) who are supposed to know all about it. (There is little I could say that about, in case you think I sound arrogant. It is, I assure you, entirely true.) Almost the entire month of March was spent working in Los Angeles, which was glorious (friends! Sunshine! America! Shopping! Food!) as well as torturous (I missed Antoine terribly.). I threw a dinner party for friends in LA, and a big party at which Arianna Huffington showed up, as well as lots of lovely and cool people who have no business associating with a girl like me. I wrote this, which got lots of great reviews from people whose opinions matter to me. I hung out a lot with my homeboy Kamal, getting overly familiar with the same table at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills and pretending that I didn’t notice all the celebrities (who had no idea such a hick was in their midst…I hope). In between, I snuck off for a weekend home in Ohio, the first time I’d seen my family in more than two years. It was wonderful. At right, one of my favourite photos from my month in LA: Me with Nancy Rommelmann and Cathy Seipp.
April: As soon as I got back to London, I flew straight back to LA with Antoine. He loved it. (One of the highlights: When Antoine met Robert, my close friend Robert Avrech and his family, who hosted us for Shabbos dinner. Two of the men I adore most in the world, and who are most protective of me, get on famously. Yay!) While in LA, Antoine, Nancy, and Hillary Johnson talked a lot of sense to me and got me to stop banging my head against the wall.( At right, Antoine and I at the launch party for the magazine for which Hillary was founding Editor-in-Chief.) We started planning to move to LA, which was not unrelated to me deciding that I was tired of talking about blogging and eager to get more involved in the big picture - whatever form that involvement might take. I left the Big Blog Company, remaining in solidarity with Perry, Adriana, and David in what they have been trying to achieve with business blogging since early 2003. We had our engagement party the very day we got back from LA, which was stupid of us but still a resounding success thanks to Antoine’s sweet, lovely parents.
May: I started telling friends that I was leaving the Big Blog Company, that I was not sure what I was going to do next, but that I knew I was doing the right thing. Within about five minutes (literally), I got a phone call about a really good job that I knew could keep us from moving to LA and whip me back into a daily commute very quickly. So I concentrated on spending as much time with Antoine, doing fun stuff (like taking pictures of us on the Tube, I guess, like the photo at right), as I could - when I wasn’t freaking out over and planning our impending house move. (Packing took up a lot of my time in May.) I got a great haircut. I went to a very cool dinner at Oxford University. I bought an exquisite lampshade for £3 in a charity shop. Hillary and I started Jack & Hill, our makeup blog, which was featured in the Sunday Times Style magazine and Women’s Wear Daily, amongst other pubs, within weeks of launching.
June: We finally moved, and I sighed a million sighs of relief. I finally got to meet Microsoft man Robert Scoble, who is cute and sweet, at a party in London. I got my picture taken with Dan Bricklin in Spain, by Jeff Clavier, who I’d never met before either, but who turned out to know Cathy and a few of my other friends in LA through his Buzznet involvement. I was in Spain for the Innovate Europe event, which was excellent, despite being restrained by the traditional conference format. I met several great people there (including Dennis Howlett), and had so many cool conversations. I left feeling energized and wishing I could sink my teeth into a big project. This is the point at which I accepted an offer from Latitude to come work with them as their Head of Marketing. Latitude is the UK and Europe’s largest, most successful search engine marketing company, and I quickly got down to learning search inside out. (I also learned that commuting is as horrible as I remembered.)
July: The 7/7 terrorist attacks on London really pissed me off, and not just because they interrupted a (still worthwhile) meeting with Euan Semple at the BBC. (At the bottom of this post, the only photo I took that day. I’m not much of a ‘citizen journalist’.) On the 21st, I turned 28, and decided that I was going to feel sad and awful and murderous on my birthday if it killed me. (Luckily for me, Antoine didn’t dump my ass for that.) I caught up for lunch with Neil McIntosh, one of the many great, clued-up Guardian employees who make me wonder how that publication can get it so right, and yet often so very wrong. There were a lot of work highlights this month, which I won’t list.
Filed under: Happiness, Home, Life, Relationships, Survival, Work