Too much green?

I've always been the type of person to try and do good for the environment. I remember what school taught me and by watching Captain Planet. A couple years ago, I really started to try to be green...not super green, but make more of an effort. After Al Gore released An Inconvenient Truth, you started to see more and more of an awareness. More books, more blogs, more people talking. It was wonderful! I learned a lot!

When we moved to New York, our shower had a small leak that due to laziness and lack of time, the leak turned into a steady stream. I was disgusted with myself, I claimed to be a person who tried to live green and earth friendly while my bathroom was wasting not only tons of water but gas too because it was coming from the hot tap. My passion for being green took a huge fall, and I just did the easy normal things. How could I claim to be a green person, when I was wasting so much water. I felt like a hypocrite. So, I just laid low.

Yet, all the while I saw the media just boom with "We have to be green and save the planet!!" I was excited! Finally, people are getting the message. But then it just started to grow more and more...and more. And with my shower haunting me causing me to step back and watch everything rather than take action I felt that, while it's awesome that the media is pushing and getting the message out, it's getting too much. With last week's NBC's green week, and every show had some small "this is how you can help" story I felt that it had become a fad. It's the cool thing to do now! Let's all help the planet! I'm a big company and see, I'm being environmentally friendly! But how much of that is truth? Are these big companies really making an effort to change? Or is it all surface and show, while in the background they too have a leaky shower?

We finally got the shower fixed and as sad to say, I'm excited again to get back on track of my green life. But now, I'm just overwhelmed by all the content that's out there now. In barely 6 months it's exploded!

I'm curious to see in a few years how passionate everyone is about all this. Will things truly get better? Or will the hype die down leaving the few dedicated alone again? It's happened before, the rainforest of the 90's, the saving water and electricity of the 80's. Now, being green of the 2000s.

I won't back down again. Even if I have a 1000 leaky showers to fix. I will do my best! I won't be perfect, but I'll be in it for the long haul. I won't be part of the fad.

Stop. Rewind.

Oh the high and happy feeling of getting a new job! Then to find out that Gymboree is indeed THE JOB FROM HELL!!!!
Yes, I am in my last week of working at Gymboree. Two months of bad management, poor communication, moldy ceiling tiles, mice, stupid hours, small paychecks, stupid franchise/corporate bullshit, moms yelling at me for things I didn't do and being forced to work on Sundays had caused me to quit. And I can just keep going. Never had I dealt with anything so bad before, and this is coming from someone who put up with Kinko's for a couple of years!

About two weeks ago, I met with an awesome kick ass temp agency, Vanguard and immediately they got the ball rolling on finding me something. They knew what kind of artist I was, saw my strengths and my weaknesses and were so positive about it. And at the end of the week, I already had an interview! Then the following Monday, I had a job!! It was almost too easy!

I now temp/freelance at Amscan , where currently I do photo retouching in the gift's department. I get to spend all day in Photoshop, that's freaking awesome! And that's only the beginning! After a while working there, my friends at Vanguard are going to try to get me into the actual art and concept department where I could design art for party supplies. Sweet! And I get paid very nicely. Also, I'm helping with a sweet boat logo for a cat vet: )

This means that I won't be going back to school. While being an art teacher still sounds great, I don't feel like spending that time and money when we can save for a house and start a family in a few years.

All I wanted was for someone to see my talents and give me a chance. I wanted a steady job that I enjoyed and felt that the time I spent in school was worth it. With Vanguard and Amscan, I feel like that and that's a very good feeling.

Anyways! Yes, we are sadly ignoring this blog, but I think life in New York is finally starting to settle down and I feel happy enough to blog and do the other things I have been neglecting. I'm going to get Rob to post about his (and our) busy and awesome month of October.

See ya!
~Suzy

Who'd have thought?

Well, I finally got a job! And it's something I thought I'd never do.
I work at Gymboree where I will be teaching little kids art, music and even actual nursery school!
I came to the realization that I'm not quite cut out to work in the design field. I may be a rock star at Photoshop and Illustrator, it's just that without InDesign, Quark and other things like that, no one's really going to hire me. I'm not a designer, nor do I want to be or conform to be. I like to draw and do art. Rob suggested I try going back to school to be an art teacher, something I've toyed around with for a while. Going back to school is huge, expensive and takes time, but the thought of being an art teacher fills me with much joy. After much talking and researching, I'm going back to school most likely next year! I'll get a bachelor's in art with a minor in education, which I can transfer lots of my credits. Nothing is final, but I hope it works out.

So Gymboree! The same day we were talking about me going to school for art teaching, Gymboree posts a position for an art and music teacher with no education degree required! Blah blah blah and I got called for an interview!! Now in my last week of training, I'm very happy and have tons of fun playing with the kids and I can't wait to have my own classes. And it fits because I will still be able to go to school at the same time when I do decide to start. Dude, I'm getting paid to be loud, sing and play...how cool is that?

Threadless!

All right! I submitted my very first Threadless t-shirt design. Woo-hoo! And it's for the Gmail loves Threadless contest too!
I'm quite pleased with it: ) Heck, I'd wear that shirt.

Please help me by voting!

It's about time...

I think Rob would be "upset" if I didn't make a post while he's away with work. First posts are always the hardest, but here I go!

I guess the easiest thing to do is introduce who we are. Rob and I are newlyweds who just moved to New York from Arizona. Rob's originally from New York and couldn't wait to get back and I was born in California and moved to Arizona when I was 12, thinking it'd be oh so cool. I was wrong. But I like change and I like trees, so I was more than happy to move to New York.

We live in Rob's uncle's sweet apartment in lovely Scarsdale. (so lucky) We live with 2 cats, Faith and Raine, a turtle Fuji and 3 hermit crabs. Rob works at a kick ass design studio in CT and well me....as you read, am still looking for a job. (no, trader joe's didn't work) Rob likes to read, be on the net and play video games. I like to read, draw, attempt at crafts and play video games. 

And umm.....yeah, I guess that's about it without getting too into detail. And in closing, I've supplied a visual guide.

See ya!

~Suzy

Animal Crossing Addict and Roomba

Technology is fantastic. It's been one full year since we received our Roomba (wedding gift) and - WE FINALLY GOT TO USE IT!!! This machine is fantastic. if you have 300 bucks kicking around I highly recommend grabbing one for yourself... especially if you're in charge of vacuuming. It just goes to show you how crazy it's been for us since then but we're finally settled.

Suzy will post and show you how the apartment looks and maybe show you a few snapshots of the neighborhood... someday... in the meantime - Suzy is addicted to Animal Crossing for the DS.

Suzy goes for her final interview!!!

Well after a series of grueling meetings and tests with Trader Joe's, Suzy is going for her final interview today! She's armed with some killer samples she's been working on over the past few days and a fierce determination to get the job she knows is perfect for her. I'm almost kinda jealous... she'll now be more qualified to wear the Veer shirt more now than me!