The new job is a mix of everything within the communications and development world. As much as I love being the web diva, sometimes it’s nice to write a simple press release or plan an event. (Yes, I’m aware of the SMR. It’s cool, but Chattanooga just isn’t there yet.) It uses another part of my brain that hasn’t been exercised much in the past two years.

Today, we had an event. Since I started last Monday, I haven’t been involved in the planning of said event. Yesterday, I came in the office worried that absolutely no press work had been done. I quickly created a media advisory and tried to find out if anyone had been contacted. Turns out, a couple of people had distributed a press release a few weeks ago and pitched. I followed up with a few calls and hoped for the best. It’s Chattanooga, so I don’t have to worry about some governor having a sex scandal. (DC job was launching a campaign in New York when the Spitzer scandal broke. I was literally about to send an alert when the news hit Drudge). Not that the Scenic City doesn’t have its share of scandals, but the local media always needs community stories.

All three TV stations, the Free Press and Chattanoogan showed up. Professor Hayes would be proud.

Yesterday, I was in Philadelphia. Right now, I’m in Boston. This morning I was in Atlantic City. This afternoon it was Newark. Tomorrow night, I’ll be back in DC.

Planes, trains and automobiles. I bought a real newspaper today to keep up with news. It was strange. As soon as I bought it, I wanted to click over to the competing one for another view. I was also frustrated that they didn’t sell the WaPo in New Jersey. Isn’t DC the center of the world? My options were the Times, WSJ and USA Today. Thanks to Dr. Morrow, I’ll always be devoted to the Journal.

This is the farthest north that I’ve ever been in the continental U.S. Sadly, I’m here for work, so there’s no time for sightseeing. However, this reminds me that I need to venture out of the DC area more often. It’s not a big deal to drive to Atlanta or Nashville from Chattanooga, but the concept of driving to Philadelphia or Richmond from DC just seems so far.

I’m in a really cool boutique hotel with leopard print carpet. It kind of feels like the decorator from Real World designed this place.

Going to sleep before I ramble anymore.

I’m back a little earlier than expected. Oh well. At least I gave myself an out yesterday. Now that I took the pressure off myself to post everyday, I’m inspired. Last night a brainstorm was unleashed for blog ideas. Go figure. Now, I just need time to implement them.

This morning I found out that my department won a grassroots innovation award in the technology category at an undisclosed conference in the very near future. Some of you know that (my place of employment) and (CRM software provider) developed the (________) application for Facebook. It’s incredibly innovative and the first successful app to be used for advocacy.

Is it possible to brag anymore vaguely?

Anyways, Woot! for all of us. A lot of hard work went into developing it. It was an honor to be part of the effort.

It’s nice to get accolades. Working in an industry that so few people understand is hard. Even fewer people appreciate the best practices. Go us!

To be honest, I forgot about updating GFTS until Maven Mom call this afternoon and asked about it. I’m not sure why she called me about reading my blog since she could inquire about my well-being over the phone. However, it’s nice to hear from my readers, even if that reader is under parental obligations.

Thursday, I left the District for a work trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Aside from finally learning how to spell the name, I was excited to visit a new state. My great-great-grandparents homesteaded near ABQ, so I’ve always wanted to visit.

While sitting in DCA on Thursday, I heard the final boarding call for a flight to Chattanooga. A wave of homesickness washed over me. There’s something odd about Chatt. Once you live there, nothing else quite compares. The city should publish a disclaimer that the longer you’re away, the more you miss it.

My flight finally landed in ABQ late Thursday night. When I opened the curtains to my hotel room on Friday morning, I was greeted by the beautiful Sandia Mountains against a bright blue sky. Immediately, I longed to have my watercolors to paint the mountains. It’s been years since I was inspired to paint something, and watercolors are perfect for capturing the West.

I finished up the work part of my trip late Friday afternoon, so I took off for the mountains. The Sandia Tram was highly recommended, and I managed to ride the world’s longest tram right at sunset. It was amazingly gorgeous. Sadly, my camera takes horrible night shots.

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A few weeks ago, nonprofit job hired me full-time. Since I did VISTA after college and worked part-time this past year, this is the first “real” job that I’ve ever had with full benefits. Part of those benefits include a retirement plan. Tonight, I sat down to figure out all the fun deductions and monthly budget since my paperwork is due tomorrow. 

I’m not great with finances. I’m good at balancing my checkbook and paying my bills, but budgeting and saving are not my forte. However, I have been given good counsel. The parents always tried to model good financial decisions, plus I went through a Crown Financial Bible Study last year. Also factor in years and years of listening to Larry Burkett’s Money Matterson WMBW when Maven Mom picked me up from Berean. I should be capable of making smart decisions.

The guide book, however, cracked me up and listed 5 simple steps for planning for retirement.

Step 1: Assess your needs–Determine how much you need at retirement, how much you need to save monthly to reach that goal, and identify where you’re likely to get that money.

Let’s see. I’m 25, about to finish grad school, only a few years into my career, unmarried and renting an apartment. If I retire at 65, that means I’m working for the next FORTY years. I have a slight feeling that my current circumstances are likely to change, and the amount that I need to retire is a bit hard to deduce. But I need an amount. Therefore, I’ll going to go on the safe side, and say $1 million.

Step 2: Review your Investment Options–Understand what is available to you and how these options can help you reach your goal.

This retirement fund is my investment option. Can I factor in potential rich husbands? Trust funds are an easy way to get to $1 million.

Step 3: Determine your Investor Profile–Using the Risk Tolerance Questionnaire, determine the level of risk you are willing to accept. this will guide ou to appropriate investment selections.

This is straightforward. Since I’m young and will be working for the next four decades, I can take higher risks. Higher risks overall will help me get to $1 million.

Step 4: Develop a Plan–Understand the basics of investing and having a proper asset allocation strategy is one of the best ways to improve your chances of reaching your retirement goals.

Say what? I need Snowbird to translate this for me. Gold digging seems like an easier plan. It’s worked for several of my readers…

Step 5: Implement Your Plan and Stay on Course–Enroll today and get started on your path to a comfortable retirement.

Putting this in terms that I can grasp–if I put aside an amount each month that’s roughly equal to a good pair of shoes, I’ll be able to buy more shoes (and handbags) when I retire. It’s the Carrie Bradshaw formula for investing.

Sometime over the weekend, I came down with the flu. Between two papers that are due for school and legislative season at nonprofit job, I simply can’t afford to fall behind. Due to the wonder of technology, nonprofit job allowed me to work from home since most of my duties are web-based, and I can access my PC at work through remote desktop.

Yesterday, I was simply too sick to work. I tried it, and the mental haze only made matters worse. This morning I woke up early, set up an office in the dining room and have attempted to reason things out. It sucks to work, but at least I can wear my pajamas, and my bed is only a room away.

It made me laugh today while reading Vol Abroad’s post about maternity leave. Thankfully, that’s a concept that I’ve never needed to consider nor will need to for quite some time. However, this comment almost made me spill my green tea over my keyboard.

Although as a professional I usually work quite a bit more than my mandated 35 hours a week - but if you’re an American reader - I’d bet good money I don’t work as much as you do.

Understatement of the day. Here I am, a full-time graduate student with the flu and a fever, and I’m working from home to meet a deadline at my part-time job. By nature I’m a workaholic, just like McGuyver Dad, but living in DC has made the matter worse. I was IMing a co-worker last night, and she was still at the office at 9 p.m. trying to meet her own deadline (there’s a new web site that’s supposed to go live today.) Not only are we workaholics as a nation, but this city is packed with type-A overachievers who put way too much importance into their careers. It’s a crazy cycle that is easy to get trapped in. How else do you explain the 20% marriage rate here?

I’m betting that Washingtoninans largely don’t take their vacation time and work far more than 40 hours a week. One nice thing about being hourly is that I’m forced to go home at some point. Once I get a salaried position, that’s it. Heaven help me if I give in and get a BlackBerry once I graduate.

Today at work, I had a moment to catch up on checking e-mail. Since I have at least four addresses going into my inbox, things can get backed up when other responsibilities take priority. In the midst of all the spam and bizarre responses that we get from our database, there was an e-mail with a subject that said Knoxville News-Sentinel.

A reporter was interested in finding out information about an issue that’s drawing more attention in Tennessee and the greater Southeast, which happens to be part of nonprofit jobs’ mission. Thankfully, I don’t handle media (my least favorite part of the communications field), so I forwarded the request to our communications department.

I had to laugh that someone from the Sentinel had e-mailed nonprofit job, and the one person in the office who actually knows where Knoxville is located happened to receive the e-mail. The reporter also didn’t do a very good job of searching our web site and missed the huge part that says “MEDIA INQUIRIES CLICK HERE,” and instead e-mailed the general account.

However, the reporter’s name sounded vaguely familiar. For the next 30 minutes or so, I kept thinking that I knew the name from somewhere. Was it a reporter that I had worked with during the few times that I couldn’t get out of media relations at KMA or College Republicans? On a whim, I logged onto Facebook and did a search. Sure enough, the individual in question was a J-student one year behind me. I’m pretty sure this reporter worked for the Beacon while I was at UT.

As much as I love studying the Internets, and their effects on society, it shocks me at how inter-connected we’ve all become. With Google, MySpace and Facebook, we leave virtual footprints everywhere we go. It astounds me how in a short decade, we’ve become so accessible. The very definition of privacy has changed so much. Furthermore, what effects does this have long-term? Until I logged on Facebook and found the reporters’ name, I was pretty sure the individual was a middle-aged columnist with KNS. Then I found the profile and my professional respect dropped several degrees. Somehow, it’s hard to trust a reporter with critical information on a story when you can see silly pictures of him or her on their profile and have friends in common.

What does this say about my Facebook profile? John and Heather have both posted about this recently, but it hit home today. There’s a terrifying amount of information about me on the web that can’t be scrubbed. (If you know my first and last name, go ahead and Google me. There’s a wide “paper” trail.) Of course, this is my own doing, and I should be more careful about what is posted about me on sites such as Facebook or Myspace. However, in college, and even grad school, you feel so sheltered from the rest of the world that you never think about silly pictures of you holding a tell-tale red Soho cup ever affecting your career.

Is this just me being paranoid, or are Facebook, blogs and other new media a liability to careers? I spend so much time praising new media and writing about it, but I never think of the drawbacks.

Well, the Thesis Fairy did seem to make an appearance on the flight from ATL to DC. I managed to get 90% of the thesis proposal finished, and my professor was excited about my ideas. In fact, I was a little too detailed with two hypotheses and four research questions. The verdict: I get to chose ONE.

However, it’s looking like I’m going to follow up my thesis with an independant study this summer. This is cutting-edge communications work, so there’s a need for it.

Today, I returned to the office to find 400+ unread e-mails to sort through. The new job responsibilities increased my e-mails about ten-fold, so I’ve spent the morning sorting and filing with the intent to read later on.

I’d much appreciate it if Thesis Fairy’s cousin, the Office Fairy, would make an appearance. It seems that the states I’m responsible for were rather busy last week, so I have a lot to catch up on. Note to self, go buy some peanuts so that this doesn’t happen…

I’ve re-entered graduateland, where life is crazy busy and my existance revolves around studying, working and occassionally venturing out and remembering that there’s a world of fun and free time out there.

So until May, expect rather boring posts. I now get excited about research articles, interesting lectures in class and campaign activities that I’m working on.

-Nonprofit job has changed a bit. While my job title didn’t change, I got a raise and more responsibiliites. The change is pretty cool, and I’m now working directly with the state directors of three regions in the U.S. I get to handle the online grassroots activities of these three regions, which is scary and requires a lot of organization and multi-tasking. I’m definetely seeing a possible long-term career path in grassroots development, especially since I’m focusing my thesis on that subject. It just seems to be a really good fit for me.

-Yesterday, we got to sit in on a video conference call with the president of promotions at MGM in Hollywood and heard about the promotion campaign behind Rocky Balboa. While I hate the Rocky franchise for reasons that some of you understand, it was fascinating to hear about the promotion campaign. MGM guy explained how the box office gross is broken down, how movie trailers are strategically placed, budgets and the print campaign. It’s amazing how much money is invested in movies when the ROI is really not that high. The downside was sitting through about 20 different Rocky trailers and hearing MGM guy describe how each collection of the same scenes was different.

-I’m really loving this DC smoking ban. The now infamous SOC Dance Team has planned a couple of outings this semester. It’s so nice to be able to wear a coat to a bar or club and not immediately head to the dry cleaner in the morning. It’s also nice to be able to see my friends instead of peering through a smokey haze. But most of all, it’s nice to not use my inhaler pre-emptively and arriving at a club unintentially buzzed and then worrying about an alcohol/inhaled steroid cocktail. Needless to say, I’m all for smoke-free laws.

-Tuesday, a union organizer spoke to my communication and social change class. Given that I was raised by two ardently anti-union parents who break picket lines when they have a chance, this was a painful lecture for me. I about fell out of my chair when the organizer lady said she focuses on recruiting ministers to support unions. Her main selling point: if your congregation earns more money, they tithe more and that’s more money for your church. Where do I even begin to explain how wrong that is!?! I think she picked up on my feelings when I asked if DC had Right to Work laws and was the only person in the room who knew what those were.

I kept thinking that this woman was a little nutty but couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Then she gave her background and admitted to being a former staffer for Cynthia McKinney. Yes, that Cynthia McKinney. Suddenly everything made sense.