When my office moved to a new building, I was a little bummed when I had to take down all my little cubie knick-knacks. Everyone used to come by and see my cubicle covered in “flair.” Including a Beta fish appropriately named, “Blog” and during Christmas, I tricked out my desk with lights, tinsel, and garland. I try to keep my cube as happy as possible. Surround myself with pretty pictures that make me smile as I spend a decent amount of time sitting in that chair. 

The picture you see is me in my cubicle dressed like Rainbow Brite (hence the side pony tail, arm warmers and hair ribbons- I also had a matching belt and crazy leg warmers…) and peeing dog dressed as a hot dog. Yes, I brought her into work when she was a puppy for a half a day. I want to do good work, but I also want to have fun. So I’m gonna be me. You can’t exactly see my cube which is in front of me in the picture… but trust me it’s decorative. At the time this picture was taken, I had a pumpkin that I drew a face on for Halloween! 

A cube is a cube. Boring, clinical, ugly. I recommend personalizing your cube. Don’t care about looking silly or “unprofessional.” I view my cube as my home away from home. My own little place at work. I have a corner completely dedicated to NYC and Broadway- especially Wicked- my favorite musical of all time. I have a Buckeye Football corner for my alma mater spirit. I have pictures of family, boyfriend, and friends. Anything that I can look up at and remind me to chill out and bring me back down to Earth when my head is up in the clouds or when I’m stressing out beyond belief.

What’s something you have in your cube or at your desk that makes you instantly feel better? 

After finding a great job, the next biggest search you’ll have is- finding the great apartment. Currently, boyfriend and I don’t love our humble abode. We’ve been living together for a year and our biggest fights usually occur over 2 things: the peeing dog and our crappy apartment. After training a puppy for a year and seeing the pitfalls of our current place, we are ready to move on. 

Trying to stay on a bit of a budget, we find ourselves limited. We both drive a half hour to and from work already, so we’re at a pretty decent central location for the both of us. We want a nicer place and boyfriend is willing to sacrifice square footage to keep the cost down. But having a dog, a cat, and two people who like their space- I’m not so willing to sacrifice the extra room. However, I am willing to pay a little bit more for a nicer place and keep the square footage at the same time.

We pay for the convenience of not having a mortgage as twenty somethings, new to the career thing. Neither of us has strong roots here, but we do want to stay for a couple of years at least and get some good experience under our belts. Keep our options open, not get tied down. Wait and see as opportunities come… or don’t. 

Anyway, I apologize for the indulgent rant. Apartment hunting is infuriating and exhausting. So is compromising! I’ve actually stopped looking at apartments in Columbus and started browsing $6800/month penthouses in Manhattan on Craigslist- just for the hell of it. 

So in other words- any advice you’d like to give on this great search, I’d love to hear it. Or if you know of a penthouse suite for less than $1000/month with stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors (for easy pee clean-up), overlooking the Manhattan skyline in Columbus, OH, and comes with 2 free jet packs for quick transportation to both boyfriend’s and my places of employment in 10 minutes or less- please call me! Thanks! 

I’m going to be vague today. Somedays it’s just necessary. 

I own a pug. Her name is Daisy and she’s is very sweet. She’s cute, she’s fun, she’s a cuddle bug and shemakes me laugh everyday at the stupid stuff she does. However, Daisy gets territorial. But only at specific times. When our cat George goes near the food, Daisy will back off and let him have a nibble and wait patiently until he’s done. But when my neighbor’s pug, Libby, comes over to play it’s a different story. Daisy won’t let the poor thing near her bowl- not even the water- until she is plenty done herself. If Libby is over and Daisy finds a bone and you take it away- she’ll find Libby and attack her! 

This is all bad… but not even close to Daisy’s worse habit. If Daisy finds her way into my bedroom… she PEES on my clothes! It’s disgusting. She usually rings a cowbell when she needs to go out and we take her every time. But no matter what- she will without a doubt, pee on any clothing she finds on the floor. I know what you’re saying- pick up your clothes dummy!- BUT personally I believe I should be able to leave any damn thing I want on the floor without her peeing on it! 

All of this comes down to one thing. Territory. She’s trying to establish her territory and I’m trying to establish mine. If I put something on the floor- Daisy responds with, “No, bitch that’s MY floor.” 

And so goes life. Now if only I could smack life on the ass and put it in a crate for the night. Who’s the bitch now? 

So with boyfriend returned from camping and the holiday weekend of wonderful gluttony behind me… I have started my half marathon goal. My legs are killing me. I ran/walked about 2.5 miles yesterday and then ran a mile or so almost non-stop today. I had about a 30 second walk in there. I would have went longer but it was a thunderstorm and my legs were a bit sore from trying to be too ambitious yesterday. 

But anyway… I’m doing it.

My sister, who lives in Washington DC, sent me a text message this weekend saying she ran a 10K and I’m really supportive of her for doing it, however, I’m also extremely competitive and hearing her say she did that lit a fire under my ass. Being that I’m a terrible runner, I have to start from scratch. It’s tough work, but I feel like once I get the mental aspect down and keep pushing- I can overcome a lot of the issues. 

I even resisted a cupcake at work yesterday and brought my lunch today. These are all minor things but still- you gotta start somewhere!! (Any and all motivation and encouragement can be left in comment form PLEASE!!!! I’m seriously going to need it!!) 

So who’s with still with me? What have you all been doing? 

So interestingly enough, I wrote this past post, I was simply talking about my own struggle with taking down the hilariously wonderful pictures from that crazy night out. But funny enough, what pops up on my home page but this article. 

If you don’t want to click off… basically let me sum it up.

- 83% of employers look for digital dirt on potential employees. From nasty comments you may have left on a message board, to the lingerie party pictures where you thought it would be hilarious to drop it like it’s hot wearing a neglige. (I may or may not be included in this… I’ll leave that up to your wonderful imaginations.) 

- 43% of employers admitted to eliminating a candidate based on negative things they found.

- Digital “dirt” can even be considered a group you have joined that they consider “controversial.” It could be something as easy as saying your “pro-choice” when your potential employer might be “pro-life.” Not to say you should things like this down if you believe really strongly in them! Just don’t be shocked if by chance it comes back to bite you in the ass.

- You might be unfortunate to share the same name with someone with a bad reputation and it could possibly affect yours! So make sure you do a bit of Googling and see what you can find on “yourself” or any name dopplegangers out there! 

If you’re finding evidence that is less than flattering. Try contacting the owner of the site to see if they would be kind enough to remove it. If you ask them nicely enough, they might be willing to oblige. If that’s not good enough or your pleading doesn’t work. You can hire someone to do your dirty work! They do all the digging and do whatever they can to eliminate the crap. 

Any good digital dirt you’ve left lately??