Creative Community

   I'm on a Southwest flight, LA bound, and flipping through the in-flight magazine, found two quotes from entrepreneurs that begin to sum up why this week's layoffs hit me to the core:   

   "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." - Jim Rohn

   "Surround yourself with people who are doing interesting things, who are thinking interesting thoughts, who challenge you to be better, and who come from a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences. That, combined with appropriate moments of 'me' time, provides the perfect breeding ground for great ideas." - Alexis Ohanian

   These speak to me because I've had the pleasure and privilege of being surrounded by an incredible variety of types and talent in my sixteen-and-a-half years in Kansas City, and most notably those with whom I work. And because great opportunities have existed for me to move between departments, I've spent quality time with a great number of creative geniuses, and been impacted by all. Rohn said we are the average of the five closest people; I'd argue (perhaps because I'm an extrovert?) that we are the average of ALL whom we meaningfully encounter.

   When I think about my Kansas City tenure, I've been blessed to be a part of many different circles: artists, music lovers, pet rescuers, and an array of athletics and hobbies (scuba, hiking, kayaking, yoga, running, snowboarding, rock climbing, etc.). Everyone in those circles are amazing and important influencers on me, but my artist friends stand out...

   One of my greatest joys is getting to know others well. The caliber of creatives at Hallmark is, quite frankly, what my Alaskan buddy, Greg, would call "an embarrassment of riches." My fellow artists, writers, and directors amaze me every day with their work and their thinking. But beyond that, they amaze me with their unique brilliance and talents outside of their 9 to 5.

   Among them there are elite athletes, animal crusaders, people who care for others on a level I'd have previously thought unattainable; artists who write, writers who draw, and many that seem to do absolutely everything well; they lead ethnic festivals, make handcrafted musical instruments, make films, make the cutest babies imaginable, travel, cook, speak many languages, and are infinite wells of wit and wisdom. I've never encountered one who was reticent to share their gifts--in fact, they all relish it, and we ALL benefit.

   Because of this community, my job hardly feels like work. Okay, there are deadlines. There's plenty of stress. But what a joy to be in this company. I started at Hallmark when I was twenty-two, and might have moved on long ago if not for my friends who are family. I believe this is why we all stay.

   Our Hallmark family became 250 people smaller this week. I've spent the last nine and a half years in leadership; I get it. Results aren't good enough to sustain the expenses of such a large staff, and I don't fault those who had to make heart wrenching decisions (there's no torture like laying off a great, loyal employee--NO ONE wants to do it--and my heart goes out to the leaders who did).

   I can't imagine how difficult it was to hear that you were being dismissed. I really can't. But as someone who is staying, I can tell you that we are grieving the loss of these people from our almost-daily lives: unexpectedly running into them on the stairs; an impromptu lunch; a brainstorm; a project; a tutorial. Sharing our stories or just a hug or a smile; reminiscing about past assignments; and especially hatching new ideas together.

   The thing about working in a creative capacity is that what you bring to your job is who you are. You can't extricate your identity as a creative from the work you create; if you did, it wouldn't have heart. This is what makes us good at what we do. And it will always be tough to lose a member of this community of sharing and caring, regardless of the reason.

   I have complete faith and confidence that everyone will chart a new course and succeed. I mourn the loss of how we might continue to influence one another at work. It may be selfish... But I so love, value, and appreciate the gifts I've been given by my coworkers. I surely wouldn't be the person I am today if not for them.

   Case in point, Mark Cook is a longtime cartoonist and animator for Hallmark, & retired last week. He busted out this incredible painting. My friends and coworkers never cease to amaze me with the depth & variety of their talents! I'd bet he has never explored this side of himself at work, in his 20+ year career. How exciting for him to do so now—can't wait to see what he does next!

   Endings are also new beginnings...

Art Unleashed invitations

   Oh, sure... It doesn't look like much now. But Monte & I met to discuss the format & layout of the invitations for this year's AU event for HSGKC, and I'm really excited... Gonna be the best ones yet!!!
   This year's logo is one that I submitted last year, but another sketch was chosen. Very glad  to get to do this one now. Here are the shirt colors. See if you can recognize any of the animals:

Random Hallmark Moments: the big 15!

   To celebrate my 15th anniversary working for Hallmark, which was on 6/11, my awesome, awesome team surprised me with all of my favorite things: Japanese culture, stars of rap music, and salt & vinegar potato chips. (Do they KNOW me, or what?!)

The lineup: Angie, Anne, Carrie, Stephen, Amy, Wendy, Alison, Bess & Dawn
(not pictured: Olivia, who was too busy sneaking around the office with a bonsai tree)

Dan & Lora ordered special no-cinnamon/no-vanilla cupcakes for me. Officially THE BEST cupcake I have ever eaten. (And I've eaten 3 so far, so I should know.)

Not to be outdone, Bess made homemade sushi dessert rolls.
All I can say is 「すごい！！！」

Colleen & Angela gave me a card by my good friend (& incredible artist), Kelly

Lined up from shortest to tallest. Note to self: hire someone shorter than self.

LOOK AT ALL THIS AWESOME STUFF!!! Cards, art, snacks and a bonsai tree!!!

Everybody on my team drew their self-portrait on canvas. "The Rarey Bunch". LOL!

And on the back? Flo Rida... and my boss!

And what would a party be without photos of me...
with my friends Beyonce, Jay-z, and Kanye?

   I was seriously blown away by everything they had planned and am so lucky to be working with such a talented, fun, and thoughtful team. As I've always said, Hallmark is an amazing company, but the reason you stay is for the people. And when you get to work with people you actually love hanging out with, you can hardly call it work.
   In keeping with the Japanese angle, I sent my thanks in a cartoon:

For those of you who may be rusty on your Japanese, here's the translation: 

Jen: I LOVE all the wonderful gifts—thank you SO much! My team is the world's best. THANK YOU. 

Aki & Taylor: Yes, we say thank you, too. 

Kismet: And I will love to eat the little tree.   (Just kidding on that, btw)

Random Hallmark Moments: Happy Anniversary to Me

Extra super busy tiring weekend!

   I had a lot of stuff to do this weekend, and then did about 10x what I had actually planned... on Saturday I ran errands (clothes shopping, kayak-accessory-shopping, grocery shopping, and sushi lunch) and was out for several hours. Then I came home and mowed the lawn (enjoying the gorgeous weather!) while I did a load of laundry, then attached my kayak rack to the Rav4, and loaded the kayak just to make sure it worked. I invited Kelly over for a homemade pizza dinner, baked up a storm, and then we watched Anthony Bourdain's new Kansas City episode that aired earlier this week. (He visited Oklahoma Joe's, Stroud's, The Savoy Grill, Cigar Box, Town Topic, Rosedale BBQ, BB's Lawnside, Woodyard BBQ, Dirt Green Farms, tailgated at the Chiefs Game, and saw the Hair Museum in Independence.)
   Today I started working in the yard at 8 am (before I'd even had my coffee!), made a quick trip to the hardware store, planted coleus, weed-whacked the back yard, ate lunch on the front steps and talked to Loren & Champ, and then kept working right up until 1:15, when I had to quickly change and head to Swanson's for Aki's agility class. We spent a couple hours there running like crazy.

   On the way home, we stopped at the hardware store for another load of dirt, and then I worked in the yard for 3 more hours. The dogs sat out on the deck and observed, while chewing a couple of the big "dinosaur" bones (aka beef femur) I had bought for them. I went inside & out, checking on Gypsy and doing 3 more loads of laundry.
   By the end of the evening, I had watered, fertilized, and applied weed killer to the whole lawn, put down 19 bags of top soil to level out the grade (19 x 40 lbs. = 760 lbs.... a LOT to buy, load, lift, carry to the backyard, and dump. But apropos for Earth Day, I moved a lot of earth!). I cut and laid chicken wire over the new dirt, pounding large staples to hold it down—which I HOPE will finally keep Aki from digging, so that grass can grow again. She has been focused on one 4' x 4' spot for a few years, ever since she dug down and discovered an old credit yard. She seems convinced that there's more to find there...

   I weeded the flower beds. Moved some rock. Bought a bunch of perennials and planted them in my flower beds and containers. Mulched. Watered. Thanks to the head start Mom gave me, my yard might actually shape up okay this season!

Happy to be outside:

   After all that, I picked up, put the tools away, and came inside to give Gyp her treatment, give her another new food, feed the dogs, shower, run to McDonald's to get a Filet-o-Fish sandwich for Gyp (she only took 2 tiny bites, so I ate it), finish laundry, read the paper, have a glass of wine, blog, and crash!

More Team Birthdays...

I've enjoyed making these mini standee characters for my coworkers:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BESS!

This is her dog, Penny. I couldn't decide so I gave her two.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OLIVIA!

She's a pet lover, and has 2 gorgeous black kitties.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CARLY!

Carly has kitties too... which happen to be fun to draw...

Sushi Porn

   Madeline & I had a chance to run across the street for lunch today, for some delicious noms at Kabuki! I had their signature roll (tuna, salmon, cucumber, avocado, masago) and the anaconda roll (tempura-battered freshwater eel, avocado, cucumber, masago, seaweed strips). I think they named it that because the pieces are so big, you have to unhinge your jaw to eat them! It was a great chance to chat and temporarily escape from the stress of work & pet issues... Much needed today!

Friday & Saturday

   On Friday, I went to work, came home, and Mom helped me load up & drop off a carload of donations at Catholic Charities. Round 1 (of probably 20) of housecleaning complete! To celebrate, we raced south to beat the rain to Heritage Park to give the dogs a run. We laughed at Taylor the idiot as he chased cars up and down the fence line. This boy had some pent-up energy, and rightfully so! No walks when it's raining (I'm lazy).
   No sooner did we get to the far end of the lake, than the ominous clouds finally betrayed us, and we had to beat it out of there. We stopped at Bo Ling's on the way home and walked out with a veritable Chinese buffet. We loaded up our plates & sat on the couch—staying up way too late again watching Mad Men, in a desperate attempt to catch up before Sunday's season premiere... a good effort, but I'd have had to take the whole week off to get there!

   On Saturday we had to be up by 4:30 (yes, that's am. @#%*!!) to get Mom to the airport on time. The dogs rode along quietly, and I stopped at Panera on the way home for my favorite soufflé, then settled in for a long morning of Mad Men season 2, disc 4...

   I wish I had been able to take more time off to spend with Mom, but we (okay, SHE) got so much done in the house, and we had fun hanging out in the evenings. It has been years since everyone has come to KC to visit (we've spent the last few holidays in Ohio or Los Angeles), so it was nice to have a guest for a change.

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING, MOM!!!   :D

Wednesday: Feast Your Eyes

   On Wednesday the wet weather continued, so Mom stayed indoors while I was at work—and cleaned all the windows, the kitchen, the floors. WOW!!! (Pretty sure I've never cleaned the windows—inside or out—since I had them installed in 2005. Yikes! Extra props to Mom for tackling the biggest job in the house!)
   She worked up an appetite for sure. And so, Wednesday night, we ventured to Oklahoma Joe's. Kelly joined us because, well, I can't imagine Kelly NOT joining for barbecue! OK Joe's wasn't on Fieri's "dives" list, but I'm pretty sure it's the best barbecue out there! We enjoyed a feast of ribs, chicken, burnt ends, BBQ baked beans (which contained almost more meat than the meat did!), seasoned fries, Texas toast, and a pile of pickles. FOOD COMA.
   We came home and watched more Mad Men... getting there...

Tuesday: High & Low Brow

   On Tuesday we hit another restaurant from the "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" show: Grinder's! We both had sandwiches and split another cider: Ace pear; it was nearly as delicious as the Crispin! We then hurried off to the Kauffman Center to catch National Geographic's 2011 Explorer of the Year, Kenny Broad: diver and environmental anthropologist. He studies blue holes in the Bahamas, their fresh water, and the human impact on the environment. The underwater caves are so deep and narrow that he wears up to five specially-designs tanks while diving—and in tight spots, detaches them and pushes them ahead of him. He uses a line to ensure he'll be able to find his way back out. Terrifying, if you ask me! Here's an excerpt from the program: "Exploring submerged caves and blue holes, one mistake can equal death. Kenny and his team must take every precaution to avoid such dangers as stirring up sediments that can wipe out visibility, succumbing to nausea as they pass through a toxic layer of hydrogen sulfide, or getting lost in maze-like passageways with a limited supply of diving gasses. The need to study blue holes is urgent, as they are among the least studied and most threatened habitats on Earth."

   Not to be outdone, just being inside the Kauffman is a show in itself—a true landmark in Kansas City.

Monday: Spin & Glace

   Again Mom worked outside, while I worked inside (cleaning out & rearranging the closets in my master bedroom, making the donation pile even bigger). She finished the flower beds and mulched them while I ran out to drop clothes off for tailoring, went grocery-shopping, and went to the hardware store for another go at replacing that blasted hose.
   I got home just as Mom was finishing up outside, and it wasn't a moment too soon: the ominous clouds started to gather, and soon after dark, the sky opened up—and it rained for the rest of the week! It's ironic that this was Mom's vacation week, timed with the poor weather, because the weather all year has been surprisingly good. What a bummer.

   While the rain damped everything else, it didn't dampen our mood. We headed out for a huge dinner at Spin: a pizza feast, since it was 3-for-the-price-of-2 night! We tried the goat cheese & roasted chicken with caramelized onions; BBQ chicken sausage; and my usual: salsicca con mela. The best pizza on Earth, seriously. Followed by: the best ice cream on Earth!

 

Salted pretzel and fleur de sel caramel. (Insert coma here.)

Sunday: Before the Rain

   Mom worked outside, while I worked inside (cleaning out & rearranging closets, and making a heaping donation pile). Then I ran to Home Depot for a bunch of odd and ends, including a new hose for the deck reel, and a load of mulch to help Mom finish the job. When all was said and done, she did a really amazing job, and I'm so thankful to have yard work crossed off my list!

Taylor, as always, enjoyed the extra company

   Mary Jane stopped by for a while with her new Shiba puppy, Kit. He and Aki and Taylor romped around the yard together—as if they were all goofy puppies.

   We worked up quite an appetite! Fortunately, Mom had brought a list of restaurants from one of her favorite shows, "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" by Guy Fieri on the Food Network. We went to Swagger for dinner. It is a hole-in-the-wall bar on Wornall in Kansas City, MO. (And never mind that a person was stabbed just a block from there, two days later.) The ambiance was about what you'd expect for a little bar in KCMO, but the food was fantastic!

A little bit of Maine and Alaska, right here in KC!

Mom had a pulled pork sandwich and a Boulevard wheat:

   I tried the Suribachi burger and a Crispin cider. (Suribachi is a tempura-battered hamburger with pepper jack cheese and Sriarcha sauce—I had them hold the mustard and creamy wasabi coleslaw. It was AWESOME!). But then, what part of "Japanesey deep-fried hamburger" DOESN'T sound good?!

   We were in a food coma by the time we arrived at home (but fortunately THIS didn't happen!), and the dogs never fail to join in for a lazy evening of TV watching (Mad Men seasons 1 & 2!) on the couch: