Posts tagged hellogiggles

I’ve spent the better part of this weekend trolling the San Diego Comic Con tag on Tumblr because it’s that time of year and once again I didn’t remember when it was coming, let alone figure out a way to get tickets and GO. The most important part of this year’s event for me has been the Game of Thrones panel as they’ve just begun filming season three which will premiere in March 2013.

My girl Emilia Clarke was there, AKA Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones AKA “my Khalessi” and the mother of dragons. Also a pretty big girlcrush of mine. Let me count the ways, all 10 of ‘em, of why I heart the crap outta her.

1. When I wrote my first article for HelloGiggles, she was the main subject. I agonized for a hot minute there about what to start off writing about on that site. Often times when that happens I just go with what my gut says to do and at that particular moment, we were in awe of Emilia.*

*I recently discovered this article has been makin’ the rounds on Pinterest. Proud of ya - and the rad people for repinning it around.

2. Her body is incredible. Shut up, you’re thinking it too. It is very difficult for me to find a TV show to watch in which I can actually look at the main female character and go, “Hey, she’s curvy. Like me! And isn’t mysteriously losing weight every couple of episodes either until she whittles away to nothing!” Loving it.

3. I feel like we’d get along in real life simply for our hair being the same shade. She’s a natural brunette, as the above photo should be able to tell you. It’s a great hair color. Remember, brunettes not war jets.

4. Daenerys doesn’t take shit from anybody. Brother threatening to murder her? He gets a “golden crown.” Anybody ever attempting to mess around with her dragons? THE MOTHER OF DRAGONS AIN’T HAVING NONE OF THAT.

5. She can stand on her own two feet with or without a man and command respect. Which in a world of Bella Swans and Anastasia Steeles, where co-dependency to the point where you can’t even tie your own shoelaces together on your own is the startling norm, is refreshing to see.

6. I will not deny that it is because of her that somewhere in the back of my head, I hope that the next person I date will affectionately refer to me as a “Khalessi.” It’s not so uncommon, y’know. Ben Wyatt called Leslie Knope this endearment once.

7. I read a story once that Emilia went through a series of terrible jobs, including one as a receptionist, before she landed her big break. Just goes to show you that you never know when your luck may turn it around for the absolute best.

8. She can make a terrible blonde wig look good.

9. While simultaneously inspiring me to actively want to braid my hair. (And I don’t like braids.)

10. Looking at her, I can already tell her future post GoT will be insanely bright. She’s a great actress and in my head, I’m already writing a romcom that I’d want her to be the main character in.

-HT

As I get ready to embark on Heather’s 2nd Thanksgiving, pie and assorted Turkey Day foods chilling in the freezer/fridge, I’m thinking about what I am thankful for. As are many, many people right now in the blogosphere.

I’ve had a comeback of a year. It’s something I’ll probably reflect on in more detail when NYE gets closer. The clearest, most defining image of this entire year for me has not been any of the red carpet events I’ve reported at nor the cool people I’ve been lucky enough to interview or the millions of job interviews I went on or the evenings spent out with my girlfriends or even just my alone time writing in my bedroom. It was the Friday in March when I sat alone in my bedroom, in my peach colored pajamas sobbing into my hands because at that very moment in time I felt hopeless. I was trapped in a job I felt myself wasting away in each day and it was truly affecting me in the worst possible way. I felt like my life was over and it hadn’t even begun. I had NO money, was stuck in the middle of a terrible roommate moving out crisis, applying every single free moment of my life for a new job, and still writing, trying very hard to stay positive that things would turn around. I literally had no idea that in less than two weeks from that moment, I would be employed somewhere completely amazing, on the road again to becoming the career girl I had always had the utmost faith I would one day become.

My thankful list is as follows:

1. My boss Deborah and everyone at MyCorp but Deborah in particular. Oh my lord, you literally have no idea how much I love this woman. She is truly larger than life in every aspect I can think of. A powerhouse CEO of a thriving company with a law degree, an incredible mother and wife, super engaged in the community, the most empathetic boss I have ever, EVER worked for. She gets everything done and proves you can be kind and still get ahead. Deborah is always, always advocating paying it forward in every interview she has and I cannot tell you how much her paying it forward has impacted my life and the lives of those around me. When I first met her during my job interview, I was very dressed up in a pinstriped suit with patent leather heels and had my portfolio with me. She came bouncing into the room, dressed in a baseball cap and jeans. “I was at a baseball game with my sons!” She told me. I liked her on the spot. I was hired three days later and quit my fucking, shitty, horrendous job immediately to move on. Working at MyCorp has been an absolute challenge but in the most rewarding sense I can think of. And why is it rewarding if it’s so hard? Because I’m working in social media which is what I love and for the first time in my life, someone is paying me to do it. An entire company is counting on me (and my interns I’ll get to them momentarily) to spread the word about our company online. To keep us getting interviews and blogging outlets and looking great to corporations everywhere. To make us the experts in our field. And me being the type-A work freak obsessive that I am, I push myself to the brink every day. I write nonstop. I have learned so much about businesses and entrepreneurs from this position that to some small extent, I believe my parents consider it a nice make up for the business degree I do not have that they tried very hard to get me to major in. You know what really helps me though, to stay so on task and focused and to continue to strive each and every day, not giving up or slacking off? Deb’s encouragement. Her acceptance that I try new things and understanding when they don’t all work out. I’ve never had this before in my life, it’s an almost alien kind of thing. I look up to her so much and I’m so thankful for everyone at that company. Also she reads my blog and really likes it. K, I’m gonna cry now.

2. My interns, James and Kelsey. I distinctly remember when my work load was getting to be too much to handle, Deborah suggested I get my own interns. Having just come off of being an intern recently, I was blown away at the thought of having people work under me in a professional environment setting. Even a little nervous at the thought of managing them. But then I remembered how I spent four years ordering around hungover coworkers at Subway and I was like I got this. The paying it forward principle went into effect with both of them. James I knew from school and had been friends with for a couple of years. He was going to spend the summer working at a store called Total Wine (it is exactly how it sounds) before heading to get his masters in Dublin, Ireland. I did not want him working at a shitty inventory counting minimum wage position and had to bring him on. Kelsey I worked with at said school when I did the assistant stage manager position with a play she starred in. I emailed her about the position that day and little did I know, that email stopped her from accepting a full time position at a terrible place she interned at. These guys are my family, I tell you, and we all joke that we’re a gang (because Kelsey always wanted to be in one but y’know not like an actual gang like the crips and bloods). What made me hire these two as opposed to other interested parties? Certainly knowing them helped and wanting to rescue them from shitty jobs is nice, but everything laid in their written portfolios. James is a history major and has a very dry sense of humor mixed in with communist tendencies in his writing. Kelsey is majoring in journalism and is very by the AP stylebook but mixes in her own voice which is lively and light in there quite well. Both of them had/have blogs that I actively read. The voices they both bring along are unique and distinctive, specific to certain projects. I love their voices and when they want to question something or want more details or need help and know I can help them. And beyond just work, we are quite fond of emailing one another ridiculous GIFs and news stories and even just talking about our weekends. There’s no bullshit, no formalities. It’s really rare in the workplace. I’m extremely aware of this and refuse to make it any other way. We’re going to be ourselves and get our work done and do it great and not be secretly scared of the other or pitting them behind their backs. That fosters a feeling and energy I do not approve of in the workplace and since it’s hard out there for everyone and I am so lucky to be in a position where I can make it easier, you know I’m gonna damn well do it.

3. I’m only on the third one and already my thankful list is getting to be really long and wordy. Somebody, an editor quick, help a blogging sista out. Because I don’t want to demote them any lower on this list, my friends and family are next up on deck. When something good happens, do you know who finds out first? It goes in this order: my parents, Earl, work, Sara, Facebook (sometimes Facebook, depends on what though). I mix it up occasionally but this is a solid list. A lot of great things have happened to me this year and generally moments after the Really Awesome Moments, I call my mom. If I can’t reach her, I call my dad’s office. Between the two, I almost always get one or the other and sometimes both and they get to share in the most excellent news with me. I love them both a lot which sometimes I know it gets hard to, but when the chips are down, I know I can depend on my family. If it’s appropriate to, I tell my interns and Facebook. If I can reach him through text, my brother Earl gets in on it. Sara, my old roommate (I am still not comfortable writing that down) always responds super fast too- the girl is more or less the sister I never had at this point. So yes, I’m thankful for my friends and family. I am grateful for their support and love and that within my circle of friends, I have someone who is always willing to attend an event with me and drive my ass around when I need to interview somebody and also will listen to my crabby/whiny/weird texts or general ranting/occasional drunkenness. Bless you all. I owe everyone a million rides.

4. My freelance work with HelloGiggles. I remember how excited I was when the site launched and my first article went live. If I could bottle up a feeling and keep it on me forever, it would be that moment. Because this was when the tide really started to turn for me in the writing world, when my name started to get out there and get recognition. Out of anything I’ve written with them so far, I am the most proud of the virginity piece. I do not exaggerate at all when I say it was one of the most terrifying things I have ever sat down and written about myself because it was, and still is, a very personal, private matter to me. One that rarely gets addressed in society. And one that I went through stages in writing about- fear, depression at remembering the past, and then this awesome light feeling where the weight was off of me and now comes the overall message I have to give. The responses were tremendous and very special. Reading everyone’s own story was a thing of beauty because it was one of those things where all it takes is one person to come forward, bare their soul, and then it opens up the floodgates of responses in return. I had always known I would write about this but I knew I would not write it out unless it was on a channel with an appropriate audience, one that would embrace the story and understand and take it forward with them. I’m proud of everything I write there and won’t ever do a post that I only feel 50/50 on. Not my style.

5. Interning with BettyConfidential. It has been absolute madness- you try working full time, freelance writing, AND interning with an online women’s magazine that gets 2.5 million visitors a month. Now I’ve always been a worker bee who does not shy away from lots of work and stretching myself thin, but with Betty, it was like a return to my old college days where I would wake up and literally have a schedule of the day dancing before my eyes. It’s not easy work. Entertainment blogging and writing is not easy. To the untrained eye on Facebook and even sometimes to some of my plus ones at events, it looks pretty simple and super glamorous. Go to a party, meet a celebrity, ask them some questions, write about it. Does not happen that way. There are rules and protocol to dealing with celebrities, if you’re going to ask questions you need to ask them questions that somebody reading the piece will want to hear. You are never there because you showed up- you’re there to write about the night and its purpose. Having fun is totally fine to do but you have to be professional too! Writing there and getting my work published with constructive criticism has been quite honestly one of the most helpful real world experiences of my life. My portfolio is out of control now and I have the editors to thank for it who pushed me into becoming a stronger writer. I am still learning and they are still teaching me. There are the really good days and the totally hideous writer’s block ones but I am learning how to work and write around those in a way I never thought was possible. I’ll honest here- not looking forward to when my deadline working there is up and it’s coming soon too. I want to renew this one on for another five, six months. Imagining not having Betty in my life is not a good thought right now, tbh. But it’s also 1:10 in the morning right now and I’m still in the middle of this list so I’ll stop now and move on.

6. California. This is clearly where I was meant to be at this moment in my life. A year and a half ago, I was torn between LA and SF and prayed I made the right choice with LA. Last March when I was crying alone in my room, I believed that no, no I didn’t make the right choice. During this summer, when everything suddenly depended on my living in Los Angeles and centered around what advantages I had for it, I knew despite all the doubt I once had, it was the right place for me then and now. And now, now that come next June I have the sudden option of being able to move back to SF or if I really, really wanted to, New York or London and keep working within the company nonetheless, I feel like I’m going to get the best of all these worlds. It’s overwhelming how happy I am. I don’t think I’m conveying it right now properly, but it is. I cannot see any aspect of my life right now, be it on a good or bad day, as being anything but completely fulfilling at a point I never thought it would reach so soon.

7. My eyeball recovery. Holy smokes, that was a massively painful ordeal. Three eye doctor’s visits, two weeks of eyedrop medication, spontaneous sobbing from the pain, and a new pair of eyeglasses with a lens prescription that accumulated in my recovery from an eye infection. Supremely awful ordeal but I am beyond thankful that my eyesight is back up and running! And that I can see the whites of my eyeballs again- hello happy healthy whites not filled up with red blood vessels!

8. Arrested Development coming back for another season and the long awaited movie. Taste the happy Michael!

9. Ann Taylor LOFT for not only opening a store across the street from my job but for supplying me with a fabulous online store. I get so much clothing there it’s ridiculous.

10. My health and overall sense of happiness. I try to reflect it onto as many people as possible and I only hope it reaches others. I won’t stop reflecting it either. I will go to my grave a person who will always work to better the lives of somebody, anybody, and hopefully though my favorite way to express it- writing.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Heather Anne Taylor