How To Make a Lasting Impression on Your Boss - RaeLo Style

Sometimes I surprise even myself with the amazingly classy, smooth moments I create for myself.

For example, last week at work (around 9:30am), I got out my make-me-breathe-happy pills so I could take them with my food, per doctor's orders. Well, for some reason when I opened my pill bottle, pills decided to jump out... all. over. the. place. In my haste to retrieve them, two rolled onto the floor into the black abyss that is under my cubicle walls.

Now, these are small pills... and they aren't really the kind that you can just let fall on the ground and not take. No. Every pill must be taken. Or else my adrenal glands could just shut down, which would then, of course, lead to my slow, painful, imminent death (or something like that). So when a pill falls, you find it. No matter the cost.

One pill was easy to find, no hassle there. The other was an elusive little thing. After recruiting the dudes that sit to the left and front of me and searching for five minutes under our desks, one dude exclaimed, "Hey, I think I found...yep...I definitely found it!" But alas, he could not reach it.

Where was it you ask? Oh, just in between the cubicle walls of dude to the left's desk and MY BOSS' desk.

So what did I do? Well, naturally, I crawled, on my knees, under my boss' desk (he wasn't in to work yet that morning), head first, and searched as the dude on the other side tried pushing the pill toward me.

Next thing I knew, an ominous shadow had descended upon me, and I heard a muffled and slightly confused, "Um, hi..."

And that was when I realized that my boss had finally come into work. And that he had been most graciously welcomed by my impressive butt poking out from under his desk... probably aimed right at his face, knowing my luck.

Here's what I imagine the scene probably looked like...

I returned his "Hi" with a bounty of loud, slightly awkward, laughs - the kind of laughs you make when something is just too perfectly set up to not laugh heartily at, but that are coupled with a tinge of regret and a sarcastic, "Of course this would happen to me," and made the slow crawl of shame out from under his desk, pill in hand, attempting vainly to explain that I wasn't creeping under his desk, I was just trying to find my drugs...

I'm sure I looked right up there with the pain-killer addicts. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if I had ratted hair, chapped lips, my shaky hands, and wild eyes. Well, the wild eyes I probably did have, let's just be honest.

But regardless, I probably made a lasting impression that day. True job security right there.

What Halloween Means to Me

Okay people, let's talk about Halloween.

I LOVE Halloween. Not because it means I get to justify eating exorbitant amounts of candy (Tootsie Rolls, I love you), not because I Trick-or-Treat (can't even remember the last time I did that), not because I have kids that Trick-or-Treat, and not because Halloween is apparently a great excuse to dress like a skank and go party-hopping (or so I hear). No. Actually I love it for everything I get to do leading up to it.

I love it because I don't believe in buying pre-made costumes, so I always get to be creative and make my own. I love it because I get to do what I do best, which is go completely crazy with decorating and details. I never feel so "in my element" as I do  when I'm designing an idea and then finding a way to make it come to life. I also really enjoy coming up with costume ideas for other people and then helping them make their costumes totally awesome. Halloween is the time of year when you can take a temporary step outside of the responsible life of the "daily grind," which for me is the corporate world, and be like a kid again - excited and innovative.

This year, I went a little more crazy than usual. In February I was at our local Ross with Jayni and happened upon a pair of red sparkle-heels for $8. They only had them in Jayni's size. Jayni is a singer, a sweetheart, and a brunette. It was clear to me then that she NEEDED to be Dorothy for Halloween. She agreed. And that gave me a fantastic reason to be Glinda the Good Witch, because anytime I can dress up as something that involves fun, glittery make-up, you know I'm going to do it.


After more $$ than I care to admit, what felt like 20+ (wo)man hours, 3 tubes of puff paint, and hand-gluing thousands of individual gemstones, I (with some help from Jayni, the seamstress) had created this:

The crown in the works.

Finally completed.

Our friend, Smoker Glinda, Jayni as Dorothy (she made her costume too), and Nice Glinda.

Smoker Glinda liked to stand by me and say things like "You Whore." So hilarious. 

One of the things I love about the company I work at is that we get way into Halloween. We always have a Halloween party where all 250+ employees bring their kids to Trick-or-Treat. This year, every department was given a budget to decorate a conference room. And I don't mean some spider webs and streamers. I mean we had full-on, amazing rooms. One department had a yellow brick road leading to the Emerald City, A Charlie and the Chocolate Factory room that looked AMAZING, a Zombie Apocalypse Price Is Right room, a Hotel Transylvania haunted house, and our department (and by department I mean me and one other girl with sporadic help here and there) turned our room into... The Batcave. Yes, it was my idea and vision. And I am SO pleased with how it turned out:

We crinkled black butcher paper and taped it to the wall to give it the "cave effect."

The entrance to the cave.

Inside the cave, with black lights, glow-in-the-dark hanging bats and glow-in-the-dark spider webs.

Our video production team made a cool Batman video with great Batman theme music.

And of course, a "bat signal."

Commissioner Gordon & Twoface.

Penguin & Twoface (I painted Twoface's face, and he won an award for Best Make-Up).

Other Halloween costumes I've done:

2011: A coworker was Darth Maul. I did the face paint... with only a napkin as a utensil.

2005: The Riddler. The roommates and I did Batman theme, obviously. 

2011: Padme. The whole Marketing dept. did Star Wars theme. 

2009: Tinkerbell. This year I actually spent more time making the Queen of Hearts costume for my friend Kathryn than I did on my own costume. I even did her hair and make-up.

2007: Water. I guess I was feeling more abstract that year. 

2010: Hermione Granger. Made the tie, made the wand, made the Gryffindor badge.

And I can't find any pictures of 2006 when I was Betty Rubble. But if I do find one, I'll be sure to post it. Anywho... there ya go. Halloween is totally my thing. And I had a great one this year. Hope you did too!

The Force is Strong with This One

Sometimes I do really geeky things.

Family Picture. You know this is hilarious.

Nothing made me laugh more than seeing my boss waddle around in his Jabba the Hut costume. He made 3 kids cry!

Please marvel at the Darth Maul face paint. It was done by Yours Truly! (He also make kids cry)

And honestly, I kinda can't wait until I have little ones that I can make costumes for on Halloween. I do quite enjoy it!

When the Guys are Away...

The girls will play (or at least, pretend to).

This week, my boss, my other boss, and the coworker in the cube next to me are in London on "business." Do you know what I would give to be in London on "business" right now? A lot. Especially if my company was covering the expenses.

So, all that's left in my row of cubicles are myself and two other girls that just happen to be around my age. This morning we got the brilliant idea that we should make it look like we're not working at all whilst they're out on "holiday," so we staged some funny pictures really quick to send to our coworkers via Twitter, you know, to make them "jealous" (and then, of course, we got back to work).

Just, you know, catching up on the latest.

There's no better time to paint your toe-nails, right?

Lounging on the lovesacs.

And somehow, I managed to be productive today. Go figure.