(no subject)

The last couple days of work have been intensely demoralizing.

Our new agency has no idea how to run a marketing campaign and it shows. Badly. I am constantly correcting their mistakes. But no matter how many times I show them what they should be doing, they still send me incorrect marketing materials. It's sisyphean...

Every week defenders has a status call with all our vendors where we discuss the status of all the current projects in the pipeline and what the next steps need to be to get them mailed out on time. The agency didn't know the status of anything. "We'll have to get back to you." What's the point of the meeting if they aren't prepared to update us? At a couple points I had to mute my phone so I could scream.

I've started looking for a new job, but very few non-profits are hiring these days. I will try looking into for-profit I guess, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth from my last for-profit job. As bad as it is here, I still like that I'm helping in the world. So I'd like to try again for another non-profit so I can still have that feeling of improving the world a little.

Surprisingly, there are quite a few open positions out there for just above my experience level. If I could just gain a bit more experience, I would be good to go for those. Isn't that so annoying? I did find one that is only slightly above my experience levels. Small enough difference that if they really liked me, they'd be willing to teach me the few small things I don't know. So I'll try for that. I need to work on a cover letter. I am a bit worried though because the listing has been up since November...

(no subject)

Somehow my office decided that the person with the least maternal instinct should be the one to go shopping for the baby shower. I greatly disapprove.

The whole experience filled me with madness too. I learned that you can either have a pink girl or a blue boy. No other colors exist for babies. Not even in the wrapping paper section. It was madness. How do people shop for couples that want to be surprised what the baby will be? And what if the parents don't want the baby to be brought up in strict gender roles?

Such people are not allowed to exist.

In the end, I got her a pack of bottles, a pack of diapers, a towel in the shape of a shark, and a clown fish bath sponge. All very neutral! Those were my small triumphs.

Then I was totally defeated by clothing. There was one section for newborn girls and one section for newborn boys. They were completely color coded. I got two BLUE onsies. One says something like eat, sleep, cry. I figured that could apply to any baby so did not violate my standards. The other one says something like, "mommy's big guy" or something like that. It had a dinosaur on it. Dinosaurs are awesome, so I let that one break the rules.

Another reason I should have been the last one to go shopping? I have to carry all this junk on the bus! And then the train! And then walk several blocks in the freezing cold. All while carrying all this stuff. Greeeaaaaaaat....