“You are such a girl,” they would tell me as if being a girl was this horrible thing. For a long time, I believed them—I punished myself for crying, being sensitive, and the complete opposite of my brothers. It wasn’t until I went away to college and had female roommates that I learned that I was pretty normal. Call it female bonding, but witnessing other females acting similarly to me helped me overcome a lot of my insecurities.
Don’t get me wrong; I am still a bundle of insecurities. Sometimes, I am a downright hot mess, but I’ve learned to accept myself a little bit better. Secretly I am hoping to use my martial arts skills on my brothers. You know, show them what I am made of and seek revenge for their little sister hazing. Only in my brothers’ minds, they were model older brothers. They claim that they looked out for me and protected me from hormonal high school boys, which might explain why I was rarely asked out on dates.
The boys in my high school were always telling me that “I was the girl they were going to marry, not the girl they wanted to date,” as if that was some type of compliment. That was then. Today, I am hoping that my Taekwondo friend, Logan, will follow through on his dinner request.
“Are you up for a smoothie?” Logan asks me after class. There is still no mention of our dinner date, but I assume that will be done next door at the juice joint.
“Sure,” I say in the most nonchalant tone that I can muster. This time I order the strawberry, banana, and chocolate smoothie. Logan, on the other hand, orders the dreadful green concoction that I ordered at our last visit.
“Really?” he says to me when he sees my choice of smoothie. “You made me feel guilty last time, so I decided to order something healthy.”
“Healthy is overrated,” I answer.
Logan takes a large sip of his smoothie, which by the look on his face, he doesn’t appear to like.
“Now, I know why you took so long to drink yours. Doesn’t look like you’re having any trouble finishing your smoothie today.”
“I earned these calories,” I say proudly.
“Yes, you did,” Logan says with a flirtatious laugh.
What was I worried about? Things are going great with Logan; he definitely seems interested.
“You know, I may have to throw this away,” Logan says of his remaining smoothie. “It’s pretty bad. At first, it doesn’t seem that bad, but then there is a strange aftertaste. I have to head out anyway.”
What? Okay, stay calm.
Logan gets up to throw his cup away, which gives me the chance to really check him out—his walk, his stance, everything. Yep, he is hot. No noticeable flaws . . . except one: he still hasn’t mentioned our dinner date.
“Ready?” he asks to signify our exit.
“Um, yeah. See you next class?” My words come out more as a question than an affirmative reply.
“Wait a minute. You’re not getting off that easy. We’re supposed to be going out to dinner.”
Finally!
“Dinner? Oh, that’s right,” I say coyly. “It’s about freaking time,” I tell him . . .
No, not really, but I wanted to. Instead, I attempt to appear calm and cool while we schedule a date for the weekend. Saturday night. It will give me an entire day to primp and make myself date-worthy.
...
6
Virginia Pride
Virginia has been using the tourism slogan ‘Virginia is for Lovers’ since 1969 and the magic of this trademark is still going strong. Advertising Age named ‘Virginia is for Lovers’ one of the most iconic ad campaigns in the past 50 years. When Virginia residents were asked what the slogan meant to them, the answers varied. Some referenced the state’s boundless natural resources of beaches and mountains. Others claimed it characterized the friendly and hospitable nature of Virginians. One thing is for certain; the fate of this famous slogan will not be changing anytime soon.
“MY, YOU’RE IN A GOOD MOOD,” Marcus says as I skip into work. I don’t really skip, but I do give my best impression of Mary Tyler Moore, my inspiration, twirling around and tossing my hat into the air.
“What’s gotten into you?” Marcus asks.
Clearly, Marcus is not familiar with the opening of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. No surprise to me; I once tried to share my admiration for Mary Tyler Moore with Kaitlyn and received basically the same reaction. She obviously never spent Sunday afternoons watching Mary Tyler Moore reruns with her mother as I did with mine.
“I have myself a date,” I share.
“Well good for you. Maybe you’ll stop moping around.”
“I don’t mope,” I say defensively. “You’re the one who gets all testy whenever your in-laws come to town to plan your wedding.”
“Whatever, Mary Sunshine. You better get ready to roll your sleeves up; we have a lot of work to do. Did you know the Virginia Tourism pitch is due next week?”
“I knew about it, but I’m not involved with it.”
“You are now. You obviously haven’t seen the email—it’s all hands on deck from now until the pitch.”
“So, more coffee fetching, I assume.”
“Coffee and ideas. Robyn scheduled one of her all-staff brainstorming sessions.”
Robyn has only been with the company for a year and already has changed the culture of McKay Advertising. I liked her immediately, especially her radically different approach to the company. Unlike Richard Dixon, her predecessor, Robyn seems to value everyone’s thoughts and opinions. Richard, on the other hand, came straight out of the show Mad Men, smoking cigars and thinking every female’s opinion was worthless. He never outwardly stated his bias towards women, but he was old school and everyone knew it.
Group brainstorming sessions are Robyn’s contribution to the company—and by ‘group’ she means every single person working for the company, regardless of position. Robyn’s philosophy is that everyone has ideas worth sharing, and even if an idea turns out bad, another idea can be spawned from it. “And that idea,” she says, “might be genius.”
The agency boardroom is packed at one p.m. with the entire staff. Rather than the normal long table in the center of the room, the boardroom is now arranged in a sequence of small round tables, six chairs to a table. Robyn, in her sparkly top and mismatched ensemble, stands front and center of the room.
“Today, I am asking all of you—I know this sound cliché—to think outside of the box. Let your mind wander and put yourself into the shoes of someone looking to vacation. What does Virginia have to offer? What will it take to entice people to visit? We know that ‘Virginia is for Lovers’ but what else?”
“Don’t get too comfortable. I want each of you to grab a notebook and pen,” Robyn says pointing to the front table containing an ample supply of notepads, pens, and colored markers, “and go outside and walk around by yourself. Think, brainstorm, and jot down anything that comes to you, even if it seems like garbage. Don’t critique yourself, just walk, think, and write.”
Most of the staff looks perplexed as they reluctantly grab notepads and pens; I don’t waste any time and head outside into the fresh air. It is fall, my favorite season, and the leaves have already started changing into brilliant colors of orange, green, and red. “Crisp,” I write down for no particular reason at all. I decide to take Robyn’s advice and jot down everything that comes to mind: Virginia. Breeze. Fall. Fall in Love. With the leaves, the beauty.