Twas the Night Before...

Wednesday, December 16


In the past four and a half years, I've lived in five apartments, had a total of eight roommates, lived in three different area codes, made dozens of new friends and said goodbye to a handful.

The one thing that has stayed constant since I moved from Ohio to Chicago, is that Monday through Friday, I have arrived at 233 N. Michigan at 8:30 a.m. (give or take a few minutes), have been greeted by the same security guy, potentially picked up my grande non-fat chai and bagel at Cosi, turned on my computer and started working.

Tomorrow is our last day in our current office. Beginning Monday, the Merchandise Mart will be the new home of B-M Chicago. My boxes are packed. Dust has filled the air. And they've pretty much shut off the heat.

After almost four years of sitting in the cubicle area referred to as "The Weiner Circle," I've been told it's time for new digs; To leave behind my too-good-to-be-true cubicle and window view and move into a fresh location.


I may be dragging my feet a bit... but in the spirit of nostalgia, I thought I'd take a trip down "Weiner Circle" memory lane, and reflect on the best of 233. 14th floor. It's been a great ride. Like McFadden's after the boat Christmas party in 2006, I'm not sure the Merchandise Mart knows what they have in store for them. Ready or not... here we come!

The Best of 233 -

*For those without two hours to read this long-winded post, I've bolded the BEST of the BEST

• Ordered pizza to the Media Training Room while pulling an "all-nighter" before our intern presentation, "Winning With Wheat" in 2005... as one of our interns stormed out of the room with a dramatic, "I can't work like this... unlike YOU guys, I have to work here after this week." Oh the drama...
• Diane spending half of our internship going through hundreds of data entry cards and submitting them to a spreadsheet for Zone Perfect.
• The disappearance of Mystique Adams. If you don't know what I'm talking about... it won't be funny.
• When I managed a Hispanic marketing tour. That's all.
• The year more than 1/2 of Brand Marketing was pregnant or engaged. Given that I was only 23, that was a scary year.
• My first all-office reply-all error. And my then-boss' dry reply. Lesson learned.
• The disco cab that pulled up in front of the office to take three of us to our B-M Basher softball game at North Ave - and dropped us off at the field with disco glasses, afros and rocking out to the disco remix of Grease.
• Our orange Chicago Cares t-shirts. And the cab somewhere in Chicago that has mine.
• The death of the gnome creative writing project.
• Stalking the people of WhoopAssEnterprises to create new awards for good work. Harold Burson can now be found in the form of a bobblehead at three of our desks as a pilot, fireman or policeman.
• The launch of my former boss' blog. Complete with champagne, Bree and crackers.
• When Nick took a shot with the cleaning lady after our summer outing.
• Post-Thursday softball Friday lunch outings to Burrito Beach to get us through the rest of the day.
• Diane's month-long fight with office services after New York accidentally sent enough Similac product to fill an entire office.
• When Erin and Ali spent hours, no days, calling Sweden, China and other random countries to obtain prototypes of nursery items.
• When Sho Jo found out Jen Furey had the intention of demonstrating how to use a fryer during a brainstorm.
• Sneaking half-a-dozen bagpipe players into the Thinkery for Patti's retirement party.
• Fire drills... and the orange hat crew. Lauren, you always look so stylish!
• My continuous sneezing fits and winter eye infections... which I'm convinced were caused by the fact that the heating vents were never cleaned. Dust everywhere.
• The spastic heat/air conditioning issue in the Thinkery. And the implementation of Snuggies during team meetings.
• The dozens of conference calls participated in surrounding pallets, combines, seeds, greenhouses and wheat harvest for a solid year before the Urban Wheat Field event.
• The first annual Spelling Bee and celebrating National Punctuation Day in the Barsteller.
• Any brainstorm in the Thinkery with Andy Nebel.
• The "sick" room that, in the past four years, has had one or all of the following: Fold-out bed, nasty green chairs, occasional sleeping person, random clothing... and the worst, a crash-test dummy that always looked like a real person when walking past the doors.
• B-M Purge Week signage posted all over the doors of the bathroom. And only half of the office understanding the irony of those signs.
• Catching random naked or half-naked people in the Hyatt while writing press releases, in brainstorms, during client meetings. Whenever it happened, it was awkward... and usually involved a shriek or two.
• Hearing the food cart pull up to the East Coffee Bar - and casually walking by to get "water" to check and see if there's any good stuff, like cookies, to snack on.
• When Obama's campaign offices were just a few floors above us, and we could no longer do the "fake swipe" to get upstairs.
• Watching Black-Eyed Peas and the largest flash-mob dance from our desks
• The year we had a Brand Marketing Thanksgiving party... which involved Diane and I making turkeys in our apartments and then attempting to microwave them in the coffee bar.

What did I miss? Share your memories of 233!