mixing work and life for a cause in baltimore

My jobs in DC have been on the extreme ends of a multi-pronged spectrum. My first was a 9-5 for a small tech company that makes POS systems (the computers used for orders at restaurants and bars). I got it because I had served tables for approximately 100 years and knew every single POS system on the market. I also had writing and communications experience so I was perfect for the marketing and comms position. I could test their Apple-based system with confidence, and turn right back around and finish a press release. It was a small company - maybe 15 people, run by a couple that was cooler than cool. The male to female ratio was about 6:1. Everyone wore jeans and hipster t-shirts with HTML code on it and things of the sort. My coworker Mick funny and played in a heavy metal or rock or something hard band whose name changed pretty often. He got a gig at the Rock and Roll Hotel on H Street while I worked there, and from what I've seen in the past few years, they're still going strong. My boss had a middle-aged, fit, serious, business suit wearing, dry sense of humor thing about him that appealed to me. He was married, and he drove a sports car so tiny that the few times I rode in it, I had to fold my 5'9" frame into pieces, it felt, to get inside. Every Friday the whole staff had lunch together in the conference room, and we'd take turns picking the cuisine. Mick and I joked about everything and made Starbucks runs for chances to get away. But we never saw each other outside of work, and maybe we would have become friends, but I left before it happened.

I giddily accepted my next position as a news producer at TV Asahi, a Japanese news station. Oh man, was I excited. The DC bureau is in the National Press Building, and when I interviewed there, I held my breath the whole 12 floors up on the elevator. I was seeing this guy that I liked far more than he deserved, and oh! the day that I got the job offer and called to tell him I was sitting outside of Quizno's near my tech office, and he was so genuinely happy for me. And then I never heard from again and my heart was broken - but thankfully only for a second because I had my dream job! I got to cover the State Department and sit feet, just mere feet from Hillary Clinton at all of her events. And I covered the President speaking at this school and that barn, and I worked with our CNN affiliates, and it was pretty rad. Except that it was stressful to the max and demanding and a highly critical environment. I worked 10-12 hour days every day and I was told that in this field I didn't get to have a personal life and that I'd always be criticized and never complimented because that's the Japanese way, and I was faulted for not working enough, and I lost some of my self-confidence but also developed thicker skin and learned so much it's impossible to quantify. When I left, it was bittersweet. I liked my colleagues, but we never even came close to an inside joke or a drink just for fun.

And then I took the job I have now, a 9-5 desk job at an education policy and advocacy organization that does good things for students who need it the most. It's so family-friendly that it isn't unusual to hear kids bounding down the halls. And they're welcomed and doted on and played with instead of shunned. Dad's take paternity leave, and the benefits are outstanding, and they care about their employees. I went through a 6-week-long, intense interview process, and I remember thinking down on it. But I learned after I'd been here for a while that it's purposeful and intentional, and they want to know their hires before they step through the door. Because this organization is a family, and they need to know who's kin.

I've gone from hip and nerdy to stressful and high-profile to cushy and warm, and all three have been invaluable and good and learning experiences. But this one, the one I'm at now, it's special. It's good. The people are the best part. They're good. And for the first time in my three jobs in three years in DC, I have friends in my colleagues. We go out for drinks and I find pictures the next day and laugh and wonder, "Wait, when did we take that?" And we have wine happy hours and we chat about being married and being single and life and then sometimes work, too. We're friends, and that's pretty awesome.

This weekend, my office formed a team to walk to raise money for leukemia and lymphoma. One of our colleagues was diagnosed earlier this year, and he's been battling and staying so strong. And my colleague and friend Jess and I jumped onto the team and went up to Baltimore a few hours early to explore the city - one that's so close but it was my first time seeing it. We drank hot tea and enjoyed the hip, artisan vibe of Fells Point and loved seeing the harbor on a perfect fall day, and met up with an impressively sized group of our coworkers and their families. As a team, our office raised more than $1,700 in a week for the cause, and we walked together, all chatting and enjoying each other's company on a Saturday evening.

I've had a lot of work experiences since I've been in DC - crazy stuff like starring in an infomercial for a POS system and covering the Republican National Convention in Tampa, but mixing work and life for a cause in Baltimore is one of the best yet.