"And get a white wicker basket for Joy..."

Magnet #1142 - Starbucks Coffee

Little did we know that that text would spark the funniest team story to come out of our golf tournament last month.

We sent our youngest teammate out to the store to run some errands. We texted him to pick up some sharpies, some paper towels, do the daily Starbucks run, and get a white wicker basket for Joy.

An hour later, when the dude showed up in front of me with a tray of a lone venti cup marked JOY, I could only look in askance at him. Particularly since I hadn't ordered a coffee. He hands me the tray and I kinda back away, saying, but I didn't get that. He looks at me and says, "Yeah, the people at Starbucks didn't know what a White Wicker Basket was, so they made me this."

Here's the thing. Ya'll should all want to play poker with me, because I am incapable of keeping a straight face. So I can only imagine the look of utter confusion at his utter confusion, and then my barely muffled laughter as I slowly realized that I was being handed what he thought was a white wicker basket. Even the dude who sent him on the errand had his head cocked slightly, wondering what was going on. And as we dissolved into laughter, I said, "But I wanted a White. Wicker. Basket."

"Yeah, this is it. I showed them the text and everything, but they were still confused, and this is what they gave me."

Tears were welling up in my eyes from the laughter, so I had no choice but to say thanks and take the coffee. I then proceeded to walk around with it for the next couple hours, giggling periodically, in between bouts of hysterical laughter.

I stopped him again a bit later, and I was like, "Ummm, so we're clear...I wanted a White. Wicker. Basket."

He looks at me, and goes, "Yeah, I know. But the Starbucks people didn't know what it was. I'm sorry if it wasn't what you wanted." I giggled again and walked away.

It wasn't until later that night in the office, that we actually went through the White. Wicker. Basket. story again, with the same result. Finally we took pity on the poor boy and Googled images of a WWB...to which he replied,

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

And the light went on.

In the end, you have to excuse him - he's a boy. How many boys in their early 20s know right off the bat what a white wicker basket is? And, within the context of the texting, yeah, maybe we should have been more specific between the Starbucks run and the WWB for Joy.

Still, it provided hours of entertainment and joyous laughter. Literally. It's why I could NOT pass up this magnet. I just couldn't.

Tell you what though. I'm very sad I'll never be able to recreate that drink, because that White Wicker Basket?

Was the best damn Starbucks coffee I've ever had in my life.

Poker chips in golf?

Magnet #1123 - Transitions Championship

Ladies and gents, that's a wrap on the Transitions Championship 2011.

With my pavilion right beside the merch tent, it was too hard to go by it and not pick something up. Of course, my first inclination was magnets. When I couldn't find them, I told the merch coordinator she needed to make magnets next year, and she showed me a whole slew of magnets they had on the shelves. Took a second for her to understand I meant fridge magnets. (What? The Masters has them!)

I won't lie, though. I haven't a clue why folks would need magnets on their hats. I'm not entirely sure why they need these magnetic poker chips, either.

Of course, I was the one who almost asked over the radio, "I need those swingy thingies over at the pavilion, please."

And the one who thought Trevor Immelman shot a 500 instead of a 5 under on the first round.

And the one who picked Carolina all the way for the pool, not realizing it was the wrong sport.

Yeah, I know next to nothing about golf. Believe me, my disinterest in golf isn't a lack of respect for the game - the shots golfers make are incredible, the powerful swish of the swingy thingy is actually pretty cool (when I'm not ducking and covering), and there really is something about a boy and a beautiful swing. Really, I get it. The game is amazing.

I just get so frustrated trying to make my way across the course to the far away gates, in starts and stops, waiting for play to continue. A field trip out there takes a good 30-45 minutes - for a run that normally takes 15!

I can't stand the numbers. And there are so many numbers to keep track of. Just can't do it. The final scoreboard up at the clubhouse? Makes me nuts. No, really.

But, I think my biggest issue - and if you know me - you know this to be true...I can't be quiet. I'm THATgirl who no one lets go with them to study in the library because I hate the quiet. Like, companionable silence is wonderful. But when it's huge groups of folks standing around and all you can hear is the crazy-ass squirrels rummaging around? Argle. Being quiet is hard!

So. I've now worked a golf tournament three years in a row, and have yet to actually hit a bucket or stand on a tee (or whatever). But, I think it's ok. That way, everyone else can leave me to concentrate on the consumer experiences for our brands, rather than paying any attention to golf.

Or, at least that's what I'm saying, anyway.

Yay for another successful tournament!

This is the life

Magnet #795 - Florida

So there were a couple of all-nighters down in Tampa last month, but there was one night that was just one adventure after another. Basically, I had to run a friend out to the airport at 4 in the morning, but then on the way back from the airport, I must have stopped by every 24-hour-place along the way home. I mean, back to the resort.

I picked up this magnet at like 5 in the morning at a CVS on Tampa Road, I think. Really, who hangs out at a CVS at 5 in the morning?

There were a least a half dozen running around. The cashier asked me if the Championship was hiring. And yes, because I'd forgotten to take off my all-access pass from the day before. Heh.

But that's nothing compared to the fun people at the Walmart (no, not the groceries-only Walmart - which I didn't even know existed!). Seriously, 24-hour-Walmarts. Interesting place to be at 6 in the morning. And boy howdy, are the employees friendly! Actually, if one had one's druthers - I think 6am might actually be the best time to shop at Walmarts. Heh.

Anyway, I knew I'd have to get this magnet from that CVS at 5am...mostly because I laughed my bum off, when I read the fine print on the umbrella...

Oh, yeah. This is the life, indeed.

New balls please

Magnet #772 - Definity Fairway's PAL

Got this magnet from the Essilor booth at the Live Your Vision Pavilion - they're Definity Fairway Transitions SOLFX Lenses, which apparently is a golfer's best pal.

The magnet was packaged with a T-shirt, as a giveaway for making a putt. Dudes, I was so excited to see one of our partners giving away magnets, it was kinda like last year, when VSP gave away theirs!

What? Thought I'd share, since I'm spending some of the weekend reviewing the telecast of the Transitions Championship from a branding perspective. Because that's what we do.

Mind you, I'm not a big golfer, so as I'm watching the telecast, I'm hoping golf knowledge soaks in through osmosis. Bogeys, Birdies, Eagles, 8 irons, 9 irons, hooks and shanks, and how to tell whose balls are whose, the whole shebang.

The ball thing I'm very confused about, only because I really don't understand how people know whose balls are who when you come up on the green. It's not like they all run out there and put down those chippy things right after their shots.

They have to walk over there, don't they? And when they get there, how do they know? Do they have people watching all the greens, and do those folks tell the golfers which ball is theirs? And, if you're just a regular golfer, golfing with the guys, how do you know which ball is yours?

Do they Sharpie their names on the balls?

Huh? Huh? Huh?

I say San Remo, they say Sanremo

Magnet #758 - Sanremo

A friend brought this magnet back for me from Sanremo, Italy. Superdupercute!

I love these flipflop magnets, because they can be found everywhere. I know I've seen them from Florida to the Philippines, and a couple of South America ones as well. It's just darn ingenuity, is what I say, trying to design a 2-D magnet to fit this format.

I was gonna do this long write-up on how some people go with Sanremo as one word, and how I could swear it's two. And how it's located on the Med, just east of France, and how I think that's the Sanremo municipal casino on this magnet. And how I'm wondering if the flowers have anything to do with one of their big roads being called, Autostrada dei Fiori, or "Freeway of Flowers." Scintillating blogging, I'm sure.

But I found out that I should have used this magnet a couple of weeks ago, because they just did the Milan-San Remo cycling race! Click on those pics. Cuteboys in kitted out in cutesuits, in pretty locales. Yeah, I don't mind it.

That's our new big thing, after the tiny, tiny, tiny decomp bubble from the Transitions Championship has burst, we've found ourselves gearing up (pun intended) for helping out Team Garmin-Transitions pro cycling team here in the U.S.

It's gonna be awesome fun.

Of course, I'm kinda wishing that one of my clients would sponsor Television Watching or Film Viewing, because at least then, I wouldn't need a Dummies book or dictionary at the ready.

Doing the Dew

Magnet #754 - Soda

Another Kristina Myers Crafts magnet, one that I specifically took a picture of, to post about down in Tampa.

Mainly because I kinda figured that I'd be living on caffeine down there. Hah.

I kinda figured right.

At the risk of sounding like a commercial for Mountain Dew, during my 20 days on-site, I made sure that I had a steady stock of the stuff (in bottle and Throwback form) in the Playpen (our team HQ), the office fridge (in our conference room office), the Tahoe (big enough to lug around boxes), the Camry (yes, we had a note from Hertz saying it was safe), and my room fridge (not that I spent all that much time there).

The only place I never thought to stock it was the pavilion (because I totally didn't even think of it until just now. Huh?) or the CHIPsmobile (because I totally stocked that with waters for Erik and me).

Even so, no matter where I went, I was within easy reach of a Dew.

You know, they say that if you give up one sugary drink a day, you give up something like 50,000 calories in a year.

I believe it.

I sure as hell won't do it, but I certainly believe it.

I got kids! Here!

Magnet #752 - Columbus, Indiana

This is one of the many parks in Columbus, Indiana, still one of my favorite finds in America. I kinda just liked the healthy, active bikers at the park, and was saving it for one of the two Youth Days we did for the local schoolkids.

Last year, we did one Youth Wellness Day, and had something like 1251 kids. In one day. 1251.

At one point, I was awash in kids. It was the only time I seriously thought, OMG, we're not going to make it. All I saw in every direction possible for as far as I could see, were kids.

Hundreds of them. Ya'll, anything en masse scares me. But hundreds of kids? Whoa.

But that was last year. This year, we learned our lesson, and had two days. Never mind that we still had 1050 on one day and 700 something on the second day.

Totally manageable. Totally.

No. Really.

Take cover!

Magnet #751 - Woman with a Parasol, facing right

There goes Monet again, painting a million studies of one subject in a million different lights. This one is a pretty famous subject, it's Monet's wife Camille, whom he's painted several times as the woman with a parasol, in the late 1800s.

I picked this one, because today was a rainy day, and the last rainy day I had was the Sunday of the Transitions Championship, where we were inundated with hours and hours of rain, lightning and thunderstorms.

As my friend posted on my Facebook status, they do not play with lightning down in Florida. No freakin' kidding.

They had horns! Blowing! They cleared off the course in seven minutes flat!

We had to shoo people into pavilions!

Seriously. And, there I was, standing outside our tent, yelling at the passing crowds, "If you are seeking shelter, please! Come! Inside! But remember! Do NOT touch any of the metal parts of the tent!"

The crowds giggled as they passed me, and then I found a slew of frat boys in front of the tent...leaning up against the metal braces.

Mind you, who knows if those boys were any better off than the guys walking with their own little golf parasols ignoring the inclement weather warnings altogether.

Silly boys.

Won't you come blog, joy magnetism?

Magnet #750 - Mile 0, Key West

WHEW. This is what I feel like I've hit. Mile ZERO.

I know, I know, the last time I blogged was March 13, the day before we went into overdrive for Transitions Championship week. I mean, I was able to blog from a hotel lobby in the middle of Florence, Italy, more easily than I could have done from Tampa in the last couple of weeks!

No worries, I'll quickly catch up (to the real magnet tally), I just needed to catch my breath.

The funny part is how everyone left behind thinks that Tampa was some sort of a picnic, that we weren't really doing anything but watching some golf, and throwing up a couple of Transitions swirls here and there.

Actually, it's not really all that funny. Even with a dozen people on site (a dozen, FFS), we still had one chick log in about 97 hours on one week's timesheet. And she's one we took it easy on.

So yeah, I get pretty het up when I hear folks wondering out loud just what we were doing down there, when I know for a fact that Tampa was not just a walk in the sun.

Anyway, moving on...I think my sister brought back this magnet for me, because no, I haven't been to Key West. In fact, all I know about it, is that there are lots of cats at Hemingway's house there, and that Joey Potter stole a brick from the house for Dawson. As a symbol of their friendship. Or some such. (Honestly, I dunno why she even bothered to get him a darn thing, when she should have just sailed away on the True Love with Pacey, and never came home or given Dawson a second thought.)

What? I've just been away, is all. joy magnetism hasn't magically turned into a different blog in my absence. Of course, I'm yammering away about work. And Dawson's Creek.

You're just lucky I didn't mention anything about David Tennant and Doctor Who.

Yet.

Hope floats

Magnet #742 - Seahorse

Day three. Done.

I'm thinking in the next day or so, I'll likely be regretting that I did this seahorse magnet from the NC Aquarium. Apparently, my boss while I'm here is trying to set up a kayaking experience for the three of us who've been working long into the night and day.

I fear it. Right now. I'm happy because it's the end of a rather long work week, and I'm just hoping to stay afloat from now to the end of the tournament.

We've got so much planned, it's going to be awesome. Now. We just have to execute against the workplan.

Today, we released 33 banners. For serious. Two designers, two PMs, two clients, one brand sponsor, just trying to get one tent going.

Two tents down. Six to go.

Woot.

Take me to the fair

Magnet #717 - Young Elvis

Dang, am I behind! Things are crazy at work, and with 26 days left to go before we decamp to Tampa for the Transitions Championship, things are bound to get crazier. I better do a magnet photoshoot quick, cuz dat folder be tres slim pickin's.

I picked this magnet for right this second, because the new Transitions Optical spot, Serenity, just aired, and it reminded me of our Seattle trip.

And the deplorable fact that I was with a whole team of adults, none of whom knew my favorite Elvis movie, It Happened at the World's Fair, that took place at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair.

Like, seriously. How do you not know that movie? We were sitting at a restaurant underneath the monorail! The monorail that Elvis rode with little Sue-Lin to get to and from the fair! Down the street from the Seattle Space Needle! The Space Needle built specifically for the World's Fair! Good gravy.

One of my travelmates even said, wait, Elvis was...an actor????

*dies*

Rollin', rollin', rollin', those eyes!

Magnet #481 - VSP's Mobile Eyes

Not feeling particularly inspired today on this rainy Thursday. (Don't get me wrong - I am the only one in the world who is loving this rainy weather. It matches my disposition of late...)

But, I will say that picking this swag magnet from the VSP Mobile Eyes unit down at the Transitions Championship in April made my day. (So you could tell what sort of day I was having, I suppose. Heh.)

I had been despairing of actually finding a magnet during that Tampa trip, and when we made this pitstop, I totally snagged this from their little basket.

VSP is a vision insurance company, who sends this motorhome out on the road to help provide vision screenings for those who need/want them. It's crazy tricked out inside - from the examination area to the frame selection area, to even a small little waiting room. Dudes. No lie - they even have a Twitterfeed. Or three.

If you see it rolling by, definitely check it out. They have good pens, too. Hahahah.

Man for all seasons

Magnet #412 - Riding Shotgun with Ponch*

My friends down at Evolution Studios produced this magnet for me. (Thanks, Jay!) You kinda have to see it to believe it - it's almost letter-sized! Eeeeep!

After this magnet, I promise to stop talking about all this silliness. I've mentioned a few times that while down in Tampa, I ended up with the assignment of working with Erik Estrada as he issued Sight-ations at the Transitions Championship.

I don't mind saying that I was filled with all sorts of trepidation and doubt about how this stunt was going to fly. I was pretty vocal about it, too.

But, I also don't mind admitting that I was wrong to be worried - turns out Erik was a really big hit with the tournament attendees and the media.

As was expected, Erik was a great hit with the chicks. But, it wasn't just the women who were anxious to meet him (seriously, a couple of those women pushed and/or nudged me out of the way - we had to have one of our own guys be our muscle!).

But the guys! The guys! We'd be whizzing by in the little golf cart, and you'd hear, Ponnnnnnnch! from more than just a few boys. In fact, they were angling for pictures almost as much as the women were. I know. I have proof.

And every law enforcement guy within 20 yards wanted their pictures with him as well. Very sweet, with several of them telling Erik that it was because of CHiPs that they became cops. Dudes, at some point, we were practically surrounded by boys in uniforms. Ya'll know I loved that.

Yep, I'll admit doing a ridealong with Ponch in a golf cart was almost as good as if we'd been on motorcycles riding down the PCH.

Almost.


*I've never really been one to mix characters with the actors. Erik is Erik. Ponch is Ponch. But, it was hard not calling him Ponch like everyone else, given that he was in uniform about 80% of the time we were running around Innisbrook. I won't lie, for the first day, I was pretty much calling him Dude (as I'm wont to do), or hon, because it felt weird to call the guy by his first name.


eta:
Oh! One other thing. I've done Starmeter jumps from imdb.com before, for Matt Smith and David Tennant, from Doctor Who. But, I just took a gander at Erik's numbers.

Rank the week before the Tournament: 5,876

Rank the week after: 1,838

That's a fairly decent jump in a week, methinks.

Where the boys are

Magnet #398 - Florida, Joy and the boys

Yep. So, if there's one thing to sum up our time in Tampa, it's this picture.

Remember last week, my post about hating being a Damsel in Distress? And that the production guys were bailing us out left and right?

Here's two of them right here. Without these two guys, Jay and Ash, along with the entire Evolution Studios team, we'd probably still be down there, looking at empty pavilions. You seriously can't get any better than than this team. Whether it was running down to the school buses a mile away to get coolers full of school lunches, or hauling 50 cases of bottled water for the students, or always being around when we had some ridiculous request or ten, or just needed someone to calm us down - I don't think they ever said no to us.

And, my other guy of the week, Mr. Erik Estrada, who did everything we asked, without complaint. Who signed every autograph, kissed every cheek, shook every hand - and was without a doubt, one of the nicest guys I've ever met.

I's a lucky, lucky girl, no doubt. Thank you guys, so very, very much.

Healthy insight in every light

Magnet #395 - Meerkats from Cape Town, South Africa

A friend of mine brought me back this magnet from her trip to South Africa. How funny is this Meerkat family!

Alas, I haven't watched Meerkat Manor, so all I can think of when I see this is Amy Adams in Junebug, when she said her favorite animal was the meerkat and that kid from the O.C. fighting with the VCR to record the show about them. Heh.

Speaking of cool animals, last night around 1:30-2, as we were wandering around the Innisbrook complex - we saw not one, but two (!) armadilloes! How freakin' cool is that? Honestly, I thought they were native to Texas, not Florida. Still. Innisbrook armadilloes! Neat!

But, the real reason I picked this magnet for today, is because as you may have seen yesterday, Retief Goosen of South Africa won the inaugural Transitions Championship. Congratulations!

So funny that I walked by you two days ago, and was like, hmmm, wonder if he's one of those golfers.

I know, I know. But I'm not a huge golf fan. I think you need at least a few people like that to work this sort of event. That way, you don't feel like you're missing out if you don't get to see any of the actual tournament.

Though, I'll be honest, from our perch in the corporate skybox on the 18th green, we watched yesterday's last few putts, and then trophy ceremony. That was pretty damn cool.

Anyway, yay, Goosen!

Oh! Before I forget. Below are many, many, many pictures from the Transitions Championship. It was a great two weeks, filled with insight to how this world works and doesn't work, the learning curves and fun times, and teamwork and strife, and fun Tournament crushes and yelling matches. Yep. All in a day's work.

In the end, we can step back and say that we lived the vision we concepted months ago, put on a fantabulous event, and we're looking forward to next March. After we all get a little bit of sleep. Heh.

Riding Shotgun with Ponch pictures
Transitions Championship pictures (mine)
Transitions Championship pictures (official)

Happy bunny, not so happy

Magnet #390 - Happy Bunny Skull and bunnybones

So, it's Youth Wellness day, part of our Healthy Lifestyles in Sight week at the Transitions Championship.

We have 1,200 kids rolling through here today, on top of the beginning of the Pro-Am. I think it'll be a madhouse, and if we just accept that from the beginning, that's half the battle.

Personally, though, I will consider it a victory if we don't lose any of those kids to Big Al the alligator who lives in the water feature down at 4.