Hello from the other side.

I currently work freelance from home and the transition has been remarkable, in a study of the human psyche kind of way.

The other day I asked my husband what day it was.

It was MONDAY.

My weeks have melted together the same way Hulu and reality have. A friend came over the other day and asked me if I had been remembering to get dressed every day. When I told him I HAD gotten dressed that day, my husband took a photo to show me my truth.

joggers or hammer pants?

That all said, I’m now two months deep into this lifestyle and I feel like I am finally starting to see the silver lining (some may even say gold) of working from home. Here is the best advice I can give to anyone looking to army crawl their way out of bed and into a position of productivity.

EMBRACE ERGONOMICS

Did you know you can throw your neck out from working on a couch 40+ hrs a week? Me neither. Save yourself the trouble of meeting strange LA chiropractors and get yourself a grown up work station.

MEET YOURSELF

On Sunday nights I make myself a rough schedule of things I need to do during the week. I block off hours in my calendar for various projects and use it as a way to stay on a set schedule. This combined with the magical feeling that comes from checking off To Do List boxes helps me keep myself in check.

Why is this important? Because time speeds up when you don’t have something to attach it to. Here is a personal reenactment of what it feels like.

CUT TIES WITH SLOTH VIDEOS, POLITICAL POSTS AND NETFLIX SERIES

Change your Hulu, Netflix and Facebook passwords or make a rule that you can’t look at them until after 6pm. You know why.

GO OUTSIDE

Go outside before it becomes intimidating. Your home will slowly become a prison and a sanctuary at the same time. It will drive you insane to be caged up, but you will also find yourself taking on hermit-like tendencies like craving the comfort of having full control of the thermostat and not having to talk to anyone. Resist the urge to turn into a recluse. Brave the sunlight and walk to the grocery store to get that butter.

BE WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE

Give yourself a reason to be around people every week. Why? Because after two weeks without speaking to another human, you start to forget sentence structure. The other day I used the word ‘ecosystem’ to describe an office full of people. Robotic expression isn’t something that is often fully appreciated by others.

ABANDON SWEATS

It’s surprisingly hard to be a go getter wearing ACDC pajama pants. Even if they do have lightening bolts running down the sides.

WORK ELSEWHERE

Work somewhere else for at least 2-4 hours a day. I recommend co-working spaces. Why? They help you meet people, find clients and gift you with that pinch of drama you secretly need in your life.

Is there really a sniper that works in my building?

Why are these doors 17-feet tall?

Why does this building have a walk-in safe that stores a 300-year-old jaguar?

These are the thrilling questions I get to ask myself now that I work in a co-working space that was converted from a retired millionaire’s lair.

EMBRACE YOUR SEMESTER SCHEDULE

Remember all those things you told yourself you would do if you didn’t have to go to work? Do them.

I am currently taking comedy sketch classes, I help hilarious kids write stories about donut-seeking hedgehogs at a local non-profit, and I do grown up things like meeting with financial advisors to ask them if they are lying to my face about mutual funds.

My basic approach to life has become denying that I’ve graduated college and looking at my 6-month calendar like a semester. I schedule the life lessons I want to learn and let the ones I don’t want to learn come naturally on their own – from making bad decisions (like losing my car key in a mountain of sand.)

IN CONCLUSION

Change is hard. No matter the side of the fence. But if you land on this one remember that where there is a will there is a way. And where there is a nest of tangles, there is a brush.

The key to being a self-motivator is simply solving one problem at a time until you get the hang of it. It’s an internal study of what makes you tick and if you can solve the puzzle you’ll be better off for it.

This video captures the energy of our favorite day with some really great people and we are so excited to share it with all of you.

Carly & Eric from Wade on Vimeo.

A slow clap goes out to film at its finest. Thank you Wade. I will be spending the next four hours on my couch clicking the replay button.

If you haven’t ever been in a class that focuses on mindfulness BEWARE. During these kinds of exercises you are told to listen intently to the person speaking instead of rehearsing what you are going to say. And for people who hate talking in front of others this experience feels like being asked to die a painfully unplanned death.

One by one we went around the room. When it was my turn I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind.

“I GOT BANGS.”

The once quiet room erupted with suppressed squeals from all the ladies in the class. Later I realized why. My story wasn’t at all groundbreaking, it was just relatable.

Afterwards, an older woman explained to me how she left an expresso machine in her basement for 6 years because she was too afraid she wouldn’t be able to learn how to use it.

Sometimes we keep the dumbest little things in closets because we don’t think we have enough courage or energy to grit our teeth and take a peek at what’s behind those doors.

Last week I threw caution to the wind. Kind of.

I carefully photoshopped my face onto three different celebrity photos of women with bangs before driving to a salon.

I then watched as a bass guitarist named Happy grazed a pair of scissors across my forehead.

His only criteria? “If you just had a break up, I won’t do bangs.”

Otherwise.

Girl, you got this.

“I have an idea,” she said.

If it was any other human, I wouldn’t have been as interested to hear it. But when Erica Hawkins says she has an idea, it’s always a good one.

Erica comes from a family of dreamers who have an endless amount of headbands, vintage sweaters and 80’s swimwear that they wear in any thousand of different combinations. Family activities consist of frolicking at the beach or making music videos on old camcorders. It’s not uncommon to see a Hawkins cry from excitement, sadness, happiness and nostalgia all in the same sentence. And it’s even more uncommon to see one of them without a pair of roller skates.

I leaned in to the phone, “Tell meeeee.”

“While you are visiting Utah, let’s kidnap all our pregnant friends dressed as their children’s fairy godmothers. Do you have an extra set of fairy wings?”

And that’s when we decided to throw a baby shower the way they were always meant to be thrown.

See our guide below.

For this activity you will need:
• Amelia Bedelia books
• A few sets of fairy wings and tutu’s
• A Subaru from the 80’s
• Two bundles of wood
• Blind folds
• Wool blankets
• A fire starter kit
• Magelby’s on Speed Dial

Step 1: Kidnap each baby mama at the crack of dawn. We chose a 6:30am start time.

Step 2: Sneak up on them in a variety of ways and strategically get them out of the house in any combination of pajamas and coats.

Suggested tactics include: calling them and saying, “I think your car is stolen, have you checked your driveway?” or even better surprising them while they are still in bed.

Step 3: Use blind folds to throw them off track, unless they are newly pregnant because you don’t want them to throw up in your car.

Step 4: Pick up Magelby’s pumpkin pancakes

Step 5: Park at the mouth of Provo canyon, build a fire and pass out contracts to make your fairy godmotherhood official. End the ceremony by taking turns reading Amelia Bedilia books and squealing over baby onesies.

You might be wondering, “How would my traditional set of suburban moms react to this type of shower?”

Our guests rated this fairy kidnapping a 10 out of 10. Flying colors.

Other FAQ’s we have include, “What about decorations?”

Great question. We used three different color sets of fall leaves to set the tone for the event as well as mismatched wool blankets to bring the look together.

“Will people think this is weird?”

Most traditional baby shower games are much weirder: For example, have you ever suffered silently as you tried to guess a series of fun size candy bars mashed up in diapers like poop? Yeah I thought so.

So there you have it, a guide to the perfect baby shower.

In all honesty, I loved everything about this day. You always trick yourself into thinking it would be weird to show up on an old friends doorstep that you haven’t talked to in forever. And that somehow the years or distance have changed the fact that you used to eat cereal for dinner together and egg each other’s ex boyfriends apartments. But it never does. That friendship is always still right there.

And that spur of the moment magic is still there too. The only thing keeping anyone from having that immature, laughable goodness is ourselves. Let’s bring it back to what’s real guys: prank calls, pancakes and some campfire girl talk with your sisterhood. Because it doesn’t get any better.

For the last three months, every Wednesday I work a jam packed day and shuffle into class dinner-less to focus my blurry eyes on little stitches. Recently, this resulted in me accidentally sewing my finger. When I originally said, “I want to make swimsuits,” the vision in my brain looked less bloody and more like me waving a wand and doing cartwheels on the beach in Lisa Frank polyester blends.

Image Source: Billboard

And while I still really love it, I’m torn. You can only have so many passions projects before your divided attention makes you mediocre at a lot of things.

Which brings me to the question of the day: When is it okay to give up?

I asked myself this question every day a few months ago when I attempted to do a Paleo Diet. I asked Eric 3X per day until he begged me to just eat a cookie and get it over with.

I grew up believing that you never give up and you see things through to the end. But when college gave me the freedom to say no to things more often, I lost that gritty John Wayne angel on my shoulder that always told me to finish the job.

And sometimes, I think that’s okay. We start projects as a way to learn that they aren’t for us or that they were a really bad idea in the first place. It’s an uncomfortable and essential way to figure out what we are really good at.

But the question still remains, how long do you give something a chance? And when do you chalk something up as a learning experience vs. a minor road bump?

Here’s are my favorite results from Google:

1. When you are constantly questioning yourself, feeling as though every decision you make is less based on what you want and more based on what you think is “appropriate”
2. When the process of getting to the end goal drains you more than it challenges or inspires you.
3. When you’re only holding on because you want something to show for your investment.
4. When the main reason you haven’t given up yet is because you’re afraid of what others would say about you if you did.
5. When giving up would increase your quality of life.
6. When you have a bigger dream and better plan.
7. When it isn’t making you a better person or the person you would like to be.

Let us all ponder the projects in our lives that are ready to go to a better place.

Sources for the Quotes Above

Elite Daily: It’s Okay to Give Up on Your Dreams
Thought Catalogue: When It’s Okay to Give Up
Thought Catalogue: Here’s When It’s Okay to Give Up On a Dream

Feature Image Source: Second Life

In the morning, I set up my desk next to two of my best friends and plugged in. In the afternoon, I put in my two weeks and plugged out.

It’s been 3.5 years since I crammed everything I owned into my little red Mazda and drove to LA from the hymn-singing heart of Salt Lake City, Utah.

It’s been 3.4 years since I had my first interview in BLITZ’s old, burger smelling building with strange corridors lined with Ikea creations.

I remember stepping out onto the balcony of that office for the first time and seeing possibility in the form of rows of christmas lights and whaling street performers.

And I remember the first day I was invited to lunch by a group of coworkers that would become my closest friends and confidants.

I love them.

I love them so much that if you snarkely responded, “Then why don’t you marry them.” I would tell you I already have. I married my desk mate last year in the Santa Monica mountains.

I am a loyal human that has a hard time letting go of a legacy of office humor and creativity. I have kept one foot on this place at all times because it gave me a new chapter in my life when I needed it most. It gave me an ocean to calm my conservative nerves, a cover band to head bang with in motorcycle helmets, a husband that bear hugs me everyday and an uncontrollable addiction to Tender Greens mashed potatoes. How could I ever leave it?

But in remembering the old times, and the energy of a small agency about to do real big things, I remember how important it is to stay as Steve Job’s put it “Young and hungry.” I would be doing the heart of this place a disservice if I declined an opportunity that made my hairs stand on end because it meant rolling up my sleeves and putting my passions to the ground floor in a whole new chapter.

I don’t want to look back at my life years from now and chunk it all together in a routine that I got lost in. It would be a slap in the face to the very principles that built the spirit of BLITZ long ago. So it’s with a lot of heartache and a bunch of nostalgia that I trade in two more weeks of comfort for a pair of wide eyes and a very strong pulse.

Let’s do this.

Chapter 2: That Time I Dropped Everything I Was Doing to Sell Bicycles.

*Full disclosure this post was written two weeks ago, but because of a few logistics I am sharing it today.

I was walking along the dock watching a clown make balloon animals synchronized to Michael Jackson songs when I noticed on the deck below that a man had kicked a flopping fish as if he was disappointed with its size and walked away.

The fish was left to its own fate, flopping furiously to get away.

A few kids were watching with big eyes as one parent explained, “It’s okay, there are tons of little fish in the sea.”

My heart started to pound as the tune of Billie Jean pumped through my blood.

I sped walked my giraffe legs down to the bottom of the ramp to see the last bit of hope fade from this little fish’s eyes.

Without overthinking it, I picked up the fish and gracefully dropped it back into the ocean.

As its last fin slipped from my finger tips I heard a man scream and turned to see a fisherman furiously waving his arms and yelling NO, NO, NO, No!!!!!

We had a stare down as he tried to explain in broken english what I had done.

I had thrown away his dinner.

Embarrassed I blushed and offered him money to pay for the fish. I turned to realize more people had gathered to watch the commotion.

An Italian man yelled from the balcony above.

“It wasn’t meant to be!” He opened his hands to the sky, “She is an angel that came to save the fish!!”

Tears welled up in his eyes as he laughed breathlessly.

I apologized to the fisherman and slipped him $20. I walked away red faced, trying to hold back my embarrassment.

I haven’t stopped thinking about it.

I recently watched a movie called The Scent of a Woman. There is an amazing speech at the end where the main character yells into a room of judges:

“Now I have come to the crossroads in my life. I always knew what the right path was. Without exception, I knew. But I never took it. You know why? It was too damn hard.”

There are times we come to crossroads in our lives, moments where we struggle to take our next step. But, I think he is right when he says that somewhere deep down in our hearts we know. It’s our gut reaction. The first flutter of feeling that spreads into our blood streams.

Deep down, I knew that yesterday I was supposed to be an angel to a little fish. Naive as it may have been.

And as stupid as it was, I can’t say I am sorry. A little fish needed help. And for once I listened.

That night, a little fish got home safely to its family.

I got home safely to my worried husband.

And we were all so happy to see each other.

I have always felt that this question comes from the most unstable parts of our souls. The parts we let others feed. The parts that are lazy. The parts that memorize words like ‘undeserving’ and ‘untalented.’

This destructive cloud often catches up to me after the initial excitement of the beginning of a journey and sits on my head until I make my next move.

Take a step forward or stop.

I started this blog a few years ago because I needed a place to write that had no rules and let me spill my guts without any structure.

For a long time, I really loved it.

It felt freeing to be heard and I loved connecting with people in similar situations.

Writing was a therapeutic way to understand myself and make sense of the world around me.

It was my life source.

But the fear of not being able to please everyone with the things I said began to overtake me, slowly but surely. And the time investment I put into my blog in comparison to the money I earned from it ($2.00 per month) creeped up into the part of my brain that counts dollar bills.

I told myself: This is stupid.

That one sentence has kept me from writing for 8 months. It’s amazing how powerful a thought can be and how quickly it can stop motion.

So, what triggered me to publish a post on my abandoned blog?

Two months ago, I hit a wall. I felt like a zombie without a purpose.

I needed a new passion project, so I wrote a long list of things I love.

I did some research, created a plan that I was excited about and sheepishly mentioned it to my husband.

I wanted to learn to make swimsuits.

He cheered. And told everyone we know about it.

I was mortified.

I enrolled myself in night classes. He cheered again.

When I came home from my first lesson, he asked about every detail.

When I calculated how much this ‘passion project’ would cost, he wrapped it up into a present and gave it to me for my birthday.

Until one day I realized, I didn’t think my idea was stupid. And I realized I don’t think writing a blog for no reason is stupid either.

It took 8 months, but here’s what I have learned:

1) Passion is a life source, everyone needs it.
2) Nothing that is important to you is ever dumb.
3) I really love my husband. And I really love people in general who never look at anything half baked with skeptical eyes but instead see potential.

I am so grateful for humans in this world who cheer for small successes and anxiously stay tuned for the next ones. And individuals who recognize little batches of bravery and do what they can to help encourage more of it. Because for people like me who need a bit of a push, you make a world of difference.

So, without further adieu, I would like to announce:

I am back. I am passionate. And I have some sick PJ pants to show you from my first sewing class.

Celebratory spin.

And I can’t think of any other explanation than God’s love works through human beings, to explain why three years ago a red-head named Greg would respond to an accidental LinkedIn request with the snarky subject line: ‘connect with no message?’

Or why he would spend his holiday season interrogating me about my social profiles and asking if I would like to get a cup of coffee to talk about working at BLITZ, an agency that was out of my league and out of my state.

All because: he was from a small town too.

I can’t give any other reason for why my now boss met with me for about 15 minutes before shrugging his shoulders and saying, “you seem like a good fit.” I was a conservative blonde from Utah whose experience was rooted in the schemes of black hat SEO and marketing. Nothing in my resume would have spoken to a square fitting into a round hole. Lucky for me, Italian New Yorker’s have big hearts and a better sense about these things.

I can’t attribute any other guess as to why I walked out of the interview and into an elevator timed perfectly to meet a buttoned-up John Liu with an immediate feeling that we were already friends and that I was about to become his life pupil. “Do you like it here?” I asked, terrified of the idea of moving. He opened his arms wide with a fantastic motion and said something about the weather that was so profound, simple, and comforting that I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied with that being the only question I ever asked him. I had to come back. We had to be coworkers.

And, I can’t think of any other way that I would end up walking into my first day of work to be greeted by two dimples and a pair of blue eyes that would become my soul mate and in the same sentence a wrecking ball of unpredictability. There couldn’t have been two more opposite human beings in this world. And two opposite human beings could never have fallen for each other in any other scenario than to be forced to sit next to each other for two years in sickness, in health, through farts, and ocean breezes, through arguments and office comradery till one day something changed.

Time and laughter exhausted us of our pride and we saw each other for what we really were:

a team,

a yin and a yang,

a fish that learned to fly,

a bird that learned to swim,

and two people who really love kissing in the ocean.

A miracle is a string of blessings that interconnect so flawlessly that an electric current of love and gratitude consumes your entire being. I feel so lucky and at the same time, I feel like luck had nothing to do with it. Love in its most divine, natural form did.

And when something like that gets down on one knee, you say yes.

Note: I realize this post is really cheesy, but I figured if there is any time to write really cheesy blog posts it’s now. We are so excited to be getting married. You can learn more about our wedding here.

A month ago my office was introduced to our latest red hen called DoorDash.

DoorDash is a new food delivery service that has recently expanded its services to LA, including Santa Monica. Because they saw John Liu’s foodie Facebook posts and listened to my email rants about how our coworkers love eating, they chose our office to do a free test run of their food delivery service. Another blog collaboration with John Liu? Yes, you lucky dogs. Below is his review about our experience.

The Pro’s of Using DoorDash

1. It is an Online Food Delivery Service

I like that I can filter restaurants in my area by business hours and cuisine and search for specific food items instead of having to dig through a pile of menus. When I order the restaurant gets a printed sheet sent to them with my exact order on it, instead of my having to dictate it over the phone to someone in a busy, crowded place of business. I can pay with my credit card via the website, so I don’t have to read it over the phone to a random stranger, and I don’t even have to have it on hand every time. In general, ordering online is just a better experience than calling, and it’s convenient to visit one website instead of many different ones.

2. Has a great restaurant selection

For an online food delivery service to be useful, it has to have a good list of restaurants to choose from. DoorDash has a very solid selection, including several great places I haven’t seen on competing services.

3. Allows for group orders

This is a great feature that is missing from many competitors. DoorDash allows any user to create a group order, without having to sign up for a corporate account.

[Carly Bird Note: Their group ordering feature is flawless. You can create an order and send out a link to all of your coworkers to easily add what they would like to eat. It also tells you what each person has ordered and how much they spent to make it easy to break up the bill afterward. I once used a service that would time your group order and whoever didn’t add on their menu item in the 5 minute time slot would lose their chance. It was a terrifying experience for people who get anxiety making decisions or for the guy that went to the bathroom and missed out on ordering entirely. Long story short: this process is hassle free, the order doesn’t time out, and it’s easy for other people to contribute to the group order making it a nice solution for coordinating client or coworker lunches. ]

4. Great communication and customer service

Once you’ve placed your order, DoorDash updates you with text messages on the status of your food so you know when your order has been picked up and is on its way to you. One of the most annoying parts of the food ordering experience is the uncertainty of when it’s going to arrive – Doordash does about as good a job as possible minimizing that.

If you order out a lot, eventually you’ll run into some issues. The restaurant is suddenly closed and didn’t notify the delivery service. They are out of the item you ordered. There’s a huge pileup between the restaurant and your place. Doordash customer service does a great job of proactively contacting you as soon as possible and finding a good solution for you.

5. Try it for free!

DoorDash is a great service and it does comes with a price. Each order has a $7 delivery fee, plus tip (And you are a terrible person if you don’t tip). However, right now your first order on Doordash gets free delivery and you can earn credits by referring them to your friends. There’s really no reason not to try it at least once.

[Carly Bird Note: Also, because you are reading CarlyBird.com you will get another free delivery by using the code: CARLYBIRD. That’s two free deliveries. That’s two nights you can sit at home in your underwear. ]

6. Order syncing between mobile app and desktop.

There is a mobile app, and it works well, and it has live syncing between desktop and mobile. Pretty sweet.

Additional Thoughts and Joint Conclusion

DoorDash is still a new service so it has room for improvement in terms of their website and app usability. There’s certain functionality you would expect that they don’t have, like the ability to sort or filter restaurants or edit an item in your shopping cart. They also only deliver within specific time windows (Right now DoorDash only accepts orders from 11:30 AM- 2:00PM & 3:00PM on weekends- and then 5:00 PM -10:00PM. These are typically the standard times we order anyway, but thought we should mention it for those late-night foodies and early bird brunchers.) However, overall their customer service, group ordering functionality, and speed make them a top contender for food delivery in the LA area and one of our personal favorites.

Try them out and tell us what you think!