If you are in the U.S. or are an American abroad you surely know that today is Thanksgiving. Most likely your American friends are wishing each other “Happy Turkey Day” and expressing thanks for many things including their friendships. Cherie sent out a heartfelt wish of happiness and expression of thanks for the many friends within the VWM family. My first reaction was… “oh how nice.” And then “oh crap… I guess I need to say something back.” So in my classic way, I expressed my regret at having to be warm and fuzzy and said “ditto”. Now my co-workers probably saw that and thought little of it. I’m not known for gushing love and happy bunnies. Hopefully they just laughed or at least smirked and went on with their happy day.
Perhaps it was because it was 8 a.m. in the morning that I responded since I am not a morning person and since I am on vacation I am not appreciating having to get up early. Or perhaps it is because I am on vacation with my RL family and while I love them I hold strongly that family vacations are an oxymoron. They are work. Trying to coordinate what everyone wants to do. Making sure everyone is happy. We have a party of about 26 folks my uncle is trying to coordinate which includes babies from the East Coast in the Pacific Coast timezone (three hour difference). I love seeing my second cousins and their children. My awesome uncle who is the consummate host. And of course my cousins who when we get together cause everyone else’s eyes to glaze over as we debate the technology of adjusting color on a slide projector for two hours. But amidst all this… I really miss SL and it isn’t because I’m addicted to organizing my inventory, it is because as the saying goes ‘Friends are the family you choose for ourselves’.
This afternoon I managed to grab some time to myself and log in to SL to do some mindless inventory organizing. I couldn’t resist but IM some folks I don’t speak to so often and had some nice chats. I did do a little work. I can’t seem NOT to but mostly I just sincerely wanted to connect with some people and that’s when I realized. This really is my support network. These are my friends. I look at my friends list and (almost) everyone I remember how we became friends. I remember how I was surprised at how big name designers were so friendly and down to earth. How random people I met in a store and what started as a question became an interesting conversation and we friended because (I think) when you meet someone that you can talk to and is kind, you just want to hold on to them because maybe some day in the future you will come across something helpful for them or they will for you and you genuinely care for their well being. Some I”ve friended simply for business but when I think of services I need.. they are the first I go to. They may not have time to chat, but I know what they’ve done for me is quality so it is kind of a no brainer when I need something in the future…. If they don’t do it, I trust them to recommend someone good. And then there are those I’ve met in groups or classes and our paths have taken us in much different directions but hopefully they know if they ever need something they can ask and I feel if I need something, information, or what have you… I can IM them and we get a chance to catch up on each other’s SLives because like the others… I genuinely am interested.
Of course those at VWM know me quite well – we truly have become a family with our own interesting dynamics. I think working with people is the best test of compatibility as well as friendship. The fact that everyone responds with thanks with loving and sincere comments… clearly they all have taken a moment to consider how fortunate we are to be doing something we *choose* to do as work with people that are very talented and we all… on most days… get along. LOL. So maybe I will surprise them or maybe they know me better than I know myself but I have to express my warm and fuzzy in public and for the world to know. I am so thankful for so many people in my SLife… and personally, their friendship means alot to me in my RL too. Because without them, my RL would simply not be bearable. We could go in to why and how that could possibly be but we may need to bring in some consultants on psychology to really explain it all.
I was lucky enough to meet Cherie through luck. Because of a friend, TraLove Pinazzo, Emma Portilo found out that I had a background in marketing and brought me in to meet the partners at the time. Through some oddity, they decided to hire me and while she didn’t like me at first, Cherie and I became friends. Today I think that Cherie is my long lost sister from another mother. I look up to her, admire not only her creative talent but also her wisdom and talent in working with so many personalities.
I met Sarah through a good friend Charity Steampunk. And he I think since has forgiven me but we managed to snatch her as our managing editor and now Editor in Chief. I liked Sarah right away. She has got a wicked sense of humor. Don’t believe that innocent face. The girl can take on any stand-up comedian on a good day. Perhaps that comes with being a writer. She also has the patience of a saint. Tolerates my end of month stress outs and she works tirelessly to get the publication out on time which she has more consistently than we ever have in the past.
I don’t know how we got so lucky to hire Jade Tison as our graphic designer. If you’ve seen the last few issues you probably have noticed a change or at least an increase in the consistency and clean artistry of our layout. I didn’t know her well until I found out she was a resource for some personal advice I was needing. I approached her and she immediately was receptive and helpful. She fully embraced my questions and helped this silly little novice ask all the silly questions any noobie does on any given topic. I consider her now a sister of sorts and will be forever appreciative. She was there for me at an important time in my life – one that has been life changing for the good.
I want to tell more stories of how I got to know Jessi and Nemi, Dark and Will… how I miss some of our past employees Ricky and Hernia and Amita and finally I could write a book on getting to know Alex. But alas someone is calling me to go to cocktail hour…. the RL family is gathering. Suffice to say, each person I work with at VWM *is* talented. If they weren’t they wouldn’t be here. They’d get bored and find something else more interesting to do because each one is someone who wants to work and wants to contribute to this great thing which is Scruplz and My Face Model Pool and Peoplz. So I will just finish up with this… among many things, today I am thankful To Mallory Luke and Cherie Parker who founded Scruplz and Barney Roundel and Emma Portilo who joined them shortly after. I am thankful to Colby who contributed to its growth. Bliss who made Peoplz what it was. Jessi who ran On Edge Radio successfully. Ali who was the driving force for so long and an inspiration for many to attempt to work just as hard as she did and then later as a partner she contributed in ways to make sure that VWM was able to continue throughout some transition. And I’m thankful to Alex has always been a supporter in the background as a sim sponsor, advertising sponsor, and now a partner. He never asked for anything – not even partnership – but we are finding that duh… he has quite a bit to contribute in other ways. So thank you to all of you who have made this endeavor what it is. It has in someways literally been a lifesaver for me and continues to be a catalyst in my life for personal growth.
So in classic warm fuzzy and even cheesey form… I will say Thanksgiving is a good day to thank our founding fathers of our country as well as the founding “folks” of this entity I love so dearly. Cheers to friends and family, founding fathers and mothers, and the foundations that hold us up in what ever form or fashion that they do. I do love you all. Really I do but shhh don’t tell anyone. It’ll ruin my reputation for being a bish.
