laying off the pretty ae

Talk about awkward.

Of all of the complications of an intra-office romance, the last one that I expected was this. I should have known better. This was not just any intra-office romance, this was an ad agency intra-office romance. Layoffs are a way of life at ad agencies, especially when the economy falters as ours has. I should have known better.

The relationship, which was already strained, did not recover. The emotional hardship of being laid off is difficult enough, but to be dating and have to see and talk to a person still employed at the agency that laid you off (and to have your social life centered there, as so many ad people’s is)…well, that can get to be a lot. For anyone.

And it did.

Although the worst part was the senior partner walking up to me to apologize profusely for not telling me first, being more sensitive, etc.

What was I supposed to say?

So I just let it happen and wished that the whole situation would go away. And not just because the relationship was on the rocks, but because the relationship should never have been a concern of the senior partner to begin with.

It was a bad situation. And with that, I learned my lesson: no more intra-office relationships, no matter how pretty the AE.

the pretty ae drives things into a ditch

Last Thursday I saw The Auditioning Pretty AE (she is different from The Pretty Account Supervisor, you may remember)…we went out on the town a bit and had a good time, as you do during a night out on the town. As the night wound down we made out like teenagers for a bit and made vague plans to get drinks sometime.

This had high potential to end well.

On Tuesday morning, after I was back from the wedding I was at over the weekend (which is another post in itself) I get one of those lengthy emails you always kind of hope for. It touched on what a great time she had with me, how she wished I could have stayed longer, how it was too bad that I was away for the weekend, etc and so on. Before you know it we’re kicking emails back and forth at a pretty solid clip.

And then at night it starts up with text messages.

She starts talking about getting together later in what would be this week after she is all moved in (she was moving midweek).

Things are going well. Really well. Too well.

Yesterday afternoon at the office I am riding the elevator with a couple of ladies from the media department at the House of Biz and they’re giving me stink eye the whole way up the elevator. Then I get to my desk and I have an email from a friend that just rips into me saying things like “shame on you!” and “what do you think you are doing hooking up with [The Auditioning Pretty AE]?”

I am confused.

So I email The Auditioning Pretty AE to find out what’s up. I mean, we haven’t known each other long but we do have friends in common…she does work at a different agency in town and we all know that agency life no matter where you live is pretty darn incestuous…and I want to figure out just what the hell is going on because, as a rule, I don’t like getting bitched at without knowing why.

I walk off to a creative review and when I come back maybe an hour later I have a whole mess of emails from her.

I will let the words of her emails to me tell the rest of the story:

- I should have been completely upfront and honest with you from the beginning. By now you know that I have a boyfriend…and that my move this week is a move in with him. Perfect timing, I know.

- I have dated [Official Cuckold of the Story] for three years now and, whether it was with him or in general, I have never had any doubts with where my life was headed. I had it all figured out…until I met you. I have a huge crush on you. When we met at that happy hour I was excited to meet you and every time we hung out since then I looked forward to it like you wouldn’t believe. But even then, I didn’t expect that it would develop into some kind of feelings for you.

- What happened on Thursday night has never happened to me before…I have never even been tempted by someone else, let alone kissed them, while I was dating someone. After it happened I know that I was either going to wake up feeling really guilty or really excited. I woke up feeling excited. And it kind of scared me.

- I am so sorry…believe me, if you you just want to stop talking to me altogether I totally understand. However, and I know that I am stretching, on the off chance that I haven’t completely scared you away I do still want to see you at some point. I hope that you want to see me, too.

She still wants to go out!

Unbelievable. Un-be-liev-a-ble.

I officially retire from life.

everyone loves a wedding…i hope

The dog days of summer have hit hard this August and I have been remiss in posting…I know that I have it. It’s not you, it’s me. Me and my desire to get out and enjoy the days while the weather is good…oh, and this little pinched nerve issue I’ve been having with my shoulder. It makes it less than fun to post.

There is also the situation with The Pretty Account Supervisor.

Sure, she is going to be joining the House of Biz next week and that could make things awkward, but at the same I need a date for my cousin’s wedding this weekend, everyone has fun at weddings as long as they are open bar, and if I play my cards right I think that I could really make it happen.

No bashful pining away this time around.

No, this time around it’s time to make things happen. And what with the summer formlessness giving way to the hardness of fall, the season change that is in the air is telling me that I’m doing the right thing.

I have always been one for signs.

the plot thickens with the pretty ae

How is this for the plot thickening…the Pretty Account Supervisor and I were at happy hour last night with a number of other ad folks (mainly producers, which was fun even though one or two had the LA-like propensity to name drop it like it’s hot) when she casually mentioned that she was leaving her current agency for a new opportunity.

At my shop.

We had a nice, appropriate quasi-date on the weekend that seemed to bode well for a future liaison and had been sending each other cheeky emails and someecards.

No, it hasn’t affected my productivity.

But this recent development just may affect the trajectory of the (I don’t want to say relationship because 1. there isn’t one and 2. that would jinx me and 3. I’m a dude so that word is as distasteful as China’s exploitation of pre-teen gymnasts…yes, I went there and no, I don’t feel bad about doing it), er, relationship (dammit, where’s my thesaurus).

weighing the pretty aes…not literally

Walking to work is a great idea, but on days like today it feels like you’re walking through warm gelatin.

And after walking through said gelatin in hot jeans and an ill-chosen button-down shirt (arrogantly untucked), I am left with the distinct feeling that I really ought to find a way to go home before the scheduled date with The Auditioning Pretty AE.

On a basic interest level, things continue apace, but every time I see her I am left with the question of why irony, detachment and pessimism are the preferred modes of a supposed sophisticate like herself? Nothing can be approached or discussed in absolute terms, no life experience considered and experienced without a jaded tiredness and all emotions seem through the lens of a hipster ironic detachment.

I guess I can’t blame her…she’s a woman of her time.

But it strikes me as a very unfulfilling way to live.

The Pretty Account Supervisor, on the other hand, has a somewhat lower level of interest…yet though I worry that I am falling again into the trap of yearning after someone in a quaint and outdated sort of way, I really can’t help myself.

You wouldn’t be able to, either.

We are seeing each other this weekend.

the pretty ae auditions

As I alluded to in an earlier post, there is a new and improved Pretty AE lurking around the Official Private Life of the Daily Biz…there are two actually.

My brother says that I love drama and I usually disagree, but after spending over a year pining for a co-worker and then moving seamlessly into trying to choose between two pretty account siders at competing agencies (though from the same holding company…which may or may not mean anything), I think that he may have a point.

Here is how we got to this stage in what I am unofficially calling the Pretty AE Auditions (at least around my apartment I am):

As you may recall from an earlier post, I had been set up with a friend of a friend and it actually went well…which isn’t something that you can bank on in one of those set-up situations. I had prepared for the worst. It was considerably better than that.

We have hung out here and there – by no means would I go in two-footed on this one – and I am interested enough to keep going back, as it were, to see how things develop.

Things got interesting late last week when I ran into an old friend that I had sporadically kept in contact with (and then Facebook came along and made our sporadic friendship totally official). Said friend, more Pretty Account Supervisor than mere AE, is really attractive.

Really attractive.

And, based in part on our lengthy Facebook friendship and history that stretches back to both of our baby steps into the business, I know that I like her for more than the whole tall, blond, blue-eyed thing she has going on.

So…where does that leave us?

First, I plan to see how things pan out with The Auditioning Pretty AE. Why let a bird in the hand, pardon the pun, fly away?

Second, I plan to learn the lessons from The Pretty AE to make sure that I don’t dawdle forever on this Pretty Account Supervisor situation that is showing an awful lot of potential.

My brother thinks that maybe I should move beyond advertising and that I might be happy with a teacher or lawyer or something…but that just wouldn’t be quite as interesting. Or filled with drama. And apparently I like drama.

Drama and pretty ad girls.

they won’t let the :30 die

Apologies for cutting and running at the end of last week…things have been busy here at the House of Biz as we have wrapped shooting for our ’09 print campaign for our biggest client and are now in the midst of all of the production that will make those shots look good.

Or at least be approvable by the client.

Not to mention that the copy decks that go with those snazzy new shots are in a veritable typhoon on swirling and contradictory feedback and revisions from the client. It’s been a busy time.

It has not been as busy for me though as it has been for The New Pretty AE – oh yes, there is a new Pretty AE and there will be an update on that situation later today – who has been out in LA for a proper shoot. You know, one of those television kinds.

Everything about a TV shoot reminds me just how overblown the shouting about the “death of the :30 spot” is.

Ignoring the positives about television as an advertising medium – it’s broad reach, the video format that showcases products, the institutional credibility of a brand advertising on television, the fact that people click through channels and come across ads – the simple reason that it won’t die any time soon is that production is far too fun.

It’s too fun for the agency – evidenced by the stories coming back from LA about 3am swims in the ocean and dinner at the Palm.

It’s too fun for the client – what client can resist being treated like royalty in LA and then being on an actual set and imagining themselves as a real big time film guy…after all, this is where movies are made!

There are business reasons to advertise on television, which is nice, because even if there weren’t agencies and clients would find a way to make them happen.

They’re just too much fun.

looking for the real pretty ae

 

It never really worked out with The Original Pretty AE (TM), but I am not one to sit at home and mope…I am a man of action, and happily there are more than enough good looking account execs in town that I have a realistic shot at finding the next Official Pretty AE.

I am not looking specifically for AEs, just in case you are curious.  I don’t have a strange office-based fetish where I will ask them to fill out a brief with strategy, objectives and executional considerations before any physical contact – though that would definitely make for an interesting, er, interaction (especially if Planning were involved to help develop and approve the brief) – but I do have a few friends who are interested in hooking me up with their friends.

And we all know how incestuous this industry can be.

Earlier this week, back before my home internet connection was restored (at some expense to myself, I might add…Cablevision was not accepting of my argument that they should replace the modem that I fried), an Interactive Producer on the brand team I am a part of here at the House of Biz mentioned that she had just the girl for me…she wanted me to meet the “nicest girl in the world ever.”  

I asked her, just to make sure, whether or not that was code for “not good looking at all but personable.”

She sighed and said no, the girl was indeed very good looking.  She then gave me her email and told me not to make an ass of myself when I digitally introduced myself.

I told her that I was a writer by trade and that she could trust me to be charming, at least until we met in person.

This girl is an account exec at one of the biggest of the BDAs in town which is good for two reasons.  First, she doesn’t work at my agency, unlike the Original Pretty AE, and one hopes that this makes it less difficult to actually have a romantic resolution from the situation.  Second, even if it doesn’t go well I can hope to have a friendship/acquantainceship out of it and I don’t have any contacts at this particular agency…that’s right, I am saying that if it doesn’t work out that at least I will have blog fodder.  No, I am not that shallow, I am just trying to have realistic expectations.

Stay tuned and cross your fingers, she and I meet in person next week.

twistori and a view from the bottom

One of my new favorite blogs – I have to replace the old ones, right – is View from the Bottom, written by a young copywriter who I am jealous of because she is prettier than I and, according to advertising tradition, that makes her a more viable source of information. Seeing how I just yanked that last bit of information from her site, it must be true. The site is definitely worth checking out.

Yesterday (it doesn’t look like yesterday because she uses the British dating system, which I always hated even when I lived there and is my one complaint about her blog, but I swear that it is a post from yesterday) she posted about Twistori and echoes my thoughts when she says “I am in love with these sites.”

The site takes simple phrases from Twitter that start with one of I Love, I Hate, I Think, I Believe, I Feel, and I Wish and combines them one after the other in a scroll across the page. You can look at tweets in each of the categories…things like “I LOVE the pretty ae” and “I HATE that she just isn’t into me” and “I THINK it is time to let that thing go” and things like that.

It’s a semi-voyeuristic way to eavesdrop on the basic emotions and feelings of people that you don’t know.

Picking up from View from the Bottom: but what does this mean?

it means i can reach out to people and find reassurance without their knowing it. without having to consider how they might feel about how i feel about their words. it’s a selfish act of self-therapy, to, at its basest, simply know i’m not alone. i can know that i share so many things with so many people i’ve never met, and moreover, never have to meet.

i don’t need to share my life story with them on Facebook chat…i can just watch the world unfold around me in this faux sense of digital peace. it’s pixelated zen.

the receptionist & the pretty ae

A buddy of mine has happened upon the agency and me out the past few times we have done it up and, rightly since there are a lot of really good looking girls here, he is interested in one of my co-workers. I don’t know that she has noticed him yet. Maybe next time. Me, I am still having the occasional thought about The Pretty AE, especially since she has moved on to a different agency.

Makes it seem a little more above board and all that.

Because I don’t want to, as Where’s My Jetpack? is concerned might happen, turn into a stalker, I decided to keep it low-key this weekend…and to focus on my other unattainable crush:

Jenna Fischer, if you ever have the desire to go slumming with a New York-based copywriter, please email me. Beyond my obsession with you and The Pretty AE I am not a weird dude.

I swear.