When I arrived at work this morning, I tried to recreate the feeling of the very first day. I remember that I was afraid of being late or getting confused during all of the bus transfers, so I left extra early and arrived at 8am. Barely any people were in the atrium, and I walked around the deserted campus taking pictures of Luxo and just breathing in the California air. I had no idea how a movie was made, I had no real skills other than some programming knowledge and maybe some ninja matrix magic, and I didn't know anybody except for the guy who let me into the building. I think his name was Kevin, but I haven't really seen him since, though his friend that he introduced me to is in my yoga class now.
Well, right off the bat today, I kind of killed the mood by getting in at 10:15 am, a good two hours later than I arrived two years ago. Then I spent a good portion of today glued to my desk, cursing at Massive, and not really getting much sun at all. There's also been some... er... "life complications" that have been taking up a lot of my mental capacity, but I won't really get into that.
So, I was thinking that it wasn't really a great day to celebrate an anniversary. But, not every day is perfect. On the other hand, if I packed all of the perfect moments I've had over the last two years, they would overflow a day. Maybe a week. Maybe a month. Even just in the first three days of this week, I've gone to a totally awesome ballet class right in our own breathing room, had a long tea break with Roxanne out on the balcony in the warm totally-not-winter weather, went to a craaazy yoga session that involved these bizarre headstands where our heads were held up between two chairs, spent all lunchtime looking for cabins with Nancy for our epic 20+ person annual ski trip at the end of this month, and rocked out at my daily office dance party that I put on for myself after my officemate leaves and I grab a beer from the beer cooler out in the hallway of the chars pod. And maybe it didn't happen today, but every once in a while I just walk up to the front gates on a fresh early morning, and I get that feeling of giddiness all over again and wonder how on earth I ended up here. Whatever innocence I gave up, I traded for experience and knowledge and, most importantly, so many amazing friendships and days filled with laughter.
To top it off, we're going to get the chance to sign our names in the new cement out by the new building on Friday. A chance to be a permanent part of Pixar! Not to mention my two credits in Cars 2 for chars and crowds, and this character that I shaded just got revealed today:
It's also Chinese New Year, and my dad sent me an email saying how funny it was that I got hired for the first time on Christmas Day 2008, became a full-time employee two days after my birthday 2010, and now am celebrating two years at the company on Chinese New Year 2011. Well, in celebration, I'm going to start reading my new chinese Harry Potter book. Then, I'll finally be able to read chinese. Or at least all about chinese muggles and spells, I guess. 哈利波特!!! Yeah, awesome.
So speaking of Harry Potter... I promise this blog is not going to be all about beautiful men all the time, but I just couldn't resist posting this video of Darren Criss. Just because you work at Pixar doesn't mean that you can't fangirl, right? (If you are saying, "No, but the fact that you are 25 years old does," well... WHATEVER.)
While I was drooling at the screen, I yelled out, "OMG I WILL MAKE FINDING NEMO 2 FOR YOU DARREN!!!" Then I realized that I'm not high enough up to make that happen, and I got kinda sad. But, I'm here, and I'm learning, and who knows?
