1. Jim Sturgess – After seeing Across the Universe last weekend, he has skyrocketed to the top of my list. My teenybopper self fell for him after seeing just one face he made in the movie. Please see the face he makes at 2:00 in this video. It might just be me, but I love it. Not to mention he can sing and has a british accent. 

Weather Forecast for New York City:

Monday: Rain and thunderstorms
Tuesday: Partly cloudy with a chance of rain
Wednesday: Mostly sunny
Thursday: Few showers
Friday: Few showers

Since a higher being (or the effects of global warming) has decided to make the next few weeks of my life very difficult by soaking New York City with a minor flood, I thought it would be appropriate to write about what a Working Girl should wear in the case of a sudden downpour or just a smattering or even a light sprinkle of rain during her commute to and from the office using my new favorite website Polyvore.

If you couldn’t tell from my little rant above, I’m not a huge fan of rain especially because I now live in the city. This ultimately means that on my way to the office the humidity will make my hair frizz, my pants will be soaked, and therefore I will be cranky all day long.

To avoid becoming cranky, a Working Girl needs to make sure she has three items in her wardrobe – staples that every Working Girl should splurge on to make sure she is safe from even the smallest drizzle.

A nice trench coat
The coat featured above is a Burberry Islington nylon trench that is unfortunately sold out (due to popular demand) — not to mention very much out of my price range. But a good quality, classic trench coat is a must-have for any Working Girl. Not only does it keep the rain away, it is a timeless wardrobe piece that has never gone out of style. The look is not only very Holly Golightly in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” circa 1961 but also very Blair Waldorf in “Gossip Girl” circa 2008 (yes, I watch teen drama – don’t judge). I snagged my classic khaki trench from Banana Republic on sale last spring so look for some good deals as spring turns into summer.

A snazzy pair of rain boots
Rain repellent galoshes are essential in keeping puddles in the streets where they belong and therefore off your pants and out of your shoes. There is nothing I hate more than having wet shoes/socks/feet all day at work. I know, not a pleasant visual. The rain boots featured above are both colorful and playful and will make a great addition to a classic trench. The ultimate, timeless pair of rain boots to have are Hunter boots from the UK. A way to make them more memorable? Try them in this lime green hue. If you’re on a budget, try Target for more reasonably priced version of the classic Scottish wellies.

An umbrella (ella, ella, eh)
The most important of all accessories when preparing to battle the rain is having a truly invincible umbrella. An umbrella that deal with crazy throw-you-to-the-ground wind and can beat off sleet and even snow if need be. My vote for best umbrella goes to the “bubble umbrella” featured above. Not only will it not turn inside out if faced with extreme wind conditions, but it will also help keep your hair frizz-free since it creates a “bubble” over your shiny locks. Another definite plus to this umbrella is its price tag – $16.99 at Target.

My rainy day wardrobe almost makes me want the rain to stay a few more days. Almost.

Bartender: Here you go.
Dwight: Wait a minute what is this? I didn’t order this.
Bartender: For you. [points to basketball players] From them.
Dwight: Oh. [pours out the drink]
Ryan’s friend: What are you doing man?
Dwight: Not safe. Anything could’ve been in there. [to the girls] Nice try.

And the quest for someone to “bear” Michael’s fruit continues.

Ryan, former temp turned New York manager, comes back to the Scranton office to talk to the branch about sales and why they need to stay in on a Saturday to convert their sales that they made on the phone to sales made on the Internet which couldn’t originally be made on the Internet because of a little sexual predator problem the new Dunder Miflin social network had. To which Kelly responds, “If I had made a website that had this many problems, I would kill myself.” Classic. Which reminds me, can we please get more Kelly-isms on this show? Thanks.

While there Ryan admits that he gets “unreal” girls at the clubs in New York, which of course translates to Michael as an open invitation to stalk him by getting Ryan’s whereabouts from his assistant, because according to Michael it’s not the horniness, it’s the loneliness and he needs a girlfriend STAT (yes, caps were necessary).

Michael and Dwight enter Club Prerogative (love the Britney reference!) and surprise, surprise Ryan is actually excited to see them. And it seems that they only friend Ryan has is a very, very short bearded man who Dwight says resembles a J.R. Tolkein character. I have to agree with Dwight on this one. Later in the episode Dwight makes out (yes, full on tongues a real woman) who he refers to as an Amazon. To Dwight, New York is like a sci-fi fantasy novel. And again, I would have to agree with him.

Back in Scranton, Jim & Pam come up with the brilliant idea to convince the whole office to just work late on a Friday instead of coming into work on a Saturday. Everyone agrees and are then stunned to find out that the parking lot has been locked and they are now stuck in the office. Ok, so blah blah Jim calls the security guard, they can’t remember his name blah blah. The best part of this entire plot is when Pam winds up to throw a football and clobbers Meredith right in the face.

And I would love to high-five whoever wrote the extra super awkward scene where Toby practically paws Pam right in front of the entire office. He then announces that he is moving to Costa Rica and is “going to jump the fence and jog home now”. Superb writing.

Ryan has a drug problem? Yikes, bikes. Even more frightening, letting Michael and Dwight sleep in his apartment. I wouldn’t want to see the aftermath of that in the morning.

Sidenote: As WG1 and I watched Michael order chicken fingers and a Midori Sour at the nightclub, WG1 turned to me and said, “That sounds like the greatest meal ever.”

Indeed, it does WG1. Now I know what to get you for your next birthday meal.

Today I feel like complaining. Today was a bad day. It wasn’t the worst day I’ve had at work. I didn’t cry in the bathroom, but I wanted to. 

‘A Working Girl in the …’ is a post written by a contributing writer that appears on Working Girl twice a month. This week’s post was written by a Working Girl from Dallas, Texas about her career as an entry-level advertising executive.

It seems like only a year ago I was graduating from UNC, planning my big move out to Dallas, Texas, and patting myself on the back for snagging a job in advertising. Oh, wait, rewind and retract — that was only a year ago. Is it just me or do we automatically age five years after college graduation? Since becoming a Working Girl several phrases have entered my vocabulary that I didn’t think would pass from my lips just a few months after being able to win five straight games of beer pong. “Oh, no, I couldn’t possibly have another – I wouldn’t want to be hung over tomorrow,” or the common, “I should be getting home. It’s getting late.” Check your watch after I let these words escape and it’s probably only 9:00 p.m. But since graduation, I start getting tired around 8:30 p.m. and once I hit that couch there is no peeling me away.

Contrary to what you might believe, we Dallas girls don’t wear cowboy boots to work (at least not every day) or talk about the latest country diva to grace CMT around the water-cooler. In fact, Dallas jumps on the bandwagon of every new trend in dining and fashion making Dallas essentially the New York City of the Southwest (or at least that’s what Dallas-ites would like to believe).

Dallas is most famous for its pro sports, shopping, restaurants, nightlife and the ever present $30,000 millionaire. Not familiar? This is the Working Girl or Boy who leave their house in the latest designer threads and drive a BMW 3-series (but live in dumps and eat Ramen noodles for every meal unless they are throwing down hundred dollar bills at the trendy, new restaurant down the street). It’s a whole different breed of the Working Girl and Boy.

Not able to reach the exclusive status of a $30,000 millionaire based on my entry-level salary, I settle for a simpler life as an Assistant Account Executive at a small advertising agency in an area just outside of Dallas. Day to day my job consists of proof-reading advertisements, dealing with some of the most uneducated clients you can imagine, and writing new business proposals (this being the most entertaining part of my job), along with several other menial tasks. While I may complain a little about the menial tasks, I do enjoy my job and I’m especially proud that I’ve managed to snag a career in the same field as my college major. I can’t help but feel a sense of pride and accomplishment that I actually learned something in between the late night eating and fraternity parties.

Eventually, my goal is to tack on “senior” to the front of my semi-legit title (I must say having the word “executive” in my title does make me feel smidge important – but only a smidge). My other major goal is to master the art of balancing the different working world dynamics and personalities. For example, I’ve mastered the acting-like-I-care smile when my boss feels the need to delve into the details of her oh-so disgusting sex life. Now I just have to perfect figuring out who you can trust and who is just out to step on you to get to the top is a tricky one.

That, and how to stay up past 9 p.m. on a weekday.

Last night’s episode of The Hills had nothing to do with work, with the exception of the first 3 minutes. At first, I wasn’t going to post about the episode but I like to think you all come back here every week for my witty comments about Lauren, Heidi, Audrina and Whitney. So here we go:

I love it when episodes of The Hills begin at People’s Revolution. It means Kelly Cutrone is lurking around somewhere, wearing black and looking greasy. No work talk though. Only that Whitney is glad she has someone to talk to now that Lauren is working with her. I thought Whitney would be better at making friends. Maybe Jessica made the staff turn on her.

I know I have mentioned an obscene amount of times on this blog just how much work I’ve been doing since I got promoted in February, so I apologize but it has to be done again. I have a lot of work. One might even say that I was being overworked. So instead of quitting (which was ‘Plan A’), I asked The Boss if I could hire an intern (which was ‘Plan B’). My wishes were granted in the form of our new intern for the sales and marketing departments. This means I have to share her with the sales team which is fine as long she knows I like my coffee black, piping hot with a pinch of sugar (just kidding – I don’t even like coffee nor would I make her serve me like that).

I have spent my fair share of time serving as an intern – and I use the term ‘serve’ because being an intern is almost synonymous with being a personal slave. Or at least that has always been my take on it since my internships were always at small publications where there were no mail room coordinators, no copy machines, no secretaries to answer the phones and therefore I became the resident secretary/personal assistant/editorial assistant.

But even though my three-two days a week in the office were crazy busy and I sometimes had to do hard manual labor (like schlep around the city buying baby supplies for my editor’s pending trip to Barbados or the times I had to walk many, many avenues to Staples to get paper for the printer/fax machine and then literally strap said paper to my back for my walk back to the office), I wouldn’t give them up because of how much I learned and the relationships I formed.

So I’m hoping this is how my new intern (my very own intern!) will view her internship in a few years down the road as she reminisces about her time underneath my wing learning the ropes of marketing. And in this case, the ropes is entering data and doing all the projects I don’t feel like doing. Like last week she entered almost 2,000 names into our newsletter database because The Boss determined that I didn’t have time to do it. Enter intern to do the dirty work for me.

I felt like I was coming-of-age in the working world when the new intern started two weeks ago mainly because I was no longer at the bottom of the corporate food chain. Now when the President of our company needs her magazines alphabetized while she is at a conference in Australia, I won’t be the youngin called in to bat. The intern will take it from there.

I’m not just excited about having a new wingman at work to help me out with all the boring and tedious projects that get thrown my way, but I also get to (in a very minor role) be able to practice managing someone’s work. For instance, if I give my intern a project and she does it incorrectly, I will be the one to blame. If my intern is sitting at her desk doing homework, then it’s me that gets put on the chopping block. While this is a scary thought, it’s also somewhat exciting. She’s my responsibility and if I do a good job of making sure she does her work correctly and on time then I get a gold star.

I was also not-so-secretly hoping for a new friend in my new intern – one who might be able to tell me all about her college exploits, the fun bars she went to over the weekend, the new cocktails she created with her girlfriends in the dorm – but alas, my new intern seems more like a ‘do her homework on Saturday night’ kind of girl. She’s quiet, avoids chit-chat and gets right to business. On the one hand, this is great because I know I won’t have to walk by her work space once an hour to make sure she’s not checking Perez every five minutes because, unlike me, she seems to be completely 100% committed to her internship and not celebrity gossip.

On that note, I’m going to have my intern put together some media kits so I have more time read about Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson’s (on again) budding romance.

“Hello Oscar Meyer Wiener-lover. I bet, that you have a bunch of very liberal girl-type friends, who trust you implicitly, because they know you’d never touch them given your condition.” -Michael Scott