Today was a Working Girl first for me. I had to make a decision that could make The CEO like me a teensy bit more, but also had the possibility of compromising my comfort levels at work. 

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written a Hills post but we’re back in action for the season three finale. 

We last left Heidi in Las Vegas with her bosses to scope out a new hotel and casino.

“Think really hard before you do something stupid.” – Stephanie Pratt

Within five minutes of this weeks episode Spencer is on his way to Las Vegas to completely humiliate Heidi. As much as those two annoy me (beyond words) I can’t help but look forward to this awkward confrontation. 

Heidi walks through the Sahara Hotel & Casino with a notebook and pen in hand. I’ll give her credit here because every good Working Girl knows not to go anywhere without a notebook and pen. But really, what is she really writing down? Her to do list? She probably doesn’t know how to write.

All Whitney and Lauren talk about while at work at People’s Revolution is Audrina. Bor-ing! Where is Kelly Cutrone?

“Working with drinks? Yeah, that sounds really legit Heidi” -Stephanie Pratt

I have to say working with drinks sounds pretty legit to me seeing as I was drunk or hungover for 85% of my work trip to South Africa. Anyway, Spencer and Stephanie are on their way to sabotage Heidi’s work trip. As he walks in, Heidi is hanging with the boys. I would be so awkward if I were having drinks with three of my male work superiors.

“What are you doing? What are you doing? Like, what are you doing?” – Heidi

Blah, blah, blah we’ve heard this fight before. Brent Bolthouse is no joke. I picture him as an intimidating boss and now Heidi is on his bad side. 

Back in LA…

“I’m gonna eat all of the cheese before [Audrina] gets here, which is not going to be good for my behind!” -Lo 

Best. Lo. Quote. Ever.

And back in Las Vegas, Brent is waiting for Heidi outside the hotel. She’s late. A good Working Girl isn’t late. She is on time or early. Unless, of course, it’s a Friday morning after a Thursday night happy hour that went a little too long. Brent left her. What a gentleman! No worries, she’s with Spencer. Didn’t see that one coming. False. 

“I feel like I need to talk to Audrina.” – Lauren

THEN DO IT ALREADY!!!! Ok, good, she’s finally talking to Audrina and it’s probably the worst conversation ever, nothing was resolved. 

Spencer and Heidi are back together. That’s it? That’s the season finale? 

At this point I’m ready to swear off The Hills. It’s the same thing over and over again. But someone at MTV is doing their job and the “Next season on The Hills” package has sucked me back in. Kelly Cutrone. New hot boys. Lo and Audrina fighting. Yes. Yes. Yes!

Andy: Hit about twelve hundred balls last night in preparation for the day so hands are a little tender. [shows blistered hands to camera] It’s actually not funny at all it’s incredibly painful.

Was anyone else actually yawning throughout The Office last night?

I mean, there were a few highlights for me. One being when Andy face-planted his golf cart into a sand trap on the golf course and the second when Andy showed off his battle scars from practicing his golf swing the night before to impress the client he, Jim, and Kevin were playing a round of golf with in this episode. Apparently, I’m loving on Andy today.

Otherwise, I was cringing. The plot lines had potential, but didn’t deliver.

Michael, Oscar, Darryl, and Pam head over to Valley View High School (Pam’s alma mater) to recruit interns for the summer. Of course, their booth is lame. No one wants to sign up to work there and Michael scares away the single interested person in the internship by calling him “funny-looking”. Because Michael isn’t in the office, everyone skips out for the day. They just left? What!? When Michael isn’t in the office they usually have an Olympics or some other type of event. But no.

No, instead we watch Angela and Dwight not talk to each other the whole episode. Dwight and Angela were alone in an office together and nothing happened! Wtf! I was hoping for some heavy petting in the break room. Not stone cold silence.

I think this episode was more about setting up story lines for the finale next week. For one, Jim is actually trying to sell paper these days because Ryan put him on probation, but mainly because he needs money to ask Pam to marry him! Yay! I hope that is in the season finale. Please, make this a happy season ending writers. I need it after the writer’s strike has been ruining the show lately.

Pam is starting to look for a new job. All I have to say to this is: finally. But even though I want to see Pam succeed, I would seriously hate for her not to be the Dunder Mifflin receptionist anymore. I’m torn here.

All in all, this was a very disappointing episode for me and I need the finale next week to blow my socks off or I will be depressed until next season from lack of laughing.

All my friends can attest to the fact that I am an impulse shopper. I see something I like and I usually end up buying it. I can’t help myself (especially if you set me loose in Target). 

‘A Working Girl in…’ 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 Syracuse, New York about her job as a waitress and bartender while pursuing her dream to attain a master’s degree in psychology.

I’ve always had the theory that your first year of college can either be the worst or best year of your life.

Best case scenario you move out on your own in some new, exciting city, get a job doing what you love making tons of money in the process, and start out your early twenties young, hot, rich, and ready to take over the world.

Worst case scenario you move back home with mom and dad, struggle to find a job that utilizes your $160,000 degree education and instead settle for something that pays just over minimum wage, and slowly disintegrate into a slob whose dreams and ambitions are beginning to fade.

Enter: Me and the Worst Case Scenario.

As graduation slipped by and those last 30 days of keg stands and cheeseburgers slowly melted away, I was forced to look deep within myself and ask, “Are you really moving back home right now?”. This is not how it was supposed to be. I’m supposed to be moving on up – to the big city, with the big jobs, and the big nightlife with the big handsome men. I was not supposed to be going back to Syracuse where the only thing slower than the economy is that guy you used to date in eleventh grade (because, yes, he moved home too). In order to cope with such a setback I convinced myself this was only temporary, just one year, and then I could move off to somewhere bigger and better and finally have my Mary Tyler Moore moment – hat throwing and all.

I found myself the highest paying “non-job” I could and started waitressing and bar-tending in one of Syracuse’s fancy-schmancy restaurants. It definitely has its perks. ‘Tasting’ (or as I like to call it ‘drinking on the job’) is encouraged, which means I’m making use of at least one of the things that I learned in college. I also get to sleep in everyday and have become an absolute daytime TV fanatic. For you 9-5′ers who haven’t had a sick day in a while let me update you: Drew Carey has completely ruined “The Price is Right”. I recommend switching over to “The View” or “Family Feud”. However, contemporary female debate cannot compensate for everything. Just as you Working Girls have to deal with office politics and burecratic bullshit, I too face challenges at my job. Not only must I memorize 400 bottles of wine, knowing the exact difference between each burgundy and beaujolias, but I must also deal with the wandering eyes and lingering hands of the city’s finest doctors, lawyers, and semi-retired mob bookies.

As my one year anniversary of “adulthood” approaches I’ve tried to look back on this year with unbiased eyes. It really hasn’t been that bad after all. You can’t beat having roommates who pay all the bills and do all the cooking and cleaning. I’ve also come to realize that once they’ve stopped worrying about curfews and teenage pregnancy my parents are actually pretty cool people. With no bills to pay I’ve had the chance to save up a good chunk of money and have had the opportunity to see my hometown in a new light. Say what you will about Syracuse but I don’t know of many other places that offer both nightlife and the great outdoors just twenty minutes away from one another. I’m starting to think that this year spent at home has been a beneficial experience. I’ve actually come to appreciate what this city has to offer. Had I moved away right after graduation I’d be in debt, super stressed, and who knows how often I would get to see the fam. I imagine I will miss this place more than I expect once I leave.

Oh yea, did I mention I was leaving?

I’ve managed to enroll myself in graduate school and have secured an internship in the city to trump all others – New York City. It looks as though my big plans are going to take off after all and hopefully after this short delay I’ll be better equipped to handle whatever life throws at me. In the meantime, I’ll be practicing my joyful hat throwing because like the song says, “You’re gonna make it after all.”

Thank you everyone for your questions! I was really only expecting a few people to poke and prod at us and I was pleasantly surprised to get some great questions that a lot of us Working Girls ponder while twiddling our thumbs in our tiny working spaces. Without further adieu, here are my non-expert opinions and answers to your burning questions.

Ad Girl asked: Can you give me some tips on the best teeth whiteners? I can’t survive without my coffee in the morning and multiple cups of green tea in the afternoon, but it’s wrecking my teeth!

WG2 answered: I’m afraid I’m going to have to admit that I have actually had my teeth professionally whitened. I know, I know, I’m young. But I got them done at BriteSmile anyway before my debutante ball and it has actually lasted me past my college years. Only recently have I looked at my teeth and think I could do with a new set of pearly whites.

If I had to pick a teeth whitener though to wipe away the grime of caffeine, I would pick Crest Whitestrips Premium Plus. Of all the types of whitening systems on the market, this one gets the most praise and delivers the results you want to see. They are the most expensive of the Crest line at $35, but I think it would be worth it to have your pre-coffee binge smile back.

Anonymous asked: Do we have to take down all of our absurdly hilarious drunken photos on Facebook just because we’re Working Girls? I refuse…

WG2 answered: I say, with great emphasis, absolutely not. Once you are employed, I don’t think that your boss is going to take a lot of time out of his busy day to make sure you are being overly responsible on the weekends. It’s your personal time and as long as you aren’t logging into your Facebook/MySpace account everyday at work, I don’t think doing damage control on your photos is a problem.

While yes, I think we should be careful (i.e. half/naked pics & drug paraphernalia = bad idea), I don’t think that those of us who are employed need to be that worried. Those of you still in college though should be wary. When you start applying for jobs it’s not a bad idea to de-tag those pics of you doing a beer bong or a keg stand. WG1 can attest this as she was once asked as an intern to look up future employees of her company on Facebook to make sure they would make a good fit with the company. My advice is to just be careful and use your best judgment in what pictures are appropriate for your future boss to see.

Anonymous asked: Personal photos on your desk….how do you feel about that?

WG2 answered: I am all for getting personal at work. A lot of people advise that portraits, mementos, etc. give off the air that you are easily distracted and therefore not a good worker. I personally, do not have any photos on my desk, but plenty of people in my office do and I definitely don’t hold it against them. I mean, even my CEO has a huge portrait of his wife hung up on his corner office walls. I think it’s all about what makes you comfortable. For example, I did have a photo of my cousin’s newborn up in my cubicle for a hot sec until a few of my colleagues asked me how old my daughter was and how long I had been married. Yea, I squashed that rumor faster than you can say ‘single white female’.

Anonymous asked: Let’s hear about your lovely, talented, and sweet sister.

WG2 answered: If you didn’t know before, you certainly could have guessed by now that I have a punk for a little sister. Even if she is a punk, I do agree that she is lovely, talented and a sweetie (and I miss her!). She lives back home in Chicago, loves to bake, is tall, blond, likes sports, cleaning & neat freak (a.k.a. she will make the perfect wife someday). Ironically, we are exact opposites. And I am very excited to be going back to the Windy City for a little visit this weekend where we will have many opportunities for some girl bonding.

The Blonde Blogshell asked: Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What do you look like? What is your most embarrassing moment? oh and…what am I thinking?

WG2 answered: Wow, all good questions. If you had asked me my senior year of college where I would see myself in the next five years, I know exactly what I would have said. I would be an editor (associate, assistant, maybe?) at a high-profile magazine, have a great Working Boy who loved to read, liked a Natty Light after a long day, and had a secret obsession for bad reality TV, and we would live in a great loft in NYC with a superb view. Now, with reality slowing hitting me I’m not quite sure how real that will all pan out (especially since I’m currently toiling away in marketing). But it’s a dream that I someday want to make a reality. So (fingers crossed) I hope that is me five years from now!

You can sneak a peek of what WG1 looks like in this post she did on her desk at work. I, on the other hand, am trying to keep it highly anonymous. Without getting too much into detail, I’m short, have brown hair (that used to be long, but I just chopped it off a la Posh Spice), and have lots and lots of freckles.

My most embarrassing moments (yes, that’s plural) both involve too much drinking and my senior year of college. My roommate and I both went to a school that lets its students live at the beach senior year. Once, after I left the bathroom during a day of afternoon drinking, I accidentally tucked my dress into my white bathing suit bottoms and then walked around The Point (which was heavily populated area at our school’s beach area when it was nice out) and just about my entire class saw what looked like granny panties exposed for all the world to see. Not only that, but I then tripped on the deck of one of the beach houses. I was a beached whale wearing granny panties.

The second embarrassing moment involved a bathroom, one of our (not as close) guy friends, and an unlocked door. I still have not lived that one down.

And you’re probably thinking I should stop going to the bathroom altogether since it is the root of all my embarrassment.

Maxie asked: Tell us your most embarrassing work story :-)

WG2 answered: I have been seriously racking my brain for something embarrassing I’ve done at work. And my only answer is I drank a little too much champagne at the office holiday party this past year and was tricked into singing “All I Want for Christmas” by Mariah Carey with my co-worker Vanessa. Turns out Vanessa was an excellent singer who sounded like Britney Spears before the drugs and I sounded like Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks. Slightly humiliating.

Anonymous asked: What’s the best bit of office gossip you’ve ever heard? Or what about the best conversation you’ve overheard on a bus, street, train, etc? People say the craziest things…

WG2 answered: Next to this post when our facility coordinator got fired for watching porn at work, the best gossip I ever heard was actually when our magazine decided to only publish an online publication. Almost ten people got fired that day and I was center stage to watch it all go down. It was actually a very sad day because most of the people who left the company were friends. But that day was a crazy day for gossip — I don’t think I got any work done as I was too busy straining to hear conversations in the offices around me.

As for conversations I overhear, I think I need to put more thought into that. There is a whole site though devoted to conversations overheard in the office. I would check those out – and a plus is they update every hour!

I woke up this morning craving a margarita. A nice frosty, cold beverage to sip while I did The Boss’s expense report because today is Cinco de Mayo and therefore a great excuse to do some day drinking. 

I only have about 5 minutes before my boss comes back and I have to get off the computer. But I just wanted to say a quick “hello” from my business trip in South Africa. I’m going to have lots of stories for you all later. Our entire staff will arrive here today for our national sales meeting (funny that our national sales meeting is being held in a different country) and I’ve been here since Tuesday preping with our events manager and the associate publisher (my girl boss, I promise I’m working on better nicknames). I’ll save the stories for later but right now I’ll tell you: Cape Town is beautiful beyond words and the people here are the most polite and well-mannered people I’ve ever met.

Dwight Schrute: There is this yellow zigzag that does give Ryan the authority to discipline Stanley,–
Michael Scott: Great.
Dwight Schrute: However in so doing, it zigs past your name, hence zagging you and making you appear weak. That’s the yellow color, yellow, for cowardly.
Michael Scott: What’s the pink?
Dwight Schrute: Menstrual cycles.

This was probably one of the more serious (and I use this term loosely) episodes of “The Office” that I have ever seen.

Before we get to the real meat and potatoes of the episode (a.k.a. the Clash of the Titans a.k.a. Stanley vs. Michael), what is going on with this Ryan vs. Jim plot line? Ryan paid a little visit to the Scranton branch this episode and flat out told Jim his job was in jeopardy because he spent too much time flirting at the reception desk and goofing around. Seriously intimidating. But I think Ryan’s coke problem will be revealed before Jim can be punished. And I even predict that Jim might be getting offered Ryan’s job (just a thought!).

On to the Clash of the Titans. Wow, Stanley, wow. This plot line was a little too serious for my liking. I thought for real that Stanley was going to be fired for his ‘did I stutter?’ comment. That was seriously an intense little battle. However, I did like that we saw Michael get a little bit of respect from Stanley at the end of the episode. My heart goes out to Michael Scott and his awkwardness, and how he has no friends — it’s like he can’t help himself! And then I remember what it’s like to work for a boss like Michael and I commend Stanley for saying something (even thought it was entirely inappropriate).

Also, please, please, please tell me why Michael didn’t use the ‘fluffy fingers’ technique. I kept waiting and waiting for him to start tickling Stanley, but nothing. Very disappointing.

I also had some side thoughts. Did Angela look a little puffy to anyone else? I think she might be real life preggers because they are only showing her from the face up. I hope this doesn’t mean she’ll be gone from the show for long after the birth! Angela is one of my favorite characters with her scathing glares and her love of cats.

Jim and Pam. Sigh. I can only hope that someday I fall in love with a Jim Halpert-esque man. I loved how he “proposed” that Pam go get him a nice, hot coffee for their brainstorming meeting with Michael. How long do you think the writers are going to tease us like this? I would love it if Jim just randomly stood up one episode and said, “Pam, will you marry me?”. That would probably make my 2008 a whole lot brighter.

Since WG1 is safari’ing it up on business in South Africa for the next two weeks and I’m too lazy to post everyday, I thought it would be nice to get my ideas for a post from all our lovely readers.

So please ask us anything! It can be work-related, not-so-work-related, whatever. Ask away and I will post all the answers next week.

Only thing we won’t answer is where and who we work for. We would like to keep our jobs. At least a for a little while longer.