This year I started working at Chip Theory Games. I’ve only been there for two weeks now, so I know I am still in the honeymoon phase, but I am loving it! It’s a great balance of production work and design. And the employees and owners are oozing creativity, which is so inspiring! Every day, I keep waiting for them to tell me something horrible about the job, because it seems too good to be true. There has to be something worse than just the commute, right?

Here is a tour of the office:

  

This is the door to the owner’s office from the outside and when it’s slightly open. It’s made to look like a trunk. How cool is that? It even has a padlock on it.

And here is the door to my office:

The wheel on the door spins too. (It didn’t when we first got the door, so I’m not sure if the spinning now is intentional or not…)

And here is my office:

And since you are probably wondering (I get asked this question every time that I show people this photo), yes and no. The chair is comfortable, but it’s kind of cumbersome and it leans back more than what I like for working at a desk. As long as I remember to get up and stretch regularly, I don’t have a problem with it. When I get into intense-work-mode and forget to get up and move around, it can get uncomfortable. The best part about it though, is that I can sit cross-legged in it, which is really helpful when your feet are cold! (And I haven’t tried it, but it seems like it would be really good for napping. I just need to bring in a little blanket, and I’ll be all set!)

And here is the conference room:

And that concludes my office tour! There are other rooms, but I just took pictures of the front office. I didn’t want to be the weirdo who takes pictures of the bathroom or get in the way of the people working in the shipping area, so I don’t have pictures of those areas at all.

Last week, I worked on a reprinting for a game, making minor changes and getting everything ready for press. This week, I am working on designing for a new game. I’ve gotten the go ahead to share work, so I will periodically post some things to keep you updated with what I’m up to. Fun!

It’s always fun to start the year off by looking back and seeing everything that I accomplished in the previous year and set new goals for the new year.

So how did last year stack up? Goal-wise, not so good. I don’t think I accomplished a single goal that I had set for myself. I started out the year with a lofty set of about 10 items on my goal sheet. In the beginning, it seemed very doable and not at all unreasonable. Since I had officially stepped down as a co-owner of Fight-in-a-Box and was only finishing up the project that I was in the middle of, I expected to have copious amounts of extra free time. As the year progressed, and all things work-related didn’t slow down, it started to look more unlikely that I would be able to accomplish everything. But being the stubborn person that I can sometimes be, I just reorganized and pressed on, reminding myself that the year wasn’t over yet, and I still had more time. Unfortunately, rather than focusing and getting one thing done at a time, I switched between each goal and ended up not completing any of them.

But, even though I didn’t accomplish what I set out to do, I don’t look at last year as a complete fail. For one thing, it made me look through this year’s list and be more reasonable about what I will have time for. Rather than having a lofty list of ten things this year, I have four. And if I complete everything, then I can add more to the list at a later point in time. (Thanks Nick! This has always been great advice, and I’m glad I am finally heeding it! Too bad I had to learn it the hard way…)

Last year also ended up being the year of focusing more on myself and trying to be the best that I can be. It’s a work in progress, but things are headed in the right direction, so that’s good!

So what were the highlights of the year? For one, being groupies for our friend, Mindy Mejia was really fun. Nick and I would show up at her local book tours to show her our support. We also gifted her book to friends and family in hopes that they would see how amazing her writing is and appreciate her talent as much as we do! (Unless everybody is lying to us, they agree!)

I got a new theme for my website and updated everything. I ran my half marathon in less than two hours, which was awesome! So awesome, that I’m taking next year off! (Well, not completely off…I just don’t have any plans, as of now, to run in any official races. I’m still going to keep running on my own.) I went to Toronto and had a fun ladies vacation. I started taking hula dance lessons. And as always, I spent time with great friends and family. (I even saw my brother for awhile this year, which is a rare treat!)

There were two highlights to this year that will continue in to next year…I joined an Improv group, which is super scary to me, but will be good for me to help put me outside of my comfort zone and force me to make a fool out of myself in front of strangers and friends. And who knows, maybe I’ll actually be funny!

And the best news…I got a new job! I’ll post more on that at a later point in time, after I officially start, but it should be awesome! I can’t wait! So far, 2018 is starting out great!