I. Am. Exhausted.

I’m in love with verb [ICT]. I am. I can’t help it. I gave birth to my internet baby on Monday and I keep looking at it and cooing and feeling this intense burst of pride and happiness.

But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. It’s possibly the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. I’m exhausted. I haven’t managed to squeeze in more than 6 hours of sleep (that’s being generous) in over a week. I feel like I am constantly going. Moving. Emailing. Typing. Calling. Googling. Trying to find another goddamn Creative Commons photo that fits a story.

The timing has proven to be interesting. I received a promotion at my day job that coincided with verb’s launch. As in, the site went live on the exact same day that I started working in my new role. So let’s talk about stress for a moment. Because that and fumes are basically what I am running on. And adrenaline. Man, lots of adrenaline.

90% of the time, I think this is what I was meant to do. Create. Build. Make cool shit. Monday - launch day - was a high like I’ve never experienced. As one of my co-conspirators said, “Can we launch something new every day? Because this is awesome.” But then I look at the days and weeks and months in front of me and I realize that the workload isn’t going to shrink. It’s going to grow. And I’m going to be getting 6 hours or less of sleep every night for the foreseeable future. And I’m going to be a perfectionist about every photo, every word, every link, every decision. And then I think about the people who are counting on me to make this work. To turn a profit. To make it stick. Last. Mean something. That’s not an insignificant amount of pressure.

But it pushes me. Drives me to be better. To learn to manage people better. To learn to make better decisions.

Even after four days of a live, awesome site, I feel like I’ve aged four years (luckily it doesn’t look like it… yet). I know so much more than when I started.

Maybe giving birth to an internet baby isn’t that much different than giving birth to a human baby. It changes you. It pushes you to be the best you can be.

And it’s really, really rewarding. It’s also really, really tiring.

But I wouldn’t change a second of it.

Hi Shea, Sylvia this is carl A and I just wanted to call and wish you a happy for them for street if and how you then. Bye love. My number is. Restocked and I will be better next time she became leaking Western anyway, so there’s bath and they are you talking a whole lot because I really want to see how google always decade about the prospect of sick X P L. A. X. Talk to you later. Bye.

— 

A voicemail from Carly (erm, carl A) as transcribed by Google Voice.

I have no idea what this means.

We were mountain men.

There’s nothing sexy about wearing a big ass beard. Aaron obviously wears it much better than I do.

Also, real men don’t smile in pictures.

Note to self: it’s really hard to drink beer with a giant, fuzzy beard. Do not attempt again.

So… I’ve been super MIA from blogging in the past month (or two). You might say I’ve been a little… preoccupied.

Back in August, during the last pool crashing day of the summer, Ashley, Carly and I threw around the idea of starting our own Wichita-focused online magazine. We knew lots of talented writers and photographers. We knew we could design something useful, attractive, fun and well-written.

So… we did.

After months of hard work, putting together an awesome, unstoppable team of writers, designers, photographers and web nerds, we launched verb [ICT] this morning.

As the comments and compliments keep rolling in, I’m sort of in disbelief. We did it. We made something that I am so insanely proud of. Something that is going to make a difference in Wichita’s new media scene. The timing was right and we went for it.

To everyone who has supported us, to everyone who has doubted us, to everyone who has given us their time and energy, thank you. I am so excited to be a part of this and so excited for verb [ICT] to continue to grow and thrive and become a significant part of the local community.

It’s Pug-o-ween at the Sylvia/Kennison household.

Um… want.

And P.S. I’m still alive. In case you were wondering. I’m going to pretend you were.

(via ellenclare)

I love the internet so much I could open mouth kiss it. And even throw in some tongue for introducing me to my bestie.

— Carly

On Halloween Costumes

Erin: Any good ideas for me?

Erin: Wait -

Erin: Let me rephrase

Erin: Any good ideas that would incorporate my gold lamé leggings?

ReallyKatie, this one’s for you!

Starbucks money-saving tip: Order a tall espresso over ice. Pay approximately $2. Then add milk and your favorite sweetener. Result: a tall iced latte for a buck or two less than you’d pay if you ordered one.

[thanks to BFF Jill for the idea!]

UPDATE: Apparently this is also known as the Ghetto Latte and has been around since 2006. Thanks, Dustin, for enlightening me.