THE LOOP
Cassidy

Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!

Enjoy this special guest version of your Monday morning Loop, courtesy of our favorite German-American, Emmeline!


It’s still January, so I believe it’s still acceptable for me to wish you a Happy New Year! (Happy New Year!) But let’s take it back about 3 weeks now, and look at one of my new favorite German phrases that I have learned this year.


Einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!


This is a phrase that is used only before January 1st. Roughly translated, it means Happy New Year. Literally translated, it is wishing you a good slide into the new year. Slide in the sense of a slipping kind of slide. (Something we’re all pretty familiar with, working with sliding belts and all.)


I hope that you all had a good slide into the new year! I hope that you’re still standing. And if you’re as outstandingly uncoordinated as me, and have fallen, pick yourself up, give yourself 10/10 for discovering an extraordinarily cool way to touch the ground, and keep on sliding.


Slide with style. Slide with purpose. Slide with grace. Slide with authority. Slide on.

via GIPHY

(The belt is absolutely super. My husband was very enthusiastic about the buckle, that, when worn, doesn’t come undone at all.)

Matt

Life Goals...

Make sure your life goals are pointing you in the right direction. Don't get caught up in the end results. Sometimes the journey is the best part!
Olivia

Creative Mornings

Last Friday, Andrew and I got the chance to attend Creative Mornings - a monthly speaker series hosted by chapters in assorted cities nationwide. It's geared towards creatives and focuses on broad topics that are broken down by a speaker, as chosen by the chapter. Part of the concept behind Creative Mornings is to be able to leave with valuable tidbits of new information and ideas that participants can bring back to the office to share with others! I'll do my best to give a recap of what we learned while we were there:
The topic this month was "Mystery," and the speaker was a local journalist/designer named Melody Stone who shared how she lets her curiosity influence her work. She's written a series on "Roadside Distractions," where she investigates local mysteries that everyone seems to wonder about.
For example, she investigated why there's an Ocean City, MD - 3037 miles roadside sign in West Sacramento. (The reason: Hwy 50 begins in West Sac and ends in Ocean City, Maryland). One takeaway that I had from her talk is how she is able to create interesting and relevant stories out of seemingly nothing. A lot of times I think that creatives and non-creatives alike can suffer from a lack of inspiration that stems from the belief that they need a change of pace/scenery/etc. to be inspired.
And while that's all well and good and true sometimes, it's also true that there are mysteries all around us for us to be inspired by...all we need to do is take a closer look  You can start off by taking a closer look at us trying to figure out how the photo booth works: