New Digs

I have been working for our baseball team for nine seasons, and have enjoyed promotions along the way. But there was one thing I always desired: an office. Not just for the space - but the peace. My cubicle was in the hub of the office and therefore, I was the hub a lot of the times! Numerous times a day, I could not finish a thought because people were asking me something, having a loud conversation right next to my desk, or everyone on their phone at once. This changed last week and I was upgraded to an office!! We finally added on some office space to the ballpark, so several of us cubicle dwellers were upgraded after many long years in cube-land! I can't tell you how appreciative I am. It is wonderful! The time has certainly made me thankful for all that it offers!

Top 3 things I love about my new office:

1. Natural Light! No more cublicle-land florescent only here! I have a huge-gantic window in which I pulled the blinds all the way up to take all the natural light I can get. My office is on the parking lot side of the stadium, so no, I do not have a baseball field view...but, there is a lovely corn field across the highway, and that is a view I can live with...especially this time of year when it is all green and lovely.

2. Peace! I got more done in one hour today than I get in an entire afternoon. People can't just yell for me anymore, they have to pick up the phone or walk over here....I like it!

3. Space! For my purse, my laptop bag, my binders, my files. I am so used to shredding paperwork often, and I will continue to shred (and recycle!) but I have also been in a bad spot for throwing something away too soon just to save space. No more!

So, here it is:

and for some of my prized office decor:

This is Roger Maris (if you aren't a baseball fan - he is the only pre-steroids and probably legit person to hit 61 Home Runs in a single season) and his family at my grandfather's restaurant in Dothan. It was called the Charcoal Steakhouse. I found this in my grandmother's drawer with a corner dog-eared. It is autographed: "To B. Merrill, Enjoyed our short visit with you. Thanks for everything. Best Wishes, Roger Maris." I remember my grandmother staying the Maris family stopped at their restaurant on the way somewhere (all of us Dothanites can collectively guess "the beach!"). I guess maybe they stopped again on their way back through and that's when my grandfather got Maris to sign it. Just guessing cause I'm pretty sure he did not have a digital camera or a desktop printer. Just thinkin'...

Next, we have a pretty cool baseball card - the always fun misprinted card! It is John Smoltz's card, stats, etc., but Tom Glavine's photo. It is from 1990 before these two went on to win Cy Young Awards...and, a friend of mine got them BOTH to sign it for me.

And here we have some Crimson Tide representation...my Dad's 30th Birthday gift to me last year, a personalized Nick Saban autographed photo! It says, "To Laura, Roll Tide! Nick Saban"

30 was a good year - here we have an autographed Dolly Parton CD. My awesome siblings gave me tix to see Dolly last year. If you ever get the chance, go - she puts on quite a show! People think she's a joke, but she really is a talented songwriter and has the best attitude ever. I love Dolly! I didn't meet her, but my husband bought this for me at the show. He was, by the way, one of 3 straight guys there.

This is a concert bill from the Paul Simon-Bob Dylan tour a few years ago. Some friends and I caught it in Memphis, and it is one of my best concert memories of all time. My brother got me this poster from the Seattle show.

This is the event poster for an annual event I work on - a wine and food tasting event. Last year the big thing was we had Earl Campbell's sausage products vs. Nolan Ryan's beef products in a cook off. Made for a cool poster! By the way, these photos of Earl and Nolan were taken in 1984 for separate Wrangler ads and neither of them quite look this way right now, particularly Earl. I wrote about this event here. You can see how much Earl has changed.

There is one more funny thing I want to get framed and post here....it's a great story!

Just wanted to share my office joy!