I can do this.

I am at work now, and I was just putting together a quick annotations list of the content I want to include in the first newsletter that I'll be managing, based on a discussion with the program team about what they want to get out of their newsletter. And I flew through that stuff, talking about content and angles and how this fits in with the goals of the newsletter and how this will help promote the program, and every single time there was a place where someone had given some sort of vague suggestion, like, "Oh, I want kids' health tips, but they should be seasonally appropriate, so I don't really know..." I thought about it and came up with an idea that seemed to fit perfectly with what they were talking about. A concrete idea, one I can follow up on, one that I can actually write an article based on. That people will read. I hope.

I realize it's just a newsletter, but it's my first real assignment in my new job, and damn it, I'm pleased with myself because my ability to understand marketing approaches makes me happy. And the fact that I can sit down with a technical team that is very good at designing a program but not necessarily so good at marketing it, and I can be their marketing liaison, and I can take their vague, abstract ideas and turn them into concrete, marketable content--it's almost like I'm good at my job or something. And it's only the very beginning of my second week. So I'm feeling exceptionally smug at the moment.

That is, it's like I'm good at my job when I'm not obsessively checking on Target.com to see if the vase I was planning to buy for my workplace bookshelf has suddenly become available again. In any colour. Or the backup vase. Or the backup backup vase. I mean, seriously. Can somebody please explain to me how it is possible that all of these vases were available on Wednesday night, when I was undecided, and then by Thursday morning, when I was ready to purchase, all of them, ALL NINE OF THEM, had suddenly become unavailable? Short of a huge heist or maybe a fire at the Target vase warehouse, I just do not understand.