“Guess what, RJ??” I said, as I skipped into his office.

He looked up from his computer. “What’s up, Trace?”

“Well, I know you like to be kept up-to-date on all things Blog,” I said, as I settled into his guest chair.

“That’s true,” he said. “I do.”

We both laughed then. RJ doesn’t read my blog. This is totally fine, of course. The one time he did, he randomly chose Sanity in Sweat, which is one of my more, um, personal and, er, embarrassing posts. After he’d read it, all he said was, “Wow. I didn’t realize you were such an avid reader.” And then, “And so hungover all the time.”

“Thanks!” I’d replied cheerfully.

He didn’t read any other posts after that.

It’s probably better that way.

RJ is one of my three bosses besides Wade, who I’ve mentioned, and Seth, who I haven’t talked about yet. RJ is always in a good mood and has never reprimanded me for anything, even when, after I first started working there and he’d flown out to Austin, I’d mistakenly put him in a hotel 20 miles away from his meetings. Instead, he just (still) uses it as an excuse to make fun of me to everyone, saying I put him up in San Antonio and he’d had to leave for the meetings at 5am.

Okay. It wasn’t THAT far.

Anyway, we joke and laugh and on Mondays catch up on our weekend adventures. He’ll talk about his kids and vacations and sports practices and since I have none of that, I’ll just talk about the blog. I’ll make him look at the reader stats and he’ll “Ooh” and “Aah” and say, “That’s great, Trace!” Then I’ll make him give me his credit card and go get him a salad for lunch.

“So listen to this,” I continued. “We got our first ad request!”

He raised his eyebrows. “That’s awesome!”

“I know!” I said. “It’s an Off-Broadway play based on a Best-Selling book and they’ve given me 2 tickets to do some sort of contest to award readers with the tickets. And then they’ll engage socially in media with me.” I paused and furrowed my brow. “Or they’ll engage on social media with the blog. Or…,” I waved my hand in front of my face. “I don’t know. I didn’t really understand what it all meant. I’ll need The Team to read the email and figure it out.”

“This is exciting, Trace.”

“Yeah, it is,” I said, and hugged myself. Then I rose from the chair to leave him be. Because, as much as I’d like to think our company only exists to be a backdrop for the blog, it actually does other things and RJ is incredibly busy.

I stepped to the door and then turned back. “Can I have that?” I asked.

“Can you have what?”

“That bag of coffee. It’s been on your desk forever.”

“This?” he asked and pointed to it. “Well, it was part of a gift basket given to me by an external partner. I’m just really bad about taking things home.”

“Okay,” I said and silently reprimanded myself. As usual, I had forgotten that one of my goals for 2014 is to act more professionally at the office.

He sighed. “Would it make you happy if I gave it to you?”

“Yes!” I said, forgetting again the professional goal thing. “I’m almost out of coffee and that’s my Dad’s favorite brand!”

He laughed. “Okay, then take it.”

“Thanks!” I said. I moved to the desk and grabbed the bag. Then I held out my hand. He gave me his credit card. And then I went to get him a salad.

So, yes! We’re having a contest! I’m afraid this is only for local folks as the show is only playing in NYC. I am sorry about that but that’s all we’ve been offered so far. But I promise we’ll have more contests and giveaways for everyone else soon. I’ll be announcing the details of the contest on the NotQuiteACougar.com Facebook page tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11am EST so if you haven’t ‘Liked’ the page yet, now is the time!

No standard post this week, we’re taking a brief pause. We’ll pick it up again next Thursday! 🙂

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