le calme avant l'orage...

it's design week in new york, so i've been superbusy! aside from providing exposure to the preeminent designers of today, the whole point of design week is... parties. many, many parties. parties out the waz, if you will. and of course, i've come down with a killer allergy/cold combo. rad.

i've pumped myself full of drugs and the hope that i'll be in able to work through this in 24 hours because tomorrow begins my occupational obligation to party.

as part of our event, we'll be unveiling some fantastically whimsical pieces from studio job. three words to describe them: huge, glittery, disney.

behold:

well-dressed, well-coiffed, well-connected...

a few months after the renovation of our showroom was finally complete, we had our opening party/ICFF party. in true Design Week fashion, it was dazzling and our new space was all abuzz with the social twitter of the well-dressed, the well-coiffed, and the well-connected.

the party was an utter success, due mostly to the following:


slightly attractive male model/waiters who supplied the schmoozers with tasty hors d'oeuvres served on flashy grouted boards of glass mosaic tiles

tasty hors d'oeuvres


peace biscuit!!! new wave/throwback DJ extraordinaire with a tiny voice and a huge personality

my dress made a huge splash with the design-y sect. got lots o' compliments on my DVF - one fellow who was more than just a little reminiscent of that "i can't believe he's not a stud" fabio stopped me as i made me way from the dancefloor and demanded, "WHO does your dress?!" i responded in my flighty fashionista voice and he gasped a little, hand on chest, "ah! i LOVE diane."

between glasses of prosecco and sweaty twirls on the dancefloor, i managed to take a few piccies of various work-related people and their dates. there were a slew of fancy italian ladies in fabulous italian fabrics, jewel tones, and fine tweeds in unnatural colors.

spencer looked amazing in his new vest. tiya and aaron were both super festive/fab.

my new girllove, karen showed up with her fanciful friend and they danced the night away in adorable smock dresses and comically oversized spectacles.

at a respectable hour, the party began to wind down and we decided to go to dinner. reservations for 25 at Butter. holla.

indulged in a bit more booze, delicious sea bass and asparagus with shallots. tasty, tasty.


a more than satisfactory monday night...

on 11!

about a month ago, i turned 25. i went out. and now, a sufficient amount of time has finally passed, thus enabling me to view the following pictures without vomming...

bestill my beating middle school heart...

thanks to the goodwill of our italian bossman, we've taken on an italian intern for the next couple of weeks. we all had different ideas about what to expect of this european gopher - i had images of sweaty brows, overstuffed cheeks, over-tight pants and a marked propensity toward procrastination and sloth.

after much deliberation, i soon forgot that he would be joining us in the showroom this summer and continued on my merry way.

this morning, i breezed into work just a few minutes late and upon entering the back office, came face to face with the modern incarnation of all my middle school crushes rolled into one attractive european package. he's 20 years old. he's tan. he has long, layered blonde hair like the california surfing boys of my pre-pubescent dreams.

the next two weeks are going to be awesome.

fancy italians and painful shoes...

one of the italian owners of our company is here right now and in honor of her presence, i am wearing supremely uncomfortable shoes.

damn Guess. and damn occupational pretenses.

but on the plus side...

our party is in a matter of days and i plan to twirl/schmooze my arse off with all the fancy designers and architects who will undoubtedly be in attendance.

t.m.i. with coworkers

first soho work-related party. we all headed over to b&b italia after work. had most delicious belvedere cranberry and grape martini and then something else with belvedere vodka and orange and rosemary and triple sec. oh man. the attractive french smoker who works next door and is most likely gay came to the party and gave me drunk eyes. it was awesome. talked music and giggled with coworkers... was also awesome.

very hungry after the booze so we headed to greenwich village in search of pizza. unfortunately, the pizza place we wanted to patronize was closed by the health inspector, quite possibly that evening. so it was thai. delicious, delicious thai. more giggles and schmoozing, this time accompanied by pad thai and thai iced tea. expensed it as a business meeting and then headed out into the wintry mix with the subway as my destination.

got on the ACE before deciding that that was probably not the right train i needed to get back to brooklyn. disembarked round canal street and got a call from my boyboss who had forgotten his keys to the showroom and, for some reason, desperately needed to re-enter. luckily, our beloved cleaning lady, rosa, was there and she let him in. the weather was getting progressively worse and more uncomfortable, so i took a cab home. screw the subway.

ruffled.

got my feathers ruffled a little at work, so i've decided to spend the evening in my bedroom eating pirate's booty and blogging it up, soothed by the subtle, blue glow of my laptop and the gentle warmth of my walgreens space heater...

ciao/chow!

it's pretty rare that i do something so horribly inappropriate that i become embarassed to the point of wanting, nay, NEEDING to bury my head in the proverbial sand. thursday night was one such time.

my pride prevents me from completely divulging all details in this sphere, but here is an abridged version of my occupational humiliation:

got too drunk with my boy boss and told him all my business

may or may not have kissed a tattooed stranger

revealed my semi-secret mini-crush on an important italian fellow in the company ("i want to have hot italian babies with marco!")

barfed in a fancy french restaurant, thus breaking a 16 year streak of non-barfitude

my amazing coworker got me in a cab and made sure that i got home alright, even though she barely knows williamsburg and i wasn't much navigational help. after i got home and slurred the details to my roommate and her fella i managed to talk on the phone with spencer... for 6 hours. that kid is a trooper in helping me talk through my drunkenness.

my boy boss called me at some point in the night and informed me not to worry, "dude, it was awesome! and marco thinks you're hot, too!" ugh.

despite my mere 3 hours of sleep, i felt moderately chipper in the morning and was able to hold my own in the showroom until 4:30 when sleep deprivation began to kick in and i became clumsy. there was minimal teasing and only a few uncomfortable looks from marco. so basically, everything's fine. but i still felt like a major douche.

and now i've learned a valuable lesson; never take aspirin and then drink on an empty stomach with coworkers.

mon metier...

had my first day of saturday workin today and it wasn't too bad.

was the first one there at 11am, turned on the lights and jazzy/bossanova music, disarmed the alarm (once i figured out what that incessant beeping was), made some tea and set up my borrowed computer.

the day's clientele was mostly rich european browsers with impossibly adorable toddlers.

i like working in the midst of glittering glass mosaic tiles and the unbelievably affluent.

and my heels make a wonderful sound on the glass tile floor...

everything's comin up lauriebot!

the past few weekends have been amazing thanks to a handful of fortuitous occurrences...

a couple saturdays ago, i was lazing it up on the couch, but at the last minute decided to trek it up to UWS for my former coworker, shannon's housewarming. on my way to the far regions of the upper west side, i unexpectedly ran into foxy nightlife photog, nikola of gawker.com fame on the subway. giggles and accents.

finally made it to shannon's and her apartment is soo cute, painted cheery colors, huge bathroom, lots of excellent photos/art on the walls (most notably a cutiepie piccie of sir bob dylan from the late 60s.. god, he was such a fox). spent much of the evening schmoozing with benderites, delicious breadsticks and douchebags who are "into metal". saw a very old man with a black mock turtleneck, slate blue dinner jacket/suit accessorizing with a 14k gold chain round his neck. he reminded me of someone blanche might date on the golden girls. the festivities were interrupted by the most adorable text from someone rockin' so when i had exhausted my quota of fun at the party, i began making the long trip back to my hood. stopped off at the late-night hippie organic market (partially to get outta the cold and partially to purchase a snack) and then headed to union pool to meet up with some cool kids. dansing and gin and giggles and tom tom club.

longest late-night ride on the stupid L-train of my life. apparently, at 4:00am, the train lady decided that she would switch the L to express to broadway junction. ... wtf, mate?! that is so far away. finally crawled into bed round 5am and slept heavily and comfortably.

in more recent news...

interview city
i totally got the italian job!!! i start today, so of course, i'm utterly stoked. making good money, in an excellent neighborhood. the people i work with seem to be pretty cool and surprisingly un-uptight. super-hot working hours. oh man... i can't wait to work again!


high fives were in order
thanks to my supremely elevated mood, i went out to celebrate for about 60% of the weekend! first stop was thursday night, just a few short hours after being informed of my newly employed status. duck duck with sean and aaron and OMG, we had the best time! we were one of the first few people to take up residence at the metal encased bar (due to the earlieness of the hour) and made friends with dave, the cheeriest bartender i've ever met! he remembered my name, which was pretty flattering and we all became bff. shots and delicious top shelf booze and sporadic high fives. met a couple o' sound engineers who work for blue man group (!). they were friendly enough, but just a little too mocking of my overusage of the phrase, "to the max". came home round 1ish, warm and happy.


was surprisingly productive on saturday afternoon. finally mustered up the courage to brave the shopping districts ISO xmas presents for my loved ones. got super fun things for ma famille. discovered this vintage/antique store that has amazing cameras (some working, some just awesome-looking) that are completely afordable. i'm totally buying one/some. unexpectedly ran into tiya on my way to the robot store on bedford. one of my favorite things about living in a city is those few chance encounters when you run into people you know outside of the area where you usually see them. that's one of the things that makes dc fun also, the high probability of running into your friends on the street. talked robots for a while and then headed for some delicious thai at sea. i love spontaneous girldates.

saturday night was also completely boss. tiya and i decided to go out for a celebratory drink, girlie style. union pool is surprisingly reminiscent of black cat, black cat. rolled up round 11:30ish and were taken aback by the sheer number of couples but were sated in the fact that at least those couples were well-dressed. scored a booth with prime people-watching possibilities. exchanged funny faces with the bouncer/helper; reminded me of how steviepants and i met back during out fourth year o' uni. met a smiley, bearded (yes, another one) fellow. an old guy attempted to hit on tiya. a very pretty afro-ed girl in a twirly skirt and backless shirt attempted to get a danse party started. in the midst of our bartime giggles, a slightly familiar looking boy and his crew sat in the booth next to us. took me a few minutes and then i leaned over to tiya and exclaimed, i think i went to high school with that kid! turns out, i was right. 'twas none other than cool kid, paul paoletti who i thought was such a stud when i was a sophomore! one of the girls in his crew also went to my high school and she came over and was like "oh man! i heard you lived up here... what a small world!" so there was basically a little nostalgic reminiscing and all was well. after we all grew tired of playing catch up, i hung out with a very cool german kid who "takes the pictures" and spent a good hour and a half talking about photography and europe and haircuts.

headed home round 3ish, but decided to stop off at duck duck to say hi before i hit the hay. they'd had a private birthday party with a speakeasy theme earlier that night, so dave, his ladyfriend, and the birthday girl were all decked out in flapperware (replete with long strands o' pearls, heavy eye makeup, and finger-waves) and satin-backed vests with undone bowties. they are the friendliest bunch o' peeps i've met in new york during my short time living here! lots of high fives and giggles. a shot of something delicious. ran into the blue man guys again and their very stylish friend with baby bangs and a fashion sense best described as german architecht or gallery curator.

duck duck is by far my favorite drinking hole.

be very, very quiet...i'm hunting for employment.

the past couple days have been spectacular on the job front!

scored a mindless, yet fairly lucrative temp job for yesterday. the drudgery of press kit assembly was softened by borrowing some girl's iPod for a few hours. her taste in music can best be described as college... plenty of pop rap preferred by the frat sect (b.i.g., jay-z, nelly, cam'ron, etc), a smattering of what her parents listened to when she was growing up (eagles, johnny cash, van morrison, the beatles), obligatory hair metal and monster ballads (def leppard, mr. big, journey, whitesnake, poison), the occasionally angsty and/or headbangy rock (metallica, silverchair[!]), and some fun brown music from my middle school years (salt-n-pepa, blackstreet). overall, the tunes served as a more than adequate opiate for this occasional temp.

had an unbelievably promising second round of interviews for that fun italian-centric job i interviewed for a couple weeks ago. this time was with HR and she seemed pretty pro-Laurie. i want this job so badly - the hours are awesome, as is the pay, the people seemed cool/chill and the location (soho) can't be beat. they're making the decision today... fingers crossed!

have an interview with the sundance channel in a couple hours. the position is exactly the same as what i was doing at TLC. exactly. except instead of being in development, it's affiliate sales. not even sure what that is, or if i'm interested in that. so i'm not as stoked about it, even though the company/channel is awesome! and it doesn't help that the bitchiest temp lady i've ever encountered set it up. if i didn't need a job, i would just tell that girl to bite me.

and, thanks to the lawyer from last week and a stellar preliminary phone interview on monday, i've got an interview on friday with a trend forecasting firm that looks amazing! super excited about that, especially since the woman who interviewed me was voted best dressed at harvard business school. love ladies with style.

so lots going on, something's gotta pull through! if i get a job this week, drinks and high fives this weekend will be mandatory.

the verdicts...

1. tiya's office throws the best holiday parties; they had mead, honest to goodness, mead! and fancy boys who fondle you upon introducing themselves (hi, i'm mike. woops! third base!). and cute norwegian girls in suspenders and fedoras. fatties who stalk the hors d'oeuvres.

2. networking at parties can be successful - a well-to-do looking, yet unexpectedly witty lawyer i met at tiya's party is helping me find a job. already got my resume out to this hip design/trend firm.

3. the british Office is absolutely hilarious and uncomfortable, but mostly hilarious.

4. it gets dark way too early.

5. i actually do enjoy talking on the phone for hours. it's been so long since i've had any reason to spend such long hours on the phone with someone, but it's nice and wholesome and much appreciated.

6. the following songs have ensnared my heart and caused me to sing along loudly and occasionally in tune:

regina spektor - fidelity
blondie - call me
boston - more than a feeling
pretenders - brass in pocket
cyndi lauper - girls just wanna have fun
holy hail - county fair part two
journey - don't stop believin'

jiggity jig.

took an early bus home. uneventful ride. whopper for lunch. was super excited to see my apt and my fabulous roomie upon my return as i've spent the better part of the past month in dc. quick ex encounter to retrieve my rapture 45 that had accidentally found its way into his stash of records.

wednesday
after receiving a lovely reminder phone call from jessetron the previous night, tiya, aaron, sean and i headed out to catch these united states' show in williamsburg. they played at a cute bar i'd never heard of, laila lounge. it was skinny and painted red and very warm with a giant pool table that commanded most of the space and a teeny stage at the front of the bar. an inviting patio in the back. i was in a pbr mood and knocked a few back while jesse and co knocked out a few choice ditties. my beer-induced haze coupled with the extreme warmth of the bar caused me to quickly lose steam, so we headed home, but not before stopping off for a greasy slice o' brooklyn pizza.

friday
finally had a good job interview! don't wanna jinx it, but fingers crossed! wore a power outfit - crisp black pants, ruffly cap sleeved top, red heels, red lips. holla.

was supposed to have a girldate with allie and some other fancy ladies, but due to inclement weather, we decided to... take a raincheck (snicker, snicker). spent the early evening watching the first harry potter movie and dozing on the olive couch.

later that night, spent a few hours feeling like a middle schooler, laying upside down on the couch, enjoying snacks and talking to my pal on the phone... for 3 hours. i forgot what fun it can be gossiping and giggling in the wee hours of the morning.

saturday
tiya came home with a christmas tree and some holiday cheer. our whole apartment smells festive.

did a whole lotta nothin during the day and determined that i would definitely go out later that evening as i'd been feeling cooped up lately. got sucked into the second harry potter movie and kept falling asleep. almost wussed out on going out because of my grogginess. luckily, i pulled it together, put on some pants and some lipgloss and we all headed out to get blotto.

first stop - new bar down the street, duck duck. it's so new it doesn't even have a sign out front. it's very small and fishbowl feeling, red walls, mismatched vintage couches. cute bartenders who know how to pour a strong drink. a gin and tonic that was 70% gin, 20%tonic, and 10% love only cost me $4. a creepy guy in a suit tried to chat me up by musing about my armwarmers. swing and a miss, my drunken friend.

second stop - subway to dansing hipster haven, union pool. my new nyc pal, swoopy-haired keith, met up with us and it was so much fun. giggling and people-watching galore. so many fashioned out ladies in cute vintage shoes. hair products. a slightly sleazy bearded dude and his german friend complimented me on my cheap h&m necklace and holey t-shirt. i thanked them and relocated. made friends in the unisex bathroom with a boy who's fashion could best be described as dexy's midnight runners. bowler hat, satin backed vest, dancin shoes. the dj(s) was/were actually playing hot, sing-a-long-able tunes. propped my legwarmer-clad legs up on a nearby chair and talked L.A. punk rock and childhood friends with keith while makin goofy faces at a swoopy-haired, skinnie-jeaned, freckly boy with ratty headphones round his neck.

third stop - awesometown. shared greasy pizza and giggles on bedford ave in the icy wee hours of a december morning.

sunday
woke up semi-early for brunch with the girls. three sets of sassy girl roomies. recipe for success. discovered that i live a lot closer to a lot of awesome stuff than i originally thought. walked to my new favorite brunch place, the lodge. showed up with reservations for a table for six. i'd never been there before and was surprisingly charmed by the kitschy faux-antlers and other hunting paraphanelia mounted on the wood-panelled walls. blueberry pancakes. fancy omelettes. challah bread french toast with almonds and carmelized pinapple. bacon out the waz. 2 for 1 mimosas and blood marys. giggles, inappropriate anecdotes, too much fun! a little bit o' window shopping, post-brunch where i discovered a vaguely japanese/fruit vintage shop that housed some gorgeous brown leather boots that were just a tad too small, a gold sequined mini sheath dress in my size and some amazing red-rimmed aviators. i've forgotten the name of the store, but it has become my cheap fashion haven. i can't wait to new yorkify my wardrobe.

came home round 5, exhausted and happy and still a little buzzed. bundled up on our remaining couch to watch the third harry potter (it was hogwarts weekend on abcfamily... don't judge), but ended up falling asleep for the next 4 hours. i awoke to the inviting smell of mulled wine and sugar cookies, my roomie is the best. we all indulged in those holiday favorites and dressed the tree with white lights, crystal balls, silver ribbon and topped it with a silver wire star.

fa la la la la.

the shape of things...

it's incredibly windy outside. to the point where trash from the street has been caught in an updraft, thus relocating to our roof.

went on a bad job interview today for a job i have absolutely no interest in performing, despite the beauty of the office's hardwood floors (and the amazing sound of everyone's heels clicking along). i totally need a job.

my olive suede boots are amazingly comfortable and make me feel like a supermodel when i'm walking down the street.

cashiers at trader joe's like me a lot better than the cashiers at whole foods. there are also exponentially more trader joe's cashiers with beards than at whole foods. i believe that these two facts are interrelated.

yesterday, i awoke to a charming message from a long lost boy from my london past. consider me giddy.

i'm making chicken korma for dinner tonight. hopefully this korma sauce will be similar to the delicious kind that i became accustomed to in london. it's the same color, so that's a start.

was an artist model for this painter/photographer and actually had a lot o' fun.

my sore throat is completely gone. it wasn't nearly as bad as sore throats i've had in the past. this one hurt pretty intensely on tuesday and caused me to talk funny (all strangely nasally and stifled). then on wednesday it gave me that fun raspy voice that limits your vocal range, where an attempted squeal comes out more like a breathy whisper.

debating about whether or not to go home early for thanksgiving.
pluses:
get to see katie and co.'s fashion show at r-n-r hotel
chill with some dc people that i've been missing
spend some much needed time with my mom

minuses:
operation nyc jobsearch would be put on hold for a few days
i'd miss one housewarming and two potential partays with a gorgeous lady

lauriebot: professional contributor

la derniere semaine...
it's totally my last week at work and i couldn't be happier. even though my immediate financial future is a bit hazy, a bit mysterious, i greatly look forward to a bit of uncertainty in exchange for the daily dread and anxiety that results from being employed in a job/profession that no longer suits me.

it's been a bit strange, my leaving, because there was never an official announcement made to the office. people found out one by one, either through me or through the grapevine. yesterday, the big boss man came up to me and asked when my last day was. so today, i think i'll send around a goodbye note to the office, thanking them for making my time there as pleasant as they could. i'll also propose a drinking hour, because that's when people are nicest, when they're toasted... nicely toasted.

the past week or so, there's been a new girl at work who's been slated to take over my accounts. she hates the job and is sooo bored. last week, she basically shadowed me while i did almost all the work. this week, i plan to switch it up, whereby she will be handling all charts, mailings, updates, etc and i will just be cc'ed on her emails so i can keep track of what she needs to be doing. i, will be the overseer. but yesterday (during my office's non-observed columbus day), she was nowhere to be found. no phone calls. no emails. no explanation of her absence. everyone thinks she quit, and i must say, i would find that hilarious.

les objets d'arts...
enough whining! i have fantastic creative news! back in london, i met a fantastic girl from canada named jamie, through our equally fantastic mutual friend, melissabot. jamie spoke of many possible future endeavors, one of which was opening a fashion/art boutique in vancouver. of course, this idea intrigued me to no end and my excitement was multiplied tenfold when she asked me to contribute something to this future home of Awesome. well... things are actually coming to fruition! jamie bought a space for her store and is currently working on getting a content-driven website up and running and asked me to contribute anything i feel would fit the aesthetic of her vision.

yabba dabba fuckin' do!

i am ridiculously excited! already started looking through some of my better photographs with an artistic/fashion-y leaning. looking through old essays from my london time and from old blogs. pulled out a few drawings. i can't wait to get this started! expect great things from jamie and her new baby... lilliq.com.


lisez pour amusant...
my lovely roommate is a complete nerd, which is probably partly why we get along so well. her nerddom has begun to leak over and spread because i have become obsessed with comic books. not the angsty, teenage- boy- in- love- with- the- hot- girl- but- she- doesn't- notice- him- until - some- science- experiment- goes- horribly- wrong- and- he- gets- superpowers- only- to- come- face- to- face- with- ultimate- evil- defeating- it- in- a- rousing- climax- thus- winning- the- affections- of- the- hot- girl kind. the comics that i'm digging at the moment are either stylish and subtle or ridiculously adorable. if you have any interest in these modern picture books, may i suggest the following:

recently i've started to make slight changes to the layout on here. expect new and improved bloggies and fun links in the coming weeks!

sullen hump-craft...

PROLOGUE:

Been seriously derelict in my digital journaling and busy/non busy at the same time. Packing, moving and unpacking has taken a lot outta me.

Moving

Heres some things I dig about my new residence in quick bullet-style:

Shiny hardwood floors with character (meaning there are random boards that stick up and trip me, but I like them anyway because theyre shiny)

Little bro and friend hitting on the girl who was moving out and her not caring enough to indulge them, but still taking advantage of their brawn and asking them to move her bed downstairs and into the uhaul

Late night speed-shopping at giant on my first night and getting caught in the sleety/snowy mess that befell the district at around 10pm; I didnt mind.

There are six mirror panels in my hallway bathroom. Each panel houses a medicine cabinet. I share the bathroom with two other people. The third floor hallway bathroom also has six mirror panels housing one medicine cabinet apiece. There are 12 medicine cabinets for 6 people. That amuses me.

One of my roomies has a big girl dog named corey. As I was moving my boxes upstairs, corey followed me up and down the stairs, but would always patiently wait in my doorway, shaking her eyebrows at me. Finally I invited her in. she wagged her tail, sniffed all my stuff, turned around in 2.7 circles and then took a nap at the foot of my bed. We are now best friends.

Ive already met potentially fun next door neighbors, one of which was staying upstairs in my house until he could move in next door.

Theres a little fireplace in my room that I plan on using as a display for fabulous shoes

Today I acquired a fancy new trashcan for my bedroom, purchased at marshalls

Work last week

work was mildly nightmarish last week; everyday i'd had a different difficult trip to book. six in all. it wouldn't have been so bad had the online system ever worked properly - instead i had to call travel, usually not less than three times per trip. mamma mia, there are going to be a lot of charges for telephone assistance.

Anti-social

I havent gone out in days and days. Seriously, its been sleep, eat, work, eat, sleep repeat! Had every intention of going out last Saturday got semi-dolled up in eyeliner and tight pants, only to fall asleep half-sprawled across my bed and half on the floor at 12:19am. I was done.

Christmas Crafts

Co-worker Kelly made me a cheery christmas mix cd filled with christmas cheer. the chipper juxtaposition of alvin and the chipmunks, dolly parton and wham! made me skip all the way home.

Also ordered some uber-fun personalized stockings from neighborhoodies for the fam. Ive been put in charge of rekindling the stocking tradition in my family this year and Im determined to make it the best ever. Ive been rushing around trying to find the best, most personal presents for everyone; its exhausting, yet satisfying! Im making tonight my first wrapping night. you should come over and bring wine; we can wrap together!

I've gone coo-coo for wordplay, be it witty or otherwise

Casey sent me hilarious anagrams yesterday and now Im all thinking anagrammatically. Apparently inspired by my proclamation of afternoon boredom after lunch slump, he sent me the following:

surf planet mulch
sullen hump-craft
flush plum nectar
sumter punch fall

I applauded.

Kelly and I have also gone coo-coo for home movies quotes, one of our favorites being Arnold Lindensens exclamation that Paula should call him back as close to as soon as possible ACASAP! So acronyms are also pretty hot in my book at the moment...