This is me.

Exactly one year ago I was working as a freelancer from my couch; a newborn baby boy nuzzled in my left arm, typing away on my Macbook with my right, and toddler at my feet, pushing wooden trains around his track. Today, I sit in a barren office at OFS. It’s not as bad as it sounds. It is however, as bad as it looks.

I am well aware it’s my responsibility to bring life to this space and I have intentions to do so. But as I’m running out the door each icy morning with armfuls of backpacks, kids and coffee, bringing my Ikea houseplant and copy of Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing to jazz up my metal bookshelf somehow keeps slipping my mind.

Although, it looks like that a.m. chaos factor just might be working in my favor because co-worker, Mayer,  has declared my office officially pathetic and depressing, and thus extended the intriguing offer of going out and getting “some stuff” to decorate with. Whether he actually meant it and will foot the bill remains to be seen.

I have worked in a corporate office before, in my pre-mama, twenty-something days. But OFS is different (so far), in no shortage of ways. For one, males work here too.  And a tad like “The Office,” (but not), the people working here are a refreshing fusion of warehouse, customer service and web-essence all under one industrial, mid-renovation roof. So I’d like to pull back the curtain a bit now and share my top 5 highlights from my first week at OFS:

#5. Realizing that two computer screens are, in fact, better than one. I’ve never worked with two desktop monitors simultaneously, despite friends expressing the benefits. Considered it excessive. But here they are handy as can be, my magic mouse just skipping right over to the second as if there were no physical space between the two machines. How about that.

#4.  Exploring the vast universe of fabric and products housed a dozen yards away from my desk. Hundreds of terms like Habutae and Mussola will need to join my rudimentary, two-word textile lexicon: cotton and linen.

Yeah. I got this.

#3. Not calling anyone by the wrong name. As far as I know.

#2. Laying eyes on this beauty.

This table in all its exquisiteness is an entirely different post on its own, or three. Oh, we will reveal the story of this table, and its crafter.

#1. Being locked out one morning. On my third day. In below freezing temps with my long, damp, icicle hair—fun! Being a complete rookie I didn’t realize there were several ways to get into the building, so I just hung out until a kind gentleman from the OFS warehouse came along to unlock it. Here’s to an even better, more informed week two.