In my first post, I thought I’d give you a first-hand glimpse into MSI to help paint a picture of where mixed nuts come from, as well as share a little background on how I found myself here….taking pictures with a banana phone…

Here are some of the quirkiest perks about working at MSI, at least from the view from my (windowless) office:

1.      There is free fruit every day.  It started with bananas, oranges, apples and the occasional pear, but just recently the selection has expanded to include a delightful bowl of grapes - both green and purple.  Now, admittedly there was some confusion when the grapes joined the produce basket…since no one here has the title Director of Fruit, each grape-grabber had the responsibility of washing their own and we affectionately referred to them as Dusty Grapes, which we then likened to a great name for a nightclub singer…anyway.  Also, the stems were never cut so unless you carried your own scissors with you as you did a drive-by fruit pick, you could only grab a few at a time – or all of them.  Now, thanks to the Amazing Olivia from Accounting, who stepped up to the plate and took on the role of Grape Guru, they are snipped, separated and rinsed to perfection! 

2.      Now, I don’t want you to think my entire focus will be on food, but we also have donuts every morning except Friday (why not? well, because we have cookies on those afternoons).  You may think daily donuts would be a great treat, but I disagree since my office is directly across from the kitchen, and I have to fight the urge to indulge, even with the smell of them wafting over all morning.  To be fair, there are also usually a couple of bran muffins, the occasional bagel and some random loaves of bread, which I still haven’t quite figured out… 

3.      Lois!!  Now this one’s not food-related, though we do call her the Brownie Bandit since she always stops by to offer us the leftover brownies and other desserts from client meetings (will power is definitely a requirement around these parts).  But really, Lois is not a quirky perk – she is one of my favorite nuts here at MSI!  The sweetest woman ever, Lois helps with everything that needs to get done to keep our office running smoothly and brightens up our days.  I know a few of us would like to make her our honorary aunt, so I should probably start drafting up that paperwork after I finish this post…

So I guess it’s kind of easy to see what drew me to MSI…not to mention jeans everyday, cool people, decent hours and the opportunity to be spread pretty thick (hmmm…not sure that one worked – if you don’t get it, I just mean that I’m not spread too thin here across too many projects and can actually focus on my clients and what needs to get done).   I’ve been here for just over two years, and since my previous agency was in the same building on a different floor (read: awkward interviews), making the move to MSI definitely showed that I’m not a huge fan of change.  Same train route, same security guards and same coffee shop – just different floor, different elevator and better nuts. 

So now that you kind of have an idea of where we’re blogging from, I’m looking forward to digging in!