Perpetual Recess

True to form, I am updating our blog only after a major life event. If you know me very well, you know I'm a subscriber and loyal follower of Seth Godin, a.k.a. Marketing Pure Genius. Every morning I can count on waking up to his daily blog post which typically arrives somewhere between 3-5:00 AM. It's valuable. It's consistent. And it's something I look forward to almost as much as that first cup of coffee. THIS is the kind of blogger I want to grow up to be. One day... one day.

In the meantime, you are reading this because Russ (my partner and best friend) and I were married on May 16th and this is our first week back on the job after our honeymoon. The last several weeks have been a delightful chaos, but we are finally settling into some form of normalcy - although, I won't kid myself that it's a permanent state.

One of the questions I've been asked a lot lately is: What is it like to work with your spouse?

Our studio is in downtown Redmond in the Glacier Place complex. It's a little over 300 square feet, and Russ and I are planted squarely in the center of it - our desks butting up against each other so that I can see his dark, curly hair just above his monitor. I'm too short for him to see much of me. There's a little of both of us reflected in this space - his love for Swiss design, and mine for all things funky and vintage. He pretends not to like the weird stuff I drag home from antique stores, but I noticed he didn't hesitate to hang my 4x6 old metal signage on our studio wall.

Because Russ and I have been in the design field for so long, working side by side has been a mere extension of our relationship. Back when we worked with competing firms, we knew each other's clients, the ups and downs of the industry, and the deeply personal way that design impacted our lives. It's always been easy to relate.

We try and limit the stress we take home, and for the first time since I've known him, Russ now leaves his laptop at work. Our kids no longer complain that we spend too much time on the computer - which is exactly why we decided to go out on our own in the first place. We've been fortunate that our clients are also people we adore as individuals, so the lines between work and home are blurry sometimes. That said, we wouldn't have it any other way.

So far, there hasn't been any such thing as a typical day at work. The only constants have been coffee, laughter, and Russ' occasional "I didn't understand a word you just said."

What's it like to work with your spouse? It's like being in 4th grade again and going out to the playground to find your best friend waiting for you by the swings. Who would have thought some day I would get paid to do what I love with the person I love the most in the world?