A bit of Work After Work

As is tradition for Emmis over the summers, we have half-day Fridays. It’s a nice perk we get, typically a conditional based on how each station’s GM (General Manager) decides to run things. In Chicago, Marv has stated that, as long as we’ve all met budget, we can continue our half-day Fridays.

So far, we’ve met budget. :)

So… around 1:00 PM (after a full morning of meetings), I pack it up and call it a day. I found out yesterday that Dustin’s going to be in town today, just for the day. He didn’t tell me specifically what he was doing, just that he was taking a train down from Milwaukee and working for about 2 hours, then taking the train back.

I called him up and it sounded like things were taking longer than expected. He tells me where he’s at, and I run downstairs, hop a cab, a head on over.

Turns out, he’s at Loyola, up on the 13th floor of some adminstrative building.

The sidewalk area is all closed off, and there’s a ton of construction going on. Almost every room looks like it’s been torn apart and gutted.

There’s stuff like this everywhere.

I found Dustin working in this incredibly large (and spacious) meeting room, right near the elevator. On wlaking in, I was blown away at how high the ceilings were here.

The plans for the Nascar store on the ground floor. The reason Dustin came down is because the company he works for created two large banners for the windows. They were to be placed on the inside, as a way to keep the public from seeing all the construction inside (and to promote the coming store).

However, it turns out that the windows were composed of several different-sized panes, and that the banners were printed on some pretty heavy tarp. I think Dustin had just found out about this job yesterday afternoon, and was sent over to make it all work.

Dustin’s measurements of the available space.

Told you this room was massive.

Some interesting details along the ceiling.

Adam, crafted from the ground / in Eden, eventually fell from grace.

By the time I arrived, Dustin had already measured everything and cut the banner down to its set pieces.

A hard hat and some duct tape. The stuff dreams are made of.

I bet you can’t guess who got to lend a hand.

Fast forward about an hour. All in all, there were maybe 12 or 14 panes total that we had to tape up. We got some of the larger pieces set into place… then divvied up and went back over each one, taping down the sides.

This is what the windows looked like, from the inside looking out.

Safety first!

It’s like I was born to wear helmets.

All done!

By the time we finished, it was a bit after 3:00 PM. We wandered around the block some, and ended up at some smallish pub. The two of us ordered cheeseburgers and fries, and kicked back with some well-deserved beers.

We didn’t have all that much time, but it was good to chat some and get caught up a bit. More and more, we discovered, our friends have all been talking about venturing out into business for themselves. This seems to be more of a trend for designers, but in just talking about our work… we both realized we knew a lot of folks who were considering it.

For his part, Dustin had some designs that he showed me a long while back. I don’t have any links or anything, but if he decides to pursue creating actual items from his designs… you better believe I’d be first in line to snap some of those up (and to link it on the blog, of course). I realize, without pictures, this is a pretty dull description – trust me when I say, if you see them… you’ll want to buy them too.

Dustin also mentioned an idea of his that targets, specifically, folks like us – tech folks, coders and designers (even though I don’t count myself in the design category). I don’t really want to go into detail about the particulars of what he’s building – it is, after all, his project. But suffice it to say that it seems like he’s targetted a good niche, and I don’t know of any other site out there that offers what he’s planning.

He mentioned wanting to try to launch something by the end of summer. The instant he does, I’ll link it up. I’m also pretty certain you’ll like that as well. :)

Vague stuff, I know. But here’s the summary: Dustin and I talked a bit about his upcoming projects, and it sounds like he’s got some great things in the works. I’ll keep you posted.

The two of us hung out at the bar for about an hour. And before we knew it, our time was up and he needed to head off to catch a 5PM train back home.

Despite the heat, today was really quite fun. I got to see a side of downtown I don’t normally see, and it was fun to do some physical work after sitting in an office all day. Hanging out with Dustin was incredibly enjoyable, and what better way to end an afternoon of taping a banner up, than by sinking some beer?

My half-day today allowed me to have a full day. Awesome when things work out like that.