Amanda Rae Was Here...

My Kind of Graceland: ZAPPOS HQ

Tue, 29 May 2012 21:38:00 -0600

I’ve toured ceramics centers, cheese factories, champagne cellars, and potato chip fryeries on my travels, but perhaps my most anticipated educational excursion was to Zappos Headquarters in Henderson, Nevada. (I’ve been a faithful customer since 2006—back when they only sold shoes, glorious shoes—and the site has been instrumental in helping me rebuild my collection from the closet floor up.)

Upon entering the building, I noticed two things:

1) “The World’s Largest iPad” (SO COOL!)

2) Dozens of tie casualties tacked onto the wall, formerly worn by silly souls who expected this multi-billion dollar online shoe and clothing merchandiser to adhere to any sort of dress code.

Ha.

I mean, really, here’s a peek inside the offices:

Snazzy with streamers, sequins, and spectacular wingtips:

Monkey Row…aka where the Big Bosses (CEO Tony in the middle) sit:

And one of a few themed conference rooms:

My tour guide was Matt, Customer Loyalty Representative and my old neighbor from my parents’ street back home:

“My company did $16.1 million in one day and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.”

Just to be clear, he loves his job. How can you not, when all drinks at the full-service coffeeshop is free, shellacking your cubicle with ridiculous decoration is absolutely mandatory, and this bathroom has Super Mario Brothers wallpaper?

I did learn a thing or two, like how how Zappos manages the two largest warehouses in the country (1 warehouse = 18 football fields long), and how customers have inadvertently sent weapons back to the Returns Department:

What struck me was how friendly everyone was. Matt introduced me to no fewer than 20 of his coworkers in various departments, and they were all so…talkative. The team was riding high off a first-place win at the City of Las Vegas Corporate Challenge:

…so the cafeteria was all decked out even more than it would be normally:

My favorite area was the wall of brand-new styles, displayed here so that reps can better describe the details over the phone:

(An inventory of 4 million items and growing requires dedication to keeping it all straight.)

In contrast, this is the shoe that started it all: AIRWALKS:

I also peeped (ha) those famed Peeps dioramas up close and in person:

(It’s an annual contest in-house.)

“Yup,” said Matt, as we toured the games/wellness room, “Shoeboxes are everywhere.”

Disneylandish in decor and laid back to the max—but with incentives lurking around every corner—the company is all about individual collaboration and culture, the wackier and weirder, the better.

Amanda Rae was here. :)

[Henderson, Nevada, May 22, 2012]

8 days, 1733 miles, and suddenly I’m back where I...

Mon, 28 May 2012 14:06:44 -0600

8 days, 1733 miles, and suddenly I’m back where I started.

Very Alice in Wonderland.

[Rest stop in Rifle, Colorado, May 26, 2012]

Wacky Weather and Knowing When to Quit

Mon, 28 May 2012 13:54:00 -0600

I set off to Las Vegas last Friday (May 18)—a day later than I’d initially planned—thanks to a forecast calling for rain and wind on Thursday. I wanted to camp out in Bryce Canyon National Park, but I didn’t want to chance it. That left just two days to complete the ~650-mile drive and arrive in Vegas on Saturday afternoon. I’d have more time to hike and explore on the return route…at least that’s what I figured.

450 miles later, I got to Bryce Canyon (above). It was late afternoon, chilly, and breezy—people were wearing pants and parkas! So much for the desert—but that hadn’t deterred campers from clogging all of the campsites in the park. No big deal, I continued on to nearby Duck Creek where I found an eerily desolate campground. I’d bought a boneless pork chop in a market along the way and had some bell peppers I’d rescued from my refrigerator back home, and I was determined to cook dinner on the Weber Baby-Q wedged in my trunk.

As the sun crept closer to the horizon, the wind picked up. You can’t tell from that photo, above, but the birch trees shading my site were shaking, seizure-like. “Have mercy on us!” they seemed to scream, but the wind wasn’t listening. (The irony of being, literally, a sitting duck in Duck Creek was not lost on me.) I finished my meal and packed up camp. It was 45 degrees; I was not about to wake up under a blanket of snow.

The next day, I stepped out of the car at a gas station in Las Vegas, and was hit with 95-degree blood-boiling heat. I headed straight to the pool at Caesar’s. The next few nights were spent wearing as little clothing as possible; daytime called for extra layers in the frosty, AC-cooled conference rooms of the casino.

Even this building in Old Town was melting:

(OK, no, that’s just Frank Gehry.)

On Wednesday, I hoofed it across the bridge overlooking the Hoover Dam in 102-degree, face-melting hotness, and had to turn around halfway for fear of heat-exhaustion/sunburn….

I spent two days exploring Zion National Park, and it was perfectly mild, if still a bit windy:

On Friday, as I climbed the hills of the Dixie Forest out of Boulder City, Utah, the gauge dropped to 55 degrees. I moseyed on:

Finally, on Saturday, I arrived in Moab. And it was hot and comfortable, at 80 degrees, except….the wind had created an incredible dust storm:

Red dust blew over the roads relentlessly.

I stopped by an arts festival at Swanny Park to wait it out before continuing to Canyonlands National Park, but the wind was bending trees and sending streamers flying:

The Arches/Grand Flat High Wind Warning cautioned:

“South to Southwest winds of 30-40 mph with peak gusts to 60 mph or greater…visibility may be reduced to a few miles in blowing dust or blowing sand….”

No joke—see the waves on the Colorado River?

I hit the road, again, and returned to Aspen two days early.

Sometimes the weather wins.

On Second Thought...

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:03:00 -0600

I should have known when I cut myself picking one up:

[Silver Bear Enterprises, Springdale, Utah, May 25, 2012]

Saw this article in USA Today in a café in St. George, Utah,...

Fri, 25 May 2012 00:37:54 -0600

Saw this article in USA Today in a café in St. George, Utah, this morning; making a mental note to stay alert while on the road tomorrow.

“The report found that more red-light violations occurred on Friday than any other day, and motorists were most likely to zoom through an intersection between 1 and 5 p.m.”

Seriously, people. It’s just a three-day weekend.

SUMMER IN THE DESERT:

Thu, 24 May 2012 16:30:21 -0600

[Las Vegas, Nevada, May 23, 2012]

Miles to go before I sleep. Perhaps it was a bit, uh,...

Wed, 23 May 2012 22:19:00 -0600

Miles to go before I sleep.

Perhaps it was a bit, uh, ambitious, to map this route to follow a few days spent in Las Vegas—for a professional conference, sure, but I did manage to squeeze in fun with old friends, natch—however, I am determined to hit those national parks in Utah on the return trip, as my annual pass expires in June.

The good news: my journey home thus far has presented itself as the polar opposite of the cold, gray, solitary trek through Colorado and Utah last Friday: temps in Nevada today topped 101 degrees, with eye-scorching sunshine, and, not so great but a little less lonely: the highway was clogged with long trails of truck traffic.

Oh, and I found an elusive Nevada state sign while crossing the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge on foot to view the Hoover Dam.

XO, The Accidental Wardrobe Stylist (Again…)

[Hoover Dam, Boulder City, Nevada, May 23, 2012]

In the Zappos HQ Parking Lot:

Wed, 23 May 2012 21:41:00 -0600

Old Man: What college is this? Everyone looks so happy and is wearing backpacks...

Matt, Customer Loyalty Specialist: Um, actually, it's a multibillion-dollar company, sir.

GPOYW: Queen for a day / loyal customer since 2006....

Wed, 23 May 2012 06:56:04 -0600

GPOYW: Queen for a day / loyal customer since 2006.

Inspirational photo tour of this amazingly creative company very soon. Thanks, Matt!

[Zappos Headquarters, Henderson, Nevada, May 22, 2012]

WINNING! The first in a series of many strange and beautiful...

Tue, 22 May 2012 23:25:21 -0600

WINNING!

The first in a series of many strange and beautiful photos I shot in this bizarre town….

[Imperial Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, May 20, 2012]

"Jacked up on journalism."

Sun, 20 May 2012 18:41:11 -0600

“Jacked up on journalism.”

- James Burnett, news editor of New York magazine, City and Regional Magazine Association Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada, May 20, 2012

And another one, this time en route to Vegas, baby,...

Sat, 19 May 2012 18:26:00 -0600

And another one, this time en route to Vegas, baby, Vegas….

[I-15, Arizona/Utah border, May 19, 2012]

…regardless of the direction you’re headed.

Sat, 19 May 2012 09:01:00 -0600

…regardless of the direction you’re headed.

Another photo of this Utah sign…featuring me in a black...

Fri, 18 May 2012 22:22:12 -0600

Another photo of this Utah sign…featuring me in a black T-shirt. Funny how that works out…

This time the wind was out of control!

[I-70, Colorado/Utah border, May 18, 2012]

On the road again. I’m coming to get you, Bryce Canyon,...

Fri, 18 May 2012 06:33:00 -0600

On the road again. I’m coming to get you, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Las Vegas, Boulder City, and Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Canyonlands!

[U.S. Highway 101, Aberdeen, Washington, October 13, 2011]

What I Learned in Vancouver: Don't Try to Dupe a Psychic

Thu, 17 May 2012 06:56:00 -0600

What I Learned in Vancouver: Don't Try to Dupe a Psychic:

Click to read a (true) story I wrote for a fun new collabo literary blog. My stuff is featured on the seventeenth of each month.

PS: The title of the site was not my idea. In fact, I told PDW straight up that I wish he’d called it Barfing Sparkles or something slightly less hideous, instead, but alas….

GPOYW: Horseback riding with friends near Mount Sopris. Not...

Wed, 16 May 2012 08:00:01 -0600

GPOYW: Horseback riding with friends near Mount Sopris.

Not pictured: the giant hole I ripped in the seat of my favorite, old (2001) jeans getting onto the horse…whose name was Freedom.

[Crown Mountain, El Jebel, Colorado, May 13, 2012]

Flashback to Longwood Gardens. Namaste. [Difficult Creek Trail,...

Tue, 15 May 2012 12:50:21 -0600

Flashback to Longwood Gardens. Namaste.

[Difficult Creek Trail, Aspen, Colorado, May 12, 2012]

Speaking of butterflies and bugs (again), I’m planning to...

Tue, 15 May 2012 11:24:00 -0600

Speaking of butterflies and bugs (again), I’m planning to camp in Zion National Park later this week; oh boy…

The weather forecast isn’t spectacular, either. Hope my tent doesn’t blow away like it did in the Black Hills….

Move over, coffee. CROSSFIT is my new morning fix. I finished...

Tue, 15 May 2012 07:44:01 -0600

Move over, coffee. CROSSFIT is my new morning fix. I finished the mandatory two-week Elements class to familiarize myself with the basic, functional movements, and it was a ~~humbling~~challenging experience. But I made it through: six workouts at 8 a.m., plus some super hot showers to ease the pain.

However, I hadn’t considered myself truly weak until my first official group WOD yesterday: “The Hornet.”

Somewhere between the third set of 50 situps and the 50 burpees I nearly cried. I was the last finisher, before we all did an additional 100 kettlebell swings. I can hardly walk today, but it’s a great feeling nevertheless.

And though it’s supposed to be, “You against yourself,” I’m determined to not finish last tomorrow.