Reason Number: Yahoo!

Many of our friends know about a sweet little 'game' C & I play, called 'Reason Number'. The way it works is one of us says 'reason number' and the other than thinks of a reason why he loves the other, the idea being that there are SO MANY reasons why, there's always something new to say. Yes, it's sappy and all of that, but it works for us and is something we've been doing pretty much as long as we've been together. (Astute guests to our wedding would have seen it in our cleverly placed in the invitations)

However, as much as I love Christian, I feel the need to write about Yahoo!, where I work, and the multitude of reasons why I like being there. But it's way more than I originally thought after quitting my job and moving across country to start my job in less than a week last summer. Paying for us to move to a place like here in the Bay Area where we had wanted to live for quite awhile indebted me to the company from the first minute I started. Yes, there is no dress code, so I can wear the proverbial shorts (which I rarely do) and flip-flops (which I always do) each day to work. I get to work around some of mad talented designers, engineers and product managers that help create all of the cool stuff you see on the site, and be on the inside track of all the amazing things happening inside the company, playing with the products before they get launched. At a more basic level, coming from working at a bankrupt airline that kept cutting salaries and benefits, having basics like stable benefits and feeling confident that I will be rewarded for my efforts is nice. The free gym is pretty nice too, and I've been able to take advantage of that much more over the last 6 months. And all of that is, as expected, truly wonderful.

But it's the much smaller things that really get me. The company really tries to make life as good as possible for us Yahoos, as we're called. Things like every Tuesday, there is an RV that rolls up on to campus offers haircuts and on Wednesday, the same set-up for a dentist. I don't know about you, but those two items are some of the things I hate doing most, so being able to get up from my chair and be at the appointment 2 minutes later, have it be done and back in my chair 2 minutes after that is pretty darn nifty. There's a free soda fountain in each building and in the cafeteria- where they have both Coke and Pepsi, to please everyone. It seems not a month goes by where I don't come in and some random, cool tsatske is on my desk promoting an upcoming event. Tomorrow is 'Oktoberfest', and today we got a glass stein, so you can probably figure out what will be served. Awesome! But it was an event last week that really prompted me to write. As you can see in the picture, in effort to promote a partnership between Y! Photos and Target, "Bullseye", was brought on to campus. (Although a little secret-- his real name was Buddy!) But of course, its not enough for them just to have him there-- there was a line-up to receive an exquisitely-designed gift bag with a stuffed version of Bullseye in it, the chance to get your photo with him, and then the next day, the printed photo was available for pick-up. Holy cow, how do they even think of this stuff, much less do it??

This isn't to say life's a dream at Y!, because it's not. Just like anywhere else, there's office politics, late hours, and deadlines that come too soon. But unlike anywhere else, they bring the freaking Target dog on campus! And that's the latest reason number why I love being a Yahoo.