i no longer have dad's name on my checks

one of the guaranteed markers that you are traveling abroad are the ubiquitous HSBC ads (example above) - please tell me you have thoughtfully read them as well while shuffling through the gangplanks and corridors of european airports? they actually have made their debut in the new york subway recently as well, which makes me super happy. i absolutely love them. i remember first seeing them in heathrow a few years ago and thinking them clever. though i can absolutely see how some people would find them cheesy and easily mockable.

whatev'

i fell for it. they totally worked their magic on me. because today on my lunch break i finally began the process of phasing out the union bank of california checking account i've had since i was 16 for brand new ones at HSBC. ["ones" meaning checking AND savings - take that adulthood! and is it ok to be talking about this on a public blog? i mean, i'm not giving details, right? hm. i'm worth hardly anything anyway, so no one should be getting too excited.]

in any case, i owe a great deal of my decision-making process on which bank to switch to to those lovely ads which have comforted my jetlagged self on many an occasion. and this has all just proven to me that don draper was right all along. and by don draper i mean the main ad exec on mad men, the fabulously written and lusciously designed tv series that toni and i shamelessly fell in love with via rented dvds while together in berlin. SO GOOD.

and now... i'm offiicially declaring the workday over, i feel awake and over jetlag, i have a 3-day weekend because of Eid (yay UN multiculturalism!), and i'm off to the whitney to see the new o'keeffe abstraction exhibit. bon week-end!