Work Family

You see the people you work with more than your family. I have been TOTALY blessed that while at LLS I have found some great family members. Sure, there were a lot of people I hated and didn't get along with but the friends / family I have made waaaay make up for that. I have come to love the people I've worked with at LLS for several years now.... They are awesome and I am totally going to miss them. I sincerely love them like family.

Very Fitting

As I was cleaning out my office and desk I found this poem which I found fitting for many reasons...

A Definition of Success:
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better place than we found it, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or redeemed social condition; to know even one life breathed easier because you lived, This is to have succeeded.

So... the reason I have been MIA for awhile is this. I'm getting a new job. The process started back in September. I had been applying for jobs at random at OSU just to see what would happen. It's hard to get in and so I figured I would just try and apply and after awhile hope something would stick. Well, it did. Right around the time of our Zanesville & Columbus LTN Walks I went a met with a woman at the OSU Vet Med School. Over the next few weeks of waiting and going back a few times to talk to other faculty and folks, I finally got the news that I got the job. In the mean time I had a ton going on at my LLS job and the stress of it all about killed me. I wasn't sure if I got the job, when I would hear, and had to keep going at LLS as if nothing was going on. It sucked, big time.

Finally I went in one last time and at the end of our conversation was offered the job. Totally unexpeted and not the way I was told the process would go or end. I was shocked. Then came the hard part of telling folks at LLS and starting to say goodbye. It has been so hard. Eight years of memories and people to say bye to? While I really hope I keep in touch with folks I also realize that life has a way of getting in the way of your best intentions. It's happened with so many friends from HS and college already....:(

I start at OSU on Monday the 16th. I will be raising money for the Vet School. I'm pumped but so scared. It's been awhile since I've had to learn new stuff. I like learning new things but right now it is overwhelming. I'm going from a fish bowl to the ocean but I think it will be great. I know it's the next step logically in my career but at the same time saying goodbye to your first job out of school, the job that gave you so much is very hard....

I'll try not to be as MIA. I'm sorry.

Higher Power

Regardless of your religious beliefs, all I can say about this month is "God give me strength." Between work just getting INSANE and life outside of work, if I make it till October 3 it is going to be a freaking miracle. I may end up in the nut house.....

A Complaint

So as totally irrational as this is going to sound I am totally fed up with the weather. I also understand that I have no control over it but nevertheless it ANNOYS me!!!! We had no summer (I like hot) it was crappy on the weekends and no even before summer is over fall is here. Winter seemed longer last year and then summer was a dissapointment. While I understanding complaining about this does really no good, I feel better doing so. I am a total creature of the weather. Happy when the sun is out, depressed when it is gray and cold. Maybe I should move to a Carribbean island......

Still Alive

Hello! Yes another month has gone by and I have neglected this thing. I always feel like I have nothing really to share that anyone will care about.....

Work is going to get really busy beacuse fall is when our Light The Night Walks are. On top of that we're trying to get a new campaign off the ground so that makes life even harder. I guess I should be happy I have a job and quit bitching that it's a lot of work right now and I have a lot to do.....

I cannot believe OSU football season is only a few weeks away. I have tickets to several of the games because I bought them from my Dad who teaches there. I'm pumped. I went to Buckeye Corner the other week and spent $100, most of which was on a red jersey. Now I have a red and white one. (No comments please.) I think I'm most pumped about the USC game weekend. Lot going on with Kyle and Ash being here and their shower. Should be an awesome weekend.

Last weekend I helped my friend Autumn and her husband move. Yet again another thrilling weekend in my life. Don't be jealous. I went and saw GI Joe with a few friends, it was pretty good. The weather has sucked on the weekends so no pool time. Sad me. Before I know it the weather will be cold all the time. In the event I haven't mentioned it, I hate cold weather and being cold.

I guess that's it for now, I hope you've been enlightened. :)

Oops....

So I missed the whole month of June..... I guess I've been more into Facebook since it's easier to update folks there and it's more people.... No excuses though.

What have I been up to? Work. Still too much to do, stuff I don't want to be in charge of anymore and supervising folks I wish could be more independent. Would like something new but given the state of the world - not likely.

Mom and I went on another vacation (that's the end of two vacations a year with her) to Colorado. Here are the 500+ pictures on Shutterfly. When you're bored look at them, they ain't half bad.

This weekend I am off to see Kyle and Ashley. They got a black lab puppy a few weeks ago. Her name is Moose. She is now eight weeks old. Half of my suitcase is full of stuff for the dog..... The pictures I've seen are priceless. I will be sure to post the ones I take from the weekend. I'm going because Wednesday was Kyle's birthday. Oh and guess what?! Mom is coming with. ARRRRRGGHH! For a teacher who has all summer off there were only like two weekends she could go down. I AM SO SURE!! (Don't even get me started on my teacher kick......)

After that I'm not going anywhere until October when I go to Texas again for the Notre Dame vs. San Antonio football game. Ash is a HUGE ND fan, we forgive her. Last month I booked three, count them three tickets to Texas. I never thought I would say that....

I wish it was more summer like here. Before I know it summer will be over and it hasn't even really been that warm or nice. Lots of cloudy and cool weekends. Why can't it be crappy during the week when I am forced inside all day?!

Reading

I wish I had more time to read. I just finished Angels & Demons by Dan Brown and loved it more than the DaVinci Code. Both books were really great and I was up way too late reading them because I had to see what happened. The same thing occured when I read the Harry Potter books. I love to read and learn new things. I have no time..... well it seems like I don't. I can go into a book store and easily come out with a few new books to sit on the shelf with the others. I think I'm going to try and start reading for 30 minutes or so before I go to bed rather than watching the news or TV. Maybe I need to start reading during my lunch hour now that it is nicer out. Better yet, maybe I should stop working and read instead! Ok, nevermind......

Lesson Needed

So I decided yesterday I need a lesson in tolerance. Tolerating my mother. While I know this sounds completely horrid, it's the truth. I find that ever since Kyle left that I am even more obligated to do stuff with her. Yes, this makes me a horrible person to even be thinking this. I'm the only one she has stuff to do things with. So when she asks me to do something I feel like I HAVE to. Otherwise she will do nothing. She sucks at asking her few friends to do anything, feels like they have their own families and friends to do things with. (Mom if you never ask they won't do anything with you) Yesterday was Mother's Day and I felt like I needed to be with her all day. Sure, I really had nothing else to do, but it was the fact that I am the only child in town and it's a day to be with your mother, who does / has done so much for you, and here I am feeling irritated. Yes I love my mother but being with her for prolonged periods of time can be too much. She always seems to be upset or down and after awhile it takes a toll on me.

I feel like an ungrateful horrible child to be thinking / feeling this way. Any advice or suggestions? After all it's my mother we're talking about and she's the one who put me here.....

My blog problem

So once again it has been about a month since I posted to my blog. I'm sorry, honestly. I guess for the few of you who arein't on Facebook (my new way of keeping in touch with everyone, even those I don't really want to) I should be better at this. I simply forget that I have it and in all reality feel like I don't have anything to share. I work, workout, do random stuff and all of a sudden the day, weeks, months are gone.

For those of you not on Facebook here is a life update:
1. Going to Kyle's and Ashley's this weekend to see the Dave Matthews Band concert and have a Kentucky Derby party. I bought a hat and Autumn, my best friend, helped me to decorate it. It rocks and is going to kick Ashley's hats ass!

2. Work blows. We lost a member of our staff and I have taken on all his roles in addition to my own. Why can't people take care of their own stuff and not have someone constantly remind them what to do or how?! I don't recall anyone EVER babying me, how come I now have to? We're also going to be adding another fundraising campaign and somehow yours truly got nominated without even being asked. AWESOME! I've been trying to look but I might as well be looking for a needle in a haystack.

3. Mom and I are going to Colorado in June. Yes, I said I was done always traveling with her and people get on me about it but I really have no one else. All my friends are either married or engaged, travel on their own, don't have the same interests, don't have enough vacation, or some other random weird thing. I really feel on my own when it comes to wanting to travel and having people to travel with. So while I will bitch about going with Mom and we'll get into a huge fight like we always do I feel no other option.

So I hope that was as thrilling to read as it was to type. Now you see why I have issues updating this on a regular basis.....

Cruise

So.... I'm back. I have to admit I about cired when it came time to come home. More than ususal coming home was depressing. Work is more stressful than ever and more uneasy, the weather still hasn't turned and I dreaded the idea of getting re-connected via phone, TV and Internet.

The cruise was great. I love the idea of a floating hotel. The weather was wonderful. Bright sunny days and awesome islands. It was cloudy one day but I was getting over sunburn so it actually worked out nicely. I loved being out in the middle of the ocean, the waves putting me to sleep. The food was great although maybe if I was more of a "foodie" I would have enjoyed it more. We took the late seating which wasn't until 8:30 so it was 10 or later when we were done. The formal nights were even longer with more silverwear and courses than I could handle. Don't get me wrong, it was all great food, but I guess I am just more of a simple person.

Our room was great. We had a balcony that we often left the door open to at night to hear the waves. It was nice to be able to sit there and look out. It got kinda small at times as the closet was right by the door to the room and the bathroom. You had to make sure you weren't going to hit the other person a lot of the time.

My favorite island is Grenada. Why? - basically for how it looked. It looked to me how the "typical" caribbean island should look. All of the islands were beautiful in their own way. I'm glad we took an excusion at every port because we got to at least see part of the island. I wish I could have taken more excurisions and that we had more time in each port. At least I feel like I got to see a lot of different places.

Here are some pictures. I would type more but to be honest I'm not feeling that great and don't want to depress myself more by talking about it. More to come later....

The Economy Hits Home...

The Economy has come knocking on my front door. Sure, hearing about companies loosing employees, the stock market tanking and corrupt executives effects me to an extent. The economy was effecting me but not personally, that is until Monday. Monday was the day of layoffs at LLS. I knew it was coming as raising money when the economy sucks is well, really hard. As an organization we are down from budget this year because some of our programs just didn't deliver. I was lucky in that I had a heads up that layoffs were on the way. We lost one member of our team. Overall the organization had a 10% decrease in staff.

While this is going to sound horrible, I'm not really that upset about the loss. I wasn't always sure the person who was laid off was into his job or did as much as he could. Don't get me wrong, I feel bad for the guy as I don't wish him any illwill and know he is going to have it rough. What keeps running through my mind is that the position is gone. The rest of the staff is going to have to pick up the pieces. How we are going to be able to 1 - figure out what he had going on, 2 - add more to what we all have going on and 3 - coordinate our efforts so we don't go batty, is on my mind. Unfortunatley I think a lot of it will come to me to figure out and coordinate. Sure, I needed more to do!

I suppose I should be grateful I have a job. For now. Of course no more layoffs are planned, but isn't that what they always say? I'm not really hurting for money and have a pretty good life. Work just got 100 times harder and more complicated but I'll survive that also. I suppose I am wondering I should be doing to ensure my career future isn't thrown off track.

Oh well. I'm off on my cruise next week so I'm sure once I get back I'll have it all out of my system. :)

Time

Has anyone else noticed that time seems to go by at warp speed these days? Sure, everyone older than myself tells me that as you get older time goes by even faster. So does this mean 30 is old? Does it mean life is going to go by even faster now? It just seems like every second of the day is taken. Granted some of the stuff I choose to do, workout, be a lazy butt and watch tv, nap, but it always seems like there is more I want to do and no time. I wish I had more time to read, visit with friends, talk on the phone to friends. I'm sure I could do more multi-tasking to get some of this accomplished but then again I think I may end up feeling more exhaused. I guess time does go by faster as you have more to do. I suppose I wish at times I could simply slow it down.

Simply Waiting....

For the end of March. I will get on a large ship and criuse away to the Southern Caribbean. I cannot wait. Warm sun, ocean, waves.... wonderful. It has been WAYYY too long since I've been on vacation. It was last March when I went to England. Not going someone this past summer sucked. I'm just a vacation junkie and love going places. Sure I go to visit Kyle and stuff but that's not going somewhere new. So I am simply waiting to leave. The weeks are going bye pretty fast and I'll leave before I realize it. Then I'll have to deal with coming back..... boo...

The News....

I have stopped watching the news. I am tired of hearing that things are so bad. Why can't anyone report on good stuff going on in the world? No one does anything nice or good anymore? People just steal money, kill one another, do bad things I guess. No one is good anymore I suppose. I am simply tired of it. Tired of hearing about the economy, how bad it is going to get, how no one has a plan, how the plan created and voted on sucks, how it's going to get worse..... blah, blah blah! I'm done with the news. Sooner or later people are going to have to suck it up and get over it. Start re-investing and having confidence, confidence in anything at this point will be a step in the right direction. Just because there are a few screw ups out there doesn't mean everyone is bad or that people have to freak out. Everyone just calm down, breathe and move forward. The news can kiss it as far as I am concerned. I think all they do is freak people out and make things worse. I'm sticking with my DVR'd shows when I watch TV.

Spring can you hear me?

It's sad when 40+ degrees feels like a heat wave and everyone gets a little goofy. All of a sudden coats are optional and people are acting like it is hot. But then winter comes back and smacks us in the face. Personally I am waiting for real warm weather and Spring. I get a dose of it (hopefully) this weekend as I am going to visit Ashley and Kyle. Come on Spring, I know you can do it!

S.N.O.W

I'm done with it. Sure it is better than gloomy regular winter but only when you don't have to drive in it. I am tired of people thinking they have invincible cars when they drive in snow. I would not have issues with snow if my car could stay clean and I did not have to drive it in while worring about all the other morons on the road.

I need a vacation away. I'm not sure the cruise in March will come fast enough.....

A New America

I'm not really sure what to say about today. Remarkable, fascinating, amazing, historical... the adjectives could go on. For so many reasons today was beyond words. To watch an African American elected President means so much not only for this country but for the world. Never in my life have I been so attached to a presidential candidate or excited about who gets elected. I have hope again for not only this country but for the world. Obama is a man who seems to always know what to say how to inspire people and how to bring people together. He is the answer to what we need.

I'm pumped that Obama can; speak un-scripted and not sound like a monkey, bring people together, inspire people, give us hope, loves his wife and kids, is a minority, his background can hopefully help in areas of the world who aren't too fond of us, wants to try to talk to enemies before fighting them and the list goes on.

I also have to say that I was so excited to see Bush go. What that man did to this country and to our reputation in the world is unbelievable. I am thrilled to see him go and see the end of the Bush's in the White House.

Brrrrrr.....

So I hate the sound snow makes when it is so freaking cold (as it is now). It kinda has the same effect as nails on a chalk board for me. You probably know the sound I am talking about - it's like a squeeking noise. I feel like the snow is even trying to tell me that it is way too cold. Negative numbers as lows and highs are totally unacceptable. Places have closed beacuse it is so cold. Last time I checked we were in Ohio, not the Artic. It is too cold but I do like the snow.


PS - As a side note I also hate having to spray cleaning stuff on my windshield every .2 seconds when driving because of how dirty it gets. Totally annoying.

2009 Re-do?

I would officially like to request a re-start to 2009. It has not been good so far. One of my co-workers had a family member commit suicide, another one's wife lost a baby three months into the pregnancy. I've had my own relationship issues.... it's just been way too much already.

So how do you think I could go about starting 2009 over again?

Ok I've Been Lazy....

So my last post was in Novmeber. It's now 2009 - I've been a little lax. What I've been up to? Not a whole lot.

Went to Kyle and Ashley's for Thanksgiving. Met her family, played a LOT of Guitar Hero World Tour, the weather was warm, it was nice.

Went to Philly for work. Sucked. :-)

I got sick the Monday and Tuesday before Christmas. Lost about 5 pounds because of not eating, but I felt horrible. I would not recommend this type of diet.

Kyle and Ashley came home for Christmas. Ash missed her connecting flight by 10 minutes, I reamed a few folks at American Airlines, she got a flight through Chicago to Cincy and Kyle had to go get her. They were here for about a day and a half then Kyle drove her home to South Bend, IN. On his way home he got caught in an ice storm and had to stay in a hotel, getting back Christmas Eve morning. Again we play a lot of Guitar Hero, we have a problem.

Went to a cabin in Hocking Hills with Autumn, Dan, Aaron and two dogs. It was a good time. We lucked out on nice weather to go hiking. I'd go back.

New Year's Eve Aaron and I went to Autumn & Dan's. We played Guitar Hero World Tour(seeing a pattern here?). We had a good time.

Came to work yesterday exhaused. Two weeks off was great but I was up way too late, slept in too much and was overall REALLY lazy. Don't get me wrong it was a great break but getting back into the grove of working isn't going well.

So there you go, now you're caught up. I promise I'll be better at posting.

Oh yea - and I'm counting down the days till January 20th! :-D