Vida

Oh, hey! Sorry I've been MIA.  Do you ever feel like you're still tired from a work event you organized 3 weeks later?  Well, that's how I feel right now.  I took a PTO day last Friday to try and piece myself back together...and I think I still need another. I feel like my job right now is to learn everything and master nothing.  With that said, if you ever need a basic video to introduce Illustrator, may I introduce: How to Vectorize .  It's been amazing this week. That is all ;)

Friday night I was getting ready for bed in Atlanta because I had a walk the next morning.  No, I do not enjoy working Saturday's, but just as I started to think that, I got a text message.  From one of my old co-workers when I used to travel all the time. She texted me at 9:00 pm that she had a layover in St. Louis on her way back to LA after a full week of work in New York.  On a Friday night.  And it all came back to me how it used to be.   I feel it every time I go to Midway Airport.  It feels very very familiar because of all the time I've been there.  Waiting for flights.  Arriving from flights (when the entire airport is shut down).  All of it. Then I reminded myself it's only one night and then I get to go home.   My old co-worker.  She's heading back to New York for another week on Monday.

We're heading on vacation next week and I know I need it. You know when you just feel worn down, not as efficient. I know I mentioned our videos before and the last one was released today.  Often when I feel worn down I watch one of our videos to inspire me again.   Seriously almost all of them make me cry.  It could be because I'm getting to know a lot of the people in the videos.  I worked with Kara a lot on their Bay Area Walk in May.  I just had my first call with Genneia last week to start planning the LA Walk in January. If you feel like donating to support research and support for Nephrotic Syndrome & FSGS, I have a fundraising page for the half marathon I'm doing in July.   Click here if so inclined .  I'm completely failing on fundraising while the main volunteer behind the event is killing it...he recruited 60 runners already.   When we heard that our child has a disease with no known cure, no treatment, and no known ...

Recently I started working from home...again. And I can honestly say the experience has been much better this time around.  I think there are a lot of reasons I feel this way, but one is definitely that I'm more intentional about getting out of my place and I find myself at a coffee shop for the morning hours once or twice a week. With that in mind, I collected some of the coffee shops I've worked at for a working in coffee shops Chicago guide if you will. Some things I look for to lead to a good working experience for me.   Wifi doesn't even seem necessary to state, but, good wifi, we'll say.   Note on wifi:  usually they post their wifi password by the coffee fixins.  If you take your coffee black, you will often be the awkward person always asking for the wifi password only to be pointed to the sign on the wall directly behind you.  (Raises hand) Space:  I am the type of person where if I notice people are looking for seats I get anxio...

I know I mentioned my new job and that it sometimes feels overwhelming, working for a cause and meeting the people who are affected.  I mentioned we are releasing several videos with information about Nephrotic Syndrome and FSGS. This is the caregiver video and it makes me cry and gives me chills every time.  I was able to meet Kara, Cheeh's mom, and I just can't imagine. It's 12 minutes, but it's worth the time investment: P.S. Video 1: Aries Merritt P.P.S.  I'm also raising money for NephCure in the Half Marathon in July if you'd like to donate go here :)

This post may just be a jumble.  You've been warned. Last Monday I started a new job with NephCure.  It's an organization working to discover the cause and find a cure to nephrotic syndrome.  And wow.  We had a gala Friday night, which was sad, and only my intro to a very eye-opening, difficult weekend. Saturday and Sunday was the Volunteer Leaders Conference.  At the beginning of the day they all stood up and gave their story.  The majority of volunteers in the room are parents of patients.  Some were friends.  Some were spouses.  And some were the patients themselves.  Everyone in the room cried.  Everyone. In some ways it was extremely motivational for me.  This is now what I work for.  (So very, very different from any job I've had in the past.)   In other ways grateful for the health of my friends and family. And in other ways extremely overwhelmed. I got home Sunday afternoon and Mike & I headed ou...

I remember when I first started working and received all my 403b information and started contributing like 0.5% of my salary.  I mean it may have been 1%, but you get the idea.  I was making such a small amount of money, I couldn't imagine paying my bills and contributing any more than that. Second job, I switched over to a 401k and maybe contributed 3%. Fast forward to a few weeks ago.  We had a lunch and learn at work and someone from our 401k company came in to provide new information and guide us through their new website.  My current company matches an almost unprecedented 7% so when I started work I knew I needed to take advantage and try to make up for lost time.  I'm also making more now than I have at my previous jobs.  I like to think this means I can , but really I should have made myself contribute more all along.   So here I am now contributing 12%.   12%!   And I did their will you be ready to retire quiz and I g...

Have you ever noticed your body holds on to stress? I most definitely have noticed that in the past AND, most recently, in the past two weeks. I try to balance it out with yoga. Today I moved into my first downward dog and I could barely get into it, I was so tight. I've heard you store stress in your hips (yes for me) and I also think you store in your shoulders. As I moved through our extreme flow yoga class (which is exactly what I wanted today) I was patient with myself and let myself slowly open up.  I think this is not only physically, but emotionally too.   Yesterday at the office, everyone was ready to offer their critiques of the conference, which I appreciate and know are very important. At the same time, I couldn't carry a conversation about any of them to explore solutions.  Part of this was pure exhaustion.  Part was the stress still lingering, I think. I worked my way through the poses and gradually opened.  By the end I was in sco...

"I have a spreadsheet on all the reasons styrofoam is horrible.  With statistics." And that is how I knew I found the right committee at work.   I took over a year to settle in and get a feel for the committees available before deciding on Corporate Social Responsibility.  I think every one around me could have called that a long time ago, but I had to decide on my own. I was able to make my first meeting this week and I immediately knew this is my group of people. We started talking events for Corporate Social Responsibility Week and I was excited for every event.  It's not as sexy as some of the other committees at work, but it's so my style. One big change we'd like to implement at work is for everyone to have their own plates, mugs to eliminate the styrofoam available in the kitchens.  Anyone know of any companies that have a similar system?

Do you ever find yourself afraid to step away from your desk because you might miss a email that someone may respond to before you...incorrectly?  In the past couple weeks I've found myself running to the bathroom so I don't miss anything.  The bathroom. We are coming up on our conference, which I'm project managing and the flood of emails I'm experiencing is more than I've ever received before in my life.  It's even a relatively small conference (400 attendees). How do you deal with it? I take deep breaths, excluding the annoying sighs I hear from my co-worker sometimes, because those are annoying.  Just sighs to myself to get through the task at hand. I take water breaks.  Yes, I find myself running to the bathroom, but taking my time to get water with my co-worker, Justine, and talking about anything but work. I take a break for lunch.  It can be 15-20 minutes.  I need to step away from my desk in the middle of the day. I keep exerc...

It's hard to believe that today is my one year anniversary at my job. It's honestly gone by SO fast! One year ago, I started my job Monday, completely worn down by my constant travel schedule at my old job and hopped on a plane to Orlando for our annual conference on Tuesday.  I remember telling this to friends and receiving confused looks since one of my reasons for leaving my old job was the exhausting travel schedule...and here I was traveling the first week.  I had to explain it wouldn't be constant.  I've traveled for work four times in the past year, and I'm perfectly comfortable. I was thrown in with people I didn't know, who all knew each other, to work a conference where I didn't know anything about the association.  But I learned a lot.  And now, some of those people are great friends.  I love the community.  It's so different from anything I've experienced before. day 3 on the job One thing I would say about starting a new job i...

Sometimes at the office you need something to break up the monotony of it all. Today that happened. Birthday celebrations can be just the thing.  Especially when the birthday girl requests a huge doughnut.  Yes, Glazed and Infused makes these huge 16 inch doughnuts for $18. We have Glazed and Infused doughnuts around the office a lot (it's a block away), but this was the first giant doughnut so it got just the reaction we wanted and it warranted.   Everyone who came over laughed and remarked on it's massive self and we got to participate every time.   Perfect to celebrate the birthday girl! You can customize what's written on the doughnut with whatever you like.  We went with "You girls keep me young" which is a quote the birthday girl often says. After the doughnut enjoyment, my co-worker wanted us to visit a different office in the building (a law firm) and to keep the story short, they ended up giving us a tour.  And ...

I'm not a very good writer.   I never have been. Today I got my first compliment on writing, possibly ever. My co-worker neighbor got promoted (Yay!) and she needed to write her own promotion email.   I looked over at her, when you sit next to someone everyday you can definitely tell when they're frustrated, and asked with my look what was going on. Her: I have to write my own promotion email and it's really hard. Me:   I start going on and on about her hobbies (which is always the last, short paragraph in the promotion email).  Me, making jokes. We laugh. Her:  I have to write about what I do and I don't know what to say. Me:  (considering this has all been in whispers because she hasn't told anyone) I'll send you something. I start writing an email to her and send a few sentences on her promotional excitement.  I didn't think it was great, but it's hard to gush about yourself.  Easier for others to gush about you.  (Maybe this ...

When you work at a place that decides to focus on charities during the holiday season a few things happen: You end up donating a lot of money to charity through the activities they plan. You get to meet more people at the company. You help other people. You join the committee. This is basically what happened at work this holiday season.  We have a Charity Makes Sense committee and we have events starting late October where we raise money for designated charities.  Yes, it was a bit of a drag at times, but last year the company raised over $15,000 and this year we are on track to pass that number.  (And then the company matches the amount we raise...and then some.) After a pizza Halloween photo contest lunch, Gobble Grams, Happy Hour, Jeans Days, Dessert Walk, online auction, adopt a family, warm clothes collection, December pizza lunch, etc.  It's a lot, but it's fun and even though I started to feel robotic "It's for charity." and I had to start rati...

Do you remember when Thursday nights were Thirsty Thursday? I most certainly do.  We would always go to a bar on Lincoln that had $1 bottles.  I can't remember the name of it, but it was amazing. A few weeks ago I came to the solid conclusion my days of Thirsty Thursday are so long ago (for one reason because they actually are) when I spent my Thursday evening dropping a ton of money at Crate & Barrel ... weddings ... le sigh.  Well this week Karen & I brought it back at Goose Island's free new beer release party.   We did have to convince each other to go as both our days were very long.  (Turns out being the project manager on multiple projects at the same time is difficult to juggle.)  But we went. And we were tired. :) But I did go to yoga this morning and I was not disappointed (I never am with Margo), but she left us with a quote about sometimes you need to be a mess because it is often when you are able to have th...

I actually had a pretty great time in San Antonio the last few days for work.  This may have something to do with the glorious heat (the high was in the upper 90s every single day), my determination to get away from the Riverwalk area and actually experience San Antonio, getting to know people in this field (this is my 3rd conference) and starting to feel I fit in, or my amazing deck.  Yes, I had my own deck with a table and 4 chairs, where I sat for a bit every single day. sunset from my deck ;) Eating I didn't eat on the Riverwalk once so if that's what you're looking for, you won't find these notes helpful.   San Antonio Magazine was in my room when I checked-in and I referenced it for ideas.  I went to: Sweet Yams on the walk to Sweet Yams Mi Tierra This stop was mostly for reminiscing.  We ate here when I was at training in San Antonio before heading to Mexico and I wanted to go back pretty much purely for that reason. ...

Where's your favorite place to work? I can easily and quickly reply:  the floor. Whenever I was home with my old job, you can pretty much guarantee I was sitting on my living room floor with all my work spread out in front of me.  We are putting on a conference this Thursday - Friday and this week has been go time, to say the least.  Today I got to work early after reaching my limit yesterday.   Last night's entry in my journal: Today felt like 3 days in 1 I'm beat. I printed out what I needed and then set-up camp in my cube...on the floor.  People commented.  People laughed.  I was so comfortable and in my element, it didn't bother me one bit.  And we are right where we need to be for the final steps tomorrow! And after today, tomorrow I'm bringing thank you cards and bagels for my team.  Because that's how I roll.

After all my chatting about leaving traveling behind me with my new job...I traveled this week.  But don't worry, it's just a coincidence.  I will be traveling, but approximately 4 times a year, rather than 4 times a month.  This week, I was in Orlando at a conference.  And let me tell you:  traveling for conferences are much more fun than traveling to in-service in hospitals! #1 After many months of no sunshine, we had a little time to soak some up.  Which was beyond lovely!  I never thought to travel with a swimsuit at my old job.  There was never time.  But Monday the girls told me to absolutely bring my swimsuit.  I followed directions and briefly got to use it!!! clearly i have no idea what i need for warm weather. i did not pack sandals or sunglasses I met more peeps from my new company, in different departments, which was wonderful.  And it was interesting to hear about their experiences.  Talk about being ...

Two weeks ago I landed at Midway at midnight and as I walked through the terminal to exit, I thought, 'Midway, I can't wait to break-up with you.' I wish I didn't know where all the food, snack, everything is located.  I wish I didn't have favorite gates (and least favorite).  I'm tired of seeing how recent legislation has affected the security lines. The time is here. Today was my last day with my current position and I'm pretty stoked!  It was a pretty great experience and I learned many, many things, but I am excited to move on.   When I first started my job, I traveled a lot with my friend, Jason.  We haven't worked together much in quite awhile, but this week we did.  How appropriate. And we most definitely made our way around. We started in Omaha, NE, drove to Sioux Falls, SD, drove to Fargo, ND, drove to Bemidji, MN, and drove to Minneapolis, MN.  Talk about going out with a bang.  (In a Volkswagen Beatle.) We...

This week...Dallas. (yes, for work.  At this point there's not much point to that question.) This is a bullet point week: *I was hanging with the boys.  This is not a common occurrence for me with so many female co-workers, but I was with Dave, Mike, Hayden & Jorge.  Not going to lie, it was pretty nice not to have so much female drama present.  (Although I missed Hilary.) *A very stressful trip to the airport.  It was pure luck that I made my flight to Dallas and I still felt sort-of frazzled by the whole experience when I arrived. *I always run alone.  I can honestly count the number of times I ran with other people in the past.  Tuesday at lunch we started talking and I said I heard a running path was nearby (it was 80 and beautiful).  Dave asked if I minded if he tagged along.  It was actually pretty great!   He later told everyone I kicked his ass, but I think that is an exaggeration. *Oh beautiful sunshine....