Delawhere?
It was time to get out of town this past weekend (I'm not used to being in town for more than two weeks!)... so I headed north to Wilmington, Delawhere. Since I grew up on the East Coast, I know where the state of Delawhere is. However, after spending a weekend with Delawhere residents, I found out that I am in the minority. Apparently no one pays too much attention to US geography. While I learned about Delawhere license plates and found out about the tax free shopping in this state, I also learned that I missed out on a college experience - beer pong. (How many parties did we throw at 1103 and not once did we play this?) I have to give credit to Mr. Nifty for taking me on as a partner, as all I could see was disaster written all over this. The other downfall is the fact that I don't drink beer, unless it's Lindenman's Framboise (a Belgium lambic fruit beer - thanks Nate). In the end, I didn't have to drink the beer and I miraculously sunk the last shot. :o)Congrats to Otter and Mrs. Otter, and Greens on such great houses - very cute, love the character! Hey Otter's - I think a Trivial Pursuit weekend should be on the schedule since you have a HUGE table to play on!A big hug and thanks to Otter and Mrs. Otter, Greens, Amy (who's not a real doctor), and Mr. Nifty for a lot of laughs and an awesome time this weekend. It's one of the best ones I've had in a while and I can't wait to come back to Delawhere soon.
I feel short. :o) 
11 minutes and some change...
After 10 weeks, I finally did it. On Saturday, I ran a 3 mile loop around the trail on Theodore Roosevelt Island in 33:44... which means I have broken my 12 minute per mile pace!Now the question is... do I keep trying to run 3 miles at a faster pace (my goal is to run at a 9 or 10 minute mile pace), or do I try to run more miles at a slower pace (still aiming for a half-marathon this year)?
Excuse me...
So I went for my run today, and I discovered something that keeps repeating itself. On the weekends, I go running on the Mt Vernon trail. It's a gorgeous 17 mile trail along the Potomac River, and there are plenty of runners, walkers, and bikers. It's not far from my apartment, but it does require me to drive to a parking area to get on the trail. During the week with limited time to run before work, I run in my neighborhood. It's a quiet, residential area and there are other runners, dog-walkers, and some moms with their kids in strollers. I don't run in the dark, fog, rain, snow - or anything that would endanger my safety on the roads or trails. I run when it's clear and mostly dry, and I wear running clothes that you can see me in - my black jacket has white piping front and back, my shoes are pink with reflective stripes. I run on the right side of the sidewalk or trail to allow other people to pass. I don't run at an incredibly speedy pace, and even though I run with my mini ipod, the volume is low enough that I am aware of traffic and other sounds around me.
But without fail, every run in my neighborhood, I encounter (at least) one car who can't wait the 5 seconds for me to cross the rest of the street even though I'm already in the middle of the road and so I nearly get run over. I also encounter the pedestrian who doesn't have the courtesy to move to one side of the sidewalk, even though he/she can clearly see that I am running towards them. This only happens when people can see me in front of them. When I am running behind pedestrians, they automatically move to one side so I can pass... when I am crossing a street and a car is behind me to turn onto the street, they wait for me to cross. So I don't understand why the people who can plainly see me coming towards me don't care to wait or move. Isn't this just common courtesy? If I'm walking down a street, and I see someone coming towards me, I automatically move to one side so they can pass. And if I'm in my car and someone is trying to cross the street, I wave at the person to go first. It's just 15 seconds. I don't have this issue on the trail. Apparently there's an unspoken code of courtesy there.
So while I can't change the people in my neighborhood - please do my fellow runners a favor. The next time you see one, give them space to pass on the sidewalk, or wave them across the street before you go in your car. We wholeheartedly appreciate your courtesy.
No going back...
Okay, I admit it, I'm hooked. I can't help it. It's so addicting. And there's no turning back.
It's the TiVolution.
Steve got me TiVo for Christmas, and I absolutely love it. What in the world did we do before TiVo? You can record a plethora of things, skip through commercials, pause to answer the phone, rewind if you miss something - everything's at your control with just a little remote. Even the little TiVo icon is cute. He's always smiling. Now I will never miss Oprah, Ellen, and Martha during the day... and for all those nights I work late or when I travel, I'll never miss an episode of any show or Illini basketball game again. And you can't complain that there's nothing on - since you can watch any of your favorite recorded shows over and over!
I don't know how I will ever watch live TV ever again. And I guess it's time to retire my VCR, once and for all.
The year was 1997...
For kicks, I flipped through my high school senior yearbook over the weekend, since I hadn't opened the thing in years. Supposedly, the Corning-Painted Post West High School Class of 1997 10 year reunion is scheduled to happen next year. That is, if someone motivated from my class will work with the alum association to actually put the event on. (Why are you looking at me? Just because I'm an event planner by profession doesn't mean I'm going to do this one too.) Senior year is a little overrated, I think. It wasn't my favorite year, although I do have some fond memories. I think it's mostly because a lot of my friends were a year or two ahead of me, so my sophomore and junior years rocked, and by the time I got to be a senior, the people that were left were my Woodland Park girls, my best guy friend, and my little brother's friends who I'd known forever too. But wow, how time flies. My senior biography says that my future profession would be Business Administrator. Did I really know at that time what that was? (Well, in way, I suppose it was right. At least my degree was that.) The nickname Eves has still stuck, although to this day I don't know how I got it in high school but know how I got it in college. I look at all the messages that were signed in my yearbook and I just have to chuckle. All the dreams and ambitions we had at 17, 18 - when I look back, it's quite cute, really.The memories are classic though. There was the band trip. We were proud Viking band geeks, crossing the border to go to Toronto. Those cute soccer and lacrosse boys, with no shirts on, spelling out GO TRIBE at the Blue Jays/Braves game. And we thought we were so fancy, getting all dressed up to see Phantom of the Opera. My flute section rocked. The girls tennis team was a real scream. The team sleepover, with the crazy idea to go TP and egg a guy's house in the rain. AP Calc - were we out of our mind trying to survive? I always had a locker next to the same twins every year... only to find out they posed for Playgirl about 7 years later! The spring musical - Barnum! I got to go to senior prom with a very cute blonde. :) The theme was Unforgettable, and it sure was because the best king and queen was crowned that night (huge upset)! Everyone asked me where Illinois is and why the "s" is silent at the end. The first WHS graduation in years to be held outside at the stadium. And what a glorious Thursday evening that was. I couldn't wait to get out. And so I did, and never looked back. Sure, it's always great going home, some of the gossip never changes, and while I'll always look back fondly on the little town of glass, I am truly a big city girl at heart.(btw, Mrs. Ham House - did you know that you never signed my yearbook? It's only taken me 9 years to realize it.)I don't know what to expect if the reunion happens next year. (Am I ambitious enough to take on this event? Hmm...) I still hear about a handful of people... most who stayed local and got married young and had kids (and possibly divorced by now), so maybe it wouldn't be as big of a surprise. There are certainly a couple of people I am curious about, since I haven't seen them since the day we graduated. Am I now where I thought I would be 9 years ago? Surprisingly, pretty much - I live in a big city, succeeding in my business career (although what I love doing now for my career was definitely a surprise), and in a loving relationship with someone who is truly my better half. Those are the things that I wanted to be doing, 10 years after graduation. When I was 17, I didn't think I'd get married until I was 30 - I was way too career-focused. So be careful what you set your sights on. :)
The ultimate grocery shopping experience...
I know that this will only be truly appreciated by my fellow Corning-nites and a handful of East Coasters, and I also know that my significant other will dispute this. But yesterday, there was the need to restock my fridge so I went to my favorite grocery store and then I realized that I never mentioned this store as one of the bonuses of moving back to the East Coast.I love Wegmans. I can't help it. It is, by far, the best grocery shopping experience out there. I've shopped my share - Tops, Weis, Great American, P&C, A&P, Meijer, Schnucks, Dominick's, Jewel, King Soopers, Safeway, Kroger, Giant, Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Trader Joe's... you name one between Denver and New Jersey, and I've probably been at least once. I will admit that perhaps I got spoiled because I grew up with Wegmans for 10 years in Corning... and after that, no other supermarket could compare (yes, even Meijer - as much as I loved going at midnight in Champaign). But there are things about Wegmans that you just don't get anywhere else. It's still a private grocery chain and family-owned. They're huge stores, but they don't feel huge. It's always clean, the produce is fresher than any other store in the area and even the lighting isn't too harsh. There are these great specialty shops - like the Market Cafe (a great in-store cafe), a huge cheese selection, prepared foods, and ohmigod, the dessert case. The cookies, the cakes, the pastries... yum! (Not great if you're watching your weight, but they are beautiful to look at and even more delish if you are able to eat it!) On top of it all, their prices are consistently low and they pride themselves on it. Yes, they have a club card to tracking your shopping experience, but because their prices are lower, you don't need it to swipe it to try and save 10-15% on your grocery bill, because it already is 10-15% lower if you had shopped somewhere else. I've done it - I shopped at several local grocery stores, bought the same stuff, and my bill at Wegmans was consistently the lowest. So really, what more could you want from a grocery store and shopping experience?Steve has two claims about Wegmans - one, I go into "Wegmans speed" as soon as I step into the store, and two, Wegmans isn't as good as Stew Leonard's. Okay, so maybe my shopping walking speed does pick up when I go to Wegmans, but hey, I'm getting a good workout while I pick up my groceries. (I have other friends who also go into Wegmans speed.) And for the record, Steve still hasn't taken me to Stew Leonard's yet. I think he knows that Wegmans just can't compete and I would be disappointed in Stew Leonard's. :o) (Steve - also to note, while Stew Leonard's has been on the Fortune's 100 Best Companies to work for 4 years, Wegmans has been on there 8 consecutive years and the most recent on top at #1. And Danny Wegmans has never had any accounting issues with the IRS either. So there.)If you've never been to a Wegmans, then I highly suggest that you come visit me and I will be happy to take you to experience Wegmans. Of course, then you may never go home to your grocery store again. If you have a local Wegmans in your area, consider yourself lucky. Because you know you will never go anywhere else. If you don't have a local Wegmans in your area, I urge you to move, quickly. :o)
No longer in your mid-20s...
Happy birthday to Steve!
Can it be done?
One of the things I have been struggling with recently is going back and forth about whether or not I'm doing my job for the right reasons. Don't get me wrong - I love being an event planner. It takes a lot of organization and patience, and I know I'm good at both. However, after the last event I did, it got me thinking. I don't know if it's necessarily the mentality of the yearly event that has changed and it needs to be revisited in order for things to improve, or if I'm not just doing this job for the right kinds of people, or if it's something else... But for the first time after an event, in the mix of relief, exhaustion, seeing everyone having a great time and knowing that the event was a success, I also felt a sense of frustration. Frustration because the people didn't seem to care or respect the purpose of the event - not realizing how much time and money gets invested in an event like this, and taking the event for granted. As an event planner, I know it's an underappreciated job and I don't expect everyone to recognize it. I'm not the right person to change the mentality of an event - I simply plan and execute, taking direction from those who want the event. That is my job. So maybe it's coming down to the fact that I'm not planning events for the right people. But who am I really planning events for? The people who want the event (who know and created the purpose of the event and appreciate what I do), or the people who attend the event (who don't seem to respect the purpose of the event and yet expects everything)? I suppose it's a mix of the two. I have to have the people who want the event in order to have a job. Then I have to have the people who attend the event in order to have an event. It's definitely not a win-win situation. I know it's impossible to please everyone, but it is possible to have an event that is appreciated and the purpose is respected and well-received. I guess the real question is, is it possible do more of the latter? Or is that only possible somewhere else?Of course, this leads into more analysis of my current place in my career, but that will have to be saved for another post.
New year, new things...
It's a new year, so time for new things. For the past year, I have read a number of blogs (all friends, of course), so I thought, hey, why not try it out myself?
I thought I'd start with a quick recap of 2005, and what a crazy year it was...
New location - from Denver to Washington, DC - I do have to say that I am happier on the East Coast. Primetime starts at 8pm, thank goodness for humidity (don't knock it until you've lived a year without it), and I have everything back (Macy's, Bloomie's, and my favorite paper store) and everywhere nearby (New York, Boston, Philly, even good ol' Corning). The only downfalls are the Super Bowl and the Oscars run really late, Illini basketball games are also later and I miss the sunny days and skiing in Denver.
New job challenges - I know everyone says I was meant for it, but I didn't think it'd really happen - me, an event planner? As frustrating as it can be, I do enjoy it immensely. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing people having a fabulous time. So, one cruise, 3 golf tournaments, a summer picnic, a holiday party, a handful of smaller customer events, and another sales kickoff under my belt. On deck - Greece, and how to top the last two sales kickoffs...
Another round of weddings... to Sandy and Michael, Nate and Ashley, Mo and Brian, Dave and Kat, and Eric and Heather - wishing you all the best. This should be the last of the marathon, at least for a while... so far only one date in 2006.
New places I got to visit - the Caribbean (via the cruise) - San Juan, St Thomas, St Maarten, Antigua, St Lucia, and Barbados; and San Francisco... places revisited include Boston and Miami - both of which I hadn't been to more than 10 years.
Long distance relationship, take two. 1500 miles, 2 time zones apart... well, considering that Steve and I were able to see each other every month, that's pretty darn good. But not without a different set of challenges from the last time. Worth noting - we celebrated our 5 year anniversary mark in 2005.
Ran my first race ever. Okay, so it was only the 4 mile Turkey Trot, on Thanksgiving day, but for the record, it was in Denver, and that's an accomplishment when you're used to running at sea-level. It did motivate me to run my first 5-K a week later though.
So here we are in 2006. While I'm not one to make resolutions, there are some things I'd like to accomplish this year (once a planner, always a planner)...
- Run a half-marathon. I am not crazy enough to run a full marathon, but I'd like to work my way through several more 5-Ks, a 5-miler, a 10-K, a 10-miler, and ultimately run a half-marathon.
- Take better care of myself. That includes finding all the necessary doctors and making appointments, which I have seriously neglected for over 2 years now. If I don't take care of myself, how can I do anything else?
- Do something with this card-making thing. I'm not sure how ambitious I want to be. Nothing too big or too crazy, but definitely getting more into it (maybe entering an exhibition or talking to some local shops), and being able to sell some sets come holiday season.
- Learn how to swim and ride a bike. Yes, my childhood was deprived in this area. Oh, also in terms of learning - how to drive a stick-shift.
- Get my budget in better working order. Hopefully less wedding-attending and less traveling to Denver will help that.
- Finally, figuring out what's next career-wise. Do I pursue the event planning thing further? Am I ready to go back to school? Or, is it time for a different direction?
Thanks for reading... to you, here's to 2006 - may it be filled with good health and happiness, and everything you want to accomplish and achieve.
