The State of Me

It seemed time for a life update. There have been so many changes so far this year, and yet I'm still not achieving all that I hoped I would. (Disclaimer, I may be a bit of an overachiever.)

I can't believe that Top Shelf Digital & Social Media Marketing has become a reality. I've been dreaming of this for nearly two years, and yet it took the perfect storm of circumstances for everything to fall into place.

Sam's getting ready to decide where he'd like to match for his orthopedic hand fellowship, and his final interview (at UC Davis) takes place next week. We'll know where we're heading next at the end of May 2015 and we'll make the transition in July 2016.

There is a lot of travel on the horizon. Much more than in years past. Sam and I are headed to Italy in May to celebrate the wedding of two very dear friends of ours. A few weeks later, I'm visiting France and Spain for the first time with my parents and sister.

We have some BIG weddings to look forward in upcoming months as well. Ryan and Jen will tie the knot in May followed by Kip and Elya (in Italy), then Ryan and Amanda are getting hitched in June, Nathan and Jasmin in August, and finally Lorin and Kathryn in September.

We are salt-n-peppering some family time in between these exciting events - my family will be here at the end of this month and Sam's parents are treating us to a weekend staycation in Laguna Beach next month.

2014: Off to a Great Start!

I can hardly believe that 2014 is finally here!  

It's probably not a big surprise that the homestretch of 2013 was a little bit rough for me.  I'm not good with uncertainty and, unfortunately, there were a lot of unforeseen professional changes that happened during the holiday season.  

Even though I knew I at the time that losing my job was probably a blessing, I was surprised how much I was overcome by feelings of failure.  It was really difficult to emotionally divorce myself from all the marketing that my former company was doing, especially because they were either abandoning or seriously neglecting so many of the things I worked so hard to build.  

In the end, I stopped following the company social media pages and focused my attention on my future.

I got up the courage to approach my current employer at a holiday party we both attended.  I had interviewed with her team twice over the summer by my media relations skills are weak and they are a marketing and public relations agency that does a lot of pitching to media sources so they had reservations about bringing me on board.  At the party, the agency founder and agency director were both happy to see me and told me they'd been talking about me recently.  I took the opportunity to let them know I was no longer working with my previous company and that I'd appreciate them passing my name along if they heard of anyone looking for my skill set.  To my pleasant surprise, they expressed an interest in hiring me (again) and I offered to freelance for them a bit so that we could all feel out the situation.

The next day, she called me and asked me if I could start immediately.  We hammered out the details and I was in the office the following Monday.  

Surprisingly, I only freelanced for them three days before they made me an offer to come on board permanently.  I think it was partially my personality (I get along with the other team members very well) and partially my writing skills.  They had me drafting a lot of press releases, e-newsletters and social media posts during my freelance tenure and I think they really liked what they saw.  

So I moved right on into a full-time position with them and today I got handed a big Chinese New Year project to manage on behalf of my team.  To say that I'm thrilled would not do my emotions justice.  

I needed to draft two press releases, and my boss came in at 5 to see if I could have them done tomorrow.  I happily informed her I had already given one to the account director for review, and the other would be on his desk before I left the office.  She seemed very impressed and said, "That's wonderful, I am so glad you joined our team!"

"Me too," I told her. 

And things are going well in my personal life too!  I woke up yesterday and thought, "I'm getting married this year."  It was about a year ago that we picked our wedding date, and now we're just about seven and a half months away from the big day.  It's coming up fast.

Carina and I picked out the bridesmaids dresses over the holiday week while Sam and I were up in NorCal.  Jackie and Carina already have their measurements in, and Lindsay is going to head over to the salon tomorrow to get her measurements taken too.  I just need to follow up with Carrie and Michelle to make sure they remember to get their orders in by Sunday.  

I have the date for my bridal shower (in NorCal) set, we have an appointment to do the menu tasting for our wedding entrees, I have a list of bakeries we need to visit to taste wedding cake and talk pricing, and I am feeling really, really good about everything.

I still need to work on the invitation wording just a bit and then order all the invitations.  And I want to sit down with our florist again so I can work out some of the details with the flowers and decorations.  And then it's pretty much all done except picking out the boys' attire and getting our wedding bands made.  Obviously the little details like seating charts etc. are still to come, but those are things that will happen in July and we're still a LONG way off from then.

The other great thing is that I'm totally 100% recommitted to my fitness goals.  I didn't do so well in 2013, but I realize now that putting all my time and energy into my profession isn't the smartest thing to do because jobs come and go but your happiness and health lasts your whole lifetime and affects your lifestyle.  

So, on that high, high note, let me say that 2014 is going to be my best year yet!

Letting Go

It's hard to let go of something you put so much of yourself into.  I had so many things I was working on, so many things that I wanted to accomplish in the next year.

I had so much dedication and loyalty to my company, my coworkers and my goals.  I was so determined to make it successful.

And it is incredibly disappointing to walk away from all of that.  It feels so much like failure.

My wonderful family and amazing future husband have been very positive and have done their very best to remind me that I'm a very talented young woman and I have been successful and will continue to be successful regardless of whether my former employer can see what he's missing.

My vendors have been incredibly supportive as well.  I waited until last night when they started calling me, and then this morning I reached out to the vendors who hadn't already been in touch.  Everyone was equally as shocked as me.  They gave me rave reviews on my LinkedIn page, which I am incredibly grateful for.  I a

I went into the office yesterday to turn in the rest of the hardware I'd had in my home office and it was so bittersweet.

On one hand, I know that the people I built relationships with at work were really sad to see me go.  They were very supportive and wished me the best.  It was very nice to hear that my vendors have been giving my coworkers and boss nothing but positive feedback about working with me and that I am a very talented and creative individual who they enjoyed and appreciated immensely.

That does make me feel very warm and fuzzy inside.

And my vendors have started canvassing their own networks to see if there is any freelance or consulting business for me in addition to in-house full-time positions.

I realize Thanksgiving isn't until next week, but this whole experience is reminding me how lucky I am to have the support system that I have.

"I'm going to have to let you go"

I went into my boss's office on Monday at 2:05 for our usual, bi-monthly marketing meeting.  I was running a few minutes late because I had received an email from Twitter that our password had been changed so I had to alert them that I hadn't done anything of the sort and change the password back.  When I arrived at my boss's office, our HR manager was there, but I didn't think too much of it.  When I sat down, I had a page of notes to remind me to follow up on our ongoing marketing initiatives and plan for the following two quarters.

As I sat down, my boss began talking.  He said, "I was crunching some numbers over the weekend and it turns out we're not losing money, we're bleeding money.  And I think I'm going to have to..." he paused, and took a moment to compose himself.

He's going to renege on the raise he gave you 6 days ago,  I told myself.

He started again, "I've decide I'm going to have to let you go."

I sat there in a stunned silence.  He started going on about the checks he had cut me, one for the past pay period, one paying me out through the end of the week (which would have been my PTO), and then the reimbursements for my cell phone and internet bills.  My mind was wandering so I was only half paying attention to what he said.

Let me go, but you just gave me a superlative annual review on the November 7, and you gave me a raise on November 11 with another raise promised on June 1, 2014.  You can't possibly be letting me go.

It dawned on me that when I received an email from Twitter saying that our password had been changed it was because the HR assistant was already going through and systematically locking me out of all of the social media and website administration.

What a shot to the gut.

Not only were they letting me go, they didn't trust my professionalism and integrity enough to believe that I wouldn't vindictively tamper with the department and marketing program I worked so hard to build in the last two years.

I was completely removed from the system by the time one of my favorite coworkers helped me carry my belongings to my car.  Standing there, putting his contact information into my phone, I received a message alerting me that my Microsoft Exchange credentials had been changed.

I called Sam, then my Dad and finally my sister while I was driving home and they all expressed the same shock I was feeling.  People don't get magnificent reviews followed by raises and then get laid off.  Certainly not within a two week period.  But I guess they do, because it happened to me.

The bigger shot through my heart came the following morning when I had to watch the emails popping up in my inbox letting me know that I was no longer an administrator for this social media platform or that social media platform.  Yeah, I get it.  I finally logged into the remaining platforms and removed myself.  Pulling the bandaid off quickly is truly less painful than just sitting there waiting for the emails.

Succulents: 6 Weeks Later

So, it's been six weeks since we planted our succulents on the patio and I want to share with you how they're doing!!!

I didn't really start doing the top down photos until about a week after they were all first planted, so unfortunately you can't really see the before and after as well with this pot.  You can tell the succulents have really started to fill in the empty spaces!

This was the only pre planted pot we purchased, and it's been doing really well!  I had to turn it a little bit and get it closer to the sunny spots on the patio, but it seems to be doing really nicely.  The one side that was away from the sun originally started to seem like it was dying a bit so I weeded out the dead leaves and left the stalks to hopefully rebound.

This pot is so cute - I love the flat leaves that are a little green/blue/violet.  They are so cool!!!  Again, I accidentally took the first photos from the side, but this is the pot that has had the least growth of all of them.  Hopefully that's because these are more spring/summer growing succulents and we'll see more activity once winter is over.

The coup de gras - my standing pot.  This pot has OBVIOUSLY had some explosive growth in the last six weeks.  The agave has all but taken over the empty spots and the little flat leafed plant has grown at least three inches taller in the last six weeks.  I see this pot the most because it is so visible through our sliding glass door, and it's the pot I am the most proud of for sure.

More updates to come in another six weeks!!!

Wedding Planning Update

So, wedding planning has kind of taken over our lives lately.  I suppose that's to be expected, but it still amazes me all the details that have to be taken care of.

Sam keeps telling me that I'm planning so far in advance, but the reality is I am focused on getting the big contracts out of the way so that we can focus on the little details like our DJ's playlist, the lighting we want during the reception, ceremony specifics like readings and vows.

Things we've already booked:

1. Florist
2. Photographer
3. Videographer
4. Venue
5. DJ/Emcee/Lighting
6. Officiant
7. Hotels for Guests

Things we still have to decide or finalize:

1. Cake (tastings and final selection)
2. Live music (ceremony and cocktails)
3. Menu (tastings and final selection)
4. Bridal party attire
5. Wedding Dress (purchase)
6. Invitations (order)
7. Rehearsal 

We already picked out the invitations, we just need to go in and officially order them once we have our menu items selected.  We need to set up a time to do our menu tastings, but that's all part of the venue so I'm not super stressed about that.  I think I picked out my wedding dress, and I'm planning on ordering it in December when I'm in NorCal, but I have an appointment down here to try on dresses with Jackie in two weeks.  We're also hopefully going to pick out the bridesmaids dresses during her visit.  

The cake is the last of the big stuff that needs to be taken care of.  So we need to make some appointments to do some tastings at different bakeries.  If we don't find live music, our DJ can handle the ceremony and venue does live music on their patio which is just below our cocktail balcony.  So that's not really crucial to the wedding happening.

I am just so excited to start our marriage and become Sam's wife!

Ski Trip Recap

Sam, Hunter and I are back from our week long ski vacation.  Man, what did we come back for?

We drove up Sunday, spent a few hours with Sam's parents for dinner, and then headed to bed early.  I went home to my parents' house with Hunter and he was SO much better than he was when we went home in December.  He slept through the night, didn't scratch at the door every 15 minutes, and didn't keep me up.  THANK YOU, HUNTER!

Monday we all enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then we headed up to Northstar.  Man was it cold!  But there was NO snow.  

Thankfully, we took it easy on Tuesday and enjoyed several flurries of snow throughout the day and night.  Wednesday we had a pretty substantial dusting of powder for our skiing pleasure.  To our surprise, it snowed again on Wednesday night and the skiing was even better Thursday that it was the day before!

We ate at Tavern 6330 (not impressed) and Manzanita up at the Ritz Carlton (okay, Sam's dish was world's better than mine) but our best meal was probably the ravioli and salad we made on Monday upon our arrival.  

Friday we drove home and stopped in to visit my grandparents.  Papa, the daredevil, fell off a ladder on our anniversary and has been recovering from a fractured skull and some compression fractures on his spine.  How the man is up and walking around escapes me!  Sam came over for dinner that night and Mom made her signature pizzas.  Mmmmm.

Saturday I got to visit the O'Briens and hear all about their wedding planning and advice.  Then I ran some errands for our class reunion ad went shopping with Mom.  Dad hasn't been feeling so great so she and I went to dinner by ourselves that evening which was actually really nice.  Hunter spent most of the day with Dad and Max.  After dinner, we all settled in to watch the finale of Downton Abbey which Mom and Dad missed the weekend before.  Such a fun and relaxing way to cap off the week.

Sunday we drove back to SoCal and restocked the fridge, unpacked and generally got our lives in order.  Tonight Sam is on call and I am trying to prepare for my business trip on Wednesday (overnight to Vegas).  I have an early morning meeting at work, so I prepped our favorite chili and have everything set to go in the crockpot stoneware in the fridge so all I have to do tomorrow morning is pop it into the crockpot base and turn it all on.  Yippee for amazing and delicious meals made easy!

I managed to get the car washed tonight after work in addition to washing a load of laundry and running a load of dishes.  Tomorrow I need to get gas for my car, pick up more coffee beans (whole) from Peet's Coffee and buy some more kitchen trash bags.  My work is never done!

Life as of Late

I miss blogging... not that I assume anyone is waiting with baited breath for my next post, but I feel a little guilty that I've fallen off the face of the blogosphere.  I do still keep up with reading blogs by my friends and those that I've stumbled across and enjoy reading, but there seems to be a lack of energy to keep up my own.  The goal is to change that!

Although I am busier than I have ever been, I am also incredibly happy.  I love my job.  I know I said that I was going to take my time and find the right fit during my job search, and boy did I hit the jackpot.  My boss is amazing- he cares tremendously for his employees on a personal level, he wants to build his business up and take us to the next level, and he is always open to sincere feedback.  Our management team is phenomenal- I love both our HR Manager and our Tech Manager to pieces, and I have really enjoyed myself during all of our out-of-work social events.  Our new Sales Manager is really great as well, he likes to have a good time, but he is very professional and his number one priority is preserving our company's dignity and the relationships we've built with customers.  And our technicians and office staff are top-notch as well.  I would be happy to have dinner and hang out with any of them!  I feel incredibly lucky to work with these individuals and I am thankful (almost) every day for the opportunity I have to be a part of the success of this business.

I am completely smitten with our puppy, Hunter.  Sam is 100% right when he says that seeing Hunter's face and how overjoyed he is to be around us is the best cure for a bad day.  We are still working our way through puppyhood and I occasionally want to tear my hair out (like this morning when I walked out of my bedroom to find a huge mess from Hunter pulling the fake mulch out of the faux potted palm tree in our living room) but on the whole he is an incredibly well-behaved little guy.  We've graduated from Beginning and Intermediate Obedience Classes and last Saturday we began the 6 week Advanced Training Course.  My goal has always been to have him pass the Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Test and possibly have him certified as a Therapy Dog.  I had a great experience finding myself and through therapy while I was in college, and I might have considered it as a career had I not been so far down the path of Communications...  I would love to be able to give back to someone in need to give back.

Our home is good.  Sam and I decided to resign our lease and will be staying another 18 months... our longest time living in one place since we moved in together.  And I couldn't be happier about not moving.  Especially with his overnight call starting on June 3rd, I want to be in a place I feel safe and comfortable and where I know the area. 

School is almost over... I am taking my last class toward my Marketing Certificate at UCI this summer.  The course started this week and will finish August 19th.  It's going to be a whole helluvalot of work, and I'm wondering what I got myself into.  I keep reminding myself that I'll have a LOT of time to study while Sam's getting his footing as a second year resident, but this is going to mean reallocating resources from my personal life and professional life toward my academic life- an process that always worries me. 

More to come soon, this time I really mean it!