Long Day

Yesterday I was at the office just after 8 a.m. and didn't leave until just after 7 p.m.

It was a long day. I cannot even begin to describe how nice it was to walk in the door and have Hunter greet me with his warm tongue and sparkling eyes. Even better, Sam had BBQ'ed pork loin and made us a spinach salad.

Sam then gave me 45 minutes to continue to wrap up a few projects from work and then tucked me into bed to start reading Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity and Disease. He read it on the plane during his trip out to Philadelphia and thought it was right up my ally being that I'm so focused on health. While I was reading calmly in bed, he took Hunter down for a short walk and then joined me. It was just what I needed to calm down and unwind after a stressful day at the office.

I am such a lucky wife.

Promoted

I received a promotion, officially announced at this evening's office happy hour. Effective immediately I am now a senior account executive, which pretty much means that I'm responsible for all the things I was already doing and I'm expected to begin doing all of the things in the position above my current one.

Pretty standard corporate protocol.

While this should be overall good news, I'm not entirely sure I'm happy about it. Work has been pretty all-encompassing and I've been feeling stressed and more overwhelmed than usual. My anxiety has been so high that it's been coming out in my nervous jittery legs which more than one person has noticed in recent weeks.

While I'm honored to be given more responsibility and accountability, I'm also wary because there are so many personal things I'd like to accomplish this year and I worry this professional life is holding me back.

Failure

It's very difficult for me to accept failure, especially when its my own.

On Thursday I was given a major project to work on that was due to our client on Monday midmorning.  I felt really good about the direction I was going in, and the other two people on my team seemed to be on the same page as I was - which made me even more confident.

Unfortunately, our agency director did not share our enthusiasm for my work.  She tore apart the action plan I spent hours drafting, had major revisions for one of my press releases and hated the other.

It was quite a blow to my confidence.

To make matters worse, the account director and agency director stayed at the office with me until 7:00 on Friday evening while we reworked the action plan.

It was bad enough that I had to stay late but I felt terrible about making them stay late as well.

I made sure to apologize and thank them profusely for their help and their patience and I'm sure it won't be the end of my career, but it was definitely an experience I hope to avoid in the future.

I ended up spending an hour and a half polishing up the action plan and rewriting the press release over the weekend.  I made sure that was alright with the agency director and she said as long as I made sure to track my time for billing purposes, that was absolutely okay.  Apparently she was going to be headed into the office today to catch up on some of her own projects.

I knew that starting a new job was going to require some additional hours on my behalf, but I forgot how much of a learning curve I was going to face and how resilient I was going to have to be.

Here's to another day, another dollar and another chance to improve.  Wish me luck tomorrow!

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!

Building Gardens

This post, Gardens, not Buildings by Seth Godin really resonated with me.

I feel like I have always wanted to cross things off of my list.  Whether it's a work task or a personal task, I get immense satisfaction from accomplishing my goals.

This mentality has been tough to overcome since I started managing a website in my current job.  Websites are not projects that get completed, they are always evolving and changing.  I have had to stop building structures and walking away, as Seth puts it.  I am cultivating a garden that needs constant attention, adjustment and fine-tuning.

Movie Stars

My, my it's been a horribly busy week.  Jackie's bachelorette weekend was pretty fun- I got home and Sam let me know Jacadi and Sean were going to take us up on our offer to have them come stay in the guest room while they did some house hunting.

What an awesome surprise!  And better yet, we got to meet Isaac!  18 months after he was born, and a whole lot of photos later, but we did get to meet him!!!  He is really adorable, I mean seriously he's the most precocious little guy and he is so sweet with Hunter (BTW they are born like about 15 days apart).  They're pretty sure they found a place to rent until Sean gets himself a job (he was waiting to see where Jacadi matched) and then they'll be looking to buy a place.

It was a crazy week- our vendor hired a videographer to film a video testimonial for two of our clients.  How cool!!!  Right?  I am going to be a movie star!!! :-) The first was on Tuesday, which was a 9+ hour day, and then Wednesday I pulled another 9+ hour day doing some errands at the last minute after work.  Wednesday I was completely exhausted.  I woke up and felt sniffly and my neck was sore and I had a headache.  Today I woke up and had a bit of a scratchy throat.  Felt foggy.  I came home and napped this afternoon before I dropped off Sam's carnitas stuff at the hospital.

Man, I am just spent.  And I have another FULL weekend ahead of me.  Sam's parents arrive tomorrow with Leo and we're all celebrating Aunt Elsa's 80th birthday on Saturday.  I am so excited to see them, but I also think I'm in desperate need of some rest and relaxation.

So with that, I'm off to bed!  I need to get ready for Jackie's wedding next weekend- I will be going up on Thursday and I definitely need my rest before then!

Balance

Mom and I had a rough conversation on Tuesday night.  Not a bad one, but one that was difficult and focused on my shortcomings.

Balance.  I am not very good at maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

I never have been.

In high school it was all about water polo.  I distinctly remember missing my English Exit Exam because I had a water polo tournament the same weekend and it was far more likely that I would get into college being scouted as opposed to on my academic merits.

Then in college I stepped back from water polo and focused on school so that I could achieve success in a career some day.  And I poured myself into my grades- getting on the Dean's List a couple of times.

The healthiest I have been in my life was in 2011 when I knew I was leaving my job and started focusing on myself instead of my career.  I worked out, I spent time with friends and I did my best not to stress out.

All of that changed when I got my current job.  Small company, lots of hats to wear, and never enough hours in the day to finish my to do list.  I do not do well with stress. Not that that's news to me.  I have always been a stress eater.  I definitely must have high levels of the hormones that cause stress-induced weight gain.  Boy am I a sucker for comfort food when I am wigged out.  And boy am I wigged out.

I feel undervalued and under-appreciated  at work.  I am frustrated that we have no metrics on which I can base marketing decisions and we have no infrastructure to track metrics.  I am trying to conquer the world and I am chained to a slab of stone that is weighing me down and making it tough to even tread water let alone swim to shore.

I am waiting for the next chapter of my life with Sam to begin- and apparently he is hellbent on taking his sweet ass time.  I feel like every time someone else gets engaged it's just another reminder that perhaps something is wrong with me and that's why it hasn't been my turn yet.  Paranoia much?

And to distract myself, I threw myself into work.  I should have thrown myself into working out, but I guess ya live and learn.  I just thought if I could get that one extra project done, or caught up on the day's emails that I would feel like I was making some headway.

So now I need to focus on making healthy choices- Hunter and I are going to start jogging and work our way up to 5K distances again.  I need to make better nutritional choices.  I need to let the stress and the anxiety about getting engaged and planning a wedding and trying to keep our home tidy.

So here we go.

Wine

Last week felt like it would never end.  I had two work events, and the culmination of a couple of big projects I had been working on since the start of the year.  Needless to say, I was so thankful when the weekend arrived.

This week has been completely different.  It's like I have jetlag from all the energy I had to exert last week.  I have no motivation and all I want to do is lose myself in mindless forms of entertainment- TV, internet, reading other people's blogs, drinking wine every night with dinner (one glass), and playing Roller Coaster Tycoon (please don't judge me too harshly).  

I have not wanted to blog myself at all.  Why not?  Because I am trying to ESCAPE my life of course!

It's all I can do to handle myself and Hunter (let alone Sam, who thankfully has been on call a lot) let alone relive the stress and drama.  Part of my problem is that little Hunter hasn't been sleeping through the night very well over the last two weeks- probably my fault because our walks have not been as regular or long as they should have been.

I did find time to make the ortho department cupcakes on Sunday.  I drove up to the hospital and met with Sam for dinner, leaving the cupcakes with his very sweet nurses.  For our on-call date night, Sam took me to the fish place in the mall across from the hospital and it was fabulous.  It was also expensive, but seriously it was scrumptious.  I had butterflied panko crusted shrimp and cajun halibut.  Mmmmm.

I am also a little overwhelmed by the travel coming up- Jackie's got her bridal shower, her bachelorette and her wedding two weeks apart for the next six weeks.  OMG.  I am so excited but simultaneously so exhausted.  I may end up having to take a day off after the wedding is over to relax and recuperate.  Plus, Sam will be off the week after the wedding so it would be good for us to relax and spend some time without so much distraction.

In between the wedding and the bachelorette party (which I get to throw- OMG I am so excited!) we get to see Sam's family for his Great-Aunt's 80th Birthday Party.  We have lots of family coming into town, and Sam's folks generously offered to get us a hotel up in Palos Verdes to hang out with the family.  I wasn't in love with the idea of staying up there on the weekend before the wedding, but I was looking forward to getting to see Sue and Rich and all the cousins (who I hope are coming down.)

Anyway, Sam's parents are going to stay in Irvine now, which is super thoughtful of them and I'm even more excited about seeing them now that I don't have to stress about the dog and getting my shit together before the wedding.  I am so excited about wedding season though, Jackie kicks it off and then we have Monique's and Dan and Tina's.

I'm also really excited about our 10-year class reunion, which I am co-chairing, in June.  And Papa's big 80th birthday party in July.  So many wonderful things happening in the next couple of months!!!

"Finals Week"

I am exhausted.  This was the longest week I've had in a long time.

Sam used to tell me that I had to "contain the crazy" during finals week in college.  He needed to focus on his exams and whatever drama was going on had to be shelved.  For the first time (I think ever) I told Sam I was "pulling finals week" during a Tuesday phone call while I was at my wit's end.

I attended a mixer event with my boss and sales manager on Wednesday night, and was up this morning at 4:50 to get to a conference in Anaheim.  Needless to say I am totally exhausted right now.  And sitting on the floor in front of the TV watching last Sunday's Walking Dead.  (Side note: I have appreciated the less gory Walking Dead story lines lately).

Lack of sleep, the stress of all these events for work, and Hunter getting up in the middle of the night the last couple of nights has taken it's toll.  I'm not sure if I want to pop open a bottle of Chateau St Jean chardonnay or spoil myself with take-out (neither of which are Making the Cut friendly ideas).  I would normally say that sitting down and curling up with a good book sounds like a good idea but even that sounds like too much mental effort.

If it weren't Sam's stupid 2nd year schedule maybe we could have had dinner together, but he's up at the hospital on call tonight and I am not really feeling like driving all the way up to the hospital to get dinner.  The hospital doesn't exactly have lots of healthy dining options near by.

I also realized that I have a hair appointment before Jackie's wedding scheduled at the time as Sam's great Aunt's birthday party on April 27.  I had thought (for some stupid reason) the party started at 3pm so I booked the hair appointment at noon.  Unfortunately BOTH things are set for noon.  So now I need to reschedule my hair appointment or arrive late to Aunt Elsa's birthday.  I just don't have too many options for getting my hair done with all the wedding festivities in the weekends prior to the wedding.  C'est la vie.  Perhaps I'll have to skip out on the gym Saturday morning and try to have my hair done earlier.

Ladies Weekend

It might not be a big surprise, but I don't get too many evenings Girls Night Out opportunities.  Yes, Sam is on call all the time (or so it feels), but many of those nights I am busy with Hunter or doing errands or housework.  On Fridays I am frequently too hired from the work-week to bother going out, and often times my girlfriends are busy with their boyfriends on Saturdays.

That was not the case this weekend.  Sam went to Las Vegas with Ryan, Steve, Nick, Mason and Kirellos when the stars aligned and all the boys were off at the same time.  Dan and Tina had been planning a March Madness trip which happened to coincide with the boys' time off.

I couldn't make it due to Jackie's upcoming wedding events, budgeting for our 10-year High School Reunion trip to San Francisco, and wedding/birthday madness in July.  I guess it's part of being a mature, financially minded adult to say 'no' to some trips.  :-)  Besides, I am really looking forward to all my upcoming weekend celebrations and this turned out to be a bit of a UCI med school reunion for Sam's group of guy friends.

So anyway, Sam left me here with Hunter for the weekend.  And wow, I have gotten to hang out with lots of great ladies!  Minal, Sam's co-resident, met me at The Melting Pot after I dropped Sam off at the airport on Friday night.  She hadn't ever been there before, so we ordered spinach artichoke cheese fondue and then a pot of milk chocolate & peanut butter fondue.  It was SO fun getting to spend a little one-on-one time with her.  In fact, I think I could REALLY enjoy her company.  The only trouble is that she is from Orange County, and has a very busy social life.  I anticipate it being even more difficult to spend time with her than it is for me to spend time with Sam!

Saturday morning, Amy and I met for the 9:15 spin class at our local LA Fitness.  It was a really rigorous workout this morning; we had a sub and she was way more intense than our usual instructor.  Not that we're not usually working hard, but this girl had me POURING sweat and that is rare even for me- I feel like I sweat an unusual amount.

After spin, I came home to shower and pick up Hunter before heading down to Corona del Mar to meet up with Amy for lunch and a little Newport Coast walk.  We spent a while hanging out on Nick's patio enjoying the sunshine.  It wasn't hot, hot, but it was definitely better than the over-cast, fog situation that was going on earlier in the morning.

When I left Amy, I went by Ralph's and picked up the Rug Doctor carpet cleaning machine and decided to shampoo our carpets.  After last weekend's Spring Cleaning, it was just looking foul that our carpets had dark stains and spots.  So anyway, I cleaned the carpets for about 2 hours and made very sure to go back over the whole floor with just plain water after I had finished with the soap.  I then made extra passes JUST sucking up water from the fibers.  My hope was that the carpet would be drier than it was last time I did this (June '12) and that it would be dry by the time Sam got home if not Sunday morning.

Hunter and I settled down on the couch to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and wait for the carpets to dry.  I wanted to call Jen, but she has a BIG exam (her last one) next Saturday and I didn't want to be a distraction for her.  Around 8:45, she texted me and asked me what I was up to.  Since I wasn't doing anything too important, and I had been hoping to see her, I decided to go over and have some wine.  Three and a half hours later (WooHoo for ringing in St Patty's Day 2013), after we finished a bottle of wine and played copious amounts of Guitar Hero, I finally headed home to Hunter.  While I was out, I left the heat on to try to help dry the carpets.  As soon as I got home I turned off the heat and opened back up our balcony slider and bedroom windows to help air out the apartment and speed up the drying process.

Jen texted me a 9 to see what I was up to.  She was getting burnt out studying for her big exam next Saturday and wanted to share some wine.  A bottle of Pino Noir and a few hours of guitar hero later, we rang in St. Patrick's Day.  When I got home I wasn't especially sleepy, so I decided to watch a bit more of The Fellowship of the Ring (which I was midway through when Jen texted).  I ended up going to bed around 2:30.

Sunday morning Any and I had planned to go to spin class... but she wasn't feeling up to it.  I, with only 5.5 hours of sleep, managed to get myself there and survived back-to-back spin days with LITTLE serious damage.  Nothing like last weekend when I did a poor job of working my hamstrings and quads equally... I couldn't wear heels all week and had to roll out my legs for three days straight.

After spin, I started putting things back in order as the carpet began to dry.  I also sat down to do some serious work- four hours of intense website analysis.  I am trying to work on our pages with high bounce rates so I looked at 26 pages: key term phrases, content, meta description, title, etc.  I was able to make changes to most of the pages, and there were a few I don't know how to improve upon so I will send those to our SEO guys and see if they have advice.  I also sent some weird URLs to our web design girl so she can check out what they are and if I can just delete the pages off the site or if she can make some edits so the pages function more successfully.

Now, I'm relaxing with Sam and Hunter on the couch, just hanging out and watching The Return of the King.  (LOVE THESE MOVIES!)  I watched the first two earlier today and I probably won't be able to finish this one tonight.  Oh well, I'll have to handle the conclusion tomorrow.

True Blood

Sam was searching HBO-go last Saturday and out of the blue he decided to try the first season of True Blood.  Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of all things supernatural including vampires... in fact for a while when I was younger I used to daydream about being one.  I read Twilight, and have been working through the Vampire Academy series and the The Mortal Instruments series as new books come out.  (I really suggest The Mortal Instruments- it's my favorite book series other than A Game of Thrones right now and unfortunately I am waiting on new releases from BOTH authors.)

Anyway, we finished the first season of True Blood over the weekend and we're into season 2 on episode 3.  It's become kind of strange so far this season, and from what we hear from friends it will continue to get weirder.  Most of our friends stopped watching after season 3, so we'll have to wait and see if we can make it longer than that.

As it is, I appreciate that we can watch episodes with minimal involvement.  Take tonight for instance.  We are hanging out with our laptops, watching and working while Hunter relaxes between us.  What a spoiled puppy!

Will This Ever Get Old?

I wanted to share some cool news articles published from the press release I set out on the wire Tuesday morning.  It's still so cool to see my name listed as the release contact!  I wonder when (if ever) that will get old?  Probably eventually.  I especially love that we get picked up by all my "hometown" newspapers from the San Francisco Bay Area.  And most interesting of all, I made it into the Contra Costa Times, my hometown county paper, for something other than water polo.  Wow, I feel so grown up!

(Disclaimer: all of these are pretty much the same article, don't feel the need to read them ALL unless you want to!)

Contra Costa Times

SF Gate (Chronicle Website) 

Sacramento Bee

LA Daily News

OC Register (This little blurb was written by an Acalanes grad who I have gotten to know fairly well- networking plus!)

NorCal Trip

Sunday Sam and I are road tripping to Northern California with Hunter for a week-long vacation.  It will be his second trip to our hometown and our first big trip home of 2012.  We'll be up North for the longest time since residency started.  It will be good to getaway from Orange County and get some perspective on what's important- loved ones!

I am really looking forward to seeing my family, especially my Mom's side.  I haven't seen my Auntie Annie, Aunt Kathy, or cousin Alicia since we had my grandfather's memorial in July 2010.  Wednesday I'm meeting up with the three of them for lunch and I'm looking forward to catching up!  I'm also really looking forward to them meeting Hunter since I named him after my grandparents on that side of the family. 

I'm also looking forward to having some free time to catch up on reading.  I am deep into the Game of Thrones books and I need to get motivated to ready book 4, which I've started twice and keep getting distracted from.  I also have a Facebook marketing book that Raleigh lent me months ago which I need to finish or give back to her, and about 20 marketing podcasts I would like to listen to while I'm driving around visitng friends or walking the dog.  

I will also get to see some girlfriends I haven't seen in ages.  Reunion time!  I haven't seen Lindsay in so long I forget when we were last together- she's never met Hunter so it's been at least a year.  In addition to that I'm going to see the Seto family and Jackie on Wednesday... depending on how the evening goes I may even be crashing at Jackie & Joe's place.  Exciting news: Jackie and Heidi were in San Francisco last weekend and picked out my bridesmaid dress.  I will get to try it on for the first time when I see her on Wednesday afternoon!

I plan on doing some work while we're vacationing- mostly just maintaining our social media sites and drafting future blogs, but I will also be on-call in case something happens.  Thank goodness I am very mobile as long as I have my cell phone, laptop and internet service.

Sunday can't come soon enough...

MNF with Kaepernick

So what can I say?  Today I worked a 9.5 hour day, went shopping for our Thanksgiving dinner (turkey, stuffing, & cranberries down; sweet potatoes and asparagus to go), and got dinner started in time to watch the Niners Monday Night Football Kickoff.  Oh the life of a modern woman! 

We're almost to the 10 minute mark of the 3rd quarter and the Niners lead the Chicago Bears 27-0.  Boo-Yeah Bears! 

Colin Kaepernick is looking really good tonight, and it's his first pro start so I'm proud of him.  In fairness, the Bear's quarterback is out tonight as well so both quarterbacks are backups. 

I should really start folding Sam's laundry, but I just don't feel like doing housework tonight.  I already cleaned up everything from dinner... can't that just be enough tonight?  LOL.  He has a very light workload this week (thank you Thanksgiving!) and he was home by 6:30 tonight.  MNF is so much better when I have Sam to watch with instead of just Hunter.

Hunter, by the way, is doing much better since his run-in with my underwear.  I think he's completely back to good in fact.  We all went to Hunter's obedience lesson last night, followed by Chinese food take-out because we were craving soup.  :-)

I'm so excited to have the long weekend off, even if I have to work a few hours to keep from getting behind, it will be so nice to be able to go to the gym during the middle of the day, take Hunter on some longer walks (the poor guy hasn't had too many since the time change), and get some quality time in with Sammy.

One Year

Today is my one year anniversary with my company.  Woohoo!  I was thinking about it, and I am so much happier in Marketing than I was in Sales. 

Insert big THANK YOU to Sam who pushed me to find something I am passionate about and make a career of it.  I am so thankful, in hindsight, for all his hounding while he was in medical school.

Also, I realized that I am incredibly lucky to have such a flexible boss.  Today I had to pick up some prescriptions and get my blood drawn to test whether I'm on the right dose of thyroid.  It was no big deal, I put it on the calendar that I'd be leaving at 4 and I left at 4.  There are so many companies that would never let their employees do that!

Everything really does happen for a reason, and I am so thankful that this job, this company, these amazing coworkers are a part of my life!

Walking Dead

No, this is not a reference to me being overly exhausted.  Quite the opposite, I have been feeling much more energized since I started taking the hypothyroidism medication.    The title of this post refers to the AMC Zombie series based on the comic books.

I am not much for watching TV shows the night they air because I am generally trying to spend quality time with Sam or Hunter if I'm not working in the evening.

Tonight, however, I decided I was going to give it a rest because I worked two hours extra last night expanding on some web page additions that a co-worker had started.  Sam is working late, so I have no obligation to entertain him.  Thus, with this time to myself, I am catching up on The Walking Dead season 3 premier and playing fetch with Hunter.  Good Lord, this puppy loves to play fetch.

And don't think it's all play for me tonight, I am also in the process of washing our sheets and drafting our holiday letter.  Last year we didn't send our letter out everyone, but complaints were lodged and this year the situation will be remedied.

So now, enough blogging and back to holiday letter drafting and laundry!

Long Day

The work keeps piling up, and there's still only me to get everything done.  I feel like I need to hire an assistant either at work, or at home!

I had the best intentions of making Sam a nice, home-cooked dinner tonight.  Instead, I got stuck late at the office and left close to 5:30... I called to check on him and he was still making his way home.  Ooops.  Needless to say, I stopped and picked up the pre-roasted chicken at Ralph's along with a bagged salad, an avocado, and 3 tomatoes.  Let me tell you, it tasted damn good.

And then I put in close to 3 hours of work while Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix played in the background, Sam dozed on the couch, and Hunter brought me his ball for an intermittent game of fetch.

All in all, I clocked over 11 hours working today.  When I finished after 9PM, I put Sam to bed, cleaned the kitchen and walked Hunter.  Then I did some organizing of my desk and am heading to bed immanently.

Tomorrow, I am headed up to Sherman Oaks (LA) for an 11-2 meeting.  Thankfully, Pete and Margaux lent me Invictus on tape and I will probably knock out 3.5 of the 9.5 hours while commuting in traffic.  Ah, the life of a young professional.

PS- Too tired to even process this, but I officially got word that I have satisfied the requirements for the UCI Extensions Program Marketing Certificate.  Woohoo!  I set out to accomplish this and start a career in marketing back in January 2011 and 21 months later I have accomplished both things.  More about this later!

Light at the End

The light at the end of the tunnel is shining so brightly tonight- I finished the final exam in my marketing class.  The only thing that stands between me and completing the program is writing some conclusion paragraphs.  Piece. Of. Cake.  I am so anxious to make working out a priority in my life again, and for Hunter to get more undivided attention so we can focus on sharpening his good behaviors.  I'm excited to not have to sacrifice time that I would like to spend with friends on studying.  I can't believe that I'm going to be able to read the stack of books piling up next to my bed- seriously that is a really huge deal to me.

Sam's first vacation week starts Saturday, too.  So I am really excited that I will be working but not dealing with classes.  Justin is coming down to visit us for the first Labor Day in a while (two years, in reality) and he will be in town starting a week from today.  Sam's parents, Pete & Margaux will be arriving in Orange County on Friday.  Not a bad way to spend a 3-day weekend and Sam's first real time off during his 2nd year of residency.

Another light at the end of the tunnel comes from the upcoming trips home I am looking forward to.  On September 8th I fly to NorCal for a whirlwind (approx 24 hour) wedding weekend trip, on October 5th Sam and I fly back up to NorCal for a more respectable length weekend weekend, and he is convincing me to drive up to NorCal for a few days in December when he has a week of vacation.  That would be a good opportunity for us to bring Hunter along with us since he does so well on road trips.  (Side note: I am so incredibly thankful I don't have a dog that gets carsick!)

Quick Work Update: I signed off on our SEO contract at work today, so hopefully that will start generating us some serious revenue before Christmas.  My boss told me today that some attornies want to rent the spare office upstairs, which happens to be between me and my coworker, Mark. Apparently they would prefer the end office (which is the one I am in) and want me to move into the center office.  Quick count of times I have moved:

1. From downstairs to the big upstairs office (March)
2. From the big upstairs office to the small upstairs office (May)
3. From the small upstairs office to my new, bigger upstairs office (August)

I do not want to move again.  Ugh.  HR told me not to worry about it until these guys see the price tag and sign off- apparently we've had people interested in the space but not in paying what the big boss wants to charge.

I don't really have time to worry about moving again, because I am leading a 2 hour LinkedIn Workshop on August 30th and I started making the PowerPoint Presentation today.  Oh my God, the time just completely ran away from me!  I looked at the clock and it was 3, and then suddenly it was 5:30.  I had to get the heck out of there so I could get home to Hunter and my exam, but tomorrow I am going to get right back after it.  If I can have the slides done by this weekend I can start practicing the presentation aspect of it and checking my run-time. 

Career Milestones

This morning I submitted my first-ever press release to a wire service for mass distribution.  Wow. 

Not only did we get picked up by a few online news channels- yes, we actually did get published- my contact information was listed as the person to direct questions to.  Wow. 

I feel like a big girl with a big girl job today.  Sometimes I really amaze myself.

Also, Sam received word that he officially is licensed by the state of California to practice medicine (or at least write prescriptions) yesterday.  I am very proud of both of us today... dare I say our careers are on the right track?

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!