It just keeps getting better...

Today is my birthday!  Yay!  Happy birthday to me!

I'm really starting to feel old.  But this year is my golden year, so it's bound to be good, right?  Honestly, how could it not be?  An awesome new city, new job, and endless opportunities.  It's pretty fantastic.

Here is a quick recap of my awesome birthdays of yesteryear.

It all started on my 21st birthday.

Bri was living in Boston, and my parents threw me an amazing party in downtown Saratoga that my friends and I talk about to this day.


Then, for my 22nd birthday I was in Paris, France.  Not only did I enjoy an amazing night out in Paris, I got to watch the finale of the Tour de France.  Unreal.

My 23rd birthday was spent in Vang Vieng, Laos.  I went to Laos for the weekend with Maddie, Nicki and Bethany for tubing, dancing, and tree house- sleeping.

My 24th birthday was back in Saratoga.  I enjoyed a wonderful evening with my parents, Ellie, Nicole and Liz.  We went out to dinner at The Gideon Putnam before heading to SPAC.  While we ate cheesecake and drank wine we watched Casa Blanca and listened to the orchestra play the score.

And of course, when I returned to Thailand Cait had 10 cases of Leo waiting for me.  Happy birthday to me!

And today, for my 25th birthday, I am spending the day at the office.

Don't worry, it gets much better!  Last weekend I spent hours and hours completely unpacking, reframing photos and hanging things on my walls.  So, tonight I am having a little party.  A few of my new work friends are coming over for dessert and drinks.  Yay!  I have friends!  And I have a fantastic apartment!

Here is to an amazing 25!  Cheers!

Grey Hairs

I am so frustrated right now.  I want to pull my hair out.  I also want to cry.  But, my officemate is around, so I’m holding back the tears.

With over 1,000 printed pages in front of me and another 524 in an Adobe PDF file open on my desktop, I am not able to find the answer I am looking for.  I am supposed to be working on my project right now.  But for the last two hours I have been searching over 3 reams of paper’s worth of information, trying for the life of me to figure out where to begin.

Do I know what I am doing?  Nope.  Not a clue. 

Do I feel like an idiot?  Yup.  Absolutely.

Do I feel smart enough to be working here?  Not in the slightest.  I feel like an idiot.

Do I have a headache?  That’s a silly question.  I now live with a constant headache.  Seriously, I carry ibuprofen on my person at all times.

I’m a computer idiot to begin with.  Let’s play the honest game, I own a Mac.  And as every person that works for this company has made clear, those are not good computers.  So here I sit, wishing I could swoop to a corner and see all of my open windows or use the little spotlight feature to find my answer.  I am praying that I stumble upon the answer sometime in the near future.  And I am begging that I don’t burst into tears while Rob is still in here, because I really want him to come to my birthday party tomorrow, and I think crying might scare him away.

But, by God, what am I doing here?  How in the world am I supposed to train people on this software if I can’t even create a bloody SmartSet!  Ahhh!

Stumble Upon This!

As the owner of this blog I can see how people get to my blog.  For example, I can see if someone searches "capitol of Cambodia Sean Penn" and ends up here.  Remember that post?

I can see where people are located around the world when they read this blog.  I can also see what site referred them to my blog.  So when I plug my blog on facebook and twitter, I can see the influx of readers from those sites. 

But huge news on the Live Fully site!!  StumbleUpon is now referring people to my blog!  Yes, you read correctly.  A whole 2 people have stumbled and come across my blog.

Maybe I'm crazy for getting so excited about two readers, but I think this is huge news.  When I stumble across blogs, I think they must be some kind of big deal, and never considered my blog to be part of that crowd.  Surprise!  I made it!

Keep on stumblin' on!

{source}

Much love, Stumblers.  Much love.

Turn that frown upside down!

Monday was a rough day.

It was my first staff meeting at work, and oh my goodness was it overwhelming.  Over 6,000 employees in one auditorium for over 2 hours?  Yikes.

After that, we had an all trainers meeting followed by a team meeting.  Let's just say, there were a lot of meetings today.  And as an employee still fully engrossed in training, and desperately trying to learn the lingo of the land, I had to think really hard... all day long.

I know that sounds silly, but it is so true.

This company runs on acronyms, and I don't know any of them.  I am trying to learn the names of each application, and I haven't even attempted to learn what each app does!  I don't know computer stuff.  I don't get Star Wars jokes.  Basically, I don't speak dork yet.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not judging dork at all!  Dork is what created a job for me!  But, I don't understand what is being said!  Therefore, in my 5 hours of meetings yesterday, I had to listen really hard.  I had to think about what the acronym might be referring to.  Or, what the Yoda reference may have meant.  Then I would quickly think about how I need to buy Star Wars to watch, before I was struggling to keep up with which app was being discussed.

Needless to say, I left work with a pounding headache.  I thought too much.  I looked at too many screens.  I didn't drink enough water.  I was beginning to stress about upcoming deadlines.

I drove home, popped some ibuprofen, took Wilbur out for a walk, and decided to turn my day around.  The day hadn't been all bad, but my headache was taking over, and I needed to end on a good note.

I called the cable company and I spoke to the nicest man named Paul.  Paul helped me to pick the right cable package for me.  He made sure it includes ABC, Food Network, CMT and TLC.  Then he scheduled for the technician to come out Wednesday evening between 5 and 7pm.  Perfect!

While I was on the cable high, I went to the mattress store.  I know I need to get off my air mattress, but I have been working late, and I hate leaving Wilbur alone longer than he needs to be.  But on Saturday even my horoscope told me to buy a new mattress, so I knew it was time.

I went into Mattress Firm where Gabe helped me to pick the perfect mattress.  I awkwardly jumped around on the beds, feeling a bit like Goldilocks.  As I went down the row I would barely let my head hit the pillow before saying, "oh no, toooooo soft" and moving onto the next.  Gabe occasionally came back to check on me, but he left me to my bouncing, shifting, sitting, side sleeping and back sleeping.

After a good thirty minutes of bed testing, I picked my favorite, and the sales game began.  Gabe tried to sell me a nicer frame, I denied him.  Gabe tried to sell me a special mattress pad, and I denied him again.  Gabe told me the mattress pad normally sells for $119, but he would give it to me for $69.  I said no thank you.  He asked me why I didn't why to buy his super special mattress pad, and I told him I already had one.  Of course, that was a lie.  I was just planning to go to Target to buy one for less than $69.  Finally, Gabe pulled out the big guns.  He would sell me the super special mattress pad/ protector for $25.  Sold, fine sir.  Sold.  I would have paid more than that at Target, so Gabe, you win.  Better yet, I win.

With my mattress protector and washing instructions in hand, I headed home.  But, I took a detour.  I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy myself new sheets for my new bed.  I was able to drive from one side of town to the complete opposite side without using my GPS, and that alone put a smile on my face!   At BB&B I found egyptian cotton sheets, that I think will feel wonderful.  I spent almost as long shopping for sheets as I did for my bed!

I decided that while I was in the area, I should give Home Depot a shot for purchasing a kitchen trashcan.  I have an awesome slide out trashcan drawer in my kitchen with a slot for a trashcan.  But, I hadn't yet found a trash can that fit it!  I bought one that was too tall, one too wide, and one too deep for the opening.  Home Depot was my last stop before I was going to give up for a while.  So, while I was in the neighborhood, I ran in, bought a trash can for $6.97 and left.  On my entire drive home, I was sure the trashcan would be too big.  At one stoplight I would look at it and think, yeah, it looks too tall.  At the next stoplight I would look at it from another angle and think, yup, definitely too wide.  I cursed myself as I brought it up to my apartment, knowing I was wasting time and energy. 

I walked into the apartment and sighed with relief.  Not only had Wilbur successfully spent the time I was gone out of his kennel, but he was quiet!  Or he was not noisy enough to have the neighbors complain, but I'll go with quiet.  I played with the pup for a few minutes, reminding him that I hadn't abandoned him yet.

Begrudgingly I went into the kitchen to test the new trashcan.  And much to my surprise, it fit!  I threw a little party and got Wilbur super worked up.  Wilbur doesn't know what "trashcan," "it fits," or "we really live here now" mean, but he now knows that they are all good phrases.

With my new trashcan in place and my puppy tired from the trashcan party, I continued on my productive streak.  I unpacked the rest of my clothing, hanging and folding, and placing each item in its new home.

And as if that weren't enough, I started one of my many picture projects!  I have tons of framed photos but many have old photos in them, and all have dirty glass.  So, one by one, I opened the frames, took out the photos and cleaned the glass.  I only sliced two of my fingers, and I still have frames to fill, but it was a good evening's work.

After my super long and rough day at work, I was able to turn it around.

The moral of the story: With the help of an adorable dog, a credit card and ibuprofen, anything can get better!

Fancy Phones Change Friendships

I have spent enough time back in the US now to make, what I feel to be, appropriate and unbiased observations.  Yes, when I first moved back I had a hard time transitioning.  Ask anyone and they would confirm that every other word out of my mouth was Thailand.  Instead of "Mr. Sopelak said..." it was "in Thailand...."

But now, I have moved on.  I still love Thailand and miss it, but I am unbelievably grateful and happy to be back in the US.  That being said, I have a bone to pick with, well, a lot of people.
What is it with people and their phones?!  Ahhh!

Yes, I bought myself an iPhone, as I assumed I would, but I really don't think I am addicted to it.  The reason I believe I can say this is because it is so obvious to me that most of the people in my life are.  I am going to be honest and say that none of my friends are important enough in their jobs to have to check their emails every thirty seconds.  Sorry, but it's true.  And, if the email needs to be checked, it probably doesn't have to be done in the middle of the story I am telling you.  Or, while we are walking down the street.  Or while we are eating dinner.  None of us are that important.

I am guilty of checking my email too frequently, and I know it's only because I can. I know that the Banana Republic, amazon.com and West Elm advertisements, promotions and sales will still be there in a few hours, but I check for them regardless.  I check my email while I'm watching television, or waiting for the subway, but not while I am having a conversation with someone. I cannot stand that my friends choose our face to face time as an appropriate time to check their emails! If it is that important, or you are that important, excuse yourself. All it takes is a simple, "I'm sorry, I need to check for an important email. Oh! Here it is. I am going to quickly read and respond." That wasn't so hard, was it?

Then there is the facebook thing.  I love a great facebook stalking session just as much as the next person, but every twelve seconds?  How much could have really happened?  Did someone just comment on a photo?  Or update a status?  Or "like" something? Ahhh! Must. Know. Now! Really? You don't need to check your Facebook that frequently! How about we have a real conversation and take some photos of our real life interaction. Then, you will have something new to add to Facebook.  I know, I'm just talking crazy now.

But my number one telephone pet peeve is the texting. Oh. Em. Gee. The texting.  I have never been a huge fan of the texting.  I was in Thailand when I think texting really blew up.  I clearly remember driving home from the airport on my first trip back to the States in the fall of 2010.  My mom was driving and I borrowed her phone to get in touch with a few of my friends.  I called Dave and left him a voicemail.  I told him that I was back in the area for two weeks and would love to see him.  As soon as I hung up my mom said, "ummm... we don't really do that anymore."  I felt as though I had missed part of the car's conversation while I was leaving a voicemail and asked, "don't do what?"

"Leave voicemails.  Everyone just texts now."

And there it was.  I was thrown back into America with the slap in the face that I was behind the times technologically. 

For those two weeks and every other trip I took back to the States, I kept on calling.  I wasn't going to give in.  I love hearing a person's voice.  I love hearing their reaction and sarcasm and knowing what they meant by something, not wondering how a certain response was supposed to be taken.

I like to think that I have continued to keep up with my original goal of calling, but it isn't all that easy.  Now, I do understand that texting has its purpose, but I cannot stand text conversations.  If we are going to go back and forth a hundred thousand times, and misunderstand each other at least 500 times, can't we just call?

But the worst, literally the worst (quoting my cousin Mike right there... it has become a family joke) thing about texting is that people are always doing it.  Texting is fine when you are alone, sending a quick message or figuring out where people are, but not okay when you are with other people!  If you are spending time with me, for goodness sake, please stop texting all those other people!  No wonder the rate of ADHD has risen 28% over ten years! {source}

Everything we could ever want, need, dream or hope for, and more, is right at our fingertips in our telephone!  One conversation is no longer enough.  Now, we can talk to someone, play a game with someone else, text another person, poke another, wink at a fifth person and comment on another person's status all at the same time!  And I didn't even mention tweeting!

Okay, I'll get down off my soap box, pick up my iPhone and tweet about this blog post, proving myself to be a complete hypocrite, but I'm not with anyone right now, so I'll still consider myself to be the exception to the rule.

Don't stop tweeting, blogging, Words with Friends-ing, poking, Facebooking, emailing or  even texting- because I'm not going to- just don't do it while I'm trying to have a conversation with you, please!

It's a hard knock life

Wilbur has a tough life.  Every morning when I wake him up for his walk, he lets me know just how tough it is.  Sometimes he whines, other times he stretches for a good ten minutes, but his favorite move is to refuse to open his eyes.

Pretending to be asleep.

The night before we left for Madison.

I will give him a little credit, because the past two weeks have been really tough.  I took him away from his family and his best friend and immediately made him sit in a very hot car for 19 hours.  I made him stay in a bizarre hotel and ride an elevator.  Side note: watching a dog ride an elevator for the frist time, or the first few times, is absolutely hilarious.

His throne in the car

After the car ride I put him in a strange house with more strange people.  (The people weren't actually strange, just strangers to him)

The next day I made him stay in another new place with weird smells, bizarre sounds outside the door, and no furniture.  Only two days later I woke him up at 5 am.  This may have been the worst for him.  If Wilbur had control of his life he would go to bed at 8 pm every night and not wake up until 11 am.  Unfortunately, my new job likes me to arrive before noon, so he and I were up at 5. 

We took a nice long walk along a path that is becoming familiar.  And then I locked him up for the day.  But not before giving him his anti- anxiety treat!

There is a wonderful pet store down the street where Wilbur and I are quickly becoming regulars.  When we went there the first time the cute owner asked to be introduced to Wilbur.  When Wilbur backed away and put his tail down when he tried to give him a treat the man asked if he was always so skittish.  I explained that it had been a stressful week, and Wilbur had become a nervous nelly with the move.  The adorable man recommended special anti- anxiety treats to help.  And with a flash of his pearly whites, I was sold.  Yes, cute pet store owner, I will now medicate my dog.

But before you think I'm terrible for leaving Wilbur in his kennel all day, let me explain that he loves it!  He sleeps in his kennel by choice at night, and finds it comforting.  When everything around him has changed so significantly, his kennel and bed are the same, and he likes that.  I also put his kennel in my closet, so he can't hear people coming and going in the hall, which I think keeps his stress level to a minimum.

Luckily, last week was short, so Wilbur was only home alone for two days before I spent the day at home with him.  On the fourth Cait and I took Wilbur out to dinner with us at Roman Candle, a pizza place down the street from my apartment.

On the way home he stopped at our new favorite pet store.  I think we have different reasons for it becoming our favorite, but it works well for both of us!  The pet store was closed, but Wilbur didn't understand that.  He sat down in front of the door and didn't want to move.  The cat of MadCat came to the front door, and Wilbur was in love.  As she slinked back and forth, rubbing her back against the door, Wilbur followed her every move.  And now, he and I have similar motives for frequenting the store.

This past weekend I brought Wilbur into Waggin' Tails Doggy Dude Ranch to begin his life as a daycare-goer.  He had his temperament test and was immediately thrown to the wolves, or the pack of 30+ dogs in the small dog area.  When I was allowed to see him I was informed that he was doing quite well.  From a doggy daycare newbie, he looked like a brown noser to me, standing right next to the dogsitter waiting to be pet, but I guess that was good?  The woman said that the fact he wasn't hiding from the other dogs or getting aggressive were good signs.  Whatever you say, dog lady!  And so Wilbur will be going on Tuesday to play with the other pups and not be medicated while I work.  His cubby will remain empty, but if I decide to, he is allowed to bring special treats, toys or even an afternoon snack with him. 

Go ahead, make fun all you want.  Trust me, I know how silly it is.  I wonder if we will have quarterly parent-teacher conferences...  Progress reports?  Graduations?

Just after all of my stuff was delivered... see the over dramatic puppy?

One week down...

... and ? more to go.

I may have only worked four days, but I can honestly say I'm loving it!  And I'm loving more than just my job.  I'm loving my apartment.  I love the location, the size, the kitchen, and, oh, I could go on.  I am loving the people I work with.  My office mate is fantastic.  He is a University of Wisconsin Madison graduate and knows all the secrets of the town.  He also has lots of friends in the area: score!  I am also loving Madison in general.  People are so friendly here.  And everyone loves Wilbur, so that is a fantastic conversation starter.  (Maybe he'll score me a date?  Fingers crossed...)

But don't worry, it isn't all rainbows and unicorns.  And I am not looking at the world through rose colored glasses. 

My apartment is incredible, but I don't know if it is mine yet.  My mortgage is still pending.  So, at the moment I am renting the apartment on a nightly basis in hopes of closing on the 16th.  All of my things were delivered by the moving company on Friday.  This is amazing!  .... except for the mortgage.  Now, if I don't get this apartment, I have 2,000 pounds of stuff I have to move in a very small car.  With all of my stuff in my apartment I was psyched to begin the process of unpacking, but once again I don't have my mortgage.  So do I really want to unpack everything and repack in two weeks?  Nope, not exactly.  For the time being, I have unpacked a few dishes, my DVD player and more clothing.  I also found my roller blades and my iron, so I'm set for a while. 

Oh, and my things arrived, but from the two boxes I have opened, my moving company is not on my good side.  I found one broken wine glass, one broken baking pan and a broken picture frame.  I did all of my own packing, so I didn't want to blame those things on them.  But then I noticed two of the four corners on my dining room table are completely chipped and there is a massive scratch on the leaf for the table.  My dresser has a huge chunk taken out of its foot and one of the feet on my bookcase is falling off.  I know my things had to travel 1,000 miles, but, really?  Don't you carefully put it on a truck, drive, and then carefully take it off the truck?  That's what I think a moving company should do...

Luckily I don't own anything of significant value.  My dressers are who knows how old, and the bookcase was from Target in high school.  But, I still care!  I have always tried to keep my things in good condition, and I hate that they look like this now.  The biggest chip on my shoulder is the dining room table.  It's a gorgeous table my mom gave me.  It is a really nice table that she doesn't have a home for anymore.  And it isn't cheap or old!  And now it has a massive scratch and chips.  Total bummer. 

But what are you gonna do? 

That was a real question. 

What was I to do?  When the movers came to pick up my things they wrapped and packaged my furniture as they saw appropriate.  So how was I to keep this from happening?  As much as I love Madison, I do believe that I will move again in my life.  I don't plan on dying a crazy old dog lady in this apartment, so how do I keep my furniture from being destroyed?  Any suggestions?

Okay, enough with the furniture chatter.

Madison is fantastic.  Life is looking good. 

Now, I'm going to do some of my homework before taking Wilbur to the water ski show on the lake.  And maybe treat myself to some ice cream?  Yes, I think so.

Day One in Numbers

Time I woke up: 5:15 am
Time Wilbur broke up (grumpily): 5:23
Miles I walked with Wilbur: 2.6
Time it took to drive to work: 23 minutes
Time I parked in the Yoda lot: 7:07 am
Number of July new hires: 360
Number of new hires in my same job: 5
Number in the TU incoming class when I entered: 780
Number of new hires in the smaller, more intimate class: 90
Number of students in my largest class at TU: 67
Hours spent in class: 6
Cups of coffee consumed by me: 1.5
Number of times I signed my signature: 7
Buildings I entered on campus: 8
Wrong turns I took: too many to count
Hours spent away from home: 11
New computers I have and need to learn: 2
Number of seats in the current auditorium on campus: 5,700
Number of seats in the new auditorium (still under construction): 13,000
Beers drank after work (with Wilbur): 2
Time I went to bed: 9:30 pm

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I have a guest in town!  Cait!!  We are going out with my new work friends for a few drinks and then spending tomorrow enjoying Madison.  I'm loving this city...

This one time...

This one time, a new month was about to begin, June of 2012 to be exact, and I had nothing planned.  I knew I would have lots of free time, so I promised to blog every single day.  Then, before I knew it, I took two trips to New York City to work, one trip to Annapolis/ Baltimore, a trip to Maine, and I moved.  The next thing I knew I was all alone in Madison, Wisconsin, and it was July.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is July.  And I failed miserably with my month of blogging.  When I realized that June had suddenly gotten out of control (and I received a text encouraging me to give up the lame posts) I decided to stop until I had the time.

Here I am, blogging from my new apartment, in my new city, on the eve of beginning my new job!  Yay!

I am absolutely thrilled to begin work tomorrow.  And for some reason, I don't feel very nervous.  I don't want to jinx myself, but I am feeling quite good about tomorrow.  I guess it helps that I already have the job.  The night before the interview, I was a complete mess!

It is 9 pm here (an hour earlier than the east coast) and I'm going to try to sleep.  I have a very early morning tomorrow, and I want to be all bright eyed and bushy tailed for work! Yay!  I can't believe I actually get to say that!

Hopefully I will have nothing but great things to tell you tomorrow evening.  Well, sometimes the not-so-great things make the best stories, so hopefully I'll have a few of those to throw in as well.

Until then, goodnight from Wisconsin!

-Meaghan (and Wilbur)