Is it crazy that in less than two weeks it will be December??  I think so!

Though I can't wait till next week because it's short!!

So, ok update.  Someone asked me about my apartment hunt the other day and I didn't even realize I didn't fill anyone in about my experience.  Ok so this is my first apartment hunting on my own so it's been pretty daunting.  I found a really cute place that I got a tour of on Halloween.  I find it amazing how some people can take photos to make rooms/spaces look HUGE because this place that I looked at seriously looked HUGE.  Then again for the price I guess that was wishful thinking.  

It was cute and probably the PERFECT size for me except two small issues.  OK the first one is a big issue.  There was ONE closet and it was in the bedroom aka for clothes.  My big problem right now is SPACE so I NEED at least one closet besides the one in the bedroom.  Ok well I'll give them the benefit of the doubt - there was TWO closets but they put the fridge in one of them.  Weird. 

Second thing was that the bathroom was in the bedroom which I thought was weird.  People have been telling me it's not but I think it is.  For ex to go to the bathroom you have to go through the bedroom.  I don't know it just caught me as weird.  Then she took me in the basement to show me the washer and dryer (good!) and the "storage" which had the largest dead cockroach/beetle in it.  Yah not putting my stuff down there.  

So I'm going to halt my search to at least February.  Gives me more time to save and I really love my mom's house around Christmas!

Work has been insanely busy.  More lately than ever.  Lots of new business pitches and presentations happening and I'm trying to lend a hand wherever I can.  Sad news came to us yesterday - one of our smaller clients called us to tell us they'd laid off a ton of people and they most likely wouldn't have us work for them anymore which makes me so sad.  I LOVE this client.  I love everything they stand for and the products we represent are AMAZING and I feel really proud doing PR for them.  I would work for them for free but sadly it's a lot more complicated than that.  We have some new business opps in the coming weeks so I'm hoping things will look up.  I mean - I've seen client teams fall apart because the client leaves.  Scary stuff.

My two co-workers (I always think of Jim from the office when I say co-workers because he says he could never call his co-workers friends - but in my case my co-workers are friends of mine) and I went out to dinner and drinks. 

We went to the Cheesecake Factory which was a unanimous vote.  My boss totally got pulled over getting there because she challenged me to find out which way was faster: Rt 123 or Rt 3A.  She said she felt the competitive nature take over and she ran a red light without even knowing.  She only got a warning but we had some giggles about it (and I plan calling her out at the all staff meeting tomorrow!).

We had so much fun.  I laugh SO hard when I am with them!  I swear the waiter thought we were psycho because of the laughs that were coming from our table.  We were talking SO much about work that Kathleen was like OK let's share something with each other that we wouldn't know otherwise.  So I told them the story of my NSYNC obsession when I was 16 and sending in a FANatic video.  I pretended to be naked in the middle of the road (I had a top pulled down and shorts on) and I held a poster board over my body that said "I AM NSYNCS BIGGEST FAN."  Wonder why I didn't win.  They liked that one.  

I told them I had a blog and that I'm not hiding anything so they can read if they want.  They know how obsessed I am with funny pictures/signs so were asking about which ones make the cut.  Kathleen asked me about one that I don't think I ever put up here:

From the Graves 601 Hotel in Minneapolis.  Probably the nicest place I've EVER stayed (seriously there was a tv in the bathroom but the shower was weird. I kept looking for a door but there wasn't one.).  They had this mile high sex kit in the minibar so obviously I had to take a picture of it.  Enlarge it to read the text better (that's what she said?).  I showed my boss the next day and she couldn't believe it.

I have some more gems from my phone that I've never posted on my blog. Stay tuned.

xok

The crazy amount of work drama that went on after that last blog (literally 10 minutes after I posted it) is insane.  I almost want to erase it because it reminds me of how pissed off I was.

Anywho. Everything resulting from the drama was great and full of warm fuzzies.  Thursday I was whisked off to Minneapolis for the presentation I worked my face off for for like 2 months almost.  When we got there we practiced in person one time - took our class picture (again with the warm fuzzies) and put together the presentation room and action!

Side story on the class picture.  We go up to this gorgeous roof deck on the top of my companies headquarters to take a photo of the whole group (60-70 of us??) and up there EVERYONE is enjoying a cocktail and I see all my pals I haven't seen in months and I'm gabbing and long story short I end up RIGHT smack dab in the front middle because I was not paying attention to my original plan of hiding in the back.  Then the big boss comes and stands right next to me.  Greattt!  I'm chugging like 6 gallons of water due to nerves and I'm sweating like crazy and he puts his arm around me.  Seriously one of the coolest guys I know (and not because he would touch a sweaty me).

The presentation went really well.  The judges were eating when we started so I was hoping they wouldn't take notes on how nervous I was.  After I gave my first part I looked at one of my superiors and he smiled and gave me a lil wink.  Cheesy I know but that took all my nerves away immediately.  My second part went a lot better.  As soon as we were done and all the questions were answered I felt literally like a weight was lifted.  I felt like a huge rock of stress was gone from my body.

Party time. I checked into my hotel, changed out of my fancy clothes and met two lovely gals from my team in the hotel bar for celebratory lemon drop shots and a few glasses of wine.  Everyone wanted to go to a bar for more drinks but I was starving (I offically ate not one bite of food till like 9pm in fear of throwing up) so I stayed with Mike and Lori and ate some really yummy food in the bar.

I was going to go up to bed after but I realized I am NEVER in Minn. so I decided to join my co-workers out for some drinks and fun times (fun times they were).  First place we went was Brits.  Totally english bar (as opposed to Boston's Irish Bars??) and they have a huge lawn on the roof deck where you can play all kinds of fun lawn games.  So fun.  I never know what to drink out there because I'm such a Sam girl (Summit is NOT Sam guys...). We stayed there for a bit and I had a heart to heart with one of my account leads on our walk to the next bar called The Local.  CS was my PIC that night and we decided to stick together.  We however went to the second location ( never go with a hippie to a second location!!!! ) and proceeded to drink more.  I had some great conversations about Alkaline Trio and Motion City Soundtrack (from Minneapolis) with my friends fiance and random conversations about Facebook friending.  On the way to the bathroom I found the kissing room (where yes people go inside this dark lit room and make out).  I'll leave the forum open to whether I did or did not go in there:)

Went back to the hotel with Mike and CS and absolutely crashed.  Too much wine, too much beer made me silly.  My electric toothbrush exploded and I didn't even take a picture of it (one of many photo ops I missed during the trip).  Seriously my toothbrush exploded when I turned it on.  The batterys shot out of the bottom and battery acid (CS who was my neighbor called and asked me what that noise was) went everywhere.

Woke up the next day of the All Staff Retreat a little hungover but mostly still going off adrenaline so it was all good.  I decided it would be a good idea to drink a bit of every beverage I could find after getting to the retreat - I bring you my bevy of bevvies:

Yes I drank all of those through out the day and  a few more coffees and like 6 Diet Cokes to boot.

The day was also full of warm fuzzies and one big cold un fuzzie but this is my blog and I've already talked about it too much.  I realized this day that I also am devoid of accepting compliments.  So many people were coming up to me telling me how great I did in the presentation the day before and I was stoked about it but I was never sure what to say in return.  What sounds better to senior management: being like yeah thanks!! I knew I'd kick ass, or like "Ehh I was so nervous"  (I chose the latter) but I'm sure it wasn't the best call.  

I grabbed dinner by myself that night because the other teams were all studying real hard for their presentation.  I so conveniently sat across from the Scientology Center of Minneapolis (which I have a picture of it but it's not working).  There was a sign outside that said "Are you curious about yourself?? Come in..".  No thanks crazy face.

The night ended with some drinks with my favorites in the hotel lobby and much needed sleep.  Next day I woke up at 4:30 to make my way back to Boston.  The guy who drove me to the hotel found it so amazing that I worked in PR and kept asking me if I knew Dog the Bounty Hunter.  I'm serious.  He told me he wrote him letters telling him he thought he would be a great bounty hunter.  OOO Minneapolis.

EDIT: One more addition I forgot (but Pat reminded me).  In addition to my many beverages I enjoyed that day - I got to experience Dunn Brothers Coffee.  No - not owned by my good friend P Dunn but he wishes.  There are quite a few of them - one across from the office and one was IN the library we had our retreat at.  I was Dunn Brothers-ed out.  So good.  They had sugar free coffee shots in all the good flavors and not just Hazelnut and French Vanilla.

Speaking of coffee I think my next blog may include my ode to Pumpkin Spice Coffee.

xok