I love this blogging everyday thing.  It really helps me stay on my toes for some reason.  I think of things I need to share - good and bad and blogging is a really therapeutic way to express it even if people don't want to hear it.  Weird.  Yes.  

So Amazon totally redeemed itself from the Christmas present debacle of 2008.  I cancelled this gift for and I didn't get to present it to Mrs Hagler with all her other gifts.  I assured her it was on the way.  Truth is it wasn't.  I checked every brick and mortar store I could and then I went online.  Everyone always tells me how amazing Overstock.com is but I think I might disagree.  Everything was SUPER expensive including the digital photo frame I wanted to get her.  I have to admit I am a bit of a review snob and like to stick to brands I know.  I wanted to get her the Kodak one - not the no name one or this ugly one or that random one.   I know that I probably paid more for the name but it's just one of my things.  Finally,  I went back to Amazon to look again.  To my surprise they were cheaper from the first time I got it and still offered free shipping.  I ordered it this past sunday night (1/4) and I received it via my favorite UPS guy yesterday (1/6) in super condition.  

Car drama.  So I have been having so many car problems since November.  First my car just wouldn't start.  Then my check engine light would go on. Etc. Etc.  So I (along with my step dad) went to Highland Mechanics in Braintree to get it fixed.  The guy tells me I have a lazy thermostat and that a censor needs to be replaced so the light will go out and oh also that my battery and starter are going.  Roger tells the guy to fix the thermostat and the censor.  $500 dollars later I feel like nothing has changed but Roger is really smart about these things so I trust his opinion.  Three weeks ago right before Christmas my car dies again in the driveway.  Roger taps the starter with a hammer - it starts.  Next day Roger put a new battery and starter in (seriously having a jack of all trades around is SOOOO worth it even though he drives me bananas - he can also electrocute proof your pool).  $250 later I'm convinced it's all good.  

Fast forward to yesterday.  I bundle up for work make my way to Dunkin down the street from my house and what do you know - CAR WON'T START!  Yeah.  I try like 10 times before I call Roger (who BTW was mad at me for putting a hand print on the door he just stained - oops) to come and rescue me.  I tried everything before calling a tow truck.  So my baby is at Honda in Weymouth and turns out the reason it wasn't starting is because when I got a new thermostat the guy totally crossed all these wires or some crap and the new thermostat was moving closer and closer to crushing these wires everyday - yesterday was the day all the wires to start the car were crushed.  So $197 to figure that out.  I am so over it.  I'm not saving my money for my car - I'm saving for my apt.

Today I took the commuter rail to work.  I had flashes back to when I would take the LIRR into NYC for my internship because the commuter rail looks just like LIRR.  But I got to listen to music and play my DS and drink my coffee so it's not a bad deal. 

Work is getting better.  Monday I wanted to die.  I seriously contemplated updating my resume because of my lack of work to do.  Since November I stopped work on three accounts.  One because they don't need me anymore, one because they went bankrupt and the other because we resigned their business.  The last one I mention was a huge part of my time and also stress (as mentioned in the last post).  I got to talk to my boss yesterday though and she had a really positive outlook and I feel like I'm really starting to take ownership over my new projects.  It's   and with a client whose industry I have never worked in but I feel like I'm really getting the hang of it.  I also was just asked to be part of a new business pitch for a cool new client so yeah work feels better.

Oy.

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