Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow

Tomorrow is the last day of work! I have spent the past week getting myself all organized, transferring files to my personal computer, cleaning my desk, catching everyone up on the projects I've been running, etc. So much to do in fact that all of a sudden I'm sitting here tonight thinking "holy shit!" Tomorrow night when I leave work I will not be going back for 5 WHOLE months! Awesome! 

And tomorrow...my day is, termination paper stuff, dealing with IT (which means sweet talking so I can keep my email hopefully!!), lunch with my team (which means long), and then drinks after work! wahoo! good way to end a very interesting year I say. 

On another note: I love blogging and am not ashamed or whatever with it at all but I also don't tell everyone I know that I blog. As I've mentioned before I am not a great fan of my writing so for me to tell people I know in person that I have a blog only happens when I am completely comfortable with them. And though I absolutely LOVE meeting the bloggers that I have and want to totally keep doing it, it's different because they first knew me through my writing. so it doesn't feel the same. 

but to get back to the point, every once in awhile someone I'm with makes a comment about "blogging" or they know someone who has this blog and it's just so ridiculous or horrible writing or whatever. Thus far I have only sat there quietly and stuff, don't want to jump all over them or something but I also don't really want to defend it because then I feel like you have to be like well I blog and you like me. so I always get stuck with what to do...I'm very proud of blogging and I think it's helped me tremendously even with just the short while I've been doing it, but I guess it's a sign that I'm not completely comfortable with it yet since I don't broadcast it...I dunno.

too important thoughts....I"m off work tomorrow and i'm soooooo excited! aaaahhhhhhhh

The Office is on..and

over the past couple of weeks I've begun a number of posts only to end up staring at my laptop after a few sentences were given...i'm not sure exactly what is causing this or what have you but i'm just going to go

• I've been having a few different occurrences with the other gender, all completely different and unexpected but it's been interesting to see my reactions to these. I don't really want to go into it so much because I still haven't quite figured out how/what I feel but I do know that I like where I am right now. single isn't so bad :)
• Two of my absolute bests came out to visit me this past month (on diff wkends)! I in some incredible way got placed with them as my roommates at freshman year of college and lived with them for the next 4 years. I have no idea where that luck came from but these girls have kept me sane through all that gets thrown at you and known just exactly when to accept my craziness and join in on it! 
• 
• Rockett & Me!!! 1st time at a SOX Game!!! 

Jewlz & Me, checking out the bean!!! Yessir we're cool

• Who the hell knew we would end up spaced across the entire country (1 in each timezone)? Miss them both like hell but have certainly loved getting to travel to see them. What great places we all live! I can't wait till I get to see them together in July!!! 
  
• I have 3 days left of work. Then after that I have 5 months of nothing!
• Well not actually nothing, I will be finishing up my last class for my Masters as well as studying for a big exam all engineers need to take. But overall NOTHING!
• I have a few trips planned out but am hoping to spend a decent amount at home and hanging with my friends out there before the real life begins. Until then I will be in the city here for the month of June hanging out so any chicago bloggers out there who want to hang out, during the day!!! let me know!
• believe that's it....oh if chicago could get rid of this rain and send the gorgeous 80 degree weather back, you'd make me very happy :) kthx

Work = Stress

Back in February or March or something my company did an employee survey so that we could rate the company and all that. I guess they have just gotten back the results because they have started sending out stress coping tips because, I'm assuming, that being stressed frequently was one of the biggest complaints. today's stress hints was "32 Stress Reduction Tips" from our current healthcare phyciatry company.

My favorites:

Get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning. The inevitable morning mishaps will be less stressful.
I'm sorry, but the only way getting up earlier in the morning is going to be less stressful too me is if I'm not allowing myself enough time to do all the normal get yourself ready things in the morning. I would prefer staying up 15 minutes later and doing things to prepare myself rather than get up earlier. Granted i'm that girl who snoozes for 25 minutes...

Get enough sleep. If necessary, use an alarm clock to remind you to go to bed.
Obviously! I would have to say that most of us probably dont' need reminding to go to bed and would willingly fall into bed some nights at 7pm if we didn't have those million and one things to do.

Be prepared to wait. A paperback can make a wait in a post-office line almost
pleasant.
YAY! I do this already. That's for all those people who make fun of me for carting a book wherever I go. :) Nothing to do with work stress though, I guess unless you're late for something and this line is making you later...but really is a book going to help you there? That's probably when the blackberry that's attached to everyone's hip becuase god forbid we shouldn't wait more than 10 minutes to answer an email gets pulled out.

Change in yourself what you do not like in others.
This will reduce my stress? or just make me a better person? and isnt' this really a lifelong goal, not an immediate one to reduce work-related stress

Yea, so though I think it's cool my company is trying to address the concerns that arose from the employee surveys I guess I just don't agree that giving out vague, common-sense tips like these that you can find in any book or whatever is really the way to go about it. Then again, I am also a person who believes an entire change in the paradigm of our current work scenario needs to change. I like the mentality that if you have work, you do it and it takes what it takes while if you don't you should be able to go. This whole at a minimum 40hr/week, 8-5 thing is CRAZY! But maybe this actually will help someone who hasn't ever taken the time to.....I dunno.

Work to live...not live to work right???

Brushing away the gloomies

Happy Friday everyone! My last post was rather depressing so I'm not going to take a look at all the wonderful things in my life. Starting with...

I HAVE A JOB! A real, full-time, big person job that will hopefully allow me to do lots of traveling and contain a good mix of everything I want to do in my field. This job also allows me to stay in Chicago which I'm wicked excited about! I'm already thinking about where I want to move too, if anyone knows of someone looking for a roomate come October let me know! I'm so excited for a brand new apartment, which optimumly will have an in-unit washer/dryer and a roof top deck! or if not roof top at least an outside area that gets sun most of the day, my back deck right now is cute and fun but has a roof and thus gets sun for oh about 2 hours a day. Boo! I'm also not exactly sure what neighborhood I want to live in, I really love my little street but I think it's incredibly possible for me to find something slightly cheaper if I move to a different one. Any ideas from you Chicagoians?

This lovely job is allowing me to take off 5 months! before I start my real time. Now there are a couple reasons for this (finish my masters, take the FE) but mainly I will be floating around doing wonderful things and enjoying my last real time as a person with no responsibilities. And the best part! I get to do all this with money so I can actually plan trips. now if only I could forget about the silly little things like insurance and stuff. ugh.

thus, I have approximately 3 weeks left of work, 2 weeks left of my second to last class and.... i'm free!

I have also started the 30 day shred. It's going well as of right now, I don't find level 1 too hard so I think I'll probably only do it for about a week and then move on. I absolutely suck at push-ups which is the only reason I'm sticking with it for even a week. I really like Jillian though which is surprising because I usually never like the people who do these videos. but for some reason I find her rather motivating. We'll see if I still feel that way when it gets really hard...haha

alright i'm out, time to bust out some hw so I don't have to deal with it over the weekend!

who knows

I accepted an offer for a job today which is really exciting and thrilling. But I feel like I let myself down and I am so angry and frustrated with myself. The offer was good and pretty competitive but it could have been better but becuase I am so freaking uncomfortable and awkward when it comes to being an adult I just threw it away.

And I hate that I'm angry at myself becuase the offer is great and far more than a lot of people make and it's more than enough for me to live happily and satisifed off of, but for some reason I am sitting here at my desk wanting to cry. I hate that I let myself get intimidated by men and people higher up than me. I hate that I worry so much about what others think about me and what they might say about me when I'm not around to actually go for what I want.

I failed myself today and even though I'm coming out of it with a great job I can't even focus on that point. At just want to go curl up with a glass of wine and a book and forget about everything.

you may have won the battle chicago

But I'm going to win the war!

I stepped out of work today to POURING rain...and of course the one day I don't bring an umbrella. Every other day I cart my pretty blue and green umbrella around. I bring the big bag that it can fit in to work or around. I risk my shoulder to carry this umbrella! And today I get soaked. 

But don't you worry chicago, you may have gotten me and the 1/4 of the city who were waiting in the armitage el station for the rain to abate. you may have tricked us with the absolutely gorgeous last weekend, but I've been reminded. And will now be forevermore prepared! 

Bring it on!    but not really cause I actually enjoy the sunny weather :) kthnx

A taste of the past 2 weeks

I haven't been posting because I haven't felt particularly inspired, not because things haven't been happening but because almost too much has been happening that I am having trouble processing or actually explaining. So I decided to post some of the fun happenings of the past few weeks and ignore the serious ones. 

Saw this crazy duck at the Lily pond by the zoo this past weekend! It's like bright green and orange and makes me thing it should be someplace much fancier than a Chicago pond. Granted this city is great, but this duck is just a bit too cool for it. :)

I absolutely love the Boat Architecture Tour that Chicago offers. This was my second time going on it this past weekend and even though it was the exact same, I still wickedly enjoyed it. The fact that that truss thing on the front of this building is holding up that whole section is the coolest thing ever! Trains run underneath it and the truss is that dependable. AWESOME! 

I was so happy with the weekend that my college roomate got when she came to visit. All we wanted to do was be outside and our wish was granted the entire weekend! But beyond that, all of the fantastic and beautiful flowers that CHicago puts around the city had started to bloom and everywhere you went was just awash in colors. Tulips galore! so enjoy these, I am absolutely loving the purpilish blue those one flowers are. 

For earth day one of the companies in the building gave everyone little wheatgrass plants. We made fun of the googly eyes in the package when we first got them, but once I started growing mine I totally understood. I now have a little watchman who keeps me company during the day! This picture is from maybe 4 days ago and the grass is already twice as tall! Unfortunately it is getting gross inside the actual plastic so I might have to say goodbye to him fairly soon. :(

Even if you're drinking water, your drink can be fun! That is what we say here at PINT!