Love life

I'm sorry for three posts in a row, I'm just blog happy today and keep finding awesome things like this picture/quote from my girls at Two Hippie Chic. Thanks ladies!

Hot out?

Haha, I had to steal this from one of my BFFs, Carolyn, who posted this on her blog this morning. Love it!

Boyden Winery Canoe & Kayak Trip

I am super pumped because I just booked a tandem kayak river and winery tour on the Lamoille River in Vermont! Our three hour tour will begin at Umiak Outfitters Outpost and will end with a wine tasting and tour of the Boyden Valley Winery. The guy I talked to said we should bring shoes we don't mind getting wet and maybe a change of clothes to leave in the car, just in case. I really hope a change of clothes won't be necessary. I'm think this means I probably shouldn't bring my camera (or camerah as Jenna says on 30 Rock) or my phone which means I won't get to share what promises to be the beautiful scenery. Bummer. Also, my mom mentioned they limit the amount of alcohol you can drink at the winery since you have to kayak or canoe back, but I asked the guy while I was making the reservation and he said they bring you back. SCORE! This is why they call it a vacation. Five more work days until we leave!

A Whole Buncha Stuff

Richmond had another Heatpocalypse this weekend with temperatures reaching a record-setting 105 degrees both days. Up until this point the heat really hasn't bothered me but over the last few days the combination of high heat and humidity coupled with the ridiculously high pollen count has made breathing somewhat cumbersome. I can't breathe that well out of my nose because it's stuffy and I get winded when I breathe through my mouth. Thank you global warming, allergies and asthma.

On Saturday, the Turpins returned from their annual vacation at Holden Beach. I don't think I've talked about them much here yet but they are the couple we do everything with. Tailgate at football games, go to wine-tasting events with, go on vacation with, etc. However, things are changing a bit because Lindsay is pregnant with twin boys! She's six months along and looks absolutely incredible, especially considering she's carrying two babies. Anyway, we've been watching their fur-baby Layla for the past week. She's great and her and Delilah get along really well. Although I have to admit, even though I don't think Delilah minded having Layla around, I can tell she's really glad she doesn't have to compete for our attention anymore. One of our favorite things to do when the Turpins come into town is to go to 3 Monkeys. Not only do they have a fabulous drink menu, their food is delicious, particularly their three cheese grilled cheese. Yum! It comes with bacon and tomato and I always ask for no bacon and Lindsay always asks for no tomato. After dinner the boys wanted to run to the ABC store to get some Wild Turkey American Honey (nice name, eh?!). I really do not enjoy bourbon, whiskey and the like, but I actually didn't mind the taste of American Honey. At first it tastes like bourbon, YUCK, but the after taste is cinnamon and honey and absolutely delicious.

On Sunday I was crazy enough to go to the pool with the lovely Jenny Banner and it was surprisingly very relaxing. Of the 3 hours we spent there, I think we were in the pool about 2.5 hours, it was just too hot to really lay out and relax. Also, can I talk about the fratastic party that was started while we were there? It was like all of a sudden all of these fratty looking guys showed up with burgers, guacamole and drinks and basically took over the pool Apparently they're all employed by Vector home security systems for the summer and the company rented out a bunch of the apartments (oh ahem, excuse me, flats) at West Broad Village for them to live. This of course is all according to the lifeguard, Blair, who would prefer to have a real job at a bank but he just moved back into town from Chicago where he spent the past three years. Also, can I just say that I find it incredibly inappropriate to wear a thong/boy bottom-type bikini bottom to a public pool? I'm glad you think you look hot and maybe you like being stared at by creepy old men and frat boys but really, please keep that sexy bathing suit for when you're at home.

Anyway, in more exciting news, when Jenny and I got back from the pool we learned that our girl Cax, one of the hippies from Two Hippie Chic, is engaged! Her and her boyfriend, well I guess now fiance, went to Jackson Hole this weekend where he proposed at their campsite. Check out her blog post, it's really cute and he did a great job with the ring!

That's all for now. I have a busy work week ahead of me. My mantra for getting me through this week is "9 work days until vacation." I can't wait!

Random is the only way to describe it...

I saw two of the most random things today - a squirrel lounging on my porch step and a kid at the gas station pumping gas without shoes....I'm so glad it's almost the weekend.....

You Talk Too Much

For as long as I can remember, I have loved to talk. As a kid, I would make tapes of myself talking to my sister or singing songs from my favorite movies and TV shows. On my report cards in elementary school, all of the teachers would say I was a great student and contributed in class but I was chatty with the other students. I will never forget my middle school ski trip to Camp Bernie in New Jersey. All of the girls were in bunk beds and we had been up half the night talking about all the things middle school girls talk about. We had already been warned once by a teacher to quiet down and I had made an honest effort to stop talking. Of course, a few minutes later, I was the one being sent out to the main room to sleep by myself on the couch. Looking back, I probably got a better night's rest that way but I really hated the fact I was singled out as the biggest talker when there were definitely some other girls who were just as bad.

Today my "problem" with talking was reiterated. Apparently, I chat too much with a co-worker in the suite down from mine. I can't say I was surprised when this came up in conversation, I do venture over there periodically throughout the day, but I try to keep my conversations limited to the morning when I fill up our water pitcher. It probably doesn't help that our CEO has a direct view from his office to the front desk which is where said co-worker sits. I'm not trying to pass  blame or down play the situation, but given the fact I'm not allowed to use work e-mail for non-work related business (thank you government) and the fact that it's very easy to hear what I'm saying if I call her on the phone (thank you small office of cubicles), sometimes our conversations are better suited to in-person encounters.

The truth is, my chattiness, my love to talk is a part of me and I can't change who I am. In the past I've done my best NOT to talk, to keep quiet. After a few minutes though, people would start to ask me what was wrong. They'd ask if I was upset, what was bothering me. It was nothing, just my attempt at being quiet.

I'm not mad or upset about what I was told today. Like I said, I wasn't really surprised when it was brought up. It did make me realize though that you can never be too comfortable.  You always need to be aware of your actions and how people perceive you. I'll keep that in mind the next time I fill up the water pitcher.

Fast Company's Influence Project

 I was looking through my Twitter feed this afternoon and came across a tweet from @prebynski about Fast Company's Influence Project. When I clicked on his link, I was taken to this really cool interface of photos of people from across the country. Some pictures were pretty large, others were smaller and I learned that the size of the photo depends on how influential you are. I tweeted back to @prebynski letting him know I thought it was pretty cool and after a bit more browsing around I decided to sign up. You can check out my profile here: http://fcinf.com/v/bapm.

A bit later @prebynski  thanked me for responding and made a good point: isn't this just a popularity contest? According to Fast Company's website, "influence is not only about having the most friends or followers. Real influence is about being able to affect the behavior of those you interact with, to get others in your social network to act on a suggestion or recommendation." Interestingly, the way you find out how much influence you have is by asking people to click on your personal URL. I don't know but it seems pretty clear to me that if you have thousands of "friends" or "followers" you're either pretty popular or an expert in a particular field or, you have too much time on your hands. Either way, the more people who click your link the more influential you're considered. So if I could get 100 people to donate $100 to a charity (that's $10,000) I think I'd be considered pretty influential. But what if I could only get 10 people to click on my link? What's more important, that I got 100 people to donate to a charity or that I got people to look at some company's experiment?

I'm very curious to see where this goes and what Fast Company does with the data. Oh, did I mention I'll get my picture in the November issue of their magazine...

Success, Such Sweet Relief!

I am happy to say this afternoon's Webinar was a success! Despite a few participants who were unable to view the slides, overall, everyone seemed to enjoy the presentation. Even my boss called from Northern Virginia to tell me she thought the presentation went well. Ahh! Now I can relax and enjoy time at the gym with Elizabeth.

Freaking Out...

I'm having a moment of complete hysteria and feel compelled to write, hoping it will make me feel better. While I realize my hysterics are completely unwarranted for the situation, I'm generally a nervous person when something big or important is about to happen. Today, it's the first of three training Webinars I set up with internationally known, communications measurement guru Angela Sinickas, ABC. While normally this wouldn't be all that big of a deal, it seems the whole process of setting up the training has been quite a mess. First, it started with the flyer promoting the training. Although it had been proofread about 10 times by two different people, I failed to include the time of each Webinar so I had to send out a corrected version which made me feel like a complete idiot.

A few weeks later, our finance director informed me that trainings such as this that cost over a certain amount have to be cleared by the Office of Management and Budget and it usually takes 30 days to obtain that clearance. No one told me this when I was setting everything up and even now I have no idea if we actually obtained the clearance we need. Thankfully, we have two more Webinars through the end of the month which should give us the time we need for clearance.

Then there was a problem I discovered yesterday with the link to the Webinar. Apparently, the organization we use to host our Webinars has two different locations where presentations are hosted. One location is for contract-related presentations and the other is for non-contract related presentations. In April, we used this same organization for a training and used one of their staff as the presenter. Not knowing there were two locations for Webinars, I listed the location that was used for the April training (which is considered a contract-related training) on the flyer for today's training (which is considered a non-contract related training). It wasn't until yesterday when I checked to see if our presentation had been loaded that I noticed it wasn't there. This was of course AFTER I had sent out a reminder to our listserv, so once again, I felt like an idiot. Then while in the shower this morning I realized I had to set up the teleconference so we would have operator assistance and the call recorded. As soon as I got to work I was able to set that up with no problem which was quite a relief. Also, I was confident the first Webinar was going to be on Methods of Communications Measurement but when I received the slides this morning, it seems the training is  focused on creating appropriate communications plans based on research. I knew I should have confirmed with Angela before sending out that damn flyer.

Sigh. I'm starting to feel a bit better now that I've gotten this all out, but I'm still nervous. Normally our director is the person who introduces our speakers on these big national calls but today, her and my manager are in Northern Virginia at our marketing and communications sub-contractor getting feedback on our national branding plan. Our other communications coordinators are out of town so it's up to me to start the call and introduce Angela. Thankfully, I've had some time to write up a little blurb that I can read and I'll be dialing into the teleconference 15 minutes early to make sure Angela is all set up. Hopefully, this will all go off without a hitch.

On a positive note, this has been a fantastic learning experience for me. I've learned I need to slow down and get my ducks in a row before moving on to each next step. I need to think about the questions I'm going to ask and what information I need to move on to the next step and not be afraid to ask more questions.

Thanks for listening to momentary freak out. I feel much better.

Remember When I Said I Don't Like to Wish Time Away...?

Well, when it's 110 degrees outside I absolutely want it to be August and for me to be in Vermont where it's cool!

Happy Birthday America!

I have very fond memories of July 4. Growing up in Caldwell, NJ (population about 7,500) my family and I always attended the fireworks celebration on the football field of the town's only high school, James Caldwell High School. Families would bring blankets and picnic baskets, the concession stands sold hot dogs and hamburgers, and high school kids trying to make a buck would sell glow sticks and bracelets. It was definitely a family event.

The one thing I always loved about fireworks at the high school (and appreciate more now that I'm older) is that it was the one thing the whole town did together. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who didn't go. Maybe it's a small town thing. Now, living in Richmond, there aren't many events that evoke that small town feel. While there is no shortage of events all around and in the city, you won't find a bunch of people gathered on the lawn of Godwin High School to watch fireworks. Maybe it doesn't matter where you go to watch fireworks but I'm thankful I had a place that has left me with such fond memories.

On a more serious note, thank you to all of those who have, who are and who will continue to fight for our freedom. Your service has not gone unnoticed.

Have a great holiday weekend everyone!