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My Tampa love has roped me into something and I have no idea how it will turn out. But, at the very least, it's going to be interesting and fun. :)
After jokingly purchasing the book "1001 Ways to Meet Mr. Right," she and her coworker decided to try some of these suggestions. When she told me about it, my curiousity got the best of me. I am now part of a competition to see if my randomly-selected 10 ways will result in a date. And the roads to love are as follows:
1. Pontoon Boat Party
2. Hit a Hotel Pool
3. justsayhi.com - the online category
4. Aids Walk
5. Poetry Reading
6. Orchard
7. Convenience Store
8. Auditions
9. CD Store
10. High School Track
The goal is to do one a week until they are all completed. I'll be updating my progress here...let the dating game begin!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Not going to the chapel
Indiana was great. I'm glad to be back in Florida.
I loved being with my family every day. It gave me the feeling of being a kid again; carefree and playing all day. I spent ample time with friends I hadn't seen in ages, which again provided the carefree feeling, only college-style. Needless to say, I spent plenty of time at Harry's. :)
The end of my vacation was spent bridesmaiding, as I like to call it. Typically I love weddings. I love the dresses, the flowers, the food selection, the music played, the toasting, everything down to the table settings. This wedding was fun, but it made me second-guess my big-wedding-dreams.
I've now stood-up in 3 weddings. And no matter what colors, dresses, and food were chosen, they all have one thing in common: they're kind of a pain in the ass.
I love the whole idea of the wedding. When I have that special someone to spend the rest of my life with, I want to celebrate that with close friends and family. However, spending a year and a half planning for the day of the celebration seems to be more work than it's worth. Yes, you make beautiful memories. But I've come to the conclusion that a wedding brings out the worst in people and can be hell for your family. All the stress and running around and planning now gives me a headache, whereas before I couldn't wait for it to be my turn to run around for my princess-day. Now I see that whether or not you like your future in-laws doesn't matter because there will be some sort of drama with them when it comes to the wedding. There's usually enough drama with in-laws without a wedding, isn't there? Sure, everyone gets along fine after the vows are complete, but was it worth the months of arguing and stress?
My point for all this is not to say that I'm against all weddings and plan to never again attend one. I still like going to them, especially if there's good music and an open bar. I think this was another experience leading me in the direction of the person I'm becoming. Just don't be offended if I invite only my parents and sister to a wedding ceremony on the beach. I'll still want to have a fun party somewhere to celebrate with the rest of my peeps; it might just be at a local wine bar or something instead of a banquet hall.
I loved being with my family every day. It gave me the feeling of being a kid again; carefree and playing all day. I spent ample time with friends I hadn't seen in ages, which again provided the carefree feeling, only college-style. Needless to say, I spent plenty of time at Harry's. :)
The end of my vacation was spent bridesmaiding, as I like to call it. Typically I love weddings. I love the dresses, the flowers, the food selection, the music played, the toasting, everything down to the table settings. This wedding was fun, but it made me second-guess my big-wedding-dreams.
I've now stood-up in 3 weddings. And no matter what colors, dresses, and food were chosen, they all have one thing in common: they're kind of a pain in the ass.
I love the whole idea of the wedding. When I have that special someone to spend the rest of my life with, I want to celebrate that with close friends and family. However, spending a year and a half planning for the day of the celebration seems to be more work than it's worth. Yes, you make beautiful memories. But I've come to the conclusion that a wedding brings out the worst in people and can be hell for your family. All the stress and running around and planning now gives me a headache, whereas before I couldn't wait for it to be my turn to run around for my princess-day. Now I see that whether or not you like your future in-laws doesn't matter because there will be some sort of drama with them when it comes to the wedding. There's usually enough drama with in-laws without a wedding, isn't there? Sure, everyone gets along fine after the vows are complete, but was it worth the months of arguing and stress?
My point for all this is not to say that I'm against all weddings and plan to never again attend one. I still like going to them, especially if there's good music and an open bar. I think this was another experience leading me in the direction of the person I'm becoming. Just don't be offended if I invite only my parents and sister to a wedding ceremony on the beach. I'll still want to have a fun party somewhere to celebrate with the rest of my peeps; it might just be at a local wine bar or something instead of a banquet hall.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Back Home Again
It's been a reflective couple of weeks.
I'm realizing that I like my job, but I don't want it to become my life. I want to have a life outside of work. I want to be able to come home at the end of the day and de-stress, not worry about what happened or what's to come tomorrow. My social network is very important to me outside of work. I don't want to become the 9-5 drone who gets up at 5:30am, works out, goes to work, comes home, goes to sleep, and repeats this process 5 days a week. I'm learning that it's all a balancing act, and that when something gets unbalanced, it throws you for a loop.
My job has been...frustrating. I'm learning from the mistakes I didn't know I was making at the time I made them. I'm learning that I can't please everyone. I'm learning that I am only one person, and that unless I do or think about JA 24-hours a day, there are things that just have to wait until tomorrow. I felt myself turning into a drone, and a cranky one at that. Work was seeping into my car, my apartment, and therefore my free time. And I'm sorry, it's just not worth it.
I need things to be somewhat organized (though looking at my office you would never guess). I need structure, but couldn't quite figure out where that structure was needed in terms of my job. Over the last month, I have allowed anyone and everyone to use my time the way they needed to, which is fine. I work for a non-profit; I can't refuse everyone because I'm tired one day. But, that doesn't mean that I should be catering to everyone's wants and needs. There need to be boundaries. And guess what? I can create them.
I can create schedules to keep me and everyone on task. I can say "NO" because my expectations weren't met. I can feel not-guilty for setting rules and deadlines that someone might not like. There's a reason for rules: it helps us avoid chaos. In my case, it will take less pressure off of me and my volunteers, which I think is a win-win situation if you ask me.
So, my recent revelation of having standards and deadlines was put to the test this week. I'm leaving this Saturday to go to Indiana until the 24th, which means there isn't time for people to argue with me and my rules. And it's actually been working! I'm not mean, just very to-the-point about my schedule. I'm learning that many people just don't do well with having a lot of options. If you give them fewer options, then usually they make a decision quicker (or you can make it for them). Nothing has backlashed yet and most things are in place for next week while I'm gone. Now, tomorrow will be a freaking busy day, but it probably would have been even if I wasn't leaving on Saturday. And when I get on the plane on Saturday, I am confident that nothing will collapse while I'm gone. I don't need to feel so important that I can get away for a few days. Yes, it's a week of work, two of the days being event days. But, I am not the Lone Ranger, and the weight of the world is not on my shoulders. These events will happen and they will be as successful as they can be, with or without me. And I was able to make sure everything was as in-place as I could make it.
Am I tired? Hell yes. A good tired, though. An accomplished tired.
I'm going home to stand-up in a wedding. In between wedding-related events, I plan to hang out with my sister, read a couple of books, and play with my dogs. I have some lunch things planned, but that's about it. A week of nothing but relaxing with friends and family.
I never thought I'd say this, but I can't wait to go home to Indiana.
I'm realizing that I like my job, but I don't want it to become my life. I want to have a life outside of work. I want to be able to come home at the end of the day and de-stress, not worry about what happened or what's to come tomorrow. My social network is very important to me outside of work. I don't want to become the 9-5 drone who gets up at 5:30am, works out, goes to work, comes home, goes to sleep, and repeats this process 5 days a week. I'm learning that it's all a balancing act, and that when something gets unbalanced, it throws you for a loop.
My job has been...frustrating. I'm learning from the mistakes I didn't know I was making at the time I made them. I'm learning that I can't please everyone. I'm learning that I am only one person, and that unless I do or think about JA 24-hours a day, there are things that just have to wait until tomorrow. I felt myself turning into a drone, and a cranky one at that. Work was seeping into my car, my apartment, and therefore my free time. And I'm sorry, it's just not worth it.
I need things to be somewhat organized (though looking at my office you would never guess). I need structure, but couldn't quite figure out where that structure was needed in terms of my job. Over the last month, I have allowed anyone and everyone to use my time the way they needed to, which is fine. I work for a non-profit; I can't refuse everyone because I'm tired one day. But, that doesn't mean that I should be catering to everyone's wants and needs. There need to be boundaries. And guess what? I can create them.
I can create schedules to keep me and everyone on task. I can say "NO" because my expectations weren't met. I can feel not-guilty for setting rules and deadlines that someone might not like. There's a reason for rules: it helps us avoid chaos. In my case, it will take less pressure off of me and my volunteers, which I think is a win-win situation if you ask me.
So, my recent revelation of having standards and deadlines was put to the test this week. I'm leaving this Saturday to go to Indiana until the 24th, which means there isn't time for people to argue with me and my rules. And it's actually been working! I'm not mean, just very to-the-point about my schedule. I'm learning that many people just don't do well with having a lot of options. If you give them fewer options, then usually they make a decision quicker (or you can make it for them). Nothing has backlashed yet and most things are in place for next week while I'm gone. Now, tomorrow will be a freaking busy day, but it probably would have been even if I wasn't leaving on Saturday. And when I get on the plane on Saturday, I am confident that nothing will collapse while I'm gone. I don't need to feel so important that I can get away for a few days. Yes, it's a week of work, two of the days being event days. But, I am not the Lone Ranger, and the weight of the world is not on my shoulders. These events will happen and they will be as successful as they can be, with or without me. And I was able to make sure everything was as in-place as I could make it.
Am I tired? Hell yes. A good tired, though. An accomplished tired.
I'm going home to stand-up in a wedding. In between wedding-related events, I plan to hang out with my sister, read a couple of books, and play with my dogs. I have some lunch things planned, but that's about it. A week of nothing but relaxing with friends and family.
I never thought I'd say this, but I can't wait to go home to Indiana.
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