Wonderful Kick-off to the Holidays

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!  This is like the official kick-off to the busiest, most jolly, potentially most depressing if you let it be, but overall hard-to-hate time of the year!  The next few weeks will be filled with Christmas parties, wrapping, decorating, cleaning, cooking, mailing, and overall merriment!

But first let's wrap up Thanksgiving...Wednesday night I was planning to drive to my mom's house right after work, but I got a call from a friend and they had an extra ticket for the Canes game.  How could I say no?  I LOVE the Carolina Hurricanes.  My dog is named after the goalie!  Well, they turned out to be the best freaking seats ever!!  Center ice and less than 10 rows back.  It was awesome!

So I packed up Cam and headed got to my mom's around midnight on Wednesday and stayed for Thanksgiving lunch in the dining hall at the retirement home.  It was pretty good and neither of us had to cook or clean which was the best part!

Thursday night a friend and I decided to stay up all night so we could make it to the Target 4 am opening so I could get the iPod nano I wanted.  Since we were staying up, we decided to drive to Mebane to go to the new outlet malls when they opened at midnight.  WORST. DECISION. EVER.  This should have been a sign:

This car was ON FIRE!  On the exit ramp to the outlets.  It was the biggest fire I had ever seen in my life.  I was almost afraid we were going to blow up just driving past it!  That fire truck you see in the pic had just pulled up.  And when we drove past you could feel the heat from the fire in our car!  It was crazy!  I don't even know what causes something like that!

The outlets were ridiculous.  Their parking lots were full and we had to park like 2 miles away down a dark road packed with cars.  Once we got in there, it was packed and I HATE crowds.  You couldn't even shop.  And the Coach store had a line over an hour long just to get IN the store.  Every other store had huge long lines to check out.  We went in a bunch of stores, but the long lines just were not worth it.  We didn't buy anything.  We did make it to Target and I also went to Macy's, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Best Buy and got a lot of great deals.  But this might be the last Black Friday I do until I have something big I need to buy like a TV.

Saturday I went to see Love and Other Drugs and it was good, but I hated it because I am finally starting to accept that movie love like that does not exist and I'm kind of pissed about being lied to and creating such high expectations all these years because of movies like that.  It's like finding out that you-know-who doesn't exist and I'm upset about it, so yeah just be patient with me for a while.

I'm finally caught up on Entourage through the end of Season 6 and thanks to a great deal at Best Buy I am the proud owner of the entire six season collection on DVD.  Does anyone know when Season 7 comes out on DVD?  I'm going to go through Ari withdrawals if I don't get some new episodes soon.  I also got season one of The Vampire Diaries and I'm making my way through that and loving it.

I have some catching up to do on this blog.  I caught up with my Bookshelf Blog so go check out the  reviews.  I have some things to mark off The List.  And I've got a 5K coming up this weekend.  We have a new lady starting at work on Thursday, so hopefully things will start to settle down and I'll have some free time to blog soon!!

Black Friday can bite me.

Can I just rant for a minute?  Why are the retailers pushing Christmas down my throat this year?  Christmas stuff was up before Halloween was even over!  And now I have drawn the line with this Black Friday nonsense. 

It used to be you would get the best deals if you were the first one in line at your favorite retailer on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  But now retailers are confusing me because they are having "Early Black Friday Sales" and I got an email from Old Navy today that said "Cyber Monday Comes Early" and most stores are opening on Thanksgiving day.  Stop confusing me!  When is the best deal?  I want it to be at 5 am the day after Thanksgiving (because any earlier and you would just have to stay up all night on Thanksgiving.)  Make it easy for me.  But of course they won't.  They want to confuse me and have me buy early or too late and miss out on the best deal.  They want me to cut Thanksgiving short to go shopping.  They want me to stay up all night so I can hit their midnight sale and then venture on to the 4 am sale.

Last year was the first year I got up early for Black Friday.  I went to one store and got an awesome deal on something that I wanted.  It started at 5 am I think and we got in line about 15-20 minutes before that.  And I was home and back in bed before Chick-fil-a even opened for breakfast.  I liked it.

This year I think we are going to stay up all night because the sale I want to hit starts at 4 am.  If I am going to stay up all night I might just start a whole shopping extravaganza at midnight.  Who knows.  I thought I had perfected Black Friday and now they had to go change the rules on me.

How about you guys...are you doing Black Friday this year?

Random Thoughts Thursday

Guess who the Sexiest Man Alive is....

I've always known this as evidenced by my post last year about him.  He's so yummy!

I'm going to see Harry Potter tomorrow- WOOT!

I've been in an Internet Summit conference the past two days and I have so many thoughts about it.  But I'm too tired to post about it now.

I've been so busy this week I haven't run at all!  I HOPE to get one in tomorrow, but Harry might interfere with that.

I'm so freaking exhausted!  I've been working a lot and I am just so freaking tired!

Oprah is revealing her Favorite Things tomorrow.  I am sad I don't have DVR to record it.

I need a maid.

I REALLY want to see Love and Other Drugs.

I just saw I have 200 followers today!  OMGeee!  I LOVE you guys! 

I promise to stop being so random on here soon...very soon!

Random Thoughts Tuesday

- Last week I had been praying to God that I just wanted to fall asleep with a smile on my face.  You know like that giddy kind of smile when you first start dating someone.  Well, last Thursday it happened!  Last Thursday we had our quarterly team event/awards after work.  And I won an award!!  I secretly wanted one, but so did not expect to get one this time.  Anyway, I won a Peer Recognition award...which means people had to nominate me...and I've only been here 6 months!  I was so flipping excited and fell asleep that night with a huge smile on my face. It feels good to be recognized for a job well done again.  I like being a rockstar at work!

- I have been keeping up with my Couch 2 5K running plan.  I am in week 7 now.  From here on out there are no more walking breaks.  Six weeks ago if you would have asked me to run for 30 minutes straight, I would have died.  It still isn't easy, but right now I am up to 25 minutes for each run this week, 28 minutes for each of the runs next week, and 30 minutes for each of the runs the last week.  I signed up for the Jingle Bell Run in Raleigh the first weekend in December and I am hoping to run the whole thing with no walking breaks and beat my time from 2 years ago.

- I have been rewarding myself for every 3 weeks in the Couch 2 5K that I complete.  This weekend I got a new Nike + sensor as my reward for 6 weeks completed because my old sensor was dead when I took back up running.  But I am most excited about my final reward after I finish week 9.  I want to get the new iPod nano.  I run with my iPhone now and I am so scared I a going to accidentally drop it.  There are 10 days between now and Black Friday.  I wonder if I can get all 9 runs in before then so I can get a good deal on my new nano!

I'm still working a lot and soo tired, but life is good.  Hopefully when things die down at work, I can get back to really blogging instead of these random posts.

Letter to my 16 year old self

I've seen a lot of people blogging and tweeting this, so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and write a letter to my 16 year old self:

Dear 16 year old Suz-

You are in the best time of your life. Seriously if you can find a way to slow down time, do it, savor it, because this is going to be one of your best years ever.

Enjoy your free time because each year you will have less and less of it.

Your parents will get you a new car. Your dream car, so don’t complain too much about the hand-me-down Dodge Neon for now.

Try out for cheerleading. You’ll make it and you’ll love it. Keep working out...not just now, but especially when you go off to college. I know it is hard, but it will be worth it.

Stop hanging out with the bad boys. Why do you even like them? Stop sneaking out of the house. It’s so silly and so not worth it.  They are losers...leave them alone.

This year you are about to meet someone that will change your life forever. You will know him when you see him- trust me. Don’t trust the infatuation of the guy you are just so-so about because it gets so much better than that if you just wait.

This summer, enjoy as much time as you can with him. Don’t be scared of love. He loves you too. Don’t be silly and try to make him jealous by flirting with other guys. It doesn’t work and he doesn’t need to be jealous because he so has you and you have him, so just enjoy it. Don’t worry that you don’t fight and don’t try to start one just to have drama like the other relationships around you.

Tell him how much you love him every single day- but don’t smother him. Let him do his thing…he’s a good guy with lots of big dreams so let him pursue them.

You will go through some tough times. Just trust your gut. I still don’t know if we made the right decisions, but either way it will work out. Nothing is the end of the world and you will learn that first hand very soon.

I don’t know if this will work- but on Halloween 1997 do whatever is in your power to kidnap your boyfriend and skip the football game. Call in sick, tie him up with duct tape and shove him in the back of your car, do whatever you have to do, but just do not let him drive at all after school that day. In fact, go slash his tires that morning when you get to school.

If it doesn’t work, don’t worry. It will feel like the end of the world. You will want to give up, but you’ll make it. You’re stronger than you even know. Just get up every day and do the best you can and everything will work out just fine.

Love,
Your 30 year old self

P.S. Try to enjoy college a little more because once you become an “adult” things get pretty boring and monotonous. But don’t over-do it. You still need the degree and decent GPA to do what you want to do.

Where I Work

This month is crazy at work.  I'm working more than I ever have.  I'm lucky to leave by 7 and working on the weekends, but after December it should calm down.  Right now I am basically doing 2 roles though, and we have a huge launch this weekend, so it has been very busy.

Since I spend so much time here I thought I'd give you a photo tour of my work:

This is my building

Lobby

Another view of the lobby

Cafe in my building- yes they have Starbucks- and yes they were closed at 5 when I took this picture.

Elevators- boring but essential since I work on the top floor

View when I get off the elevator.  Every floor has a different color and a quote.  My floor says "You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus". - Mark Twain

Another view when I get off elevator

My "row"- it's two pods of 4 cubicles each with a table for a meeting area in the middle.

My cube :)- minimalist

There are also these weird cubicle areas that have mesh curtains...I'm glad I'm not in one of those.

Building 2- where the cafeteria is...there is a nice winding walkway with a waterfall to get there

View of outdoor seating at the "caf"

I spend a lot of afternoons here in the conference rooms- we love some meetings round here!

Super Secret Design Center on my floor- you need special security clearance for this area- which I do not have.

Really cool chairs right outside the Design Center in a little lounge area on my floor.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my workplace!  It really is a cool place to work. 

We went to play paintball a few weeks ago for team building.  My team is fun- they have Happy Hour every Thursday and both times I have been able to go (I do have a dog at home waiting for me!), the drinks have been free which is a bonus!

This week we are having our quarterly team night.  Last quarter we had a casino night.  This time it is a comedian.  They have food and drinks and give out the quarterly awards for the team (this is the whole eCommerce team so it is A LOT of people but I am still secretly hoping to win an award at one of these things!)

My actual role can be really frustrating because it is dealing with information that CONSTANTLY changing- so it is hard to keep up and a lot of the processes need work, but I enjoy it...when I'm not threatening to throw my computer down the stairwell because my edits won't show up...imagine blogger on crack...that is the kind of content management tool I work in a lot....and sometimes it doesn't want to cooperate...but everyone has those moments right?  Dang technology, it's a love/hate relationship.  But I believe in the products and the company as a whole which is always a bonus. Yeah, I really like it.

I just might have found a job I can love...one more thing I could potentially mark off my list.  My question to you is...How do you know it's love??

Random Thoughts Thursday

Thank you all for your kind comments on my last post.  I know it was probably pretty depressing but it wasn't meant to be.  I'm just done.  People don't want to lose hope in Love.  Love is what our culture revolves around.  Romantic love seems to be the be all end all in life. Getting married or having babies are the only times a person is really celebrated in life.  It's a culture thing.  But seriously...there are people in the world who have never been married and never had kids.  They have lived their life without ever experiencing these things.  Does that make them less than?  Because they didn't meet "the goal" of life?  I'm just tired of all the pressure and all the disappointment.  I'm tired of all the wasted effort.  I tried of hope being crushed.  I'm tried of the anticipation.  I'm tired of wondering what is wrong with me that I can't seem to get this love thing right.  So I am giving up for now.  It might be forever, but you never know.  You know how fickle the human heart can be!  But for now I am totally content with my choice and feel like a huge weight has been lifted off me!!

I'm still a hopeless romantic though and I am loving the previews for Love and Other Drugs!  Have you seen them?  It looks like an awesome movie!  And Jake Gyllenhaal??  Yes please!!

I don't have much else to say because I'm swamped at work and can't seem to get much more out of my brain right now.

But here are some great posts I've read this week by others:

Encouragement in Suffering #1- Zoom Out via thoughts from fabs

This was a great reminder at how insignificant our problems are in the grand scheme of things.  It isn't the end of the world.  Enduring suffering is a great skill to build.  Life will not always be pretty, but remember one day, one month, or even one year is a small period of time in the bigger picture of your life which is just a tiny part in all of eternity. What do you guys think?  What are some things that help you get through bad times?

Dear True Love via Miss Priss 

It's like she read my mind.  I've been having these thoughts lately.  Wondering if true love even exists or if infatuation just turns in to bliss and then to appreciation and then to settling and then just acceptance.  I mean really with movie love all we really see is the bliss part.  Love has burned me and I'm done with it.  I guess you could say I've given up on love cause love's given up on me.  What do you guys think- Does true love really exist?

What I think about Karen Owens and the Duke F*** List via Tucker Max

Did you guys hear about Karen Owens and her fake thesis making it's rounds on the internet?  She created this fake "thesis" for a few close friends of all the Duke athletes she slept with while in school.  And she went in to detail!  Yes, I am embarrassed to say I read it.  I feel sorry for this girl...for everything.  And surprisingly I LOVE Tucker Max's take on the situation.  For an a-hole, he is pretty smart and I think he hit all the points correctly on this one. What do you guys think her or the situation?  Unfortunate, young, and promiscuous?  Empowered?  Do you feel bad for the guys she "rated"?- yes she showed pictures of them and named names!

Christians and Drinking Alcohol via JD Greear

This was a post made by my pastor earlier this week.  It had 62 comments last time I looked!  Obviously this is a hot button issue.  What do you guys think- Is there a reason for Christians to not drink?