Update Central!

March 23, 2010 – Update central!

· Justin

Things are going very well! So well in fact that we moved in together at the beginning of March. We’re still working on getting the two apartments crammed into one apartment that we can actually live in, but so far the process has been successful and the end is finally in sight. I don’t think Justin shares my goal of having a working guest bedroom in time for the next houseguest we have, but I think we will probably be able to work something out.

· Avon Walk

My mother is walking with me this year! I’m very excited about that and I’m looking forward to getting to spend the time with her. She’s started a blog to keep updates on her training walks: www.nancysnewyorkwalk.blogspot.com We’ve got to raise $3,600.00 between us, so place feel free to click the link at the top of the page and donate. We appreciate any help you can give and there might be prizes…

· Theatre

Intimate Apparel was fun and a great experience. We go to meet the playwright, Lynn Nottage, when she came to see our show. That was very exciting. More importantly, my dad and Richard got to see it, my mom got to see it and Andy got to see it. I don’t think that many important people (to me anyway) have made it to see one of my shows in….well…ever. The downside is that I don’t think I will be doing much if any theatre any more. Stuff happens here in the fall and winter and that is when things at work are super busy and I need to focus on the stuff that actually pays me because…well, I like buying shoes and I need money to continue doing that.

· Work

Has been absolutely crazy. I worked 11 hours days a couple of times a week for a while there and that was rough. I did finally get an office and that has helped with actually pushing through projects and getting them done during normal business hours instead of having to stay late to avoid getting interrupted. We are opening our third office in San Francisco next Thursday. The anniversary of the company and my anniversary with the company is next Friday. After three years we have three offices in 3 cities, we went from 3 people to 15 people (tripling our staff) and our revenue is on track to triple as well. That’s a pretty major accomplishment for us and we are completely awesome!

· Vacation

I have no idea what this is although the concept sounds good.

· Birthday

Coming up soon – faster than I expected. Dallas will be in visiting from her world travels and that will be nice to catch up with her – hopefully we’ll have a bed for her to sleep in. Donations to the AVON walk on behalf of my birthday will be met with cookies, contact me for details!

Good-Bye, April Showers!

April has been a much busier month than I had originally planned. I started and finished my first baby quilt, the show I’m in is starting to really gear up and the weather here is finally starting to get beautiful (and it’s NOT RAINNING!).

So here is a picture of the lovely baby quilt I made for my coworker Henry. It’s based on the book '10 Little Rubber Ducks’ by Eric Carle. My mother designed it and I put it together. Right now that book is my favorite children’s book and since they had a little boy (they named him Luke Henry), the color scheme seemed to work well and at least somewhat match the décor they picked out for their nursery. I am very pleased with the way the quilt turned out (although, in the way of these things, all I see are the mistakes!).

I am currently in a production of Show Boat that is good in that it keeps me from being a lump on my couch, but I forgot how frustrating community theatre could be. If we ever started on time, I think I might drop dead from the shock. I was so fed up with us starting late, that I decided if I ran late yesterday (I had a trip to the NY Aquarium with a couple of friends – the sea lion had better timing than the theatre folks), I wouldn’t worry about it at all. I was 35 minutes late to rehearsal and we still hadn’t started yet. The show sounds pretty, although at the moment it still looks a damn mess. We have 53 people crammed onto a black box stage that is about the size of the reception area in my office (which is a good size for a reception area, but a bad size for a stage to hold 53 people). When/if I get them, I’ll post pictures of my completely hideous costumes.

At work, we opened our LA office on April 6, 2009. It’s been interesting getting so much of that set up remotely. We’re still working out a few of the bugs, but I hope to have all of that resolved by next week or the week after. Things in my office are going very well and we recently hired a new guy named Colin and I think he’s going to do very well here. (We had a different new guy who lasted a grand total of 12 hours – which is not quite a record for us, but is close.)

I’ve been meaning to start training for my walk, but the weather (torrential downpour) and my laziness have been conspiring against me. I’m hoping to walk to the theatre at least once each weekend while the show is running to begin my training. I did get a bit of a kick off yesterday – the couple I went to the aquarium with parked so far away from the actual building I swear we walked to Russia to get to their car (maybe it only felt like Russia because all the signs were in Russian and all the people on the street were speaking Russian – one of the neat things about New York is how people can basically transplant their whole culture into one section of town and it makes you feel like you’ve crossed the street and ended up in another world).

Speaking of the walk, the fundraising has started and is moving along slowly but surely. If anyone is interested in donating or helping to fundraise, please let me know and/or click on the link below. I’ve pledged to bake a batch of cookies for anyone who donates $100 or more and I will ship them anywhere in the continental US. I have a feeling once the show closes, I will definitely kick that aspect of my life into high gear. I’ve been keeping out a packet change collection box at the office and we’ve already raised over $40 in less than 2 months – just from pocket change! Can you imagine? It’s pretty awesome.

Please click here to DONATE!

That’s pretty much everything that’s been happening with me. More to come (and hopefully with pictures) as we move into dress rehearsal and performance!

Where am I and what is going on!?!?!?

August 21, 2008 – Today (Thursday) is actually my Friday! This is the first vacation day I’ve taken all summer and I’m not doing anything! Bruce and I are actually trying to plan a full week away the second week of September, which will be nice, but the day off for no good reason is sorely needed after the last few weeks.

Lots of changes are in store for my company in the coming months. I can’t talk about too many of them because I’m not sure if any of my coworkers have found my blog. We are moving into permanent space (which I am in the process of finding), and have a lot of things planned for January 2009. It seems like that is really far away, but at the rate time passes, January 2009 might as well be next week.

The apartment is just about done. Someday, I will actually get the pictures of all my hard work up here so you will all know what I’m talking about. My spare bedroom/closet has turned out a little more childish (my mother used the word “whimsical”) than I’d planned, but it works for the moment. I did finally give into my urge to purge. Last weekend I went through ever closet in my house and got rid of a pile of stuff as tall as I am. I couldn’t figure out how I had managed to accumulate so much crap, but then I realized that I’ve been in this apartment longer than I’ve lived anywhere ever. I’m used to moving every couple of years and you always do a grand purge when you move. Hence no move, no purge.

Last night I started my first Christmas present. I’m trying to get back into doing some needle work, so I’m doing some therapeutic cross stitch. I’m hoping to turn some of my therapy into gifts for friends (thus reducing the cost of the gift giving while upping the thought that went into it), but I know needle point and cross stitch aren’t very trendy/fashionable/popular for people under the age of 197. We’ll see what I can do.

This may seem a bit fractured, but it is a good representation of what I’ve been feeling like lately. Going in a hundred different directions at the same time while trying to plan for stuff that is coming faster than I’m prepared for. Happy (almost) Friday!

Hello There, It's been a while....

June 24, 2008 – So I’ve been trying to figure out how to make the dates appear on these entries, but it is beyond my technical abilities/patience to figure out. So this is my new system. Since there is no date on the last entry and it has been long enough that I don’t remember, I’m going to do a blanket update and I’m sorry for any repetitions.
Good News First:
1. I got a promotion. You are now reading the typing of the General Manager of The Talener Group. It’s been an interesting transition and we aren’t done yet, but it’s a process.
2. My cousin had a baby (Congratulations!).
3. I won the NBA Finals pool at the office (Go Boston Celtics!).
4. Saturdays have become a standard beach day for the summer.
5. I got a Wii Fit.
6. Dallas and I are on the final level of Super Mario Bros 3.
7. I will be doing the Avon Walk for the Cure in October, I need to raise $1800. If you or anyone you know is interested in donating, please visit my personal walk page: http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1660&px=4289734
8. I was the top biller for the Quarter in Q1 of 2008.
Bad News:
1. I had to put one of the cats down. It was Toby a.k.a. the angry Chinese man.
2. My dentist and I have become very good friends due to the fact that I’ve had a ridiculous amount of dental work done recently – on the upside, I like him.
3. I lost both the Masters pool and the US Open pool, but I didn’t come in last.
As you can see, the good pretty much outweighs the bad and you can’t really ask for more than that.
So last Friday afternoon I got off work early and decided there was no time like the present to start building up to a marathon and a half *for my walk in October). From my office to my house is a bit over 15 miles and my friend Dallas and I had been wandering a bit lately, so I thought "No big deal." I made it about halfway there (about 7.6 miles) before I gave up and got on a subway. I went home, sat on the couch for an hour and was sound asleep by 9:30pm because I was so exhausted.
Lessons learned:
1. This is going to be much harder than I thought.
2. Don't walk down 3rd avenue hoping to hit the Brooklyn Bridge (I always walk down Broadway, so this didn't even occur to me).
3. Don't drink beer with coworkers before walking 7+miles - it didn't end badly, but it made it harder to stay focused while passing the 9 million bars between my office and my house. More lessons to come...

Just had to Share...

So, FNG at work just called her brother because we can across a job that she thought he might have a shot at it.

A bit of background: FNG’s dad is a rocket scientist (no sarcasm, he’s actually a rocket scientist), her mom is on the board of a couple of companies and is a self-made millionaire. They completely support both their children (supply them both with their own private apartments in doorman buildings on the upper east side in Manhattan), but at least FNG has a job. Her older brother is trying to “write a screen play” but is really just smoking a lot of pot.

Back to our story: So FNG calls her fat slob brother and says, “Hey, we just came across a job at Forbes paying $40k/yr are you interested?” Her brother says, “Would I have to work 9-5?” FNG says, “Of course, it’s a job. People who have jobs generally work 9-5.” Fat slob brother says, “The only way I would ever consider working a 9-5 job is if I knock up my girlfriend.” His girlfriend was sitting next to him at the time.

Do I even need to point out how many things are wrong with the above situation? And can I just say that this is what happens when parents continue to completely support their adult children (especially if they put no parameters or time limits on it).

Have you seen my free time?

Have you ever noticed that when you have everything planned perfectly is when things suddenly start to get away from you? I am leaving to go to Atlanta on Saturday and I made a list of everything that I needed to do and parceled some of it out for each night in the week. I figured a bit at a time would be a great way to make a dent in my list and not feel overwhelmed. Great plan, right?

FNG (F-ing New Girl/Guy) at my office does volunteer work with an organization called Safe Space which does work with inner city and at risk youth in New York and they are having a fund raiser on Wednesday that she asked us all to go to. I figured I could move some of my plan around and told her I’d love to go. After all, it is a great cause and a chance to meet some new people and support my co-worker. So I call up Crazy and see if she wants to go with me and thus my Wednesday night is set.

About 20 minutes later, my boss throws a post-it note pad at me with a note that says “Leave Thursday Night Open”. When your boss tells you to leave an evening open, I tend to feel like it is a good idea to do so (especially if you are REALLY hoping for a raise)… Good bye Thursday.
So here is what I have to get done between yesterday night and tonight (besides the fact that I am working 12 hour days):

Monday night: Got home at 8:30 after trying unsuccessfully to puck up my down coat from the dry cleaners (they swear to me they will have it tonight); I had to pick up, break down, bind up and take out all the cardboard boxes and packaging from the new bed, dressers and TV table; take out all the garbage in the house; organize the clothes in the drawers of the new dresser before putting away the laundry that I picked up earlier in the week; separate the laundry I can drop and that must be done by hand so I can take care of that at a later time; hang 3M hooks in the bathroom for the new hanging baskets I got at IKEA (and hang the baskets).

What is left for Tuesday: Finishing the last minute wrapping of all gifts; putting together the baked goods for my office; hand wash laundry; drop of dry cleaning and laundry that can be dropped; pick up cat food and key rings for the new sets of keys I had made today; pack (or pack what can be packed at this point); put together clothes to take for Thursday night (staying in the city); take shower (and everything that goes with that); put together a 30 minute meeting about my keys to success in my job; and finally (please, God!) get to sleep before midnight, preferably by 10:00pm.

The up side is that I feel very accomplished this week because I do seem to be getting it all done and really the only side effect has been a slight dopiness from lack of sleep. Tonight will be the test.

The ‘Keys to Success’ meeting I have to give tomorrow (we are each required to give one and we are going in the order that we started working at the company Cool Breeze first, LeClare second, me third (they call me Herronater if you are curious), The Kid is fourth, Krolleosis will be last). FNG will not be participating because Cool Breeze does not feel as if she has been here long enough to really have her ‘Keys’ yet. It should be interesting and at least I get mine out of the way quickly. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I'm not dead!!!!

So, obviously I’m not so great at keeping up with the blog. I’m going to do my best to change that, and I apologize for going MIA for almost a year. I thought about spending time catching everyone up on all the fantastic and exciting things that have happened since last I typed, however I realize you all have better things to do and if you are really curious (or something is very confusing), please feel free to let me know and I will clarify as we go along. Just to give a brief overview:

1. I did not in fact get fired, although I did quit and start a new job at a start up IT recruiting firm. I like to think of myself as a pimp or a trafficker of people – it sounds much more dangerous.
2. The theatre company is on hiatus. Our lives have all changed so much from when we started and with me working 12+ hour days pretty regularly we are trying to figure out how to keep things going with QED and keep us all friendly and happy in our own lives. So far that has meant QED on the back burner, but no one has completely written it off yet.
3. The roommate is moving out and the BF is half moving in. He can’t totally move in because his daughter lives in another state and he really wants to be there for her, but he’s moving stuff into the apartment and we’re fixing it up a bit (although he really wants to just move to another apartment, I’m just tired of moving).

So, I am going to try and update this a bit more regularly. Happy holidays and hopefully you’ll hear from me soon!