Table for One

Sweden was the first trip that I have taken where I was entirely alone for a big portion of the week. People asked me when I got back what I thought about traveling alone. I said that I absolutely loved it - you could go anywhere you wanted, if you walked into a museum and thought it was stupid you could walk right back out without wasting time wondering if other people liked it, there was no debate over what to do each day. I absolutely loved it....until dinner time. When you're traveling alone, you have to eat alone in restaurants. People can't ever hide their surprise when you say "Table for one," but you're in a different country so you suck it up and deal with it instead of eating at McDonalds all week.

I have always felt really awkward eating alone. I remember having an hour lunch break over tax-free weekend when I worked at Limited Too in High School and I wore my name tag to Subway because I didn't want people to think that I was just eating at Subway alone because I was a loser. Most of the time if I'm going to eat alone, I grab something and bring it home...so I can be a loser in private I guess. One time I went to Breadwinners in Dallas alone thinking it was a takeout place and when I realized it was a sit-down place I was too embarrassed to leave, so I sat alone feeling like all eyes were on me.

Today, I found the one place that I felt completely comfortable eating alone: Luby's! I went down to Hulen area around lunchtime to buy tickets for a sneak preview of 27 Dresses for several people and decided I wanted Luby's for lunch. So I just went inside, got my food, and sat by myself. I did not feel self-conscious at all! Maybe it helped that everyone else in there was either over 70 years old or by themselves too, but for the first time, I felt completely comfortable eating in a sit-down restaurant by myself. I think I need to go there a few more times before my next solo trip to train myself on eating alone. :)

Why would you do that, MTV? Why?

I feel like I'm Cindy Lou Who walking in on the Grinch stealing her Christmas tree. I was flipping through channels to day and MTV was showing "So You Think You Can Dance." I turned to it and it was the Vegas Week episode from my favorite season....the Year of Allison!!

I got really excited and was ready to set my Tivo to record all of them so I could see my favorite dances again. I went hour by hour looking at the next two weeks, and this is the ONLY episode they're showing of it! They're not showing the rest of the season! The mean MTV Grinch gave me a little taste of a fantastic Christmas cookie and then he snatched it way. Why would you tease me like that, MTV?

Instead I'll just have to reflect on my great time at the SYTYCD tour in November. Lindsey and I surprised our friends by renting a mini-van and decorating it for the tour. We are such dorks, but I'm okay with that. :)

For Everyone Who Works in Corporate America...

Anyone else find this oddly accurate? :)

Mac vs. PC

Mac: Hi I'm a Mac
PC: And I'm a PC
Mac: Emily has been thinking about me a lot lately. Her laptop is approaching 3 years old and is starting to have a couple of issues
PC: I've been a great friend though!
Mac: So now she's been thinking about maybe going with me, a Mac, for her next laptop
PC: I keep telling her she's crazy. Think about all the things she'd have to relearn....how to work with documents, a whole new interface....its just totally not worth the hassle
Mac: But I keep reminding her that she has never met anyone that is a huge PC advocate
PC: Lots of people are perfectly content with me
Mac: Well, my users are typically fanatics about me, going on and on about how great I am. And I've got lots of cool applications for the stuff that she uses her home computer for now...photo editing, web publishing, music writing...
PC: But the relearning! You can't teach an old dog new tricks, can you?
Mac: So why don't all you readers out there give your opinion? Maybe its worth relearning a few tricks for something that she'll be a fanatic for eventually...
PC: Or maybe she should stick to what she knows and is perfectly fine with. Anyone have a word of advice?

Sick! :(

Well, I've gotten sick for the first time this winter and I always forget how much I hate it. I don't have anything too serious, but I've got a really bad cold, my tonsils are swollen and hurting, and my asthma is acting up a little bit....hopefully it won't turn into pneumonia again!!

As bad as I feel, the worst part is that tonight was our Singles Christmas Party and I was really excited about it! It was an "after-five" attire party and we all know I love getting all dressed up. Instead, I'm sitting on my couch in sweatpants and a t-shirt with no makeup on. Sad.

So to make myself feel better, I am making tonight Emily's Cartoon Christmas night. Every year since I was little, I would have one day where I watched How The Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman back to back. It started because my dad had a tape that he had recorded all three on and I would always watch it and then in college, my roommate bought me all three on DVD. I love classic christmas cartoons!!! They make me feel a little bit better tonight. :)

The Office

Every Thursday night before the strike, I would get together with a group of friends to watch The Office. We would watch and laugh hysterically at the crazy things that Michael would do....his wacky meetings, fun runs, random parties, etc. Every now and then, people who don't work in Corporate America ask me if The Office is real. Most of the time I say no...until yesterday.

Yesterday we had our Quarterly DFW Employee Meeting. As I looked around at what was going on, I realized that very little of The Office is an exaggeration. The meeting was in a ballroom at the Solana Marriott. It started out with a rock band made of Sabre employees playing a few songs. They are called "The Gross Margins" and even have a logo that is the strings/frets of a guitar acting as a graph like a stock graph. Then they started playing a video of a lit fireplace (for ambiance, ya know!) and a guy in a smoking jacket a la Hugh Hefner was sitting in a chair acting as the MC in the style of Masterpiece Theater. There proceeded to be skits to give us important lessons about our company and strategy....a VP acted as Scrooge falling asleep and "dreaming" via video of the Ghost of Sabre Past, the Ghost of Sabre Present, and the Ghost of Sabre Future. Another VP and a sales guy were the Spartan Cheerleaders cheering on the SVP as he talked about our 2008 strategy (complete with "The Perfect Cheer.") The Gross Margins entertained a little more playing songs like I'm Gonna Be (I Would Walk 500 miles) and Come Together (Beatles). Then we had a dinner and an open bar. And as I was watching these skits, I could TOTALLY see Michael Scott in every one!

But yesterday's meeting (and every quarterly meeting for that matter) isn't the only thing that reminds me of The Office. Remember the "Fun Run" episode? Well we had a "Give Together" month where all of the employees donated time to service projects and money to charities. There were a bunch of events during the week to raise money. One day we had a "County Fair" with wacky relay races, a 1 Mile Fun Run, a Chili/Curry Cookoff, and pig races. Not kidding...pig races. Oh yeah, they also had a mechanical bull that all of the VPs and SVPs rode. At the end of the week there was a company talent show complete with prizes for the top 3 acts. (Yes I was in the talent show....no I didn't win. But people still tell me I should have which makes me feel good. :) )

It just really hit me yesterday how funny this all was because it never seemed that crazy to me but yet we think that The Office is so far out there! Really the only difference between my company and the things that happen at Dunder Mifflin is that our leadership is all VERY competent and not complete idiots like Michael Scott....but other than that, its all pretty much dead on. I dont' have any pictures of The Gross Margins or this week's skits, but here are a couple of pictures from a quarterly meeting last year...this one was themed The Incredibles and all of the skits were about "The Incredibles" (Relia Girl, Value Boy, Collabor Mom, Mr. S.T. (Straight talk....kept saying "I Pity The Fool"), and Captain Undisputed defeating the Dot Commissar's evil plots to take down Sabre Airline Solutions. And remember...these aren't interns being hazed and forced to do these skits. These are the President of Airline Solutions, a VP, a couple of product managers....it's really amusing. As silly as it may seem though, I think I get more out of these meetings than I do from all of the other traditional PowerPoint presentations that I sit through and/or give each week. :)

When I Grow Up....

This Thursday, I had a half-day meeting with my new team at work. We talked about plans for 2008 and at the end started talking about our personal goals and what to think about before we have meetings with our managers in a couple weeks. My new boss started talking about personal development and growth and said something to the effect of "We definitely want to help you get to your goals and where you want to be in your career...just let us know where you want to be."

This has been one of my biggest insecurities since I started grad school....where do I want to be? I got so tired of trying to figure it out at that point that I just picked something different than most people and said "I want to be in strategy." I had no idea what that looked like, but it seemed to please most employers and got me quite a few job offers. Well now I'm a product manager - half strategy, half marketing - and I love my job. But I also know that I don't want to be doing this exact same thing 10 years from now. Pretty much nobody in the business world wants to stay where they are. But I don't have a clear direction of where I want to go either. Every year on our performance review, there is a section talking about short and long term goals and I never know what to put besides "I want to have a team of my own to manage."

My question is, who DOES know exactly what they want to do? I know that I like my job functions and that business was the way to go for me, but I can't say that in 10 years I want to be a product manager or that in 10 years I want to be working in Corporate Strategy or anything else. I don't even know exactly where I want to be in 2-3 years! But the more that I think about this, the more I wonder....am I going to be left behind or kept down in my career because I don't have a completely clear picture of the path I want to take? Are there people out there who really have their career path fully planned out and actually follow that plan?

2 am and wide awake

I took a Tylenol Cold Nighttime Formula pill about 2 1/2 hours ago....mostly for the "cold" part of it but thought the "Nighttime" part wouldn't be too bad either.


Its 2 am, my cold is no better and I am wider awake than I was this afternoon. Are you happy, Tylenol??


I am going to be miserable tomorrow at work. :(

Happy Slapsgiving Everyone!!

Maybe in a couple of days I'll finish one of the three posts I've started this week...

Things That Make Me Smile Part 5: Extra Cherries

A couple of years ago, I did a short series that I called "Things That Make Me Smile." Lately I've realized that its the little things in life that just make my day happy, so I've decided to start it up again.
Today I was running some errands and decided to stop at Sonic to get a Diet Cherry Coke. This is something I used to do a lot when I lived close to a Sonic and I think its been probably 2 or 3 years since I was able to go there regularly. They are supposed to put a maraschino cherry in it, but they only do about half the time. Days that they don't kind of suck. But days that you get 2 cherries are the best! So today after I had finished most of the drink, I looked inside to see if there was a cherry....and I had hit the motherload! There were FIVE! I didn't know anyone who works there, I didn't ask for extra cherries, someone inside just decided to give a ton of cherries for no reason. And it truly made me smile. :)

Fiesta!!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about going to see the Saginaw High School band play to support my friend Derrick. Well, they did so well in their contests this year that they got to go to State Marching Contest! This is a big deal, so we decided to throw Derrick a party after church last Saturday. And since I was all moved in, I decided to make it a debut for my house too!

My friend Angie was in charge of the cake and decorations, so she decided that it would be a Fiesta party. Nothing like a giant mariachi on your wall to make up for not having anything decorated in my house yet. :)

Suit Up!

If you don't watch How I Met Your Mother...first of all, shame on you. Second of all, you really won't understand or truly appreciate the awesomeness of this post. So start watching it and come back again once you have seen it. I have Seasons 1 and 2 if you need to borrow them.

Now that I live closer to most of my friends, I decided to invite a few people over for dinner and HIMYM on Monday night. I sent out an email talking about how I was about to "open a can of awesome" and it was going to be "legen....wait for it......dary"......all the good stuff. Lindsey asked me to remind her via text message that day, so I did and get the response "I'm suiting up" (to which I responded "Hypothetical high five....Nice.")

So 7:00 rolls around and my doorbell rings. I was really confused because neither Lindsey nor our friend Jason who was on his way ever ring doorbells at friends houses, but I went and opened the door and found this:

They had actually suited up! I was laughing so hard. And of course, the first words out of their mouths were "I told you to SUIT UP!." It was great. We had good food and a lot of fun watching some episodes from season 2 because my DVR screwed up and didn't record the actual show. It was sad. But every time I should be sad, I just turn it around and be awesome instead. :)

Now to people who don't watch the show....don't you want to go and watch the best show on television now so you can get all the jokes? Definitely the best comedy since Friends and if you know how much I love Friends, you know thats saying a lot!

WATCH HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER!!!

Halloween Surprise....

My apartment surprised me yesterday and decided to dress up like a new house for Halloween!

The bedrooms aren't worth posting anything on yet - the Master Bedroom is completely undecorated (I don't even have my actual bedding on it yet) and the other two bedrooms are basically just filled with packed boxes. I love my new house! Come visit any time!

Two best stories from giving out candy last night - one precious little princess no older than 6 years old looks at me and says "You BETTER not have given me Hot Tamales!" And soon after was a fun comment - a little skeleton looks inside and says "Hey, great house." That made me happy. :)

P.S. - Remember the TV poll I had up for so long? I went with the majority and bought the fun flat-screen a while ago (as you can see in the living room picture) and now I'm glad I did because I can get HD in my new house. :)

P.P.S. - This also completed an item on THE List:
77. Buy a house or a condo

My Name is J'aime

In one week, I went from Football to Fashion.

My cousin, Allyson, called me with an invitation to a fancy party for Dallas International Fashion Week (same group that puts on New York Fashion Week only totally not as cool). I love dressing up so I said yes. While we were getting ready, I found out what the party was for - it was a fashion show for Jaime Pressly's new line, J'aime (clever, huh?).

You might recognize Jaime Pressly as this:


But that night, she looked like this:


Also in attendance: Jerry Stackhouse from the Mavs, a guy from Project Runway, and a couple of girls from Friday Night Lights. Thats right, I was actually at a party with bona fide celebrities.

Here are some pics of me and Allyson and our other friend, Katy that went with us.

Ever wear a shirt with your friend's face on it?

I have!

I couldn't start out with the post that everyone is looking for or you'd just stop reading. So I'm saving the house for later. (Plus, I haven't taken any pics yet.)

One of my friends, Derrick, is the assistant band director/percussion guru at Saginaw High School. His band is doing extremely well this year - won several contests, beat out schools that they really shouldn't have seeing as the school is only 2 years old and doesn't even have seniors yet, etc. - so a big group of us decided that we would take a Friday night and relive our High School days by going to a Saginaw football game.

Lindsey Holder, our other friend Angie, and I decided that we wanted Saginaw shirts, but couldn't find any. Then we decided it would be even funnier if we made our own. So we did. And here are the results:

The front - very simple, just iron-on letters spelling out the school's name

The back - a picture of Derrick with the caption "We're just here for Mr. Doyle." Couldn't let anyone think we were actually there to support the KIDS, could we? P.S. - people have always thought that Lindsey and I are sisters and its pictures like this that make me realize why! Close up of the back - Luckily we have a friend with a great sense of humor. He thought it was hilarious! And I think he also appreciated that he got louder cheers when they called his name than the entire band did when they finished their show. :)

Coming up next: "My Name is J'aime"

LOTS Going On

So I have several fun posts in my head but just haven't had time (or internet connection at my house) to actually write them and post the pics. But for the rest of this week there should be a new post every day with fun pictures detailing my busy life. Stay tuned! (And I also promise I'll finish fixing my layout!)

Actual Vegas Pictures

One of our sales guys, Rob, sent me a couple of pics from our Vegas trip today! Nothing real exciting, just us in a place called Rouge in the MGM Grand, but its fun to have some new pics of my work friends. :)

My friend Lauren, Rob, and I. People at work confuse me and Lauren all the time. Its really funny.

Gotta love the pictures taken from 1 foot away. Haha! Me and Lauren.

And before I get the comments about the fact that my glass was empty and Lauren's was full...she had just gotten a new glass and I was finishing mine. (Don't you love the pre-emptive comment stops. Ha!)

Under Construction

So I'm trying to figure out how to make my blog look more fun. I was first inspired by Laura Akins and as I was starting to figure out how to change mine, Stephen updated the McB's blog and Maggie's, so now here is my attempt. I made the header tonight but I need to go to bed, so I am going to work on the rest later. So bear with me. And I'll post stuff about the house later too....its been busy around here!

State Fair

This Sunday, my brother decided to drag my whole family to the State Fair whether we liked it or not. I think we were all glad he did though - because we had a really good time. We got to eat our annual State Fair corny dog, see Big Tex, hear some bands, and go to the car show. It was a pretty good day.

I bought something this week...

It was next to register so I just couldn't resist. Gotta love those impulse buys!

Okay, I'm sure you're getting tired of looking at my insightful thoughts on vacuums, but I haven't been able to post because I'm scared to. Pretty much the ONLY thing going on for me right now is the fact that I just put a contract on a house. I close on October 11th and I am insanely paranoid that something is going to fall through before then so I haven't wanted to post about it and jinx it. But I got tired of going to my OWN page and seeing that last post, so I figured I'd 'fess up. So here is what could be my new house in a week and a half or so...pray that everything works out! I am in love with this house! :)

I learned a fun new fact today...

Did you know that a vaccuum cleaner works much better if you actually use it?

I'm just saying...

Another Day, Another $100....

Well, I did it! I bet $100 on black at the Bellagio (no Circus, Circus for me, Jonathan!) and WON!! Here's my proof of another thing crossed off THE List.

2. Bet $100 on black at a Roulette table in Vegas


P.S. My camera is broken and my parents were out of town too, so we have to deal with cell phone pictures for this trip. I was in the conference for most of the trip anyways, so not too much was picture-worthy.

My conference was in the MGM Grand Hotel. I really liked it there, but I never realized how BIG these hotels were! I realized on the third day that I entered this hotel on Monday and had not walked outside and breathed fresh air since. There is so much in one hotel that you could spend a 4 day vacation there, never leave, and never repeat activities, clubs, or restaurants (except gambling).

I was hanging out with customers in the evenings for the most part, so I didn't get to see any shows which was sad (I really wanted to see Ka in my hotel!), but I did get to go to a party in a penthouse on Tuesday night! It was awesome! View from the Penthouse balcony:Finally, I spent a LOT of time walking back and forth between the hotel part of MGM and the conference center which are seriously far apart. I decided that the designers of this particular hotel are cruel people....this is what you have to walk by every time you go to the conference center. Its like they're saying "Wouldn't you rather be HERE right now instead of sitting in a bunch of conference sessions?"
And with that, we end Emily's cell phone tour of the conference in Vegas. One of our sales guys, Rob, had a camera and took a couple of pictures, so I may try to get some of those and write some other stories soon. But for now I'm going to bed...3 days of VERY little sleep does NOT do a body good. :)

I'm a TIME Travelin' Girl!

Tonight, I did something amazing....I spoke with somebody from the future. How did I do this you ask? At 9:02pm on September 16th, I found a conduit to the future through an amazing thing called a "Telephone" and spoke with people who were sitting in Singapore at 10:02am September 17th. The fun of doing global business. To steal a line from Chandler on Friends, "Listen, don't tell me what happens tomorrow...because I like to be surprised."

Okay, in all seriousness, I leave for Vegas tomorrow afternoon! The votes are in and I will be betting $100 on black in Roulette, so wish me luck. :)

Random Thoughts by Emily

• When I have kids I'm actually going to have to start getting up in the morning in time to have breakfast.
  
• I'm very glad I'm nowhere near having kids for this reason.
• Rent or buy?
• I can't believe that I am going to wake up in Dallas tomorrow, go to bed in Dallas tomorrow, but be in Arizona in between the two.
• I can't believe that I have to be at the airport at 6am tomorrow. Blah.
• I hate it when my mom is out of town. I miss our evening commute phone conversations.
• I love outdoorsy stuff - rock climbing, kayaking, camping, etc. I wish I was camping right now.
• What makes the difference between a girl who loves outdoorsy stuff/sports and it makes the guys like her and a girl who loves outdoorsy stuff but it makes her too butch so those same guys don't like her?
• Unfortunately/luckily I don't think I fall into either of those categories.
  

Call Me Unpatriotic...but...

I'm sure this is one of those posts that will get a lot of angry comments, but I really don't care.

I love my country as much as anyone, probably more than a lot of people. I think the tragedy that happened 6 years ago was horrible. But I also think that people are ridiculous for wanting to turn this day into a somber, bad occasion every year from here to eternity!

I'm not saying that we need to forget what happened, but by focusing on it in major ways year after year, we are letting the terrorists win again and again. They don't even have to do another attack - we attack ourselves every year on Sept. 11th!

Three comments in particular bugged me today. One in a CNN article about the memorial ceremony today, a family member saying she was okay with the memorial being at the park - "Just so long as we continue to do something special every year, so you don't wake up and say, 'Oh, it's 9/11.'" It is my hope that we CAN get to the point where we can just wake up and say "Oh, it's 9/11." THAT is when we will have won.

Another was a man that said he still weeps every day. Its been 6 years. I know you're still sad and it was terrible, but if you have let the terrorists absolutely stop your life for 6 years straight, they have won. Don't forget your loved ones, but they wouldn't want you dwelling on the bad every day of your life either!

And the missing icing on the absent birthday cake: a family who won't celebrate their twin daughters' birthday on the day they were actually born because they were born on September 11, 2001. They don't think it is "appropriate." Congratulations, you've just handed Osama Bin Laden a huge victory - you've let him actually move the birthday of your children.

Your thought is probably that I don't understand because I haven't experienced what it is like to go through that. And to that, I say, you are wrong. On September 15th, 1999, a man opened fire in a church where all of my friends were having a youth rally. I was on my way and turned around at the last minute, one of my good friends was shot in the head and was killed and another friend was shot in the back (she survived). 6 other people died as well and 7 others were injured. The first year after, we did a memorial service for those people which was very fitting, and every year I think about them on that day. But that day is also my best friend, Maggie's daughter's birthday, and I would never dream of asking them to move Maisy's birthday so I could wallow in self-pity all day long. I would never choose to not go to work or make a big deal about it or demand that everyone join in my suffering, because that is letting Larry Gene Ashbrook's terror live on. I simply say a prayer for Justin and the others and go on with my life, because that is what they would have wanted.

Good people die in senseless acts of terror every day, whether it be in a plane crashing into a building or a child who is caught in a drive-by shooting in Dallas, TX. Remember your loved ones, but don't stop your life. If you keep ripping open the same wound year after year, it will never heal. Keep moving on and although you will always miss those people, you will be able to go through that anniversery date without dwelling on it, and you will stop the terrorists in their tracks. That is the only way that the 'Good Guys' will win.

To List, or Not To List

If you've read my blog for more than a week, you should know about THE List. Well now I have a dilemma. This is where the sensible side of me is arguing with the adventurous side that actually made THE List in the first place.

2. Bet $100 on Black at a Roulette table in Vegas

A week from tomorrow, I head out to Vegas for a week for a work conference (subject for another post: Getting paid to hang out in Vegas for a week - only slightly less awesome than Getting paid to hang out in Stockholm for a week). I don't know when I'm going to go back to Vegas. I'm pretty sure I will at some time in my life, but at the same time, with so many other things on THE List I'm sure it won't be a place that I rush back to. So now the question:

Do I take this opportunity to actually step out and do something that is not so easy on my list, or do I let my sensible side win out and not bet $100 on Black?

Its up to you. Leave your comment here and the majority vote will win. My fate is in your hands. :)

Labor Day "Turner Falls" Trip

Last weekend I went with a group of 10 people to Oklahoma for a camping trip. I call it the "Turner Falls" trip because that was what we called it...until we got there and decided not to actually go to Turner Falls. :)

We had a campsite at Buckhorn that was just so great - not too many people and our own private cove of the lake - that we decided to cancel our planned day trip to the falls which was supposedly incredibly crowded. We did go to Arbuckle Wilderness though which was great fun. And I discovered my new favorite sport - Kayaking! Two people brought kayaks and I had so much fun I wish I had an SUV again so I could get one too!

Our weekend consisted of swimming, hiking, kayaking, hanging out around camp, eating, running, and relaxing. We had no schedule and it was fantastic. Here are a couple of pics.

Look at that giraffe tongue!!Dustin decided if the pellets were good enough for the animals....
Our campsite mascot, Bert the Tarantula. He liked to hang out right outside my tent.Group picture on our hike up to some of the springs. It was really a great trip!

The Amazing Ben!!

Wow, three posts in three days.

Tonight I want to brag on my brother, Ben. The boy has more talent than he will ever realize and this is just a little bit of proof. His girlfriend, Vanessa, is a first year teacher and to decorate her room, she wanted some pictures of book covers to go around the top. Ben said, "Hey, I'll paint them for you!" So he freehanded three book covers on giant canvases for her and they are freaking AMAZING!!


Just to remind you what the originals looked like...here are images I pulled off the web:
And now for the most amazing part...painting canvases this big with something like Acrylic or oil paints would cost wayyyy too much (think of those little tiny bottles that they come in!) So what did Ben do? He bought big bottles of TEMPRA PAINT and mixed his own colors!!! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, these masterpieces were made from the same things High School Cheerleaders use to make signs for football games. Amazing. Also, this was his first time to paint with paintbrushes...he usually only does paintings using pallet knives.

The Master hard at work.
Ben, you truly rock!