New York City!!

I'm baaa-aaaack!!!! The trip as amazing. Much better than expected.

Saturday: I got in at 3 and one of my best friends drove up from PA and she and I went shopping in all the designer shoe stores....I wasn't impressed. It was sad, the salespeople weren't dressed well, the shoes were cute but nothing that special, and the stores themselves looked a little run down. Then we met our other friend for dinner at Sushi Samba (and me and Brandy, the losers we are were excited because this was in an episode of Sex and the City once lol) After that we went to about 7 different bars and had an amazing time. We dance for hours and then we back to pass out in my (amazing) hotel room. Somehow I got bumped to the Premier Towers- and my hotel was ON BROADWAY.

Sunday: Went to the tradeshow floor to set up my station and met a lot of work people, did some hard labor and a little networking. Then that night I had a dinner meeting with my client and some of the big wigs from my company. We ate at Angelo's which was amazing. We all had a bit too much wine at dinner so we decided that since we had already paid for the limo for the night we would take advantage of it and do some bar hopping! We went to McSorley's which is the oldest bar in New York, it was so cool. Look it up some time, there was a show about it on the History Channel once. So we got more drunk and met some adorable old guys who told us dirty jokes and stories about the bar. I also somehow got the nickname Captain while I was there. Then we went to Jimmy's Corner. For those of you that aren't fans of Mohammad Ali, Jimmy's Corner is owned by Jimmy who was his corner man in the ring and his trainer at the gym when he was a fighter. Jimmy's a lot older now but still kicking and stays at the bar all night long. Turns out that my boss's boss is friends with him!! So we stayed there pretty late and finally turned in around 3.

Monday: Get to the tradeshow at 8am, very tired and hungover as was everyone else there : ) The show went well and I actually kicked ass on my presentations (yay!) My feet were killing after 10 hours on the floor but we all decided to go out again. I mean, it was my first time in NY and I never get to see these people! So we go out and decide to go to this bar that one of the big wigs, who happens to love me :), told me about because he and I both play piano. It's called Don't Tell Mamma and it is cool as hell, just look it up. People from Broadway sometimes play there. Well, one of the younger guys there who I'm friends with asked them to let me play and they did!!! I got to play jazz at a world famous bar! I played a piano that Broadway stars have played!! AMAZING!!! And Beth Eunice was singing that night and she autographed her cd and gave it to me, she's awesome!! And I think she's been on tv before, she's trying to get on Broadway and I think she'll make it. It gets even better.... We go to Jimmy's Corner again later on and I got to sit and talk to Jimmy for like 2 hours about Ali, and about Miles Davis-who he grew up with! This was one of the best nights of my life.....I already miss New York. I ended up going to bed at 4 and getting up at 5:30 for my next meeting with my client. I fell like I'd been run over by a few taxis, then they backed up and ran over me again.

Tuesday: Went to our New York offices. Which were also amazing. They're on the 35th floor of the new building next to Ground Zero. The walls are glass so you look out and see the Statue of Liberty and Ground Zero and it's just so eerie. The meeting went well, then I went back to the show where everyone was calling me Captain because they heard about our night on Sunday. So that's my name now, call me Captain! The show went well again, it was just a long long long painful day. After the show was over we tore down the stations and waited for our pallets to come so we could ship them and I ended up passing out on the floor so people took turns tickling me to wake me up, I almost punched someone it was pretty fun-NOT. I hate being tickled. So finally I got to bed and the flew home this morning.

(I'll post pics in a new post, it's not working in this one for some reason.)

Two Posts In One Day!!

Well, the packing is done except for what I need in the morning. I've even painted to calm my nerves. No such luck! In the past two days I have found out three disturbing things:

1. I have to be in a video for Self-Checkout, I play the cashier. This will be seen by all 25,000 employees of my company.
2. I have to a dry-run of my presentation to the CEO himself!
3. The dry-run is BEING FILMED, again for the entire company to see.

Umm...did I mention I have never used the products I'm presenting and I just got the material to study 5 days ago??? Thank God I'm good at improv thanks to my college experience with presentations that I never studied for. Although I never had to do any of these in front of my CEO. Who also happens to very attractive (See picture) HELP ME

Packing Extravaganza

Makeup for the trip....
Reagan's helping me pack. I love cat hair in my suitcase
I can't pick what clothes to bring!!!!
The purses for the trip. My new Kate Spade, and the vintage clutch
My heels for the trip. (The red ones are new, to go with my new
blue suit and cream ruffled shirt. )

Ok, time to pack and lock the cat in the bathroom until I'm done!

Delicious Men

I'm busying getting ready for New York and couldn't think of anything that interesting to write about, unless you would like to hear all a description of the nerdy/techy stuff I have to present in NY.....didn't think so. So I'm going to post some pictures of my favorite men as eye candy for you to look at since you don't have anything to read. Enjoy!

Mamma got herself a brand new bag!

I love Christmas. I always end up returning half of what I get, but that's the fun! Then I get to shop : ) This year, my present to myself after returning a few gifts was my first designer bag! I found it on Ebay, new with tags, box, everything! It's the Thea bag by Kate Spade in cream and green and I got it for $300 less than retail!! And it came just in time for New York!!

Happy New Years!

Hopefully everyone had a great New Year's Eve! I myself had a very uneventful NYE as I had to drive 13 hours back to Minnesota the next day so I stayed up til midnight, then went straight to bed.

It is nice to be back home though. I have all new paintings to hang, an apartment to re-arrange, and a trip to Manhattan to get ready for! Yes folks, in 10 days I will finally be going to Manhattan for the first time!! It's for business so it won't be that exciting, but I'm flying in a day early to go shopping with a friend. I am so excited!!! I know it's sad that I've never been there before, but hey I've been busy....

Also, Mike gets home Sunday from the Caribbean where he has been with his family for the past two weeks. Yes, I'm jealous too. So hopefully by next week I'll actually know if we're getting back together or not.

As for new year's resolutions, I think this new year will be full of surprises and I'll just roll with the punches. My resolution is to have a drama-free year where I don't overreact to stuff. Here's hoping!!

New Years Already??

What a whirlwind! Ok not really. The past two weeks have been filled with oversleeping, catching on my favorite tv shows since I don't have cable at home, and overeating. mysteriously I didn't actually gain any weight. Hmmm. I even went to the gym with Semi-Desperate Housewife (aka my older sister) this morning. Yay us. I just can't believe that it's almost 2009! This year has flown by. So many changes have happened in this year. I graduated college, got my first "big girl" job, moved 12 hours away from everyone and everthing I knew, got a new bf, lost a bf, now I kinda have him back.... had a cancer scare, whew! Crazy year. Here's hoping 2009 is full of good things for everyone!

Seven Pounds

I just got back from watching the new movie, Seven Pounds. I, and the 3 other girls with me, cried pretty much the entire time. It was one of the saddest/best movies I have ever seen. All I can say is.....go see it. You won't regret it. Just don't go see it alone because you'll need someone to cry with and talk to on the ride home. (and bring tissues.)

blah

Does anyone else get the winter blues? I do. Especially after having to duct tape my windows shut and then nail blankets around them to keep cold air from blowing in my house. And tomorrow I have 15 hours in the car along staring out at the bleak gray sky with snow falling down. It will be a great time for reflection and self awareness. Yeah ok. I actually meditated and did yoga at midnight on Saturday. I love my gym. It has this lovely little room that you can close yourself off in and turn out the lights and watch these workout videos. And the yoga one was really really good. I was so relaxed and calm afterwards. Maybe I'll do it again today. To get out of my little slump. Oh well. I'll be home soon and have two weeks to relax with the family. Hopefully that does the trick!

OOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Holy crap that hurt!!!!! 4 shots in my whooha which hurt like hell. Then the lovely rubber coated speculum-to keep me from getting electrocuted of course-was too big for my apparently small whooha so that was extremely unpleasant. I also did not get any meds!!! not fair at all. So I took a bunch of IB Profen and curled up on the couch with taco bell and episodes of friends. Awesome day.

Today's the day

Well in two hours I go under the knife. Yeehaw. I am so excited can you tell? I hope I get some good pain meds out of this but I'm sure with my luck they'll tell me to take Tylenol.

Winter Wonderland

Merry Christmas! Well, almost anyway. I'm being festive and spending the day baking Christmas cookies. It's snowing outside and since there's nothing else to do..... Let's hope I don't eat them all myself!

On the man front....I'll update you on my date with Mike. It was snowing that night as well, and it took me almost an hour to get there instead of the usual 15 minutes. By the time I got there we both decided to skip driving in the snow to get to dinner. Instead we opted for ordering in Italian and watching movies. It was all very romantic with the snow coming down cozied up to the dvd player with our dinner. We didn't really talk about anything we just cuddled and kissed a bit. It was nice. It felt familiar and safe. I still don't know what this means for us, but I might go over there tonight and talk about it.

Is it the holidays that makes everyone so nostalgic? It makes us miss old friends and lovers and makes us long for someone to love us. I don't want to jump back into a relationship with someone that I still have feelings for if it's just because we're both lonely. So, with the advice of my sales trainer in my company who is also a cool as hell woman that I adore. I'm going to list the pro's and con's of Mike. And you get to read them! Aren't you lucky : )

PRO's
1. smart
2. driven
3. doesn't act like a typical rich snob that feel entitled to everything
4. loves kids and family
5. funny
6. same interests (i.e. art, music, stand up comedy, good food, hanging out at home)
7. isn't pretentious
8. wants to be successful to provide a good life for his future family
9. wants to adopt and helps kids that don't have anyone to take care of them
10. gives a lot to charity
11. strong
12. man's man (i.e. loves sports, poker, etc.)
13. doesn't drink so that he can be a good influence on his little brother
14. my parents adore him
15. handsome
16. great kisser ; )
17. dresses well
18. has same goals
19. loves animals
20. always willing to help other people
(many more that I could add but I won't bore you)

CON's
1. holds grudges
2. has a temper (which I do as well so I can't really fault him for a flaw that I also have)
3. never had a good female figure in his life to show him what he wants in a woman
4. never had a good marriage example to show him how to make a solid lasting marriage
5. father and brother both drug addicts, step-mom is a gold digger that he detests (although he can't help how his family is so it's not really a fault of his, just something that worries me about his view of family)
6. feels the need to constantly prove himself to his father which means working 90 hours a week (Don't want him to be the kind of guy that neglects his family in order to get ahead in the workplace.)
7. wasn't raised in church and doesn't share all of my beliefs in regards to Christianity, although he does want his kids raised in church which is good but still.....
8. not good at showing his emotions ( Example: We dated for 9 months and I told him I loved him 4 months in, he never said it back so I stopped saying it. Then the night we broke up he told me that he had been in love with me since the day we met in South Beach but he didn't want to say it because he wasn't ready to take it to that level. So he was in love with me for like 6 months and still couldn't say it even when I said it to him.)

Hmmm.....well the pro's outweigh the con's but at the same time they should be view on a weighted scale because some mean more than others. Well, I just hope that I get to see him tonight and figure out what he's thinking about all of this. Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!! Merry Christmas : )

goodbye weston

Dear Weston,

Thanks for telling me that you've chosen to go back to her and that I am cut out of your life. Thanks for being childish and blocking me on myspace-are we still in high school???? Thanks for stringing me along and pretending that you were thinking about our future when really I was just your back-up plan. Most of all, thanks for proving to me that karma is a bitch. I broke your heart and now you broke mine. Good luck with her and and at least be honest with her about me because if you don't you'll be building a relationship based on dishonesty.

Rachel

Funny Stuff For You Moms

Since I am completely in love with Chelsea Handler ( in a completely non-sexual way ) I came across these "webisodes" called "In The Motherhood" It's something Suave and Sprint did as an online tv show thing. Anyways, they're pretty funny and I'm sure you mothers out there would also find it funny. Enjoy!

I rock

Well, after gaining the obligatory 5 Thanksgiving pounds I decided I need a plan! Also because I have a date with none other than my former bf Millionaire on Friday. (I need to stop calling him that but since that is what I referred to him as before...well you know. His name is Mike btw. ) Anyways, in honor of my 4 day crash diet I got up at 6am and went to the gym, worked out and went tanning and am even writing a nice little blog before I run off to my meeting. AND I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON!!! For those of you that know me well you will know that I hate getting up in the morning and usually work out at midnight because I'm more awake then. But I've heard morning workouts give you way more energy during the day and help kickstart your metabolism whereas a midnight workout just keeps you awake all night and more tired the next day.

Back to the date with Mike. So Mike, whom I have not spoken to in 3 months since we broke up called me on Thanksgiving to see if I wanted to have dinner this week and try to be friends. Interesting. I smell a plot to get me back lol. Now many of you (aka all 3 of you) may be wondering why I'm going on a date with Mike when I'm "waiting for Weston". Well I'll tell you! Weston called on Thanksgiving also. To inform me that he will call me after the NEW YEAR and that he wasn't sure now if he wanted to get back together and I shouldn't wait for him. WTF So, when Mike asked me to dinner as friends I felt that it was perfectly acceptable. Which it is.I also picked this awesome restaurant. We're having a late dinner on Friday. Hmm smells like a date, looks like a date, and he called to talk for 45 min last night. I'm thinking Michael has more on his mind than just friends.

On the health front I have decided to get the surgery done. Technically it's called a surgery but it's actually a 15 min procedure done in the doctor's office that only takes a day or so to recover from. Well I should say recover as in be ready to work etc. My poor little cervix will be recovering for 4 weeks though. Anyhoo, hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Here comes Christmas!

ggaaahhhh

Soooo.... talked to the doctor. It was better news than expected but has left me in a state of frustration. Basically she said the doctor that did my pap was wrong and it wasn't a high grade change it was a low grade change. Which is good news except that I don't know which doctor to trust, the one that says it's bad, or the one who says it's worse. Lovely. Then to make it worse she says "As for doing the LEEP I'm leaving that up to you. If you were in your 30's and had a child already I would say definately do it, but since you don't have any kids lets wait and do another pap in a month."

So what to do? Which doctor do I trust? What's more important, getting rid of the cells before they turn into cancer and risk miscarrying every time I get pregnant, or do I let the cells grow and risk getting cancer? ROCK - ME - HARD PLACE

C-Day

Well, today's the day. Or at least I hope so. Dr. Martini said I would get my results in a week or less. I had the biopsy done on Tuesday so it's either today or tomorrow and I really hope it's today. This is driving me nuts. Plus, Weston said to call as soon as I get the results so that means I'll get to talk to him! (It's only been like 4 or 5 days but it feels longer.) For now, I'm off to my quarterly vendor review meeting, what fun! Two more days until I'm home for Thanksgiving.....thank God!

new shoes!!

I know.....you're jealous!! I got these Chinese Laundry heels on Ebay for $15 plus shipping. I'm in love. It's hard to tell because the flash was so bright, but the material is rattlesnake, in shades of pale green and turquoise. It's true love......... So in honor of these amazing shoes I will be going out tonight in sexy heels even though in the last post I said I wouldn't. They deserve to be worn!

how to survive my first minnesota winter

well, winter is officially here. No snow has stuck to the ground....yet. But the bitter cold that chills to the bone is definitely here. As is the dry skin from having the heat cranked up all day long. I've decided that the only way to survive the winter is to

1. not go out to bars at all because who the f wants to walk 5 blocks from where you park to get to a bar with annoying drunk people all the while trying to look hot in winter boots and a coat-because trust me I am not wearing heels and sexy clothes in this cold!

2. Stop shaving my legs to add warmth.

3. Start blogging regularly-what else am I going to do all day? Work? haha

4. Start watching movies I've never seen and reading books I've never read.

5. Finally break out that "Learn Spanish in 3 Months" cd set I got this spring.

6. Start cooking the gourmet recipes in the 50 cookbooks I have and never use.


Any more suggestions? And NO I do not want to take up knitting or ice fishing. I may live here but I will not be sucked into the traditions!!!

Thank God For Second Chances

Tonight made me realize that I need to stop bitching and whining about my insignificant problems because there are people going through much harder stuff and I have been so blessed in my life. I volunteer at a women's halfway house and tonight one of the girls I'm working with, who just got out of prison, opened up and told me about growing up with a mom in prison and a drug addict dad and how she ended up in prison but she was so happy and proud to tell me that she passed the Social Studies part of the GED test. I've been tutoring her for a few weeks now and it broke my heart to see that big smile on her face. She told me that this Thanksgiving she's thankful that she got the chance to get her GED and that in April her mom gets visitation again and she can go see her in prison. I almost cried right there because I've been whining about a guy and some small health issues and here is this woman who has had a horrible horrible life, sitting in front of me beaming with pride because she got out of prison and got her GED. And she is soooo THANKFUL and HAPPY! I thank God for my life and my family and how I grew up. I felt so small sitting in front of her realizing that I'm supposed to be the one helping her and she's helping me. It just reminds me that God works in mysterious ways and He taught me a really good lesson tonight.