10/31/10

1. Waking up naturally 5 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off.
2. Getting back to the apartment with enough time to put some stuff away and catch up with Dan before heading out.
3. The lobby of the W hotel in Hoboken really being quite a nice place to have a meeting with another potential officiant.
4. Taking a delicious little nap after lunch.
5. Breaking out the Slanket...
6. Vegging out on the couch doing nothing in particular for most of the afternoon/evening.

10/30/10

1. Going to a zumba class with my mom and rocking out those dance/exercise moves.
2. Dan's family being the most accommodating soon-to-be in-laws ever when we went bridesmaids dress shopping with his mom, sisters, and maternal grandma.
3. Bonding over the ridiculously bad service and paint fumes at the diner we stopped in for lunch.
4. Scoring the dresses we ended up picking for only $40 each and with free shipping.
5. Helping get my dad in better humor by helping him set up the Singer sewing machine he'd bought for jeans hemming purposes.
6. Watching TV in bed with my mom.

10/29/10

1. Feeling pretty cute in my dress with the new cowboy boots.
2. DF deciding to cancel the meeting we usually have over the lunch hour.
3. An honest, straightforward meeting with AC about expectations and what I'd like to do.
4. ES and EF figuring out how to rework the phone shift schedule so that we would have half as many hours now.
5. My mom fighting her way through tons of traffic to come pick me up so I could do laundry while I was at home.
6. Going to bed early after having not slept well this past week.

10/28/10

1. Getting myself in to work and on the phone shift on time, with breakfast.
2. BB letting me sit in on a meeting of hers and scheduling lunch with me to discuss projects she wants me on.
3. Spending a good amount of time helping people on the team with their tickets today, a couple forecasting issues and one lucky ad serving thing that I caught on my laptop.
4. SL agreeing to help me and AZ and SP try to reduce our regular workloads as we do training.
5. Doing some reading in the massage chair to help relax the tension.
6. Dinner at Grey Dog with MG and AJ, catching up, indulging in some bitching, etc.

10/27/10

1. Getting myself out of bed with baby steps and going for a run.
2. Facilitating the team meeting extremely efficiently so that we got to all topics with sufficient time on each and not running over time at all.
3. Dan picking me up with perfect timing at the corner of Washington and Newark.
4. Meeting our first potential officiant and not feeling awkward.
5. Getting the Miz Mooz beige Carlito short cowboy boots (50% of full price from Nordstrom!) in the mail when I wasn't expecting them yet. Mmm, delicious leathery smell.
6. Getting together my absentee ballot for voting.

10/26/10

1. Receiving an excellent chair massage that really relieved a lot of tension in my neck and shoulders.
2. People telling me that a question I'd ask during a VP's 'fireside chat' was a good one.
3. Taking a few moments to quickly eat dinner sitting down before heading to the sewing class, rather than eating while walking.
4. Only 4 people in the sewing class so I felt ok asking tons of questions.
5. Sewing teacher introducing us to the bias tape foot for helping sew on bias tape to fabric edges. Genius.
6. Fixing up the denim A-line skirt's zipper opening and installing half of the straight skirt's invisible zipper during class.

10/25/10

1. Going for a run in the morning.
2. Seeing BB at breakfast, back from vacation.
3. Wrapping up random little things throughout the day, like filling in my own course feedback form and reminding others to do the same.
4. Starting training on the project I've been wanting to get on for a few months!
5. Having some time in the evening to lie around and read for a bit.
6. Installing the invisible zipper into my A-line skirt successfully.

10/24/10

1. Reveling in the pristine apartment all day.
2. Feeling neat and organized after I collected various loose pattern I had lying around into their individual manila envelopes.
3. Daria and Buffy marathons on TV, as well as the Corpse Bride, while I cut out fabric. And cut out some more fabric.
4. Dinner of noodles, bok choy, and the beef my mom had given me.
5. Dan coming home.
6. My denim A-line skirt seeming to fit on me ok when partially sewn up.

10/23/10

1. Thoroughly vacuuming and cleaning the apartment everywhere, attacking marks on the floor made when we moved in with a magic eraser, and even the old dresser and desk furniture and everything feeling much nicer as a result afterwards.
2. Parents stopping by because they wanted the hotpot back from us anyway and then could drop off the winter coat I'd forgotten last night.
3. Getting the down comforter, duvet cover, and Slanket to the dry cleaner's.
4. Biking over to Grove Street Bicycles and getting the tires some much needed air and buying a bike pump for the first time.
5. Discovering that the Sew Fast Sew Easy store was open until 4 and so therefore I could really get everything I needed for the skirt sewing projects.
6. Finding the Miz Mooz styles I had been eyeing to be cute in person and comfortable if only they had the right size.

10/22/10

1. Getting in mostly on time for 9am phone shift, not earlier than SP would have, at any rate, and ending up helping her out since she started to feel unwell.
2. Morning happy hour with mimosas and bellinis, delicious. Also, pumpkin muffins were a big hit, and I realized that being the midst of planning a wedding is great for the kind of small talk that happens at a happy hour.
3. The training on how to better present data visually to effectively make a point being quite helpful and a good use of two hours. Exercises help wake me up from afternoon slump.
4. Leaving work a little early in order to drop off purple dress at tailor's and then also having time to browse through the thrift/vintage stores along 17th St.
5. Dan driving us down to Holmdel to pick up our winter stuff.
6. My mom making me dinner while Dan went to get groceries and to stop at Best Buy.

10/21/10

1. Getting to attend the first hour of a training on a product of ours I don't think I'd even seen the interface of before.
2. SP agreeing to swap a phone shift tomorrow with me so I could attend a different training.
3. Getting time to file an escalation before the end of the day.
4. Dan getting the groceries I needed to make the muffins.
5. Picking up the most recent batch of dresses from the tailor, including a lovely silk crepe one that they serged the inner seams for me.
6. These pumpkin chocolate chip muffins making the whole apartment smell delicious.

10/20/10

1. Chair massage soothing lower back tension.
2. Having lunch with IA and PH to just hang out.
3. Running the last weekly meeting on my watch.
4. Not entirely biting people's heads off at the team meeting when I was feeling irritated about people not paying attention to instructions.
5. Dinner out with AJ, SP, MG, and EM, chatting, laughing, gossiping.
6. Making it back to the apartment with the leftover artichoke pizza and regular pizza without the grease soaking through the box entirely.

10/19/10

1. Going for a run in the morning with the CardioTrainer app for the first time.
2. Official day of move to a new email system and no major fails.
3. The sun starting to shine more strongly during a meeting and the light entering my eyes helping me feel more awake.
4. Making an appointment to meet with another potential officiant for the wedding.
5. Rest of sewing class agreeing to power through the lecture portions to get all those instructions down, which was good for me since I wasn't caught up enough to work in-between those sections.r
6. Sewing teacher helping me cut out the slippery fabric for flare skirt and not getting impatient about staying there a bit late.

10/18/10

1. Bern boots getting delivered and getting SP and AJ's seal of approval for the color and style. Also, the miracle of leather zip-up boots that do actually zip-up all the way on my calves!
2. SP bringing me a giant squishable that feels so soft and is a big hit with everyone.
3. AJ scheduling me for a work session on this guide she wanted to put together and getting a good amount of info in there in the hour and a half we worked on it.
4. Getting good advice from my old manager.
5. The cobbler working miracles in mending the heels of my flat gold oxford-style sneakers with something that matched the shiny but not too shiny gold color.
6. Not really needing to iron the denim fabric for cutting out my skirt pieces.

10/17/10

1. Successfully falling back asleep after hugging CP goodbye in the early morning.
2. Getting in some historical stuff in Philly before catching my bus.
3. EN very sweetly telling me that she's canceling the plan to have all my girlfriends show up in matching dresses despite not being bridesmaids. She had thought of the idea originally to help me with my not wanting to have any bridesmaids to avoid the trouble of having to pick people, plus it was funny (which I do still think it's funny), but now wants to back off given Dan's sisters' and my sister's excitement over being 'official' bridesmaids. I feel very loved, all round.
4. Sleeping for most of the bus ride back to NYC
5. Grabbing a turkey burger with bacon and avocado at brgr and finishing up Elizabeth Gilbert's Committed, which I really quite enjoyed, actually. She's a self-aware and thoughtful person, which is mostly what I ask of people.
6. Making this leeks with quinoa and chicken broth recipe and really enjoying the result.

10/16/10

1. Somehow waking up naturally rather early for a Saturday (8:30!) and getting in some internet stuff and blogging done.
2. Perfectly poached eggs in my Eggs Florentine at brunch.
3. Beautiful, sunny day with blue skies for our walk and picnic in the Morris Arboretum.
4. Lazing around a bit between coming back from the arboretum and going out to dinner (so many food-related activities...hmm). I watched the most recent episode of Glee, which I really quite enjoyed. Original songs and choreography, no particular ham-fisted theme, and some attempts at character development (Brittany the dumb, slutty cheerleader feels just as lonely as the flamboyant gay kid, Rachel actually using her outsider status to sympathize with someone, etc.)
5. Getting dinner at a Burmese restaurant in Philly's Chinatown. First time I've had Burmese food, it's the cross between Thai/Malaysian/Indian food that you'd expect it to be, given its geographical location. I'm a fan.
6. Hanging out at a bar with all the girls plus EN's friend M. Spirited conversation throughout the day, and M and the others being so kind as listen to me ramble on about wedding plans and validate some ideas I have to avoid the patriarchal giving away of bride business.

10/15/10

1. Wasn't raining in the morning when I got up so I went for the run I couldn't go on last night.
2. Lunch with a client who turned out to be really nice and friendly (and pretty and tall, I couldn't stop thinking about how tall she was every time we walked from one place to another).
3. Feeling relatively lightweight in the afternoon because NE took care of a bunch of testing stuff last night.
4. Finally making it to Philly after a 4 hour ordeal on Megabus (never again!), but worth it to see my college roommates EN, LW, and CP. I've missed them so!
5. Delicious, juicy burger with avocado while chatting about being adults and dealing with parents.
6. Watching the Britney Spears episode of Glee.

10/14/10

1. Scrambled eggs for breakfast for the second time this week. Me likey.
2. Finding out that I'll finally be put on a project I've been waiting for ages for.
3. Intentionally leaving work a little early for the first time in awhile.
4. Visiting Mood for the first time to buy fabric for my skirt class.
5. First chat with potential officiant.
6. Using Dan's still hot pasta water to make my own noodles.

10/13/10

1. Making it in just in time for my 9am phone shift.
2. Finally getting to researching officiants, calling up Princeton Township clerk's office.
3. Expressing to my manager the stress from putting together the training so last minute and negotiating to get off phones for the rest of the week to free up more time.
4. Getting an excellent massage. Wish it were longer!
5. Wrapping up various little things that I hadn't had time for this week so far.
6. Opening up the huge Zappos order that had been waiting by my desk for some time. Luckily my desk mate is out on vacation so I've slowly started to take over her spot.

10/12/10

1. Getting myself out of bed for a run despite not sleeping very well last night.
2. Making it in to the office with plenty of time to get avocado for breakfast, plus the really good scrambled eggs they make. I think they have heavy cream in there? Or lots of butter, anyway.
3. My training going quite well overall, in my opinion. No technical difficulties to speak of, flowed pretty well without too much tripping up over the outline I'd set up, people were engaged and asked good questions, and pacing was perfect to finish with 3 minutes to spare.
4. Succeeding in grabbing a couple sushi boxes for dinner.
5. Feeling like I was picking up the concept of patternmaking in this week's sewing class pretty quickly due to ease with geometry and math and spatial relationships in general. Yeah science-y background coming in to play in an artsy field.
6. Not raining when I biked home tonight.

10/11/10

1. Productive morning in going over the training script I wrote up last night.
2. Dan coming in for lunch since he had the day off. Jealous.
3. Zappos order that I put in on Saturday getting delivered.
4. Running over to the tailor's to drop off recent purchases and also bring in a few things that had been languishing in my work basket and that I decided I didn't want to deal with personally.
5. Powering through the rest of the work on the training script late in the evening at the office since no one was around.
6. Dan waiting up for me though I was really late getting back, and then presenting me with my anniversary present early, since I could really use it after walking and biking back in the thunderstorm and walking in totally soaking wet. What was it? A fluffy, soft, and pink bathrobe all of my own. :)

10/10/10

1. Dan finding an emergency plumber to come over and unclog the toilet.
2. Getting a haircut with leave-in conditioner and Moroccan oil making it feel really soft.
3. Running various errands in Union Square, including checking out the camera that I've been eyeing at Best Buy, getting Dan a brown belt and myself some leggings at Nordstrom Rack, and recycling a used Brita filter at Whole Foods.
4. Taking the plunge and putting in an order for two pairs of boots from Duo. I first came across them in 2006, I think, but now their website is viewable in U.S. dollars and shipping is only $20/pair.
5. Taking the first steps to hanging things on the wall by putting up a few prints in the bedroom.
6. Dan doing my laundry for me.

10/9/10

1. Finishing the 5K without stopping to walk at any point and running it faster than I had when I practiced (40:40ish, so around a 13 minute mile). Thank you for pushing me, AL. It's funny because we signed up for this around 2 months ago, it was a reach goal for me, and then it became doable.
2. My mom being pleased about the 5K as well and congratulating me on it.
3. Spending the afternoon with my mom at Mitsuwa and then accompanying her to buy dance shoes.
4. Going back in to the Manhattan Vintage show to give Connie $100 that she forgot to charge us yesterday because of having add to together two separate bills on the same check and overhearing her tell her husband about it as a nice thing someone did.
5. Dan making me laugh and feel better after I was a bit upset from my mom telling me multiple times that I should exercise more and lose weight.
6. Dan thinking of heating up the Trader Joe's tomato soup to go with the potato tart I made.

10/8/10

1. Plenty of avocado available in the morning.
2. Productive, quick meeting with NE to make some decisions for a training I've been suddenly tasked to put together.
3. Hectic afternoon but got everything I needed to together before heading out to the Manhattan Vintage show.
4. AJ suggesting we leave stuff at the office to go back after the show, which meant that I could leave my purchases there as well and not need to lug everything back home on my bike with needing to bring the laptop home too.
5. Both AJ and me making out pretty well at Connie Schwab's booth at the Manhattan Vintage show, plus AJ found the perfect woven/braided brown leather belt I've been hunting for for awhile now.
6. Chatting and hanging out with AL as she spent the night on our couch.

10/6/10

1. Though some guy grabbed the last sesame bagel right before me, I snagged an everything bagel that was really soft, much nicer for toasting that the tougher bagels we've had lately.
2. Not a busy morning, making up for the fact that I plumb forgot I was supposed to be on phones at 9. Didn't get in until 9:45. Oops.
3. Having lunch with the team and joking about movies and various other things. I haven't had lunch in the big group in a bit for one reason or another.
4. Getting our engagement photos back! And MG and AJ pandering to me feeling a little insecure and wanting compliments.
5. DF telling me that he thought I did good job of running the weekly sync meeting, informed and on task.
6. Having dinner with MG and feeling energized about certain work projects afterwards, as well as my creative business idea.

10/5/10

1. Getting in a run in the morning, though a short one.
2. Feeling inspired by the CraftSanity podcast with Wendy Mullin of Built By Wendy. Looking at her clothing collection afterwards made me think that if I start a fashion/clothes/sewing creative business of my own, I'd target the curvy & petite market (you know, basically me) with that effortless minimalist French chic look of lines like Wikstenmade that I've always really loved but are just not at all designed with my body type in mind. Something more like Colette Patterns, really.
3. Avocado slices back at work, finally. I was in too late yesterday (even though I got in by 9:15) and there weren't any on Friday.
4. Needing to send out a couple emails because newbies were competing with each other for work. Best problem ever.
5. More difficult class this week for the skirt sewing class, we fitted our muslins and marked up corrections. Satisfying, though.
6. Having a bit more watermelon when I came home.

10/4/10

1. Starting work at 9:30.
2. My buddy continuing to chug along without needing too much input from me.
3. MG and AJ joining us at lunch and talking about movies, including The Social Network and Catfish.
4. Productive one hour knowledge share session with IA, I think.
5. Getting a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup at the place we got dinner.
6. Enjoyable evening with BB/MG/AJ that was less focused on work than usual.

10/3/10

1. Adding pears to the standard salad of lettuce, tomato, and hardboiled eggs with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
2. Taking the first step towards organizing my online accounts by coming up with an online account hierarchy.
3. Both washing machines being free even though it was Sunday afternoon...I'm used to being foiled in laundry attempts on Sundays in other living situations.
4. Running a distance of 3.1+ miles!!!! And not feeling exhausted at the end! 5K on Saturday, I AM READY.
5. Pork chops for dinner.
6. Exciting Mad Men episode.

10/2/10

1. Watching Pride & Prejudice with the director's commentary and learning quite a bit from it, including a long tracking shot at the beginning that is actually two separate shots cleverly cut together.
2. Finishing sweeping up the apartment with just enough time to get dressed before Dan came back to head out on our date.
3. Really enjoying The Social Network, didn't feel over the top at all and of course had the trademark Sorkin style dialogue of requiring high speed delivery and including witty rejoinders.
4. Finding a good few things at the Gap to use my Groupon, including two tops and a pair of their skinny jeans. I'm a little unsure about the skinniness of the jeans but the ankle length doesn't even need hemming and I think they are sufficiently flattering, though I don't know if it's just that it's taken me this long to get used to the 'jeggings' look.
5. Getting dinner at The Melting Pot, with really delicious cheese fondue and even more delicious chocolate dessert fondue, and Dan not getting sick.
6. Watching Wallace and Gromit in 'A Matter of Loaf and Death' from Netflix Instant.

10/1/10

1. Getting funny emails from my mom about not responding to her more quickly for honeymoon dates and her pride in planning a recent trip to China with her friends.
2. Getting a request for feedback from my manager's manager--it really is very flattering to have my opinion be so valued.
3. Lunch with BB, AJ, and SS.
4. Attending the ping pong tournament final which was pretty evenly matched.
5. Snack run from ES while finishing up the last of peer reviews, finally getting in some really rough unsolicited reviews.
6. Watching Pride & Prejudice while eating dinner of Korean fried chicken that Dan picked up for me.

9/30/10

1. Going to the cobbler and having him cut a slit in the back of my yellow rainboots to widen them a bit more. Really made a difference!
2. My girl EM taking on new tickets at a prodigious rate for a newbie, really.
3. Getting help from RC on a click discrepancy issue that doesn't seem to have an answer.
4. Going to TGIAF and having white sangria and chatting with AJ and JM about various things, including shared love of the Keira Knightley Pride & Prejudice.
5. Getting 3 peer reviews written (the goal was 2.5 or 50% on the actual deadline, but realized one of the people has an entirely different manager who may actually care a bit more about the deadline.
6. Being amused by a somewhat passive-aggressive towards me peer bonus given to someone else.