I had my interview yesterday and I felt really, really great about it! I walked out of the interview feeling like I really nailed it and blew them away with a few things. I think the only thing that could not be as strong as maybe they’re looking at is my Flash and Captivate examples. It was hard to give them examples because everything I’ve done is confidential to the outside worlds so I had to make some simulations and things. SO who knows, now, it’s the waiting game. I’m hoping I’ll know by Labor Day.

I’m home alone this weekend and I honestly don’t mind. Eric’s in Bend, Oregon golfing with his friends in the annual golfing tournament. It was so funny when he left he was making comments like, “we might win this year because the team that usually beats us won’t be there”. Gotta love that logic! The one thing though that sucks when Eric is gone is that I can’t sleep,I didn’t get to sleep until 2 am today. Not good, I don’t do well without sleep. Last night I just went to our favorite place, Taco Del Mar for dinner, came home and watched a little TV.

Oh, I got my scrapbook pages organized too. A while ago I bought Stacy Julian’s The Big Picture and I really liked her idea on how she organizes her scrapbooks and what makes it so easy for her to not feel pressure to get more pages done. She doesn’t scrap in chronological order. It made me think about all the pictures I have that I haven’t used in pages, you know those ones that were too small, too big, etc. I made some cool dividers for my photo box and started sorting. It was pretty eye opening to see how many pictures I have of people or events. So my plan going forward is that I’ll print out pictures to do a page and if I don’t have the right size, I’ll keep the picture and file it in the box. What’s going to be cool too is that I plan on using the pictures in the box for other scrapbooking, like doing a whole page on Eric and having a bunch of different pictures of him. Sort of exciting.

The other thing I got out of book that I’m choosing to implement right now is how she organizes her albums. I’ve got three albums now but instead of by year I’ve done them in three categories; one for people (all about Us), one for our trips (places we GO) and another for the holiday celebrations, weddings and things (family CELEBRATIONS). What’s cool too is that I found tabs and use those for each of the different topics and since the albums are 3-ring binders, I can add pages anywhere. The super cool things too is that the ton of page protectors I have fit in the album so I didn’t have to spend money on that. Oh and the other very cool thins is that the albums are only $20 rather than the post bound I have that are from $35-45. so I’ll be saving money

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Things at work have been pretty crappy lately and I needed a pick me up. So, today I went and got my hair cut, haven’t done that since April. Here’s me with my new cut. I really, really like it. I’m hoping it will be as easy for me to do as it was for the stylist. I was supposed to have a manicure and pedicure too but their technician was out sick so I decided to do it myself at home. I did a pretty good job, Eric even noticed my newly painted toes. Their pink. Oh, and I did my nails too. I didn’t like how short and ugly my nails were so I did my own acrylic nails for about $20 rather than the 40-60 in the salon and they came out pretty good. I’m pretty happy with it all and what’s great is that I can do the fills myself and not have to go to a salon. All in all the day was pretty good.

Oh, this is so random but I wanted to share a few things.

Number 1:

The BEST toilet cleaner in the the world Kaboom NEVER SCRUB! About a month ago I found these things at Fred Meyer and being the, “I hate to clean the toilet person” that I am, had to buy one for each toilet.

We have this thing with the water, the bowl gets pink from the water. I don’t know what’s in it but our beautiful toilets get pink like three days after I’ve cleaned them. This is a godsend. What’s super cool is that we don’t have to clean the bowl, there’s not more ring, and the thing lasts for 5 MONTHS woo hoo, no cleaning for me

Number 2:

The best, FREE site to track your eating and training NutriDiary. It even gives you reports. I love that it shows you how much ,cars, etc you’ve had with your food for the day. it tracks your weight, exercise and just about everything else. What’s neat too is that you can get a member ship, which opens up more features for something like $20 a year. That’s cheap! SO what do you get for that, well you can contact a dietitian and she’ll work with you to set up an eating plan just for you. there’s coaching, more storage of your information, more personalization… OK you get the picture.

Number 3:

I’m loving the Internet right now and all that I’m learning. I’m sure I’ve said it before but I’ve got a TON, and I mean a TON of RSS feeds which enable me to keep up with things in the training world, things I’m interested in and of course my hobbies. I used to think that people were crazy to have this whole Internet life and not have a life with people but I’m learning more and more just how powerful and exciting this blogging and sense of community can be helpful professionally and personally. I have a separate blog for work/training related things so that family and friends don’t have to deal with the crap from work or the ideas I’m pursuing. I’ve been blogging internally in the company for a while and have increased my network and met some great people with similar passions to myself. It’s great to find people within my company and outside the company that have similar interests. You know the whole dinner with Anthony Bourdain wouldn’t have happened if not for my increased dive into the intranet

Number 4:

I love my husband, my friends and the people in my life. Today Eric and I are going out to Pittock Mansion and the Rose Gardens. I’ve never been to either but I’m looking forward to it. I’ve got the camera all charged and ready to go. it’s going to be a great day, wish I had my polarized filter and stuff though, oh well. SO why am I writing about the people in my life and being happy? Well, I woke up this morning and just felt really good. I mean I’m happy with my life, happy where I’m at in it, what I’ve accomplished. yada, yada, yada. I just have a real appreciation right now. You know we all go through the good, the bad and the ugly but to come out of all that with your head held high, content and happy where you’re at, not worrying about tomorrow and just living and loving feels great (OK, you can stop laughing at that one). Seriously, I don’t tell my friends and family enough how much I love you, but I do love you and I’m thanks every day for you. Without the people I have in my life, I’d be more neurotic than I am.

Oh, time to go. will post pictures later.

Today my friend Chad came over for a bit to get something working on his TiVO and we sat and talked forever. It’s been too long since I’d talked to him. It was great!! We talked about all sorts of things but the best part was that he said how happy he is right now, how content he is with himself and he’s OK that he’s not dating. SO this launched into a whole discussion on happiness and living your life. He’d gone to this conference in the last week and one of the key note speakers talked about living life and how people need to live now, not fret about what has happened in the past or worry about the future, yeah you need to plan a bit for the future but you need to live life today and enjoy the experiences. I really liked the thought, I mean how many of us are worried about things we’ve done or our future and we’re not living today, enjoying the people, places and things around us.

It was interesting to talk about all that. I mean a lot of people in this world are not internally happy, they think things like “if I only buy (x) then I’ll be happy”, or “I wish I was like (x).” I think the thing that people really fail to realize is that if you’re not happy with yourself, you’re never going to be happy. I mean you may be happy for a moment but not for long term. It’s like I was telling Chad, a person can’t be in a truly happy in life or love until they’re happy with themselves, it’s internal. A person or thing can’t make you happy. You have to make yourself happy. How many people do you know that aren’t happy with themselves? They’re always looking for the next thing to make them happy, they’re counting their friends like pennies and determining their value by the number of friends they have. They’re the person keeping up with the Jones’ and wondering why they’re not as happy as the Jones’ seam to be. It’s silly really, trying to keep up with the Jones’, trying to one up a person, etc. It’s sad really. The whole conversation was a great one. It really made me happy for Chad but happy for myself and very satisfied with things in my life.

Today was an ordinary day like any other. I worked like crazy at work, nothing new there. I’m looking at taking another project on the end of they year. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to handle it, the Boston project I’m working on now and a project in Canada I’ll start so but I’m thinking about it. I want a promo, a raise of huge proportions and I’m stepping it up to get it I suppose.

In other news… I went to the gym today to meet with my trainer, I have a sessions with her Mondays every week. Well, I got there early so I did 20 minutes on the treadmill and then met with her. We worked on arms and legs today. I was feeling pretty good working out until the end piece. She gave me two ten pound weights to hold one in each arm and had me do lunges around the gym. I did the first bit pretty good. I even did the second bit well she said. But I couldn’t do the third and four sets. After the second set I stood there to rest a minute and then she wanted me to start and I told her I couldn’t, my heart was beating like a son of a gun and I told her I was having a hard time catching my breath. She had me breath through my nose and out my mouth. It wasn’t long until I told her I was totally dizzy and felt like puking. She noted that I was turning white. She stood there talking to me, asking if I was OK and it was so weird. I could feel my heart beating out of my chest and the sounds I heard become more and more muffled. I could barely hear what she was saying. She had me sit in a chair and we chatted for a while as she helped me through whatever it was my body was telling me. I love my trainer Lindsey. She’s so nice. She works me hard but she’s understanding too. I sat there for about 5-10 minutes until I caught my breath and felt Ok again. Needless to say we ended the session there. I’m not sure what happened. I mean I at today and everything. The only thing I can think of is that I had this drink at lunch that was supposed to be like a liquid vitamin/mineral pill. It could have been that. It’s sort of frustrating though because I’ve notice that I really have to watch and make sure I eat protein now and then today happened. If it happens again, I’m so at the Dr’s office. Oh, and no more liquid vitamin crap either.