One Year.

Adam and I have been married for one year.

May 31, 2008


May 30, 2009


Happy 1st Anniversary Adam, I love you!

I should have taken a camera.

I was a 1/2 a block away from my house when my bike chain got messed up. I went back home and fixed it and was on my way for a bike ride. 2 blocks away from my house, I thought "I should take my camera." I quickly shook that notion aside and kept going. I rode my bike down the Minnehaha bike path to Minnehaha Falls for lunch. I stopped at Subway close by, but there were not any bike racks to lock my bike up, so I locked my bike up to the Handicap parking sign. That seemed rather ironic to me- but if I did have my camera, I would have taken a photo. Then I went over to the falls, where naturally, waterfalls are begging to be photographed. I was under the impression there was some sort of bike path into the park, if there is I didn't find it, but I biked around the edge until I hit the Mississippi. I thought about it for a second and decided to bike across to St. Paul, just so I could say I've bike to St. Paul before. I then found my way onto West River Road, the bike path that runs parallel to the Mississippi. I stopped at a map to see where I was going and realized I could turn around and go back the way I came, or I could keep going and see where the path takes me. Of course, I immediately needed to figure out how to get home if I took option number 2 and there it was, the greenway. The bike path that cuts across the city and is quite amazing. For most of the way, the path is underneath street level, which is a new way to see Minneapolis. When I was coming up to the Midtown Exchange building, it was such a great view that I again wished I had my camera. Today has been another beautiful and sunny day, so naturally all the lakes look amazing. The Greenway bike path deposited me right by Lake Calhoun, where I bike back around that and Harriet to meet up with the Minnehaha bike trail and ended up across the street from where I started my little adventure. I was anticipating about a 10 mile bike ride, and ended up going 23. The riding it self took about 2 hours, but my lunch stop added about 30 more minutes.

Having a day like to day makes me want to take advantage of every nice day we have. It makes me never want to sit inside again.

Next time I will bring my camera... and the same bike ride will probably take me 3 hours for all the stopping!

Yeah, I have the day off.

Just when I was starting to feel like I could use some more social interaction in my daily life, I discovered that its better if I don't.

I went to pick up my new glasses...



The lady at the store asked me if I had the day off today. Um, yeah, day off... I love how the fact that I originally stopped in on a Tuesday afternoon didn't phase her.

My next stop was the bank to deposit my check for my unused vacation time. The teller asked me if I wanted to set up direct deposit for future checks. Um, no, there won't be anymore checks from them. Then she asked if I had the day off. Oh, yes, and I do have the day off. She seemed envious that I have a long weekend off. Part of me wanted to justify it and tell her that I have the day off because of my one year anniversary this weekend. But that just seemed unnecessary and kept the information to a minimum.

Needless to say, I think I'm ok not having a lot of interaction with people right now.

It's officially been two weeks.

It's 12 minutes after midnight, making it Thursday and 2 weeks since I got laid off. It's been one week since I had an interview and my final paper is due in two weeks. For some reason I'm only dealing with time in weekly increments.

I have discovered that being alone with my thoughts is a dangerous situation. I can't turn my head off, it just keeps going and processing and today, I kept thinking about "What do I want to do with my life?". For some reason, what I want to do seems dependent on what's available. If I get the job I interviewed for last week, I will totally love it. But, I also just applied for a job at the U of M (perfect timing now that I am almost done with my education!!) as a communications manager for the theatre arts and dance department. Yes it entails all of the communications skills I have acquired over the years, but it has the hours listed of 8:30 to 4! A start and end time that is very desirable. Today I was thinking about what I loved to do and I kept coming back to dance. Granted I'm a few years out of practice, but as I have been getting back into shape its something that I want to do again. So, when I decided to check out job postings at the U and saw that one, it seemed like a perfect fit. We'll see about the pay as it said DOQ, which I have now discovered means "Depending on qualifications". Of course I want to use the skills that I have learned over the past 4 years and continue working at an agency, but at the same time having time to relax makes me want to have a good work/life balance-- hence applying for the U of M job. A generic communications job. This was the job I feared when I got done with school 4 years ago, now I'm okay with it as I could actually do it and would have a lot of fun with it. There was also a job as an admissions counselor- that appealed to me too. I just remember what a frightening time starting college was and not knowing what to expect. I guess part of me would like to help students in that capacity.

I really need to just focus on finishing my paper and not worry about what to do with my life right now. I should spend my time writing the best freaking research paper the Strat Comm department has ever seen and not worry about what I should do with my new found degree. I should also keep running, because that is one of the only things keeping me sane right now.

When I said this week was an adjustment week...

... I had no idea.

I was laid off approximately 3 hours ago.

I was able to gather my composure to talk to AT&T to change my corporate phone back to my personal phone number, and talk with my co-workers who were actually very encouraging. The AT&T guy said at the end he was sorry I lost my job and hoped things would be okay. That was nice. My director that hired me found out it was my last day shortly before I found out... Everyone said all of the standard things... "It's not you", "you were great," "you're smart, you'll bounce back". Its nice to know I have a small army ready to help me job hunt.

Mostly, I'm shocked and speechless.

If you know of anyone in Minneapolis area that needs the rare combination of Media planning, Media research, target audience insights and social media- have them contact me.

Is it real?

It has certainly been an adjustment week not having classes after work. Last year when classes were done, I jumped right into wedding planning. Now, I've jumped into running, which is such a different mental challenge. Instead of having to think about a bunch of different things, I actually get to focus on one task at a time. With running I have to push myself to run farther and faster. I need to reassure myself that I can actually do it instead of being stressed out trying to finish work and homework. It is really nice to know that I have the time to work out and the marathon training is forcing me to be consistent. Last night I got home from work and Adam was sitting on the couch eating dinner and had a plate set out for me. I was tempted for a second to sit down and eat, but then I knew that if I did, I would not go for a run. So I quickly changed and got out the door before I got sucked into couch sitting all night. I ran 2 miles and it was sort of a tough run, for a "short" distance, I thought it would be easy, but I had a hard time getting into it. I was scheduled to run 3-4 miles this morning, so I was dreading that after such a tough 2 mile run yesterday. On top of that, I biked into work (its bike/walk to work day) which takes about 40 minutes, so I thought it would be a very difficult run this morning... I was pleasantly surprised when my run was easier. I think the bike ride helped warm me up and I was able to run at a faster pace than I usually do. While not that exciting, it makes me feel less scared about the marathon knowing that I'm building up the endurance I need to. Of course all this activity is making me tired by 10 pm. I can barely make it through the Daily Show before I'm out. So on the plus side, I'm getting a lot of sleep these days!

When I was in school, I kept thinking that once I'm done I will be able to balance my life between work, me and Adam better. But that's not working out as much yet. While it's not necessarily a bad thing, I'm still focusing way more on myself than I am on Adam. Yes, it is important to take time for myself, but I also need to take time for my husband. I feel like there is always an excuse for me... this time, it's "once I get my paper done".

June 10th my paper is due (27 days)
June 17th Capstone defending (34 days)
June 19th heading to Vegas (36 days)

Is something missing?

I took the last final of my graduate school career last night. Whew, very glad to be done with that! It feels weird right now knowing that I don't have anything to do tonight. I will hopefully meet up with my college roommate who is in town, but I get to relax and be social. Of course I'm excited for that, but at the same time, I'm waiting for it to end. Like its spring break all over again and I only get a week off before I have to go to back to classes. Last year at this time I was putting the finishing touches on my wedding planning so I was so excited to be done with school so I could focus on the wedding. Now, I don't have anything to jump into immediately besides marathon training and my final paper which is due one month after Mother's Day. Maybe that's the other part about what I'm feeling. I'm done with classes, but not officially done with "homework" yet. I know that if it came down to it, I could write my paper in a week, but I don't want to stress myself out with it. I just want it to be as calm of a process as I can make it.

Adam just kept saying "I'm glad to have my Heather back". Hmm, did I change that much while I was in school?!

I see the light.

Checking it off my list...

Case study- printed and put into a cover. Check!
Essays- printed to bring to class. Check!
Final- I will take it in 2 hours. I have 40 terms that I know, okay so roughly 30 that I actually know. And I need to be able to identify 8 of the 10 she gives me. I think the odds are in my favor, but with my luck it will all 10 of the ones I'm iffy on. Even so, once I finish those 8 terms, I will be done with everything for this semester. I still have to turn my paper in on Thursday, but that's the easy part.

I could just be suffering from over confidence, but I feel pretty good about the work that I've done this semester, so hopefully my grades will reflect that. I've certainly worked harder this semester than I have in a great while. It's been challenging and its been hard, but I am glad that I did it and that I know what I am capable of doing. That said, I hope I never have to challenge myself this much again, and if I am, I hope its concentrated on one area. I can throw myself into work or I can throw myself into school, but juggling both is not easy.

Right now, I'm just getting really excited to relax a little and hang out with some of my classmates and family this weekend. It's weird to think about all the time I've spent with some of these people over the last 2 years and that suddenly it will be over. Granted, the people that I do want to see, I know I will still see, just not twice a week with the occasional weekend study group. At least we can see each other socially. I think there is a reason graduations are held in the spring. It feels like a new beginning, its finally comfortable to be outside and it seems like everyone gets more social and are happier. Moods are so reflective of the weather and everyone is happy in the Spring. I, myself, am ecstatic.

No, I haven't seen...

Why are women the keeper of all things? As I child, I vividly recall asking my mom if she had seen (fill in the blank item), and she always had. Very rarely would she not know where something was. I have come to realize, Adam is doing this to me. No Adam, I have not seen your headphones. Yes, they could have gotten washed with your clothes as I didn't check your pockets, but I have not seen them. In between writing an 18 page paper, 7 pages of essays and studying for a final, I didn't take your headphones. Of course something is lost after the house was cleaned yesterday.

SO close to being done. This evokes just a small amount of excitement that I'm feeling right now...


I need to re-read my case study before I turn it in just to make sure it is grammatically sound and checks out ok, format my references and add my appendix. But those are all pretty easy things and I can probably get them done tomorrow. Whew. What a feeling.

Of course, I still have my final- final paper due June 10th (with the defending June 17th), but since that is the only thing I will have to work on outside of work for the next month, I think I can do it. Its hard to divide attention between two classes and several work projects and keep them all straight. Last week I went to a meeting thinking it was for Oxygen when in fact it was for Bravo, oops.

4 More Days!

This is my week.
Tuesday- Final
Thursday- Turn in paper
Friday- GRADUATION!

While the whole graduation part is sort of bait and switch seeing as I still have to write my final paper for the program (due June 10th), it does signify the end of having to attend actual classes. It means that Tuesday and Thursday nights are now MINE! I can do whatever I want with them. While the wise choice for the next month will be to use them for researching/writing-- I don't have to. But I'm going to try to keep at least two week days set aside for homework so I can keep my momentum going and work toward getting my paper done with the least amount of stress possible. While it has sucked to spend the last two weekends only doing homework, it has made me not feel as stressed/crazy which let's face it, is a good thing for everyone involved.

The one thing I have been slacking off on- running. I signed up for the Marathon the other week and haven't actually run since. I'm justifying this with a fact that I read in Health magazine- if your choice is sleeping or working out. Choose sleep as working out with less than 6 hours of sleep isn't a wise choice. I am "officially" starting training next week, but I need to make sure I get a couple of good runs in this week so I can build my endurance back up, otherwise next weeks workouts are going to be mighty tough and not fun. I'm not going to think too much about this now and just enjoy may last week as a student.

Just waiting for coffee to kick in.

I'm not intentionally procrastinating this time. I'm just waiting for my coffee to kick in and take effect.

I went to my weight watchers meeting this morning. I'm was hoping I could loose 3 pounds this week (mostly because my scale indicated I was) but at my meeting I was only down 1.4 pounds. I'm not complaining at the loss, just noting that each week I can think I'm doing one thing, but it doesn't translate to the "official" scale. I'm still happy with where I'm at and how far I've come. I'm 4 pounds away from my goal weight, so that's really exciting. I really wanted to make goal next week, but it looks like I will be at least another 2 weeks before it happens. So far, I'm down 16 pounds and have lost 11% of my starting weight. I've also started to notice how much my clothes don't really fit anymore, which of course leads to shopping. I'm really trying hard to refrain from that as hardly anything is on sale and I refuse to pay full price for most things. But, I have continued to just go into stores to try a bunch of stuff on, and then not buy anything. It's sort of fun, except I feel like I'm running out of places to go or things to try on when I go on lunch. I like to try things on that I might actually buy, but since prices are much more than I want to pay, it's taking some of the fun out.

I think the coffee is starting to kick in as I just had an epiphany about my paper and why it has been so hard for me. I'm doing a case study, but I already knew the outcome of it before I started. So, I've been writing about trying to find results and trying to hypothesize about them when I already knew them! Basically, I need to think about my data in a different way so I can make the conclusions that I need to. This probably only makes sense to me, but is probably the most helpful thing I have thought of all week.

Procrastination

Yeah- I should be finishing my case study paper, but I'm just getting tired and bored with the idea, that I'm probably just going to go to sleep after very little progress. I've thought about it a lot, but have also managed to distract myself with the internet for way too much time. I wanted to pick up a couple of things from the mall tonight, so I convinced Adam that we should have dinner at Punch (his favorite place of all time) and then go to EP center. When we got home, I wanted to try on all of the things that I bought and pick out something to wear for graduation next week. Hmm, wouldn't my time have been better spent working on my homework that needs to get done so I can graduate?

I have 11 pages written so far and I think I still have a fair amount to say, but I have to be under 20 pages, so I may end up having to edit more than write. Either way my plan of finishing my paper tonight so I can work on my take home essays tomorrow is thrown off. I still have Sunday to study and do essays for my final on Tuesday, so that will work (I hope). Just knowing that I do have time makes me want to take the time. But I can't keep working like that. It only serves to stress me out. I also have a finite amount of time to work tomorrow too as I'm going out to celebrate a good friend's birthday's. Thus, I have now talked myself into going to bed now, so I can get up early and get started on my paper first thing tomorrow. After all, I need to be well rested in order to be able to focus tomorrow.

Ahh, procrastination strikes again.

I will finish my case study tomorrow