Hello Out There!

I have completely slacked on blog posting.  No excuses, I just don't have much to talk about.

A few of you that have been bugging me for updates on life have been hearing about it constantly so I wasn't sure I needed to post.  But this is probably still good for reference.

The last I wrote was about St. Patty's day and the last time I saw guy #2.  Since there I have heard from him occasionally, but he hasn't made any move to ask to see me again.  So I'm not really sure where to go with that.  As I learn more about what he's doing, he is incredibly busy.  But there is a part of me still thinking - hey, if he was interested in seeing you, he would do it!"... So, that's where that stands.   Guy #1 is still around sometimes, but its so casual I can barely think about it as dating.  I heard from him last week while I had plans and there have only been a couple of texts since then.

I'm still on match, but nothing has really been progressing with that.  So, yeah.... that's about it from the dating end.  Not going to lie, I'm pretty bummed about Guy #2.

As for my professional life, that's not really progressing any faster than my dating life is.  I have a presentation next week for a potential job, but I don't know what the decision time line is for that.  I've been checking things online and there isn't much out there.  This week has started to set in the panic of realizing that I am not getting any more money coming in.  Yikes!  I did sign up to take my certification exam on May 2nd so I should really be spending this time reading/studying.  I need to stay focused on something!

On some good news (because right now this seems super depressing), I have been hitting the gym while I've been home and keeping an eye on my eating.  I have definitely lost weight, probably close to 10 lbs in the last 3 weeks or so!  It's definitely something I wasn't really focusing on and sort of happened while I was distracted with everything else.  The good news is that it has given me a new sense of purpose for right now.  Keeping on track with the weight loss - IE: Bikini Ready 2014!  Of course, this is going to become challenging for the next couple of weeks because I have my surgery on Friday and that will hinder my mobility for a while.  If I can keep on track with my eating, I should be able to push through that.

So that's all I got for you right now.  No dating, no job, and soon less mobility than ever.  2014 is not shaping up to be the Year of Megan right now...

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Sorry I haven't written in a while.  The transition from employed to unemployed has been difficult.

Also, admittedly I had a mental temper tantrum about the perceived fade away that guy #2 appeared to be pulling.

So the last week was a bit stressful - culminating a three week period of influx in my life.

I've mentioned on here that I don't do well with unplanned right? :)

After spending my last two mornings in the office on Monday and Tuesday, I spent Wednesday through Friday feeling sorry for myself by not accomplishing anything but walking Samson.  By the time Friday rolled around, I was officially bored.  So now I need to fix that.

Saturday was the big celebrate St. Patrick's day in Chicago.  I wasn't really feeling fighting the crowds of crazies, so Brooke was going to come over and my old coworker, Meg.  I ended up meeting Maren (from DC) for lunch before Meg and Brooke showed up.

While the three of us were just having a few drinks and chatting, I got a text from guy #2 who's plans had fallen through.  He ended up meeting the three of us over at Dry Hop for a few beers.  It kind of great.  Meg ended up leaving shortly after he got there.  We stayed until they closed and then walked back to my apartment since Brooke was staying with me.  He ended up leaving shortly after.  There wasn't really any discussion about going out again, but we did chat briefly about how his work schedule goes through periods of very busy to not as busy and right now was a very busy period.  So we'll see.

It was a pleasant surprise to hear from him on Saturday and even better that he showed up.

Today I am supposed to have my second date with guy #1, though we really haven't made any plans besides "let's do something on Monday".  Tomorrow I have to head up to Madison for a meeting regarding a job prospect and then Wednesday I am doing some babysitting for the Hales kids in the afternoon.

So my time is filling up.  It's easier when I am busy - obviously - to not think about everything that's gone down.  Plus, I have my surgery on the 28th, and then I will be a bit more restricted on what I can do.

What a week

I am not sure I'm ready to discuss what's going on at work, but really anyone reading this would already know that I am being let go.

To make a really long story short, we've been having issues with our biggest association client since the new president came on in November.  On Monday, a forwarded email made its way to me that made a "before we fire them" comment.  So with losing this client, my small company cannot afford to pay me anymore.

So there's that.

I know am in the process of dealing with negotiations about when my officially "last 30 days" starts and how much I have to be in the office.

I will tell you, this situation has been handled extremely poorly!  But I'm not going to write about any details until everything is done here.  That's the last thing I need to deal with.  Which reminds me, this blog is no longer going to be searchable to the public.  There's really no point.

This post sucks.  I'm sorry.

Though, on the bright side, while my professional life is crumbling around me - my dating life is actually taking an interesting turn.

I'll write about this week's dating in a follow up post.

2013: The Year of Travel

2013 ended up being the Year of Travel.

I don't think I really thought about how much I would be traveling, but it ended up being at least once a month and only a couple times were for personal travel.  Almost all of this is for work.

Don't get me wrong.  I do enjoy traveling.  But when you take into consideration a day before the prepare and then a day after to get back into the groove, it ends up being a lot of time away.  No wonder I didn't feel like I accomplished much towards my goals this year.

For those of you who weren't following that closely, this is where I was this year:

February - San Diego
March - New Orleans
April - Baltimore
May - San Antonio
June - San Francisco, Palm Springs
July - NYC
August - Atlanta
September - Barcelona, Paris, NYC
October - Austin
November - Orlando
December - Nothing!!! :)

Did you see that last one?  No travel in December - mostly because the holidays really cut into half of the month.  And no one in my industry does things in December.

2014 is going to be starting off pretty similarly as I will be heading to Dallas, Vegas, and San Francisco in January and February.

Warning - boring post ahead

You guys - work sucks right now.  My meeting planner just gave me her two weeks notice last week so now I am doing double duty.  When we have our biggest meeting coming up in a month, an incentives trip we are coordinating travel for (at the same time as the meeting), and then three meetings in the first three months of 2014.  Yeah, I'm feeling stressed.

So posting may be lighter than I intended for it to be.  Sorry.

Here's an outfit post to make you feel better.  :)  The weather has been cool at night but then gets into the 70s during the day - so fun to try to plan for!

*skirt & sweater - Jcrew (old), shoes - Nine West (old), necklace - a cute boutique shop in Milwaukee

Dusting off an old favorite

I think I bought this dress the first year I started working.  Its BCBG and at the time buying a dress for over $100 was making a big investment.  I did it because its a classic wrap dress that I figured wouldn't go out of style anytime soon.

I was so smart back then. :)

It's been a while since I've worn this and it's a great fall transition dress - especially when it's going to be almost 80 and it's October.

*dress - BCBG (old), shoes - Target, necklace - old

Conferences, conferences everywhere

Sorry for the random absence, although I guess recently I haven't posted every day so you probably didn't even notice.  :)

This past weekend and through Tuesday I was down in Atlanta for a conference with my peers.  I always enjoy attending conferences as an actual attendee as opposed to working it.  I stayed with Sara from my old office and had a great time.  It was nice to catch up with people I haven't seen in a while and make some new friends.

I'm pretty tired so I'm looking forward to heading up to Milwaukee this weekend to visit with Lauren, Kevin and Liam and go to the State Fair (fried food and cream puffs, oh my!).

And just to round out this incredibly pointless post, here is an outfit pic.   Is it Friday yet???

*shirt - Ann Taylor, skirt- Jcrew, shoes - payless

My big furry baby

Yesterday I had to make an impromptu visit to the vet with Samson.  I can't explain exactly what prompted me to take him except that he was not acting like his normal self.  He wasn't excited on the walks and Tuesday night he followed me around the apartment.

The vet thinks he pulled a muscle in his back.  They gave him some pain medication and restricted his exercise (boy, he's going to hate that soon).  So I stayed and worked from home yesterday so I could keep an eye on him.  I'm not sure if it was good or bad... because he spent most of the afternoon bugging the crap out of me.

Case in point.... he would sit at my feet and stare at me/put his head on my computer.  Then he would lay down on the floor and sleep for a bit.... but not without giving me this sad face first.

Finally, he took a good nap at my feet so I could actually get some things done.  Later in the afternoon, he got all pathetic on me.  I wish I had grabbed pictures, but I video chatted with my mom to show her.  He was on the couch, trying to sit on my lap and at one point was sitting on my chest with his feet on the arm of the couch.  At last, he laid down on the couch next to me for an hour or so.

Thankfully, this morning he had a bit of pep back in his step.  I have a feeling the short walks are really going to annoy him in a couple days, but I prefer to be cautious right now.  Good luck Megan while you watch him this weekend. :)

On un-Samson related note, I finally was able to paint my nails for the wedding this weekend.  I went for a mauve-nude color with some silver sparkle.  I like that the sparkle is light enough that you can't really see it, but sparkly on the tips.

 *nude color - OPI "My very first Knockwurst", sparkles - OPI "Which is Witch?"

Lastly, it's been in the 70s here most of this week.  Which is awesome.  Today I tried to throw on a casual look that I could wear at work and then out to dinner tonight with some work people.  I may change shoes before dinner, but I think the outfit is on the nice enough side.

*shirt - Express, pants - Gap (last year), shoes - Target

Everyone is getting really excited for Lauren and Kevin's wedding this weekend and getting to see all the family.  I can't wait until 3pm so I can leave work and start my weekend!

St. Patrick's day festivities

Yesterday my office held a press conference for the St. Patrick's day initiative we were working on.

Here's one photo my coworker grabbed of all the ladies with Patrick, the man in charge of the Chicago Shannon Rovers.

Life List

Sometimes, there are things you do so that you can check them off your life list.

Participating in the Southside of Chicago St. Patrick's day parade.

Saturday was a really long day with Lauren's bridal shower and I crashed and burned around 8:45 on Saturday night.  I knew I had to get up around 6:30am to get ready, walk Samson and head over to meet our trolley.

Having completely forgot about the time change (thank God I use my cell phone as my alarm), I was exhausted in the morning.

It was rainy all day, but at least mildly warm (45). The parade itself was not as crowded as I was expecting, though I think a lot of that has to do with the no consumption rule change two years ago.  And it is LONG!!  14 city blocks is a long parade.

I made it home around 3:30 and was pretty much done for the remainder of the day.

Here's my best rainy day parade attire.

For a girl's who's favorite color is green.  I don't really have much of it.

Work Trip

Today is my only day in town this week and then I head to New Orleans until Saturday night.

Obviously, there will be no blogging during this time.

Sorry!

Work, Work, Work

I had full intention of being a good blogger this week.  Yesterday got away from me.  Work has been crazy.

One of my employees will be leaving (long story, not appropriate to publicly blog about) and the association she manages has their conference next week.  I have recently found out that she is WAY behind and we are now scrambling to get everything ready.

So my days have been pretty busy.

On a good note, I'm joining that gym today.  And I have run all three of my training runs this week!!  YAY!

Work Shmurk

Getting back into the work groove after the holidays has been hard.  In particular because it's been pretty stressful.

I have a few too many balls in the air right now with work.  An employee that might leave/or will be let go.  A new group that is difficult to wrangle and the pressure to pick up a new client ASAP to cover the cost we lost with the client we let go late last year.

Anyone else need a vacation already?

The last workday for 2012

The last day of work before an impending vacation or holiday is always the same.  Pretending to get a lot of things done but really just moving stuff around.  It's very much like when you were a kid and your parents said you had to eat a few more bites, so you just pushed the food around your plate to make it look like you ate more.

I know I'm not the only one that's done that.

Yesterday was almost as bad, but today will be worse.

I have a feeling I'm going to be doing some pinning and plenty of facebooking.

Today after work I am supposed to head out to the 'burbs to hang out with my elementary school friends - pending everyone arrives from their destinations today.

Tomorrow I will be spending the day at my parents and then babysitting Kayla and Brody in the evening.

I imagine Sunday will consist of grocery shopping (if we don't do it Saturday) or just lounging.  My parents are hosting one side of the family for lunch on Christmas Eve (a happy medium to our usual plans).

I took off the rest of next week from work, so I won't be returning until after the new year.

Honestly, I'm just looking forward to having multiple days in a row where I don't have to get up by alarm clock and I can wear my sweats all day if I want.  (Though really, I'm wearing leggings at work today - so I shouldn't be complaining!)

OH, Leslie asked for a picture of my holiday nails - so here it is! Excuse the messiness, I haven't cleaned off the skin around my nails yet.

The glitter is actually Martha Stewart glitter pens.  Which makes it really easy for application, but doesn't last long.  I just did them last night and one is already chipped!

It's a photo post.

You guys - I am TIRED - and swamped today.  Instead of a legit post, I have a few random photos and I promise to update soon.

I have a busy weekend ahead.

Anyways, on to the photos.

First, I finally bought a rug for my bedroom.  Not going to lie, trying to unroll and lay out an 8x10 rug alone while your bed is already in place was NOT FUN.  I'm still getting used to it, but it really does make the room feel more pulled together.

*sorry about the stuff on the bed, that is stored underneath the bed usually.

On a more random note, I saw this shirt in the Indianapolis airport last night.  It made me giggle.  I love a punny (see what I did there) shirt.

Finally, here is my outfit today.  I have to go down and give a sales presentation in Joliet today.  I'm feeling pretty sassy (hence the two photos instead of the usual one).

*skirt & shirt - JCrew, jacket - H&M, shoes - Nine West (old)

And - a little arm candy (for you Leslie).

*the large bracelet and the two green/blue ones are ones I made.  The bangles are old and cheap

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Lots of Traveling

Things have been crazy for my schedule right now.

I was up in Madison on Thursday and Friday last week and tomorrow I leave for Dallas until late Friday night.

I will do my best to get back on blogging track when I return home. :)

The conference for association executives

If you remember, in January, I attended the conference for conference planners - put on by the association for meeting professionals.

Well, last week I attended the conference for the association for association executives.  It was held in Dallas and it was going to be my first time attending their conference.  My dad was also going (since we are in the same field).  I had mixed feelings about attending, mostly because I didn't feel like I was going to know anyone.

I ended up knowing more people than I thought because several contacts from my previous job were there also.  The agenda was filled with evening events to showcase Dallas (gotta sell your city to potential clients) and education during the day.

The conference was great.  I learned some stuff, got some credits towards my certification exam and enjoyed myself with a few friends.  I took a few random photos of the events for the blog....  they give a good idea about what my week was like.

The opening night reception was held at the Cowboys Stadium.  They had food and drinks all along the top floors and then later in the evening, they opened the field up for dessert and more events.  They had a whole bunch of "games" if you wanted to play those.  You could take tours of the locker rooms (players and cheerleaders).  Then they concluded the night with a concert by Big & Rich.

 *this is my "senior portrait" moment

me and my dad

one photo of the cheerleader's locker room for those that care

I forgot to mention that my flight out there was cancelled and during my rescheduling/changing of airlines/flight to Dallas, they lost my bag.  I had to run to Target to grab some things because I had no idea when it was going to show up.

 I snagged this dress and shoes from Target and wore it to dinner with my Vancouver friends

Toronto had an area where you could go and decorate some Converse shoes that they were donating to a local children's center.  So of course, I went to stretch my creative muscles and pitch in.

The middle of the conference was all about the exhibit hall and meetings.  I did snag some photos from the closing reception on Tuesday night...

 This is a blurry photo of Vanilla Ice.  Yes, Vanilla Ice (a Dallas native).  He was actually GREAT!  I took a video of him singing but of course, when I download it it's upside down.  Oh well.

The below shots are of me and my friend Chris from Vancouver.  We were trying to entertain ourselves before KC and the Sunshine Band came on.

 
 Finally, on my trip, I did manage to walk down to the Grassy Knoll and visit the 6th Floor Museum - dedicated to the assassination of JFK.

 

This is the view from the grassy knoll of the 6th floor of the book depository.  You can barely see it, but they still have boxes there in the top window.

Busy week

Sometimes work gets the best of me.  Especially right now.

Days seems to be flying by and I can't see to get myself organized.  I HATE (seriously hate) feeling like I don't have control of the situation.

Today I have to head downtown this afternoon to attend my third board meeting since I started my new job.  Hopefully this one goes as well as the last two.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend.

Work Outing Day

Today, my office is having a company retreat... at Top Golf.

A meeting and lunch followed by a rousing competition.

It's also supposed to be 70 degrees out today.  I tried to dress appropriately.

*top & cardigan - Jcrew, pants - Gap, shoes - KEDS

Friday the 13th

If you had asked me at the beginning of the year what I would be doing today, I would've told you I would be in Houston running around like crazy running a conference.

Instead, I am here... at work, in jeans.  I'll most likely have drinks with Brooke.

Definitely not what I expected.

I received a slew of text messages late last night from old coworkers.  They were all down in Houston, out together, and all texting me.

I miss them.

So today (in addition to an outfit photo), is my "I miss my old coworkers" day.

*sweater - Express, shirt - JCrew, jeans - Bitten (old), shoes - Target (just got them last weekend)