My work personality works at home

"Blair talks a lot and very quickly," so says my latest personality profile. Indeed. 
I technically took said profile during the hiring process in 2011 for my current job, but about a month ago recieved these results. The intent I believe was to make each of us on the team realize how to better work with each other. Though truly SPOT ON, I was at first discouraged by the results, thinking I might be too intense a person to be a good co-worker, employee or even friend or wife. But then, I shrugged it off. Am who I am - and knowledge is power, so now I feel empowered and even more confident. Now, while I do, as the profile states, tend to do things quickly, rushed and angrily, Matt is much more relaxed, one thing at a time, methodical kind of guy, so if nothing else, reading these together and having him provide counterpoints about how what I was seeing as a potential negative in these bullet points was actually just further proof of how awesomely we complement each other was pretty cool. I think in the future I can continue to use these results/newfound awareness to my advantage in "selling" my ideas better at home not just at work! :)  All this talk about it, I figure I better at least share some of the profile's results:

I could be the next Pope!

On a commercial break from watching the Oscars last night, I randomly asked Matt what I should write my next blog post about, as I haven’t written anything recently.   Unexpectedly, he had answer right away: “Well, that church story is a great one.”

Ah yes, it is.  But first, some background information: after getting engaged, we did attend church quite a bit and then of course had the full Catholic ceremony for our wedding, but since then, have only attended sporadically, on mostly the major holidays and the occasional free Sunday.  I’m not even baptized (gasp!)  

Because I am not sure who may end up reading this, I won’t get into the specific details of how exactly it happened, but what happened is this:  I accidentally ended up on a church communications committee!

(Pause to let those of you who know me well finish laughing).

Now, as the fourth member of said communications committee, I am responsible for helping with a monthly newsletter to more than 1,000 parishioners and updates to the church’s Facebook page.  The other committee members are older men, and only one of them is even remotely involved in communications in his career.  Needless to say, they are very grateful to have me, even though they might not be if they knew it wasn’t my original intent. Anyway, my first issue was emailed out at the beginning of February and I leaned heavily on my memory of my Catholicism classes at Creighton for story ideas. When I couldn’t come up with anything, I turned to www.Allrecipes.com for some meatless Lenten recipes to include and wrote an article and prayer for Fat Tuesday and how to make Mardi Gras meaningful.  The other guys filled in the rest of the space with blurbs about upcoming events.

While me writing for a Catholic e-newsletter might seem hilarious, even ironic to some (myself included), I just have to remember:  I enjoy writing and I enjoy working in groups. 

And this group really seems to like working with me, too.   On our latest conference call, giving me my own column was even discussed!  I’m not quite ready for that yet, BUT because I’m competitive, I need March’s issue to be the best, most read, most opened, most forwarded one yet.  Story ideas welcome.

God bless.  ;)

Resolve to be nicer than this guy this year

It has been since the Peter Parker encounter that I got a guy’s phone number.  But it happened again on New Year’s Eve.  And this time my husband was there for the whole thing.

That night, I didn’t feel well and ended up missing midnight but I took enough Zicam to get me by for at least a meal out at one of our favorite local semi-dive bars.

Soup, salad, and a few “surprise me” drinks from the bartender later, we were having a pretty good time. It only got better when a guy whom I’d noticed earlier as looking at our table an awful lot came up to us and asked if we were married. We said yes and he explained his disappointment because he was meeting a blind date (who does that on NYE?!) and told her he was wearing a blue polo shirt, which is what Matt happened to be wearing, so he was just curious if I was supposed to actually be talking to him. Ha ha.  Then he tells me I look familiar – and I thought the same too – and we discover it was at the formerly-named Qwest Center where we probably ran into each other when each of us was working a past job/event there.  During the “no, that’s not it, have you ever been to…” hulabaloo, in walks this guy’s ex-fiance! I mean, what are the odds?!  Apparently she put on a lot of weight according to him.

Anyway, back to his blind date.  I asked for the scoop and he told us he was so excited that he had a gay guy at The Buckle dress him.  He said he  she had a great personality, which he discovered when he had phone and text conversations with this girl. He'd only seen one picture  of her on social media. I asked him describe her and he said, “she’s not a perfect Barbie doll type but she isn’t an untouchable either” – charmer, this guy.  We small-talked for awhile longer about his potential midnight kiss and what he does now for a living, etc.  At one point I even invited him and the not-yet-there other stranger he was meeting to join us at our table for a drink (now who does that either?!)  Through the course of conversation, we learned that one of his side jobs is lawn care and we talked about him reseeding our backyard or something, which is when he gave me his number to call anytime. It wasn’t until the guy walked away a few minutes later that Matt said, “hey – how come he gave YOU his number, not me?”    

Finally, a girl arrives by herself. At this place, it’s really obvious when someone walks in so I think we all knew it was her.  And we all (me, Matt and our new friend Ryan) simultaneously gasped because let's just say she wasn’t exactly what any of us were expecting. Now, this is where our inside information ended and we didn't talk to him the rest of the night, but from what I observed, their date lasted one drink’s worth until he didn’t pay for hers and told her he didn’t like her and wanted her to leave – because that she did, without saying goodbye to him.

Cheers to not being single! And to a fun-filled 2013!

Not another Elf on a Shelf

To quote Twilight character Bella Swan, "No one has loved anyone as much" as I love my husband.

That said, he could always be better (who couldn't?!).  I wish I could invent an "Elf on the Shelf: Husband Version" to always keep mine--and yours--on his best behavior.

I only just learned about this Elf on the Shelf business three weeks ago and now I can't seem to get away from them. From what I gather from my Facebook feed, this elf guy, whom everyone must name on their own, does scouting trips about those in your home to the North Pole, reporting who was good and who isn't worth signing (ha - see what I did there).  The "only" problem is that I can't think of a good name for this new product. I spent WAY too much time thinking about this and before I knew it, I was in a day dream getting an offer from Mark Cuban on Shark Tank (though in reality I'd really want the offer to come from the guy with the thick, brown Ken doll hair whose name escapes me at the moment).

Before things to that point, or any point for that matter, there's still the whole product name hurdle to jump before we get really kick off R&D. Here are all the words I was trying to play/rhyme with: 

Spouse in the House
Lover Bear in the Chair
Wife for Life

As you can see, I have some work to do. Good thing I have some time off from my day job to around the Holidays to keep thinking . . .

Thank you

Post script:  I actually wrote this November 21 but didn’t post it because I got busy.  Considering a few things that have happened recently--namely, the Sandy Hook shooting and the recent passing of one of the top five most influential people in my life, “Mama Tu Tu,” I felt compelled to reflect and go back to and focus on living a life of thanks --even about the trivial stuff below.  Life is too short.

People never cease to amaze me – in good ways and in bad. Today, for instance, I was parked in a parking lot responding to a text (don’t text and drive, people) and my window was rolled down, as was the gentleman’s who drove past me, grumbling audibly that some “stupid kids” stole his parking spot. But also today I worked registration table at a blood drive. People always respond well to the Red Cross name, but in light of Superstorm Sandy, people are especially responsive and eager to help the cause. People are here telling me their stories about volunteering, many just stop in not planning to spend 45 minutes of their day donating blood, but do it anyway; it is so awesome to see. So much so that it has put me in a very cheerful mood. But it’s not time for cheer just yet (just over a month until Christmas). ‘Tis the season of thanks right now.

I’m thankful for:

• Holiday traditions:  I missed a call from one of my grandma’s this week and even Matt knew enough to joke, “Annual call for you to bring olives to Thanksgiving, huh?”   Yep. Two cans black, one jar green. It has been my job for several years since entering adulthood for every holiday.
• LivingSocial/Groupon/AmazonLocal, etc. : I LOVE these! Perhaps too much. It’s like, one minute I think, “a shellac manicure or new magazine subscription or two-night hotel stay would be nice” and the next minutes, BAM – there it is!  Saving money is fun.
• Twitter:   …Making me feel cooler than I really am since July 2012. Scooter’s Coffee follows me for Heaven’s sake!  Social media is fun, too.

Obviously I’m thankful for the ol’ standbys, too: my health and that of my family and friends, the fact that I have a job that allows me some spending money (which I spent too much of on a recent trip to Mall of America), a house that keeps me safe and warm and all that good stuff. I’m going to try better to not take it all for granted. In fact, I’m going to stop writing and go home to hug my husband right now! Happy Thanksgiving!

Time flies when you're having fun!

One Year Later: We're still awesome!  Matt & I celebrated our one-year anniversary last week. We went out to dinner and exchanged gifts. He got several "paper"-themed gifts (tickets to the Shrek musical, cigars, a reprint of the Omaha World-Herald front page from our wedding day, etc.), since paper is the traditional one-year gift, and I got a Calvin Johnson Detroit Lions jersey - score!  I just really cannot believe it's already been a year. The memories of our wedding night are a blur but I do know the fun we had that day hasn't stopped for a second. In just the past year alone, we've really enjoyed ourselves. I don't know why people say the first year is the hardest. We reminisced at our anniversary dinner at our go-to special occasion joint, Bonefish Grill, and man, got tired just talking it all through!
Since last October, we...

• Went to Negril, Jamaica on our Honeymoon
• Enjoyed an annual trip to Unadilla - this year via party bus to the town's Groundhog Day celebration
• (Matt) went on his usual March Madness / golfing  / boys trip to Phoenix
• Took in the Power & Light district and a Kansas City Royals game this spring
• Traveled to Brekenridge, CO with friends for a weekend of nature and laughs
• (I) went to Milwaukee on a girls trip
• Wore big hats, won money and drank mint juleps at the Kentucky Derby! 
• GOT A DOG
• Participated in a full-scale recreation of a Bert the Conquerer episode, Wife Carry Obstacle Course
• (I) ran a 10k -- oh, and I won a gold medal at the Cornhusker State Games in softball!
• Built a new deck
• Played in approximately 19,000 games each (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating but not by much) between each of our volleyball, golf and baseball/softball leagues
• Toured the Dallas Cowboys stadium (and saw Big Tex just weeks before he burnt down!)
• Wished many of our friends and family the best as they tied the knot themselves
• And tons of other stuff I'm sure, too...

So I wanted to include a small photo montage for your enjoyment. And this comes on the heels of our next adventure--a MN road trip to see a NFL game and shop at IKEA - woo! Cheers to us, to many more years of fun to come, and to all of who have been part of that fun along the way, this year and always!
xo

Peter Parker (ha ha, get it?)

Last Wednesday, I took my dog for a walk and came back with both a newfound sense of trust in him being off leash—and a new “friend.” Here’s what happened:  Approximately one minute into our walk, we see a guy walking his also young, crazy and cute dog, so the dogs stop to sniff each other.  Other dog owners can attest that usually when this happens, we are able to move on quickly, but this guy was different. He first asked, “is your dog friendly?”  I said, “yes.” [Silent pause].  Second thing out of his mouth, “Wow, that’s a nice ring.” Now, yes, it is. But what a weird thing to say. It means you were looking to see if I was married. It also means you were using your dog to pick up chicks at the park – how cliché. Despite knowing that I was in fact married, he went on to say that I was good-looking and asked if I had any sisters or single friends. He said his name was Peter, he was 32, and he just moved here a week ago to go to Law School, etc, etc. We let the dogs run around and play together while we walked behind and chatted for a bit. I told him about cool things on campus because I was an undergrad there and about places to visit in Omaha. He was really upfront in saying he knew he was coming off as weird, but he just didn’t know how to make friends here if he didn’t just blatantly try. So he gave me his phone number and said to text him if me, my husband or friends ever wanted to show him the ropes, take him Cornhusker tailgating, etc.

So, when I found out we needed a guy sub for volleyball this week, I thought of Peter. When I told Matt I might ask the guy I met at the park, I found out is apparently frowned upon in our establishment to get random guys’ phone numbers. But it’s not like that!! I’m trying to be nice and be helpful in him getting to know people.  I know a lot of people!! Is that so wrong?!

Anyway, Peter won’t be subbing at volleyball.