Fort Worth, Texas

I went to Fort Worth, Texas this week for business travel. I have been there only once before and the state and I had various ideas about what would get me lost and what wouldn't. Fortunately this time, I made it to all locations without getting lost. Kind of nice actually.

I arrived on Wednesday and stayed at a hotel downtown. It was pretty convenient because I could just walk to dinner from there given all the restaurants in the area. So I checked in and headed out to grab a burger and a beer I was craving. A few blocks away I walked into Billy Miners. I thought it was a nice enough place and the food was decent. The people there helped me out with ordering and such. (You have to walk around the back to order and then they call your name). I watched the ever stupid, Deal or No Deal? game show and by the time I got ready to head back, it was POURING outside. I thankfully had brought a jacket, but it only helped some. Walking back the 3 blocks or so to the hotel was enough to completely saturate me from the jacket line down. I couldn't help but laugh. I brought a second pair or shoes to wear to work the next day, so no harm there. Just the most ridiculous rain I have ever seen.

I don't know if this is true for all of Texas or just that area, but the water smells and tastes funny. Even fountain sodas have that taste in the background. When I get out of the shower, I have a hard time getting rid of the stink. Yuck!

When I was heading back to the airport on Friday, I remembered how terribly they inform you which exit to get off for the airport. The let you know there are two and they are a few miles apart, but they tell you nothing further. Thank god for the gianormous Starbucks sign that tipped me off the heading in the right direction. I made it back and was happy to get out of that state once again.

Texas just has zero appeal to me. And the times I have been there, (total of 4 now, Houston, Ft. Worth, and San Antonio) nothing has impressed me. Oh well. I only have to visit every now and then. Not every state can be a winner.

A Girl's Gotta Shop

Yesterday started with a trip to the gym that was over before it even started. Heidi and I have decided that our off Fridays should start with Mat Pilates. We both like the class and it gets me up early enough to actually be productive on a day off. However, this Friday, class was canceled. Since I showed up in flip flops, I felt my options were limited and I decided to return home.

This mishap at the gym allow me to go home shower and take my time getting ready for my hair appointment. I was considering growing my hair out and donating it again, but I hit a wall some point last week and just said, this has got to go. My hair was done by a nice man named Cosmo and it looks fantastic. I have already made my next appointment with him which is a first for me.

After all that, the girls and I went shopping!!! This got me very excited because we visited what I refer to as "The Shoe Mecca". *enter angel music here* It's really called Nordstrom's Rack, but I like my title better. I have big feet. I am ok with this. Finding shoes however is normally a nightmare. It sounds something like this, "Do you have this in a size 10 or 11?", "No" on a repeated loop. This place is fantastic for me finding shoes mostly because they have the largest selection of large size shoes ever. I happily purchased 4 pairs of shoes, one of which was a $4 pair of flip flops. The others were substantial work shoes and a new pair of athletic sneakers, all of which I desperately needed.

From there we hit up the Mall of Georgia and meandered around going from store to store. I definitely made out like a bandit in a few places. I got a cool skirt at Old Navy and purchased a new outfit and some sweaters from Banana Republic. All of it was on sale. Wohoo! I have never been known to be ahead of the fashion curve so I am ok waiting two months for it to go to the sale rack. :)

Overall it was a pretty nice way to spend an off Friday. It's almost like playing hooky from work, but not really. Now I just have to make room in my closet for my new purchases. :)

Manager In Training

Sometimes, I spend so much time writing on off topics, like chewing out the weatherman, that I forget to include a piece of real news when it comes along. About a month ago I applied for the Operations Leadership Development Program (OLDP - will probably be used a lot so worth remembering) at work. This included submitting a resume, being chosen for 3 hours worth of interviews, an essay and a recommendation from my boss. Well the good news is that I heard back last week and they accepted me!

The program last two years. Over those two years, I will be doing 4 6-month rotations, leadership conferences, training from Drexel, and apparently becoming a tour guide. I have to remain in Marietta for the first year, but after I am free to work in a new location. I am planning on taking advantage of that and either go west or north. Rob and I have pretty much decided our stay in the south will be coming to a close.

I just got the list of open rotation slots available today, so I started my hunt for my first one which will start in July. I found two on there that looked interesting to me so far. One of them would be working for a person I worked with for a few days on a Kaizen Event. He seemed to be able to offer a lot of good advice there and seems like I would work with him well. The other is actually called F-22 Industrial Engineer, which sounds intriguing as I have that degree, but never held that title.

This is going to be a crazy couple of years, but I think it will be worth it when it's over. I am not expecting a manager position when I get out however, the training and experience I am hoping to gain will be invaluable. And so begins a new chapter in my career. Let's hope it's an exciting read. :)

Mr. Weatherman, I hate you

Over the last few weeks, Atlanta has been enjoying some nice spring weather. It's already been pretty steady into the high 60s and mid 70s. Great weather for wearing spring clothes, enjoying the sunshine and general outdoors things (pollen aside).

Well this morning, I woke up to a brisk 40 degrees with a high of a whooping 50 degrees! Excuse me Mr. Weatherman, but I think you messed up pretty badly. It's a well known fact you control the weather and sad to say this ain't your brightest idea ever.

Once I have put away my slightly heavier than fleece jacket, I don't intend to pull it out of the closet until October. You had your three weeks of jumbling between 40 and 70 degrees. That phase is over. You can't just go back. Managing three jackets is an ultra inconvenience.

I think you could just make life easier on yourself if you were to keep with the highs in the upper 60s, mid 70s and lows about 50. It will prevent your tires from getting slashed. I am only a mile from The Weather Channel building. Don't think I won't do it!!!

Rockin 80s Party

Last night I attended an 80s costume party. This was a lot of fun, although I am not sure where the bulk of it was in the prepping or in the actual event itself. Since it was a costume party it required finding an outfit to wear. I think most people would be in the same boat, if not, well, then you need to be on What Not To Wear.

A few of my friends were also invited so we took a trip to Goodwill together to find the perfect outfit. It took a little digging through to racks, but I found my stunning piece without too much trouble. I figure Goodwill is one of those places I could never work because all the sales people do is tell you, "Oh that's nice" and I for one couldn't manage that all day long. They do have some good stuff, but there are a lot of "interesting" clothes there. My honestly would get the best of me.

We bought some accessories and we were set to go. I think the finishing touches for the ladies outfits was the purchase of a styling hair crimper from Heidi. Sweet! I had my hair in small braids all day, but it didn't work as well as I had hoped. Hooray crimper!

As for the party, we got to mingle with other very well dressed people in 80s garb and listen to some great 80s music and get our groove on with some fantastic 80s dance moves. Heidi and I were complimented as having the most authentic 80s look. :) I guess I went as a librarian since people kept telling me I looked like one. :) Here are some radical photos for you to enjoy!

My Afternoon Pick Me Up

I think I am not alone when I say I think nap time should be instituted as company policy between the hours of 1pm and 3pm in the afternoon. I eat my lunch and then about 30 minutes to an hour later I am wishing there was a hide-away bed under my desk which would alert me to boss intrusions. I do not have a desk like George Costanza and therefore I am out of luck. But I have found a way to deal with all of these nap time feelings on my own.

During college I learned the lesson of exactly how much weight you can gain by mindlessly drinking fully leaded soda after fully leaded soda. Since then I have tried not to drink sodas all that often. In fact, I haven't purchased soda for my house since January 2007. I bought some for the super bowl and to be honest, I didn't even go through all of that.

Most people would say, drink diet, it has no calories. While this is true, it contains another evil, aspartame. That crap gives me headaches and makes me feel weird. I think a lot of websites boast about it's horrid nature that result in cancer or some other extreme "I never want that" disease. Either way they make it out to be pretty terrible.

Coca Cola has come up with a new product that's both diet and does not contain aspartame. Enter my new afternoon hero! Whatever genius decided to create this should be promoted to something like, Head Genius Person Providing Wonderfulness To All! I wonder if that fits on a business card?

Anywho, that's not the point. The point is that I found a caffeine drink that's not full of empty calories that also does not provide me with an awful headache and possible other side effects, like growing a toe on your arm.

I still have to watch how much caffeine I intake a day per doctors orders, but I think one cup of coffee in the morning and one soda in the afternoon is still better than most.

Thank you Mr Coke Person!

The Cat Who Could....

I just finished reading The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun. This was part of my, "let's pull a random book from the library that sounds interesting to read" phase. I have seen the The Cat Who Could... books before and always thought, that may be neat to read, but never picked it up. Part of the reason I love libraries. Totally risk free. You hate it, bring it back and get something else. All it cost was a trip there.

This particular book is the first one in the series. I always try to read the first in a series if I can. In some series, it doesn't matter what order you read them in, but I figure the first sets up general character traits and prior books are always being referenced back to even in subtle ways. I get annoyed when I miss inside jokes.

If you like murder mysteries I would say give it a shot. It's a little odd, but maybe that's why I liked it so much. At least I got out of my comfort zone with books and read something off the beaten path. :)