Inspiration

I love this list. I've posted it to Facebook before, but I still like reading it over and over. I hope you enjoy and can take something from this to add to your life.

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day, and while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. MEDITATE about what is going on in your life. Buy a lock if you have to.

3. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, ’My purpose is to__________ today. I am thankful for______________ ’.

4. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.

5. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.

6. Try to make at least THREE people smile each day.

7. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

8. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.

9. Life is not fair, but it is still good.

10. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

11. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

12. You are not so important that you have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

13. Make peace with your past so it will not spoil the present.

14. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

15. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

16. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: ’In five years, will this matter?’

17. Forgive everyone for everything.

18. What other people think of you is none of your business.

19. GOD (depending on your beliefs) heals everything - but you have to ask your higher power (translate to your religion).

20. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

21. Your job will not take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch!!!

22. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

23. Each night, before you go to bed complete the following statements: I am thankful for__________. Today I accomplished_________.

24. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

25. When you are feeling down, start listing your many blessings. You will be smiling before you know it.

Burning the Candle

A few people have noticed lately that I'm burning the candle at both ends. I won't disagree. I'm so tired that I'm a little wired. I've done a ton of travel arrangements this week, but after today, I think it'll calm down for a few days.

On to a lighter subject... When I was 20 I worked for a company called PI. We did door to door sales of entertainment tickets (I still can't believe I did that...) ANYWAY, if any of you have worked in sales, normally the office is pretty fun. A lot of us hung out outside of work, partied a lot. We had "party Fridays" where we came back to the office to basically a full bar and pizza! I wish that was the case now. But I digress. We had a pretty tight crew and some have even gone off to get married! One of the managers messaged me on Facebook a few days ago, and from that, I think I've friended 5 people. Two of whom live in New York! One of whom I'm meeting tonight for dinner and, more importantly, cocktails!

Thank you to those who said your prayers! Chrissy left the hospital yesterday and is still sick, but doing okay.

I still can't believe Paris will be here next week! It's been way too long. So excited!!!

2.5 more hours, then...
Aaaahhhhhhhh!

Basura!

Well, THAT was a waste of time! I went to a job interview Monday morning before work. My appointment was at 8:30am. I was on time. The person I was meeting wasn't. Remember, I have a day job on Wall Street that starts at 8:30am. At 9am, the woman decides to show up, only to tell me the job is TEMP. Temp for a month to "see how it goes". Seriously? I called my headhunter and let him know I was not pleased. He said he thought I knew it was temp. Riiiiiiiiight. I'm not about to give up a day job, underwhelming as it is, for an unsure thing. Needless to say I was 1 1/2 hours late for work, and they noticed. I'm on the roster for 2 more (GOOD) interviews, and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get to them.

I feel like I'm trapped in a box. Trying so hard to get out, clawing the doors, digging under the walls, but getting nowhere. Maybe running in place is a better analogy. I know that I have to keep going, keep running until I reach my destination. Gotta admit I'm exhausted. I've been hearing and reading about some people who have been unemployed or underemployed for 1-2 years. That CAN'T happen to me, right? NO WAY. Some people have even stopped looking. Well I'm not 'some people'. I'm not giving up until I get what I'm worth.

I've also been speaking with my best friend from High School. I'm going to meet up with her in the next month to go wine tasting. She lives in Boston, so I'll take the bus to her and maybe we'll head someplace beautiful like Vermont. SO excited for that. In addition, I'm going to head up to Toronto in a few weeks and we'll see what happens there. ;-) Thanks for that little push, Andreen. ALSO, I have a great friend coming out next week from L.A. to visit for a bit. SO excited. Paris to NYC. :-)

Now, if I could just get all that laundry done...

Not sure about the Grandma front. She's hanging in there. I'm going to give her a call this week.

Also, if you're feeling spiritual, send out a prayer, chant, good thought, silent moment for my friend Chrissy. She has a blood clot in her lung and she's in the hospital. Chrissy rocks. Let's pray for her to get back on her feet again quickly so she can get back into the haute couture. (Ya, she's a model). To help you with your prayers, here's a pic of her. HOT right??

Life - Part II

So now it's mid-July and I'll let you in on what's happened in the past few weeks. For one thing, the weather has sucked. On another note, I've been interviewing for a position for a family and got through 2 interviews. The woman, from now on we'll call her FRAN, wanted me to come work one night after work and 1 full day so I agreed. Since I'm freelancing, I have a LITTLE freedom. I worked a full 9 hour day down on Wall Street, then shot up to Midtown and worked an additional 3 hours. The next day was 9:15am-8:30pm. I thought everything went well, and I was a little excited about getting an offer. That night walking home, I just started crying. I miss having a job in my normal profession. It had felt so good to work those few days and I realized how unhappy I was with my day job. (Or it could've been hormones).

The next day I got an email about various "concerns" that Fran had. From my experience, "concerns" are really nothing to be concerned about. They are voiced when the potential employer decides they aren't sure what they really want or need. For instance, one of my items in feedback was that I was "such a pleasure in the home, but so lovely, in fact, that I'm not sure how she'd be managing the staff". Okay, let's get something straight here, I've been managing staff for, hmmm, 12 years give or take?! I've never had one issue or problem with it, in fact I've always had pretty great experiences with staff. They call on me to this day for referrals. I let it irritate me for a moment, then after various other questions, I decided that I was no longer even going to hope for the job. If they're picking it apart with ridiculous issues, then I don't even care anymore.

Once I said, thank you for the interview, and wished them good luck with the hiring process, they called me back asking if I'd work for her part time for the summer. See, there's construction going on in their apartment, so they're moving out to LI for the summer. In my excitement for adding income and potentially setting myself up for a full time job with them come September, I agreed. When I got home, I started to have second thoughts. Can I really commute 45 mins each way for a 9 hour job 5 days a week, then work an additional 16-24 hours on top of it? In the light of day, it doesn't seem super realistic.

So this all happened last Thursday. It's Sunday now, and my cleaning lady is here doing a complete overhaul of my apartment. It feels GREAT. I've done 2 loads of laundry already and my apartment is getting SO CLEAN. The only thing I have to work on is my desk and finishing laundry. YUCK. I'm going to make an attempt to do the things Fran gave me to do, and see how it goes, but if I start getting too overwhelmed, then I'm going to have to just call it a day and let fate take me where I'm supposed to go. I do have an interview tomorrow morning before work, and I'm in line for another position as well. we'll see if either of those pan out.

I'll end this on a high note. I'm still optimistic, I still have faith that all will REALLY work out in the end for me. My cleaning lady just finished, my apartment is sparkling and I'm going to go get ready to meet Chris and a bunch of other people to go see BRUNO at Kip's Bay.

Que Belle Journee!

Life - Part I

I I think I've been putting off blogging for a little while because I've been too overwhelmed. Then so many things happened that I didn't even know if I could blog about that much. So I decided to blog in a few parts. This, clearly, is Part I.

After I was hired by the tech firm, I took a quick break and went to Las Vegas to see Alecia, get some sun and let off some steam.

I arrived on Saturday evening on time and was ready to get the evening started. We went over to Diablo's for margaritas and Mexican food. We sat at the bar and ordered a pitcher, and a (very) drunk guy was sitting at the end of the bar. He proceeded to try and chat up Alecia, and next thing we knew, our pitchers, dinners, everything was paid for. The manager must've seen that he was pretty inebriated and came over to make sure the drunk wasn't bothering us too much. When I looked up at the exchange, I realized the manager was a friend of mine I haven't seen, and rarely spoken to, since I moved from L.A. to NYC! It was soooooooooo cool to see him. He got us a great table and after we were done, we headed off to finish an evening of drinking.

We had some great sushi, relaxed by some pools and saw the Criss Angel show "Believe" at the Luxor. Then I was ready to get back to New York and start on my new path.

After about a week of working I realized that maybe this wasn't the position I had hoped it would be. Sure it was a possible new path for me and I'm open to that, but I guess working for 30% of the salary I made last year was a bit of a blow to the ego. Of course, the possibility lies within me to raise my income through the sales, but I'm not sure if this is the type of work I'm supposed to be doing. I have kept sending out resumes since I began there, and I guess you'll read how that's going in the next 'part'. The great thing about at least making a little more $ than when on unemployment, is I have a little more freedom to socialize. For example, Julie and I got GREAT tickets to see Britney Spears in August. SO EXCITED for that! I know, do I think I'm 12 years old?? LOL.