Category Archives: life

What a Day…

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So I had planned to spend some time today talking about my friend that’s about to be on Oprah.  I’m not sure of her air date (and they’ve asked that she not leak anything just yet), but today is her big “reveal” with Nate.  The goal was to write about how cool blogging is and how it can lead to some amazing opportunities (like getting on Oprah) and all that good stuff.

But then it happened.

I spilled my entire cup of tea on my iBook.  Well, in my defense, not just on the laptop itself, but also the arm of the couch, the floor, my computer bag, a pair of shoes and yes, the laptop.  It was working fine.  Then, it wasn’t.  Now, it still isn’t.  I can’t seem to get it to turn on and get active.  It turns on, but kinda freezes on the apple logo and doesn’t seem to go any further.

So now we’ve got my desktop Mac growing some vertical lines every other day or so and now a recuperating laptop.  Doesn’t seem to be all too good of a day in computer land here at the Casa de BloggerGal.

The good news?  Yes, there is good news.  Remember that faculty discount we discussed a couple weeks back? Yeah, well, that makes this whole experience a little less painful.  A little.

So now I’m going to step back from the computers (except for the two blogs I’m still working on – one we’re getting Oprah ready, the other for a company I’m working for) and maybe take a break from technology for a bit.

Maybe tomorrow you guys can help me to make some headway with my birthday planning.  Until then, I do hope that you all had a happy Easter.  Oh and if you need a little fun today…go microwave a Peep or two!

Damn, I Forgot.

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Don’t you hate when you walk around all day with a blog post in your head. Not just any blog post, you know…a damn good blog post. And poof! it’s gone by the time you finally get to sitting down and writing.

I hate that.

Oh well.

It happens to everyone.

I mean, it does happen to others, right? Like it’s happened to you too, right? I’m not all alone here, right? Oh please tell me that I’m not alone in this.

This Teaching Thing Seems to Be Kicking My Ass

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Well, not the actual teaching. I’m actually loving being back in the classroom and working with the kids. In fact, they kids even commented on the fact that I wasn’t there last Thursday and filled me in on what they’ve been up to.

What’s kicking my ass though are the early hours. You see, we head to bed pretty late around here. It’s not uncommon for me to turn out the lights at 2:00AM. Mind you, this also means we don’t tend to wake up and get going around 10:00AM. So either way, while the hours are wonky, I’m still getting about eight hours of sleep.

So trying to head to bed at a decent hour so I can wake up at some ungodly hour, well, it’s not exactly working. I head to bed soon enough, but then the tossing and turning begins. So on teaching days, I’m usually working on five to six hours of sleep. Needless to say, when I come home, I crash and crash hard for about 45 minutes or so.

So if I’m going to continue with this teaching thing (and I do love it and hope to add on another class or two next semester), I’m going to have to figure out this sleeping thing. And I’m going to have to convince the hubs to work with me and maybe head to bed sooner than 3:00AM on my pre-teaching nights.

On that note, once the hubs gets off the phone with his sister, it’ll be time to watch Lost while enjoying a glass of wine, and then off to bed I go. Hopefully the wine will help me to cut down on the tossing and turning tonight 😉

It’s Official, I Have NO Style

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A friend of mine is in the process of taking her personal styling biz virtual.  She put out the call asking for people willing to be a “type.”  I volunteered for the plus-size gal that works from home, but still needs to look good when she’s out and about with people either networking, training or teaching.

Easy peasy, right? One would think.

I needed to provide four looks for her: schlep-wear, casual wear, business wear and something dressier.  Schlep-wear will be easy considering this is my every day attire – I’m sure Oprah would be mortified.  I actually didn’t take this one yet since my favorite yoga pants are still drying.  I plan to break the no-gym-wear-out-of-the-gym rule and wear them for the drive today (since it’s six hours in the car with a dog on my lap).

Thing is, I realized that when you come down to it, I seem to have have no real sense of style.  I consider the dress I wore yesterday for my first day of teaching (sans the cami to cover the cleavage) – also the dress I wore to my husband’s birthday dinner and out to a bar for the Carl’s Jr. launch party to be my “dressy” outfit.  Um…dinner, teaching, happy hour and I consider it dressy?  Well, not go to a wedding dressy (that’s a once a year sort of dress) or black tie dressy (I have nothing for that), but well, dressy by my paltry standards.  But really, even I know that’s just wrong.

Then, the worse part, I tried on a couple different outfits that I’ve worn for networking, dinners out, hanging with friends and even teaching workshops and well, I looked the same in all of them.  Like no difference kind of the same.  Which means my casual and my business casual are pretty much identical.

How can this be?  How can every outfit look the same?  How could I have lost such touch with reality?  Well, I guess working from home for 5 or so years can do that to a gal.  It may be embarrassing to admit, but with the help of my stylist, I too can get some style (and help someother poor plus-sized, work from home soul out there to get some help as well).

What Goes Into Launching a New Burger

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All it takes is bourbon! Woohoo for bourbon!

I was lucky enough to attend the launch of the new Carl’s Jr Bourbon Burger. It was class all the way (as you can tell from the photos below) at the Crown bar in Santa Monica. They had bourbon cocktails available. Bourbon burgers, fries and onion rings passed around. They even had Laker Girls and cigars. It was awesome!

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I think my favorite part of the evening was chatting up the team from AttentionSpanTV (three of the guys are in the photo above). These guys are not only the brains behind the recent Carl’s Jr commercials (they’re even edgier when you watch the ones on the web versus those that air on TV). But these guys are also the brains behind the Dorm-Life web series and Sock Tube Presents adaptations of classic movies.

These guys are good. Definitely something to keep an eye on. Be sure to check out the Slumdog Millionaire adaptation.

Tonight, I also think that I may have found my new girl crush. I never thought that anything could replace that Charlize Theron J’Adore Dior video. Talk about H.O.T.

Let me start by saying…I get a kick out of the Carl’s Jr commercials. I thought the Paris Hilton commercial was genius. Let’s face it though, I’m not their target audience. I’m not the “young hungry guy.” But wow, again…H.O.T.

In closing…it’s good to be a blogger!! Thanks Tara for the hookup. Fun was had by all.

Holy Cow It’s Already Monday!

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Wow, this weekend just blew by.  I’ll blame my husband since he decided to go into the office not once, but twice yesterday so it didn’t even feel like a Sunday.  Then again, I went with him the second time to help him clean up the mics and stuff after the earlier recording session.  It was either that or stay home wondering what was taking so long.

And of course, if today is Monday, that means that tomorrow is Tuesday and…my first day at my new job!!  I’m so excited to be thinking that I’ll be teaching (co-teaching) again!  I’m a little nervous, but that’s pretty common.  First days tend to be shakey and filled with the (seeming) fear of the unknown.  I just keep reminding myself that it’s not my lesson plan so I don’t have to worry about it.  I just have to do my job and all will be good.  Now if only I could figure out what to wear…always the dilema.

Then we leaving first thing Wedsnesday to drive up to San Jose so the hubs can see Bruuuuuce.  I’m only along for the ride.  While I am a Jersey Girl, I never was much of a Bruce fan.  So we compromise and save the money on my ticket (and then I regret it when he tells me just how awesome the show was) and just see him once here in LA – usually on the second leg.

Thing is, with Bruce shows, since he has so much material, you’re never sure if the show you see will be the show you’d hoped it would be.  Since meeting my husband, I’ve now seen Bruce about 5 or so times.  I loved every show but the last one.  The last show they played for the diehard fans.  My girlfriend and I only recognized like three songs.  In nearly three hours of a show!  That particular show was for the fans. They pulled out the deep, deep show favorites and the crowds went crazy.  Not me.  I just wasn’t feeling it.  So yeah, we don’t waste the money on tickets to multiple shows. And I’m fine with that.

So if you don’t see me around much this week, don’t think it’s the new work schedule messing things up.  It’s just because I’ll be on the road for two days.  With luck, I’ll get to take some fun pictures.  I do believe we’ll be passing right through Gilroy and this time dammit, we’re stoppng!

It’s All About ME ME ME!!!

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Not exactly. I mean it is my husband’s birthday. But I did something totally uncharacteristic today…I left him before he even got out of bed telling him that there was a bagel waiting for him. You see, I had to head out to the college to get my employment papers filed since classes start next week.

From there I thought I’d head to Target to try on an adorable dress I was eying over the weekend. I figured if it was flattering, I’d wear it to his birthday dinner tonight (see, it can still be about him – LOL) and then for teaching. It’s a little nerve wracking not being able to wear jeans (or flipflops) when that’s what we tend to live in here in LA.

Anyway, I actually picked up two dresses. The one one I was eying and a cute sundress of sorts (which of course isn’t up online yet). Again, both will work for teaching and my professional meetings or networking events. Totally worth it, right? They actually had quite a few cute dresses and I’ve been having much better luck with their stuff than with the Old Navy plus line.

I hate to say, I totally forgot that teaching at the college would also mean that I’m college faculty. Hello! How swanky does that sound? Not only does it sound swanky, but it means I get to have a faculty ID card. And while that might not get me movie discounts, it gets me TONS of other discounts – like on electronics, programs, books and whatnot. Can’t wait to get my new audio recorder at nearly half the standard rate!

Totally makes the (seemingly) minimal (3 hr/wk) salary worth it for the perks alone!

My House is Just Too Quiet

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A couple weeks back, my favorite radio station changed format.  They went from non-sucky, non-screaming, totally hillarious talk radio and turned into yet another crappy ass, Top 40 station.  Around that time, I moved my radio from where it was in the kitchen, around to the otherside of the apartment – I figured I wouldn’t be listeming as much, so why did I need it nearby now.  So basically, without my favorite day time radio show and without my radio nearby, things have just been too damn quiet.

Now I know what you’re thinking…why can’t I just listen to music onlilne?  I could.  I guess.  Thing is, I like to have multiple tabs open on my computer.  This means I tend to suck up my computer’s whatevers.  Add to that keeping my Tweetdeck open and active and well, I tell myself that I’ll somehow manage to bog my computer down so much that it will be super slooooooow.  Yet in reality, I know that’s so not the case.

Of course, since the hubs is away this week at SXSW listening to, recording and shooting a gazillion bands, it’s even quieter still.  The only regular sound we’ve got going here is the non-stop dog barking (oh my god, he’s going to kill me if he can’t get quiet and stop barking at the neighbor’s dogs).  And well, between the silence and the non-stop barking, I think it’s becoming just too much for this poor soul to take.

Thank goodness I’ll be heading out shortly for cupcakes.  I love MeetUps and I love cupcakes.  That will give me some time away.  I’m just ready for the hubby to get back home tomorrow.

And now in honor of this very post, I’ve opened up el iTunes and I’m jamming to some ABBA.  Much better! Not so quiet now…The winner takes it all….

Welcome to the Ultimate Blogging Party

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A little late than never, but I thought it would be easier to make this post a sticky…so consider things stuck! Daily (or so) posts follow below.

Ultimate Blog Party 2009

Holy cow, I can’t believe that I posted about the Ultimate Blog Party 2009 about a month ago and I still manage to forget to sign up and post!  Please forgive me.  I will have to take some time and get a real, welcomey sort of post up here.  Right now, I just have to post my hasty hello! and run.

Here are the basics (will tweak more later, after I get back from dinner)…

  • thirty-something blogger far too close to becoming a forty-something blogger
  • run a small business leading workshops and teaching small business the benefits of social media and blogging
  • also run an amazing community and blogsite that hosts regular weekly giveaways (and why I don’t have one up here)
  • have another business that I plan to be getting started over the next couple months, but am still a little hushhush about it
  • I’m not a fan of the term “mompreneur” as I feel it separates us as women and think that we’d do better to support each other in business as much as possible – while I’ll agree that moms have an additional challenge or two than others may not have, but it doesn’t mean that a child-free entrepreneur doesn’t also have additional challenges to face (during my first years in business, like many, I worked full time, but at one point, I also took full time care of my father-in-law as he lost his battle with cancer — different challenges, but still difficult challenges for a young business none-the-less).  Basically, I’m just not a fan of pitting women against women, I think that unfortunately we can do that ourselves without the media getting involved and categorizing us.
  • I’ve been blogging on and off for about 5 or so years now in fact, I write on three blogs
  • I attended BlogHer last year, but won’t be this year
  • love my crazy, workaholic husband who is currently at SXSW doing his music-lovin’ thing (our 5th anniversary is right around the corner)
  • we’re child-free, but have two adorable little fur-kids (much as I might hate that expression) – one cat that’s been waking me up too damn early this past week and one dog that never seems to stop barking
  • when the mood strikes me, I can curse like a sailor (and why I’m in the not-so-family-friendly category)
  • I love taking photos and sometimes participate in Wordless Wednesday  – can’t stand editing though, so I tend to post my images raw, straight outta the camera
  • I love in the greater Los Angeles area (moved her to marry my husband) and miss seasons (and winter particularly) tremendously
  • I’m a Jersey Girl born and bred, though I moved southward when I was 20 or so – I still have the accent on occasion, but will either need to be drunk or very excited (doesn’t mean the occasional “shoew-oar” (sure) won’t slip out – and yes, it cracks my husband, the native Angelino up)
  • I love nothing more than a great cup of tea, though when out and about, I live on lattes or iced coffees
  • that’s all I can think of right now, but I do have this 7 Things post that might share a couple of insights
  • Edited to Add: just realized that while I’m too exhausted to create a more witty post, I can just link you to last year’s post and that should give you an idea of what I’m about

Oh yeah, I may as well write this here since I know it’s getting the page views…I’m always looking for bloggers on my site.  If you’re interested in learning more about the opportunity, drop me a note.

Proper welcome to come okay, that’s not happening now, but I have been adding more and more to this post each day. Please feel free to stay and visit a while….

And did I mention that there are prizes involved?  Me, I’m most interested in the following:

  • #58 – Kitchaid Mixer
  • #19, #21 and #22 – all $50 Target gift certificates
  • #111 Afternoon Tea in a Box (I do love me some tea)
  • and lastly #12 a $20 gift certificate to The Gift Closet

What prizes are you interested in?