When Life Gives You Lemons...

Much has happened over the last few months. The biggest change is that I am now employed (Yay!) and loving it!! If you had told me a year ago what my path was going to be between these two points of time I would not have believed you. Quick recap shall we?

-Move back to Oregon from Florida.
-Spend a month looking for a job.
-Go back to my college job.
-Go back to school for Event Management Certificate.
-Spend 9 months underemployed in retail.
-Continue to be rejected for jobs throughout. 

As you can tell it was one heck of a year. However, it did get better. With going back to school I was able to apply for internships again with Disney. Long story short.... I got another internship with Disney and am now living in Florida again and loving it!! Life has put me through a roller coaster of emotions this last year but finally I can say I have a job that I love! I'm making more friends, having more experiences, and loving Florida like I never thought I could (despite the heat)! 

 

 

Addiction

I have an addiction.... a book addiction, that is.

Since I've moved and all of my books are still in Oregon I've been buying up cheap books like crazy. This has presented itself as a problem since there is a Goodwill in my friend's neighborhood and every time I go over to their house I have to stop and spend at least 10-15 minutes looking through every single book the store has. This has given me a totally of 6 books that I want to read. Now the question is which book first? And when will I find the time? 

 I've already read Sisterhood Everlasting. It was an interesting experience revisiting characters who I grew up reading. The girls are almost 30 and dealing with situations that I sometimes find myself worrying about. Such as, what if I get so comfortable in my job and can't leave, what if I'm not made to settle down, what if I really am hiding from myself under layers of people...what if, what if, what if! Interesting read for this point in life. I don't know if I had read it a few years ago if I would have connected with the characters as well as I did. 

Which book next? Water for Elephants? The American Heiress? Under the Tuscan Sun? Or One Thousand White Women? All of them have their own strengeths and will lead somewhere new. Which should I choose?

March Goals

How is it March already? It seems that January and February just flew by without a moments notice. I hope everyone has a wonderful month full of excitement planned. Anyways on to the goals and what March is for!

March Goals

1. Read 3 books. 

2. Read ONE article per day dealing with Event Management/Planning. 

3. Network

4. Go on TWO adventures. 

Have a wonderful month filled with excitement and adventure! Hopefully it brings many wonderful things. 

Happy Travels!
-B

What is everyone's goals for the month?  

Why was I Dopey?

If you had told me a year ago that I would run a marathon in the next year I probably would have laughed at you and said you were crazy. I mean why in the world would I want to run a marathon? A half-marathon maybe but a marathon? Yea, right! And yet here I am on January 20, 2014 having already run a half-marathon and a marathon. Both things that I had never done before. This prompted me to think about why I decided to sign up for the Dopey Challenge and run a marathon when I've never had a desire to do one.

Why I signed up for the Dopey Challenge:
1. It included two inaugural events (10K and Dopey Challenge) and lots of shiny medals, both of which I am a sucker for. I mean just look at all the bling I got! 

2. My friends are very persuasive and once you do one runDisney event you want to do many many more. They are just that much fun!

3. When I registered last spring I was unsure if I would still be in Florida and figured it was a solid way to make sure I would be able to go back and visit. This plan seems to have worked because I got to visit my friends and have wonderful amounts of fun!

4. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do this. No matter what else was happening in my life I could complete the Dopey Challenge and live to tell about it. And guess what... I DID!! I have never felt better about myself than I did the day after completing the marathon. I was on cloud 9! (At least when I could get out of bed.)

The Dopey Challenge was one of the most reckless un-thought out things I have ever done and though I'm not sure I will be signing up for next year's (unless I get talked into it again) I am glad that I did it this year. I would not trade the feeling of holding that medal and being able to do this with one of my best friends for anything. Thanks for pushing me to be great Elena!

xoxo
-B

P.S. The picture of my friend and I was taken after dinner outside the restaurant. It should have taken us 5 minutes to walk from our hotel room to the restaurant.... it took us 10. C'est la vie. 

Dopey Challenge Finish!!

Well everyone.... I did it!!!!!

5K Finishers!

10K Finishers!

Start of the Marathon!

Fireworks to start every corral.

All of my Medals!!!

 
I completed the Dopey Challenge!! I want to thank everyone for their support and good thoughts for me. 

5K - 48:59
10K - 1:37:51
1/2 Marathon - 3:14:30
Marathon - 6:38:57

Other than blisters everything is just sore. I think I got off pretty good overall. I didn't pull anything or do any other sort of damage...to my knowledge. 

I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend!

xoxo
-B

December Goals

I realize that December is almost over but I never went over my November goals or made new goals for December. With that in mind I am going to only make a few goals for the remaining days of December. 

On to my November goals in review.

- Run 100 miles in the month of November - I didn't quite make it to 100 miles but I did make it to 82 miles which I was overjoyed at! Especially since I followed my Dopey Challenge training plan for much of November. 

- Volunteer - I was unable to do any additional volunteer work from that which I already do.

- Read 3 new to me books - I lost count of how many new books I read but it was at least 3.

- Continue to Stay on top of my class work - This was a success! I did well in all of my classes and truly enjoyed them.  

December Goals
- Read 3 new books
- Apply for 5 jobs
- Network 

I am very excited to get to work on these goals and to start setting my goals for January. They should be good! 

xoxo
Happy Travels!
-B

Missing?

I would like to apologize to the masses for my disappearing act since Thanksgiving. My computer suffered an unfortunate demise one fateful afternoon and was unable to recover. Thankfully this was at the end of the term so most of my classes were wrapping up and all but one major project had already been turned in. Thank goodness!! So since the beginning of December I have been computer-less and as many know the app for Blogger on Android isn't worth the pain.

Today was a joyous day!!! I got my new laptop via FedEx and Costco. Let me tell you it is more well traveled than I am. Following its progress across the Pacific Ocean to the East Coast and back to the West Coast was an exciting endeavor. With that being said I had a lot of time to contemplate what will be upcoming on the blog and I have a couple of posts that I am exited to start writing and some new ideas that I can't wait to put into play. 

Any suggestions on making the switch to Windows 8? What is your favorite thing about Windows 8? 

xoxo

-B