Summer is in full Swing

Above is a picture of Katie B's girlfriends (Katie, Leslie, Katie B, Me, Stephanie, and I can't remember her name) at the Braves. We went to celebrate her birthday!

I'm so ready for this summer... I'm looking forward working out, running, laying by the pool and to go on a cross-country trip with Brian. I'm flying out to Las Vegas and then we're driving to LA, then back to Atlanta (stopping at the Grand Canyon). I'm so excited.

Yay for warm weather!

When it rains, it pours... but in my living room? Again???

I've heard the saying, "bad things happen in 3s"... Well, I guess I didn't realize it, but number three was bound to happen, and it happened in a big way today!

Let's go back to number one. When it recently started getting hot outside, I came to find the air conditioner in my car to be not working... due to the fact that I'm limited on time and money, I've been holding off getting this fixed (meanwhile the pollen count is killing my allergies). I know, I know, I really need to invest in this, especially because it's having an adverse affect on my hair day within my 2 mile drive to the office.

Moving on to number two. This also relates to my Nissan, which I like to refer to as my black beauty.... Have you ever come out to your car in the morning to find a huge gash or scrape down the side, and know for a fact that you DID NOT hit anything? Welcome to my Tuesday morning this week. I've narrowed the crime seen down to being either the 1117 Perimeter Center West - North parking deck, or Post Brookhaven Apartments. I'm not talking a little scrape similar to what black beauty got twice in the Ravinia One parking deck... I'm talking one foot by one foot of pure white paint transfer... THIS PERSON HAD TO KNOW THEY HIT ME... All I have to say is that karma will get them... meanwhile I'm penalized as my insurance goes up:-(

Now we get to the event... NUMBER THREE. I have to try to find some relief in this, as it happened to me already this year, and I already knew somewhat how to handle the situation. So I came home for lunch today, and while I'm cooking some amazing vegetables, I thought I heard Diesel playing with something he shouldn't have. After making Diesel sit next to me in the kitchen, I found that the noise wasn't going away. When I walked into my living room, there it was... it was raining INSIDE, AGAIN. Although there was no broken pipe this time, the HVAC unit in the condo above me was clearly leaking. It is still broken... yes, 10 hours later, there is still rain in my living room, a light drizzle, not a monsoon. Thanks to the Sandy Springs Fire Department, I have a bucket catching the water.

To say the least, today was stressful. It was like a circus at the Townhomes at Sandy Springs today. It seemed as if I had everyone in my condo today, Sandy Springs FD, Mr. Plummer, Servpro, Autumn from upstairs, my neighbor Grett (who thankfully helped calm me down with some amazing tea), and my Realtor.

I think the thing I have to realize is that it could be a lot worse. So I keep my head up and hope that bad things stay at three... I'm not sure that I could handle another catastrophic event... At least not this week.

It's great seeing old friends

The life transitions people experience from youth to adulthood bring many people in and out of your life. I've never identified myself with one "group" of friends. I've always been a little independent, which can be attributed to the multiple transitions I've made through my life. I grew up in New Jersey and in Georgia. I attended two elementary schools, two middle schools, one high school (but had friends at several other high schools in the area), two colleges, and now I've had three post college jobs. To say the least, I've met a lot of people on my journey.

Sometimes you make friends instantly, and they stay in your life for a long time. Sometimes you meet people you know you cannot trust (there's nothing wrong with that, because you've always got to have your own back). Sometimes you downright dislike people you meet, either because of a bad first impression, or stories you might know about them, or because they've wronged you. Then there are cases of friendships being lost... whether you just lose touch or a significant event occurs, resulting in the "breaking up" of a friendship.

Erica is one of my best friends, she was also my roommate my senior year of college. I actually met her through her sister, Jenn, who I cheered with at VSU. One time shared the following  Grey's Anatomy quote with me:

"in life you learn that things change, friends change, people change, and it doesn't mean you forget the past or try to cover it up; it simply means that you move on and treasure the memories. letting go doesn't mean giving up, it means accepting that some things weren't meant to be." 

I cannot thank Erica enough for being such a great friend. Although she lives in a different state, she is one of those people that can always make me laugh or cheer me up!!! During college, Erica and I both had difficult times trying to understand why changes happened in friendships... We'd often talk about the hurt we felt from those we trusted and spend several years caring about. It was interesting, because shortly after graduating college, her sister and I stopped talking... It doesn't matter why or how or whose fault it was... the fact is that we both lost one of our closest friends. I had to keep going back to this quote and kept saying "treasure the memories". Jenn and I have spoken very limitedly over the past two years, but we were fortunate enough to spend some time together last night, at Pamela's bachelorette party. 

 Jenn, Pamela, Torie on March 27, 2010

It hit me last night... As Jenn and I people watched, she explained where some of her frustrations laid with me a few years back. I finally understood. The valuable lesson is often learned very difficultly, even if what people think about you is not true, perception is reality in the eyes of those you interact with. You should always hold yourself with poise. I'm glad I got to spend time with old friends last night, I hope that we can plan on seeing each other on a more regular basis.

No matter what happens from here on out... I'll always have some GREAT memories!!!

A lot to catch up on...

It's been about a year since I've written a blog, and a lot has changed. Actually, just about everything has changed completely. Since this time last year, I've had two new jobs, I got a maltese, I've picked up some good healthy habits, I've completed a half marathon and.... I'm in love.

Morgan, my "little sister", spent the night last night and she's sleeping in my guest room right now, so I figured I'd have some time to write an entry. *I think I would write more if I wasn't on a computer all day for work... it's just that I really don't want to log back on to a computer when I get home from work... I'll try to get better about my postings* Anyway, we went to Applebee's last night for dinner and then made a trip to the pet store to get Diesel some food. We also bought cupcake mix and made cupcakes last night. Today, when she wakes up, we're planning on bringing Diesel to the dog park.

Speaking of Diesel... He will be a year old in a couple of weeks. I love this dog so much, but lately he's been driving me nuts. Question: why do dogs feel the need to chew everything? Especially your favorite pairs of shoes and every new role of toilet paper you put out??? I swear the past few weeks I've been waking up to surprises that Diesel made for me.

Diesel ate my roses:-(

He has actually chewed through two of my MacBook power cords and managed to destroy the dozen roses Brian sent me for Valentine's day... I really hope D grows out of this and that it is just a phase.

In other news, I've decided to start training for Half and Full Marathons. I've recently completed my first Half Marathon, the Atlanta ING last Sunday in 2 hours 2 minutes and 16 seconds... what an accomplishment. I'm hooked on this kind of stuff now. I also started doing boot camps with T-Train Fitness and the results are amazing. I feel so much better about me now than I have in a long time! I get compliments on how I look from people I haven't seen in months, my brother actually thinks I'm looking better. When I went to visit Lauren in the hospital after she had Kinsley, a woman came up to me and said she wished she had my legs! The most important thing is that I feel better about myself. Yesterday I bought my dress for the Kentucky Dirby and it was a designer size 4! YAY!

ING Half Marathon 2010, official race time 2:02.16

Finally... The saying, "You fall in love when you aren't looking and when you least expect it" is SO TRUE!!! Many, if not all, girls go through a tough time in their teenage years into their twenties with relationships. I've had two serous boyfriends, and had my heart broken by two guys after college... When I finally decided to work on my happiness and forget about the crummy dating pool in Atlanta, I found solace in my friendships. I completely changed my attitude and truly became happy on the inside and happy being single...

Then, out of the blue someone came in my life. I met Brian at a Halloween party last year, then didn't see him again until mid-December. We went ice skating with a group of people and there was clearly something there. Me, being me, tried to do fancy ice skating twirls and tried to rope him into it... this resulted in us falling down, he broke my fall. Looking back, I remember that moment explicitly. It was the moment I thought, hmmm, maybe we could go on a date sometime...

December 16, 2009, after the fall down!

Now, three and a half months later, I've fallen in love with him! He is so nice, very respectful, and treats me so wonderfully. He's traveling full time now, so I don't get to see him until the end of April, which has its pros and cons. Obviously, it stinks that I don't get to spend as much time with him as I'd like to in person, but we are getting to know each other really well and I love it!

Stay tuned for more updates... I'm seriously going to make an effort in writing more!

Life is Wonderful

The weekend before this last could quite possibly have been the toughest weekend, emotionally for me in a long time, with an exception that I finally got a Little Sister. I went to the lake on Saturday and my friends dog got run over a Jeep, so I offered to lend him $900 to cover the emergency vet bill... the dog is okay though (luckily it was a bad case of doggy road rash). Oh and Easter Sunday, I had a coughing attack/diaphragmatic spasm/panic attack/over-heading episode where I stopped breathing for about 60 seconds where my faced turned purple, my eyes started watering and I really thought I was going to die! Now that I have digressed, I'll get back to the best part of the weekend. My little!

I have wanted to be part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program for a long time. I finally applied and interviewed in October of 2008. Well after the long wait for a sister, I finally have met my match in May of 2009. She is precious. Morgan is 13 and beautiful. Reminding me a lot of myself at her age, I am hopeful that I can provide her with some good insight during her teenage years.

A striking question her step-father asked me was, "Why would you want to do this?" Well, there are several reasons. 1) I don't have any family where I live and I always wanted a sister, 2) God knows how many mistakes I have made from the time I was her age to now. For the most part, I've been able to learn from many mistakes. Hopefully I will continue to learn from them, and share them with her, 3) I want to learn from my little too.I think Morgan will help me gain perspective on the basics of what life is about. Doing things that make you happy while building and maintaining relationships with positive people.

It's not always easy being positive though, especially when it seems that Murphy's Law is so applicable in the here and now. I guess it's just important for me to focus on the silver lining to the dark clouds. Pastor Andy Stanley talked about this very emotion this year. Why worry? NOTHING GOOD comes from worrying about things that go wrong. Everything happens because it is God's plan and we must put all of our trust in God.

No matter what challenges I face in life, I must realize that I have a great support center comprised of my family and true friends. Ahhh, it is refreshing to say that Life is Wonderful!

You're So Beautiful

My brother, John, was in town last weekend from Memphis to clean up his house he was renting out to his friends. The home was formally owned by my grandmother, on mom's side. We looked in the attic and came across a diary she had been keeping for several years. All this time, I didn't think I had anything in common with this woman, but now I know we both like to write. For some unfortunate reason, my grandmother and I didn't have the story perfect relationship. She LOVED my brother and commonly referred to him as the "king". But she openly discussed how much she didn't like me... I didn't do anything to her, but I'm convinced she is in Heaven looking down on me and realized what a wonderful granddaughter I could have been to her.

In one of her entries, she wrote, "Victoria will be three years old very soon. She looks like her mother, but is on the chubby side. She has sadness in her eyes. Her brother, John Trent, takes every opportunity to hurt her physically and comment about her weight. I feel bad for her." Haha, not much has changed between me and John, except the fact that we are now finally friends!

The diary was written by hand, all in consistent cursive script. I think it is neat to see how much emphasis was focused on proper penmanship in generations before mine. I feel like todays generation of children growing up, as well as mine, have been crippled by the dependancy we have on computers. I'm one of the worst spellers, I'm not good with simple math, and my handwriting is not so pretty:-( With all the universal acceptance and usage of computers, I don't know anyone who consistently writes by hand in cursive.

I have digressed... One topic I want to touch on is the fact that we, as humans, are socially constructed to focus on the negatives in our lives. We talk about bad service we get from a restaurant more quickly then bringing up great points of service. We complain more that we rejoice, and that is just our nature. I am writing a book of all the mistakes I have made and am still making in life, then exploring how I handle each issue. I don't want to do that right now, because I am so excited about how my life is changing for the better!

After a month of searching for my next career opportunity, speaking with several hiring managers, visiting many business and re-doing my resume about a trillion times, I have come to a decision. I have accepted an offer with KnowledgeForce Professional Staffing (KForce) as an Account Executive in their Finance and Accounting division. Although I have not sold staffing services before, I am so confident in my ability to be successful at it. Through this job search, I learned a lot about myself, from myself and from reading recommendations provided by former co-workers, mentors and managers. So stay tuned with all that business.

Another point of excitement right now is that I am getting back into the swing of working out... My month-long spring break is ending and it's time to get serious about getting into shape. I went to Weight Watchers this morning and am still down from the weight I originally weighed in at:-) Then, I went to the gym and worked out for about an hour! I'm feeling really good about getting into the best shape of my life and staying there for a while.

So, it is bitter sweet to have to say goodbye to the late nights of staying out past 4 a.m. every night. Is it sad that the guy at the hot dog stand outside Peachtree Tavern knows me by name? I would say, yes! Don't get me wrong, I'll still stay in the social scene of Buckhead, but not as frequently... I'm a working girl again!

This Too Shall Pass

Everyone has heard, "you can look at a glass as being half full or half empty." The more optimistic of the two is being half full of course. However, it is very easy to say great sayings like these, and actually living it out is much more difficult.

In the past few weeks, my life has been turned completely upside down. For the most part, I am not letting this get me down. Today, I went to lunch with one of my besties from MATRIX and I must say how bitter sweet it was. I really wish that I was still there, and got to see her and everyone else every day, but I also miss what I did! Now the good thing is that I have been interviewing and feel like I'm going to be close to an offer somewhere. So maybe MATRIX just prepared me to grow as a young professional.  Bottom line is that everything is in Gods hands now, and I trust that I have done my part and something great is coming!

If I step back and take a look at the dynamics of how my life has changed, I can honestly say that many things are better. 

• I am reassured by knowing that there are people in my life who care so much about me and love me, including a few of the following (not in any particular order): my parents, brother, Tracee, Lauren, Jessica, Liz, Jenny, Mandy, goodness - I am blessed to have so many others;
• I now have Lauren as a roommate to share my townhome/condo with;
  
• Lauren brought her dog to live with us (see picture above)... She is a few years old, fully trained and sweet as can be; and
• There are several good prospects on the horizon for my next career move!

So when I get upset, I just need to remind myself how blessed I really am. Andy Stanley was talking about complaining one Sunday. He said that nothing good comes from it. Any problems you have, give them to God.

I'm gonna go ahead and study for my next J.Alexander's test... on Day 4 now, only two more to go!