Okay... I think I'm ready now!

What do you mean the month is half over? My goodness, how the time does fly!

While our social calendar has been empty I've managed to dig myself out of the hole I was obviously in when I last posted. Coming back from the trip and diving straight into the holiday season was actually crazier than I ever managed to realize while in the middle of it. Recently I started to feel really proud and optimistic of how organized and on top of things I was, but then I realized it's just that I'm not miserably swamped and behind on everything!

Work is interesting, our manager is leaving at the end of the month, yes the one who started in July. I'm happy for her that she's moving into something more important to her personally, but I was left very worried about the time between when she leaves and when a replacement is hired. There's just two ladies who are taking classes to complete their degrees and me to open and close the store 7 days a week. I didn't see how that could possibly go well. Well, it's actually looking pretty good for me! Considering their class schedules I'm left opening the store more often than not, and that means carpooling with CF and getting to come in for fantastic breakfast before heading down to work. Also, they're available more on weekends, so I have almost every weekend day off, except for two Saturdays, one is our inventory day and one is our big wedding planning event, so of course I'm going to be there on those days! So that feels pretty darn good, I'll have a much more "normal" schedule than I've managed since the store opened. What is CF going to do with me around so much on the weekends?

For now things remain a little crazy at work, we're getting ready for inventory, the manager is leaving so her brain is sort of half way out the door, and this is all happening as letterpress orders pick up as we head into wedding planning season. Seeing as I'm the invitations coordinator and held a bit accountable for sales for this service it is very nice to see business picking up, but it can pull me in two directions at once sometimes. Yesterday I opened the store and knew I had to dive into a stack of letterpress and special order questions that had been waiting all weekend for answers from headquarters. But I also found an email explain the top priority was to get all winter clearance merchandise off the sales floor before opening. Ummm, how am I supposed to do that, alone, and in half an hour? So we weren't done before the store opened but I did the best I could and made the phone call requested in that email. KA answered the phone (she gave me the tour when we visited Chicago last September) and wondered why I was calling, I told her it was to give her the update she requested. Later I learned that only two area managers and myself had given their update, everyone else failed to check in. So I was totally on top of what needed to happen but I made our store look pretty good just by making that call. JE was my hero and spent most of her day packing up boxes of Christmas and making lists of the items going in each box, though at one point we ran out of boxes so we had to wait for the day's delivery to be made before we could continue packing. By the time I really got to dive into my stack of important questions everyone in Chicago had gone home for the day so those questions are waiting until I get back to work today. Ah, the pitfalls of urgent versus important!

It's going to be a long day, I just did my second morning in a row of what I call "butt early" spin. Yesterday was 5:30 and this morning was 6:00am. I went last Tuesday and Thursday as well. Tuesday was the first time I had been to a spin class since before we went to Europe! I thought I was going to be really, really hurting afterwards but I did all right. I didn't think I'd manage four classes in the first week after missing three months. But it feels great to be getting so much cardio done! Just wish me luck in staying awake late enough to close the store and drive home tonight!

CF and I took a trip to Expo last Saturday to look at bathroom stuff and now we're realizing how much work we have to do before we can remodel our lovely pink bathroom. I've started to work on some floor plans, but they often just frustrate me because we just don't have the room to do anything the way we'd really like it. I'm sure I'll have plenty more to say on this subject as we get further along in this project.

What else is going on? Well, I've decided to have a party on the afternoon/evening of the Oscars whether there's a ceremony or not. If there's no reason to turn on the TV that's fine, we'll play some Trivial Pursuit, CF will cook, and good friends will get together. Ain't nothing wrong with that. For our anniversary in March we are thinking of just going out for a casual but fun night in the city. We might hit up a fancy restaurant that weekend with D&V though like we did right around their anniversary six months earlier. I am totally enjoying working out with my new iPod Shuffle when I do cardio by myself, it's making me want to listen to more music. I need some new tunes to listen to. Any suggestions? If you're interested, at the end of this month I do believe two Broadway divas will be releasing pop records on the same day, Sarah Brightman (Christine from Phantom) and Idina Menzel (from Rent and Wicked) both think 1/29 is a good day to drop an album. I think I will be willing to check out both.

So! I never did make a list of New Year's resolutions, but I realized that not all of them were important and really it was a to-do list I was writing in my head. So while things like actually buying new gym clothes (my XXL t-shirts are a bit baggy), and getting more picture frames hung on our walls do seem like good ideas, I'm not going to rate my year based on my getting them done. My real resolution comes from my original chiropractor, who moved away suddenly last October. She used to tell me, "Be good to yourself." And it worked for so many occasions! Whether it was just trying to remember to eat right, or if it was me feeling guilty about not enjoying time around certain people in my life. She was telling me to not feel bad about what I ate yesterday, but remember what kind of food actually makes me feel good... all in four little words. And while I was confessing to not being the most patient and understanding person (shocking, I know!) she was telling me to stop beating myself up over it and to think about how those people make me feel anyway. I've carried this saying into other aspects of my life. I can't say I've got it down perfectly yet, but it is still January after all! Like after getting home later than expected last night because CF needed a little extra time at work, and I still watched a whole DVD like I had planned, even though that kept me up till 11 and I was getting up around 5 to go to the gym? That's not being too good to myself, that's what we call self-sabotaging. But at least I recognize it and will try to do better next time. That's the whole point, really. Do what is best/right for you but don't beat yourself up for mistakes, because that's not good for you either, just make sure to do better next time (and then do it!). So my resolution for 2008 is to be good to myself. There you have it.

Okay kids, I've got to head to work. I'm going to buy JE a little gift card at our cafe across the street for being such a badass yesterday when I needed so much help.