Sneak Preview

Just a sneak preview of a post to come. I started it a long time ago then my computer freaked out and I lost the whole thing and I haven't wanted to try it again. I wanted to share one of the pictures anyway...enjoy.

Confessions of a Cheesaholic

So, I've known for a long time, but am finally making a public confession: I am a cheesaholic. My first clue might have been from this evening. Arriving home late tonight, the family was finishing up dinner (we actually try to do that eating together thing now that G-pa is here). Instead of joining them for a meal of roasted chicken, berries, and bread, I snuck some items from the fridge and headed upstairs. So what did I eat for dinner? Well I am currently sitting next to some crumbs of wheat crackers as well as the remains of some Boursin, smoked gouda, and brie. It's true. My meal for the evening was cheese and crackers.

Kind of makes me think that I would have done well as a peasant in medieval times. Except for the weevils in the bread. And the whole manual labor thing. Oh, and the servitude. Oh, and....

More Ikea Love

After my last post, Michelle commented and said that she had posted this great Ikea commercial on her blog. I stole it and you must now watch it - it is not to be missed.

Observations on a Theme

Okay, so I am going to come right out and say it at the beginning so no one wastes their time: this blog entry is about Ikea. I know, I know. This topic has definitely been blogged to death by now, right? Maybe. I do feel, though, that I had some Ikea insights/questions over the weekend and I feel the need to unburden myself of them into the blogosphere. If they entertain or amuse you for a minute, that makes me feel even better. If not - well, I'm not sure.

Anyway, I feel that I must start by explaining that I have a relationship with Ikea that most people have with a shopping mall. You know how most people plan a Saturday trip to the mall and spend 3-4 hours there going from store to store and checking things out? I do this. I do this, though, at Ikea (which I privately refer to as heaven on a budget). This is why I can never invite anyone along with me on my Ikea trips. They must be solitary so that I can scour the store with my eyes without an impatient companion sighing next to me every time I stop, or run across the aisle to look at what's on the other side.

Ikea was never that big of a deal to me growing up - it's not really rare here at home - but as I seek for wonderful treasures on a budget, I am drawn there on a semi-regular basis (usually the Saturday after a wonderful little present from a place of employment has been deposited in my banking account). Anyway, here are a few things that I have noticed/wondered about on my visits.

1. How can a store that is so large and that has so much extra space still make me so frustrated because there is never enough room to get around people? Do you know what I mean? I have a theory that part of the problem are those great shopping carts that they have that can turn easily in almost any direction. This allows people to make erratic turns on a whim when they spot something attractive, almost always causing a pile-up behind them as others try to avoid the situation by turning their carts in one of oh-so-many possible directions to avoid them.

2. Shortcuts? Due to the size of the store, there are various shortcuts from one area to the next for those who do not want to browse through all of the collections and are on a mission for a certain item. Why is it, that when I am on a mission for a certain item, I can never cross the threshold of those shortcuts to skip the areas I really don't need to see? I became very determined one time to cut past the living room and office set-ups to move directly on to the bedroom displays, when I found myself fighting the tide of traffic and going backwards as I just knew there was something that I had to see in those two previous sections that would change my life. Seriously. The shortcuts are so final. I have never made the commitment of walking through one of those doorways since (which probably explains a little bit about the 3 hours visits).

3. I have never, ever been to a store where I have seen more groups of young men shopping together. I have theories about this, but I really have no idea who they all are and why any of the male species would be shopping there together as they tend to be a solitary bunch, particularly where shopping is concerned. My best theory? This comes mostly from my amazing sleuthing skills (ahem, eavesdropping) - roomates. Most of them seem to be roomates either in college or recently out of college trying to decorate their new places on a budget. Next time you go, you should try to listen to these conversations as 3 or 4 20-somethings debate the merits of this dining room table and chairs over that one. Fascinating!

Anyway - just some observations. I won't apologize for boring you if you hated this post, as I will have to point out that I warned you at the beginning!

Flare Dedications

So, you know when you totally forget about a website that you absolutely love and then something brings it to your memory and you go back to visit it and it is so exciting because everything has been changed because so much time has passed? (whew!). That's how I feel about fredflare.com right now. I was even more excited to see that they have finally opened up their first store in Brooklyn! Just one more incentive for me to go visit Tricia sometime this year!

Anyway, I was so excited about rekindling my love for this website, that not only did I make a few purchases, but I thought that I would send a few Flare Dedications out into the internet universe (mostly for those friends I think may visit this site every once in a while).

Here goes:

FOR JEN:

Could there be anything better than an Edgar Allan Poe action figure? I really don't think so...unless it was an Edgar Allan Poe talking doll! Sigh. Maybe someday...

FOR ELYSE:

So, I thought you would appreciate the Holly Golightly sleep mask. Mostly because I could totally see you wearing it and loving it, but also because a part of me feels like you would be an Audrey lover like I am!

FOR SARAH:

Sarah! Maybe because when I think of you I always think of music, but these massive ear buds totally reminded me of you. I think you need to buy these!

FOR ERIN:

I immediately thought of you when I saw this "cat"apult. I don't know one other person who would have more fun shooting cats at people. I only wish I could see you use it. Miss you!

FOR NICOLE:

Finally! The ultimate food fight - Bacon vs. Tofu! Just made me think of you - especially after our LA experience and laughing a lot at bacon!

FOR TRICIA:

Can you believe this? We better get those llamas soon! Haha. I thought you would think this was hilarious.

FOR MACGREGOR:

Oh MacGregor, how I would love to have $50 to buy this for you so that I could record your daily activities through a series of timed pictures. Maybe I would catch you during your daily dip in the spa, sneaking food out of impossible drawers, or just sleeping all day (as I really suspect). But wouldn't it be so great to know?

FOR KATE AND PAUL:

A game for foodies? Was this made for you? All I know is that I could never try to play this game with you as I would be disgustingly defeated after about 2 seconds!

FOR WHITNEY:

I don't really know why I picked this for you, Whitney, except that I thought you would think that a $500 gold retainer necklace is as funny as I did!

Joy to the ...What?

So, all of the family visited for Christmas this year. It was totally chaotic and great at the same time. I caught some funny moments on my camera and wanted to post two of them. The first video is of Kirkland, Jessica's middle child, singing Jingle Bells in this creepy voice that he sometimes just decides to use. If you listen closely, he sings Jingle Bells (totally mushing up the end part), then says "Merry Christmas" "Ho Ho Ho" and then sings Jingle Bells again (that's me egging him on).

After I filmed Kirkland, Carter (Alexis' youngest), then wanted his turn to sing on camera. This one is hilarious. He is so serious. If you listen, you can hear that he actually changes songs in the middle. To what, you say? Just listen closely...

Aren't they great? Can you tell that Carter has been to Disneyland at Christmastime? Nothing like out of the mouth of babes...or 3-year-olds. You have to give props to Disney for great marketing!

Ring Out Wild Bells

You know those days where all you can think about when you wake up to go to work is that you will be able to sleep all the next night and sleep in the next morning? Well today was one of those days, except now I can't fall asleep. I decided to spread some Christmas Cheer. I just a little obsessed with holiday music, and I have been coming across some great music this year. I have a couple of playlists that I have been listening to regularly, and I wanted to share at least one of them. This one has some great old songs done by some new people. I love that it gives a different sound to Christmas.


Click here to visit the playlist on iTunes.

Santa or China?

If I have already posted this, please forgive me, but I wanted to document a great question from my 7-year-old nephew to my sister on the way home from school one day:

"Mom, who makes better toys - Santa or China?"

Some Laughs...

For my birthday on Saturday, Nicole took me to go see Jim Gaffigan at The Wiltern. So hilarious! We laughed so hard - my stomach started hurting and I started to get a pressure headache. Needless to say, the drive back home was also hilarious because everything just seemed so funny! He didn't do this bit at our show, but I wanted to include a little clip for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Just Watch

Alarm Saga

So, the long awaited Alarm Story. I worry that I will have built this story up so much that now anyone who reads it will be seriously disappointed. Well, here goes.

So, Heart Walk. Yeah. Once upon a time, there was a girl with a job. Not just any job, but a job in which she had to plan an event for approximately 6000 people, including permits (of which there were many), production companies, audio/visual, coordinating with media sponsors, web site updating, money entry, email campaigns, matching gifts forms, banners, volunteers, donation, radios, parking, balloons, food ...and the list goes on ...in 4.5 months instead of 12 months (the normal amount of time).

Anyway, I just wanted to give you the picture. Also, imagine more than a couple of weeks of 8 hours at work and then coming home to more hours of work, averaging 4-5 hours of sleep a night. Then, on Friday, we were at the office working on stuff until about 10pm. I went home, worked some more, and then got to bed in time to wake up at 5am to get some more work done before heading to the parking lot at 8am where set-up would begin for the event on Sunday.

There I am, Saturday morning, working on the computer at about 7am figuring I have about 15 more minutes before I need to get ready and head out to meet the company delivering the porta potties at 8am to the parking lot. I get a call on my cell with the delivery person telling me he will be arriving at the location in 15 minutes. Talk crazy rush! I ran, changed, pulled my stuff together, and arrived at the parking lot just 5 minutes after the delivery man. That pretty much set the tone for the day. I was in that parking lot, standing, from 7:30am until about 8:30pm when I went home and worked until 1:30am before getting up at 3am and heading back to the event site.

All of that is just to give you an idea of my exhaustion and state of mind. At about 4pm on Saturday, one of the 4 staff people assigned to the Heart Walk hurt her knee and had to be taken by one of the other staff members to the hospital. Down to 2. At this point we were very frantic thinking of all of the things the two of us had to get done before the next day. One of the things to get done was to put together signs for about 175 teams. As we went to the box of supplies to grab the staple gun, we realized that...there were no staple guns. They were left in the office about 20 minutes away.

I talked to my supervisor who informed me that the office would be locked but that the alarm would not be armed, and I jumped in my car to go get the staple guns. You can probably already see where this is heading.

I arrived at the office, ran from the car with just my phone and my keys, opened the office door, and stepped inside. At that moment, I looked at the alarm and realized that it was on and I had exactly 12 seconds to enter a code to disarm it before it went off. Mind you, I don't know my alarm code. It was sitting safely in my wallet in the car outside. I grabbed my cell and immediately called my supervisor, D, so that she could tell me her code. Almost immediately, I hear the phones in the office start to ring and I know that it is the alarm company checking (they always do a check-up call to see if it really is an emergency). Holding my cell in one hand, I sprint to D's office as it is closer than mine and grab the phone, still holding my cell up to my other ear waiting for D to answer. The thing was, there was nobody on the line when I picked up the office phone! This really freaked me out as I had visions of the alarm company calling and not being able to connect on the phone so they send out the fire trucks and police (believe me, it has happened before, though not to me).

I then run back to the alarm pad by the door and reach to grab the door to run out to the car. As I did that, the alarm pad started freaking out. I closed the door again and again tried to call D. on my cell. Again, the office phones started ringing. At this point, I am definitely freaking out. I run to grab the phone and, once again, I can't hear anything! I run back to the alarm pad with my cell at my ear and there is no sound - no ringing and no D's voicemail. WHAT is going on? I try to call again, standing there looking at the alarm pad. Once again, the general office phone starts to ring. I run to grab it. At this moment, I realize that as I am trying to speak into the office phone with no one answering me, my cell has picked up. I pick it up and say, "D?"

At this point I, so humorlessly, realize that I have actually been calling D's office number. Wow.

I know, I know, but I was flustered! I don't dwell on the fact that I had been running back and forth to answer my own phone calls, and immediately call D's work cell. Just as she answers, the office phones ring again. I pick it up and hold it on my left ear with my cell on my right so D can hear me as I tell them that I am her and then they ask me for my code. Unfortunately, it is really hard to hear the difference between a 9 and a 1 on the phone. As I gave the wrong code, there was only silence on the line. D, meanwhile is screaming in my other ear ,"ONE, not 9! ONE! O-N-E!" I quickly correct myself and give a flustered little laugh and excuse myself saying that I am just so flustered that I forgot my code.

Whew!

Fortunately, with a couple of other little snafoos, everything else went pretty well. I had visions in my head of the firemen coming from across the street and the police taking me to the station because I can't explain who I am and why I don't know my code. Then I would have to stay all night at the police department and the Heart Walk would be a failure. Needless to say, I immediately wrote the code on the back of my hand in a black sharpie.

Even funnier is the fact that I had various people come up to me on Monday to hand me my office keys and bluetooth that had both gotten lost in the craziness as I dropped them in my craziness running from the phone to the door and back again.

Ah, one of those moments where I almost wish the office had security cameras so I could watch me call myself three times. Good times with the Heart Walk...

Shop Therapy

I don't know how this happened, particularly with former roomates that are so thrifty, but I am definitely all about the shop therapy lately. A couple of weeks before Heart Walk, after a particularly stressful week, I bought myself a pair of shoes. Not so bad, you think? Well, I won't even post how much these shoes cost as I don't want those thrifty friends to find out (j/k!), but they were more than I have EVER spend on a pair of shoes. My favorite moment was as I was trying to justify them to my brother in the car. As you have probably guessed, most of his responses were basically, "Cool." "Oh." "Grunt." Not a very productive conversation.

Well, this week (beginning on Saturday with Shop for a Cause at Macy's - shout out to the AHA's Go Red for Women program!), I have been on a rampage. I have a new bag for work coming in the mail today. I definitely have some new make-up and jewelry items as well. The problem? I have a new philosophy to save up and then buy quality to start to replace all of the I'm-in-college-so-who-cares-how-long-this-lasts-because-it's-cheap that clutter up my life.

As a disclaimer, I would also like to insert here that all of these items were on sale when I purchased them - which is why I can't find any more good pics of them - darn it! Lol.

It's Genius!

Just a little shout-out to Sarah and Tricia who have both commented to me or on their blog about the new Genius feature on itunes! It's like Pandora but with your own music - and suggestions for new music! Loving it - although still addicted to Pandora. Tricia recommended The Weepies station and I am definitely digging that. Thanks, ladies!

Oh, Pandora, How Do I Love Thee...

Okay, so I know that I still need to write about the alarm story - which you should all be waiting for, let me tell you! The thing is, I am working on pulling an Awards Reception for 250 with a sit-down dinner on a little-to-no-budget in the next couple of weeks, so by the time I get home I have serious adult ADD and don't want to devote the time to write out the whole story. I will work on it, though, I promise! In the meantime, I just wanted to mention something that I am recently loving.





I know Pandora is not new news for anyone, but I am only recently playing with it and loving it. Unfortunately, I can't listen at work due to no speakers on my computer as well as the fact that we have the world's worst server and if anyone streams anything, the internet slows down to negative 25 miles an hour for everyone else trying to work.

Anyway, I have been listening at home while I'm working on the computer. My favorite station right now? Mirah. Pretty much loving it...it might take me a while to experiment with any new ones for a while since I enjoy this so much!

Oh, wow.

Wow. The Heart Walk is over. Well, not really. People always ask me if I can now take time off, but there is still an awards ceremony to plan, money to enter, purchase orders to fill, thank-yous to send out, follow-up meetings to set, reports to run, files to organize, items to return...you get the idea.

My whole body aches and I feel like I haven't slept in weeks, which, really, I haven't. The event went really well. I wanted to include some links to some of the pre-event stories that have run in the newspapers and on news stations for you to look at if you would like:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/heart-stroke-catalano-2156901-years-underwent

http://cbs2.com/video/?id=76984@kcbs.dayport.com

I haven't seen the post-event stories yet, but there were a lot of photographers and video cameras from the various news stations, so we will see...

We have between 5000 and 6000 people attend, and (from what they could tell), it went really well! I was stuck to my head mike the whole time putting out fires, but I have heard a lot of really good feedback. We are continuing to raise money toward our $1.3 million goal, and so far have raised more money than any previous year (this is the 28th year). Money is still coming in and if you are curious, you can check out our rolling total at www.ocheartwalk.org.

So, there was a definite lack of sleep last week. Usually about 4 hours a night, and then on Saturday I got to bed at 1:30am and had to get up at 3am to go finish setting up for everything to start at 7am.

Involved in all this lack of sleep are some pretty funny stories. I think my mental capacity was severely threatened because of the extended lack of sleep and the many details that I had to keep in my head for the event.

One morning, I was freaking out and getting ready for work at about 5am (some early mornings!) and I couldn't find my bra. I looked for it for about 10 minutes before I realized that I was actually wearing it.

That's not all...

We had an employee in the office who had her birthday coming up. I pretty much talked to her about it every day. When the office card came to me to sign, I filled up almost half of one side of the card with a really funny and personal message. The problem? I wrote my Happy Birthday message to the person in charge of getting the card, NOT the person who would be receiving it. Yes, we did need to buy a new card.

There is another great story about me on Saturday and the office alarm system, but I will save that for another day when I have caught up on more sleep. Definitely some seriously good times!

It is good to be coming back into the land of the living. I will definitely post pictures of the walk as soon as I get some.