300!!!!!!!

This is my 300^th post!!!! I can’t believe it!!! I can’t believe I’ve kept this up for so long!

I love having a space where I can go to talk about my life and frustrations, and even get amazing feedback back! I hope to keep this up for a very long time!!

This has been a crazy week for me. It was my birthday on Monday and then I started my new job yesterday!!! So many changes, so little time to think!

First my birthday. It was great. On Sunday I went out with some friends to this amazing Bar on the beach where I proceeded to get a little tipsy. lol. Then Monday my friend took me to get my nails done as part of my birthday gift from her. Then we spent the day lounging by her pool getting some color. Later I went to dinner with my mom and brother. It was great. A nice laid back day to celebrate turning a year older.

Tuesday, I was pretty surprised when I woke up not really being nervous at all. Usually I would be a wreck, but today I was okay, a pretty good omen if anything. My trip was less than half the time it usually is which was amazing. Then when I got there they had bought me breakfast so I could meet with everyone. How sweet is that?? Then I just dove right in. They already had this big project for me to work on so I’m doing this, while learning the ropes. Plus the lady who is training me is beyond awesome. She is so sweet and patient with me. I’ve already learned tons from her. I’m taking over her position when she leaves but I know she’ll leave me with plenty of knowledge!

Everyone here has been really nice to me. They are like one big family. Plus they definitely have some great perks. For summer Fridays here I now get to leave at 12:30. Every Wednesday they give us FREE lunch!!!! Plus the greatest benefit of all. Me actually leaving at 5 and getting home before 6!!! Last night I didn’t even know what to do with myself. It was great to come home and just be able to relax.

I can’t wait to see what else this new job has in store for me and also this new life I’m making for myself!

The other side of 25

Monday is my birthday! It definitely sneaked up on me this year. This whole year seems to be flying by.

Last year when I turned 25, I wasn't too happy about that number. I decided to celebrate big anyway. It was 3 nights of non-stop partying and fun. Perfect for that milestone.

26 will be much more laid back. I am off work on Monday. So I plan on going to a nearby bar thats on the beach on Sunday, and just hang out with friends and have fun. The actual day of my birthday my friend is taking me to get my nails done and then out to lunch. Then I'll probably go out to dinner with my mom and brother. A pretty nice and relaxing day and I can't wait!!

I'm not dreading this birthday as much as I did last year. I'm pretty zen about turning a year older. With this new job and really new outlook on my life, I really feel like things is just about to begin.

I look forward to the year ahead and everything that will happen!

Surreal

It still hasn't hit me yet that next week I will be starting a new job. I don't really quite believe it yet I guess. Or maybe I just can't really imagine how much my life is going to change now.

With this new job, I will get home from work before 6pm. Before I was came home from work at 8:30. I get 2 and 1/2 hours of my day back!

With this new job, I will save almost $4,000 from not having to take the train anymore. That's a lot of money!

With this new job, I will be able to dress up a bit more. With all the walking I did in the city I always had to wear sneakers, because of my foot problems. Now I can wear sandals, flats and all sorts of shoes!! Which means I can wear pretty clothes again!

With this new job, I can actually have a social life. I've been living like a hermit for almost 3 years because of my job. I always got home so late that I barely had time to eat and shower before bed. Now I can go out for happy hour if I want.

With this new job, I am going to join a gym and actually go to it! Before I had this excuse that I had no time in the day to go work out. Now I have no more excuses and it's time for me to start getting healthy again.

For the past week I've been smiling non-stop and honestly I can't remember when that has happened. I'm just so happy. I'm not even really nervous about this new job, which is so unlike me. Usually I would be one huge ball of nerves, but I've been pretty calm about it.

I can't wait to start!!!

My big news

I got a job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m seriously can’t believe that this happened. I wasn’t even looking for a new job.

Let me start from the beginning.

A few weeks ago my office found out that we were going to have a training day in our NJ office. It was going to be an all day thing, which happened last week. The day before, one of the VPs called me into her office. Which made me freak out since I thought I was in major trouble for something. Also she asked my manager to come too, which made me even more nervous.

As soon as I walked in though, she told about this position that just opened up in the NJ office that she thought I would be perfect for!! She told me that she knew my commute was horrible and the cost was a killer, so when this job opened up she immediately thought of me! How awesome is that?? That my VP recommended me for a job!!! Since we were already going to be in NJ the next day, she told me to come in a little earlier for an interview!

I honestly can’t even tell you how I felt. At how fast this happened and how amazing it would be for me to get the position. It was unreal. She told me I didn’t have to dress up, since I was going to be doing this training/team building thing afterwards. The next day, bright and early, I met with the two people to interview me and it was great! Seriously, the guy looked at the resume and said, “so on here it shows that you do everything that we would need you to do”!! There were very few questions, and a lot of explanation of what I would be doing there. It was the best interview ever. I knew I rocked it when it ended.

Then it was on to the training day. While we were all eating breakfast there was a slide show of all the things we had to go over that day. But then the last slide came up and said that it was really employee appreciation day and that we were all going to Dave and Busters for the day!!!!!!!! Talk about the best surprise ever!!!

We all boarded a bus and headed to Dave and Busters in Philly. It was all you can drink, free lunch, and we got a card with like 300 points to play the games. It was one of the best days. The day was so much fun and just flew by!!! We got back to the NJ office around 5 and I was home before 6! When we got back one of the people who interviewed me told me that things looked promising for me! I was on cloud 9!!

I was officially offered the position yesterday and haven’t been able to stop smiling. My life is going to change so much its crazy!! While I am nervous about starting a new position, one that has more responsibility, I just know this is the best thing for me right now!

Speechless

Yesterday was one of the most crazy, wonderful, and exciting days ever. Even today I feel like bursting and I can't stop smiling.

I know I'm being vague but I honestly have no words to describe my day. Also I don't want to speak too quickly yet anyway.

It was just AMAZING.

Tune in next week to hear all about it!

Summer Kickoff

This past weekend officially marked the start of summer for me. Sure most people look to Memorial Day as the start, but for me summer doesn’t start until I hit the beach for the first time.

That’s exactly what I did on Saturday. It was so hot and humid out, it was the perfect day to hit the beach. Surprisingly there was no traffic getting to the beach. I live pretty close to the beach but usually as I get closer to one of the bridges, that takes me to the actual beach, I always hit some kind of traffic on the weekends. It was weird to not hit any traffic and for there to be so few cars on the road at that time. Then when we got to the beach, we found out that it was FREE that day!!! Talk about the perfect way to kick off the day and the summer for me!!!!

The beach was lovely. The weather channel said it was supposed to rain but it couldn’t have been more gorgeous at the beach. I can get antsy at the beach if I sit still for too long, but I had a book so I was set for the day.

It was so hot though that you had to go in the water. It was freezing, but felt refreshing after baking in the sun. Plus I’m a total water girl, so I can’t NOT go swimming if I am near a body of water.

The only downside to the day was the sunburn and weird tan lines I got. I never ever can just get an even tan. I always get weird tan lines and sunburns, so that my skin looks freaky all summer long. Last year my left foot got burned the first day in the sun so for the rest of the summer my foot just kept on getting darker and darker and the rest of my leg couldn’t catch up. It looked dirty by the end of the summer. lol. This year, my bathing suit had a ring where the strap goes through to go up around your neck halter style. So of course I got a little red dot on Saturday on my chest. lol. Also I did a terrible job at putting the sunscreen on the back of my legs so they are all splotchy. It’s pretty sexy. ;)

What event or activity signals the start of summer for you?

My hair has a life of it's own

I have wavy/curly hair. Generally I love my hair. I like the fact that I can straighten it easily, or if I'm lazy just let it be wavy. Sometimes with special hair products I can make it really curly. In the past few years my hair has become more curly. When I was in Middle School my hair was basically straight!

Anyway the only time I don't really care for my hair is in the summer. With Jersey humidity my hair takes a life of its own. It's like a balloon that just keeps growing and growing.

I hate it. Forget about even thinking about straightening it. Within hours it'll be gone.

A few weeks ago I got my hair cut and I saw that my saloon does this Keratin Smoothing Treatment. It's like chemically straightening your hair but instead of killing your hair it's actually good for you. What really caught my eye is the fact that it eliminates frizz by 95 percent!

I've been thinking about it ever since. With my birthday in a few weeks my mom offered to pay for me to get it done!!!!

I am so excited. The thought that I won't have to worry about my hair being a hot mess this summer is amazing! My appointment is in two weeks and I'll let you know how it goes!!

Have any of you had something like this done? What did you think of the results?

Baby!

I’m officially an Aunt!!!!!!!

My brother and his wife welcomed their baby girl at about 3am Saturday Morning!! 8lbs 14oz and looks just like my brother! She has a full head of hair and is absolutely adorable*.

My mom and I left NJ as soon as my brother told us she was going into labor. We were hoping to get there before the baby came. We left around 10:30 Friday night. We figured we shouldn’t hit any traffic since it was so late. We were so very wrong.

We got to the toll before the Delaware Memorial Bridge and we sat in traffic for 3 HOURS. For 3 hours the car did not move an inch. It was the worst car experience I have ever had in my life. There was a bus fire on the bridge so they had stopped all traffic until the accident was cleared.

With my anxiety I don’t do well in that kind of situation. I had a crazy panic attack and was crying hysterically for like a half an hour. I was exhausted; it was 1am, which did not help with the craziness. Once we finally got moving we pretty much had no other problems. Other than extreme exhaustion.

We didn’t arrive to DC until 7 am in the morning. Over 8 hours of travelling. We went straight to the hospital and found out she had had the baby. They were exhausted and asked if we could come back in a few hours. With a quick stop to see the baby at the nursery, my mom and me when to their apartment for a quick nap and to recharge ourselves a little.

Around noon we headed back to the hospital where we finally got to see the baby up close and hold her. She is just so precious. My brother was a big pile of love and mush. He’s not really the affectionate kind of guy but he was full of love that day. It seriously made me tear up to see him so happy and at peace.

Later that afternoon, they were fading and with all the emotions from that day, we left to give them another break. We were planning on getting lunch and then going back, but we just really wanted to go home. We knew they were tired and if we were to go back it would only be a quick visit again before leaving, so we just left. We thought it best to give them some alone time with each other. Thankfully we hit no traffic coming home. We were able to get home by 6pm and just relax. We went about 40 hours without any real sleep. It was rough.

My mom is going back in a few weeks to spend some time with my sister-in-law and help her out for a week and hopefully I will be able to go down for a few days to visit again.

*I would post a picture but they asked me to not post anything on my facebook so I figured that would extend to this blog if they knew I had one.