Yes, please!

My mom has always been eager for me to try Land’s End clothing. Anytime I needed new dress clothes, she’d toss me the latest catalog. I finally caved and tried the dress shirts, which I love. I like the fit and quality and how they don’t wrinkle. While I was in college (and admittedly, after college), it came in handy that I could wash, dry and wear and they looked like they had been pressed.

My step-dad always pipped in that Land’s End wasn’t designed for my age group or body shape and he was right.

This morning, I saw on Urban Grace Interiors that Land’s End has a new line, “Canvas.” Suddenly, it seems, Land’s End has seen the light. No longer are these my mother’s clothes. It’s a combination of J. Crew, Madewell and a little Gap thrown in. I’m anxious to see the clothes up close and personal, but it’s bound to be quality from a line that so many have trusted for years.

Thanks for sharing, Erika!

 

A weekend with mom

This weekend has consisted so far of:

• paying bills (a necessity)
• Habanero with Sarah
• Christmas shopping
• Buying a turkey and dropping it off for Operation Thanks
• Free donuts (with plenty to share!)
• shopping with my mom
• Finally finding flat boots for winter
• a filling lunch at Chick-fil-a (and mom attempting to set me up with our waiter)
• realizing that I need to start doing pilates semi-regularly (starting like, tonight)
• spotting my body double in Martinsburg (they say everyone has a twin)

Against my “better judgment” I put up the tree mom brought for me to use this year and now it’s sitting in my living room half lit with no ornaments!

Tomorrow will be another lazy day with possibly more Christmas preparations. Church, Bible study and then a three day work week before going home for the Thanksgiving weekend with the family.

First day

Let’s recap.

A couple months ago, I was frustrated with a lot of things in my life. I needed a change. I had hit a wall.

In the past three months, I’ve moved out on my own again; I found a new church and suddenly, found a new job. If all that happened in a matter of three months, I’m anxious to see what occurs in 2010.

Today was my first day and I feel it went really well. One of those slow, catch up days where there’s a lot of handshakes, smiling and meeting people. This transition is a little easier because I recognize a lot of faces and know the basic structure of how things work at Shepherd.

Looking back though, I probably should have taken yesterday off. Getting off at 11:45 p.m., fighting sleep till almost 1 a.m., and getting up at 6:15 a.m. was difficult this morning. Actually, it wasn’t so bad getting up, it’s the crash that came after lunch when I realized my eyes were bloodshot that made me realize how tired I was. A weekend in Morgantown, traveling, not seeing your bed and working late will do that to a person.

I’m excited about the coming days and weeks as I learn the ropes and have an amazing opportunity to make this career move. This year, more than ever, I have a lot to be thankful for.

As you wish

I may get some slack out of this, but I have a confession to make. I’ve never had an appreciation for The Princess Bride, until, possibly, lately.

Growing up, I remember dad would want to watch it whenever it was on TV. I couldn’t follow along or didn’t care to try, so I would watch half-heartedly. One year for Christmas (I’m thinking it was sophomore year of high school?), dad bought me The Princess Bride for Christmas and jokingly said “I know it’s your favorite movie!” I was confused, because it definitely wasn’t.

Ever since, I’ve kept it in my growing DVD collection, rarely considering it when I want to watch a movie. I don’t even know if I’ve opened it to watch it, until tonight.

Facebooking “Dinner, Princess Bride, laundry and coffee” got a slew of comments about favorite quotes from the film. For the first time, I’m actually appreciating the film and paying attention.

In addition to watching The Princess Bride, I’ve caught up on laundry, cleaned Lou’s bowl and made pork chops (every time I type “pork chops” I want to type “porchops”).

Miraculously, I have a three day weekend which will begin Friday at 12:30 when I meet with Maggie in Cumberland. We’ll be heading out to Morgantown to have a “Maple 101 room mate reunion” with all of the girls from my senior year at Shepherd. This will be a nice mini-vacation with three of my favorite ladies before next week starts and I’m so looking forward to seeing them again. And hopefully doing some Friday night people watching on High Street.

So maybe I can be dramatic …

I always say I’m not as dramatic as some girls can be, but I have to admit, I can be dramatic.

I’m updating online profiles and cleaning up here and there and one of those things was tiding up categories on here, which I don’t even really use, when I came across this “case-in-point.”

“Ode to The Journal” Seriously?

Yes, I really wrote that. When I saw the title, it made me laugh. So that’s what I had to say when I was leaving as an intern, thinking I’d never be back in that newsroom again. Now, over 2 years later, I’m getting ready to leave again.

Over the weekend when I was working with all my old colleagues from that first summer, I appreciated our jokes, the sometimes crude humor and all the tid-bits we hear on the scanner. The other night we heard a call for a man who was unconscious from a fall due to dancing. Must have been some dance party!

One things for certain about this whole “transition” is that my sleep schedule is going to have some serious issues in the next 8-10 days. Having not clocked out until 11:30 p.m. or 2 a.m. like I did last week, my sleep schedule has been programmed to sleep from 2 a.m. till 10 a.m.

I organized my dresser and put summer clothes away and realized how badly I need a desk. That’s at the top of the “things to buy at Ikea” list. Right now all my paperwork for Shepherd (1,000 pages on insurance, life insurance, 401 K and the staff handbook and safety guide) are sitting on my shoe rack in safe keeping. I’m hoping to tackle that by Friday before I leave for Morgantown.

Tomorrow is another day off, and then my work week looks something like this: on two days, off two days, work three days and then start at Shepherd on Wednesday, November 18. Can’t wait.

Friday night

This evening I finally broke in my new Craigs List couch that I scored, along with several other items last week. The cushions have been fixed and are no longer ripped and the zippers have been replaced.

Tonight was one of the coldest nights we’ve had in a while. It was also what will probably be my last night shooting football for a while.

Despite it being 2 a.m., I’m sitting on the couch, covered in blankets and pillows, watching October Sky for the first time. I enjoy these quiet moments — possibly too much. I’ve grown accustomed to the solitude, but it doesn’t mean I want it to be a normal thing.

This morning I started to fill out paperwork for the new job. It’s hard to believe I may only have 5-7 days left at my current position.

 

Bit of news

 

So remember how I’ve been focusing so much on “change” lately? Well, I’ve got more changes to tell you about.

On Wednesday I gave my two weeks notice at The Journal, and on November 18, I will start a brand new position at Shepherd University, working in the office of external affairs as a writer and providing new content for the Web site regularly.

It’s hard to believe that in the past few months, even since my birthday, I’ve moved, started attending a new church and soon will start a new job. For some reason, I feel like maybe 23 will be my year. It’s certainly starting out quite well.

This switch from straight news to photography to a position in public relations will be different. Since I was 15, I’ve worked in a newsroom in some capacity. For the past 8 years, I’ve spent summers working with my dad at the weekly paper he works at, working for The Picket as a writer and then editor, interning at two daily papers and then working full time at The Journal for the past 17 months. Now that I think about it, 8 years is a substantial amount of time to be doing one area of work. I think this switch will be extremely positive for a number of reasons, but the main thing is that it will let me to continue doing my true passion, which is writing and storytelling.

In the past 17 months, I’ve learned a lot at The Journal. Best of all, I’ve met a lot of great people in the area and have built my own friends and networks. I’ll be leaving behind a lot of great co-workers that I’ve grown to appreciate over the past couple years there, first as an intern and then post-college.

This move will allow me to pursue many other opportunities and I’m excited about being back at Shepherd, in an environment that has always been positive for me.