Patience is a virtue.

I feel like I need a reset button to my day.

I was on my way to my friend Cristina's house for a potluck with some other friends from graduate school, and I got a little lost.  The street that I was on was a dead end to someone's driveway/house.  If that wasn't scary enough, as I was approaching the house, I noticed two big dogs in the yard, unleashed.  I backed up slowly so that I could turn around, and the back of my car tapped the lamp post, causing it to lean a little.  A big older guy came out of the house, "I can't believe you knocked into my lamp!"  Ugh, great.  I got out of the car and he proceeded to get very stern with me.  I profusely apologized and automatically offered to pay for the damage, but he proceeded to rant.  Ok, do you think I did that on purpose?  I'm already lost and late.  What else do you want me to do?  I was trying to be careful so that I didn't hit your dogs with my car.  Whatever I said (which is a blur to me at the moment)  seemed to calm him down enough to help me guide my car so that I could be on my way.

This whole situation didn't really upset me until I got home.  I don't really deal well when I get the sense that I'm backed into a corner.  Anyway, I feel like I learned a valuable lesson today.  If I should ever be in that situation again and the roles were reversed, I would know how NOT to act.  Everybody makes mistakes!

It also didn't help that a cab driver got fresh with me at the gas station for taking longer than normal to pull out of the gas station pump when I was finished filling up.  I was getting my GPS ready for my trip to Cristina's place.  It's not like there weren't other gas pumps that were free!  RAWR.

It's situations like these that really test my faith in people.  However, tomorrow's another day to get it right.  I'll try to make it to spin class in the morning.  Maybe the endorphins will perk me up.

On a brighter note, the potluck was fun.  My contribution was Banana-Black Bean Empañadas.  Cristina was gave us a tour of her house, which was beautiful.  She also let us know that she's expecting in June...identical twin boys!!

Leadership Conference, Day 1+2

Hello, blogosphere. I haven't forgotten about you. I've been away at a leadership conference...the one that my boss mentioned last week.

**This will be a blog post about work related stuff. Card making will resume either tomorrow or Sunday. This would be a good time to close the window if you don't want to read my babble about this leadership conference.**

This has been a really good conference so far! I know that sounds kinda cheesy, but wow, I'm actually learning stuff. The facilitators are really energizing, and their positive energy has been inspiring and infectious. I came to the conference with a colleague and to be honest, we don't talk much at the office because our programs don't really collaborate. This was a perfect opportunity to get to know her better and do some bonding. I've also met some people that work in my building, but for a different organization. I hope that the group of us can meet up around the office and catch up sometime in the future. I think that'd be really great for networking purposes.

Two of the things that I've learned during this conference:

• Personal observation: There was a discussion about personal change styles. I identified myself with the "conservers"- people who accept the structure, are conventional, are predictable, may appear cautious and inflexible, may focus on routine. The other options were "pragmatists" and "originators"...basically, these people are more open to change. The facilitator asked us to raise our hands depending on which category we saw ourselves in. Out of about 50 people, I was the only one that raised my hand and identified myself as a conserver. Whaaat? I didn't know that until the facilitator said something. I was sitting in the front of the room so I had no idea that no one else raised their hand. After about a 5-second pause, another guy raised his hand. Uh oh. Hm. Even though I semi-singled myself out during this exercise, I'm happy that I had the guts to admit that I'm a person that appreciates habit. However, the take-away message from me from that exercise was "change isn't always better, but in order to be better, you have to change."
  

• General observation: Networking and being able to engage in small talk takes practice. I'm not really comfortable with small talk. However, I found that, at least at this conference, you just have to find something in common with the other person. It can be anything. For me, it was fashion (I complimented someone on her bag) and location (I started talking to one of the participants because I noticed that she worked in my building). This was a good exercise to get me out of my comfort zone.

True to conference protocol, I ate all day. There was food everywhere. To balance that out, I went to the facility gym to get a workout in and it went surprisingly quickly because I was busy thinking of two initiatives I hope to pitch to my boss next week (one about bridging programs and another about providing staff with a professional development opporutnity in house). I mean, I am attending a leadership conference and I'm feeling inspired to be more proactive within my organization. I needed to write this down and put it in public view so that I'd hold myself accountable for these goals.

Ok, that's enough work talk for now. I'm going to go watch Raiders of the Lost Ark on tv. :)

Spelling Lessons

Julie's home for a little bit this weekend. Here's a snippet from our IM conversation earlier today. You have to read this conversation with the fact that my sister is a few hours away at school and doesn't just drop everything and come home normally. But I guess the timing was just right.

[14:25] Sister: ok, i'm coming home... hah
[14:25] Sister: they have an opening for tomorrow
[14:25] Me: uh like MD home? what?
[14:25] Me: you're coming home to talk to Dr. S?
[14:27] Sister: just a general check-up
[14:27] Sister: my tooth really isn't bothering me
[14:28] Sister: ok, i'm going to go back to the house and pack up then... b/c it's supposed to snow tonight
[14:29] Me: uh, you're going home now?
[14:29] Sister: yeah
[14:29] Me: oh, uh ok!
[14:29] Me: drive safely!
[14:29] Sister: perfect, b/c i need to do laundry this weekend... muah ha ha ha

Spelling was never my strength in school. Hello? That's why there's spell check. MS Word developers were geniuses when they decided to denote a misspelling with a red squiggle AND give suggestions on how to fix it. I wanted to use some chipboard letter stickers to spell out "Best Wishes." I counted the letters in the sticker package and thought I had the right number. But then I started peeling them off only to realize that I'm 1 "s" short. Shoot. I ended up handwriting the sentiment instead with a Ranger watermark pen and used white embossing powder to make it stand out against the pink paper. I really thought there needed to be something on the right of the sentiment, but I thought Prima flowers would have been too overwhelming. Fortunately, my Martha Stewart butterfly punch was standing by. P.S. Check out those bow tying skillz. :)

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: Ranger Perfect Medium pen
Paper: American Crafts- Dear Lizzy
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Upper Crest border punch, Martha Stewart- Classic Butterfly
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Trigger Target Surprise

Whoo hoo, I was selected as a Trigger Target again over at Moxie Fab World! That's two times in a row...I am so thrilled!

As a follow-up from yesterday's post about checking one's work, I got an email from my boss saying that the Executive Director found a typo! Just when I thought I had gone over that document so many times that I could probably recite it by heart like the Pledge of Allegiance. Super. Which brings me to...

Life lesson #2: Accept that there will be mistakes. Apologize profusely to the necessary parties and correct the mistake(s) pronto.

Today's card started out with one die cut flower that was sitting on my desk from last night's card making session. I love that Tim Holtz die and the red/white paper. I wanted there to be butterflies, but to make things interesting, I put them at an angle, making them all face the sentiment in the center. After the buttons and faux stitching, I thought the card still needed something. Ah, Glossy Accents. Of course!

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Stamp: Hero Arts- Thinking of You Messages (sentiment)
Die: Sizzix- Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Flowers (flower)
Punch: Martha Stewart- Classic Butterfly
Paper: American Crafts- Metropolitan
Button: Favorite Findings in Ocean
Other: Glossy Accents
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

CPS #187

Life lesson #1: Always, always, ALWAYS check your work. And then double check it. Sometimes triple check it. The number of times you check your work is directly proportional to how much trouble you'll be in if you do it wrong.

I was printing off copies of this document that I had been working on with a group since January. The copies are going to be seen by the Board of Directors and other VIPs at a meeting this week in Atlanta. I printed out some on Friday and decided to make extra ones just to be sure. I saw streaks of magenta and blue ink on some of the copies! ACK! I had given a stack of 30 to one of the senior staff people to take with him on the plane to ATL. Good thing I caught him because there were several copies in his bundle with streaks. I would have been SO embarrassed if I knew that higher up people were given crappy copies.

On the Etsy front, I have to always remember to check to make sure that Etsy and PayPal addresses match. One can't just assume which address to send things to. And we all know what assuming leads to, don't we?

All my Rolo cookies from yesterday (except one that's still in the kitchen downstairs) are gone. It's really nice to have willing co-workers who don't mind helping me eat the baked goodies. They are very familiar with my Tupperware container by now. I guess I'll have to make more! ;)

Here's my attempt at CPS #187. This one was a toughie for me because a) it was square and b) where do I put a sentiment? I decided to not force myself to put a sentiment on the card, but instead added the butterfly for some dimension. After I put the Glossy Accents on the butterfly, I debated if I should have just left it plain and then decided that it wasn't a big deal either way.
Card Specs:
Ink: VersaMagic chalk ink in Cloud White. Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red.
Stamp: Fiskars- Girlfriends (corner), Martha Stewart- Patterns (on red flower)
Die: Sizzix- Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Flowers (red flowers)
Flowers: Prima
Punch: Martha Stewart- Classic Butterfly
Paper: American Crafts- Metropolitan
Brad: American Crafts, Large Brads- Dandelion
Other: Glossy Accents