Killin' It! (those 15 hour work days, I mean)

Ok, so I literally worked a 15+ hour day today (my first!) still working on that data entry project. All. Day. And it's still not done...

There were a couple perks... The Dove Chocolate Ice Cream Bar I let myself get midafternoon. The comradery that comes with working long hours with coworkers and getting slap-happy the later in the evening it gets. And the free cab ride home at 10:30 at night doesn't hurt either (I get to write up my first expense report for that tomorrow!). But the thing that helped me the most...today's killer outfit. I got it last Thursday when I went shopping with Diane. We went to Second Time Around on Newbury St. - a thrift store that has a lot of designer labels. My dress still had the tag on it...and it was only $20! I really didn't have the money to spend on it (still waiting for that signing bonus to come in) but I couldn't pass up such a good deal! So here's the outfit that got me through today:

Still looking (relatively) cute after a long day's work

Look at the detail on the top! It's what made me happiest... I got a TON of compliments on this dress today - so glad I got it!

Ok, seriously time for bed. Presenting this at 9 am to the managing team so I have to be there by 8 to prep. Nighty night :)

P.S. SHOUT OUT TO SHEILA WHO READS MY BLOG AND WHO COMMISERATES WITH ME FOR 2 HOURS ON THE PHONE :-D I promised you a shout and you got it! ;-)

Dichotomy of 'The Best of Childhood' Meets 'The Rigors of Adulthood'

It's been a pretty interesting week in the life of Emily. 

I started my second full week at Connect and had a pretty big/important group project to do that ended with a presentation to a member of the senior management team. It was a really interesting and engaging project to complete and I really enjoyed it and could tell that the results that I and the other EPs presented would really help with future processes. Right after we gave our presentation we got our second group assignment. It wasn't quite as engaging/interesting but it was a project that needed to be done - data entry. It's a GINORMOUS project with multiple parts/tiers of importance and it's been really hard to meet the deadline we've been give. I worked a 13 hour workday on Friday and brought my work home with me for today and I'm going into the office tomorrow and I still don't think we'll be done by our due date EOD Monday. At any rate, I camped out in front of the TV all day today while working on this project, hence the title of my blog, which came from my latest Facebook status: 

Watching a marathon of The Might Ducks (yes, D2 and D3 included) as I devote my Saturday to completing a project for work. Oreos and peanut butter are on the menu to complete this dichotomy of 'the best of childhood' meets 'the rigors of adulthood.'

On top of getting my hands dirty at work, I've been dealing with my new landlord/agency on the progression of the renovations on our apartment and the projected move-in date. It's been pretty ridiculous trying to get a solid answer from this company and on Friday, I finally got to see why. So far I'd been led to believe that renovations had been moving right along and we'd actually get to move in by the end of July. Oh no my friend... Diane and I went to see the apartment on Friday and the place looked like a disaster. The floors were stripped (which we knew to expect since the flooring people are coming Monday), the paint job wasn't complete, the new appliances we've been promised have not yet been delivered, the bathroom is completely torn apart (no sink or toilet), and there's dirt, drywall, and tools everywhere. I couldn't believe it. The realtor promised it would be done by August 1st, but I'll be extremely surprised if that's the case. 

So yeah, it's been a bit of a trying week. At least the end is in sight (I think). And I am going to a networking event tomorrow, which should be fun...

Hey look - even though I'm a grown up, I still get toys in my cereal!

This is what we saw on Friday... This is a bedroom.

Closet of said bedroom

Food pantry

Other bedroom

Laundry room

Last bedroom

Kitchen... So yeah, you can see why I'm a bit worried and skeptical about the completion date given to me.

Entrance to the Fed (my office building)

Now this was the fun part of my week! I had an awful day on Friday and Diane convinced me to go out... We went to Toad, this itty bitty bar right around the corner from my current apartment. A band from California, Rose's Pawn Shop, was playing and they were pretty good! Not my typical cup of tea as far as the music department goes, but it kind of reminded me of home, which was nice. Dad you might like them - you can listen to more of their music here: http://www.myspace.com/rosespawnshop 

This was my favorite song of the night. Apologies for the language, but I'd rather share it than not :)

Continuation of my favorite song - the blog site only lets me upload about 40 seconds of video, so I have to take short clips instead of the whole song.

Ok, time for bed... :)

Let's go to the beach!

So this morning I decided to sleep in and be suuuuuuuper lazy....meaning I didn't get out of bed until noon. I had these big plans to explore my area of Boston - take a long walk down Mass Ave, stop in at all the cute little shops along the way, get lost on purpose, and end up at the Verizon store to figure out my phone situation... But I opened my bedroom door and Daphne (my roommate) asked "hey, do you want to go to the beach? I have an extra seat in my car!" To which I replied...."Um, heck yeah I'll go to the beach with you!" And so in a matter of minutes I was throwing together a bag and putting on my swim suit and hopping in the car to head to Singing Beach, about 45 minutes away. Apparently it's called Singing Beach because the sand is supposed to sound like it's singing when you step on it...or at least make some kind of noise (I heard nothing). At any rate, Daphne, her friends Aileen and Michelle and Matty, and I all camped out on the beach all day. It was quite small, probably not even a quarter of a mile from the cliff on the left to the cliff on the right, but it was still nice. The water was FREEZING. In mid-July (yep, definitely not in the South anymore). After several hours on the beach we packed up and headed out and grabbed dinner at Fuddruckers on the way home (it was in this ginormous shopping complex quite unlike anything I'd ever seen before - it housed a furniture warehouse, an IMAX theater, a small carnival-like thing....craziness) and finally rolled in around 10 pm. A long day, but oh so much fun! Here are some beach highlights:

Informative video on the vegetative specimen found on the beach

The seagulls were HUGE. They attacked Daphne's bag of potato chips while I was napping and they also pooped on Michelle as they flew overhead (I've never seen that actually happen to someone in real life).

Cliff on the left...

...cliff on the right.

And boats on the water in between :)

Wouldn't you just love to live in THAT house?

The water was SO COLD. 

But so pretty :)

It almost looks like I'm in NC doesn't it?

I found my very first sand dollar!!!!

I was very excited :)

Proof of excitement 

Looking out over the vast expanse of ocean before me

and rejoicing in it!

Picture of the weird seaweed-like popper things

My attempt at being artistic 

I kept the seashells :)

4 of the 5 other EPs in my 'class' - Becca, Radek, Toni, and Amanda. We're out in downtown Boston on a mission to purchase gifts for the graduating EPs

Cruise ship in the harbor

View from my building - can you see the cruise ship waaaaaaaaay back in the background?

All-in-all it's been a pretty phenomenal week and weekend so far. I'm heading to church with Daphne in the morning, all the things I planned to do today I'm doing tomorrow afternoon, then grabbing dinner with my friend Divesh. Somewhere in there I have to read a 120 page RFP for work, but I'll get it done in time for my 2nd Monday at Connect! :-D

Visit to the MFA

So I found out from my friend Adrienne that Wednesdays at the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts) are FREE. And FREE is GOOD. Well...almost free - you're 'highly encouraged' to give a donation (which I did, because I support the arts)... ;-)

Anyway, we met up for dinner at Au Bon Pain for a quick bite to eat and then headed to the museum where we immediately went to the Chihuly Exhibit. You can click here for more information about Chihuly himself. These are some of the absolutely GORGEOUS pieces at the exhibit.

This thing was just like the computer Tom Cruise got to use in Minority Report...only this one is for real and not just CGI.

Yes, this exhibit is for real.

Ignore the random hands and JUST LOOK AT THE AWESOMENESS!!!!

The pictures just don't even do it justice...

 

This one was hanging from the ceiling

Just look at it! This was inspired from real life... Apparently the artist decided he wanted to throw his artwork over a bridge into the water to see if it would break. Only 2 out of 100 pieces did and he had some teenagers dive into the river and recover the artwork and put it in a boat before bringing it to shore, so this is the boat of all the glass artwork.

Awesome reflection

Can you believe it???

Stand-alone piece

Perfect computer desktop background

It looks like it's floating in midair 

More separate pieces

How cool is this???

Up close

My favorite flower :)

It just keeps getting cooler and cooler...

...and cooler

Bowl within a bowl within a bowl

This looked like a big glasswork garden

It just kept going...

...and going...

...and going...

I wish I knew how to do this

Doesn't it just look like a scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory or Alice in Wonderland?

Haha this one made me laugh

It just looked so crazy!

I can't even fathom how this was made

Can you see all the details?

Another great desktop background

If you click on the images it makes them bigger

Ok now this was probably THE coolest part. They had a glass ceiling and all these pieces resting on the ceiling... Can you tell?

You felt like you were underwater 

I want this to be my ceiling at my future dream house

All colors were present :)

Trying to show you that it's the ceiling... That's the back wall

More ceiling

And still more haha

Now these were very cool too - all of the next ones were hanging from the ceiling

I wish I had as much creativity as he has in his pinkie finger

It was so hard not to reach out and touch it...

See the snail shells?

My favorite color!

Awesomeness

I'm running out of unique things to say about each of these pieces... They're all just SO FREAKIN COOL!!!!

Carolina Blue ;-)

Haha doesn't it look funny?

Last piece in the exhibit...it was kind of a letdown so we decided to work our way back through :)

Whole room

Seeing the 2 rooms

More of the Willy Wonka part

I liked the black and green stripes

Crazy forest 

More crazy forest

The boat again

Close up :)

See the mushroom?

And the flower?

And whatever this thing is???

It's SPECTACULAR

Me and Adrienne :)

Back to the beginning

So pretty....

Oh, can't forget this guy

Haha it looks like a really fragile beanstalk 

Fragile and pointy

I'm so happy I get to see all of this!!!!

Now on to another exhibit...where they have people modeling for an art class. What a surprise to walk around the corner and see this!

And this!

Very cool fish necklace I want

Can we add this to my Christmas list?

Heading out

They're even outside!

What an awesome exhibit....

View on the T ride home (the picture isn't great, you really have to see it in person)

All the people getting off the train to go home...

Oh my gosh what a phenomenal exhibit!!!! I'm so glad I got to see it before it leaves in 2 weeks (and FOR FREE) :-D

Oh oh, one more thing.... I saw this in the gift shop on the way out and if anybody needs some birthday present ideas, this is TOTALLY up my alley ;-) Click here to find it:

Mom, it reminds me of the umbrella you used to have that was grey on top and all blue skies and sunshine underneath.... This is so pretty! I just couldn't bring myself to spend $34 on an umbrella when I already have 2 that I use.... But if I think about it and want it long enough, I may just have to get it.... Or I'll wait for my birthday and see if it shows up ;-) 

Ok, time for bed.... I miss you guys and REALLY wish you could be up here and seeing all this with me! :)