Fall Back

Happy Halloween!
Yesterday was my first official day in my stores! It was interesting, but it was nice to finally get started. I think I'm going to have to change a lot to make the systems work for me, and hopefully I'll have time to get all that done this week or next at the latest. One thing I have not enjoyed is staying on my feet for so long! That will definitely take some getting used to again.
Oh, and I mentioned a few posts back, I started using the new Matte BareMinerals makeup. I love it! I've used the original formulation since high school, and this is definitely an improvement on the product, I'm hooked!
Alright, after a short posting I'm off to bed to celebrate "falling back" with an extra hour of sleep!

Shut Up and Drive

Well, I've been quite busy this week, which I suppose will be the norm from now on.
Yesterday I had to go to Champaign, IL for work. I met another one of the Area Event Coordinator's down there and we interviewed a potential candidate (fortunately for everyone involved, he followed my simple rules from a previous post :P), did inventory at both stores and did some recruiting around the UofI campus. Antonio's brother goes to school there, so he tagged along and hung out with him while I was working. After I got done we all met up with Rob's girlfriend and went to dinner at this excellent local pizzeria. Antonio also made a detour to a liquor store to pick up some Boulevard Wheat beer, since they don't sell it in Chicago.
Today all of the Chicago area managers met up with our district manager to do some more recruiting. It was very helpful to do recruiting with some seasoned professionals, I'm now much more confident about how to go about doing it without acting like I'm trying to steal other people's employees, which is important.
We also had a meeting with all of the Store Directors in Illinois introducing our new program (and us!) to them. Everyone seemed really interested in the new program, so hopefully the transition will go smoothly.
After work I met up with a couple of my girlfriends for some Kona Grill. I haven't been there since Robbins Bros. closed, so we were definitely due for a visit! They now serve margaritas, which were decent for the $4 happy hour price. And the pot stickers were fabulous, per usual.
Once I got home I got some stuff prepared for work tomorrow and watched all 4 of my Thursday night shows: Parks and Rec, Project Runway, Grey's Anatomy and of course The Office. I really liked this week's The Office, the scenes with Pam and Andy were great! And you much watch the newest webisode, Subtle Sexuality, so funny! As far as this week's Grey's, it paled in comparison to last week's superb episode.

Good Golly Miss Molly!

Yesterday I was formally introduced to the company as an Area Event Coordinator! Because of all the changes going on we weren't announced to the stores just yet. But now it's all official, which is great!
After the meeting yesterday I met up with Antonio who got us MOLLY'S CUPCAKES! Molly's is a bakery in the city that I've heard a lot about. I've been wanting to try their cupcakes for a while and after finishing his shift at the radio station Antonio went and picked up a dozen. Wow, they're incredible!

Top from L: Peanut Butter Nutella, Chocolate with buttercream frosting, red velvet
Bottom from L: The Ron Bennington, Vanilla with chocolate frosting, red velvet

Top from L: Mixed Berry, Chocolate with vanilla frosting, Cookies-n-Cream
Bottom from L: Red Velvet, Chocolate with vanilla frosting, Chocolate Moose

Today I worked at event at the Brookfield Zoo! We gave out gummy vitamins and coupons. It was really cold, but there was a good turn out. Most of the kids there were dressed in costumes, so cute! My favorite was a family who was dressed as the United States Postal Service. There was a mailman, mailbox, giant letter, and giant package. They won 1st prize in the group category of the costume contest. And we get to go back tomorrow and do it all over again.
I took my Project Management final on Thursday. Much to my surprise, I didn't do half bad! I was thinking I would get a C on the test, but I got a B-! So, for now my grade stands at an 85%. I still have one thing to turn in, but I should retain the B, thank goodness! I was worried that I was going to get a C in the class, meaning I would have to work even harder on all my upcoming classes to retain a 3.0 cumulative GPA (you can't graduate if your GPA is under a 3.0).
*UPDATE*
With the final portion of my final project turned in, I managed to get 100% and pulled my grade up to an 87%, B+! Pretty impressive considering I had a C in the class a few weeks ago. PHEW!

Advice:

I offer you all a few interviewing tips:

1. Don't call the interviewer less than an hour before the scheduled start time and ask to change the location of the interview
2. Do some research on the company... visit their website perhaps?
3. Remember where you found out about the position and what enticed you to apply for the job in the first place
4. Be available to work on days that coincide with the company's needs

5. Memorize your work history so that you don't need to reach in to your purse and refer to a folded up copy of your resume

Oh the Places You'll Go

Just an update of sorts, I guess. Tonight I was watching TV in my room and Pearl , who was being her cute self of course, found a new sleeping position.

She always likes to prop her head up on a pillow, and being that she couldn't find a pillow, she improvised and used the bar at the bottom of my headboard as her pillow. How funny! I couldn't stop laughing when I saw it.
Earlier today I went to Ulta, and got 3 OPI polishes for the price of 2 (Parlez-vous OPI?, You Don't Know Jacques! and Designer Series Extravagance), what a deal! I also got the new Matte bareMinerals foundation. I've used regular bareMinerals for 7 years so I'm interested to see how the new formulation stacks up. After I've used it for a while, I'll let you know.
Tomorrow I'm conducting my first interview with my new company. I'm excited! We need to hire quite a few candidates, so I'm really hoping that the interview goes well tomorrow.
And, I've discovered my new favorite drink... Coke Zero! As far as no-calorie pop goes, I've always preferred Pepsi products to Coca-Cola. For the past few months I've been drinking a lot of Pepsi Max. Antonio has been drinking Coke Zero for a long time, and I remember trying it a while ago and not liking it much. He had one the other day and I decided to give it another try. OMG, it's freaking awesome! I actually think I like it better than regular Coke, which is saying something, since I absolutely love regular Coke. If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it.
Ohhh, and speaking of Coca-Cola, I got an A on my Coca-Cola paper for my Strategic Management class! I was kind of shocked with my grade, as I was expecting a B or B+, but definitely did better than I thought. Unfortunately I can't say the same thing for Project Management. That class has not gone as well as I'd hope, but I still need to do the final project and take the final test... wish me luck.

I Simply Remember My Favorite Things

Welcome to the second edition of My Favorite Things!

My necklaces! I have a few more, but they all share chains, so I wasn't able to showcase all of them.

My shoes! These are 2 of my favorite pairs, besides my 25 pairs of Crocs :).

Sugar Sugar

Sweetest Day was yesterday, and as I posted previously, Antonio already got me my gift, seasons 1-5 of The Office. But yesterday he gave me a card and a pretty bouquet of flowers, and took me out to dinner at Applebee's (Fiesta Lime Chicken, anyone?). Afterward we went back to my house and watched one of the greatest kids movies of all time, Camp Nowhere! You can't tell me you didn't swoon over Andrew Keegan when that first came out!

For Sweetest Day I made Antonio a Mizzou fleece blanket and scarf. For our 6 month anniversary back in college I had made him a White Sox fleece blanket, which he has completely worn out, so it was time for a new one. Needless to say, he was really surprised to get it, and totally loves it :).

Working Girl

I'm almost done with my paper, I've got until midnight tonight to send it in, so I should be fine as far as that is concerned thank goodness!
Yesterday I traveled down to Normal, IL for work. All of the new Event Coordinators got trained on how to do new hire orientation. I had been through the paperwork just the other week when I was hired but I hadn't watched any of the videos or anything else so it was nice to see how everything will work. There were 4 new employees who went through yesterday so that's why we traveled all the way down there.
Today we all met at the Stratford Square Mall and went over some of the administrative stuff, which was helpful. I had heard about a lot of the forms and reports but it was nice to actually find out what they all meant! Afterward I attempted to do some recruiting. It was my first time ever doing anything like that, and it went alright. I didn't do it alone, so hopefully we'll get some responses from the people we spoke with.
Back to the paper for one more round before I turn it in!

Under Pressure

Like they say, when it rains, it pours!! This week has been crazy, and it's only Wednesday. First session classes end next week, and logically, I thought that my big paper for my Strategic Management class was due then (I'm not the only one who thought that), but luckily I checked the syllabus on Monday only to discover the paper is due by this Friday at midnight. At that point I had only about 5 pages written, so yesterday I buckled down and got up to 10 pages. I still have at least 8 or 9 more pages to write, but I think I'll be able to pull it off in time.
On Monday I met Antonio downtown after work and we went to this great tapas place called the 1492 Tapas Bar. It's located in an old Victorian mansion in the River North neighborhood. Very cute and quaint, and delicious! We got there before 6pm so we were able to enjoy their happy hour special of $3 tapas plates! We ended up ordering 6 items! We tried: marinated artichokes (my favorite dish!), garlic potato salad, garlic mushrooms, meatballs, crispy potato cakes and chicken flautitas. I enjoyed dinner with a glass of sauvignon blanc, and Antonio of course had a Jack and Coke. If you're ever in the city and looking for a nice but inexpensive restaurant, I highly recommend the 1492 Tapas Bar! I love discovering great little restaurants like that :).

After dinner we hopped in a cab to the House of Blues. Hanson was playing! They're on tour with Hello Good Bye and 2 other bands. We got to the venue in time to catch Hello Good Bye play the last few songs of their set. This was my 5th Hanson concert, the last time I saw them was at the House of Blues back in 2004. Antonio likes their music, so he was happy to go with me. As usual, they put on a great show! They're coming out with a new album early next year so they played a few songs from that CD, but other than that, they played all songs that I knew. And for their encore, they played a most amazing cover of "Don't Stop Believin'." OMG.OMG.OMG. I, along with everyone else in the place, was freaking out! Needless to say, it was a great night.

Antonio with all our Tapas!

During the acoustic part of the set


Trying to get a picture with the band

Yesterday I worked an event at the store in Rolling Meadows. Normally events are only scheduled Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but this was a special occasion! We hosted Chicago Blackhawks player Duncan Keith for a cooking demonstration and autograph signing. Honestly, I had never heard of him before, but apparently he is one of their star players. I was surprised at how large of a turn out we got. I was expecting like 50 people, but there had to be at least 250 people in attendance. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the event and Duncan happily signed autographs for every person in line.
Tomorrow myself along with the 3 other new Event Coordinator's are training on how to train our staff. And then on Friday we are going over office/administrative stuff.
Alright, enough procrastinating for now, time to work on my paper so I can get it turned in on time!

Sugar Pie Honey Bunch

The other day I bought a red velvet cupcake at a local bakery that I love. I wasn't too impressed with it, so I've been craving red velvet ever since. As I'm sure you are aware, red velvet is the most heavenly cake flavor. So, I went to the store and bought a cake mix.
When I got home and started making the batter I couldn't find the standard 8 inch cake pans I had intended to use. So, I compromised and made my own red velvet cupcakes!
I don't bake all that often, but when I do I always substitute the oil for applesauce. I don't think there is any noticeable taste difference and it saves a bunch of calories and makes the confections less greasy, always a plus in my book. I think they turned out great, alleviating me of my craving... for now.

Taking Care of Business

Yesterday I returned from my business trip in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I had a nice time learning more about the company and what we do. We even got to visit headquarters, which were very nice. The last day of training we got to visit 2 stores to see how their programs work. The program will be starting here in Chicago in November.
I was surprised at how big Grand Rapids was. They actually had a handful of mini skyscrapers! Our second night we went to a really great Italian restaurant called Bistro Bella Vita that had an amazing flourless chocolate cake. Later that evening we went to a local brewery, Founders Brewery. I thought the place was going to be similar to Columbia's Flat Branch Brewery, but the place had peanuts on the floor, need I say more? It wasn't the classiest place, but the honey wheat beer was delicious! After the brewery we went to some club where things got a little crazy. I think 4 shots were purchased for me?!? We didn't get back to the hotel until 3am, and I was awake by 6am, albeit hungover. By 9am I was fine, so no harm, no foul.
I should be getting a netbook for work soon as well. I'm super excited about that. I'll also be getting a printer/fax/copier to go along with it. So, today I went to Target (I know, I did go to Meijer first but they didn't have the best furniture selection!) and bought a Shabby Chic desk, chair and lamp to create a little office space for myself. Once I get it all set up I'll post a picture.
Ok, hopefully this post made sense, I'm exhausted and not thinking clearly right now, but I wanted to give a little update on my trip.

Observe and Report

I just want to point out how backwards the Cook County Circuit Court is. Last Sunday I got pulled over (for tailgating after I speed up trying to get through a yellow light... totally unwarranted if you ask me, but that's another story for another day), and was issued a ticket. The ticket states that you must pay your ticket within 7 days, and you can chose to pay it through the mail or online. Naturally I choose to pay it online, as it is much more convenient than having to walk to the end of my driveway and stick an envelope in the mailbox.
Tonight I went to the website and the site indicates that tickets will be posted on the site 7 to 21 days after being issued. I'm not kidding, it really does say that. Why even have a website if it completely defeats the purpose of the "within 7 days" clause on the ticket?
Uggh, off to the mailbox.

Get a Job

This morning I went and met with the area manager and filled out all my new-hire paperwork. So, I am now officially employed! And on Tuesday I will be starting work with my first business trip!
Unfortunately I didn't find out much more information today. I was hoping to find out my assigned stores and how everything is going to work, but no such luck. We will all find out everything once we get to Michigan.
On a different note, how amazing is The Office this season? I am SOOO excited for next week's wedding episode! This season I'm also really liking Parks & Recreation, Grey's Anatomy and GLEE. And then in January American Idol and LOST will start up. I've got a lot of TV on my plate this year!