Lee-tle Girls

Dangit. I need to get something for my little neighbor girls here at work. They are ten and twelve. What do I get?? The older is into make-up and boys and the younger was quite pleased with her Hannah M. purse for her b-day. What is the cool thing to get?

Work work work. Play play play. No grad school work, just regular work. I saved the day with a big client by stepping up my game and I do believe that I impressed the CEO in singapore. Things have been good but seemingly busy. After the 1st I will be located at the Embassy Suites. Hopefully I can get some personal things done in between chilling at the hot tub and chatting with friends at the bar.

Christmas

Blogging? What's that?

I've been so distracted lately. I just can't seem to get everything done that I want to.
Christmas was good. I've been flying around everywhere trying to get back in the groove with everyone. Brandy was back from Dallas, Hannah was in from Chicago, and Brandon left for Salt Lake City on Saturday, so I had to cram lots of visiting into my first weekend.

I'm still trying to get my grad apps out. Tests are done, all I have left to do is finalized things and write my personal statement letter. Blech! I hate talking about myself for professional purposes. Work has been slow. Not slow as in there is nothing to do, but slow as in I can't focus while in town.

I got to spend some fun time with Alaina back home at mom and dad's. She got a sled that nana, papa, and U. Scott took her for a ride on (A Stacey had to work....booooo).

In the spirit of Christmas, I thought I'd spread some holiday cheer.

My Thankful list:

I'm thankful for a family that lives close enough to get together on holidays (or works for a place that would like her back quite often)
I'm thankful for the technology that lets me stay in touch with everyone back home in NE.
I'm thankful for the friends that care enough to ask when I am home and are willing to meet at odd hours to hang.
I'm thankful for my sister always being willing to put me up for the night (overcoming her fear of the space heater in the upstairs bursting into flames.)

Merry Christmas everyone!

I'm back

What a week!



How to update you all...



I am now sitting in the Tampa airport. I will be heading out at 9:15 and will get to NE at noon. Then, I will be heading to visit Brandy who is back in Bellevue as I wait for my friend Hannah to arrive at 5:15. (We are carpooling back to Lincoln and she is going to stay at the hotel with me tonight.)



My apartment is clean. Well, the office area is still a mild disaster and I was too lazy to vacuum (and I really should have...) and I got NO SLEEP. Not one minute. I get so anxious before I fly. I prepped myself by taking a two hour nap yesterday eve though. I hope that, plus the sleep I will get on the plane will suffice.



SO! Last weekend, my new friend never called. Oh well. I sat down to study for the GRE one more time. However, Sat night K called and some friends were having a holiday party. So, I headed over to hang out with some colleagues of K that I have met before. They were great fun and I plan to meet up with a couple while they are also back in NE for some food and fun.

I studied pretty much all day Sun and Mon, but also got an urgent email from a client. This client used to belong to another girl, but alas, she decided that this was the PERFECT opportunity for me to build a relationship with them. Too bad she didn't know enough about the situation to realize that I did not have the time necessary to deal with it. I tried and sent out emails, but instead I got to stay up until 3 am to talk to the CEO in Asia. Then, I had a half an hour phone call that ended AS I WAS WALKING INTO THE TEST SITE. Grrrr......

I have been working hard to get a score that meets the suggested one for grad school. and guess what!?!? I DID IT! The look for a 1300 and I got a 1310! Yeah me!

Grad school, here I come!

Hope that you are all having a great holiday season.

(Oh, and Captain got the first ruling from d-court. He gets money now [she had totally cut him off from all joint accounts], but she decided she did not have to follow this ruling..... she's now going to be found to be in contempt...but I have no idea what that means.)

A break from blogging

Okay, so now that my apartment is clean (visually) and I am caught up with work, I am going to take a break.

I just signed up to take the GRE one final time before submitting my graduate school applications and I have to super clean my apartment. Ev is coming down next month for a conference, but since it starts on the 3rd and I am in NE until the 6th, she will be here before I get back. So, I HAVE TO CLEAN IT ALL!!

No biggie. That's kind of the nice thing about a one-bedroom apartment. Nikki never has to come help me clean before company comes. :) (Oh, and Nikki? I did all of my laundry in 4 loads. Aren't you impressed?)

Based on this, I am taking a blogging break. A friend from the Tampa conference will be in this weekend and I hope to hang out with her. Study, study, study, pack, clean, fill out applications, study, pack, clean......

I'll be back online and in Nebraska on the 19th. Hope you all have a good week getting ready for the holiday!

pixie dust

E shared with me a new concept. At Disney, to keep motivated at work and to continue to seek out ways to go the extra mile, each person has a "pixie dust" story. Here is E's:

When she first came to Disney, her and her sister were amazed that the soap had Mickey stamped into it. When they would return to the hotel, they would argue over who got to use the soap first. One day the housekeeper stopped by and asked if they needed anything. Their mother introduced her as the lady who brings the Mickey soap. They were just in awe of this woman and asked her several questions about the soap. The last day that they were there, they visited the parks until noon. As they returned to the hotel they dragged their feet and were not looking forward to ending their vacation. However, when they got back to their hotel room, there on the bed was a gift bag stuffed with as many Mickeys soaps as the housekeeper could fit into the bag.

Soap! What a little thing that the housekeeper did, but that helped E to decide that she was someday going to work for Disney!

I got to thinking about it. What is my pixie dust? I don't know that I have a specific one that keeps me going, but I have many defining moments in my life. The closest I have for my career is this:

I was hired in July to work part time for Tplus. That October, they had their awards banquet party. Being single, I went alone. It was quite an event. Held at the Sheldon Art Gallery, we started the evening with a champagne toast and some of the ritziest appetizers ever. After handing out the awards, we all just mingled and had a good time. I was talking with Kimberly R, the President, and we were approached by one of the most senior analysts and his wife. When KR introduced me, she said to his wife "have you met Stacey Dangler? She is one of our newest associates, and we expect great things from her."

What's your pixie dust?

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful

Hate me because it's 85 degrees here. I've spent an hour at the pool each day for the last 4 days. Here's what it looks like here right now outside of my apartment:


Heard that you all are getting snow days up there. Well, at least it feels like Christmas. I did get a small holiday spirit boost at Disney this weekend. We went to Main Street (I think) at Epcot and got to see the lights. (The video is really short. I didn't want to seem like too much of a tourist since it was E's work party.)



Perhaps this shall make you all hate me less. E accidentally stepped on my foot Friday night in her heels (that I told her to wear, no less). I have this lovely souvenir:

Who knew you could bruise your toes?

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. I have been so busy and overwhelmed with things I am supposed to do!?! I'm taking a break (another one) to go have dinner with a coworker tonight in Orlando. He is here visiting the Kessler Collection again....

busy, busy

Still working on that catchup. Things keep getting added onto my to do list. Anyway.
Went to Disney with E again. We saw Cinderella's castle all lit up.


Back to work. Sorry for the short note.

Almost

I am two profiles away from being caught up. I'm gonna make it!! (Okay, so there's a little leftover conversion, but I'll get it done later....)

That's all. I'm gonna keep on working.

sweet

Took a little shopping break today to stake out dresses. E was going to come down this weekend so we could shop. HOWEVER, while looking, I found it. THE dress. I didn't want a black dress like every other girl would be wearing. After talking to mom last night, I realized that I could wear a black dress if it was amazing. What did I think was amazing? Remember Hillary Swank's backless number from the Oscars? I would take that black dress if it was that amazing.... This is what I found:


It's actually ends right below the knees, but then there is the back...


Perhaps it is a little daring, but I don't care. This will give me some more motivation to keep working out. Gotta look great in the little black shockingly awesome dress!

Here's something a little better. ALAINA!
Ready for a bite!


Trying on Aunt Stacey's shoes:


That's all for now!

Monday

So yesterday we put up E's tree in Orlando. Wow. It was a beautiful 6.5 foot tall blue spruce artificial tree. One of those really nice ones that looks real when you step back a little bit. Anyway, we decided to start late on Saturday night. However, I had not anticipate the sheer amount of OCD Christmas cheer of E. I have had practice with mom (no, not there. Start with the big ornaments first.... Make it balanced, but not symetrical. More like aesthetically asymmetrically pleasing.) But E dang near put her to shame. You know in the department stores when they have the pre-lit trees where the lights artistically weave in and out of the branches so there are no lines of bulbs and it appears that the tree has that twinkling glow from within. Well, E puts those tree lighting people to shame. It took her three hours and six strands of lights to do that 6.5 foot tall tree. AND, we had to get the last strand the next morning.

Next came my OCD. She originally had a red and gold tree. However, two years ago her boyfriend got her a red and silver ornament. So, she went out and got silver ornaments to make her tree red/gold/silver. This year, she was thinking of making it just red and silver. In steps Stacey. We needed new ribbon and a new tree topper and ribbon to replace the gold ribbon on E's handmade ornaments. We went to Target and found the perfect topper. However, as we browsed the rest of the selection to make sure, another customer swooped in and took the last one. So, off to the next Target 45 minutes away. When I go shopping, I go shopping. It is not over until I find what I am looking for. I think I overwhelmed E with my dedication. (She's definitely NOT a fan of shopping expeditions unless they involve food and cheese samples.)

Getting caught up with work finally. I almost had a panic attack last night about how far behind I am. Today, I decided that a nap and a workout would help to alleviate stress, but then I did not get as much done as I wanted to. Oh well, perhaps now I can sleep (especially since it's now 2 am).

Here's a pic of the tree:

And here's a mini nativity that I helped E to paint at the pottery decorating place in lincoln last year. Note the penny by the camel...It's small! Funny little story: Her dad made the manger out of scrap wood (and did an awesome job). However, he also has that great xmas OCD. Along the sides is a fence held up by "rocks" that he painted and the little squares are haybales. He cut them out and rolled them in sawdust cuz he thought they'd look cool. And really, how can you have a nativity without hay??

My run

So, I heard that you all are having a nice ice storm in Nebraska. Therefore, I am going to give you a little glimpse of warmth. I went on a run today to the park near (one mile away...) my apartment. I took pictures last month and never got around to posting, so here they are.

It begins on the back area path around the lake. I love running on the boardwalk, mainly because there are few people running back there. There are many areas like the deck on the water where you can sit and just hang. Then you head back into the park area where the paved track is (boring. Just park benches and such.) At one corner of the track is the Cancer Survivors Plaza. I could not visit it today based on how hard it was the last time. (It was shortly after Little Bret's first chemo treatment.)

I saw my first aligator today too! It was just hanging out in one of the drainage ditches. (Hope you don't have too many nightmares about that Captain.) Tonight I am staying at E's in Orlando and we are decorating the tree. More on that later.

P.S. If you are having an emotional day, you might not want to watch the second slide show or read the rest of the blog. This is about the Cancer Survivor Plaza. Perhaps it's only emotional if you have been there in person, but just in case.....

The gravel path that leads to the Cancer Survivor plaza is incredibly hard to walk. I wondered if this was on purpose or just a mere coincidence that the path leading to a cancer memorial is so difficult to walk... The the sign is surrounded by drawings created by children who are cancer survivors. The path to the garden area has small signs, I put one into the show. Looking out, two hills the made (probably to block traffic noise) merg just like the little paintings that we all did as kids where the two hills have the sun setting in between them. Outside the garden is a sculpture. The plaque nearby reads "This sculpture, "Cancer... There's Hope" Is the last work of the world renowned sculptor, Victor Salmones. He claimed it to be his finest, a labor of love. The back five figures are cancer patients and their supporters preparing to enter treatment, represented by the maze. Notice the fear, determinationa and hope on their faces in contrast to the joy of the front three, signifying successful treatment." It's very moving.