15 Things that Me Happy!

Happy Friday!

Lately, I have been feeling blessed, grateful, lucky, fortunate and HAPPY!
These feelings are my inspiration for today's post: things that make me happy, below!

1.) Waking up to a Groupon that has "massage" in it
2.) Having a cup of coffee while listening to Break Even by the Script at my desk
3.) Meeting new people and feeling you've known them forever
4.) Listening to OMG by Usher mid day
5.) Festivals, I am a sucker for jewelry!
6.) Looking forward to watching a sports game with my favorite people
7.) Windows, sun and light!
8.) Gino's Pizza
9.) Being able to play volleyball at the beach any day I please
10.) Preparing for a race and meeting goals!
11.) Having many friends with many diffrent attitudes/interests
12.) Beliveing in wishes and shooting stars
13.) Falling in love(whether that be with yourself, your neighborhood, a song, a dog)
14.) Knowing that things are always getting better
15.) Having someone that inspires you

What makes you happy?

90 Degrees & Moving

Happy Summer!

Technically summer isn't here but it sure feels like it and I am loving it. I have been having a hard time thinking of topics to write about so the only thing that is really going on with me now that is new/interesting is moving. So here goes- a topic on moving.

1.) If you didn't know, Jill and I are relocating about four blocks south of where we currently live now into an AMAZING condo. The kind of condo that makes you feel good and reminds yoyu that you are successful (well probaly more so when you purchase it) but WE are renting and it is equally as exciting/rewarding. There is a pic above.

2.) We have AMAZING views of the lake and park. My window is actually on the east side in my bedroom and cannot imagine waking up to something more beautiful. I am a sunny girl and need sun in my life always.

3.) So moving today is definitley different from your college moves. For one, living in high rises requires a lot more help/muscles and a lot more steps in the moving process. The mover guy broke it down to me and I was slightly overwhelmed on the phone.

ME: We just need to hire two guys to get our couches/beds to the UHaul and then to our new place

ROY(mover): Sigh, Well do you understand that you will be moving from the 8th floor to the elevator and then the elevator to the truck and then the truck to parking lot, to elevator, then elevator to the new apartment.

ME: wow...No I didn't

This was great insight from Roy but Jill and I are still convinced we can move ourselves will the help of a boy or two, which is still TBD. Oh and this makes it even more EXCITING, I only have half an hour to use the frieght elevator, so that pretty much means I have 30 minutes to pack everything in my life in an elevator/truck.

And..just to keep things even more interesting, we don't have confirmation for the use of the elevator at the new condo or even have keys yet.

BUT.. We do have KEYS (we made ourselves) and our landlord has no idea we are moving in Friday and the floors are semi ripped up as of yesterday, hmm? So with all this in mind, we go buy paint...

4.) Painting, We bought paint last night and well $108 later we are walking out of Home Depot with two buckets of paint and two bags full of supplies (including tape, which I still am not convinced we need) and Harley. Imagine us in skirts walking down the street to our bus, yes, I am sure people were laughing Thank GOD the bus driver let us on with Harley (my dog)

5.) Next steps: Get our "actual keys" and pray that we can move in Friday! And..make friends with the doorman :)

Oh.. and did I mention that this is the warmest week of the year, highs at 90? FATE

Next post will hopfully be from the condo! Wish us luck

Social Media Can Help

I have been trying to engage myself in the social media realm since I became a part of the pr world. My first thought was if I have to be a part of this new dyamnic ever changing thing that I should enjoy it and have a purpose. After months of brainstorming and constant reminders from colleagues and friends about the importance of social media, I decided to start this blog and see where it takes me. My second attempt was to join and create converstaions on Twitter with poeple/companies that I am interested or couldpossibly gain something from. Twitter is the reason and motivation for this post today.

As background, my main conversations/interests on Twitter are running/fitness related, world news and pop culture and health and financial topics. I have gained very helpful insight from all these people I follow but today something really cool happened. A new guy, @badknees29 started following me which I am pretty sure he found me on this blog. Anyways, he is a financial guru and as Twitter courtesy, I thanked him for the add.

Well this cool thing happened next, he offered me financial advice. I was pretty excited to be able to ask him questions about 401K, choosing international bonds vs US bonds and gaining insight on how the new government laws is going to affect my current student loans. Now, I have the motivation to pull out all my Sallie Mae staments and Vanguard 401K booklet to start building a financial plan and saving for retirement. Well this was my way of sharing my excitement with you all and a prime example of how you can make social media work for you!

I also follow Fitness mag which really helps me with my marathon training and Mashable which has really great insight on the social media/web/pr industry.

Tell me who you follow and have a great weekend!

New Beginnings

<--- Pizza I made from scratch last night. Read below.

Hi all!

All my life I have wanted to move, live in a big city and have happy hour after work. This goal/ dream of mine was a way for me to measure my success as a 20 something. Well now that I am here, I realized I haven't posted anything about this life I yearned for. Basically, I've realized that I am living the single pr girl life I've wanted and its pretty fantastic. It has taken me six months in this city to be where I want to be actually.

I have a great group of girlfriends that I attend happy hour with reguarly, friends that I work out with and friends that I have random outings with such as Cubs games and checking out sketchy club scenes. All in all it's what I always imagined. I live in a great neighborhood and ride the bus with people I work with, kinda cool. The weekdays are pretty laid back. For instance, last night I made a pizza from scratch. The picture is above. I felt like a chef and still pretty excited about it. I went to Dominicks Sunday to prepare for my week of cooking in and pizza night and people definetley thought I was a little crazy. I bought 10 bags of groceries and carted them on th e subway and then on the bus. It was quite a scene getting through the gate at the subway with these bags in tow. I think next time I might just take a cab.

This past week I went to a sculpting and boot camp class which were both very intense. I feel I have a slight addiction the gym, tonight is going to be a cycling night I think. I also have a slight addiction to pet stores. This past weekend I went to three pet stores to look at puppies and buy Harley a harness. I am debating whether or not to get a new puppy. I think that Harley needs a friend while I'm at work all day but two dogs in one apartment might be too much.

The weather is getting warmer here and I am excited to start playing beach volleyball. I joined a league with a few girls to start in June and been scoping out the season at North Beach.

Ok I need to get back to work now. I am running out of topics to post about. Please feel free to leave me some ideas/comments below or on Facebook.

Have a great week

Jeans Blog Review

I am spending a good portion of my day researching jean and fashion blogs and who knew there were so many specific jean blogs? I can say that I am enjoying the task of reading blogs and definitly catching a few pointers here and there.

There is this one blog, http://thedenimguy.com/, that I think is GREAT and somewhat fell in love with.

It is a perfect one stop if you want to see the latest designer denim collections and get ideas for your own closet. Also, I LOVE that Denim Guy has a section where he styles everyday people in designer jeans and do a Q&A with them. Love it!

If you don't have time to look through these blogs I went ahead and did a quick recap below for you. Please don't confuse me for a stylist. Hah.

Women: Get the relaxed boyfriend style jean, so many options here for the summer. You can roll them up and wear them with flip flops or pair it with heels. Also looks great with a casual tee or leather jacket. (I recently bought a pair!)

Men: The look this season is the "slouchy slim", looks tailored to you but still relaxed.(SEXY!) Also, I am seeing and loving the casual khaki! Take a peek at these colors: http://us.dockers.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3896931&cp=2271557.3691949

Ok gang, that was my post as a fashionista. Tell me what you think!

Joreer

First off my apologies that I haven't updated in a quite a while. So many things have changed and here goes. Short list first and then an explanation below.

1.) I am starting my new job/career (joreer) tomorrow at Edelman. (It feels weird to say career because I am only 22 but I am too old for a job so I am coining this "Joreer")
2.) I have having withdraws from not seeing my friends everyday at Weber.
3.) Kansas State (alma mater) was doing so well in the tournament until the day I went back to Manhattan, KS to watch the game and we lost needless to say was awful but I am a die hard Wildcat!
4.) I went back to Kansas for a few days last week.

I am thrilled to be joining the Edelman team. This is the reason I came to Chicago in the first place, to follow my dreams of living a big city and working as a pr professional in a huge office building. Now that it is here, I am having jitters. I mean everything I have worked hard for is here and now I am somewhat confused on why I am nervous. I think it's because I finally had a routine and a comfort zone at Weber and now I am starting something totally new. This I know sounds pretty normal.
Because my last day was last March 26 at Weber, I had a week off to fly home and reconnect with KS. It was a good trip, I feel pretty fortunate to have great friends that I still keep in touch with and feels like nothing changed when we hang out. It's a great feeling.
Back in Chicago, the weather has been perfect and I finally get why everyone lives for the summers in Chicago. It has been so beautiful. I went to the beach Friday, which was super packed and saw so many volleyball games, which solidified my move to Chicago. I cannot wait to play on a few leagues, so excited! I have been taking Harley to the dog parks daily and having picnics in my park, just amazing!
A few new firsts, I went to IKEA Saturday, went shopping in the burbs, signed in on Four Square and bought 6 pairs of shoes in 30minutes. Yes, I know that might seem like a little much but it was a great sale :)

Ok, wish me luck tomorrow and check back soon.

Loves!

Sunny Day in the City

This is interesting: If Facebook was a country, it would be the 4th largest country in the world. Now, that is impressive. I remember vividly when Facebook came out the summer before I was a freshman in college It was such a new concept and I never imagined that someday it was going to be more than a place to post pictures from the night before. To be honest,until I started working at a pr agency last fall, I did not understand the full capabilities of FB and how it is such a tool for brands. Ahh...technology makes me feel old.


Today I have already:
-Walked around the city to pick up items ( 60 degrees!)
- Had lunch at Ginos with my Weber girls
- Attend two meetings
-Made a new friend on FourSquare

What a day :)

And of course..Here is your daily picture... See the space between the beach and buildings? That is my favorite running trail in Chicago, right along Lake Shore Drive.

It's March

Hi friends-

Here is my next post, only took three months, but hey its here. I am very tired today and listening to John Mayer, which he will be in concert in a month. I think this post should be a picture post. Things I have done in the past three months here. I always think you can say more with a picture and much more entertaining then words. Here goes my last three months in photos: EnjoY!