blonde ambition

‘Ello, guv’nor!
I’m having a pretty good day today, and I’ve been strangely motivated both professionally and personally. On the professional front, I’ve decided that maybe instead of leading my career towards Client Service, perhaps I will opt for Business Analysis/Marketing. Currently I’m on the Operations (or IT-ish) side of things and everything just seems really easy. Business Analysis and Marketing just sound really appealing to me and it seems like they might actually be a challenge. So for the next year, I plan on educating myself about the Business Analysis and Marketing departments here at work and attend all the functions they put on. My first stop is (hopefully, unless someone schedules a meeting during this time) a presentation on Friday during lunch about Modeling (not fashion magazine modeling, but more like projecting). I’m going to get some books out of our work library and I’ve already started reading industry-specific reports about BA. I think it’s a good start.
 
On the personal side of things, I want to get back into sand volleyball shape. I mean, I’m in better shape right now than I was while playing sand volleyball last summer, but I want to be even better this year. Besides, it’ll give me a goal for my gym workouts. I think I’m going to start working more on the dreaded lunges and squats, and Keri Walsh suggested pilates. I’ve never taken a pilates class in my life and for some irrational reason, people who practice pilates freak me out, but Keri Walsh has won 2 Olympic gold metals in sand volleyball, so I guess she knows what she’s talking about. Anyways, the sand season doesn’t start until probably June, so I have a few months to prepare. That seems perfect!
 
I finally made it to the gym last night, but it wasn’t my most productive visit. About 20 minutes into running, I felt like I was either going to collapse or have a very embarrassing accident, so I let up on myself and walked for 30 more minutes at 7% incline. I ended up burning 406 calories, but I felt like I should’ve done a lot more. I was whooped, though, so I went home around 8:15...
…which would have been great, but I realized I had left my BlackBerry at work and I work with a bunch of thieves, so I had to go allllll the way back to work and then finally home. I didn’t get home until about 9:00. Sometimes I’m so dumb. :(
 
I have a little beauty product review! Lately I’ve noticed really big dark circles under my eyes. Maybe it’s because I’ve been so tired lately, or maybe it’s because I’m (gasp!) getting old(er). Anyways, on my way home Sunday night, I stopped at TrashMart and splurged on the Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew Anti-Puff Eye Roller pen. For all things beauty-related, anything over $10 is considered a splurge in my book. Yes, I’m cheap. I’m also pretty poor and the only reason I caved in was because I had a $3 coupon for it. ANYWAYS, moving on, I’ve been using this pen every morning and night and WOW! I can totally tell a huge difference! Yeah, ok, I still have some bags under my eyes, but they’re not anywhere near as puffy and dark as they were a mere 3-4 days ago. Seriously, I totally look more awake and healthier. In fact, several people have commented that I look “healthy”… I’m not sure if that’s because of the eyes or the Caribbean tan, or if maybe I looked really sickly before, but hey, I’ll take whatever I can get.
 
Ooh, and I finally called the eye doctor and made an appointment for new glasses and contacts on Saturday. I had tried to make an appointment online TWICE (6 different appointment options), but no one ever got back to me. My self-imposed “blacklist-of-all-organizations-that-tick-me-off-by-making-me-actually-CALL-them-because-either-their-software-or-their-personnel-is-defective” was side-swiped by the impending deadline to use all my flex-spending money from last year by March, so I sucked up my pride and called them to make an appointment. I should really learn that it’s much faster and easier to just call people instead of relying on their internet appointment setups.
 
Also, 2 things I want to do this weekend if anyone else is interested: Saturday – the annual Southside Soup Contest, starting at noon. $5 to get in gets you all the different soups you can handle. Perfect for a chilly February Saturday. I wanted to do this last year, but I think my mom came to visit that day and I didn’t have time to go.
Sunday – there’s a Venture Outdoors Water Safety course on the North Side. It’s 9 am – 5 pm and it’s free for anyone who wants to attend. Since I’m a bit of a kayaking freak and this is free, I figured it might be a good idea to take it. You can also get certification (there’s a test) by filling out an application and sending in $10 after the course is done. It’d be neat to be certified, but I’ll wait and see how the course goes first.
 
That’s it for now. Tonight I plan on trying my hand at the gym again (hopefully tonight is better than last night) and downloading some Learning Tree podcasts. I’m such an exciting 26-year-old!