Awkward and Awesome

Here are my awkward and awesome moments for the week (Inspired by E from E is Random who was inspired by Sydney at The Daybook):

Awkward:

• Another week passing that I haven't written any new posts for my blog.
• A near miss car accident. As I attempted to make a left hand turn after a car passed the intersection, the car decided to slow down. I don't know if she was deciding to make a left hand turn at the last minute or if she wasn't certain that I saw her or not. I honestly have no idea what happened, but I do know that there wasn't an accident!
• Learning that a co-worker's mother has peritoneal cancer. Cancer sucks!

Awesome:

• My birthday was this past week! In true Aries fashion, I love my birthday. My current work assignment has me 3 hours from where my family lives at, and my mother, sister, father and stepmom visited me for my special day. I had a progressive lunch with them and it was one of the most memorable and best birthdays that I have had in a long time.
• Getting a release date for my current work assignment. This means that I will be headed home for a much needed break (and will hopefully get back to writing for my blog!).
• Ordering coffee at Starbucks and the Barista telling me "From the looks of things I don't think you need much coffee this morning!". For some reason that day I woke up in a great mood, there was good music on the radio and nothing was going to stand in my way to have a good day.
• Receiving a goodie box of Canadian chocolates from a friend who lives there. Yum!

Awkward and Awesome

Here are my awkward and awesome moments for the week (Inspired by E from E is Random who was inspired by Sydney at The Daybook):

 Awkward:

• Not posting on my blog all week long. How do I go from posting nearly everyday last week to not posting at all this week? I have to manage my time better to be more consistent.
• Exiting the elevator at the hotel and smelling marijuana in the hallway. What's even more awkward is that I called the Front Desk and they didn't seem to be too surprised about it. Hmmm...

Awesome:

• Seeing a friend of mine who I haven't seen in a couple of years. It was also on her birthday! (If all goes well, I'll see her tonight for sushi!)
• Getting a dozen cupcakes delivered to me at work. Did I fail to mention that tomorrow is my birthday???
• Walking 4 miles two different days this week. (OK, I know I could have done better and walked more days)
• Getting a step closer to being released from my current work assignment. Although that might sound like a bad thing, it really isn't. This means I'll get some downtime and some much needed rest!
• Seeing some more friends from Indy for sushi last Saturday night. Dinner was great and the conversation even better!

Here's to an even better next week!

Awkward and Awesome

Here are my awkward and awesome moments for the week (Inspired by E from E is Random who was inspired by Sydney at The Daybook):

 Awkward:

• Writing an awesome book review to post on my blog, only to accidentally delete the content AND not have a back up copy of the post. Ugh!
• I was waiting for the elevator at the hotel with a man and 5 little girls (probably from ages 3 - 13). They looked like they were returning from swimming. I asked him "How did you get so lucky?", implying that he was took 5 little girls to the pool. He responded "They're all mine although they're adopted." Then I noticed that each girl was a different ethnicity. It never crossed my mind that the girls weren't related, I just thought he was brave to take 5 girls to the pool by himself!
• Deleting my Project365 and Daily Photo accounts. Although I really want to focus on my love of picture taking and taking better pictures, I am finding that I don't have time to take a picture a day for two different platforms that don't cross share information.
• My 4Square app. Every time I try to check-in someplace, I don't receive any points because 'my device thinks I'm too far away'. I cant figure out if the problem is with the app or my phone. Either way, I'm real close to deleting the app since I am so frustrated using it.

Awesome:

• Having dinner with friends in Indy that I hadn't seen for 5 years. It was great to catch up over good food and even better conversation. I really miss Indy and my friends here.
• Having lunch with one set of my parents as they traveled through Indianapolis on their way to Florida. I've seen them twice in the past two weeks!
• Raising almost $1,000 in a week toward my Susan G. Komen 3-Day fundraising account! I am so overwhelmed with the generosity and support that I receive from my friends and family. (And if you would like to make a donation too, please click on the following link: www.the3day.org/goto/ShannonUnderwood
• A co-worker surprised me and brought me back Coffee Crisp candy bars from Canada. I had mentioned how good they are in passing and he picked me some up. I love random acts of kindness!
• Instagram is finally available for Android! I don't what it's all about, although I'm looking forward to adding some cool effects to my pictures. If you want to follow me, my user name is: indygirl_1997.

Friends, How Many of Us Have Them?

So…

How many Facebook friends do you have?

How many Tweeps?

Some of you might remember that a couple of months ago I read the book ‘MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New Best Friend. Ever since then I having been giving more thought to the dynamics of friendships and the type of relationships that I have with my friends.

Honestly, I think the term ‘friend’ is probably used a bit loosely nowadays. On Facebook, I have 380 ‘friends’. My ‘friends’ are a mix of family, work friends, real life friends, PINK friends, high school friends, and virtual friends. Within each of these sub groups are varying degrees of how close I am to each person in the specific group. For instance in my family group I have my immediate family, aunts, uncles and cousins, and then distant relatives.

When I first joined Facebook, I was very selective about who I accepted friend requests from. My sister would call me a Facebook Snob, and it was true. If I knew of someone in high school and we didn’t talk then, why would I want to be their Facebook friend 25 years later? Now I have loosened my friend requirements since I primarily use Facebook as marketing for my 3-Day Breast Cancer Walks. For the most part there aren’t any personal pictures of me or other friends, unless it’s something to do with me volunteering, training and walking in breast cancer awareness event. Every now and then I will allow someone to tag me in a picture (and I still reserve the final approval for that!).

As for Twitter…

I have 86 followers, which isn’t anything by Twitter follower standards. The main reason I joined Twitter was due to the 3-Day having a Twitter account (@the3day). This allowed me to follow each of the 14 3-Day walks, virtually cheer on the walkers and crew, and become more involved in the 3-Day community. And yes, I have a lot of Tweeps that I have no idea who they are, yet I feel like I know them in the virtual sense.

And then there are the blogs that I follow. Even though I follow over 70 blogs (I know, waaay too many!), there are only a handful that I look forward to reading on a daily basis. I feel like those bloggers are my ‘friends’ and I can’t wait to see what they will share next. (Maybe one day I’ll have hundreds of people following my blog too!)

Although I was kind of hard on the author of ‘MWF Seeking BFF’ with my initial thoughts, and what I thought was her pathetic and controlling search for a new BFF, the book helped me realize that I possibly take for granted my ‘meeting people’ skills (as she calls it). I guess some people have ‘it’ and some people don’t. For me, meeting people in person or via social media hasn’t been that difficult for me to do. I’ll just consider myself thankful and lucky for all of the ‘friends’ that I have!

The Committment Lives On

Today is the last day of Lent. Although I’m not Catholic, some of you might remember that I decided to ‘commit to something’ during the time of Lent. Initially I thought it was going to be sweets, but then it turned into being committed to giving up meat (red meat and pork since I already don’t eat chicken).

Yeah, I know you’re probably thinking that I might have taken the easy road on this one. But I do enjoy a great steak, hamburger, and just about anything pork related. The most difficult part during this time is that I’ve been on a work assignment, which typically consists of more fast food options which aren’t always non-meat friendly.  For the most part it wasn’t that difficult and I had two slips ups:

1) From a box lunched served during a business meeting. It was about a week after I stopped eating meat, and I had half of a roasted turkey sandwich (and let’s be honest, is processed lunch meat really meat in the first place?);

2) When I was attempting to be conscious of what I was eating I ordered baked cheese ziti from Fazoli’s. From the name of the dish I assumed it would have tomato or marina sauce, well it didn’t. There were some type of meat crumbles in the sauce (and let’s be honest again, if I were really trying to eat meat it wouldn’t have been faux meat from Fazoli’s).

Overall I am very satisfied about my commitment to not eating meat. With the exception of pizza, I didn’t miss eating it at all. Although I really did want some good ole pepperoni on that pizza that I ordered!

As far as health benefits…I believe I was a lot more regular, if you know what I mean. I’ll spare you the details so we’ll just say that was a benefit for me. I also believe that I ate more veggies (which also probably contributed to the TMI moment that I just shared with you).

At different periods in my life, I have stopped eating meat. With the exception of chicken, I have always returned to eventually eating meat. Now, I am seriously thinking about continuing on this path and only eating fish and seafood (also known as a pescatarian but I’m not into those types of labels).

Probably my biggest concern with this decision is for those who invite me over for dinner. Right now people already think it’s strange that I don’t eat chicken, which seems to be a staple for most Americans. Now to eliminate all type of meats might make others feel limited as to what they can cook when I am invited over. Typically I don’t share my eating needs with others, and I’ll just eat the non-chicken items that are served. This new change might just make me come out of my ‘what I eat and don’t eat’ closet and expose myself to everyone.

Stay tuned and we’ll see how it goes. Maybe I can incorporate some other healthy changes into my daily diet. If anyone has suggestions for me regarding my new eating choice, please let me know!  

Tipping

It seems like every other day I am learning something new about my iPad or about features within iTunes. My latest find has been podcasts!

I have always heard about podcasts, but didn’t really know what they were. In case you don’t know what a podcast is, it’s a type of digital media consisting of audio or visual information that can be downloaded or subscribed to. I always knew they are informational, but I had no idea that they are free to download or subscribe to in iTunes. Yes, you read correctly…FREE and iTunes in the same sentence!

So, the other night I decided to download a few podcasts to see what I thought. The first podcast (and so far only one) that I have listened to is from series called “Stuff You Should Know”, and this particular episode is ‘How Tipping Works’. (And if you’ve been reading my blog for any period of time, you should already know that I’m all about useless information, so this is right up my alley!)

Well, tipping has always been kind of a gray area for me. I have worked in the service industry as server in which I relied on tips for my income. So I have always had an appreciation and understanding of people who work in a tip driven environment. Although sometimes I think that since I was ‘one of them’ at one time, I tend to learn toward the side of over tipping.

It seems like 20% is my automatic base percentage to base tips from. So if the service is great, the percentage increases; if the service is poor the percentage decreases. Let’s be honest, if the service is poor my base percentage should probably be a lot less. But then I feel bad for leaving a poor tip. But does the person feel bad for giving me poor service? I don’t think that I am high maintenance customer. In a restaurant setting, I want my server to be knowledgeable about the dishes and available options, anticipate my needs (keep my drink full, make certain I have the necessary utensils, etc.), and bring my check at the appropriate time. I don’t think I’m asking for much.

From reading my blog, you already know that I frequent a lot of different places that tipping is required. I always tip my hair stylist, esthetician, and manicurist 20% of the total bill. And that has always been a given no matter what. Like the other day I went to have my eyebrows waxed. I had a scheduled appointment, yet still waited for 20 minutes before she was ready for me. Somehow she still received a 20% tip. So, was the tip for the great job she did once she finally completed my services? Honestly, I probably should have adjusted the tip since I had to wait. Although I left with great brows, I was still unhappy that I had to wait.

When traveling, I am all over the board about tipping. When I know that my suitcase might be a little bit over the weight limit, I’ll check the bag curbside and have a nice $5 tip waiting. Typically this $5 (and a nice smile!) will insure that I won’t be paying the overweight baggage fee. I also typically tip anyone who touches my luggage (ex: shuttle bus driver to car rental center)

No matter what the situation, the podcast explains that you should always tip on the full price even if you have a discount coupon. Although I agree with that, I don’t think that I should have to tip on ‘added on’ charges. For instance, the transportation service that I use to get to back and forth to the airport charges a flat rate, toll charge, and a fuel service charge. Well, I don’t think I should tip on the tolls and fuel service charge amount. So now it appears that I might seem cheap, but then again I am also tipping 15% - 20% on the flat rate when I think the standard tip is 10% for this type of transportation.

Overall this particular podcast was entertaining and informational. The two guys had a great banter between one another and there was a lot of useful information. So I would highly recommend this podcast if you’ve never tried a podcast before or if you want to know more about tipping.

Are there any podcasts that you’ve listened to that you can recommend?

The Eyebrows Have It

When I’m on a work assignment, sometimes my personal maintenance suffers. I mean, I can’t just go to just anybody to have my hair done or waxing services completed! So one of the great things about being in Indy for a work assignment is that The Eyelash Place is still open!

Now from the name you probably wouldn’t think that eyebrow waxing takes place there, but it does. Back in 1997 when I first moved to Indy was when I started getting my eyebrows waxed by someone who understands that having great eyebrows is an art form. Before then, I would tweeze them myself or go to someone who would over wax them. But after I learned about the wonderful world of eyebrow grooming, I never looked back!

I never realized how much eyebrows play a part in framing ones face. (Now of course I know that a uni-brow doesn’t do anyone any good!) My eyebrows have a good natural arch, although they do require some TLC to stay looking great. Lynn at The Eyelash Place was the first person that did more than just waxing….in addition to waxing away my wayward hairs, she tweezed superfine, hard to see hairs (did I mention she wears super microscopic goggles?), and also trimmed and shaped my eyebrows with scissors. The end result is nothing short of fabulous…perfectly framed and well-maintained eyebrows!

After living in Indy for 8 years and having wonderful eyebrows, you can imagine my sadness when I relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio for my company. Although I tried and tried and tried many salons for eyebrow grooming, they all paled in comparison to The Eyelash Place. I would even break down and make special trips to drive 2 hours to Indy to get my eyebrows waxed!

Then one day the eyebrow gods smiled on me…

They sent me to Jenny, the Eyebrow Expert! Jenny was even more fabulous than Lynn at The Eyelash Place and by far the best part of living in Cincinnati (no offense to anyone who might live there!). (Jenny also introduced me to Michele watches - one of my favorite things! - although that’s a story for another time.) Since leaving Cincy nearly 5 years ago, I have been back there once for a work assignment and my love affair with Jenny picked up again, although only for a short time. I keep praying to the eyebrow gods that Jenny is able to open a second location in Dallas...man, I miss her! (And once you read about Jenny on her website, you'll see that she sums up perfectly what eyebrows should be!)

Now, I don’t want you thinking that I fly all over the country just to have my eyebrows waxed! Fortunately, before I moved to Dallas I was there for 3 months on a work assignment. During that time I found Tara who is my current eyebrow artist. Tara keeps my brows looking great when I am in town. And when I return from a work assignment (unless I’m in Indy or Cincy) she’s there to groom my eyebrows back after whomever got wax or tweeze happy and tried to jack them up while I was away from her.

So, if you are ever in Indy, Cincy or Dallas, you’ve got 3 fantastic places to go for your brows!