So here’s what I thought was funny today – a Consultant I have got a mention out of me about the blog.

Yes, I mentioned GLCT to someone outside my friend space. I mentioned it, however, because I thought that maybe someone at my firm had seen it – a variety of reasons, but I had good reason to think so. So, while being upset about this potential fact, I mentioned my “secret blog” to him.

Mistake.

Now he’s scowering the Interwebs for said “secret blog.” He can’t find it, I know he can’t. Am I that predictable – or predictable at all? I guess the real question is, in the way that I live my work life, do you think the people in my work world would know how to find me somewhere on the web?

Do they know my heart, my interests, and what I find funny?

Just some food for thought. How real am I at work? What do I really let people know – and where do I set my boundaries?

Plus, if Consultant DOES see this – he’ll be so overwhelmed with “being right,” he won’t be able to not tell me he found it…

The Christmas card process has been quite a, well, process this year.

First there are the personal cards. I’m committed to it this year. COMMITTED. No more getting to December 20th realizing I haven’t even started them. Now, yes, truth is I’m on my third weekend of saying I’ll start them and then, in fact, not starting them.

But I’m still committed. I swear. It’s true.

Then there are the professional cards, and only one word describes this process and it’s “ugh.” Ugh.

My company decided that to cut costs and supposedly “show off our digital offering” that we would do HTML or e-cards. What?! Seriously?! Can you say TACKY? I don’t even know what to say because as many of you may know, the holiday card thing in DC is quite important. Who you send to, who you “forget,” how good and quality the cards are… it’s all ridiculous, I admit, but it is nevertheless a big deal.

And let’s just review what I do for my company: external communications. So as you can imagine, my list is quite large because sending out holiday cards is, well, externally communicating.

So after a conversations with my boss (who is also against the e-card idea) we decided I would just buy my own cards and send them out and charge them back to the company. It’s just not right to send someone an e-mail card – I’d be the laughing stock!

(And this is the space I would go on a thing about the “holiday card” versus the “Christmas card,” but I really don’t think anyone is interested to hear what we all already know – it’s kind of ridiculous, but it is what it is.)

So here is a preview!

For the personal card, well, you don’t get a preview because if you’re reading this and you’re one of my friends, you’ll see it in mail!

For my professional cards, however, I’ve ordered two from one of my favorite sites, TinyPrints.

The first is a Christmas card. Because TinyPrints is so lovely, you can change any of the text on the cards – so mine say something a little different than what you’ll see. I also changed some of the fonts. But it’s Christmas colors and a Christmas ornament, so… I went with it.

I bought 200 of these:

Next, we have the totally vanilla any-holiday-you-want-card. The Holiday card. You could do the little circles in different colors so I chose the green and blue (which you’ll see here), and also changed the font to a less script-like font, and also changed the text a wee bit.

I bought 100 of these:

So in total, I have saddled myself with 400 cards. 400. Honestly, I could maybe not sleep for a month and they wouldn’t get done – so no, I have no idea why I’m doing this to myself, but I am.
And hey, Merry Christmas!

I’m not a huge candle person – but I do like a nice one here and there. I used to be like every other girl and bought tons of them, but once I realized I only really like a few kinds, I stopped that insanity.

Now I just have a few brands that I really like. One, introduced to me by someone that gave a gift to FR, is Wood Wick.

The website is just terrible, but the product is the exact opposite!

The basic premise is that the “wick” is made of natural wood materials, and is flat and very wide. When you light these little beauties they sound just like a [very quiet] crackling fireplace. It is quite lovely, especially for sitting down in a quiet room to read a book.

Not to mention, their smells (smells? Fragrances?) are wonderful. They are full and strong enough to get a wonderful whiff, but not overpowering at all.

Can you tell I’m listening to/smelling/enjoying a little Wood Wick as I write?

My, my, my. What a whirlwind few weeks I’ve had. And a few weeks that I’ve ignored this little blog.

More than a few. Okay, you’ve got me.

This week isn’t over yet for me, but I had a mini-meltdown this week over work and after a few days past that I think I’m getting back to that point where I realize the job just isn’t everything. It’s not. But I forget that so often.

I don’t really know how I got there either – I had/have a workaholic dad who worked constantly, and I always vowed to not be like that. Yes we had everything we needed and more growing up, but I wanted to get out more, enjoy life more, have people over for dinner often. And here I am, not having eaten anything but cereal in my own home for the last three or four weeks and looking around at a month of piled up mail, and a disaster that some people would call laundry.

But sometimes it takes a bit of a meltdown to clear the mind – right? Let’s hope so.

Onward.

This week ended a full week of travel that started in Chicago, went straight to St. Louis, and then on to Asheville, NC for the remaining three days. And guess what. No, guess.

I didn’t check luggage. That’s right – I’m a girl, I traveled to cold, sort of cold, and cold again, and I had everything for a week of living in carry-ons. You’re impressed, I knew you would be.

One of the great things is that I got tons of pictures from the St. Louis trip, so you’ll be seeing some sweet Halloween shots of our little baby friend Elise soon:).

Glad to be back.