Hot mess.

Today my boss had a meeting with me to tell me how phenomenal I am doing and that she wants me on her team forever. And if I don't like her team (department), she'll do whatever I need to put me where I want to be in the office.

MONEYY!!!!!!!!!!!


That's the jist of that. Good. Then went to the gym for 2 hours and killed myself. So beat!

Just found some sweet apartments right near my work that I'm looking into. Yay.

Overall? A good day. Hopefully the sun keeps shining tomorrow which will distract me from the fact that Josh is leaving for his vacation tomorrow and I won't have my boy to talk to until NEXT Saturday :-( <3

Time for some work I brought home from the office and beddddd.

ZzZzzZZZz

Gretchen Inspired Project, or, why I started showing up to work on time, paying my bills, and stopped telling my boyfriend to wear a coat...

Greetings fellow bloggers!

So I have been MIA for a few months now and while I'd love to blame that on the fact that my laptop broke and I just got a new one today, but I have to say that it really is due to the fact that I started a new job in January that has just consumed my life and I love it. No more Courtyard Marriott front office, hellooo Marriott International Global Sales Team! ...and HELLO BANKER'S HOURS! :)

Anywho, enough boring stuff. So I recently found a new book, "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin. This woman basically wakes up one day and realizes that she'll someday be dead and she wants to maximize her happiness.

"A 'happiness project' is an approach to changing your life. First is the preparation stage, when you identify what brings you joy, satisfaction, and engagement, and also what brings you guilt, anger, boredom, and remorse. Second is the making of resolutions, when you identify the concrete actions that will boost your happiness. Then comes the interesting part: keeping your resolutions."

Each month she tackled a new set of resolutions. Each resolution is assigned to one of the 12 months of the year. At the end of the month's section, she tells what she learned from trying that particular resolution, what it was like trying to do it, and how she felt when she accomplished or failed at doing so.

Gretchen's book has put a smile on my face whenever I lose myself in her project. This has inspired me to do the same. I have been searching at book stores and Target and all the likely places that one might find a neat looking journal or diary to write in. After searching to find what seemed like the impossible, I thought, "why not write it in my blog?" This way others can follow my progress, and my control-freak self won't be worrying about my penmanship har har.

Thus, I must identify and then create my list of resolutions. Things that I want to focus on or change about my perspective on life and the way I live everyday.

What brings me joy, satisfaction, and engagement?
-Sunshine
-Spending time with Josh, my friends, my family
-Being praised at work (or just in general)
-A great dinner and glass of wine
-Learning new tasks at work
-A clean room, house, or car
-Having my bills all paid on time
-Sitting around chatting w/ friends
-Being able to get a coffee before work in the morning

What brings me guilt, anger, boredom, and remorse?
-Not paying my bills on time and facing the consequences of not doing so
-Not having challenging tasks at work
-Being late to work or social gatherings
-Crummy weather
-Nit picking and arguing with Josh
-Traffic



"THE TWELVE COMMANDMENTS" (some taken from Gretchen's own list)
1.) Don't be late.
2.) Be responsible/do what ought to be done.
3.) Lighten up.
4.) Be boot camp perfect.
5.) Pay more attention.
6.) Pursue a passion.
7.) Boost energy.
8.) Aim higher at work.
9.) Remember love.
10.) Be serious about play.
11.) Make time for friendship.
12.) Put family first.


They say the hardest part about starting a project is just that: STARTING it. So this is me starting. Attempting to begin something great that I think will produce great effects if enough effort is focused on it.

More to come tomorrow- I'm starting up on #7 tonight: boosting energy by going to bed an hour earlier than normal 8-)

xo

Checking in, checking out, checking in, and certainly NOT checking back in HERE

"Jennifer lemme tell you this story... I had some guests staying at the L Hotel last night. At some ungodly hour, this guy was drunk and bipolar and started beating the shit out of the girl he was with and having a psychotic episode. He was arrested and then brought to the psych ward at the local hospital. The girl drove home to NY after this incident last night. They checked him out today because they couldn't keep him for insurance reasons w/e, but wouldn't allow him to drive himself home or release him on his own, so he had to have his father drive in from NY and then the girl that left last night took the crazy kids keys and they've been trying to get the car going all day and his keys are being overnighted to him and won't be here til the morning and they're looking for a cheap room for tonight... can you help them? like under a $100?"


........................WHAT


let's look at this logically.



you want me to:
1.) sell a room for motel rates when we are selling at over $300 tonight
2.) put my guests in danger of being attacked by this guy ... we could be sued? no?
3.) myself in danger since I'm the only one working here


?? really ?? are you crazy too?

He may have been checking in and out of lots of places recently, but my Marriott shall not be one of them. Anddd this is why you're the VALET manager, not the HOTEL manager. Buenos noches, nutjobS. :-P

Lucky Bastards

Currently, I am blogging from work, hungover off my usual 4 beers since Patriot Place got the best of me, yet I'm doing some great math this morning in my fog...


There are approximately 204 people sleeping above me.

And I hate every one of them.

where are you going? by dave mathews sung in my head

I'm currently blogging via blackberry on my train ride to work. Todays feature: china man. We'll call him cm for short.

Where are you always going, cm? I see you everyday with your plastic shopping bag filled with fruit for lunch and what looks like iced tea.

Cm and I always sit across from each other on the train of course. We both like the end sseat, and I like familiarity. Where do you get those newspapers writtwn in chinese? I like when you look down at your dirty black sneakers and I wonder if you're going to work or you just like your kicks the way they are?

Have a great day, cm. From your creepy watcher across the way on the red line<3

Missed trains and things of the like.

Strangers, friends, missed connections, empty soda bottles, heroin needles... you just never know what you're going to come across on public transportation. You see, I take the T into Boston for work everyday now. Each morning I hustle up about 80 steps in my high heels carrying my iced coffee and making a mad dash for the Alewife train that's without a doubt going to pull away as I approach the doors.

So I strut over to the benches on the platform, angry at myself for having to have listened to the last chorus of Kristina Debarge's song "Goodbye" in my car in the parking garage.

People reading newspapers, listening to their iPod, picking through trash, staring at you, pacing... do you ever wonder what these strangers have on their plate today? What they're thinking? Where they're from? If they're contemplating suicide? Thinking about their wedding that's coming up next weekend?

It's such a strange concept if you really think about it.

Two days ago, an African American couple sat next to me on the morning T with their son in his stroller. He must have been about 1 or 2 years old. They were a rather young couple and they were listening to rap music via their cell phone's speaker. I began to wonder... was this just another case of an unwanted pregnancy? Were they happy together? Married? Engaged? Or just two individuals hating their lives and how irresponsible they were?

Yesterday, an older woman boarded the crowded T I was on. With no seats left, the woman looked around... seemingly pissed off and bitter, as most old people are. A gentleman got up and offered his seat to her. Granny didn't even say "thank you!" In fact, she snarled at him. That really pissed me off.

One thing I've noticed about Asian people is they have really thick toenails. Yes, it's really gross that I noticed that. But hey, it happened. Why is this?

The other day, a Dorchester day camp field trip group boarded my train with their staff members. They had no manners and were falling on top of me the whole ride on the green line.

Then, there is that small occasion that you lock eyes with a complete (seemingly normal) stranger, give them that sort of polite smile, and look away.

That interaction is written about so so so many times on Craigslist under the "Missed Connections" sections. Yes, I'm a freak and I read them. Yes, there are many times (especially now being in Boston daily) that I think it could be about me. It's not hard to fit the criteria of a brunette girl riding the green line and getting off at a certain stop at a certain time of day.

Why must these posts be necessary? Why is it SO taboo to just strike up a conversation with a stranger? You could meet your new best friend joking about how the train cart that's attached to yours sounds like it's going to snap off and derail... but hey, I guess we'll never meet. Nice not knowing ya!

If I had a million dollars...

If I had a million dollars... well, I wouldn't be making this wish list here on my blog. Ha.

So I've started my new job working for Marriott in Boston @ Copley Square and I absolutely love everything about it. The people, the location, the $$$... but I do not, however, love that I work with two men who are far more stylish than I am. Yes these two men are gay. And they are the most well dressed men I have ever seen. It's just fabulous!

Yesterday we were chatting about how now that I live in Boston, I need a few things...

*Blackberry cell
*Burberry hand bag
*Dolce and Gabanna sunglasses
etc etc

Normally, I am not a materialistic person at all. However, I wouldn't HATE all of the above? I mean who would, right? So now I find myself online browsing for all of these things.


So now I've got my new car<3, new job in the city<3 and the above things to come in the near future I think. In the fall or winter, Kaleigh and I are getting a place in Boston. Apartment: check! Then shortly after, I'm thinking of buying a dog. Life is falling into place<3


Then, on top of feeling on top of the world lately, my birthday weekend is coming up! This year will be different however. As a single newly legal 21 year old last summer, I hardly remember any of my birthday celebrations in Boston due to the large amounts of beers consumed that were bought by large amounts of men who didn't stand a chance at me remembering their name... or face for that matter. But this year, Josh is planning fun things for my birthday :) It's nice having a boyfriend again... He won't tell me what we are doing but I know that it's an all morning/afternoon plan with just him in the city, and then at night we're going out with my friends in town. Then he said not to make any plans on the day after my birthday, which I think smells like Red Sox tickets? ;) But who knows.

Brian just told me he has VIP tickets to Keith Urban and TAYLOR SWIFT the weekend after my birthday!!!!!!!!!! UMMMM...... EXCUSE ME WHILE I RUN AROUND SCREAMING IN EXCITEMENT.





...ok I'm done. Enough rambling. In short: life is good today.