For real. P is all on my top of my shit in response to my last post being like, "Bowling is nice but wtf were you GOING to blog about?" and Erica was all, "What happened with that hot guy in your class?" You guys don't miss anything. Hot damn.
Actually, I love people for keeping me in line, though I totally WAS going to write the intended blog post from before. But before I do that, the hot guy update.
Friends, class last week went almost EXACTLY how I said it would. I walked into class, and as I approached my seat, I made a light-hearted comment to hot guy about the fact that he was clearly doing reading at 6:59 that was due at 7:00. He put the reading down to talk to me, and we chatted for a few minutes before class started. I filled him in on what he had missed the week before (nothing), and he told me why he missed class (corporate luxury box at the Celtics game). Then class started. Then class ended. And we both left. The end.
Anywayyyy. What I was GOING to post about before is that I am instituting not one, but TWO "see if you can do something for x amount of days" challenges into my life. Both came about separately but I'm going to be doing them sort of simultaneously.
NUMBER ONE.
No soda for the month of December. This actually started out as "no Diet Coke for the month of December" since that's mostly all the soda I drink, but I don't want to cheat and allow myself Diet. Dr. Pepper (which I do have on occasion) and think it's okay. I don't actually think I drink an obscene amount of the delicious DC but I definitely drink more than I used to and I will NOT get addicted to caffeine. And no, I'm not planning on taking up coffee instead, cheater mccheatsalots out there. This is something I've been thinking about for a month or 2, and now is that time to make it happen. Will I make it through? I doubt it, but I'll give it a try.
NUMBER TWO.
I am going to NOT dress like a hot messy mess for 7 days. Starting tomorrow. If I leave the house, I WILL make effort to have some kind of outfit that looks put together. Except when I leave to go to the gym. Gym clothes are gym clothes, people. I will hopefully take pictures of my outfits and post them here. This challenge is going to be particularly hard because a) I have no idea how to put together a cute outfit, b) as I mentioned once before, I walk to school and sneakers do not generally constitute a nice outfit, and c) I do not have any pairs of jeans (or other pants, actually) that fit properly because they are all too big. So if 6 of my 7 outfits involve skirts and flat boots, then...whatever, it counts. Despite these setbacks, I will prevail! Maybe. Hopefully. Also, I realized that I think some bloggers have already attempted this challenge once upon a time? I wonder how that went. Anyhoo. This challenge came about when I used my ATL (Ann Taylor Loft, yo) gift card yesterday to buy THE CUTEST DRESS OF ALL TIME THAT I COULD WEAR OVER JEANS IF I HAD JEANS WITHOUT BUTT SAG.
I shall keep everyone posted on my progress on both fronts. And I know that if I don't, some of you out there will crack the whip and remind me. =)
Bloggers are fiesty!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Labels:
Don't dress like a mess challenge,
Men,
No soda December challenge
Reliving high school
Thanksgiving was lovely. That's about all the recap you're going to get, because while it was simultaneously fun, relaxing, productive and boring, no one cares about the details. Not even me.
WAIT, THAT IS A LIE.
Last night I went bowling. I went with 2 of my high school friends (Elyse, since I know you're going to ask me, I went with Hsin and Devika. Everyone else, sorry for the aside about people you don't know) to a place we used to go to in high school because for real there is NOTHING ELSE to do as a teenager in New Jersey. It was awesome. I freaking love bowling, especially when it's all crazy laser light bowling. And when you put in nicknames instead of your real names (last night was Airface, D-Dawg, and Hsinbad the Sailor, which I'm pretty sure are the same ones we used in high school too) Clearly Saturday nights in the Jerz have not improved that much. ANYWAY.
The last time I went bowling was in St. Petersburg, Russia back on my awesome school trip in May. And while there I got my best score EVER.
Do you see that? 152! That's ca-raaaaaazy (please ignore the 87 I got in the first game). The only person out of the entire trip to beat that score was my friend Kristin, who as you can see from this lovely picture, got a 155 in her first game. We were quite proud of our achievements, and I rubbed our 150s in the face of a male classmate who spent most of the bus ride to the bowling alley talking about how he was probably going to bowl a 160 or 170 and how men are always better bowlers than women. Did he break 100 in either game? NAY.
Anyway, I was hoping to continue my streak of bowling awesomeness last night, but it was not meant to be. In fact, I missed my Russia score by almost 100 pins, coming in at a lovely 55. Oops.
Oh, and now I don't even feel like posting about what I was originally going to post about. Hrmmm, maybe later.
WAIT, THAT IS A LIE.
Last night I went bowling. I went with 2 of my high school friends (Elyse, since I know you're going to ask me, I went with Hsin and Devika. Everyone else, sorry for the aside about people you don't know) to a place we used to go to in high school because for real there is NOTHING ELSE to do as a teenager in New Jersey. It was awesome. I freaking love bowling, especially when it's all crazy laser light bowling. And when you put in nicknames instead of your real names (last night was Airface, D-Dawg, and Hsinbad the Sailor, which I'm pretty sure are the same ones we used in high school too) Clearly Saturday nights in the Jerz have not improved that much. ANYWAY.
The last time I went bowling was in St. Petersburg, Russia back on my awesome school trip in May. And while there I got my best score EVER.
Do you see that? 152! That's ca-raaaaaazy (please ignore the 87 I got in the first game). The only person out of the entire trip to beat that score was my friend Kristin, who as you can see from this lovely picture, got a 155 in her first game. We were quite proud of our achievements, and I rubbed our 150s in the face of a male classmate who spent most of the bus ride to the bowling alley talking about how he was probably going to bowl a 160 or 170 and how men are always better bowlers than women. Did he break 100 in either game? NAY.
Anyway, I was hoping to continue my streak of bowling awesomeness last night, but it was not meant to be. In fact, I missed my Russia score by almost 100 pins, coming in at a lovely 55. Oops.
Oh, and now I don't even feel like posting about what I was originally going to post about. Hrmmm, maybe later.
Reflected Best Self
Monday, November 23, 2009
Labels:
B-school,
I'm awesome
About a month ago, I had to do an assignment for school called the Reflected Best Self. I had to poll a number of people in my life, from friends to family to coworkers, and ask them to tell me about a time when I was "at my best." They were supposed to provide a general category of something I do well, i.e. "you have good time management skills," and then a specific example. I then compiled the feedback into themes, and wrote a paper which essentially presented a portrait of myself at my best, and then talked about how this reflects ways I could improve as a leader, specific career situations where I would thrive, and so on.
It sounds like a totally soft, bogus assignment, but it has actually been proven to help even senior executives both in structuring their jobs and figuring out generally the kind of work they should be doing.
Collecting feedback was really interesting, and it was fun listening to the anecdotes people told and hearing what the people closest to me liked best about me. It was, of course, a nice ego boost as well, as people essentially sent me emails about why I'm awesome. And even though everyone already knows that I'm wonderful and great, here is some info that I collected about what makes me great.
I am HONEST.
While I am well aware that I am brutally honest, I was surprised that so many people seemed to appreciate this quality about me since I often tell people things they don't want to hear. But when people said I can be relied upon for "a good kick in the head when needed," and that "you always offer your unadulterated opinion and it's usually the right one," it only reinforced the fact that I will never ever stop telling people what I think. Because everyone needs the voice of honesty sometimes.
I am a good COMMUNICATOR.
The comments here ranged from the quality of my writing (to those of you who wrote that my blog is well-written - thanks! But due to the circumstances of last semester I'm keeping blog and school separate so I couldn't use your feedback) to the fact that I respond to emails in a timely way, to the fact that I am "able to command attention in a room of hundreds of people." Again, since blogging, emailing and public speaking are all things I love to do...no big surprises. But I was still really floored to see these things mentioned as they are all important to me.
I am FUN and SILLY.
The stories that came along with this one were amazing. I was reminded of a time when my wifer and I walked 60 blocks during the MTA transit strike just to get margaritas, how I was "integral" to the fun my friends and I had on the cruise we went on 3 years ago (AKA I was a sloppy, drunken mess who had 2 guys licking vodka off my pants, thanks again for that feedback but I also opted to leave that out of the paper), and how I always find joy in small things, like ice cream and pictures of cute puppies.
I won't go into the other feedback I received because there was a LOT of it, but when I grouped it into categories the others one I had were: Dedication, Intelligence, Level-headed, Multi-tasking, Leadership, Reliable, Selfless, Team Player. So, needless to say, I was really overcome with "aww"s at all the wonderful things people had to say about me.
This exercise was also an interesting lesson in seeing who comes through and who doesn't when asked for a favor. Some people responded to my request for feedback right away. Some people responded right after my second request. Some people responded after I submitted my paper. I appreciate all of these, even the late ones. Some people, despite my 2 emails asking for information, never even acknowledged that I asked for anything. Since I can say with 100% certainty that I would have done this thoroughly and thoughtfully had someone else asked me to help out, this really showed me who gives a crap and who doesn't, and I definitely have a mental note as to who I won't be going out of my way to do favors for in the future.
If anyone for whatever reason wants to conduct their own Reflected Best Self assessment, shoot me an email and I'll send you the instructions. Definitely an introspective assignment worth the time and effort.
It sounds like a totally soft, bogus assignment, but it has actually been proven to help even senior executives both in structuring their jobs and figuring out generally the kind of work they should be doing.
Collecting feedback was really interesting, and it was fun listening to the anecdotes people told and hearing what the people closest to me liked best about me. It was, of course, a nice ego boost as well, as people essentially sent me emails about why I'm awesome. And even though everyone already knows that I'm wonderful and great, here is some info that I collected about what makes me great.
I am HONEST.
While I am well aware that I am brutally honest, I was surprised that so many people seemed to appreciate this quality about me since I often tell people things they don't want to hear. But when people said I can be relied upon for "a good kick in the head when needed," and that "you always offer your unadulterated opinion and it's usually the right one," it only reinforced the fact that I will never ever stop telling people what I think. Because everyone needs the voice of honesty sometimes.
I am a good COMMUNICATOR.
The comments here ranged from the quality of my writing (to those of you who wrote that my blog is well-written - thanks! But due to the circumstances of last semester I'm keeping blog and school separate so I couldn't use your feedback) to the fact that I respond to emails in a timely way, to the fact that I am "able to command attention in a room of hundreds of people." Again, since blogging, emailing and public speaking are all things I love to do...no big surprises. But I was still really floored to see these things mentioned as they are all important to me.
I am FUN and SILLY.
The stories that came along with this one were amazing. I was reminded of a time when my wifer and I walked 60 blocks during the MTA transit strike just to get margaritas, how I was "integral" to the fun my friends and I had on the cruise we went on 3 years ago (AKA I was a sloppy, drunken mess who had 2 guys licking vodka off my pants, thanks again for that feedback but I also opted to leave that out of the paper), and how I always find joy in small things, like ice cream and pictures of cute puppies.
I won't go into the other feedback I received because there was a LOT of it, but when I grouped it into categories the others one I had were: Dedication, Intelligence, Level-headed, Multi-tasking, Leadership, Reliable, Selfless, Team Player. So, needless to say, I was really overcome with "aww"s at all the wonderful things people had to say about me.
This exercise was also an interesting lesson in seeing who comes through and who doesn't when asked for a favor. Some people responded to my request for feedback right away. Some people responded right after my second request. Some people responded after I submitted my paper. I appreciate all of these, even the late ones. Some people, despite my 2 emails asking for information, never even acknowledged that I asked for anything. Since I can say with 100% certainty that I would have done this thoroughly and thoughtfully had someone else asked me to help out, this really showed me who gives a crap and who doesn't, and I definitely have a mental note as to who I won't be going out of my way to do favors for in the future.
If anyone for whatever reason wants to conduct their own Reflected Best Self assessment, shoot me an email and I'll send you the instructions. Definitely an introspective assignment worth the time and effort.