If Julie Fell

I survived The Vegas. 6 days, 1 large corporate event, my first business travel with the new company - I made it. We had awesome rooms - suites actually - at the Palazzo, the newest hotel on the Venetian property complete with sunken living rooms, 3 plasmas - including viewable from the shower so I could get my SportsCenter fix while waking up. It’s hard to know where exactly to begin in re-capping this event but I’ll gloss over the main points.

1. I drove a white Ford Econoline 8 person van around the airport, The Strip and throughout the neighboring Vegas areas. It was huge, hard to handle and being that I am all of 5′ 3″ I could barely be seen over the massive steering column. I picked up staging dudes from the airport, I drove to New Mexico and back (practically) getting all sorts of random shenanigans including $700 in printer ink cartridges. I had to park that bad boy in only one small section of available “oversize” parking spots in a hotel parking structure which was hell enough and led to at least one violent outburst on the steering wheel. Large van = lame.

2. I never slept for more than 4 hours a night. Tops. As an editor’s note: the 4 hours maximum I mentioned may have only been obtained on one of the nights I was gracing The Vegas with my presence. Oh and those small number of hours I was sleeping - well, that was after having been on my feet running around like a crazy person for 16+ hour work days. I love frantic frazzled working.

3. I entertained a celebrity talent. I was talent wrangler and even though I get nervous around strangers and people I don’t know (true story, most people just can’t tell because I cover my nerves with pointless but witty banter). I collected him from the airport, we had dinner together backstage, I provided color commentary and observational analysis about the event thus far to him. He mentioned a quip of mine while performing. I think we’re homies.

4. Dealertainers. Yes, dealers in casinos dressed and lipsyncing on stage to their songs. This was of course a rare gem I experienced at the Imperial Palace…a place I never again plan to visit because I found myself there for at least 3 nights in A ROW. (Not my choice). My favorite dealertainer = Fake Billy Idol. He really went all out for the look and clearly took pride in his performances on the main stage, but his fist pump was weak. One night after a few J&C’s I was walking back from the restroom, saw him and said “Hey Fake Billy Idol” to which he replied in a pathetic, defeated tone “Fake?”. Yeah, FAKE. Dude, you are not a Billy Idol impersonator in a show, you are a dealer to touch screen electronic roulette tables. Rebel Yell is not your authentic work.

After my LONG adventure into Las Vegas I came away with a raspy, old woman smoker voice/cough. It partly is the nasty cold but I know it’s also all that time in smoky casinos and especially in the Palazzo property and casino where they pipe in the most overwhelming and musky fragrant floral old lady perfume. It seriously burned through my sinuses. Sick.

When I got back from Vegas I knew I was tired but when I literally went to bed and did not emerge from my bed and wake up for 17 hours I was a firm believer that Lindsay Lohan and those other teen beat queens are not lying when they run away to a resort because they are suffering from exhaustion. I was wiped out and my body was not having it. It probably didn’t help that I drank virtually no water, rarely ate  and lived off orange gatorade and J&C’s for 6 days straight on no sleep…oops.

I’m back, still hacking up a little of the vegas that lingers in my lungs but getting back to 100%.

Dear Vegas, I still love you. But we need to have this trial seperation until I am healthy and mentally ready to take you on again. I’ll do my best to adhere to my 3 day maximum rule in the future. Thanks for the good times. xoxo, JDub.

It was brought to my attention that my blogging frequency has slowed a bit. Apparently there are readers that I’ve been neglecting. Here are some of the reasons for why my blogging has slowed down:

1. Work has been crazy busy and after stressful/busy days in front of a computer I max out and can’t get myself to blog at night. Simple solution you say: Blog from work - ugh, I wish I had that kind of time.

2.  I’ve turned the nerd-o-meter to full blast and have been reading much more frequently. What used to be right before calling The Sox Fan/going to bed reading it’s now become weekend wake-up lay in bed reading until mid-day or post work/pre gym reading. I also have a stack of books on my kitchen counter I’m planning to read. I don’t cook much so the kitchen is a perfectly natural place to store books in waiting. Don’t judge me.

3. I signed up for Netflix. After hearing for over a year how magical it is to some of my friends lives I decided to give it a shot. Mostly because I was ill and didn’t want to physically go to the video store, set up an account at the location closest to my home and I know I would forget to take them back or they would be out of what I wanted to see when I went in. I have to admit I do miss the instant gratification from picking a movie from the shelf and bringing it home. But what I don’t miss is going to the store, finding a movie and then dealing with the defeat when they are all out. Plus, I love getting mail. Love it.

4. I have a backlog of magazines that are not getting processed/read as quickly as they need to. I for some reason have to take a magazine to the gym when I do cardio. It’s usually US Weekly - before you judge let me note this - they are the perfect length for an hour of cardio and are mindless so I don’t have to worry about getting really engrossed into an article only to mis-step and hurt myself while falling of a machine. Anywho, between the US Weekly’s I compulsively buy at the market and the two subscriptions I have there is also a magazine stack in the kitchen.

So there, in the midst of being more scholarly and athletic my blogging has suffered. My bad.

Although now I am using my blog as a way to procrastinate on packing. Ugh - I hate packing. Back when I was traveling every month for the old company I was a pro, I could pack a bag for a week internationally in about 15 minutes. I’m a little rusty these days - the first step tonight will be unpacking my suitcase from my last trip to Vegas…oops.

That’s right friends, I’m headed back to Sin City - this time I will be there for work. I think there might be time to fit in some shenanigans  - the number one story I think will be me renting and driving a 15 passenger van on and around The Strip. Yikes - think good thoughts.

In my former career life I used to travel a great deal. It’s fun to travel for free to places you might want to visit (i.e. Rome) and it’s good to know first hand places you will not want to re-visit (i.e. Taipei). People thought I was crazy when I would say I was tired of traveling, that I wanted to travel less or frankly that I was done with the whole traveling bit. I had a great time seeing the world but at the end of the day I like sleeping in my own bed, being around my own belongings and knowing that my rent check is being used wisely.

Yesterday I traveled up north to the founding land of Nordstrom and home of the Mariners and Seahawks…I heart the Nordstrom and well, I like the fact that there are professional sports teams located there so when my teams come to town I can see them (Go Red Sox!) - sidebar: I learned that the people of Seattle don’t necessarily respond positively to my logic. Whatever Old Man River, be upset about it.

Anywho, I ventured north for an event that I had worked on and while the event was “interesting” the experience of the travel (up and down I-5 with three lady co-workers) was great. Things started off just fine, lots of chit chatting and small talk in the car and we arrived and checked into our hotel with time to freshen up and change before the event. I was able to finally meet the people I had been working so closely with over the past couple months. It was really satisfying to also know my sense of judgment and character observations were on point. A contact for this event who I believed to be a bit of a whack job totally turned out to be a crazy person and when things were going wrong during the show (i.e. she was to cue the video, slides, etc. and failed she just YELLED out - as if the speaker in a 1,000 person dinner event could hear her). Very satisfying if I do say so myself.

Post event we ventured to a nearby small bar and celebrated the completion of this event. You have to understand this event stressed me out, it strained my patience and it was the constant source of a great deal of whining (sorry about that to The Sox Fan - I whined A LOT). Let’s just say our evening adventure involved Old Man River becoming quite intrigued with my drink of choice (J&C), a few rounds of complimentary beverages and the smallest bar bill I’ve ever seen for four ladies. Like Ever.

I had a great time and the ride home was hysterical. My visit to my cousin Ichiro also reminded me of how small PDX is, of how tiny my current life issues are in the grand scheme of things, of how I really do enjoy the time I spend up north and how jealous I am of their shopping options.

I think another visit to the Emerald City may be in my future, and next time…it might need to be for a longer amount of time…

Let’s just state the obvious. Lately I have been in a funk. My blog posts as of late have been a little sad panda and well frankly I’ve been a sad panda. Asian joke intended. With that having been said we are to the end of the first month of 2008 and I’m feeling a little reflective so I thought a re-cap is in order. (It’s a slow blog topic week people - it happens - if you don’t like it send me some topics!)

As of today I’m meeting all my 2008 Goals: drinking at least 32oz. of H20 a day, working out 3-4 days a week (not including weekly yoga and flag football) and I’ve completed 1.5 books so far.

I like my job -I can only say this with 100% certainty because I’m coming off a crazy pro-bono client situation. Let me just say this, I like non-profits. I’ve worked for some. But here’s the deal with pro-bono work, because there is no budget clients tend to like to make changes, LOTS of changes, or edits or revisions or “let’s just try a mock-up with XYZ” - since they don’t live in reality where they are shelling out $300/hour for design time and management they just don’t care…which is really annoying when you are trying to meet deadlines that they say are set in stone no matter how many rounds of edits they demand. I would be fine if the client was a charity (when I say fine I mean not as annoyed/mad) you know, like if they were doing good in the world, researching ways to cure diseases and help puppies I would be more understanding. But not when they are rolling in money and working on making the latest and greatest gadgets outside my income bracket. I digress but let’s just say this, I’m excited to no longer spend 8+ hours a day on this one project.

Where were we…ah, reflecting on Month 1, 2008. I’ve made time to see my parents and BJD pretty much once a week which is great. I do get a little overwhelmed when I go over to the parent’s house because they both want to talk about this that and the other with me and because they both tell me stories I have already heard but you know, I’m their one and only (besides BJD) and they love the time we spend together and I do to. Plus it’s great that other people recognize that my dad is Mike Holmgren’s long lost twin. I’m not joking - my dad was called out on this by a State Trooper while duck hunting. Fantastic.

I’m making sure to take time to see my friends, be open to their advice and rely on them to listen to me word vomit what it’s going on in my personal life. I will be the first to admit I can be a little stand-offish when it comes to talking about my feelings and letting people in when I am sad or frustrated but I’m getting better so that’s something.

Things have been good this month and that makes me a happy camper. You totally thought I was going to say panda didn’t you?!?

Today is a 50/50 - you know those days that contain both good things and bad things. 50/50’s are like bittersweet chocolate - smooth, sweet and tasty yet bitter and unexpected. (This is a total generalization, I don’t think I have ever had bittersweet chocolate but that’s what I imagine it would be like).

The Bad:

1. Procrastinators. Don’t get me wrong, I procrastinated like it was my job in college - isn’t that standard? But I’ve never been a person who procrastinates my portion of a group project, I’d feel guilty. I think deep down I am a self-guilter but that is neither here nor there. ANYWAY, procrastination + tight deadline + spacey-ness. That doesn’t vibe with me.

2. Last minute cancellations. If there is an event on my calendar that has been set and I’ve accepted to join and planned my day accordingly all I want is to have some, hell any cancellation notice. It really annoys me to head into say a “meeting” only to find out at 5 after the hour that “oh yeah, that was cancelled…did no one tell you?” Obviously no one told me, if they had do you really think I would be sitting here waiting for an imaginary “meeting” to take place.

*All “quoted” comments are hypothetical….hypothetically speaking…

The Good:

1. I saw a nun at the paper store. Yes, a live nun. Many of you know of my nun affinity. I used to work by the nunnery and whenever traveling in Europe I make a point to capture them on candid photo so I can show my fellow nun watchers. She was even in her dark blue nun street clothes (?) - I don’t know if that is accurate but she wasn’t in the full black/white habit so I assume it was street clothes. The cashier referred to her as Sister - good times. Although she was paying with a credit card. Here’s my questions:

a) Who’s the credit reference on that card?
b) What kind of interest rates on credit cards do nuns get? Is it better than the common person?
c) Is “Sister” part of her legal name? I.E. is it on her signature line?

2. Blondie sent me a word document agenda for our happy hour date. It even includes roll call - for the two of us. I just need to figure out if parlimentry procedure is neccessary when consuming martini’s. Anyone have a ruling on that one?

*Editor’s Note: I’ve made the executive blog master decision to use code names in lieu of real names. I think it’s going to make this bad boy more lively.

TGIF friends. TGIF.