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Sunday, May 22, 2005
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It might be a good time to do an update, even though I only really want to sleep right now.
I went to the eye doctor last Saturday. I guess I can see better, although it feels a little weird. I'm not sure if they got it quite right, maybe increasing the prescription in the left eye a little too much. They told me that I shouldn't wear each pair of contacts for longer than 2 weeks.... yeah, like I'm going to stop that any time soon. I've been doing that for 9 1/2 years, so I have no plans to change my ways. I do need to go and pick up my contacts sometime soon, though.
I move soon. Specifically, Jamie and I have reserved a van for moving things next Sunday, so that's the date I give for the official move, as that's when we'll be moving my stuff. Packing is slow, but getting there. I think if I can clear out my desk and another bookshelf today and get them out of my room, I'll be doing well. Jamie and I are going to walk through the apartment on Friday to assign rooms and make sure it's clean, and then I'll probably move in a lot of boxes on Saturday. That's also when I'll move things that won't get packed per say, like all of the clothes hanging in my closet, so I'm not too worried about the state things are in. I am a little worried about packing the kitchen, but so it goes. And, I've taken off Tuesday of next week so that I can be there for the cable/internet guy, and for just general unpacking relaxing.... no, a 3-day weekend wasn't good enough for me.
This week was so-so. There was something (an email, to be exact) that has been bothering me all week (well, since Tuesday morning). However, also on Tuesday I got some really good news at work. My boss and I had been pitching reports to a former client, and even though everyone thought it was a long shot that we'd get the account back (less than 20%), we did! Even the way my boss told me was great - she walked into the conference room while I was in there for a discussion meeting and told me that I had won the account. Plus, soon after that, the CEO personally congratulated me, and then he congratulated both of us (with round of applause) in a company meeting. Responsibilities growing with these proposals and by having so much input on the development of the consumer-generated media (read: blogs and message boards) push makes me happy.
The one thing that makes me really sad right now is that I don't get to go to Vegas. I had been looking forward to it, until the expenses of the move just made it impossible. I do hope everyone else has a good time, though, and I look forward to seeing most of them either before or after they go anyhow.
All right, now I think I will try and get back to sleep. It's Sunday, after all!
- Lizzardie, at 8:50 AM
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Thursday, May 12, 2005
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The story of my new Mac Mini (yes, you read that correctly).
All right, so we've all gotten those emails telling us that we can get some cool piece of electronic equipment for free.... and we've all deleted them. On April 22nd, I decided that I would not delete this time and would instead put in a valiant effort to see if these things really worked. Stupid, probably, but hey, what else do I have to do?
This particular email was for a Mac Mini, but I know they're out there for all sorts of products. I might try and get an LCD monitor (to go with said Mac Mini) next. Anyhow, I gave my information, completed a survey (which consisted of me answering "no" to a bunch of offers) and then was presented with several different offers to complete. Basically, there were about 10 choices per page, and you had to complete 2 on each page, for a total of 6. My chosen offers were:
One free month of AOL
Columbia House DVD Club (worked for me because I own nearly no DVDs and can use West Wing DVDs towards my required purchases)
BMG Music Club (I've always wanted to do this, though I'm beginning to think Columbia House is a better deal, because shipping is free... but maybe not... on second thought, probably not)
Gourmet Coffee Select sample ($6 for shipping and handling)
Video Professor sample ($7 for shipping and handling)
Some $3 1-day internet subscription
Now, all of these things required (or still require, as the case may be) me to be on top of them - cancelling, sending something back, additional purchases, etc... but all told, it cost me less than $100 to do it all, and the cancelling wasn't a big deal when you consider how much free time I have (err... make) at work.
They still don't make it easy on you to get your free item, even after your offers are completed. There's no email or anything to remind you, so you have to be on top of what site it is (consumerincentivepromotions.com). And, once your offers are completed, you have to print out a voucher and mail it in. After that, they send you your item.
I got my Mac Mini today, and it's adorable (I could have had it as early as Monday if UPS wasn't so damn annoying). It'll be fun to play around with once I get the proper accessories. I already took care of the monitor - buying one off of my current roommate Jamie for $25 (really $13 because I get to subtract Netflix from there for 2 months). Now I just need a mouse and keyboard and I'm all set!
So that's my Mac Mini story. I'm not a good storyteller, but everyone at work was rather impressed that I actually got it, and no pyramid scheme required. I may buy the mouse/keyboard this weekend... I'm going to the mall to see the eye doctor (yeah, I'm caving - the headaches are just too much) so perhaps I will stop into the Apple Store.
That is all.
- Lizzardie, at 10:32 PM
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Monday, May 09, 2005
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I want to go to bed, but since it's still a little early, I figured I could blog for awhile. :-)
Note: Thus far, my blog does not come up in our blog database at work, which is very good. :-)
Anyhow, I went to Ithaca this weekend. As I was walking up the steps to the house when I got in Friday night, people were going out to the bars, so it started there. I do hate Dino's, though. Saturday... such a beautiful Ithaca day. I mean, seriously, there aren't that many of them and it was so perfect and made me so happy, particularly because I knew that it was miserable in Boston. There was induction at Taughannock - one of the best Inductions I've been to (and it's been a lot). I know a lot of people do not enjoy Induction at all, but I think that it is so important and it was so nice to see it go off so well. Formal was also nice, at the Ramada, though my dress broke - twice. Ugh. I really like that dress, too - the peach flower silk one. One of the loops that holds the straps in its criss-cross thingy broke and it was sad (also made me think I was going to flash people but I didn't - the first fix was with a safety pin and the second one was with a sewing kit). The party... not so fun because I had a migraine. I ended up passed out on Julie's bed on the third floor for over an hour, so I was definitely not the life of the party.
I discovered this weekend that ginger ale + flavored vodka = good.
Sunday I finally got to go to Ruloff's for brunch which was super exciting, though my meal was rushed because of a meeting with Eboard. We talked about fun incorporation/tax stuff and it's nice to have caught them up to speed. Afterwards I played poker for a few hours with the old crew (minus Karen plus Scott) - it was nice to be playing again and I didn't lose any money (also didn't win any money but that's okay). During that time, Morgan threw a surprise party for Rob... I do not know how she pulled it off without him knowing, because he was in the hallway as people were walking in to congregate in the dining room. It was a nice little set up - chocolate fondue with strawberries, Italian cookies and marshmallows, strawberry shortcake, and champagne punch. I shouldn't have been drinking champagne punch right before I left, but I did. I think I had more alcohol Sunday afternoon than any other time during the weekend.
I ended up leaving my jacket there, which is sad. Now I will be without my red cordoroy jacket that I wear everywhere.
Everyone loved my shoes and didn't think that the tan ones are actually comfortable. I think they believed that the black ones hurt like hell (not to mention digging into the soft earth at the park during Induction).
Anyhow, I got back to Boston a little after 11, which is plenty of time to sleep normally, but I was exhausted, so not enough sleep - hence wanting to go to bed early today.
Work was interesting today. Dan and his friend Dan were in town for interviews - in fact, the Dan I don't know interviewed at my company, which was a little strange. I even got to interview him. Afterwards, Dan H (who I know) took quite a bit longer at his interview, so Dan C ended up just sitting watching me work for awhile. I felt bad, but had stuff to do. I tried to keep him entertained as long as possible. When Dan H finally showed up, we went out to lunch... I took them to Not Your Average Joe's, on Jeff's (from work) recommendation. It was really good. They had this awesome bread that they served in this oil-garlic-parmesan combo, to start. And then I had Chicken Oscar, which had chicken (duh), scallops, shrimp, mushrooms and artichoke hearts in some sauce on top of cous cous served with green beans. Yum. And not terribly expensive, either (with nice portions). Dan (H) thinks I have this nice ability to find these quirky good places to eat - I just think that there are a lot of them around.
After work, we had our "Spring Outting" which was combined with a going away celebration for an employee who'll be off to Harvard Business School. Open bar + yummy snacks is always fine with me. There, I found out that the CEO of my company wants to send me to some conference. I'm really surprised but kinda excited, too, even though that's all I know (my boss told me but didn't say anything else other than finding out what dates for me). Everyone asks me how my job is going, so I'll say this... lots of people know I talk on IM a lot and read news a lot and it doesn't seem like I'm doing a lot... and I feel guilty at times. But since I'm seeing my responsibilities grow, which is really exciting, I guess they're happy with me there, and I'm happy there, particularly because the people are so much fun.
And with that, I shall go to bed so that I can be nice and chipper for work tomorrow.
- Lizzardie, at 10:31 PM
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Tuesday, May 03, 2005
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Yay!!!
It's official... I have an apartment (on Electric Avenue, no less) and so I get to head to Ithaca this weekend!!! Jamie and I are going out for a celebratory drink tonight - I'm sooooo excited and glad to be done apartment hunting!
- Lizzardie, at 5:26 PM
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Sunday, May 01, 2005
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Just when I thought apartment hunting couldn't get any worse....
Seriously, I think I'm paying dearly for my luck in NYC and then having great friends who wanted to help me find a place to live. Grrr.
So, we didn't get our dream apartment. Found out yesterday. But I'm trying not to dwell on it, and to instead focus on finding another great place.
Yesterday, we thought we had found it. It's on Electric Ave (and how cool is that? I thought it would be cool to live on Electric Avenue the first time I saw it, last Saturday), 5 rooms, lots of space, lots of character - no parking or dishwasher but laundry in the basement. We were with a real estate broker, so we said we wanted to fill out an application right then. And that's what we did. Applications, leases, deposits, credit checks - the whole enchilada (what a silly phrase, can I say? But I can't think of anything better right now). And it turns out there's good news about going through a real estate broker (the bad news being the fee, or half fee in this case - and most cases, actually): when you fill out an application, they take the place off the market. So that means the owner only has one application set to look at each time, so unless something weird happened (which was not the case with us), we were pretty sure to get the place! You cannot imagine how excited Jamie and I were - we even went into furniture places on our way back to the T (we had ended up in Central Square to fill out the applications). We also ditched our plan to do some strategy planning after looking at that apartment, since they have our money right now (though they won't cash the check unless they're sure we'll get the place). AND, that meant that since we were supposed to find out today, my Ithaca trip was most likely on!
Yeah, and then my bad luck kicks in. I get a call from our broker early yesterday evening with a bit of bad news. According to Brandon (who has only been a real estate broker for a week and a half, but has plenty of people helping him - this would be his first deal, is my impression), someone came through the apartment about half an hour after us (we would have been still filling out the applications and such at this point) and they ALSO filled out an application. I guess that wouldn't be enough time to take it off the market. The owner (who lives upstairs from the apartment and has 2 little girls) likes both sets of applications and so he wants to meet with us. He either got to talk to the other people (2 women, also, apparently) more or he's meeting with both sets, Brandon wasn't clear. Brandon says that it's about 50/50 that we'll get the apartment at this point, but if we turn on the charm when we meet the owner, he thinks we have a good shot.
But yeah. I mean, how likely is it that something like this happens? My impression is that it doesn't happen often. So the meeting is supposed to be sometime tomorrow after work (not sure exactly what time yet). I had decided Friday that if I didn't have an apartment by tonight, I wasn't going to Ithaca this weekend (because even if I do find a place by next weekend, I'm just going to be exhausted from searching this week). However, since Jamie and I have decided to take today off and we wouldn't have done any searching tomorrow anyhow (Jamie normally volunteers Monday nights), I've decided to base my Ithaca decision on the outcome of this meeting tomorrow night. If we get the apartment, I'm going to Ithaca. If we don't get it, I'm not going. Unfortunately, the Formal deadline (REAL deadline, not faux one Corinne set) is today, so I'm out $28 either way. At least I'll get a shot glass out of it.
So yeah, bottom line is that Ithaca is with the fates now and the chances of me going are equal to the chances of me getting this apartment. I might spend the rest of today moping.
- Lizzardie, at 1:26 PM
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