The Hungry Twenties

Friday, June 14, 2013

Random things for Friday

Hey guys, hope you had a great week. I needed a little break from being here every day, I've been in sort of a down mood, but I'm sure that will lift! At least, I'm hoping :) Since, I've got a bunch of random things to catch you up on, I figured I'd just do my normal end-of-week list of bullets. In no random order, here it goes...

1.) I just got back today from a one night trip to New York City for work. Today started a bit gloomy but it ended up being a beautiful day. It's always nice to be in the city and feel small for a little bit. It is so close, yet so vastly different from my little home of Albany.

For lunch today I had a delicious salad that included "pineapple poached pears" and walnut crusted chicken breast, cherry tomatoes, blue cheese, sauteed onions, and a strawberry vinaigrette that I got on the side. I was actually pretty proud of myself because the salad was supposed to come with crispy fried onion on top but I swapped them for sauteed.

2.) I also have been making some other strong choices this week that have made me pretty happy. I avoided free cookies and cupcakes today at the conference I was at. Yesterday at work we were celebrating "Global Wind Day" and I avoided the Choco Tacos and Chocolate Chip Cookie Iced Cream Sandwiches. Who doesn't love a Choco Taco?! And when was the last time you even saw a Choco Taco?! But I said no. Instead, I participated in a wind turbine building contest with some friends (we lost) and took a few fun photos to hang at my desk :)

3.) One of the reasons that I have been working extra hard this week to be "good" is that I'm actually participating in Raven's 10-Day Advocare Cleanse. A big group of bloggers are doing it together and I've actually really enjoyed having the group's support and finding new, fun, interesting blogs to follow. I decided to do this cleanse because it isn't a juice or liquid cleanse -- it involves eating-- but eating incredibly clean and also taking some additional supplements and vitamins to cleanse the body. When I first read about it and decided to join I saw that the guidelines said to mainly eat fruits, veggies, and lean protein. No alcohol, no dairy, no sugar, no wheat, limited fats and obviously nothing processed.

I didn't do a heck of a lot of research and was just planning to follow these guidelines and it wasn't until a day in that I realized some people doing the cleanse were following extremely strict guidelines. Now, had I seen this set of rules earlier... I wouldn't have signed up for this. I learned back in January that when diets make me feel like "cheating" when I eat carrots or grapes, it's not going to work for me. So I just vowed to spend this 10 days following the "fruits, veggies, lean protein" guideline as much as possible and trying extra hard to avoid sugar, dairy, alcohol, fats, and wheat whenever possible. My snacks this week have included lots of berries, apples, green beans, carrots, egg whites and almonds. Meals have included some of the following:

Chicken sausage, roasted onion, sweet potato, and brussel sprouts

Corn on the cob (with lime juice and salt), chicken sausage and sauteed mushrooms

Trader Joe's mixed grains with cucumber, tomato and red onion

4.) I made a really yummy sauce to put on top of brussel sprouts and other roasted veggies. It consisted of simmering together a 1/2 cup red wine, 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, and a tablespoon or so of honey. It thickened to a syrup and was delicious!

5.) A couple weeks ago I bought a small basil plant from Trader Joe's. I put it in a ceramic pot and put it in my backyard. I sort of forgot about it but we used some basil in our eggs when my friends were here. This week I grabbed the pot and brought it inside to take some basil to use in my couscous/veggie salad and I realized there were all grubs all over the plant! They were so gross!!! I tried to pick them off but they were nasty and it freaked me out. Not gonna lie, I put it back outside because I didn't really want to deal with it. Does anyone know what I do in this situation?? Can the basil be saved? Is it still okay to eat? The bugs freaked me out.

6.) This funky, sort of down mood has stuck with me all week. I know that I'm just being overly emotional because I've had the strangest desires to listen to Delilah on the radio in the evenings. I listened to Delilah for hours on Monday night while I did my cooking for the week. "Dellliiiiilaahhhhh.... Love someooooone tonight!"

7.) I got a few good workouts in this week. Monday I did my own interval circuit workout at the gym with a mix of kettle bell squats, push ups, kettle bell swings, and sit ups. I also went for a 3 mile run with Dani on Wednesday. And on Thursday I tried the boot camp at the work gym for the first time. And get this people, it is an outdoors class and I actually went and completed it (along with others) IN THE RAIN. It is a lunchtime class at work and it downpoured the whole time. This is how I know I am not the same person I used to be. I went out, at lunch time, at work, in the rain, and did a boot camp class. At first I tried to avoid getting wet and wore my rain coat out, but then it was just a mess and I took it off and embraced working out in the soaking rain.

You know when it rains and all the worms come up from the ground? Ugh. It was totally gross doing the moves where we were on the ground because I could see worms around and wanted to avoid them. But it felt good to get soaking wet, muddy, and grassy with 20 other people at lunchtime at work. It made the day go by fast and was such a funny, random thing for my Thursday!

8.) Last week I had the first game in the summer soccer league I am playing in. I am terrible and barely know what I'm doing but it's fun. And at our game last week, for the first time I met someone in real life who had read my blog before actually meeting me! Remember how I told you about the random message I got from a co-worker Mark who saw my blog on All Over Albany about Taco Tuesday? Well, turns out Mark is on my soccer team! It was so cool to meet someone in real life who I'd originally connected with over this blog. Not sure if you're still a reader... but if you are... hi Mark!

9.) It's been rainy and cool for the majority of this week which has been PERFECT sleeping weather and made it so hard to get out of bed in the mornings. I hope this weekend is nice because I have some pool days planned!

10.) When Teenie came to visit a couple weeks ago she gave me her Netflix password. This has been the best and worst thing that has ever happened to me. I cannot stop watching Netflix. I caught up on Mad Men and have now been rewatching Parks and Recreation from the beginning. I'm on an Aziz Ansari kick after seeing him in live! But tonight, all I wanted to do was watch a couple episodes and relax on the couch. But, alas, Netflix is down. AUGHHHHH!!!!!!

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you have a great weekend and give an extra big hug to your dads!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

How do you measure a year in the life?

Do guys have as many mood swings as girls? I feel like I've been up and down lately. Just yesterday I wrote about how I was proud of my 5 years at GE and tonight I'm feeling like I haven't done anything with my life.

I went to dinner tonight with some friends, which was great and really fun but it made me realize that I'm in the exact same place I was in a year ago. I know this feeling will pass because it comes and goes sometimes but it sucks when I am feeling it. One of my friends I saw at dinner, I hadn't seen in literally a year and of course the question is, "What's new?!?" and when recapping that... it makes me think... well, nothing is new. I live in the same apartment. I have the same job. I'm still single. I'm still working every day to maintain a healthy lifestyle and resist eating fro yo covered in candy every day.

Yes, I have done a whole bunch of crap within the past year... I went to Brazil. I had some great experiences for work. I dated someone for a few months. I ran a half marathon. Blah, blah, blah.

I just sometimes get caught up in, I don't know, that my life should be at certain points at certain times maybe. That years should be measured with some kind of noticeable change. A new location or a new job or a new relationship. I just feel weird sometimes when you have those awkward small talk catch up conversations. I'm obviously not going to tell her about a vacation I took last August. Or a relationship that both started and ended months ago. I just jump to today. And today is the same as last year.

But you know what, I will use that for motivation to make changes today to make tomorrow better. To find new experiences to challenge myself and grow myself as a person. To keep my life exciting and keep making myself better.

At least I can certainly try.

I didn't feel that motivation really strongly until after dinner though. So it wasn't around to stop me from eating a roll tonight at dinner. But, in my defense it was right out of the oven and warm and that is something that would be a pity to waste.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Happy 5 year work-versary to me!

Alright, so I am sucker for anniversaries. Have you ever seen that episode of Parks and Recreation where Ben and Anne get overwhelmed because Leslie is always celebrating anniversaries? Well, I'm not that bad, but I do like milestones and use them as a time to reflect, remember, and look forward.

In addition to my 5 years living in Albany that I hit last month, just yesterday I also hit another anniversary-- 5 years since my start date of June 9th at the company I work for! Looking back now, I had no clue how much taking that job would affect me and I vastly underestimated where those 5 years would take me. I signed on for a 2-year program that involved 8-month functional rotations. About a year or so into the job, I had a pretty good idea that I'd be made an offer to stay with the team after the program ended. So after doing a rotation in public relations, a rotation in employee communications, and a rotation in marketing communications, the team created a role for me leading digital communications. After a year and a half in that role, I moved to a different part of the company, leading marketing communications for a division of one of the businesses.

Working at a science and engineering company has been an adventure to say the least. I had no appreciation for engineering before I came in to this company. I applied for the job because it was the only one I could apply for in the fall of my senior year of college. I'm actually pretty sure I missed the e-mails advertising it and only knew about it because I ran into a friend in my major on campus while she was heading to an info session (I was probably heading to the bar or something...) I am so glad the stars aligned as they did (and side note: that friend is a blog reader. hi Sarah! do you remember this?) After applying and interviewing for the role, I was made an offer and accepted it because I was in desperate need of a paycheck and wanted a JOB. They could have assigned me to do anything in any part of the country and if it meant money, I would have accepted. Well, they sent me to Albany and so began a big phase of my life.

On my first day they gave me a pair of safety glasses and started talking about steel toed boots and proper environment, health and safety protocol for the labs. I had no idea what the hell was happening.

And now, honestly, I can’t imagine that there is any other company I could work for, or job I could have accepted, where I could have learned as much. The subjects I was writing and talking about were so diverse from healthcare to aviation to energy to home appliances. In doing my day job, I learned so much about how everything in the world works and about business in general. Literally the first 3.5 years my job was like living inside of an episode of “How Stuff Works.”

Still, every day, I don’t just learn professionally and functionally, I’m literally exposed to new things every day that makes me a better, more well rounded person. From how power is produced to how emerging markets meet their energy demands to the cultural norms of the many nationalities I work with. I am always learning.

In my 5 years I have traveled to Germany twice (soon to be 3 times!), Connecticut, Orlando, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Denver, Toronto, Atlanta, New York City, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, and more. I’ve gotten to climb a wind turbine, have lunch with an astronaut, work with politicians, CEOs, top tier media, be interviewed on screen, write for print publications, meet incredibly smart scientists, engineers, bloggers, writers, and creative minds. I've had world class trainings, made lifelong friends, and worked on projects and programs that I truly am proud of and feel are making a difference in the world. There has been multiple days when I think to myself, “I can’t believe I get paid for this!” or “Am I really allowed to be doing this?”

I’ve developed such a great appreciation for the world around me and the technology that goes into everything in our lives. From airplanes to electricity to light bulbs. My job has changed my thoughts on all of these things from mundane parts of life to incredible technological achievements. I’ve become even more curious, found the world to be even more beautiful, and expanded my mind in incredible ways. I call myself an “engineering groupie” and although I am not sure what my next few roles will be, I can’t imagine myself working outside of the technology sector ever again.

My first 5 years in the working world have set the standard HIGH for the rest of my career. I’m a bit worried that it could only possibly go downhill from here. Not to mention, if it weren’t for this job, I wouldn’t have met some of the most interesting and inspiring people I’ve ever come across. People who have become some of my best friends. For all of this, I will always be grateful. It’s hard to believe it has been 5 years, but that’s what the calendar says. I can only hope that the next 5 years bring as much learning and new experiences as the past! Happy 5 year work anniversary to me!

Here are just a few random pictures from the past 5 years. I enjoyed going through these so hopefully you enjoy checking them out :)