Okay Hollywood

Monday Mornings…

It seems as though you can tell a lot about a person in the morning just by riding the bus with them, or even walking down the sidewalk with them. I find that mostly on the busy morning streets of Chicago everyone has a very furrowed brow. Everyone is in a hurry too. I find myself asking - do they ever stop and smell the roses? How many of them wake up in the morning and are actually excited that it’s Monday?

I know that I do. I love going to work. I get to pick what time I go in, what I want to wear, and what I want to work on. This morning on my stroll past Elephant & Castle, I stopped and looked at the various flowers they had in the flowerbeds ot the outside patio. While in my moment, a lot of men in business suits rushed past me nearly knocking me over. Are they in such a rush because they excitedly can’t wait to go in the office? Or are they late because the missed the first train and are thinking “Ugh, it’s not already bad enough that it’s a Monday, but now I’m late too. Growl.” 

I think we need to truly stop throughout the day and appreciate the little things. Working for a job you love. Having great co-workers. A short commute. A long commute that gives you a chance to read the paper and catch up on current events. A great view from your office building. We need to slow down. Life is not a sprint, it is a marathon.

Do me a favor… stop and smell the roses sometimes. 

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New Year Resolution 2011

Happy New Year Tumblrs!

It’s time to bring on those New Years Resolutions. Every year we (or at least I know that I) make outrageous goals that by the first week of February, have already given up or forgotten about. This year my goal is to make an ambition that I can stick with, and I think I know just what it is…

As a Support SuperHero, someone is always projecting a question mark into the sky asking for my help. These requests come at all hours of the day and night, since a lot of our users are not in our time zone or even our continent. As a helper, I feel the need to answer every email I receive the second I receive it. As you can imagine on my days off and weekends… they aren’t really days off or weekends if I am still doing work!

In thinking of that revelation, my New Years Resolution is to separate work time and play time. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my job, but I may be too obsessed with the need to help people at all hours. So now when I am at work, I will give it 200% of my time, devotion and expertise. When I am at home, I will no longer constantly check my support emails and write back to  users on my Saturday nights. I will use my home time to enjoy time with family, catch up on old movies and have some good ‘ol quality personal “me” time.

“Work hard and play hard. But don’t confuse the two.”  - Author Unknown

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Working from home

I have had the luxury to work from home the past two weeks. At first, my family was in town - so I was crazy busy running around trying to get the house clean and the rooms ready. Then the family was in town and it was spent exploring La Grange and downtown Chicago, as well as many trips to Home Depot.

Once they left though, things calmed down - way down. I then missed coming into work. I wondered what I would do to fill up my day between waking up, doing work and going to sleep. I missed having a sense of something to do, even if it was just the routine of getting up, getting on the train and going downtown. 

Luckily, I found things to fill my time or else boredom probably would have killed me. You can only sit on the couch in your bathrobe watching tv for so many days. But then, I found an activity, that I have started to rather enjoy.

….I joined a gym.

Normally, the gym is not something you get excited about. It is not normally something you even want to do, but feel obligated to do. With my extremely free/flexible/open schedule, going to the gym has been a nice addition to my day. It helps to fill the void in between waking up, spending hours doing work, and making food for the boys.

You must be thinking, what kind of wondergym did she join that she enjoys going to work out!? It’s a normal gym, nothing fancy and in the next town over. It has a pool and a rock climbing wall and has classes in the morning and evening that are included in your monthly fee. For me, these are all new additions from the last gym I went to. It has like 1,000 machines in its warehouse like building. The staff is super nice and there are always towels for you to wipe down. It is a complete upgrade from my last gym.

I think I also like it so much because I can go in the middle of the afternoon while everyone is at work. I love having the flexibility to work out and then do work - or vice versa. I’m not stuck somewhere and then feel obligated to go to the gym once I get home from work. Going during the day when I feel like it doesn’t make it feel like a chore. This is supremely helping me get into the groove of going to the gym and enjoying it, which I think will keep me on track in the long run.

Working from home has given me the opportunity to do things in the order that I want to, rather than I “have” to. It lets me choose my lifestyle, I don’t let it choose for me.

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