Working Woman, Round II
Hi friends -
I got a bit overwhelmed this evening and didn’t have time to post, so I thought you might enjoy reading what I posted before my first day of work last year. Be back tomorrow!
—
Mornin’. I’m off to my first day day of work!
Because I’m beginning my internship today, I wanted to start a discussion about adjusting to a full-time work schedule….
My mission on Taking Back my Twenties is not to complain, but to take charge of my life and find ways to make working days more enjoyable. Part of this means making life at work more comfortable. I have a few ideas about how I’m going to accomplish this, so I made a list of goals. Most of the things on this list are common sense, but they tend to be easier said than done, which is why I’m going to need reminders…
[these are the things I’d like to remember to do in round two of starting a full-time job; I got rid of some of the old ones and added two new ones...]
3. Get in bed 30 minutes before bedtime so I have a chance to wind-down. Since I’m a night person, I tend to get energized before bed and then I have trouble falling asleep right away.
6. Get up 15 minutes earlier than I actually need to so I don’t have to rush in the morning. I hate rushing.
8. Think of each day as a learning experience and not just a list of tasks that I need to get through!
9. Make an effort to build new relationships
10. Continue to push myself even if the job gets boring (this is where I went wrong in my internship)
I know many of you have probably mastered life in the working world, so I’d love to hear your tips for making the work day more enjoyable!
Busy
Hello friends. I apologize for my absence. I’ve been busy….
busy making salads and sweet potatoes in an attempt to return to normal eating after my trip,
busying shopping for bikes and work clothes, busy filling out paperwork,
and busy celebrating with riesling at West End Wine Bar.
Why, more merriment after a ten-day celebration of life, you ask?
Because this girl is employed!
No more wondering where I’ll be working, when my career will begin, of if I will even get a job. I’ll be working in a program support/coordination role for a graduate degree program at Duke. Oh, and I start a week from today.
Here’s to another chapter of taking back my twenties:)
Read MoreProgress
Sooo, now that my internship is complete, I promised an update. Have I taken back my twenties yet? Nope. But, recently, I’ve been feeling a lot closer to the kind of daily life that I’ve been striving for (especially when the weather warmed up). Unfortunately, I feel a little stuck right now because my career path is in limbo and my internship didn’t really help me narrow down the options – it only ruled out school psychology.
But, I definitely made some process in terms of adjusting to full time work (although I’d obviously rather have flexible hours or work from home:))
This is what I wrote on my first day of work back in September and in bold are my reflections on how I did with each goal:
“My mission on Taking Back my Twenties is not to complain, but to take charge of my life and find ways to make working days more enjoyable. Part of this means making life at work more comfortable. I have a few ideas about how I’m going to accomplish this, so I made a list of goals. Most of the things on this list are common sense, but they tend to be easier said than done, which is why I’m going to need reminders…
1. Think about food ideas before weekly grocery trips so that I can incorporate leftovers to make lunches more interesting. And, pack plenty of snacks!
2. Pack my bag, lay out clothes, and make lunch the night before.
As for numbers 1 and 2, I did well keeping up with meal planning, but I rarely made dinners that yielded leftovers I could take for lunch. I tended to make meals for two to minimize waste and then would remember I could take them for lunch. I did well packing my lunch the night before, but I NEVER picked out my clothes. It wasn’t really a problem though, because I usually brainstormed in the shower and dressed like an eskimo all winter.
3. Get in bed 30 minutes before bedtime so I have a chance to wind-down. Since I’m a night person, I tend to get energized before bed and then I have trouble falling asleep right away.
Number 3 didn’t go so well as I always stayed up until the last minute and then had trouble falling asleep. I was pretty much tired every day for the whole year:(
4. Pick one day a week to skip the gym and work late to reduce the amount of work I have to do on weekends.
Although I did skip the gym one or two days a week, it was because I had to babysit, not because I was working late. I really didn’t end up doing much work on the weekends, which was fine with me.
5. Keep a pair of old flats and a sweater at work for comfort.
Yeah, I didn’t do this at all and was freezing on many of the shoulder season days when the heat would be turned off. I also got bad blisters a few times when I didn’t have back-up shoes.
6. Get up 15 minutes earlier than I actually need to so I don’t have to rush in the morning. I hate.rushing.
Also didn’t happen, I was frantic most mornings, especially when I tried to go to the gym before work.
7. Get organized and take the time to stay organized! Once I know what my case load will be like, I want to create an organization system that makes my life easier so I don’t waste time looking for things.
I did pretty well with 7, although I must say I think it will be 100 times easier to stay organized when I actually have a desk or computer to call my own.
8. Think of each day as a learning experience and not just a list of tasks that I need to get through.
I did OK with this one. I never really minded being at work, especially because I was working with a bunch of friends. But, there were definitely times that I just viewed work as a bunch of annoying things that needed to be crossed off my list. But, it was a great learning experience.
I’m excited to see how my next work experience differs. I’m hoping that making money and being more independent (aka, not an intern) will really change my outlook.
For those of you who have been working for a while now, do you have any advice for things I could do differently in the future?
Read MoreRethinking Fashion Friday
Hola.
It’s a rainy afternoon in Boston, and since I knocked out a workout before work this morning, I’m enjoying some couch time and catching up on laundry.
I’ve also been doing some thinking about Fashion Friday. I originally started posting photos of outfits after my first week of working full-time because I’d never needed to wear anything other than jeans on a typical day and I wanted to challenge myself to mix up my wardrobe. Snapping pictures of my outfits was a way to hold myself accountable for the challenge and ensure that I didn’t end up wearing black pants and a button-up every day. While I think fashion friday pics have helped me do this, I’ve always felt really silly taking pictures of myself and sharing my outfits with the world, especially when I’m wearing something boring and feeling frumpy (aka Wednesday’s pic. below). It’s also just a burden to have to ask Matt to take my picture or worry about setting up the tripod at 7:30 am, when I’d rather be eating oatmeal like a zombie. It seems people like the concept based on previous comments, but I think I’m ready to discontinue the daily pictures of work outfits. Sorry to those who liked it!
That being said, I’m still very much obsessed with clothing, shopping, and all things fashion, so I’d like to continue with the tradition of fashion friday. My hope is that I will be able to share fashion inspirations and the occasional outfit with you without feeling the pressure to snap a dumb photo every morning.
So enjoy the last original fashion friday!
I’m thinking a beer and basketball are in my short-term future. I’m also thinking about the devastation in Japan and all of those who are affected by the quake and the aftermath:(
k bye.
Read MoreI’m Already Moving
Hi guys,
Kath has already convinced me to move over to WordPress because there are many more options and the platform for commenting is better. I’ve been working on a new template all day and should be up and running by tomorrow at the same domain. I apologize in advance if the blog is down for a few hours! I’ll be back with a recap of my incredible brunch in the morning, but I’ll give you a hint as to what I ordered…
The Perfect Party
I’m so excited to have readers!! Thank you all for your sweet comments and thanks for the shout-out Kath. It’s so nice to have some encouragement when starting something new.
So remember when I said that I can’t stay up on Friday nights anymore? Well I also can’t sleep in on Sunday mornings anymore:( After tossing and turning for the past hour, I just decided to give up on sleeping and blog. I woke up with that feeling that something is wrong, probably because something is wrong. If you read my sister’s blog, you probably already know that my Grandpa, (aka POP) passed away in his sleep this weekend. He was 92 years old, but he was still full of life, so it definitely came as a shock and the news continues to consume my thoughts.
I still managed to make it to the harvest party last night. I’m so glad I went because it was a blast. I may even go as far as to say it was the perfect party. What makes the perfect party you ask? Well, in my opinion, its good food, good beer, and good people. The hosts were having a harvest party because they are moving out of their current apartment and wanted to share the food they had grown in their garden.
Actually, I think the only thing that really came out of the garden was collard greens, but the idea was cute nonetheless. Because collard greens are traditionally associated with the south, they complimented the greens with a spread of southern food. Here’s my plate of collard greens, cornbread, mac and cheese, chili, pulled pork, and green beans.
Many of the guests brought beer, so there were a ton of different kinds! Matt and I split this Smuttynose summer weizen to start. I’ve had this one before, so I knew I loved the rich and summery wheat taste.
The hosts were actually friends of Matt’s, so I didn’t know many people there, but everyone was welcoming and friendly. Here’s Matt and the farmer, Alex.
They even had a bobbing for apples competition and a pie eating contest!
Isn’t it cute how intensely Matt’s teammates are cheering him on? His team obviously won…
After the events, the party really got started with a little flip cup and some tunes from the Biebs. I enjoyed A Geary’s Summer ale and a Shipyard Brown ale, both tasty beers I’ve had before from Portland, Maine.
Oh, I almost forgot, the perfect party also involves dessert!!! Out of nowhere, the farmers wife appeared with pies!.
Welcome to TBT!
I've created this blog because I'm in a bit of a quarter life crisis. Since graduating from college in 2008 and earning an advanced degree in school psychology in May, I still don't know what career path to follow. All I know is that time is moving way too fast and I find myself living only for the weekends. Bear with me as I attempt to reclaim my twenties by finding pleasure and balance in the work week and incorporating my passions of food, fashion, fitness, and fun into everyday life. 
She said what?