I use Bath & Body Works pocket hand sanitizers religiously.
My first big vacation was a trip to Ohio when I was 10. My dad, my mom, my brother, and I packed up the car and drove 14 hours straight from Florida to Ohio. The entire trip was spent visiting my dad’s old high school buddies so it was a really, really boring vacation.
I love working in a casual office environment. I wear jeans and TOMs most days and sometimes, I even just pull on yoga pants and a t-shirt.
I will always choose a cheesy romance novel over a literary great.
Even though they tend to be more expensive and tourist-y, I always choose excursions that the cruise line provides. I feel safer that way!
My favorite amusement park is Sea World.
I’ve become more and more curious and drawn to vegetarianism lately. As much as I loathed the book Skinny Bitch, the chapter on how meat is produced was really eye-opening for me.
Sometimes, I think I would thrive so much better in a work-from-home position, but I also know it’s good for me to be in an office, surrounded by people. It forces me to be more social and outgoing than I normally would be.
I hold 95% of my sneezes in. This can’t be good, but I just really, really hate sneezing.
I don’t understand people who don’t love Blake Shelton. He’s my favorite coach on The Voice!
I wish I could write about some of the things that happen at my job but honestly, I’m not sure anyone would believe certain things actually happen.
For Christmas, my mom bought Dutch a placemat for his food. It’s shaped like a bone, cloth, and sprinkled with dachshunds dressed in sweatshirts. And every day, my mom would come home from lunch to find his food bowl and water bowl tipped over and off the placemat. Apparently, he wasn’t a fan of the placemat! Grumpy old man.
Once, I tweeted about bad service at Publix. I never, ever get bad service at Publix so it was an anomaly but I was really annoyed so I tweeted it out of annoyance. Well, the manager at that Publix reached out to me to express his apologies and now, whenever I go to Publix, he goes out of his way to say hi to me and make sure everything is okay with my visit. It’s like I’m a celebrity!
I’m currently growing out my blonde hair. The last time I got my hair colored was at the beginning of January so my roots are coming in. Luckily, my natural color is just a few shades darker than my blonde so it doesn’t look terrible (since I hate the ombre look, personally). I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it once the blonde does grow out, but going back to brunette is one of my 30 at 30 goals so who knows?!
I knew my boss and I were going to get along great when, during my interview, she showed me her office and her filing system – which is color-coded. We are kindred spirits when it comes to organization and it makes us work so efficiently.
Speaking of my boss, I couldn’t ask for a better mentor. She’s helped me to grow and learn so much in the past 18 months I’ve worked at this job. We also have the same type of humor, which works out well. We spend most of our days laughing!
I’m really, really happy I joined my book club. It was terrifying to go to the first meeting where I didn’t know anyone, but I’m so glad I just went for it because I love it a lot!
I still need to try out some other Meet-Up groups, though. I’m still letting the fear get the best of me.
I still buy CDs. In the last month, I bought the Nashville soundtrack and fun.’s CD. Both are incredible!
I just finished The Happiness Project and I now have so many THOUGHTS and FEELINGS about this book. I’m really glad I read it – and now, of course, I’m itching to take on a happiness project of my own.
What’s something about you I should know?
I HATE getting out of bed in the morning! I really surprised my coworker when I told her this because she was like “you work out in the mornings all the time”. I am a morning person once I’m UP and awake but getting out of bed is so so so painful for me!
Sorry to hear things still aren’t going very well at work. I was hoping they’d improved. I might believe you if you told me some of the things that actually happen 😉
I should start an email on that very subject (re: work), because some of the things that happen make me feel like I work in the Twilight Zone. Ha. It’s more hilarious than frustrating. 😉
Those first few minutes of actually making the decision to WAKE UP and get out of bed are the hardest! I’ve been struggling for the past few weeks, too. It’s the time change – now that it’s still pitch black dark at 6AM, it makes it even harder, I think!
“Even though they tend to be more expensive and tourist-y, I always choose excursions that the cruise line provides. I feel safer that way!”
–If you ever go to St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands – take the taxi tour from the locals. They are the ones with colorful trucks and benched seating in the back. When my parents and I went, oh almost 6 six years ago, we did this last minute. BEST DECISION EVER. I, still to this day, remember that trip more clearly than anything from that cruise. It was AWESOME!
Something you should know about me: I’ve been wanting to start a personal blog for a while now. Just haven’t jumped all the way in yet. Hopefully soon!
Oh, you should definitely start a personal blog! I would be lost without blogging. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life! I promise. 🙂
I’m excited to know what you thought about The Happiness Project! I’m about to start reading Happier at Home soon. Hope I like it!
I really, really enjoyed The Happiness Project. I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did, because it’s such a hyped-up book but it was fabulous. I took away so much good information and now I’m trying to decide how to apply it to my life & start my own happiness project.
I fully let my sneeze out and have made people jump. It’s quite unlady like and I get bizarre looks. They feel good!
I know it’s probably SO bad not to sneeze when you have to. I should Google it and see what damage I’m wrecking on my body by holding in my sneezes. Ha.
Oh man, I wish my boss were a little bit more organized… he’s the least organized person I know. Still awesome, though. 😉
I work at a very casual office environment, too… I am probably the fanciest person in the office, although I wear jeans and tops most days. 😉
I love casual office environments! Basically, our dress code is to “wear clothes”. Haha. I have a coworker who wears yoga pants almost every day. Whenever she wears jeans, we tease her about how dressed-up she is. 😉
How is the fun. album? I should probably listen to it on Spotify & then pick it up. I love Spotify because it’s like a try-before-you-buy, but I still buy CDs for my car!
I LOVE Blake on The Voice even if I’m not a fan of country music – & I had a Sea World season pass as a kid. I’d LOVE to go back. I was so disappointed when they closed the one in Northeast Ohio.
The fun. album is pretty good! I think it was $10 at Target. I’ve loved their three singles so decided to pick it up. I’m enjoying it. 🙂
I didn’t go to Sea World for the first time until I was 20! We were a Disney World family, I guess. I haven’t been in a few years, though, since I don’t have a season pass anymore. I had one for, like, 2-3 years and it gets a little boring with the same shows and stuff. But I miss feeding the sea lions and dolphins! Ha.
I can’t fall asleep with the TV on unless I’m COMPLETELY exhausted. It stinks because sometimes I want to nap when Erik’s over, but as long as he’s watching TV, I can’t actually sleep.
The Happiness Project is still on my ‘currently-reading’ pile, only 3/4 of the way done. I was reading through it last summer and it’s just chock full of so many ideas that I feel like I don’t want to just breeze through it. I seriously need to pick it back up. Also, I wear yoga pants almost every day to work. Whenever I move on to my next job, that’s going to be the hardest part to give up, haha.
I can’t fall asleep with the TV on, either! I need complete silence and darkness. I can barely handle the glow from my laptop or phone!
I don’t know how I would handle working in a more business professional atmosphere. I like yoga pants and jeans and flip-flops! Haha. I’m sure I would be okay, but I much prefer the casual working environment.
I’ve been looking at the MeetUP groups lately – I work from home and recently moved to another state, so I don’t meet new people very often and I think it would be good to meet people with similar interests. This is great to hear the book club event went well for you! I’m thinking of doing a smaller step (in my mind) and take a community college class – for some reason that doesn’t feel quite as intimidating though like you said, I’m still letting fear get the best of me. It’s easy to do what’s comfortable.
Joining a book club through Meet-Up was a good first step because there’s already a commonality between the members and a reason for the meetings: to discuss the book! I’ve been trying to summon up the courage to join different groups more centered around meeting up for happy hours and beach days and stuff but that’s been harder because it feels scarier! I know the more I do it, the easier it will be (and the better I will get at being social) but the first step is always the hardest one. It took me a full year to actually GO to book club. Ha.
Good luck with joining a community college class! I think that’s a good first step. Plus, you’ll learn something useful in the meantime!
I love this post, and I love that there is still so much I can learn about you 🙂 That also makes me kinda sad cause it means we’re not talking enough. So. Hi. I miss you.
UM, DITTO. We need to set aside, like, 4 hours to Skype sometime soon. Haha. I need more Melissa in my life! 🙂
This list was fun to read! It’s always great to learn more about other bloggers! That is awesome that you have such a great relationship with your boss. That is huge! My boss right now (which is a new boss and my 3rd on in the span of a year) is nice but I don’t really feel comfortable around him. Hopefully that changes. He is the head of my group’s entire division so it’s a bit weird to report to him but he works out of a different office so is pretty hands off.
It took a long time to get to this point! I’m naturally shy so it takes me a long time to warm up to people. My boss is basically the opposite, though, so that helped a lot. 🙂 New bosses are hard, testing out the waters and getting to know them as people and also as someone to report to. Thinking of you!
My boss is the opposite of your boss, as far as organization goes. However, he and I get along really well otherwise, as he is a pretty funny and fun guy and is really easy to talk to and to laugh with.