things don’t change unless you do. {goals & intentions}

a new year marks a new beginning. a time to reflect on the past year and think about what we would like to do in the coming one. i’ve never been big on making new years resolutions. they feel like a set up to failure; such an all or nothing feeling. if you don’t accomplish it, of fall off the bandwagon after a couples weeks of months, you give up and move on because what’s the point anymore? Jess Lively, who write for The Everygirl put’s it perfectly, here. And thanks to her, i am making new years intentions, not resolutions. intentions leaved room for the inevitable surprises that life has in store. intentions can be flexible and adjusted to the way things come together throughout the year. when situations change; you change. and you can adjust your intentions accordingly. no harm, no foul, no guilt. this gives them a more positive feel than the negative “have to” feel of resolutions. i am super jazzed for this coming year. and look forward to seeing how these intentions all come together. stay tuned. xoxo

((goals)) and intentions for the new year:

• healthy living

  • run a 5K (TC Valentines Run) and 10K (Get in Gear 10K)
  • drop my time in the April Sorenson Half Marathon by 10 minutes
  • be active for at least 20 minutes at least 3 times/week
  • continue to implement the slow carb diet into my meals
  • monitor my diet coke consumption; no more than 3/ week

• growing my smarts

  • read 9 books

1. socialnomics
2. bitches on a budget
3. rework
4. predictably irrational
5. cocktails for three
6. breakfast at tiffanys
7. one day
8. blue like jazz
9. the 4 hour body

• go to a wine tasting/ become educated on how to pair it with meals

• take a cooking class

• potentially and hopefully start classes to get my MBA

• blog love:

  • post no fewer than 3, but shoot for 5 times/month; at least 36, at most 60 posts/year
  • by my 2 year blogiversary, complete a rebranding of this blog
  • finish the year with double the views I finished with. (About 10,000)
  • gain 15 new followers
  • start a new social media dedicated blog

• dahla, dahla bills y’all:

  • continue to record & track my expenses & begin to incorporate more of a budget into it
  • pay off clifford (my car)

• • don’t worry, be happy

    

• the always cliché and ongoing goal of my life: less anxiety, more enjoyment.
• soak in the happiness of the little moments that make life wonderful
  • using a new app, day one, to keep track on all these little things
• be present. and enjoy the moment. worry less about what has or will happen.

[flying solo] what happened in vegas…

prelude (written before boarding the plane to the conference): i can remember when i was a little girl  and my business savvy momma would talk about her different business trips and conferences she was traveling to, and i would think to myself, “self, one day you will go on a conference like that.” and then i got an internship at a cool place and got to travel to assist in the management of a user conference for upwards of 700 people. and i thought, “wow, that was awesome!” and then i got to travel alone to manage my team at a conference in dallas on my lonesome. and i thought, “wow, i’m getting all grown up!” and then a couple months ago my boss passed on some info on this conference shed like me to attend. and i thought to myself, “WOW. that one day is now today.” and I must say I’m still in a little bit of shock. here I am; 22, not even a year out of college, and I am going to a legit event management conference. by myself. to learn, and get educated, and get smarter (if at all possible), and network with people who are crazy organizing and social media lovers like me, and learn from people who’ve been doing this forever. am I dreaming?! i am a mix of so many emotions right now. nervous, anxious, excited, scared, pumped, intimidated, jazzed, etc. I have traveled by myself before, but was never going to be completely along once I got there. am i ready for this? oh yes, i am. look mom, I’m all grown up! 

this past week i had the privilege of attending EXHIBITOR2012 at the mandalay bay in las vegas, nv. a conference solely focused on event/ tradeshow management, marketing, and social media. as i stated earlier, i was pretty flipping jazzed to be in attendance at this event. and looking back over the past week, (warning: cheesy statement approaching), i really can hardly put it into words. (told ya). but it truly was an amazing, exhausting, motivating, empowering, educational, enjoyable, memorable and legit experience. as i summarized in a Facebook status…

5 days; 16 sessions; 30 pages of notes; 3 pairs of stilettos; 2 dented shoulders from laptop bag; 1 cirque du soleil show; 8ish glasses of wine; 4 hours sleep a night; countless new connections; mind FULL of ideas and excitement – thank you EXHIBITOR :)

ive been home for several days now an i am still trying to recover from lack of sleep and influx of brilliance. seriously, 16 sessions in 4 days; was i taking crazy pills when i made that decision?! well no, i wasn’t, but man oh man will that take a lot out of a girl. but since it was my first experience i am so glad that i made the decision to go all out. some sessions were epic, thought provoking and innovative and others… were not those things. there were no “bad sessions,” just sessions that were less awesome than others. its all part of the experience, there are so many sessions offered its hard to decide which ones you think will be best. sometimes your spot on and other times you miss the mark. my favorite part were the roundtables though; and not ((only)) because of the free beverages. to get to really interact in discussion with my peers was so awesome. overall though, i learned a lot, made new connections, realized i’m pretty damn good at my job already, and was made aware of ways to make us even better. but the best thing that i gained at the conference was a confirmation and realization that i am madly passionate and obsessed with social media. i almost had to laugh at myself during the roundtable in regards to social media because i would become so passionate in my comments and responses. i just want to share the love of amazingness of social media with others, and help them see the doors that open when you learn how to use the platforms correctly. i am without a doubt a social media diva and proud of it. a  i knew i really liked social media before, but our relationship has gotten much more serious. more to come on my adventures in strengthening that relationship. :) as well as continue my relationships with my new friends and connections i made in vegas; met some pretty awesome people there and exciting to keep tabs on one another!

whew. i’m exhausted just reminiscing about last weeks conference. i think i need a nap, or a cocktail.  in the meantime here are some pics capturing some of the adventures i had in vegas; because as they say, “what happens in vegas, stays on the Internet.” enjoy, friends.

my ballin’ suite at THEhotel

too legit to quit! my official badge

tower of wine – what’s not to love?

the closest i got to the pool; was beautiful though!

views of mandalay bay/ THEhotel… and when i realized i was lost…

night one: enjoying the dancing waters at the bellagio

las vegas at night; priceless

day one: got my business sexy outfit on and ready to rock!

night two: dinner with strangers  – the gee wiz; YUM!

night two: RM Seafood (dinner w/ strangers) best sushi ever.

LOVED the huge representation of MN!

night 3: adventures with Rob & Chelsey; New, York New, York!

chelsey and me with our bobble head

zoomanity! enough said. 

after nearly 3 days of searching i found diet coke!

night three: dinner w/ strangers at lupo – YUM!

doing it up: texas style

i got the fantastic opportunity to attend my first “legit, no longer an intern, big girl business trip” last week! i was very excited and also very anxious! i would be flying solo which was an awesomely intimidating thought! i knew that i could handle it, though. and that it would be a wonderful learning experience to put under my belt. my boss filled me with all the knowledge, tips and tricks before i left so i felt pretty darn prepared. but i really had no idea what to expect. the trip got off to a bit of a shaky start that saturday morning, when i almost missed my plane. (you can read about that lovely tale, here) it was, shall we say, riveting. either way, i DID make it on that plane. i was a stressed out mess, wheezing from my cold and exhausted from sprinting across the terming; but i made it. and all i can say, is that thank goodness that it was one of those small planes that gives you the whole can of diet coke, instead of a sippy cup.

i landed in good ‘ol dallas, texas. first time i’d ever been there, not that i would end up seeing anything but the gaylord hotel (which is pretty much its own city). for reals, humongous. one of my co-workers made the brilliant comparison of it to the mall of america/ camp snoopy whatever its called now. where you are “inside” but it has that “outside” feel.

i got my room, checked in on our big, bad booth and got some work done. for lunch i went to a place called texan station which shows how hard core, die hard, put my brothers to shame, dedicated texas sports fans are. i had some legit texas bbq and watched 3 different games going on on the 52 FOOT screen tv. holy moly huge.

i worked some more and ate some dinner, and that was about all the excitement i could handle for day 1. the next few days are really a blur. i was crazytown busy MIH as we say here (making it happen). there really is nothing like the rewarding feeling of a job well done. (and checking things of my to do list, of course). just as i had hoped and predicted, it was one of the most incredible business experiences for a young 22 year old. i am so blessed to have had the opportunities that i have been given. and i have done all i could to make the most of them and be grateful for them. i know i grow more and more in my professional self during each one. here are some highlights from the rest of my time in the big D, dallas. (i was actually in grapevine, but there are no sayings or songs about grapevine.)

• almost every night i treated myself to a lovely cup of hot tea. a cozy, soothing way to wind down from the day. one night, thanks to lots of hardly any coaxing from a co-worker, i added some butter pecan ice cream to my night time snack. delish.
• here’s our fantastic booth, the best looking tradeshow booth around. ;)
• monday night i finally got to be outside to enjoy some lovely summer weather and lake-side sunset views. coupled with a nice cold brew, good company and amazing conversation. it was a lovely night! topped off with the entertainment of the night, the spazmatics, an 80’s cover group, who were AMAZING!

• and then came the absolute highlight and most stressful part of my trip in one. touring the dallas cowboys stadium! woot woot. it was amazing and everyone loved it. we got to go on the field and see the ginormous 160 ft screen TV (which you really cannot comprehend its size), the cheerleaders just so happened to be practicing (the guys didn’t seem to mind that), we went in the locker room, jerry jones suite, VIP suite, post game interview room, EVERYTHING! finished off with an exquisite meal it was a enjoyable and successful night.

 

it was a grand, amazing, successful, wonderful and exhausting trip. it was beautifully ended with a sinus infection, but thats a whole other story. :) y’all come back now.