October!

Good morrow, all! Forgive the delay, but October has been a busy month! Lots of things, both good and not so much... let's just get right to it, shall we?

As you well know, I started my first real grown-up job on the 5th! So far it has been great! Of course it has been stressful, and the task at hand isn't what one might consider glamorous, but there is never a dull moment! Well, to be honest, I haven't really been on the phones all that much just because of training, but as of today, training is DONE so I'm sure that I will have much to share as time goes by. There are A LOT of crazies out there... they make my job difficult, but my day, overall... hilarious! The people that I work with are AMAZING! I could not have asked for better coworkers (well, team members). Everyone has been the purest definition of welcoming and helpful. In my department of guest relations, they haven't had any new hires for 2 years, so people were really excited to have us! We came to our cubicles today and were welcomed with balloons, posters with our names that everyone on the floor had signed, and goodie bags. I love knowing that I have all the support I could ever want sitting all around me... I am really lucky to have found a great company for which to work. Yay, Target!! As I collect branded pens, note pads, stuffed Bullseye dogs, keychains, bags, and water bottles, my husband has renamed me "Target whore," but somehow, I don't care! Proud of it! :)

On the 23rd of October, I turned 23, making that my GOLDEN birthday!! For the occasion, my coworkers went out and bought me a birthday cake and sang to me!! It was so sweet and unexpected. They're awesome. That night, I decided to mark the occasion with Buca di Birthday with some buddies! It was delicious, and I would be lying if I told you that I didn't get just a little drunk on pitchers of sangria!


Instead of the traditional "Happy Birthday" tune, Paul took the opportunity to serenade me with a song from which I chose not to derive too much meaning: "If I Only Had a Brain."



That with all of the other shenanigans... well it was just lovely. And yes, that is me drinking from a straw in a wine glass... there was too much ice!! After dinner we returned to our apartment where more drinking ensued. We settled in to a rousing game of tippy cup on our coffee table, followed by slamming what we lovingly referred to as "a poor man's beer bong," aka... a funnel.

The evening was the epitome of class. So I may have been drunk and silly, but I had a GREAT night with some GREAT friends and family, and I am so thankful for each and every one of them. Happy Birthday to me, indeed!

Halloween is a holiday I look forward to all year long. It is an opportunity I like to take to put on a costume, be with good friends, and drink until I'm dizzy (I'm not an alcoholic, I swear!). This year, Paul, some pals and I decided that we were going to have a night on the town (St. Cloud) as characters from The Office. Paul and I had planned to be Dwight and Angela, and were very much looking forward to it. BUT, as either a late birthday present, or an early Halloween trick... I caught swine flu. Seriously, fuck. It is HORRIBLE!! Thursday afternoon at work I started to get a headache, but really didn't think too much of it. But just driving home about 4 hours later, I was miserable. I was sweating but freezing, achy all over, dizzy, weak, and the headache that was minor before was rapidly turning into a migraine. I quickly changed into some warmer clothes and curled up on the couch (I may have been dying, but I was not about to miss The Office). At 8:30, I went to bed with a rising fever of 100.6. I felt awful. I didn't go to work on Friday, and was hoping that if I took that whole day to sleep, I would be better so that we could still do Halloween up right. However, Saturday morning I woke up to discover that I was fine... if I was laying down. If I was up and about for more than 20 minutes, I started to feel all the symptoms ten-fold. I was SO SAD! I cried more than I should have, and had to break the news that we weren't going to make it. It was a very depressing reconciliation. So instead, we spent the evening relaxing on the couch. I ended up not going back to work until Wednesday, which was intimidating because I missed our last couple days to take calls in the training room where we had people there to help us the whole day. Oh well, aside from feeling really tired, I feel MUCH better.

And the moral of the story is... don't get swine flu.
Love to you all!! :)