THE BIG EASY

One of the best things about working for my company - aside from the dart wars and generally awesome people - is the annual mystery trip. In past years, they've gone to places like South Beach, Chicago, Jamaica (I was on this trip!), Amsterdam and Iceland. And when I say "Mystery Trip," I really do mean that it's a mystery.

Here's how it works: each year, a small planning committee gets together and decides where we're going for the year's trip. Then, they periodically send out clues about the location, leading up to the start of the trip. We'll get clues such as "you'll need a passport" and "bring a bathing suit," which are pretty straightforward, but then we also get clues that don't make much sense at all. Then, when we get to the airport (usually painfully early in the morning) on the day we're leaving, we have a "reveal" and find out where we'll be heading for the next few days.

Mystery trips are fun, exciting, jam-packed, and generally cause office-wide hysteria a few days before the trip - especially if you're like me and have a severe Type A personality (which means that packing your suitcase is a panic-inducing experience)!

Here's a general idea of the clues we received for this year's trip to New Orleans - stolen from a Facebook post from one of my co-workers, which she apparently stole from another co-worker. :)

People were guessing St. Louis, Disney World, Denver, and NOLA, among others. Even after the trip, I'm still not 100% sure how all of these clues fit in. Regardless, we had an AMAZING time down in The Big Easy and I can't wait to find out where we'll be heading next year. I'll leave you with a bunch of photos from the trip:

5am Friday morning: the NC crew taking up almost the entire back half of the plane from Raleigh to Atlanta

Reuniting with the original account coordinator team at The Ruby Slipper for lunch. Best part? Take-out mimosas :)

Friday night karaoke

Doing a little sightseeing in the French Quarter early Saturday morning

Visiting Jackson Square (mostly just to get to Cafe du Monde)

Cafe du Monde beignets - absolutely necessary

The rainy weather made the swamp tour just a little more creepy

Gator spotting!

This big guy was almost a little too close for comfort. Granted, our tour guide was on the platform hand-feeding him, so he can't be ALL that dangerous, right?

Holding the baby gator! Her name is Alli and I might have taken her home if they had let me.

Hanging out at the Old Absinthe House with some coworkers Saturday night. I also learned that absinthe tastes pretty much exactly like Nyquil. Not my drink of choice.

Balcony view of Bourbon Street

Beignets round two (also necessary)

Closing out the trip with a visit to Pat O'Brien's for their famous hurricanes (which honestly weren't that great)

One more picture before we split and head back to our NC and MI offices!

JUST A FEW WEEKS LATE

To put it lightly, I've hit a blogging rut. My last post was on May 4th and now it might as well be June already.

I've discovered that it's really hard to motivate myself to drag out my computer after working hours and write for myself. I don't think I'd have such a hard time if I didn't work in social media marketing, but the fact is that I do. My job requires me to be in front of a computer and online for most of the day. Once you've spent your day creating content, monitoring your clients' social sites, responding to fans and followers, and sending email after email, the last thing you want to do is once again put your fingers to the keyboard and write (not that I'm complaining - I do love my job!).

I'm determined to get better at this; my goal is to dedicate a few hours a week to blogging for myself. Not for my clients, not for my agency - just for me. Because if I can't make time for the things I like to do outside of work, then I'm really not doing this whole "work/life balance" thing right.

For starters, here's a few pictures from our trip to Asheville a few weekends ago for Dylan's brother's college graduation:

Road trip time with Claire & her little dog Peyton

Charlie made a lot of puppy friends that weekend - this is Lyle & Sofie's dog Coach

Trash bag couture at the graduation ceremony (aka it rained...a lot)

Dylan's step-sister Claire, step-dad and mom modeling the snazzy trash bags

Lyle graduating! Soaked to the bone, but graduating.

Pictures with the graduate!

We found some horses to hang out with

And went on a hike

Played some (very competitive) games of cornhole

And did some grillin'

Ending the weekend with one very tired Charlie

During my blogging absence over the past few weeks, I also went on our annual work mystery trip (this year's was to New Orleans!), developed an annoying sinus infection, and enjoyed Memorial Day weekend with my family back home. More pictures coming soon! And more posts. I promise.

GROWING MY GREEN THUMB

I finally had enough time to plant my little mini garden in the backyard last weekend!

Isn't it cute? I had initially picked out another, more convenient, spot in the yard for the garden, but we ran into a slight problem. There was a small (or so we thought) stump in the way that I was going to have Dylan dig out for me. That sucker turned out to be at least 4' x 4' across, hidden under a few inches of dirt. There was no way we were ever getting it out without an axe, a chain, and a heavy duty truck - which, honestly, I would love to have. Alas, my choice gardening spot wasn't going to happen - so we moved it to smack dab in the middle of the yard, on the edge of the "landscaping" (the owners of our townhouse really did a bad job with that). I do like the cute little fence that goes around it, even if it's not so successful at keeping Charlie from trampling my poor little plants.

Right now, there are three tomato plants, four cucumber plants, and three bell pepper plants (there was supposed to be one red, one green, and one yellow, but somehow I ended up with two yellow's and no green). And yes, as my mother lovingly reminded me, I do realize that those cucumber plants are going to start taking over everything very soon. Instead of letting them grow out, they're going to be trellised so they grow up and don't smother every other living thing in site. She also warned me that I'm going to have way more cucumbers than I'll know what to do with - anyone think they'll want/need some cucumbers in a few months? Maybe a whole basket full? :) Worst-case scenario, I'll be making a lot of pickles this year. I do love me some pickles.

I also did some container gardening with a bunch of different herbs to save space, and also because I like how they look on my porch.

Oregano, dill and parsley!

I also planted a second pot of just basil yesterday. Can't wait to make pesto and more caprese salad! Oh, and Charlie helped... in his own special way. Mostly just by chewing on the roots and clumps of dirt that we dug up.

"Seriously, mom, stop with the pictures."

I'm hoping that I actually get some decent herbs and veggies out of this little gardening experiment. But let me tell you - I will Sharpie-marker my thumb green until I'm one hundred percent positive that they're actually growing! (I am pretty positive that the crazy cucumber plants have already grown a good few inches in the past week.)

Happy gardening!

TWO MILES? BEGINNER'S STUFF.

Yesterday I ran two miles without stopping to walk and I'm still alive today to blog about it. I consider this a pretty big success, even if every person I passed on my run thought I looked like I was about to keel over and die (which is probably exactly what they were thinking).

This pretty much sums up my feelings exactly:

5K, schmive-K. I've got this... I think.

JUST KEEP RUNNING...

I'm five weeks into my 5K training and I'm still going strong! I started off dreading having to run for 90 seconds at a time, and now I'm running five minute intervals with no problem. That might not sound like anything to brag about to most people of minor athleticism, but it's pretty darn impressive to me.

My Week 5, Day 3 workout is scheduled for Thursday, and it includes a 2 mile (20 minute) jog with no walk breaks. Intimidating? Absolutely. But I'm also excited to see if I can do it. I WILL do it - because what's 20 minutes of jogging, really? Especially when this is the scenery on your route:

And when you have awesome all-black running shoes like these:

I'll post another 5K update in the next week or so with my progress - I can't believe I'm getting so close to the end of the 8 week program. Next challenge: running a 10K. Yikes!