Unsettling

This morning I went outside to find someone had broken into my Jeep. The person very simply had smashed my front passenger side window, reached in, and took my work bag. Nothing else. When I realized what had happened, I went through a number of emotions pretty quickly. I was pissed off, upset, sad, aggravated, confused, and well...pissed off. So I call Mike, then my mom, to fuss and mostly curse. I call the police, and they send an officer to come take a report. I call my insurance to find out I am not covered because I have the most basic insurance I can have. I call what felt like every auto glass repair place in Tallahassee to find out the best place could not fit me in until Monday. So I tape up a trash bag to my window because we all know it will rain at least three times before then, and I resign myself to having a bunch of glass in my passenger seat.

Mike came and picked me up to go to lunch with one of his friends who was driving through town. I looked forward to taking a more pleasant break to the day since the rest of my plans were pretty much derailed. On the plus side, the glass repair people called me during lunch to say they had a cancellation and could fit me in today. They were extremely helpful and nice. They replaced the glass very quickly and even gave me a discount. If you are in Tallahassee, I highly recommend Safelite Auto Glass. Rock star service.

The first thing I thought when I saw the window was, "Really? Out of all the cars around, this person picked my Jeep?" If you have ever seen my lovely vehicle, you see the irony in this. Then when I realized they had only taken my work bag, I was even more annoyed. Granted, it was a nice leather bag with some pricey higher education books, a pair of Rainbow flip flops, and an umbrella in it, I cannot imagine any of it had much street value. Left inside was my satellite radio, car stereo, and CDs, the only things really worth anything. Perhaps the person was almost caught and ran off before (s)he could grab any of that. Perhaps the person is just an idiot. The door was still locked despite the busted window.

Now with my Jeep repaired, I will have to use a different bag for work on Tuesday. Luckily, I still have the brown version of the one that was stolen. I bought these from a leather store back home at a ridiculously good sale price a couple of Thanksgivings ago with my sister and Suze. Good times. I will have to replace my black Rainbow flip flops, which honestly were on their last leg anyway. I was simply waiting for them to completely fall apart before I spent money on new ones. This just expedited that process. I will have to look for a replacement of my favorite leadership book, and figure out what to do about the other books on student organizations that technically FSU paid for me to purchase at a conference. Sigh.

All in all, things are not that bad. I just find it unsettling when these things happen. A stranger violating your personal space/property is not a pleasant feeling. I just hope the person gets a good deal on the Black Market from those student organization management books. Ha.

 Of course one of the first things I did was take a picture with my phone.

I am glad the repair people vacuumed up all this!

Sidenote: This is my 100th blog post! I was hoping it be on something a little more fun, but I am sure better topics are on the way. :-)

IPDS 2010 (a.k.a. Networking in Indiana)

Yesterday I returned home from the Association of College Union International's (ACUI) Indiana Professional Development Seminar (IPDS). This is basically a type of orientation for new professionals in higher education, specifically those of us who work in and with college unions. I have to say the expereince was not only amazing, but far exceeded my expectations.

We were part of a class of about 50 participants from around the country. The seminar was about five days, and we covered a wide range of topics from career development to sustainability to collaborations between operations and programmers. The program was hosted at Indiana University, which is a beautiful campus in Bloomington. Four of us from FSU attended: Mike, Lori, Ian, and myself.

Most participants stayed in the hotel located in the Indiana Memorial Union. However, Mike, Lori, and I were part of 12 people who did not get rooms and had to stay further into town. (Ian got lucky and was upgraded to one at the last minute.) While this may seem like an inconvenience, it turned out to be a really nice walk to and from the hotel. It also made for a great running path in the mornings.

All in all, I have to say I really enjoyed the connections I made with other professionals. While networking is often a goal of most conferences and experiences, this time I really felt connected to the people there. We also seemed to make friends really well with the delegation from the University of Delaware. Who knew? I also connected with a number of people who have jobs similar to mine, and now we can connect, commiserate, and celebrate together. I can only hope that we will truly have a new network of people on which to rely as we navigate our careers in higher education.

I also felt like I really was able to take away much from our sessions and the experience as a whole. I gained a number of good ideas, tips, and tricks from the faculty and my peers. It was a great re-energizer (despite the fact that I am exhausted from travel). We also were able to learn much from the University of Indiana, and we were even able to tour a local brewery, Upland Brewing Co., to learn about their sustainability efforts and do a beer tasting! I was also able to have a geek moment when I had time to visit the Kinsey Institute. Amazing.

The most surprising thing was I now have a desire to learn more about ACUI and possibly get more involved with the association. (ACUI also hosted the Women's Leadership Institute I attended last December.) Luckily, the regional conference is going to be hosted at FSU this fall. So that will make things pretty easy!

The Votes Are In, and We've Started a Trend

The moment you've all been waiting for...we officially have the votes for the 2010 Blog-A-Day-In-May Challenge. Each winner was based on the number of votes. For the overall winner, we voted for our personal 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and then each of those were assigned point values to give an overall score. All scores are listed below in parentheses.(We were also able to reference specific posts in our justifications. Thanks to Regina for already linking them all on her blog. :-))

Readers' Choice
Adam (4)
Kelly (4)
Amber (3)
Mike (2)
Regina (1)

Most Supportive Blogger
Regina (4)
Kelly (3)
Amber (1)

Best Blog Post
Mike (3) - Medal of honor-"Fatal Frame II"
Adam (1)
Kelly (1) - What the crap?
Amber (1) - Flash Mob
Regina (1) - To throw or not...
Meghan (1)

Laugh Out Loud Funny Post
Adam (3) - Montgomery flea market proprieter on target employee and customer
Amber (2) - Crank Yankers - This one goes out to all my fellow bloggers
Billy (1) - Enjoy a good laugh
Julia (1) - Daily Puppy - Silas
Meghan (1)

What the Crap Post
Billy (2) - Not really a toy, but my favorite book from my youth
Adam (2)
Julia (1) - No daily puppy today
Kelly (1) - Put a ring on it
Regina (1)
Mike (1)

Cheesiest Post
Kelly (3) - I don't dance, I just shimmer - Suze, I love you - Put a ring on it
Mike (2) - Red Dead Redemption Drops Tomorrow
Amber (1)
Julia (1)
Billy (1)

Weirdest Post
Adam (5) - - Creepin -Elmo on Kitten - Creepin' Lead Singer of Smash Mouth on exotic birds
Mike (2)

Most Universal Blog
Regina (3)
Billy (1)
Adam (1)
Kelly (1)
Julia (1)

Most Creative Blog
Adam (5)
Mike (2)
Kelly (1)

2010 Overall Champion
Mike (65 pts)
Amber (30pts)
Regina (30pts)
Meghan (20pts)
Kelly (10pts)
Julia (5pts - Not eligible for overall champion award as voted out by other participants)
Billy (o pts)
Adam (80 pts - Not eligible for overall champion award as voted out by other participants)

So thank you to all my readers for voting me Readers' Choice. The comments made with each vote were pretty entertaining as well. As the second annual competition has closed, I am looking forward to next year. In the meantime, we I have entered the Summer 2010 Blog Challenge with some other friends you can see listed on the side of my blog. This one is a little less structured as we only have to blog once a week. However, I love that this is catching on!

It's All Good

For some reason this afternoon, I needed to stop and think about the good things in life. Maybe I was channeling my inner "Jessica." Okay, if you have not seen the video yet, I will post it at the end. The point is, I felt the need to write some of my own affirmations:

• I truly enjoy my job.
• I have wonderful friends.
• I love my family.
• I have great mentors.
• I am dating a good guy.
• I am healthy enough to enjoy life and get active.
• I have some amazing support around me.

I know it may seem a little cheesy, but sometimes when I hit those introspective moments, I like to think about the positive. Going into my third year in Tallahassee and at FSU, I have been thinking about changes and what may be ahead. I am not quite to any answers yet, but I think that is okay.

And if you really haven't seen it yet, here is a little girl who has the right idea on affirmations:

Sidenote: I finished W1D2 of the C25K Plan this morning. Definitely feeling it, but feeling good about it. I also will be looking at running shoes this weekend, but the biggest thing is I have started working on a blog for all of us getting active to publish together. So stay tuned!

C25K W1D1

I have always envied runners. Always. I think it looks like such a great way to not only get in shape but take off the day and decompress. However, I have never enjoyed doing it myself. I tried running for a bit with a girlfriend in college, but it did not work out. I just wrote running off as something I just do not do. Until I found a new inspiration.

My fantastic friend Tara introduced me to the world of the Couch to 5K Plan. You may have heard of it. Quite often today people I talked to about it had either heard of it, tried it, were thinking of trying it, or know someone who has or is doing it. Crazy. Well, I looked into it, and started week one, day one this morning. Woo!

The premise of the program is pretty simple. In nine weeks, you work your way up to being able to run three miles. It starts you off slow because the mistake of most new runner is jumping in too quickly. So this week, it is a five minute warm-up walk, then alternating 60 seconds of running with 90 seconds of walking, then a five minute cool-down walk. In total, the workout is about 30 minutes. Each week is designed for you to run three days, with at least a day break in between. This week, my goal is Monday, Wednesday, Friday. As my schedule gets crazier, I am sure I will switch up the days.

I figured I would give this a shot not only because of my envy and my respect for Tara, but also because running is such an easy way to work out anywhere. This summer is bringing with it a bit of travel, both professional and personal, and while I love my Wii workouts, they are not exactly portable. Of course, I also love a challenge. First the 30 Day Challenge with the first EA Sports Active, then the 6 Week Challenge with EA Sports Active More Workouts. (And add in blog challenges and such.)

So yesterday I downloaded a suggested podcast to get me going from another woman who has done the C25K Plan. It may not be all my favorite music, but it got me going this morning. Plus, not having to time myself because she tells me when to walk and run is much easier. I do really see myself doing this to really run a 5K, but who knows. I really just want to find a new way to be active.

Now I have joined the world of want-to-be runners. I also hope to be a support (and get support from) Tara...and it seems Susan may be joining the ranks as well? I had a thought today that maybe we could blog together about it, or find some form of online support/sharing venue as we all live in three different states. Although I am not sure I will stick to blogging each day I run. We shall see.

Nonetheless, here's to running!

Sidenote: I joined a new blog challenge today. Blogging at least once a week for the rest of the summer. So far, the other participants are:

Critically Acclaimed (Justin)
Pocket Susan (Suze)
Finding Focus (Richard)
Exchanging Keys (Regina)
Waiting on the World to Change (Tara)

And no word on this year's May challenge winner yet. I will keep you all posted.