Playing Catch-up 2008

The title of this post brought me back to being a kid in Wisconsin.
I have two older sisters, Sarah and Alison and when we were young (me being the youngest girl) if we went on a bike ride, I always had to catch up. Part of that was because Sarah and Alison had ten-speed bikes and Kate had a awesome Schwinn pedal bike. On North Pole Road there was a big hill if you turned left out of our driveway and for some reason Sarah and Alison zipped up that hill while little Kate was still at the bottom playing catch-up... But anyway, back to present time. I realized I need to do some serious updates on this blog and have some catching-up to do. Here it goes:

9 to 5
Work is good. I guess I never posted this on here... huh. Well, I work for a cosmetics company which is a girls dream. The tom-boy on my left shoulder says.."uh, no way. I'm not girly, that's so lame... ha, makeup? really?" But the little princess on my right shoulder shouts "OMG... I get to play dress-up all day every day, it's like real life Barbie time!!!" Okay that was even a bit too girly for me, but yeah I like it. It could be worse.

I have one of those "cool non-specific media jobs" that is perfect for women. I'm a graphic designer so I get to make pictures all day. In reality it is a lot more work than that (for all of you who learned some photoshop or indesign and think you could do my job) but it's also a lot of fun.

So, when you smush together a creative job at a place that sells makeup to young women, work gets interesting and really fun. I actually was playing with twitter all day today to figure out what uses it could have for my company, and what our twitter would look and sound like. So, yay for work and yay for tweets.

Honestly tho, at the end of the day it's not where I work or the work that I do, it is the people I work with and I have the best co-workers ever.

After 9 to 5
I just finished another semester of Pratt Design Management!!! And we only have 4 more classes and 1 thesis to go. This will probably be the busiest time ever for me but, the light is there, I can see it. We (my classmates and I) are all so close and come May... I will be the happiest Wisconsin Girl in NY.The next few months, however, will consist of Tuesday and Thursday Conference call nights, and probably another one thrown in on Wednesday. Friday and Monday nights I'll be doing homework.... Huh, looks like I'm booked already. Oh well, I have that last day in May to look forward to and I have a great thesis group to help me get through it.

Getting out of town
Mom and Dad haven't expressed too much disappointment yet, but I didn't go home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Instead, I was in Brooklyn for Thanksgiving and for Christmas I flew to Hawaii. Well, technically I spent Christmas in Minneapolis and New York but I consider the time I just spent in Hawaii my Christmas vacation. Besides, I did go to a Christmas party while in Oahu and there were Christmas presents all over the place so, I'm considering it a week-long Christmas.
In July of this year I visited Eric in Hawaii. I wanted to go back, so I did. Luckily Eric wanted me to come back too. We went Kayaking, made awesome guacamole and tacos, became slightly-versed in "Tropic Thunder" quotations, and braved wild sharks off the North Shore of Oahu (they made us stay in the cage tho). Then, Eric took me and his motorcycle over to Maui for a weekend adventure. We saw amazing sun rises, camped on a mountain, camped on the beach, and enjoyed every inch of coastline Maui had to offer from his BMW bike. It was pretty sweet.

Because I did not get to Wisconsin for the Holidays, I guess my next trip out of NY will be the good ol' home state. I might loose my "best-daughter-ever" status if I don't go there next and I really miss my family and friends. Dana is getting married in June so the current plan is to go home the week before the wedding, throw the best bachelorette party ever at my parents cabin on the lake, then stay on a lake for the week and visit with friends. I'll read some trashy novels and go to the wedding the following weekend. I'm not sure if I can afford that much time off of work yet but if I start saving now I think I can swing it.

For the end of 2009 I really want to travel to SE Asia. I had planned to do it right after graduation but Dana planned to get married at the same time. Friends win out over geographic Locations...SE Asia will just have to wait for me. Maybe I'll go right after I finish the ING Marathon in November but I really don't know what the year will bring. Maybe I'll get a travel companion but I'm also not the easiest person to travel with. I'm cheap, don't mind being dirty and I like to walk/hike a lot, most of my friends do not like any of that. And Maybe I don't really know the SE Asia plan yet.

(I do realize that I'm strange, at work I'm super-girly and wear a dress every day but outside of work I'm a tom-boy, I blame that on my Dad).

Extra Curricular Activities
Regardless of a busy schedule I'm still running. When I started at Pratt, the professor who interviewed me, told me that I should NOT stop running and keep it up even when my schedule got tight. She was so right and I thank her for that advice.

Since my Junior year at UWSP I've used running as an outlet. If I feel stressed, I go for a run. Tired, I go for a run. Pissed off? Yep, run. It's great therapy and I'm so glad I did not stop for Grad school it's gotten me through some really really tough times this year. It makes me happy.

It makes me SO happy I'm doing it to celebrate New Years. Yes, I will probably be running without any of my friends but there will be thousands of people to join me. Hey, maybe I'll even make a new friend or two, I guess we'll see what tomorrow night brings.
Also, I'm very excited to get to train for the marathon in 2009! I've foregone two qualified ING marathons for school and can not wait for those long Saturday runs. I know it's insane and most people never want to do it but I love it. The best parts are: making the pre-marathon run mix for my ipod and remembering the music I trained with; eating everything!; sleeping all day on Saturday after a long run without an ounch of guilt; eating everything!; hugging my friends on the marathon route; getting an overpriced massage after it's all over; finishing with thousands of people who have their own exciting stories.

So, that's the catch-up update for 2008, Sorry for the lack of pics but, my camera is out of commission and I just don't have anything new. hmmm... maybe I'll steal some from my other web presences.