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October 26, 2006
I Heart NY
I took a trip to New York City for the very first time in my life and it was pretty much everything I hoped for and more. There was a web copywriting seminar in Brooklyn which I wanted to go to and it was the first time I ever got to travel on real business. I was really nervous because I had to travel alone (Don didn't want to go and they wouldn't approve the trip for the intern who wanted to go with me); plus it was a big city that I'd never been to before.
I landed around noon at LaGuardia Airport. Took a taxi (yay, first NY taxi ride!) to the hotel in Brooklyn. The area where the hotel was seemed pretty sketchy and not a great neighborhood (I had a window view of the vacant lot with trash and a used mattress), but oh well. I managed to take the subway (yay, first NY subway ride!) down to Rector Street to see the World Trade Center site and memorial with the help of a nice gal sitting next to me.
Seeing the site of the World Trade Center was a little different than I expected. The site itself is very large, but looks like a big construction site since they've already begun construction for the new building. There's a large hole in the ground with lots of construction equipment and trailers surrounded by a fence.
On the west side of the site, there is a memorial site with lots of really moving images from 9-11. And it was quite eerie that the next day, I read in the news about new remains being found there.
Trying to get on the subway to catch the ferry to the Statue of Liberty was an adventure. That's where I met Olwyn--a charmingly funny gal from Ireland who was also travelling on her own. The train to the ferry stopped running and we had to take a shuttle bus. We managed to catch the Circle Line that tours around the harbor which was great since neither of us really cared to spend any time at Liberty Island. We had a fabulous time together snapping pictures of each other. I think I was glad to have the company more than she was.
I had plans to meet my cousin, Eddy, and his wife, Bo, for dinner. I hadn't seen them for years so it was great to spend time with them. They took me to SEA Thai Restaurant and we spent the evening talking--mostly about 9-11, since Bo used to work in the Towers. I found out that she was closer to the Towers than I thought when they began to crumble...only about 3-4 blocks away! She told me about how she couldn't get any cell signal at all and that I was the ONLY one of the entire family to get in touch with her. When I found out she worked at the Towers, I spent LITERALLY 3 hours constantly hitting redial. She said that the very second she got a cell signal, I called and after we hung up, she couldn't get a signal again. Anyway, Eddy took me to a nice spot to take some night photos of Manhattan, then dropped me back at the hotel.
The next day, trying to get to the writing seminar was tricky since the trains didn't go near it and catching a yellow cab was impossible in Brooklyn. I finally found a (non-yellow) taxi guy to take me. It was in a crappy little building down an almost back-alley. The seminar itself was pretty informative and I took a ton of notes. Lots of it was reinforcing writing techniques that I already use. So that was good to know I was doing some of the right stuff. But trying to get a taxi back was impossible. Another non-yellow taxi finally stopped for me after about a half hour trying to flag one down. I had plans to meet Olwyn again in Times Square for dinner and drinks.
When I finally made it off the train, I only had to walk a couple of blocks when I heard Olwyn (right) behind me telling her friend Louise (left), whom she'd met at the hostel, that she had to text me. Haha! I was right in front of her! We went to O'Lunney's Irish Pub, had dinner and drank at the bar. These two gals were great fun to hang out with. Louise is from Australia, also travelling on her own. Both are travelling for 2-3 months (brave gals)! Unfortunately, I just about got sick on the one glass of wine I had, probably because I'd started drinking before I ate anything. But I managed to cool off outside and I was fine. We chatted the night away and laughed with each other (and Bernadette, the bartender); then Olwyn insisted I take a cab home instead of the train. Much safer. Thanks, Mum! And after a charming ride home with a charming Spanish lady driver, I crashed but good!
Next day was a little less tricky getting to the seminar since I knew where to get a cab from yesterday. I wasn't hung over, but I was very tired the whole day. I left with another gal about 3pm and took a car service back to LaGuardia. Since I got to the airport early, I had time to catch my breath and have some dinner. When I got to my terminal, I saw another flight leaving in 20 minutes to Detroit. So I hopped onto that flight, but air traffic was so backed up from LaGuardia, Newark Airport, and JFK, that we sat on the tarmac for an hour. We only left 15 minutes earlier than my original flight. Oh well.
I was glad to get back home to my honey since I missed him so much. But I wished I had another few days in New York WITH Olwyn and Louise. I had a great time and made new friends and I hope to get back very soon one day!
Posted by Amy at 06:00 PM | Comments (3)
October 19, 2006
I'm Officially Successful
My team leader called me on my cell last night asking if I had written a particular article "Don't Pay Off Your Debt Yet." I reluctantly said yes, worried that I was about to get in trouble for something I said in the article. I asked him if I should be nervous but he didn't want to say. He told me to go to the computer and open up the Yahoo! homepage, which I did. Then he said, "Look dead center at the page and tell me what you see." I guess my brain was completely switched off because I was looking right at it, but nothing clicked until he finally spelled it out for me and said, "Your article is FEATURED ON THE YAHOO! HOMEPAGE!!" I was like, "WHAT?? HOLY FREAKING CRAP!" Even then, it took a few minutes for the idea to sink into my head. It wasn't till about 5 or 10 minutes after I got off the phone with him that I finally thought, "OMG, that's so COOL!!" He had told me I was officially famous, even though the by-line only says "Quicken Loans." I guess this means I've officially made it as a successful writer!
Just a week or so ago, my team leader propped me out to the team for having created and published over 100 original articles for the RSS feed that is partnered with Yahoo! Real Estate and AOL. I was awarded a $100 gift certificate to Lowe's which is cool, cause I could think of at least one or two home projects I'd like to use that money for.
Then today, I come into work and find my e-mail box filled with congratulatory messages for having my story featured on Yahoo! Including one from the head of our marketing team Bryan Stapp; David Hall himself (from Rock Financial); and even from our Chairman, Dan Gilbert!! How cool is THAT!! And Stapp propped me out AGAIN during our marketing meeting this morning, for which I got lots of applause.
I tell you, there are days when I'm slammed and I just plug away at my projects and virtually all of the time, I don't even think about the impact my work is having. We get reports from the metrics team e-mailed to us every day/week and it seems like hits to our RSS feed (my stories) grows by hundreds every week! I think the last number reported something like 40,000 plus hits! Kind of scary to think that all those people are reading what I wrote and considering me an "expert." Usually, I'd rather not think my readership is so large, otherwise I start feeling too intimidated.
But even though I'm the type of person who would rather hide behind my keyboard and is comfortable most of the time for not being noticed, it was really amazing to get recognized by all those people. (I think that's kind of dichotomy is a flaw in my personality.)
Posted by Amy at 12:09 PM | Comments (3)
October 13, 2006
Nearly Lost
Holy COW! I just had a close call. Maybe you've seen those Arby's commercials where the person is so hungry they're not thinking straight? Like the one where the flower delivery guy delivers funeral flowers to a gal in an office and the flowers meant for her go to an old guy's funeral--and the message on her flowers says, "You GO girl!" Well, I had a moment that would qualify like that.
It's been a terribly long and hectic week at work and I've been going to a couple extra classes at the dojo. I spent 3 hours in a row there on Tuesday when I didn't used to go to classes on Tuesdays at all. So I've been pretty tired all week, including (and maybe especially) today. I left work and got about 1/3 of the way home and thought, you know, I'm SO freaking hungry, I should really stop for a snack. I don't think I can wait to get home to eat anything. So I stopped at this little chicken hut--it was basically a mom & pop rip off of KFC and tasted the same. Pretty good actually, since things always taste really good when you're starving. So I ordered a couple legs and ate in my car in the parking lot.
I threw out the box and started back on my way home. I'd only driven for about a minute or two when I realize, OHMYGOD!! WHAT DID I DO WITH MY RETAINER??! I looked in my pockets, in the cup holder, on the floor, and even felt beneath my butt to see if I happened to be sitting on it. Nothing! OH GOD! I LOST IT!! Well, wtf did I do with it?? I remember taking it out when I went to Panera's for lunch, but I could swear I had it this afternoon. In fact, I thought I even remembered chomping at it just before I got the chicken--something I always do when I get hungry. So I turned the car around, hoping that I didn't leave it at Panera's. If I did, then I'd probably never see it again since that was hours ago. It occurred to me that I might have put it in the box the chicken came in that was now sitting in the trash.
I was panicking so much I was even shaking and I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks. I kept thinking how I didn't want to spend another 3-4 hundred bucks (or more) on having a new one made. I finally made it back to the chicken place and looked in the trash. The box was sitting right on top where I left it. I pulled it out along with some napkins and a milk carton that I'd put in it and there it was, sitting at the bottom of the box. OH GOD THANK YOU!! What a relief! It hadn't fallen out of the box or even touched any of the other trash.
Now, I know I can get grumpy when I haven't eaten and my blood sugar gets low, but JEEZ! I was so anxious to eat, I didn't even notice myself taking out my retainer or where I put it. The moral of the story? Always keep an eye on your retainer! HA!!
Posted by Amy at 05:56 PM | Comments (1)
October 09, 2006
U of M vs. MSU
Don and I went to the U of M vs. MSU football game this weekend. I was able to finagle some tickets from work...the marketing team leader always has good stuff like that and I turned on the charm and got a pair. I figured it would be one game Don would care to see, especially since we only go to one, MAYBE two football games a year. Only thing is that we were way in the corner about 3 rows from the very top. Pretty hard to see anything on the other end of the field. But dem's da breaks. Although I did see my friend Sam there who's one of the engineers I work with and was sitting just down the row from me.
And this year, I've given up on my alma mater (MSU) after the last two losses against Notre Dame (where they were WAY ahead and blew it) and Illinois (which says a lot about how bad MSU sucks this year). So I came to the game wearing the old blue and maize. There was this 8 year old kid in front of me dressed to the nines in green and white, screaming and yelling for MSU. He was quite the amusing entertainment. The announcer would give updates on the Tigers who were about to eliminate the Yankees from the World Series in the first round. Everytime he announced the score that the Tigers were up, the kid would turn around and high-five me. Haha! Cute.
We got to tailgate with the Bucks--John & Nancy, Tom & Karen, Jon, Mike, Ian, Nikki and her boyfriend Colt. Then during the end of the 3rd quarter, Tom called and said they were leaving and that we could have their seats. They have season tickets almost at the 50-yard line, only 45 rows up. WAY better than where we were--we couldn't see much or hear much of the band. The game itself wasn't all that exciting. I was certain that MSU would lose and they did. In fact, the biggest cheer of the crowd was when they announced the Tigers had won. I suppose Don might have been happier being at home watching both games, drinking beer and hanging out with friends, but as I said, we only get to about one game every year and only get to see the Bucks a few times a year. So it's always lots of fun hanging out with them. I had a great time. :)
Posted by Amy at 12:09 PM | Comments (1)
October 02, 2006
Update 2 on Dad's Condition
Yay! Dad's out of the hospital. They let him out Sunday morning. They had to wait until the drainage from his chest tube was below a certain level, then they could let him go home. I saw his incision which runs from below his armpit to the middle of his back--about a foot long. But he's been very strong this whole time and probably very anxious to go home. I know how boring it can be to lie in a hospital bed for days.
He's gone home with my sister to Kalamazoo so that she can monitor his condition for the next few days, then he'll be headed back to his home where my mom and brother will look after him. I'm a little worried that he might not get enough rest at my sister's with the kids running around, but at least he'll be in the company of 2 doctors and very close to a hospital just in case. I'm so proud of my dad for doing so well after his surgery!!
Posted by Amy at 08:00 AM | Comments (1)