the most physical workout i have ever had...at work

today we had a huge training event to put on at the bank. i guess its huge in my standards. we create the content. we pull people from the bank to speak. we present it to the supervisors in the company. it goes on for four hours. and its all from scratch. i usually help with the behind-the-scenes aspects of events like these, which is cool. i like that part. much, much, much more than talking in front of all of them. lol. although now that they know me as more than the "email girl" it would be easier i think : )

anywho, for this training occasion we had a couple of big projects to complete. 1. create a giant puzzle with 70 plus pieces. each person in the training would get a puzzle piece which they add to the puzzle showing that we're all unique, but we form one team. cool, huh? it was totally not my idea. unfortunately i have much to learn in the ways of creating a session and because the only idea i came up with for an opener was a confusing scavenger hunt that takes them around the bank. and that would not fit in our 10 minute timeframe. so anyway, back to the puzzle. i made it out of tagboard and construction paper. took me probably 2 hours to assemble, then another 4 or 5 to cut apart. they pasted it together - and very haphazardly i might add - it about 10 minutes. i find that ironic. in complete honesty, i don't mind that i put in all that effort in order for it be unusable again. i just thought it was funny. but the whole this is still stuck up on the wall in the employee lounge. and hopefully will be there for a few days. which is fun. look up! there i am helping put together the final touches.

so besides that project, we also wanted to depict our employees as a visual for the trainees. so we have project 2. this was probably one of the coolest things we've done so far. barb came up with the idea to have each employee represented a paperchain person. we had someone from marketing make templates for us of a paperchain boy and girl, and then copied and cut 407 of them out for each employee. i didn't actually do the cutting out. thanks can be made to a couple of lovely ladies on the 1st floor for that. i don't know what we would have done without them. they cut them out for us, wrote names on them, and then we hung them up with thread yesterday before the session. all 407 hanging from the ceiling in the lounge. it looked awesome! they're still up there too. barb and i and a couple of other people took turns climbing up and down a later for the better part of the afternoon just to get them up. it was a lot of work. hence the workout. but i think it was totally worth it. i suppose you can disagree with this...but just so you know...you'll be wrong : ) haha. the picture doesn't really give you the full effect, that's only one shot of the room. but still the best fun thing we've done for a training session. hands down.

mk. its past my bedtime. i just wanted to share that with you all. i felt pretty proud of myself today...even if the handouts had a mistake on them. lol.

your turn: what's something that you've done or accomplished lately that you're proud of?

update from the stupidest class i've ever taken

in computers in global society.

my professor: "where do computer chips com from? china? taiwan? right? they make all of those things that go in our computers and they could be embedding viruses. they could be setting these chips to blow up. and its undetectable. they could go off at a later date, on that. 2012."

the projector is displayed a Wikipedia page. which he read from for the first 15 minutes of class. as i ask many days...why am i here?

no...i do not want to make you another copy. gr.

frustrating day at work. that's all i will say. that and the title of this post.

moving on...my parents were here this weekend. and my aunt and uncle. it was pretty fun. sometimes its hard to me to be around a group of people for a long period of time. i think i managed fairly well. i just needed some breaks in between. my parents actually came on friday and stayed over in la crosse. during my time there i ended up making some unexpected shopping trips - Kohls (yay!) and Hobby Lobby (boo).

now, normally i love hobby lobby - yes i'm too lazy to capitalize it now. they have tons of stuff. and usually said stuff is half off. or some crazy percentage. and i'm sort of into decorating things, so the whole process of shopping there is rather enjoyable. well on friday i went there for a specific purpose. 20 red candles. actually for sam 2...so anyway, i'm moseying around HobLob, checking out nothing in particular, and eventually make my way over the candle section. they have four different kind of red candles. although half of them have that little stubby heres-where-you-put-me-in-the-candleholder thing on the end. ugly. so i end up going with some shorter taper ones. color me stunned...there's only 19. but sam didn't really say if there were 20 people she need them for. just that she needed them. and 19 is close enough. so put them in my navy plastic basket and head to the check out.

as i make my way to the line, which is about 12 feet back from the lone check out girl, i see her commanding from the p.a. system "sam to the front to check. sam to the front to check." awesome. another helper. at Gordmans when you were called to check, you just went. right away. so obviously i'm expecting Sam to get here fast. i have a little old lady ahead of me whose getting a couple of Christmas items - in October, why? - and then a middle-aged woman with a cart full of junk. she's obviously decorating somewhere. behind me i've got a girl about my age with some beading stuff, and then a mom and hyper kid with grandma.

sam is still not on his way. check out girl begins to ring up middle-aged lady. everything in her cart is made of glass. no joke. so check out girls says, "why don't i scan and you can start wrapping this stuff up?" she pulls out a big stack of tissue paper from under the counter and sets it up for middle-aged lady. "oh! of course" she coos. i can tell old lady in front of me is annoyed. scan plate. wrap in tissues. scan figurine. wrap in tissues. and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. sam is still not here. check out girl gets on her p.a. and calls again and when she sets her black telephone handset down, sam is fumbling his way up to the front.

this causes a rush to his line. two people behind me jump over to his till. then another couple. i figure that glass-collector should be almost done so i'll just wait. and wait. sam gets through two people and i haven't moved yet. where is she hiding all of this crap? it couldn't all possibly fit into one cart. i switch lines. i can tell the the only lady who i was standing behind is cheesed. she keeps inching her cart slowly into check out territory. she's putting some her items on the counter. as i move up a spot in my line middle-aged woman is writing out her check. although it doesn't look like the normal kind. must be for a business. and you guessed it, "sarah up front for a check approval please."

finally sam and i connect. it's my turn...horray! alas, sam is not nearly as excited as me.
he doesn't look at me, smile, or acknowledge my presence. he grabs all the candles in his fist and looks as them dully. i tell him there's 19. he trusts me. doesn't even want to count them himself. i should have a lower number. he's smacking gum the whole time he's ringing my purchase up. i hate it. so unprofessional. so annoying. grating.

"sarah to the front for a check approval please. sarah."

check out girl might be ready to loose it herself. there's a slight hint of panic in her voice. sam give me two receipts, one i believe to sign, since its on top as he places it onto the counter. i scribble, push it back, and take my bag. middle-aged lady, along with the now 18 foot deep line is still waiting for her check approval. as i'm pushing the exit door i hear him say, "have a nice day." ridiculous. automatic. totally impersonal. i'd rather he not bothered at all.

your turn: do you have a just-as-horrible customer service experience? do you have a great way of amusing yourself when stuck in a long line?

current favorite song

got the new paramore cd. its awesome. i keep replaying this song over and over and over in my car. haley's voice is amazing. the lead singer's name is haley. and she's a redhead. i love her. anyway, she basically just belts it. it so good. listen for yourself if you'd like.

down for the count

so on monday, wednesday, fridays i only have one class. it goes from 12-12:50, so normally the plan is...get to work by 8:30. leave by 11:40. go to class, then come back to work. this means i wear work clothes all day. and on campus. this is normally not a problem. by this point, i'm used to people looking at me longer than what is acceptable. yes...i'm wearing dress pants. oh and possibly an ironed shirt. i used to hate those girls who walked down the sidewalk/hallway/whatever with shoots that when something like "clunk. clunk. clunk." you know the ones. it makes a bang every time you step. well, now i'm one of those girls.

so this past monday was normal. i'm wearing work clothes. i'm rocking my new black pants from H and M and an incredibly loud (a cross between neon yellow and florescent green) button up. i've got my black leather bag from Italy. basically i feel pretty hip. and to top it all off i'm wearing my black and white hounds-tooth kitten heels. needless to say i'm sort of strutting it. as i come up the stairs to maxell (its basically the building with the gym) i'm really only concentrating on getting to class. a group of students embarks from the east lake shuttle behind me and follows me into the buildling. i stand out even more here because most of the kids are dressed in gym-esk attire. and then somehow i hit a slick part of the tile floor. yikes. my left foot is sliding, i'm wobbling, and i end up doing half a slip in the middle of ten people in the middle of the hallway. i say half because i think my body realized there was no way it could complete the full split and my kneed bent so that it hit the pavement prevent my legs from going the full 180 degrees.

and my strut is fully ruined. tainted. and i'm super embarrassed. someone from behind me says, "hey are you okay?" yes...yes i am. just incredibly ashamed. if they weren't looking at me before and wondering who is that girl and where is she going to dress liked that, now they certainly were. rain and ice always hinder the best of fashion intentions. not that i'm any princess when it comes to clothes, but i like to look my best, and most of the time weather does not stand in my way. or pain really (see previous post).

however, this red-face-inducing incident is no where near on the same level as the time in high school when found myself dancing to music in my room - i will clarify that i am a not a dancer of really any kind - turned off the light to walk out and heard my brother's friends yell from the yard "woooo!! encore! encore!!" my window faces the street. it was night and they saw clear into my bedroom. i always remembered to shut my curtains if ever the dancing fever struck me again.

your turn: feel free to answer one or other...had an slip ups of your own recently? and/or what is one piece of clothing that makes you feel totally awesome when you wear it?

best invention ever

okay, if you can get past the lame image, read on. i promise these are the best (see title of post).

according to Amazon, they are called "Heel Hugs." however...i bought mine at Wal-Mart, so i think they could be called something different. anyway, if you're a girl and you wear ballet flat type shoes, you need these. i have always had problems with shoes rubbing on the back of my feet. my heels get sore and worn down. i get blisters. you get the drift. so these babies have a sticky side that you peel off, and then put in the heel of your shoe. i grabbed a pack from wally-world for $2.50 and now all i feel is cushiony comfort. they are sort of jelly and a little padded. its awesome. i'm so psyched. i'm going to go buy some more for all my flats. now all i have to worry about is the damage i'm causing my feet from no support.

your turn: what's something you recently discovered that you're excited about? could be a product, food, song, whatever. i wanna know!

rewatching my favorite show

continuing on with my love for all the is jim and pam, i'll be leaving you with some of the funniest/craziest/best quotes - in my opinion - from The Office season 3. i've just started rewatching the seasons and its fantastic. enjoy!

"gay pride parade. it's not called gay shame festival...is it?" - michael

"what time is there?" - pam
"what time is it here? um, we're in the same time zone." -jim
"oh. yeah. right." - pam
"how far away did you think we were?" - jim
"i don't know. it felt far." - pam

"i'm always thinking one step ahead. like a carpenter...who makes stairs." -andy

"if you bring your boss to class [at business school] it automatically bumps you up a full letter grade. so i'd be stupid not to do it...right?" - ryan

"it's an amish technique. its like slapping someone with silence." - dwight, talking about shunning

"no, it's fine. i'm sure it was weird for jim when roy and i were joking around...that one time." - pam

"i'm sorry, wait, so is the question how'd i get to be so awesome?" - jim

in honor of Jim and Pam

found this awesome video interview of John Krasinski today. some mature content, so be warned...but also hilarious. i love him. can't wait for the wedding episode tomorrow night!

click here for the vid.

Your Turn: What upcoming TV moment are you looking forward to?

(insert title here)

yes...i'm back. for a bit. i'm sort of falling off the wagon with this whole blog thing. i just read my mom's most recent post. it was hilarious. i don't know if i'm that funny on here. haha. granted, she basically makes her into a story. not me.

spent the weekend at home. that is to say mankato. i don't believe i've been there since july? but then again, that weekend i actually came home and then left on friday and returned on sunday. i know...strange. anywho, so mankato for the weekend was sort of a surreal experience. every time i go home, i have fun. but for some reason this time was sort of like reliving 2005. minus the crazy boyfriend. lol.

it just felt...good. hanging out with alex and megan felt right. normal. natural. i don't know how many words i'm going to put to it people. it was so easy. which is weird, because for a while there when i went home, i found it so hard to hang out with my friends from high school. like pulling teeth. we didn't know what to talk about. there was too much of a gap between seeing each other. too much had happened. and it wasn't like that at all this time. like we did a time warp. and it was awesome. i didn't realize how much i had missed seeing megan until she was right there in front of me going off about some crazy boy, and school, and how this person is being dumb, and so on in her megan fashion.

i hadn't seen alex since before july. probably more like june. or may? we always sort of pick up where we left off. no worries there. overall, it was just an awesome/strange experience. it was a flip flop from previous college weekend at home experiences. no anxiety. no trying to find someone to hang out with. just easy.

and i saw two movies...the invention of lying, which was surprisingly heartwarming. i mean, Ricky Gervais was almost crying at serious moments. it was heartbreaking. plus Adventureland. the lead guy was great. funny. no idea who he is. set in the 80s that was a bit hysterical in and of itself...plus Ryan Reynolds was in it. so two thumbs up.

in the running for Hayley's favorite fall cd purchase: 3OH!3, Paramore's Brand New Eyes, or The Kings of Leon (which i didn't like at first. go figure)

Your Turn: What's your favorite fall CD? And...does anyone know what's going on with Daylight Savings time? I think that's coming up...right?