Archive for December, 2009

Last year I wrote a Top 10 Things I Will Do In 2009 list. Let’s look it over and see what, if anything I accomplished shall we? (Tomorrow I will write my new Top 10 Things)

1) Travel. This I did do. ISH. I did manage to take more time off and go away. I did a week in Vermont on a lake in the woods, I spent a weekend in Provincetown, I flew to Miami and had a long weekend in Atlanta.

2) Spend More Time Outside. I did do this …. ish. I don’t think I quite accomplished getting away from my desk during the day as much as I would like, but I ran several road races this year which forced me to train outside. I spent that week in Vermont almost entirely outside. I made it to the beach half a dozen times this summer! It was a good outdoor year.

3) Get Back to Creating Art for FUN. I kind of sucked at this goal. I did rediscover a love for my (good) camera …. even if it was only a handful of times throughout the year.

4) Take More Risks In My Career. This I DEFINITELY did. I pitched a job that didn’t exist to the Executive Director of my company. Within two weeks I got promoted and am doing what I love.

5) Continue to Trim the Fat. Not physically — more like life clutter-wise. I was really great at this this year. That could have to do with moving twice though ….

6) Date More Wisely. I FAILED BIG TIME at this in 2009. BIG. HUGE. Like could not fail any worse. Until about a month ago.

7) Talk To More Strangers.I planned myself and helped plan a few really great networking events this year. I flew to conferences out of state and walked up to people I did not know. I did end up on one (unfortunate) dating rollercoaster (crash and burn) as a direct result of walking up to someone on the street. Whether the connection worked out or not, I definitely did this more.

8) A New Home. I got not one new home but two. That’s right. I moved from Dorchester into my first South End home (sublet) and then into the place I’m in now. I couldn’t be happier. I love my apartment.

9) More Random Acts of Kindness. I’m not going to say WHAT I did because that defeats the purpose of these, but I did a few this year. Not as many as I would like, but I did some nice anonymous things.

10) I’m stealing this from an article I read on the internet: Use this decade year to go to extremes. “Climb the tallest mountain you can find. Picnic at midnight. Learn to sail. Talk to strangers. Road trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Take a midnight drive to the beach -– then stick around for dawn. Take advantage of what you have: energy, idealism, enthusiasm, a willingness to experiment, a lack of encumbrances, a desire to learn and grow. Enjoy — and you’ll be better able to appreciate the next stage.”

I think I definitely learned to take responsibility for my own happiness this year. And that it’s ok to just let some things go, let some things happen, let some emotion out, let my guard down. I’m still working on all this, but I’m getting there.

All and all I’m pretty pleased with what I’ve done.

What did YOU accomplish in 2009?

2008 was not a terribly good year. 2009 started more or less the same. Without getting into too many details, eventually I realized enough is enough. By the summer, I was turning things around.

I turned 29 this past week.

I was presented with adorable cupcakes by coworkers. I was taken out for a lovely birthday dinner, rang in my birthday with my best friend, had a birthday lunch with my grandparents, parents, uncle and sister. I drank good beer. I drank good wine. I was in good company.

I celebrated Christmas with the neighbors I call family. Every muscle in my body hurt the next day from laughing so hard.

My mother, father, sister and I celebrated Christmas. We took our time and passed around the most thoughtful gifts. We cooked more food than is even necessary for four people. We ate an Italian feast. We sipped on really good red wine. We watched movies and played around with our gifts. We had a small, lovely Christmas for a family of four.

I spent the evening curled up in front of the fire with friends. The next morning I had brunch, got a manicure (deep purple nailpolish) with one of my best friends. We danced around the city.

I spent the remainder of my time off curled up with hot drinks, a blanket, and a dog. I watched more movies in a weekend than I have in the past year. I let my guard down. I shut my phone off. I drank good coffee, I snacked on imported chocolates, I sipped on champagne. I stayed up until 5 a.m. and told a million stories and listened to a million more. I slept easily for the first time in months.

I hate to brag, but – life is good. In that super annoying, omg-please-shut-up-you-big-ball-of-cheese kind of way. Yeah. It feels nice to just … this. This is good. Life is good.

About a month ago, I posted a tweet (and fed it in to Facebook) asking “If you were invited to my house and could pick one song to be added to the playlist, what would it be?”

I got some AWESOME requests and put in a bunch of my own – it was my birthday party after all :) But here’s some pictures of all my awesome friends and below that the playlist we all made together to celebrate the very momentous day of my birthday (a week early!)

Thanks guys. Lots and lots of love.

(Click the pic for the whole set of photos!)

You Belong to Me – Michael McDonald
Fidelity – Regina Spektor
How Deep is Your Love – The Bird & The Bee
Sour Sour Times – Portishead
Teardrop – Massive Attack
Alone – Heart
Somebody to Love – Queen
You Make My Dreams – Hall & Oates
Don’t Stand So Close to Me/Young Girl mashup – Glee
Don’t Rain on My Parade – Glee
Rich Girl – Hall & Oates
Vision of Love – Mariah Carey
Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’ – Journey
Hotel Song – Regina Spektor
Sweet Freedom – Michael McDonald
Empire State of Mind – Jay-Z (feat. Alicia Keys)
How Will I Know – Whitney Houston
Jump (For My Love) – The Pointer Sisters
La Isla Bonita – Madonna
Damn Girl – Justin Timberlake
Wanna Be Startin’ Something – Michael Jackson
Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen
F**K You – Lily Allen
Let Me Think About It – Ida Corr vs. Fedde Le Grand
Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
Party In The USA – Miley Cyrus
TiK ToK – Ke$ha
Million Dollar Bill – Whitney Houston
Evacuate the Dancefloor – Cascada
Teeth – Lady Gaga
Girlfriend (remix) – Avril Lavigne feat Lil’ Mama
Heartbreaker – Mariah Carey feat Jay-Z
Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) – Beyonce
Birthday Sex – Jeremih
Circus – Britney Spears
Paparazzi – Lady Gaga
Band of Gold (remix) – Kimberley Locke
I Get So Emotional – Whitney Houston
My Life Would Suck Without You – Kelly Clarkson
Halo/Walking on Sunshine mashup – Glee
Awake – Letters to Cleo
River Deep, Mountain High – Celine Dion
Christmas Tree – Lady Gaga
Telephone – Lady Gaga & Beyonce
Meet Me Halfway – Black Eyed Peas
Roxanne – The Police
Boyz – MIA
Diva – Beyonce
Got Some Teeth – Obie Trice
Ladies Choice – Hairspray
Defying Gravity – Wicked
Bust Your Windows – Glee
Love You I Do – Jennifer Hudon
LoveGame – Lady Gaga
We Belong Together (remix) – Mariah Carey
Spotlight – Jennifer Hudson
Prove Yourself – Joan Armatrading
Beautiful, Dirty Rich – Lady Gaga
Jenny From the Stronger Block (mash up) – Jennifer Lopez vs. Britney Spears
Hot Dog! – The Detroit Cobras
Gay Boyfriend – The Hazzards
Overprotected – Britney Spears
Boys Boys Boys – Lady Gaga
All My Life – K-Ci and Jojo

Feel free to make fun or make your own :)

Alternatively titled: “Why My Dad is Awesome”.

A few years ago I made a not so secret confession to a family friend: I am absolutely terrified of clowns. Not like “Haha. Clowns are creepy. Everyone thinks so.” Like I would CRY when I saw them as a child. Maybe I still do now. Shut up. They’re scary.

So this family friend thought it would be hilarious to purchase me a clown ornament for Christmas a few years back and wrap it up so I would never suspect the horror I was about to open.

Let’s just say I threw the box down and ran out of the room.

It soon became a tradition in the family grab to secretly re-gift this damn clown. THE HORROR. You never knew who was going to get it. It was like damn CLOWN ROULETTE.

*shudder*

Well cut to Saturday night. I got to my Dad’s for our weekly dinner. He was starting on cooking, and had set up our Christmas tree. He told me and my sister to decorate it while he cooked.

I walked over to the tree and screamed. The only ornament he had put up so far? THAT DAMN CLOWN.

Thanks Dad. My therapist will thank you for that extra appointment I had to make because of you.

Anyway, I of course took a picture to photo-text attack other family members with this horrific clown. (Aren’t we a delightful family?)

My Dad emailed the picture back to me yesterday with the following email:

“Jen, I hate to say this, but is this clown holding himself???? wtf?”

AMAZING right?

No what was amazing was that he put that same picture on his Facebook page with the following caption:

“There’s a sex offender on my Christmas Tree…”

And now, my friends, you can clearly see where my sense of humor comes from.

Last week I attended a conference – IAEE’s Expo! Expo in Atlanta. The conference program was great, I met some amazing contacts – but all that is to be expected at a conference (at least if you’re going there to you know – learn stuff and meet people in your industry.)

Something those of you should know about conferences, at least all the ones I’ve attended, is that there are always parties. Parties, parties, and more parties. Every company is trying to outdo their competition, people are running around trying to make an appearance everywhere. From beginning to end, you never stop running around, you’re always working, and by the time you get home you are sitting in a mountain of business cards, glassy eyed and have no idea what just happened.

Like I said I made plenty of amazing connections (I’d like to give a particularly big shout out to Taryn Pisaneschi (@TarynP on Twitter). We hit it off the very first day and met up throughout the rest of the conference. She is good people, and smart to boot!

It’s a good thing to stand out in a crowd like like that. Especially since I have the memory of an insect. It’s nice to remember specific interactions during a time when you’re meeting people essentially 24/7 for a week.

One of my favorite conversations happened with a person who coincidentally works out of Cambridge, MA. I won’t put his name here juuuuust in case he doesn’t want his name tied to our conversation, but it was one of the more hilarious ones I had.

Basically what you should know about Expo Expo is that it’s a conference for event professionals, and this year I attended the Social Media track. So all day long you’d be having conversations about your twitter name, your presence on Facebook, etc. People would start talking about “transparency” and “SEO” and all the same stuff you hear about social media EVERYWHERE. Which why this conversation was so refreshing:

Jenny: Oh hello man that my coworker just introduced me to! Nice to meet you. I hear your company is the one running this board over here.

Man: Oh hey Jenny, nice to meet you as well. Yes our company specializes in this type of service. So tell me what do you do?

Jenny: Oh I’m a Design & Digital Media Specialist – I work for the convention centers in Boston. (Hands over professional business card) But I also run my own site, events and do some work on the side that this would be useful for. (Hands over personal business card.)

Man: (Examines both cards for a few moments) Oh awesome! You’re a Social Media Douchebag too!!

Both burst out laughing.

Jenny: OMG. I am getting new cards made up immediately.

I absolutely will be contacting that company, first obviously because they provide a good service that I can use, but secondly – that guy was hilarious. And had me figured out in 2 seconds or less. Amazing.