I’m back to let you know…

Well, just that I’m back!  I have missed all of my blog buddies recently.  Most of my writing energy has been spent TRYING to pull together my thesis.  Thank goodness it is the last requirement before I graduate from Hopkins.  M.A. here I come!! 

I thought I would start back with all of you by sharing the fun details of my amazing trip to Cedar Pointe!  Yep, I spent the weekend in Sandusky, OH riding the tallest rollercoasters in the U.S. and laughing with friends until I cried.  It was just what I needed! Unfortunately, my camera died over the weekend, so I only have a few pictures that I snapped with my phone to share with everyone. 

Well, we only started the day two hours late due to a bit of  a late riser…no worries…we ragged on him mercilessly the entire day and made him buy everyone lunch.  So mean   As I’m sure most of you know, road trips can be a blast or a disaster.  I am happy to report that our trip was ridiculous!  It is the most fun I have had in a long time.  All of us laughed until our stomachs hurt.  I made the valiant effort to bring yummy and healthy snacks, but of course, at the first rest stop, I snatched a bag of doritos haha.  Other amazing combinations included Full Throttle, chocolate milk and dortitos (all at once) and sour cream and cheddar potato chips + slim jim…wow…I have no words.  We drove the entire 6.5 hours with the windows down and the music up!

It got a little windy...

Finally, we arrived in Ohio and checked into the Residence Inn in Independence.  The rooms were really nice, but the people were a little slow .  We dropped off our bags, grabbed a few showers and headed out for the night.  The night started with a great little tribute band and curb side popcorn.  We all sang along to some of our favorites and plugged our ears for a few missed notes.  All in all, it was a great start.  A little cold, a lot hungry and even more sleepy, we grabbed our things and headed over to the Rib, White and Blue festival in the city.  Can you say fun?!?  At least ten different vendors all selling award winning BBQ and frosty birch beer.  It was a little slice of Ohio heaven…to say nothing of the people watching.  WOW! 

Saturday morning we grabbed a yummy hot breakfast at the hotel and got on the road to Cedar Pointe.  It was the perfect day for an amusement park.  Around 70 degrees, light breeze and sparkling sunshine.  We couldn’t have asked for more.  First stop…the Raptor!

Waiting in line...

And on and on it went…I think we rode every coaster in the park almost.  We stopped at a cute little saloon for BBQ, beer and “Got Country.”  It was a fun western themed show with a lot of patriotism thrown in.  So much fun!  Needless to say, night fell and we were still going strong.  We strolled, wide-eyed, through the starlight express light display and bundled up in sweatshirts for a cool Ohio evening.  The highlight of the day came when we all hopped on a coaster right when the fireworks began.  We were shot 415 feet into the air and right into the middle of the fireworks (well OK, not RIGHT in the middle, but you get the idea.)  It was amazing!  After I recovered from the fear and shock of that coaster ride….yep you guessed it…I rode it again!!!

Sunday morning, we headed out to Lake Erie and a cute little lake town.  We stopped off at an adorable coffee shop for some frozen coffee and belly laughs.  “If that had happened in Maryland, the popcorn machine would have been up on cinder blocks”  :):).  I stuck my little feet in Lake Erie and collected a few beautiful stones.  It was the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  After a yummy assortment of hotdogs, burgers and macaroni salad, we all hopped in the car to head home. 

Beautiful Lake Erie

Well, the ride home was just as fun as the ride in.  We danced in our seats, cracked jokes and had our fill of junk food.  We even had a guest performance by Little D, the Kia hamster stand in…it was hilarious. 

Little D doing the Kia head bop

All in all, it was a great weekend with great friends!!!  I can’t wait for the next one…

All This Craziness…

I am coming up on week three of being out of work…can we say stir crazy?  After enduring every test in the book including three MRI’s, a million blood tests, ultrasounds…basically you name it.  Tomorrow, I will head to the ENT for some crazy physical therapy procedures that may or may not work.  Pretty much, I am done!  The constant vertigo and nausea is just awful.  Sorry if this is not so interesting to my regular readers, but I just needed to get it all out. 

I can’t even begin to tell you how loved I have felt through all of this.  My friends and family have held my hand and supported me with prayers while I just struggled to keep myself together.  I truly hope life is going to return to normal soon. 

On the other hand, I kind of feel like God has been spring cleaning my life.  It has been easy to let people go who add stress to my life and basically offer me a one sided friendship, or claim to offer love and have no idea of the actual concept of love.  I guess we all have to grow up sometime.  This weekend, my two bestests are making the trek up from DC to just keep me company on my mushy basement couches, watch chick flicks and partake in my cooking.  It is such a wonderful thing to realize that genuine love exists in people  and in the world.  You know that one person you can text anytime and they always respond.  Or  that person you can call and they never hit the ignore button.  Or that person that loves you no matter how screwed up and mixed up you are.  I really hope that the people in my life can say that I love them the way they have made me feel loved over the last 3 months. 

Aside from the amazing people in my life, I’m learning to enjoy the small things.  I watched the movie “Last Holiday” yesterday and Queen Latifah’s character was starting up at a gorgeous ceiling.  She said, “has that ceiling ever made you just want to cry.”  I sort of feel that way about a lot of things these days.  My little nephew has been super sick and just seeing his little, perfect smile look up at me made me cry.  His little voice saying I love you is pretty much the most perfect moment ever.  We only get one time around at this crazy thing called life and sometimes we just forget to stop and see our life happening each day.  Wow, I really do sound like a huge dork.  I guess I was just hoping to share all the wonderful blessings God has given me during the horrible struggle in my life.  Feel free to share the little gifts you have in your life right now!

Lots Of Love

Well, it is coming up on February 15 and another Valentine’s Day has come and gone.  It has been so amazing…surprisingly so.  I officially have the greatest friends.  My phone was buzzing all day with happy texts and lots of love.  It is such a blessing to realize all the love you have in your life.  So, this is a little thank you to all the wonderful people in my life who fill my heart with love.

New Nickname

Good Morning All,

After a funny Facebooking experience, I have been coined with a new nickname, Passionista.  I must say…I love it.  As many of you know, my mothership is basically Neiman Marcus, so fashionista often follows my name as a descriptor, however, recently I have realized that I live my life full of passion for everything I do.  Hence, the new nickname.  What is life without passion?  Boring for one and possibly pointless for another.  You often hear people say they live life to the fullest or are passionate about life.  I beg to differ.  When is the last time you were truly passionate about something in your life? 

I stumbled across a blog this morning that really caught my eye.  I love what she says, “My passion for life propels my feet forward and out of bed each morning in search of the next image I must put down in paint and the next laugh to be had.”  What gets you out of bed in the morning (especially on these very cold days)? 

Recently, I have found myself “wishing” my life away.  I daydream about that next step in life whether it is a new job down the road or a new apartment or just that next pair of amazing “on sale” shoes.  Either way, that next big thing constantly occupies my mind.  I find that sometimes I miss the great little thing that is happening right now.  For instance, I joined a new gym closer to my house and within the first week, most of the trainers know me by name.  Admittedly, I spend a ridiculous amount of time there now, but still.  It is so nice to walk into a room and have people smile at you and know your name.  Wow, I sound like I want to be on an episode of Cheers .  I guess what I am getting at through all of this mumbo jumbo is that passion can take many forms and sometimes it shows itself in the simple pleasures of life. 

In other news, Steve Jobs is sick and leaving Apple in a pickle.  Meanwhile, his announcement to take a leave of absence has cost Apple quite a few BILLION dollars.  How crazy is that?  I mean really people…he is leaving the same COO in charge that has always been there.  I think we all need to relax just a little.

Happy New Year

Happy new year to all!  I can’t believe it is 2009.  How crazy is that?  This is the first year in a long time that I refuse to make a singe resolution.  I’ve decided to just be me this year.  I want to try new things and meet new people and sleep more and smile more.  What are your hopes and dreams this year?

So far, it has been a fun and “new” year.  Over the weekend, I went to my first professional bull riding event.  My sister-in-law Trish is a super fan and I decided to see what it was all about.  Well, surprise, it was so much fun.  The cowboys are unbelievable athletes and the bulls are beautiful.  It was great to share Trish’s passion and just have a great night full of mindless fun.  Have you done anything fun so far this year?

This month I get to enjoy lots of friends birthdays and hopefully some snow.  Again, Happy New Year to All!

Here is a fun photo of me with J B Mauney from the PBR event.  Enjoy!

The Holiday Season

Christmas is fast approaching and let me just tell you, I am not ready.  Really?  It is a weeks away and I think I have two gifts.  Craziness. 

Anyway, stuff at work is pretty calm this time of year which means a lot of mindless busy work and catching up.  And, I WANT SNOW!!!!!  Sorry for yelling, but just the thought of snow makes me smile.  Do you like snow?

This is a picture from the Fazio family reunion.  It is the beautiful Bodie lighthouse.  The week was so much fun.  23 of the Fazio clan all in one house.  I could not have asked for more!!

Vacation Time

My favorite time of the year is approaching.  The holiday season.  I look forward to the cold weather (hopefully snow), lights going up on all the houses and my mom’s cooking.  Tomorrow, 23 of the Fazio clan will move into the beautiful house with a view of the ocean on the Outer Banks shore.  After a ton of planning, our week together is finally here!

I can’t believe we will all be together in one house for Thanksgiving.  It is going to be awesome.  Already I have gotten emails on what to bring, all the things we will do and how the meals are going to work.  It is going to be a great time.

I will post pictures and stories this week.  I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

Fall is here

Mom and I took our first walk of the fall yesterday, and it was wonderful.  The leaves are starting to change and the air is crisp and clean.  It is my favorite time of year!  Also, at work I am planning fun Halloween parties and holiday events.  I just got the holiday postcards today and they are perfect…I can’t wait to send them out to everyone at work. 

Recently, I’ve been reading a lot about organizational communication and last week we focused on the interview process.  It is interesting to me that very few interviewees actually ask questions they want the answer to during the process.  I mean, how will you ever know if you want to work somewhere if you don’t ask questions.  I would think that asking meaningful and well thought out questions would be a sign to the potential employer that you are truly taking interest in the position.

Anyway, Heroes was amazing last night.  Mr. I’ll pull the trigger for you was incredibly creepy and awful, btut of course I like him.  And, Peter has no powers what???  Well, tune in next week.  How was your Monday?

I’m here

Ok, so I know it may seem that I have dropped off the face of the planet, and in a few ways I have.  However, I am determined that the fall will be fun.  I’m taking Organizational Communication and Behavior Change and Education Through Entertainment.  Both are quite interesting, but I am very into Behavior Change.  The class is amazing.  You pick a topic, usually centered around a disease and write a serial drama for television or radio that encourages the desired behavior changes for that disease.  I have chosen type 2 diabetes for my disease. 

The first phase of the project is called the design document.  Basically, this is where you perform formative research on your topic and exhaustively cover every bit of knowledge you want your audience to learn.  My professor, Esta de Fossard, always says that you have to think of the writers as idiots.  Funny, I’ll be writing the drama starting next week.  Anyway, that means that you have to include the smallest detail like explaining glucose levels are blood sugar levels…things like that.

Ok, enough boring explanation.  The point of all of this is that I am totally addicted to this stuff.  Sign me up to work on projects like this for the rest of my life.  You get to help others while having a ton of fun.  I haven’t chosen my story line, but I am hoping for something that is Nip/Tuck-ish.  Tune in later to find out.

How has your fall shaped up so far?

RNC – Palin’s Time to Shine

Before becoming governor, Palin served as mayor of Wasilla, she recounted, adding: “And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”

This is a small tidbit from an article I read this morning about Palin’s speech.  I have to say, it is really nice to see a strong woman stand up and talk about some very real things.  It will be fun to watch her tackle the campaign trail.  Not to mention, the woman just had a baby 4 months ago.  Can you imagine?