Places I've never been

New York City
Yep, never been to New York City....I've never had the opportunity to go. "but Rachel, you're the kind of girl who makes her own opportunities" Ok, this is true...Real Answer - I'm afraid if I go I'll never come back!  But it's definitely on my to-do list and I have a friend with a boyfriend there, so I could totally couch surf.





Cumberland Island
My friend recently visited and posted these photos as such a teaser! 

I can already see myself walking along this beach with little pieces of sand picked up by the wind dropped in the crevese's of my ears only for me to find them later in the day on my pillow after an afternoon nap. 


Little Rock, AR

I've heard Little Rock Arkansas is a beautiful land.  Lots of greenery, hills and mountains of tall trees.

Like this from Norwood Creech










Outer Banks of North Carolina (OBX)
With all the weddings this year and my love life at a stand-still.  My girlfriends and I are thinking of taking a single girl vacation to OBX. 

With town names like Duck, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Whalebone Junction, it seems like the perfect place to escape with true friends, a great book and plenty of wine. 



That's all I can think of for now, but let's see where the wind blows.

Cupcake for breakfast

Last night I fell asleep to the sound of rain on my window. 
pit  pat  pit   pat  pit   pat 

This morning I woke up unable to see the sun through that same window, instead only dark rain clouds.  I prepared for my walk to work by stuffing my dress pants into my pink knee high rain boots, buttoning up my rain coat and not even attempting anything special with my hair - humidity wins on this one.

I took all the precautions - I stayed under awnings whenever possible, I avoiding being splashed by cars driving through puddles, I even sacrificed my short cut through the grass just to ensure I wouldn't slip and fall. I stuck to the sidewalk and made it into my office nice and dry.

Headed up the stairs, changed shoes, went to the copy room, poured a cup of water from the water cooler and then... SPLAT my cup of water falls from my hand - water flows all over my pant leg and even shoots up and hits me in the face!!  So much for staying dry today....

that is why I had a cupcake for breakfast

.

Best Morning I've had in a long time!

I was visiting this health website and there was a poll:

"Why do you work out?"

Options included:

a) I have a big event coming up and I need to look good
b) My body is in pain because of the extra weight, so I'm doing it to help myself
c) I don't like the way my body looks
d) Just to stay healthy
e) Oh Hell, all of the above!


Umm yea - I totally chose (e) and 60% of the poll did also. 

"SLAP"

That's the sound of me slapping myself across the face and telling myself to stop putting off running and just go out there and do it!
Holy - shamoly! 
I went running yesterday on my beautiful San Antonio River and it sucked!  I was in so much pain!  I ran with a friend, who helped push me but the actually running process has never been easy for me. 
However, waking up with my alarm this morning - was very easy, walking that same 2 miles with my dog this morning - peice of cake, and coming into work not needing coffee just to be pleasant....well that's just the way it is supposed to be right?

This is a good thing.  I'm not going to let this feeling go

I'll be exploring different running paths throughout the river and this great city of San Antonio.  I'm really looking forward to running Eisenhower Park.

 

Kinda what my running path looks like:

By @ColleenPence

http://colleenpence.wordpress.com/

white cat foggy street

This morning I was walking my dog down the foggy streets of my historic neighborhood and on the sidewalk catty-corner from us we see a white cat with a gray marking on his face.  We begin to cross the street and the cat does the same.  I stopped in the middle of the street and the cat did too - I look down the street and it was covered in an erie fog that made the green of the trees stand out and the eye search on until it was impossible to see and feel anything but fog.  My eye snapped back to the white cat who was looking right at me.

"Hello cat" I said

"click" went my brain camera

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gismaster/4127718574/ It was kinda like this - but not really

My new place

I am now renting a multi-family house in a very distinguished neighborhood.  It is a $600k house and I only live in 1/3 of it, but I'm going to make it seem like I live in all $600k.  I've decided I need to decorate as soon as I get in the house.  This way it feels more like home sooner rather than later. 

I stopped by yesterday to take some measurements.  The living room is 11'x11' but the walls are at least 10ft tall.  I'm thinking of painting the walls either blue or yellow both with an accent of black and white.

I would consider painting these walls myself but they are 10 feet tall! 
a) I don't own a latter
b) I don't trust myself not getting paint on the ceiling
c) I'd really just like to pay someone $100 and get it over with - is option c even possible?  I'm looking on craigslist for someone.  I bet the paint and supplies would be $100 alone, so maybe a day of my own labor is the best option. 

My kitchen is a small 11'x4' with nice cherry wood floors and those 10 foot tall walls again.  I'm thinking of painting the kitchen green but only going up 8 feet, since it's such a tight space, knowing the height is 10 ft might make it seem smaller.  I could definitely paint the kitchen up to 8 feet on my own.  I have some red accent peices for the kitchen already, so the color palatte would look something like this:

I also want to add these silver tiles as the back splash - my sink is a nice deep stainless steel sink and the vent over the stove is silver, so I think this would look very nice.

Here's the BEST part.  My space is small, but I found these FABULOUS well decals that will work to make the space look larger like this cut out for the kitchen wall from ragingvinyl.com

and this chandalier for the "dining" area.  I don't even have a dining room table yet, but this will define the space for sure! (also from http://www.ragingvinyl.com/) 

For the bathroom I think I'll use these stick ons from www.2jane.com to look a like tile border going around the bathroom:

Other sticker options:

Bed Headboard at www.dezign.fr.com

This coatrack hanger from http://www.domestic.fr: This might really be the Coat Rack I want to buy (in black?)

There are also some cute decals that would look great in the closet and there is even dish decals that should which cabinet is for which dish (cups, plates, etc.)

Needless to say, there are many options out there.  It is interesting that alot of these decals are from european stores (probably because they don't have much room in their "flats").

I know, I haven't really even gotten to my bedroom yet - but as along as there is a bed in it that room is functional!

Goal for today: stop by Lowes for paint samples and pricing.

Being Nice is Good Business

I just finished reading and commenting on this Nice Guy Blog. I also re-tweeted it so that others could read along. But now I must continue the discussion in my head. Cara Stewart with Remarx Media left the following comment for Peter:


"Peter, after reading this post, I don’t know whether to cry, cheer or break something. You’re right on. I’m nice. And female. Which translates into “she must be weak.”... I always take the first call, meet for that cup of coffee and share a piece of advice that could prove useful to someone. I participate in my community. I trust employees, clients, friends and relationships. Until I no longer do because they’ve proven that they’ve crossed that line; they confuse nice with weak and take advantage or worse...."

I didn't even think of it from a female point of view! But this is extremely valid - it's difficult being a female in the work place vs. being a man. Women can be portrayed many different ways in the work place. A few examples:
a) the 100% complete b*tch - as a woman I am not afraid to say this person does exist
b) the woman having a bad day and people still call her the B word - again, sad but true
or
c) the really nice girl who gets walked all over (and quietly hides her fangs)
Most of the men I've worked with show off their 'fangs' weekly and not to benefit the company, just to make sure everyone knows they are the ones with the bigger fangs. *Note: this is not the case in my current working environment - for those of you who know the men in my workplace, you know they are the nicest guys...and my boss is a woman.

A while back a friend of mine commented on my tweets. He said it was like an extremely happy cheerleader was typing them - overly excited, overly happy, borderline annoying cheerleader. I don't consider myself overly happy - I am happy, but I do see the negative in the world. This person is not a very positive person to begin with. He obviously wasn't reading into my tweets or clicking on the links I Re-Tweet. He would see my avatar pop up, put the high pitched cheerleader voice in his head and portray me in that way he felt fit.
This person is actually a personal friend of mine who I haven't seen in 2+ years. We reconnected on twitter, but we haven't physically seen each other in a while. We've both changed during our absence. He's been traveling the world and I've established myself as a career woman. He might remember me as this overly optimistic person (and heck- I'd love to be that girl again too) but as Peter says in his blog: Nice people have fangs too.

Like I mentioned earlier being a woman with fangs can come across in different ways than a man with fangs. Men are the "hunters" who are out there "killing" for profit. While in some cases it's the women who comforts the client and builds a true B2C relationship. I'm going along with Peter and Cara, I'm going to be the nice person I genuinely am. That's the way I want to do business. I will love my job and my clients better if I am acting as my true self and being true and nice is good for business.