An Irish Surprise

Last night around 7:30 my phone rang... it said Minnesota and some random number on it, but I answered anyways (with all of Jessica's Shower RSVPs coming in, I just expect not to know who's calling me). Someone said hello but nothing else... and I was about to hang up when I hear, "It's Megg!" Yaaaay! This is the first time Megg has called me on the phone since she got to Ireland (a year ago?!) It was so great to hear her voice and we just had a great conversation. I love having good friends that you just connect with instantly even after being apart for so long.

We talked about a conversation she had with her old friend Eric & his upcoming wedding, Krissy's struggle to get pregnant (and Terri's negative influence on that), Emelyn*, Megg's job, life in Ireland, my job, life, love marriage, Megg's upcoming trip to Marsailles! Anything and everything for 45 minutes! It felt like someone reaching out from far far away and giving me a great big hug!

* Cutie Emelyn:











What a great day!

Also had fun playing around with a Red Sox LO before/after the phone call. I didn't come close to finishing even one LO, but I really enjoying the process of it. It was nice to not feel like I HAD to get it done... no schedule, no deadline- just enjoying the fact that I was making it and focusing on what I wanted to say and how I want to line things up. I love it so far, but I know it will come out even better once I focus on it a little more :)

A Non-Monday Monday

Today was a GREAT day- didn't feel like a Monday at all.

I planned on having a morning jam packed with meetings (8-12) then another from 1-3... and coming home to... well no plans, so probably nothing.

Instead...

8-10:00 Andrea, Ryann and I did work on some Testing stuff for CBeds- but the majority of an hour was spent on "girl talk"...even Andrea who hates getting up early said "I'd come in any time to meet with you two!"

Then my 10:00 conference call ran short! Hooray- and Andrea came back to the office with me... and straight through til lunch because my 11:00 with Paul was cancelled :)

We went to Whole Foods for lunch! mmm greek salad. And a beautiful perfect summer day to walk around in... Not a cloud in the sky, low humidity. One of the few perfect ones.

My 1:00 ran for about 40 minutes... after which time Ryann, Ben and I proceeded to talk for about an hour! It was just a great day for chatting and catching up and learning more about the people I work with. Its so wonderful to have time for stuff like that. It makes working with people so much easier when you really connect with them.

After that meeting, Andrea came back to my office... Dan called to say he was going on the Boat with Shawn-- and we decided to have some fun! We went to Harvard Square.... I got to relive my days when I could walk around town every night after work ( oh how I miss the North End sometimes)....... then we went to the Border Cafe for margaritas and blackened chicken fajitas.... two of my favorite things. Ohhhh and we stopped in at Beadworks and picked out beads to make beautiful jewelry!!! Fun new craft stuff!!!

We also found a cutie new boutique in Harvard Square where the candy store used to be... I love little boutiques... the random collection of cute clothes, the rare chance that something you like will actually be available in your size, the adorable accessories (belts, headbands, jewelry, bags!!) and the atmosphere that just shouts "have fun here" to me! I love it. Boutiques make me smile :)

After my T ride home, I put the down down on the convertible and decided I wasn't going home when I could continue enjoying the beautiful day. I cruised to Marshfield singing my head off, hair blowing in the wind. Got some cute storage bins and a wooden sign that say SMILE at Christmas tree shop (can't wait to alter that). Of course I didn't get any of the housewarming presents I went there to buy... Gotta love that.

So its been a great start to the week! Hoping its a sign of more good things to come :)

Lassonde Family Skip Day

Mom bought tickets for a Ranger game in May that she knew would be rained out-- and they rescheduled the game for yesterday, July 20 at 2:00... so it ended up being Lassonde Family Skip Day! We all left work and headed over to Fenway for a great afternoon of baseball, beer, crackerjacks and peanuts.... and lots of laughs! (And the Sox won 6-4!)





My Husband- Gabe Kapler.... got a great up-close and personal view while the team was warming up! I was probably quite a site with my Kapler tee and jersey on, snapping photos of him left and right! But do I care? umm... nope :)

The Fam:

Already Tuesday

I had Monday off because I spent this last weekend in Long Island for Michelle and John's wedding. A lovely time, though a busy weekend overall.

Saturday- got to NY by 10am. Visited with Lynda, Mike, Chrissy and Michelle Collins for the day- hit the beach, got some Mexican and then just hung out at their house. So great to see them. I was commenting to Dan that it amazes me how little we know them (in terms of days) but how well we relate to one another... it feels like we've known eachother forever! Reminds me I should send them a thank you note!

Sat night we hit the bar to hang out with some of the wedding crowd, and my family :)

Sunday I went to the The Hamptons w/ Mom, Dad, Jeff and Melissa. Saw some big houses, and some cute shops. Had lunch. Not an overly exciting day, I'll admit. The wedding was Sunday night. Beautiful dresses, strange DJ that didn't inspire me to dance much, open bar (always fun), so we had a great time overall.

Monday morning Dan and I drove back around 9:30 and were home by 2:30- in time to get my laundry and food shopping done and work on a mini-album for Meagan's 25th birthday party this weekend! Glad we got home that early... the rest of the crowd got in closer to 6p and I would have just been exhausted today.

So now its already Tuesday! Loving the 4 day work week!!! And with Camp this weekend, I have a lot to look forward to!

Seeing things through new eyes

Lately I've been obsessed with Ali Edwards' blog (my favorite scrapbooker, currently)... I just can't get enough. I look at her pages and just think 'wow, the way she looks at life is so refreshing... i wish i could scrapbook like that' and then the next thought that comes to mind is that "stuff" like that doesn't happen to me, so i can't scrapbook like that. After thinking and thinking I realized that while those specific events might not occur in my life- interesting things happen all the time-- and that i need to start seeing everyday events in my life through new eyes.

So I made a conscious decision to start this the other day.

Wednesday July 12th

I was sitting on the train and there was a reallly smelly guy standing right over me and I was soooo disgusted for about 5 minutes- I could barely stand it. Then as I was getting off the train something happened that totally change my thinking.....

Half the time the T is smelly the other half the time its so packed you can't breathe or move... but then other times its a whole other place. Some people and events on the T just make me smile, and I often forget those things.

• Two older ladies were getting off the T and giggling like schoolgirls all the way down the escalator. They just couldn't stop... it was so contagious.
• There's this guy who pulls into the roof deck of the garage in Braintree (where I usually park) with his huge black truck. He blares his music as he unpacks his truck and changes from his sneakers into his work boots. And sometimes, he just can't help but sing along (and I just can't help but smile!)
• Sometime a kind man still gives up his seat for a older lady, a pregnant woman or even lil ole' me!

Tired Tuesday

second day in a row that its been really tough getting out of bed. i think these long weekends lately are hurting me more than they're helping.

yesterday was a really good day (once the burning in my eyes stopped around 9am). i had lunch with my pal andrea in the big girl cafeteria :) then my 1-3:00 meeting rocked. we met with premise (software vendor) about the new release of part of their software, and comparing it to the current version so we can plan accordingly. with george on vacation i finally got to take the lead in a lot of the discussion. i fumbled, admittedly, at first, but then i think i did really well. asked lots of tough questions. it felt so good. i still have a lot of learning to do, but i learned two things yesterday:

1. i really can do this project management thing--- i just need to keep at it and learn from every experience.
2. that i really do a lot better when i'm busy. i am more motivated and interested in the project when i'm eating, sleeping and breathing it.... paul has a tendency to do some of the updates etc himself--- and if he'd just let me do them and stay intimately involved, it keeps me a lot more in the mindset of the project.


Scrapping Update

I got motivated and did two things last night... well 3 sort of.
I got recipe cards done to include with invitations for Jessica's shower.

Then I was working on a ribbon challenge for Les' post on OF and I made a really cute LO with a picture of Tighe that Waveney gave me. Its a summer pic but I paired it with greens, reds and browns and it came out a lot better than I expected! Love it.

Next I started my bulletin board project. I altered a file folder to hold menus... need to make some other pockets etc to jazz up the board. More to come this week.

A first attempt!

My first day on the blog... here goes nothing. I've been reading these in various places and it seems like a good way to record my random thoughts, the exciting events in my life and just get things out on paper.. hmm, well this isn't paper is it? But that's ok too. I have enough paper in my life- just check out my scraproom! Speaking of scrapping... I feel like I'm constantly trying to find a way to record things so that when I'm scrapping an event I can go back and find out when it happened, what I was thinking at the time etc... so maybe this is a good way to do that. Who knows?! We'll just wait and see....