My First Official Car Accident....

My clean record is now blemished. My streak of no accidents and no tickets was finally broken yesterday after I and another driver tried to merge into the same lane at the same time yesterday morning on my way to work. It was my fault, really. Fortunately, it was fairly minor as far as accidents go and the driver was superbly nice about the situation. I pretty much immediately called my insurance company and had my car into a body shop about two hours later. I got a call last night from the adjuster....$2700 in damage to my car, although all I have to pay is the $500 deductible. I was thinking about it this morning....I think if I were still driving my Geo, that there wouldn't have been nearly as much damage. Ok, yes my Geo was crappy because it was old, but it was tough. It seems to me that they just don't make cars like they used to. Does that make me sound old?

Wild and CrAzY

I have been wild and crazy this week. Instead of following my usual after-work routine of working out, going home to eat dinner and then simply watching my netflix movies all evening until I go to bed, I deviated TWICE. Wednesday night I went out for dinner and drinks with two of my co-workers, Jon and Melissa (you guys made it to my blog, yay!). Then, last night, I accepted an invitation to sub on a volleyball league for Lindsay's boyfriend's team (Lindsay is my roommate). The game didn't start until 8:30, which means I was up way past my normal bedtime of 10:00. Watch out, people....you never know what might happen next week!

HR Orientation...

I had my HR orientation yesterday for my new job. It was ALL day and, while parts of it were important, it was quite painful to sit through. I learned about what to do if there is a chemical spill, how to lift heavy packages appropriately, what stretches to do every hour of sitting, what asbestos is and who to call if I need to access a room with asbestos in it, and other riveting topics that I probably won't ever encounter on the job. But the second half was important, as they went through all the benefits and helped us fill out the information for our benefits application. OK, so I don't want to sound as though I'm bragging, but I was shocked and amazed....health insurance here only costs me $1 per month. ONE DOLLAR! That is a first for me. For a family, it only costs $80. Wow!

Good Weekend

It' a good weekend so far. Last night after a light exercise with Tyler at the gym, I came home and made myself some grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner. I watched a chick flick that made me cry and then took a hot shower before going to bed. And I actually slept well!! I woke up at about 4am (I usually wake up at least once or twice while sleeping) and I don't think I had moved from my original position....amazing for me!

Today I got up early. It's cold, but the sun is shining and the birds are singing. It makes me think of Spring and I can't wait for it to arrive. I am sooooo over winter. Next winter I need to get one of those SAD lights and get a CD of birds twittering so that I don't get into that winter depressed mode. Ugh...can't stand it. Anyway, I went grocery shopping and bought a bunch of organic stuff (I was always partial to organic, but more studies are showing how much better they really are for you). As I was perusing the natural food section, I got a call from my good friend, Jen in Denver. She and her hubby just found out that she is pregnant again! It was good news to hear from good people who deserve it. And now I'm chilling out before going back to the gym. Later today I might see a movie with friends and tonight I'll be margin' it with Terralyn. Margaritas are so fun!

Hope everyone else is having a good weekend!

Love,
Mona

The things I do...

Adjusting to change has always been somewhat of a challenge for me. Albeit a lot easier now than it was....say, two years ago. But any life-change always takes some effort on my part to ease the stress.

Things I do naturally that isn't always helpful:

• Go into super-duper routine mode, ensuring everything is thought of and everything is completed way in advance. For example, packing my gym clothes the night before (not that big of a deal) to cooking on Sunday so that I have lunches and dinners ready for the entire week (a bit of a bigger deal).
• Over-exercising.
• Go into independent-mode and rely only on myself.

Things I need to do more of, but isn't always easy because I'm not used to doing it:

• Let go and not try to control everything.
• Not push myself to do too much or to work at the same level I might usually. Give myself a break.
• Open myself up and reach out to others.
• To always pay attention to and respect what I'm feeling at any given moment.

I'm happy to report that because I'm aware of all of the above (the bad and the good), that acclimating to my new job hasn't been as difficult as it could have been. It's still not easy, but it's been pretty OK.

Butler, Oh How I Miss Thee....

Last night at the Superbowl gathering that I went to, one of my past co-workers, Brandon, complained that I was bad-mouthing Butler. Specifically, he referred to my post below about highlights of the new job. Personally, I think he's full of it, but to show my high regard for Butler and all my wonderful friends still there, I thought I would post about all the things I miss at Butler:

• The beautiful campus. The trees and nature on Butler's campus are awesome.
• The calm, quietness of the campus and surrounding neighborhoods. Being downtown now, there is a lot of traffic.
• Knowing everyone and everyone knowing you. At IUPUI there are over 3000 faculty on the campus and about 30,000 students. One feels more anonymous.
• Only having to drive 5 minutes to get to work. Even though it only takes me 20 minutes to get to work at IUPUI, it was just so nice to live and work in the same neighborhood.
• And, OF COURSE, the biggest thing I miss at Butler are Tyler, Jeremy, Andy, Brandon, Angie, Julie, Jeff, Serdar, Mary and all my other wonderful friends in IR.

Love and miss you all -

Mona

Gospelfest! Glory Be!

...and AMEN! Tonight Terrlayn and I went to the 20th anual Gospelfest held at Clowes Hall. Terralyn is quite the fan and told me that I HAD to get tickets for it. It ended up being a really cool evening. Do you all remember the scene in The Blues Brothers at the Black church? When James Brown is up singing and the choir goes nuts with the glory of Jesus? Well....I found out that the scene isn't really all that much of an exaggeration. I mean, no one started doing back-flips, but that was the only thing they didn't do. It was amazing to see the emotion and feel the energy all around you. It was pretty cool to be a part of it all. The self-shot here is me after the event. I don't get fancy too often, so I feel like I need to take a photo when I do. I even fixed my hair!