Chill-What?!

I can’t believe I forgot to share my 2014 favorite holiday story with you all! 

Let me set the scene, it’s Christmas morning. We are all eating breakfast and opening gifts. My mom opens this thing you use to keep your wine cold: it resembles a long icicle and has a cork on the end and when you put it in the freezer it freezes and you then put it into a white wine bottle to keep it cold without using an ice bucket and without diluting the wine with actual ice. My mom opens it and expresses her excitement and my littlest brother looks at it and says, “oh look, mom, you got a chill-do.” My 13 year old brother said “chill-do.” Oh my gosh. We all burst into tears of laughter!

After we caught our breath I told them about the item that was the hit at our office secret santa. It’s called a veggetti. Now, before I explain what this is, what would you expect it to be? Oddly enough, it is not something that ladies use to clean their lady-parts with… it is a kitchen tool that is used to make vegetables into spaghetti. I know, their marketing team should be fired and banished from naming kitchen utensils. 

Now, for the icing on the cake, about a week later I was at my parents house, and my mom had a veggetti in the kitchen! She has since used said kitchen utensil and it worked great; however, it is still super weird to call it by its name.

Have any of you used a veggetti or a chill-do?

Ladies Night at Garcon

San Francisco is hosting restaurant week so what better excuse could there be to get together with some amazing women. On Wednesday night some of my favorite ladies from Tagged and I went out to Garcon in the Mission for their pre-fixe menu, signature cocktails, wine and girl talk. I haven't laughed like that in a while and it was refreshing and wonderful. I left with a totally full heart and a satisfied tummy. It was the perfect way to bring in 2015!

Ebates in the 20s

Thursday night was my company holiday party. Yes, I know, a holiday party in January? Who even knows! Better late than never, I must say.
I had a blast. It was Great Gatsby themed and I went dressed to impress! Sadly, I don't have a photo of my entire outfit, but I hope you can tell how much fun I had getting dressed up! One of my friends opened up her apartment to a small group of us to drink champagne, eat cheese and get ready together. We did our hair and makeup and spent the evening listening to country music and gossiping and talking girl talk. I spent the entire evening laughing and smiling and drinking champagne. It was glorious! I mean, who doesn't love a good photobooth!?

I am absolutely loving the community I am building for myself at my new job. It definitely started out a bit rocky, but it has turned into something amazing and I am so grateful.

Sweet Tea, Cheer Wine & Bojangles

I spent the long weekend traveling to North Carolina to facilitate officer training at the Theta Omicron Chapter of Alpha Gamma Delta. Before I left, I was little hesitant about my trip. I was worried that the ladies would not receive me well because, honestly, who wants a visitor from IHQ visiting their chapter. 

I flew from San Francisco to Atlanta, on Saturday, where I cleaned up my officer training powerpoint, ate lots of the Delta pretzels and cookies and got myself all hyped up on adrenaline to meet all of the lovely ladies of the chapter. I them flew from Atlanta to Asheville where I was picked up by the Chapter President and Chapter advisor. They took me to dinner where I had my first sweet tea experience - I wasn't a fan.

Sunday and Monday were both full days of officer training and team meetings and a lovely consultant who will be supporting the chapter through formal recruitment arrived. It was nice to have her there to compare notes and use as a resource. On Monday, for lunch, a couple of the officers took the consultant and I to Bojangles for lunch! I had chicken strips and biscuits with a hearty serving of cheerwine! It wasn't too bad, aside from the fact that I don't drink Soda (this trip I drank more soda than I have in the last 20 years...! Ha!)

The weather was perfect and the women were so kind and welcoming to me. I had such a wonderful visit, even if it was so short. I hope on my next visit I will have the opportunity to visit some of the surrounding waterfalls! I sure do love me a good waterfall!
Needless to say, I am still trying to catch up on rest from my whirlwind weekend - which won't happen anytime soon since tomorrow my company is having their holiday party...oh man! I hope to sleep a lot this weekend :-) How was your long weekend?

The Ebates Kool Aid

Alright, guys, it is about time that I tell you about Ebates. If you haven't heard of it before, please let me explain how it works. You shop online and you get paid a quarterly commission based on that online shopping. It is that simple. The commission comes in the form of a check or you can opt to be paid through your paypal account. What I mean is: real money is sent to you for shopping online at almost all, if not all, of your favorite stores. What I also mean is that it is that easy. I know it sounds crazy, but it's real, oh so real. {can you tell that I am drinking the Ebates Kool Aid...just a little?)
Yes, yes, I realize that I should have spread the word before the holidays, and to be completely honest with you, I have no idea why I didn't. You know what, I am sharing it with you all now - better late than never, right? So here is the catch = ha, gotcha! There is no catch! You shop, you get paid. The membership is completely free for shoppers and it is easy to use. To shop you go through the ebates.com webpage to your favorite stores, shop like usual and then the following quarter you will see your reward. What is also great about Ebates is that it isn't only a cash back site, there are also tons of coupons so you get the best of both worlds and there is a smartphone app that is super user friendly, too!!
What I have been telling people is: 'If you shop online and you don't use Ebates, you are doing it wrong!' Hop on the bandwagon, click through the button below, and get to shopping! :-)

Oh yeah, and I work at Ebates! They hired me full time mid December after being a contractor for about 8 weeks. I am really happy with my new job - and no, I am not in sales for them, ha! . It is hard and rewarding work for a company that is great and a product I can stand behind. No, they aren't paying me to write this, I am just that excited about the product and about what I do!