Who Doesn't Love Me...Um, I Mean Blog Awards! ;)

So I know I've been a bit MIA lately, but I have a good reason for that!! No spoilers yet - will tell you once I receive what hopefully will be good great news!!

In the mean time, I must accept three awesome blog awards from the lovely Jill over at Life After College.  She's fantastic & so is her blog, so make sure you stop by and show her some love or I'll be very disappointed in you!

Here are the three awards & below are the rules!

 

  

Rules: 

Accept the award (duh!) LOL

Post the award on your blog & link back to the person who nominated you

Pass to award to up to 15 bloggers

Don't forget to tell your blogger friends that you've nominated them

I will give the award to 5 bloggers - gotta make this short today - loads of cleaning to do! So here are my nominations:

1. Pinkie Larue 
2. So Scared Of Getting Older I'm Only Good At Being Young 
3. Desultory Diversions 
4. Kizzy Online 
5. MK In Wonderland 

Alright! Off to read some blogs then do some laundry & clean my carpets!

I Need Your Help!!

Yep! That's right!! I need the help of the blogger community because I may have a "situation" and I'm not quite sure how to solve it.  So here it goes...

There's a chance that I may have a job offer which requires me to relocate & I'm not sure where to start looking...for apartments, condos, lofts, whatever.  I don't know where I want to live - directly in these cities or on the outskirts, so blogger friends if you live anywhere in the areas, please please please help me out!

My choice cities:

• Boston, MA
• Chicago, IL
• Hartford, CT
• Florham Park, NJ
• San Francisco, CA
• NYC
  

I've crossed San Fran off the list, I do not want to live on the west coast.  Not that there's anything wrong with the west coast, I just don't want to live there.  I would love to live in NYC, but I don't think I could afford it & lastly Hartford - well that's just off the list cause it is.  I hate Hartford lol.

All of the cities above are pretty expensive & I'm not sure if I can really afford to live in the city right now; I'm thinking outskirts would be much more affordable.  Here's my problem though: I own a home (which I would have to sell or rent out), I have a lease on a pretty new Acura TL so I think I've crossed NYC out totally because it doesn't even make sense to take a car with you to NYC. 

The company is only offering $10K in relocation, which isn't bad, but for someone like me with a mortgage payment and a new car payment, $10K isn't much.  In essence, this means I will be making a mortgage payment, car payment, rent in a new city, and all of my other bills that I have to pay.  I think it's probably best to sell the house & I will definitely look into that!

So folks - right now my top choices are Boston, Florham Park, & then Chicago.  Does anyone live close to or know anyone that lives close to these cities?  If so, are there any suburbs around them that are fairly safe AND inexpensive?  And by inexpensive I mean $800 - $1000 a month in rent.  Because this job, like my current job entails quite a bit of travel, I probably won't be driving my car much; however, I need to live somewhere that is accessible to public transportation - (train/subway) so I can get back & forth to the office and the airport.

My next task is finding a moving company that can come to GA, pack my stuff up & move it to one of these cities.  I know of a couple of moving companies such as UPack, Allied Van Lines, & Mayflower & need to contact them for a quote.  

Nothing is finalized yet; I had my 3rd interview on Friday, January 15th, but the guy that I interviewed with said I did an excellent job & he was quite impressed.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the best!  My recruiter has already advised me that she wants me to fly into Charlotte on 1/29/10 for my final interview if the 3rd interview went well.  I'll know more on Monday hopefully & when I find out, I'll be sure to give yall the low down! :)

Thanks in advance for all of your help, I definitely need any help/advice I can get right now!

Back To Life...Back To Reality

HA! I'm so old school - do yall remember that song?  If not, let me refresh your memory! Soul II Soul - Back To Life video! LOL



Tomorrow marks my first travel & work day of the new year.  Am I excited? Hell no, no...I'm not!  I'm just not ready to get back in the groove of work, but I don't have much of a choice at the moment.  I mean I haven't won the lotto or anything, so I must continue to work in order to maintain my semi-crazy lifestyle!  I really think 2010 is going to be a great year though; I'm hoping that my career will reach new heights, that I'll make new friends, maybe luck up on a good boyfriend, and possibly meet some of my bloggie friends in real life.

Who really knows what 2010 has in store for us...well God knows, but I can only wait in anticipation to see exactly how 2010 plays out.  Hopefully lots of good things are in store!

I must call it a night pretty early!  I have to get up at 1 AM to drive 2 hours to the airport...sucks huh!?  Hope everyone has a great week! :)

Beautiful Blogger Award

I got another award! YAY! And now keep reading.....

I've been awarded the Beautiful Blogger award by bloggie friend Ashley over at Just The Ashes. Be sure to check out her blog cause she's full of awesomeness!  Here are the rules...and yes you must follow them!

1) Thank the person who nominated me for this award.

2) Copy the award & place it on my blog.

3) Link to the person who nominated me for this award.

4) Tell us 7 interesting things about yourself.

5) Nominate 7 bloggers.

6) Post links to the 7 blogs I nominate.

Here are my 7 interesting things! *drum roll please*

1. I have spent 2 years in the software consulting industry and absolutely love it.  I believe that I have found my career niche & I'm so proud of that!

2. I spent 8 months of my life exploring Europe in 2007 and had the best time ever.  I would give anything to go back & I honestly believe that there's an opportunity for me to do so in 2010 - keep your fingers crossed!

3. I would love to move up north.  I love the warm weather of the south, but it often times get too freakin hot to enjoy & it's rare that we see the true changing of the seasons.  I'd love to live in a city where there are actually 4 seasons!

4. I am currently considering changing employers.  I love my consulting career, but I am hoping that 2010 will boast loads of opportunities for me to learn, grow, and advance in my career.  I'm not sure if my current employer is totally open to offering me that opportunity.  The next few weeks will tell, but ultimately I need to pursue what makes me happy & I think one of the "big 4" consulting firms may swallow me up! :)

5. My world has been completely changed with the birth of my niece.  She is the sweetest little thing & is growing like a weed.  It's been such a joy to watch her learn and grow over the last 8 weeks.  Although the circumstances around her conception weren't the best, I want her to have the best & I'll do anything to make sure she does!

6. As I write this post, I am starving! LOL

7. I was supposed to get my hair done at 9 AM so I thought, but I forgot to make an appointment, so I'm going at 11:00 AM instead.  Annnnnd in true black folks fashion, I will be in the shop alllllllllllllll freakin day because of this! I've charged up my phone, gathered my magazines, and made a few playlists to hopefully counteract my bordem!

Now I've got to nominate 7 lovely bloggers - so here goes...in no particular order!

1. So Scared Of Getting Older, I'm Only Good At Being Young 
2. Australian Daisy 
3. Life After College
4. Cheap Therapy 
5. Desultory Diversions 
6. Dreams Do Come True 
7. Tidbits From My Mind 

 Alright - I need to clean up my kitchen before I leave for the day! Later taters!

New Year's Day Superstitions

Today is the first day of a new year & I'm feeling good!!  For those of you who follow me on Twitter, I've changed my name to CallMeMs_TL! I felt like I needed a new name that had some meaning! :)  Don't be skerd to follow me for all you new folks! I'm fun! LOL

How was your New Year's Eve?  Mine was just scrumptious!  Went to 2 parties - kinda last minute plans...one wine tasting party at a friend's house who I haven't had the opportunity to hang out with much because she's been busy moving her life back to the US & GA! I'm so happy she's home!!!  The second was at a long time family friend's house.  Good time, good food, lots of fun, & that was my New Year's Eve!!

NOW! On to what this post is really about - are you superstitious? Are there things you don't do on the 1st day of the year, or the last Friday before the new year?

I'm not totally superstitious, but here are some superstitions that I kinda believe in!

• Kissing at midnight: Kissing someone at midnight ensures that the affections & ties you have to one another will continue throughout the next 12 months.  (Maybe that's why none of my boyfriends stick around - cause I don't kiss them on NYE; we're always out doing our own thing) LOL
• Lots of food in the house: Your new year must not start with bare cabinets or else, that's how the rest of your year will be.
• Nothing goes out: That's right - absolutely nothing, not even garbage is to leave your house today! I mean YOU can leave your house, but don't start throwing away stuff you don't need in your "new years" cleaning - wait until Jan 2nd to do that!
• Food, good ol southern food: It's common tradition, especially in the southern States of the US to eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day for good luck & a green leafy veggie such as collard greens or cabbage for financial good fortune.  For meat, don't eat poultry cause poultry scratches backwards, don't eat beef cause cows stand still, but eat pork because pig roots forward!  So have a pork chop or 2 to go along with your black eyed peas and collards or cabbage!
• Work: Do some kind of work today & make sure that it's successful even if you don't go near your job.  Only do a small amount of work because engaging in a serious work project on New Years Day is considered unlucky! I've resorted to checking my email & responding to at least 1.
• Laundry: I've heard so many different variations of this, so I'm not sure which one is true.  I've heard that you never wash clothes on the last Friday of the year, I've also heard that you never wash clothes on New Years Eve, & that you never wash clothes on New Year's Day and the reason is because you will "wash away" a family member from your life. Either way - I didn't wash clothes the last Friday of the year, on New Year's Eve, nor am I washing clothes today. 

So that's all I can think of at the moment.  I'm sure my blogger peeps can probably add more to this list!!

Happy 2010 yall!!!