Snowflakes!

Oh, what a day! I'm delighted to say, today is the first day of snow in my D.C. journey! It's so much prettier than S.C. slush snow!

I'm not delighted to say, that the snow kept me from getting my car battery changed... since it's dead again! It made me miss my meeting at work. Thankfully Jeremy was adamant I didn't go out of my way to get there, and he and his girlfriend are going to swing by to pick me up for tonight's reception. So, I'm hoping it stops snowing tonight so someone will be willing to jump my battery tomorrow. Especially since I'm moving to the condo tomorrow! :)

Yesterday was a SUPER long day, but it was good! We all had to be at work at 7:45 to be on time for the 8:00 meeting with all the NRA big wigs: Wayne Lapierre, Chris Cox, Ron Schmeitz, and Kain (don't know his last name). I was told that being late for their meeting is frowned upon, and that if you arrive a minute late you should not attend. Therefore, we all got there early. It was worth it, though, to hear them all speak. It was nice to hear their drive and a little of the background and future of the NRA.

After that we joined the rest of the HQ staff for the Christmas Party. It was quite a party. Brunch food was distributed on all 6 levels of the building, and we were able to mingle througout. Then there was a ceremony for all the length of service and outstanding achievement awards. My boss, Jeremy, got a well deserved outstanding achievement award which is highly prestigious. We were all so proud of him!

The ceremony ended at 1:30, and we were dismissed to go home. All the young folks from our division headed to TGIFridays for Happy Hour. It was great to get to know some of my colleagues outside of the office. I was so glad they invited me!

I ran in the mall to go pick up some make up at Sephora, and ran into Amber (co-worker) who invited me to go out to dinner with Central Region, again to the Brazilian Steak House.
Then!!! Danielle came to visit! She asked me earlier in the week to join her at a party in the city for her friend Conrad that we've hung out with both times I've visited. We hopped the metro to U Street, and met several fun friends! I was so glad I brought the camera! And, I was SO happy to have my first visitor! Thanks Dani!

Way too late

I decided I'd try to make this blog a little prettier, and in the process, I stayed up way too late! Now, if I could just figure out how to edit the html to make the body/header be centered instead of right aligned. And maybe figure out how to do some text effects on the header title to make it pop off the image. Any help?

By Popular Demand!

Apparently people are reading this... Two different people asked why I didn't blog this morning. I guess that's good, right!? People love me. ;)

The reason I didn't blog... I woke up 15 minutes later, and didn't have the extra time. No, I wasn't late for work! It's just I didn't have that extra few minutes to type. I was actually 30 minutes early, as I've been all week. I'm trying to break myself of the nasty "late" habit. :)

I was SO tired yesterday I fell asleep during Top Chef, and I rarely ever fall asleep watching tv (at least shows I choose to watch). I woke up just in time to find out my girl got the boot. Sorry to see her go, but at least she made it that far! Go Jen!

Why so tired you ask? Well, I left the hotel at 7:30 am and didn't return until 9 pm. Oh, and did I mention I was wearing 4.5-5 in. heels that whole time? Presentations in the morning, a standing lunch reception at lunchtime, figuring out designing on a MAC in the afternoon, and a reception in the evening. It was a good, but very busy day. I can't show you yet what I designed, but it's pretty dern good, if I say so myself! ;) Once it's published, I'll post it.

The reception was at the house of our Grants Director, and it was wonderful. It's an impressive woman that can cook for 60 people all by herself. She had at least 10 different desserts to choose from, not to mention the extensive menu of heavy hors d'oeuvres and beverages. I want to be her one day - minus the dealing with grants apps part! I think I gained ten pounds last night! I left feeling like I needed to Jazzercise.

Oh, and about Jazzercise, I'm a little mad. There are like 40 places to Jazzercise up here, and NONE of them have Mon-Thurs. regular after work classes. And, they don't have Body Sculpt, which is the class that gives the most definition. Dawn - I should've become an instructor before I came up here so I could do it myself!

Today was another busy day. Of course, Clay says I'm so exhausted because I'm actually working now. Which, I guess is rather true. :) I had to say goodbye to all my shopping websites, facebook, and gmail when I logged onto my corporate computer. Such is life in the real world!

We were at the Marriott almost all day today trying to collect donations from the vendors debuting their products to all our reps. We were relatively successful too!

I figured out a way to describe the way my job works for y'all. The good model is Sally Foster Giftwrap. Sally Foster's job is to use their products to raise money for organizations, i.e. elementary schools. Sally has reps all over the nation that convince schools using Sally to raise funds is the best mode. Those reps are what we call Field Reps. They provide the tools to Volunteer Event Committees (local schools) to raise funds for our cause (The NRA Foundation/schools). Those Field Reps have liasons at the corporate offices (NRA HQ) that help them do their job successfully (that's me). So that's the "services" part of my job. The "coordinator" part is that I plan the Nat'l version of what all the Volunteer Event Committees do, on a much larer scale, that involves two LARGE auction events that raise approximately $250,000 each year. One event involves 1000 attendees at a sit down dinner, and the other involves about half that the next morning. Make sense?

The reason this week has been so crazy is that it's the Field Reps yearly trip to HQ, which means lots and lots of meetings and events. = VERY tired Sarah!

I'm sorry this post is so text-based. I'll have some pictures for you this weekend! Danielle's coming to visit, and we have an awards banquet/reception at HQ on Saturday.

Thanks for reading!

Boom Boom Pow!

Ok, so yesterday was exciting, but exhausting!

It all started at 7:30 when I went outside to discover that my car battery was dead. Silly me left my pin light on in the car, and of course the frost did not help to keep my battery from being drained. Thank the Lord that there was a nice guy outside for his morning smoke that very quickly knew the issue, and helped jumpstart my car. It was a little ironic that the man worked for a company called "Gutter Guys," and he was with a group of friends from the home building/repair industry.

Thanks to him, I still made it to work on time for my early arrival at 8. My department was going over their presentation to be made to the Field Reps, which I very embarassingly found out are Employees not Volunteers! Wow, I felt ridiculous, but at least I learned! The department presented at 8:30, and they did a great job! I was announced as the point of contact for the Annual Meeting, so now, I'm official! The day continued with more presentations from each of the different departments in my division. A bunch of us took a break for lunch and headed down to the NRA Cafe. Pretty good... but kinda like, well, Gee Dining Hall. ;)

So, after a long day of sitting in presentations, the Field Reps and our staff took out their aggression on some targets in the official NRA Shooting Range, which is apparently one of the nicest ranges in the US of A. I planned on "watching" but somehow got dragged into shooting, and I'm glad! I had a great time, and it was amazing the way the gun works. We shot a 22 Ruger pistol at 15 yds and 25 yds. They competed, but Phil from... Ohio (I think) helped me and just taught me some basics. He was so very patient, and I'm so grateful he forced me to do it! :)

The South region (which I'll be representing) took me out for dinner at a really nice Brazilian Steak house where I ate WAY too much. I'm missing my jazzercise! It was delicious, and I'm so glad they invited me along. I had a great time getting to know some of the reps. Jennifer wasn't joking when she said they were fun guys.

I'm doing this post pre-work, so I've got to finish putting on make-up and getting some breakfast, but I wanted y'all to see my targets that I'm SO proud of! I know, I know, they're not THAT fabulous, but hey, cut me some slack! I was working in a nerveracking environment, and it's only like the 4th gun I've held in my life, 2nd handgun. Thanks to Jake for the Glock!

Oh, oh, and I got the offer to take the apt I really wanted! Woohoo!

Check out my targets! I need to figure out that picture album thingy I see on blogs where you push play, but no time today!

A brand new day!

My second real job began today! Hallelujah, I have a job! In this economy, it's nothing short of a miracle!

I arrived safely in Fairfax on Saturday after a long, long drive. It all was going so well until I hit mile marker 84 on I-95. Then it was like the dam broke and cars began flooding through like the river. It took me almost 2 hours just to drive 40 miles. Talk about test of patience!

The Holiday Inn Express is my home for the next weeks. I thought I'd share a few pics of my new "residence." The staff is very nice, and although it's not the swankiest place in the world, it feels like home for now.

Sunday I spent resting for the first time in... well, since I accepted the job 2 Friday's ago. It was much needed, and I have no guilt about being lazy! I did take the time to go meet two potential roommates and see their places. I'm very excited about one possibility! I'm keeping my eyes and ears open though!

Today started earlier than I'm used to, but it was a good day. The offices are SO much larger than at HBA, but my space is well.. let's say.. smaller. But hey, I'm in the D.C. Metro, so I don't really care how small my office(cubicle) is! The team took me out for lunch at this place called Pei Wei, which is produced by PF Changs Bistro. It was quite good, and I enjoyed getting to know everyone. The two other coordinators took me on a tour of the building after lunch, and yes, I saw the range, and NO, I do not yet have a gun. This is one of the busiest weeks for the Field Ops Division (my division), so I'm buckling down for a crazy week. But so far, I think we have a match! me+this job=happy sarah!

So! I took a "first day pic" for my mom and dad. Please excuse the blurriness! I'm not the greatest at self-portraits. The other pic is the NRA towers. I work in the one on the right.

I promise, the next posts will be much less informational and more fun/interesting!