Weight gain during Fall

Travel season was not good to me. Working in college admissions requires that I am out on the road recruiting for the university from almost three months straight. This past fall I was away from home and staying in hotels for a total of 27 nights. Plus, all of those other days that I was not out of the area, I was doing local travel. Typical days of local travel include three to four high school visits a day, plus a college fair at night that typically gets over at 9pm.

During the fall I have long days and am unable to stay on a regular diet. It's unfortunate, but during travel season I have to eat out every day... a few times a day. Usually I am able to be good, but this past year I was bad and my waistline has seen the consequences. :-(

When I started travel season I was already a little unhappy with myself and thought that I could stand to lose 10 - 15 more pounds. But, the pounds started adding on... and now I'm thinking I have about 25 - 30 pounds I need to get rid of.

Don't get me wrong. I do love what I do. It's fun traveling for work because I get to see places I've never been. For example, since starting my job at the University of La Verne I have been to so many places I had never been: Washington, Oregon, Texas, Boston, Maine. I've had the opportunity to travel to Sacramento to do Legislative work, and am hoping to travel to DC in 2009 for Legislative work. I'll probably be visiting Maryland and Colorado next year for conferences... My job is fun and I get to travel... but I hate the fact that it's so hard to stay on a healthy diet when traveling.

With the holidays coming up, I'm not going to set myself up for failure. However, starting January 1 it's diet and exercise time for me. I have put my mind to it, and I am determined to get to my goal weight. And my wedding, that we're hoping to have in May, will get me to my goal. I have an idea of where I need to be and I am determined to be there by my wedding day! Wish me luck!

Conference = Lots of alcohol

Sitting here tonight in my hotel room, the last night in Seattle, I started thinking about how we spent our nights during the conference. Every single night we drank alcohol!

Towards the end of my college career (and a little after), I spent a lot of time enjoying smaller parties with alcoholic beverages. However, around the time I turned 25 I stopped drinking as much. Sure, I would have a drink here or there, but I really didn't drink much at all. But, when I started working in Admissions, I noticed that every time there is a conference going all, they serve LOTS of alcohol and it's like I'm in college again!

It all started last year when I attended the WACAC Conference in San Diego. We stayed out to the wee hours of the night hanging out in the gas lamp and having everything we wanted from the bar... for free. Then, I went to the Summer Institute at UC Santa Cruz and our nights were spent like new college freshman... playing drinking games. Then I went to NACAC in Austin, Texas and every night we had a party to attend that served free alcohol! That was just last year!

This year we had the WACAC Legislative Conference in Sacramento, WACAC in Las Vegas, User Group Conference in Portland, Maine and then NACAC in Seattle... it was a repeat of last year, but in new locations!

I really do attend all of these conferences for professional development. And, I believe that the majority of others do as well. But, why do they serve us unlimited amounts of alcohol for free? It's crazy! Haha... I can't wait until I find out the bill for the California Suite Party that a bunch of California universities threw here in Seattle (and every year)... I had never seen so much alcohol consumed... and by High School Counselors and Admission Counselors.

Just my thoughts - we're supposed to be learning, but a lot of alcohol is consumed during these conferences.

Two Weeks in One Suitcase!

Today I left for Seattle and won't be back home until Sunday, October 5! That's the longest I've been away from home. And, what makes it worse is that I am not traveling with anyone for most of this time. No Maverick :-( I'm with a few co-workers, but only for a few days while we are attending a conference. Then, they all leave Saturday/Sunday and I still have a week by myself!

Have you ever packed for 2 weeks? and tried to fit it in only one suitcase? That's right, I had to pack two weeks worth of clothing in one suitcase because the other suitcase that I still had to pay extra for was already reserved to hold my materials for college fairs (viewbooks, inquiry cards, etc.) That was one of the hardest things I ever had to do because I had to pack for professional dress and colder weather. That's right... it's currently raining in Seattle. I thought I would finally get to experience this great city with sun, but unfortunately I was wrong. But that's okay... I still love this city, even during the gloomy times.

So, back to packing for two weeks. It's hard! All of my clothing is now very wrinkled. And the thing that makes this even harder is that there are two times during this trip that I have to pack up those dirty clothes because I have to get on another plan to go to another city. On Tuesday I fly to Spokane, Washington and then on Thursday I fly to Portland, Oregon. And then finally I get to fly home on Sunday, October 5.

I'm sure I'm going to have fun during this trip, but right now I'm exhausted and I can't wait to go home!

Craziness after travel

Today was my first day back to the office after being away for just five business day. All I can say is that it is crazy coming back to work after just a few days. I had over 20 voicemails to return, new projects to take care of and still more intern training and paperwork! It's a good thing that I was checking email while I was out of town because if not, I would have had over a hundred emails to response to as well!

I love getting out of the office and visiting students... but I never look forward to going back to work. Don't get me wrong... I really like being with my co-workers, but it seems as though the make-up work never ends after I'm out of the office.

I think I'm going to do a little work tonight from home and hopefully I'll be all caught up before I go on my next trip to the Pacific Northwest next week... and this time I'm going to be gone for almost two weeks!!

Glad to be home!

I am home after being gone for about four day in the Central Valley of California. I met with hundreds of students and spoke to just as many parents. I'd exhausted and so happy to be home.

As soon as I got home, I was greet by beautiful roses that Maverick got for me! He wasn't home, but he wanted to have something to welcome me back home. They're beautiful!

It's so good to be home. It's fun traveling for work, but after a few days I miss home. The Central Valley is interesting, but not a place that I ever want to spend too much time - I miss the Pasadena area where we live!

The dogs also greeted me when they go home. They were so excited to see me :)

It's just so nice to be home! I'm going to enjoy the next week and a half then I'm off again for almost two weeks to the Pacific Northwest.

Theft at the Restaurant

I have to admit... For dinner tonight, I ate at the same restaurant chain that I ate at yesterday. I had to since it was so conveniently located just down the street from my hotel and the fact that it offered "To Go" options.

I made a stupid mistake while I was at the restaurant. The server brought me my food and drink and then she walked away with my credit card that I had taken out of my wallet. I set my wallet down on the counter and adjusted everything to make it easy when I would walk out of the restaurant. She came back with my receipt and the copy that I needed to sign. I was so hungry that after I signed my copy, I didn't even put my credit card back in my wallet and picked up all of my things and then went to car.

I got back to the hotel, ate my food, and then went to put everything away and found that my wallet was not in my purse. I looked all around and could not find it. I went out to the car and could not find it. So, I called the restaurant and they had it! I immediately got in my car and drove over to the restaurant. I was so thankful that they had it, I thanked them and then walked out without even looking in the wallet.

I got on the freeway to then go to my college fair of the night. While driving, I looked in the wallet to get my money ready for the parking structure I knew I would be going in and my wallet was empty of any money! I had $40.00 in my wallet when I went to the restaurant, but now it was gone! I was so upset, both at the person that stole the money and myself for making such a stupid mistake.

As soon as I could pull over to make a call (since we need to be hands free while driving in California), I called the restaurant to talk to the manager. I explained that it was a stupid mistake on my part for leaving my wallet, but wanted to let her know that $40 was taken from my wallet. Instead of apologizing for my experience, her first response was, "It must have been a customer because I know none of my employees would have done that." I was shocked by this response and said, "well, again, I want to admit that it was a stupid mistake and I just called in case it was one of your employees so that you knew that you might have a thief in your restaurant." Again, she refused that none of her employees would steal.

I'm sad that I lost the $40, but really upset that there was no sympathy for my situation. I'm also upset that this manager would not admit that it could have been one of her employees.

It's not cool that someone stole my money! This is definitely a time that I'm hoping karma is real!

Table for One

I travel a lot for work, which means that I spend a lot of time alone on the road. This includes eating meals all by myself. For the most part it doesn't bother me to be alone because it's a great opportunity to just relax and not have to worry about anything.

But, there are some days that it really gets to me... like today. I decided to go to Chili's today for lunch after one of my college fairs. I wanted in right after another woman and the hostesses assumed that we were together. Then, the hostess says, "Would you like to get seated now, or would you like to wait for your guest?" I told her that I was by myself and only needed a table for one and she looked at me with such pity and was probably thinking, "Oh poor girl, she has no friends."

I was also looked at by other customers like I was pathetic. I know I sound paranoid, but I've been going on business travel for three years now and today the people really got to me because they were so obvious about looking at me.

Table for One. There's nothing wrong with people eating alone, or traveling alone. First, there are a lot of people that have to travel for work, so obviously they're going to be alone. But second, what's wrong with being alone? If I didn't have alone time, I think I would go crazy. Some people really need to be alone with themselves and their thoughts.

So, next time you are at a restaurant and someone asks for a table for one, don't judge them. There is nothing wrong with the majority of us.

Travel Season Does Not Mean Vacation

So many times when I'm getting ready for travel season at work, those people that don't travel always think that it's a vacation. Not even close. Yesterday I drove two hours to get to Bakersfield, three hours at a crazy college fair and I was working remotely for a few hours. Sure, I might have free time in the middle of the day, but I'm working until 9:00 or 10:00 today.

This morning I got up at 6am so that I can drive an hour and a half to Visalia for a college fair from 9am to 1pm. Again, I'll have some free time during the day in which I'll use to respond to work email and then it's on to another college fair from 6pm to 9pm. Below is the picture from the fair before the craziness of thousands of students arrived at the Rabobank Convention Center.


One day I wish I could take one of these people with me on the road for them to see just how much all of us counselors are actually doing when we're on the road doing recruiting!

Fire Season

It's September and I'm a bit scared of fire season. As I was driving up to Bakersfield today, I noticed how dry the hills surrounding the 5 and 99 Freeways were. Below are a few pictures:

Look how yellow and dry the hills are! It has been so hot in Southern California this summer and I'm afraid that the fire season will be just as bad as last year. I remember last year coming out of work to find my car covered in ash - it's scary.

The drive to Bakersfield wasn't too bad. It went pretty fast and I was able to find lots of things on the radio to keep me entertained. And finally I made it to Bakersfield:


I'm not in my hotel room and it's pretty nice. I'm a Marriott girl and I'm loving this location - huge room and a great fitness room with televisions on all of the machines! Plus, I'm getting great points that I'm saving for a great trip to Hawaii!

I'm going to relax for a little while and then it's on to the Rabobank Convention Center for the Kern County College Night.

Preparing for the Trip

I woke up this morning to my mom calling. Her first question was, "Are you okay?" Of course I was okay and wondered why she was asking. I guess she woke up this morning to the sound of my voice continually calling her in a panicked tone - it really wasn't me, so she must have been dreaming.

Luckily she only called about 15 minutes before I needed to actually wake up to get ready to pick up my rental car from Enterprise. Maverick drove me to the Enterprise and I went in to get my car and of course I got my Chevy Cobalt. The University only allows me to rent compacts, so I usually end up with Cobalts. This time I got a deep blue color and it runs really well - it should be easy to find in the sea of parking lots I will be in this week.

After that, I came back home to say bye to Maverick before he left for work. Then, I was on my way to run my errands (post office, bank and target). I love doing errands during the weekdays in the morning - I wish I could have everyday off. It's nice to sleep in and do everything that I need to do when places are less crowded. But, I'll be in the world of working for a bit longer - until we win the lottery :-)

When I was at Target, I bought a few cards for Maverick. I want to make him feel loved and missed while I'm gone because I feel so bad for leaving him. When I first got this job, he was happy for me and thought it would be fun. But, I don't think he realized how much I'm away from home during the Fall (September - December). For example, I'll be away from home for almost two weeks at the end of September through October, missing his birthday. So, I'm going to prepare him a bunch of little notes to show him how much I love him and will hide them around the house before I leave today.

It's stressful leaving on business trips. There's so much to do, but at least it will be nice to be out of the office for a few days!