It's raaaaaaining men... okay, it's not. But I love that song. It is raining though. It's raining a lot. When I opened the front door this morning, I was surprised by not just drizzle, but a complete downpour - puddles and all. For most places, this is okay, normal even. For San Diego, it's like all hell breaks loose. 
I haven't been listening to the traffic reports, but I can almost promise that there have been hundreds of accidents and millions of people stuck in gridlock. Welcome to SoCal. I've been safe inside my office today, but I kind of wish I could have been outside, or at least in my bed. I think the rain is supposed to continue through tomorrow, which is great. If you're wondering, I'll be watching movies and eating soup all weekend. Let the rain fall down! (haha, why not end it with a song, too?)
Rain, rain - STAY!
A recipe
Todd and I made chili last night, and as I was eating leftovers for lunch, a bunch of my co-workers started asking me about the recipe. It's kind of funny that they were impressed, because it's basically the easiest recipe ever. Here's what we did for everyone who encouraged me to post this:
Ingredients-
1 chili seasoning packet
1 can of corn
1 can of black beans
1 can of kidney beans
A package of ground turkey (or chicken or beef)
1 can of sliced or crushed tomatoes
Hmmm, I think that's it. Then, you basically just cook it all together. Brown the meat and then add everything else in (minus the corn water). And, don't forget the cornbread. I'm sure it would be better to make it from scratch, but the Marie Callendar's brand is scrumptious, too.
Mmm, it's delicious. I want some now.
And you thought I wouldn't be back...
That's right - I'm back to post some more! It's currently pitch black outside, which makes it very strange to be at work, especially since all of the city lights make me feel like it's much later then 5 p.m. I'm still not sure how I feel about the time change. I think I want it to go away. Anyway, this post should be interesting because I really have nothing to update or say (interesting in the "hmmm, where is this gonna go?" kind of way). I think my most exciting moment of the day has been eating a Lindt truffle. They are delicious and really do melt in your mouth. Plus, I feel like Lindts are part of Christmas, so I'm feeling more and more in the holiday spirit as each day passes.
Actually here are some things that are making me feel more Christmasy:
1. My office is decorated. You should have seen my surprise and delight this morning when I saw the lights and Merry Christmas sign at the front desk.
2. I went X-mas shopping on my lunch break. It was kind of stressful, but mainly because there were so many good deals! I will be returning to Horton tomorrow.
3. I have a pink Christmas tree. Don't laugh, it's cute. And even if Todd, Eli and Rylan say it's ugly, Steph and I will proudly display our tree - silver snowflake ornaments and all. 
And, last but not least.
4. It's about 10 below zero in my office, which has forced most of us girls to resort to wearing pea coats all day. I don't care if the sun is shining outside... it might start snowing in here at any moment. Did I mention that people have brought in space heaters?
I think I might need to invest in some gloves or something. The next thing you know, I'll be wearing a full on snow suit to work. Oh well, 26 days 'till Christmas. And only two more days 'till the weekend!!
Post Number Two
I'm back for post number two of the day! My blog has seen better days, and yet again, somehow weeks have passed. I think I've been feeling uncreative lately, or maybe its just the fact that I'm so darn busy. Anyway, I'm excited to post. I sure hope there's still someone out there reading this thing :)
So, I'm back at work after a fabulously relaxing and fun four-day weekend. Thanksgiving was great this year, especially since we successfully brought so many people together. Not only was it my mom and co (which is a grand total of 6!), but the O'Kanes were there, as were Todd, his sister Lin and roomies Eli and Derrick. The age ranges were rediculous, but it was a lot of fun for everyone to meet and spend some time together eating mass amounts of food and desserts. The boys even played some football, which Brendan loved. We also played Apples to Apples! Can't remember who won, but that game is always a lot of fun. The rest of the weekend was chock full of good times. Since I used to work in SeaWorld's PR department, I have some pretty sweet connections with a bunch of awesome people who just happen to be in charge of giving out tickets! I obviously love SeaWorld, but I knew that Lin really liked marine life and that Eli had never been, so I got 4 tickets for Friday. We didn't tell Lin, which was fun because she looked really confused as we were pulling into the SeaWorld parking lot! 
The day was really great - we watched a bunch of shows, fed some dolphins and had a close encounter with some scary looking sharks. Somehow, I avoided the funnel cakes, and I've been regretting it ever since. I love those tasty treats! And, you might have guessed, we ended the night with Beachcombers (it wouldn't be a Friday without it). 
(can you tell that we're singing the Umbrella song?)
It's become somewhat of a tradition to get together at Beachies when everyone is home for Turkey Day, so all of us, and my much-missed high school friends, met up for a classic home for the holidays reunion. The rest of the weekend was pretty low key, and although I sang the "I'm bored" song a million times, it was great to catch up on sleep and have no real plans.
And now, the BIG news:
While most of us were sitting around doing nothing last weekend, Brookey (my 4-year college roommate) was off getting engaged! She's the first of my close friends - heck friends at all - to be on the road to marriage, so it's been crazy to think that on June 28 she'll be a wife! Congrats again, Brooke!
I think that's all of the exciting news I have. I'm looking forward to the weekend already (is it too soon for that?) and even more excited for more holidays to come my way. Back to work for me... but only an hour left 'till Taco Tuesday. Ay, ay, ay!
Real fast
I know I've been MIA again, and believe me, I have tons to update, but I wanted to share this will everyone. I think it's pretty cool! Test your vocabulary and do something good for the world.
More to come soon... I promise.
Networking = Friends
So, tonight is the PRSA New Pros Social and I'm very excited. Basically, the New Pros are a subset of the Public Relations Society of America formed to help connect new PR professionals with others working in the San Diego PR industry. As nerdy as that sounds, the socials are a ton of fun, especially because they are made up of a bunch of PR people hanging out in awesome venues that just happen to be full of free appetizers! Plus, a bunch of my friends from work go, as does my pr-lovin roommate, Stephanie. (I think even Todd is coming tonight, haha!) Tonights social is being held at the House of Blues, which is a couple of blocks away from where I work. I've never actually been there (I think), so I'm looking forward to checking out a new place and getting to hang out with a lot of really fun people. Besides the fun factor, these socials really are great for networking. In PR, half of the challenge is knowing the right people to get you in the right doors. Events like the one tonight make that process a whole lot easier, especially for those who are new to the industry. And, anyway, who wouldn't want free food and the chance to make new friends? See you there!
MIA
Geeze, it sure had been a while! I'm sure you're all sick of seeing my Happy Halloween post. I know I am! I've been trying to get online for quite a while now so I could update, but something always gets in the way. Tonight's dilemma? My internet has been acting up. But, here I am, and I have a lot to say. First of all, I never wrote about San Fran. I absolutely can't believe that a week ago today I was up North, still with about 2 hours to spend in the city before coming home. Time sure does fly! My trip to San Francisco was amazing though, and Todd and I crammed as much touristy stuff into two days as we could. Quick recap - With our sightseeing book in hand, we started off our tour of the city with a bike ride over the Golden Gate Bridge. The ride was really fun, even though they make it seem way easier than it is. Apparently the many hills are not a selling point at the bike shops! Despite the uphill climb, we made it across and even got to take a lot of really great pictures. It was so exhilarating to be standing in the middle of such a famous bridge, while cars whizzed by and the ocean surrounded us. I was really happy we got to do that! Our first day also encompassed a lot of city discovery. Let's just say we put our bus passes to good use. We went all over the city - North Beach, Haight, Union Square, China Town, Nob Hill, and of course, Fisherman's Wharf. We were also lucky enough to have beautiful weather, which helped since I'm pretty sure we walked for about 8 hours that first day. Day two was just as fun. We started off with a tour of Alcatraz and spent the rest of the day hanging out around the Wharf. Todd's cousin Amy and her fiance Josh even met up with us! It was great to meet some more of Todd's family, and I really enjoyed hanging out with some seasoned Nor Calers. Last week was kind of like a whirlwind. It was stressful and hard, but I got through it somehow. I actually feel like this weekend has been really long. Especially today. I definitely jam packed a lot into it though. Friday started off a true roommate weekend with a free Maroon 5 concert! Steph randomly won tickets off of our new favorite radio station - Sophie - so we headed over to our old stomping ground at SDSU's Cox Arena and had an amazing time singing and dancing for a couple of hours. I had forgotten how much I like Maroon 5's music and I was really excited that they played a bunch of my favorite songs, like Secret. Saturday was a pretty lazy day. My work retreat is this coming weekend, so I had to spend a majority of the day working on my presentation for the two days we're spending at the Loews Coronado :) By the time the night rolled around, Steph and I had some serious cabin fever, but nothing to do. All of our friends were busy or working and couldn't hang out with us. Even Eli and Derrick rejected us! Somehow we invited ourselves to hang out with Rylan, who was going to a black and white themed party. I hadn't been to a party in a while, so this one was a lot of fun. I knew basically no one, but the guests were pretty nice AND I got to dress up. We got home pretty late, but as usual, I woke up way to early this morning. I was really set on going on a bike ride for some reason, but since I don't have a bike, I was presented with a bit of a problem. I found a bike shop online and gave them a call, which resulted in me being able to use a bike for 2 hours with full gear in exchange for a 6-pack of beer (clearly college guys were running the shop). I was really excited, but by the time I got ready and recruited Steph to come along, it had begun to rain. By the way, since when does it rain in San Diego?! After this, we decided our only other option was to go to the movies. So, we saw Gone Baby Gone, which I thought was a great movie. It was a well-developed story that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Plus, it was set in Boston, so it got bonus points right away. Since then, I've been at home, wanting the day to both speed up and slow down - tomorrow is Monday, you know! So, that's it, I think. A week and a half in a nutshell!