Kanna's Blog

My New Normal

2012-02-01T17:14:00.006-06:00

Sorry for the hiatus. In case you're wondering why I haven't blogged in a while, here's why: My New Year's Resolution: Live Life to Its Fullest.

My dad passed away on Dec. 20, 2011. Five days before Christmas. We all knew it was coming, but it didn't make it any easier to handle. I'm still struggling with it, even if I don't cry every single day like I did in those first few weeks.

There's nothing that can prepare you for the amount of grief you feel when you lose someone you love, especially a parent. A fellow blogger friend of mine puts it into words better than me. She also lost a parent to cancer recently.

But the bottom line is, I'm trying to find my new "normal." The death of my father has made my life anything but "normal," but I'm trying.

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things at work.
I'm trying to be social with my friends.
I'm trying to be happy with my new puppy (more on her later).
I'm trying to be a good girlfriend.
I'm trying to live with my little sister again.
I'm trying to eat healthy and work out more.
I'm trying to get ready for this year's Relay For Life event.

I'm trying.

And some days, I feel like I'm failing. Sometimes, maybe failing at just one of those things. Other days, I feel like I'm failing at all of those. But thank God for the love and support of my family and friends. I say that a lot, but I mean it more than I can say. Because without them, I really would be failing at all of those things, all the time.

I have an amazing boyfriend who puts up with a lot of my crap. I have a little sister who is a lot stronger and wiser than she lets on to be. I have a friend who checks in with me daily to see how my day is going (which helps me more than she knows). I have an aunt who looks out for me. I have my "adopted" parents who take care of all the business/paperwork that I don't want to or feel like dealing with. I have friends, co-workers and a boss who are understanding. I have friends at SCC that I didn't even know about until my father's death was announced. I have other friends who have stepped up when I didn't ask them to.

These people are amazing, and I'm not even mentioning all of them. I can't say thank you enough.

But what I'm saying to you, my readers, and friends, is that I'm trying, and I'm doing my best. I may not be at my best right now, but bare with me. I'll get back to being my best again some day soon.

For now, I'll leave you with a few photos of my new puppy, Bailey, who I've been wanting to blog about but haven't had the time to do so. And while she is the source for a lot of my frustration when she is chewing on my new shoes or making messes on the carpet, she is also the source for a lot of happiness right now where there usually wouldn't be.

This is what she looked like on the first day I got her, Christmas day:

On our way to Tyler's parents house for Christmas morning:

This was taken just last week. Look at how much she's grown!

And this was taken a couple weeks ago. That's her big brother, Bob. They are the best of buds now. :)

Here is the wonderful guy who got Bailey for me. And the best part is, it was all a surprise. He kept her a secret from me for three weeks while she lived with his parents, and they brought her to me on Christmas morning. It was perfect. :)

'Tis the Season

2011-12-12T16:13:00.017-06:00

After putting up the Christmas tree and decorations, Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, making a gingerbread house, ice skating, burning my tongue on hot chocolate and watching my favorite Christmas movie... I can officially say I'm ready for Christmas!

On Sunday night I hosted my first-ever Christmas wrapping party with my girlfriends and we had a blast! We made pizza, cookies and wrapped our hearts away for a good 3+ hours. In the end my sister and I wrapped more than 30 presents!

Before: The Christmas Explosion

After: The results of a successful Christmas wrapping party!

I don't care what people say about the stress of the holiday season and having to find that perfect gift for everyone... I LOVE IT ALL. While I know presents aren't everything, picking out something you know the person you're giving it to is going to love and appreciate... that's one of the best feelings of all.

I don't find shopping for other people stressful. Shopping for myself? Yes. But I also feel guilty shopping for myself sometimes. There's nothing guilty about spending a little money on those you love the most. And seeing their faces when you got them exactly what they wanted, even if they didn't have to tell you... AMAZING.

My boyfriend and I also put up our first Christmas tree together a couple weeks ago, and he is supposed to put up the Christmas lights on the outside of the house soon...

Almost all of my shopping is done, except for a few things, which is probably the earliest I've ever had my Christmas shopping done. The only thing left to do is mail out Christmas cards!

Even my office is all decked out for the holidays, with the new stockings I made for everyone:

And Santa Scooter! :) Made by the lovely Miss Kelly Thebeau (she's very talented).

Kelly was also the brains behind this masterful creation:

In case you can't tell, that's the Marketing and Communications Department's gingerbread house! SCC hosts a holiday contest every year among the departments, and this year's contest involved building our own gingerbread houses. Ours was based on the movie "Nightmare Before Christmas," which I fully intend on watching soon, and the scene was from when Jack Skellington was pretending to be Santa Claus in Christmas Town.

Source: layoutsparks.com

If you haven't seen this movie yet, like a few people in our office, you better put this on your to-do list before Christmas, it's a must-see classic!

As you can see, Jack, his dog Zero, and the snowman were molded by hand from clay by Kelly. I told you she's talented! Everything else except for the "Christmas Town" paper sign and the "snow" was made out of candy. This was my first time attempting to make a gingerbread house, and I have to say although it was time consuming it was really fun!

Speaking of my favorite Christmas movies, I watched my all-time favorite, "It's a Wonderful Life" last week (also a must-see).

Source: bptop100movies.blogspot.com

The SCC Young People's Theatre just so happens to be performing the musical version live this weekend at SCC, but unfortunately I cannot make it to any of the shows. You should though, and let me know how it is! Buy your tickets at stchastickets.com. Meet the cast and check out the photos before you go!

I am, however, going to see The Nutcracker performed by the St. Louis Ballet at the Touhill this weekend!

Source: Touhill.org

I'm so excited! I've always been a big fan of The Nutcracker, and I saw it performed up at Truman once, but never professionally. I've heard it was amazing, and I can't wait to experience it myself!

Other than see The Nutcracker, I have three other St. Louis winter activities on my list, including:

Try snowboarding (I've never been) at Hidden Valley Ski Resort.
Take my little brother and sisters ice skating at Steinberg Ice Rink.
Take my little brother and sisters to see Christmas lights.

I took my little brother and sisters ice skating for their first time at the SCC on Ice event last week at the college and they had a blast, even if it wasn't real ice. They were scared at first, but once they were on the "ice," they were skating machines!

They had holiday music playing, free hot chocolate (which I burned my tongue on) and there was a giant walk-in snow globe for the kids to play in and get their picture taken in. Of course afterwards our clothes and hair were shedding that fake snow stuff all night, but it was all in fun!

Now that my little brother and sister have gotten a taste of ice skating, I'd love to take them to a real outdoor ice rink! I've been on the ice rink at Steinberg, but oddly enough not to skate on it. I play broomball there every Tuesday night. If you don't know what broomball is, check out this video from my team's championship game earlier this year at intermission during a Blues game!

My team, Pump Up the Jam

Basically, it's hockey on ice, with a few exceptions, like tennis shoes instead of skates, a ball instead of a puck and broom sticks instead of hockey sticks. It's super fun, and playing on the same ice the Blues play on was so much fun! Our last regular season game is tonight, and we're hoping to get a chance to compete for the championship again! So wish us luck!

Well I think I've gone on enough about the holidays. Only seven days left of work until the winter break... so I hope everyone has a great holiday! See ya next year!

Update (2:56 p.m. 12/13/11): Now that the SCC holiday e-greeting has been officially released by the SCC President, Dr. Ron Chesbrough, I just wanted to share the video that I spent most of last week working on. I think it turned out great, thanks in large part to the hard work of my co-workers Ben Munson and Kelly Thebeau!

Social Networking in St. Louis

2011-11-17T16:50:00.010-06:00

Last week I ventured into the city not once, but twice, for professional development reasons. That hasn't happened since... well, it's been a while. And when I say "city," I mean anything east of Hwy 170, so yes that includes Clayton.

I haven't been as active in attending these types of professional development events lately mostly because of three reasons:

They are usually in the "city," AKA too far of a drive for this St. Charles County girl.
They can be expensive.
The topics don't pertain me, or I already know... or think I know enough about the subject.

But this week was the exception. First up was the REBUS (@REBUS) event last Tuesday night at Busch Stadium. Now, I'm not going to lie, the Busch Stadium venue was definitely a draw for me, especially since it was in the Cardinals Club, but that wasn't everything.

Source: St. Louis Cardinals website

The event featured the following panelists:

Rebecca Saunders, Global Marketing Manager for Stereotaxis (@STXSontheRoad)
Julia Row, Manager of Special Events for the St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals)
Stephen Surman, VP of Digital Strategy for Anheuser-Busch
Jessica Simmons, Corporate Marketing Communications Director for Monsanto (@MonsantoCo)
May Scheve Reardon, Director of The Missouri Lottery (@MissouriLottery)

Talk about a wide variety of experience! They were a great panel and they provided a lot of insight into the advertising/marketing world. Here are a few of my takeaways from the panel:

Consumers don't see a difference between digital, print, experience, etc., so brand strategy is key. For instance, Stephen Surman from Anheuser-Busch said, "The consumer doesn't see a digital Budweiser or a traditional Budweiser; they just see a Budweiser."
Often when trying to come up with new and creative marketing ideas the end goal gets lost, which is to move your brand forward.
Missouri Lottery and Anheuser-Busch have two totally opposite strategies when it comes to how to deal with online negativity: AB chooses to let sleeping dogs lie, while Missouri Lottery would rather "nip it in the bud." At SCC, we tend to go with the AB method of letting negative comments slide, rather than react right away.

While I thought the panel was great, I have to admit I felt a little uncomfortable at this event, mostly because I hardly knew anyone, which was unusual for me at a marketing/PR/advertising/communications type of event. And being out of the "networking" game for a while, I felt uneasy about approaching strangers and striking up a conversation out of the blue, so I kept to myself. I've attended one other REBUS event before, and felt the exact opposite, so I'm not quite sure if it was me or them. Probably me.

In case you're wondering, REBUS is a network of young advertising professionals, and they are sponsored by Ad Club St. Louis.

They host events throughout the year at various St. Louis agencies and organizations to give us young professionals an inside look at how these businesses work. The last one I attended was at Avatar Studios, a production company, and it was really cool to get a behind-the-scenes look at their shop. Oddly enough, they also happen to be the company that produced SCC's commercials last year.

Then Thursday, I went to an IABC (@IABCstl) event titled "Recipe for Success: Key Components of a Successful Social Media Strategy," featuring Eric Baggett (@smszombie), director of online marketing at Steady Rain (@SteadyRain). Eric was a great presenter and he gave us a lot of tips in creating a social media strategy, including:

Before you being creating a social media strategy, ask yourself how you plan to add value to your campaign.
When defining your goals and objectives, think about whether you want to innovate, initiate, respond or listen, then determine how you are going to measure your success.
Think about what "success" means to you, and what it looks like.
Your social media strategy should match your overall marketing plan.
Steps to a successful social media plan: develop your plan, determine the channels, assign resources, execute, listen and measure.
Determine the right channels for your goals. Every channel is not usually the answer.
Just because someone is young doesn't mean they are a social media expert. What matters is if they have passion for it or not.
The idea that you need to be everywhere because that's where everyone is, isn't always the best social media strategy.
Sells your product/service not by direct advertising through your social media networks, but by building trust with your followers/fans.
Anything you do in social media can improve your SEO.
In order for your social media plan to be successful it needs to decrease cost, increase revenue and gain a competitive advantage.
Social media isn't always the best option for B2B (business to business) businesses.

I had a great time at the IABC event and was able to meet a few new people, as well as catch up with some old friends (which is part of why I love IABC events!)

Both events were great, actually, and they were both worth my trips into the "city," so hopefully I'll be attending more events in the future... even if it means venturing out of St. Charles County every once in a while!

HootSuite vs TweetDeck

2011-10-14T09:36:00.000-05:00

I love HootSuite. And no they're not paying me to say that. But it's a tool I've been using for more than two years now, and even though I've been looking, I have found no better tool to manage all of my social media networks.

I'll never forget when I first started using HootSuite, I told a former co-worker about it and she asked, "What's it called? TootSuite?" And surprisingly she was not over the age of 30, but HootSuite was still relatively new back then so I can't give her too much trouble over it. Still pretty funny though. :)

I talked a little about how I used HootSuite to manage SCC's Twitter and Facebook accounts at my TweetUp SCC presentation a couple weeks ago, and I think I may have convinced my fellow blogger Andrea Compton to give HootSuite a try. She currently uses TweetDeck, which I've tried but wasn't a huge fan of. To read more about TweetDeck, check out Andrea's blog. But if you want to learn more about HootSuite, read on, my friend.

In many ways, HootSuite and TweetDeck are similar. For instance, take Andrea's first paragraph of her description of TweetDeck:

TweetDeck, or any aggregator, is an application thatallows you to view and post to all of your social media accounts in one place.You can add Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Google Buzzaccounts, as well as customized searches, that will appear in individualcolumns. TweetDeck also allows you to add links, shorten links and tweets,attach media files, and includes all of the basic Facebook and Twitterfeatures. This is really convenient when you want to check all accounts withouthaving to open and close each app or Web site. It is also really convenientwhen you want to post the same information to multiple accounts simultaneously. You can also schedule posts to go out atspecific dates and times in the future.

Everything she said about TweetDeck is the same for HootSuite, with the exception that HootSuite can also sync WordPress, Ping.fm and mixi (Japan's biggest social network) accounts.

As Andrea said, the obvious benefits of TweetDeck/HootSuite are being able to manage multiple social networks at once, and being able to schedule them out ahead of time. That makes it easier for me on days when I know I'm going to be away from my desk or out of the office and something very time sensitive (whether it's about an event or a deadline) needs to be posted on Facebook/Twitter.

Here's a screenshot of my HootSuite account (click on it to make it larger):

And here are the quick analytics HootSuite offers:

There are a few differences between TweetDeck and HootSuite, and the two main ones for me are:

HootSuite is a web-based application, so you can access it anywhere, anytime.
HootSuite tracks analytics on any links you shorten through their application.

I'm not sure if TweetDeck has analytic capabilities, but if it doesn't, that is reason enough to choose HootSuite over TweetDeck. I track the number of clicks SCC gets on each hyperlink every week, and it is extremely helpful.

Like TweetDeck, HootSuite also as a mobile application which is very useful.

Honestly, I'm not trying to "sell" HootSuite over TweetDeck, but I do recommend using some kind of social networking managing service/tool, especially if you are operating several different accounts. It just makes life easier!

Feeling Grateful

2011-10-11T10:22:00.001-05:00

I'm feeling grateful today. It's not even 10 a.m. yet and I've already had at least 50 people wish me a happy birthday, whether it was in person or via text, Facebook or Twitter. If that doesn't make someone feel loved, I don't know what does.

And trust me when I say I'm not trying to say how "cool" or "popular" I am with that statement, but just the fact that I think it's "cool" that that many people care to wish me a happy birthday, and that social media allows for people (some I've never even met) to wish whoever, whenever a happy birthday.

I also owe some thanks, even if it is a bit belated.

TweetUp

As some of you may know, Andrea Compton and I planned and executed SCC's first ever TweetUp SCC Week a couple weeks ago.

Overall, we probably had around 70 people total show up for the events throughout the week, which averages to around 15 or so people at each event. Not bad for our first runaround! Andrea has a good recap of the week's events and speakers on her blog.

But I would just like to send a special thank you shout out to Brian Schwartz (@creativereason) and Craig Moore (@CraigGMoore) for appearing as a guest speaker and panelist for two of our TweetUp events! Brian came on behalf of Social Media Club - St. Louis (@SMCSTL) and talked about the differences between networking and friending on social networks, and Craig was the legal representative on the Privacy and Security Panel following the showing of Catfish. They were both very generous to donate their time and efforts to being a part of TweetUp SCC, and I hope they will come back next year!

(Side note: I contacted both of our speakers via Twitter, including Craig who I had never even met personally! If that doesn't prove the value of social media, then stay tuned for more...)

Andrea and I both would love to host TweetUp again, but we will probably change up a few of the events to better fit the needs of the SCC community. We realized we might have been a bit overzealous by cramming in five separate events into four days, and we also realized that some of our topics were a bit too advanced for our audiences. Surprisingly for me, the most common question I heard was, "What is Twitter?" So we clearly need to start with the basics, rather than jumping into the more advanced topics of social media!

All in all though I had a great time and learned a lot myself! If you attended and have any feedback for us, please comment on my or Andrea's blog, or email me at kanna_taylor@stchas.edu. We'd appreciate it!

Trivia Night

Twitter came to my rescue yet again. I am on the planning subcommittee for the SCC 25th Anniversary Trivia Night, which is this Friday, by the way, and it was my job to collect items for the sports raffle basket. So first things first, I sent out a tweet:

And within minutes I received a direct message:

I told her, "That would be great," but in my head I was screaming, "Heck yes!" And before I knew it I had an email attached with a certificate good for exactly what she said. How awesome is that?

That same day I also sent a direct message to @RascalsBaseball asking who I could contact about donations, and within minutes I was given a phone number and two names. I called, left a voicemail, and the next day I received a message that four tickets to a 2012 game were waiting for me at their box office. So far, so good, right? Well I'm not done.

The last big prize I was able to get was not via Twitter, but through email. I simply emailed a ticket sales rep at the Kansas City Royals that I had been in contact with over the summer and asked her to put me in touch with her community relations person, and within a few hours I received an email informing me that they would be sending us four tickets to a 2012 in the mail!

This was all in a day. Amazing what social media and the Internet/email can do for you. If it weren't for those communication tools, I would've had to either walk into their offices in person, make a phone call, or send a letter, and who knows how long it would've taken to hear back from anyone!

In case you're wondering, we also have a gift certificate from Fleet Feet, so this sports raffle basket is pretty jacked. We also have some other great prizes, including:

Massage gift certificates
Panera bread for a year
Restaurant gift cards
Wine basket
Movie passes

If you are interested in winning any of these prizes, then you should grab seven of your closest friends and sign up for the Trivia Night this Friday at 7 p.m. at SCC! It's only $25/person and it includes complimentary beer, wine, soda, water and popcorn. There are also VIP tables available for $250/table of eight. The VIP table includes table service, three mulligans, eight raffle tickets and two bottles of wine! Plus it's all for a good cause! All proceeds will support scholarships and academic enhancements through the SCC Foundation. I already have two tables signed up myself and I'm stoked! Hope to see you there!

From Lazy to Crazy

2011-09-14T17:03:00.001-05:00

Ever have one of those weekends where you felt like you accomplished absolutely nothing?

Or have one of those weekends where you were actually glad to go back to work so you could "slow down"?

I had both of those types of weekends back-to-back.Ironically, "Labor" Day weekend was one of the laziest yet most relaxing weekends I'd had in what felt like years. I was supposed to go out of town that weekend to see my cousin in Maryville (she goes to Northwest Missouri State University) with my other cousin, but that was unfortunately cancelled. However, since I had not made any other plans I was able to do absolutely NOTHING all weekend. And it was amazing!

As you can see by my blog posts, I'm a pretty busy gal, and for the most part, I like it that way. I often get complaints from the boyfriend for over planning, or trying to do too much in one weekend. And while that's probably true, that's what I do. I like to go full speed, 24/7. If I don't, I feel like I'm wasting time while I could be doing something productive or something more fun. Call me crazy, I guess, but that's how I've always been. I even get questions from my friends like "Seriously, when do you have down time?" or "Do you ever just get to sit at home and relax?" And generally that answer is no. (Refer to "wasting time" statement above.)

But for whatever reason, whether it was simply because my plans fell through, or because God knew I needed a break, I was granted a weekend free of doing anything but sitting on my couch. And that's exactly what I did. Of course, in my natural style, I did manage to do four productive things:

Tried a new sushi place in St. Charles, Little Tokyo.
Worked at Hallmark, only as a favor to my friend because I was actually scheduled to be off. But it turned out to be good for me to get out of the house.
Made Oreo cheesecake cookies.
Learned to play Madden '12.

Out of all of these, I think my proudest moment was learning to play Madden, and kicking my boyfriend's butt FOUR TIMES IN A ROW!!! He will probably hate me for announcing this on my blog, but I CAN'T HELP IT!!! Although I have since lost two games in a row, those four games were the most glorious moments of my life. In case you didn't know this, I NEVER beat my boyfriend at any video game. For one, I haven't been a huge fan of video games ever since I went away to college, and two, he's ridiculously good at every video game he touches. So needless to say, I was proud.

The pink Playstation controller that Tyler bought me to convince me to play. :)

I was also quite proud of the Oreo cheesecake cookies, which I just happened to find while I was surfing the 'Net. And here's the exchange that took place between my boyfriend and I:

Me: OMG I just found this recipe for Oreo cheesecake cookies.
Ty: WHAT?!
Me: (show him the picture)
Ty: OMG we are making those tonight!

One hour later we were in line at Wal-Mart buying all the necessary supplies to make these delicious cookies. And they were oh-so-delicious.

And in case you were wondering how Little Tokyo was, for St. Charles County, it was great. And I would highly recommend it. I went there based on a review by St. Charles Patch and it turned out even better than I expected! I'm usually a little leery of trying new sushi places (especially in St. Charles), but I was thoroughly impressed, as was my friend and fellow sushi lover. And I like to think that says a lot coming from me. The next place I want to try is called Sushi Ai, also in St. Charles.

But other than those few things, I had a great, relaxing weekend. And as all of my friends and family can attest to, it was definitely needed.

Especially since the next week I went right back into my running around 24-7 mode, which included a triple-header in softball, followed by a double-header, followed by a jam-packed weekend of going to the horse races, Black Thorn and ziplining!

We both bet on the same horse to win at the Fairmount Park Racetrack!

At Black Thorn with my dad in South St. Louis for some deep-dish Chicago style pizza!

Pre-ziplining at Meramec Caverns' Caveman Zipline!

And that doesn't include the crazy week I had at work with All College Day and Fall Fun Blitz!

The staff team won the All College Day Faculty v. Staff game!

Rachel Brown and her band members with Scooter at Fall Fun Blitz!

And the craziness at SCC doesn't look like it will be ending any time soon, in fact I think it might be picking up speed! The next couple weeks should be pretty crazy around here, but hey, that's what I live for!

It's the Little Things...

2011-08-20T18:29:00.004-05:00

Sometimes in life, it's just about the little things.

For instance...

Listening to an old CD from high school with some oldies but goodies.

Discovering new music. And bands like The Civil Wars.

Cranking up the music, rolling down the windows and singing at the top of your lungs on a beautiful summer's night.

Starting your day off right with a caramel frappucino.

Source: Jhino Photography

Finding a pair of heels at Target that you've been eyeing for months on sale for $6 (marked down from $25)!

Eating lunch with my dad every day. Which includes getting home made BLTO's (Bacon Lettuce Tomato Onion) from my aunt.

Taking a road trip to Columbia for work on a beautiful day.

Having your seven-year-old sister call you on HER birthday asking you if you got her any presents.

Getting a new phone (for free) lap top (from my parents) and camera (from my mom), all within a few weeks.

Actually contributing to my trivia team, the Hairy Trumans, with an answer from left field.

Did you know that Stevie Ray Vaughn died in a helicopter crash in 1990? Me neither. But it was my best guess and I got it right! My dad was so proud of me he gave me this CD.

Winning our first ever soccer game (also the Hairy Trumans). And the play off game the week after that (never mind that it was against the same team).

Happy hour with good friends.

Making cookies with my little brother and sisters.

Discovering Pinterest. Obsessed.

One of your best friends offering you free VIP box seats to the Lil Wayne concert tomorrow night!

Pretty flowers.Finding out your presentation proposal on social media was accepted for a national conference (NCMPR). Which also means I'll be heading back to San Francisco next year!

Knowing that fall is just around the corner. Which means pumpkin-spiced coffee, football, scary movies, and boots.

Source: White Chicks Cherish Blog

I'm telling you... it's these little things that make the world go round! What are you grateful for?

Relay For Life: An Experience I'll Never Forget

2011-07-24T14:00:00.038-05:00

Friday, July 15, was a day I had been preparing and planning for almost four months: Relay For Life!

It was such an amazing day spent with our closest family and friends. It really culminated the four weeks spent planning, preparing and raising money toward such a good cause.

The morning of the event was crazy. I took the day off (thank goodness) and spent most of it running around and getting everything ready for our campsite, including getting the essentials for an all-night event: games, food and energy drinks.

I got to Lutheran High School around 4 p.m. to start setting up our campsite and help the Relay committee where I could. And I really can't go any further without saying thank you to two of my biggest helpers for the months leading up to the event and during the event: Elyse Schuman and Erin Fletcher!
These lovely ladies totally rock! Elyse especially helped me plan out all the little details I didn't think of, including ordering the awesome t-shirts and helping to set up the campsite, and Erin was a huge help also! The Schumans/Fletchers (including Frank, Taylor, Jeff and even little Garrett - don't worry you'll meet them all soon) have helped us in more ways than we can even begin to count, and I'm not just talking Relay. They have adopted us (meaning my dad, sister and I) as part of their family - and there's no way I could have done this or had as much success without their help!

If it weren't for them I don't think our campsite would have looked near as good as it did.

Nor would we have made nearly $60 that night at our fundraising table selling cookies, jewelry, flip flops and other things! Elyse's friend Cherri also offered salon services, including eyebrow waxing and hand massages, as a fundraiser.

That's the youngest Schuman (and apparently my dad's favorite), Taylor, there on the far right behind the table in a pink tutu. :)

Once the campsite was set up, it was time for opening ceremonies. Apparently since I was on the committee as the marketing/PR chair, I had to stand up there and look important. :) It helped that I was one of the few committee members who received cheers and applause from my team when I was introduced - because I had the best team ever.

I did have a little something to boast about though - right before the opening ceremonies I found out that Fox 2 Now had received my news release and was filming our event set to air later that evening! You can find the full newscast here. I thought that was pretty cool!

During the opening ceremony, each survivor had a chance to introduce themselves by saying their name, their cancer and how long they had been a survivor. After a little while I noticed my dad still hadn't come up to introduce himself yet, then I found him hiding at the back of the line looking a little nervous. When I approached him he told me he didn't want to introduce himself, so I insisted that I do it for him, because I knew our team would be disappointed if they didn't get a chance to cheer for him, too.

My uncle still gets a kick out of what I said: "My dad is being a little shy, so I'm going to introduce him for him." For anyone who knows my dad, "shy" isn't exactly the word you'd use to describe him.

So I proceeded to tell everyone that his name is Bob, he has brain cancer and he has been a survivor for one year. Cue hoots, hollers and loud applause from the crowd. :)

After the ceremony the survivors and caregivers kicked off the Relay with the initial lap, and as you can see, my dad seemed to have gotten over his stage fright as he proudly gave his best "Miss America" wave to the crowd. :)

This survivors/caregivers lap was special for us because my dad doesn't have just one caregiver, but many. The photo above only shows a part of our support system, which includes (from left-right) my sister Kayla, Elyse Schuman, (my dad), my aunt Mikey, my uncle Fred and me. I'm pretty sure Erin Fletcher is the one taking the picture, and I'm not sure where Elyse's husband, Frank, is.
Another big part of my dad's support group are his, what I like to call, "biker buddies." :) I called them that when I was trying to get them all together for a picture, and they told me it didn't sound "macho" enough, so I decided to call them the "biker dudes." Just to clarify, when I say "bikers" I mean bicyclists, not motorcyclists, in case there is any confusion.

Side note: My dad was actually on a biking trip with some of those guys in Colorado when he had an accident and discovered he had a tumor. And that's where it all began.

But whatever you want to call them, they are dear friends to my dad and several of them stuck it out with us throughout the entire event.
The next lap was the team lap and we proudly carried our sign, Bobby's Big Shots, and donned our awesome team shirts, whose design is courtesy of Stacey LaGarce, a good friend of Elyse's. Many of you may wonder where our team name comes from, but unfortunately it's a long story, and it's inappropriately funny, so if you really want to know you'll have to ask me in person. :)
And as you can see, my dad is Captain Big Shot, which is a whole other funny story on its own, but also inappropriate for this blog. Sorry, folks, gotta keep it PG! :)

The night surprisingly flew by from there, as we rocked out to the Johny James Band, thanks to my co-worker Jim Nelson, who many of you may know as the graphic designer here at SCC. They were awesome and it was super generous of them to donate their time and services to our Relay event, as well as fight the heat!
My friends and I mostly passed our time just by sitting around, chatting and catching up, as well as playing washers, volleyball (even if it was the sit-down version) and later in the night an epic game of wiffle ball that ended up taking the majority of our time - but we had a blast! And I still can't believe how many of them stayed the whole night with us. I must say, I have some pretty awesome friends. :)

Then there was the Luminaria ceremony, which honors all those who have lost their lives to cancer, those who have won the battle, and those still fighting it.

"As the sun sets over campsites and darkness falls, the night is brightened by the glow of illuminated bags called luminaria, each bearing the name of someone who has battled cancer. Some celebrate cancer survivors, while others help us honor and remember those gone too soon. All represent someone special who has been profoundly affected by cancer and the family and friends who continue to fight back in their honor."

- Relay For Life of Central St. Charles website

We all gathered in the stands as all laps and activities were shut down for the ceremony and the lights were turned off. They had arranged several luminaria into one word on the bleachers across from us: HOPE. Then a cancer survivor's mother told a very moving story about her daughter, who turned out to be one of the event co-chairs. We ended the ceremony with a silent lap as we walked past hundreds of luminaria that lit up the track. It was a special and very emotional ceremony for many people.

The activities continued after that, including Scooter McCougar and Fredbird sightings.

One of my personal favorite laps of the night was the Queen of Relay, where a guy from each team had to dress up like a "queen" and try to collect the most money from other teams, as well as compete in a pageant. I wasn't sure who from my team was willing to step up to the challenge, but we ended up finding out competitor.

Meet Jasmine, otherwise known as Dan Mareschal, one of my best friend's husbands. He showed no fear as we dressed him in a tutu, feather boa, crown, fairy wings, Elton John glasses and a pet bird he affectionately named "Freddy." And don't forget the purse! Dan... I mean, Jasmine, did his (her?) best to collect as much money as possible around the track in 15 minutes.

(S)he ended up making a good chunk of change, but sadly, he did not win Queen of Relay. He didn't go down without a fight though, as he sang "Happy Birthday" Marilyn Monroe-style to my dad (even though it wasn't his birthday).

One of the last activities of the night was the Fight Back Ceremony, which we did end up winning!

As you can see, this ceremony involved a turtle, a t-shirt and a kiddie pool. What you may not be able to infer is that we had to cover the turtle in sunscreen, put on a t-shirt and sunglasses, get him into the pool and fill it with water. And we (Pete, Elyse and I) did it the fastest! The purpose of this ceremony was to show how we can fight back against cancer by taking necessary precautions (like wearing sunscreen).

The night began to wind down from there. This picture of the track was taken around 5 a.m. Then, before we knew it, it was time to start packing up! And amazingly enough, my dad managed to stay throughout the whole night without so much as the blink of an eye!

We came, we saw, we conquered! And boy, what a night it was. We ended it with closing ceremonies, where I was recognized as a $1,000+ fundraiser, and our team was recognized as a Gold Team for raising more than $5,700!

I couldn't have been more proud of my team! We ended up being the #2 fundraising team, just $100 behind the first place team. Never in my dreams would I have thought that we would be capable of raising that much money! And it was a personal fundraising best for me!

Once the closing ceremonies were over, we did our last lap as a team. All I remember thinking was how bad my feet hurt and how I didn't think I could do another lap. Then I thought, heck, if my dad can do it, I can do it. And I think that's been my motto throughout my entire experience with Relay, and in life. If my dad can fight cancer, then I can do anything I set my mind to. Thanks Dad, for always being my inspiration and motivation.

There aren't too many mornings that I'm awake to see the sunrise, but that day was special. As I drove home after being awake for almost a full 24 hours, I couldn't help but smile. Partly because I was finally going home to sleep in my bed, but even more because I was radiating from the love and support I felt and saw that day from all of our family and friends. It was definitely an experience I will never forget.

Learning About Social Media in San Francisco

2011-07-22T10:27:00.011-05:00

This post is long overdue, but I promised I would follow up with the "business" part of my trip to San Francisco last month for the NCMPR (National Council for Marketing and Public Relations) Summer Institute on social media. So here it is!

The official title of the institute was "Social Network Marketing: The New 'Word of Mouth,'" and it was run by Tim Burke, senior VP of SEM Geeks, an "innovative search marketing" company, and his colleague. So for two days straight we soaked in as much information about social media as we could! Here are the highlights for me:

How to make the most out of your Facebook page:

Highest traffic days (in descending order): Thursday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
If you give people an action, they are more inclined to do it.
Host contests through apps like Wildfire to increase fan base and network.
Post fun, impromptu videos. (i.e. Go around campus and ask students random questions.) Think of these as free commercials!
When it comes to other departments on your campus wanting to create their own Facebook page, come up with a list of guidelines/rules for them to follow. (i.e. The page must promote student to student interaction, or must post three times/week.)
Also, tell departments to email you ideas for Facebook posts rather than creating an entire Facebook page for them.
Keys to a successful landing page: strong call to action, no visual distractions, match user intent and keep promises, simple contact form (remove any unnecessary fields) and integrate social.
Treat the "tabs" like extensions of your website.
Better results come from providing great content.

The pros and cons of social media (according to SEM Geeks):

How to increase chances of getting your email read:

And remember to avoid:

And last, but not least, this little tidbit: "Social media is about the people! Not about your business. Provide for the people and the people will provide for you." - Matt Goulart, SM Innovator.

I have to say, while Tim and SEM Geeks put on a great presentation, the best part of the conference was interacting with the other NCMPR members. We've even created a Facebook group for everyone who attended to post questions and best practices. I made a lot of great connections and got some great advice. I'm looking forward to hopefully attending many more NCMPR conferences in the future!

Sushi, Seafood and Sandwiches in San Francisco

2011-07-01T13:43:00.029-05:00

And no, I promise you this blog post isn't all about the food I had in San Francisco. But it is definitely mentioned here. :)

As many of you know, I went to San Fran a few weeks ago for the NCMPR (National Council for Marketing and Public Relations) Summer Institute on social media. And in case you were wondering, I was able to do the three things I had on my list and then some!

I decided to split this up into two blog posts, one for leisure and one for business. Kind of like a mullet: Business in the front, party in the back. Yes I just compared my blog to a mullet. Anyway, let's talk about the leisure part of my vacation first!

On Wednesday, June 15, I left St. Louis on my way to the city by the bay. And two things I have to say (write) out loud (publicly) so I won't forget and to help others in the future:

Always pack your stuff in a rolling suitcase rather than a duffel bag, even if it is for just a couple days.
Never forget to bring a book!

Since I didn't have someone to tell me these things, I had red marks on my shoulders and had to pay $17 for a book I already had. Silly, I know. But I did just finish reading it, it's called The Help, and if you haven't read it yet, I'd highly recommend you purchasing a copy ASAP. Or I can sell you mine, since I have two of them now. :) They're making a movie out of it, too, it'll be in theaters in August. Speaking of books, I should probably write another "Must-Read Monday" post soon... and so I digress.

Back to San Fran.

After an... interesting (AKA a little scary) drive through the city, I was dropped off at my hotel a little before 8 p.m. and I knew the first thing I wanted to do: eat sushi. So I asked the hotel concierge where was the best place to go that was in walking distance from the hotel, and he recommended Sanraku. He told me it was only three blocks away, but he forgot to mention it was all downhill, which made the walk back all uphill. And in San Francisco, I'm not talkin' about just any ole' hills.

I'm talking about the kinda hills that leave you breathless after just a few steps. There were only two things I didn't like about San Francisco: The insanely steep hills and the number of homeless people. Now I know we have homeless people in St. Louis, but they were literally on every street corner in SF, and there were just so many of them. It made me very sad. Apparently it's a problem that SF is trying to fix, with nearly 13,500 homeless in 2010. St. Louis' homeless make up about 10% of that number.

Sorry again for getting off topic! Back to sushi.

I arrived at Sanraku. I was a little stunned at first because it's small and full of Asians, all speaking their native languages (mostly Japanese, which actually made me feel a little more comfortable and like I was back in Okinawa!) So I took a seat at the sushi bar, between and American and a Chinese man. I ordered a King Crab Roll and a Crunch Roll, which had spicy salmon, tobiko (fish eggs, similar to the orange salmon eggs commonly found on California rolls), avocado, cucumber and tempura flakes. And I also ordered a piece of octopus (yes, raw), all of which was delicious! Some of the best fresh sushi I've ever had!

This wasn't the sushi I had, but I forgot to take a picture of my own so I took a picture of this beautiful sushi salad that Chef Tomo made! He is from Japan so once he found out my family is from Okinawa and that I had just visited there last summer, we had a lot to talk about. :)

I have to admit, I was a little nervous about going to dinner by myself in a big city at night, but it was also kind of liberating. The whole trip was kind of like that, as a matter of fact. I didn't have to attend to anyone else's schedules other than my own. Well, and the NCMPR schedule.

View from my hotel room

Which meant getting up bright and early to start the day! During the conference on Thursday, one of the ladies mentioned that she was getting a group together to do a sunset cruise out on the bay. BINGO! I had been trying to figure out how I was going to get to the Golden Gate Bridge, so the boat ride was perfect!

I was a little disappointed when I found out that we were going to take taxis down to Fisherman's Wharf, though, so I was able to talk my new friend, Hope, into riding in a trolley down with me instead (that was the last thing on my list!)

And it was so cool! Since there were only two of us we were able to squeeeze onto a car and took it all the way to Fisherman's Wharf. Also, if you take a look at that last picture, doesn't our trolley driver look just like Albert Pujols, only with a Giants hat on?! This is the best picture I could snap of him without looking too creepy.

Once we got to Fisherman's Wharf we walked around a little bit and took it the sights (and smells) of the bay.

Fresh crabs, anyone?

OK how about fresh bread that looks like crabs?

Sea lions tanning themselves on the docks.

Then it was time to meet everyone for the boat ride!

Part of the NCMPR group!

The Ghirardeli Chocolate Factory

When I took this, I had no idea how much closer this seagull would get...

Getting closer...

He's about 10 feet above our heads right here, and he continued to follow us for a good 5-10 minutes. Then, before we knew it, the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge was upon us!

It was a pretty spectacular sight. Then we turned around and drove right past Alcatraz, which I definitely want to do a tour if I have the chance next time!

Apparently the "Indians Welcome" graffiti writing is from the Native American occupation of the island from 1969-71.

After the boat ride my friend Hope and I decided to have dinner at Fog Harbor, a rather upscale seafood restaurant in Fisherman's Wharf with a beautiful view of the bay at sunset. And the seafood was to die for. I had the Mixed Grill, which consisted of Mahi Mahi, salmon and shrimp with garlic mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables... just thinking about it now is making my mouth water. :) After dinner we called it a night and hopped in a cab ride home.

The next day, the conference only lasted until about 11 a.m., which was an hour shorter than I had expected, which gave me one extra hour to go somewhere fun for lunch! A friend of mine had recommended I go to Ike's Place while I was in San Fran, because apparently it was featured on Man v. Food and it has some pretty good sandwiches.

And that extra hour gave me exactly enough time to take an electric streetcar to the other side of town, grab a sandwich, the Matt Cain, and get back just in time for my airport shuttle bus to pick me up at the hotel!

Not to mention the three ginormous hills I had to climb up. Including this one, which kind of reminded me of Full House.

Even though I was completely drenched in sweat by the time I got back to my hotel, it was totally worth it. The sandwich was delicious! And I was able to have one last adventure in San Fran before flying back home. What a short but great trip! Who knew going somewhere by yourself could turn out to be so much fun? And hopefully I'll be able to post later this week about everything I learned at the NCMPR conference on social media!

On My Way to the City by the Bay

2011-06-15T08:34:00.013-05:00

When the lights go down in the city
And the sun shines on the bay
Do I want to be there in my city
Ooh, ooh

- Journey

Yes, I'm headed to the City By the Bay today! This will be my first business trip on an airplane by myself... and I couldn't be more excited about it! I mean, I am a little nervous, let's be honest, but my overall feeling is excitement. This will also be my first time to not only San Francisco, but California! I've always wanted to visit California, but just never had the chance!

There are three things I want to do while I'm there:

See the Golden Gate Bridge.
Eat sushi.
Ride a trolley.

Image by Earth Informations

Image by The Boquete Gourmet

Image by jrodmanjr

I know that might not sound very ambitious to you, but considering I'm only going to be there for two and a half days, I think that's pretty ambitious. And also considering the reason I'm going is for the NCMPR (National Council for Marketing and Public Relations) Summer Institute on social media! A few of the topics the conference will cover include overall benefits of social media, performance measurements in social media, mobile applications, case studies, effective online reputation management, and how to prove the importance and benefits of social media. That might sound like a bunch of gobbledygook to you, but all of that stuff is right up my alley and I hope I get to learn a few new things!

And for those of you who don't know, NCMPR is an organization that is just for marketing and PR professionals at community and technical colleges. Basically the coolest organization ever. :) And I'm about to go super nerd on you... but during the national conference in Philadelphia a few months ago, I won the award for the top "at-home tweeter" and got this sweet brown leather portfolio and I'm finally going to put it to good use!

I also got most of my hair chopped off last night in time for the conference, to give me more of a professional and sophisticated look. :)

Before:

After:

I cut off 8+ inches total, and I'm going to donate that ponytail to Pantene Beautiful Lenths, which means my hair will become part of a wig that is donated for free to American Cancer Society wig banks across the country. Pretty cool, huh? It's something I've always wanted to do, and I was a little nervous about cutting off the required 10 inches for Locks of Love, so this was perfect for me!

And although I'm only going to be gone for less than three days, I am very sad that I'm missing my first ever Tigers softball game tonight! :( Here's to hoping that they get a win tonight, and that I make it safely to San Fran!

Officially Ready for Summer

2011-05-28T18:34:00.013-05:00

It's Memorial Day Weekend. Time for barbecues, parties, shopping, going to the Lake, festivals, and... spring cleaning???

Apparently.

Today the boyfriend and I decided to put in a good seven hours of house and yard work (thankfully with a lot of help from his mother). But, both the house and yard needed it... bad. I'm too embarrassed to say how long the grass/weeds in the backyard were, but let's just say that it was like a jungle for our dog, Bob.

It may have gotten cut sooner, but unfortunately for my boyfriend, I refuse to mow the lawn. I know, that's probably sexist of me, but that's just one thing I will not do. I'll clean the house inside and out, do the bills, fold laundry, but I will not cut the yard. I just won't. I did it one time in Kirksville and it was the worst experience of my life. I swore to myself then that I would never do it again, even if I had to pay someone to do it for me (which my roommates and I did after several failed attempts to cut the grass ourselves).

My friend Erin's kid, Garrett, on the other hand, seems to already know that cutting the grass is a man's job. (Thanks to her dad, Frank, for posting this on Facebook today so I could steal it and use it in my blog!)

Anyway, back to the point. We started the morning with Tyler cutting the grass (obviously) and me cleaning the house. And once I get in the mood to clean, there's no stopping me. Two hours later, the upstairs and downstairs had been vacuumed, floors swept, everything dusted, and clothes put away. It's such a rewarding feeling to have a clean house! And if you have the right music playing, it goes by a lot better than you might think.

Then Tyler's mom got to the house around 1 p.m. and they started cutting back all the bushes, trees and vines along the backyard fence. After cleaning for two hours straight, the last thing I wanted to do was yard work, so I grabbed a snack and headed downstairs to watch Parks and Recreation (which, by the way, is the greatest show ever!) A half hour later, I felt bad so I went upstairs to see if they wanted to take a break for lunch, and luckily they wanted Chick-Fil-A, which I gladly went and retrieved. :)

After devouring our lunch, I offered to help this time, and we went out and worked our butts off for yet another three hours. Tyler has a lot of poison ivy in his backyard, so we all had to wear long sleeves and pants... needless to say we were all sweating a little. And I have to admit, yard work can be equally if not more satisfying than house work. And for some reason I have this weird obsession with pulling weeds. I don't know why, but I absolutely love the feeling of pulling those bad boys out of the ground, root and all. It just feels so good! Seriously, go out and try it. Like tomorrow. You'll like it I swear!

So after a long day of hard work, we can both finally relax. His idea of relaxing: playing MLB 2K11 on the Xbox. My idea of relaxing: blogging. :) But the best part is knowing we don't have any work to do for the rest of the weekend. Now we can just kick back and enjoy the weekend, which will include barbecues with our families and hanging out with friends. Sounds good to me!

And now that we got our spring cleaning out of the way and Memorial Day Weekend is here, I can officially say that I'm now ready for summer! Bring on the baseball, BBQ, float trips, concerts, weddings, winery weekends and lazy days by the pool!

Special K Challenge

2011-05-13T15:31:00.007-05:00

Two weeks ago, I attempted to squuuuueeeeze into a bridesmaid dress that I had been fitted for last fall... and was not happy to discover that it no longer fit. That's right. I sucked it in, I twisted, I pulled, I tugged... but that zipper wasn't going anywhere.

Mind you, the wedding where I am supposed to wear this dress was going to be in a month...

Enter denial mode.

How could I have fit into this dress just seven months ago? Have I gained that much weight?

Then I stepped on the scale. Enter freak out mode.

I weight how many pounds?! Disgusting! I've never been on a diet, how am I supposed to start one now?!

But I knew, regardless of my disbelief at first and knowing my love for food, that something was going to have to change, and it had to happen NOW.

Like I said, I have never dieted before in my life, so picking one for me was going to be hard. I knew I wouldn't be able to do anything too extreme, like completely cut out red meat, or bread, or pasta (because those are all things I love too much), but just something a little more... doable. Like less bread. Less red meat. And less pasta. Now that, I could probably do.

Enter Special K Challenge.

I eat Special K Cereal Bars every morning for breakfast. Blueberry, Vanilla Crisp, Chocolatey Pretzel... you name it, I've probably had it. I love those things. So I figured I could probably do the Special K Challenge... how many hard it could it be, right?

Of course, I turned to Twitter to find out. On April 26 I tweeted: "Thinking about doing the Special K Challenge - you supposedly lose 6 lbs in 2 weeks. Has anyone tried it? Did it work?"

And because Twitter is awesome, I got a response within minutes from my friend Kailey from Truman (@KaileyBeezy): "I've done it several times.. you lose the weight but you're really hungry. recommend a big lunch w/ lots of protein!"

Heeding her advice, the next day I spent $80 on 2 boxes of protein bars, a box of cereal, 3 boxes of cereal bars, Special K chips and crackers, protein shakes and a ton of fruit and veggies. Expensive? A little. Worth it? Totally.

The Special K Challenge actually turned out to be a lot easier than I thought. Here's the breakdown of the diet:

Eat one big meal a day, and try to keep it around 500-700 calories.
Replace your other two meals with either cereal, a protein bar or a protein shake, and a serving of fruit.
Eat one snack in between each meal (2 a day), either a cereal/snack bar or chips/crackers.
Eat as many fruits and veggies as you want!

Pretty simple, right? Special K has a lot of great recipes for the big meals. Including the only one I actually tried, the pork chop with pomegranate glaze. I made this on the first night of the Challenge, and it turned out pretty good! My boyfriend can vouch for me, I promise!

The Special K version:

My version:

It can be expensive to try a bunch of new recipes in two weeks, so this is the only one I managed to attempt. The key to the big meals is to still eat healthy, and not just eat whatever you want. For me, the most challenging part was trying to eat healthy when going out to eat.

I mean, who gets a salad at Steak 'n Shake, honestly? I did, and it was the worst decision I ever made. Terrible. It also doesn't help that I go out to lunch with my dad a few times a week, and I never realized how unhealthy we eat until I started dieting.

The first week of my new diet, I emailed my dad we should go somewhere healthy for lunch that didn't have a bunch of greasy food. He replied, "Penn Station. See you there." Not quite the healthy I was thinking. :) Luckily, I managed to convince him to go to Bread Co instead. I'm pretty sure he's ready for this "diet phase" of mine to be over so we can resume our weekly lunches at Stefanina's for meatball sandwiches and burgers at Christy's. :)

But it's definitely been a challenge to not only find healthy places to eat, but to find healthy options on a menu. I mainly try to stick with chicken, and stay away from the french fries (which of course happens to be one of my favorite foods).

Avoiding fast food in general has been a lot easier than I thought, though. That's one thing I really like about this diet. Instead of grabbing some T-Bell to go when I'm hungry and don't have time to make something at home, I can just eat a protein bar or a piece of fruit, and I'm good to go. The key is to be prepared and plan ahead.

If I know ahead of time I'm not going to have time to make dinner, than I plan on going out to lunch somewhere (healthy), then I just eat cereal or a protein bar and a piece of fruit for dinner.

Now, two weeks later, I've completed the challenge and I lost 10 pounds! Best of all, I tried on the bridesmaid dress last night and it fit me better than it had in the fall! I couldn't be happier! Plus it's perfect timing for swimsuit season, which will start next weekend for me! I'll be spending a weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks for a bachelorette party and I can't wait!

And don't worry, I've since rewarded myself with lunch at the new Hibachi Grill & Buffet in St. Charles (Delicious!) and BBQ chicken pizza for dinner yesterday, and a stromboli from Racanelli's for lunch today. OK so I kinda splurged. I do plan on keeping up with the diet though. I figured I might as well, if it will help me keep in shape all summer! Because I know there will always be more weddings, either that I'm invited to or that I'm in. In fact I just found out about one I'm going to be in next June, and I'm going to one tomorrow! Love wedding season. :)

On another note, I'd like to give a BIG shout out to all the SCC students graduating tomorrow! Including fellow blogger Brooke Dettmer, and former SCC blogger Alec Kelley! Good luck to both of you! And another special shout out to one of my best friends, Deanna Vassallo, who is graduating from Lindenwood tomorrow! So proud of you girl!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Crazy Week at SCC

2011-05-03T13:42:00.017-05:00

And by crazy I mean hectic, chaotic and most of all... fun! We had a lot of events going on at SCC last week, and if you weren't there to be a part of it, let me show you what you missed!

SCC Arbor Day Celebration

On Tuesday, April 26, SCC celebrated Arbor Day with a guest lecture by Missouri Department of Conservation Urban Forester Mark Grueber, followed by the presentation of SCC's official Tree Campus USA Certification plaque! This was quite an honor for SCC, and we are one of the first three colleges to be Tree Campus USA certified in the state of Missouri. Mad props to our SCC Tree Advisory Committee, which includes my fellow blogger Dan Porter.

Spring Fling

Every spring, SCC Student Activities puts on Spring Fling, a two-day event for the SCC campus that includes a live band performance, games, free food and giveaways. It's made to be outside, but unfortunately with all of the terrible weather we've been having they had to move it inside. There was still a pretty decent turnout though, and I manned the HLC/NCA Self-Study Pop-A-Shot booth, where we gave out free Tootsie Pops with NCA/HLC facts on it and "Get in the Game" basketballs to anyone who scored 30 or more points.

Green River Ordinance band members take a break to play Pop-A-Shot!

The featured band at Spring Fling this year was Green River Ordinance. I'd highly recommend checking them out - they were really good! And our photographer took some great pictures of them, as always.

Student Film Festival

Last week marked the third annual SCC Student Film Festival, which included film submissions from local high school students and SCC students. At the last minute, I stood in for one of the judges for the festival, and I had a lot of fun doing it! I was pretty impressed with the films we viewed, and even more so with our winners.

There were five different categories, including documentary, comedy, drama, animation and music video. The animation category was by far my favorite - it was cool to see how creative the students could get! And I still don't know how they do it!

I also got to help out at the awards ceremony, which was also a lot of fun. In fact, I even got to announce the winners of my favorite category. :) We also got to watch all of the award winners, which included one of my favorites, "Table 3," which was produced by SCC students.

SCC student winners for best drama and audience favorite, "Table 3."

Student Awards Banquet

This was the only event that I did not attend last week, mostly because A) I needed a break and B) I knew I had to be up early the next morning for the Wellness Festival. But, this is also an annual event put on by Student Activities for the students. At the banquet, students are provided with a free dinner and they are presented with their awards certificates, including GPA and Outstanding Student awards. Check out the photos from that night.

Spring Wellness Festival

This year was our 19th annual SCC Spring Wellness Festival, including a 10K Race, 3-Mile Walk and 1-Mile Fun Run. We had a total of 565 runners/walkers participate in the event, and more than 1,000 people total were on campus for the event. This was my second year on the Wellness Festival Committee, where my job is to coordinate the 70+ volunteers for the event. It's a lot of work, and it's very hectic the week before the event, but it's also a lot of fun.

While I do enjoy my job as the volunteer coordinator, probably my favorite part of the Wellness Festival is when I get to escort our mascot, Scooter McCougar. This year, I got to ride on Bob Ronkoski's (SCC Director of Public Safety) golf cart (BONUS!) as we took Scooter on the 10K course to cheer on the runners. It's amazing what a cougar mascot can do to lift the people's spirits - both young and old alike!

Including my friend Jeri and my boyfriend Tyler - ha!

But really, my favorite part about being Scooter's escort is seeing the kids' reactions. Even though some of them are absolutely terrified of him, they're so cute!

Like this little guy, who couldn't seem to figure him out.

Or this adorable little girl, who was shy at first...

But eventually warmed up enough to give him a fist bump!

And you've always got kids like this who just love Scooter!

The SCC Spring Wellness Festival is truly a cool event for the community, and if you haven't participated in it yet, I'd highly recommend doing so next year. Who knows, you could be like my friend Ashley who was surprised to find out she won second place in her age category and eighth place overall for females in the 10K Race!

Coming Up

So finally, after all that craziness, it's relatively back to normal around here in Marketing and Communications. We only have a few big events left in the school year, including a screening of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" in Legacy Park in Cottleville at 8 p.m. Friday, May 13. Tickets are $5 for SCC students, faculty and staff with ID and $7 for general admission. Ticket sales will benefit SCC Student Senate. Plus there's a character costume contest!
And lastly, the 23rd SCC Commencement Ceremony, which is at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 14, and will feature keynote speaker Missouri Governor Jay Nixon.

Then shortly after that, summer classes will begin and I will finally have time to focus on some of my more big-picture projects! So, happy May, everyone! Here's to hoping for some better weather in our forecast!

UPDATE (9:08 a.m. 5/4/11): I just realized that this blog post marked the exact date of the one-year anniversary of my blog! Just thought I'd mention that... and how ironic it is that I managed to post on the exact same date one year and 37 posts after my very first blog post ever! I've had a lot of fun with this blog, and I just hope they let me keep doing it for another year! :) Thanks to all my readers!

All I Ever Do is Run

2011-04-11T14:58:00.012-05:00

And unfortunately, I don't mean literally run, like I should have been while I was "training" for my half marathon. But I mean like running around, whether it's work, my social life, or my volunteer work... I hardly ever have time to just relax anymore.

Except for today. :) I finally decided to take a personal day just for me. Not to go to a Cardinals game, or to go some place fun, but to just be able to sleep in, lay around all day and do absolutely nothing that requires my body or brain. And I think I've almost accomplished that.

But then again, here I am, blogging. But that's OK. This is my downtime, and I've decided to use it productively. Because let's be honest, I'm a busy bee, and I like it that way. I can't stay idle for too long otherwise I start going crazy. Even though my life would be what others might consider "crazy" anyway.

So here's the rundown of what my life has been like for the past month or so, in a nutshell:

Running to Stay in Shape

Yesterday, Tyler and I ran in our second GO! St. Louis half marathon. We did pretty well, considering. And when I say "considering," I mean that we hardly trained at all like we should have (as in never having ran more than five miles). And I was just mentally and physically not in it like I was last year. While it's cool to say that we've done it, I'd have to say that I hope this is our last half marathon... at least for a while. :) I'm thinking about taking on biking next. I probably need to work on getting a hold of a bike first, though...

Running Around at SCC

Last week was St. Charles Community College's 25th Anniversary Kick-Off Week, which included a campus-wide party with games and a live band, an all campus photo day, a scavenger hunt, an egg hunt, kite flying, a baseball tailgate party, a movie night and lots of free Chick-Fil-A! So needless to say, I was a little busy.

Oh and did I mention there was FREE Chick-Fil-A?! They're opening a new store in St. Peters this week (Thursday, to be exact) so they gave out a TON of free sandwiches at SCC last week to promote their grand opening. Last week was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of work. It was all worth it in the end though. :) You can check out more photos from the week on the SCC Facebook page.

Our next big event I'm helping to plan and promote is the SCC Spring Wellness Festival (Find us on Facebook!) on April 30. It's a 10K Race, 3-Mile Walk and 1-Mile Fun Run. There's also a Wellness Fair with a bunch of booths and exhibits about personal health and wellness. The fair is free, but the 10K is $20 and the 3-Mile Walk/1-Mile Fun Run are $15 each. Prices go up after April 26, so you should register today! The 1-Mile Fun Run is more kid-oriented, so feel free to sign up the whole family! Plus all participants get t-shirts, which are pretty cool this year. I've also heard a rumor that Smoothie King will be giving out free smoothies to all the participants... wish I could run in it! And if you go, be sure to come say hi to me, I'll probably be the one walking around with Scooter McCougar, our big, furry cougar mascot. :)

Running on the Field(s)

Did I also mention that I signed up to play on a coed indoor soccer team? Crazy, I know. Especially considering I never played soccer as a kid or in high school, ever. In fact I used to hate it and think it was a dumb sport. And now I'm paying for it because I'm the one who looks dumb trying to use my feet when all I want to do is pick up the ball and run with it and throw into the goal instead of kicking it. I'm all about the hand-eye coordination, not so much on the foot-eye. If anyone has any tips on how I can get better, they would be much appreciated. :)

And there are the sports that I'm actually decent at, softball, which was supposed to start tonight. In the middle of me typing this post I got a call saying the game was cancelled because of the rain. Stupid rain. :( Oh well, I guess I'm a little glad it was cancelled because I really wasn't sure how my body was going to handle it, seeing as how I've been wobbling around like an 80-year-old man all day.

But anyway, I'm playing in two slow pitch softball leagues again, a Monday night women's league and then a Wednesday night coed league. I'm also super pumped about the NCA faculty/staff softball game that I'm playing in at SCC next Monday! Should be a good time.

Last year's Tigers softball team.. yeah, we're pretty intense. :)

Running For a Cause

And last but not least, I just put together my first-ever Relay For Life team, in honor of my dad, who has been fighting brain cancer since last August. There are probably a lot of you who don't know that, and please don't take it personally if I haven't told you, it just hasn't been something that's easy for me to talk about or bring up in everyday conversation. It's been quite a struggle for him, as well as the rest of our family and friends who we lean on for support, but he's still going strong and is doing well, considering the circumstances.

So, I decided to put together a Relay For Life team, Bobby's Big Shots, to raise money for the American Cancer Society in an effort to end cancer, once and for all. Because if there's one thing I've learned since my dad's been diagnosed, it's that he is not alone and cancer is a terrible disease that has probably affected at least one person you know. So what better cause to get behind and support than ACS?

If you'd like to donate to our team, I'd really appreciate it. Just go here. We're already 69% of the way to our goal of $1,000, so please help us reach our goal!

Or, if you're interested in creating your own RFL team, please feel free to do so here. The Relay is from 6 p.m.-6 a.m. Friday, July 15-Saturday, July 16, at Lutheran St. Charles High School on Mexico Road in St. Peters (right by the Rec-Plex). It only costs $10 to register, and you only have to raise $100 to get a t-shirt. It's free for survivors to register, and there are a lot of special activities just for survivors, because really, that's what Relay is all about - honoring our survivors.

You can also follow our Relay For Life event on Facebook and Twitter. I'm also the publicity/marketing chair for this particular event, so feel free to ask me any questions about donating or signing up!

Running Is What I Do

So, as you can see, I've been doing a lot of "running" lately, whether that means actually physically running or running around. But, that's what I do. That's what I've always done. And that's what I'll continue to do. I'm a runner, a go-getter, a non-stopper. I go until I can't go anymore, and even then I'll probably try to go a little more. But I'm glad I was able to stop and take a breather today and share a little of what's been going on in my life with you! Thanks for reading!

Thinking Happy Thoughts!

2011-03-15T09:34:00.000-05:00

While I was in the midst of my first fantasy baseball draft (yes, I'm officially a baseball nerd now) on Sunday night, I thought about my next blog post, and how I might title it "Signs of Spring."

In this post, I planned on talking about how I got to run in beautiful weather last Saturday in Cottleville's Third Annual St. Patrick's Day 7K Run For the Helmet and, as I mentioned above, how I got to participate in my first live fantasy baseball draft!

And I was going to talk about how both of these events were signs of spring... but then it snowed. And snowed. And it wouldn't stop snowing.

And suddenly, I don't feel like spring is as close as I thought. But I'm thinking happy thoughts... and here's what's keeping me sane even though it's blizzard-ing right now:

I just finished the second book of the Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire, and it was awesome. Now I'm reading the third and last book, Mockingjay. If you don't know what the Hunger Games are, check it out.

Spring officially begins in five days, on Sunday, March 20!

We sprung forward last Saturday night, which means the days will start getting longer and it won't be dark when I leave the office now!

My sister, my cousin's twins and one of my best friends are all celebrating their birthdays next week! Those are my cousin's twins, Mason and Madison. They're turning 1 on March 22!

St. Patrick's Day is this Thursday, March 17, and I plan on taking a half day to enjoy the beautiful 77 degree weather we plan on having, as well as watching the NCAA basketball tournament begin! (Still need to make up my brackets for that!)

In a couple of weeks I'll be heading back to K-Vegas, otherwise known as Kirksville, the home of my alma mater, Truman State University, for the first time in a year and a half! It's Phi Sigma Pi's alumni weekend, the co-ed fraternity I used to be a part of, and I'll be heading back with a bunch of my friends - I can't wait!

And best of all... Cardinals baseball starts in 16 days!!! And I'll be in attendance for the greatest holiday of the year - OPENING DAY!!! I've been looking forward to this day since last October... so words do not even begin to describe my excitement, but if you know me, I think you might have an idea!

A Shared Passion for Higher Education

2011-03-02T21:51:00.012-06:00

Last night I attended my first #highered tweetup.

For those of you who don't know what a tweetup is, I personally like Urban Dictionary's definition best:

"A gathering of nerds attempting social contact, likely for the first time. Usually disintegrates into everyone running to the nearest computer to type to one another."

OK, so sarcasm aside... a tweetup is just a meeting among friends who regularly correspond or have met on Twitter. You don't "tweet" or bring your laptop to a tweetup, in fact it's the exact opposite of what you do on Twitter.

These are not good examples of tweetups:

You actually meet in person, face-to-face, and it's polite to try to stay off your phone for once.

This is a Social Media Club - St. Louis tweetup, a better example:

OK so now that you know what a tweetup is (the quiz is at the end... kidding), I can tell you what this particular tweetup was about. At first, it was a chance for several of us working in higher education marketing to finally meet in person. We tweet with each other quite often, but it was nice for us to finally get together and have face-to-face conversation.

Once introductions were out of the way, the venting began. I learned that working in the realm of marketing, communications, web, PR, social media, etc., in academia is an entirely different beast. Most of us have had experience working in the agency or corporate world, so we discussed the differences, as well as some of the nuances that come with working in higher education. But, when it came down to it, we realized we all shared one thing: a passion for education.

We all agreed that when you're working for an agency, or even a corporation, it can be hard to get behind the brand, product or service you're trying to sell or promote. But with education, it's easy. We "sell" knowledge. We promote education. How can you not get behind that?

We also shared the same inspiration and motivation: the students. It's their energy and their passion for learning that reminds us why we do what we do.

I meet students every day who inspire me. Just this past week I met with a student that I'd like to refer to as Mr. SCC. He's been here for three years, he's the president of Phi Theta Kappa, treasurer of Student Senate, a student member of the SCC Presidential Search Committee, and to top it all off, he loves math!

I mean seriously... what's wrong with this kid? And when I say "what's wrong" I mean, can he possibly be more of an over achiever? And the most interesting part of it all is that he wasn't involved in high school and he didn't get good grades, but now he's at SCC and he wants to transfer to Washington University! How great is that?! He lives and breathes SCC and I can't wait to share his full story with everyone else.

And the best part is, there are other students with just as interesting and inspiring stories, just waiting to be heard. And that is reason #347 why I love my job.

Must-Read Monday

2011-02-21T13:45:00.009-06:00

Ever since I graduated college in May 2009, I've been able to rekindle my love affair with books. Now that I'm not "forced" to read textbooks for hours on end, I've rediscovered my joy of reading for fun and leisure. So, I thought I'd share some of that pleasure with you all, with a list of my most recent must-reads! Here you go:

The Likeness, by Tana French

This book has brought me back into the world of murder mysteries... and boy was it a thrilling one. It's actually the sequel to French's first novel, In The Woods, but I recommend skipping that one and just reading this one. (Or if you feel the need to read In The Woods, read it after The Likeness... trust me.)

The Likeness follows the story of Irish detective Cassie Maddox as she goes undercover on a case that becomes extremely personal for her. Mostly because the dead victim involved is Cassie's double, and went by Lexi Madison, an identity Cassie made up in her first stint in undercover.

The story unfolds from there... as Cassie gets more and more emotionally involved the twists and turns will be sure to take you on a suspenseful ride! Read the full summary here. Or buy the book here.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards

Let me just start by saying that this book was not what I expected. It touched me much more deeply than I ever thought it would.

This novel follows the story of Dr. David Henry, who delivered his own twins in 1964. After his son is born healthy, he realizes his daughter has down syndrome. Dr. Henry's sister had down syndrome, and he knew what his family went through for her and didn't want his own family to have to face the same struggles.

So he made a snap decision to send his daughter to an institution. Little did he know that the nurse that agreed to take her ended up running off with the little girl and raising her as her own.

As the official website says, "The Memory Keeper's Daughter is a brilliantly crafted story of parallel lives, familial secrets, and the redemptive power of love." Get it on Amazon.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Many of you may have heard of this book already, and it has definitely been my favorite book of the year so far. I guess it's qualified as a teen adult book, but I think it's a book for all ages. It's actually the first book in a set of three. I should be receiving the other two books in the mail tomorrow and I can't wait!

I'll do my best to explain the premise of the book, but mostly I think you'll have to take my word for it that you NEED to read this book! It's great and addicting! You won't be able to put it down, trust me.

I think Scholastic summarizes it best:

"In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see.

Survival is second nature for 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love."

Katniss is a girl you will grow to love and identify with as she tells you her every emotion, thought and feeling. What I love most about this book is how all of these children must go back to their basic instincts, as brutal as the outcome may be. It really makes you think about your own survival instincts. Still not sure what to think of it? Find out yourself, and let me know what you think.

Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom

Hopefully most of you should have at least heard about this book. If you haven't, it's a classic and you need to go buy it, like now.

For those of you who don't know about Tuesdays With Morrie, it's a true story written by Mitch Albom, a successful sportswriter and newspaper columnist, about his time spent with his beloved dying professor, Morrie Schwartz. It had been 16 years since Mitch last saw Morrie at his college graduation. Morrie was diagnosed with ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and only had months to live when he was reconnected with his former student. They met every Tuesday for what Mitch calls his "greatest lesson," the meaning of life.

While it may be a tearjerker, this book provided me with some uplifting and inspirational pieces of advice. I wrote down my favorites, and here's one of them:

"Love each other or perish. Without love, we are birds with broken wings."

I'd love to hear what your favorite Morrie-ism is. If you don't know, go read it and get back to me!

Currently reading: The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein

When I first started reading this book, I didn't know what to think of it. It's told from the perspective of a dog, Enzo. Little weird for you, too? Well, once you get over that aspect, it gets better, trust me! I'm not even half way through it yet, but I know that it's going to be a tearjerker as well, but that's OK. :) So far it's been a sweet book about the love and growing pains between a dog and his family.

Garth Stein's website sums it up best, I think:

"A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life...as only a dog could tell it."

Books I want to read next (after the Hunger Games sequels, Catching Fire and Mockingjay): The Help by Kathryn Stockett and A Window Across the River by Brian Morton.

I'd like to give a shout out to my book enthusiast friend Erin Mareschal for recommending (and letting me borrow) several of the books mentioned here! And if you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them! Just comment on my blog, or shoot me an email at kanna.taylor@gmail.com.

Happy reading!

SMCSTL: Higher Education

2011-01-28T09:10:00.017-06:00

For those of you who don't know, SMCSTL stands for Social Media Club - St. Louis (@SMCSTL). They've been around in St. Louis for almost two years now, and they meet on the third Thursday of every month. Their mission, according to their Facebook page, is to "foster a community in St. Louis that serves as a resource for learning about emerging trends, tools, technologies, strategies and opportunities."

I've attended several of their meetings, and last night they had the perfect topic for me: higher education. When I saw that I think my head almost exploded from pure joy. The only way they could have made me happier is if they had Tony LaRussa show up. (Cardinals, social media AND higher education?!?! Mind blowing, I know.) Plus it wasn't entirely out of the question, I learned last night from Chris Reimer (@RizzoTees) that Gio's, where SMCSTL was hosted, has a Tony LaRussa room where he can come, sit and eat in privacy after games. There's your fun #stlcards fact of the day.

I also took my good friend and fellow education marketer Kelly Albright (@RosatiKain) to her very first SMCSTL meeting - so it was an exciting night to say the least!

Me, Kelly and Nick Sargent of Standing Partnership at the SMCSTL meeting, photo courtesy of Josh Kocurek and Social Media Club - St. Louis.

The SMCSTL panel consisted of the following:

Patrick Powers, Interactive Media Manager at Webster University
Allison Babka, Marketing Specialist for Undergraduate Recruitment at St. Louis University
Jill Falk, Assistant Professor, Mass Communications and LUTV News Director at Lindenwood University
Colby Gergen, Student at the University of Missouri

Brian Schwartz (@creativereason), Interactive Director/Partner/Founder at Spoke Marketing and SMCSTL board member, served as a great moderator and asked all of the right questions.

The panel discussed so many different topics related to using social media in higher education, including recruitment, social media in the classroom, student use and more.

Here are just a few of the helpful tidbits I picked up:

STUDENTS

College students use Facebook more than any other platform of social media, however, Foursquare might be the next up and coming thing. Twitter hasn't really seemed to catch on yet among students, and it's used more by parents and alumni.

If college students are using Twitter, they typically follow people that are entertaining/funny, not because they provide relevant/important information.

Students should do a "brand audit" of themselves. Google yourself.

UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE MARKETING

Webster University uses Facebook for recruitment purposes. They know that students are typically looking for three types of information: academic programming, financial aid, and how to apply. So Webster's welcome page/landing tab has all three of those topics linked back to their website.

If you're tweeting/Facebooking from a university account, be authentic and be conversational. Avoid the "professional" voice. Or according to Allison, let the "16-year-old dude voice" come out every once in a while.

PROFESSORS

Using Twitter in the classroom can be a great tool to help students expand their knowledge.

Colby agrees and thinks all professors should be on Twitter and interacting with their students. It allows them to be more readily available to their students. In fact, he even said there were some professors who he never had, but with whom he interacted on Twitter and found them to be more supportive than the professors he actually had in class!

To friend or not to friend (on Facebook)... that is the question. Jill Falk's answer? Not until after the semester is over, just to be safe.

Some faculty fear that by being on Facebook/Twitter and interacting with their students via that media can be undermining to their authority. Colby said that you can command as much authority in social media as you do in the classroom, it's up to the professor.

Most students will avoid asking questions or disagreeing directly with the professor in class, and would rather vent on Facebook or Twitter.

EVERYONE

Encouraging PROPER social media use builds trust with your students/employees. ALLOW IT! (via @MarisaLather)

To find all of the tweets from last night's SMCSTL Higher Ed Panel, search #smcstl on Twitter. Erin Eschen (@ErinE) also wrote a great recap of the panel on her blog, Digital Strategy and B2B Social Media.

And here are some questions I still have:

Should universities have two separate Twitter accounts? One that is more professional and used for business and community outreach, and another that is more "fun" and focused on reaching out to students? What do you think?

What are some good resources and tools used to train faculty and staff at colleges/universities about proper Facebook etiquette as well as how to manage their own Facebook pages/Twitter accounts?

One of the panelists, Patrick Powers, went ahead and answered one of my questions, and a few others that I tweeted during the panel. Check them out on his blog. Thanks, Patrick!

After last night's meeting, I decided that a St. Louis #highered tweetup is in order... so we're hoping to get one organized toward the end of February if anyone is interested... let me know! Also I'd love to hear your comments and questions... and answers to my questions if you have them!

Updated 3:56 p.m. 2/3/11

Bahama Getaway

2011-01-21T16:23:00.027-06:00

Thought I'd give y'all something warm to look at and think about since we have about 10 inches of snow on the ground and below freezing temps. I'm not trying to rub it in I promise!

Taken from our rental van while we were driving around trying to find our house.

The view from the front of the house.

View from the back of the house.

Our house! And our own private beach. :)

The beautiful sunrise we woke up to every morning. Ha, who am I kidding. My aunt took this picture. I'd see the sun pouring in through the windows and roll over for a few more hours.

Aunt Mikey and Dad - how we spent every morning, hanging out on the deck.

The beach on the other side of our house. Doing another daily activity - exploring and looking for seashells and other critters.

Speaking of which, here's my cousin Rachel, the future marine biologist, with one of her many finds - a sea urchin.

And Uncle Fred, our non-certified explorer of the seas, with a starfish.

And my sister Kayla with her sand dollar.

Just to give you an idea of all the sea shells we collected.

Rachel and her coconuts.

Which she then attempted to crack by throwing them as hard as she could on the concrete, and surprisingly, it worked. That's my aunt Mikey laughing at her in the corner.

My sister and I at Treasure Cay.

Starfish and mini starfish.

The whole fam at Treasure Cay. If you can't tell, we were a little cold. The water in the Bahamas is apparently freezing this time of year, right around 60 degrees. Didn't keep us from getting in the water though!

The crab my cousin caught, pre-boiled.

Mr. Crab, post-boiled, along with lobster and shrimp - the best home-cooked meal of the trip!

On the ferry to Hope Town.

The Hope Town lighthouse off in the distance.

Rocky beach in Hope Town.

Don't you wish you were there... like, right now? Me, too.

This is a dolphin that swam right up to our house!

And our little gecko friend!

We had to get a picture of our favorite restaurant, Snappa's. We went there three times in one week, it was awesome.

Yep, definitely wish I was still there right now.

Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Bit of a Hiatus

2011-01-10T11:33:00.003-06:00

I'm back to work. I haven't been to the office since Dec. 24. That was 16 days ago. I've never taken a vacation from any job for that long! And my mind is officially mush.

I also forgot to mention that eight of those days were spent in the Bahamas. That's right. 70 degrees. Sunshine. Beach.

Treasure Cay, Bahamas

Needless to say, I think my mind is still in the Bahamas, as my body gets used to the frigid 20 degree weather of St. Louis. I have to admit though, going somewhere warm and tropical in January was probably one of the best ideas my family has ever had. And it was the best Christmas present ever from my Dad! Don't worry I'll post pictures and tell a few stories from the trip later this week, but I just thought I'd give you all a heads up on why I haven't posted in more than a month.

I also took a bit of a hiatus from Twitter, and was forced to take one from Facebook/Internet/phone/TV for a few days in the Bahamas until the wi-fi at our house was turned on. I have to admit though, it was kind of liberating being disconnected from the world, but boy was I glad when the cable guy came by and fixed our TV and wi-fi connection though! And now I'm back, connected and trying to get my mind back to full speed.

Well, it's back to work for now. More on the Bahamas later!

An AIDS Survivor's Incredible Story

2010-12-07T10:08:00.000-06:00

I feel like all I did last week was post on Twitter and Facebook. And it's not a bad thing.

In fact it has all been for a good cause, or more correctly, a good person.

If you follow me on Twitter, or if we're friends on Facebook, or if we're friends in real life, there's no doubt you've heard me mention Brryan Jackson (@BrryanJackson) and his incredible story. (I also mentioned him in a previous blog post.)

Long story short, Brryan was injected with the HIV virus by his father when he was only 11 months old. His father was trying to kill him to avoid paying for child support. No one knew Brryan was infected with HIV until five years later, when he was on the verge of death and diagnosed with full-blown AIDS. He was put on 22 different medications and was given five months to live.

14 years later, Brryan is a freshman at SCC, started his own non-profit organization, Hope Is Vital (HIV) and he is an inspiration to many as an AIDS advocate. Brryan's journey has not been easy. He's made the best of it though, and as he says, he's found the sunshine after the storm. He looks at everything God has given him as a blessing, and he takes nothing for granted.

Through Brryan's efforts in raising awareness about AIDS, including volunteering for Camp Kindle (a summer camp program for kids who are HIV positive), speaking for Upward Bound Ministries, lobbying for AIDS awareness in Congress, and his own organization's efforts, Brryan has gained local and national media attention. (See PEOPLE Magazine and MSNBC.)

He also won a Teen Nick HALO Award, in which he was awarded $10,000 for college tuition, and another $10,000 towards his non-profit organization, HIV. He was presented with the award by Nick Cannon, and was able to meet Alicia Keys.

Nick Cannon surprising Brryan in his hotel room in New York for the Teen Nick HALO Awards.

Brryan with Nick Cannon and Alicia Keys

Photos source: www.teennick.com/shows/halo-awards/characters/brryan-jackson.html.

And last Friday, in perhaps Brryan's biggest moment of fame yet, he was featured on ABC World News (@ABCWorldNews) with Diane Sawyer as the "Person of the Week". It was originally scheduled to air last Wednesday for a special on World AIDS Day, but they like Brryan's story so much they decided to give him a longer feature. You can catch the full video here.

Also on World AIDS Day, Brryan was a guest speaker at SCC in a special presentation in which he shared his story with us, gave us some inspirational advice and took some Q&A. Brenda Hollrah, SCC physical education/Fitness Center coordinator, and Mandi Smith, SCC Student Activities specialist, with the help of the SCC Marketing and Communications Department, planned the entire event in less than a week and had nearly 150 people in attendance, including the Suburban Journals (see their story, "AIDS survivor speaks of his 'miracle' life").

Brryan speaking at SCC's World AIDS Day event, photo by Ben Munson.

I helped promote the event on Facebook and Twitter as much as possible. On Facebook, with only 7 posts about Brryan, we had 14,418 impressions (an average of 2,059 impressions per post), an average of 0.32% feedback, 37 "likes" and 13 comments. One post, which included a link to Brryan's story on ABC, was reposted four times and received 7 likes and 11 comments. In total, links about Brryan were shared 10 times and included 13 likes and 18 comments.

On Twitter, in less than a week, I had sent out more than 40 tweets from SCC's Twitter account (@SCC_StCharlesCC) about Brryan Jackson or World AIDS Day. We had 14 mentions and 15 retweets. I also sent out more than 20 tweets about Brryan and World AIDS Day from my personal account (@kannataylor), and I received two mentions and seven retweets.

Needless to say, we got the word out about Brryan. :) And soon he will be joining me as a fellow SCC blogger! Look for his blog soon at www.stchas.edu/sccblogs.

He will also be featured on the cover of the upcoming issue of Chaz, SCC's quarterly newsletter.

Social Media: Do It For the Force of Good

2010-12-03T11:23:00.016-06:00

"Keep it real. Remain engaged. Do it for the force of good."

- Benjamin Akande (@benjamin_akande), Dean of Webster University's George Herbert Walker School of Business & Technology.

Dr. Benjamin Akande at Webster University on Dec. 2, photo courtesy of Tu Square Studios.

That was my favorite piece of advice from yesterday's Social Media Panel at Webster University. I've had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Akande speak several times at Webster for different speaking events, and if you haven't heard him speak, you need to. He has a great stage presence and his words move you, whether he's introducing Jack Dorsey (@Jack), co-founder of Twitter, or John Mozeliak, General Manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, he has a way of commanding your attention with his distinctive voice and intellectual speak.

Dr. Akande was the moderator at Webster's Social Media Panel on "Bettering Your Business," featuring the following (in order of the photo below, provided by Tu Square Studios, from their Facebook album):

Chris Reimer (@RizzoTees), owner of Rizzo Tees and Chief Marketing Officer at Scorch Agency
Kathleen Manning (@MonsantoCo, @Kath_Monsanto, or as I know her best, @RedBirdsBroad), Media Specialist at Monsanto
Amber Talbot (@scottrade), Social Media Marketing Supervisor at Scottrade
Dave Collett (@Davexpert), Senior Vice President and Global CRL at Weber Shandwick

Social Media Panel at Webster University on Dec. 2, provided by Tu Square Studios.

I know Kathleen well through Twitter and we have several mutual friends, and I've seen Chris speak several times at different social media events throughout St. Louis (see his blog post about the event). All of the members of the panel served as a great resource of knowledge about social media, and they are all quite experienced in the field, or as Chris said, as experienced as you can be at social media, since it has only come into existence within the last five years.

It was a full house, which was expected since it was a free event. Here are some of my takeaways from the panel:

The social media movement is lead by us, the everyday people. We are starting, creating and continuing the conversation. It's our job to push it forward and carry it on.

Be nice and listen. (Another one of my favorite quotes from the panel, by Chris Reimer). Treat people online as you would in real life. Be courteous to others, and listen to what they have to say if you want to be successful in social media.

Social media is reflective of real life. There isn't a different set of rules for real life than there are for the virtual world. (Reimer)

Traditional methods and tactics of marketing and advertising don't apply to social media. (Collett)

Be a human being. Get away from the technical marketing/PR jargon, and talk to your audience like a real human being and be yourself. Talk to people like you're sitting with them at the dinner table, because people can see right through the corporate speak. (Talbot, Collett, Manning)

If you have a good foundation of engagement, you'll start to see the ROI (return on investment). (Talbot)

People want answers now, in real-time. They are turning to Facebook and Twitter when they can't find the answers they need in traditional methods. Customer service and social media should be directly connected. (Charter Communications is a good example.)

Gage the conversation, then engage. Before you dive into social media, listen to the conversation and then engage your audience. (Collett)

Be proactive. The smallest crises can blow up into something much larger if you aren't proactive online in social media. If someone complains about your company on Facebook or Twitter, don't let it fester, respond ASAP and help them find a solution so that they can become good will ambassadors for your company rather than naysayers.

Don't steal. It's not right to steal, so don't steal online. If you're going to use someone's stuff, make sure to credit them. For a good case study of what NOT to do, see the Cook's Source Magazine scandal.

Everyone makes mistakes. That's expected, but it's how you handle the consequences of that mistake.

Social media is not a one-size-fits-all. You have to curtail your social media needs to fit your company. A combination of social media and public relations is best, but finding the right mix will depend on the needs of your company.

Start small. Listening is free, so start there before you jump into social media. (Talbot) Use Google alerts to find out what people are saying about your company or about important topics related to your field. Search on Twitter and Facebook too.

Find out who your key stakeholders are. Then find out what they're saying, what their expectations are and what impressions they have of your company. What's important to them? Use social media to help align those needs. (Collett)

Everybody is in social media. Now what? Expect more filtering, so you need to find out what makes your company unique and what sets is apart from everyone else.

Presenting the most relative and timely content will be key. Expectations will be higher, and people will expect to get their answers or what they want NOW. It's a race to provide the answers or fulfill their needs in the quickest and most effective way.

Social media is controlled by everyone. But you have control, too. When someone says something negative about your company, you can't dwell on it. You have to know when to stay and when to walk away. (Manning)

Social media is the democratization of getting to know you. (Reimer)

You can find more tidbits from the event on Twitter, just search for the hash tag #websteru. You can also find video of the entire event online, and a post from the George Herbert Walker School of Business & Technology blog, titled "Bettering Your Business: The Era of Social Media."

Webster's School of Business also has a great one-stop shop for video, photos, event summaries and more.

I'd like to thank Webster University (@websteru) again for putting on such a great event! I always enjoy making the trip out to the campus for events like this. And of course thank you to the panel for sharing your knowledge with us.

Here's another great review by Patrick Powers (@patrickjpowers), Interactive Media Manager at Webster University, "Webster University social media panel recap."

Sidenote: As far as using social media for good, look for my next post about promoting SCC's World AIDS Day event, featuring AIDS survivor and student Brryan Jackson, through social media.

Plug: Check out Brryan Jackson's full story and exclusive interview on ABC World News (@ABCWorldNews) With Diane Sawyer as the "Person of the Week" TONIGHT at 5:30 p.m. CST (KDNL-TV, Channel 30, for those of us in the St. Louis area). It was originally scheduled to air last Wednesday for a special on World AIDS Day, but they liked Brryan's story so much they decided to give him a longer feature (and you may or may not catch a quick shot of me in the segment, but hopefully not). Here's a sneak peak of the story.

It's That Time of Year

2010-11-24T14:17:00.011-06:00

Today is Black Friday, which means the holiday season is officially underway. Shoppers are storming the malls, Wal-Marts and Best Buys today to find themselves immersed in Christmas music and the madness of finding the perfect gift. I, myself, have never participated in Black Friday shopping, and I don't intend on changing that this year. Although I did purchase a few gifts on Amazon.com today, within the comforts of my own home. :)

In an effort to avoid the crowds today, I plan on eating Thanksgiving leftovers (the best!) and decorating my dad's house (AKA putting up the Christmas tree!) while my sister is in town for the weekend. I love putting up the Christmas tree and looking at old ornaments (some that I've had since I was a baby) while listening to Christmas music.

But to those brave enough to fight the crowds... I'd like to share some of my favorite songs and movies of the holiday season, the things that remind me what Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and all of the other holidays are all about: spending time with and appreciating your family, friends and loved ones. And hopefully it will remind you, too, what's important to you during this holiday season.

The Classics:

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas - Bing Crosby

The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Judy Garland

Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley

Santa Baby - Eartha Kitt

I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas - Shirley Temple

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Andy Williams

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas - Bing Crosby

But you can't forget these:

Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Bruce Springsteen

All I Want For Christmas is You - Maria Carey

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays - N Sync (You know you love it, too!)

Christmas Don't Be Late - Alvin and the Chipmunks

Favorite Christmas movies:

Elf! Here's a clip of Zooey Deschanel singing "Baby It's Cold Outside."

The Nightmare Before Christmas (A scene of Jack singing one of my favorite songs in the movie, "What's This?")

Love Actually (I love their version of the Beatles' "All You Need is Love")

Home Alone

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

How The Grinch Stole Christmas (The original Dr. Seuss version)

And last but certainly not least, my all-time favorite Christmas movie, "It's A Wonderful Life." If you haven't seen this one yet, go rent it, TONIGHT! One of my favorite scenes:

Enjoy! Happy Holidays!

And if you have favorite Christmas songs or movies that weren't mentioned, I'd love to hear what's on your list!

Lack of Inspiration? Not at SCC

2010-11-02T16:19:00.018-05:00

I realized it's been a few weeks since my last post, and seeing as how I'm the "keeper of the SCC blogs," and it is my duty to get on their cases when it's been too long since their last post (which doesn't happen too often), I feel it is just as much my duty to lead by example... and at times I have failed to do so. The reason for my most recent lack of posts was due to a lack of inspiration. I haven't gone on any major trips (see Chicago or Okinawa) and nothing really exciting has happened to me since my birthday celebration week. And that's when I realized that my blog doesn't always have to be about me (and it hasn't... see "The Unsung Heroes" or "Never Too Late"), but instead could be about the people around me.

Monday, at 10:58 a.m. I tweeted " Looking for some inspiration for my next blog post... and drawing a blank for the first time since I've started blogging." And my inspiration hit me around 8:30 p.m. that night, smack dab in the face. All I needed to do was look around me for my inspiration... right here at SCC! DUH! There is so much going on around here right now, and so many things to be proud of, I'd be crazy NOT to post about SCC.

The fact is, there are people here at SCC, including faculty, students and staff that amaze me and inspire me every day.

THE FACULTY

Our faculty have been receiving a lot of awards lately! Joyce Lindstrom, SCC professor of Math, recently received the national-level 2010 William H. Meardy Faculty Member Award and the Central Regional Faculty Member Award by the Association of Community College Trustees. What an honor! According to our official news release, Joyce "was involved in a statewide effort to create an Associate of Arts in Teaching degree to ensure a seamless transition to four-year programs and she is a leader in innovative approaches to improve student success in mathematics."

Two other faculty members received state awards from the Missouri Community College Association, including Dr. William Griffin, professor of anthropology, for the Global Educator Award, and Ann Vernon, professor of science, for the Senior Faculty Service Award.

Not only do SCC's professors impress me on national and statewide levels, but on a personal level too. In my short 10 months here at SCC, I've developed quite a few relationships with our faculty members, and in every interview I conduct with an SCC student, I always here something positive about our professors, whether it's someone in particular, or our faculty as a whole.

THE STAFF

One does not need to look very far to see what an awesome staff we have at SCC. I could spend all day writing about all of the wonderful people I work with every day, but alas, I don't have that kind of time, and I have a feeling you don't either. So, I'll just name a few:

Dan Porter. If you don't read this guy's blog, then you need to start. Now. He is our SCC grounds supervisor, and he has some of the most interesting posts about plants, trees, bugs, wildlife and other random environmentally friendly topics (like going green!). He recently scared me with thoughts of "retiring" his blog, but I think I managed to convince to keep going for at least a little while longer! So check it out while you still can! :)

Ralph Hunter. While some of Ralph's daily efforts as a custodian may go unnoticed, his personality and smile do not. For 18 years, Ralph, 79, has been cleaning the halls of the SCC Administration Building, known to him as his second home. And Ralph is finally being rewarded for all of his years of hard work and dedication.

April Hoekenga, a coordinating counselor at SCC, along with more than 25 other members of SCC's faculty, staff and students, nominated Ralph for the 2010 Missouri Older Worker of the Year Award, and he won the St. Charles County Region award! In September, Ralph, April and his two daughters were treated to a tour of the Missouri State Capitol and an awards luncheon with Missouri's First Lady Georganne Nixon. Everyone at SCC is extremely proud of him. I wrote a full story about Ralph in our latest quarterly issue of the Chaz (and a news release will be posted next week). However, a few things of note I'd like to mention that weren't in the story or the news release about Ralph, thanks to the Welcome Center ladies, Jan and Linda:

When he's not working at SCC, Ralph lives on and runs a hog/cattle farm in Wentzville. And before he worked for SCC, Ralph used to work on the rail road. Ralph is also a pretty decent chef. His custodian's closet (located in the same hallway as Student Development) is covered in pictures, awards, emails, letters and newspaper clips about his last 18 years here at SCC. (I've seen it, it's pretty amazing.) Ralph may seem like a shy person, but once you get him talking, he's a very interesting guy and has lead quite a fascinating life. And if you ever ask Ralph how he's doing, you might catch a classic "Ralph-ism," such as, "I'm still kickin', but not as high as I used to," or "Same old soup, just warmed over."

So the next time you happen to be in the Administration Building, be sure to say hello and congratulate Ralph on his accomplishment and maybe you'll be lucky enough to hear one of his stories.

THE STUDENTS

And last, but certainly not least, who could forget the students? Without students, SCC wouldn't exist, we would have no purpose, there would be no faculty or staff. They are what make SCC what it is. And in my short time here, I've run in to quite a few unique students with amazing stories that they were thankfully willing to share (See "Never Too Late" or SCC Success Stories). One of the things I like most about my job here as a marketing specialist are the interactions I have with the students, either when I'm interviewing them for a possible testimonial or talking to them in a class setting.

In the last week and a half, I've been given the opportunity to speak in two classes, Linda Baenzinger's Intercultural Communication class and Darren Osburn's PR class, and I had a blast in both. In Linda's class, she asked me to talk about my trip to Okinawa and my experience growing up and learning about my heritage. I was a little nervous at first, but turns out the students were actually pretty interested in what I had to say and asked a TON of questions. I was having so much fun I didn't even realize I had been talking for an hour and a half when Linda said it was time for a break! Who knew writing a little story about my experience in Okinawa for the Global Pages, an SCC multicultural publication, would turn into such an engaging and fun discussion! (That's what inspired Linda to ask me to speak to her class.) I had a lot of fun sharing my stories with Linda and her class, and hopefully she'll invite me back next semester. :)

I spoke in Darren Osburn's PR class on Wednesday about my job, my career and what it was like transitioning from college to the real world. I tried to give them some tips on what classes to take, what to expect in the business world, and some of the major differences between working for an agency and an organization. I hope the students were able to get something through all of my ramblings. :)

Also can I just take a moment to mention how AWESOME our soccer teams are? The men's team recently went to the Region XVI championship for the first time. Although they came up just a couple goals short, they still had an excellent season and won a ton of awards (see photo). And the women's team is still going! They won the Region XVI championship last weekend and are playing today at noon against Lewis & Clark Community College in the semifinal round of the NJCAA District C Tournament in Council Bluffs, Iowa! Good luck to them! (They also cleaned up in the awards, see photo.)

I'd also like to share a few stories from some of the students I've had the opportunity of talking to, that I think are worth sharing.

John Ndungu. The name might sound familiar to you SCC folks because he is currently featured on the back of Chuck, our every-other-week newsletter. John approached me one day a few months ago asking how someone is featured on the website, and he mentioned he just moved here from Kenya. I got his phone number, and about a month ago I called him up and asked him to come in for an interview and photo shoot (our typical protocol for a potential testimonial) and I was extremely impressed by his journey from Kenya to America and how he ended up at SCC. He is currently working on his associate's degree in business and wants to get a bachelor's degree so that he can someday own his own business selling art. His sister also recently moved to America and is also enrolled at SCC. You can read John's full story in Chuck (which you can find on the tables in the Student Center Cafeteria, an online version will also go here soon).

Brryan Jackson. My boss actually first heard of him in a story she read in People Magazine, in a feature section called "Heroes Among Us." After reading his incredible story (really, you have to read it for yourself), she noticed that he is from St. Charles, and that he was a community college student. Ding, ding, ding! After realizing he is currently attending SCC, we knew we had to get his photo and story for a success story, as a blogger or for use in one of our publications. We still haven't decided what we're going to do with his story yet... but stay tuned, because it's pretty inspiring.

Evan Loveless. My boss also found him through an article he wrote for the Suburban Journals' Opinion Shaper's column. Although it's not live yet, Evan will soon be our newest member of the SCC blogging family. He is currently a freshman at SCC, and he's interested in journalism. He plans on going to Mizzou and enrolling in their J-School (School of Journalism). He's also currently involved in SCC's newspaper, the SCCougar as a columnist. He's a great writer and I'm looking forward to his posts as a fellow Cougar Blogger! I'll post his link once it goes live so you can check it out! (Update, 11/22/10: Check out Evan's blog.)

If I haven't proved to you what a great place SCC is to be, then I don't what else will make it any more clear. It's a great place to work, and an even better place to learn, and I'm inspired every day by everyone around me.

(I'd like to thank Ben Munson, SCC's photographer, for letting me borrow all of his awesome photos for my blog!)

Week of Celebration

2010-10-13T08:54:00.017-05:00

I just recently turned 24 this past Monday (Oct. 11). Most people think that 24 isn't an exciting age. You're three years past 21 and you're one year away from getting a discount on car insurance. Big friggin' deal. But instead of letting the boredom of 24 bring me down, I decided to make a week-long celebration out of it, because... why not?!

I'll start with last Thursday...

Tyler and I went to see "The Social Network." If you haven't seen it yet... you should. ASAP. It's one of the best movies I've seen all year, and I'm not just saying that because I'm obsessed with Facebook and all things social media.

Watch the trailer:

I'm also obsessed with Aaron Sorkin, whose claim to fame is the creation of the once-popular TV series "The West Wing," which just so happens to be one of my favorite shows (also something you should watch if you haven't/aren't yet). Sorkin is a genius writer and producer and his dialogue is what made this movie. If you don't believe me, all you have to do is watch the first five minutes of "The Social Network" and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Not to discount Jesse Eisenberg (who I also loved in "Zombieland") for his stellar performance as Mark Zuckerberg , and a terrific breakout performance by Andrew Garfield (who plays Zuckerberg's best friend Eduardo Saverin, and will apparently be the next Spider-Man). And you can't forget JT as Sean Parker! Say what you want about Justin Timberlake, but I think he's a great actor.

But even more amazing than the dialogue, the acting and even the music, is the story of Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. The movie is actually based on the book, The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, which I plan on reading soon. Either way, if you ever wanted to know how Facebook was started, and how it got to be where it is now (with 500 million+ users), you need to see this movie. Period.

OK enough gushing over this movie... if I haven't made my point yet on why you should see this movie, then I give up.

So that was Thursday. Official beginning of birthday celebration week began on Friday, with dinner with Tyler and a few of our friends at Lewis and Clark's, which happens to be one of my favorite restaurants. And if there's one thing you need to know about me and my love of restaurants and food, it's that I am a creature of habit, and I have one thing I get at every place I go to, every time. At Lewis and Clark's, it's the teriyaki chicken sandwich, which comes with melted provolone cheese and pineapple... it's out of this world.

Saturday I spent the day in Ste. Genevieve with friends to not only celebrate my birthday, but one of my best friends, Mallory's birthday too (hers is today actually, Oct. 14 - Happy birthday Mal!).

As my friend Damon described the day, it was an "accidental success," and that it was. Our original plan was to visit the Charleville and Crown Valley Wineries, then make our last stop at the Crown Valley Brewery. But since it was such a gorgeous day in the prime of winery season, every place was packed. We ended up only going to the Charleville Winery and the Crown Valley Brewery, but we still had a great time enjoying the gorgeous, yet unusually warm, fall weather and good company.

Pretty flower outside the Charleville winery

Sunset outside the Crown Valley Brewery

Sunday I did absolutely nothing but watch football and my TV shows all day, and it was glorious. We had KFC for dinner. Perfect Sunday. Also, I got one of my birthday presents early... some sweet new purple Nike Air Max tennis shoes from Ty!

Monday was officially my birthday and my office took me out to Kitaro, a Japanese restaurant in O'Fallon that my step-dad and mom own, which just so happens to be my favorite sushi place. But if you're not a fan of sushi, you have to go for the hibachi grill, where the chefs cook in front of you on the grill. It's fun and delicious!

Kitaro might be the one place I go to where I get something different every time, but only because I've tried a LOT of different things there, so I know what I like. I've tried almost every sushi roll there and I've probably had everything on the hibachi menu (from scallops and salmon to filet mignon and teriyaki chicken). You really can't go wrong on the hibachi side, where every dinner entree comes with soup, salad, cooked veggies and, my favorite, fried rice. You have to ask for the special spicy mustard sauce though and slightly drizzle it over the fried rice - it gives it a little extra kick. :)

Then Monday night my family took me out to Mandarin Garden, which is my favorite Chinese place! I usually get the chicken egg foo young, egg roll and crab rangoon (my favorite!) every time I go there, but this time we decided to get the family meal for four, which included a TON of food, and all of it delicious.

After dinner we went back to my aunt's house for cake and presents, where my dad surprised me with this:

A 16-diamond .25 carat cross pendant on a white gold chain! It's the first "real" piece of jewelry I've ever owned! The picture doesn't do it justice though, you have to see it in person to see how shiny and pretty it is!

I guess diamonds really are a girl's best friend. :)

Then Tuesday night Tyler and I met up with some friends at Pi (@pistl), a pizza place in St. Louis, made famous by President Obama, who apparently loved it so much he flew one of Pi's chefs out to D.C. to make pizza for a White House Dinner. Crazy, right? Well ever since then the business has been booming, with new locations in the Central West End (which is the one I went to last night), Kirkwood, Chesterfield and soon there will be a location in Washington, D.C. Coincidence? I think not, but nevertheless, they do make some good pizza!

Photo courtesy of LIFE Magazine

Tyler and I split a large Southside Classico (we ordered a large on purpose so we would have leftovers, which I fully intend on having for dinner tonight!), complete with mozzarella, sausage, mushrooms, green bell peppers and onions. Although it was not quite as good as the Giordano's deep dish in Chicago (which is what we're looking for), it was pretty darn good. The sauce was absolutely delicious and it had just the right amount of toppings, and of course, the crust... YUM. I'd highly recommend it if you haven't tried it yet!

We are, however, still searching for a deep dish Chicago-style pizza that rivals Giordano's, and I've been told that Black Thorn Pub in South City has the closest thing you can get... that might have to be our next adventure.

After dinner we went to the Fox Theatre to see Drake (@drakkardnoir) perform live!

Source: http://www.eurweb.com/?p=41237

Drake is a rapper that I've been following since he hit the music scene with "Successful" early last year. Tyler and I are both obsessed with him and know most of his songs by heart, so seeing him live in person was awesome. My favorite performances of the show were the opening and closing songs, "Forever" and "Over." He put on a great show and I can't wait for him to come back to the STL!

So that sums up my birthday celebration week... even though it still isn't technically over... yet. My mom is taking me and my sisters out to dinner tonight (place TBD), since my half sister, Sarang, will be turning 13 next Wednesday (Oct. 20). Plus my sister, Kayla, is in town for the weekend for Missouri State's fall break (which means my dad might take us to Rich and Charlie's sometime this weekend, our all-time favorite Italian restaurant)!

After typing all of this up, I must admit, I am a pretty lucky girl and I definitely don't take anything for granted. I feel truly blessed to have such a wonderful boyfriend, friends and family who love me and support me as much as they do. And to me, that's what birthdays are really all about... spending time with the people you love.

UPDATE (10/15/10): So I had to add just one more restaurant review after last night. My mom took me and all of my siblings to Brio Tuscan Grille in Plaza Frontenac, which I actually tried for the first time in Kansas City a few weeks ago, before I knew we had one in St. Louis! The first time I went there I had the Tuscan grilled pork chops and they were delicious. They're chopped salad is also very good, and so are their appetizers! I had the sausage, pepperoni and ricotta flatbread last time, but I got the calamari this time - both of which were fantastic!

Last night I got the gorgonzola lamb chops, which I know sound weird, but seriously... you have to try them! I tried to go cheap and I got the appetizer version, but I will definitely get the full meal next time - they were so tasty! The gorgonzola cheese was fried on the lamb chops... very interesting but good combo!

Then of course to top it all off we got chocolate hazelnut cannolis for dessert! What a treat! If you haven't been to Brio, I'd highly recommend going ASAP!

OK, my birthday celebration week is now officially over! I promise :)

"The Unsung Heroes"

2010-10-06T16:44:00.013-05:00

"These [community] colleges are the unsung heroes of America’s education system. They may not get the credit they deserve. They may not get the same resources as other schools. But they provide a gateway to millions of Americans to good jobs and a better life."

- Barack Obama, United States President

As some of you may know, yesterday marked the first-ever White House Summit on Community Colleges. For those of you didn't know that, here's a short little description of what the Summit was all about, via a news release from the Office of the Vice President:

"This event will highlight the critical role that community colleges play in developing America’s workforce and reaching our educational goals. The Summit will also enable Americans across the country to submit their thoughts, questions and challenges for discussion as part of the Summit dialogue."

The opening of the summit began with a student from Arizona State University and graduate of Maricopa Community College, Albert Ojeda. He shared his inspiring story about his journey from a community college to a four-year university. Ojeda then introduced Dr. Jill Biden, Vice-President Joe Biden's wife and a community college professor, who said, "Today’s summit is an important next step in our efforts to meet the President’s goal of having the best-educated, most competitive workforce in the world by the end of this decade."

Dr. Biden also states that "community colleges are the largest, fastest-growing, most affordable segment of America’s higher education system," and that they have been providing alternative options to students for generations. She also stated that the President has challenged all American community colleges to graduate an additional 5 million graduates by 2020.

"Our challenge is not just to get students into college, but to keep them there and to graduate them faster with the skills they need to succeed in the American workforce," Biden said. "This is the moment for community colleges to shine."

United States President Barack Obama followed Jill Biden by announcing a series of grants and programs to help community colleges to reach the goal of 5 million graduates by 2020. He stated that reaching that goal will not just depend on the government, but on the educators and students too, as well as business and non-profits. Obama has asked his Economic Advisory Board to "reach out to employers across the country and come up with new ways for businesses and community colleges to work together."

One of the results of that search is a new partnership called Skills for America's Future, where "businesses and community colleges work together to match the work in the classroom with the needs of the boardroom," Obama said.

He also announced a $35 million grant from the Gates Foundation called "Completion By Design," which is a five-year initiative that will target schools in nine different states (source: Christian Science Monitor).

(Jill Biden and President Obama's full remarks from the Summit are available online.)

Other speakers included Melinda Gates on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Penny Pritzker on behalf of the Skills for America's Future grant.

You can watch the opening session of the Summit online.

As someone who works for a community college, and having my dad and sister as former students of St. Charles Community College, this hits pretty close to home to me. I think it's exciting and I hope community colleges will be able to benefit from this Summit and all of the grants. I also hope this is just the starting point for the nation to be aware of how important community colleges are to higher education, and that the Summit will generate more grants for them and their students in the future.

Chicago Weekend Trip!

2010-09-29T17:13:00.020-05:00

Today was my first day back at work after a whirlwind five days split between in Chicago and Kansas City. Last Friday Tyler and I drove to Chicago for the Cards/Cubs game at Wrigley on Saturday. We spent the day walking around downtown Chicago on Friday, including Millennium Park and Michigan Avenue/The Magnificent Mile.

Ordering a Chicago-style hot dog - the best!

The Bean in Millennium Park!

My favorite building in Chicago

The Chicago River

After sightseeing all day, we had built up quite the appetite, and we just happened to walk past a Giordano's, one of Chicago's most famous deep dish pizza places. So of course we had to go!

Almost an hour and a half later... we finally got our delicious deep dish Chicago-style pizza, and it was well worth the wait!

After walking around downtown Chicago all day and eating Chicago-style hot dogs and pizza , we were starting to fall in love with the city. Seriously, if it weren't for the Cubs and my love for all things St. Louis, I would move to Chicago in a heartbeat. It's always been one of my favorite cities in the U.S. to visit, and I've been several times (twice in middle school, once in high school and once in college). But never to a Cards/Cubs game at Wrigley! But that would change after this trip!

The next day, we woke up and walked two blocks over to the Willis (Sears) Tower. I loved the location of our hotel, Club Quarters. It's basically a hotel made for business travelers. It was very small but convenient. No specialties or amenities, just the basics, which is all we needed. Plus it was right in the middle of downtown Chicago (and it wasn't ridiculously expensive)! Can't get much better than that.

We were in and out of the Sears Tower in just over an hour, so when we were done we hopped in a cab to the north side of town to Wrigleyville!

And what an experience Wrigleyville was! I'm totally jealous that the area outside of Busch Stadium doesn't have the same feel and excitement as Wrigley does.

Of course we had to get another Chicago dog once we got inside, and we found out we had pretty decent seats... but the one thing we weren't prepared for was the weather. And boy, was it frigid! After five innings I couldn't feel my hands or feet, and we both decided to go inside the park for warmth (and a beer). Unfortunately, the Cards were losing pretty badly by this point anyway, so that wasn't convincing enough for us to hang around. Even though it was cold and the Cards loss shamelessly to the Cubs, we still had a great time and both decided it was something we want to do every year (but maybe in May or July rather than September)!

Ending on a High Note

2010-09-21T16:42:00.010-05:00

I went to my last Cardinals game at Busch last Thursday, and the only reason I still went was because it was the inaugural Social Media Night. Otherwise I probably would’ve given away my $15 tickets, which, according to Joe Holleman's article, is near impossible. After going to 19 games this season, I’m just plain tired of watching this team. But for the season we’re having, I have to admit, I’m pretty lucky that I’ve been able to see 15 wins out of 19 games. (Which isn't bad considering the Cards have only had 46 wins at home.)

I've seen all 15 wins with Tyler (my boyfriend). This was our first season of Cardinals baseball together, and neither of us have ever been to this many games. This is not good. :) I'd like to have all the money I've spent on tickets, beer and food at Busch this season, because I'd be rich. But I do hope that this was the first of many more seasons of Cardinals baseball together (but maybe we'll go to a few less games next season, even though he keeps talking about season tickets someday). But honestly, we're the Cardinals' lucky charms. We've only seen two losses together (out of my four total). We keep saying the Cardinals need to start paying us to go, but we still haven't received any offers yet... we're still waiting. :)

This was during the fireworks show at Busch after the Sept. 3 game against the Reds (and our 14th win), the way the picture turned out was an accident, but I kind of like it!

A fellow Twitter friend and acquaintance of mine, Cadence (@stl_cardsfan29), wrote up a nice summary of the Social Media Night at Busch, and I had to agree with almost everything she had to say about the event. She mentioned there was "room for improvement," which is very true. I was looking forward to hearing more from our speakers, which included John Mozeliak, Bill DeWitt III, Matthew Leach (@matthewhleach), McGraw Milhaven (@McGrawMilhaven), Derrick Goold (@dgoold),Beth Schwartz (@st_louis_blues), Mike Tomko (@michaeltomko) and Chris Reimer (@RizzoTees). But unfortunately they only had about 2 min. each, and Mozeliak was the only one who fielded questions. Once the panel finished their two min. intros, there was only about 15 min. before the game started, so I wasn't able to talk to Goold (or any others) like I had been wanting to.

John Mozeliak answering questions about the 2011 season at the Cardinals' Social Media Night.

Mozeliak discussed a few things about the upcoming 2011 season, including the hot issues of Tony LaRussa, Colby Rasmus and Albert Pujols. He told us that there will be a deadline for Tony to decide if he's going to come back next season or not, and he made it sound like first base, catcher, left field and center field were locked down for next season, so I guess that's good news for Colby and Albert. One thing I found funny was when someone asked about who "leaked" the Colby Rasmus story, Mozeliak replied that he obviously didn't know who the leak was, and if he did know, it would be "interesting." Isn't that why they call it a "leak" in the first place, because no one knows who it is? Maybe that's just me...

While I enjoyed listening to Mozeliak, I found what Derrick Goold and Matthew Leach had to say the most interesting, and I would like to have an hour just to hear them talk about how Twitter and social media have changed their line of work. Leach said it was hard for him not to break news he heard in press conferences and in the clubhouse on Twitter right away, because he wants fans to read about it in his articles instead. Goold said he had the same problem and that he tends to use Twitter as a push to his stories.

Leach said that nothing has had a greater impact in his field of work than Twitter. He likes to keep it fun and informative though, and he doesn't want to drive his readers away from the site.

We also learned that the Cardinals plan on doing more in social media, including having some Twitter-only promotions, like ticket and prize giveaways. (Hopefully this will start next season!) I also hope they have another Social Media Night next season that is more planned out and a little longer. For instance, I had no idea you could tweet questions for Mozeliak to the St. Louis Cardinals twitter account (@CardsInsider) before the event. If I did I definitely would have asked a few!

Another good thing about the event: I was able to meet a few of my fellow #stlcards tweeps! Like Allison Babka (@AMBabka/@u2acro):

Sporting our matching "Don't Run on Yadi" tees from RinaWear.com (@RinaWear)

As well as a few others! I wish I would've gotten their earlier so I could have mingled a little more (even though I got there as fast as I could from St. Peters).

And, miraculously, the Cardinals beat the Padres that night 4-0! So at least I ended my season at Busch on a high note.

And while this was my last game at Busch, I'm actually going to see one last Cardinals game of the season (my 20th)... at WRIGLEY! Yup, Tyler and I are going to Chicago this weekend to watch the Cards/Cubs battle it out this Saturday. Battle for what, you ask? Nothing but bragging rights. And we especially need to show them up after that pathetic sweep (which I unfortunately witnessed the last game of the series, but it was with my dad in section 155, so that made it a little better).

This is my first time at a Cards/Cubs game at Wrigley, so I'm pretty excited! I just hope the Cardinals don't disappoint/embarrass me. So wish me (and the Cardinals) luck! I'll probably write a blog post about my weekend in Chicago sometime next week!

Mellow Music Monday

2010-09-13T16:04:00.004-05:00

Taking a break from my last Okinawa post (hopefully coming soon) to share some good music to cure those Monday blahs... even though it's almost over. But hey, feel free to come back next Monday (or any day for that matter) and check out these songs to mellow out your mood and relax.

Surfjam Stevens - Chicago

Rufus Wainwright - Hallelujah

Feist - Mushaboom

Ingrid Michaelson - You and I

Plain White T's - Rhythm of Love

Regina Spektor - Fidelity

Okinawa Highlights: Road Trip

2010-09-07T20:37:00.008-05:00

On our fourth day in Okinawa, my uncle Yoshito, aunt Yoko, cousin Hanna and the rest of my crazy family (including my mom, three sisters and little brother) went on a little road trip to the north end of the island. All nine of us piled into a rented van and spent the whole day driving and making stops along the way. After about five hours I was ready to throw my little brother out the window. I'm kidding of course, but only a little.

He may look like a sweet and innocent little boy right now, but what you don't know is that in the next minute after taking this shot he would be jumping up and down and screaming in my ear like a little monkey.

Between him and my other sisters, they were all driving me mad, plus being cooped up in a van with nine people isn't exactly my ideal way to spend a day.

There were only three good parts of the whole day:

1) We got a lot of shopping done.

We found some shisa souvenirs to take home.

Kayla and I awkwardly bargained for a t-shirt, notice Kayla's face.

And my mom let my little sister Seika (6) buy the most annoying thing in the entire store.

2) We got to go swimming.

3) We had a delicious meal and had a good time making fun of their "English" menu, if you'd call it that.

Of course, we did get "set menu" and we did get "Okinawan strap." If you're wondering what is, it's basically a little cloth bag about the size of a quarter attached to a string that you're supposed to put on your key chain to bring you good luck.

Really? They spelled chicken two different ways on the same page?

This was Kayla and Sarang's meal, beef steak.

My dinner, glorified fried chicken.

And our dessert... heaven.

After dinner we went back to the hotel and I stayed up late with my uncle, aunt and mom, sharing stories through broken English/Japanese translations over Japanese beer. It was a great way to wind down after a pretty hectic and busy day.

This is how we found the kiddos the next morning, they decided to make bunk beds in the closet, too funny!

I only have one post left from my trip to Okinawa... stay tuned for pics from our trip to the aquarium and my last night in Okinawa!

Okinawa Highlights: Snorkeling

2010-09-06T23:40:00.011-05:00

This will be my last post for our third day in Okinawa. After scuba diving and exploring the beach and some cliffs, we went snorkeling!

A lionfish, apparently quite poisonous.

A school of fish.

We ended the day by stopping in a small village where they made shisas.

My mom and uncle outside of an over 100-year-old shisa store.

A cool-looking newer house.

We decided to have dinner at McDonald's only "competition" in Okinawa, Mos Burger, a Japanese fine burger and coffee chain restaurant. Their food wasn't too bad, but I don't think it beats McDonald's.

This concludes my third day in Okinawa. Only two days left! We spent our last two days road tripping to the north end of the island and visiting an aquarium. Stay tuned for pics from our mini trip!

Okinawa Highlights: Beach and Cliff Exploring

2010-09-06T22:39:00.010-05:00

These pictures are a continuation from day 3 in Okinawa. Turns out, I think I'm going to have to split it up into three blog posts! But picking up where I left off, after lunch we did a little exploring, thanks to my awesome uncle who knows everything there is to know about Okinawa. These first few pictures are from a hotel/resort we stopped at and explored the beach.

A hotel I wish we had stayed at...

A beautiful church we found next to the hotel. Below, the inside of the church.

This is where our beach exploring adventure begins.

A sea cucumber... they were everywhere!

A couple of sea urchins.

A starfish!

If you look closely, you can see tiny bright blue fish, they're so small and cute!

Another starfish.

A tiny crab and sea urchin.

After leaving the beach and hotel, my uncle took us to these beautiful cliffs with breathtaking views.

A giant shisa we found and I had to have a picture with, of course.

After the cliffs and the giant shisa, we went snorkeling! Those pictures will be in my next post... so stay tuned!

Okinawa Highlights: An Underwater Experience

2010-09-06T21:24:00.013-05:00

As promised in my last post, here are some more pictures from Okinawa. These are from our third day there, which was by far my most favorite and best day of the entire trip. When I think about my time in Okinawa, I mostly think about that day. These pictures are from the morning when we went scuba diving. We also went snorkeling and did a lot of island exploring that day. I have so many pictures from this day I needed to split it up into two blog posts!

Apparently Tommy Lee Jones is the sponsor for BOSS vending machines, which can be found all over Japan, on almost every street corner. I happened to frequent these vending machines quite often, due the fact that I was craving sugar and caffeine from a lack of coffee and, well, sweet stuff in general. My uncle Yoshito found it pretty funny how much soda I drank while I was there, which by my standards wasn't even that much!

On our way to go scuba diving, we stopped at Kadena Air Force Base, the largest U.S. Air Force base in the Far East.

Once we arrived at the scuba diving place, we walked around a little bit and found a local fish market/restaurant and this... a 140-lb. tuna fish!

My half sister Sarang, 12, on the far left, and my sister Kayla, 19, in the middle.

Checking out the catches of the day.

We had to wait around for the only English-speaking instructor. Our "training" was simply a 15-minute presentation with no tests. He is showing us how to breathe through the tube in the picture above. He showed us the hand signals and taught us how to pop our ears underwater, and before we knew it we were on the boat and on our way!

Ready to go!

On my way down. Had some trouble popping my ears so I had to ask the instructor to stop a few times on our descent. And all of the underwater pics are thanks to my uncle!

A whale shark, the largest shark species and biggest fish in the sea!

There are two whale sharks here.

From left to right: Sarang, Yoshito, me and Kayla.

Yes, we got to touch the whale sharks, we were that close!

Me, on the left, and my sister Kayla.

On the boat ride back, happy to be above water!

The now experienced scuba divers.

As you can see by the pictures, scuba diving in Okinawa was amazing and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. By the time we were finished, it was lunch time and we were starving, so we of course ate at the local fresh fish market restaurant! And it was by far the best meal I had while in Okinawa.

The menu.

My mom had black squid ink soup for lunch (pictured above). This was the only thing I didn't try in Okinawa. A little much for me! My lunch, however was quite delicious (pictured below), and consisted of sweet shrimp, salmon eggs, squid, octopus, salmon, tuna and mackerel... for a whopping $9! A meal like that would have easily cost over $30 if not more in the United States!

My mom, her brother, and the sweet shrimp.

After lunch we did a little exploring along the beach, and I'll post those pictures later this week!

Operation: My Little Sister Goes to College

2010-08-23T22:45:00.005-05:00

My little sister, Kayla, 19, on the morning of our road trip to Springfield.

Let me just start by explaining why I've been totally slacking on blogging:

I don't think I can remember the last day where I had absolutely nothing planned. My life has been a whirlwind in the last week. Or maybe hurricane would be a better way to describe it.

I'm actually typing this entire post from my BlackBerry right now, since I don't have access to a computer and I don't have anything else to do at the moment - shocking, I know. Don't worry, I only have a few hours 'til my doubleheader softball games tonight.

And I promise to put up more pics from Okinawa soon!

Now, back to the point of my blog post, taking my sister to college. :)

My dad and I dropped my little sister off at Missouri State University last Thursday, and boy what a day it was.

My sister is going to be a sophomore, but she went to SCC for her first year so this is her first year away from home.

She went with my dad when he moved me up to Truman State in Kirksville for the first time (5 years ago, even though it feels just like yesterday), and every year after that, so I thought it was only fair I did the same for her. (Even though she really didn't have a choice, and maybe I didn't either, but still... Main point is that I didn't really think twice about it when my dad asked me to take a day off and help.)

Before arriving at my dad's house I packed my sister the essential college survival kit, complete with: Ramen noodles, chapstick, candles, blanket, pictures, picture frame and an oriental fan decoration.

We left my dad's house around 9:30 a.m., then my dad realized he forgot his checkbook so we turned around, then he had to go the bank... So by 10 a.m. we were officially on the road to Springfield. Only 3 more hours to go... After a few more stops we finally arrived at Mexican Villa, a local joint in Springfield that my dad loves.

Afterwards we went to my sister's dorm in Blair-Shannon, where she is rooming with six, that's right I said SIX other girls in one little dorm room.

Now, I thought my dorm in Centennial Hall (circa 1970-ish) was old... But it's nothing compared to Blair-Shannon. They trick you though... Their cafeteria and lobby area looks all new and pretty, but then you head upstairs to banged up doors and a pretty nasty bathroom. Oh well, it's all a part of the college experience right? I'm pretty sure that living with six girls, one of which is your best friend, two of which are girls you know of but had never met, and the other two are exchange students from China, will be quite the experience.

After a few hiccups (my sister's fault of course) we were finally able to access her room and we moved all of her stuff up in one trip. Of course, not buy ourselves but with the help of six strong, burly frat boys. Of course they thought I was the freshman moving in, even though I was clearly wearing my "Truman Spirit" t-shirt (gotta represent!), but we didn't need them to be smart. ;)

Of course we then had to make the inevitable Wal-Mart run, which my friend Meagan politely warned me about with this comment:

Just be careful when you go shopping for dorm stuff... the Walmarts are ugly this time of year. And I don't mean just busy, they're actually full of ugly hicks.

But, it wasn't actually that bad, given that my sister got to move in a day earlier than the rest of Missouri State's 2,500 freshmen (thank goodness). She's living on an LLC (Living-Learning Community) floor, a unique residence living style for freshmen and sophomores, and it allowed her to move in a day early.

We got her all the essentials: Ramen noodles, Mac 'n Cheese, water, soda, chips and granola bars. What more could you possibly want? She was set. We got her books at an off-campus bookstore (she was smart and got hers used, whereas my dad spent $600 my first semester because I didn't know any better and bought all new books) and made our last stop at the Campus Bookstore for some Missouri State memorabilia.

We took some pictures in front of the bear, MO State's mascot, and said our goodbyes. No tears, unlike when I was dropped off, Kayla was more than ready to get away and I'm pretty sure my dad had a mutual feeling. :)

Now all we had to do was make the three-hour trek back home. Yipee. I drove this time while my dad slept half the way. Driving down 44 really isn't too bad, IMO. At least it's more interesting than driving down 63 back and forth between Kirksville and St. Louis. Exactly 12 hours and a Culver's run later we were home, sweet home. Like I said, what a day.

I am excited for my sister though, she's got a full three years of college to look forward to. Going through those motions with her made me miss college a lot. Just how simple life was back then, and how my "responsibilities" were next to nothing. I hope she really gets the most out of her time there, and maybe will appreciate it even more after having to stay home for a year.

I know most people think they can't afford to go away to a four-year school, and that's why so many of them enroll in community colleges like SCC, which I think is great. Some people just aren't ready to go away to college, whether it's financial or personal issues, but when you are ready, don't be afraid to take that leap.

My advice, which may not be the best financial advice, seeing as how I'll be paying off my college loans for the next 10 years or so, is to take out the loans, because it's worth it. Especially if it's your dream to go to a four-year school. Who cares if it takes you a couple of extra years to get there? It will make you all the more prepared for when it's time to go. If you want to stay home for a few years and save some money, I don't blame you - go for it! But just don't talk yourself out of going when it comes time to move on.

Trust me, when I write my monthly check to Truman, I don't complain about them emptying my pockets, instead I think about all of the experiences Truman filled my life with, whether they were academic, professional or social in nature. I learned a lot while I was away at school, and I came back a wiser and more mature adult, full of life experiences, including the good, the bad and the ugly. I wouldn't trade my college years for the world, and I often find myself trying to recreate those moments whenever I can. Bottom line? Take out the loans, you won't regret it. College is worth it.

Please Vote for Victrola!

2010-08-07T16:23:00.012-05:00

So I'm taking a break from my Okinawa Highlights to ask you all a big favor...

Please vote for my friend Lauren Cram's clothing line, Victrola, to win Project:Design! for St. Louis Fashion Week.

She is an awesome designer! (I've been trying to get her to make me a Cards dress for months.)

So as you can see, she totally deserves to win. And these don't even begin to show how awesome she is. Check out Victrola's Facebook page to see more of her work. Her dresses are AMAZING!

Another one of my favorites.

What is Project:Design! you ask? According to their website:

Project:Design! was created to find the best new fashion design talent and provide a high-profile launching pad for their careers. Project:Design! supports the creativity, innovation and artistry of new designers by giving them the exposure, experience and tools they need to take their collections from runway to retail.
Right now she's in the top six, which is great because the top six designers with the most votes get invited to the St. Louis Fashion Week show in September, and from those six, one designer will be chosen as the winner. The first-place winner will get a "fashion-forward" website created for them, and $5,000 towards a Smile Makeover plus "Whitening for Life" at VivaSmiles Advanced Dentistry.

However, she needs your help to not only stay in the top six, but to move up to #1! Here's how to vote:

Go to www.saintlouisfashionweek.com/ and click on Project:Design! Look for the VOTE tab in the top menu and register to vote. Once you do that, go through the list of designers, look for Victrola, and click on the VOTE button!

And what's great is, you can vote more than once! Once every hour, to be exact! So please vote as much and as often as you can.

I'd really appreciate it if you guys could help my friend out!

Okinawa Highlights, Day 2: Shopping!

2010-08-05T11:05:00.014-05:00

Our second day in Okinawa turned out to be our least adventurous day. We woke up late and my aunt Tomiko (the wife of my mom’s oldest brother, Yoshikuni) came over to say hello and took my mom to get her haircut. When she returned, she took us to the mall for our girls shopping day! It was just my two sisters, Kayla (19) and Sarang (12), and I, plus my mom.

We also later met up with my mom’s old grade school friend.

All the girls!

Shopping in Okinawa was quite the experience. I can sum it up in just one word: small. I seriously felt like a giant over there sometimes. I managed to find a dress that I really liked, but I decided I needed a waist belt to go with it. I found one I liked, but it was too small, so I asked my mom to get a bigger size, turns out, it was a “one-size-fits-all” belt. Yeah, right. I didn’t even attempt to try on shoes with my abnormally large feet. ☹

So what did I do? I got a burger at McDonald’s. ☺

We decided we had to try it just once, to see if it was any different. To our surprise, it tasted exactly the same. Their “small” drinks though, on the other hand, were definitely small.

And it’s the same across the board in all of their restaurants. All of their glasses and cups are miniature-sized. I would take two drinks and need a refill.

Two differences we did notice at McDonald’s though were the menu and the employee’s uniforms.

Notice the middle item, the McPork.

They also had a teriyaki burger, and the “Shaka Shaka” chicken.

And all of the female employees were wearing HEELS. At McDonald’s. Weird, and unnecessary.

As we continued our shopping, we happened to walk by the arcade, where we found Japan’s own version of rock band:

I found that quite amusing.

I also liked how in every clothing store we were in, they were playing American pop music. I think I heard Lady Gaga at least once in every store. They really do enjoy American culture, and they LOVE Mickey Mouse. No joke. He’s on t-shirts (and I’m not just talking for little kids), jewelry, candy, food… you name it. Mickey and Minnie are everywhere! Pretty funny.

And we stopped by a donut shop on the way out.

Green tea donuts. Don’t they look yummy?

And in case you’re wondering, no, I didn’t try them. Green tea really doesn’t do much for me, but they’re obsessed with it over there. They drink green tea, eat green tea ice cream, green tea cookies, and the list goes on and on. To them, it’s “sweet.” To Americans, it’s bitter.

After nearly five hours of shopping, we had dinner at a restaurant in the mall (not the greatest, but not the best we had either) and called it a day.

Once we got to my grandma’s house, my uncle Yoshto (mom’s youngest brother) stopped by with his wife, Yoko, daughter, Hana, and their two dogs, Max and Piece.

Max the bulldog.

Other than showing us his adorable dogs, my uncle really came over to discuss plans for the next day, which included scuba diving and snorkeling. Yoshto, as I said earlier, works as a researcher for the Okinawan government, and he has a certified scuba diving license. He has tons of scuba diving and snorkeling gear so that we could practice breathing through our mouths. He also showed us the fish we would be swimming with, and the whale shark we would see.

Via Peter Etnoyer's blog, "Deep-Sea News" on ScienceBlogs.

Needless to say, we were pretty excited about it!

My uncle had an underwater camera with him while we were scuba diving and snorkeling, and he sent those pictures home with my mom, who just got back last Saturday. Hopefully I’ll get those pictures from her soon and show you our scuba diving and snorkeling adventures!

Okinawa Highlights, Day 1: Food, the Neighborhood, and the Beach!

2010-08-02T16:40:00.013-05:00

First and foremost, I must apologize for my near month-long hiatus. I did return on July 16, but since then I have been beyond busy, both at work and after, with weddings, get-togethers and a looming new website launch (which is happening tonight!) Needless to say, I simply haven’t had the time!

I finally finished uploading all 415 pictures from Okinawa on Facebook last week. Whew. I even tried to cut back a little, believe it or not! Fortunately, I’m going to spare you all on spending all day looking through my wonderful pictures, and just give you the highlights from days 1-5 in Okinawa, starting with day one.

I can honestly say there is nothing worse than being on a plane for 12 hours. In total, it took us nearly a full 24 hours to get from St. Louis, Mo., to Okinawa, Japan. We left St. Louis around noon on Friday, July 16, and we finally arrived in Okinawa at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 17 (Japan time, which would make it around 8 a.m. St. Louis time).

When my sister Kayla and I finally arrived, my mom and her youngest brother, Yoshto, and her only sister, Kyomi, along with Kyomi’s husband, Noriyaki, greeted us at the gate and offered to take us out to dinner, to which Kayla and I happily agreed (I hate airplane food and we didn’t have time to eat in the Tokyo airport, mostly because I got lost and we barely made our plane to Okinawa.)

Our first Okinawan restaurant experience couldn’t have been better.

My mom and her siblings just started ordering food for us left and right, first yakisoba (Japanese fried noodles), then yakitori (teriyaki and soy chicken kebobs), gyozo (my uncle Noriyaki calls them “Japanese meatballs”), raw squid with a yummy horseradish-type sauce, and some kind of fried chicken with a delicious sauce on it. Plus Orion beer, which is a rice beer and later turned out to be my favorite.

As tired as we were, Kayla and I had a blast hanging out with my mom, aunt and uncles. My uncle Yoshto and aunt Kyomi can barely speak English, but we made it work. My uncle Noriyaki can actually speak English pretty well, so I spoke with him the most, and my mom helped translate when she could.

My uncle Yoshto and aunt Kyomi.

My mom actually has two older brothers as well, Yoshihiro and Yoshikuni, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see them as much. We ended up spending the most time with Yoshto, who actually took three days off work to spend time with us, which was awesome. More about that later.

We finally left the restaurant a little after midnight and arrived at my grandparents’ house, where we were staying for the week, a little before 1 a.m. My sister and I immediately crashed as soon as our heads hit the pillows.

When we woke up, we realized how small our grandparents' house is.

It's cute though isn't it? Most of the houses over there look like this. They’re very small and very close together. My grandparents’ house actually housed three bedrooms, but it was between 8 people, two of them being my crazy and wild 5-year old brother and sister (Seika will be 6 in August, they’re only 10 months apart).

See what I mean? They're crazy.

Oh, and there was only one bed, which belonged to my grandparents.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for having a place to stay for free (and with lots of food!), but I have to admit I was pretty happy to come home and sleep in my own bed in my own room where my little brother wouldn’t be kicking me in the stomach and I wouldn't have to deal with my sisters’ snoring.

And let me get back to the food! Oh, the food. My grandma (or Ba-chan, in Japanese) was relentless in making sure we were always full. The minute we walk into the house she goes immediately to the kitchen and starts cooking anything she can find in her fridge and pantry. I soon found out that this is customary in all Japanese homes, because all of my aunts did the same thing. (My uncles are a little more adamant in making sure your beer is never empty.)

But my grandma sure can cook! Our first breakfast consisted of rice, seaweed, pickles, donuts, fish soup, gyoza (my favorite!) and fruit. It was a weird combination of food, but amazing nonetheless.

After breakfast on our first day in Okinawa, my siblings and I decided to explore the neighborhood.

We also stopped by my uncle Yoshikuni’s house, which was right around the corner.

This is the view from my uncle Yoshikuni’s backyard.

We also found shisas, and they are EVERYWHERE in Okinawa.

They are little lion/dog type creatures that protect your house from evil. I now have several in my apartment. ☺ I took a ton of pictures of these guys, because they come in all different shapes and sizes, and I might make some kind of collage out of them. Not sure yet.

Also along our stroll in the neighborhood we found these, which are also everywhere.

I later found out they are basically tombs, and entire families are buried in them. Well, when I say buried, I mean cremated and in urns, because everyone in Okinawa is cremated. I also found out that my grandpa’s family tomb is over 300 years old. And every spring they have cleaning ceremonies to honor their ancestors and have a picnic on top of the tomb itself. Very interesting.

After our trip around the neighborhood we headed to the beach! Which I later found out would be our only trip to the beach. ☹ Don’t get me wrong, we spent a lot of time in the ocean and exploring the coral coast, but when I say a beach trip I mean in a swimming suit, playing in the water and laying out in the sun. I wish we could’ve had a few more of those days.

It was beautiful though. This was actually on a different, smaller island than Okinawa, called Ikei Island. It was fun, too, because most of my family came with us. My uncle Yoshto, who works for the Okinawan government as a researcher and basically knows everything there is to know about Okinawa, found a baby jellyfish, a sea cucumber and a bunch of fish that he pointed out to us. You really didn’t even need goggles unless you started going into deeper water because it was so clear!

From left to right: Miku (2), Keito (3), Seika (6), Sarang (12) and Hanna (11) in the back.
Also note how clear and beautiful the water is.

Miku and Keito are my cousin Aska’s kids, Seika and Sarang are my half sisters, and Hanna is my uncle Yoshto and aunt Yoko’s daughter.

After a long day at the beach we drove back to Okinawa and had dinner.

Dinner was fantastic as always, I got steak this time. ☺

Every restaurant that I went to had buzzers, located on the tables, that would call your server over (very convenient!) and instead of writing down orders on paper they had electronic pads that they entered them into (very cool). And yes, we had to remove our shoes before stepping onto a platform where we sat on the ground to eat dinner. Personally, I like sitting in chairs, because my legs start to fall asleep after sitting cross-legged for a while.

After dinner we went home and I was in bed asleep by 10 p.m. After a full day of traveling, followed by a day at the beach, I was exhausted and slept until 10 a.m. the next day. I’ll post day 2 as soon as I can!

Leavin' on a Jet Plane...

2010-07-08T16:45:00.003-05:00

So kiss me, and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
'Cause I'm leavin', on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh baby, I hate to go

- John Denver

Just wanted to let you know that I'll be MIA over the next week because I'm leaving... yes, on a jet plane! Heading back to the motherland (AKA Okinawa) for a week!

I'll be staying with my grandparents and visiting with family (all 4 pairs of aunts/uncles and 10+ cousins that I barely know!), making trips to the beach and eating sushi and other delicious Japanese foods! I can't wait!

That's me in the middle, with my grandparents on the right and my mom's sister and her husband on the left, when they visited the U.S. five years ago.

This trip will be much different from my last experience in Okinawa. I was three and from what I hear, I hated every minute of it. Sad, I know.

My mom and I stayed with my grandparents for 2-3 weeks, and being a daddy's girl, I missed my dad terribly. My mom told me I would even walk out of my grandparents' house and start marching down the street, shouting, "I'm going home to see Dad!!!" Stubborn then, still stubborn now. :) They also went and got McDonald's for me on an almost daily basis because I hated Japanese food, and I was also terrified of the ocean.

My, how things change in 20 years. Sushi is now one of my favorite foods, I love my mom's home cooking (rice, noodles, fish, etc.) and I love spending vacations on a beach! Still not a huge fan of the water though, and I still love McDonald's... so I guess some things never change. :)

Either way, I'm determined to have a much better experience this time and will soak up every minute of my time in Okinawa with my family and enjoy the Japanese culture! I promise to post pictures and stories when I get back!

What Makes Me Happy

2010-07-02T14:41:00.028-05:00

Do you ever just sit back, take a look around you and ask, "What did I do to deserve this much happiness?" Well I've had that feeling for quite some time now, and even more so since summer began. I really couldn't ask for anything more. My life is about as close to perfect in my eyes as it's ever been and I couldn't be happier. I love my job and I have great family, friends and a boyfriend who love me and support for me in anything I do. I honestly wish I could shout from a mountain top about how truly happy I am right now, but instead all I have is this blog. :) And here is proof of my happiness...

My little brother.

And my little sisters.

The wineries with friends.

My boyfriend's dog, Bob the boxer.

Cardinals baseball.

Concerts at Busch.

First pitch tickets.

Heaven.

My softball team, the Tigers, winning our last game 26-11.

Seeing the only win in KC.

One of my best friends getting married. Taken by Lisa Hessel.

Lunch on my dad's deck on a beautiful Friday afternoon.

Wanting to be a kid again and taking photos of SCC's kids summer camps, Camp Glee and Lift Off to Outer Space.

Singing "Don't Stop Believing" at Camp Glee.
Also, check out this video and story on SCC's Camp Glee by the St. Louis Beacon! (@stlbeacon)

Paper rocket launching at Lift Off to Outer Space camp.

Egg drop competition at Lift Off to Outer Space camp. Which, by the way, no one seems to know anything about! If you don't know what an egg drop is, and not the soup, check it out, now!

An upcoming three-day weekend, celebrating Independence Day.
I saw this on The Pioneer Woman blog, originally photographed by Carina Olsen.

And last but not least, a three-day work week next week followed by a 7-day trip to Okinawa, Japan, visiting family and hanging out on the beach!

And don't worry, I will have plenty of photos and stories to share when I get back! And of course I'm thankful for everyone who reads my blog! Hope you all enjoyed the photos and have a fantastic weekend!

(Side note: MOST of these photos were taken by yours truly!)

Never Too Late

2010-06-22T12:19:00.018-05:00

Who knew a man from Guatemala, a cancer survivor, a 61-year old man from Brooklyn and a retired college professor would all have something in common? Believe it or not, they were all high school dropouts.

But they all eventually went back to earn their GED credentials.

I had the privilege of speaking to each of these individuals, and several others like them, on the phone recently while I was working on putting together a media advisory for the Adult Education and Literacy Student Recognition Ceremony that took place last Wednesday at SCC. The ceremony recognized students who successfully achieved their GED credentials as well as students in the English as a Second Language (ESL) program for achievement, improvement and attendance.

My favorite picture from the ceremony, taken by Ben Munson.

The conversations I had and the stories these remarkable people shared touched my heart and made me really appreciate what I do and what SCC represents. We’re an institution for higher learning, but we’re also so much more than that. We support all kinds of education, whether you’re going back to school 20 years after the fact, or if you just want to take some classes for fun. There all different walks of life here at SCC, and here are just a few highlights of the unique people I had the privilege of speaking with last week, in a news release that went out today from SCC: GED Recipients and English as a Second Language Students Honored at SCC's Adult Education and Literacy Student Recognition Ceremony.

I hope you found their stories as inspiring as I do, and I hope you take away something similar to what I learned after speaking with all of these wonderful people: It’s never too late, and life is too short to let it pass you by. If a man who is over the age of 60 has the courage to go back to school and get his GED credential nearly 40 years later, you can do something remarkable too.

Start training for that marathon.

Take a class in rock climbing.

Go skydiving.

(Or if you’re afraid of heights like me, try scuba diving.)

Take that trip to Hawaii you’ve always talked about.

Go on a random road trip with friends.

Go back to school. Call up an old friend or family member and re-connect. Don’t take people for granted. Spend the money you don’t have. Do something crazy. Take the risks. Live life to the fullest, and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.