Life Update

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Hiii! I have been a sporadic blogger this year (are we sick of hearing me write that on here, or what?) – especially this fall – as work has taken over my “life” and little is left of my “free time.” I mean, Election season and all that jazz, sure. But also Jimmy left? And nonprofit work – overworked/underpaid and such? Something about doing it for the love of the cause, etc. etc. And I do like what I do and the folks I do it with (sometimes, it kills me a little to write things like that. Like… “the folks I do it with.” Because the grammatically correct way to say it is “the folks with whom I do it.” But nobody talks like that on a blog. Even though I do think it like that?). But let’s say I’ll be totes OK when the Elections are over, we have more folks on my team, and I can zone out and do non-work things at night. J

Like… go to Pure Barre. Oh, my! OK, so this summer, Camille, Alexis and I bought Living Social deals for Pure Barre. But then Camille up and moved to Utah before we could use them! (Miss you, C$!! xo)  

Have you ever tried Pure Barre? No? Here’s what to expect on your first class. At first, you’ll feel like you’re dying. How can I take 54 more minutes of this, you’ll think? I’m about to give out on you right this second, your muscles scream. Then a few minutes later, you’re like, oh, this ain’t so bad. A little later, wait a second, am I doing this right?? Shouldn’t this hurt more? (Don’t worry; it’ll hurt tomorrow. But also, I think I’ll try a class with a different teacher next time, juuuust to be sure I’m doing things right.) And then it gets harder again, and you have to take a break halfway through push-ups, because I’ve never been able to do a freaking push-up, is the sad reality of my life.

(One time, I thought I’d be smart my junior year of high school, and I took a weightlifting class. Only two girls, and the rest were boys! Huzzah! I’ve traditionally liked being friends with boys better than girls, etc. idk. They’re just simpler. Back to the weightlifting class. We were graded on our personal progress, which meant we did an evaluation of everything – push-ups, curling, bench pressing, etc. – at the beginning of the semester, and then we did an evaluation at the end. In the original evaluation, I got credit for “half” a push-up (I could go down, but I def couldn’t come back up). By the end, I could do one push-up. And that’s where I maxed out. Let’s just say things haven’t really improved for me since then on the push-up front.)

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Back to Pure Barre… Soooo, yes. Pure Barre. It needs to be a part of my routine. Because I have nine classes left on my Living Social and dangitt, I plan to get my money’s worth! (How many push-ups do you think I’ll be able to do? Shall we take bets?)

I just got back from a work-ish trip to the Bay Area. We had our fourth and LAST (for the year) Power Summit at San Jose State. And as you my know, I served my mission a stone’s throw away from SJ (California Oakland Mission, woot!). I couldn’t come all the way to the Bay and not visit my mission, you know? So I went!

But before I tell you about that, let me first tell you about Power Summit. OK, I’m going to be very real here for a minute. Let’s start with the good stuff. Because it was all good stuff! Huzzah! Even with one fewer team member and with double the workload, with the help of my awesome intern (I swear by Hinckley interns Though I may be biased since I’m a former Hinckley intern myself. ;) ), we had e’rrybody’s talking points and press things and such ready earlier for this conference than for any of the other conferences. The latest I went to bed was 1am. (One time, I went to bed at 4:26am one Power Summit, and then I was up and ready at 6am. OK, 6:10am…) Plenaries ended on time. People stuck to talking points (and knocked them out of the park beyond what I could have hoped for). We had more media than we’ve had before. (I think because everyone is trying to GOTV right now. It was great!)

Maybe it’s because it was our fourth round of doing this and we have the lay of the land down a little better. Maybe it helped that there was a printer in my room. (No, seriously… This made a WORLD of difference!) Maybe I just feel more comfortable in my own VL skin. And I think I’ve gotten more efficient at briefing folks and being tactfully persistent. Also, I’ve become an excellent hoverer. Let’s just say some of he folks I briefed are hard to pin down in a crowd, bc e’rrybody wants to talk to them or take selfies with them. So I hovered a lot. Ha. Sometimes that meant briefing someone during the walk back to the hotel room. And partially IN the hotel room, bc the walk was too short. Or while they eat lunch and simultaneously take work phone calls. So you brief them in between calls and bites. (And then you also order a delicious Thai chicken wrap, because if he’s eating, you may as well eat also?) But whatever it was, this Power Summit was our best one yet, and I’m really glad we were able to enjoy it! I work with the greatest team! J Legitimate shout-out to Roxana  right now – I was short on time for prep for one of our online events, bc of the aforementioned lengthy lunch briefing, and she totally took charge and all I did was walk in and everything was ready. That’s a real team right there. When you do what you can, and then your teammate fills in the gaps you missed. She went above and beyond. Roxy, you’re the greatest!! :D

And ohhhh! Avery and I were roommates, and we had ourselves a romantic weekend at the Fairmont. J Complete with room service in bed (on bed?), plush bathrobes, and roses in our room. ;)

OK, I think I’m now going to end this post, because it’s already reaaalllly long, and I haven’t even gotten to the Oakland stuff yet. J

Hasta pronto!