Life of a Go-Getter

Howdy!!
  This week I feel like I have been super productive, on the go, and more social!  It feels great!  I think I was kind of getting into a slump where I worked, went home, cooked, watch TV, slept and worked again.  While I need that some nights, it should not be every night.  So lately I've been trying to break that rut!

I've gotten into a lovely Tuesday habit of hiking the dunes with my girlfriend.  This has been a great Tuesday evening activity to not only get me outside, but off my butt from working all day.  It has also been leaving me with nice endorphins to get through the rest of the week! It is so nice to have a friend to work out with, to get outside, and best of all to get the best views of Lake Michigan once I've reached the top of that big dune that winded me!  My calves are sore from yesterday... :)

Since I moved to a new location, I've been dreading moving all or some of my doctors to my new area.  But this morning when I threw out my old contacts and realized I only had one right one left in my cabinet, I reached a limit.  I can't wear my glasses to a huge rock concert Saturday, they might fall and break or get lost!  I need contacts for my concert Saturday! Crap!! so I first whined to my mom, but quickly realized I wouldn't be in Kalamazoo to get them from her before the show.  So I sucked it up, called the Niles office of my eye Doctor and they let me pick up one contact for each eye and make a new appointment for my annual eye review.  While in the calling doctors office mood, I also called a general doctor's office in Niles and started that process of getting my medical records transferred.  Mind you, my last normal Dr. was a pediatrician... that is how long it has been since I've been in for a check up....

The training i drove to in Lansing today is soooo cool!  I'm so excited to try out what I've learned.  A colleague and I drove to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in Lansing for a few hours GIS mapping lessons.  After only those few hours of training, I can now do what normally we have to pay someone to do with maps!  I can't wait to put it into action by creating maps of our conservation easements and preserves, or create maps to help us plan what properties we want to protect by picking out certain features of the data and mapping that.   This will help our little organization out immensely!! and it is also a really good skill for me to have acquired!  People respond more to maps than to hard data or statistics.  Something about the visual appeal and its spread through an area is so powerful to the human brain.  I can't wait to organize the data the FWS and DEQ had gathered to move people to see the importance of my work!!

besides cooking a fabulous dinner (I will post on that next), tonight was more me re cooperating from over 5 hours in the car today and my butt kicking and toning yesterday.  I hope this can inspire someone to get some things off their checklist done that may have been procrastinated!  It feels amazing and gives me momentum to get more off that list done!

Take Care!
<3 Sue

Cheese with my Whine

Wow!  I don't even remember my last post... talk about busy! So much going on, half of it I can't post on here but definitely some of life's curve balls.   Work has been crazy, lots of meetings and trying to get on track after the transition to the new Executive Director.  Sometimes I feel like my head is spinning and my brain is going to explode, for example, we had a meeting with our lawyer last Friday.  The discussions about the legal documents needed to make an easement happen are fascinating, but man was that a DENSE hour and a half!  Talking about clauses for the different easements and the purchase agreements and the difference between a Right of First Offer and a Right of First Refusal.  After this meeting, I thought my head was going to fall off from obtaining so much information.
Sometimes we have so many meetings I feel like I'm not getting much accomplished, but I know the importance of meeting with the people I'm working with via e-mail.  Its just hard to complete long documents when you are constantly in meetings obtaining new information, so I'll save those documents for quieter days.
On top of all the work with the 4 current easements and one preserve, we have had 3 people call in who saw the article in the newspaper about the new Executive Director and are interested in preserving there land!  This is great news, but things are getting a little crazy, which is also a good thing!
    My back is getting better, after several chiro appointments, and desiring a massage just about every day, I'm down to the bruise only being present when i sit with poor posture and some upper back tension that causes occasional headaches.  I'm trying to get back into Yoga to help strengthen my back into a less tense and maybe a little toned area.  I'm scared I'm not doing my positions right though... Need to save up for a class.
Speaking of saving up, my car, well my parents car that I am using for the time being, is seriously about to crap on me.  I shelled out over $300 for ONE ball bearing, I still have to save up $400 for the rear left one and however much it costs to get my brake AND rotors changed out....I'm trying to take each one a month at a time but that makes it impossible for me to save up for the Ford Fiesta I think I will buy in the spring.
  Yes this blog wasn't very mentally enthralling but like I said, work has been draining me.  Many important meetings and our benefit is coming up soon!  If anyone is interested, I would love to have some of my people supporting our efforts to protect land in this area.  Our benefit is in a barn with locally made hors d'eouvres, beer and wine.  yes local beer and wine!  Here is more information and the means to RSVP!!
http://chikamingopenlands.org/news/2011fundraiser
 We also have some very cool raffle prizes!
So that's all my selling points for this week.  When I'm feeling more inspired I'll try and get something more engaging up and a little less whinny.  I know we are all suffering in this bad economy, and the last thing people need to hear is about another struggling, poor college grad, but just know that I am being optimistic as much as I can and am also going to work on my good karma in hopes that it circles around.  Keep your chins up, something good has got to happen to soon!  Its all about the attitude!
Oh! I forgot to shout out about my Chicago trip to visit my great friend Drew!  Here is a picture of us at dinner at aja, a great restaurant!  we also went to a John Legend after party for Lolla at the Underground night club! I will be back soon for another great weekend!

Take care and look forward, not backward!