Lessons I learned from NOLA

I learned more than just a few things when I went on vacation this week. Of course, these lessons learned the hard way will undoubtedly set the scene and cultivate laughter

1. Manicures matter. If you’re a nail freak like I am, get a gel manicure and get serious about it. It’s genuinely disturbing to see chipped polish in an otherwise perfect photo and you will have less grumbles over it later.

2. Walking shoes. I think Birkenstocks were made for walking, right? I have ruined a pair of sandals because in the city of--Nah’Ahlans, as it’s pronounced unsarcastically--will ruin your cute accessory sandals. I am sure there’s another brand out there but if they’re ugly you’ll also be miserable so make a compromise and invest.

a. The alternative to this is buying multiple Dr. Scholl’s products only to ifnd they are less than functional in sandals and don’t bear well in the rain. Mhmm. INVEST!!!

3. Be patient. Travel itself took forever and my trip home took an entire 20 hours of a day pending layovers and gaps between flight schedules (in my defense I did stop in 4 states and fly two different airlines). But that kind of endurance is not natural so figure out a way to deal with it. We saw so many flight delays due to maintenance and weather that it is bound to happen to you. The odds are stacked—we were just lucky this time. (Also nobody wants to go to Minnesota so we’re lone-wolves in that route).

4. Be even more patient. We had a day of epic failures. The service industry is a weekend biz, which means Mondays (sometimes Sundays) and Tuesdays are mommy’s night out. Call ahead because with cellphones, the internet and a little voice to voice, you can save yourself miles and miles of walking heartache as you search for a Ginger Mint Julep to no avail based on these Service Industry Saturdays.

5. Plan. Figure out what you want to do or at the very least-- don't want to do on your trip. My co-pilot and I had the sole intention of eating anything and everything when we got to the Big Easy, and that is exactly what we did. We had a list of recommendations that fell through based on the fact that we were only walking the city, not wanting to miss a moment of a too-quick taxi.

No Draft, Just Writing

Holy busy Spring!

What's the latest update on the Xo front?

WELL...

This is what I look like when I travel/
send lame texts to my friends during the work day. 

This little piggy went to the Minnesota market and ran around town like it ain't no thang. Translation: I went to yoga a lot, raided Trader Joe's (Sorry Nat) and had a girl's night where we stayed up past our bedtimes and did yoga moves in the living room.

I started a new side-gig working in Social Media with a company I met out of Chicago. Learning a new role has been a really interesting process. It's been a long time since I've been the "new guy" at anything and it's weird feeling like I'm blindfolded running a maze. You get so used to knowing everything-- where to go, what to do, who to ask-- that it's stressful to not just understand. That's a confidence I think we take for granted no matter how much we gripe and whine about the daily challenges we meet in our jobs.

Overall, it's a great experience-- Social Media, Writing, Public Relations, Travel & Food. I want to keep my toes dipped into all of these ponds and right now I've got a decent handle on a few of them, so it makes each week interesting to say the least. Don't worry, I won't tip over... yet.

It makes me miss learning, though. Part of that could come from the fact that I ran into one of my favorite college professors at the Twins game, and part of it can come from the End of School season that is upon us. It's like Back to School only you feel like you really have no excuse not to kick your life into gear because you've got "less" on your plate. I feel my molecules starting to move a little faster in anticipation of our 16-year habit that we haven't quite kicked.

I don't plan on watching TRL or hanging out in Park Point all summer so instead I plan to really hone in on the projects I've got going before I take on my next one in the fall. It's taking everything in me to not do it all at once. Literally, as I sit here with tabs open on my future project, I just want to tell myself "Go"/write about it on here so I have a reason to start on it now, but I'm still really working on being fair to myself about how I allot my time and energy.

Does anyone else feel like their permanent student is leaking out this spring?

Like you're squirrely but know that if you take on anything else, you might implode? But then part of you wants to? No? Yes??