Friends & Family on Friday

Breakfast out of town is usually a far cry from whatever dietary regimen I'm trying to follow, but I can't say I was upset about some turkey bacon and eggs to get the day started. To top it, we stopped by my old stomping grounds to say hi to a few familiar faces, and the new ones I'd not yet met.

Man, I miss these guys!

oh, how i miss these two! [& the rest of that team!]

We didn't plan it, but it turned out we'd see Marc twice today; we ran into him several hours later at Bindy's. We were set for the afternoon to celebrate Christmas with Rob's mom and stepdad, which provided the final item on Rob's Christmas wish list. We've now got a new acoustic for the house, and I have to say, it's beautiful.

he's in love! 

A couple hours later, we wrapped everything up at Rob's mom's and headed back to Dillon's to decide how to allocate the remaining hours of the night.

Bindy's it was. The crowd started pouring in as it does every time I've seen the place, and with it came Marc, who we just saw earlier this morning, and even Taryn, who was at a birthday party just before stopping through to see us. There were plenty of other familiar faces, which made for a fun [long, but fun] night!

hi jesse, hi taryn! :) 

taryn :) 

random snapchat? 

I'm not even sure who that SnapChat ended up going to, but if I had to guess, it was probably Ali & Damanji. Either way, it's been a night with these folks and I'm happy to have spent it the way we did. I'm also happy to be home for the night.... ;)

That being said, G'Nite!

xo | cmd

& Monday Makes Three

I'm back in Cincinnati. *PHEW.

Rewind to the beginning of today:

I originally opted off work today to tend to some Sydni-related things, which ended up being unecessary.. I already had the day off though, so I figured I'd put it to good use and make the trip back to Ohio a leisurely one. It worked itself out, too, for yesterday's adventure on the river that would've been impossible had I needed to be at work today.

So yeah. On my day OFF, the first thing I think to do is go to work. Haha. My old office in Glen Carbon was on my list for the morning; I stopped off to get them some donuts & say hello. I miss these folks!

the express crew, sans carmalita & mb .. and now without ali too :p
miss this gang!

I sat for a few minutes with Linda, who was always cracking me up in one way or another... she didn't fail to disappoint today, either... 


love her.

^ Ya'll won't get why that's funny.. but if you worked a week with her & the rest of that staff, you'd have the time of your life for it being a job.. too much fun (:

Back at the house, I made the traditional breakfast, because that's just part of thge lineup whenever Rob & I get together, and spent some time just relaxing in the lull between cooking and driving. Well... let me rephrase that. We let the dogs out in the backyard, and Sasha the Houdini dog decided again that she'd let herself out.. and of course Stella just followed up right behind her. Go figure. Rob spent nearly 30 minutes casing the neighborhood for them, when the neighbors across the street found them in her backyard.... And THIS is what the girls looked like once they were back in the house, fully aware that they were in trouble.

bad. dogs. adorable... bad.. dogs.. tsk tsk tsk...

So once the dog-chasing debachle came to an end, I did get to relax with Rob for a while before I finally hit the road - construction and all - back to Ohio. The dogs did their timeout reflecting like little kids on what they did wrong [not that it'll matter... grrawwwr...], and again managed to win my heart over even as I left..


just.. can't... stay... mad. i love these two.

I made it back in decent time, all construction traffic considered, and weirdly enough am ready to head back to work tomorrow.

the face of long distance relationship commutes ;)

 Four day work week?
.. I'll take it (:

xo | cmd

Going Away Party : Part 2

Today, step 1: Stop at the gas station and get coffee.

I ran into Ali as soon as I got there, which wasn't that surprising. What brought me to my senses was the group gift from the crew working at the gas station. See, I've gotten my coffee from the same place nearly every day for the past two years, and in the course of doing so gotten to know each of them a little here and there.

Long story short, they paid for my coffee, gave me an extra muffin and a styrofoam cup filled with beautiful orchids. How many people get that from their gas station staff? How much am I going to miss all of these sweet people???

I walked into work covered with things that I've received as gifts over the past couple of days and weeks here. It was not a horrible way to start my last day here at this place....

scarf: deshawn | flowers: gas station crew
camera lens coffee mug: ali

I had no idea my coworkers had all decided on their own version of a going-away token for me, either.

this, from kyle, of course.. haha.. thanks...

More amazingly, the owl-themed battery of things by which I will remember these people, and enough hugs to last me for a few weeks at least, without them. :/ Haha. Seriously though, I was floored, and walked around for the rest of today covered with owls. I tried to take pictures of everything, but realized I missed the picture of the 1.5-foot tall garden owl that Marc & Diana gave me... to perch in the garden I'll one day have and fend off any intruders....

owl earrings: andi | owl necklace: linda
random turtle earring? - well, it's ali's, from andi, but looked cute with an owl.
owl ornament: marybeth | paper owl: andi | owl scarf: deshawn

Oh, and I cried some. A lot, actually. Like the sissy that I am when it comes to saying goodbyes to people I love. The good news is, we managed to take some great pictures in between the tear fits.

besties | linda.cori.kyle

DRUM ROLL....................

................. CAKE!!
- It's okay, you can get excited. I did. I really did. Andi, our resident baker extraordinaire, came to work today bearing a SMORES CAKE in honor of our potluck. Add that to the fried chicken, pasta salad, Linda's signature [lettuce+] salad, fruit & veggie trays, asiago cheese breads from Bread Co., and drinks, I'd say lunch went well.

Cake. Amazing. I might still be drooling, hours later as I write this. Oh well.


you can totally be jealous. it's okay.
... hello, andi's smores cake. y-u-m.

Oh, and as promised, here's what that frame that Ali got me... looks like with pictures of people we actually know.

frame!! ♥ ♥

*sigh. Lots of crying was done at work today. It's all right though. I'm not actually losing any of these people, just moving on to different places. It could always be worse. ;)

Dinner tonight was at Chubby's in Alton with Rob's mom and stepdad. It was great to see them both and forget to take pictures.... -__- ........... way to go, Cori.... I know, I've been doing a lot of that lately. No worries, though; I'll see them next weekend when I'm back to visit.

chubby's | alton, il

I'm... tired. We leave tomorrow morning for my final move to Ohio. We get to rent a car in the morning, too, so that Rob can get back to Illinois. I just decided I need to turn my brain OFF for now and just go to sleep.

Love & more love to you.. happy weekend, friends!

xo | cmd

Going Away Party : Part 1

My going-away "festivities" began today. As I sit here at the end of the day, all I can is that I feel incredibly blessed and thankful for these people.

I thought I'd share just a couple of highlights from today.

For this week, I've been booted out of my old desk so that MB could move into the "neighborhood," and have been shacking up temporarily at Matt's desk on the other side of the divider. With this arrangement, I can no longer see anyone on the other side, but I sure as Sam can hear them. The conversations haven't changed, but I realized today how funny it is when you can only hear people that you're used to seeing as well. In NO way poking fun at the visually impaired, I made the comment that this is how it must be sometimes to be blind. I looked over at Ali, who was trying to absorb what it would be like.......... with her eyes shut ;). We got a giggle out of it, because obviously if you can't see with your eyes open, you don't need to them shut to get the same effect.. haha.


"how blind people listen???"

We agreed earlier last week that the destination for all things going-away would be Edison's, down the street from our office in Edwardsville. We toted ourselves there after work, sans Linda or MB due to family stuff [you.were.MISSED!], but added Jay & Rob to balance it out. Edison's, as always, didn't disappoint.

mmmm.. edison's! | edwardsville, il

My FOC-slash-best friend..... was there, of course.... (: Jay came along, too, but of course we didn't think to grab a picture. I have no good excuse. Sorry :( :( :(

love her, to the moon & back!!

And the boyfriend... who made the trip straight from work in O'Fallon... because he is amazing like that...

adore.

Once we thoroughly exhausted our welcome at Edison's, the party disbanded and went our separate ways; Rob and I headed over to Ali's house for about an hour so that I could say a farewell to Padre Lackey, DeShawn and Tim. DeShawn, with whom I also failed to get a picture, got me the first of my favorite going-away gifts, ever..... and I love it, and I'm wearing it tomorrow, and the END! ;) 

whooooooo has terrific friends! [me. that's who. me.]
thank you, damanji!!!

Ali also got me a picture frame... that I love love & love.... I'll show you that tomorrow, because the happy stock family in it now, despite their joyous marketing-appropriate smiles, are nothing that will stick around ;)

*Sigh. Tomorrow's the potluck at the office, which will include everyone who couldn't make the dinner tonight. It'll be a bittersweet day, that's for sure.... but I'm going to be thankful this entire journey happened, rather than be mad that it's over. How ... bout... that.

See you in the mornin'!

xo | cmd

We Get to Hula Hoop at Work..

Ohhhh boy... it's FRIDAY. [Hallelujah!] It was my last "official" day at my desk before I hand over the reigns and all of my clients to MaryBeth on Monday and become.... officespace homeless. Hmmm. 

It rained pretty much all day, but Linda and Ali made sure to clear out any early disappointment with donuts and milk from Farm Fresh.. Nope, we didn't hate it ... at all. 

Oh, and Diana came out of her office brandishing hula hoops of all things.... another perk of this group that I'm definitely going to miss. These are some of my favorite people.... 

hula hooped with my boss today.. haha.. 

And of course, there's that certain best friend, too ... 

*Sigh. It's Friday...and for that I'm grateful. I will, however, be a little sad when this time comes around next week and I don't come back again. 

Here's to the weekend (: 

xo | cmd

Full Moon Funkies & Some Awkward Family Photos

Ooooooooookay.... So I'm not typically a superstitious person: I don't follow any funky precepts of situational outcome determined by what color I wear or how many stray black cats cross the street. I've always thought it was kind of exhausting [& pointless, really] to live in some subconcious fear of little dogmas. If I want to open an umbrella in my house while walking under ladders, well... come get me.

Yeah I know. I'm a a rebel. ;)

Anywho - I was challenged by the course of weirdness that was my day at work today. Very early into the day, Andi took a minute and checked out the full moon schedule. Yes, that's today. It all made sense now.

My job is weird enough as it is, on a daily basis... but today may take the cake for a little while on the scale of 1 to way-wacked-out.... anyone who's ever dealt with the general public on a large scale [specifically the unemployed general public], or in HR can attest to how zany it can be.

Quirks of today, in no particular order:

xX | "Did you guys know, on your online application, that it does not accept the letter C?" - Applicant attempting to register online.

xX | In an interview earlier this morning:
"I see that you did production for 3 years?"
"Yes, I made pieces like the ones that English & British warriors of the 18th century carried into combat, to aide them whenever they needed to perform trachiotomies."
"Oh...... Of course."

xX | The girl who removed a huge fake eyelash during an interview. Just. One. The end.

xX | Interview flop #1 : Overpriveleged engineering intern who believed we were intending to scam his information and sell it to private vendors. I don't even know what that means.

xX | Interview flop #2 : RSO. RECENT RSO. Hide your kids, ya'll.

xX | "I can't make my interview because it's raining outside." - Unmotivated Associate

xX | DOPPLEGANGERS! Arsenio Hall [the muppet puppet version], Fantasia Barrino, and a llama.

xX | Temporary internet crash.

xX | Resume one-liner: "I showed workers who were working how to be better at there jobs than I am."

xX | Corn nuts. You're welcome, Linda.

xX | Kyle, being hilarious. ... Yes, Kyle, you can take a lunch break.

xX | Discovering that someone you know has launched a fundraiser for something estimated to take 3 months for completion, that requires $20k. Good luck.

... It doesn't look as hilarious re-reading it, but to mash it all together into one day definitely makes things a little stranger than the average Thursday.

To continue in the spirit of silliness, I found myself at Ali's later in the evening, along with Marianne, Damanji and Tim. Ali's dad took on some pretty heavy photography work and got some shots of us nimrods doing what we do best... goofin' off. There's no better way to explain it other than just showing it.... so uhh... yeah.

Here ya go....

Oh, I love 'em.
I'm home now, showered and ready to call this one a night. Two more days and I put my life [a.gain.] onto a moving truck and drag it across a few states. I will be so glad when my life can stop being nomadic... *sigh.

xo | cmd

HAPPY BIIIIIIIRTHDAY ALI!!!!

*SQUEAL!*
It's Ali's birthday.... sooooo....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love love love love... her!

Here's how today at work went, in between actual work: Decorations, cake & our office staff all hanging out together. Oh, and I invited Jay to come up and be a surprise guest. (: 

decorations? duh. turtles, everywhere!!

I have to give major kudos to Andi, who has not only fulfilled the much-needed role of competent staffing consultant for the office, but also brings the talent of cake baking. She's pretty stinkin' amazing, and when we approached her for a second office birthday cake in the form of a turtle, this is what she brought today. And yes, it was even more delicious than it was cute. Belieeeeve it!

andi's creation: another amazing cake!

surprise guest! well, not really a guest so much as that one neighborhood
kid who just randomly shows up at your house to eat all your food and watch
your tv..... lol... hi jay! :p

This may be the first time I've gotten a picture of the entire office, too - at least the most current crew ;) I've gotta say, we're a pretty decent lookin' bunch! I love this work family of mine, and I'm excited to see it growing even though I'll be parting ways here soon. They will always have a special place in my heart and I'll miss them more than you'll ever know..... 

kyle. matt. linda. ali. cori. andi. diana. marc | 2013
express employment professionals | edwardsville/glen carbon il

celebrating my best friend & beautiful coworker.
happy birthday, ali. ♥

Oh, the JOYS of Express office birthdays. I've already promised myself back here for the summer and fall birthdays when they come around; I love this team & I will miss them. It didn't hurt to round out my employed-here birthday participation with that of my best friend.... & that was only the start of the birthday fun (:

We continued the birthday bash after work, with our first stop for sushi at Se7en in Belleville. Duh. I rendezvoused with Ali, Ashley & Scott, Tim and DeShawn, soon followed by Jay & Cindy, and finally Rob. It was a feat, but we somehow managed to go through not one, but TWO boats of sushi, drinks AND mochi. Hey. If you're gonna go, go big. :p What's that, another photo montage, you say? Well, I never thought you'd ask! ...... aaaaaaaand..... GO:

sushi boat... the first of two ... haha

The server thought it'd be wise to let us split the bill.
.... ummmm, sure?

easy, right? : / 

Dinner aside, we tailed over to The Edge in Belleville, with just enough time to catch the last round of laser tag. We pretty much closed the place. Ali, aka "TANK" came out on top, with the rest of us trailing behind. Let the record stand that I definitely did beat Rob. That probably won't ever happen again, so yeah... ;)

love. him. a lot.
...& uhh, check out the photobomb.. haha 

And of course, a semi-socially unawkward group shot.. so rare, I tell you (:

rob. cori. tim. ali. deshawn. jay. cindy

MARIANNE: We missed you, you poor surgery-stricken butterlover. We will have some GOOD fun once your nose is healed up and you're ready to smile again (: Hope you feel better SOOOON!!!

poor marianne. we missed [& love!] youuuu!!

LOVE YOU, ALI. HAPPY, HAAAAAAAAAAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

dear friend, happy birthday  ♥

xo | cmd

It's Uhh, Raining... Let's Cook.

Andi told us yesterday that our area would be under a flood warning until sometime on Friday. We had a hard time initially believing that since there wasn't a cloud in the sky when she said it.

..... We live in the midwest. Why would I have thought the weather would be temperamental??! It rained today. It rained a lot today. I came across a few pictures from friends who live down on the air force base; apparently there are several places in the area that look this way today. My thoughts go out to everyone who's been affected by flooding. It's been one heck of a week.

whoa. flood.

It was a craaazy busy day at work, which is no surprise. We managed to capture Linda in a moment of song, though, and that definitely brightened the day. It's a shame we never caught footage of her and I doing a duet on this song, but I really don't enjoy videos of myself all that much as it is, so this was just fine ;)

Work aside, I made a stop at the store to grab a few things and headed back to the house. Rob got off work early today, so he was already there. I made a start into dinner, as promised yesterday: stuffed peppers. It's been a long time since I've made these, and it's a different recipe than I'd used before, so I admit I was a little nervous. They came out just fine though; I have to admit, I was pretty proud of them ;) 

potatoes & peppers... yummm

Not too bad! And to follow it up, cookies! One of the guys at Rob's work was selling cookie dough for his kid, so we opted for a random baking session to round out the evening. I've gotta hand it to him, this boy's quite the baker. Oh, and SHOUTS to Kanice for the awesome ninjabread men cookie cutters! We put them to good use!

ninjabread men!

We had some photobooth fun, too. [//edit! I promised to add a few of the photobooth goodies. It's more like, a couple - two exactly, to be precise. Oh well. You'll be okay]

what...? 

.... you thought these were gonna be normal? ;) 

xo | cmd

The Express Circus



training mode! ;)

Today I made the announcement to my office that I’ll be leaving.

I hate these kinds of things. I want to be sure to recognize the silver lining in spite of my leaving; the fact that Linda and Ali were both crying reminded me of just how much it means to me , to have them as coworkers and friends. We’ve been through a lot at this office, and I’ll never forget the ways we leaned on each other.

That being said, WELCOME KYLE! The newest addition to the team, and the first male staffing consultant in quite some time to be added to this staff. Kyle’s great, and I have absolutely no doubt even after just a few days of working with him that he’ll become a great mesh to this place and will become a force to be reckoned with on the job. I can safely say I feel confident in leaving behind some of my favorite, valued clients in his care.

Andi made this, in his honor … haha..

Meanwhile, there were other sweet perks involved in the day:
Diana made cupcakes, for starters. Nobody hates cupcakes. (:



sweet treat from a sweet boss!

Rob & I finished off the day with a late dinner at Olive Garden. We've been on a good stretch of balancing eating in and eating out; tomorrow it's stuffed peppers at the house [I promised Rob], so stay tuned to see if those actually turn out the way they were supposed to... haha..

For tonight though, it was SALAD.. and some pasta. (:

Not a bad day.. not a bad day.

xo | cmd

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LINDA!!

I must say, this was another VERY successful run at birthday surprises for our office. They got me first, last year in November for mine, and today was the final production of Linda's birthday surprise! We were armed with cameras, perched on top of the desks and chairs opposite hers, to capture these moments (:

Linda, we LOVE you - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

And another one! Quick backstory on this one: "Bob" is a client of ours, who we contacted yesterday, asking him to set an appointment with Linda this morning. We did that because she has been making it to work anywhere between 6am and 7:15am. Since we wanted to capture her shock and awe, we needed to be here before her, but we definitely weren't gonna do that at 6am. So thank you, Bob!!

 

Definitely not bad for a birthday celebration. Andi made an amaaaaaazing cake, Tonya made some salsa - probably the best home made salsa I've ever had [don't worry Rob, I got the recipe!], Ali brought in some colorful martini glasses for lemonade, and the bosses treated us all to Taco Bell, to keep in the festive spirit.

Yeah, and it helps to work in an office filled with creative women... 


birthday floor runner by cori | cake by andi |
lemonade margaritas by ali | salsa by tonya

workspace!

WE LOVE YOU!

HAPPY BIIIIIIRTHDAY!!!

 Last video, I promise (:

Gosh, I love birthdays (:

Anyway, I'm about to meet up with Rob & Mike, and from here we'll get the ball rolling on getting my tires and alignment on my car fixed tomorrow. IT'S THE WEEKEND!!! [YAY!]

xo | cmd

#TBT | New Toys | Party Prep Pt. II

Throwback Thursday!

Here's an old gem.... I realize this looks like a campaign ad for an adoption agency, but I thought it would be nice to see myself years ago in a sunny mud pit.... Not a lot has changed as far as my hobbies are concerned, and for what it's worth, I'm a little jealous of my kite shirt. I dig... I dig.


hello, kid cori..... glad to see not much has changed ;) | #tbt

Today was about as good as it could be for a Thursday. It's starting to get warm outside [hopefully for the season!], so we were all a little antsy to keep the doors and windows open and spend as much time breathing in air that wasn't so chilled.  

Tomorrow is Linda's birthday; like I said before, she doesn't read this blog so I have little doubt that this will be an issue. I'm pretty sure she had an inkling by the end of the day that there would be some sort of birthday malarky occurring after she left; well............. ok, you're right, Linda.


party planners.... watch. out.

We got the decorating out of the way in about 15 minutes flat [yeah, teamwork!], and were out the door with plenty of daylight left to burn. I'm so excited for tomorrow!

Rob had mentioned yesterday possibly buying a four wheeler off someone from his work. I came home to this little addition sitting in the garage :)


400 ex ... new toy!

It's gonna be a work in progress, but he likes projects, so I don't think that'll be an issue... haha. He's pretty pumped about it, so I'm happy for him.

We're getting hungry... so looks like we're off to a few errands in Granite and dinner likely at Bindy's. Pretty standard night for us.

Oh! And before I forget..... it looks like there's going to be a trip to Scottsdale planted on the agenda here in the very near future. Kalyn & Keifer, here we come....... I.... can't..... wait!!!

TGI[almost]F!!!

xo | cmd