Sales Contest Winners... Again! :)

'Thank Goodness It's Friday' has never been exclaimed more earnestly.. or desperately, in today's case. It's been a tumultuous week at work, so it was nice when we were able to put the office aside for the weekend and head down to Montgomery Inn to celebrate the successes of the first quarter sales competition... that we won :). 

montgomery inn boathouse | cincinnati, oh

Cincinnati, you're a murky mess in the middle, but you're still beautiful [don't get all offended, 'Natians, you know darn well that this is true...]

sunny day! 

It's been quite a while since I was last at Montgomery Inn, but that doesn't change how delicious I always find it. Chris disappeared momentarily, and returned with a box of celebratory cigars to commemorate our team's winning the first quarter.

3rd in a row! 

express pros - cincinnati central
kristin. cori. clarissa. paul

the whole gang!
front: cori. krstin. melissa. clarissa
back: rob. chris. deb. paul. micah (missing aaron!)

Gathering with the work clan outside of work is always a refreshing and often much-needed change of pace, content and atmosphere, and tonight was no different. 

Congratulations, team... I couldn't be more proud of what how our hard work has materialized like this! ♥

Not a bad way to start off the Mother's Day weekend, I will say that. 

xo | cmd 

Fridays CAN Be Fun! ;)

I started off the day by waking up to a head of hair that had apparently been through a battle royale overnight; my Spanish genes apparently came out victorious after I'd gone to sleep on wet hair... curls for Friday it was!

And then there was the matter of appropriate and sufficient caffeination:

^ This little guy sparked a variety of comments, from my sweet friends complimenting the lion's mane, to Rob, of course, who attempted and succeeded at borrowing a spot in the limelight of my post. My question: Who wore it better?! ♥♥

who wore it best? 

I didn't realize until after I'd posted this that Mare, aaaalll the way over there in Vermont, was having a similar Stanley-fueled morning:

I have such like-minded friends ♥♥...

Work was a blur, like it usually is, but I have a renewed energy in me this week, I think due mostly to the fact that I'll have a support person back here on the staffing side in just one more week. I can hang on until then, I'm pretty sure.

And just in case I wasn't sure, my team and I were pleasantly but completely surprised when the Pizza Hut delivery guy came sweeping into our office, clad with two pizzas that had been bought and sent to us by one of our truck-driving associates.

I mean... we have an incredible crew of associates who work for us, but it's times like this that stressful weeks remind me that the people we're helping are looking out for us too. You know who you are, sir, and we want to say thanks to YOU!!

many, many thanks!! :) 

The successes of today were not small, nor infrequent. We're feeling a bit ragged I'm sure, but not in vain. My team is amazing :).

The day didn't end at 5:00 - it was far from it! I mentioned earlier that we'd won a sales contest; it's a big deal for us, given that we're in the running for this against 8 other local offices, and we only have 1 staffing consultant right now. It's a team effort, and it's paid off! We celebrated tonight with dinner at Hofbrahaus, followed by a comedy show at Funnybone.

express cinci central (& co.) 

Whew. What a night! Yes, this is backdated; we pulled up to the house around 1am, and straight to bed it was for me; an early morning and a 4-hour drive to Cleveland awaited me on the other side. 

Happy Friday, and happy weekend to each of you out there. Enjoy!! 

xo | cmd

Sydni Makes Sundays Fun ☑

Saying that today was a monumental improvement over yesterday is a gross understatement. Of course, that always puts a silver lining on any bad day, because really how do we know to appreciate "good days" without anything to which we can compare them?

Enough of that deep thought stuff, though.. today... was.. awesome.

awww :( .. bye friends...

The only un-awesome part of the day was at the very beginning, when we bid adieu to Ali & Melissa, who parted off after breakfast [the standard Drenn traditional breakfast, might I add... haha] to Illinois. It's gonna be a photo-kinda-entry, so here we go....

morning tradition (:

Once Ali and Melissa had gone and we got the house cleaned up, Sydni and I were ready to enjoy the SUNSHINE that fiiiinally made an appearance today. I can't tell you how gorgeous it was outside; sunny but not scorching hot, and an entire unchartered day for her and me. LOVE.

Photo highlights?
... But of course!

☑ | We're OFF! We couldn't wait to get in the car and go do something... anything.. to enjoy this rain-free day. Our final vote? The ever-faithful Eden Park. Definitely a good choice.

here we go!!

☑ | Mini horseshoe water fall! As soon as our feet left the car in the parking lot at the park, I asked Sydni what she wanted to do first. Her response was to go watch the ducks and fish swim, so we parked ourselves at the edge of this little spillover in the lower part of the park. We watched our fair share of the ducks and fish, just like she wanted, and even learned about the zero-traction property of that green fuzzy stuff in the water .. aka, moss. 

mini horseshoe waterfall | eden park - cinci, oh

☑ | Sandwiches for Sydni with SmartWater & Swissgear. Gosh, I love that little girl. She told me she wanted to eat her sandwich by the waterfall, so I snuck across the other side to snap a shot of her enjoying her lunch. She'd selected SmartWater [my daughter, whaaaaa?? haha] earlier and we stuffed everything into a Swissgear bag. She made sure I knew that all of those things, her included, start with S, so therefore by default they are all hers. "Okay, Mom?"

little lunch buddy... i hope i remember these moments forever

☑ | Get your feet wet!! Okay, so we didn't get soaking wet like the last time we played in a water outlet, but I couldn't help steal a shot of us sitting on the edge of the rocks, adventure feet ready for whatever we wanted to do today. Sydni's convinced that when she's a grown-up, she'll get toe shoes, too. Add that to the list of things that make me over-the-top proud of her. (: 

Vibram KSO's & mini Keen's. It's a good day, folks.

☑ | Take a hike. We were swinging on the playground when I spotted this cleared little hill off to the side. The upper part of Eden Park is at the top, with the famous Overlook, but I thought it'd be fun to try a little climb with Sydni. It's been raining here lately [in case I haven't griped enough about that.... ], so it was more mud than dirt, and fairly slick from others before us clearly traversing up and probably down, too. I must say though, despite her hesitation at getting dirt under her nails [we're working on that], she didn't do half bad and made it nearly to the very top without my help! Hello, proud mommy moment. I love.. my little nature bug.


future hikers of America.. hi monster ♥

☑ | SPENT! I just realized that when we look back on this, it's probably going to look like Sydni had narcolepsy as a toddler, from all of the pictures I have of her crashed out in various places. Haha. Oh well. I'm a camera addict with a cute kid, so she'll have to accept that and trust my half-serious promises to only display a few of these at events like graduation parties and her wedding ;) Haha... 



sure signs you're doing it right.... (: adventure success.

*Sigh. I kind of wished today wouldn't end, for a lot of reasons. She goes away again tomorrow for the week and of course tomorrow itself is Monday, so I'm okay putting those both off for a little while longer. Either way, we had an amazing day and are both ready to wind down. She's out, snoring [hehe], and I've got a quick Skype date with Rob, so we'll bid this blog goodnight.

ALLLL RIGHT, MONDAY, let's go..

xo | cmd

[Relationship] Hurdles

*Phew. I'm glad today is over. If you've ever heard the phrase, "Some days are just harder than others," and put stock into it, then you know exactly what I mean.

rain :/ .. ehhhh

Excuse me for the negative meat of this entry [it gets better down there at the end *spoiler alert*], but if I'm being honest, today was a struggle for me in a few different ways...

1. It's still raining. Good grief if the weather would just clear up for a couple of days in the midst of all the storms, that would make a world of difference. I don't think it would've made me as cranky if it weren't for the cabin fever that overtook both Sydni and me by late afternoon. Go. Away. ForAtLeast1Day. Rain. Please?

2. The unavoidable, unfluffy and potentially-angsty side of long-distance relationships. [I just had a flash of Olive Penderghast... hello, Easy A movie name drop... haha] Aaaanyway [adding humor helps alleviate this a little for me..], any ended relationship by definition spits out [at least] two people who used to be committed to that relationship in one way or another, who aren't.. any longer. That's the factual side of it. The human side of it means that there are emotions, baggage, delusions, drama, vindication or complacency, collateral damage, etc. to handle. Granted, not all relationships produce all of those things, but there's always the chance that any one of those will filter into the new relationship.


meet my long distance love. [hi♥]

"Uh, Cori........... what?"

Yeah, yeah. I know. A bunch of words to sum up a minor hurdle that planted itself in the mix of an already trying day. Here's how this affects me on a personal level, specifically today.

3. Short-Term Reasons Technology Should Die. I received some unsolicited contact from someone who'd been an intimate part of Rob's life for a period of time [we all know I could've abbreviated that into two letters, but uhh.. yeah]. It wasn't hostile, and it wasn't anything necessarily weird, just one of those "fyi" things that girls are known for giving out to other girls. It really wasn't even anything intense, but the entire concept of hearing anything about someone you love, from two states away, is always disheartening, regardless of what it is. I guess I could forget about tip-toeing around this with extra words: I got a Facebook message from Rob's ex asking if we were still together, to 'advise me' he and she are still communicating via text messages.

^ That's the gist of it. These are the days that make me feel especially old, and curse every form of technology ever.... Anyway... My first inclination, as a human female, was to be upset. Piggybacking very closely to that was the more realistic, much more 'Cori' like response:

 

"NOPE, ...

."

 

Plus, I'm way too old for this crap. Who really cares if two people are friends after a relationship is over? I've made peace with the majority of my ex's, who hopefully would say the same of me, but that's the end of it, and the world... goes... on. Life is too short to carry a bunch of crap I don't need. Long story short, once I'd sorted everything out and reacted based on everything both from her and from him, I had to step back from the hour I'd spent with it all and give myself one of those weird self-accolading back-pats for not overreacting to something that ultimately was nothing, and for keeping  a composure about it that the 18-year-old me certainly wouldn't have. I've heard this is called maturing, but I'll be darned if I thought it'd ever happen to me. Haha... [joking.] But seriously, it felt great. I'm not dissing his ex; I have no idea if she has ulterior motives, nor do I care, but we ended our brief conversation with no hostility, and as far as I see it, I wouldn't call her and I friends, but I'd say we're amicable.

 

... But I'm still human. And so are a lot of other people out there who deal with this kind of thing from time to time. It's been a day filled with a lot of room for doubt to creep in, but here's the thing about that: I'm no lovestruck fool; I'm not naiive and I don't accept anything at face value. What I do believe though, is that I have a best friend, a loyal partner and confidante who loves me the way I love him, and at the end of the day, we know better.

 

4. Words for the Parallel. I suppose I want this to be an encouragement to myself and to anyone else out there committed to a long-distance relationship. These things aren't easy. I'm learning every day how rewarding it is to trust another person wholly, with consideration of but without regard to the input of any third parties. I'd never say to tolerate infedility or anything like that, but know yourself and trust your instinct. There's no point not to; if it matters to you and he/she/it, then it'll fall where it's supposed to and we'll learn what we need to.. right? What surprised me about my own reaction today was that even though I of course called him to discuss it, I really did know in the back of my head that there is nothing to this. So for all of you out there in LDR's: I really give you a lot of credit and encourage you to stay committed. I've been an athlete my entire life, so hearing coaches bark, "FIGHT FOR IT IF IT'S WORTH IT" is nothing new... this just puts that into a whole new light.

we have two choices. i choose fight.

5. An analogy.. Because we ALL say we hate them, but secretly love a good one.... Oh yeahhhh.. haha. I really wanted to say something especially sappy here, for the sake of beating a tired cliche, but I figured Forrest Gump's chocolate box quote should have a break. I think... love.. is more like paperclips [I made these yesterday at work, btw.. super easy, kinda cute..*DIY sidenotes..]. You start with something untouched, create something that looks way more complicated sometimes than it is, then put all that jumbled-looking stuff in the background so you can see the original design: simplicity.

Seeeeee it? I did. Wanna punch me for turning paperclips into some sort of deep, pseudo-philosophical theory? Go for it.. I probably need it after the day I've had. Haha.. Humor, too.. great remedy. Humor & Paperclips. Did I mention Cabin FEVER?  :|

 

6. Dwelling not on malarky... but on.... EVERYthing else.

What.... did you think I'd spend the entire day on this? Psshhyyeah right (: I've adopted this new method of receiving, dealing & dismissing, if it's applicable. In this case, absolutely applicable. I pulled Sydni and myself together, gave us both some fresh air on the covered portion of the front porch, and headed back in to start on dinner for us gals. Ali and Melissa were back from the wedding by late evening, so we did homemade chicken noodle soup and a movie to call it a day.

 

Oh! And I said I'd do some final adjusting on Ali's jewelry for the wedding. Good news? It survived the reception dance party and did its job (: It's really the small things that I can appreciate so much (:

jewelry-making for ali? success! (:

Yep. There's the filthy-long version of our day here. Well, mostly my day, not so much Sydni's, but yeah. On first glance, I'm sure plenty of ya'll would tell me not to even mess with this stuff, that it's high-school, rawr rawr rawwwr... I know, I know. I just figured I'd share it all not to poke fun at it really, but just to put on paper screen(?) what a bajillion of us have thought at one time or another but never wanted to or bothered to say aloud.

Anyway, HAPPY SATURDAY, blogbots... whether it's raining or not wherever you are, here's to making it a good one, with good people and a good attitude. Life's too short for anything else (:

xo | cmd

Ali & Melissa Are Here!

So maybe we weren't given the entire day off work today like some folks had, but I'm definitely complaining about a half day... since some other people [more specifically other Express offices] were working the full day. Happy Day-After-The-Holiday! Haha.

The extra few hours were great for heading home, getting Sydni, and having her "help" me clean up the house for our visitors, who were en route by mid-morning from Illinois. It wasn't long before Ali & Melissa made it safe & sound...

hello, friends! (:

Can I please just say how much I have MISSED seeing Ali every day?! We used to be co-workers, and went from every day both at and outside of work hanging out, to me moving two states away and seeing each other faaaar less frequently. Booooo! I'm glad they're both here, even if it is just for tonight & tomorrow night.

Ali came bearing little trinkets! (:

thank you, friend!! | you can never have too many owls! (:
+ a mini love statue from philly & some shells for sydni from new jersey!

We wasted very little time hopping back in the car for a trip over to Rookwood; there was browsing to be done at Charming Charlie, Francesca's and Love Culture [with no success at any of them], before we called it quits. Might I throw in here, too... that the lady we spotted very obviously and with no tact SHOPLIFTING from CC should really be ashamed of herself. If you're gonna be a thief, don't let my 3-year-old of all people blurt out, "Mommy? Is that lady taking those?" -- I mean, really?  and headed back to Mariemont for Graeter's.

graeter's!! | mariemont, oh

You cannot go wrong with Graeter's.
Ali, welcome to Cincinnati! haha.

Back at the house, it was dinner cooking time [one of my faaaavorite whenever guests are in!], Pitch Perfect [duh], and an impromptu jewelry-making session to match their attire for the wedding they'll be attending tomorrow.

mmmmmm! diiiinnnerr..... chicken+couscous+zucchini = homecooked fun

I have a few last-minute tweaks to do for their jewelry for tomorrow, but I think we're all just about spent right now.. we'll call this one and pick it all back up tomorrow... (:

xo | cmd