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Thursday, January 29, 2015

Overall Dresses

Overall Dresses


As a 90's kid at heart, I have always had a love for overall dresses. I'm not a big fan of the denim ones, but the loose, girly ones, or the form fitting ones are more for me. Overall dresses can be fun and playful, or alluring and serious, depending on the style you get. I actually bought a jersey knit long one from H&M last year that I absolutely love, but it's a little hard to wear since it is long and a snug all the way down, making going up steps a challenge! But now that I don't have to go up steps to get to around, I might be able to wear it more often!

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Avon Speed Dry+ Nail Enamel: Turquoise Pop


According to Avon this nail polish is supposed to dry in less than 30 seconds. Not only that, but the polish is also supposed to make your nails feel hard as rock because of the unique blend of quick-drying ingredients and Volcanic Rock (oh my!)!

I didn't time the nail polish after I put it on, but by the time I had finished putting the first coat on one hand, the first hand I had done was completely dry, so this stuff does dry super fast! It goes on smooth and evenly, and has pretty good coverage and no streaking. As for hardness, it seems about as hard as most other nail polishes I use.

I love the color! I usually go for darker colors, or neutral colors, but I decided to shake things up a little with this one.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

One Month In...


Hi, y'all!! Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I started my new job and my new life in Baltimore! The title is a little misleading since I had planned to write this post exactly one month in, but, as you can see, that didn't happen.

A lot of people have been asking me how my new job is going, so I thought I would share my experience here on my first month.

Firstly, let me say that it is hard to compare my new job to my old one; it's really like comparing apples to oranges. I like my new job a ton more than my old one, but the two are in very different environments and deal with completely different issues. In my new job, I am working with medical faculty and residents, compared to working with university students. This means no more student issues or drama and no more making appointments!

Everyone in my new job is very helpful and knowledgeable, and will point you to the correct person for answers. There is a definite support system here that is clearly evident and available. This never happened at Penn. No one knew who to talk to, or who handled what, even if they had been working there for years.

The first thing I noticed was how self-sufficient the doctors were. I do all the admin work for them, but they don't expect me to handle things like sorting their emails, printing word documents, and essentially breathing and existing for them. At my old job, one of the counselors actually had me sort her emails in Outlook by date, and our director would have me print out word documents, which I never understood because in the time it took her to attach the document, send me an email, and wait for me to print it, she could have printed it herself much quicker.

Even though all the people I work with are highly accomplished medical professionals, they don't have the same demanding, self-important attitude that my previous supervisors had, and a lot of them only had Master's degrees, not even PhD's! Honestly, my old supervisors, had way bigger egos than the doctors I'm working for now, and I always felt that they were overreacting and their attitudes were completely unnecessary. I mean, they weren't saving lives, or researching new medical techniques, or anything. They were checking resumes and cover letters and giving job search advice to graduate students with PhD's that most of them weren't even qualified to advise since the majority of them didn't even have PhD's!

Ha ha, enough ranting! I also feel that the admin staff are much more appreciated here. It's nothing big, but there are quarterly and annual staff awards, something that, to my knowledge at least, Penn never had, and if they did, they never publicized it. Now, these awards don't come with a raise or anything, but sometimes it's good to be recognized publicly for your hard work, and not criticized about every thing you do.

The biggest challenges for me is staying focus and managing my time (something I am obviously not doing too well as I write this post at work!). Unlike my previous job, this one has hardly any contact with people outside of my division and the general public. My phone very rarely rings and most of my communication is via email. Because I don't have a supervisors literally standing over my back, and most of the people I work for aren't in the office a lot of the time, I have more autonomy. But with greater autonomy comes greater responsibilities in time management! But I have been doing pretty good in this area. I usually try to do the bulk of my work before I go to lunch, so I can have a slower afternoon, which is when my brain tends to slow down.

I'm not expecting this job to be perfect, in fact I've already experienced some less than ideal situations, but it is a huge improvement on my old job. At least with this job I do have a sense that I can go somewhere with this and get some kind of recognition or at least a pat on the back for all that I'm doing, which was still more than I had been getting.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

A Bag for Every Occasion

As I think I've mentioned before, I'm not too big on buying handbags. Clothes, definitely. Shoes, somewhat. Handbag, barely. But lately, I have been having handbags on my mind. In my quest to find the perfect handbag for my lifestyle, I thought it would be nice to create a guide on handbags for different occasions.

Weekday Totes

During the Week - If you are anything like me and need to switch shoes from cute heels to wear while sitting at me desk to functional flat walking shoes, then you know that carrying some dainty little handbag to work will just not do. A cute, stylish tote is great for all of your during the week needs as it is nice looking, but also large enough to carry all of your on the go essentials, such as bottled water, paper work, mobile devices, umbrella, and a change of shoes.

Brunch

Weekend Brunch - You got a call from your besties who you haven't seen in a bit. Of course brunch is a go, but what to take with you? A medium to small sized satchel would be perfect, since you can carry essential like your wallet and keys, but without the bulk of a large bag taking up all the space on a restaurant or cafe table, or sitting in an extra chair like one of the group. See, with a smaller bag you have room for one more friend, and more food on the table!

Shopping Spree

Shopping Spree - So, it's your free money weekend (meaning no bills or rent to pay, so you have a whole check to yourself!), and it's time to get a little retain therapy in after a hard week. You are already going to have 50 bags to carry after you've emptied your bank account, so there is no need to carry a tote with you. This is where a cute crossbody bag comes in. This way, the bag is close to your body and out of the way as you shop, and you can still carry what you need for your shopping spree.

Night Out

Evening Out - When you're out and about having a good time, you don't want to keep up with a whole purse, so you would want to just carrying a clutch or nice ristlet for necessities like your keys and make-up for touching up throughout the evening, and some quick cash or one card. Besides, if you are on a date, your date should be rich enough to pay for your five star restaurant meal, your evening at the opera, and then be able to take you back home in his Ferrari, so why would you need to carry around a lot of cash anyway.