Something I learned this month

Don’t stress over things that are not my responsibility.  This comes from my workweek last week.  Remember I said I’d get back to why I hadn’t posted for two weeks?  Well, the first week was when Boston happened.  After that, I’d come home and keep checking all the news info and did not have any urge to write at all.  The second week...well, that was because of work.  No, not my travel agent work-my HR/Payroll/Benefits job.

Don’t get me wrong-I love my job.  I get to do a wide variety of human resources stuff from payroll to benefits to government compliance reports with a bunch of other special projects thrown in.  I am constantly busy which is great since the workdays usually go by pretty quickly, and I like the people I work with in my office (doesn’t hurt to have cool bosses too).  Last week just was a bit crazy as in addition to the fact that it was a payroll check week, I was helping part of our department catch up on some stuff that was getting pretty far behind (me along with another woman in our group I should say).  And so every single day I was there late for a couple of hours (except Friday, I was darn determined to go home on time and I actually finished one minute before clock out time).  Which is great from the perspective of extra money for the overtime.  But the other part...

When I start a project, I want to make sure everything is done completely and correctly...forms with all the spaces filled in (and please, don’t sign above the box, sign in the box, that drives me nuts), all emails sent out, spreadsheets complete, cross those to-do’s off my huge dry-erase board that hangs on my wall, all mail sorted and checked...etc, etc, etc.  I can get a bit anal when my mild OCD starts really kicking in.  So I push and push to make sure I get to a good, COMPLETE stopping point each day, trying to get as many of the candidates processed as possible for the stores (I’ve been helping with applicant/new hire processing) as I can.  All this while still thinking in the back of my mind, “Don’t forget, you still have to process your own stuff, benefits enrollments, 401k packets to send out, spreadsheet to finish for the district managers...OMG don’t forget that other thing and this other thing and....”

You get the picture.

And so by the time I get home my brain is fried-like well-done fried.  I would open my laptop, check email and Facebook and then just crash for the night...all week.  When Friday came around I pushed hard all morning so I could get out on time.  Once my weekend was here I made sure to relax, enjoy and catch up.  Relaxed on Saturday and got a bunch of blog posts started (posted 3 on Saturday alone, 2 here and one on thedisneyworldfiles.com).  Had a fantastic day Sunday with my mom with lunch out and shopping (scored some GREAT Disney stuff for giveaways on my other blog!), then when I came home I did some more blog post work.  Felt great to be more or less caught up again.

So what did I learn?  While it’s great to help others out when they need it, don’t let trying to help someone else with their work (while only barely staying caught up on your own) stress you out.  Ultimately, their work is not your responsibility.  If you can help a lot, that’s great.  If you can only do a little, well that’s more help than they would have had without you.  Don’t let your own work suffer or stress yourself out trying to make sure your own work doesn’t suffer.  

Oh, and be sure to take time for yourself to relax and recharge.  I’m counting down to Memorial Day weekend when I’ll have a nice 4-day weekend to do just that ;-)

Race reports

April Blogger Challenge #9-an event you’d like to blog about and what you would say about it

So I think this one is meant kind of like an event you’d like to cover or report on.  For me, that’s easy--any race I’m running or doing volunteer shifts.  And yes, me saying that reminds me again I need to write up my report from this year’s Marathon Weekend.

When I write up a race report or race weekend report, I do it both for myself (so I don’t forget the events of the day-my memory really stinks) and for anyone else out there who may be interested either in that particular event or just running/volunteering in general.  And believe me, there are a ton of people out there looking for information about races.  Of my top four all-time viewed posts, three of them are race reports...one is from the Weston Rotary Run for Tomorrow, the other two are my two Expedition Everest Challenge reports (2011 and 2012).  Oh, if you’re curious about the other post, it was when I told everyone my training calendar was now live on my blog (which by the way it still is, click the tab at the top of the page that says Training Calendar if you’re interested).  My number one, all-time top viewed post is my 2011 Expedition Everest Challenge Race Report-almost every week I have views for that report.

So since I know there’s the demand out there for others to read the reports, I’ll keep writing them to cover my races/race weekend events.  What would be really cool is if some big organization would ask me to “officially” cover one as a blog post/article.  But that’s just me with my head in the clouds ;-)

What events would you want to or do you already blog about?

Motivation for your Monday

Remember...it's about your whole journey, not just what lies ahead.

And my favorite blogger is..........

April Blogger Challenge #8 (days 22-24...yes, I know it's behind)-your favorite blogger and why

You all know how much I love Disney, especially Walt Disney World.  I’m always reading up on new things happening at the resort, checking out different online forums for trip planning, park tips and so on.  Plus I usually visit anywhere from 4-6 times a year.  So it should probably come as no surprise to you that my favorite blogger is someone who writes about WDW.  Some of you may already be aware of the site-it’s Josh over at easyWDW.com.  

First off, he’s in the parks ALL the time.  He provides insanely accurate crowd calendars (I have never gone wrong using them to choose which parks to visit on which days), in-depth analysis of events and has just the right amount of snark and sarcasm to make everything he writes a really fun read.  Those of you who like a more straight-laced, serious approach might not like that but for me, I get a kick out of his comments and it makes for very entertaining reading material.  He’s always got great photographs too.  He interacts with his readers when they leave comments which I think is great.  If you’re looking for a really good WDW resource, be sure to check out easyWDW.com...even if you’re not into the snark, the calendars and information are extremely useful and thorough.

I do have about 40 different blogs I to which I’m subscribed-I use the Reeder app on my Mac to pull in all the posts for me so I don’t miss anything.  Maybe somewhere between 15-20 of them post regularly.  You can see some of my favorites here on my blog in the sidebar (“My Favorite Blogs”).  Most of them are running friends (hi guys!)...I try to rotate the list every so often so when some people aren’t posting so much-or at all- for a while, I’ll rotate someone else in, I just don’t want the list there to be too long.  

Just half of my list...

...and the other half

Oh, and my runners-up for favorite blogger?  Dana over at The Dragyn’s Lair, Heather at Through Heather’s Looking Glass, Megan at Elbowglitter, Amy at The point one will getcha! and Jess at Run with Jess.  But I like all the blogs I’m subscribed to-after all, if I didn’t I wouldn’t have subscribed to them-but these are some that just pop for me.

Who's your favorite blogger?  Are you a blogger yourself? 

Lysol Touch of Foam Soap product review

As some of you may already know, I am registered with BzzAgent.com.  For those of you who don’t know what BzzAgent is,they’re a social marketing company.  You can sign up on their website to become a BzzAgent, and when campaigns come along that are a match for you, you can join and get some free or deeply discounted products to try out, then spread your thoughts about it to friends, family, online or off.  The companies who supply the products get word of mouth advertising, and you get free stuff.  I’ve done a bunch of campaigns, from chocolates to cosmetics to a cool all-in-one remote and a Sonicare battery-operated toothbrush.  This time around, I joined the campaign for Lysol’s Touch of Foam Anti-Bacterial Hand Wash.

I was sent a free full-sized bottle of the creamy vanilla orchid scent hand wash to try out along with 75¢ coupons to hand out to friends.  As soon as my kit arrived, I got the bottle out, snapped a pic and tried it out.  (Rest assured, all opinions given here are my own)

Now normally I don’t use anti-bacterial soaps.  I’m not a fan of all these anti-bacterial products everywhere (seriously, do I really need to use hand sanitizer after I clock in/out at work?  Might as well not touch the doors or computers or file cabinets, etc at all if that’s the case).  BUT, I don’t mind as much having anti-bacterial soap to use after using the restroom.  The only problem I run into?  These soaps always dry out my hands, so then I need to use lotion or hand cream afterward.

Enter my new freebie.  As you probably guessed from the product name, this is a foam soap.  It’s nice and thick and smells delicious.  It lathers up really well, but most importantly for me-once rinsed and dried, my hands aren’t dried out.  They actually feel nice and soft and smell really good.  For me, it’s a winner...and I do recommend it to others. 

Thick, no-drip foam soap

I think I’ll try the Wild Berry Bliss scent next ;-)  I’ve already passed out all my coupons, but I’m keeping my eye out for a great deal so I can stock up!  Right now thru tonight Walgreens has it buy one, get one 50% off plus you get 750 Balance Rewards points when you buy 2, so I'm going to take a walk over to the store (about 3/4 mile away, good way to get a nice walk in) and grab a couple before calling it a night.

Have you tried Lysol’s Touch of Foam Antibacterial Soap?  What did you think?  What are your thoughts on anti-bacterial soaps (and other products) in general?