Still Busy

Ok, so I go into the office in my building to let the guard on duty know that I have a package to pick up, and she says to me "take some chips" and points to some individual packs of Doritos on her desk. So I took one and thanked her. Then, as she's walking to the package room, she says to me "yes, you need to eat - you so skinny!" I busted out laughing. If only she knew how much I eat. The package that arrived was my brand new vacuum cleaner (that yes, shamefully I ordered from the competition - the big yellow and blue...hey, I gave us a try but we don't sell the Bissell that I wanted). So now I have a vacuum! I know, you're wondering how on earth I've been living here for months without a vacuum in a carpeted apartment. Umm...I guess I don't dirty it up quickly. But I guess it is about overdue for a good vacuuming.
There's not a whole lot new to report. I just got in from yet another happy hour, lol. This one was at Rock Bottom Brewery (again), with my buyer class and the new (October) buying class. It was nice because it was my first time meeting most of the October class and they seem like a cool bunch. One guy even used to work at Accenture in NYC at the same time I was there - he left a month before I did. At one point at the happy hour, the owner or manager (I hope) stood on the bar and introduced some beer that he said was his "hoppiest beer ever" and sent free glasses around to everyone there (which was a lot of people b/c it was packed). Unfortunately, there was no alternative for us non-beer drinkers. I had a non-alcoholic drink (too many happy hours to be drinking alcohol all the time) which was really good - it was basically a peach iced tea but it was good.
At work, I've been in department this week and its been ridiculously busy with meetings. This morning I was in before 8am (yes, very painful for me) to meet with a vendor, then I sat in design meetings all day. For lunch, my mentor from last summer treated me to Panera. It was really nice to catch up with her, she's such a sweetheart and considering I spent 5 days a week for an entire 10 weeks with her last summer, she almost feels like family. She's starting a new position next week working in multicultural segmentation and specifically on the Black and Hispanic market strategies so she asked me to give her some feedback on things that should be tweaked in those markets based on my experiences (you know, like haircare and beauty products and even little things like dark colored pantyhose and such) so I'm working on my list. If you have any thoughts feel free to drop me a note.
Yesterday, there was a wine cube sale which we were told was only open to company employees but apparently it was open to the public. Wine cubes are literally that - boxes of wine that you dispense right from the box. One box is the equivalent of several bottles (depending on the size you buy) and they are sold in our stores but only in certain states. They're not sold in Minnesota stores which is why the sale is a big deal. It was at the Hilton about a block away, and the sale started at 4:30 and was supposed to go until 6:30. I called myself leaving at 5pm on the dot so I could be there on the early end. Ummm, yeah. When I got there, they were down to only two types of wine - the minicube of sangria in either red or white (there were originally about 8 varieties above and beyond just sangria, and three different sizes). The line was out the door of course, then by the time I got through the ID check, I was told they were down to white sangria only. Luckily for me, a bunch of people left at that point. I trucked along anyway figuring I'd wait until they officially told me they were sold out (which was clearly coming soon) before I left. By the time I got to the wine cubes, there were 5 left. I asked for two, so the 1 or 2 people behind me got the last of it. I have never tried them before, and clearly white sangria is the least popular variety but hopefully its good. I like sangria so I'm not too hard to please. I was told they have the sales once per quarter but that it's been several months since the last one. Next time I know - get there at opening time if I want a selection.
I also started dance classes this week - I went to an intermediate jazz class on Tuesday night which was my first class in a very long time. And my body is cussing me out (particularly my thighs) b/c I've been in pain ever since. I went to this dance school right here downtown in walking distance from my apartment. I figured I'd start with jazz since it's what most of my training is in, and besides, I like jazz dance. Well, the class was nothing like what I was expecting. First of all, it felt more like advanced instead of intermediate. It moved ridiculously fast. The instructor would show about five counts of eight without repeating any of it, then say "ok, got it? good, let's do it!" Umm, yeah. I'd be still sitting there thinking "what was that second count of eight???" Luckily, I wasn't the only one in the class looking at her like she had ten heads. Most of the class was in the same boat, but we all just shook our heads and got through it. While the class was a lot of fun, and definitely a workout (my main motivation for going), it was definitely missing some soul. The music was very random for a jazz class and not very inspiring at all. The choreography also didn't go back to any one song...we did the same choreography to several different songs which was odd. I'm planning to go back though. The class meets once a week and it looks like it builds on the choreography every week (which explained some of the really fast pace). There is also an Afro Modern class that meets on Thursdays that I'm interested in but that will clearly have to start next week since I didn't go today. They offer hip hop classes too, but from the 5 minutes of class that I peeked into, it didn't feel very authentic to me so I'll save my money with that one.
Other than that, not much new going on. I think this is the first Thursday night that I don't have plans - usually I'm out doing something. This weekend I'm planning to take Jjais out to celebrate her birthday which is next Monday. And I'm doing the food shelter event on Saturday. Other than that, I'm still on the hunt for a new sofa (if you have any ideas let me know) but I'm not sure I'll have the energy to do much searching this weekend. Ciao!