Dear Thesis: Please don't be the death of me!

First due date of thesis proposal for edits: Week of May 9-15.

Official proposal due date: May 21st.

How is this going you ask? Well aside from the anxiety, night sweats, random panic attacks, and the same recurring nightmare of me failing graduate school, its rolling right along.

My finalized topic (in a nutshell) is: The uniqueness of social networks and how it has changed the approach businesses are taking towards marketing. Finally, what do businesses need to do in order to adapt to this growing trend.

Due to the rise of social networking, organizations are now being forced to develop individual, real-time communications with their customers, whether they want to or not. The deal with social networking is if your not talking about your company, someone else is....so it might as well be you talking! There are some companies that are totally on the social networking bandwagon but other are still dragging their feet, which in my opinion (which probably doesn't mean much) is not the smartest move because you gotta keep up with the times :)

So if anyone has any sort of advice, reading recommendations, websites to check out, suggestions, know people to talk to etc please let me know...I need all the help I can get!

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch...

Walking into my parents house after not visiting for months always makes me smile. Nothing like walking into a house and having the feeling of comfort, familiarity, and seeing pictures on the walls that bring back amazing memories. Also mom always has a stocked pantry!

(the ranch)

When I finally got back to the ranch it was game time. I headed to Visalia to see Amanda, my preggo PIC, and help with getting things done for her pirate themed baby shower that was taking place over the weekend. Let me just say my PIC has the coolest scrapbooking tool and I want one!

Its called a Cricut (pronounced like cricket) and you get different memory sticks for it and each memory stick has different images on it. You just pick an image, pick a size, and then press th

e button and it cuts out what ever shape you chose. Its amazing!

(See all the anchors and skull and crossbones...all done on the cricut!)

One thing about living in a small town is that no matter where you go, you will run into someone you know whether you like it or not. While shopping at Target for baby shower goods it seems like I ran into everyone...including Granny, who lives about 50 yards from my mom and dads. That is one think I miss about living in a small town is running into people you know when you are out and about. Its nice to see familiar faces and catch up with people you haven't seen in years in some cases.

The baby shower was a smashing success and absolutely adorable! Every even stuck with the pirate theme! Now normally I am not a big fan of baby/bridal shower games, but there was one game that was right up my alley.

I have a guilty pleasure of watching trash TV and reading trashy magazines, and for once my guilty pleasure got me somewhere. For one of the games we were given a list of celebrities and we had to name their babies. There were 19 celebrities on the list and I ended up name 31 names...the next closest person had 23. I ended up with a beautiful basket filled with wine, wine glasses, cheese, crackers, etc. Great job on the prizes ladies!

(Love these girls! Been friends since we were toddlers!)

(With the baby shower hostesses and mom to be)

It has been a while since I had gone hiking in the hills so I somehow convinced my brother to take me turkey hunting one morning. After having moms amazing Sunday morning breakfast paired with dads amazing bloody marys (I finally got one!) my brother and I set out to find a bird.

Now since I am not an owner of any sort of hunting camo I had to borrow some from my brother. Needless to say it was a sight to see. If you have ever met my brother you would know I am considerably bigger than he is and I somehow crammed my expanding behind into a pair of his camo overalls, and by crammed I mean they were skintight and I wasn't quite sure if I would be able to get out of them...I was afraid a pair of scissors may need to be involved in order for me to undress.

(My brother calling birds)

Unfortunately, I didn't bring home a bird but we did get one called in pretty close, but he must have seen something he didn't like because he hightailed it away from us before I got the chance to shoot. Even though we didn't get anything it was great to spend a morning with my brother and catch up! It was also beautiful, lush, and green in the hills and some of the flowers were still in bloom.

It was great to be home for the long weekend and spend time with family and friends and get caught up with everyone and I'm already itching to go back! Its hard to believe that the next time I go back my PIC will by a momma to her baby boy Blake...I can't wait to meet this little man!

I lucked out and my flight back was much less eventful than my flight to LA. The only thing that was marginally exciting about the flight was the Barbie Benton was on my flight. For those of you who don't know who that is, she is a former girlfriend to Hugh Hefner and has been on several episodes of the The Girls Next Door...remember I have a thing for trash TV :)

Leaving on a jet plane

After my fun, girls night at the Taylor Swift concert I had about 2 hours from the time I got back from the concert till I had to get up to head to the airport to fly home for a long weekend filled with family, the highly anticipated baby shower, turkey hunting, and catching up with friends. Silly me thought that by booking an early flight it would minimize the chance for any travel problems and it would give me almost an extra full day at home. Ha! That was not the case...

I got to DIA with plenty of time to spare (around 4 a.m.ish) and had no problems getting checked in and going through security. Reagan, (My almost 2-year-old, crack squirrel, Yorkie, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of meeting her) was my traveling companion and she was being a perfect angel, calmly drugged up on her "happy pills" and not thrashing, barking, or trying to dig her way out of her flying bag--it seemed like it was going to be a pretty uneventful day of travel.

I had a feeling my day was going downhill while I was sitting at the gate and a baby about 6 months old wouldn't stop crying or screaming. I give it to the parents they were trying everything they could to get it to stop...I of course was praying that the little thing wasn't going to be on my flight...of course it was. And then we ended up having a minor delay, no biggie. It was a direct flight I figured the pilots would make up time in the air and I would land at the perfect time of 7:30 a.m. or a little after. Perfect! It would still leave me with almost a full day at home.

We boarded the plane, which was less than half-full so I got an aisle to myself which I planned on fulling utilizing for a much needed nap since I really hadn't slept yet and I figured that no better time than a direct flight leaving before the sun is up to catch a few zzz's.

After boarding the plane we sat there for about 45 minutes, mind you the baby is still screaming bloody murder and by this time I had fondly nicknamed this poor child exorcist baby and was just waiting for his head to start turning around and for it to start puking green stuff...it never did. That may be a little insensitive of me to give this poor,screaming, unhappy child such a harsh nickname but remember I had yet to have been to sleep and I was feeling a little impatient. Also, I was paying $75 to fly with my little drugged up crack squirrel that no one knew was there and exorcist baby was disturbing the whole flight and was flying for free. Parents, supposedly a little bit of Benedryl can go a long way, I'm just saying.

So after sitting there for 45 minutes they announce over the intercom that we were having mechanical problems in the cockpit and we were just waiting for maintenance to come and fix it. This resulted in us sitting for about another 20 minutes while being serenaded by exorcist baby before they said that it wasn't going to be able to be fixed and we had get off the plane and sprint to another gate (which of course was on the complete opposite side of the airport) to a plane that they were holding for us that would now be taking us to Las Vegas. Once we boarded the flight crew announced to all of us that were supposed to be on the flight to LAX that they had no information for us and in a round-about-way they were pretty much telling us good luck. I figured if I got stuck in Vegas I would high tail it to the nearest bar and order a double Bloody Mary ASAP to drink away the screaming I had been dealing with for the past hour and then maybe gamble a bit in the airport. There are worse places to get stuck.

Fortunately, when we landed in Vegas (exorcist baby had done a great job continuing to serenade us the whole flight there) they were holding a plane to LA for us--we just had to sprint (again) across to the opposite side of the terminal to catch the flight that was already delayed waiting for us. By this time I am fully prepared to have no luggage and I was already plotting and planning a shopping trip... after my much needed nap took place. I figured with as many plane changes (with all them pretty much being last minute) there was no way I would have luggage...yes I have no faith in airlines. I had the joy of sitting in the seat in front of exorcist baby on this flight, and the good lord must have been watching over me because miraculously he only cried for half of the 40 minute flight. After listening to the little thing for about 3 hours I didn't know how much longer I could be cordial. Mind you all of this is taking place before the sun is up...we were leaving Vegas just at day break.

And then we land in the beautiful sunny, LA. The weather was a perfect 78 degrees, my luggage made it, and there was a Starbucks outside my gate. It may not have been a Bloody Mary but I settled for it. The airport even had a little doggie play area where I let Reagan out to do her business and stretch her legs. You would think that after that debacle things would start looking up. They didn't.

Since LA is about 2 1/2 hours from my parents and traffic usually blows they make me take the bus to Bakersfield, which I detest. This time I had to wait over 2 hours for the bus which means I could have been about home before the damn thing even got there. This trip on the bus was no different than normal (horrible!), and it just added to the day I had already experienced. Reagan's "happy" pills wore off about a half hour before the bus got there and her true crack squirrel behavior came out and it led to me having to give her more "happy" pills, which I don't really like to give her in the first place. The air system on the bus was broken, the driver couldn't turn on the a/c and the heater wouldn't turn off...so it was sweltering. I had just left 4 inches of snow and 40 degrees so I thought this 80 degree temperature, plus the heater running, plus over half-full bus was going to end me. Also there were some sketchy characters on this bus...I'm talking claiming colors, tatted up, pierced, non-english speaking characters. Also the driver told me the dog had to stay in the carrier...I of course did not follow that rule because not only was I miserable but my travel companion wasn't taking things well either.

All I have to say is I am glad I trained my parents well. Once I finally got to Bakersfield (in quite a peachy mood I must add) dad met me with the saving grace, and it also saved him from having to deal with me having a major princess moment, which I have a tendency to be famous for. It wasn't a Bloody Mary but at that time it was even better...a #2 animal style, with extra crispy fries, diet coke, and cup of water for Reagan from In-N-Out. By having that on hand dad saved lives...mainly his own.

So all before the sun came up I had a flight that was delayed, cancelled and rerouted, I had dealt with an exorcist baby, and there was no bar open serving cocktails...it made for a rough morning.

This is going to be a 2 part blog so the fun stories and pictures are soon to come!

Team Taylor

Wednesday night I had the opprotunity to attend the Taylor Swift concert with a good friend from Denver. Now don't judge me, but yes we were the oldest people sitting in our section that didn't have children but it was so much fun. We enjoyed that we weren't there with wee ones so we enjoyed a couple of Grey Goose cocktails while enjoying the concert :)

(Cortney Logan and I )

Taylor was adorable and put on a great show as did those that opened for her. her opening acts with Gloriana (if you don't know them you should check them out) and Kellie Pickler.

After seeing Kelli Pickler (who was very entertaining by the way) it really made me want to take the plunge and chop my hair off again...we'll see if I actually do it at me upcoming hair appointment in a little over a week.

(Gloriana...notice the "T" Shaped stage for T. Swift)

(Kellie Pickler...she was wearing the most fabulous sparkly shoes)

(Kellie Picklers haircut...to cut or not cut..any feedback is appreciated I still have a week to decide!)

Taylor sang all of her hit songs and had amazing stage changes. I really don't think you could ever be too old to listen and enjoy her music, she has a way with being able to relate with everyone!
Not long after the concert ended I had to high tail it to the airport to fly back to California the weekend so concert pictures will have to come later. Also, I will post the story of my disasterous flight back...let me tell you no will be envious once you hear this story...

Girlcation 2010

Ok so I've been a little busy recovering and catching up on life after my week long "Girlcation" to Cabo.

(On the beach in Cabo)

So how was it you ask? Amazing! However it was not quite the relaxing, peaceful trip that I was expecting. It was more like spending 7 nights in Vegas...yes it was that crazy! Our days were filled with beach lounging and cocktails while are nights were filled with dancing and more cocktails. And let me just say, if there was a pole in Cabo we found it...and may or may not have danced on it. We knew it was going to be a good trip when our cabi offered to stop at the liquor store for some roadies on the trip from the airport to our resort. We happily took him up on the offer. :)

The weather was a perfect 85 and sunny every day but one when it was still warm but a little cloudy...in other words it was the perfect laying out weather and I came back with a pretty good tan.

(Going out on night 2 for Jills B'day)

We met some amazing people while we were there and are still keeping in touch with most of them. We might have been in Cabo for 2 hours when we met a group of guys from Sacramento who we ended up spending a lot of time with. I believe we met them over shots at the Mango Deck and we all became instant friends! They are even talking about making a trip to Denver to hang with us this summer.

(At dinner for the Sac boys last night)

After the Sacramento boys left and it was just back to us 4 girls we decided it would be a good time for dancing so we went to El Squid Roe where we somehow ended up in dance cage. Although Squid Roe is a good time we noticed that most of the crowd was a younger crowd like in the 18-20 year old range. We were joined in the "cage" by some Princeton boys we proceeded to refer to us as "the cougars" so we decided it was time to split and find an older crowd. And that is when we met the doctors.

The doctors were from Detroit and just so happened to have the penthouse suite at the same resort we were staying at which led to trouble...in a good way. And let me say those doctors knew how to have a good time. They were on the same time share schedule as we were so ended up spending the rest of the trip all hanging out and going to dinner and what not. Needless to say it ended up being a good time had by all :)

(With the Doctors)

(Last night in Cabo)

So now that I'm finally recovered (it took a while) and back into the swing the of things its time put the hammer down on this thesis. I'm very close to finalizing my topic and thesis statement and will share it with you all when it is finalized.

Next week I will be heading to the other side of the Rockies to visit family and go to my cousin/P.I.C.'s (Parter In Crime) baby shower. Its hard to believe that in roughly a month she will a mommy. But I know she will be great! And also next week the night before I fly out I will be attending the Wednesday night performance of Taylor Swift here in Denver! Could things be any better right now? I don't think so..

(My PIC and Mom to be Amanda and I)