Preview of 2011

Here's a preview of my 2011, focusing on my goals (because I don't like the word resolutions), what I'm looking forward to, and what I'm not so much looking forward to.

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Goals

• Try a new cupcake recipe twice a month for Frosted Friday
• Take another cake decorating class
• Run the Cap 10K again this year
• Volunteer
• Rekindle relationships/friendships (not of the romantic kind)
• Rekindle my love for the city of Austin by getting out and doing/seeing more
• Keep my apartment clutter-free

I'm capping my list there. I'm afraid if I have too many goals at the start of the year, then I will just set myself up for failure if I don't accomplish them all. So this is a good start for now.

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Looking forward to...

• Hosting the Young Alumni Ski Trip at Heavenly Ski Resort in Tahoe from February 7th-13th. I'm excited to ski for the first time. There are 64 people on this trip, so it should be a great time.
• Scholarship Finalists' Weekend March 24th-26th. This is always one of my favorite weekends at work because we get to meet some great students. It always makes me sad when students I really like don't get offered a scholarship or when they turn us down for another university. But regardless, it's always a great weekend.
• Caitlin's baby shower sometime in the spring. I can't wait for the line to be whole again as we shower baby Peppermint with lots of gifts.
• Lady Gaga concert at the Erwin Center on April 6th. Yeah, yeah... shut your mouth. We are all allowed a guilty pleasure.
• Spring trip with scholars in late April. Again, another one of my favorite weekends at work. I'm excited to see where we are going this year.
• Peppermint's arrival in late May/early June. I'm so happy for Caitlin and Terence! And no, Peppermint is not the baby's name.
• Work conference in Tennessee June 1st-3rd. This depends entirely upon our budget getting approved in the next few weeks. This is a fun conference; it's a small group of fellow scholarship coordinators at different universities. Last year, the conference was in South Carolina. It's great to share ideas and learn from one another. If we get to go, I may look into extending my trip so that I can drive the 7-8ish hours to Memphis to see Graceland.
• Work conference in Washington, DC July 6th-9th. Once again, this depends entirely upon the budget getting approved. Last year, Derrick and I went to this conference for the first time in Minneapolis. And, well yeah... Anywho, if the conference gets approved, I will probably end up flying out to DC a couple of days earlier and stay with friends for the 4th of July since those plans got nixed last year. And I will also get to see Ashley (keep reading - expanded in "not so much looking forward to" section).
• A new 'office' at work in August. It will be nice to have my own space and a bit of privacy (keep reading - expanded in "not so much looking forward to" section).
• Scholarship dinner on September 6th. This dinner will be special for me - my first class of scholars will be giving their senior speeches. I can hardly believe that I met this amazing group of students when they were seniors in high school, and now here we are 4 years later (keep reading - expanded in "not so much looking forward to" section).
• UT football season in the fall. In what will be my 18th year as a season ticket holder, I've got my fingers crossed that the 2011 season is a drastic improvement from 2010. I also have an idea for a flag run for APO; I'm working on the details now, but if it works, I think it will be amazing and will be a treat for fans at DKR.
• Possibly attending the Michigan-Ohio State football game on November 26th. My sports bucket list includes attending all the major college football rivalry games. Julia's husband, James, said he would go with me. Julia has family that lives in Michigan, so we'll have a place to stay. Now all we need are the tickets...

These are not all the events I'm looking forward to, just some of the ones that came to mind right away. I'm still hoping that my cousin Angel and I will go to San Diego for a few days... I'm hopeful this will happen now that she's no longer (or at least for the time being) under the control of her husband who has to give her permission to go on a vacation with her cousin and who wouldn't let her go on this vacation last year unless he went, too. #endrant

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Not so much looking forward to...

• My boss' retirement on January 21st. It's still incredibly hard for me to imagine not having Eleanor as my boss. She has been a great boss, one who I look up to for many reasons. She's been the type of boss that you can talk to about anything. She encourages our department to have a balanced work-home life, which some other managers at work aren't very good about. I have walked into work surprised by flowers on two occasions: 1) during my first year, a chapter lady yelled at me on the phone for almost an hour, called me a horrible person and said that the entire Calhoun County hated me; 2) after Gigi died. 
• Saying goodbye to my officemate Ashley on February 7th. Last year when it was decided that we were going to hire another person for our department, Derrick and I were super worried. Would we get along with this person? Would we have to stop talking about things we normally talk about? Would fellow coworkers stop coming by our office? Adding another person to a shared office is difficult. But Ashley ended up being a perfect fit! I have someone to talk to about UT football, sports in general, One Tree Hill, Grey's Anatomy, etc. And she likes my outrageous stories. And when my lunch consists of a Dr. Pepper and peanut butter m&ms, she thinks that's a great lunch and doesn't lecture me. In the past month, I have missed talking to her. But she understands, and thus we stick to emails, IMs, and recently, gchat to get us through the day. And after she moves, she better log on to gchat and keep me sane until August!
• A 'new office' at work in August. All we have been told is that we are moving up to the 3rd floor into "open-air workstations" aka cubicles. No offense to current cubicle-dwellers, but I'm not all that happy about this move. Cubicles are not exactly desirable when you have people stop by your office. Students come to pick up scholarship checks, to talk about personal and academic issues, and just to say hi. Donors sometimes come by to set up a scholarship. Parents of high school students drop by during campus visits to discuss scholarship opportunities. A main reason we have such a good relationship with our students is because we encourage them to come to our office anytime. It's hard to maintain that personal contact when your office is now a small cubicle with no privacy. And up on the 3rd floor - no coworkers are going to come up there to talk. Relationships with coworkers are going to take a hit with this move. 
• Scholarship dinner on September 6th. I never thought I would get attached to my job. But when I met my first group of scholars when they were seniors in high school, I wanted to see them through all four years of college. I still remember meeting them when they were 17/18 years old; sitting in some of their interviews, nervous for them as they were grilled by the interview committee; and then being excited as each of them accepted our scholarship, knowing that we were going to have a great group of scholars. And they were, and continue to be, a great group. I will be beaming with pride as they give their senior speeches, but I will be a bit sad at the same time.

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I have deemed this year the year of change. There were lots of changes in progress towards the end of last year, but they will all take effect in 2011. I'm anxious to see how everything plays out.