Motivation Monday: Trick or Treat?

I am not a fan of Halloween.  Never have been, and probably never will be.  My favorite thing about Halloween is that when the day is over I will not have to hear about Halloween for the next 11 or so months. 

Besides the aforementioned, there are only 2 things I like about Halloween:

(1)   Pumpkin Carving – it is a chance to express creativity in a way that you normally would not, especially now with the intricate designs available to copy and/or inspire other designs.

(2)   Babies and little kids in costume – they are so cute! 

So to get me through this Halloween, and to get you through too if you are like me, I have compiled pictures of my friends’ kids dressed up in their Halloween best.  I may be adding to this as pictures come in throughout the day, but for now:

 

 

In Your Head

I recently interviewed for a Director position with an online law school based out of a town near where I live.  The position would require me to run the admissions process, do the marketing for the school, and do some of the curriculum development.  At the first interview I met with the gentleman that essentially founded the school and developed the distance learning technology that the school uses.  He told me all about how the school developed and that the mission was to teach law students how to actually practice law as opposed to just teaching abstract legal theory.  What a novel concept! 

I was on the edge of my seat as he as explaining the school, how it operated, and what the position entailed.  I was hooked.  Then he threw me a bit of a curve ball.  He asked if I were to create a certificate program, how would I go about doing it, what would it look like, and how would I market it.  I took a few moments to think.

I came up with a healthcare driven certificate program that crossed industries from healthcare to insurance to legal.  I will not go into all the details, but I talked about how I would develop it through talking to HR departments and figuring out the exact skills they desire and then catering to those companies.  I discussed how I would use my own contacts to both determine interest before development and market the program after launch.  I also came up with the idea of doing cross-industry CLE classes to market the program to those outside the legal field but who occasionally deal with legal issues and would benefit from basic legal knowledge. 

The interview ended well, and I was pretty happy.  As I was driving home though, more thoughts flooded my brain about possible certificate programs.  When I got home that evening I sent the person I interviewed with a thank-you email and included some of my new ideas including a tech based certificate program and a biotech certificate program.  Apparently the ideas struck a chord because I got a second interview!

But, the second interview came with homework.  I was asked basically the same question about developing a certificate program, but instead of actually developing an idea, they want to know how I would go about developing an idea – basically they want to know the thinking process as opposed to the end result.  This was a bit harder, but doable. 

First I wrote down my general working process – info gathering, info organizing, comparison, product development, refinement, redevelopment, launch, marketing, evaluation, refinement etc.  I think wrote a list of people I would need to speak with a questions that I would need to ask.  Then I delved deeper in to the actual process and figured out what exact steps I would take to create a program.  Then I asked myself how would I go about fulfilling each step and wrote details about what specifically I would do.  For example step 1 is to Determine the Need or Desire for a Certain Program.  Some of the details I had for the step included: look at current events, compile info on other available programs, look at what industries are hiring by scouring job postings, work with companies who are hiring etc.  I repeated the process for each step. 

They also asked for how I would evaluate progress.  I thought a timeline approach would work best.  I would start with the ultimate launch date and work backward giving myself various deadlines to complete each stage of the project. 

Overall, the “homework” was pretty intense, but it gave me good insight as to how my mind really works.  It was a surprisingly enjoyable experience and I hope that I get to put these processes to use in the position at the school. 

Delving into how your own mind functions takes gumption!

Fall Foliage

Both on my way into and out of Williamstown, Massachusetts, I got lost and ended up taking different routes than planned.  Thank God I had a GPS on my phone or I might still be lost in the Berkshires!  The night I arrived it was raining and I could not find my way to the freeway that I needed to find.  Luckily I made a good wrong turn and ended up on Highway 2.  Highway 2 was this 2 lane road.  It was lined by trees and a river at some points.  It was the scenic route and I am thrilled that I found it!

I finally arrived at Williamstown, Massachusetts and found it to be absolutely adorable.  It actually reminded me a lot of the area surrounding Chapman, where I did my undergrad and law school – a solid and growing school in a small community.  The school itself, Williams College, was pretty spread out, having several buildings and many acres of land.  In the middle of the school basically is the “downtown” area; a street which is maybe 2-3 blocks long lined with little shops and restaurants.  I spent a couple of hours walking through the shops and checking out the little cafes.

 Williams College Building

There was a shop called “Where Did You Find That?” which was full of the most outrageous things.  There was an art museum shop, where I bought 2 scarves at 50% off.  There was a very overpriced thrift shop where I browsed, but definitely did not purchase.  There was the Williams College Store which carried everything branded with Williams College.  The colors of the school are purple and yellow, and having lived near LA for so long, the first think I thought when I walked in was “wow it looks like the Lakers threw up in here!”  But the store was cute and they had everything from t-shirts to notebooks to mugs and the like. 

The places to eat ranged from the exotic to the typical.  There was a Sushi place and an Indian Cuisine restaurant.  These were surprisingly quite busy at night.  There was also a Deli which had exceptional sandwiches for only $5 and there was a subway.  There was a new Pizza place called Spring Street Pizza which I did not have the opportunity to try, and there was a Pub called the Purple Pub.  Apparently, this was a recreation of the original Purple Pub that burned down a couple of years ago.  I went to the Purple Pub for dinner the last night I was in town.  I found the food to be good (the fries were great) and the service was adequate.  I also had the opportuniry to get strawberry ice cream at teeny tiny ice cream parlor called Lickety Split.  I just could not resist … the name was too cute!  I also went into a store called “Sweets and Beans.”  It was a candy store/coffee shop and was absolutely adorable. 

Downtown was fun, and the college was beautiful, but my favorite part of my trip to Williamstown was the amazing fall foliage.  I was informed while I was there, that the colors were actually muted this year, but to me, there was nothing muted about them.  From my point of view (being a Californian who had never experienced fall foliage) the trees were engulfed by the fiery fall colors.

  

 

Fiery Fall Colors!

I stayed at the “hotel” closest to the school.  It was called The Williams Inn.  It was cute and the staff was pleasant.  They even upgraded me free of charge to a much nicer, refurbished room.  However, my room was all the way at the back of the inn.  I had to walk through the dimly lit hallways.  The room was huge and there was not an excessive amount of furniture in it.  I am so used to there being tons of furniture crammed into a shoebox sized hotel room.  And the one window faced the parking lot to the municipal building next door.  I don’t know what it was about the room, maybe the size or the traditional furnishings, or the fact that my window was unlocked when I got there or maybe it was the dimly lit hallways, or that it was raining when I got there, but the place gave me a little bit of the creeps, which I really hate to say because it was nice.  I would probably stay there again, but maybe next time I will try to bring someone with me.

 Williams Inn

On the way out of town I was trying to take Highway 2 back to Albany Airport, the way I ended up coming into town.  Unfortunately, I must have missed some turn off somewhere because I ended up driving through various towns.  It was not until I passed a lake that I thought “hmmmm, I don’t remember passing a lake when I drove here.”  I decided to check my GPS and sure enough I was on some other route.  Luckily I had left with plenty of time to get lost.  

 Lakeside

I took lots and lots of pictures on this trip and found myself falling in love with New England in the fall.  I think I may have to have a “fall house” there when I can afford it as opposed to a summer cottage anywhere else.  But, probably the best part of the trip, was both times that I got lost.  I was treated to extremely beautiful scenic views of part of the country I had never seen before.  

Getting lost takes gumption, but appreciating getting lost takes more!

Fanciful Friday: "New" Nightstand

When I moved back to the bay area in November, I redecorated my room so that it felt a little bit more grown up (the yellow walls and piles of stuffed animals were not really doing it for me anymore).  I painted the walls “simply tan” (or rather my dad did, because upon finishing washing the walls I started showing the signs of mono and pretty much became dead to the world for 2 weeks).  I got rid of my old dresser, nightstands and desk which did not match anything and purchased 2 brown-black 3-drawer Ikea dressers and brought in my 2 bookshelves from my apartment in southern California.  I repositioned the furniture and hung a beautiful new painting done by a friend of mine (please check her out on facebook … just search for “Art by MG” … you will be incredibly glad you did!).  The room was starting to come together nicely, but there was one important piece missing – a nightstand.

I had a checklist of attributes for my nightstand.  It had to be either black or a dark wood to match the rest of the furniture in the room.  It also had to be small because there was not much space in which to place it.  I also had the idea in my head that I wanted it to be round.  I am not sure why but I was convinced that a round nightstand would look better in the room. 

I searched high and low for a suitable nightstand.  I tried every store imaginable and looked at website after website.  All of the ones I liked were way too expensive (upwards of $100).  All of the ones that were inexpensive I did not like.  All of the ones that were mediocre in both style and price were sold out.  I looked for months and finally just gave up.

Then, one day I was talking to my dad in his home office.  He had a stack of stuff that he was going to take to goodwill.  There was something in the stack that caught my eye.  It was a small side table that was a different shape than what I had seen recently.  It was very scratched up and there was a piece broken off of it, but it had potential.  I asked my dad if I could see the table.

I took the table to my room and placed it under the window right next to my bed.  It fit perfectly and looked pretty good.  I decided I had found my nightstand for the time being.  Now it was time to fix it up a bit.

 BEFORE

I took a trip to the hardware store and purchased 2 things – sand paper and black spray paint.

I put the table on our back patio with a tarp under it.  I proceeded to sand down the entire thing.  I just sanded it lightly all over, just enough to remove the top finish and wear down any splintering areas.  Then I used this sticky cloth thing to remove all of the dust from the table.  After the dust was removed I started spray painting.  I did SEVERAL very light coats.  I used 2 entire cans of paint to make sure that the table was fully covered and that the coats were even.

 DURING

For under $10 I got a beautiful new nightstand.  But, there are still improvements to be made.  I want to add a shelf to the bottom which will require a bit of help from my dad and his trusty power tools.  Keep your eyes out for an update to this post when I finally get around to installing the shelf component!

 AFTER

Revitalizing furniture to make it "new" again takes gumption!