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Nicole

My Working Remotely From Home CoWorker is Stella the Boston Terrier

Career

20 Initial Impressions of Working Remotely from Home

The last month has been chock full of life transitions for me. I moved. And it’s been quite the challenge to combine two households. I also successfully ended my long distance relationship. By reducing the distance! And, finally, I also began working remotely from home for my current employer.

Overall, working remotely has been great so far! But I definitely have some thoughts and initial impressions that I’d like to share. I’m sure my feelings will change and adapt as I move deeper into the belly of this thing we call remote work. But for now, here are my thoughts.

August 28, 2013 by Nicole

Fitness, Life

First-Timer’s Guide to Running in a Color Run

It now seems like ages ago, but once upon a time, I traveled to Philadelphia to visit some friends and we all ran in our very first Color Run. We had a great time and we really lucked out with the weather. Being a hot July morning, we were pretty relieved that it was fairly overcast. It was hot without the sun, so we could only imagine what it would be like with full-force sun.

Since we were all new to this, there were some things that we found out through trial and error that we wish we had known or thought about before the race. If you’re thinking about running in a Color Run or if you are signed up and ready to go, here are some tips that you might find useful if you are a first-timer.

August 21, 2013 by Nicole

Lots of Boxes Are Involved When Combining Two Households

Life, Moving

Combining Two Households Isn’t Easy & How to Make It Easier

As I suggested in my last post, my life has been consumed with moving. Before the actual move, I was busy with packing and cleaning my apartment. After the move, little did I know it, but the fun was only about to begin. And by fun, I mean a lot of organizing, cleaning and unpacking was about to begin.

It’s been almost 3 weeks since the move. Despite the lapse of 3 weeks and our tireless unpacking, we only started to see the floor to the living room this past weekend. While that’s a huge win, there’s still a lot that needs to be done. While there is much work before us, we have made efforts to make the process smother. Below are four ways that we’ve been trying to make combining two households easier.

August 15, 2013 by Nicole

Goals

Monthly Review: July 2013 (And I’m Back!)

Phew! That was quite the few weeks. As I mentioned before I went off-air, I recently moved from Hoboken to Rochester. I didn’t quite realize how much of a task unpacking would be, but here I am two weeks later and there is still a TON to do. I guess it’s more work trying to integrate two households when unpacking than it is to just move and need to unpack your stuff into an empty place.

Regardless of the unpacking situation, I’m back! And it’s time to do a monthly review for July, even though we are over a quarter of the way through August.

August 8, 2013 by Nicole

Life, Moving

Moving Week: Be Back Soon!

It’s moving week, people!

As you may remember, I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in my June review that I’m going to be removing the “long distance” from my long distance relationship. Well, this week is the week!

Between packing, saying goodbye-for-nows, cleaning and work, I’ve had and am going to have a hectic schedule as I make the move and get settled into this whole cohabitation thing. As I figure all this out, I’m going to be a little M.I.A. as I get things into order and settled in.

Fear not! I will be back with exciting new posts soon.

July 24, 2013 by Nicole

Goals

Why It’s Okay To Fail To Achieve Goals

If you’ve read this site for any period of time, you know that I like to set goals for myself, both for the year and each month. You’ll also know that I sometimes fail to achieve goals that I set for myself. The F word. Fail. A big no-no. Right?

Wrong. Failing to achieve one’s goals gets a really bad rap. We’re constantly bombarded with messages about achieving our goals: why we should, how we should do it, what it says about us as people. While I believe in the importance of setting and achieving realistic stretch goals, I do think it’s okay to fail to achieve goals that we set for ourselves.

Believing that we’re going to achieve every single goal we set for ourselves only sets us up for failure. Things happen. We can try our hardest and still fail to achieve goals that we set for ourselves. This is why I think it’s important to remember that, sometimes, it’s okay to fail.

July 17, 2013 by Nicole

Backyard Tourism, Destinations, New York, North America, Travel, USA

Backyard Tourism: A Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge

I’ve been in a bit of a travel dry-spell, so I’ve been spending my weekends exploring my own backyard. Living in the New York area gives me plenty of opportunities to check out cool spots and locales. Check out my other backyard tourism extravaganzas to Chelsea Market, Mets’ Citi Field and the Intrepid Museum. And, oh hey, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge was one of the 26 new things I want to do while I’m 26. Two birds, one stone.

It was actually supposed to be a pretty gross, overcast and rainy day. But the day I ended up heading out to the Brooklyn Bridge with one of my friends was anything BUT gross, overcast and rainy. Instead, we were blessed with blue skies, sunshine and warmth. In other words, the perfect day for a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge!

July 15, 2013 by Nicole

From the Internets

From the Internets: July 14th

Hello! Long time, no talk. Sorry I’ve been so MIA this week. I got home from my fabulous 4th of July away in PA and came down with something fierce. Between a busy work week and trying to get better, there wasn’t a lot of time to post. Oh yeah, plus I met up with some of my friends on Wednesday to celebrate a birthday and then traveled to Philadelphia this weekend to participate in The Color Run.

Now that I’m back in town, you’ll definitely be hearing more from me this week. Before that, to top of your Sunday night (or kick off your Monday morning), I have some links to share:

July 14, 2013 by Nicole

Frugal Living

6 Signs It’s Time to Upgrade Your Smartphone

I’m pretty frugal. And my frugal lifestyle has leaked over into my choice of cell phone. My current cellphone is a Motorola Droid X and I’ve had it for nearly 3 years. And, let me tell you, it’s on its last legs.

There are a number of reasons I’ve held on to the good ol’ Droid X for so long. I’ve been trying to maximize the value of the money I spent on my phone. It was one of the high-end models a couple of years ago, so I’ve wanted to get as much mileage out of my phone as possible. I’ve been on a family plan, so laziness of trying to coordinate upgrading has been a factor in holding onto my phone. I have been lucky enough to not have any major issues until lately. Plus, I’ve been able to hold off paying for a new phone until a model I really like has come along.

While I’ve been able to hang on to my smartphone for almost 3 years, the writing has been on the wall for a while that it’s time for an upgrade. While I’m not thrilled to depart with the cash, I do recognize there is a line between being frugal and being cheap. I use my smartphone as a tool to check email, surf the web, connect with information, and communicate people. With my upcoming change to working remotely, having a reliable cell phone will be really important since, I am on a lot of conference calls each day for work.

If you’re in a situation where you’re trying to decide whether it’s time to upgrade your smartphone or not, here are some signs it’s time.

July 8, 2013 by Nicole

From the Internets

From the Internets: July 7th

Happy (belated) Fourth of July! I couldn’t bring myself to the computer to wish you that, so a belated one will have to do.

I spent the first three days of the week working and then was off to rural PA for the holiday. I was there just long enough to catch a summer cold (bummer!) and now I’m back in Hoboken and trying to get healthy for tomorrow.

While I melt from the heat and this cold, enjoy these links:

July 7, 2013 by Nicole

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