'Twas the week before Europe

What a week!

First things first: we have a new president that I am actually excited about! Watching Obama win the Presidential election was inspirational, for a lack of a better word. I am so thrilled and hopeful to have someone "fresh" in the office with new ideas. Hopefully we'll see lots of good change in the next four years.

Sadly, to quote the news and a variety of sources, chickens in California now have more rights than same-sex couples. I was a big No On Prop 8 supporter and I'm bummed that this passed. I'm hoping for appeals, turn overs, re-votes... whatever. Another member on a board I post on put it so eloquently when she stated "This isn't about schools, or religion, or whatever... it's about PEOPLE! It's about giving people equal rights in this state to marry who they love!"

I traveled to Los Angeles this week to take part in our annual Fall Session. This also marks the end of a very LONG event season. We now get a little bit of a break to play catch up and prep for the start of the Winter and Spring event season. It didn't go as bad as I thought it would, but we had some surprises. I think I'm just uber stressed from a number of other things on my plate, both personally and professionally, and it didn't help that I was getting "emergency" phone calls and emails all week.

I did meet with two lovely ladies from the MK-O boards on Wednesday. They were a hoot to hang out with and I can't wait to meet everyone next year (hopefully) at the ginormous get-together I'm helping coordinate. Of course, I had to let my co-workers in on a secret part of my life that, yes, I have a number of friends that I've never met in person and we all chat via the internet. My boss was very concerned that I was going to be "Marker-napped" or something.

Speaking of internet friends being awesome: Diana went to the SYTYCD tour in NJ a few nights ago and got me a "shout out" video from Mark Kanemura. I collaborated with her on a project we called "The Postcard Book" and she passed it on to him at an earlier show. (Basically a photo album with postcards from all of his fans... since we're kind of all over the place. Photo is here.) He LOVED it and thanked me as personally as you can via a video camera in 13 seconds. The video can be found here. It's on Facebook, so you have to be a member to view. And it's a bit on the dark side. But the "Jen" in the video is ME! YAY for celebrity endorsements!

And I'm busy packing. I am so relieved to have re-read the security and luggage requirements for our airline. Turns out that they DON'T count a purse as a carry on bag. THANK GOODNESS! I was really worried. I can bring on my big purse and not have to worry about that being the only thing I have on the flight.