Ahh...I've been neglecting my blog...

Ok seriously...the image I choose is so random how could I not pick it ha!

I have spent way too much time away from my blog. I miss it! I have had so much on my mind I haven't been able to focus my energies on it. No more neglecting though hopefully.

So the last few months as everyone knows I was unemployed...and by FEW I mean EIGHT!! Yes, eight whole months. It was pretty crazy but I made it through, thanks to supportive family and friends. I had some great friends that got me out of the house and didn't let me wallow or think about it too much. I do have to say I miss sleeping in but that's about it. I also am not loving public transportation again but I guess that's just part of life.

So as I started to elude to...I GOT A JOB. Finally!! After my job was eliminated in nonprofit it was the perfect time to really take a look at what I wanted in life. I had grown and climbed the nonprofit ladder until I landed myself into a vice president role. It was not fulfilling to me though and financially I never would have had an opportunity to enjoy life and travel or do anything truly extra. I'd be climbing slowly out of college debt forever if I stayed in nonprofit. So with my job ending I took some time to really think hard about what I wanted. I looked at my friends job and career which I had always admired and really wondered...why can't that be me. Well guess what it can be eventually. So I set out to find a job in the .com industry in sales. Not only did I do that but I did it with the fastest growing internet company EVER. Very cool. I'm sure I'll be sharing a lot of stories about my new company. At this time I've had one week of training and all is good. I have a base salary + commission which is totally new to me. I'm excited to take on the challenge of making commission and really performance based money! I've always performed very high but never ever been rewarded for it financially.

Stay turned for more .com work stories!!

Life in prison for murderer of Gayle's girlfriend

Not too long ago I watched the 20/20 episode with Shaun Gayle (Former Chicago Bears player); the Rhoni Rueter story. This was a really sad story because not only was a woman gunned down by her boyfriends crazy lover; but she was pregnant and the baby died as well. Just this week they sentenced the murderer; Marni Yang to two life sentences back to back with no chance of parole. When someone commits such a calculated heinous crime it's almost relieving to hear that justice took such a major stance and really did away with such a horrible human being. 

Chicago Breaking News: Life in prison for murder of Gayle's girlfriend

Marni Yang was sentenced to life in prison this morning for gunning down the pregnant girlfriend of former Chicago Bear Shaun Gayle, with the judge citing the “methodical, meticulous and maniacal manner in which you committed this crime.”

Judge Christopher Stride handed down two life sentences with no parole, to run concurrently, for the death of Rhoni Reuter and her unborn child in Reuter’s Deerfield condominium on Oct. 4, 2007.

Yang showed no reaction, sitting almost motionless.

I remember when I was watching this story on 20/20 I couldn't help but think how crazy the entire situation was. Shaun Gayle and Rhoni were together for 18 years and they never married. In those 18 years her family said they only met him four times, which just shows how much of a real couple they were. Shaun says the couple had an understanding that they were in an open relationship. I immediately felt sad and confused, wondering how a woman could be in a noncommittal relationship with a man for 18 years and then want to carry his child in her 40s. I felt sorry for her, because Gayle seemed like a total womanizer but on the flip side she let him be. 

When it first happened, Gayle was a suspect in this case not just to the police but to the Reuter family. Gayle immediately offered up several of his ex girlfriends names who hadn't taken it well over the years when he'd broken it off. Throughout his entire thought process not once did he think to mention Marni Yang, the crazy woman behind the plotted murders. When watching the show I couldn't tell if Gayle just like crazy women or if he was really screwing with women's heads to make them fall off the deep end. I think he was a total womanizer. I'm pretty disgusted at Shaun Gayle for sleeping with so many women and equally disgusted at the women for being ok with it. It seems like most of them knew.

Three weeks after the murder the searched Gayle's house and found that Marni Yang had been stalking Shaun's computer for 3 years by recording everything he did on the computer. The tool she used is often used by parents who want to keep track of what their children are doing. I've often wondered if I'd ever do this to a spouse just to see what type of person they were, or even better before they were a spouse. Yang saw every single email and everything Gayle did online. Not just that but Yang would get Gayle's phone bills and call all of the numbers on there. If that sounds crazy, that is only the tip of the iceberg; Yang would cancel flight and hotel reservations so he couldn't go visit other women.

Marni was telling all of her friends that her and Shaun were together in a relationship, which was not true considering he clearly didn't know what a relationship was. He did admit that they had slept together on several occasions. Once I heard this I was convinced that was leading all of these women on to think there was or could be more. Gayle seems like the scum of the earth, time to hang up your player towel....you're almost 50 years old. Eventually it came out that not only did Gayle sleep with Yang but he slept with her the NIGHT before the murder. Disgusting.

Yang was beyond crazy; she planned the murder and sat waiting on Rueter to leave for work. They say that Yang started to plan the murder the moment that she found out the Rueter was pregnant. There was nothing spur of the moment about this. Yang had all the tools she had purchased at a Home Depot and a disguise she had purchased at a local store. Originally some neighbors reported seeing a young black male fleeing the scene, when in actuality it was Yang in dark face paint and a disguise. Without the help of Yang's friend, I don't know if she would have ever been caught because she had it so planned out. The police had Yang's friend go to a meeting wired and Yang spilled all the details. So here is one of my problems; her friend knew Yang was planning this before it happened yet she's not in trouble. Whether or not she thought her friend was just talking out of anger she should have turned her in. This whole story was one of those twisted disgusting stories you hear that just doesn't sound real. From Gayle being a ladies man and sleeping with god knows how many women and then putting his child in danger, to the psycho woman who thought she was in a relationship and planned the murder of a woman and her unborn child.

If today really was the end...what would I do with it?

So every nutty person in the world thought today at 6pm that the world might end. No one knew 6pm what time zone, but to crazies apparently time zones don't matter. Anyhow, it did make me think what would I want to do if I only had a day left. Answer to that would be to go home and spend it with my family. Call all my friends who are important to me and let them know what they meant to me and then just spend it with my family. They are the ones that mean the most to me and I'd want them to be the last people I saw. Oh...I'd also probably eat a ton of food that's horrible for me that I love since I've been eating so healthy lately lol.

What would you do?

BGSU in the lead to host Tosh.0 w/ HILARIOUS video!

I hope BGSU wins. This video is great. Miss my old school....always an alumna though :) Go Falcons!!

Do people really want their ex's to be happy?

I'm pretty sure if you asked a room full of men and women this question you'd probably get responses split down the middle. Personally I think everyone deserves happiness in their lives, even my ex's. I think they deserve to find happiness, even though for one reason or another they didn't end up making me happy. The thing is our ex's move on from our lives to make room for us to find the right one. I truly believe people enter our lives for a reason, sometimes it's to help us learn and sometimes its to cause hurt so we can become stronger. Either way, each relationship is a lesson to be learned if we pay close attention.

Maybe the bigger question should be whether or not we would be happy for an ex if they moved on and became happy. There is a major difference between being happy for someone and wanting them to be happy. I absolutely want my ex's to be happy but there will always be that part of me that thinks of all the mistakes they made that made me cry so why would I want to be happy for them. In the end I want my ex's to find happiness and because they are a part of my past I usually don't involve myself with their present. I can't say that I keep any of my ex's around as close friends because I realized it's better to learn and grow then learn and stay in the same place. Everything about my life is all about moving on and being better with each step. I don't really keep much of the past in the present for that reason. I don't really know how to respect people who spent energy lying to me. I don't think it's worthwhile. I have friends who keep close relationships with ex's and I absolutely don't understand. In fact I think it makes them look like the victim sometimes, like someone got the best of them. Maybe that's really what it is. I won't let someone make a fool of me or make me feel like hell and then give them the opportunity to be a friend. With all that said I do want everyone to find their own happiness, we all deserve it.

The Versatile Blogger Award

One of my favorite bloggers and Twitter pals, Stephanie from The Single Slant has given me this wonderful honor :) I started my blog to just vent and ramble, so I always get a kick out of knowing that people actually like and read my blog. It's very appreciated...and surprising lol. 

About Me (crud...this is always hard): 

1) My senior year in high school I attended college full-time instead of going to high school. It's a program they have in Ohio for students excelling in HS who have at least a 3.5 GPA. It was a year of college fully paid for and I got to hang out with college kids and not boring high schoolers lol. Loved it! I also got all my books for free and when it was time to sell them back I actually made money back. 

2) In 2010, I was honored with the Chicago Archdiocesan Impact Award; an award given to only one person in the entire Chicago area who makes a significant impact to their organization. My job was than eliminated at the end of 2010...I think this is what Alanis Morissette meant when she said "Isn't it Ironic?". 

3) I'm kind of a nerd. I love the internet and the fact that it's ever changing. The fact that Facebook changes weekly doesn't annoy or frustrate me it interest and excites me because there are so many options in the digital world. This is why I want to make the switch to this industry.

4) I'm addicted, like truly need a meeting level addicted, to my Blackberry. I like being connected with social media especially twitter. It's back to #3 and that whole nerd thing. I just love that I can be so connected to people all over. 

5) I don't want to ever carry a child. Whenever I talk with someone about this they say "you'll change your mind" or they think I'm crazy. There is something so natural to women to make them want this, and something so unappealing to me to make me not want this at all. I want to live my life and get married and be selfish with my husband. I think most people have kids because they think they should not even because they want to. I want to be able to do something spontaneously without needing a sitter. I think me being honest about it is so much better than knowing I'll go along with it for someone else.

6) I'm currently going through the toughest time in my life but I am choosing to stay as positive as possible. I have been unemployed for more than 7 months which is no joy, although sleeping in is amazing. Sometimes we have to suffer the bumps to really appreciate the victories to come and I think that is what's going on with me right now. It also helped me realize I really want to follow my dreams career wise. 

7) Wow I got pretty heavy on a few of those...time to be light. I'm a total goofball. I love making people laugh and often times I laugh at myself even when no one else is (it's not my fault they don't get real quality humor).

I always find it so hard to choose my favorite bloggers because there are so many talented bloggers out there. One of which gave me The Versatile Blogger Award, so I think that means I can't officially pick Stephanie even though I love her blog The Single Slant (make sure to check her out). I read blogs everyday but I've chosen a few that I always enjoy

My Picks:  

The Fashion Bomb Daily has some really great and very unique fashion. I love getting ideas from this site. 

Terez Owens dishes up "Real Sports, Real Dirt"...I love sports but what I love even more...DIRT! G

Major Must Haves This girl has the absolute cutest style. I don't think she's worn an outfit that I don't want. I love blogs like this!!

NBA By A  is such a great NBA blog, Allana knows her stuff! I love girls and sports blogs!! 

Mrs. Windy City Unplugged  is a great Chicago site for fashion and info on what's going on in the city and the writer Brandi is a really cool girl!

Reminders for my unborn daughter is such a touching blog written by a new friend and sister separated at birth Nhycol. Us "Nicole's" get creative with our spelling!! 

Kattastic Ramblings I love this blog because it kind of reminds me of my own. Katrina has a lot of opinions and isn't afraid to share them!! 

Take the time to check out all of these wonderful blogs!! You won't be sorry :) 

Favorite song of the moment! Olivia- December

I think Olivia is so talented. I really love her voice and this is a great song. I enjoy watching her on Love & Hip Hop. She seems like a really talented driven young woman. The guy in this video is crazy hot. He's got my weaknesses...tattoos and muscles. Definitely worth a watch!!

BTW I absolutely love Love & Hip Hop. I like Olivia and Chrissy, who is Jim Jones girlfriend, and maybe after the last episode his fiancé. We shall see. I'm not a fan of Somaya or Emily B, both of them are trying so hard and pretending to be something they're not. Somaya is a wannabe rapper with little to no talent, she does have a hot boyfriend though. Emily B is the baby mama of Fabolous and he doesn't claim their 8 year long relationship yet she swears by it. I just can't stand the lack of reality by the two of those women.