Since it’s the holiday season, I like to think back over the year and appreciate people, things and lessons I’ve learned.  Out of all of these thoughts for the past year, here are some of my favorites (other than friends & family of course).  And of course, you can listen to music while you read.

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I’ve better developed my ability to think about why people react and try to resolve this instead of reacting to the pull of high emotion.  I’m getting better at reading people, their reactions and how to make them feel better.  Pretty key for a wedding planner I think!

“Letting go” has always been a hard one for me (ask anyone who knows me), but I think I’ve been better about it this year.  Letting go of fears, a little bit of control and of mistakes I or others have made.  Sure makes it easier to recover and move on in life and in an event! 

Ah, my most memorable event of the year, which I have affectionately named “The Flood”.  For those who don’t know the story, I had an event that was literally flooded out and I had to evacuate the facility it was being held in across a creek that was rapidly rising.  Probably one of the biggest learning experiences in how to not only stay calm in a crisis, but in how to delegate, trust your team, know yours and their weaknesses, and how to move 200 people in 45 minutes!  If nothing else, I learned what is a “real” emergency and how to deal with those that are not so real, without dismissing those that perceive it to be.  My newest phrase from this incident is “what do you need right now so we can fix it?”, said in a completely calm manner and not “reacting”.  Works every time!

A favorite thing has been myBarnes & Noble membership card.  I loved books before, but this year it has been key as I buy books on wedding design, planners and magazines to keep up with the trends and books on sales and marketing to understand how I want to advertise and be perceived (and how I do NOT want to advertise and be perceived).  I continue to visit this store in my ever present desire for education (and of course my leisure reading as well).

Advice from vendors/co-workers on how to work with them, suggestions on my website, logo, advertising, EVERYTHING!  Thank you to everyone who has supported me this year and for letting me “pick their brain” so to speak. 

With all that happened this year, I’m absolutely positive that 2008 will be even better!  Happy New Year everyone!

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It may not be relevant, but I just had to say how much I’m in love with the show Storm Chasers on the Discovery Channel.  I adore the show and I live vicariously through it, considering this is what I thought I’d be doing with my life.  My how plans change!  The show is such drama and I totally get caught up in it as I watch.  Love, love, love it!  I think back to my college days when I used to chase with my team.  So much fun!  We had some fun times and some very scary times and some exhilirating times.  It certainly teaches you to respect nature and to beware of power.  I remember very vividly a time when I was in a tiny car with one buddy and lightning was striking all around us.  It was amazing and beautiful.  Funny how you develop a sense of your surroundings and you can tell how things may turn wrong very quickly just by how it feels (like during an event, but that seems simpler).  We departed the lightning flurry when we both had a feeling it would turn bad, and we were right.  Did we go back?  Of course!  But it was a valuable lesson.  Who knows?  Maybe next year I’ll have time to go after a storm or two…  Who’s with me?

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Ok, I was tagged by Kate to write 8 things about myself that you may not know about me yet.  So, here goes.

1. I love to storm chase.  I actually did this quite a bit in college, but as the years have passed by, I seem to have lost time for this hobby.  I’m hoping to get back into this at some point, maybe next year.
2. I have two absolutely spoiled cats.  These are my children, and they act like it, including talking while I’m on the phone and yelling at the top of their lungs for no reason.
3. I’m a computer software geek.  I grew up with computers, majored in them for a while in college and I’m married to a computer developer (the new cool title for computer programmer).  Yes, folks, we have at least 5 computers in the home, with a wireless network that we even have our Tivos and the Wii on.  Sad, I know.
4. I can play the flute and piccolo.  Yes, I was a band nerd and I even carried that on to college for the first couple of years.  (Why does everything seem to have died in college?)
5. I am allergic to almost everything (including the beloved cats).  Gotta love allergy medication!
6. I would love to be fluent in Spanish and American Sign Language.  (I took Spanish in high school, but who remembers stuff that long?)
7. I grew up in a tiny, tiny town in West Texas called Bronte, population of 1,000.  Yes, I only had 23 folks in my graduating high school class.  Now you know where my Texas drawl comes from.  
8. While many know I grew up on a ranch, most don’t know why.  My dad was the helicopter pilot for Ft. Chadbourne ranch and, among other things, he would help herd cattle in that thing.  Oh, and count deer for the deer season each year.

Ok, that was tough.  I’d tag someone else, but don’t know who.  So, anyone reading this, consider yourself tagged and COMMENT!

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