my first boss's day

I celebrated my first boss's day Wednesday. Yay, me! I have never been drawn to a supervisory role and to be honest, this one was rather thrust upon me. I always thought that I would spend too much time on the bureaucracy of it and not enough time in my wheel house, creating unique ways to increase efficiency and reduce redundancies. I am a creative person by nature and being someone’s manager struck me as a position more suited for someone who was a better rule follower than I am. I have been pleasantly surprised though. Knock on wood, so far I have been able to strike a balance between the attendance tracking, timestamp approving and other HR nightmares and being able to impart some of the things I’ve learned during my professional career to those who report to me. I will be the first to admit, they have taught me as much as I have taught them. My initial thoughts that management was often for the unimaginative have been happily discredited. I do think there are probably some in the role that meet my initial expectations. However, I also believe that as the workforce is changing with the technology engrossed generation entering the workplace, some managers are rising to the challenge and using their creativity to embrace the exclusive strengths of this generation and to soften their weaknesses. I hope to be in the latter group. I am definitely a work in progress but I am willing to learn and take advice. Anyway, I included a picture of the beautiful and thoughtful card my employees gave me. It feels awesome to be appreciated :)

i've fallen for fall

Today's little victory, I cannot take credit for...it's all mother nature. Autumn is here and I couldn't be happier about it. Fall encompasses all of my favorite things: sweater weather, warm colors, savory food and fall leaves. The photo below is a picture from my apartment balcony. Not too shabby, for an apartment complex. I love anything apple so when the spiced hard ciders start hitting the shelves, I am a happy girl. I am not a coffee drinker but during the autumn months, I flock with the masses to Starbucks to consume the season in a drink, their apple cider with whipped cream and caramel. If you haven't tried it, I'm telling you, it's worth the calories. Living in Indiana, autumn is a great time to get out and enjoy neighborhood events. Weekends are filled with fall carnivals, outdoor antique markets, apple picking events at orchards and covered bridge festivals. I will be hitting up my favorite covered bridge festival, Parke County's 57th Annual Covered Bridge Festival, this weekend. It is the perfect fall outing, great food, perfect weather and shopping :) Visit their website, for more information. Please comment if you have suggestions of any other Indianapolis area fall events worth checking out.

i started a blog

Today's little victory is that I finally have completed one of my life's ambitions of starting a blog. I have put it off for years. Many things seemed overwhelming about starting a blog. Choosing a title, topic, color scheme, logo all seemed daunting beyond words. Anyone who knows me will tell you, I can be a bit obsessive about design. I am sure that I will redesign this blog many times as my design taste matures and evolves. Being such a book worm also made the task of writing troublesome. I love words and want to do them justice. I decided that centering my blog around small successes in my life made the blog creating task more manageable and less intimidating. I strive to be an optimist and creating an avenue to reflect my triumphs, both large and small, seemed a great way to stay grateful. Anyway, I hope you enjoy my blog and leave comments. Happy reading!