Yesterday was my first day at my new job at WeissComm. It was filled with the usual stack of paperwork and orientation meetings, but like any first day of school, there was no slacking and I was already off on my first couple of assignment by the end of the day.
Today is my second day, but the welcome wagon keeps on rolling. This afternoon, I got an email from a colleague that there was a package from me up front. I went up to the lobby and waiting for me was a package from Proflowers. The bouquet, of course, was from my boyfriend, who had warned me that I wouldn’t be getting the flowers until Tuesday. For some reason they weren’t available for delivery until then and he didn’t want me to feel bad on my first day if I didn’t get flowers from him. I think he’s a keeper, don’t you?
Pretty purple orchids.
This past weekend, I flew down to Florida to participate in a two day diabetes event at the Diabetes Research Institute, with a handful of other diabetes bloggers including Kerri, Manny, Scott Strumello and Gina, along with a few other familiar faces, like Jeff Hitchcock and Ellen Ullman. While we were in Florida to speak at the annual Diabetes Research Institute conference, this year renamed Diabetes 2.0, our weekend actually began on Friday with a tour of the Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami, where we had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with leading diabetes researchers, including Dr. Jay Skylar, Dr. Antonello Pileggi and the famed Dr. Camillo Riccordi, the DRI’s Scientific Director.
As we toured the facility with our guide, the President and CEO of DRI, Robert Pearlman, we went in and out of a variety of labs, watching scientists hovering over their microscopes, and we even met one of the mice that is helping scientists in their pursuit of a cure . We learned about everything from new methods in islet cell transplants to find new sources of islet cells from stem cells, both embryonic and adult stem cells, and how to avoid using the toxic immunosuppressant drugs used to keep the body from rejecting new islet cells – but which causes loads of health problems and really isn’t the greatest alternative to diabetes.
While most of the scientific mumbo-jumbo went absolutely over our heads, for me, personally, it was absolutely inspiring and humbling to meet the scientists who are working everyday to help me. We all want a cure and we all know that there is an incredible need and yet lack of priority that our country has given finding a cure for a variety of reasons. And yet when you are in the room with these men and women who are working everyday, all day, just to help you because they know the importance, that absolute requirement it is that this disease be cured, it’s hard not to feel overwhelming grateful and to think, “Wow, I really am not alone in this.” There are people all around the world who are working tirelessly to help us live a normal life. No one asked them to do this, and yet they’ve chosen to devote their lives to finding a cure for a disease that many of us struggle to believe will even happen.
But I am a cheerleader for these men and women. When I look at the DRI, and when I look at the other scientists working in Boston, Minneapolis, San Francisco and in dozens of countries around the world, I can see tangible reasons for hope in these people. Because they aren’t giving up and moving on to something that will get them more fame or money. I am not going to give up on them either.
With Dr. Camillo Riccordi at the Diabetes Research Institute
Happy D-Blog Day, everyone!
I’m back from Florida and it was definitely NOT enough time. I should have gone down earlier to relax a bit, as it was beautiful and warm in Ft. Lauderdale. I’ll have a longer post tomorrow about my DRI experience, but I just wanted to stop by and say a little hello and let everyone know that I have made it home safe and sound! I still hate Newark Liberty International Airport and I swear that airport as separation anxiety as it took nearly 30 minutes to get my bag at baggage claim. How hard is it to put suitcases on a converyor belt? I don’t understand.
Tomorrow is my first day at my new job so I have to hit the hay!
iPhone hates Wordpres r
One of the things on my 101 Things list is to write down 101 things that make me happy. So far, I’ve blogged about seven things: Girl Scout Cookies, Books, Star Trek, Broadway, Email, Moby, Fall Foliage.
Great stuff, right?
However, I noticed a few weeks ago that I passed my One Year Left mark and had 52 weeks to write 94 items. That’s an average of 2 a week. So I thought, rather than taking up 2 blog posts a week talking about things that make me happy, I’ll blog once a week on 2 or 3 things that make happy. Starting this week!
#8: Flying in airplanes
Most people don’t enjoy flying in airplanes, and even if they aren’t totally terribly scared of flying, I don’t know many people who actually enjoy flying. But I do. Let me be clear: I don’t enjoy airports or airport security or the fact my Herbal Essences shampoo has been deemed a weapon of mass destruction or over-priced airport food or rude counter staff. I also don’t enjoy bad airplane food, snippy flight attendants or lack of leg room. So what do I enjoy? The view.
Flying over England, September 2008
#9: Twitter
As you can probably imagine with my announcement on Monday that I’m changing jobs, Twitter is a pretty important part of my life. It’s how I met my connection with my new agency. Twitter has allowed me to meet so many new people, eavesdrop on amazing conferences and event without actually having to go anywhere, and has given me an outlet to complain about diabetes and get instant gratification. Which, as we all know, is the source of all happiness. Well, kind of.
#10: Wedding TV Shows
Don’t get any funny ideas now… I am not engaged, but I am addicted to wedding TV shows. Some of my faves include Rich Bride Poor Bride, Say Yes to the Dress and My Fair Wedding with David Tutera. My dream is to have David Tutera plan my wedding. While I’m not really taking notes right now as far as what I want my wedding to be, I have a feeling some of this will come in handy when I finally do tie the knot. I also like wedding shows because they are always so romantic and they always have a happy ending! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cried at wedding shows… but always because I’m happy.
I so totally almost forgot to blog tonight! I literally sat up in bed and went, “Ohmygod!” and Erik said, “What??” and I said, “I didn’t blog!” and he goes, “Oh… I thought you ran out of insulin.”
Not quite that bad, but blogging during NaBloPoMo is vitally important too!
Anyway, we watched I Love You, Man tonight and it was great. You should rent it. That is all I have to blog about before I turn into a pumpkin.
Good night!
This past weekend was my boyfriend’s 26th birthday, and it also happened to fall on Halloween. But instead of rocking out in the East Village with the other freaks of nature, we decided to do our best impersonation of high society and skipped town to spend some quality alone time in a little seaside hamlet called Newport, in the southeastern corner of Rhode Island.
We took our time driving up on Saturday, and it wasn’t just the hellish traffic on I-95 that stood in our way. First, we stopped by the Clinton Outlet malls, where Erik picked up a couple of polo shirts and I bought a discounted Coach bag, which I’ve always wanted and was 50% off at the outlet mall. Practically free, really. By the time we finished shopping, it was about 1:30 so we drove a few more exits up the road to have lunch at the legendary Mystic Pizza. The same one as the film (which I haven’t actually seen… it came out when I was 3 years old and I have never bothered to rent it). As far as pizza parlors go, there wasn’t anything terribly special about it, other than Julia Roberts face plastered along the wall with Mystic Pizza movie paraphernalia. The pizza was good, too, though Erik and I don’t especially like New York style pizza (too thin and greasy) so we appreciated having some substance to our grub.
We arrived at our bed and breakfast, the Adele Turner Inn, just before 4:00, giving us time to enjoy a complimentary afternoon tea. Since were one of only three couples that weekend (remember, this is Halloween weekend), we were the only ones there and chatted with the manager of the inn, Kevin.
After we were sufficiently stuffed with quiche and tea, we walked down to the main street in town. After strolling up and down the boulevard, we settled on a fancy seafood restaurant called the Moorings.
The Birthday Boy.
Sunday was our touristy day. We woke up early and had breakfast, then walked over to the Touro Synogogue, the oldest synagogue in the country. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson even visited it. Then we drove over to see the Breakers, a “cottage” built for the Vanderbilt family, one of the old money families in the same ilk as the Rockefellers and the Carnegies. We also saw the Marble House - a house built out of complete marble – that belonged to the brother of the owner of the Breakers. Erik and I felt like paupers walking through the halls, though we both remarked how interesting it was that at least two of the women in the families had commented that they didn’t like being Vanderbilts because people only treated them well because of their name, not because of who they actually were as people.
BIG mansion. Tiny Allison.
We took our time driving out of town by cruising down Ocean Drive, which rolls along a scenic part of the town along the bay. The sunset was gorgeous, so we took plenty of pictures.
Oh, go on, you know you want to: “Awwwww….”
It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend and definitely something we plan on repeating when the weather is a little nicer and we can enjoy the Cliff Walk a little bit more (it was pretty windy while we were there, and I didn’t think it was a good idea). Hope you had a wonderful weekend too!
I was planning on writing about this tomorrow, but it doesn’t look like Erik will be able to send me the photos from our trip to Newport, Rhode Island until later tonight, so I’ve decided to write about this tonight instead.
Two weeks ago, I quit my job.
I know what you’re thinking. Who in their right mind quits their job in the middle of a recession? Well, it would be crazy if I had quit my job without having another job lined up, which I did. So that begs the question, how did I get a job in the middle of a recession?
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my many years in the workforce (that’s sarcasm, folks), it’s the importance of networking. When I decided to move to New York City to pursue a lifelong dream, I knew I needed to find a good job to afford the exhorbitant cost of living here. Networking in the diabetes community led me to Sean Hughes, who was kind enough to introduce me to Tom Biro, who was kind enough to give me a job at a top PR agency, MWW Group, working in social media, which at the time, I didn’t even know was a job. You probably haven’t heard of MWW Group, but you probably haven’t heard of most PR agencies that represent the many brands we work for. But you’ve probably heard of Nikon, Samsung, Volkwagen, ING Direct, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM…. should I continue? Needless to say, it was a great experience and I learned tremendously about how to work in a corporate setting. I also realize, now being in the midst of a recession with my younger brother starting his sophomore year in college, just how damn lucky I was that I was hired straight out of college. It’s not something that is easy to come by these days and I thank my lucky stars that Tom was crazy enough to think that I was worth hiring.
But that was then. This year, especially with the experience at Roche Diabetes Social Media Summit, I decided that I wanted to fully move into the healthcare field. Healthcare has always been something I’ve been passionate about, and while I know it’s not always as sexy or exciting as consumer lifestyle companies, I also know just how important it is to all of us.
While I was in Indianapolis, I tweeted about the Summit. I noticed a retweet from someone who I didn’t recognize. I clicked on his name and read a brief profile, which said he was a Director of Media for a healthcare PR agency. It was an agency I had read about in one of our trade magazines, and I had visited their website. So I followed back and I sent a direct message asking if they were hiring. He was kind of enough to direct me to their HR Director.
After a series of interviews and a lot of anxious waiting, I was given the opportunity to join the staff of WeissComm Group. I’ll be joining their social media practice, bridging my experiences as a patient blogger with my professional work in strategic communication for clients.
As far as how this affects my blogging, I have never had an interest in blogging about my work on my personal blog. I plan on maintaining this practice in my new position at WeissComm. While I may guest blog or contribute to health blogs, I do not plan on writing about my clients on this blog. And if I do, I will fully disclose this to you.
I am excited to advance my career towards the industry that I have long thought was the right fit for me. I am also excited to finally be living and working in Manhattan, I dream I have had since I was in high school.
I start my new job on Monday, November 9th, so I will have Tuesday, Wednesday and most of Thursday to myself for a little staycation before flying to Florida for Diabetes 2.0. Can we say hair salon?
Many thanks to my crew at MWW Group, and I’m looking forward to getting to know my new family at WeissComm.
It’s November! And that marks the beginning of National Diabetes Month, the end of daylight savings time and NaBloPoMo!
What’s NaBloPoMo?
It’s the month where bloggers everywhere torture themselves by coming up with blog material not just everyday during the week, BUT ON THE WEEKENDS TOO!
And you thought Halloween was scary!
I have participated in two NaBloPoMo’s so far with flying colors and I’m looking forward to completing yet another one by sharing mostly boring, useless factoids about yours truly. I really wouldn’t blame you if you decided to suddenly stop reading my blog for about thirty days or so. I would probably do the same.
Tomorrow, I will have pictures and stories from my weekend in Newport, Rhode Island where I celebrated my wonderful boyfriend’s 26th birthday and then on Tuesday BIG NEWS (No, I am not pregnant. Or engaged.).
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and Happy November!
Happy Day-Before-Halloween everyone! Do you have your costume yet?
I don’t. I’ve decided not to celebrate Halloween in the traditional way this year, because I have something better to celebrate: the birth of my boyfriend! Erik has been blessed (or cursed, depending on how you look at it) with having been born on Halloween. But instead of throwing a Halloween party in one of our tiny apartments that fit like five people (including us) or trekking down to the East Village to partake in the drunken madness and $60 cover charge (I don’t like bars on NORMAL nights, let alone the freakfest that is All Hallow’s Eve), we’ve decided to hightail it out of here.
And we’re heading to Newport, Rhode Island. We’re staying at a cute bed and breakfast and will hopefully get to enjoy a bit of nice weather before it turns sour on Sunday. I’m just looking forward to spending sometime outside of the city. I love New York City, but the people can sometimes get to you.
The funny thing is that the last time I was in Newport was with Mel and as we were driving back to Providence, where I was staying, I told Mel that the next time I wanted to come to Newport was with a boyfriend. Well, it took me two years but it’s finally happening!
Maybe we’ll visit an old New England haunted house… Anyone know of any in Connecticut or Rhode Island?
Hope you have a great Halloween – and don’t forget to bolus!
