2009 Hurricanes

1) DRINKING BUDDY OF THE YEAR
Griff! (really he is Billy's, but he is still the best drinking buddy)

2) LIFETIME SERVICE AWARD (longest friend)
Spence

3) NEWCOMER AWARD - MOST AMAZING NEW ADDITION IN MY LIFE
GOOSE!!!

3) HIGH POINT OF THE YEAR
seeing Paris for the first time

4) LOW POINT OF THE YEAR
sadly probably Christmas night

5) BEST HOLIDAY
Easter was really nice

6) SONGS FOR 2009
Defying Gravity - Glee Cast
Best I Ever had - Drake
Heads will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Tracks of my Tears - Adam Lambert
Empire State of Mind - Jay-Z
Bad Romance, Speechless - Lady Gaga

7) MOVIES FOR 2009
I will most likely remember Up in the Air... oh but I forgot Inglorious Bastards...definitely Inglorious

Also noted: Up, I Love You, Man, 500 Days of Summer, Star Trek, Avatar
Could be on the list, but I haven't seen yet: Informant, Precious, Invictus, Where the Wild Things Are, The Messenger, The Road, Invictus, An Education, The Hurt Locker

8) VALENTINE of 2009
Obvious, but we did do a scavenger hunt to the ABC store, adult boutique, gas station, and pool which was sweet

9) BEST RELATIONSHIP of 2009
With the majority of the year in Lynchburg, Billz and I's relationship blossomed.

10) BEST FLING of 2009
x-nay on the fling-ay. Unless you count a fling as Billz and me randomly going to Cocoa Beach, Orlando, Williamsburg, Virginia Beach, Shenandoah, Carolina Hemlocks, Nashville.

11) HALLOWEEN COSTUME of 2009
Me: Tiffany Lemmons; Billz: lumberjack with all the tools

12) RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR
Nikkos or Yoshis

13) BOOK OF THE YEAR
The Road and Eclipse

14) BEST DECISION MADE THIS YEAR
Return to Char-town / Paris 2011

15) PLANS FOR NEXT YEAR
Continue my MBA, go skiing, go see John Mayer and Wicked, go to Mexico City and see Coldplay, go west to Vegas Bryce Mt. Zion Grand Canyon, run 1/2 marathon, go flat hunting in Paris, make a difference at work in my involvements

16) MOST STUPID IDEA WHEN DRUNK in 2009
Ahh... um, make a poster that says "OT makes babies" and give out pregnancy tea

17) TV SHOW OF THE YEAR
Dexter without a doubt

18) MOST LOYAL FRIEND of 2009
Tiff (and Griff to Billz)

19) BIGGEST CHANGE OF 2009
Getting out of Lynchburg and adding Goose to the fam

20) BIGGEST DOUCHEBAG AWARD
Pretty much anyone whose favorite movie is The Hangover

21) NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION
Be the epitome of Loyalty; run a 1/2, be aware of opportunites to exceed expectations at work and act on it, find new and different ways to show Billz my love

22) MOST HUMOROUS EVENT OF 2009
Impossible to pick one. Billz is absolutely hilarious.

23) BIGGEST PURCHASE OF 2009
Actually did a decent job sticking to budget and I had no big purchases planned; thus the biggest purchases were concert tickets (Elton & Billy, Dave Matthews, Tori AMos)

24) DA MISS YA AWARD
Jerry Harley and Leanne Bock

25) THE COACH K AWARD FOR BIGGEST INFLUENCE/ROLE MODEL IN 2009
the Voyager Program (does that count?)

26) THE MAGGIE AUSTIN GENIUS AWARD MOMENT
when I was speaking with some of my French colleagues and I accidentally started talking with a French accent

27) GREATEST GIFT OF 2009
Necklace from Mom... I <3 my camera and mermaid tooooooooo

28) CW AUSTIN AWARD FOR BIGGEST IMPACT
Sef

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground....

Hannah: Whatchu doin?

Seth: Tying baby doll heads to my wig for Halloween.

Hannah: Jesus.

Our Iceberg is Melting

Quick run-down of the end of 2009:

Week Ending 11/22:

Honestly I cannot remember what we did this week / weekend. Oh wait, I think that we went to Mez in the Epicentre on Friday and Midtown Kareoke on Saturday.


Week Ending 11/29:

I ended up working Monday through Wednesday of this week. People always question my decision to work on days leading up to a holiday, but it gives me an opportunity to play catch up without distractions. I can complete my online training, personal performance assessment, work on tasks for NA-YGN or Toastmasters, and continue to try to learn processes and procedures and systems since I am always new to my organization due to the Voyager program. Anyway, so I worked full force up through Wednesday. Although it ended up being more project related than administrative. I definitely had the opportunity to shine on this project/task although I didn't quite step up to the plate. There were several times I should have put my foot down and called on people to step up their game, but instead I babied them along. Ultimately the success of the task would reflect positively or negatively on me, so I have to remember that being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.

Anyway, Thursday we went to Billy's family Thanksgiving, and Billy was so anxious to play golf afterwards that we left after only an hour or two. I felt really bad about that since they think we rarely come around anyway. Plus, I thoroughly enjoy watching and listening to the characters in his family. Seriously there is nothing quite like the Arringtons. I brought fruit salad to Billy's chagrin ("Boo, dey don't eat nothin that ain't cooked in Crisco"), and no one ate it, but we did have a lot of laughs about it. I spent the remainder of the day get the house Christmas ready.




After Billy was done with golf we headed to Raleigh to spend time with my family.... YAYAYAYA!

We got there late so we had a couple beers and went to bed. Then we got up at 2:45am for Black Friday! I have never shopped on Black Friday, but it is my new tradition. I had an absolute blast, and it is fun just trying to put together a plan of attack before entering each store. We hit Old Navy at 3:00am to get gifts for Billy's brothers, cousin, friends, and mom. Then we went to Belks at 4:00am in search of an Eco-Drive Citizen watch for me. We were two of the first 100 in the door so we each got pre-loaded gift cards with an undetermined amount. Mine ended up being $5 and his was $10. We found an Eco-Drive for 50% off, and B is letting me wear it early!!! I still wrapped the box and put it under the tree though.

In line at Belks:
We found gifts for Butch (wine glasses / State snuggie), a couple small ones for Seth (speakers for Ipod, gift cards, Fatman sweatshirt [http://www.fatmandesignz.com/]), and I got a little something for Billy (Sonicare toothbrush, The Office DVDs, Playstation games, etc). His big gifts this year include a new golf driver and tickets to see John Mayer in March. I got my sister and mom a really good gift, but I think my sister may still read this blog occasionally and I would not want her to see it, so I will update that later.

Saturday we had a big post Thanksgiving party with Linda, Buddy, Paulette, and Tommy to watch State WIN!! and eat goooooood food!

When in Raleigh we usually walk the trails around the North Carolina Museum of Art (http://ncartmuseum.org/interim/park.php), and it is so awesome as always. You must check it out if you are ever in town.

We also gave Mags belated birthday gifts and Seth gave Mags some bump-its!!!



Week Ending 12/6:

This week I was in Lynchburg for training, which completely confirmed my aspirations to be a Project Manager. Great training... right down my alley.

We attended the end of year Theta Tau party... and had much too much fun. Thank you Joe DeVoe for being a true Brother that night.

Mags moved in with us, and it is a real joy. I just can't express in words how much I enjoy her being there. We wore matching green and red strapless dresses to the party, and Seth and Mom decided to compete.



Week Ending 12/13:

This week I was working long hours, so not too much went on outside of AREVA. I am now the Vice President of Publicity and Membership for Toastmasters, which I am really excited about... so I worked with our communications department to get moving on some posters, video displays, emails, sandwich boards, intranet page, etc.

I attended the Women in Nuclear end of year dinner at Macaroni Grill. We were collecting for Toys for Tots, and I got a bunch of cool stockings from Old Navy to provide. My breath smelled like garlic for two days though.

Friday we went to Chima Brazilian Steakhouse for the End of Year Celebration for NA-YGN. I got a nice AREVA fleece for my contributions to the US Facilities Tour. Hey, I thought my reward was just getting to go!!!! Afterwards we went to Midtown and to a party Tiff took us to. I almost went home after Midtown, and now I REALLY REALLY wish that I had. Night didn't turn out quite as expected. Needless to say, I will not ever go to a westside Charlotte party again.

The following night we had a Theta Tau alumni potluck and White Elephant party at Joe's. It was really really nice, and I am just so thankful for those people... Tiff, Joe, Andrea, Dave, Nahir, Audrey, Magda, Parsnow, Sydney, and it was great to have Ari out at an event! I really missed Kari, Diana, Earlz, B-ring, Patty, and Tim though. They seem to be laying low a bit from OT and I miss them. We also have alumni out of city/state that I wish could have made it... Nick, F-bah, Big G, Kristi, Blue, Jerry, Marc, Fenny, etc.




Week Ending 12/20:

Mags and I are up to three miles and had anticipated running in a 5K on Saturday in order to qualify for the DC run; although the weather cancelled the run. That really really stinks because we have to have a qualifying run completed (and time goal met) before registering for DC run. If we were to do that before December 31, 2009 we would have a cheaper registration fee and our bibs would be personalized :( :(.

Oh well. We went to see Avatar and went out for Billy's cousin, Steven's, birthday on Saturday. We ended up at Buckhead where I ran into John Philigan, Randy Russell, and Johnny!!! CRAZY! Billy and I won the Family Feud with the Miller Lite girls so we got t-shirts and free beer. I also got to finally hang out with Billy's friend Charles, and he is something special... hahahaha.

THIS WEEK:

Monday we did Christmas with Billy's family which consisted of mostly Old Navy clothes for Josh and David. Although we did give Josh a Bobcats jersey for the game on Tuesday and a new bike.

I finished my big task on Tuesday.... two days ahead of schedule!!!!!!!!

Tuesday we also took Josh and David to the Bobcats game. Mags got us all tickets (like 9 rows back!!!) and I really enjoyed myself. I didn't even realize that Chris Wilcox from Whiteville played on the Pistons team so we got to watch him. Not sure why, but he didn't play in first half, but second half he was ballin!!!! Kwame Brown came out and didn't play again, so that may have played a role in Chris's PT. Mags snuck hotdogs in her purse from the stand outside and her purse kept going off in the metal detector. The security guard kept asking "Mam, what do you have in your purse?" It was so funny. We thought we were caught for sure! Then Mags said, "ohh it's my basketball clothes" and he let her in. Basketball clothes set off the scanner???? HAHAHAHAH!

Tonight B and I are doing our Christmas (yesterday was our one year anniversary!!!) and then tomorrow at lunch we are headed to Raleigh. Soooooooo excited. I also have the entire week off next week, so B and I are making plans now....

Thinking about hitting DC for NYE.


So far for 2010...

Continue MBA
Lean Six Sigma Training
Skiing in February
Mexico City + Coldplay concert
John Mayer Concert
Wicked Production
DC for Suntrust Run
Las Vegas, Mt. Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon in May!!!
HOME SEARCHING TRIP TO PARIS IN NOVEMBER!!!
MOVE TO PARIS!
NYE IN PARIS!

My B left this note for me when I went to work: