efozzie

Regarding the previous birthday present post, it's not that I'm not thankful for the gift. I totally think it was a cute gesture, and I completely appreciate the thought. I am merely observing the huge intergenerational void that exists when giving presents.

So everyone, calm down. You can still buy me presents. Haha. I won't write a nasty post about you, promise.

Since my birthday falls the day before Jesus's, my parents usually have a Christmas Eve party, and they invite all of their friends and neighbors over to celebrate. It's usually a cute little event with lots of excellent food. [Side note: my brother made this awesome chicken cordon bleu]

Anyway, I don't expect people to bring me presents, even though it's my birthday, because A) I don't really know them and B) having a Christmas Eve birthday means it's overshadowed by another big event and I'm used to that. But apparently my parents told them that it was also a party for me (complete with cake and all!), so I was not expecting this cute little elderly couple to bring me a present. The couple, my parents neighbors, must have been in their late 60's or early 70's.

I first picked up the package and opened up the attached card, and knew that this must have been a very special present because their handwriting was all cute and elderly-like. You know what I'm talking about. The cute old people writing that's all shaky and arthritic. God love old people and their cute handwriting. But I can just imagine them sitting there writing "Happy B-day" for 5 minutes. Either way, I appreciate the sentiment in just the card alone.

And now for the main event: the gift. let's just preface this by saying that I was so amused that one of my parents' guests would actually get me a present in the first place, so it didn't matter what the present was. Curiosity came over me as I unwrapped the package, and revealed a...


Portable CD Player!


It was so awesomely hilarious!!! I don't know what I was expecting as I was unwrapping the present, but I sure know that it was not a CD player of any sort.

Things running through my head:

• Aww how cute of them to get me a CD player. Little do they know, I have two ipods and have absolutely no use for a CD player especially since I barely own any CD's. Hello! I'm a child of the Napster generation!
• I've actually never owned a CD player in my life, and I remember back in high school, I would actually want a CD player. But alas, that technology inevitably became obsolete next to digital music.
• I imagined them walking into a Best Buy or a Target and picking out the CD player, and thinking in their heart of hearts that it was the coolest and most high tech present ever.

So I decided that when I get older and when I feel the need to give presents out, I will give out books because those are pretty universal... unless, 50 years from now books are replaced with digital books, which is actually very likely. Alas, I love technology.

Other gifts of note: my parents got me a blood pressure travel monitor for my birthday! Haha, I'm not kidding. And yes I've been using it.

I love this time of year. ;)

Today is the last day of the Christmas celebration for the Catholic Church, and the priest's homily was about "reaching out for something that is greater than the self."

I feel like the year 2006 for me was in a lot of ways a year to discover myself and to take time for myself. This year, 2007, I have dubbed "The year of not Rey," and I will be making strides to reach out for something that is greater than myself.

I don't know exactly what that means or what that will look like, yet. It might mean more in terms of my family, or a cause, or my community. Or maybe it's all of the above. Any way it goes, I am excited for what this year has to offer, and excited to get a better sense of myself through reaching out for something that is greater than myself.

Labels: Goals

It's no surprise that I read lots of books about branding and marketing. But recently I have been reading a lot about personal branding, and how to apply the same effective branding and marketing tools that businesses use to your personal life.

One of the books that I've read is Be Your Own Brand: A Breakthrough Formula for Standing Out from the Crowd, and one of the exercises in the book is really honing in on your personal values, and figuring out what, at the very core of my being, is important to me. Now, the book itself is kind of dry, but it does provide some other really neat introspective uses of practical business branding exercises.

As I was thinking about my New Years goals, I used the top seven values I deemed most important to me, and I categorized each goal within a value to make sure that I really truly was valuing it. So here are my goals for the year (some of which are the same from last year, just because I thought it was good practice then and will be good practice again). They are a bit aggressive, I know. But that's my style, isn't it.


Adventure (new experiences, challenge, excitement)

• Do something outdoorsy at least once a month
• Play one sport per month - and get good at one sport at least
• Visit another country and be engrained into their culture

Artistic Expression (drama, painting, literature)

• Search for a musical outlet (other than karaoke) so I can sing more - perhaps join a singing group

Contribution (desire to make a difference, to give)

• Hone my passion, find a worthwhile cause, and fight for it (other than college access because I do that through BUILD and College Summit)

Creativity (new ideas, innovation, experimenting)

• Finish Part 2 of my book, The Prediction
• Creatively write at least two times a month (every other week)
• Plan & throw more parties with cooking
  

Learning (growth, knowledge, understanding)

• Start a business, and then donate a majority of the profits to Troy Camp
• Gain clarity on future life plans regarding career and personal
• Apply to be a Rap Director for College Summit

Quality (excellence, high standards, minimal errors)

• Spend more time with my family
• Eat healthier - take out transfats from my diet, replace regular chocolate with dark chocolate
• Eat less salt
• Reconcile finances on a set date monthly - make sure to keep on top of my finances
• Reserve at least 2 hours a week to research and buy a condo

Wisdom (desire to understand life, to exercise sound judgment)

• Find a new church that i want to go to every week
• Grow up - upgrade myself to adult status

Work-related New Years Goals

• Be more explicit - talk about my process
• Think of my whole audience, not just one

Labels: Goals