Category / work

by Bethe

The worst feeling

Today I’m hosting a group of community leaders at the hospital all day for “health care day.” They’re learning all about health topics and getting the “inside scoop” on how hospitals really run. We’re in a boardroom, listening to speaker after speaker, and I’m making sure everything runs smoothly.

Mid-morning, I had to switch out somebody’s presentation on the computer at the front of the room. I was talking, and squatted down quickly to stick the flash drive in the back of the computer.

RIP.

That’s the worst feeling. Ever. I’ve got 20 community leaders staring at me, and I’m not sure if my pants are in one piece or two. Or in shreds. All I know is that I heard a terrible, terrible sound. A ripping sound, right in the back of my pants.

Thankfully, I only ripped the lining. The outside is still intact. For now at least.

But it looks like I’m going to need some new pants.

by Bethe

Softball!

Tonight is my first softball game! Yea! I was supposed to play last week, but it snowed. Tonight it’s going to be beautiful, and hopefully I can hit a few homeruns to propel my team to victory. Or something like that.

On another note, I randomly helped our local children’s theater, Casa Manana, get a defibrillator today. My friend who does P.R. over there called to ask me about it, I called a lady who raises money to buy them, and ba-da bang, ba-da boom, she has an extra AED that she’s willing to donate (normally they cost $1500… yikes)! Now those kiddos will be all set in case of an emergency. I wish everything was that easy.

by Bethe

Patio: Done!

My dad, the saint, came and finished my patio today while I was at work… which means the project is done! Well, actually, projects are never done… but this one is pretty close. I still need to add some more flowers to my new garden (those roses look kind of lonely), keep shopping for some patio furniture, and start saving for that grill. But the hard part is out of the way, thanks to my wonderful dad who worked SO hard on it.

And the best part is… tonight I am enjoying some beautiful bright pink roses on my kitchen table, cut from my garden! Not that I can take credit, since they were already there when I bought the rose bushes, but they’re officially my very first roses from my rose garden! Yea!

On another note… Today some of my coworkers and I went to the Reata for a lunch. We’re using them to cater an event in two weeks, so we had an excuse to go do a “tasting.” These are actually very important–at the tasting for my gala last month, the dessert turned out to be NASTY. If we hadn’t done a run-through, then my 180 guests would have been served a terrible dessert. Instead we made a last-minute change to something much better. Whew.

So back to the tasting… Reata is my absolute FAVORITE place to eat in the whole world. It’s kind of pricey so I rarely go, but I really do love it. Even more than pedicures. And today, because we were choosing between several different entree options for our upcoming luncheon, they served us THREE meals for TWO people! And on top of that, we just HAD to get dessert (their molten chocolate cake is to DIE for, as is their ice cream tacos, peacn pie… I could go on…). I got to take tons of leftovers home, so I enjoyed Reata for dinner tonight, and I’ll be having another meal for lunch tomorrow. Sometimes my job is really nice.

by Bethe

Community party girl

For awhile it seemed like I was cutting back on all of those community events that come with my job. I only went to a handful of formal events last year, and it was good to take a break. But now the break is over and I’m back to being a community socialite.

Tonight was an auction. I bid on a few autographed baseball pictures and a hot stone massage. We’ll see if I won anything. I strongly considered bidding on being “Mayor for the Day” for one of my local cities. It would be interesting to play politics for a day, and it’d be good publicity for my hospital. But, I decided I’d rather go for the massage. A girl has to have her priorities.

Last week was a volunteer appreciation dinner for the Cowtown Marathon at a ritzy Fort Worth country club. They served the most fabulous salad I have EVER had in my entire life at that dinner. If you want a good salad, visit Mira Vista Country Club. Seriously.

I’m not sure what event is next… I should check my calendar. I need an excuse to buy a new dress!

by Bethe

That white stuff falling from the sky

Today was pretty boring… I took the day off of work and wrote a research paper ALL DAY. Bleh. On my list of things I want to do on any given day, sitting at my computer analyzing articles on weight loss surgery and the accuracy of advertising and Web sites is not very high on my list.

But then it snowed, and everything changed. It’s so beautiful, it almost makes up for an otherwise dreary day.

by Bethe

My highly retouched movie star photo

A few months ago I had to have my picture taken for one of the boards I sit on. They needed our photos for the directory or website or something, and even though I already have a professional headshot for work, I was forced against my will to get my picture made yet again.

The day we were scheduled to take this photo, I got a huge zit on my chin. And somehow I popped a blood vessel in my eye (yes, that was lovely). I was having a bad hair day. I felt pale. And really, really not cute.

So I jokingly asked the photographer to “retouch” my photo. I encouraged him to go crazy with Photoshop and do whatever it takes to make me look presentable. Well by-golly, Photoshop is a wonderful thing! Because after he was finished, I ended up with flawless skin (where’d those freckles go?), perfectly white teeth, perfectly clear eyes, and not a single hair out of place. Even my shirt has been whitened.

So now I know how those celebrities must feel after those big magazine covershoots. There’s no way they could possibly look as flawless in real life as they look on the covers of those magazines. As someone who dabbles in design, I know how to tinker with a photo to “enhance” it. But this one of me just made me laugh.

And trust me, I’m going to use this photo forever.
by Bethe

Video killed the radio star

So today was the big day… the big radio interview! I got up extra early (5:30 a.m.!), put on my cute new shirt, a pair of blue jeans and my cowgirl boots, and headed to downtown Fort Worth to hang out with the crew at 95.9 The Ranch. They turned out to be really fun people… very laid back, and extremely nice to me. We chatted for a few minutes about my connection with the Marathon, and then it was time to start the interview. Gulp. Right about that time I spilled some of my bottled water on their counter. That’s right, I’m cool.

The interview went great. It started out with one of the DJ’s commenting on my cowboy boots (I knew it would be better to show up at the country station in casual clothes instead of a stuffy suit) and from there the conversation flowed pretty well. Being on the radio is a lot easier than being interviewed on TV… there’s no cameras to worry about, and after a minute I forgot about the microphones and just had fun hanging out with them. And, I didn’t spill anything once the interview started. Or pass out.

They’re going to replay my interview later this week, and they invited me to come back next year! I must say, that was one of the coolest things I’ve gotten to do with this job. I’ve always had a secret dream to be a radio personality. Which is obviously never going to happen, but today I got to live it for about 15 minutes on a tiny local country station. I’ll take it.

by Bethe

I feel like an underachiever

I have some really cool friends. Many have accomplished some awesome things (successful lawyers, mascots, tv personalities, corporate bigwigs, even a spy), and today I found out another one of my friends has overshadowed my accomplishments.

My friend Ron White went to Afghanistan as a reservist for a year and just sent me a link to his photos. Normally he’s just a nationally recognized memory expert who speaks all over the United States (I met him at my first job, and was even given a shout-out on the acknowledgment page in one of his books for my “grammar consulting”). I don’t think I would offend him if I said he’s just an average joe who set out to do something heroic in support of his country. Way to go Ron, I’m proud of you.

As for something much less heroic, I’m going to be on the radio tomorrow morning to promote the Cowtown Marathon, an organization that I help out with. It should be fun, since I’ve never been to a radio station before (although I have been on Kidd Kraddick in the Morning, a midnight trucker show on 820 a.m. and Rush Limbaugh… but all of those are because I’m a big dork who used to call into radio shows). Hopefully I won’t make a huge goober of myself. I wasn’t that nervous (mostly because this isn’t the most popular station in town or anything) until I started thinking about how DJ’s like to make fun of guests if they say something stupid. I could just imagine my flubbed speech getting played over and over as a teaser while everybody laughs. AT me. Oh my, I’m getting nervous just thinking about it!

Is it wrong that I was tempted to go buy a new outfit for my big radio interview?

by Bethe

I survived

I survived those junior high kiddos yesterday. Career day went fine, although I have come to the conclusion that my job is only interesting to somebody in college or older. Before that, I don’t think these kids really have a grasp on what my job really entails or why it’s so much fun. All those kids took away from yesterday is that I get a bunch of free tickets to sporting events, and I get to watch surgeries whenever I want. I always think they’ll enjoy the idea of designing advertising, but their little eyes just glaze over.

But I brought gifts, so they loved me anyway. One girl told me afterward that she wanted to be just like me when she grew up. Ahh, what a smart girl (just kidding).

My news interview with Kristi Nelson also went great. Our story is going to run next Tuesday or Wednesday… I’ll let you know when. I think we did a great job, and the reporter said she would definitely call me again for future health care stories. Let’s hope she does.

Today I have to tackle all of that homework I put off all week. But if I finish it all today, I’m going to reward myself by going shopping for some new furniture! It’s my absolute favorite thing to shop for, and I have been needing an extra arm chair for my living room, so today just might be the big day! I’m hosting a party next week for my Sunday School class and could use the extra seating. Plus, I’m just sort of in the mood to buy something big. It’s either this, or I’ll need to book a trip to Europe or something. And surprisingly enough, the chair would be much less expensive.

by Bethe

Tomorrow

Tomorrow will be a fun day. I love my job, but every once in awhile I sit back and think about what a cool job I have. I get paid to do things that I would probably do for free. Tomorrow is one of those days.

Tomorrow morning I am speaking at a junior high career day. I’ll be speaking to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders about the importance of going to college, and letting them know about careers in advertising. I did this two years ago and my kids were completely unimpressed. I thought they would be fascinated about the thought of shooting TV commercials, designing advertising, going to cool events or working with the media. But 6th graders are different, and all they wanted to hear about was blood and guts. Unfortunately, my job doesn’t involve many blood or guts (although I see that occasionally).

If I survive career day (which I should, since I’m bringing gifts for the kiddos… whatever it takes to win their love), then after lunch I’ll get to work with reporter Kristi Nelson from NBC Channel 5 on a news story that involves one of our doctors. It’s always fun to work with a news crew… it’s not nearly as glamorous as you’d think, but it’s exciting nonetheless. I enjoy coaching people before they speak on camera, looking for a cool place for them to shoot, talking with reporters (or even more interesting, the cameraman). I’m fascinated by the whole process.

So wish me luck. It will be a full day!