[No Turkey for Me] Day

I love Thanksgiving, and quite possibly for all of the wrong reasons. Of course it's wondeful to spend time with my family, especially after being away at school --but the food, that's really what brings me home. I am a self-proclaimed psychological fatty.

The weirdest thing is that we don't ever eat turkey on "Turkey Day". Twice in the past 18 years, I've had Turkey on Thanksgiving, and it was a little different; it almost seemed out of place; like an after-thought. Most years, we spend Thanksgiving in Brooklyn at my Grandmother's house. Going back there is always a little interesting because it's the house where I spent the first five years of my life, and it could not be more starkly different from where I live now. My grandmother miraculously manages to cook everything they had in the grocery store except for the turkey. Most years the menu includes (but is not limited to): chicken, seafood-stuffed fish, shrimp fried rice, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, greens, corn, another type of meat, apple pie, pumpkin pie, sweet potao pie, lemon pound cake, and whatever else she felt inclined to whip up.

I would pick all of that over turkey anyday.

This year, as is tradition, Thanksgiving dinner will be in Brooklyn. I will then spend black friday, (a day I was especially looking forward to this year since I'm not completely broke) on the sometimes 4/sometimes 7 hour drive to PG county Maryland, right outside of D.C. Although I'm missing my highly anticipated shopping spree (and probably for good reason), I am really looking forward to being with the side of my family I sparsely see, particuarly my cousins and hopefully the new baby boy (:

So all in all, I do love Thanksgiving. Game plan is to fast for the rest of the day just so I can have as many plates as I'd like tomorrow. [I know that's a little bit sick.]

Anyways, have a great Thanksgiving everyone! Eat up!

Happy Thanksgiving :)

I am very much looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday! There are a few traditions I really love. The first is watching the Thanksgiving parade with my little sister & brothers. It always puts me in a good mood & I used to dance in it with my dance school when I was younger, so it brings back some great memories! The second is going out Black Friday shopping. I have been going with my parents for years & it's so much fun! We usually go out at an absurd hour (midnight anyone??) to secure a place in the front of the line so my dad can get all his new electronics that are on sale. We bring chairs/blankets/games and just have fun hanging out waiting in line and taking turns making coffee runs at wawa! Beside these fun traditions, I obviously look forward to all the food and spending time with my family! I mean, who doesn't?! Overall, I am super excited & I hope you all have a fabulous holiday! :)

PS. Feel better Meredith!! :)

Love!

I'm not a big turkey fan but my favorite Thanksgiving tradition revolves around my mother's sweet potato pie. My mom is originally from the South so her pies are truly authentic. She only makes them during Thanksgiving so that is definately why I look forward to them every year. I also love the holidays because it gives me time to relax and spend time with my family. This Thanksgiving is going to be extra special because my little brother is coming back home from the University of Pittsburgh tonight for the holidays. The last time I saw him was in August and it's his first year being away from home. I'm excited to see him and I'm hoping it will be a great holiday!

Greetings, from my bed!

Hello everyone.

I am writing this from the comfort of my bed, but not the comfort of my head. Yes, today I was declared too sick to be at work, so here I am, working from home, two days before my Thanksgiving begins.

I hope you are all excited for the holiday, I'm excited for some relaxation and to see some old friends. My high school reunion is on Friday!

That being said, what are some of your favorite family traditions during Thanksgiving? What do you look forward to the most?

To Be Honest...

I am just going to say it, because I know all of you are thinking it. Group projects are great when everyone in the group is a push over. Extra input and ideas are great when you don't have the condition of using every comment. Unfortunately, this is not the real world.

In most work environments, especially the marketing department, group collaboration is a constant occurrence. Throughout my 20 years ( 21 in a month!!!), I have come across groups filled with unintelligent, lazy, and crazy people. Most of the people here at SHM do not have these qualities thank goodness. Due to this, I am hoping that groups in the professional world are not as bad as groups in school. :: Fingers crossed ::

Team Work

Team projects are a double edged sword. On one hand, team work is a great way to get complex tasks done efficiently and effectively. On the other hand, more people lead to more problems. There is no such thing as perfect team work. A perfect team will never have disagreements about anything. In a perfect team, opinions never conflict and everyone is happy about their designated work load. It is impossible to do that with a team. this is even truer the larger the team is. Two people will have minor opinion conflicts and disagreements but a larger team of over 5 to 10 people can cause major issues.

Think of it like a machine. Two pieces fit together and get a job done fairly easily but can still have minor, easily fixable issues. Take a machine that has 10 or more pieces in it, and putting those pieces together isnt an easy task. However, get that 10 piece machine to work, and it will always over power the two piece machine.

What about companies? They can have thousands of people, how do all those pieces fit? A company is like one GIANT team, one GIANT machine. Each department, in some way shape or form, needs the other departements to function. Without finance, rampant money spending will ensue. Without IT, computers will break. Ect.

This giant machine follows the same principle at a much larger scale. However, the executives of the company (or, if you will, mechanic building the machine), have the metaphorical executive hammer. this hammer is used to force parts of the machine into place. In the real world, this is better seen as the 'I'm your boss, do as I say or I'm firing you' scenario. To further my rediculous metaphor, sometimes this hammer breaks the piece (I.E. person quits or gets fired) and the mechanic has to go get a new one.

Almost all of the team projects I've been apart of has hard the standard teamwork issues. Someone doesnt do enough work, becomes to authoritative, or completely disagrees with everything. And considering your own image is affected by the outcome of the project, just confront the person(s) and if they don't cooperate, reason with them, use the executive hammer, or pick up their slack.

POST #9 (Yes, I'm keeping track)

Everyone knows at SHM we're about teamwork. There are frequent meetings, and projects that take more than one or two brains to complete.

What are some challenges you have faced since being here when working in a group as opposed to working with one other person, or even alone?

From my perspective, working as a team on a project or task is the optimal situation. Being able to collaborate and bounce ideas off each other is a great way to build chemistry and have a strong outcome. At SHM, the other co-ops and I have experienced both individual and group tasks. While the individual tasks I could easily focus and finish on my own, the group projects are more fun to work on and complete as a team. For example, all the co-ops were asked to update and revamp the “Our Reality” website for future co-op students. As a team, we were able to create new ideas, which greatly improved the website and made it more accessible to the future co-ops. The challenge in this specific task was to utilize all 7 of us properly and implement everyone’s ideas into the project. In the instance of the website, we were able to divide it up into segments, so that everyone could add their own touch to the “Our Reality” site. So while there definitely are challenges you need to overcome, there is always a solution to those challenges. The solution can strengthen the group once agreed upon and can improve your work as a whole.