Lindsey Visits San Diego

This past weekend, one of my very best friends Lindsey was in town for a visit!  She started off the week visiting her sister up in Lake Tahoe, and on Thursday made her way to southern California to experience all that San Diego has to offer and visit yours truly.  I was so excited to see her, as almost exactly a year had passed since we saw each other last - it had been way too long!

I was able to make up time earlier in the week, so when Lindsey arrived at DT from the airport on Thursday, I surprised her by being able to leave work early to grab a late lunch and hang out for the rest of the afternoon.  For traditions sake, we had a sushi date, something we used to do all the time when we were roommates!  We tried out a place called Ogawashi, as my usual sushi spot (Sushi Deli) was closed between lunch and dinner.  Ogawashi was not at all disappointing, and we indulged on some fabulous rolls while catching up on girl talk!

After eating our late lunch, we decided to take a trip to David's Bridal (don't get all excited Mom, Christina, and Yiayia, this was not a trip for my own wedding).  Lindsey and I are both in our friend Steph's bridal party for her wedding in June and we thought Lindsey's visit would be the perfect opportunity to search for bridesmaid dresses together.  We had a blast trying on dozens of different dresses and both decided on a cute style in Steph's color of choice - guava.  After shopping, we kept the night low-key, as John and I had to be up early for work on Friday morning.

Friday around lunch time, Lindsey met me at DT for lunch, where we headed over to the Knotty Barrel for some grub.  Once we ate a yummy little lunch, we headed back to DT, where Lindsey helped me set up for our monthly team activity - "FabFriday".  The activity was supposed to be a movie night, so Lindsey and I spent quite some time setting up our projector, couches, and speakers just right, but once we started hanging out together, the night didn't go exactly as planned.  

During the week I had been working with our interior decorator to complete the redesign of our outdoor space, so on Friday, a beautifully gorgeous 75 degree evening, you can imagine why everyone opted to sit outside instead of indoors to watch the movie!  That's what I get for trying to schedule a movie night during San Diego's "winter" months ;)

We had a wonderful evening enjoying each others' company while basking in the lovely weather, indulging in some afternoon drinks, and munching on some snacks.  Although it was a "work" event, Lindsey still had a blast with us.  Once our team activity was complete, and most everyone had left, Lindsey, John, and I convinced two of my coworkers, Brian and Bradley to come over to the Penthouse Penthouse for an "after party" at our apartment complex's hot tub.  We had a lot of fun!

Saturday was sadly Lindsey's last day in San Diego, so I knew I had to really enjoy every last minute with her!  We started out our morning with brunch at Hash House a Go Go, which, as usual, was nothing short of outstanding.  We prepped Lindsey by telling her the portions were large, but upon entering the restaurant, she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw how LARGE the portions really are!  Needless to say, we were stuffed and barely even hungry for dinner 7 hours later.

We decided to burn off some calories after our indulgent brunch with a walk around Balboa Park.  Lindsey loved Balboa, and we showed her some of our favorite spots - the cactus garden, botanical garden, etc.  We then drove over to Ocean Beach to take a walk down the beach, put our feet in the ocean, and drive around the fun hippie areas that John and I enjoy.

Following up our tour of Ocean Beach, we headed to John and my favorite restaurant, Blue Water Market and Grill where we all ate another filling, but delicious meal!  We ended our last night together with another dip in the hot tub and said our goodbyes to Lindsey, whose flight left at 6:00 AM on Sunday morning.

We had a wonderful visit and I can't wait to see Lindsey and the rest of my college girls at Steph's wedding in June!

First Article Published on the DT Blog!

Over the past week, I worked with our Copywriter at DT to co-write my first article for the DT blog! It's all about the birthday surprises that I organize each month at DT. It's a really fun article, check it out! Here's an excerpt:

“'If you do this, then you get that.' As I researched motivational factors to improve our office’s birthday celebrations, I ran across Dan Pink’s TED Talk (which has racked up nearly 10 million views). He discusses how expected rewards narrow our perspective, our recognition of possibilities, and even makes the results worse than when no reward is promised. Pink’s ideas propelled my redesign of dt birthday celebrations, and it resulted in our Birthday Surprises."

I hope you enjoy reading the whole article and have a great rest of your Thursday! I'm super pumped because today one of my college roommates and very best friends, Lindsey, is en route to San Diego and should be here early afternoon! I'm sure you'll be reading about our weekend adventures at some point next week, check back soon :)

Spreckles Organ Concert with Rebecca

Last weekend one of my friends from high school, Rebecca, made a visit out to San Diego and LA to check out the west coast.  We hadn’t seen each other in several years and really haven’t spent much time together since high school, so it was great to catch up!  Aside from showing Rebecca a bunch of our favorite spots (OB, Gaslamp, Balboa, etc.), there were three particular highlights of her visit.  The first was being able to see the Spreckles organ at Balboa Park being played during an organ concert and the second was trying out South Beach Bar and Grille for the first time.

Another highlight of Rebecca’s visits was hanging out with Jed, Jamile, and Brian, on Saturday night.  We all met up for dinner and drinks, and ended up finishing off the night playing a few rounds of pool, but the coolest part was that Jed and Rebecca got to catch up, too!  Jed, Rebecca, and I all went to high school and grew up together; it was a fun little mini-reunion!

On Sunday, John and I showed Rebecca around Balboa Park, but were so excited to be around during the time of the weekly organ concert!  Each week on Sundays from 2:00-3:00PM, the Spreckels Organ Society hosts a wonderful outdoor organ concert in the heart of Balboa Park, completely free of charge!

The Spreckels brothers donated the enormous organ back in 1915, but we’re still able to hear its amazing sound today!  The huge instrument contains 4,518 pipes and comprises 73 ranks!  Its sound is like none other.  It was really amazing to listen to the organist Alicia McMillan play a variety of pieces, my favorite being Fantasia in G Major by J.S. Bach.  It was really neat to see and hear!

On Sunday night, as Rebecca’s visit was coming to a close, we all decided to check out South Beach Bar and Grille for dinner.  Aside from our delicious entrees, John was so happy to order chicken wings that were somewhat comparable to Buffalo’s!  He hadn’t been able to satisfy his craving for Buffalo wings before this meal, because all the wings he ordered were incredibly disappointing and not up to John’s standards, but these wings were good!  We enjoyed our meals while watching the end of the Super Bowl, and then sadly said our goodbyes to Rebecca as we dropped her off at the airport on the way home from dinner!   We had a great weekend catching up as we showed her around San Diego!

Digital-telepathy Holiday Party at The Pearl

This year for DT's holiday party, we wanted to host an event that would really give the team time to bond and enjoy each others' company.  As our party planning committee brainstormed ideas, we shuffled through a variety of options that just didn't feel "us".  Lasertag, talent show, comedy club, roller rink; all valid propositions, but activities similar to our monthly "Fabulous Friday" endeavors.  We needed the perfect holiday party idea.  After a few weeks of discussion, someone asked the question "What about an office sleepover?"  

This prospect excited us members of the party planning committee, and after researching some fun spots around San Diego, we found a true gem - The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma.  Cute venue with 23 hotel rooms, a pool deck, and flexibility for the date we wanted?  SCORE!

Our planning committee was super pumped about The Pearl, and we enthusiastically began crafting our meaningful experience for the team.  Several planning sessions, a Costco run, and dozens of emails later, we were ready to host our stellar holiday bash!

Although the team knew what date the party was being planned, we didn't clue them in to details until a week prior.  During lunch the week before we announced some details - only those that were pertinent, like location - we wanted the rest to be a surprise!

Our guests started arriving at The Pearl at about 6:30 on Saturday night, and immediately began enjoying appetizers and our open bar!  After cocktail hour, we all enjoyed a scrumptious meal of Spinach Salad, Rosemary Roasted Chicken Breast with Caramelized Cipollini Onion Demi, NY Strip with Horseradish Creme Fraiche, Farmers Market Vegetables with a white wine and garlic sauce, Mashed Potato Bar and Maple Glazed Root Veggies.  It was delish!

After dinner, we were ready for one of our first major surprises - an Improv Show!  One of our team members, Jason, is a part of the Improv Group, The Hinges, who were gracious enough to join us at our holiday party for an amazing show!  It was a hilarious event and the group did a really wonderful job of incorporating several "volunteers" into the mix, as well.  They even did a skit about our GM, Laurence's life - complete with a bit on how he met his wife in an elevator - the team was in stitches.  Huge shout out to the Hinges for helping to make our night at The Pearl a success.

Once the improv had come to a close, several people indulged in a fun, nighttime pool swim.  Those of us that didn't partake were pelted brutally with the beautiful decorative pool "pearls".  The lounging people on the pool deck didn't find it as hilarious as those inside the pool did.  =P

  

Although our open bar was nearing its end, we had another surprise in store!  Phase two of our holiday party!  When The Pearl told us that the pool deck closed at 10:30, we knew that was too early to end our festivities, so we prepped by planning two additional party "phases".  (We know how to do it right here at DT)

When the pool deck was closing, we rallied our crew and made our way to Phase two - a fully stocked bar, snacks, deserts, and bumpin' jams were in Chuck and Shannon's hotel room.  Squeals of "There's a phase two?!?" were quickly quieted with a new drink and loud music.  When phase two began to lose participants that were drifting off to bed, we knew it was time to kick the party back into high gear - with phase three!

Phase three was pretty epic.  Our Manager of Company Culture's room was the honeymoon suite, which we had fully decked out with (surprise, surprise) additional drinks, snacks, and a plethora of water (it was time to start rehydrating), but the best part was something no one was expecting.  The last few team members who hadn't yet gone to sleep walked into the room and were faced with flashing laser lights, smoke billowing out of our smoke machine, and an electronic set playing in the background.  We even accidentally set off the smoke detector with our smoke machine, oops!  Phase three was all we could have hoped and dreamed of.  Since no one could remember what time they left phase three to go to bed, our planning committee considers the night an overall success!

Brunch on Sunday morning was planned to take place over two hours - to allow party-goers some extra shut eye if needed :)  Our chefs from DT's weekly team lunches, Gage and Julia, attended our party, and were awesome enough to plan brunch for us the next morning.  Those suffering from lack of sleep (or a hangover ;) were faced with an awesome brunch spread to ease their pain - fresh gluten free belgian waffles with a variety of toppings, a baked potato frittata, tofu scramble, apple-smoked and turkey bacons, spinach salad, pasta salad, melon, and variety of beverages including mimosa bar.

As we parted ways on Sunday, we were all so much closer than we had been just one day before.  Our holiday party had been a smashing success - our main goal had been to provide the team with a fun and exciting event to get to spend more time together and get to know each other on a more personal level.  It was especially fun to get to know a bunch of spouses and significant others better, as well!  Overall, we concluded that the holiday was a smashing success - and we're already excited for what's to come next year!