Welcome to Majestic Las Vegas!

Today was the Majestic Holiday Party! I haven't had too much to write about lately- I'm finding that life in one place is not as blog worthy as "old life", but this was AWESOME!!!

For the last week at work, all 200ish employees have received a daily wrapped poker chip. 12 of them were gold, and that meant that you were in the special holiday extravaganza game at the party today. I didn't get one, but was so excited for people who did!

We were kept outside of the party space until 2pm. We knew because of the poker chips all week that is was a Vegas theme. Elvis, Elton John, Blue Man Group and tons of Vegas girls greeted us as we walked through the door. About four minutes later, I dumped an entire glass of water on my lap and my bosses coat. That was fun.

Every little touch was was so well thought out. Our tables were cards instead of numbers, which turned out to be a key point later in the day. The buffet was totally Vegas style with excellent food like scallops, Asian salads, beef tenderloin, crab cakes and gourmet pizza. They had mocktini bars set up with Majestic cocktails, cider and soda. A magician entertained us, fun photo booths were set up, and slot machines were giving out prizes. Let the games begin!

Me, Brandi, Jackie and Sarah- just a few of the Majestic Girls!

The winners of the golden chips were called up to play a version of "Deal Or No Deal" with Viva Las Vegas making out the letters of the boxes. Can I even tell you how excited I was for these 12 people!? I would say that the average time of employment of the players was about 15 years (some were 20+ and some were 2), and they were mixed between the service center and the corporate office. We didn't know what was behind the boxes, but the "banker" offered all of them cash deals before they decided to open the box. A few people took amazing cash deals of $500+. For every box that was not opened because a cash deal was taken, another employee name was pulled out of a box to open it, which was totally unexpected. SEVEN people won trips to Las Vegas!!!! Some others won blue suede shoes and fuzzy dice, as well as gift cards and Bose products.

As is this wasn't enough, Elvis then unveils the Wheel of Fortune. There were 29 tables at the party, and each table picked a representative to go up and spin the wheel. Our table "card numbers" were randomly pulled to spin the wheel. Whatever you landed on, your entire table of eight got as their holiday gift. You probably can't see it in the picture, but there is an iPad2, $1,000, LED 47' TV, Xbox, gift cards to stores and a MacBook pro on that wheel. Yup. Katie was our rep, and she scored us all $500 gift cards to Best Buy! I later traded that gift card for a $500 Nordstrom gift card at the bar with one of our IT guys. I'm THRILLED and THANKFUL!!!

I just can't get over how I feel right now about my day. It was so fun to see people win cash and prizes to enjoy and share with their families. The event also brings people together outside of the workplace, which I think is so important. I spent time talking to people who I never work with directly, yet work in the same building with.

Yay for the start of the holiday weekend!!!!

Sneak Peek

Majestic Steel has a reputation. And it's a good one.

Not only are they an amazing company to work for on a daily basis (I swear, they don't brainwash us), but they are pretty well known for their holidays and celebrations. Not only are things like St. Patty's Day, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving celebrated company-wide, but we also have fun things like "Majestic Day" celebrating the anniversary of the company, and parties for things such as the launch of our new website. We also have "team building" events during business hours like Wii tournaments, lunches outside of the office, and bowling after work.

The most talked about Majestic event is the Holiday party that was thrown last year. I wasn't there, but I have seen pictures, and it was still the talk of the town when I started in May. It was a Willy Wonka theme with straight up Oompa Loompas. People received Golden Tickets and won fabulous prizes, then to top it all off, they gave everyone iPads.

We received our invites for this years party, and I must admit, I CAN'T WAIT!

My Travel Past

This is more for me than for people who read this, since I print my blog into books at the end of each year.

Now that I am in one place, I decided it was a good time to make a spreadsheet of all of the cities I visited while touring, as well as a list of where I have been so far outside of the U.S. and Canada. You think you will remember forever, but you simply don't. When I was going through my touring calendars, I had zero recollection of being in some of those places. I knew that I had stopped in over 300 touring cities, but now I actually have it all in one place. My back hurts from sitting all day, and my eyes are going at little wonky, but I think it was well worth it.

A few findings:

I traveled to 340 cities, but only 249 unique cities. Meaning I went back to some of the same places more than once.

The number one city that I have been back to more than any other on tour is.... DETROIT. Ew! Four times in five years. Best theatre, but horrible place. Remember when my car got stolen there? I do, and I also remember the time I did not blog about when I got harassed terribly by some men at a restaurant and felt completely unsafe.

Close runners up at three visits each were: Boston, Bozeman, Buffalo, Clearwater, Indianapolis, Portland (OR), Providence, Rochester, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Sarasota, Toledo and Vancouver. I can remember so much about these cities, and have great memories of them.

The states I have been to the most cities is are California and Florida, tied at 18. Second runner up is Pennsylvania at 13. The Canadian Provence I have been to the most cities in is Alberta, at four. I'm shocked they even have four cities there!

I have been to four Springfields. Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Missouri. I hear that's why the Simpson's live in Springfield- there are so many of them that they could be in Anywhere U.S.A.

My list of countries visited is:

• Russia



• Greenland



• Iceland



• Denmark



• Ireland



• Germany



• United Kingdom



• Switzerland



• France



• Vatican City



• Austria



• Italy



• Greece
  Turkey

I will be adding the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia to the list in a few months. Looking at this, it makes me realize that I need to branch out to some of the other continents. When my sister no longer lives in Europe, I think I will start trying some other areas of the world.

I really don't know how I am going to handle two weeks of vacation next year. Sigh....

2011 Horoscope

I was just on Yahoo, and I clicked on the horoscope section. I am really not into the whole astrology thing, but I will say that sometimes I can relate to it. Especially those books that tell you what your personality is based on what day in history you were born- wow.

Anyway, I bought a new car a few weeks ago and two days after I bought it and sweat over it, I was drying my hands in the bathroom of a restaurant, and they had the weekly horoscopes posted on the wall. It said that I should not make a big financial decision because expenses were coming my way that I did not foresee. Meh- what ever. Don't think that within two weeks I got blasted with unexpected issues. Stupid horoscope.

So I read the financial and career horoscope for the year on Yahoo tonight (I just ignored the romance one because it will probably say I will adopt foreign babies when I am 50) and it said the following two things (copy and pasted):

This is why sitting behind an isolated desk doing menial tasks will just never rock your world. And I'm adding- NEVER.

It shall then again return in 2012 to stay for an extended 14-year ride, making sure that you absolutely adore what you do. Talking about how this May through August was the perfect work environment for me.

Based on how things have been going for the last six months at Majestic, I bet that this little possibly made-up future comes true for me. It's really the perfect job.

Cheers to being a Libra!

Determining Time

I've been realizing something lately, especially since coming home, and I thought I would write a short blog about it.

I think that everyone has way that they determine time frames. For example, you might not remember the year that you went on a certain vacation, but you might know that it was after someone died, or before a child was born. You are then able to determine about when it was.

Most people have events in life that determine when other things happened. My mom says, "well, it was before the fire, so it must have been....".

I have discovered that I remember when things happened due to what tour I was on, or what stage of my career I was going through. I literally remember where almost every article of clothing I own is from, and most of it right now is from touring and vacations, so I know how long I have had it. (Someone asking where my jacket was from tonight sparked this). If someone asks me when a friend got married, I'll think to myself, "it was right before that figure skating trip to Paris, which was in November because the Nouveau Beaujolais came out when I was there....", so they got married in October of 2004.

I'm curious as to whether everyone really thinks this way, or if I just think they do? I'm also guessing that the way I determine things over time will change as I start to live life in one place?

One Year

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my grandfather passing away. It honestly didn't even occur to me it was the day until I received a few emails about it. Oops! I then proceeded to call it "Remembering Poppy Day", and with the exception of a few tears when I thought about it for too long, it was a good day. My brother Matt, Heidi and I met for drinks after dinner at a new place he would have loved called Rockefeller's, and my sister and my dad lit a candle for him in a cathedral in England together.

It's funny though, because so many people yesterday said they couldn't believe it has already been a year since he's been gone. I totally feel the opposite. I can't believe it's only been a year since he's been gone. I feel like it's been forever that I've been missing him in my life.

What a cool dude.

The Hunger Network Awards

I was recently invited to attend a reception and awards ceremony for The Hunger Network. Majestic Steel is one of the top sponsors of the Walk For Hunger, a program to raise money to feed families in the Cleveland area. It is amazing how much money the company raised last year for the charity, along with a few other companies and individuals. We enjoyed a few appetizers and drinks at the Shoreby Club, and then one of my bosses was honored on behalf of the company.

I cannot say enough about Majestic Steel, and their involvement with the local community here in Cleveland. I am lucky to be a part of it!