But without reading all the books and sermons and pamphlets and attending all the conferences and seminars, the bottom line is that to get what you want, YOU NEED TO ASK FOR IT. This applies to all facets of your life. Some examples:

Work

• If you think you deserve a raise, title change, promotion, or more benefits, you won’t always be lucky enough to have it handed to you. You might have to make a case for it. And even if you don’t get it, it will be noticed that you went for it, and that might make a difference to start.
• If something is missing at your office, whether it’s a team dynamic that needs to change, an HR issue, or you think there isn’t enough budget for office supplies, put in the request. Do the research, put together a one-page memo, and pitch it to the boss. You might be surprised at how quickly the answer is yes.

Business & Customer Service

• We often feel we have to settle for the room the hotel gives us, the price the cable guy sets, or the menu item as the restaurant sets it. But more often than not, businesses and retailers engaged in customer service will offer you what you need, as long as it’s not outrageous. So ask for the discount, ask for the upgraded room, negotiate the rent, and swap the ingredients. If you’re polite and make a request, not a demand, the person on the other end of the counter/phone is more likely to help you. The “what can you do for me?” line really DOES work.

Relationships

• My parents tell it to me all the time these days: tell us what you need from us. Unless I ask them for something, whether it’s guidance, financial assistance, or to give me space, they don’t know I need it.
• It works both ways: you don’t know how to be a good friend/girlfriend/sister/daughter if you don’t put the question out there to your friends and family on what they need from YOU.
• This falls under the work bucket as well, but it’s more personal. Ask your boss for more time, more resources, more support, or less micro-management if you need that. If you want to know how you’re doing, ask that too. Ask your team how you can be more helpful to them, and ask them to help you where you need it. It works both ways there too.

Life

• Some questions aren’t for others – they’re for you. Do you want to go back to school? Travel the world? Join the Peace Corps? Move to California? Get married? Break up? Change careers? You won’t really know the answer to these questions and many more unless you ask yourself these questions, as hard as they may be. After all, you should know yourself better than anyone else, so in turn, to get what YOU really want, you need ask yourself the questions.

So, once more, with feeling: if you want something, ask for it!

No matter how much you love your job, there are those days when you dread every new meeting request, every time the phone rings, every email that pops into your inbox. So when the extra strong coffee no longer works and you’ve already taken your walk around the block to get the daily dose of exercise and vitamin D, what do you do to get through the day, and the week for that matter?

• Remind yourself of why you’re there. Whether you are a teacher, a doctor, an engineer, a cook, or writer, or you work for a non-profit, there is a reason you signed up in the first place. Think about that and charge forward.
• Get to the bottom of what’s bogging you down. If it’s issues with a coworker, figure out how to come to a truce. If you’re falling behind on a project, ask for help. If it’s just been a busy week, month, or year so far, see if you can adjust your priorities, or delegate some of your tasks. Or, make sure you get to bed earlier so you have a full night’s sleep.

• If you can’t change the situation, change your attitude about it. This is definitely easier said than done. It’s always easier to complain and vent, and be frustrated about something that isn’t likely to change soon. But that doesn’t get you anywhere. So instead, change the way you think about it – put a positive spin on it, find the opportunities.
• Take a mental health day. Many employers offer personal days in addition to vacation days, and most of us have sick days. Take one when you’re feeling rundown, and watch an entire season of The West Wing in your pajamas. Don’t check email. Go shopping or head to the park or the beach. You’ve got the days – you might as well use them.
• Spend time with your team outside of the office. Not just for the requisite Friday happy hour, the birthday lunch, or goodbye dinner. Go for a walk to get ice cream with your team member or arrange a team outing like karaoke, trapezing, or a segway tour (my organization is guilty of all three). Most important: don’t talk about work. Talk about each other.

Try one of these or all when you hit the 2pm slump or you can’t seem to clean out your inbox if someone paid you. It may not be a permanent solution, but hopefully it will get you through the end of the day…until happy hour.

My About page says it: that anything I say on this blog is from me and by me only, and not endorsed by my employer – and that’s true. Usually I am subtle when giving kudos to the issues I work on, and use banners or buried links to show what I’m focused on 9-10 hours every day, but today is different. Today – it deserves a real mention.

This is a shoutout to the great work of the United Nations Foundation. To the great work of my teammates and my department, Public Affairs, and all of the other staff involved in these amazing and impactful projects. This is to say that even on the days when we want to tear our hair out, go hide in the corner, close out our emails, and say “no,” that the power of  saying “yes” to inspirational and innovative ideas is so worth it in the end. It’s so worth reading emails or tweets from our supporters, giving us props for our shoutout on American Idol, for pledging to end malaria, for empowering girls around the world. It’s worth the emails that our team shares immediately after a win, full of pride and virtual pats on the back and sighs of relief that the hard part is done.

Sometimes in our daily work, we get caught up in the negative moments and the frustrating times – but in the last three days, I can truly say that I have been able to come home and still say that I feel so honored and fortunate to work at a place like the UN Foundation, and with such amazing, passionate, hard-working people.

And with that:

-Sign up to Sleep Out to End Malaria on April 24, the Eve of World Malaria Day at www.nothingbutnets.net/sleepout.

-Visit www.unfoundation.org/idol to donate to help the UN help Haiti rebuild and recover.

(Insert that ripping sound a record makes when you stop it quickly.)

Who am I kidding? I loved school. I was the ultimate Lover of School, for Pete’s sake. But noooo…I really wanted to read more Hamlet…nooo…I really was looking forward to starting Civil War history. Ok, it wasn’t that bad, but generally, a snow day for me wasn’t the stuff dreams were made of, it just gave me another excuse to read. Sure, I busted out the sled and went for a few rides, made a snow angel or two, but that was that. But generally, the day went something like this:

10am:       Watch Little House on the Prairie and Saved By the Bell on TBS.
11:30am:  Finish reading a book.
Noon:       Make a sandwich, eat some pringles, and watch A Dating Story.
1pm:         Clean out old school papers.
2pm:         Play school with my imaginary friends (less of this as I got older).
3pm:         Play Operation Neptune or Amazon Trail on the computer.
4pm:         Dance around in my room to showchoir tunes and practice songs from a drama production on my keyboard.
5pm:         Start another book until my parents get home.

Boom! The day was done, just like that.

Fast forward to 2010, the great Snowpocalypse of DC (dum dum DUM). But instead of just one snow day, we got 4.5, and a weekend thrown in for fun. (Wait, I’m not yet at the part where I’m going in to work tomorrow, but then we have a weekend and a national holiday immediately after.)

Anyway, as much as I loved The Long Winter, I’m over watching Half-Pint and Pa on the tube – instead, it’s Giada and Bobby mixed in with the longest newscast in the history of the world reporting on the insanities of grocery-runs, idiots on the road, and how many new words DC residents can coin for the double whammy snowstorm (they’re saying more snow coming on Monday (God, I don’t ask for much, but please, not this). And instead of dancing around to showchoir tunes, my days went more like this:

9am:         Breakfast, coffee.
10am:       New York Times, Washington Post online, blogs, Facebook, Twitter.
11am:        Work out.
12:30pm:  Shower, sandwich for lunch, while watching Giada, Tyler, Ina…
2pm:          Pay bills.
2:15pm:     Twitter, Facebook (note: these can be inserted throughout the day, sadly)
2:30pm:    Wander up to the lobby to see if the mail was delivered. Nope. Trash not being collected either.
2:45pm:     Sportscenter, chat with Mom.
3pm:           Nap.
4pm:           Clean out old receipts.
4:30pm:     Read.
5:30pm:     Watch a movie.

The above daily schedule is nice on the weekends, and nice every now and then when we want a mental health day. But for 6.5 days? The whole living in a studio by myself thing can get a leetle old at this point. Notice there was no sledding involved here. Damn, I knew I should have trekked up to Dupont Circle for the snowball fight. I want to know how many kids in the DC area got bored after the second day – there are only so many snow angels you can make. But hey, these days, we get paid for snow days, so it can’t be all that bad, can it?

I’m looking forward to Relay in a few weeks! Here’s to Team Roussel for a Cure!

Other random items:

-cooking pasta with shrimp and mussels = tasty

-cherry blossoms = beautiful

-seeing a good friend this weekend = can’t wait

-being humbled by a good friend = priceless and necessary

-webcamming with my parents and dogs = the best ever.

Over the last couple of weeks, here are some things that happened that weren’t just the usual for me:

-My long-distance boyfriend visited (every visit is treated as “new”)
-I made macaroni & cheese with Velveeta, and homemade bbq chicken wings. (it had been years)
-my boss said she needed me (who doesn’t like to hear that?)
-I was less hurt about the mess with that certain person and more confident that I’m working through it
-I went to a baby shower (the first one out of my close friends)

There’s more, but that’s just part of it. What are some of the things you’ve done lately that aren’t just the usual?

Dan left a couple days after he helped me move in, so it’s back to just me, but more than ever now that I don’t have roommates. I’ve been hanging out with some friends and keeping busy with work, so it’s fine, but I do miss him. I’m glad I get to see him again in October, when I’ll go to Syracuse.

Work has been so insane. We have Fridays off in August, but for the last two Fridays, I’ve gone in to work for a few hours to get some things done. As always, a lot of great stuff at work, but it just gets intense at times. And hopefully we’ll be launching the new UNF site soon too!

I get to go home in a little under a month, which I’m also excited about. I haven’t seen my parents since May other than one night I had dinner with mom when she was in town. It’s always nice to go home for a long weekend and just relax. I can’t believe it’s almost fall already- that means holiday stuff will creep up on us before you know it.

The pics are from some final adventures with Dan, and from my new place. Enjoy!