A Wise Woman Once Told Me...

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who never liked to clean her room. Her grandmother told her, "A stitch in time saves nine," to convince the little girl that it was a good idea to clean her room a little bit at a time so it always stayed clean. The grandmother reminded her that her mom told her the same thing many years earlier. The little girl never listened and continued to have a messy room and spend entire weekends cleaning instead of having fun.

As the little girl grew up, she never followed what her grandmother taught her and procrastination ruined her plans and deadlines crept up like wildfire behind her. She was stressed and tired, and now her grandmother was no longer around to remind her to do things a little bit at a time to save herself the stress.

One day the young woman rested in her bed and thought back to all those times her grandmother told her "A stitch in time saves nine," and decided to try a little harder to follow that rule. Once she did, she managed her school work, internships, work and life a little better. Her mood changed and she had a smile on her face a little more every day. Now every day she remembers her grandmother and works to preserve a little bit of her spirit by following the little things she was taught.

"A stitch in time saves nine."
"A little birdie told me..."
"Patience is a virtue."
"Cleanliness is the closest thing to godliness."
"If you get frustrated, put a pin in it."

These little sayings keep the young woman from losing her mind with stress.

Yes, that little girl was me. I was once so stressed that I lashed out at others around me. I had headaches all the time and my hair was falling out. Once I remembered all the wise words my amazing grammy told me when I was little, I completely changed my life. Who would've known wisdom from over 50 years ago would help so much today? All those kooky sayings have saved my mind and well-being, and I'm sure my friends are happy that I'm less cranky too.

An Open Letter of Complaint to Crossgates Mall

Dear Crossgates Mall,

Please close the mall when there is a state-of-emergency across all of New York State.

Before you think I'm just some 20-something retail person who hates their job and would rather spend their time shopping instead of working, I'm not. I take shifts whenever anyone needs a day off and I almost never ask for time off. During the last snowstorm, I almost killed myself driving to work just to make it there to open on time.

Today there was 10 inches of snowfall. The roads were barely plowed and the parking lot was a disaster area. On days like these, the majority of shoppers are the ones who work in the mall and are detained there relatively against their will.

First thing I did when I got to work was, well, start working. I expected that the mall wouldn't close thanks to Corporate America running everything. About an hour into my shift my manager gave me a call because she heard about the state-of-emergency on the radio. She gave me a direct order to call the mall office, which I did.

First I spoke to security, then I was transferred to "mall management." Who I was actually transferred to was the customer service girl who agreed she thought the mall should close, but she had no authority to do so. She said if a store's home office allowed them to close, then the mall would not fine them. Then she told me that all of the mall managers left the mall already.

I started to get really angry. Even in a state-of-emergency, they refused to close the mall, but every one of the mall managers could get home while it was still relatively light outside. The state-of-emergency urged people to get off the roads after 5, and many of the highways were closing at midnight. I understand this is the northeast, but it was not a dusting. This was ten inches of snow.

Other retail associates were stopping by and seeing when I was closing my gate, but I had nowhere to turn. Another hour passed and about 18 stores had closed. I stepped into the hall and a store manager said every store who closed early was being fined after all, so I had been lied to an hour earlier.

My manager called me again saying she wrote a complaint on the mall's Facebook page, but they were deleting the complaints on their page. BAD JUJU, CROSSGATES COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR! You should NEVER delete messages from your Facebook page!

The mall's security was rude to many of the associates that stopped in to speak to me. Everything about tonight showed how much you care about money. Obviously, you care exponentially more about money than the people that work there. We all risked our lives driving to and from work. We could have easily spent our last hours on earth in an empty retail store in a mall.

So thank you Crossgates, for wasting my time. You really have compassion for the people who work in your mall. Next time, remember that WE are the building blocks to your mall. If we all got in car wrecks on the way home, would you be compensating us for making us stay late? What if we were all killed? Who would open the stores that pay YOU rent?

Just think about us retail workers next time.

Sincerely,
Alli Dillenbeck

The Anti-Diet Project

On Facebook today, I stumbled on The Anti-Diet Project by Kelsey Miller on Refinery 29. I'm not sure how I haven't seen this before, but I just want to say KUDOS.

Source: Refinery 29

I think I haven't seen this before because I often skip through their food posts. They have a lot of "Foods That Will Make You Sleep" and "Why Does Food Make You Fat?" Not to knock Refinery 29, but a lot of their posts are overly superficial in terms of diets and food. Their recipe posts are AMAZING though (CAN WE JUST LOOK AT THIS CAKE OMG). It completely contradicts their diet posts because those food posts send me running to the kitchen.

I find these posts to be too good. She writes about a similar philosophy about food that I have. It is all about eating what makes you happy and not worrying about a "diet." When you are eating what makes you happy, you start to eat things that are good for you and in healthy proportions. She works with Intuitive Eating specialists, I don't. I just sort of adopted a feeling of neutrality on food.

When I was in high school, I was highly active and fit. I was around a size 4, maybe a size 6, but I struggled with body image issues. I thought I was the fattest person around and hated everything about myself. I dieted, fasted, worked out more and worried more about what I looked like. When I got to college, I took a bit of a break from that and gained a lot of weight fast. I now wear a size 10 or 12.

I decided to change the way I thought about food. When I eat what I want, I end up eating things that are healthy. I don't care about the number on the scale or the size of my pants and I'm happy with my body. I have been slowly losing weight in the past few months, but it's progress. Because I'm happy with my body, the weight loss doesn't control my life. I am controlling my life, not a scale.

So we should all sit back, relax and enjoy the holidays.....and all those Christmas cookies in moderation.

VS Fashion Show + Me = Drool-fest

There are many great things (alright, and a bunch of bad ones too) about the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. As a former employee of Victoria's Secret, I feel a connection to the company. I loved working there and both my sister and mom work for the company. The only reason I ever left was for an internship and I miss it a lot.

The main things I want to completely drool over are as follows:

1. Cosmopolitan's tweets.

And WHY is my wine glass empty?!! #VSFashionShow
— Cosmopolitan (@Cosmopolitan) December 11, 2013

It's like, your butt can go shave its back now. : ( #VSFashionShow
— Cosmopolitan (@Cosmopolitan) December 11, 2013

There tweets weren't exactly appropriate, and I can't stand brands/companies/magazines that tweet like real people for only one night as a shock value to gain followers and interaction, BUT they were hilarious to read while I was live-tweeting. I never responded to them in protest of how annoying it is when brands do that, but I read with a silent smile on my face.

2. The 3D printed wings.

Source: NY Post

This is a tech-nerd's dream. I love these so much. They are beautiful and amazing. The snowflake design is perfect with the 3D printing so it can show the delicate details.

3. Cara Delevingne

Source: Fashnberry

Source: Fashnberry

I do not need to say anything else about her. She's perfect and weird and I love it.

4. The amount of selfies the models take.

Source: PopSugar

Also "tweetgret" or "instashame". I like when the models show their personalities. I cannot stand a model who acts like she's a statue. Apparently the girls were not allowed to take pictures on the day of filming, but a bunch of them did anyway. It's really cute that they included their Instagram/Twitter obsessions. "They are just like me," I say to myself. In reality they are a foot taller than me and about 10 times more gorgeous. Either way, they seem fun.

These models really look like they are enjoying themselves. I appreciate that they are not too obviously hurting themselves emotionally or physically to be models. And yes, I know this is highly edited and it's the most glorified modeling moment of the year, but it's nice to not see backstage photos of a gal forcing herself to throw up or something.

What were your favorite moments?

Lil Sweetie

I don't even like dogs, but can we just take a few moments to look at the sweetest pup that ever walked the face of the earth?

This is Flint. He's a Pomeranian.

I think I might be in love. 

Look at his expressive lil face! I just love it! I originally saw this post on Taxi, but I found out he even has his own website with a bunch of Flint things! I love him so much! He might be runner-up for cutest pet, behind Lil Bub, of course.

I want a Flint!

Love Yourself and Thy Neighbor

I have a serious lady-crush. My lady-crush is on the beautiful, Tess Munster, model and fashion blogger. She has become a major influence in my life and a catalyst for the confidence I am trying to build for myself.

Source: The Huffington Post

Tess admits to having very emotional times in her life. No one can live without struggle, but somehow she glistens in pictures with a radiant beauty that inspires me like no other. For a weird reason, I feel like I know her (and her hot boyfriend) now that I've been reading her blogs (and My Plus-Size Life), following her on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and stalking any article she has with the Huffington Post or other media sources. She's seriously amazing. She also gets the best clothes.

Source: Erika Nelly

She created the hashtag and Instagram account #effyourbeautystandards to help women form their own self-love and body consciousness. It's through these little things, like a confident photo or strong hashtag that will help women become a more successful power in our world. With the objectification of women in our media and the way male politicians completely ridicule women politicians (see video), we need to stand up for ourselves and realize we are beautiful, strong, sexy, smart, real, and equal. It is only when we love ourselves that we can love others -- and accomplish our dreams.

I am here to say that because of women like Tess, I am finally comfortable with my body, my brains and my life as a woman.

Comment below with other rad ladies!

Relax, baby, relax

Finally, in my first semester as a senior in college, I have an easy end-of-semester. I now get to relax a little bit (with the exception of two huge events for a client tomorrow and Saturday) before taking my finals.

This free time is doing some wonders on my mood. All this week I was a cranky bitch from lack of sleep and a total change of sleep schedule from Black Friday weekend (yay Claire's!), but now it's like I am a whole new woman. I have all my tasks and assignments complete and I am ready to kick this finals week's ass.

Claire's Black Saturday

For our client, First Weekends in Plattsburgh, Inc., we are helping coordinate and promote their events. This month, their December events are going to be awesome! Friday from 5-8pm there is a tree lighting downtown with music, hot chocolate and caroling. We are truly getting in the holiday spirit. On Saturday from 1-3pm there is a Polar Express themed event at the Champlain Valley Transportation Museum. This is what I am the most excited about. We coordinated hot chocolate, a photographer for family photos and readings of Polar Express.

Photo: Kat Torres, Cardinal PR

This is honestly the best client we've ever had with Cardinal PR. They are very responsive and they give us much more creative freedom, after all, we really are a bunch of creative weirdos. One thing that people forget is that we writers need creativity especially to plan an event.