Day 35

"Who's the leader of the club
That's made for you and me!
M-I-C-K-E-Y
M-O-U-S-E!

Hey, there!
Hi, there!
Ho, there!
Your're as welcome as can be!
M-I-C-K-E-Y
M-O-U-S-E!

Mickey Mouse!(donald duck)mickey mouse!(donald duck)
forever let us hold our banner high
(high! high! high!)"

---Disney, "Mickey Mouse March"

Today I visited the land of the mouse....Anaheim, California.  Sadly, my trip was not to visit DisneyLand and was actually work related.  I took the entire day to go up to Anaheim with one of my co-workers, Ann, to attend a seminar called "Powerful Communication Skills for Women."  There were about 40 women who attended this seminar and it was neat to interact with those trying to better themselves in their workplace.  The facilitator was named Gail Cohen and she was a hoot!  The entire seminar was very interactive and forced everyone to break out of their comfort zone just a little bit.  We were placed in groups and then moved around in order to talk to people we hadn't interacted with yet throughout the day.  Gail gave us lots of ideas on topics like assertiveness in the workplace and public speaking.  One of the things she taught us throughout the day that I found very interesting was something she started with us at the beginning of the day.  Whenever she would ask a question and the answer was yes, we all had to raise our right arm in the air and yell out "absolutely!" while bringing our arm back down.  (Kind of hard to describe...I hope you get the picture)  Towards the end of the day, Gail shared with us that this served two purposes.  It was a way to get the audience involved right from the beginning but it was also used as a transition tool for her during her speaking.  She said that by getting us all to say "absolutely" it gave her a chance to regroup and begin a new topic.  When I thought back on the day, I realized that she really did use this silly little process as a transitional tool.

It was great to spend the day out of the office and now I am enjoying a quiet evening in the apartment.  I took a nice relaxing bath and then did my nails.  Now I am going to watch a movie and go to bed early I think. :-)

The Day 35 picture is of the movie I am going to pop in...

Liz and I LOVE watching this movie when we are together!  It is such a cute story :-)