04/01/09 - 4/10/09 - Deadlines, anniversaries, deaths, ghosts and more...

It's time again to let you in on what's been happening in the life of Kelli the last couple of weeks. Let's see, it has been a busy couple of weeks, but with mostly work stuff. I'm working on training documentation for the Western Mountain Pacific - Sales Force One Launch. Sales Force One or SF1 is an innovative restructuring of Marriott's Sales Departments world wide. In short, instead of having a Sales Manager for each hotel, our Managers have gone global. They represent all Marriott's, everywhere. Now, they do have specific region that they focus on, but they are given accounts in that region and in turn could book business for that account in any other region if the need arises. There is certainly more too it than that, but that's about as Nutshell as I can get it. Unless you'd like to go through the 3 Powerpoints I just finished. One is 114 slides, one is 90-something and the other one is pretty small only 68. And that's only 3 of about 20 that explain how SF1 works. Anyway, it's a lot of work and has kept me pretty busy. Everything has to be done and ready for the printer by the 17th so the 10th is the deadline to get all final drafts into proof-reading mode. Ugh. I just finished one and have one more to go.

So, this weekend (the 5th) is David's and mine 1st Anniversary. For those that don't know the story, I met David shortly after moving to Chicago, but we didn't start dating until nearly a year later. David had a Pub Crawl in his neighborhood this weekend last year and I went. It was that night we got to talking and found out that we both had crushes on the other, but thought the other wouldn't be interested. Mainly because there is a 10 year age difference between us. But we decided to give it try and we've been together ever since. It happened quite quickly, but we both just rolled with it and so far it's been great! We decided to go up to Galena IL to celebrate. It's a small town about 3 hours North of Chicago. We had a good time. We stayed at this hotel called the Irish Cottage Inn. It was a decent place, but no Marriott that's for sure. I swear this job has spoiled me, but also allowed me to appreciate how hard Marriott tries to ensure their products are up to par. Now that's not say that I haven't been to a Marriott that wasn't perfect, there are certainly several out there, but they are usually the Franchised hotels, though having said that, we have some good Franchisees as well. Anyway, I digress. We saw Irish Dancers, strolled along Galena's main drag, toured Galena's oldest home (built in the 1840's), did a little hiking, drove up to Potosi Brewing Co. & ABA Museum in Potosi, WI and went on a ghost tour.

For some you, you know that I have an interest in the Paranormal. It intrigues me. I would consider myself a believer in ghosts or spirits, but I'm also a skeptic. I've experienced some unexplainable phenomenon in my lifetime, which makes it hard for me to dispel it completely, but I've also never come face to face with an apparition either so...I remain open to the ideas and find other people's stories interesting as well. I will tell you more about our Ghost tour in a separate post because this one is already getting long and it's quite interesting - I even have photos to share!!

Lastly, in the post I'll mention the passing of my parents (and my) next door neighbor of many years. Her name is Beverlee Lombardi. She,her husband Paul and their three daughters, Danielle, Dana, and Deidre grew up with us. We were friends and hung out much as kids. We've since lost touch as we've all grown up and moved away and started lives and families of our own, however have kept tabs on each other through our parents. My mom called me the other day to inform me that Beverlee had passed away. Now, what is amazing about this and not so sad is that she was told when we were kids that she only had two years to live. She was diagnosed with a disease called Sculaderma (sp?). Back then, not much was known about it and the life expectancy of someone with it was not long once diagnosed. At the time her youngest daughter was maybe 2 or 3 and she said she wanted to try and live until Deidre turned 18. Well Deidre is 31 now so not only did she make it past the two years, but made it nearly 30 additional years than what was originally expected. She was always a very strong and dominant woman so I'm not surprised that she lived up to her promise. Yes, it is sad that she is finally gone, but what a blessing she received to be able to see all her kids grow up, graduate High School and College, get married and have kids. I'm sad for them, but glad that Beverlee is no longer in pain and in a place where she can continue to watch over them without suffering.

My brother shared his favorite memory of Beverlee on his blog so I thought I'd so the same on mine. Mine is when we decided to get a family pass at the local pool. I can't remember exaclty why now, but I had to pretend like I was one of their kids. I think they needed six total people to get the family discount or something like that. Beverlee told me that when the guy asked me my name, all I had to do was say, "Kelli Lombardi". Seemed easy enough, but when the time came, the guy asked, "...and what is your name?" I stuttered a little bit and said, "Kelli Mc...Lombardi" and he repeats it with the Mc-part, in a very quizitive manner and I was stunned. I must have had that deer-in-the-headlights- look. I thought for sure we had been CAUGT!, but Beverlee jumped in and said, oh her middle is McKayla (or something like that-I can't remember now which name she actualy gave), she was just trying to say her middle name. Silly. Nice save Beverlee!! We got the passes and ejoyed a summer of fun at the local pool and at the discounted rate! I still have the actual laminated pass that say's "Kelli Lombardi."

Well, I guess I should get back to work. I'll post some pictures soon, but wanted to at least get this post written. Don't forget to check back regarding the details of our ghost tour...

~Kelli