Mondays always try to kick my ass. I usually just stop playing games with them. Mondays are dumb. Today though, the table was turned.

The score at the end of the day:

Tonia: 1 Million
Monday: 0

I had such a fantastic day at work and was able to work my ass of and get a lot done. I owe part of that to waking up extremely refreshed this morning, loving my job, and jamming out to Bullet for My Valentine to get the adrenaline going.

Absolutely thrilled by the great Monday I had, I knew I deserved to celebrate instead of coming home and cleaning. Luckily, Jessica was also game.

My craving for a Pink Velvet led us to a mutual favorite spot, Delux. I was able to have my Pink Velvet, their amazing sweet potato fries and half a Delux burger. Our waiter was so spectacular though I cannot even describe it. He completely made the trip there worth it. My water was constantly being filled, and he was always stopping by to have conversations with us. He apparently works lunch as well, and recognized me from the few trips that I have made on Fridays with the foundry crew too.

Afterward, the talk of Sprinkles had me craving sweets so off we went. To our dismay though, it closed 20 minutes before we arrived. Boo. Dessert shops should stay open until after dinner. This resulted in a trip to AJ’s where I picked up a delicious looking eclaire that I wasn’t hungry for by the time I got home.

A quick run to Walgreens to drop off some movies at Redbox followed, and I ended up renting P.S. I Love You (which I just finished).

It was a fantastic night and now that the movie is over and I’m finally finishing this blog post it is time for me to head to bed. I have an early meeting tomorrow morning.

My weekend was so busy. Even though I was away from my family for the holiday, I didn’t feel alone at all.

Saturday I was invited to a barbecue. I wasn’t terribly hungry, but I don’t like to miss out on chances to see friends and well, who has ever known me to turn down Rock Band? Ended up being a dual birthday party as well and I had some fabulous to die for white cake with cherries in it. I know what my next birthday cake will be!

I met even more new people including Dani’s awesome sister and everyone’s absolutely adorable children! I don’t get a chance to be around kids as much anymore and while I don’t want to have any of my own, I absolutely *love* children. I got to play Rock Band with them and we spent some time coloring too!

Rock Band was a great time. I spent a lot of time drumming but was given the chance to belt out some tunes as well, which is always nice. After the party died down a bit, I was invited by Todd over to Kevin’s house for a birthday party of sorts last minute, so I drug Scott with me too. As with most nights involving multiple parties, it was a late one.

Sunday was a slow morning; your classic lazy Sunday. After mulling around for hours in the morning, I went to run errands. First was Ikea to pick up lamps for work. Yay for the Basisk in solving the stylish floor lamp with a dimmer quest. Next was the grocery store for items for dinner/lunches this week as well as to make salad for Easter dinner at Kerri and Eric’s. By the time I got back, it was almost 3 already. Party was at 4. It was a nice relaxing night at their house. We played a few board games and had a great dinner and some dessert. We chatted for a bit and before I knew it, it was almost 10pm and I was ready to crash.

It wasn’t a typical Easter, but nothing has been “typical” since I moved to Phoenix, and that’s the way I prefer it. Everything’s been an adventure and turned out fantastic in the end. I’d have it no other way.

Last night, East Valley Friday Nights (#evfn) was at Studio 5C in Tempe. It is three flights up on a building on the corner of 5th and College and has a gorgeous view of the skyline and the mountains. The artwork was fantastic and it was sponsored so we had free beverages and snacks (yay).

I hung out with my typical crowd and met some more people too (always fun). After viewing the art and chatting it up for awhile, I was convinced to head to Rula Bula after being told they had Strongbow on tap. Chaos soon began of course, and I believe I was quoted on twitter several times (and there were probably a dozen more that didn’t make the cut). We chatted, sang, I probably danced, and I got to try the most amazing ice cream I’ve ever had!!!! Well it’s definitely in the top five at least.

Afterwards, a few of us came back to my house to play Rock Band and it was fantastic.

This morning I had about 7 twitter friend follow requests. Yay

This past Wednesday was the third Ignite Phoenix. I was fortunate enough to tag along to the 2nd one last October, which was only a few days after my arrival in the Phoenix area. I hadn’t heard much about it before that night, and pretty much only knew two people that were there (I’m sure a lot of you probably saw me and didn’t even know it), so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Of course I had some guesses, and they were *way* off base.

For the third Ignite, I knew what to expect and knew some of the presenters. I definitely felt like part of the gang instead of a visitor this time. It’s reminded me of all the awesome things that have happened in the four months I’ve been here.

The event took place at the Tempe Center for the Arts. The room we were in as well as the center itself was so beautiful. The combination of the tall windows and the water running right outside the venue made it look like the room was floating.

There were some amazing presenters. I absolutely loved the focus on the community that was expressed. The presentation on volunteering and getting out and doing something was so inspiring. I appreciated the presenters directness on telling people that their lack of time excuse is bullshit.

There were also some hilarious presentations such as 20 Answers to 20 Unanswered Questions. What a great way to end the night. I mean, now that I know the answer to “How many drinks is too many?” is “The last one,” I am much better off.

Afterwards, I headed to the post Ignite bash at Macayos. I met a few new people, which was one of my goals as well as hang out with those I already knew. Great time!

I’m pretty pumped for Ignite 4!

One of my grad school girls, Coco is in town this weekend. So of course we had to hit it up and have fun.

I got up early on Saturday to attempt to clean my house best I could for her arrival (and so she had a place to sleep). After I picked her up from the airport we headed to Scottsdale for some lunch. She was craving Italian, so I was thinking Bada Boom Pasta Room, but decided to walk around a bit first.

We ended up running into the Scottsdale Fine Art and Wine Festival The art was unique and interesting. There were quite a few pieces I would’ve loved to walk home with to help decorate my apartment. Of course we did some wine tasting as well. I was very fond of a few Italian wines that were available at a local Scottsdale wine shop called Arcadia Fine Wine. I bought two. One was a white that tasted a little like banana and the other was an effervescent red. Yes, I actually purchased (and already enjoyed) a bottle of red.

Later in the evening we decided to hit up Barcelona with my friend Kayla. Completely forgetting about the parties for All-Star Weekend, and ended up at Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne’s party. It was a blast and I’m glad we had our cute dresses and dancing shoes on. Unfortunately, due to an unforeseen incident, photos are not available. We were rock stars though, you can count on that.

Sunday, we were both craving breakfast big time. Before we headed out to try U.S. Egg (which is now my fave breakfast place within walking distance of my house) and go to Verizon to have her liquid spilled phone looked at, I had a phone incident as well and ended up without my BlackBerry. We ran some errands, picked up her car, and then I let her get settled while I relaxed some. I was able to catch up with 30 Rock and watch Vicky Christina Barcelona. Later on, we went to Angel Sweet Gelato in Chandler, which has some of the best fruit flavored gelato I’ve ever had. I ended up choosing half pineapple and half sweet cream.

She leaves for LA tomorrow but hopefully we will get some lunch in. It’s been a blast.

I’ve had a great first week back in Phoenix. I previously mentioned that on Tuesday I went to Cibo for a birthday dinner.

On Wednesday,I attended the 24 Hour Film contest screening which is sponsored by the Independent Feature Project – Phoenix Four of my friends created a film a few weeks back for the contest and ended up doing phenomenal.They won for best use of a prop as well as won 2nd place overall and therefore qualify for the Phoenix Film Festival in March. See their awesome thriller on You Tube.

Thursday I was supposed to catch up on everything I hadn’t accomplished since I left for Vancouver. However, I got in this mood to buy a macbook. After work, I went with Bob to the Apple store at the Biltmore. I found a great one and once I figure out what my tax return is going to be, it is game on! On the way home, I saw a fire a few blocks away from my house. As I was coming back from running errands, it was so bad that I could hear the helicopters over my stereo and the entire surrounding area was blocked off. It was a long alternate route home.

Friday I made my return to East Valley Friday Nights (#evfn), which was held closer to me (finally) at Four Peaks Brewery. I chatted with some old friends as well as met some new and enjoyed a nice pint of Kiltlifter after being away. I was hungry, but not starving so I ordered their spinach artichoke dip. It was amazingly good, but I barely put a dent in it. I then employed the help of others to finish the bowl and with five people chowing down, it only ended up half way gone. I think the bowl was magically refilling itself. While at Four Peaks, I met a woman that was in town exploring job opportunities. She happened to be a Kent State grad that lives in Cleveland. It was awesome having another KSU alumni to chat with. We went to an exotic arts festival that was recommended afterwards, which was fun, but not as good as expected. I was able to get home early enough to *finally* get more than 5 hours of sleep for the fist time in two weeks.

Yep, I think I am back to my regular schedule of crazy.

I’m back from Interaction 09. Well, technically I was back on Monday evening, but I am pretty sure my brain is still in customs somewhere in YVR.

I am slowly digesting all the amazing conversations I had and ideas I took in and everything I learned. I will have more detailed posts about those soon, I swear.

Until then, here’s a lighthearted list of things I learned while I was at Interaction:

• I can be away from Twitter for more than a few hours, but it has severe side affects.
• The Surface can do some cool shit!
• Nutella and banana crepes should be served at every establishment in the US.
• I’m more awesome and hotter than expected.
• Denise and I shoe shopping together can be dangerous, especially for Mario.
• Sleep is not necessary. Caffeine solves this issue.
• Seeing girls dressed as gifts (boxes) and grocery bags isn’t so out of the ordinary.
• There are some places where bars close at midnight.
• You are never done learning.
• There are always amazing friendships to be made.
• I’m not the only person that can quote Anchorman and Zoolander.
• I need a smaller laptop for traveling.
• Argyle makes quite the statement.
• Always choose the hotel that has starbucks in your room.
• Sometimes you need to skip a session to power nap, and that’s okay.
• Active participation is encouraged.
• You can never have too many 1974 maps of Vermont.
• Poutine is one of my favorite parts of Canada.

I’ve been spending a lot of time since I have been back from Vancouver thinking about what I could possibly write about Interaction 09 and all that I learned and experienced while I was there. I have realized that it was about so much more than the education on techniques, processes, and deliverables that were shared in workshops, lightning rounds, and keynotes; it was also about friendship.

There is no way for me to completely describe how amazing the experience was from a personal level. Up until Interaction, I had never met any of the people that were attending face to face. Thanks to Crowdvine I was able to begin tracking the people that I wanted to meet. There were people that I had conversed with through volunteering for the IxDA via email and phone. There were some that I had found through the lovely IxD twitter crowd, and there were some I was just plain a fan of. Not only did I end up meeting nearly all the people I had aimed to (Christian, I promise next time we are doing coffee or something), but I met so many more that I admired and those I had never been aware of until the conference started.

I made some great professional connections, but even more than that, made truly mind-blowing friendships; friendships that are truly real and extremely overwhelming, to the point of being emotional. Being around so many talented minds was truly inspirational.

However, as with anything else, I also learned that some relationships end up being one sided. Sometimes these relationships can appear to be fantastic, but when evaluated, it’s learned that you are the one putting all the effort into the relationship and making it work. Not much is being returned to you. While this does have to be done on occasion especially when learning a new craft or skill, I feel that mentors and other role-models should play a more active role in those relationships. It made me start to evaluate who I interact with on a daily basis through mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, and email.

And now, a list of people that I found truly awesome at Interaction, that I hope to continue to learn from and build better friendships with.

If I am following you on twitter (and even if I’m not), chances are very good I want to keep in touch. My account is locked, but please request a follow. My id is @toniambartz

• Mario – I cannot even begin to describe how truly energizing it is to even be around you. You are so inspiring and great to be around. Hell you completely threw me off my rocker and flattered me when you said I was an amazing person. You’re always in a good mood and constantly trying to make sure everyone else is having a good time.
• Denise – Super awesome woman!! We didn’t get to see a lot of each other (and I’m always told I’m the social butterfly), but hopefully that won’t happen again.
• Matt – I enjoyed meeting you. It was great to hear about all the awesome things that Toronto’s IxDA group is doing and to have some good IxD conversations as well.
• Liz – It was so awesome to finally meet you and be able to have discussions about IxDA, the profession in general and just get to hang out. I look forward to helping out more with the organization.
• Dante – What a great and innovative session you led at the conference. Not to mention you are fun to hang out with. And hey, anyone that thinks I’m awesome is a friend of mine. I hope we keep in touch.
• Eric (kink.com guy) – It was determined we are tied for the best business cards right? Rock out.
• Will – It was great to get to hang out with you, and no, not just because you had the kick ass suite. Maybe it was because we stalked each other haha. Hope we keep in touch, and hopefully will be at another conference together at some point!
• Whitney – Any friend of Mario’s has got to be phenomenal. It was nice to meet another down to earth woman around my age that is passionate about her career.
• Nasir – Glad to have had the chance to spend time with you and discuss the organization as well as hear your ideas for local groups. Next time I will be at karaoke for sure!
• Shaun – I cannot believe it took us until the last day of Interaction to meet. Thank you so much for all your help before the conference in regards to local groups and I hope to continue sharing that knowledge in the future.
• Angel – Loved getting to meet you finally. Any friend of Colleen’s is a friend of mine. Thank you for all of your help and support with starting up a local group.

If I left your name out I truly apologize. There was no way I was going to be able to write about everyone tonight – I would never get to sleep. I want to keep the friendships and conversation going.

Pics of my adventure are scattered both on Flickr and Facebook

In Novmeber, I posted an entry about everyone here assuming I’m married. So I guess it shouldn’t surprise me now that I am getting an influx of people asking me why I’m single. Sometimes it’s in an accusatory way and sometimes just an extremely surprising way.

I get the feeling some think it’s embarrassing to be in your 20s and be single. I don’t necessarily agree. Being married isn’t the only meaningful accomplishment in someone’s life. I also am very dead set against divorce. I’ll make damn sure whomever I am involved with is someone I can see myself being with past a few months. It did make me start to think about why I am single though, and I have come up with a few ideas.

1) Moving:This is a recent reason. In the past two years I have lived in four states. What can I say, part of it is circumstance and part of it is getting bored with where I currently was. I was in a serious relationship before my move to Arizona. However, I didn’t think we were at the point that I was comfortable with him moving 2000 miles with me. However, I think that I am now somewhere that I can see myself staying for awhile. Hopefully this will no longer be an issue.

2) Career: I have been very career focused since undergrad, but even more so since graduate school. I have always planned on having a career, and a career I enjoy. The slight downfall is that HCD is still a little hard to find jobs in, and so I am limited a little bit to most major cities. Not sure I could ever be a happy housewife the rest of my life. I love my career and I love the challenges and success I have at work every day.

3) Children: The past two times I have been in a serious relationship, the other half always got upset when it came time for the “how many children do you want to have” talk. Oddly enough they are the ones that want all these kids. As for me, it’s not the number of children, but the fact that I don’t want to have children. I have had my mind set on adopting ever since I started thinking about children. I never really thought that would be an issue with guys, but apparently it is.

4) Independent: I’m a very independent person and while I love being with my friends and family, I also enjoy (and need) my own time. I have to have my space and I am very comfortable with who I am as an individual and will not let that go. Sometimes I will want to do my own thing. Sometimes I will want a girls night, and there may be times I just want to hang with my guy friends. I need a guy secure enough to handle that.

5) Type Mismatch: Other than that, I think it comes down to just not finding the right type of guy at the right time. Does this mean I’m picky? It’s quite possible, but I also think I have that right. Maybe I expect more than the typical date too. I appreciate people that put effort into relationships, this holds true for my friends as well. Sometimes I think guys only want girly girls and while I absolutely love dressing up, adore the color pink and anything that sparkles, I am not a ditz and I also love football, beer, going to sporting events and kicking everyone’s ass in Mortal Kombat.

So there, I’m single and I don’t really mind. All you other single professional women out there should feel the same. Don’t tell me about my biological clock and all that psycho nonsense. I have the best friends and family anyone could ask for, a great career, and a rockstar social life. I’m perfectly happy with that too. When a guy comes along that can deal with that, then we’ll talk.

Peace Out!

With recommendations from various people, my friends and I decided to head to The Clarendon in Phoenix for our New Years Eve festivities. After some issues with our taxi, the six of us finally ended up there safe and sound. The hotel was decorated brilliantly. There was snow (ice probably) on the ground and fake snow blowing over the roof. Snowflake lights covered the building. After waiting to get in for awhile, we got our VIP bands and headed in to enjoy the night.

Kayla, Rina and I had a chance to enjoy the rooftop for awhile and that was a nice way to start the night. But soon, it was time to hit the dance floor. The band Static was playing that night, and our neighbor Elisa knows the lead female vocalist. What a fantastic band!! They were really good and had a great assortment of songs. There was a lot of dancing and I have to admit I was pretty much a second member of the band, frequently doing some backup and solo singing as well as dancing on stage with the slightly gorgeous male vocalist.

I received the nickname “hot mama” from Kayla and I’m sure that had to do with my marilyn monroe-esque dress. Unfortunately I don’t have any closeup pics of me and the dress but as I do, I’ll probably edit this post or create another blog entry. I was in a lot of people’s random photos so if anyone is reading this and has some, please please pass them along!

I also realized more than ever (and not just because it’s time to think of resolutions), that men are totally not even worth the fuss over. They are extremely shallow and conceited. I find it hard to believe any of them are even worth a first date kiss. I’m sure I’ll have more on this later too!

Here’s a photo of some of the girls on the sleigh inside the lobby of The Clarendon.