As the final hours of July wind down, and before the madness of the new school season is upon me (upon so many of you reading this actually), I wanted to update the blog and let you all know what I've been up to for the last couple of months.
June:
Things at "The Workplace That Shall Not Be Named" got worse before they got better. The upper-ups made some unexpected and HUGE changes in our department with no warning to our managers let alone the tiny little peons like me. A huge shakeup is upon the institute right now and I was so happy to be able to sit back and watch it unfold knowing that no matter what they did or said, none of it would have any impact on ME directly (as I was giving my notice within the month no matter what).
After the shake-up, for whatever reason, people seemed to get a whole lot "nicer" to me. Or maybe it was just time. I had been there more than 4 months by that point and people started to know who I was (no matter how hard I tried to "hide"). They liked me. They were kind. Interested. Even my emotional-mess-of-a-manager started speaking to me like a real person and giving me projects of interest that I knew I could do. So it was beyond fun for me to walk into my manager's office on Monday, June 24th at 5:15pm and tell her that I thought it was time for me to move on. That I didn't see a future in Development. Thank you so much but I would like to pursue "other opportunities". :) Oh... and my last day will be Friday.
Never burn bridges is a lesson I've learned from a very young age and it's remarkable how it's worked out for me. This woman, who never saw my TRUE work ethic, never pushed me to do anything REAL, never asked me to really "perform", completely teared-up in front of me. Told me she understood and "did I need a letter of reference". Really?! Really? A letter of reference?! Sigh. Wow.
So yes. My last day was Friday, June 28th and it was phenomenal. Had a great "good-bye" lunch, got a wonderful gift card to iTunes with some beautifully written words in a card by my team and then got to leave and never look back.
July:
I spent the first week of July in the blazing hot city of Modesto, CA visiting the Twins. Nena was still on maternity leave and Sella is a teacher who was on Summer Break so we had a full 4 days together with families and the kids. Swimming, eating, watching movies and sleeping 9 hours a night (at least I did... I doubt my Mom-Friends got that much ;)). Just what the doctor ordered.
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| Nena & Sella @ Cool Hand Luke's |
Week 2:
Lunched with an old friend from England who is moving back to L.A. to have her baby! It will be so nice to have someone from my Rajabali family so close.
I officially put in four looong days at my new job! The drive wasn't too awful (and will hopefully be even better when I'm working normal school hours which are 7:30am-3:30pm instead of summer hours which were 8:30am to 6:00pm) and it was SO GOOD to be "home". Installing Apple TV's, updating MacBooks, meeting with Principals to discuss what to teach teachers at Back-to-School week. I'm so looking forward to getting started (August 5th is D-day for me although other teachers don't start until the middle/end of the month).
Week 3:
Perhaps the next greatest thing about my job (besides the fact that I HAVE one.. and it's in my field... and it pays pretty darn okay) is the (paid) TIME OFF. I've always had a love/hate relationship with "time-off" as I haven't had a job that actually PAID me NOT to work (PTO and all that jazz). So while I loved having the days (or summer months) off in my former jobs to pursue other interests like wedding videography or photography, it always made the finance side of my life very difficult. Was I going to make enough that month to pay the mortgage or would I have to ask my brother for money (again)? Sigh. With this new gig my paid time off is factored in as a "faculty" member. I'm salaried. I know how much I'm making and it will come steadily in checks throughout the year.... even when I'm sleeping in while visiting Arizona during my Winter Break (2 weeks), traveling the Outback of Australia (hopefully someday soon) during Spring Break (2 weeks) or flying back to Minnesota to see family and friends at Okoboji and beyond (entire month of July). For someone who finds absolute "routine" absolutely horrific, this is the best of both worlds for me.
Thus, the last two weeks of July I spent celebrating in Iowa/Minnesota. Here is my trip by the numbers:
Family Members Seen: 25 (Okoboji was another success and getting to spend a few days with my
nephew Tristan was such a treat)
Friends/Babies Visited: 63 (including an amazing Belle Plaine pool party hosted by my parents; an out-of-this-world gathering in Waconia hosted by my girl CJohnson; and a Groom's Dinner/Wedding of an old friend all of which helped jack up this number as it would have been impossible to visit ALL of those lovely people individually in less than 7 days!)
Pounds Gained: 7 (too much so-bad-it's-good food + alcoholic beverages. Ug.)
Shopping Trips Taken: 3 (I won't write how much I spent--yikes!-- but I can tell you have much I SAVED... by shopping Outlets in Minnesota that have no sales tax on shoes or clothing!)
Photo-shoots: 2 (one paid and requested by a former family client with twins and one volunteer at the Groom's Dinner of my friend!)
Weddings Attended: 1 (and as a GUEST... not a Video/Photographer! Holy Cats)
Hair Appointment: 1 (soo overdue I was almost crying from relief when it was over)
Doctor's Appointment: 1 (had to make sure I was good-to-go for this upcoming school year before I switched insurances and providers etc. Happy to report I'm A-Okay!)
Unbelievable that everything worked out as it did. I couldn't have asked for a better July. Now I'm looking at getting back into a routine (both for work and for my health), getting back to online dating (I haven't given up yet and hopefully there will be a blog update at some point from THAT front that doesn't end in tears or frustration) and getting OUT and ABOUT to enjoy this beautiful state I now call home.
Enjoy the pics below. Thanks to all who made time to see me back in Minnesota. Remember, you've got a free couch/blow-up bed in Pasadena anytime!
Love,
E
Week 3:
Perhaps the next greatest thing about my job (besides the fact that I HAVE one.. and it's in my field... and it pays pretty darn okay) is the (paid) TIME OFF. I've always had a love/hate relationship with "time-off" as I haven't had a job that actually PAID me NOT to work (PTO and all that jazz). So while I loved having the days (or summer months) off in my former jobs to pursue other interests like wedding videography or photography, it always made the finance side of my life very difficult. Was I going to make enough that month to pay the mortgage or would I have to ask my brother for money (again)? Sigh. With this new gig my paid time off is factored in as a "faculty" member. I'm salaried. I know how much I'm making and it will come steadily in checks throughout the year.... even when I'm sleeping in while visiting Arizona during my Winter Break (2 weeks), traveling the Outback of Australia (hopefully someday soon) during Spring Break (2 weeks) or flying back to Minnesota to see family and friends at Okoboji and beyond (entire month of July). For someone who finds absolute "routine" absolutely horrific, this is the best of both worlds for me.
Thus, the last two weeks of July I spent celebrating in Iowa/Minnesota. Here is my trip by the numbers:
Family Members Seen: 25 (Okoboji was another success and getting to spend a few days with my
nephew Tristan was such a treat)
Friends/Babies Visited: 63 (including an amazing Belle Plaine pool party hosted by my parents; an out-of-this-world gathering in Waconia hosted by my girl CJohnson; and a Groom's Dinner/Wedding of an old friend all of which helped jack up this number as it would have been impossible to visit ALL of those lovely people individually in less than 7 days!)
Pounds Gained: 7 (too much so-bad-it's-good food + alcoholic beverages. Ug.)
Shopping Trips Taken: 3 (I won't write how much I spent--yikes!-- but I can tell you have much I SAVED... by shopping Outlets in Minnesota that have no sales tax on shoes or clothing!)
Photo-shoots: 2 (one paid and requested by a former family client with twins and one volunteer at the Groom's Dinner of my friend!)
Weddings Attended: 1 (and as a GUEST... not a Video/Photographer! Holy Cats)
Hair Appointment: 1 (soo overdue I was almost crying from relief when it was over)
Doctor's Appointment: 1 (had to make sure I was good-to-go for this upcoming school year before I switched insurances and providers etc. Happy to report I'm A-Okay!)
Unbelievable that everything worked out as it did. I couldn't have asked for a better July. Now I'm looking at getting back into a routine (both for work and for my health), getting back to online dating (I haven't given up yet and hopefully there will be a blog update at some point from THAT front that doesn't end in tears or frustration) and getting OUT and ABOUT to enjoy this beautiful state I now call home.
Enjoy the pics below. Thanks to all who made time to see me back in Minnesota. Remember, you've got a free couch/blow-up bed in Pasadena anytime!
Love,
E
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| One of my many shopping trips. So good! |
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| The Huls family at Okoboji (we're all here!) |
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| Amazing Mexican night with college friends. |
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| The Erickson Crew @ Okoboji (mini golf to follow!) |
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| The cutest 8-month old in the world |
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| The Belle Plaine Crew (the ISO on my camera was set too high :( but you get the just) |
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| A sample of the best people you will ever meet (Waconia, MN) |
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| My best friends from senior year of High School. We're all grown up. Congrats to Shane + Katie! |
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