(no subject)
My goodness, it's been such a long time since I updated this darned journal. I have long maintained that the number of posts are directly disproportional to the status of relationships, a full time job, and a healthy life away from LiveJournal. As you can see, these things must be going at least reasonably well since it's been many months since my last post.
Since I doubt anyone wants a big wall of text, I'm just going to go right down the line:
April: Perform "The Planets" by Holst with Campus Orchestra. It was awesome. I have yet to decide if I'm actually going to go back to orchestra (it is one of my favorite activites, but I need cold, hard credits if I'm ever going to graduate and orchestra isn't the most efficient way of doing it), although I'll decide after tomorrow's class meeting. With any luck, they'll split the orchestra into two different (but equal) orchestras, one meeting on Monday, the other on Wednesday. I know that would make my life substatially easier. That or I'll try to strong arm my way into doing just Mondays (work schedule could be adjusted to make Wednesdays possible, although those end up being excessively long days).
May: Go to France with my mom. This was our second trip to France and this time we strayed outside the usual confines of Paris and out to eastern France to Strasbourg (a gorgeous city - I would highly recommend it), Nancy, Verdun, and Reims. Driving in France was substantially less scary than we had anticipated and I'm looking forward to next year when I'll finally be old enough to drive abroad (yes, a momentious occasion, to say the least). The cities outside of Paris proved to be a great deal cheaper and more approachable than Paris, although there wasn't admittedly much to do past about 7PM in most of these cities. Fortunately, I got a cold in Nancy so worrying about what to do in the evenings became a moot point for me. Pictures of the escapade have been posted on Facebook.
June: Nick and I decide to stay in our current place for one more year. No, it's not a particularly glamorous apartment but the location is great for both of us job-wise and me school-wise. Also, it's comparatively quite cheap to most places in the neighborhood (and I am aware that we could save a bundle by moving out to some god-forsaken suburb to a non-descript white block of buildings). This is met by a joyous trip to Ikea to improve our surroundings. Discover the joys of Guitar Hero.
July: Work finally starts going my way. Two of my least favorite co-workers leave; one by choice, after having tortured me for nearly two years with her absolutely sub-standard personal hygiene and penchant explaining to me that she "saw something funny in her head and just had to laugh"... I wish I was exaggerating but this girl was a piece of work; the other fired for a multitude of reasons, although I can say that while the rest of the wine sale was hell without the proper number of staff, having this particular co-worker gone has made my job exponentially more bearable. This fellow would ignore our customers, was incapable of applying even the scantest bit of common sense to his job, and did a bang-up job of outright ignoring what I told him to do. I don't like to think of myself as "that" boss, as most of my co-workers are friendly, pragmatic people, but this fellow simply didn't fit in (no retail experience, very limited food experience) and I eventually ran out of ways to get my point across to him. We've subsequently hired some new people that have worked out much better. July and August sales stay strong despite a weak economy.
August: Catch Olympics fever, catch Obama fever, and catch actual cold. Ironic, isn't it? August tends to be a relatively quiet month for me, as there's not much going on and it's typically too hot to do anything besides swelter in the apartment. Other news includes me teaching my first-ever all cheese class (it got excellent reviews and hopefully I'll be teaching more in the future, as none of the wine people are willing to split their class fees with someone else, leaving us with the option of doing just wine classes or just cheese classes) and massive construction going on at work. Also, Nick and I book a trip to Paris (have you noticed a theme yet?) for November. We end up with round-trip tickets and six nights in a hotel for a little over $1,000 each - an incredible deal when it comes down to it. France is ideal as it's easy to get to, provides an easily surmounted language barrier, and can be quite affordable if you play your cards right (here's a hint: take public transportation and don't eat dinner in restaurants); it was a close call between Paris and Prague.
September: Only a couple days in, but enjoy a nice four-day weekend over Labor Day, complete with a trip to the State Fair and inheriting Nick's old computer. Also, the merciless mocking of the political joke that is Sarah Palin.
So I think that's pretty much it for the highlights. I promise to be good and start updating this more frequently. Really.
Since I doubt anyone wants a big wall of text, I'm just going to go right down the line:
April: Perform "The Planets" by Holst with Campus Orchestra. It was awesome. I have yet to decide if I'm actually going to go back to orchestra (it is one of my favorite activites, but I need cold, hard credits if I'm ever going to graduate and orchestra isn't the most efficient way of doing it), although I'll decide after tomorrow's class meeting. With any luck, they'll split the orchestra into two different (but equal) orchestras, one meeting on Monday, the other on Wednesday. I know that would make my life substatially easier. That or I'll try to strong arm my way into doing just Mondays (work schedule could be adjusted to make Wednesdays possible, although those end up being excessively long days).
May: Go to France with my mom. This was our second trip to France and this time we strayed outside the usual confines of Paris and out to eastern France to Strasbourg (a gorgeous city - I would highly recommend it), Nancy, Verdun, and Reims. Driving in France was substantially less scary than we had anticipated and I'm looking forward to next year when I'll finally be old enough to drive abroad (yes, a momentious occasion, to say the least). The cities outside of Paris proved to be a great deal cheaper and more approachable than Paris, although there wasn't admittedly much to do past about 7PM in most of these cities. Fortunately, I got a cold in Nancy so worrying about what to do in the evenings became a moot point for me. Pictures of the escapade have been posted on Facebook.
June: Nick and I decide to stay in our current place for one more year. No, it's not a particularly glamorous apartment but the location is great for both of us job-wise and me school-wise. Also, it's comparatively quite cheap to most places in the neighborhood (and I am aware that we could save a bundle by moving out to some god-forsaken suburb to a non-descript white block of buildings). This is met by a joyous trip to Ikea to improve our surroundings. Discover the joys of Guitar Hero.
July: Work finally starts going my way. Two of my least favorite co-workers leave; one by choice, after having tortured me for nearly two years with her absolutely sub-standard personal hygiene and penchant explaining to me that she "saw something funny in her head and just had to laugh"... I wish I was exaggerating but this girl was a piece of work; the other fired for a multitude of reasons, although I can say that while the rest of the wine sale was hell without the proper number of staff, having this particular co-worker gone has made my job exponentially more bearable. This fellow would ignore our customers, was incapable of applying even the scantest bit of common sense to his job, and did a bang-up job of outright ignoring what I told him to do. I don't like to think of myself as "that" boss, as most of my co-workers are friendly, pragmatic people, but this fellow simply didn't fit in (no retail experience, very limited food experience) and I eventually ran out of ways to get my point across to him. We've subsequently hired some new people that have worked out much better. July and August sales stay strong despite a weak economy.
August: Catch Olympics fever, catch Obama fever, and catch actual cold. Ironic, isn't it? August tends to be a relatively quiet month for me, as there's not much going on and it's typically too hot to do anything besides swelter in the apartment. Other news includes me teaching my first-ever all cheese class (it got excellent reviews and hopefully I'll be teaching more in the future, as none of the wine people are willing to split their class fees with someone else, leaving us with the option of doing just wine classes or just cheese classes) and massive construction going on at work. Also, Nick and I book a trip to Paris (have you noticed a theme yet?) for November. We end up with round-trip tickets and six nights in a hotel for a little over $1,000 each - an incredible deal when it comes down to it. France is ideal as it's easy to get to, provides an easily surmounted language barrier, and can be quite affordable if you play your cards right (here's a hint: take public transportation and don't eat dinner in restaurants); it was a close call between Paris and Prague.
September: Only a couple days in, but enjoy a nice four-day weekend over Labor Day, complete with a trip to the State Fair and inheriting Nick's old computer. Also, the merciless mocking of the political joke that is Sarah Palin.
So I think that's pretty much it for the highlights. I promise to be good and start updating this more frequently. Really.