Crash and Burn

Well, This was a pretty fun and lesson filled weekend!! Like I mentioned earlier, I went to a Balboa workshop all day Saturday, which was pretty helpful (considering I didn’t really take anything too formal before), and that night I went to the dance. The dance’s theme was “Footloose”, and so though the music at the dance was ok at the beginning, at the end, it was 80’s themed, and not fun to lindy hop to. Oh well. Also that night I went to my friend Miles’s going away party. He is leaving this week for grad school at UCSB, and will be in CA for the next five years.

Sunday, I got up really early, picked up Rochelle, and we drove up to lake Lanier to Robbie’s lake house. I’d never been up there, but it was a lot of fun. His parents, his girlfriend Andrea, and another friend Jonathan were up there, and later in the day some more of his family friends came. We went out on the boat in the morning, and I attempted to learn to water ski. I had never done it before, but I got into the water and gave it a go. I was having a lot of trouble getting up. I would pretty much crash and burn every time Robbie started the boat. In the afternoon, I gave it another go. This time, his dad was driving, and on my first try, I got up! I got up most of the times after that, but didn’t make it too far standing. I am not sure if I got up then because of the morning practice, or because Rob and his dad drive differently, but it was cool. I never did stay up for long, but it was neat to learn. Maybe I’ll go up another time and give it another try. Today though, my whole body is sore. Maybe I should’ve stretched before taking off yesterday…

My mother's dreams of me having kids...

The back room in our house (if you’ve ever been over, the room we call the back porch) currently is the room we LIVE in. We have the couches and TV in there, the dinner table, and basically, if you’re ever looking for someone at my house, that’s where they’ll be. My mom has this idea…well, it’s more of a wish for the time being, that one day all of her kids and grandkids will come home and all have Shabbos dinner together every week. And naturally, the back room is not big enough for that right now unless we shift around furniture. So, instead of waiting until we have kids, get married, or for heavens sake, date somebody, she is renovating it now. We have been working on the plans for a while, and finally signed the contract a few days ago. The current back room has now been emptied, and well, it seems a lot bigger without furniture in it! They have boarded up the wall between the original back of the house, and the back room (it was an addition originally), and construction take down starts today. It’s kind of sad. My dad and grandfather built that room when I was born, and I sure know dad is crying on the inside that it’s being torn down (or “remodled” as my mom puts it). The new plan is as follows: looking at the room from the kitchen door, facing the back yard…the left side of the room will be expanded about 8 feet, then there will be two steps, and then there will be a large sunroom attached to it – all open. From the left side of the room going rightward, there is a constructional division so it feels like another room, but no doorway or walkway or anything, also open. The other room goes out a few more feet than the first part of the left side, and that will still be where the couches will hang out. The far right wall, which originally is where our TV entertainment center stood, is becoming home to a new fireplace. Hopefully, we’ll get a flat screen plasma TV to hang above the mantle. Well, I’ll keep you posted on that construction, but for now, it is just an empty, lonesome room.

My social outlet...(not to be confused with "shopping with friends at an outlet mall)"

Ok, enough about dance. Lately, on Thursday nights I have been going to Neighbors. Throughout college, I never had a steady weekly friends hang out night because I was always so occupied. But for the past 3 weeks, we’ve all gone out to this bar in the Highlands called Neighbors. By “we”, I mean, Me, Becca, Rochelle, Heather, Greer, Stacey, Sarah, and at times, others. We’ll just set up shop, and other people start showing up and hanging out. It’s gotten to the point that we just go individually and assume everyone else will meet us there. It is a heavy Jew hangout on Thursdays, so you’re always likely to bump into someone you know anyway, but at our area of the patio, often there is also Robbie, Daniel, Jonathan, Brett, and always a few friends to join. It’s nice because everyone meets everyone (meanwhile, inserting a few Jewish geography questions), and it’s cheaper than an online dating service (read: Jdate). It is a nice social outlet for me too since I am the youngest one at my office, and many of the people close to my age that aren’t shipped out on site somewhere, are married, or close to it. So, I’m not exactly getting social interaction overflow at work.

This weekend, my friend Dave is getting married. I am not going to be able to attend the wedding (long story), but he is my second friend to get married this summer. It’s a teeny bit weird too, because Dave was my first real boyfriend. Eeeek…oh well, such is life.

Late night, come home Work sucks, I know...

Well hello my faithful blog readers! It’s been a while!! You guessed it; work has been taking up most of my time lately. I have been working specifically on one project for the past few weeks, pretty much non-stop, and at the end of this week, the project managers went to present it on site. I heard back today that the presentation went really well, and that they really liked some of the things that were on my plate last week. I am excited that my first major contribution went well. On another note, my mom has started prank calling me at work. It’s pretty funny, she calls and pretends to be a customer (as if I can’t recognize when she tries to disguise her voice – not to mention the Cuban accent…)

Since my last post, for the most part I have spent my days at work, and my evening doing different things. On Mondays, I go dancing. It is great. For $4, you can go and get a quality evening of dancing practice in with really good DJd lindy music. I really like going. Monday night dances are called “Hot Jam”, and for those of you who have known me for a while know that I used to usually dance on Wednesday nights, but the reason I like hot Jam better is for a few reasons: 1) it starts an hour earlier than the Wednesday dances, and it is closer to home, so I am not tired the next day. 2) it is cheaper (by $3/night) 3)Every 6 times you go, you get a free entrance 4) the music is way better.

This weekend I am doing a Balboa workshop all day, and also a dance on Saturday night. If anyone wants to join, let me know. This will all be held at Emory.

The beginning of the rest of my life.

Well, I have now officially started work. The first day for the most part was taking care of paperwork – tax forms, healthcare, my one million dollar bonus…oh wait…

They are always nice here anyway, but everyone seemed exceptionally nice on my first day. They probably all have a crapload to do and immediately realized that they had a new gofer to do their work. We went to lunch which was fun, but the day still went a bit slow. My "office" is actually a corner cubicle. Most people here have cubes except for the higher up people, and Dave, who thinks when he starts out full time that he's going to get an office. We shall see.

Today is my second day, and I've had some work to do today, but since I am not totally in mode yet, I still have a million questions. I think because I was here before, people kind of expect to be able to throw me into things…what they don't remember was that I was not a co-op, but just an intern, here for one semester. The co-ops that are starting full time start next month, so they'll probably remember more than me. They're trying to train me so that since we have a bunch of on-site things coming up, I can go ahead and be part of a site team and be useful. If I am put on site, it might mean I am gone for up to a month, maybe more. Maybe it'll be exciting though, and at least everything is paid for when I'm on the road.

On another note, I went condo shopping Sunday with Greer and her mom, and saw some great (expensive) condos, and some cute (not as expensive) townhouses. I will still wait a few months before deciding on anything, but I will most likely move to the Dunwoody area since it is close to work, close to the JCC, close to where I dance, and near a mall, and all the highways. I can't wait to have my own place. Especially since I've been living at home, I get so excited about decorating and furnishing a place of my own. I will be looking for a roommate for my place, so if you'll need a roommate any time soon, let me know =) I'm going to buy a place that has at least 2 bedrooms and two bathrooms.

I didn't realize how lonely being out of college is. I am not really friends with anyone at work since almost all of them are married and older than me, and of course my school friends are all now either out of town at new jobs or grad school, or in-town working long hours. I have been trying hard to keep up with my friends in-town especially, but "grabbing dinner" together starts to get expensive. I'll have to have a new plan soon so I can save my money to buy a place. It is nice though, not having homework at night. I can come home and do whatever I want. I say that, but really all I want to do is take a nap. Last night, I didn't even want to go out to dinner. I hope that it is just a "jet lag" of changing to an earlier wake-up time.