Welcome to 2010

Very, very behind schedule on updating...but such is life :) January flew by, and the next thing I know...it's practically the end of February! Went home for Christmas, had to come back to work during the second half of "Holiday Shutdown" because the manufacturing world doesn't shutdown...ever haha. Took a weekend to head out to Las Vegas to see Sarah before she moved to Abu Dhabi for one last hurrah. Had an amazing time and actually met up with another college friend that was in town for a conference. Looking forward to planning a trip to visit her in the UAE next fall! We're sitting on the steps in the part of City Center that she worked on, Crystals (the retail area).



Rounded out my last rotation the weekend before my birthday. Perfect present to myself: getting a life again! Went to see the Red Wings play the Stars in Dallas, and they broke my heart. Quickly rebounded with dinner in downtown Fort Worth then out to Houston Street. Woke up the next day and was on a plane to Marietta, GA for training, came back for a weekend to take the GRE and haven't really been back since.



Got to head home to do recruiting at UM. I really enjoy what I'm doing, so talking to college students is amazing. And I pulled it off so that my dad didn't know I was coming home-and I got to surprise him for his birthday! We had dinner in GR and caught a Griffins game before I had to be on a plane back the next day.



I started my new rotation with the supply chain organization, and did my first project outside of San Francisco. Got to climb around on 60 year old planes that are getting upgraded, and facilitate a Kaizen to speed up the process. The event wrapped up Thursday night and I stayed in town a couple extra days to check out the area since I'd never been. My friend Halley (she lives in SF-and we used to share a cubicle together when I interned at GM!) and I toured a few wineries in Napa and then we met up with a bunch of our friends from college for dinner and going out downtown in San Francisco.



Came home for a day and was back on a plane to San Diego for a supplier engagement event. San Diego may be the most perfect place on earth. The weather is gorgeous, people are friendly and drive fast, and did I mention the weather is gorgeous...ALL YEAR? Definitely could handle being reassigned to that area of the country haha.

Got back to town last Thursday, and actually have been in Fort Worth for a full week now. Spent last weekend reconnecting with my friends here. We found out that an 80's cover band was playing in downtown Fort Worth and promptly decided that it would be hilarious to show up at the place dressed in ridiculous 80's costumes. Made for a very eventful evening, especially when we ran into our program manager there.

I've decided to quit fighting the idea that Texas is going to be home for awhile. I don't really have the connection to Fort Worth that I'd had to DC or Ann Arbor, but for my career, it's definitely the right place to be. I'm learning so much, and the organization that I've just joined is wonderful. I'm incredibly lucky to have a dream job being as young as I am, and considering the economy right now so I'm going to savor it while it lasts. Fort Worth might not be my ideal location, but I've got a great friend base going and I've got one of my closest college friends just 3 hours away in Austin (I'm going to visit next weekend!). I'm applying for January 2011 admission to grad school at UT-Austin for a weekend program in Engineering Management, and then I'll be locked into Texas until at least 2013. It seems so far away...but I can't believe the last two years have went by as fast as they have.