Surprise! I moved to Florida!

So if I thought I was behind schedule last time I posted, I'm not even sure what this is. At that time, I hadn't even SEEN the job posting for the position that I now hold. In fact, I'm pretty sure I said I was going to quit fighting the idea that Texas was going to be home for awhile. Oh how quickly life can change...

March 2010

80's night kicked of a spiral of theme parties including Beer Olympics during the closing ceremonies, Twin Night for when Maria's sisters visited, and of course St. Patrick's day. We were Team Somolia for the "Olympics" aka Team Pirate haha.



Made another trip to Austin for Renee's belated birthday party. I ran the Dallas Rock 'n Roll half marathon with my sister, Caitlin and Pete...without training. I really like running 10k's but I'm not so sure that long distrance running is my thing. I don't have the attention span for it. Monica and Rex visited Texas for the first time and we had a blast checking out the DFW area: Stockyards cattle run, margarita's at Joe T Garcias, Movie Tavern, Reata Rooftop, the chocolate shop, FW water gardens, Blue Mesa, Cattleman's steak house, etc.



Shortly after my family visited, I noticed a posting on our careers website that basically describes my dream job: manufacturing supervisor that is also responsible for continuous improvement in the area. I debated even applying for it since it was a Level 3 and I was only a Level 1, but I thought, what the heck? Updated my resume and wrote out a nice cover letter, and by the end of the month, I was on a plane to Clearwater, FL to interview. The on-program OLDP's were wonderful making sure I met everyone and got familiar with the area, and the interview went great. My mom met me in Tampa after the interview too and I fell in love with the area.

April 2010

Got the job offer and couldn't believe it! Double promotion! And moving to Florida to boot :) April kicked off with a move downtown (I signed my lease the same day that I accepted my new offer, fitting haha. Thank goodness for good company relocation policies!). My new apartment was HUGE and I loved it...for all 2 months that I had it. Saw Bon Jovi with Maria and Tres and also got to eat at the ridiculously expensive Wolfgang Puck restauarant on top of Reunion Tower in Dallas. Beautiful views of the city, and the restaurant actually spins around during dinner! NHL playoffs owned most of my free time as the Redwings made it to the second round. Went to a Tigers vs Rangers game in Arlington, and also helped paint houses with the UM alumni club. Managed to lose my camera memory card...so I have no pictures this month :(

May 2010

NHL playoffs always make me homesick, so when the Red Wings made it to the second round, I abruptly purchased a ticket home for mother's day one week in advance to surprise my mom. Pulled it off beautifully and was in the kitchen making angel food cake when she got home from work :) Got to facilitate a few events and spent a week in Baltimore, which meant getting to meet up with some DC friends for dinner and a movie. Steve Yzerman was named GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning, which made my month. We had a college reunion in Austin where Chrissy, Krista, Sprow, Melissa Medina and I all stayed with Renee for the weekend. Almost died tubing on the Guadalupe River because we didn't realize it had rapids...gave up, and went back to Austin for mojito's and Sex & the City 2 movie night haha.



June 2010

Robbie came to visit the first weekend of June, so I took some time off to show him around. Saw Billy Bob's, FW Water Gardens, Sundance Square, Happy Hour on the Reata rooftop, dinner at La Familia, got to see an F-35 test plane fly and toured the plant, caught a concert at the botanical garden, went to Eskimo Hut, and went with the OLDP's to see Wicked in Dallas. Quite a busy weekend!



Flew to Washington DC the following weekend for a conference and got to meet up with some college friends in the city. Was back for a couple days, and it was quickly my last day at Aero! Had going away celebrations, the movers came, I flew to Tampa on June 26th and started in my new position on June 28th. Oh and in there somewhere, I chopped off my hair and donated 10 inches of it to Locks of Love.



July 2010 to date

Love the feeling of being back in production. It's nuts, as all production floors are but I'm much happier than I would be in a cubicle. I have a team of 28 and we support 12 different programs...so it's quite a bit to learn all at once. Already have a couple of process improvement projects underway and I'm really loving the position even though it's exhausting. One big perk is that we actually have a 9/80 work schedule so I get every other Friday off unless we're working OT (which we are right now bc a lot of programs are ramping up, but it's scheduled months in advance as to who is covering the shift). The OLDP community has been really great and I've been to barbecues and pool parties and out in South Tampa with them. We went to a Rays game the other night and that was pretty cool, especially since there are actual sting rays in a tank above center field!



Also spent the 4th of July weekend in Milwaukee with 23 (yes, 23) of my college friends. Sarah flew back from Abu Dhabi and it triggered a huge reunion in a random city. I never would have thought to visit Milwaukee, but ended up loving it!! Beach, bar crawl, frozen custard, sand volleyball, sunshine, concerts, singing and fun with 23 UM alumni = awesome weekend! All in all, I am a very lucky, very happy girl right now :)