Lots of things to talk about right now. First, I feel like I should mention that I am currently sitting in my local Apple store because of Murphy's Law decided to strike on Thursday but I'll get to that.
This past weekend, I got to go to DC to spend time with some of my favorite people. It was a quick trip but definitely a necessary one. I got to spend a whole day with the wonderful Campbell which was a lot of fun even with the rain. Big Boy Campbell and I had never really spent time together so discussing things like how Lizzie and I are sisters like he and Reagan are brothers was extremely entertaining. I wish I had more time to spend with his big brother but I know that I will make this happen on a visit and will not wait quite as long to go back.
I forgot how much I really did love DC. I say that all the time but now I realize that I still don't really want to live there, it's a little too humid for me, I like my summers warm but not sticky. I don't do sticky. It was nice having public transportation all weekend and not worrying about parking and such.
So now getting to why I am sitting in the Apple store. I am taking a Web Development class this summer. It is scary and intense and will be essentially a full time job all summer. I came back from DC and continued to finish the prework I was supposed to complete prior to my course starting, everything was good for about two days. I planned to finish the rest of my work on Wednesday but my computer had other ideas. Long story short, my hard drive crashed, I'm an idiot and didn't have everything backed up so I had to have the whole thing recovered in addition to a new drive installed.
My computer should be ready Monday or Tuesday but that still means a fair amount of school time without all the programs I need. I do have the best mother and sister ever though. Both of them have lent me their computers (well Lizzie's old one) so I could try to make them work. Hence, the second trip to the Apple store this week, to update the operating system on my mom's computer. It is taking what feels like a million years to install but slowly but surely, I will make this happen. Seriously, my mom is the best though, she didn't have to lend me her computer let alone let me make all these changes to it but she is because she loves me and doesn't want my head to explode.
This is going to be an interesting summer and apparently I will be reflecting on it online but I haven't decided if it will be here or somewhere else. If it is somewhere else, I will post the link but I might want to keep the two separate.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Sunshine Blinds You If You Stare
So I guess I will start off by saying that as of yesterday, I have been a big sister for over 21 years which is pretty solid. My sister kinda rocks. Seriously, she's great.
Now on to life updates:
Is it possible to be ready for a career change without ever really having a career? Well, it's starting to look like I am. I have been trying to teach myself code off and on for a while but now I am actually trying to stick with it. I spent a few hours working on it today and will do more tomorrow and so on, until I can get this down. I am looking for a boot camp program where I learn A LOT in a very short amount of time (between 9 and 12 weeks) so I can leave being a Jr. Developer. I'm realizing now that at 18, I had no idea what I wanted, very few people really do but we are all expected to have found our path by then. Well, at least the path to take us to a midlife crisis change. I've always liked computers and making things happen yet I was too afraid of failing to take the risk and study it in college. Turns out that it may not have done me much good taking that route anyway but now, I think this is what I want to be doing.
More updates include a few interviews I had over the past few weeks. I interviewed at two very similar companies only to realize that I didn't want to be doing the job they had to offer. If I thought I could tough it out for a year, I would have pursued it but then I would be back where I am now in a year. This was really the catalyst for changing career objectives.
I had a phone interview this morning which was really nice. I wasn't sure I wanted the job when I found out I had the interview, but I thought the location was great and figured it couldn't hurt to see what they had to say. In the end, I would really like to see this one through, it could be the right stepping stone for right now.
Speaking of location, I took a road trip to Northern California last week. I didn't have work due to the local school district having "Ski Week" so my friend asked if I wanted to go play tourist in San Francisco, so we had a great time. She is currently on assignment in Southern California and since she was only here for a few months, she wanted to try to get in a trip up north while she was here. It was a lot of fun because I don't always feel like I can go and play tourist up there because so many of my friends live there and I have been a handful of times. I think I am now in love with the city. It combines so many of the things I love about both LA and DC that I am leaning towards a move up there if I can swing it at some point. I'm 24, now's the time to move and make changes right?
After the weekend in San Fran, I spent the next 36ish hours in wine country with one of my oldest friends. My coworker and I always joke that we fail to act our age but I actually had an adventure and went wine tasting. I think I will need to work on my tasting abilities if I go again in the future, I'm not sure I appreciated it as much as I should have.
The end of the trip was spent in Berkeley just spending time with a friend I missed very much. I got to see some of the town but was honestly just more interested in catching up and hanging out. I left early the following morning to have an exploratory meeting about a company that I would love to work for and then after a quick stop in Santa Cruz to see yet another friend, I started the long journey home.
I really want to plan a really solid road trip with friends that included some white water rafting and maybe a skydive or something but we shall have to wait and see when the timing works out.
This was a lot more than I had intended to write but I want to go now and see if I can manage a little more code learning before bed.
Now on to life updates:
Is it possible to be ready for a career change without ever really having a career? Well, it's starting to look like I am. I have been trying to teach myself code off and on for a while but now I am actually trying to stick with it. I spent a few hours working on it today and will do more tomorrow and so on, until I can get this down. I am looking for a boot camp program where I learn A LOT in a very short amount of time (between 9 and 12 weeks) so I can leave being a Jr. Developer. I'm realizing now that at 18, I had no idea what I wanted, very few people really do but we are all expected to have found our path by then. Well, at least the path to take us to a midlife crisis change. I've always liked computers and making things happen yet I was too afraid of failing to take the risk and study it in college. Turns out that it may not have done me much good taking that route anyway but now, I think this is what I want to be doing.
More updates include a few interviews I had over the past few weeks. I interviewed at two very similar companies only to realize that I didn't want to be doing the job they had to offer. If I thought I could tough it out for a year, I would have pursued it but then I would be back where I am now in a year. This was really the catalyst for changing career objectives.
I had a phone interview this morning which was really nice. I wasn't sure I wanted the job when I found out I had the interview, but I thought the location was great and figured it couldn't hurt to see what they had to say. In the end, I would really like to see this one through, it could be the right stepping stone for right now.
Speaking of location, I took a road trip to Northern California last week. I didn't have work due to the local school district having "Ski Week" so my friend asked if I wanted to go play tourist in San Francisco, so we had a great time. She is currently on assignment in Southern California and since she was only here for a few months, she wanted to try to get in a trip up north while she was here. It was a lot of fun because I don't always feel like I can go and play tourist up there because so many of my friends live there and I have been a handful of times. I think I am now in love with the city. It combines so many of the things I love about both LA and DC that I am leaning towards a move up there if I can swing it at some point. I'm 24, now's the time to move and make changes right?
After the weekend in San Fran, I spent the next 36ish hours in wine country with one of my oldest friends. My coworker and I always joke that we fail to act our age but I actually had an adventure and went wine tasting. I think I will need to work on my tasting abilities if I go again in the future, I'm not sure I appreciated it as much as I should have.
The end of the trip was spent in Berkeley just spending time with a friend I missed very much. I got to see some of the town but was honestly just more interested in catching up and hanging out. I left early the following morning to have an exploratory meeting about a company that I would love to work for and then after a quick stop in Santa Cruz to see yet another friend, I started the long journey home.
I really want to plan a really solid road trip with friends that included some white water rafting and maybe a skydive or something but we shall have to wait and see when the timing works out.
This was a lot more than I had intended to write but I want to go now and see if I can manage a little more code learning before bed.
Friday, January 18, 2013
I'm a, I'm a-a diva (hey), I'm a, I'm a a diva
Forgive me, it's been a while. I am starting this post at about 11:25 on January 17th and it will be one that will be overindulgent on feelings and just me in general. My birthday starts in 35 minutes, which is part of the reason I am still awake after a mentally challenging day.
I love my birthday, I try not to since I guess that is the appropriate thing to do but as Lizzie called me earlier, I am a Birthday Diva. There have been some I have been really sick for (the plague of having a birthday that falls shortly after school starts again), some not so great ones, and some that I have spent exactly how I wanted to.
I love the nice little things that people are kind enough to do for me, having little cousins sing happy birthday, the phone calls, the personal messages, the cakes and the time people take out of their day to acknowledge it.
I have been reflecting on the last year, trying to figure out if I really accomplished anything. I have a part time job that I love and I feel like I am making at least a small difference there. I don't know if my friendships have gotten weaker or stronger from the changing distances that have been increasingly cemented over the last year. There is still so much uncertainty and a lot of me still feels very stuck and unchanging. It's hard to be the one who doesn't seem to change when everything else around you is.
I planned as full a day as I could for tomorrow because I know I will need to keep myself distracted from the one thing that really changed this year. January 18, 2012 was the last time I was able to see one of my favorite people ever alive and fairly well. My grandmother passed away less than a week after my birthday and I had gone to see her in the hospital. Everyone who knows me well knew what a rough blow this was and a year later, it's a little easier to talk about but I miss her everyday and think of her through all the little habits she taught me. She had great joy in using her rewards card at the end a grocery check out rather than the start because she loved watching the price drop and seeing her couponing success. She was the original extreme couponer.
So tomorrow, I will be a huge Birthday Diva, and that's just the way it's going to be.
I love my birthday, I try not to since I guess that is the appropriate thing to do but as Lizzie called me earlier, I am a Birthday Diva. There have been some I have been really sick for (the plague of having a birthday that falls shortly after school starts again), some not so great ones, and some that I have spent exactly how I wanted to.
I love the nice little things that people are kind enough to do for me, having little cousins sing happy birthday, the phone calls, the personal messages, the cakes and the time people take out of their day to acknowledge it.
I have been reflecting on the last year, trying to figure out if I really accomplished anything. I have a part time job that I love and I feel like I am making at least a small difference there. I don't know if my friendships have gotten weaker or stronger from the changing distances that have been increasingly cemented over the last year. There is still so much uncertainty and a lot of me still feels very stuck and unchanging. It's hard to be the one who doesn't seem to change when everything else around you is.
I planned as full a day as I could for tomorrow because I know I will need to keep myself distracted from the one thing that really changed this year. January 18, 2012 was the last time I was able to see one of my favorite people ever alive and fairly well. My grandmother passed away less than a week after my birthday and I had gone to see her in the hospital. Everyone who knows me well knew what a rough blow this was and a year later, it's a little easier to talk about but I miss her everyday and think of her through all the little habits she taught me. She had great joy in using her rewards card at the end a grocery check out rather than the start because she loved watching the price drop and seeing her couponing success. She was the original extreme couponer.
So tomorrow, I will be a huge Birthday Diva, and that's just the way it's going to be.
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