I must extend a very heart-felt apology to all of my loyal readers during the good ole traveling days. I have no excuse for failing to entertain you during your work day or in the evenings before bed. I do not want to promise that the blog will become more regular, for fear that I may disappoint you once again.
On the other, brighter side, I have a lot to tell you about! I have been working for two months plus a few days, and, man, do I love it. Since I updated my profile (on the right side bar) today, I must explain my working situation. I graduated from Mississippi State with a degree in chemical engineering, but was hired on by a technical company to be a marketer. BUT I haven't began that job yet. I am in the tenth week of a fifteen week training program... AND it's actually a training program for sales people. In short, I am a chemical engineer that is training as a sales person to eventually work in marketing. Got it? Phew.
Training: I love my classmates. The majority (15 out of 17) are engineers, and we receive varying levels of technical presentations. We represent the country and hail from many schools. Our home states/countries include: Georgia, Florida, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Washington, Minnesota, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas(x2), Nigeria/Massachusetts, Mexico/Houston, Colombia/Miami and Panama. I have made great relationships with them all, and am not looking forward to them leaving when they are assigned to sales territories throughout the country in October and November.
I am also excited to finally live in the same state as my cousin Sarah. We grew up together, but have never spent more than a few days together. Now that we have the opportunity to become friends, we are taking advantage of it and spending time together. In fact, one night Sarah, Cate (my BFF classmate from Georgia), and I cooked dinner together and later met up with more classmates for a night on the town.
our delicious meal: grilled chicken; avocado, tomato, and
cucumber salad; grilled peaches with goat cheese
sarah, me and cate.
bridgett, adam, jairo, and cate.
betsy, cate, me, and bridgett.
In the last two months, I also had the opportunity to go to a Nats game! My friend Chris (whom at met in choir at Mississippi State freshman year) came down to watch his favorite team, the Phillies, duke it out with the Nats. I enjoyed a barbecue with Pennsylvanians and saw a great game. Chris - how did we not get a photo together?!
the nats' stadium.
Although I have been working, it is safe to say that the traveling has not ceased. I have been on overnight trips to Paulsboro, New Jersey and Baltimore, Maryland - both very interesting and probably the right length of time. I was able to travel home for Labor Day weekend - it was so nice to see my family and sleep at home. And I spent the last two weeks in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Just when I had almost lost the majority of my Southern accent BOOM! back into Southern culture with fried seafood and Cajun-Southern speakers. Gotta love it. And I did.
For two weeks I lived in a Homewood Suites and drove a VW Bug:
hah.
Quite of few of my MSU classmates now work in Baton Rouge (chemical engineers, refineries, get it?). This was a great opportunity to see several that I haven't seen since December, and meet some of their friends, who actually became my friends over the two weeks. I stayed a weekend longer to enjoy SEC football and tailgating! The day began at Kevin (an old senior design group-mate) and River's house. They are recently married and very cutely domestic already. From there a group of new and old friends began the hike to campus. After many trucks passing by, eventually a wonderfully generous LSU fan let us hop in the back and ride closer to campus.
meghan(new), paul, dustin(new), kyle(new), me, and mitch.
At the MSU Alumni tent, I found even more friends! Yay for ChemE's!
aren't we cute?
This was my first time to tailgate and watch a game at LSU. I admit that I was pretty worried, but the day turned out great - only a few people shouted "Tiger Bait" at me. When it did happen, however, I did a little dance and bowed, and the chants died down fairly quickly.
moments before the game.
I was careful to enter the stadium alone, in black no less, to find our seats and make friends before Ben entered in all of his maroon glory. This actually worked out quite well. We had excellent seats, as you might can tell from the photo, that were positioned in a family-alumni section. By the end of the game, the seventy-year-old man directly in front of me was holding his hand up to high-five after a good M-State play. No one spilled drinks on me or jeered more than the normal "Tigah Bait" chant. I won't speak of the score more than to say that LSU's kicker is pretty good.
me and ben! (senior group-mate-II)
I arrived back in DC on Sunday for two more weeks of class - on October 4th I will head down to Houston for two more weeks of on-the-job training. This assignment could not be better - Mississippi State is playing at Houston the weekend in between!
Now that I am in town for a bit, Alex (my future roommate and best friend from high school) and I have fully committed ourselves to finding an apartment before I leave town again. And what a struggle it is! We have seen four apartments so far this week and are applying for two. I am so fortunate to have such a great Uncle that doesn't mind his niece staying in his loft for a few months.. but I'm pretty sure he's looking for a boot to knock me out. Hah!
I was recently asked how my travel abroad helped me to adapt to change.. I'm not sure if I can answer that as nothing has remained constant since graduation in December. I packed up my apartment, moved home and worked for the Senator for a while, traveled to Hawaii and western Europe, mosied around the southeast visiting friends on my way to DC, moved in with Tim in the city, began work, and have traveled for business. It's time. Time for me to find an apartment, move in, begin my real, office job, and start a life here in my city.
