February, March, April...

I really have to start getting better at this whole posting thing....I wrote this all on May 10th, and now it is June 2!

My apologies for taking forever to write, again! I swear it does not feel like almost 3 months have passed since I last wrote about what was going on.

When February came, I felt like I was drowning with school work, immigration, and trying to find a new job. By early February I had applied on 43 jobs since the end of November, with very few calls for interviews. I was getting extremely discouraged. I also was not very happy where I was working part-time, so I just quit. My plan was to work my final three weeks, go on the Habitat for Humanity trip in early March with Thomas More, and then focus on my homework for the rest of the semester. We were dumped with massive amounts of assignments, all that were fairly time consuming. As for immigration, I patiently waited for my case to get approved, and as you know, it was! Yay!!! Oh, and we had about 14 Cyclones hockey games that month. Good schedule planning, right? We had 2 home games in all of January, and then bam! February comes and we were pretty much living at the rink every night.

In addition to all of this, Aaron convinced me to apply on a job that I had told him about and was hesitant to apply on because of the location. I told him that it was the last one I would apply on until closer to graduation. Well, within the hour of applying I had received an email requesting a phone interview. Four days later I had the phone interview, and a week later had an in-person interview. That afternoon I received an email stating that they wanted to bring me in to meet the VP of HR and VP of Compensation. The day before we would be heading to Florida (March 3), I went and met with these ladies. I was not sure what to think about this whole process. It was intense, compared to what I was used to, and I did not want to get ahead of myself in thinking that I would get an offer. After all the interviews, the details about the job and the company, I hoped that I would get this job. I was really excited about the opportunity.

The next morning, Aaron and I went to Fort Walton Beach as Chaperones on the Habitat for Humanity trip. Something I had participated in the two years I was at the school and the same went for Aaron. We had a great week. The girls we had in our van were fantastic, and I got to see Jerry again. I befriended Jerry on my first Habitat trip, he was like a grandpa. The grandpa I no longer had and wished was still here. He showed me how to do things around the worksite, and when he wanted a certain area worked on, he always asked for me to help him. I was so grateful for the opportunity to go on the trip again as an Alumnus and get to see him again. Not only was it great to see him, but all of the other guys, and their wives as well. I hope that I can go again another year.

Group photo before some of them head off to Louisiana.

Dinner in Birmingham, Alabama.

While in Florida, I had received an email from the hiring manager for the position I interviewed for, and she wanted me to complete another online assessment and two case studies. On the couple nights that we were free, I sat in the hallway of the church we were staying at and worked on the assessment and case studies. I submitted those to her late on the Thursday night, and then did not check my emails until we got home on the Saturday. She had responded, and she wanted to know if I would have time on the Friday to have a call with her. I felt bad for not checking my email sooner, but I figured that she knew where I was and the purpose for me being there, so I am sure she’d understand why I never responded sooner. Or so I hoped. Monday morning she reached out and offered me the position! I was ecstatic!! Things were coming together on the job front. Yay! One less thing to worry about.

The rest of March was very chaotic, so definitely felt like I was going to run out of time with things. After 4 days of running between customs at the airport, the local sheriff’s office, the vehicle registration office, and making numerous phone calls all over to different dealerships, I was about ready to just drive home and sell the car. Finally made some progress when I received the letter from Hyundai Canada that I had been waiting weeks for. Once the lady at Customs was able to complete the importation paperwork, she told me not to take too long in getting new plates and driver’s license. So, next was finding the time to read the driver’s manual so I could go write the driver’s test. I had printed the manual off in early January, so by March I was super stressed out that I had not read it yet. Also, my Canadian license was expiring at the beginning of April; therefore I had to get my Kentucky license quick.

I made it a priority a few days after getting the car imported to sit down and study. You might be wondering why I wouldn’t do it the next day, well that’s because it was a class weekend for me, and I would be sitting in a classroom for 18 hours, there was no point in reviewing a driving book when I knew information would not stick as I would be distracted with school.

Monday morning (March 20) I sat on the couch and read through the entire manual, and as soon as I finished I headed over to the courthouse to write my test. The test was pretty easy, and electronic. Very different from when I wrote my first test 20 years ago. In the next few days I was able to get back to the vehicle registration office, get another inspection done, and finally get my license plate. Interesting thing to note about the inspection, it involved a lady coming out to my car to write down the mileage and VIN number of the car, and compare it to my Canadian registration. They just check to see that it is in fact my car.

When I went to registration, they made a big ordeal about the inspection form and how the lady indicated the kilometer reading, not miles, so the registration office was trying to tell me to convert the car to miles. They said, “oh, all you have to do it just hit a button on the dashboard.” I told the lady in registration, “no, you don’t, it’s not that easy, and I am not switching the car over just so they can see the value. You can do a conversion online.” The lady from registration then followed me out to my car, and I showed her it was not as easy as she thought because she was certain her way would work. You know, I have owned the car for 5 years, and have lived in the States for almost 4 years, why would I understand my own car and how it functions?? I told them that the Dealership that I take the car to has offered for years to convert the odometer to miles, and I have declined every time. SO SURPRISE! She had to use Google to make the conversion.

At the end of March, we went to Gatlinburg for a few days with a group of Fraternity guys and their wives/fiancée. I had never been, so I was pretty excited. Other than the fact that I had to work on a paper during the day on the Saturday, we had a really great time. The cabin was nice, and we got to explore the downtown area a bit. We even did an escape room, which was a lot of fun!

I started my new job on April 10^th, and I love it! The first week was so overwhelming. Met many new people, had lots of meetings, and had brief training on some processes. Every night I’d get home and just sit on the couch and do nothing but watch TV, which does not happen often. Aaron was pre-occupied with entertaining managers all week who were in town for training, so I never saw him until the end of the week. Hate to say it, but it was nice just having time to myself to wind-down from the day. I had not worked full-time in nearly 4 years, so being around many people, learning so much and just having to be somewhere on a regular basis 5 days a week was all new to me. It has taken some time to get used to the schedule and the traffic. I sure love my weekends more now. Just wish they were not all booked up for the next few months.

Other key highlights for April…I was asked to be in Josh and Erin’s wedding. The April birthday crew (Josh, Brittany, Caleb and I) once again celebrated our birthdays together by going out for dinner and then to Dave and Buster’s for a few hours. Had a lot of fun! We went to Keeneland on Good Friday. I went to a Reds game. Aaron and I attended our first FC Cincinnati soccer game – suite tickets which were compliments of work. Very nice! We took Aaron's grandma to her first Reds game at Great American Ball Park. Had a graduation banquet with my classmates. But, most importantly, besides the new job, I completed all of my assignments for my Master’s program, and will graduate this weekend – May 13!! I cannot wait to walk across the stage. I would have never imagined that I would have a Bachelor’s degree, and now a Master’s degree.

Dave and Buster's with Brittany and Erin.

Keeneland with Jason and Katie.

FC Cincinnati

Red's game for Grandma's birthday.

Alexis and I at Graduation Banquet.

Now, from happy to sad…probably should have reversed the way I wrote this post, but I felt that it was a good way to end it…

A few nights ago I found out that my Labrador pup, Chopper, had to be put down. He was only a few days shy of his 13^th birthday. Hollie had texted me a screenshot of the post that my ex had posted on Facebook, and asked if I had saw or heard yet. I hadn’t because I have had him blocked for about 5-6 years. When I first saw her attachment, I never thought about the possibility that Chopper was no longer here. I thought it was just so I could see that he was his fun-loving self. Nobody knew, until now, that I had been creeping my ex’s Instagram posts the last 6-8 months or so. Only reason I even knew he was on there was because he tried following me, and I declined the request. Some of you know the history as to why I would do that, and others won’t, and that’s ok. That’s not the reason for this part of my post. But, when I opened the attachment and started reading what Tyler wrote, I started crying. I’m crying now as I write this. My heart broke. Aaron muted the TV and asked me what was wrong. I could not get the words out. I just handed him my phone. I could not believe it. I know that it has been years since I last saw Chopper, but for the 7 years I did have him in my life, he was the best dog anyone could have asked for. He was my best friend, and a very big part of my family. The hardest thing about leaving my ex was that I had to leave Chopper with him. I've missed him so much since I left, and thought of him often.