It looks like monthly updates are the new trend with me. I do have a great excuse though…I have yet to purchase internet at my apartment, so I don’t have access to internet when I’m most likely to update my blog and second, now that I’ve switched to the IPhone (yes, I’ve moved on from the dear BlackBerry) it’s much, much harder to type out long messages (I so miss the BlackBerry keyboard!). And you know what, even know, in a little café called Maude’s in downtown Gainesville, I still can’t get the interenet to work for more than a spurt of 10 minutes. Maybe it’s just me…
But on the update note, life during the month of June was busy! (I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures, the internet is being a pain as usual)
I traveled to Tampa, Florida to watch the US Men’s National Soccer Team play (and lose) against Panama in the Gold Cup, I’ve taken my new car in to a few auto body shops to have some repairs looked at (my car was sideswiped in a parking spot downtown one Friday night, it looks like the person dragged their car along the entire side of mine before realizing they hit anything) so I’m going through the process of dealing with my very first insurance claim on my own, and at the end of the month I flew to Kansas City for my favorite week of the year, the week which holds the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference.
Leading up to Skills was quite an experience for me as my company is the industry sponsor of the Carpentry competition at the event. This means we organize all the judges, technical committee members, and the competition itself for the 78 high school and college students that won at the state level and arrive to compete. This was a side to SkillsUSA that I had never seen, because as a student attendee, competitor, and national officer, one has no clue as to the immense amount of work industry puts in to make the event happen. Throughout June I was part of conference calls and spent days ordering various supplies needed to make the event happen.
On top of hosting the competition, the board of trustees for my company also held their meeting during the conference, meaning that I got to help a little more with the planning and coordination of their schedule. Oh, and my main purpose once I was actually at the conference was as a volunteer for Skills, working with the wonderful VIP/Media team that I’ve now been with for the past 4 conferences! That group, with our wonderful leadership from SkillsUSA, is composed of a few past national officers and we get to work with all of the government and industry VIP’s, as well as the media people, that attend the conference. It’s a great group.
Skills week is always something I take care to expand by going a little early or staying a little late. Though I was delayed about 7 hours on my way to Kansas City (so much for sailing that day) I was able to stay for a day after the conference, during which a group of us tried to sail, only to turn around immediately after we passed the breaker due to 4 foot swells that would likely have toppled us if we hadn't immediately turned around. On Saturday night, courtesy of our friend Chad, a few of us went to watch the Sporting Kansas City soccer game, in conjunction with the US vs. Mexico final for the Gold Cup. While Sporting came out on top, the US had a pretty rough defeat at the hand of one of our biggest rivals. It was a high intensity game and we left to the cheers of the Mexico supporters at the end of the game. On Sunday I had the most simple flight to or from Gainesville that I've had yet, no delays and no interruptions, getting me back in town in time to relax before having friends over for the weekly front yard yoga session that I've started to teach.
So other than preparing for Skills, attending Skills, and then doing the wrap-up work post-Skills, June was otherwise a pretty normal month. I did partake in a few more trips to the atlantic coast to go to the beach. And I over Memorial Day weekend I realized how insane the public beaches in Florida get during those holidays. To all my Californian’s out there, it’s worse in Florida, be thankful you’re on the west coast!
I’m feeling pretty well settled in Gainesville now, and only occasionally do I have to use the GPS on my phone to find places. I’ve found a yoga studio to take classes at (that I also sometimes teach at as a substitute, which is great). The bad thing is that we’re into the really hot muggy months of Florida summer now. Air conditioning, which I had always considered an optional thing that was never really used, is now a necessity. I am inside a lot here with work, but some afternoons just leaving I am amazed by the hot mugginess of it.
I hear it’s only this warm through August though, so while it is quite hot, it’s not a depressingly long period of excessive heat.
This month I get to really dive in to my ‘realm’ of projects at work, doing a lot of outreach to our youth programs and their affiliates. I’ll also be traveling to a conference in Nashville at the end of the month for a High Schools that Work Conference. I’m really excited as this is my first solo trip…wish me luck!
Now, this weekend is the 4th. We took another big group trip to the beach on Saturday, and tonight one of our friends, who’s house we refer to as the “swinger pad” (it looks like a 1990’s pad, big open rooms, angled walls and ceiling, overall an awesome place) is hosting a 4th of July barbecue which is sure to be fun. I don’t know how they shoot off or see fireworks in this part of the world as the trees limit ones view of the sky, but I’m set on finding a nice place to watch some fireworks go off on Monday.
I hope everyone has a great long weekend and happy Independence Day!
