more showers, at least it has this past week. What crazy weather lately. One more reason I am sooooo happy not to be auditing in the elements any longer.
Where did I leave off? Oh, doing the stair climb for Leukemia and getting ready to leave for TX.
The Stair Climb was great. I am proud to say I completed the climb in 33 minutes! One thing that managed to surprise, and bring me to tears, was the pictures posted on the stairway walls, saying something along the line of "You're climbing in memory of..." So I'm headed up and up, and I get to floor 51, and I come face to face with a picture of someone I knew! His name was Al Leise. He was an usher at the Key Arena when I first started going to Thunderbird Hockey games. He was a great guy. Always ready with a joke and a smile. You could even find him working at Safeco Field during Mariner's season. I always looked forward to hockey season when I would see him. At some point in the last year or so I had heard Al passed away, through the Seattle Thunderbirds oganization, but did not know the cause. I was shocked, and moved to tears! Needless to say, the rest of the climb was emotional for me! I am going to try to recruit a partner for next year.
Trip to TX was fantastic! The weather and the getaway was just what I needed to recharge my PNW batteries. Lots of catching up and relaxing with OC and Biggin' for the first leg of the trip. Even attending a San Antonia Rampage hockey game. I might have even recruited them into getting season tickets!
Got in some girl time, walks with the dogs, and shopping in San Marcos and at El Mercado. It was much needed. Hopefully they are able to make good on some drunk promises to come up this way next year for July! (wink wink)
After leaving San Antonio, I headed up to Ft. Worth to see Rick and Philippe. Rick was a former co-worker of mine from FMCC. Another great time was had with them. We went to Fort Worth's Kimball Art Museum to tour through The Age of Impressionism exhibit. Wow! There were some great painting there. Afterwards they took me to the Fort Worth Stockyard for the running of the Longhorn bulls. I even had my picture taken while sitting on one of the Longhorns. I would NOT want to make one of those guys mad! There is so much history there. We ended up just having a relaxing evening at home that night before taking me to the airport the next day. Next to seeing good friends, the second best part was being bumped up to First Class for the flight home!
That update takes us into April...starting my spring quarter on 4/2. I didn't believe my instructor when she said that we were going to be so busy that it was going to seem like we didn't even have a spring break! Boy, was she right! We were made aware of an opportunity the school was having as an Open House event in May. And my instructor wanted to incorporate this opportunity into her lesson plan for this quarter. Essentially it was an All-day, Campus wide Open House open to the public to come by and see what programs the school has to offer i.e. the culinary program, the nursing program, massage therapists,
Certified Office Professional program, just to name a few. So that took over most of our time for April until May 17th, organizing meetings, agendas, taking meeting notes, making a logo, assignment tasks for students to do day-of, all to promote the COP program. I must say, I think our class did a great job! We received lots of compliments on our organization skills for how we had the room laid out, and on the YouTube video we made showing the skills we have learned and that the program offers. I was even featured in the video on a little piece on my 10-key skills. We had another student demo her 90 WPM skill, and then had some of the other students give testimonials to the benefits and skills they have learned thus far.
During all this, M was in and out of CA, AK and WA. The good news, we got to spend a whole 10 days together in May. Even making a trip down to OR to visit the Hoffman's to celebrate Ashley's graduation from Univ. of Phoenix. We finally got to meet our great nephew, Ben! What a cutie pie! Turned right around and drove home to meet the McL/Busta/Alvarez bunch at RTC for Mother's Day Brunch. I am told GJAB is
STILL talking about the three cheese tortellini from that brunch! Not surprising really since the little munchkin could probably eat her weight in cheese any day! If I get the internship I have put in for at the school for the Catering Director in the fall quarter, maybe I will ask her for the recipe. Then again, I told Ama that she could probably just cook the Bertolli cheese tortellini and make her own white sauce and GJAB would never know the diff.
On the M front....he is expected back home tomorrow. Just in time to buy a new lawn mower to replace the one I broke last week, in the middle of the back yard mowing. I MIGHT have gone over too many mole hills. And it MIGHT have been the blade replacement job I did on it last. The local repair shop down the street thinks I bent the shaft. But in my defence, the lawn mower was a 1998! It had a good life for this long. The repair guys were impressed it was that old. M even managed to be sent down to Panama City this last week, for the same customer he has been currently working with in San Fran. One of their boats was having problems. So M text'd me last Sunday while I was at the 'Rents, wanting me to tell RTM that at he'll "be getting paid for his trip thru the Canal." To which RTM wanted me to relay back, "Good for you, but how many bars do you get to enjoy on your boat?" All in food fun you two.
Oh, one more thing...last Tuesday, June 6, was my One year Anniversary of getting laid off. What a blessing it has been, giving me the opportunity to go to school, and not be stressed out any longer. A big thank you to ALL my family and friends who have supported me over this last year! And especially a BIG kiss to M for being my biggest cheerleader and rock of support!
This should bring us current! Stay on the look out after NEXT weekend...might have a picture of the McChicks to post. Can't post now, have to wait until RTM gets his Dad's day gift first! And will have lots to update re: graduations, births and weddings - Oh My!
TTYL~
