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  The challenging today: My new car of two months got hit by a (presumably drunk) hit-and-run last night at Bryan's house while we were out to dinner. I don't even want to include the photo we took. And Nick texted me while I was in class. My whole being dropped and my heart jump-started into panic. Also, my boss at KSC was a little sassy with me this morning over things outside my purview and control. I think she's projecting or redirecting, but it didn't feel good. The good today: The folks at Gerber Auto Collision were super helpful and friendly. So was the Adjuster I had from my auto insurance (Brandon from Connect), who was genuinely trying to make my life a little better, I felt. Those wonderful Wisconsin midwesterners. The folks at Gerber even drove me to Enterprise. And the Enterprise folks... so good to me, too. I had such a good experience, and they let me transfer my appointment from the other location over to them. And they called and followed up to make sur...

July 9th, 2024: Since I have hour long rides to and from work now, I might have more posts. Although they will definitely have more typos, because I have to talk into my phone to write them.  Flew back into Orlando this morning from Milwaukee. Went back home for the 4th of July to see the whole family. Brian, Michelle, Savannah, and Skylar all came over from LA for the holiday, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to see everyone.  It was a great trip, if a bit busy. It's always busy. When isn't it busy? But I did find some time to just walk around the park and see my friends. I just kind of told everyone I was doing it, and no one made a fuss. Except for Lea, who seems to think that she is helpful by telling me that I shouldn't do things and should just hang out with her instead. We did a lot of things, and I loved seeing my nieces, especially Skylar. I adore that little girl. But it became too much children often. When it was just two of them, it was manageable; ...

I did something I'm really proud of today. At work, I had to break down the science behind the sound, light, and fog of an engine I'm short, one sentence blurbs at a sixth grade reading level. And I also had to write a graphic about rocket engine test fires.  Do you know how complicated those things are? They're literal rocket science. Everything else I've talked about so far has been pretty easy to distill down into simple talking points, but not those things. I spent all day today and half of yesterday researching them, and I could not wrap my head around them. Nothing online broke it down or explained the terminology, and different sources explained it differently, meaning that I had a bunch of unreliable sources. It's not this often that I feel unintelligent, but this did.  Despite this, I somehow managed to break it down and come up with a sentence describing each thing that I thought was pretty good. I shared it with Cole, our resident subject matter expert on...

A big weight off my chest. My breath is finally coming easily.  5 days into our vacation and I finally sit with relief. There aren’t many left, but 2 is better than none. This is how I felt when I was in the car on the way down, right before I called my auto insurance and accidentally spiked it $400 by asking a question. It triggered a weeklong series of car problems, ranging from budget planning (and budget panicking) to registration renewal confusion and DMV website issues. And at the end of the day, most of it was a non-issue, so I felt like I expended all this time and energy on nothing, detracting from what I could have given to my trip. But… I learned a lot in the process. I’m more prepared than I was before, although I wish it hadn’t all happened when I was on vacation. I don’t know what it’s like to not have a stressful vacation, and I don’t know that I ever will. I need to figure out how to still be happy despite chronic unexpected frustrations. This might be time to talk ...

  Some photos from when Dad and I stopped in Tennessee on the way down to Florida from Wisconsin in May 2023 Just got off a 2 hour phone call with my Dad. It was one of, if not the best, conversations I think I've ever had with him. I called him because I was really upset with my mom re: how she responded to my telling her I didn't get the WDI job.  There are far too many things to mention, so I'm breaking them down into bullets: The (WDI) Job: Of note: his reaction was a totally perfect, normal reaction. He kept reacting to the crazy feedback the recruiter gave me and asked a lot of questions.  He agreed that the recruiter didn't make any sense and it didn't make any sense. He also agreed that I should reach out to another recruiter and try to connect with them. He said it sounds like something is really off inside the department, maybe with leadership, and this might not have been the right time or opportunity. It might have been a good omen  He also said somethin...

These are the plants in my life these past two days (as I volunteered at Leu Gardens): Saw Palmetto Palms (the only native palm in Florida) Lady Palms (these are the suckers that travel underground and attach themselves to each other, making them near impossible to pull out. I've also been informed that they make very popular houseplants) Sword Fern? Camelia Groves This was my favorite one A bunch of crazy Bromelias (it *almost* makes it worth getting them, but not quite) This yellow blooming tree next to this regular tree Honorable mention: my new favorite flower -- the Bush Lily

Disney purgatory.            Writing purgatory.                          Job purgatory.  I feel like I've finally climbed to the top of the treehouse. Now I'm standing on the highest deck, looking out above the trees at the horizon, waiting to see if I'm getting a room in the house... or stepping onto the rope elevator back to the ground. It feels so close to one of them. This week is going to take forever.  It's really a 50/50 feeling. Maybe they'll accept me... maybe they won't. I'll have gotten all the way to the very end, and then let go. Let loose back in the cold, hard world of unemployment. The other Disney job, Stacy's old CT one, is still in the air; but Amy's also in the running, and I doubt I can outperform her. Although I do have Stacy's gold-star recommendation behind me, so I'm not going to give up.  Hopefully, it doesn't go that far, though. Hopefu...