Wednesday, July 30, 2008

July Updates

Whew! July came and went! Started off with a bang (bum dum, ching! (actually won't be the last drum reference of this post)) and is ending on some good notes. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I give you, July:

- American Airlines, if you read this, can I please give you one tinsy, tiny, bit of advice. Could you please advise you Customer Service staff that you cancelling a flight does not constitute someone saying to me, "Oh, you missed your flight." Seriously, Ingrid, my lovely Customer Service Ticket Rebooking Agent, wherever you might be, remember what we talked about. Because I show up late for a cancelled flight transfer does not mean that you can say, "Oh, you missed your flight". Ingrid and I bonded in those few minutes of back and forth discussing the definition of "Oh, you missed your flight" and I hope, in all seriousness, she is doing well and hasn't subjected anyone else to "Oh, you missed your flight".

- The flights from LA back to Rochester were interesting. My transfer in Chicago was cancelled due to weather which led to Jeffrey staying overnight there. Thankfully though, my Uncle Joe and Aunt Chris brought me to there house and let me stay the night there. BIG THANK YOU AGAIN! Don't know if I could have kept myself away from the awesomeness of Ingrid while there. While there at their house, I did become a temporary Pampered Chef employee. It was the least I could do for their hospitality. My Aunt Chris is a Vice President in the organization and was planning their big conference so I chipped in with some administrative help. Hope it went well!!!!

-Interruption to the updates, there is rockin good lighting storm going through the area right now. In my new apartment (which I'll explain in a second) I put my computer right in front of one of the windows and now I have a great view of all these storms passing through. I used to sit on the front porch of the building I lived in, but this ain't half bad. Just need to change the song playing on my Ipod right now, AC/DC "Thunderstruck". But I love a good thunderstorm! My house one day will definitely need a big porch where I can read and watch these things come rollin on through.

-I got a promotion in Residence Life here at RIT. Instead of working with undergraduate staff, I now work with graduate student staff. This also meant that I have to switch apartments. At first, wasn't a 100% sold on the apartment. Now being just one set of eyes, I was honestly worried about making it look nice. It's tough! I was in Target picking out shower curtains. It came down to a nice striped color pattern and one that had a comical drawing of the layout of the earth. I had to put the earth back. Thanks to Nick, Melissa, Lisa, John, Amanda, and Sherill who came over tonight for the design support. Haven't hung up the wall pieces I bought but they thought the pieces would look nice in the apartment:-) Phew!

-With all the changes going on, I had to do a little something for myself. You've hopefully by now seen the old picture of me playing the drums in that stylish outfit. Well on one of the shopping trips, I took a right instead of going straight and ended up in Guitar Center's parking lot. 15 minutes later, I was the proud owner of a new electronic drum set. I freakin' love this thing and it brings back a lot of good memories of those drum lessons, CCHS band, and the Contemporary Music Ensemble.

-I've also mentioned before that I get to have some amazing experiences in this job. Tonight was another one to add to the list. The people mentioned above all came over to watch Project Runway ("Holla at ya boy" I too can't believe I just typed those words, but I also can't believe they came out of Tim Gunn's mouth). The John in that list is John Nolan, Lisa's husband. John works over at GM in Rochester where they research fuel cell technology. One of the perks of his job is that he gets to take one of their four fuel cells cars home with him every now and again. Tonight they ended up driving it over here and after the show was over, Lisa pops up with, "Hey Jeff, want to drive it?" I was like, "Hell Yea!" (It would have been perfect to say, "Holla at ya boy" but I couldn't think that quickly on my feet). So I got to add driving one of only 180 fuel cell cars in America to the list of cool experiences. Thanks to them for that opportunity!

That's pretty much July in a nutshell. Hope things are well wherever you might be reading this.