My Weekend

This is one of my happy songs, circa Kate's life in 2009.

I had a fabulous, absolutely wonderful weekend. And I stayed in town too! Dothan has been very hard to adapt to, being from a city with around 800,000 people (according to Wikipedia). Dothan supposedly has around 60,000.

On Friday, I went around doing my cycle times. There are 42 machines, I have to get 3 cycles, which are about 3 minutes apiece. It should take me about 7 hours to do every machine, but it tends to take at least 10 (a day and a half of work) to time them all. Sometimes machines are down, sometimes everyone is on break and there is no machine running to time, and sometime I waste some time talking to my operator friends. I like to think I have made at least three operator friends. They are hilarious & wonderful. They have bigger dreams than what they are doing now, and I applaud them for being so driven. It's hard to go to college, get a degree, and then work in a tire manufacturing plant and be proud of that.

After work, I went to La Parilla, a Mexican restaurant, with James. It was DELICIOUS. I had a strawberry margarita, though nothing can compare to my Bama Breeze margarita from Margaritaville. And I people watched, one of my all time favorite activities. We sat at the bar and had a fabulous time making fun of other people.

Saturday, I went to the Grower's Market at the Convention Center and bought blueberries & tomatoes. I made my favorite lunch (grilled cheese sandwich) and then went out and bought myself a new camera. Best Buy was having a sale this weekend, and the cameras I had my eye on were on sale! However, they were out of all of them, so I bought an older version of a Nikon Coolpix. I haven't had a camera since March, when I lost it/misplaced it at my sorority formal (GOSH DARN IT I'M STILL UPSET ABOUT THOSE PICTURES!).

Then, I went grocery shopping, made bread pudding, ate bread pudding, and went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner and had hibachi chicken (yum.yum) and tons of red wine. Cue the UB40!

The Labyrinth at The Episcopal Church of the Nativity

Then, Sunday, I went to church. I had not been on my own since my birthday week, when I went to Holy Week and Easter services. It was wonderful to be back in the Episcopal church, which I know is my home. Everything is so familiar, no matter where I am. It gives me hope, strength, and I find solace in the tradition.

It made me miss Holy Comforter...

Sanctuary Stained Glass Window

"I will send you another comforter from the Father, even the spirit of truth." John 14:16

Too Much...

I am quite aware that I blog far too much, however, I don't really care...

Anna has, once again, introduced me to a fabulous artist, Laura Marling. AND a fabulous duo, Chris Thile & Michael Davies (check out their AWESOME SONG!) too much, I know.

Off to do my Saturday errands in preparation for this upcoming Friday! Camera, grocery store, baking, cooking, laundry. And maybe some Saturday Shenanigans :)

Also, check out Laura's song New Romantic

Dreams

Yesterday, I had a long talk with myself on the topic of dreams. Would I sacrifice a relationship for a dream? Would I sacrifice a dream for a relationship?

As I am currently single, this topic doesn't really concern me at the moment. However, in the future, if I happen to find myself in a relationship and I am offered a dream job somewhere not in the United States, what would I do? I find myself wondering what God would want me to do, because he brought me here to this moment. Had certain things not occurred last April, I would never have applied for an international internship for that same fear. However, it did and I did. And I am thrilled beyond belief to be achieving a lifelong dream of mine... I think about it every day, I worry, I get excited, and I get nervous. Why? Because I have to start over, in French!
When operators ask me what I'm doing on the plant floor when I come by their post, I tell them. Now I'm starting to think about telling them in French! It's a good exercise for me.

So, my question to you is: what would YOU do? Would you give away a perfectly stable & healthy, happy relationship for the dream/job of a lifetime? Or would you give up on your dream to stay with your perfect mate?

Food for thought.


(Also: decided to put music at the top, so while you're reading you can jam out to music! Isn't Santana's voice amazing? So jealous...)

Happiness

A happy Saturday to be sure! I am super excited and basically have decided to take over Al's wedding and plan it for her... haha, a little too eager beaver!

I've already told her I'd sing the first dance song for her... More by Bobby Darin, which is quite an amazing song:

"More than the greatest love the world has known
This is the love that I give to you, alone
More than the simple words I try to say
I only live to love you more each day..."

Or maybe I should just save my suggestion for my wedding day, if I ever find someone insane enough to want to spend the rest of his life with me... Let's be real here, I'm a bit on the crazy side of quirky... And I have stupidly high standards. So, I am content with being the cat lady, the cool aunt who doesn't marry, and adopting children from far-off countries and going where the wind takes me. Which will most probably be France. I hope.

But if I do end up getting married, I'd love to wear this on my head:

Twigs & Honey headbands

My cousin, Anna, blogged about this website and company the other month, and since then I've gone back periodically to check it out! Anna, by the by, is super cool. She is quirky, stylish, fashionable, and artsy. I've always wanted to be like her (now you know!) even though I'm older. If you know her, you understand. You wonder: HOW DID SHE GET TO BE SO FREAKING AWESOME?!

On another note, I wrote a 6 page paper last night. It was due at midnight and I started at 4:30, taking some breaks along the way. I got my grade back just now, and I got a 95. Which is a bit unreasonable because I did not think I did a spectacular job at expressing my opinion... Berini would have given me an 84, a low B. Because she is Berini and an A from Berini requires too much effort and work than I could ever have done my junior year of high school... Ah, the IB days. Pure hell.

At least it is over :) I get to see my family in 7 days and 23 hours! I am so excited, ecstatic, and overwhelmed to see them again. It's been so hard being away but I know it is just a fact of life and I will be stronger at the end of this summer for it.
Plus, I'm preparing for... FRANCE!

In other news, I finally know what it feels like to be relaxed, stress-free, and happy. Although I live alone and have little time to cultivate friendships with the few people I know, I like what I am doing. Working is the highlight of my day. I come home and I read books, which is the second highlight. And nobody at home tells me to clean my room (sorry Mom), so I usually don't.

"She walks, looks, and drives like an ace now!"
Does anyone remember when music used to be good? Beach Boys always remind me :)

Psalm 121:7-8

“The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.” Psalm 121:7-8

Sometimes we all need reminding of who is in charge & keeps us safe. I know I do.

Til Somebody Loves You

Dean Martin sang, "you're nobody til somebody loves you, you're nobody til somebody cares."
How rude, I always thought to myself, how could he say something like that? So depressing. But then I reminded myself that I am loved, by my friends, God, and my family.

Speaking of my family, my fabulous cousin Alison got engaged Saturday night to her boyfriend of almost three years, Nick. I am so excited for the two of them -- they're adorable together as well as soul mates. They complement each other, they love each other, and have made it through a long distance relationship emerging stronger & more in love. If my experiences have taught me anything, that last part is quite difficult to do. They are supposedly going to wait until Alison graduates from grad school (she'll decide soon!) to marry. I'm quite relieved, because I was going to be livid if I was in France at the time of their wedding. At least if I'm in France in 3 years, I'll have an actual job and will be able to use vacation time to attend.

Today, I discovered that I would like to pursue a career as an ergonomist. Apparently it's not a word, according to my computer, but everyone at work, even the regional ergonomist, says that's the word. But, if I want to be a professional ergonomist, I have to have my Masters or even, dare I say it!, my PhD. I do not believe I can handle longer than five years of studying... We shall see, we shall see. And by "we", I really mean me. I shall see?

Also, I just got a pinterest... I hope this thing is cool! Linkzz
I don't know HOW this works... but I hope it does.


This song describes how I feel a little bit right now :)

This is for Alison & Nick, now that they've found their someone!

"And I'll search my whole life through, until I find a love that's true, for I know that somewhere there's a someone for me!" :)

One More: Overnight

Enjoy :)

Tick Tock

I am currently sitting at one of my best friend's houses in Auburn, Al attempting to study for my final tomorrow... I have not done anything but look at Dante's Inferno, which I already know a lot about... So basically I am doing nothing but watching Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory! The original, not the crazy Johnny Depp one that somehow finds a way to scare me every time I watch it. Aren't I 21? Shouldn't I have that under control? No. I am also afraid of the dark.


I'm coming to the conclusion that summer is almost over: only one more weekend left in June, and then July comes around! The first two weekends will be spent with my family celebrating the 4th :) and then 3 weekends left before I have to move back onto the hall! Then it will be my last week of work... I'm quite nervous about finishing my internship, but all things must come to an end! It's getting closer to January with every day that passes & I am constantly listing words in English that I might want to know in French... like machine parts, etc.

I also want to let you guys know about one of my friends, Edie Wellman, who is extremely talented! I am awed by her, we met after my freshman year of high school on a mission trip, and has been playing the piano & writing music for a long time! I've posted two of my favorite songs by her, they get stuck in my head for an entire day! Her lyrics strike something in my heart. Enjoy her beautiful voice & check her out on myspace! Edie Wellman!

Today's Lunar Eclipse... ?!?

Did anyone else not get the memo that there was an eclipse today that started at 2:22 Eastern Time? I was left out... But thanks to my dear friend & previous roommate Cindy, I just read all about it on natgeo.com!

Kiev, nationalgeographic.com

Rusty Red Moon, nationalgeographic.com

Castel dell Ovo -- Italy, nationalgeographic.com

Crazy beautiful! And to think, I was inside the whole time doing ergonomic evaluations of a machine post!

Read the Story Here!

That's a time lapsed video of the eclipse -- super cool!


Also, if you can stomach it... a NatGeo link because the sun is going to hibernate?!

State of Mind

As the day of the new Harry Potter movie (and the last -- NO!) comes closer, I am rekindling my admiration for Emma Watson. She is stylish, gorgeous, seemingly mature, & inspirational. I happened across these photos of her while on vogue.com today...

vogue.com, june 2011

vogue.com, Burberry, may 2010

vogue.com, Christopher Kane, july 2009

vogue.com, Ossi Clark, july 2009

My favorite is the last one. I just feel like she would be such a great person to be around & to spend time with... and not just because she's a famous actress.


in other news, my father just called me to help him answer french trivia questions... and then he got in trouble for cheating at trivia. my life.

Fashion

Oscar de la Renta
modavenueparis.com

Giambattista Valli Spring/Summer 2009 -- style.com

Giambattista Spring/Summer 2009, style.com

Giambattista, Spring/Summer 2009 -- style.com

 Reminds me of the 50's housewives...

Giambattista, style.com

style.com

Too chic for words.

Have YOU seen my backyard?

I see goats & donkeys. Every day. They keep me up at night because that's when the coyotes come around to bother them. My favorite by far is the last one, I got home one day around their dinner time & they hadn't been fed yet. They really wanted me to bring them their food.
There are 3-4 donkeys & one baby donkey as well as 8-9 goats. I can never tell if I've counted them all or if they're all in plain sight.

Trek Planning

Voyager avec moi!

I've always dreamed of traveling... And as 2012 nears, I am getting antsy for it. I met two guys from Portugal in line for a HP ride in Orlando who told me to go to Lisbon and visit the south of Portugal to go to some beaches.

As I'm looking on the Michelin travel website... I've already found places I want to go in Portugal: Ilha de Madeira, Albufeira, and Sintra (appealing in the spring & autumn). I've got to start saving my money! This will be quite difficult.
7 months of weekends better be enough to see all I want to see!

Jewelry Obsession

Kate Spade... ever heard of her? Having the same name means we're pretty much both awesome... She's a tad more famous than myself, but she's quite wonderful... you should follow katespadeny on twitter, it can make your day better!

I'm setting some money of my paycheck aside to purchase basically her entire summer line...

Florella May Lever Back Earrings

Flower Patch Large Studs

Those last studs are my favorites. I'm currently obsessed with earrings like that. I bought 3 pairs from Charlotte Russe the other day, closest thing I could come to Kate Spade in the Dothan mall.

A Date with Destiny...

This weekend I went to Orlando, Fl. And of course, the first thing my best friend & I did was go to the wizarding world of Harry Potter...

EW.com

I am obsessed with Harry Potter books & movies... it has only been a matter of time before I made it down to Orlando to check out all the magic. Needless to say I enjoyed EVERY moment I was there. I had frozen butterbeer (ohmygosh delish) & watched other crazed HP fans walk around in 100 degree heat wearing their Hogwarts robes.... I just limited myself to riding the themed rides: the Hippogriff one, the dueling dragons, and the one where it basically feels like you're flying with Harry (my favorite, yet super scary... spiders jump out at you & there are dementors....)

After visiting the world of Harry Potter & other Islands of Adventure rides, Kay & I went to Universal Studios & rode some of the rides there & visited the Lucy museum... I'm basically obsessed with her.

Beautiful, right?

Being the legal drinking age, I also visited a place I have been longing to go since I was about 5 years old: Margaritaville. My parents had so much fun singing about it when I was a kid that I was SURE it had to be a fun place!

central-florida-magazine.com

And what do you know, it was fabulous! I sat on the Porch of Indecision, listened to a guitarist/singer play Jack Johnson & Jimmy, and had a marvelous margarita called a Bama Breeze which had:
"Margaritaville Premium Jamaican Silver Rum
Vanilla Rum
Orange Juice
Island Oasis Mango
and Coconut Mix"

it tasted like heaven. a perfect end to a perfect day.

Continuous Observations

I have described my job as: watching other people do their jobs, taking notes on how they do their jobs, and analyzing how they can do their jobs more efficiently. It's a daunting explanation that really makes no sense. But I'm an industrial & systems engineer, we tend to not make sense. Below is an image of basically anything I might ever do with my degree.

Today I did a continuous observation -- I basically stood at one machine post and watched an operator do his job from 6:50 am to 4 pm while I pressed buttons onto my PDA application (Work Study). I ate my two morning meals & my lunch & one of my afternoon snacks with him. If you've ever gone through recruitment or rush, you can get a sense of what it means to stand up all day on an uncomfortable floor without the ability to sit down after you've gotten basically no sleep the night before. Add whirring sounds, the smell of rubber & chemicals, having an awkward space to stand in... And it's like a day at the beach! The nice thing about working on a plant floor is that it's slightly inconvenient to talk. You get good at reading lips, body movements, signals, and head nods. The bad thing is that you only have your own voice in your head.... That is not good for me.

Today I thought about tattoos, piercings, marriage, children, Orlando, Harry Potter, Peggy Lee, Bobby Darin, The Beach Boys.... and more. I had conversations with myself, I talked about how I was going to write this blog.... 9 hours is a long time to hear yourself speak.

On tattoos: you are not allowed to wear metal on the plant floor, so if I ever get married, I won't be able to say 'hey, you forklift operator, don't try and flirt with me I'm married!' with a huge engagement ring & a wedding band. And I can't exactly say that either because I'll say it 15 times before whoever it is I'm speaking to will register my words... I end up not saying anything after the 2nd time -- "No no, it's not important... Excuse me sir, YOUR SHOE IS ON FIRE. Not important..."

So, to display that I am married, IF i happen to marry, I'm thinking about getting a tattoo on my ring finger in the shape of a band. But I cannot bring myself to put a needle close to my skin willingly & not in the name of medicine.

ORLANDO tomorrow!

The song I was singing almost all day... One of my FAVORITES! Louis Prima & Keely Smith -- Jump Jive & Wail

Nunc Est Bibendum!

If you don't know, I am currently the one & only intern for Michelin North America's US-4... The Dothan plant. It's a small company, don't know if you've heard of it. We make tires...

 

The phrase "Nunc est bibendum" is rumored to be first spoken by Marc Antony to Cleopatra after a defeat in battle. Translated from Latin: "Now is the time to drink." Michelin has made this phrase into: "Now is the time to drink it up!" The Bibendum is the "marshmallow man" in the tire commercials, lovingly called Bib at times. He is white because when the Michelin brothers began to make tires, the rubber was white, not the black that we see today. The cup that Bib holds in his hand represents the obstacles that the Michelin tire can out-stand & the competitors (to the left & the right) cannot.

My father is absolutely obsessed with the history of the Bibendum, he read an entire book that I gave him in one day, while he was supposed to be helping me move out of my dorm room. I will say, it made me happy to see him so interested in a company that I love.

"Cheers, the Michelin tire drinks up obstacles!"

He looks slightly terrifying, doesn't he?

Family

Three in one day... But I really miss my family. My mother and I are the queen of expressions. (it's not extremely flattering, but I can't always be perfect haha)

We are not a good bananagrams group.

Carolina In The Spring

My uncle is a photographer -- he's amazing! This is in his front yard in Charlotte. The azaleas are beautiful this time of year, we have pink and white azalea bushes in our front yard also, my mother is obsessed. My grandmother (my mother's mother) loves flowers. My mom tells stories about how her & her four brothers (the photographer included) would be in the car with their parents on a road trip, driving for hours and hours up north to New Hampshire or Boston or Chicago or Olds, Iowa. Then, grandmother would see flowers on the side or in the middle of the road that she liked & she made my grandfather pull over & stop so she could pick them. That is one of my favorite stories about my mother's parents. Love like that is hard to find these days. (my grandmother is below with the red hair, I believe)

 This one is of the wysteria, beautiful but deadly to the tree that it climbs in my aunt & uncle's front yard.

I miss the beauty of springtime in Charlotte.

The Smell of Rubber

If you work in a manufacturing plant, you hear, see, and smell all types of things.

I see machines, people walking around, forklifts, and tire carcasses. I hear whirring, beeping, honking, people yelling.... and I smell rubber.

Rubber has a distinct smell. Every morning I leave my office, walk down the hallway, down the stairs, stop at the doors and take a deep breath. I open the fire doors, walk down the hall, and push open the doors to the plant. And want to gag. I'm never ready for the onslaught. It attacks my nostrils and my brain cannot seem to handle it.

My job is far from fabulous. Along with the lovely smell, I wear steel toed safety boots, safety glasses, and ear plugs. While I could not seem to find pink or purple or blue boots, I DID manage to get pink prescription glasses!

That's what they look like for the most part, but pink with plastic shields on the side. (These glasses go for $94 on etsy!)

However, I will say wearing jeans to work every day is fabulous! It's kind of a free-for-all for us women IE's (there's only one other female besides myself). I wear sleeveless tops before Friday, which according to my mother is unacceptable (GASP!). It's slightly upsetting because I've spent basically years building up my wardrobe for the office -- buying dress pants from The Limited, shoes from Nine West, etc, etc and now being told that I shouldn't wear that... Rubber stains.