CEOs

It seems like every phone number I am given to call is for a CEO or CTO or some other high up person in the company.  Granted, the companies aren't necessarily very big, but it's still intimidating to talk to this person.  I was on a conference call a few weeks ago where it was the CEO, CTO, and two senior engineers (all male) on the other end and only me from my company.  Talk about intimidating.  They kept asking me questions that I didn't know the answers to and I felt like a complete and total idiot.  I can't imagine whats running through their heads.  While all of them have been nice and willing to help and put me through to the person I need, I wish I just had that person's number in the first place.

On another note, I got to skype with my 14 month old nephew the other day.  And by skype, I mean he was running around the room while my sister was following him with the camera and every once in a while he'd look at the camera.  It was so cute though.  At first, he wasn't sure what to make of it.  He kept making faces of "I hear Aunt Maria but where is she?" and he was confused when he saw me on the screen but by then end he loved it and gave me kisses on the camera and the screen.  We have determined that he knows who I am on the phone but I like it better when I can actually see him respond to me (he's not really talking yet so every communication is visual).  Found pictures!!!

Beginning of conversation - he was still a little skeptical.

 Figuring it out - this was right before he gave me kisses.  He smiled when he heard my voice!

 He got the chair to himself and figured out the back rocks/moves.

Midland, MI

This weekend, I went to visit my interviewer and her family in Midland, MI.  It's about a 2 hour drive from here and it's mostly a 55 mph 2 lane (one each way) road the entire way.  I got there around 11 Saturday morning.  Just in time to watch  the end of the soccer game.  We had grilled cheese for lunch an then one of the other PSU alum/recruiters came over with her 18 month old son and the two little ones played while we watched the other game.  Then a quick dinner of fajitas and off to the Loons game.  The Loons are Midland's minor league baseball team and they play at Dow Diamond.  It's right outside of the Midland plant (Dow HQ) so I got a little overview of the plant from the outside.  At the game we almost got hit by 2-3 foul balls.  The the wind was blowing so hard towards us after the game during fireworks that we were getting rained on by the cardboard outer casings of the fireworks.  I didn't know I needed to bring my PPE (personal protective equipment - in this case safety glasses) to the game!  Today was watching the morning soccer game, a picnic lunch, then trying to drive back to HB in torrential downpour!  It was a really fun weekend! 

No Cats Allowed in the Plant!

So, my roommate Kristy and I are walking to work this morning.  We live on a corner.  The plant is a block north and a block east - a total of 3 minutes.  The post office is right across the street from the plant.  We usually just cross the street whenever we feel like it because there aren't ever any cars.  Well today, we're walking down the road and Kristy sees a cat.  Not really odd though because people around her let their pets (and 4 year old children) be alone in the yard for hours on end.  So we continue our walking - not really acknowledging the cat or anything.  Well, it starts following us.  It follows us across the street and as we're walking along the sidewalk, it's walking along the curb like a kid - on the curb, off the curb, on, off, etc.  I guess it's a good thing that there aren't ever any cars because it probably would have been hit by one.  Anyway, we walk across the parking lot to the security gate to badge it.  The cat hesitated at the end of the sidewalk but ultimately ran to catch up with us.  Now we don't know what to do.  Obviously we don't want it to follow us into the plant but we can't just stand here with it.  So I go into security to tell them that a cat is trying to follow us to work.  They laughed and told us that the cat had tried to go home with someone earlier this morning.  Good, it wasn't just us.  In the meantime, a few other people showed up and it went over to one of them and laid down like it wanted to be pet by her.  We quickly badged in and went to our desks before the cat could realize that we were gone.

Now, every morning the engineers gather in the lunch room for the morning.  It is just an update as to what has happened in the plant and what we expect to happen that day.  The last questions is "Anything for the roundtable?"  Well one of the guys asks if anyone else saw the cat outside the plant this morning and Kristy and I looked at each other and started laughing.  Then he proceeded to say how it actually followed him into the plant and was over by one of the chemical tanks and they couldn't get it to leave.  Glad it wasn't just us!

Now, we don't actually know what happened to the cat.  We do think it is someone's pet, but we don't know whose.  I plan on asking security tomorrow when we get there because I kind of want to know what happened to it.

Father's Day

This year is the second year in a row (and ever) that I have been away from my dad on Father's Day.  Last year he was planning on coming to Erie on his motorcycle for the weekend to visit, but the weather was bad so he didn't come.  Understandable.  This year, he had surgery on Friday so he was not able to come.  Now I knew this surgery was coming and it wasn't anything major, but I was still worried.  I spoke with him yesterday and he just didn't sound like himself (as is expected a day after surgery).  However, I spoke with him this morning and he sounded 100 times better!
Because of this, this entire weekend has been kind of stressful - a lot going through my mind.  Whenever this happens, I always pull out my KAIROS folder and read through everything.  For those of you who don't know, KAIROS is a retreat I went on senior year of high school.  It means "God's time."  Something special in that folder is a poem my dad wrote me called "What makes you smile".  I'm not going to re-write the whole poem - just some of it.

 Are you wondering what I speak of?

Not if you've pleasured there yourself

Yet there's nothing to remind you

Unless you've met this little elf

It matters not the age

Be it forty or just seven

The only way to describe it

Is "a little bit of heaven.".

If you've known  it for a lifetime

Or for just a little while

be she 40 or just seven

It's you little girl's smile

If you're the daughter or the father

Know the value in this smile

She giving great enjoyment

He holding gold for just a while.

Every time I read this poem, I can't help but smile.  It always lifts my spirits.

Because I could not be with my dad, I made it a point of saying "Happy Father's Day" to every man I saw today.  Every time I said it, the man would smile and say "Thank you".  I'm sure some of them didn't get to see their sons and daughter's today, but I hope that by me saying those three little words, I made their day better.

Knitting

I learned how to knit a few summers ago.  My grandma used to teach me how to crochet when I would go visit during the summer.  Every summer, she had to start teaching me from the beginning.  The farthest I ever got was making a really long chain.  The last summer I went by myself to visit, she decided to teach me how to knit.  I was really excited about that because I already knew the basic knit stitch from my friends teaching me on the bus.  That summer I learned how to cast on, knit, purl, and bind off.  Every once in a while over the past few years, I would pick it up again.  This past year, I found I was really stressed and had a lot on my mind and I started knitting again.  I have also taught myself to do some more complicated things so I wasn't limited to making scarves and roll brim hats.  In the past few months, I have started and finished a couple hats, a blanket for my sister-in-law who is due to have a baby girl at the beginning of July, and the project I just finished today - a small purse/backpack.  This backpack was the most complicated thing I have made yet and I'm glad it's finally finished.

I now currently have 3 more projects going - a hat for my nephew to match the one I made my sister (it's lime green), a hat for my niece that is multi-colored, and a hat for myself that is striped navy blue and white for PSU.  The hat for me is the first time I am changing colors during a pattern.  So far, so good.

Possible Road Trip

So, three years ago in June 2007, my step-sister Jenna got engaged.  Chad, her fiancee, was traditional in the sense that he thought the woman should plan it and he will just show up.  Well, Jenna lacks motivation and didn't think she should have to plan it all herself.  Needless to say, planning never really started.  In September 2008, we found out Jenna was pregnant.  Because she was due in April, they wanted to try and get married before she go too big to look nice.  Well, despite trying to plan something quick then, it never happened.  Well somehow this past Monday, they decided they were going to plan a wedding in the Outer Banks, NC for August.  There were two weeks and the one that happens to work for Chad's parents is the same week I am "home".  Somehow this entire thing has come together since Monday and, while there is a chance something will happen and it all has to be canceled, I have a feeling that everything is going to happen this time.
So, this "home" time.   I am done work in Michigan on Friday August 6th.  I go back to school for WEPO the 17th. This gives me 10 days for myself.  Well, it did.  Now instead of letting it take me 2-3 days to drive home and see friends along the way.  I will be spending those three day's driving basically non-stop from Michigan to home then to NC.  I'm done work at 11:30 on Fridays so after lunch on 8/6 I need to pick my mom up in Detroit on my way home.  Then we're driving as far as we can and spending the night and hopefully getting home early afternoon on Saturday.  Early Sunday morning we will leave for OBX and be there until that Friday.  Sometime in there will be the wedding.  And oh yeah, I have to take a final exam in there somewhere.  Come home so the store can be open on Saturday.  Then have the rest of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at home.  And in that time frame of 2.5 days, I have a list of doctors appointments and friends to see along with packing both my car and my  mom's car before I leave Tuesday morning.
Wow, I'm even more excited for August to come now!!!!!  And just for you Brandi...2 months until WEPO!!!!!

Songs and Memories

Have you ever been listening to a song and all of a sudden found yourself crying.  That happened to me tonight.  One of my favorite songs is "Come on Get Higher" by Matt Nathanson.  Well, I was listening to a Sugarland channel on Pandora and this song came on but Sugarland singing it.  By the way, I love Sugarland!!!  Just the song and the way she/they sing it brought back a lot of memories.  I'm not sure why those memories are the ones that came back though.  Anyway, they're from a time I want to go back to.  Before everything started being stressful.  Before college.  Back when I saw my family every day.  Back to the beginning of senior year of high school.  Back to a time that will always have a special place in my heart.  Thinking of that time in my life brought back memories that I'm sure will always make me cry.

"Is it the outlook?"

At a little after 8 this morning, my Outlook e-mail stopped working.  I could send messages but couldn't receive.  After the morning meeting, I contacted the help desk.  After previous experiences with help desks, I was glad Dow has an option of chatting online - basically instant messenger.  I opted for that instead of trying to understand them over the phone.  I explain the situation and get a response of "Is it the outlook?".  I simply reply yes.  I am then asked "Did you open the outlook?".  *Obviously I did because I'm having problems receiving messages* I replied "yes, and I restarted it and it still doesn't work".  "Ok. I will be with you in a minute"  This person came to the solution that I should restart my computer and he/she would contact me when it was restarted.  This is at around 9:20.  I restart my computer and for about 10 minutes I am afraid to open outlook because I was not instructed to do so.  Well at 9:40 I decide that I should try to open it.  Once it opens and tries to receive a message, I get an application error so I open the chat again and talk to someone else.  At around 10:30 I finally get the solution that it is a "global problem and there is nothing you can do about it.  the server is down and will be fixed ASAP".  So, I spend the entire day at work without e-mail.  It was actually a little frustrating because all of my projects are at the point where I am waiting for responses from other people so I couldn't do any work.  The odd part about it was the down server was a Midland server (about 2 hours away) and I think I may have been one of the only ones in Harbor Beach (if not the only one) who was having the e-mail problem, but some of my friends in Midland were the only one's in their department who did have access to e-mail.  Oh technology!  I can't imagine how the actually full time workers felt about the all day outage.  Hopefully it will be resolved by the time I get to work tomorrow and maybe people will have responded so I have something to do.

Cedar Point

So, you may think that the biggest adventure of the trip was the park itself.  Or maybe the 4 hour drive there.  Or maybe even the hotel (which I will get into more detail about in a bit).  Well, it wasn't.  The biggest adventure of the trip was when I locked my keys (and everything except my wallet) in my car at an Ohio Turnpike rest area about 20 minutes after I left the park.  All I wanted was a quick stop to get food and gas.  What I got was a 1 hour long stop that consisted of borrowing two people's cell phones to call AAA, chatting with the people I asked for a pen so I could keep myself entertained while I was waiting, sitting on the back of my car waiting for 45 minutes (remember I didn't have a phone for them to call me when they got there), and the tow truck driver who came to my rescue.  I still made it back to Harbor Beach before it was completely dark though so I can't complain too much.

The hotel wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  I had read that it was not clean and in a bad neighborhood.  Also, they didn't hold true to the reservations you made (if they could find them at all).  Our experience wasn't too bad.  We had booked a two bedroom non-smoking suite for 7 people (we were told the room would hold 5 adults and 2 children) for $75.  Apparently there was some confusion earlier in the week so we actually had three reservations for this and could cancel the others when we got there.  The rooms were in a girl named Maria's name but she had told them Luke would probably be the one checking in because he was in the earlier car.  Well, Luke and I get there and they can't find our reservation.  So we call Maria and she calls the hotel and we got a room.  We go to the room and it is two double beds in a single room and it smells of smoke. Obviously not right so we wait a few minutes until the other car gets there.  Maria goes and asks about it and magically they have found our other reservation.  We get our room keys and go to the room and they don't work.  She goes  back, gets new keys, and they still don't work.  We ended up in the room directly upstairs which was next to one of the other rooms of co-ops.  The room was pretty clean and didn't smell and overall it wasn't a bad night.

Cedar Point was amazing.  I had gone last summer but I was really excited to go again.  The forecast for the day wasn't too good so that kept a lot of people away.  The longest we waited for a ride was an hour for Maverick which is totally worth it.  The only ride I refused to go on was Top Thrill Dragster but the group didn't end up going on it while I was there anyway.  I'm so excited to go again later this summer.

End of Week 4

4 weeks down, 8 to go.  This weekend is Cedar Point with the Midland, MI co-ops (where Dow HQ is).  From what I've read about the hotel, it should be an adventure.  I'll definitely do an update on Sunday when I get back.

Crazy Weather

For those of you that think State College, PA weather is crazy, well you haven't been to Harbor Beach, MI.  We had one night that was so foggy we couldn't see our cars on the street.  Mind you, this was at 8:30 pm when its still semi-light outside.  It looked like something out of a horror movie.  At 11 am the next day, it was still fairly foggy (could barely see the DAS plant maybe 1/4 mile away).  We've also had a day where it was 80 degrees then the next day it was 50.  Luckily the 80 degree day was a weekend so I could lay out on the beach.

Today was by far pretty crazy.  My alarm went off at 6:45 and I had to do a double take at the clock because it was still so dark.  Now, normally it is fairly dark because I'm on the back side of the house but I would have told you it was 2:30 in the morning.  It was also quite cold (and by that I mean like high 40s maybe).  So we leave for work, and it's raining.  Not down pouring, but substantial rain.  So naturally, I pull out my umbrella for the 3 minute walk to work.  Well, an umbrella may be able to withstand a passing CATA bus, but it cannot withstand Harbor Beach wind.  It turned inside-out 3 times before I finally gave up on it (remember, I only have a 3 minute walk to work).  This afternoon, it was bright and sunny and I was sweating in the long sleeve shirt I have to wear at work.  This morning I was cold in a fleece jacket and that long sleeve shirt.

After work on Thursdays, all of the engineers and some of the operators and security guards get together at Smalley's (a local restaurant and bar) for dinner.  Because a lot of people aren't going to be here tomorrow night, we all got together tonight.  It was still very nice outside at 5:30 when we arrived.  But come time to leave at 8:30, it was starting to get nasty outside.  It was actually kind of cool because it was misting on us, but about a block south it was gray and rainy and a block north it was bright and sunny.  So of course, we had to find a rainbow.  I have a picture on my phone so I'll upload that when I get if off of there.

Apartment

So, who remembers the Brady Bunch?  Well, I think their kitchen appliances were newer than ours.  While everything is old, they are in working order.  Here are a few pictures of our apartment.  It is the second story of a house and the steps go up at a 60 degree angle.  I never thought I would find steps as steep as the ones I have at home.

Our house.  As I said, we are on the 2nd floor.  It is a 3 minute walk to work and a block to the main street.

My room. 

The living room.

Part of our kitchen.  The stove pulls out and the oven door slides up.

The fridge.  Notice there is no freezer door.  The freezer is in fact an ice box whose door is inside the fridge.

Our shower.  You can't see it from this picture, but the shower head is jury-rigged to be a real shower (it is designed to be hand held).  Dow made them put up the shower curtain too.

So, that's pretty much our apartment in a nutshell.  It's nice, but definitely not what I would have expected.  We can hear the guy downstairs all the time through the air vents.  Our first night he yelled at us (through the vents) because he didn't have any hot water.  Both my roommate and I had taken showers and neither of us had hot water - we both had lukewarm showers.  We have gotten used to it though.  I'm not sure if I'd rather have a dorm shower or this one.

Harbor Beach

Harbor Beach, MI - The world's greatest man-made fresh water harbor.  Population - approximately 1,600.  Size - 1.9 square miles.

This is where I am spending my summer.  Harbor Beach is a very small town compared to where I am used to.  There is 1 traffic light, 2 gas stations (one is also the "grocery store"), a Corner Store, a Drug Store, a Library, and a few bars. 

Here are some pictures of the town.

The Corner Store and State Street

The Harbor Beach Light House

The Beach

The closest "real" stores (Wal-Mart and Fast Food, etc.) are 20 miles away.  Directions: From the traffic light, drive away from the lake until you get to another traffic light.  Make a right and keep driving until you see the signs.  No joke - someone gave me those directions. 

There are some good things about this town.  I can walk to work in 3 minutes.  Its a small town so I know a lot of people after being here for 3 weeks.  It has already made me appreciate back home.  And I like going to Church much more in a small town than I do at home.

Blogging!!!

My friend has had a blog for a while now and when I was talking to her today she said that I should make one.  So here it goes.  I'm going to try to keep this updated but I'm not making any promises.