It sure has been a while since I’ve last written. Now I’m *gasp* internet-less, and I’ve just managed to find enough to put the finishing touches on the construction of this update and send it out.
Last I wrote I believe I was just going into finals. The finals themselves went well I think. Mostly it’s just nice to have them out of the way. Three of my four were take-homes, which was nice in the sense that I could e-mail everything in and theoretically not leave the nice warm building. In actuality most professors at Ripon only give take-homes when the exam they wrote will take longer than the three-hour allotted time period. End jealousy, begin pity...
Right around that same time our sorority had its officer transitioning. Elections were interesting: I am now officially freed of the time commitment that is inevitable with the treasurer position and the task of decorating the hallways with colorful door decorations. On the flip side, I was elected to the positions of Assistant Finance Vice President, Panhellenic Representative, and Alumnae Relations Chair. Granted all of the positions I am taking on are smaller positions than the ones I had before, briefing others on all the things my old positions entailed and being briefed on all the details of my new positions took significantly longer than expected. NOT what I needed during take-home finals fest 2006.
The go-see Monday went really well. The place was easy enough to find, and everyone there was really nice. When I was talking to the gentleman conducting my interview-ish thing, he actually said that he was almost positive the company would choose me for the photo shoot. Sure enough I got a call from my agency on Tuesday “congratulations, you got the job!”
Unfortunately the job was not quite as easy to find. It actually took place inside someone’s home, which was located inside this mesmerizingly twisty subdivision. The home was actually that of the #2 and #3 sellers for Veridian homes, and as you may have guessed it was designed and built by Veridian as well. The place was gorgeous, all of it. We didn’t use all of it, however; the cameras were set up to look at one angle in the living room, and they did not budge the entire five and a half hours I was there. There were also a number of outfits that the advertising agency had chosen for me to wear. While I assumed I might be in all of them, I was really in one for a majority of the shoot, and another top for a few shots. It was nothing like I had expected, but Danny and I did get a sweet lunch out of the deal. He came along as my navigator and sat through the entire ordeal, which I’m sure was terribly boring with nothing to do. What a trooper. : )
As I was leaving Madison on Wednesday, I got another call on my cell phone from my agency. “How did the photo shoot go? Great. Ummm, are you free Friday to do another shoot for EasyBay? Awesome, we’ll send you details for that too.” This was the busiest modeling week EVER. It was a good thing finals fell like they did! When I got to Wausau on Friday, I found that I would be modeling two outfits. The first was pretty simple, a pink and white Red Sox fan jersey and some jeans (look for me, but I don’t know when). The second was the Strength Training gear that EastBay sells. I’ll link it all so you can see it: black and red matchy-matchy vest, shorts, and shoes. Of course this super-athletic gear required a super-athletic action shot to do it justice. Everything was fair game: running, high-knees, bounding, and jumping with the weighted jump rope, all from all angles. That day was fine. The NEXT day I realized why it was called strength training. Apparently they’ll be using those photos for years and years, and possibly online and in magazines. Look everywhere for those. If I get copies of anything in print, of course I’ll share.
Friday night I was flattered as an honorary roommate at Emily, Jamie, and Lydia’s Holiday Soiree. Madison is so different than Ripon when it comes to their get-togethers. Ripon: “ummm, yeah, I think there’s another soda in my fridge. I have a half-bag of chips; you can have some of those. Hold on, I’ll make popcorn.” Madison: food has been cooking all day; some if it they made the day before. Homemade cider is mulling on the stovetop for which the recipe was carefully selected from many worthy candidates. By the end of everything the entire coffee table was covered with homemade food, complete with costumed-Santas for serving.
I worked a couple shifts at Roma’s since break which has provided a miniscule thread of normalcy. Thursday I packed up and began my mini-Midwestern travels as well. Danny’s step-mom was busy with wedding preparation, so he told me not to rush. My parents called and said that freezing rain was fast approaching the western side of the state, so they told me to hurry up. How do I hurry up while wasting as much time as possible? Make a pit stop, of course. I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to go that close to the twin cities without seeing Kaplan, so I met up with Kaplan and Venessa (who happened to pop in the same day) for dinner. Completely oblivious to the evening’s events, we decided Champp’s would be an excellent choice for dinner. A little of everything, right? Almost. There was a notable shortage of Packer-fans amid the sea of Viking helmets. I’m not kidding, real helmets, with the horns and the fake braids and everything. There is no scarier place than being a Wisconsinite among big scary Viking fans.
Emerging unscathed post-dining, I headed from Kaplan’s back east to Danny’s. The drive was boring, but easy. Nothing the GPS couldn’t handle...until I got there. Not a single house had a mailbox, and the house numbers were impossible to read without any lighting. Apparently a town that size has no in-town mail delivery. I thought East Troy was small! Clear Lake felt a lot like home, though, especially being around Danny’s family. I’ve never had to help my family plan to put on a wedding, though. Friday was busy busy busy getting ready for Saturday.
The wedding was fun, especially meeting the entire family on both sides. Having spent the holidays as a family of four for the last many years, I had forgotten how much fun Christmas with lots of people around can be. And kids! The kids were so excited when Santa stopped by for a visit. It was sad leaving all of that excitement on Christmas Eve when I made the drive back to be with my family. We celebrated our Christmas on Christmas Day, just the four of us once again. Talk about your polar opposites, but we had a nice relaxing day, which was much needed after all that travel. My favorite present from the family this season was Jack, a GPS navigator, and he’s already saved me from more lost-ness than I care to imagine.
Yesterday was my first day out on the ski hill. I skied the morning and snowboarded the afternoon. In hindsight, maybe I should have kept it to one set of muscles for my first day. The snow was nice, but working the storage wax off of the bottoms both sets of equipment was apparently more work than I originally thought. Today was pretty chilly too, not temperature-wise, but that through-your-layers kind of chilly that comes when the air is moist. Burrr! Here’s hoping for some better days to come.
I’ll be working at Roma’s Sunday night for their New Year’s Eve celebration; anyone who will be in the area should stop by at least for a little while. Sorry this one got so long. I’ll keep up to date next time. ; )
Happy Holidays!
<3 Rebecca~
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