School's out, no more excuses. Luckily this e-mail took less time than the last, but something had to give if I was going to graduate, and one of those somethings was spending time on the update. I did graduate, though, so it was all worthwhile. Hopefully being on a semi-regular schedule this summer will help with the update consistency.
When I wrote last I was in a college van on my way to a computer programming competition and symposium. That went well: Danny was my other team member, and although we were one team member short and had every computer problem possible (short of complete system failure) we still managed to get one of the problems. While that may not sound all that great, solving a problem set us in the top 1/3 of all the teams competing. Needless to say, our professor was quite proud of her underdog team of a freshman (Danny) and a senior with a bunch of incomplete lab assignments (that would be me).
That last week of classes before finals was a great celebration time for most of Ripon College as the year was coming to a close and most students' workloads were dwindling. This was crunch time for me, though, and although I was making progress daily, there was still a mountain of work ahead. Even if I tried to set aside time to relax (they say that's a good thing for preventing a stress overload, right??), I would just spend that time worrying about how much I had yet to complete.
I took a small break one Friday to do another photoshoot for EastBay, though. Don't worry, dad: when I say small, I mean that I brought my laptop and coded in the car on the way there and on the way back. I had no time to waste! The shoot was fun, though, and actually doing something active helped me de-stress a bit. They didn't tell me which month these photos were scheduled to run, but they're all volleyball ensembles. If you get EastBay (or if you plan on signing up for it to try to see them), look in that section.
Side note: I learned that EastBay tailors the catalog you receive to your particular interests. When you request a catalog, you mark your two favorite sports; when they send you the catalog, there will be more or less pages of certain sports accessories depending on which sports you choose. My point: if you're signing up for a catalog, mark volleyball as an interest.
That Monday I had my first and only final exam. For better or for worse, all of my programs were also due that Monday. It was SO nice to have the next few days to just be worry-free: everything was turned in, but other students still had finals. That meant I had a few days to relax. I think I slept most of the day Tuesday... My body probably needed it after all those late nights!
Wednesday our "Senior Week" that I had been planning in one of my organizations began. It kicked off with a noon Brewers game on Wednesday and a lounge party that night. Thursday we had a Pub Crawl through the bustling Ripon downtown. Our short week wrapped up with a cook-out and Comedy Sportz Friday night. While these were fun, it was even nicer that Friday to not have to have any more responsibilities to Ripon College.
Last time I had mentioned that I'll be working an internship at Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac for 8 months. That same Friday, after a handful of visits and much research, I was off to sign my first apartment lease ever. The apartment is only about a 5-minute drive from work, which will be nice with these crazy gas prices lately. It's a newer building, the neighbors seem nice, and it really feels like home, even before there was anything in it. I have a quick video walk-through if anyone would like to see it: just shoot me a reply and ask.
That weekend was a packing- and moving-frenzy. My parents came up Saturday for the Graduation festivities, Uhaul in tow. This (and maybe the fact that we were already able to move some stuff from Ripon to Fond du Lac) made moving the easiest year yet. Why didn't we think of this when I was a freshman??
A few hours before Commencement on Sunday the rain kicked in. Of course this was late enough that everything was already set for an outdoor ceremony and they couldn't transition to the rain-site and still start on time. We waited on the weather for probably 45 minutes. As Commencement progressed, the sky began to clear a bit. Maybe it'd turn out to be a gorgeous, sunny day. None. Not even a quarter of the way into reading the names of the graduates the weather decided we didn't get wet enough the first time around. For anyone interested, my parents ordered a copy of the professional DVD of the week's events. Movie night?
I was blessed to have an awesome little cheering section. My mom and dad were there, and my brother was able to make it down from school. Danny stayed in Ripon after his finals, and his parents made the trek down from Clear Lake too. The biggest surprise of all was when Kate called on Saturday night and said she was on her way too. My great feeling on graduation day was only amplified by being lucky enough to have so many proud supporters in the audience. :)
Since graduation I've been in East Troy attempting to pick up shifts here and there so I can make that little thing called rent payments. The golf course promised me a full 40-hour+ week and delivered 0. Roma's couldn't guarantee me anything, and I had 3 awesome shifts there. I shampooed the carpet at the karate school last week. I did a photo shoot for Buell Motorcycles (owned by Harley Davison) today (look for me online, in stores, and/or in the summer catalog). It's all been up in the air. It'll be nice once my internship starts to get settled in to one living place and one routine.
<3 Rebecca~
P.S. I feel like a lot of you are still missing out on Blingo. I won 2 free movie tickets on there not long ago. It searches through Google, so you get all the same results, but you can win stuff too! Click this link to get started. Oh, and don't worry, you really don't get any junk mail from it. What do you have to lose?
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