A Long-Awaited Update

Happy Thanksgiving! I know it's been a while - okay, a long while - but I've been a busy girlie! I'll try my best to recap...everything I've done since mid-June. Okay, just the highlights.

Just after I sent the last update my mom and I went on our yearly trip to Florida. As always it was a great time. Unfortunately I don't recall a lot of details or any anecdotes, but I did save my aunt from a hungry gator. Luckily my brave family looking-on managed to capture this action shot:

The concert season at Alpine Valley went well. This year we were graced by Nickelback, Jimmy Buffett, Ozzfest, Rage Against the Machine, and Dave Matthews. Moving up in the world, I stepped into a new position with even more responsibility there this season. It's kind of hard to believe this was my 6th year there! In any event, I was in charge of a dozen or so employees, a significantly increased inventory, an elevated clientele (read: VIP), and I reported to myself...who reported to the GM. ;) The girls were great, and although I'd never worked with any of them before (Jamie left me this year!) they all made each shift seem more like fun than work. Which is the ultimate goal, right?

All of these shows, however, were squeezed in on the weekends between my regular full-time job at Mercury up in Fond du Lac. My co-workers there are pretty amazing as well. I've been there about 6 months already, and I've learned a ton! I still don't know what's going to happen after my co-op come the end of January, but I definitely wouldn't mind staying. Part of me wants to spread my wings and try something blatantly new - Apple? California? - but the other (read: paranoid) part of me doesn't know if I'd really want to move somewhere where I know no one and know nothing about the area and "see how it goes." I guess when it comes to where I'll work in a few months...I'll see how it goes.

I'm sure I said this in a past update (you know, back when I wrote them more regularly), but I graduated from college in May, and we finally got around to having a party in mid-August. I got to celebrate that in addition to my parents' 30th wedding anniversary, which was cool.

September seemed to be the month of weddings. And
break-ups. And birthdays. All in all, it was just a crazy month. Not that that craziness has ended, however. Apparently I've been so busy I haven't even made any notes in my calendar to jog my memory for writing these little updates. Clearly it wasn't anything too important. Hah! I must have just been busy doing nothing.

As if I'm not busy enough, I've started bartending again. I missed meeting all those people, and I also realized how much it sucked having to plan around paydays. Since it'd probably be next to impossible to waltz in somewhere where the bartenders make money and ask for just Fridays and Saturdays and expect to actually make it on the schedule, I opted for a less conventional route: April and I are bartending for private parties and events around Milwaukee.

So far I've done one night; April couldn't make it. It was hands-down the weirdest bartending experience ever. We were told a nine-hour shift and it turned out to be three, a three-hour break, and another three; we never got restocked, so when we were out of something it was just too bad; and the people I worked with weren't all that easy on the eyes, so I'm honestly surprised at their monetary outcome at the end of the shift. Hopefully the next experience (this Saturday) will go better...

I don't want to make this too long, but hopefully I'll be able to set into a schedule so I can get these out more regularly. Good luck to anyone braving the crowds to shop Black Friday!

<3Rebecca~

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