I got/had/wish I had a dog.

Well after the New Year began, there was all sorts of new things to do, since it is all new and such.  One of the new things aside from the new camping/hiking gear that I got for Christmas, I decided that a dog would be a good idea.

During the holidays my parents were watching a dog for some friends of our family.  They had gone to Germany to be with their family for about two weeks and while they were gone, watched their dog for them.  Before they left they had mentioned that they were interested in giving away their dog to a good home because they have one child and another on the way.  It's not because they didn't like their dog anymore, they just decided in the interest of keeping the dog busy and feel loved, someone else should take care of her.  I thought, "hey what a great idea!"  So I texted them and ask if they would allow me to have the dog (Lucy, for reference sake she wasn't nameless...). Joern never texted me back, but when they returned home told me that it would be great if I could take Lucy.  They were excited because she would be going to a good home and they could see her from time to time.

I had done all the research and bought some dog stuff so that she could feel extremely comfortable at my place.  The apartment complex requires a deposit of $200 and an additional $25 a month to keep a dog.  Not the greatest deal, but I was willing to give it a shot.  Having Lucy would keep me occupied while Erica is in Dry Ridge working on her work.

Having Lucy truly kept me occupied!!

I didn't realize how much work it would be to have a dog until I had a dog of my own.  As I grew up we always had animals around and it didn't seem so bad.  But I suppose that is because of shared responsibility...  I had to wake up early to take her out, try to get home early to take her out, and take her out late at night.  Lucy was a lot of work for me to handle, especially the realization of what to do if I went out anywhere.  Having been around a few people at Joern and Vero's apartment, there was always some noise that she was used to.  As well she had lived with Vero for almost 3 years and had become very attached.  She didn't adjust well to living with me...  She would go to the bathroom, eat a very small amount of food, and remain lethargic the entire time she was here.  The greatest thing was the fact that she had a very small bladder!...  I kept her in the bathroom during the day to allow her to have more room than being caged.  The first day she made a small mess on the floor, the second day she used the rug, the rest of the time she used the bathtub...  I couldn't get mad, but it was disgusting.

On top of the doggy depression, she seemed to cause my allergies to flare up.  There was one evening that I decided to have her chill with me in the recliner and sleep on me.  Well when I woke up, my eyes were swollen and I was having a difficult time breathing.  Not so much fun!  Long story short, I decided that keeping Lucy wasn't going to be for me.  Before I got her, my parents informed me that if I didn't want her, they would take her.  And that is exactly what happened.  Miraculously though she is doing wonderful there, she loves it!  Kind of a downer that she loves it there so much and disliked my place so much.  But it's probably because of their dog and three cats she can play with at almost all times.  I'm not terribly distraught, having a dog was way more work that I expected.  If I want to play with an animal, I suppose I'll just visit family or friends who have pets.  Simple fix!

To use the words of Adelle, my dog days are over.  I only kept Lucy for a week before I allowed my parents to soothe her of her sadness.  Who knows, I might eventually have a dog again down the road, but for now I'll just stick to my empty apartment with my two plants.

I've found myself in a place I've never been... (Part 2)

So now that I've had some rest, let me resume the synopsis...

Since joining in the company as a real deal engineer I have found that it is a strange feeling to me.  I can sign paperwork and people come to me for answers rather than ask me, then I have to ask my manager for his approval for anything that I do.  Co-op was a good preparation in workplace environment, but it doesn't really prepare you for all the new things that come with being an adult.  Along with the new job came benefits, the best and easiest to figure out was vacation time!  I get two weeks per year, a week of personal, and three floating holiday.  The harder things to figure out, the not so fun stuff is the healthcare benefits...  Couldn't my parents just continue to make all the decisions and figure out the details for me??  I guess that would be wrong, because it does come with the job (but I did have my parents help me choose the "right" plan).

Right out of the gates I had plans for a few vacation days, I had been part of the senior design team that had won the senior design competition for UC's PACE forum.  This was very exciting because of all the hard work put into designing and completing our project to where we finished for the next years group.  Since we had won and the team was invited, on UC's dime to attend!, I surely wanted to go and present our work.  But now that I was working, I had to ask my manager for time off.  I had just started and now had to ask for days off, talk about nervous for the outcome!  The forum would be in Vancouver Canada and I would be gone for 4 days.  He was a little hesitant and curious as to why so soon I wanted days off, but he agreed when I told him that we had won a competition to go.  Really he just wanted me on the job to continue my few weeks of training that I should be completing.

I attended the conference in Vancouver, which is an amazing city and a place that is so incredibly beautiful that I just wanted to stay forever.  We enjoyed the competition, which we were hoping to win more awards, but found that we were less than prepared compared to the teams from around the world.  We won second place in one of four categories, which was no simple task.  But when we weren't competing we were exploring.  We took it as a vacation rather than a learning experience!  We rented motorbikes to get around and went downtown to see the city, as well as visiting a beach.  The time there was a blast, but seemed to go by way to quickly.  Which means, it's eventually going to be revisited at some point in the future.

When I returned to work, I trained for a few weeks in production and with incoming parts.  I got thrown into as much as I could handle and took on as many tasks as I could.  Since starting I've come a long way in my young career.  I've been trained in so many areas of the company, which is great that my manager allows me so much latitude to learn and trusts me enough to put me on tasks when he feels I am ready.  I have been trained on new equipment (robotic CMM's), new systems, and procedures.  I have my own desk with a cabinet and drawers!  I have books on my shelf and pictures on my walls of the cube!  I have acquired business cards with my name on them!  I have been working on developing relationships with the people I work with and really just enjoying my time.  I feel so blessed to have been placed in this company and be involved with the people I'm around.  I feel like having this position has been a great outcome for spending five years of my life studying to get here.  Sometimes it is challenging, dealing with new situations that I've never had to deal with before, but it's all an adventure that I take with stride.

I've been here since March so far I honestly have enjoyed learning as much as I have.  My manager is great, he provides me with plenty of work and I'm constantly challenged with the work I'm given.  I also have been able to take time off around Thanksgiving and Christmas to spend with family and friends.  I'm excited for what the future holds for this job, if things keep going well, I hope that I can make this a career and stick here for many years.

The engineering world is way different than college world.
I don't ride my bike everywhere...
I don't get extended breaks throughout the year...
I have more money than before...
I have to be completely responsible...
I don't get to hang out with my friends... (and I severely miss them!)

I am living in Walton, KY in an apartment by myself.  Erica lives about 20 minutes away in Dry Ridge, KY by herself.  The difference there is extreme from college days, the apartment while nice to have my own space, is very quiet.  I've decorated it as time has progressed, but the personality is only mine.  I don't get to experience decoration from the six other people I lived with for an entire year prior to now.  I miss those days, but understand that life leads us in different directions.  That is why I've really tried to get connected in this new place I've found myself.  Not that I'm trying to replace anyone that I miss from my life.  I simply just have to get connected and make this place feel like home.

I chose to live where I'm at because it is an hour from my parents and an hour from Erica's parents.  We are able to visit our families who we are close with on a fairly regular basis.  Erica and I have found a church in the area, which was of utmost importance to us.  We went around to a few local churches that people had recommended to us.  The first was almost a mega church, where we didn't feel welcome because of the size, we felt like a number.  The second was a tiny country church, where we felt overly included because of the size... Not for us...  The third place we researched on our own and took some time to look into it before we went.  We discussed denomination and beliefs and what we really wanted to find at a church, that is how we wound up at Florence United Methodist. Just right!  We immediately felt welcomed and felt included, everyone was greeting us and wanted to get to know us.  God really had his hand on us finding this church and leading us where he wanted us to be.

Outside of church Erica and I have been spending quite a bit of time together getting to really know each other better.  We try to split our time together at my place and her, but usually wind up spending more time at mine.  My place is much closer to activities to keep us occupied.  The other fun thing about my place is that it allows me to cook as much as I like and Erica to help me enjoy the food.  :)  There is also a really great park nearby, called Big Bone Lick.  There are buffalos, a lake, and some trails there (also lots of fresh air!).  The only real downside to my apartment is the noise.  It is close to I-75 and I can always hear the low hum of semi-truck tires... Not the ideal way to be soothed to sleep, but it's what I'm calling home for now.  My walls have become decorated with some pictures that I had taken and I've been working on taking more.  I also have tried to include some of the remnants of the ranch by bringing the street signs with me.  I haven't done so yet but I plan to decorate one wall with the stop sign, surrounded by car pictures.

Life in Kentucky has been great!  Life with Kentucky girl has made it even better!!  She has introduced me to some interesting stuff and we continue to explore and plan out our weekends of fun together.  The other fun thing we can do now is hang out with my sister and brother-in-law, who moved about 10 minutes away.  Although I loved college, I understand that people go in their separate ways of life.  Getting to catch up with people is always great fun when the opportunities arise, so I cherish all the time I get to spend with each and every single person, every day!

I've found myself in a place I've never been...

So the days of college have been behind me now for a few months and it seems crazy, almost unimaginable to think that the days of staying up late working on engineering homework, chatting with friends, coffee at Roh's street, and bike rides on Tuesday nights are a thing of the past.  It's something that's hard to get over because in actuality those were some pretty unforgettable times, days I will cherish as I wake up daily now and I attend work and have things planned out.

Since last March I had prepared myself for the days of being a real engineer by beginning my career as an engineer, but at that point it was still only part time and the other part time was enjoying senior year of school.  Many people don't know the reasons behind why I chose to come to Kentucky when I've been in Ohio for so long.  But to be honest it was on a whim, I felt as if God was leading me to come to Kentucky and take an adventure that today I can say I do not regret for a moment.  I say God led me here because, mostly because He led me to a girl who had lived in Kentucky for her entire life.  I didn't get to spend any time senior year with her going back and forth to spend time with her, my time was instead spent on Skype, so I didn't really get a feel for Kentucky.  All I really knew of Kentucky was that I had gone to Scout camp a few times there and Red River Gorge for numerous outings.  But at the end of senior, I was planning on moving there!?  What was I thinking?

Erica and I met twice while she was home from Panama, then she left for 5 months, 5 excruciatingly long months.  Excruciating in the sense that I had to wait that long to see her in person again.  For that time we spent our date nights on Skype talking about our weeks.  She would be enjoying some warm weather and squashing cockroaches, I would be going through all the seasons of weather and doing school work.  It was not a normal way to start a relationship, but it was something, an amazing sort of something.  The whole time that we were Skyping, we learned so much about each other that allowed us to really get to know each other.  We discussed many topics that were deep and many that were just surface level.  But we covered a lot of ground in those 5 months.  (I missed out on a few events and some time with the people that I now miss, due to Skype, so I apologize, but I hope you forgive me.)  We were preparing for what was to come in June, because she would be returning in to the States for good.

June was densely packed with so many positive things and it seemed that there was no downtime.  I had two countdowns going for myself: one- graduation, two- Erica's return.  While I had my countdown's, two amazing couples had countdowns of their own going.  Nick and Adrienne George and Josh and Mackenzie Elrod were gettin' hitched!  June flew by in such a whirlwind of positive events and it's hard to believe that was 6 months ago.  All four of those countdowns turned out to be pretty amazing even if they were all run through pretty quickly.  I'm sad to say that I didn't get to spend a ton of time at either wedding, but I enjoyed them as much as I could.  While everyone was attending Nick and Adrienne's wedding, I was officially becoming an engineer.  While everyone was drinking and dancing for Josh and Mackenzie, I was introduced to my first Kentucky truck pull (which is a big deal here!).

I didn't get a picture of the two of us, because I was so nervous about sounding crazy.

When June finally wound down to the last few days, I was really looking for a full time job because I now had my piece of paper touting the 5 years of brutality in engineering school had been successfully completed.  With that piece of paper, I applied for so many jobs, most of which were in Kentucky.  I decided on Kentucky, trying to find somewhere halfway between my parents and where I would have to drive to visit Erica.  I didn't know if she was going to have a job back in Versailles, KY or if she would have a job elsewhere.  I really wanted to get a full time with SWECO, where I had worked since March, but things weren't working out in my favor.  I went out on interviews while I was working at SWECO to interview with other companies, which then encouraged them to try harder to find me something.  With the fear that I would be leaving, the HR lady found me my current job in quality.  I didn't know if I would get that job right away either.  I had to interview for that one along with the dozens of other candidates, and prove myself as a worthy candidate.  When I interviewed my boss had already offered another guy the job, and wouldn't know his answer for about a week.  He was hoping for me to get the job, he told me that if the other guy declined the job, I would have the position.  So I waited a week and was anxious the whole time.  During that week, I had planned to go backpacking with Erica and her dad at the Gorge.  That turned out to be an amazing insight into personality and response to different challenges.  But being on the trail I couldn't check my phone for calls if I had been offered the job.  So we just hiked and enjoyed the time away from the craziness of life.

We started our hike on a Friday morning, despite the forecast for some heavy rain in the area. (Unfortunately I made the call that we should do it anyway.)  We wound up hiking for about 6 hours in the rain and sloshing through some extremely muddy and slippery portions of the trail.  By the end of the day we were soaked through and had really tested our waterproof gear to it's limits.  But we managed to keep our spirits up and try to dry out, which we did until we ended our hike on Sunday morning.  When we got off the trail, we quit because it was over 100F and we were low on water.  After leaving the trail and determining that we could each eat half a cow a piece, we determined that it would be required to get some food.  Let me interject though... After leaving the park and on the way to Miguels, I turned my phone on and found that I had a voicemail... The voicemail was a call from HR informing me that I needed to come in Monday to fill out paperwork to accept my full time job!!!  I was so excited by the news I couldn't contain myself.

The adventure doesn't stop here, just for the evening.  I'm an old man now working an 8 to 5 job requires me to get some sleep...  But I will continue from here soon to explain the rest of the year and the beginning of 2012.

Falling Victim to the Hip Thing

Alright, so as of yet, I haven't kept very many people updated on the happenings since graduation on June 11th, 2011.  I have been keeping busy, but out of contact with many of the people that I enjoyed spending a large portion of my time with.  Because everyone else has begun to have a blog and keep people updated, I felt I should give it a try.  (Also, because Mackenzie Elrod told me that I should....)  So this is the first post, as an announcement of my addition to the blogging footprint.