I have made it to Clearwater Beach Florida safely on a jet plane (my first time). It was pretty fun. I really enjoyed sitting by the window and watching everything get tiny as we made our way up into the sky. I enjoy landing SOO much more though. For one, the I am excited that the flight is almost over and we have made it in one piece, and it just feels cool. haha. I've always loved that feeling of almost falling though. Like on roller coasters and when you have falling dreams. Favorite.
So for the most part out flight was good. We were held up in the plane at the Flint airport because a check oil light was on and they had to fix the problem. That delayed us an hour so our connection in Atlanta was delayed and we ended up missing out connection flight and had to wait for the next one. That was only an hour later. So we made it to Florida by noon. It was nice.
We are staying at the Sandpearl Resort. Apparently it's the nicest one in the area. My mom's friend Corinn is so generous and just loves having us here. I love it too. It's super hot and humid. The heat index today has been about 110. WOW! The water is very warm and the beach is beautiful. I love how white the sand is. I match the beach haha and I'm easy to spot because everyone else is tanned.
Over all we've just been relaxing and doing our thing. I have yet to find the sunglasses I want and it's sorta driving me nuts because I need some. I want a knock off designer ones, but I just haven't found a store that sells them. All the stores sell the REAL designer ones and there is no way I am going to spend like 200 bucks(or more) on sunglasses.
Well I am going to go enjoy the rest of the day here. I will try to update with more pictures and such before we leave. I'll leave you with a few.
Me riding a plane for the first time.
My view from the plane. It was sorta neat to watch the wing when we landed.
A sweet looking fountain at the resort.
Our room is in the very middle on the fifth floor. RIght above the one with the little person standing on the balcony.
This is the pool. It's pretty neat.
One of my beautiful sisters! :)
My wonderful parents.
PS. I can't believe I start work in a little more than a week!! AHH
Well, I have some amazing news for you all. As you've probably been reading, I have been interviewing for a job with TRAM, Inc. Everything has really been going well and over the last month I have really been anticipating news. So on Thursday I was laying around the house feeling like a slob and my phone rings. I look at the number and recognize that it's TRAM. It was ten to 5 and I was expecting bad news since it was the end of the day. They probably just wanted to get it over with.
I answered the phone and the HR person was super excited. "Good News" were the first words out of the guys mouth. Then they offered me the job. I was so excited!! I honestly couldn't believe that I got the job after I had hung up from talking. I told my mom and she was like screaming. Then we proceeded to call almost everyone we knew to tell them. Everyone was excited and kept saying they knew I was gonna get the job and things like that. I had no idea that I was going to get the job and I was really trying to set myself up for a rejection.
BUT NOW I HAVE A JOB!!!
So that was wonderful news. :)
Yesterday was a fun day. Hung out with the girls at Mal's brother's open house. Becca got a job too. We were so excited because we are now real people. It's so exciting.
Becca, Tony, and I went out to this bar and grill with a few of her friends from school. It was a lot of fun but I was really really tired because I had stayed up till like 5 the last night seeing Toy Story 3 at midnight. But I was running on a lot of adrenaline. It was an overall great night.
So some sad news, since I am becoming a real person I believe that I am going to start a new blog. I feel like this chapter of my "college years" have now come to a close and I need a new start. So I am going to start to design a new blog for my "real life" and I will be sure to give you the link to that blog so you can keep up with my extremely exciting life.
Until then, take care.
I had a hard time pre-ordering my iPhone 4 yesterday. Luckily I did get it before they sold out. I'm so excited to get it and I can hardly wait for next Thursday! AHH. I really can't believe that they sold out in ONE day. I guess I can't really talk because I love my iPhone and I was just as eager as everyone else in ordering a new one! :)
In other news, I got an email from TRAM with the results of my personality assessment. I did "well", if you can do "well" on that. I mean it just describes me pretty well. But the recruiter said that I did well on the assessment, so I'm not sure what that means. He also let me know that I am one of two final canidates for the position. I have a 50/50 chance. (or more depending on if they like me more...?) I'm so nervous about finding out, yet I just wanna know NOW! I don't want to get my hopes up but I sorta feel like they are just because I'm so close, (but still so far away). I guess when I find out I will post... either way.
I'm getting ready to go to Florida. I need to go buy some new clothes. I just don't wanna spend money. I just spent 200 bucks on a new phone. I'm putting my old phone on eBay because they are going for like 160-200 so I could potentially get MOST of my money back. I'll be selling it with original packaging and like 4 cases, so I hope i get at least like 175 out of it. :)
Well I am going to go live life! I hope to have some amazing news to post on here soon! :) Keep your fingers crossed.
So there is only a half an hour before I can pre-order this. I honestly cannot wait till it comes out. I have waited forever for this new iPhone and it's got EVERYTHING. It's gonna be neat. Not only does it have video calling, but it has a bigger battery, a better camera and just everything that I'd ever need. It's expensive, but I honestly can't think of anything else I'd rather spend my money on! So I can't wait.
Other news: Had my second interview with TRAM today. Had to take a circuits test and work with an oscilloscope. It was fun and I feel that I did well. After that I had to do a personality assessment. It took a long time but wasn't hard or anything. I am REALLY hoping that they offer me the job. I'm trying not to get my hopes up or anything because I don't wanna be crushed if they don't offer me the job, but then again I feel good about this! They told me that they were very impressed with me. I really just wanted to say "if you're so impressed, then please offer me this job." But for all I know they could have said that to everyone.
My family is leaving for Florida a week from Friday. I am super excited to go. I'm also a little nervous because I've never been on an airplane. It's gonna be quite the experience. Hopefully my almost translucent skin doesn't turn into cancer on the spot in Florida. I'm taking SPF80000 with me so that I don't burn. Sun Burn has always been something that totally ruins my vacations and I DON'T want it to this time. I'm very excited. The resort that we are staying at is amazing and I can't even believe that we are staying there. I can't wait to take pictures and update about the amazing time that we are having.
Well I am going to go wait for midnight so that I can order my iphone! :) I can't wait.
Well I guess I should update you with my progress in my job search. Last I wrote I think I had told you about my actual interview with TRAM. It went well and I felt confident about it. I learned more about the position and the company and it made me even more interested in the position. At the end of the interview I was told that I would be contacted either way in 1 to 2 weeks.
2 weeks go by and I hear nothing. I figured I'd give it the WHOLE two weeks before I attempt to contact them myself. So yesterday I was getting ready to sit down and make the dreaded phone call. I figured since I hadn't been contacted early, I probably didn't make the cut and was probably in for some bad news upon getting a hold of the recruiter.
So I was laying in bed at 8:45 trying to figure out what I was going to say when I called. Then my phone started buzzing and I looked at it. It was TRAM. I let it go to voice-mail because I was sure that I probably would have sounded like I had just woken up if I would have answered it and I didn't want to sound like an idiot. I waited for the voice-mail to come through. I was so nervous to listen to it, but I figured what the heck I need to get it over with.
The voice-mail said that they were interested in me coming in for a second interview. !! I was excited. I know it's not a job offer, but it felt very good to be called back. I called the recruiter and we set up an interview on Monday the 14th at 3pm. He told me that the interview wouldn't be as formal as the first one and most of it will entail doing an assessment on the computer. I don't know if this mean good things or if it's just another part of the process and all the other people that they have been interviewing are doing it as well... I don't know.
So now I am nervous and trying to prepare myself for the interview. I have no idea what they will be asking me and I have no clue if this will be a technical interview or not. I am just really hoping that at the end of this they will see that I am qualified and very willing to learn anything that I need to know to do well in the position. I really want this job. It sounds interesting and I think that I could learn a LOT from this job.
Keep your fingers crossed for me! :)
-JRA
So over the past 2 days I have redone this entire blog. I like the looks of it much better than the old template that I just downloaded. This one I actually sat down, used Photoshop and wrote up an entire CSS and HTML layout. It made me feel accomplished. But now that it's done I really want to do another. I should work on the puppy website for my mom, but it just needs SO much work because I did the whole thing when I had no idea how to use CSS or even really HTML for that matter. I suppose tomorrow I will start on that.
Nothing really has happened today. Pretty boring. Nothing really happened yesterday either. I'm really starting to think that I didn't get the job and that I should start looking else where. I guess going to Grad School is really something that I should be doing... I suppose this was my sign.
I'm scared for grad school though. I mean I don't know if I'll have enough Computer Science background to jump into graduate work. I am going to take at least a semester to get the background classes taken before I jump into the graduate work. We'll see how that goes.
iPhone 4 was announced today. Of course I want one. It is beautiful and wow, so many new functions. Honestly it's like my dreams from when I was about 8 or 9 have come true. I always wanted something like an iPhone when I was little ... a little screen that did everything. Back then however, there was no such thing as an iPhone, but I wanted one. That's why I went into electrical engineering.
-JRA
Of course I can't sleep tonight. Tomorrow I actually have to be up in the morning so of course tonight is the night that sleep will NEVER find me.
I think I have a problem. I haven't slept in like 3 days... I can't figure out what I want in life and I feel like I'm going to puke.
Possibly this is all happening because life is moving too fast and I'm moving too slow. I sit around waiting for something, no idea what I'm waiting for, but I am. I feel like a slob because I do nothing. My parents leave for work like 20 minutes after I finally turn in for the night, and I wake up minutes before they come home pretending that I've been up all day doing something. I sort of feel like they see through that. It's probably just my guilty concise.
I'm just confused. I feel like my life is splitting. I guess splitting is the best word to describe it. I am desperately missing Ann Arbor. I miss my friends and I miss engineering. But then part of me is longing for my "old" friends and waiting to fit in here in Flint. Become one of "those" people who think Flint is alright and has tons of friends and fun here. I honestly don't feel like I belong anywhere right now. All my "old" friends have new friends. All of my friends have moved to every corner of the United States and I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that probably will never see some of them again.
I really just want to feel content and not like everyone is looking at me and thinking the same thing. I feel like everyone is thinking... gosh what waste. Went to 4 years of college, got a decent degree and now nothing. I know it's ONLY been a month.. a MONTH is forever in my life. I should have had something lined up for me, but I didn't because ... well I really don't know why. I don't know what's so wrong with me that I can't find a decent job.
Please tell me what to do with my life, I have run out of answers.
Well I am still waiting on some news from TRAM. They told me 2 weeks, but I was really hoping to hear sooner. I guess I will just keep on waiting.
I don't want to get my hopes up because if I don't get the job, it will just make it harder to keep the job search going without feeling totally discouraged. But then again I do want to be hopeful and excited about it because I do have a chance at getting the job. Getting the job would just be perfect right now. Tony and I could move back to Ann Arbor and we could get started on the life we want to spend together.
On Friday Tony has his formal interview with Flint Fire Department. I am PRAYING that he gets this job (maybe even a little more than I am praying that I get my job). He told me last night that if he gets the job then "We should start planning out wedding." It was so cute. I love him and I'm super excited for our wedding (even though it's more than a year away).
Right now I am hanging out at home waiting for the Comcast person to get here to service the cable DVR box. It doesn't work. Sad day. This person was supposed to be here at 12... it's going on one and they still aren't here. I guess I don't really have any reason to complain because I doubt that I would have been doing anything else today... Such is life.
No plans for tonight... I really want to start on a blog template for this blog... or maybe a new one.. haven't decided if I want to close this chapter yet; I still feel like I belong in the "college student blog" that I've made these past few years. Perhaps if I get the job then I will start a new "real world Jordan" blog. I have no idea.
Well that is it for now.
-JRA
Oh, if you read this, please follow my blog.. I feel lonely out here in blog world.
I feel like summer if officially here. I think that Memorial Day has always signified summer to me, that and Home Town Days. Home Town Days is next weekend and I can already feel the Swartz Creek High School Class of 06 Reunion that will go on next weekend! HaHa. As much as I say that I will hate it, I am looking forward to it a little.
My weekend was nice. It was hot all weekend. Tony had the whole weekend off. We watched a lot of movies, ate ice cream, laughed and rode around on my grandma's golf cart. SUMMER!
I should update you with the happenings of my life since graduation I suppose. Nothing had really happened. Just went out with my friends quite a few times, spent time with Tony, programmed, attempted to start a blog template, and played the Sims 3. Soooo not productive. In the middle of all this I have applied for about 019383810 jobs.
Surprisingly one day after shopping at Target (well actually just wandering around at Target) I got a phone call from a recruiter at TRAM, Inc. I called them back and he set up a phone interview for me the next day. Phone interviews make me ill.
Anyway I had the phone interview and things seemed like they went nicely. He told me he'd get back to me within the next week. So a week goes by and nothing. Then 2 days after a week I get another phone call from them. The HR person asks me if I would be available for a face to face interview the next day at 3 pm. Of course I accepted.
Next day I drive myself down to Plymouth, MI and have a face to face interview with 4 people. It seemed like it went well, however I haven't heard anything. The HR person said that he would get back with me either way in a week to 2 weeks. Tomorrow it will have been a week. Anticipation is killing me. I really do want the job, but I don't want to get my hopes up like I have so many times before, so I'm just sort of trying to keep it out of my mind. It's crazy.
If I do end up getting the job(fingers crossed) Tony and I are going to move back down to Ann Arbor. It all just seems too perfect and that's why I'm worried about it. I mean to move back to Ann Arbor would be my dream. I love that city more than I ever thought I would and I would LOVE to live there. I intend to, but I never imagined that it would be so sudden. (PRAYING it will be sudden).
Over all though, life has been very relaxing. I really am enjoying my summer and it's not turning out as "horrid" as I thought moving home would be. The only weird part is I feel as if I have jumped back to like 10th grade. So weird.
-JRA
