Adventures in the Mundane

Well, I just realized it is almost October and I haven’t posted anything since January. Apparently, life just gets in the way sometimes. Now, that’s not to say that I haven’t had any adventures in the last 9 months, it’s just that my adventures have been a bit more…. mundane? At least compared to the adventures that inspired me to start this blog in the first place.

Courtesy Watson lap dog photo

Last November, I started a new job with a box manufacturing company in Oklahoma. Sounds fascinating, I know. While that’s not exactly the adventure that I had wanted for my post-graduation life, it’s been a wild ride so far. I started off as a customer service representative, which was a job that I thought I wanted, especially since it requires so much communication (my degree!), but it’s not the most entertaining or exciting position. However, I have since taken on the official (and unofficial) titles of accounting assistant, design assistant (slightly less now), HACCP (risk analysis) Manager, BRC Lead, back-up IT coordinator, and purchaser (for our contracted work).

 Of all these titles, the HACCP Manager/BRC Lead have been the most interesting. Being new to corrugated (it’s not actually called cardboard, you know), these responsibilities were rather daunting to be assigned. However, even with all the stress that HACCP/BRC has caused, I have absolutely loved it.  I’ve learned so much, not only about the industry, but also about my own abilities. HACCP centers around risk analysis and BRC is an international product safety and quality management program, but BRC requires HACCP so they go together. Both programs require attention to detail and pushing people to follow new guidelines and business practices, which is not the easiest thing when people have been conducting business the same way for years.

Also, BRC requires us to have a third-party audit to receive our certification. To be honest, the audit has been the most frustrating part of overseeing this project. We are currently on our fourth scheduled audit, because we have had 3 postponements for medical emergencies. The first was when our advisor for conversion to BRC broke her foot (for our original audit in June). It was then postponed to August, which was cancelled two weeks prior to our scheduled date. Then it was postponed to September and was cancelled 2 business days prior. (During the lead up to this audit, our advisor found a new and exciting job, and was no longer coming to help us through our first certification audit.) And now we’re scheduled for November. Talk about a roller coaster of emotions through all of this!

Throughout the chaos, I did have the incredible fortune to meet a fantastic new friend in the shape of our BRC advisor, Sam. Unfortunately, she lives in Wisconsin and refuses to move to Oklahoma, but I guess you can’t have everything. She was an amazing help over the past half a year and made the sudden burden of this project easier to bear. And she had to bear with my constant questions and confusion with… well pretty much everything. Trust me, it couldn’t have been easy working with someone new to corrugated from several hundred miles away that you only saw face-to-face for roughly 5 days a month for 6 months.

Anyway, enough about work. What other adventures have I been on in the last 9 months…

I moved out of the house and in with a college friend, Macci, and her dog, Fritz. This has caused its own rash of problems and frustrations. We’re getting into a sort of rhythm now, though.

I went to Cowboys for the first time, which is a line dancing bar in OKC that also has an indoor bull riding ring. That was a very interesting night, let me tell you. I don’t even think indoor bull riding at a line dancing bar was something that I ever thought existed, just because it never crossed my mind that it COULD exist!

As part of my backup IT coordinator title, I took a trip with Kindra (another work friend) up to Green Bay, WI, for IT Coordinator 101. They kind of missed the mark with the 101 part, but it was still a fun trip.

Kindra on the dock on Frozen Lake Michigan

Our first day in Wisconsin, we drove up into Door Country, which is a peninsula that sticks out into the bay/lake and was absolutely beautiful. There was still snow on the ground and the entire area was like a winter wonderland, which is quite a sight when you live in Oklahoma. In fact, Kindra had never seen a frozen lake before, so that was an adventure for her! Now, the only downside to this part of the trip was that we took this drive on a Sunday in early March, so pretty much nothing was open, which caused problems when it came to lunch time. We finally found an open gas station, where we got a lunch recommendation located further down the road. The restaurant was called the Wild Tomato, a pizza place that served unique and hipster pizzas that were delicious. Kindra and I ordered an Italian sausage and pesto pizza, alongside an order of fried cheese curds. Oh my god, so good. Definitely a recommendation if you are ever in the area!

Wild Tomato in Sister Bay

Let’s see… what else… Took a girl’s trip to Dallas with Madison – Fun. Saw Pentatonix at the Zoo Amphitheater – Amazing. Tried some new restaurants: Queen of Sheba (Ethiopian); Saucee Sicilian (Pizza food truck); Salata (salad bar); Three Sisters and Jerusalem (both Mediterranean) – All Delightful. Thought about getting a tattoo – haven’t yet. Died the tips of my hair maroon – I was bored. Been on a few dates – Not all bad, but not all great. Trying to find a new hobby – no success so far. Watched Game of Thrones – Finally. Found a new bookstore that I LOVE- Full Circle in OKC. Tried to start a book club – Failed quickly, as there were only two members (me and Sam). Moved a rock in the style of the ancient Egyptians – Successful.

Blue Mesa - Dallas trip

Full Circle Bookstore

Rock Conqueror

And that’s about it for the last 9 months. A few adventures, but nothing extravagant. I’ve been trying to find little adventures in my everyday life, although with limited success so far. I am interested to see what the next three months have in store for me. Trips? New title? New hobby? New foods? Fantastic costume for Halloween? Only time will tell! 

Hello, it's me. Wondering what happened to 2017...

I realized today that it has been months since I posted on my blog. So much has happened and I have been busy with post-college life, which apparently means I lacked the time and thought to write. I will admit, I have tried to write several times but I never really liked the way it sounded. I suppose writing about my adventures this summer just did not compare to the excitement I had to share when I was abroad. However, that is no excuse for not writing at least something! On that note, here we go:

Final Semester of College: My final semester was fantastic. I had a light load course-wise, which I had not entirely expected to be able to do after studying abroad. I only had 12 hours and every hour was a class in which I was truly interested: Career Planning, Interethnic Communication, Cultural Awareness, Honors Research, and Ballroom Dancing. Career planning was a beneficial class to take my last semester, although I almost wished I had taken it sooner. There was some information that I feel should be more widely known for college students early in their career, but it was still helpful to get some job search, resume writing, and interviewing tips. I had been interested in taking ballroom dancing for years, but it never fit with my schedule until this semester. It was probably my favorite non-major class that I took in college! Interethnic communication and cultural awareness were two classes that looked at the same subject from a different viewpoint, both of which were interesting. They covered a wide variety of communication problems that arise between cultures and how to be aware of and avoid them.  Not to mention, these classes truly benefited my honors research to make it an absolutely phenomenal project to culminate my degree. I really enjoyed conducting my research and am truly proud of how it came out, although most people would find it mind-numbingly boring to read.

May 13^th: I graduated. Yes, I actually enjoyed my degree. Yes, I will be paying for it for years to come. No, I did not go on to grad school. No, I did not have a job ready to go when I finished. And no, I still do not know what I want to be when I grow up (I think I may know the answer to that question by the time I am ninety). My degree was part of the largest college on the campus (of course) so it took several hours, not including the time waiting in the gym downstairs so we graduates could crowd out onto the stadium floor. My aunt, uncle, grandparents, and godfather all came into town, which is always great. I had not seen my godfather in years, so it was amazing to spend the weekend with him and the rest of the family. Three cheers for the end of school, even though I actually enjoyed it!

Graduation with my favorite professor, 

Dr. Bisel. I took five of his classes.

May 29^th – June 1^st: Las Vegas. My friend and I treated ourselves to a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate our graduation. Neither of us had ever been and I am not sure either of us will ever go back, but it was definitely an adventure. Not to say it was a bad trip, but it was not quite as amazing as we had hoped. We went to the Grand Canyon, saw a couple of shows, ate at some buffets, and had an overall pleasant time. The Grand Canyon was beautiful, although our trip was not as advertised. The shows were definitely the best part of the trip, which was not exactly surprising (other than gambling and drinking, they are the main reason to go to Vegas!). Oh, and the buffets were amazing, too. Expensive, but well worth the money considering how much food you had the option of eating (and I absolutely ate more than my fill). I will advise that you do not fly Allegiant if you go. Our plane was several hours late both going and coming, and they were not very forthcoming with the reasons why. But hey, that is one place to check off of my adventures list!

Grand Canyon 

La Reve

Summer: Several small adventures with Madison no one really wants to read about. A couple of wine walks, a trip to Turner Falls, and a misguided attempt to reignite our youth at a pumpkin farm overrun with children. Really, you do not want me to write about it. Nor do I want to write about it, for that matter. Oh, and I was job hunting during this time too, with not much success clearly.

Turner Falls

 Wine Walks

Misguided pumpkin farm

Summer Add-In: So I realized while finding my pictures that I did have a couple of more exciting adventures. I went to see Ed Sheeran's concert in Tulsa, which was fabulous. I also participated in GISHWHES (the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen). It consisted of doing either acts of kindness or crazy acts of weirdness to raise money for a non-profit organization started by the actor who started the scavenger hunt. I also went to the Kings of Leon concert with Jessica. Yay! Real summer adventures! Moving on. 

Ed Sheeran Concert

 GISHWHES Item: Symbol of Hope (for nerds) 

in your front yard

Kings of Leon Concert

November: New job. I found a job! Well, I think it might be more appropriate to say that a job found me, but still. I have a job! And never again will I believe someone when they tell me shopping is a waste of time, because that is how I found my job. Mom and I were checking out a new boutique in OKC. After talking with the manager for a few minutes, she started to ask me a few pointed questions about my experience and then gave me her husband’s number because he had a job opening that I might be interested in. One phone call and two interviews later, I had found my first job out of college as a customer service representative at Green Bay Packaging in Chickasha. Oh, and this makes two jobs now that I have found by going shopping! Also, Loki (my car) died, so we had to start car shopping this month. We did find one and started the financing paperwork before we left for Thanksgiving in Texas (this will be relevant soon, I promise).

December 4^th – 8^th: Racine, WI. One week at my new job and I was already on a business trip. I was sent to Racine, WI, to learn about the corrugated business and see an idea of how my GM wants to grow our plant. I spent time learning about everything that goes into a box, from the design and production to testing and sales. The whole process is a constant war between thinking “I didn’t know this much went into creating a box” and “This is such a straightforward process, why am I here”. Honestly, it was both fascinating and fascinatingly boring to learn about. On the bright side, I learned a lot and ate even more. I was seriously well-fed on this trip and I got to see Milwaukee as well, which is a really beautiful city. Actually, Wisconsin was just a beautiful state.

December 11^th –14^th: Green Bay, WI. Back-to-back trips! This trip was to the original facility in Green Bay, which is a huge production. Not only is it where our corporate offices are located, there is also a paper mill, a corrugator, a sheet plant, a folding carton plant and several warehouses (I know you do not know what this is, but just to give an idea of size). The corrugator and paper mill were really fascinating to see, especially after learning about how boxes are made. However, I am fairly certain that the men at this plant had no idea what to do with me. I was sort of shunted from department to department, with no one really knowing why I was there and what they were supposed to do with me. More of a lesson in what we do not want to do at our plant, but it was a really cool and modern production to see compared to our tiny facility in Chickasha. Oh, and it snowed while I was there! I actually got to see snow for the Christmas holiday, even if it was not actually in Oklahoma.

December 16^th: Car buying. A month later, I finally got to sign the paperwork on my new car, a 2017 VW Passat. The finance department at Fowler Volkswagen in Norman is absolutely useless. We had an amazing experience with our salesperson. He was very helpful and knowledgeable, without ever giving off the sleazy cars salesman vibe or pressuring us once we had walked away. However, after we started dealing with the finance department, it all went to hell. They would not answer phone calls, would not get their paperwork in order, and they were going to send someone to Chickasha for me to sign the paperwork (since I was leaving for WI) and they never showed up or called me! When we finally managed to get a hold of them and tell them we were coming to sign the paperwork, they told us the finance manager had to be there (which he was not) because he had our paperwork (for some reason) and we had to come the following day. Even when we went, we never saw the finance manager and they were reprinting all of our paperwork, so clearly he was not necessary to the process (Mom thinks it’s because we were labeled problem customers and he needed to be there in case we cause problems).  Seriously, it was like they did not want me to buy the freaking car. And even after we finished the paperwork, I had to go back twice more because they forgot things! Hopefully, my future car buying experiences will go better. They definitely are not on my recommendation list, which is unfortunate since I would absolutely recommend my salesman.

So there it is. The adventures that I have had this year all wrapped up in one pretty bow. I will try to be better about writing, but I am not seeing any big (or small) adventures in my near future. We will just have to wait and see. Happy New Year, everyone! May your resolutions… go up in smoke because mine already have.