Hello my dear friends and family! I hope this finds you all well! I know mass emails are so impersonal, but really, what are you going to do about it?! (Feel free to stop reading now if you feel you’re being jipped out of personal connection with me … you’re probably not going to miss much because there are no guarantees that this email will even be worth reading).
I thought I’d give a little bit of an update of what I’ve been up to these last few months–unfortunately it’s nothing too earth shattering (or is that a good thing?), but I’ve been busy nonetheless.
Let’s start with the thing that takes up the majority of my time … work. I’m the Marketing Manager at the company I’ve been at for a little over a year (I had a little bit of a bump up–going from “coordinator” to “manager” … what that means, I haven’t really figured out yet, but I think it means less paper pushing and more strategizing.) The company is continuing to grow, which is both a blessing and a curse–what company doesn’t want to grow?! The curse is that when a small(er) company is trying to grow it usually means that the employees are overworked, have too much on their plate and hardly get time to breathe, let alone take a lunch break, which is what we’re experiencing now. It’s pretty much all good; it’s just trying to find a life/work balance. So far I have accomplished a good balance and hopefully it’ll stay that way.
Another big change with work is that my company, last week, moved to the south side of King County, so my commute went from 15 minutes to 35-40 minutes (and about an hour on the ride home). (See my commute!) The move was great for the company (all part of growing and expanding, rah-rah, go team!), but not so nice for a couple of us North Seattle people who are driving to very far south Seattle (actually not even in Seattle … it’s a city called Kent (a.k.a. Industrial Park heaven). So far it hasn’t been too bad, but it’s only been a week.
Along with working full time and driving longer to work, I am also ushering part time at Benaroya Hall, home of the Seattle Symphony. Since November I’ve been donning the dark green blazer with paisley vest (yes, I’m definitely attracting the men in this uniform!)–all this to earn a few dollars above minimum wage. Why do I put myself through this humiliation? Well, it’s really not that bad, the extra money is nice, I work max 16 hours a week and I get to read and listen to Symphony music while getting paid (and all the men are over 50 anyway, so who am I trying to impress?!) Really not a bad gig.
Okay, enough about work. Outside of work I don’t have too much free time, but when I do have downtime, I am trying to work out as much as I can (down six pounds already!). I go to a gym by my apartment that is open 24 hours, so here’s my schedule two to three times a week: Leave house between 6:45am–7am, be at work by 7:30, work until 4:30, usher from 6pm to 10pm, workout from 10:30 to 11:30, go home, take a shower, pack for the next day, rinse and repeat. Sounds really busy, but it’s really not to bad.
Seattle is continuing to treat me well, especially now that the weather is trying to get nice. I was able to go on a mini-roadtrip to the mountains (North Cascades) last weekend with some friends and we were able to enjoy a beautiful hike that showed God’s work to all its glory … it was magnificent. Friends are good … allow me to vent, cry, laugh (usually at myself) and just be me, which is always nice.
Well, I think that about does it for me … see, I told you that if you didn’t read this you wouldn’t miss much. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! If you have any updates you’d like to share, I’d love to hear them. Oh, another thing that’s new … I finally bought a computer! I bought a MacBook recently (okay, yesterday, so it’s still a complete novelty) and with the help of my neighbor’s unprotected wireless internet, I’m able to communicate freely (and for free) on this thing. (I’m almost sure that if I didn’t get this soon, my work would start watching my “personal internet usage” since I don’t think gmail, facebook and blogs constitute as work. Don’t worry, I was never on FaceBook very long.)
I am starting up a new blog (rachelvp.wordpress.com) that will include this email with a few extra links as the first post. And hopefully I’ll have random ramblings every once in a while. But in case you don’t want to go there to see a picture of me, I decided to attach one (this was taken with my handy-dandy built-in computer camera! I love my computer already).
hi!!
Alright, I’ve rambled for way too long. I hope I didn’t bore you completely to death. Love you all and I hope to hear from (or see) you soon.
–Rachel
And now a special treat for those of you who took the time to visit my blog…
Here’s me having a little too much fun with my camera! (I wasn’t in the best lighting, but whatever.)
“whoa, that was weird”
“why does it always do that?!”
“you still in there?!”
“HI! It’s me again!”
“Can my mouth get any smaller?”
Okay, I’m done now. Time for bed.
Mark VPol said:
Hey Ray! Thanks for the update and the link to the new blog! Just some questions…
So what has been your favorite symphony piece so far?
How do you like your car?
Do you listen to any Podcasts on your commute? (If so, make sure the White Horse Inn is one of them! The shows have been great this year!)
What gym do you go to? 24Hour Fitness?
Where did you go in the mountains?
Finally, nice photos Picasso!
Love ya,
Mark
rachelvp said:
Hola Mark,
Here are some answers…
–Couldn’t tell you my favorite Symphony piece that I’ve heard. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is my absolute favorite, but of course that was this past weekend and I was out of town.
–I love my car — not liking the expenses that go with it! Gas… ack!
–Right now I don’t have an ipod connection in my car. I bought a radio adapter (where it goes through the radio) but it sucked in the city and all I got was static, so I brought it back. I miss my podcasts! Have been starting to listen to books on CD though.
–I go to Olympic Athletic Club, a locally owned gym … it’s wonderful. Plus open gym Volleyball Sunday nights!
–We went to Rockport Washington, Marble Mount and hiked the Boulder Creek Trail just outside the North Cascades National Park.
There you go. 🙂
Love ya,
–rvp
anna said:
love the pictures!!! can you send me the one where you asked “are you still there?” so i can attach that to your business cards you sent me? 🙂
love you!!
anna
reb said:
Those pics are just freaky!!!
Kerry said:
Yay for updates and new blogs!
Oh, and you’re a nerd. 🙂 Love ya!
Momma Lou said:
Thanks for the update! Those pictures are so wierd — kind of scary. They are not showing your beautiful face and smile. But we all know they are there. I’m glad you are back on-line; I always love hearing from you and your reading is so enjoyable. Maybe you should consider writing a novel! (What a novel idea 🙂 !) Love you!