Independence Day

Happy 4th of July! While most people take this as a day off to relax and sleep in, I was up at 7 am. So much for taking it easy!

Anyway, good thing I'm up because there is a lot to report on and this is the first chance I've gotten to update. Last week went by in a blur, I was busy the entire week and finally when I got home last night I just sat there and vegged out on my couch for the night. I had dinner with Shell to start the week last week. I got off of work at 5 and high-tailed it home to change clothes and drive back to the neighborhood I grew up in. Usually it doesn't take that long to get there from where I live considering it is only like 12 miles away but with traffic on the highway it took me over 45 minutes to get to her house. It was nice to be able to catch up with her, especially since we've been friends since first grade and I haven't been the greatest at keeping in contact with people I grew up with. When I graduated from high school, I always thought I would keep in touch with that close-knit group of friends and now 5 years after graduating, I barely keep in touch with one of them. But, I will say I had a lot of fun hanging out with Shell and we both decided we'll have to make this a regular thing.
Last Wednesday, I drove back over to my Grandma's in that same exact neighborhood and had dinner with her, my step-dad and a friend of my Grandma's. Traffic that day was even worse and all of the highways were closed due to the President being in town for a fundraiser. By the time I made it to my Grandma's I had sat in traffic for about an hour and a half and I was a little peeved when I did finally make it to her house and in my personal opinion, Sen. Talent made a big mistake by inviting the President. He's definitely lost my vote, and not because I dislike Bush (don't get me wrong though, I don't think he's the greatest) but because they shut down the highways at rush hour and that's just wrong!!! But, dinner ended up being a lot of fun. My Grandma's friend actually works for another local trucking company as a fleet manager so I spent most of the night talking trucking with him. I think he was impressed that I knew so much for being so young and only working at a transportation company for 11 months. I actually impressed myself too...I have learned a lot in that amount of time!
Thursday and Friday, Tom was in town so Joe, Lindsay, Tom and myself went out after I got off of work. Thursday we went to Fast Eddie's and then to play pool and then Friday we went to Hooter's at Westport. I wasn't much fun to hang out with though, I was worn out and I probably seemed out of it both nights, but that's what you get from me when it's the end of the month and I've got a million other things on my mind and I'm working a ton of extra hours. Friday night I had month end and nothing went as scheduled and that didn't help and as a result, I had to go into work on Saturday morning to see if I could fix the mess. So Saturday, I got up and got ready for work and went to breakfast with Tom before he set out for Oklahoma and then worked a few hours fixing nothing, but at least getting started on everything needed for July.
Saturday night ended up being a complete blast! M was having a graduation party for her daughter who recently graduated from high school and the work crowd was invited along with all of her kids friends, both sides of the family and other friends. I came a little early to help M get some things set because I knew she would be stressing a little as it came down to the wire. Well, I ended up not leaving until like 3 in the morning! All of the 20 somethings that were there ended up causing a few problems and I was trying to talk some sense into them. Imagine that...me -- another 20 something trying to talk sense into others! Actually most of the time I was there I was with the older crowd because I know most of them from work or they are friends of M's that I have gone out with before so I felt more comfortable with them. The President of the company I work for ended up coming and I got to talk to him for quite awhile which was a great relief to me. Actually, he pulled me aside and talked to me about work for a bit also and come to find out he is extremely pleased with what I have done so far. It was a big help for me to hear everything from him because I think I'm doing a decent job, but until you hear it from the President of the company, you never know if it is true or not. We also talked about how my year anniversary is coming up and that I will have my annual review with him around the 18th of July and he assured me that I have nothing to worry about. I know I have some improvements to make and I'm always looking to move forward and I think he realizes that too. Overall it was a great night!
Sunday I headed over to my mom's to do laundry and for BBQ. And because I was up so late the night before I ended up napping most of the day in between switching laundry loads. Not sleeping a lot during the week definitely caught up with me! But it did help me feel refreshed for work yesterday and it ended up being a great day. The next few weeks are going to be slower for us operationally but that should help the administrative side get caught up with our backlog and by the time we get through this little slump (it's a yearly slump due to the automotive industry taking a two week hiatus to change over the plants). Although from what I heard we shouldn't be nearly as slow as last year because we have found quite a few logistics companies that need our help moving the loads that they broker out.
As for the rest of the week, it should be fairly smooth. Tomorrow is M's one year anniversary at work and I have something up my sleeve for that and I have an AR meeting with my buddy C. Friday we're going to try to go out after work. It's been quite a few weeks since we've gone out after work and I'm having dancing withdrawals so I think we're going to go up to the Bottleneck Blues bar.
And finally, I'm looking forward to Saturday. My aunt called me last weekend and asked if my 9 year cousin could come spend the night at my apartment this weekend and of course I agreed. My cousin is the absolute cutest and considering I lived with her for nearly two years and she's like a little sister to me I love getting to spend time with her. I'm sure it will be a jam-packed Saturday and Sunday for us but I know it will be fun!