Light Rain

Whew!  What an unexpected break and absence from my new writing platform.   Responsibilities at work and trip planning have consumed most all my time recently.  With several roller coaster ups and downs, several major weather storms, and dark chocolate pomegranate treats to keep me energized, it has been a  whirlwind of excitement  and much has been accomplished (!).

Florida continues to amaze me.  I drove home from work in sunshine and heavy downpour.. at the same time.... at 7:30pm.   Being part of a 5 person professional team has been a very interesting learning experience.  While I feel sometimes inadequately prepared for my tasks and challenges, I am treated just like a graduated engineer; responsibilities and deadlines are very much a part of my day, as well as engaging brainstorming talks and mentoring.  I credit the level of responsibility to the reason why, for the first time, I look to the clock at work and think: dang!  Time is going by too fast!!   And, I have to look at the clock to tell me it's time to eat at 12!  Very rare.   My stomach has lost it's voice.

 I've seen the interface between time pressures, budget, and engineering ethics.  We design things that absolutely can ruin lives if a calc is done incorrectly and I think about that quite often.  Yet another reason I find myself at the office at 7.30.  There is soo much to learn, and I want to do this stuff right.  It may be me, but we feel very much like a family.  We have a kitchen with dirty dishes, an alarm system, plants that need watering, bigger rooms with better window views to be jealous over, and, best of all, watch netflix at lunch :))  I have watched more TV this summer than... I think ever.   Is it weird to watch The Office at the office over lunch?  If nothing else, it gives us a chance to all laugh at it's humor and stupidity.

This week has been very productive and skype calling intensive :P  Thanks to SKype video chats, Luke, Lawrence and I can do Asia funsearch (my new term for researching fun stuff) and all talk and brainstorm at the same time.  Three engineers can put together a pretty darn impressive plan!  And, a spreadsheet for timelines, reservations, and expenses.   Highly recommended when planning multi-city trips, and I'll consider posting mine when it is more polished.  I am very pleased with the areas we will be visiting and have consciously focused on seeing a variety of cultures while in China:  Shanghai (a major city), Fuzhou (Luke's hometown and more rural farmland), Guilin (a very scenic city, foreigner thriving melting pot), and Hong Kong (Lawrence's hometown and an awesome city in itself).     Currencies have been ordered and funsearch done on communication abroad.  I'll save these specifics (and more detailed and possibly more boring) for my Travel Prep post.  My goal for these is to have a bank of info 1) for myself in the future to remember all the details so I don't have to spend another hour at the AT&T store talking how expensive data plans are, and 2) for those really interested in what planning your first international travel involves.

While Finley Engineering Group is small, it has valuable resources that make it run smoothly and make it profitable.   I sought out Dawn, the Marketing Director for Finley, and Monday evening I was treated to a full hour of  talking with/interviewing Dawn.  In my continued search to explore different jobs, I am eagerly  interested in what Dawn does for a living.  She, along with her pet dog, are a 1 (and 1/2?) person team solely dedicated to selling Finley's bridge design work.  I learn that she works from home in Arizona (Finley is based out of Tallahassee,FL and has the satellite office here in Orlando) and has had a career full of experience in trade association marketing in addition to other sales/people related jobs.  Finley is her first 'firm' marketing position.  She is enthusiastic, friendly, and her speech eloquent and thoughts developed.  I like her from the get-go.  One hand is on my phone, the other twirling a pen and jotting down notes as she shares the inside scoop on what her work lifestyle is all about.  I confirm several suspicions...   Yes, it is sometimes challenging selling expertise in engineering design work when you arn't an engineer (and therefore, an engineer interested and talented in this area are very valuable).  Yes, extraverts and people with great verbal communication skills excel at this job.  And yes, networking is key in this field, too.  I also learn all about the professional societies, conventions, etc that are out there for people in the field of marketing.  I'm encouraged to check out lunch meetings of http://www.smps.org/ when I get settled down in Texas.  Above all, we both value education, continual self improvement, and being proud and successful in our jobs.  The talk was refreshing and eye opening.  Diving down the road this morning, I thought to myself:  how cool would it be to, in five or ten years time, think 'wow!  This is totally not the place I imagined I'd be right now... maybe because I don't even know it exists right now.  Ahhh... you see why I want to get out there and travel the world and see different ways of life?

T-minus 2 weeks until I'm in 'Roissy'  (what Charles de Gaulle airport is called) and chilling with Celine again.  This morning during our (Skype!) chat, I became fully aware of the fact that my first couple of hours in foreign land will be without the help of her language skills.  And so, my anxiety of French skills goes up a bit, briefly.  GL reminds me this evening that the airport is a HUB of international folks, most likely with translated signs.  I'll rely on these and careful map planning to make my way to the Roissybus and take my first of many bus rides into the downtown Paris area (about an hour away).  Then, to Paris, London, Angouleme, Nice, Rome, Florence, Tuscany, Sienna, and beyond.  Ahh, now that thought is something to end a somewhat random blog entry on :)    Sweet dreams and ... Au Revoir!