I'll blame my lack of posts on the end of summer crazy-ness, and then on my luck with technology... I'll get into that in a minute.
First, the end of the summer. Wow! Things ended great !! It was a little rushed with all of the end of summer paperwork and having Dessertfest our last week in Key West, but somehow we made it and it was a success. Our theme for Dessertfest this year was a Circus - The Greatest Show on Earth. We didn't go all out in costumes like we did for Toy Story, but the gym was all decked out, nothing left untouched. The girls did a great job getting the campers ready with their songs & skits, and everyone had great feedback. Here's a picture of the Key West Camp A staff after the event. (sorry about the quality)
And now time for the end of summer reflection ... overall it was a crazy, hectic, stressful summer that at times I wondered why I'd signed up for it. But looking back, those stressful challenging times are the exact moments in which we grow. And that I did. I was humbled to learn the lesson of when to say no, and knowing when too much is too much. Not sure how I pulled it off, but I'm thankful for the fantastic staff I had in the Gulf Region. The girls I worked with directly in Key West were all wonderful, and my directors at the other sites gave me nothing to worry about. I'm not sure how I got so lucky, but I know it wouldn't have been a great summer with a different staff. It's hard to see the cloud's silver lining when you're in the middle of the storm, but looking back now I'm grateful for this experience and I know I gained & learned a lot. Hopefully my staff learned a thing or two from me as well ;)
Since leaving Key West I've been bouncing around from place to place, and will continue to do so for the next month or so. I'll be visiting my family that's spread all over the states, meanwhile applying for jobs online. Just this week I've applied to over 30 jobs. It's definitely a tedious process, but hopefully I'll start getting some calls soon :) I'm not being picky on where the job is, trying to focus on East Coast, Florida & Colorado, but I'm not ruling out anything if I'm offered a great position somewhere else. We'll just have to wait and see :)
Oh & I almost forgot to mention, I had ZERO flight trouble getting back home AND my bags arrived on time. That never happens !!! :)
As for the computer drama, my hard drive crashed on my MacBook. I can honestly tell you I've never heard of that happening to anyone with a Mac. Ever. So there's no Mac store in Key West, but I found a retailer that would do repairs. They estimated $303 for a new harddrive and it was debatable whether I'd be able to transfer the data. Since I only had 2 weeks before leaving Key West, I decided to hold off on the repairs and wait until I was in Ohio. Boy am I glad I did!! I drove to Akron to visit the apple store and the guy I talked with was surprised at the $303 quote. I was a little nervous at first because his tone wasn't leading either way, but it turned out only costing $180, YES!! Unfortunately all data was lost, I had most of my files backed up onto an external harddrive in May, but I lost my music & most of my pictures. It's kind of nice to be able to 'start fresh' with a new computer, I just really wish I hadn't lost so many pictures.
Anyway. Things are going good for me now, I'm keeping it low key, definitely enjoying some down time & visiting family (much needed on both accounts). Hopefully I'll get a job soon and be moving to a new exciting city. :)
The quote for this post is one that I think certainly applies to many of us, and for me it can almost sum up my summer :)
"The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow." - H.G. Wells
