Another month (almost 2 months, haha) has gone by yet again , but a lot has happened.

On 5/15/08, I went to the Blood Donor center at the American Red Cross office in Blacksburg and gave my pint of blood. I’d like to give on a regular basis (every two months). Now that I work close by, I can walk into town with no problems.

Holly saw an ad in the Roanoke Times for a Driving Study. It sounded interesting, so she called the number listed and answered some questions. But she wasn’t allowed to take the study because she is pregnant, but I called and got the ok to take it. So I went to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute on 5/18/08 and met up with a lady. I had to sign a waiver in order to drive the vehicle. I had to wear a contraption on my head the entire time. It had a little red light that would flash periodically. Then, I had a sensor button on my finger that I was supposed to push when I saw the red light on my head. I had to drive around the Blacksburg/Christiansburg using different methods of navigation (maps, Yahoo Maps directions and TomTom navigation). From what I got out of it, it was to measure how tentative you are while you are driving around while getting to a specific place. The whole experience was pretty strange, but interesting. I got paid $50 for doing the study.

On 4/23/08, I went in to fill out some paper work for my new job. I also got a mini-orientation by the former Senior Graphic Designer, Kristin. She showed me some of the ins and outs of the day-to-day happenings.

I had to get a bunch of shirts to print to get ready for the first show of the season, which is Volkfest held in Campbelltown, PA (4/26/08). I ended up running into a time crunch so I just printed the lighter color shirts with black ink. The show went great. We sold 300% more shirts than last year, which was really surprising considering I didn’t have any new designs and limited color options.

We had an appointment in Roanoke on 4/21/08 for a level 2 sonogram. We found out that we are having a boy! Here are some sonogram photos that were taken:

While looking around on the Tech website, Holly saw a full-time job opening in the Student Programs department (which was the same department I was hired for a few weeks earlier). So I got my resume ready and put my application in. I set up an interview on 4/29/08 at around 4:00. I was to be the last of 4 interviewees. The next day, I got a call from my supervisor, Holli, around 10 AM asking if I’d like to join the team as their Senior Graphic Designer. I, of course, accepted the full-time position. My supervisor said that the other candidates had more experience (design and managerial), but I blew them away with a solid portfolio and my overall organization. It feels really good to beat out people who have way more experience. I will have to go to a few management workshops in the near future. Holli also mentioned that I should consider getting my BFA (Bachelors of Fine Arts) degree. She said down the line, the lack of a Bachelors degree would hold me back in the department. So, I’m going to look into it.

Also during my first week of work, I and the rest of the Marketing/IT sub-department of Student Programs employees (around 15 total people) went to a retreat house at Claytor Lake, VA. It went from Wednesday evening (4/30/08)until early Friday afternoon (5/2/08). It’s about 30 minutes south of Christiansburg. We did team building exercises all based around StrengthsQuest. It’s basically a web-based questionnaire that finds your top 5 strengths. My top 5 are Learner, Discipline, Relator, Empathy, and Imput. I think it was pretty accurate. It was a really good way to get to know my fellow employees. I felt very welcome to the team; while only being employed for less than a week.

The next day (5/3/08), we went to Washington D.C. for the day. Holly got tickets for Kids in the Hall comedy group. She’s a big fan and wanted to see them since they don’t tour very often. We drove up to Mama G’s house Friday night, and drove into D.C. Saturday morning. We walked around most of the day; going to the Hirshorn Art Museum and Capitol City Brewing Company for dinner, then on to the K.I.T.H. show. It was a long day, but it very fun. Here are some photos I took:

The next weekend (5/9/08-5/12/08), we drove to southern MD and stayed with our friends, Greg and Krista. They hosted a bbq at their place on Saturday. It was good to see people I haven’t seen in a while. Then on Sunday, we drove to NoVA for the Radiohead show. We stayed with our friend’s Mac and Michelle. It was pouring rain when we got there and, of course, I was not prepared. I had forgotten my raincoat, so I made one out of a trash bag. We decided to fare the weather and go into the show. It was cold and rather miserable, but we all had a great time. All of us were soaked from head to toe. I took the Monday after off seeing that we would have to drive a good 4 hours back home on top of recovering from the late show the night before.

I got a freelance job to design and print some shirts for a show and shine event to (sponsored by Harrisburg Area Volkswagen Owners Club) to raise money for a breast cancer walk. I designed a few options and passed them onto the client. I recommended that since she loved both of them, that she used the one this year and the other one for next year’s event. So, I finished printing the shirts today in order to drop them off with one of my friends so they have them a few weeks before the event. Here are some photos:

We made a drive up to PA today (5/24/08) for our baby shower/Memorial Day picnic hosted by my mom and dad. The picnic and shower were great. It was good to see some relatives that we haven’t seen in a few months. Plus, we got some sweet stuff for the little guy, too!

We got home at around 7:45 tonight. The drive back wasn’t bad at all. I’m going to wrap this up. Night.

Categories: Baby, Misc., Screen Printing
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