finger taping!

This week, I learned how to properly tape my fingers when I make wire covers. This may not seem like the biggest of accomplishments, but let me tell you, work is exhausting and if you don't get those fingers taped right, work gets worse and worse every day.
Also, I spent 11 hours in four days making wire covers, so learning how to tape for them was kind of really important. Fingers crossed, I think I've been promoted to bigger and better machines so I'm not spending half of my time on the dreaded *snap*shove*snap*press*repeat* deal. Some of the people love doing it {why is beyond me} and I am 100% okay with letting others do the 'easy machine.' Secretly, I swear that machine is out to destroy all of my fine motor ability in my hands.

So yeah, I'm not in love with the work I'm doing, but as I remind myself {and am also very frequently reminded}, it's good motivation to remind me that I am pursuing a very different career for a reason...because full time assembly work is not for me other than in small doses to pay tuition.

Also featured in this photo: my glorious lunch view.
No, no sarcasm.
I am very much an introvert and, at least for right now, 25 minutes in my [OK, in dad's] car looking at trees is what my heart needs to go back to another 3.5 hours of standing and menial labor. E1400 isn't terribly loud, but it's hectic. It's busy. There's always 27 things going on and the alarms go off for help at least every half hour {and let me tell you, they're worse than any fire or other drill alarm I have ever heard}. So I covet that time by myself.
Maybe by the end of the summer I'll enjoy the air-conditioned lunch room with any number of my 40+ bay coworkers. But maybe not. I prefer trees.

adventures with brubru

This week was spent with BruBru (aka Brutus, aka slobber ball, aka puppy, aka goofball, aka BRUUUUTUS SO HELP ME DOG) the 140+ lb mastiff puppy. I lived out in Borculo with him and his two feline siblings Trout and Rodeo. It was all-in-all a pretty good experience with a healthy measure of exhaustion mixed in.
I'm very much an introvert by nature, so it was so nice for me to be able to just get (1) out of Zeeland and (2) away from people for awhile. I ended up driving back in to town almost every day for some errand or another, but I really cherished my hours of sunshine and snuggles and waking up to make coffee in the Keurig every morning (like seriously, those things are amazing and I'm not 100% sure how I do college without them..oh whale).

So yes, a rather sunburnt but very content Julia is now re-emerging into the world of human interaction and wifi.

A great day to be an east alum!

Okay guys, this week's photo of the week is just me bragging about how cool my baby sister is, ok? Ok.

Now that we've got that out of the way,
my baby sister and her team took FIRST at the regional track meet yesterday, along with a LANDSLIDE VICTORY by the guys!
My kiddo has worked harder and trained crazier than anyone I know. Watching her run makes my heart so happy because I can tell how much she loves it {even though her hurdle face looks like a bit of an axe murderer's} and watching her cruise through qualifying and semi-finals to be ranked the 6th fastest hurdler in the region (15 schools) for her senior season was a pretty great experience.

Yeah, sometimes I run for fun and it's usually a couple miles at a pretty slow pace. These girls, they blow it out of the water and they totally wreck my brain.
Watching them compete just warms my heart, and watching them do well makes me lose my voice. Obviously. Because what kind of big sister would I be if I wasn't the one screaming at the top of my lungs from the bleachers?!

I made the decision to spend this summer back at home again, and it's things like this that make me glad I did. The kiddo will start college in the fall, and I {albeit maybe selfishly...she's pretty cool, ya know?} want all the time I can get with her before she ditches me for bigger, better, and faster things.