The temple that Ryan attends weekly for his taiko practices has an annual New Year's celebration each January. Since Ry is a Year of the Rat celebrant (we just learned this, I should lose my Asian card for not knowing this previously), he and his fellow Year of the Rat taiko mates were honored.
Over the winter break, I had the kids in the kitchen a few times to get them off tech. ;-) On this day, it was breakfast frittatas.
Also, please note that we also finally replaced the light fixtures that were previously hanging in the kitchen. Even though we picked those when we moved in, we did so out of panicked desperation and limited options. Kona is not known for a variety of options in ANYTHING.
And I have to admit- what we picked out looked strongly reminiscent of a cross between Strip Club booth 1995 and Pizza Hut 1985. It wasn't super pretty. However, I've never claimed to have any design aesthetic abilities, ever. I think we did okay with the new ones though- and if we didn't, well then hell...we wasted a some serious coin on these.
Okay, how's this for an odd twist of fate? I applied for what looked like a dream HR position back in November or December of last year. It was a blind ad (couldn't tell what company it was for). I heard nothing back for about 3 weeks, so I assumed I was out of the running (which I was). But something about the position was hard to forget, the way the ad was written was like it was custom made for me. So I took the risk of reaching out again- and this time, wrote a sort of funny email saying, "Hey! Why didn't you call me? I'm awesome! Even though my parole officer is demanding I learn from past TROs filed against me, I'm going to take a risk and be semi-stalkerish and reach out to you again."
And lo and behold, within a few minutes, I heard back from the recruiter, who said he'd call me that afternoon. To make a very long story short, the position was on the verge of being filled. However, about a month later, I was called and told that it wasn't, and asked to come in for an interview on a Sun, at 10am. A few hours after that was scheduled, a friend called and invited Ryan to brunch for that same Sun, at 10am, at the same exact restaurant. A restaurant neither of us had been to... Coincidence? Perhaps, but I don't believe so.
Ryan must have been my good luck charm that day. He sat at one end of the restaurant, while I interviewed at the other end. He was the reason I had not worked full time in 11.5 years. But he was there to gently guide me back into the workforce 11.5 years later.
A month after that day (forever immortalized in the photo below taken by friends), I had the job, and it's been happiness, joy, stress, anxiety ever since. I love my job, I love my bosses, I love the companies I support, I love my coworkers...about the only thing I don't love is that COVID-19 put a very quick, temporary hiatus/kink into the plan, but it's definitely to be continued once things get back to normal around here, and the rest of the world. I've been a Director of HR before, but there is something very special about this Director of HR position that delights me.
Themom-guilt of not having taken Ryan to the beach over the break kicked in the final weekend before school started, so I took a few kids to the beach.
The kids had such a great time, that I realized I needed to make a better effort to take Ryan to the beach (which I promise, I've done almost 2 times a month since then).
In fact, a weekend later, we were able to take a few of Ryan's closest friends up to Mauna Kea for snow, and then back down to the beach, in the same day. ;-)
 |
| Making shaved ice |
 |
| After my boogie board/sleigh ride down the mountain, I was lucky to have fallen off just before I hit the hard snow bank! |
Keni was our second driver that day, as you need 4WD trucks to head up there, so he kindly accompanied us back to the beach with the kids before rushing home to take two coolers full of snow back for his cousins (who were too young to go up).
I had a few more Monday dates with this cute niece before my new job started...we tend to hit the store and buy Frozen things. It's what we do. ;-)
My succulent farming continues on unabated. Those things can't grow fast enough for me to share. This one was made in memory of a friend's father who had recently passed.
And last but not least, a friend took this photo of Ryan at taiko practice. I don't remember why they practiced outdoors that day, but I thought it was such a beautiful backdrop.
No comments:
Post a Comment