June 13, 2012

Wednesday, June 13.

So I thought really hard about how personal to make this post. I came to the conclusion that it was ok to make it a little bit personal...

Today marked the 3rd anniversary of my dad's passing. You don't really realize how much these type of anniversaries will affect you until they come. That morning I didn't even want to get out of bed. Normally, I wake up around 6:30am, but today it was more like 10:00am. All I could think of was my dad, and the rest of my family and how much I miss them. I was so distracted that it took me a really long time to get ready for work. I didn't get to my desk until 1:30pm. Luckily I had talked to my host the day before letting her know that I might be late the next day, and she was really understanding about it. There's no doubt, I have a really great host.

2:00pm.

Luckily, the Engineering Intern Welcome Event was scheduled for today. 

As I was walking to main campus, I saw Brenda, Lucy, Xunjie, and Joy. The first thing we did was eat some delicious cupcakes from Kara's Cupcakes. I'm pretty sure mine was vanilla with some sort of delicious frosting on top. Of course anything that I am mentioning was free, sponsored by Google. :)

Kara's cupcakes

There was a lot of interns at this event, and as we continued walking I saw that there were a bunch of people lined up/crowded around something. Everyone was waiting for their turn to ride the mechanical bull! I didn't ride it because I was wearing a dress, but it was really fun watching other people try to stay on for as long as they could. Lucy and Ishwarya assured me that it was way harder than it looked. lol

There was also a money booth! Ok, so it wasn't actual money. Interns would stand in the glass box, and then they would turn on the booth and paper money would fly all around you. Of course, the goal was to collect as many pieces of paper as possible. When your time was up, you got to redeem your paper money for some cool Google schwag!

Ishwarya in the Money Booth

There was also a photobooth that my roommates and I took some pictures in. There was crazy hair, large glasses, and other props that we could have used for the pictures, but we just took a normal one. There were some interns who got really intense with the props, probably because there was a competition to see who took the best photos. In the end, the winners were a couple of interns who themed their pictures after the "Call Me Maybe" song. The photos actually came out really cool!

Photobooth <3

OH, I can't forget about the fact that there was Jamba Juice smoothies and Pink Berry froyo (frozen yogurt)! Yummmmm...

Froyo!

I think it was a really good way to take my mind off of things. I definitely had more fun that I thought I would have. Thanks to Carolyn and my roommies for encouraging me to go! You ladies are such a blessing. 

:)

4:00pm.

The event had to end at some point. After the event, I went back to my desk and it was back to reality. I then realized that I wasn't being very productive so I might as well just go home. That evening I realized that there are so many people in my life that I am thankful for: my family and all of my wonderful friends, old and new. I couldn't have made it here without all of their love and support.

Family <3

It can be easy to take the people on your life for granted, when instead we should be cherishing every moment, even the small ones. If you ever find yourself missing a loved one that has passed away there is a really good quote that I tend to forget sometimes - "missing someone gets easier every day because even though it's one day further from the last time you saw each other, it's one day closer to the next time you will".

I smile every time I see this picture

"We deem those happy who, from the experience of life, have learned to bear its ills, without being overcome by them." - Juvenal