am I a part of the cure or am I part of the disease?

"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself." -Andy Warhol

yo. welcome back to my blog.

I like that quote. It's important. However, that is not what I'm here to write about today. I'm going to write about how I self-medicate with pizza and beer!

just kidding (although that is what I'm currently doing). instead, I'm going to blog about how I managed to land my job at the winery/microbrewery over the summer.

but...that whole winery thing sort of fell into my life rather unexpectedly, like many things in life do. so. sit back and take a journey with me.

let's flashback to February of 2013...pre-England. I went to this job/internship fair at the beginning of this month and was later offered an internship at Masonic Pathways. if you don't know, it's a senior living center for masons or relatives of masons, in Alma. This was sort of my dream place to get some experience in my field of psychology, especially since I like old people and especially since I had been there for Alma classes on two occasions, allowing me to meet some pretty fantastic old ladies.

so this was my plan: I would stay in Alma for the summer, do my internship, and get some sort of paying job on the side, since I knew that this internship was going to be unpaid.

however, little things started happening to make me second guess.

for example, the current old woman I was visiting complained about Masonic constantly and how she felt like she was just a number and how the workers didn't relate to them well.

then, I found out that summer housing was going to be one of the crappier dorms and cost me $600 or so, and no meal plan, so I would have to budget and buy my own food--but I was good at that, thanks to England.

then, there was the whole issue with paying for Alma College credits for this internship, which was more money.

then, there was me, who didn't talk to anyone in the Psychology Department about the internship.

flash forward to about May of 2013...and boom! indecision! I was overseas, I got asked to pay MORE for my unpaid internship, and then decided while still across the pond, mind you, that I wasn't going to go through with it.

of course, that brought LOTS of backlash--mostly from my parents, because I wasn't taking my future "seriously" or something like that. oh, and other Alma people too were thinking the same thing. can't forget that. (p.s. this not taking my future seriously thing is a common theme...)

flash forward to post-England...and I was at home, without a job, missing England like crazy. so I was applying for jobs, getting frustrated, and getting interviews that mostly ended with "we need you for an entire year" and me being like "umm...no. college."

so. on a whim, I applied at this winery in downtown Lexington, which is a cute little restorty town on Lake Huron that is about as far as I was willing to travel.

(then again, I did apply to be a camp counselor at a Girl Scout Camp in Southeastern Wisconsin, had a successful interview, and was so close to doing that...but that's beside the point. leaving again, after being home from England for less than a month, was too complicated.)

I walk in, see a guy who looked in his mid-twenties behind the counter, wearing this bright shirt and tie, and the first thing he says to me is "What's happenin'?!" I then told him what was happening, that I was applying for this job, and he introduced himself as Chris.

I wrote some information down, handed him a resume, and right away he noticed my uncle's name, the county sheriff, who he happened to know and who happens to be a regular customer at the winery. (let's just say that helped.)

the point is, he thought I had what it took to work at a winery/microbrew right away and according to my soon-to-be boss Connie, I had passed "the Chris test."

then, bam. the interview with Connie was on Monday, she loved me, I got the job, and my first day was  that Friday. my job on the first day?

serve bacon.

that's right. bacon. 

my job title?

baconette. 

so it wasn't even Day One and I knew that this job was going to change my life. and it did.

like they always say: when one door closes, another door opens. yeah, it's a cliche but it certainly applied to my summer.

of course, there is a little part of me that regrets not taking the internship at my former dream place but mostly, I don't regret it for a second.

soon, I will blog about this job in more detail, but until then...click right heeeeere to see a video of a band that I may or may not have jammed with over the summer.

(they are much better live, but you get the idea.)

stay classy, dear readers!