How is it the end of June already?

Hey, everyone. It's June 28th. What? Also? It's 2013. I have no idea how either of those things came to be. It's crazy how time flies.

We got a very sweet thing in the mail at the beginning of the month. A 3rd grade class in Ohio made us a sweet poster to show us their support for Boston after the bombings. Sweet children. I have yet to take it down.

Shawna took her vacation this month so I house sat...which included sitting for 2 dogs (an older dog and a puppy) plus their 10+ lizards (or whatever they are...shiver). That was an interesting experience as we got a heat wave that week and they hadn't gotten their a/c unit out yet. I have central heat and air at my place but that's rare up here. Anyway, Malden is nice but I prefer Roxbury/Jamaica Plain (ish). I didn't kill anything so that's good. I was really worried about that.

I got to go to Florida at the beginning of this month to attend Tyler & Rachel's High School Graduation Party. I had a great time. It was a super fast 2.5 day trip down and back. I didn't get to fit in as many visits as I'd have liked but the ones I did fit in were lovely. 

Friday afternoon I got to spend with Wendy, Rachael and Baby Brooklynn. GiGi loves that happy girl. 

Always the happy face.

Friday night I got to have dinner with mom and dad at Kokopeli's. What a great time eating the awesome food and drinking Randy's yummy margaritas. Dad ordered a Bananas Foster that looked so good. I love watching them make it!

Fun and Yummy

 

Saturday was the Graduation Party. It was nice seeing everyone and getting to spend time with Tyler, Rachael, Mr & Mrs. Sutton, Kevin, etc... It was a great turnout with good food and better company.

 

Tyler and Rachael at the Party

Sunday I got to spend the day with the McClelland/Killeen side of the family. Aunt Leigh outdid herself (as always) and  cooked cornish hens for dinner. It was so great. Then I got to go see Brittany's condo. She did a wonderful job picking out all the flooring and cabinets and things. I'm very excited for  her. I think she's planning a trip up here soon. That will be fun.

At work, I was tasked with heading up the Volunteer Appreciation Event Committee. So basically: I got to plan the party. We did this all last minute on a less than shoe string budget. We had it at a place called Lombardo's. It's a lovely event center in Randolph. The big attraction is their spiral staircase with the huge chandelier. It's lovely.

Picturesque - nice for posing!

The committee did a great job and I think everyone from the CEO to all the volunteers were happy with the results. Heavy appetizers, cash bar, lots of great raffle items (including 2 sets of 4 box seats to 2 different Red Sox Games next week). Awards were handed out by each department head to their Volunteer of the Year and then I got to pick raffle winners. We all know how much I love public speaking (not). It did turn out nicely, though.

Free goodie bag, program and candy. Simple but nice.

It is looking more and more like there won't be a position available for me here at The Red Cross. I've started looking outside ARC and there are some interesting possibilities. Stay tuned! I'm keeping positive about it all. I'm sure there's something great out there for me.

The week of the Volunteer Appreciation Event was crazy as we had a couple other things going on here, too. It's the end of the fiscal year so our annual meeting was held next door at The British Consulate. Leighton, our Director of Disaster Services, is British so he has contacts there. They have a lovely meeting space that is open and full of windows looking out the 7th floor onto Main Street here in Cambridge. We had volunteers give the yearly update and tell their, "how I came to volunteer at ARC" stories. It was quite nice as opposed to having the executives do it. 

British Consulate in Cambridge

After the Annual Meeting, we had a Service to Armed Forces/International Services mixer back at Chapter to celebrate International Refugee Day. Lynn Levine is the head of those two programs and it was a nice party. Daniel got to come to it as it was our weekly date night. We stayed a few minutes and he got to meet people and put faces to names he's always hearing. After, we went to Champions at the Marriott and had margaritas and fattening appetizers. LOL.

Rare but nice pic of us!

The weather has gotten quite warm up here. It's been sunny and lovely so we all spend as much time outside as possible. Last Friday we had our Volunteer Programs bi-weekly staff meeting out on the 5th floor balcony. Between the view and the weather, it was a great way to get things accomplished!

Beautiful View

That's about it. Next week is 4th of July and I hate crowds so I think we're going to see if we're allowed to go to the balcony here and watch the fireworks from across the river. Fingers crossed. 

Everyone be safe.

Love, Jini