Macros and Tailors

I have grown accustomed to this southern heat. Today's high was actually 95 degrees and I thought it was perfect weather outside. Had you not shown me a thermometer or had I forgotten my way out to the weather.com website, I would have imagined it to be a pleasant 80 degrees outside instead, just because of how it feels to my body now. It just felt so nice - I didn't even have to use the Beetle's air conditioner until driving around for a half an hour! :) It really feels like walking around in a sauna, very therapeutic.

I think an actual 80 degrees in Wisconsin at the end of August is going to feel like 70 degrees to my body - and chilly - now...eep!

Work has been.....predictable, I guess you could say......for the past three weeks. I've settled into one department to fill out the rest of the month of June, so it's finally been the same thing, day in and day out. I have got to say it's amazing how things will just creep up on you though.

My current project is to write an Excel program (aka, be a computer programmer) using macros.

To provide you a little bit of background knowledge, this was actually the same job I had last summer as an engineering intern at Schneider National in Green Bay. Both companies sought an autonomous Excel file that, when you click to open it, you can sit back and watch as the Excel worksheet essentially completes itself.

It is my code-writing and detective work that makes this all possible. Not too bad of skills for a manufacturing engineering major, eh?? Actually, I wish I could show you all what I have concocted, I am quite proud of it and I notice how much I have advanced in my skillset since last summer. I think, once I get settled down into a full-time employed position SOMEWHERE within this country, I will look into taking an upper-level Visual Basic course sponsored by my employer or a local community college.



In other cool news, I can exhale today after making a trip to this little old lady that owns a tailor shop down south in Jackson.

Last week I brought her my famed pair of black pinstripe pants that are a part of my very first business suit and she fabulously fixed them up for me.

You see, I finally made the plunge a few months ago and bought my first matching pants and sportcoat set.....only, the pants were too loose and long in the leg.

Sonja and Mom can vouch for me being on a wild goose chase to exchange the pants for a more appropriate size. Milwaukee, Green Bay, Appleton, and even Mississippi - all of the stores sold fresh out of these apparently very popular dress pants.

I was left to take them to a tailor, and after checking around in Green Bay and running out of time to get them fixed there, I ended up taking them to a one-woman show here in Jackson.

The woman is of oriental descent, and barely spoke English. Let's just say when I called her today I had to describe to her what color 'black' was. Yikes.

She runs a business out of this little one-room unit in an apartment complex of businesses. Last week when I stopped in by her to see what she and I could set up, I had to tiptoe to get around the heaps of clothing on the floor. And paper - lots and lots of paper! It was hard to breathe, it felt like the moth balls were wriggling out of the fibers of the clothes and jumping down into my lungs. She had me change clothes behind a hanging blanket, so nothing seemed too professional to me.

All of this being described, I was admittedly nervous about handing over my precious pair of pants to her to fix. However, there was nowhere else in this tiny town to take them, without getting much farther out - and into dangerous territory as a woman being alone down here. Plus, she was a sweet, honest little woman, and her prices were cheap.

I went back today, tried on my pants, and they fit like a glove. Erm, they fit like pants are supposed to fit, I mean. :)

She did a flawless job, hid all of her stitches, and even matched up the pinstripes on my pants like a thoughtful tailor should aim for.

Very cool - and relieving - to have lucked out on this business interaction. It just goes to show me that there actually still are honest, down-to-earth good deals out there in the business world along with Mason Brothers' Red Owl. :)