Career

Farewell Retail

After five years of committment to service, I have ended the Cronicles of Banana Republic: A Kevin’s Tale. It really was bitter sweet as I was ending a part of my life that I have grown so acustom to for so long. Sharing a lot of good times with friends and being skillful at something made the store a place of refuge sometimes. Being at work meant not worrying about the toils of everyday frustrations or wondering what I needed to do to make it through the next day. Being in my store, I was with familiar faces, in a familiar place, comfortable and happy.

Even though I had great times, too much has changed and a lot of what I remembered was gone. Change is nothing to fear about, but what made me feel less attached to the store was the fact it just wasn’t the same place I used to remember. Instead, it’s a time where a fresh new group of people need to take over and lead the interactions with the customers. I think I am one of the few remaining people that have remained at the university village store since the transition. This all has been for the better as I will be focusing more on a career than just a job. Giving up Banana Republic means acquiring experience with Microsoft.

Today I just had lunch with my new manager, Mike Bishoff. I was quite surprised with our conversation as it turned out so much more delightful than I had anticipated. We dined at Blue C Sushi and talked about pretty much everything. A little about family, travel, work and some introductory things about my upcoming entrance to MS. Having more conversations with people I will be working with has highened my excitement about my internship. For some time I was beginning to feel left out. Even more so, it just all seemed anticlimatic as I had this great offer, but then this big empty silence in the proceeding months seemed to take away the magic. Thankfully some dialog has been surfacing to get my mojo going.

Summer so far has been wonderful in many ways. The girls that are living in the house this year are kick ass. Most always hangout and are easy to get along with. The fact that my room stays relatively cool throughout the summer heat is also amazing. Just stepping out into the hall I already notice a considerable difference in temperature. Not try to brag or anything, but hA! Some trips are coming up like a weekend at Chelan at Lillian’s cabin (a live in) and the annual rafting trip. Rush has also been going fairly well. With 10 guys in, we are hoping for a big rush as July rolls around. August is always a slow month while September is just a time to set up the quarter and bring in the remaining number of men.

I haven’t been reading as much as I had planned. I am still trying to finish up Naked by David Sedaris, but it just doesn’t seem like I can plow right through the text. While still enjoying all the witty commentary on life and all it’s subtilties, I only find myself reading it bits at a time. Lets be honest, it’s no Dan Brown book where it takes three days to read Angels and Demons. Then again, it’s an entirely different genre.

Once work starts, I will hopefully get a routine going where I will start working on some of my planned projects such as working on a better Sigma Chi website and tweaking some of the CSS on my own website. Those are probably the two biggest things I want to have accomplished by the end of September. It really seems like a lot, but it’s something to shoot for.

That’s about all that has really happened.  Come out to Seattle and hang out at the house with me or lets go downtown.  Alki is always a favorite or just good old Starbucks for coffee down at the village sounds like a great idea.  Then again I should be calling you guys too huh?  I’ll work on that.  Stay classy.