A Week of Ups and Downs

As many of you know my week started out with expected news, but none-the-less sad news. I and two other employees were the latest laid off from Perry Communications Group. Once I got the official notice, I mobilized my network of contacts and began to do outreach asking everyone to keep their eyes open for jobs that I would be a good fit for through personal e-mails, Twitter and Facebook. On Tuesday I got a phone call to schedule a third round interview (round 1 was an interview, round two was writing an op-ed) for Monday (tomorrow), went to a small career fair at William Jessup, got my Blackberry working and contacts synced with my Google contacts, and calendar and continued my job search. Wednesday I was fortunate to attend an informational event on stem cells and current research at UC Davis Medical Center as part of Stem Cell Awareness Day sponsored by the Northern California chapter of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America. Not only did I get some great food and learn lots, I got to see what will be a very impressive, state of the art research center. Thursday, as I continued my search there was an opportunity to go to the Casting Crowns concert, sponsored by World Vision. It was a great concert and a good opportunity to escape from my job search world for a few hours at least. Friday, I attended the Jesuit High School Alumni Summit to reconnect with alumni and learn about some of the outreach efforts the Alumni Association will be taking in the next few weeks and months to make Jesuit an even better institution. That afternoon I went to an informational meeting on “how to get a state job,” which was very informative.

Over the weekend my mom, dad and I all went down to my grandma’s house in Lodi for a busy weekend. My mom and grandma put on another very successful garage sale, while my dad and I installed a new kitchen floor. Once the garage sale and kitchen floor were done, my dad and I demolished an old shed at my grandma’s neighbor’s house and took a large load of debris and garbage to the Lodi dump/transfer station.

Camp Bradley

It was an amazing Labor Day Weekend at Camp Bradley. With over 20 people coming to camp, we had plenty of time to catch up on one another lives, watch slides from yester-year (and a few from a little closer to current times), take "nature hikes" along the Sacramento River, go swimming in Lake Bradley, play in the new sand pile at Bradley Beach with Tonka trucks, look at the giant "ice chest" (a fridge), post a lot of "Twitpics" and eat lots of amazing BBQ. We even took a field trip to the Old Sugar Mill and Bogle Vineyards for some wine tasting in Clarksburg before sitting around the camp fire to have s'mores and port.

Sorry for all of the pictures, but it was a busy weekend :-).

An Invitation to Lake Bradley

As Camp Bradley/Lake Bradley continues to get prepared for a Labor Day staycation "tradition" (last one occurred in 1997), I wanted to share with the rest of you the "evite" and remind you to follow me on Twitter for constant updates and pictures.

No Stress Camping Weekend

Gather around the Weber to roast your marshmallows, swim in Lake Bradley, sleep under the stars and street lights, and view the ranger show with vintage slides of yesteryear. We will be continuing the backyard tradition of camping without the fuss and expense of campgrounds. Three bathrooms with showers and flush toilets!

We even have extra tents and air beds. Special feature: indoor real beds for the pregnant and/or over 80 years old.

So pack up your guitar, sleeping bag and your sense of semi-adventure and head to Sacramento for one or two nights...holding the best campsites for your reservation!

21 reservations so far … including one requesting a lake front site for two.

Other amenities include: limited cell phone coverage, free secured wi-fi access, wildlife sightings (a "lazy" domesticated cat), HD satellite television, indoor cooking facilities, a dishwasher, running water and so much more.