Perspective

So my last blog was pretty negative, especially for me. I mean, I did get some bad news, so I wasn't a very happy camper. But it's amazing to me how God works.

The very next day, I hosted and drove the tour for the Wounded Warrior group that was having a conference at the Rock Island Arsenal. My limp fit right in, but these guys were mainly from Iraq and a handful were young, not much older than me.

I feel I worded it best as yes, I'm bummed that this silly, semi-small piece of tissue is slowing me down and keeping me from the things I love such as basketball, frisbee and riding horses, but these guys went to a foreign country and put themselves in harm's way to protect my freedom to do those things. These guys were brought to tears to see the appreciation that the factory workers had for them. The factory was full of flags and banners thanking these guys for what they do. By the end of the tour, the soldiers were hugging me!

I'm still young and I will heal. These things are pretty routine and I have a good surgeon lined up back home that will fix me up in just over a month and within a year, I'll only have a scar to remind me of this and a set of crutches collecting dust in the closet. I'll also have a pretty sweet brace that will most likely become part of my athletic apparel which will make me look pretty legit :)

While I'll be missing my amateur return to the Henry County annual free-for-all pick-up football game and my last chance for a intramural flag football championship is shot - life could be so much worse. I have a sweet job for the summer, endless possibilities ahead of me, great friends, a loving family and a victory lap left in school before the real world hits! So it's all about the perspective. There's my usual positive self - hope y'all enjoyed having her back!

Well poop

I know its been awhile since I've got on here. Life is going way too fast! The job is GREAT! I  love working at the factory and everyone I have met has been great. I've been blogging on a company blog which is why I have neglected this one. Sorry.

So I've been physically slowed down recently though. I injured my knee at the end of May playing basketball here with the interns. The ER doctor knew squat - told me to rest and I'd be fine. So that's what I did. Three weeks no basketball, frisbee or softball! It was rough.

I hosted a big fly-in last week and it went super awesome! My knee was feeling better too so I decided to continue my happiness and try playing some basketball again! Bad, bad, bad idea. I drove the lane, went up for a lay-up and my knee twisted all over again. I made the shot, even though I didn't watch it go in because I was in so much pain again that I just fell to the court. So I literally scooted myself off the court and made an appointment at a sports med place to actually talk to some people who knew what the heck they were doing.

So last Thursday I got in and the doctor thought it looked like a torn meniscus, but wasn't ruling out any ACL damage either and scheduled me for an MRI. But that was good news in that 1- I had some better answers as to what was wrong with me and 2- the meniscus repair would be pretty minor.

Here's where the title of the blog comes in- got a call back from my doctor from my MRI this morning and although they were not the 'official' results, she said it was pretty obvious that I tore my ACL. So now its a matter of when and where I want to have the surgery done. I know some people let it go and let it heal without, but I don't want to worry about this knee for the rest of my life and if I ever want to play ball and all again without constantly wondering if I'm going to twist it again, then there really is no option. It's just kind of a bad situation as I want to finish my internship but not have it interfere with school either. So POOP!

Not sure if anyone will read this, but I feel better after my typing/blogging therapy. :)

New Adventure

Every day I get to cross the Mississippi River twice! I'm back with John Deere again this summer working in East Moline as Harvester Works, which is where they make those awesome green combines!!!! My goal is to become a combine expert, well at least as close to one as possible, by the end of the summer!

My Spring semester at Purdue ended nicely. Grades are available 8 am Eastern time, so I'm crossing my fingers for all A's. There is only one that I'm not sure about. But anyways, there was a quick turn around from finals to my new job.

So far the job is going well. Just a lot to take in and to try and incorporate what exactly I'm supposed to be doing. So far my manager and I are trying to incorporate all of my projects into one broader 'Customer Relationships' theme.

I haven't really reached out to the other interns yet because I've been dealing with sinus headaches during this transition. So by the time I get off work, then I'm ready to crash! But I'm really excited to make it down to Kansas soon to see some of my old intern friends and connect with the rest of the marketing interns :) There won't be any crazy travel stories this year, my project will be here at Harvester, but there is plenty to learn here. I have permission to go on any and as many tours as I want so there will be plenty of miles on the tram under the roof of the factory :)

Well, sorry this is short and I  haven't written in awhile, but I need to get some food soon before Purdue's  Latin and Ball Room Dance club is on Dancing with the Stars and Glee is on later tonight too :) Some good tv to chill out on tonight :)

Temporary False Identity

Just to give you all a heads up - I'm working on a project for my COM 252 class where we have to do a website for our final project. Creating a blog was one of our options, so I've made a second blog to act like the news room for the Jahari Dance Troop here at Purdue.

The thing is that my 'about me' carried over to that blog as well so I made up a fictitious little  bio and all my information to temporarily match what I need for the project. It's going to be like this for a little while, so sorry for the inconvience and I'll be back to the real Britt Cassiday in about 2 weeks!

Sorry for not posting much - life at Purdue is keeping me busy but no really awesome stories like I had to share on my travels, at least I don't think so. Although, I listened to a Webinar the other day about personal branding, so I might start using this blog to do a little bit more of that, rather than a diary format. Not sure - so stay tuned! 

Hello Strangers

Whether or not I really have very many people reading this, I wanted to say hello to y'all because you probably feel like strangers since I have not blogged in awhile. Well, today is your lucky day, because I just finished up my homework for my next class that meets in about 25 minutes and I have nothing else to do. I mean, I set aside some quality time in my busy schedule to write to you all :)

Last time I wrote I was coming home from Spring Break and that seems like forever ago, even though it was just a short two weeks. When I mean short, I mean BUSY! The first week back I hit the ground running with assignments, exams, speeches, projects and papers. Yay American continual assessment teaching styles! Seriously, I did not feel this stressed out during the semester in Ireland. But this world is one of give and take and stress hit me like a BRICK WALL come finals. But, see it as I will only be taking 2 finals this semester for my 6 classes, granted I get a high enough grade in my Ag Econ class to be excused from the final, I don't think finals week will be too stressful except for the fact that I'm moving out the day of my last final because I have to report to work that following Monday! So ya, maybe stressful but in a whole new way. I love finding new ways to push myself to the limits! That right there folks was sarcasm at its finest, which I have been told I'm pretty good at ;)

Speaking of strangers, I had a repeat creepy foreign older guy trying to pick me up experience. Except it was here on campus and the guy was totally American, but definitely too old to be hitting on college girls. After having previous experience with this, I immediately realized what he was up to, said "Thanks and have a nice day," and walked off. In later discussions with friends we were trying to decide if I should be flattered or creeped out, we decided on a compromise of both! Why couldn't have that been a crazy cute, smart, funny, rich cowboy? I don't think I ask for too much?

Easter was a great weekend! Busy, so it fit perfectly into my schedule! Went home Friday night just in time for the Good Friday service with my parents and Grandma. Then we went to Dairy Queen afterwards, which is always yummy :) Saturday morning mom and I hit the stores bright and early and I got some cute dresses to wear on campus now that the weather is all nice and springy :) Saturday afternoon was a bridal shower for one of my friends at Wesley, which was way fun, even though I didn't know very people there it was exciting because she's getting married and all that bride/wedding stuff is always exciting :) Saturday afternoon/evening was my first of two Easter dinners with my aunt and uncle, grandma, parents and then a family friend who I consider an aunt as well. Then, mom and I topped off Saturday by watching the late showing of "How to train your dragon," which was AWESOME! Phew, and we're not even to Easter Sunday yet folks! Obviously church in the morning which was an awesome service. Very high-church, the sanctuary was all decked out and packed! Just a really cool vibe. Then it was nap time before meeting my brother and Eva in Indy from their way back from Eva's home in Illinois. We ate at Olive Garden (YUMMY) and then I made my way back to Purdue just in time for a few really awesome games of Ultimate Frisbee with my Wesley friends! So again, Easter weekend was pretty awesome!

Well, I hope y'all feel special that I set aside some very important time to update y'all. But in all honesty, my class is about to start and I get my grade back from a major paper that I wrote, so keep your fingers crossed for me please :)

Happy Friday,
Britt

Watching Airplanes

Blogging from the airport once again! I am writing from probably one of my favorite airports- Denver International Airport! I don't know what it is about this place, because it is a huge airport and I'm not one for crowds, but I just like the feel of it and the people movers are always fun!

Well, I'm on my way back to Indiana from Amarillo from Spring Break. Kind of a bummer to be leaving again. Amarillo is definitely a place where I could call home and will definitely be in the job search mix next Fall!

My week consisted of watching movies, hanging out with friends, riding horses up and down the road and two-stepping!!!!!! Oh my gosh, words can not describe how awesome it was to be back on the dance floor! lol! I heard from several of my Texas friends that I could fit in just fine down there and wondered if Texans and Hoosiers were alike, and I warned them most likely they weren't. I know I was born to the right family, I love them to death, but sometimes question my state of origin.

We had some crazy weather. It snowed like 3 to 5 inches Friday night into Saturday. Literally white-out conditions. I was glad that I wasn't driving so I could sit there and close my eyes and bite my fingernails off. It was kind of scary but my friend Cheyenne and then Alan drove their big, bad trucks through it all just fine!

I think the greatest thing accomplished this week was just an overall ego boost actually. I don't mean to sound conceded but whenever you're around people that appreciate you and make you feel very welcomed and loved, it does a lot for your self- worth. I can't express my appreciation enough for everyone down here and how I feel about them all.

I even got some sun this weekend. Besides our snow we had some good days with highs up in the 70's. Between riding and talking with Cheyenne and just being outside, I have a nice toasty red color to me :) Hopefully it'll fade into tan, hopefully.

I'm heading back to a busy week at Purdue. Nearly Naked Mile, Speech, advising meeting, then a paper and project coming due soon. It's all guns a-firing until the end of the semester and then I'm starting right away with Deere. I definitely need weeks like this past one in order to catch my breath. So back to busy, busy life, but with a refreshed attitude.

Oh-ya. Being in Texas made the Purdue win over Texas A&M that much sweeter! Everyone counted us out after Hummel went down, but we're going to the Sweet 16! That is about the only thing that makes me happy about this season of March Madness as my bracket is totally busted, thanks to Northern Iowa! And then the other unforeseen upsets. So my motto through the rest of the tournament is BOILER UP!!!!!!!!!

Oh and my comment on the healthcare reform- I'm leery, scared and concerned. I agree that something needed to be done, but this is going to be one huge mess! All we can do is pray and trust in God's plan in all of this and know that He will make the best possible outcome!

Amarillo by morning, Purdue by night!

Britt

Spring Break

Spring Break could not come soon enough! These last couple of weeks have been pretty rough with school work, so I'm definitely ready for a break. I mean, 4 midterms in one week plus grading another one and then various assignments due, I'm still suffering from a lack of sleep.

BUT- I'm less than 12 hours away from getting on a plane headed to TEXAS! Amarillo to be more precise! "Amarillo by morning" to see those "Amarillo skies"! It's been right at a year since my internship with AQHA and I'm so excited to get back down there!

I can't believe how time flies. I know I've talked about this before, but I can not believe the many blessings and opportunities I've had this past year. And now, my semester at Purdue is over half-way done with- CRaZyneSS!!!!!

So my time in Texas is going to be spent relaxing, running, riding, watching the tourney, catching up with friends and two-stepping! I'm not excited at all - lol! And that my friends was sarcasm, the simplest form of irony (we learned about that in my COM 204 class, good thing I was already a master of it).

Grades so far have come in good. I have all A's and a high B in my six classes. My big Com class, I'm one of 19 A's out of 175 students and then my Ag Econ class, I'm one of ten A's out of about 100 students. So ya, I think I fell back into the swing of things pretty well :)

Alright, I don't feel so bad now that I've given my blog some attention after neglecting it for a few weeks. I'm going to find me a bracket and fill it out and spend some time with the rents before I head for bed. I have a big day tomorrow, with a side-trip to Vegas before I go to Amarillo :) aka - I have a layover in Vegas. Fooled the parents with that one, it was pretty funny!

Boiler Up!
Britt