So, how’s July treating you?

Hello friends!
My goodness, was the end of June and first part of July more than crazy!

Let’s get to the most exciting part right away: We successfully pulled off my Grandma’s Surprise 80th Birthday Party! We did it! It came together perfectly, almost like we had worked on it religiously for six months or something haha.

I got up and made it to the venue way early, because I was so dang excited. Worked out though because the lovely lady in charge of the venue was there early too. I got the full walkthrough, and started setting up. That took way less time than I thought as well and it looked so cute! I took some pictures of the decor, but a lot of it was pretty personal so I will refrain from sharing more photos for other’s privacy.

Also had a funny moment while setting up, because I was in this 100+ year old building by myself for a while, and one of the things I hadn’t been told about this building is that the lights are motion sensored and timered, so they turn on and off seemingly randomly depending how much you (and your decor) move in the rooms. Queue me panic calling my dad because I am convinced the building is going to burn down because the lights are flickering on and off like crazy. I was pretty squigged out haha.

My grandma was so surprised when she got there. I have a lovely video that I will treasure forever of when she saw her brother and sister there. They had snuck in from out of town, the first time all three had been together in probably a decade, and it was a super tight fit scheduling wise, so I am so grateful it came together how it did. She was in tears for a while, so happy so much of her family could be there to have a big celebration with her!
We had SO much food! I was so convinced we weren’t going to have enough, because we were kinda conservative with the caterers but it was so much food that we had more than enough for the party, the after party (which I will get to), and I sent several dinners worth home with EVERYONE. And I still ended up eating exclusively leftovers for several days. The caterers, and the bakery that made the cake, all killed it. Turns out, it was the last catering job that the family was doing, and they had planned to close the company ahead of time, but the owner knows and loves my grandma so much that when we called they figured one more job wouldn’t hurt. I found this out after the fact and am so incredibly grateful!
After the party, which was about four hours on its own, my Grandma, with my parents’ help, took her siblings on a tour of the town and all the family haunts, which gave Christopher and I enough time to get everything home. A couple of my cousins hadn’t been able to make the actual party and asked if Grandma and her siblings were coming by my house after a while and would I text them when that happened. So I let the group text know when they all arrived, and after a bit everyone arrived for round two. The party didn’t break up until nearly ten pm this time, and the farm was so joyful with all the family and stories and teasing and good food. It was truly magical.
My only regret, and really it’s not a regret, as much as just something I want to remedy, is that my great aunt and uncle and aunt had to leave so quickly, it was definitely quite sad for them and my Grandma. So, now, it’s become my whole mission to get them all together again, more frequently than once a decade, because I can’t imagine only seeing Christopher once a decade, I’d be so unhappy.

My sweet cousin is also officially married! To her high school sweetheart, they are starting their little life together and it’s the sweetest thing. She was the most gorgeous bride, and the wedding was so lovely! Just perfect! That happened three days after the party, it was an incredibly busy weekend. It was also fiddle week, which I am usually much more involved in, but understandably, I didn’t have the time to pull anything off. I also have been just buried at work so it was honestly a stretch to get the things pulled off that we did.

To be honest, since that whirlwind weekend, it’s been mostly work. Something pretty major blew up at work while I was not reachable that weekend, and my sweet team kept it from me until I got back, even though I am the resident expert on the particular third party that caused chaos. I am so grateful they waited until I was back and didn’t message me mid party. We got it resolved, and honestly, they were totally handling it without me. I functioned more as a gut check and a safety blanket than anything, and reviewed a lot of code.

Unfortunately though, between that and the on-call shift from hades, I haven’t really been off the clock completely since. We had several major issues, and at one point I worked a 72 hour stint at the computer just trying to keep things from catching on fire. It was insane. It’s calmed down mostly for now, but we are in repair and review mode, and I have a feeling a lot of to-dos are coming out of this. I am so lucky though, I love my team, and most days I like my job (don’t ask me if I do after 72 hours of staring at database metrics though, my answer will change), so when things are rough we get through it together and come out better for it. Startups, am I right?
Anyways, hope you all are doing well! Watch a sunset for me, and as always:
Until we chat again, my friends!