Thanksgiving in Florida

View from our condo in Cocoa Beach, FL

 WEEK 24 (November 21 – 27)

This is Thanksgiving week and I cannot wait for my four-day trip to Cocoa Beach, Florida to spend the holiday of eating with my boyfriend and his family. But before all of that ‘stuffing’ (pun intended) can happen I still have to conquer three days of work.

I’m glad I had that relaxing weekend with the bf because Monday I’m off and running with a total of seven meetings for the day! 

After getting into the office at 7:00am I have my first meeting at 8:30am to discuss single engine safety on our engines in service. We touch upon dozens of occurrences and make sure each is being attended to.

In the middle of the meeting I’m forced to rush back to my cubicle for a half an hour conference call with the Lynn Northeastern/GE Recruiting team. I had been invited by a former Northeastern MBA as part of my efforts to strengthen the recruiting presence for Northeastern’s MBA program. 

After the call it’s back to the safety meeting for another half an hour before returning to my desk for my second Northeastern/GE recruiting conference call. This one I am a little more involved in as I introduce my intentions and ask if there is a way I can provide my pitch for their December 8^th recruiting strategy session. They have me send it over. We'll see whether or not it will be included.

After that it’s off to one of my last manager luncheons of the year. Fortunately for me, I get to see not one but three managers from the Product Integration Center (PIC) present on their positions at GE. I have never attended a manager luncheon where more than one person spoke so this was a nice chance to get an even more well-rounded picture of their department. Plus, lunch today was an early Thanksgiving feast complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberries. Fun!

Pretty Floridian Pelican

After lunch I meet a proposal teammate from the integrated logistics support team (ILS) in a conference room to review the edits he has provided me on the proposal checklist I’ve been working on. It is a very valuable meeting and I’m able to add several good items to the existing list.

After that I review my reclamation checklist with a member of the PM Council. He has a few edits for me but overall it looks like I’m nearly ready to send it off to people outside of GE for edits. 

After that meeting I get some time in with my boss to go over my last four weeks at GE (can you believe how fast it has gone?). I realize how quickly my time is passing once I count my remaining work days (16 to be exact).

I spend the next several hours (yes, I am at work until 6:00pm) reworking the reclamation process checklist, redesigning the proposal process organization chart and more.  When I leave the office that day I have completed my longest work day yet at 11 hours.

Tuesday morning I’m  back in the office at 7:00am but, despite feeling a bit under the weather, I manage to be quite productive.

I start out my morning finalizing the rework of the proposal team organizational chart and leave it on my boss’ desk for when he gets in. Next I move on to sending out some meeting invitations in the hopes of getting some proposal team members to meet with me to review edits for my proposal checklist. After that I put the finishing touches on my reclamation process map after incorporating yesterday’s edits and send that off to a manager in the PM Council.

I break at 10:30am for a meeting to provide some suggestions on a recent license presentation a co-worker put together. We spend the next half an hour rearranging slides, editing text and hopefully, making the presentation a bit more clear.

When I get back to my desk I get an e-mail asking for any material I might contribute to the upcoming GE/Northeastern recruiting strategy session along with an invitation to attend. Yes! I make some quick edits to the pitch I gave several weeks ago and send that off. Oh how I love crossing off deliverables!

That afternoon I have a call scheduled with the Principle Contracts Manager to help me edit and improve my proposal checklist. She gives me some great suggestions and even points me to some places I could find additional information.

As I’ve been fighting a cold for the past couple of days I decide I won’t force another 11-hour day on myself and opt instead, for a 9-hour one, heading home around 4:00pm to pack for my flight to Florida tomorrow for Thanksgiving break. I’m going to be extra bag-ladyish at work tomorrow and bring my suitcase in so I can leave directly to the airport (and fit in an extra hour of work).

Wednesday morning is not off to the best start...I get up before 5:00am (ugh), finish packing and head to work with my suitcase in the rain and the wind (extra ugh). I come to work at 7:00am looking like a sad, wet cat. 

I’m actually quite busy all day with activities including a meeting with the a Senior Engineer to review my proposal checklist, a super fun Mexican lunch with my boss and several GE employees at Border Café and tons and tons of work on my proposal project. 

It’s a good thing I’m so busy because my 6:20pm flight from Boston Logan to Orlando, Florida for the Thanksgiving break is pushed back an hour not once, but TWICE! At least I get in a couple extra hours at work to make up for the unpaid holiday.

All in all, after working a 10+ hour day at GE I don’t get into Orlando until midnight and don’t make it to bed in Cocoa Beach until nearly 2:00am. Phew!

Unfortunately for me I have to be up and ready early next morning for Thanksgiving festivities and to meet my boyfriend’s grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin for the first time. I shrug off my sleepiness and put on my best to make a good impression.

Dinner (or rather lunch as we eat at 1:00pm) is amazing. I’m so happy to have found Nick’s family to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal with as my family is too health-conscious for items such as sweet potato casserole, gravy and pie. 

Frolicking in the sand- obviously

 After the feast the rest of the day is spent frolicking in the sand (we are in a beach-front condo, after all) and relaxing.

Friday finds us up relatively early to go see some manatee at an observation deck along a protected stretch of water. Alas, they are quite elusive and not nearly as inclined to show their faces as I would have hoped. Our manatee scouting is followed up by a lunch at Dixie Crossroads of rock shrimp, sweet corn balls in powdered sugar, cheesy grits and key lime pie! Yum!

The rest of the day is spent cruising Jetty Park and relaxing before our dinner at Grills Seafood Deck & Tiki Bar for shark kebabs and key lime pie cocktails. Yum!

Watching the launch!

For my last day in Florida Nick, his dad and I watch the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory that Nick’s Dad worked on and scarf down some Cuban food at Roberto's Little Havana.

The afternoon we hit up the Cocoa Beach pier, an ice cream shop and relax before Nick and I head out for a pre-anniversary dinner at Shark Pit Bar & Grill. It’s a super classy joint (not) in a semi-mall and I definitely leave with a red, plastic souvenir goblet my Mai Tai came in. Nice?

Sunday morning I wake to a phone call from the driver who is taking me to the airport (apparently I slept right through my alarm) and rush out into the 5:00am darkness for my flight home to Boston. 

Fortunately, when all is said and done, I make it home by 11:00am with plenty of time to work on my case write up, unpack and head to the library for several hours of Market Research group work with my partner. What a week!

*The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of GE Aviation, Northeastern University, their staff, employees or affiliates.