Back on the Job

So yesterday was my first day at my new job. I in-processed at 10am and then headed on post for my first official day of work. Talk about information overload. I met so many new people and was given so many different briefs about what is expected of me, or where the projects are currently standing, or what the new contract entails, or what I should expect of my team, etc, etc, etc. By the end of the day, my brain was so saturated, it would not hold anything else. I am not sure how I survived, but I did and was able to return again today for more of the same. But this time, I was able to understand a bit more and am starting to get a small handle on a few things. It's only my second day on the job, but I am already expected to be an expert so I better study and talk to the right people and get up to par quickly.

My team seems nice. It's a little weird to be team lead when I am the youngest one on the team, but I have the most experience in this field, so I guess that's why I was hired. We even have a German national on the team. He has a very heavy German accent so it's fun to listen to him talk. I hope I can be a good team lead and help mentor and guide my team so they can have successful careers. They seem eager to learn and to become more proficient in the technology field. It is kind of exciting to see.

Unemployed

Wow! What a strange weekend. I am unemployed!

So yesterday was my last day at my job. The day went by so fast. I cleaned out my desk. I said goodbye to people. We had a HUGE potluck going away party. We got farewell gifts -- The Office gear and gadgets -- and said goodbye to more people. Then we outprocessed and were done for the day.

But after I got home from this whirlwind day and had time to sit and reflect, I started feeling VERY WEIRD!! Melancholy, sad, excited, already missing my friends, ready for the new adventure, but scared to death of the unknown, etc, etc. Such mixed feeling.

And it is really weird to be unemployed. Even if it is only for a weekend.

Fun at the Emmys

I didn't get to see a lot of the Emmy Awards this year because I didn't get home from stake choir practice until after 9pm. I was able to watch the last hour-ish of the show. It wasn't that great of an hour, but there were some funny parts, like when Jimmy Kimmel presented the award for Best Reality TV Show Host (this is a new category). He made the show go to commercials before giving the award. It was really funny. But still, what I saw was underwhelming. I read online later that the best parts were Josh Groban singing a medley of TV theme songs and Ricky Gervais (who I absolutely love!) presenting an award. I didn't see these live on Sunday night, but I saw them on YouTube this afternoon. I laughed so hard at work people had to ask me if I was okay. I wanted to share these with you.

Best Reality TV Host


Josh Groban


Ricky Gervais

Driving Miss Crazy

It has become a tradition in my current place of employment that when someone is having a birthday or a farewell party or if we just feel like it, we like to superimpose their face onto someone else's body. My cubicle mate (and my really good friend), Danny, is REALLY GOOD at this. He can make it look so natural. I'll have to get him to send me some of his creations to post later, but for now...

Danny and I are both leaving our jobs for other ones. And we are both leaving on the same day. Friday is our last day. To keep the tradition alive, our other team member, Nick, and another co-worker, Adam, created this for our going away poster:


They called it DRIVING MISS CRAZY. Danny and I laughed SO HARD when this was sent around to A LOT of people through email. I had to share with you too.

Beauties of the Earth

The monsoon season in Arizona is one of my favorite seasons of the year. I absolutely love the skies and how you can see it poring rain in one area and completely sunny and beautiful in another area 100 yards away. Well, the monsoons are over for the year, but today we were blessed with one more hurrah. I wanted to use my new (well, used) camera to try to capture some of the beauty. Here is what I got:


I love it when the sun highlights the Dragoons and everything else around it is under cloud cover. It's kind of blurry here, but it is absolutely beautiful in real life.


You can sort of see the rain coming down in one area while everywhere else is just cloudy. I think this is just cool to look at and very beautiful.


I saw this rainbow while I was driving so I got my camera out and held it out the window and took the picture. In this picture, the rainbow is hiding in the rain, but it was really beautiful in real life.

Not so capable

Hahahaha! Okay. So I may not be so capable after all. I went outside while I was writing the post about Life Lessons to take the "after" picture of the front of my house and when I tried to get back inside...I HAD LOCKED THE DOOR!!! Ya, I locked myself out. Tehe! Luckily, my neighbor is great and has a key to my house (for times like this) so I wasn't locked out for too long.

Yes, I have a lot of these moments too!

Life Lessons

Life is funny sometimes. When I was a teenager, I never thought my life would be the way it is now. No, I am not complaining. It's just funny how life happens sometimes. You really just have to take life as it comes and learn everything you can from challenges and situations.

One thing I have learned from my situation that I may not have learned otherwise is that I am very capable of doing things I never expected to have to do myself. For example, I am surprised at how many challenges in my house that I am capable of fixing or improving. I mow my own lawn; I put up my own Christmas lights; I installed my own blinds in my windows and I helped my co-worker do the same in his house; I fixed my front door frame that was cracked and weathered by sanding off the old paint and repainting it (my sister helped with the first coat), then painting some of the accent areas on the front of the house the same color; I built most of my furniture in my house (you know the ones that come in those build-it-yourself kits); I shampooed my own carpets; etc. Here's some proof of a couple of things:

• Building my new lawn furniture I bought for $40 at K-Mart (originally $400, but they were having a 90% sale! Thanks, Anne, for the tip!) This one was easy, since it was just a few large screws that needed to attach top to bottom, but I did have to use my leg to balance the chair while I screwed it in place. It was pretty funny. I also built the the DVD case and the TV stand in the background, but I don't have before and after pictures of those since I built those a few years ago.

• Here is the before and after picture of the front of my house. Notice the accent colors around my window and garage door that I added when I painted my front door frame. Its subtle, but it adds a lot I think.
  

It really is quite fulfilling to be able to do things yourself and to help others as well. I help my parents with things in their house now. It is neat to be able to go over there to set up their very intense entertainment system or install a handicap bar on the toilet or set up my mom's new laptop computer or help paint the walls in their house or set up the VCR programmer for shows my mom wants to tape (yes, we still live in the VCR world...we haven't moved to the digital era yet) or help put up Christmas lights on their very tall house (two story) or help snake out the wet lint from the pipe on the roof to the wash machine drain or whatever else comes up and they need help with. I enjoy being able to give something back to my parents for all they have given me over the years.

Rollercoaster of Emotions

Okay, so you know that I was offered another job. But since I posted that other post, A LOT has happened! Okay, in a nutshell, I've been involved with a bidding war for my employment. I've never been in that situation before where two companies fought really hard to get me to work for them. Wow! What stress! What excitement! What a hard decision! What absolute joy when the final offer was made! I have been richly blessed!

The bidding war was between my current employer and my new employer and my new employer won out. I am so excited to start working for them. I am nervous to start something completely different, but I am up for the challenge.

I start my new endeavor on September 29.

FLASHBACK: Family Reunion 2008

I received a letter from my aunt with some pictures from our last family reunion and it gave me a great idea for a blog entry...FLASHBACKS! So this is my first official flashback:

My extended family has reunions every other year. They are always well attended and really looked forward to. We really enjoy spending time with each other. We are a very close family.

This year we had many different activities and different events. In this flashback, I want to show you one activity -- the large (very large) blowup water slide!





It was a highlight of the first day of the reunion. The kids absolutely enjoyed themselves, and I didn't want to be left out (even though I didn't bring a swim suit). So I climbed the blow-up steps/ladder (very difficult I might add) and raced my cousin down the very slippery slide (both of us fully clothed). Wow! Was it tons of fun. I was SOAKED but I had to go back on it again and again!



See...we couldn't stop laughing. I would do this again in a heart beat! Much more fun than a bouncy castle.

You are the first to know

I have an exciting announcement! Well, it's exciting to me, anyway. I just got a new job. :o) I received my offer letter TODAY. I've been with my current company for six years now, and I feel like I am not being challenged anymore. Now I have an opportunity to do something completely new. And I'll be a TEAM LEAD! I've never been a team lead before, so its a little intimidating, but exciting. My first day of my new job is September 29. Wish me luck!

Finally a blogger

So I have finally entered the blogging universe. It took me a while. But better late than never, right? Stay tuned for the adventures of my day to day life, flashbacks from my past, reviews of my favorite shows, movies, and books, and much, much more.