You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Uncategorized' category.
One of those oddities I’ve recently discovered about our friends in Corvallis (the first being that everyone plays disc golf) is that everyone seems to have an older couple that they dog/house-sit for. Not wanting to be left out of this integral part of experiencing life as a Corvallisite (Corvallisinian?), Claire and I will be watching this really gentle giant of a dog for the next week or so and staying in this great house on the side of a hill. Hudson, who’s a newfoundland (read as the size of a small horse), is as laid back as, well, as I am.
We’re really looking forward to watching Hudson (and the three cats he lives with), since that’s kind of what we’d like to have once we know where we’re going to settle for the long haul (I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for the U.K.). Though we may trade the newfoundland for a beagle or a north american shepherd.
Well the rain was kind of a mixed blessing. Whlie it was much cooler than it would have been during our backpacking excursion, we also had to make our hike into base camp up a few paths that were still carrying water down to the creeks. It did not help that most of the parts I am thinking of were also overgrown with salmonberry bushes, so at parts you couldn’t see the loose, wet rocks you were walking on, as you went up a 6-7% slope. Needless to say, we were glad that things had a chance to dry out on Saturday and that Sunday was nice and sunny for our trek back to the trailhead.
So what did I do to recover after such a trip? The only way one could after that particular weekend, by staying up late reading Deathly Hallows every night until I was through the book. I really enjoyed it, and that’s all I will say so that I don’t ruin it for anyone.
So with backpacking and Harry Potter behind me, I now get to look forward to my family visiting. They actually fly in tonight, and we’ll go meet them tomorrow morning in Portland. As a family we haven’t always been close by any stretch (it’s my humble opinion that an older brother who enjoys seeing how far he can throw you tends to also throw kinks into that relationship). However, recently we have all started to enjoy each other’s company quite a bit more. I really miss hanging out with my little brother (who I got to share an apartment with for a year when he first started at Texas Tech), and my parents are so much nicer to be around now that their relationship is better than I’ve ever seen it. Add in my older brother’s kids, who I really like hanging out with as long as I can also get some adult time, and this promises to be a great week. I just pray that the won’t get on each other’s nerves too much with all of the driving that they will be doing.
I have just finished my first week at my new job, and as first weeks go it was pretty good. It is always wierd to start a new job, since your productivity typically goes to zilch for at least a few days. First there’s all the paperwork you have to fill out, meeting anyone you don’t know yet, take a tour, and set up your desk before you really start training. Since I’ve been through this spiel a few times now my first day was rather boring, made slightly worse by the fact that my boss was getting ready to go on a two and a half week vacation to Switzerland and France (so everyone in the office was hurrying to finish projects he needed before he left). But my work picked up through the week and I doubt that I’ll have another boring day for a long while, between the projects I picked up at our staff meeting and helping with the end of quarter reporting I feel pretty sure the rest of my training will be hands on (as opposed to online training videos on our software like I went through on days 1 and 2).
This week got me thinking about my first week at other jobs, and I’ve had a couple of interesting ones. For instance, when I started to work for PlainsCapital Bank to pay for my graduate degree I spent my first two weeks working down the hall from the main vault. I could walk 10 yards and be in the presence of several million dollars. Then there was the time I started working as a grad assistant for Tech in the Institutional Advancement office, where my supervisor was also in my grad program. Our boss, who was the aunt of another girl in our program, called me into her office to chat on my first week, and proceeded to tell me what a waste getting a CFP was and how no one trusts anyone but CPAs with their money. (It was sweet vindication to later learn she’d taken the CPA exam several times and never passed).
Last but not least, when I started my first real job, at Kay-Bee Toystore it was the week of Black Friday (Thanksgiving week, also called Green Friday by those who profit from the buying frenzy, but anyone who’s worked retail on this day will agree it’s really Black Friday). This meant my second day on the job happened to be the absolute busiest in all the time that I worked there, with a line stretching along the back wall of the store, all the way out into the hallway of the mall. People would just automatically get in line, then we’d pick stuff out for them. We even had to have our store manager standing in front of the register to make sure no one cut. It turned out not to be too bad since the line wasn’t moving too fast you had plenty of time to find what they wanted, and with the people who had to clean up pulling stuff off the aisles it wasn’t nearly as messy as it could have been.
How about you? Any interesting first week experiences? Post them below.
Sorry, I haven’t updated this recently, with leaving my old job and starting my new one I’ve been pretty busy at work. Then at home I’ve been trying to reread all of the Harry Potter series before the last one comes out this month (I’m almost halfway through book 4 right now). Add on to this my new role of setting the curriculum for the Young Marrieds group at our church, finding speakers and all that, and the little time I have left over I’m typically spending vegged out in front of the xbox or tv. I will be posting some more stuff soon, I just need to settle into a new rythm (one that unfortunately doesn’t involve me being able to post to my blog at work.
Hope everyone had a great 4th!
As of last Thursday I turned in my notice with my current employer, and accepted a new job (same field, and city, just it’s downtown and a bit larger). My last day here is the 28th and my first day there is the 2nd. I would have liked a week in between the two, but my current boss really needed me to stay as long as possible to help the transition. I still think that I’ll run out of projects and eventually be asked not to come in, but we’ll have to wait and see.
I’m really excited about this new job, and nervous at the same time. Where I’ve been working everything is kind of loose (i.e. – “You want to take off for four or five hours to buy a car, go ahead! Make sure to bring your new car in so we can see it.”, or better yet “Guys, I’ve been thinking of closing at 3 on Fridays, what do you think?” [me ' "YAY!", Dan "I think we need to work more."]) But the new job will be much stricter. For example in the employee manual it says that I will only get a 30 minute, non-paid lunch. Which is confusing since I’m asked to work 40 hours a week, 8-5 each day. But if you only take half hour lunchs….I think I’d be getting the raw end of that deal. Once again, I’ll have to wait and see, but I do at least know that I really like the guys who will be my co-workers, and that I will be earning enough money to make up for the loss of flexibility. I just wish I didn’t have to go through another wait period for benefits…
On a side note, GO BEAVS! Make sure to watch the College World Series tonight at 7pm (on ESPN 2). OSU is going back to back!
