i left my milkshake in the yard...

Ah! I get e-mails about this blog all the time but I'm so bad at checking my new e-mail account. Still a little attached to the JBU one. I'm sure that will pass soon...

Thought I'd catch up on the goings-on and update as well. Currently working a temp job, the same one Carly (and her mom) are working, plus it's the same thing I did last summer. Testing satellite phones and whatnot. Won't last too much longer, but at least the pay is very good. Also, during spring break I had sent out about 25 resumes and cover letters to various companies/galleries looking for internships. I got a call back from one within a week, a gallery in Tysons Corner (DC) looking for interns for the summer. Went in for an interview this past Tuesday, and I got the job! This place is SOOOOO amazing and such a good fit for me.

It's a gallery for mostly sculpture and glass works, which I'll admit is not my forte, but I am excited and am planning to soak up all the information I can! As an intern they want me to do all the standard interny things, like looking after the gallery when they can't be there, and since they do all their own promotion, they want to have me help with their leaflets and books, as well as updating their website (www.habatatgalleries.com). Since they cater to collectors and do custom installations as well, they want to work me into the sales arena as well. Also, they're very nice (and interesting) people, and much younger then I expected.

Sherrie and Bre need to come and do this internship with me! Heck, Kristen should come too, she'd probably love this place. LOL

The only unfortunate part is that it's unpaid and an hour and a half commute, for which I'll have to leave an hour or so more ahead of time thanks to the god-awful Washington traffic. Though they said that if after three or four months they liked me and my work, they'd consider giving me a paying job. If so I'd move to DC, if not I'd stay where I am and start looking for something in the area so I can pay off my loans. Unless any of you have suggestions... :D

New Place

So its been a while since I wrote here so here is whats up with my crazy life....

I am moving into a new apartment that is much more affordable than my current residence. It is newly renonvated and I am the first one to live there after the renovation. So everything is new and pretty clean except the toilet. The renovation guys ruined it by dumping their crap down the toilet. Sooo new toilet for me! I am slowly moving my things over there and trying to unpack it as I go so when the parental units come to help move the big stuff, that is all we really have to do. This apartment complex has a pool, gym, hot tub, breakfast three days a week, lots of community activities and it is located next to Benidictine University. Very very nice area.

On the Aunt and Uncle front...I think they officially hate my guts right now. I am not sure if they thought I was joking about the pay cut and unable to afford to live here any more. I haven't talked to them in about a week and not sure if I will for a long time. The drama...............

I hope to see Star Trek next Thursday with my Bible study group. I am stoked to see this movie. I never grew up with Star Trek, but this movie looks awesome!!!!! And then there is Wolverine, Angels and Demons, Terminator, among others that will come out this summer that I wants to see real bad!

Other than the move and well inventory at work, life is good.

Liar, Liar Pants on Fire

Another quality conversation with Drew ... as a little bit of background, we've started hanging out since he got back so he knows about the wonderful recent events of my life (yes you can detect sarcasm as per usual). We're also leaving this quality place about the same time. He's just going a few thousand miles further than I am.

Drew: Hey I was thinking about having you train 3 to 4 times a week till you leave so I don't have to pick up anyone new.
Me: That's cool. I have nothing else to do now, might as well live at the gym.
Drew: The gym is a good place to be, it will never lie to you.
Me: Can't say that about any boys I know.
Drew: I can't really say that about anyone I know.
Me: Haha, fair enough.

A bit of hope

I called the Korea Times today and I should find out about the job on Friday. They are still talking about the position with management so hopefully I'll have some good news. I spent all morning freaking out about it until I talked to the copyeditor coordinator on the phone today. Then I felt bad because I had spent the last hour at a coffee shop and didn't know that he had already emailed me in response to the email I sent this morning.

So this means I just need to email the hiring manager at Berlitz and explain what's going on. I suppose I can still go meet with him this week if he wants. I hoping things will work out soon so I can quit wasting his time. I know he'll try to put me in as soon as he can so I don't want to push his kindness too far.

But yea, I'm finally starting to get answers, hopefully, so the job thing will be cleared up soon. Now I just need to work on the boy thing. Things have gotten a little interesting since this weekend...but I'll report on that later when I have something more to say... ; )

Google Downtime

I use Google about every five minutes at work between Google Analytics for our sites, Google Base for products from one of our sites, searching for various things, and of course Gmail. Did I mention I also use Google Chrome as a browser? Well I do, it's made me a little lazy in typing in URLs since the address bar also serves as a search function so technically I don't have to remember them all.

That said, it took me no time at all to discover that Google went down today. I went to sign a client up for Google Analytics and the form would not load to save its life. Not that a web form has a life, but you know what I mean. At first I thought it was the internet, but I checked several other heavily frequented sites with no problems. That's when I realized: Google was down.

Naturally I opened up the long abandoned (for me) Yahoo website and searched "google down" for anything of interest as well as checked CNN.com out of sheer curiosity (not at all expecting to find anything). I found absolutely nothing useful anywhere about the current outage but found a few articles that amused me, mainly because I hadn't noticed outages in the past. Once was titled "If Google Went Down, What Would You Do?"; this one made me laugh a little as I realized my internal answer was shock as the possibility hadn't occurred to me before. (It reminded me of my days on campus when the internet would go down campus wide and we'd be forced to wander outside our rooms and discover the real world as homework became impossible.) I also came across Google's website that displays whether or not their apps are down: Google Apps Status; but lets be real, that only works when all of Google isn't down.

Around 40 minutes later, after my boss was relieved to find he wasn't the only one that noticed this rare anomaly, Google returned and all was well. It's funny what we become so dependent on.

Growth

“Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.”—Gail Sheehy

How true is this statement? I don’t know that I have ever achieved growth by staying within my comfort zone. It is when I am forced, albeit sometimes kick and screaming, to move past my realm of familiarity and into the unknown that I amaze myself at my capabilities for growth.

This quote seems so appropriate at this moment in my life as I am leaving the 30 mile radius I have lived in my entire non-collegiate life. A friend of mine is moving to Tucson, Arizona, the end of July and wanted a roommate. I have always wanted to move beyond my current location. Granted, my original destination of choice was California—but Arizona will accomplish my goal of finding a new location to explore with an entire realm of outdoor activities at the same time.

My micro goal for growth on this new adventure? Find a job.

Anyone in Tucson need a talented young designer?

The Climb

I can almost see it
That dream I am dreaming
But there's a voice inside my head saying
"You'll never reach it"

Every step I'm taking
Every move I make feels
Lost with no direction
My faith is shaking

But I gotta keep trying
Gotta keep my head held high

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be a uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waiting on the other side
It's the climb

The struggles I'm facing
The chances I'm taking
Sometimes might knock me down
But no, I'm not breaking

I may not know it
But these are the moments that
I'm gonna remember most
Just gotta keep going

And I, I got to be strong
Just keep pushing on

—Miley Cyrus, "The Climb"

Now I understand that I just quoted Miley Cyrus. I honestly hate that this song is by her because I love it so incredibly much and it makes me feel like I'm 13 to admit that. But seriously, those words are so incredibly true, and in my defense—she didn't actually write the song.

I understand that as a Christian my ultimate goal is Heaven, but honestly—what matters most is how I live my life in the time that I have here, no matter how long or short that might be. My friend Angela recently pointed out to me and a couple of my other friends that life does not start at a certain point. I am not in a holding place until I find that right guy or that perfect location, my whole life is my life and it is in constant motion—it's the climb.

I know that Brian has the URL to this blog because I gave it to him when things were good—blogging was a shared interest of ours. Brian, I doubt that you're reading this, but if you are—thank you for being part of my climb, even if only for a couple of months and even if you wanted out for half of it without me realizing it. The time that we spent together will always hold a special place in my heart, and I'm not just saying that to be cheesy.

Next on the climb: moving to Arizona with Katie. I was referring to this as starting over, but I don't think you can actually start over in life. I am beginning a new chapter and a new adventure. I honestly believe I was never designed to stay in one location for a significant period of time, especially not here. I do believe that I will find someone that feels the same way and that we will explore the world together. I have no idea who or when that will be.

Until that day, "that that don't kill me can only make me stronger." (Thanks, Kanye.)

Time to climb.

Jobless Update

Since I've got a lot of free time as of late, I thought I would give a small update on my goings on.

Still no job. I'm waiting to hear from The Korea Times. I'm hoping that will be soon. I sent an email on Wednesday so hopefully they'll get in touch. If all else fails, I'll just go back to Berlitz. But I hate the waiting game. More and more I'm wondering if I should go back to Berlitz. The hours aren't bad, the money is good and I'm use to the lifestyle. Korea Times will be a newspaper lifestyle. Long hours, late end time, no holidays, probably low pay, working on Saturdays. But I'm use to that as well. We'll see.

I've been using most of my time with friends to try and keep my mind off things. I'm trying not to spend a lot of money, but that is proving a little difficult. Especially since I'm spending a lot of time at home and I keep seeing little things that I would like to make things more organized. A bookshelf here. A cabinet for the coffee pot, toaster and toaster oven. New light bulb for the bathroom. A hamper. Etc. Doesn't help that I went out with a friend to help her buy sunglasses and ended up with a new pair of sunglasses, a pair of shorts, a new cardigan and a new book... Yea, gotta start working on that. At least my friends and I are being more money-conscience when we go out... Thank goodness Korea is not expensive to live in...

But yea, life is okay and I'm making it. I suppose worse case scenario I can come home and marry Mar. Gramma is all for that, though I think it's because she wants me home in the States, not necessarily because she wants a son-in-law...

The Untouchables

Have you ever had a coworker that just would not get fired no matter what they did? Things you were sure would result in them being terminated, especially since it was the fourth occurrence, as others had received such penance for far less—even these, could not end in such a result. Not only do I have one of these, but we pretty much co-reign the untouchable realm of our office.

I thought our reign was coming to a tragic close last Thursday, but my theory holds fast as he reclaimed his job after just less than an hour long meeting this morning with our employers. One of our coworkers, ever the resident bitch-extraordinaire, was pissed as you can only imagine. (I understand that sentence involved two words not normally in my vocabulary. If you met her, you would understand I had no alternative.)

Long live the untouchables. Which reminds me, I have another story about our reign. I haven't quite decided if it's bloggable yet as I'm not sure all the general public can handle it. Let's just say that after four ridiculous months of unmeasurable sexual tension and our boss repeatedly asking him if we went out yet, we finally hung out Saturday. Why is it that people expect the only two attractive people at our tiny office within the same age range to hook up? He is definitely among the top five hottest guys I have ever met though, hands down.

But I'm still moving to California. Unfortunately I just got a Wii to distract myself from recent events involving unexpected actions I have yet to post about and it is also distracting me from my portfolio site.

Must. Gain. Focus.

I'm coming Bre, honestly I am.