turn it up all the way to 11...

...then click here

Kudos to Ace for this one. Thanks!!

transition week

This is the last week I will be working in the Minnetonka office. One week from today, I will report in at the Wayzata office. I'm not super excited. I went through a lot of crap before accepting the position there. I will mostly be doing the same things I'm doing now. My hope is that there will be some opportunity for growth. I hope it's the right decision and it works out well in the end. Only time will tell.

That's pretty much the only thing going on worth rambling about. Have a good week!

here I am...

...rock you like a hurricane. So it's more of a snow storm than a hurricane but you get the idea.


I [heart] winter.

gobble gobble gobble

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thanksgiving is without a doubt my favorite holiday of the year. I love the simplicity of it. You don't have to get worked up about presents. Family and good food, that's it.

More updates on the job hunt. At this point, I pretty much have my choice between a position in the St. Paul office and the Wayzata office. That's right, I said Wayzata. The opportunity from that office came from nowhere. I had no idea they were even hiring at that office until the Branch Manager called me one morning. The day he called I was non-officially offered the position. If they officially offered me the position, and for some reason I would turn it down, it could give up my rights to any severance pay I would receive from UBS after the Minnetonka office closes. The position in Wayzata is doing exactly what I'm doing now but it would come with a significant pay raise. I went to visit the office last Friday. It was awesome. The office is on Lake Street overlooking Wayzata Bay. My visit went really well. It sounds like they will be officially offering me the job early next week and if the offer is good, I'm going to accept it. I'm ready to be done with all of the not knowing what is going on.

Zeke: After talking to Kitty, it sounds like we're going to throw something together. Any good ideas?
edit: I didn't notice that I'm scheduled to go see "A Christmas Carol" at 7:30 Saturday night. Somehow I don't think a Saturday party will work. Unless we all think Friday night would work...

Captain: I didn't see it until Sunday. I'm not so good about checking my cell phone over the weekend…or anytime for that matter. Sorry. :(

I'm in love with the ordinary

I always forget how much I really dig the song "The World You Love" by Jimmy Eat World until I listen to it.

It has been an insane week.

Monday I had an interview over in the St. Paul UBS office. I think it went well enough. I'm just waiting to hear back on a time to go over and meet with the financial advisors that I would potentially be working with.

Tuesday I woke up with a giant bump on my forehead. It was about the diameter of a quarter, red, swollen and it gave off a yellowish clear liquid a lot like the liquid inside of a blister. Whoosh! Off to the doctor I went. The official diagnosis was cellulitis. The doc put me on antihistamines and antibiotics. As of this morning, the bump is gone. Now I just have some really gross dead skin. Good times.

Wednesday I was exhausted all day. It was probably just my body getting used to the meds. It was nothing a little Guitar Hero III couldn't cure. Oh yeah! We got Guitar Hero III for the Xbox on Sunday. It's rocktastic.

Yesterday was pretty normal. Work, Guitar Hero, The Office, Greys and bed.

Today I'm planning a retirement party for a lady at work. After work I'm going computer shopping for my mom. Tomorrow I get my haircut and after that I'll go to mom and dad's to set up whatever I end up buying for a computer tonight.

That's all for now. Hope you have a great weekend!

hi, my name is theresa...

and I'm addicted to the snooze button on my alarm clock.

My alarm goes off at 5:21 am. Then I proceed to hit snooze 5 times until 6:06 am when I actually wake up. I should just set my alarm for 6 and get up the first time it goes off which would net me an extra 40 minutes of solid sleep every night.

Does anyone else have this problem?

don't go anywhere, we'll be right back after this...

I'm out until sometime next week. My grandma passed away this morning and I will be spending the rest of the week in Iowa.

I blame Rachel

I bought stamps today. Many, many stamps because I couldn't decide which ones I liked best.

possibly the funniest bumper sticker ever

I literally laughed out loud in my car today when I saw it.

ah, the ghetto

Here's what took place outside of my apartment last night at about 11:30:



A car got pulled over which led to everyone in the car being searched and put in their very own private police cruiser.

Good times.

a quandary

Dear blogger friends,

As I've mentioned in the past, there is a lot of crazy stuff going on at work. Office mergers, booze cruises, reorganizations, etc.

Friday afternoon, my boss and I discussed a potential job opportunity. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but if I'm unable to find another position before this office closes in late November/early December, I will be without a job. That being said, this potential position is located in our Rochester office. I have a gazillion mixed feelings about it.

It's always nice to have a job, especially when you're paying off things like student loans and credit cards.

The position is in Rochester. I mentioned that already, didn't I? In general, I don't really like Rochester. Over the past few years, I spent quite a bit of time there with my mom in the hospital. Luckily, I have a few very good friends that live in the Rochester area which makes the idea of moving there less bleak. Should my mom have any more hospital visits or the lung transplant we've all been hoping for, it would be nice to be so close.

Then comes the housing dilemma. Getting a decent apartment in Rochester is expensive. For the same price I would pay for a respectable 1 bedroom apartment, I could make payments on a 2 bedroom condo. I spent a good 3 hours on the internet yesterday doing my research. The grown up in me thinks buy. The just out of college, new to life in the real world part of me thinks that's a scary leap to take.

I've moved three times since July 2006. I've only been in the Twin Cities for 10 months. For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to live here. I just don't know if I'm ready to move again, especially away from the metro area. In a way, I see moving to Rochester as a downgrade because of the population size and variety differences.

If for some reason if the job doesn't work out, I would be in a town with a significantly smaller choice of financial firms and office locations and potentially a condo. However, going into the Rochester office could be a good opportunity too.

I have no idea which way to go on this one.

Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Comments?

back by popular demand...

my blog!

I still work a lot...maybe too much. Starting this week, I'm working out of our Rochester office once a week. Exciting, I know.

I'm now addicted to Doctor Who.

I'm also getting sick. The trip to the drug store turned up these bad boys:

Much like Shakira's hips, the picture doesn't lie. It's Puffs + the scent of Vicks. They make every runny nose feel like heaven. I'm in love. I sat and sniffed the box for about 10 minutes at work this afternoon. Delightful.

Tomorrow night: dinner cruise with work.

Friday night: Twins game with my sister

Saturday morning and early afternoon: Watching my brother-in-law run a 5k and then possibly a Twins game with my roomie.

Sunday: a mystery.

That's all I've got. I hope everyone is well.

STELLAAAAAAA!

Now that I have that out of my system :)

My sister, brother and I had dinner tonight at Stella's Fish Cafe in Uptown. It was a pretty kick ass atmosphere even though it was a seafood place. I had great chicken fetuccine. We made it in time for 2 for 1 happy hour which was also good. They have a rooftop patio that I was pretty psyched about even though we had to sit inside because it was rainy outdoors.

The folks at Stella's were getting ready to host the Extreme Makeover Home Edition after party. Ty Pennington and crew were in Minnetonka building a house. Stella's was the official food provider all week so it was only fitting they hosted the after party. They were preparing for 500 people. Luckily we got out of there before the masses came flooding in but I thought it was kinda fun. According to our waiter, Ty likes karaoke, so they were bringing that in...I'm certainly glad we got out of there before that started.

That's all I've got for now.

for Dawn...

because I know she does not love The Office



and a little bit for me because I find it hilarious.

What did I do this weekend?

Nothing. I literally did nothing. I didn't leave my apartment once. I got close, but the pizza guy came right to my door...all I had to do was open the door and sign the receipt.

I cleaned a little bit and watched a lot of movies. The list includes:

Shooter
The Good Sheppard
Pride and Prejudice (the 5 hour A&E version with Colin Firth)
Rent
The Princess Diaries

My brother is home from Colorado. He spent the weekend with our parents at their place. We're having lunch tomorrow and I'm sure he, my sister and I will go out somewhere for dinner tomorrow night. He goes back to the Springs Tuesday night.

The Twins swept the Orioles over the weekend. Hopefully they have the same luck at Cleveland.

I picked a new name for the blog. Before you go thinking I'm clever, realize "like an hourglass glued to the table" is from the song Breathe (2am) by Anna Nalick.

Sarah, Rach and all other "The Office" lovers, only about a month before the Season 4 premire! I found this over at OfficeTally



I'm excited for the new season already!

Have a great week everyone.

an update

It has been a pretty lazy weekend in my world. Friday night and yesterday I spent just lounging around because I was sick. The rest of it I blame on Dawn. She got me sucked into watching a season of America's Next Top Model on [gasp] MTV. That's right, I've been watching MTV since I woke up this morning. :shame: However, I did watch Johan sit down 17 this afternoon which was pretty stellar.

Since I got back from DC, things have been pretty insane. My grandma has been in the hospital and since been moved to a nursing home. According to the doctors, she only has a couple of months left. They aren't going to give her any more chemo. Now the focus is on making her comfortable.

Last weekend, my dad's sister Marilyn lost her battle with cancer. I made the trip to Sioux City with my mom and dad on Wednesday for the visitation and funeral. While the funeral was pretty tough emotionally, it was great seeing various family members that I haven't seen in a very long time. My aunt from Pennsylvania was home as well as my aunt and uncle from Wyoming. I always hate how a funeral is the only thing that brings the majority of a family together.

Work is a mess too. There is so much change going on with the upcoming merger. It always seems like we're scrambling with different people being gone. Right now I'm covering for someone who is out on maternity leave. Her guys are the top producing team in my office. I'm so afraid that I'm going to forget something or screw something up. I still have some of my responsibilities in the operations area so it can be tricky splitting time up so I don't get too far behind in either spot.

And now thanks to this show, I want to go on an african safari.

DC in one word: fantasmagorical

DC was great. I would have posted about the voyage sooner, but there was a new Harry Potter book to be read.

Ike and I went pretty much everywhere imaginable. Here's a small list of the places we went:

Holocaust Museum
Ronald Reagan Building
The White House
The National Christmas Tree/The Ellipse
The Treasury Building
Pershing Park
The Old Post Office
The Archives
National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden
The Capitol
Union Station
Arlington National Cemetary
Ford's Theater
International Spy Museum
National Portrait Gallery
Navy Memorial
World War II Memorial
Washington Monument
Lincoln Memorial
Vietnam Wall & Nurse's Memorial
Korean Memorial
National Zoo
Library of Congress
US Botanical Gardens
Exorcist Stairs
National Cathedral
Kayaked down the Potomac (saw the Kennedy Center & Watergate Complex)
Thomas Jefferson Memorial
FDR Memorial
Theodore Roosevelt Memorial (I actually went here with Nick)

And I stayed on the campus of Georgetown University...it was a beautiful campus even though everything there was uphill! :)

Here are my top 15 photos (yeah, I know it makes this post super long...sorry! It's hard to narrow the field down from 550.):

Jess waiting to see all of the super old important documents at the Archives

@ The World War II Memorial

From Abe's steps

@ the zoo

Waiting to get into the Library

The Library of Congress

The Capitol and a statue of James Garfield

Pond at the Botanical Gardens

Exorcist stairs

The Bishop's Garden at the National Cathedral

The National Cathedral

GW Monument & TJ Memorial across the Tidal Basin

Thomas Jefferson Memorial from the Kutz Bridge

Theodore Roosevelt Memorial

And for those of you who didn't get enough of the experience from these pictures you can see more by going to one of the following:

album 1
album 2
album 3

my least favorite words right now...

"Sorry ladies, we're doneski"

The awesome bartender to Angelina & I.

DC is awesome

I never want to leave.

That is all.

Vacation: a period of travel and relaxation when you take twice the clothes and half the money you need

~Author Unknown

I'm making an escape. From the afternoon of July 17th to July 22nd, I will be here:



I can't frickin' wait. I officially love my boss for giving me the time off when he wouldn't have to.

As for an update, it sounds like I'll be having my drug test next week. No more temping for me :) Due to the merger, the full time gig may not last long, but it's better than nothint;

Ike and Nick, I'll see you soon.

I'm bouncing off the walls again...

I might also be acting like a fool again but there's no one around to judge me.

Dawn is sleeping. I just got home from a Saints game. I'm all wound up with nowhere to go and nothing to do. I can't even clean because Dawn did that while I was gone.

This week has been kind of a blur. Last night I was at a Twins game. Tonight was the Saints game. Work has been crazy busy. Yesterday afternoon, today and tomorrow until 2 I'm doing the work of three people. I'm not sure if I'm coming or going. Plus the place is still fairly dramatic about the merger thing that is happening.

I can't wait for this weekend. The Captain is coming to town which always promises to be a good time. It means at least one Twins game and A LOT of eating out. Friends + good food + baseball = one hell of a weekend.

That is all for now.

happy birthday John!

As Dawn mentioned in the comments on the previous post, the office redecoration was because of a birthday for one of the guys I work with. Here are the good pictures:







My favorite part of whole deal is that he worked with his office like this all day long. He was such a good sport about it. Every time he would come out of his office, he would have random post-its stuck to the bottom of his shoes or on his shirt. Unfortunately, Monday morning will be clean up time for Vanessa and I. It was totally worth it though.

maybe the greatest day at work ever.

This is what 3,600 post-its and some motivation can do.

eta: excuse the poor photo quality...I took the picture with my phone. Better pictures to be posted this weekend.

the merger

So Monday morning I go to work like normal. The atmosphere was a little weird, but I just figured my Monday morning perception was a little off. Oh heavens no. 9:48 rolls around and we get an email saying "In 15 minutes there will be a branch meeting in the conference room about our location moving forward". I found it strange that we were having a meeting at 10:03.

At the meeting, it was announced that my office will be merging with the Bloomington office and October 31st will be our last day in our current building.

How does Michael Scott feel about it all?

He says it'll be ok. I'm feeling more like Pam.

ok, so...

I am still alive. A surprise? I'm sure.

Things have been hectic. Work has been crazy on a lot of different levels. Weekends aren't really weekends...they're just a chance to do more running around. It turns out that I do well with being busy.

Last weekend was full of movie watching, drinking, hanging out with friends, getting my hair cut and driving. It was supposed to be my weekend to get things done. I'm staging a move and I'm crossing my fingers that will happen this weekend. But this weekend brings more movie watching, drinking, hanging out with friends, driving, and a baptism. Luckily, it's a 3 day weekend, so I'll have an extra day.

Here's hoping more blogging will happen along the way.

Viva Piñata??

It's been a crazy week and a half at work for me. While some things are up in the air, they are a little more settled than they used to be. My mind is more at ease than it has been in a while (place emphasis on the h).

Here's the important question: what are you doing this weekend?

Saturday is May 5th, or Cinco de Mayo as some of us lovingly refer to it as. I, for one, would love to celebrate by going to see Spiderman 3 and going out for muchas cervezas y bebidas alcohólica. Anyone want to join me for either or both?

A huge tyrannosaurus ate our lawyer...well, I suppose that proves they're really not all bad

Inspired by an adventure last weekend for w(h)affles and beer, Nick inspired me to dig out my Alapalooza album. I've listened to it a couple of times this weekend. Believe you me, it's funny stuff.

ready for an adventure?

1. Go to www.google.com
2. Click on "maps"
3. Click on "get directions"
4. Type New York in the first box (the "from" box)
5. Type London in the second box (the "to" box) & hit "get directions" on the same line
6. Scroll down to step #24

busy, busy, busy

Tax time at the new job is a rough period. Not to mention once all of the tax stuff is over tomorrow, we'll have to start getting read for the audit at the end of next week. But the days go by quickly, so I'm not complaining.

I had a pretty stellar weekend. Friday night after work I went and picked my sister up and we headed to the trusty ol Metrodome. We had fantastic seats in section 119. They were 4 rows behind the dugout on the first base side. Not only were the seats great, they were free as well. Networking is a beautiful thing. Unfortunately, the good guys did not prevail but we had a good time watching Justin Morneau receive his MVP award and seeing life sized Johan pitch.

Saturday I slept in. I lounged around the house for a good 5 hours before I started getting ready to go to the Swarm game at the X. It was an AWESOME game. The winning goal was scored with .8 seconds left. Then there was all of the drama about illegal equipment and what not. Needless to say, the Swarm are off to the playoffs with no reason to look back. After the game, Claus, Dawn, Nick and I went out in search of w(h)affles and beer. We failed. Claus did end up having a w(h)affle though. Just as I was getting ready to leave St. Paul and head for home, I get a text message from Jess asking me if I was alive. Come to find out that her as well as multiple other UPC officials were in town for a convention and just happened to be hanging out at McGoverns on W. 7th. The fun lover in me decided it would be a good idea to go hang out with them. I was right. We had a great time. *Note* McGovern's has Woodchuck on tap. :rocklobster:

Sunday was a "slow" day. I did laundry, cleaned my room, organized my filing cabinent, payed bills and washed my bedroom windows. I crashed pretty early last night.

That's it. That's the story of my awesome weekend.

The end.

“A friend is one who takes you to lunch even if you're not tax deductible”

At my office, lunch is a big deal. Every Monday and Tuesday (and sometimes Wednesdays) we have a wholesaler come in for lunch meetings and they pay for the whole office to eat while they give their little sales pitch.

On days when we don't have someone in for a meeting, going out to lunch or going out to pick something up is what the cool kids do. I've kinda learned how to work the system. Naturally, I have my favorites in the office. On any given day, if you go into one of their offices and ask, "where should I go for lunch today?", you've pretty much just assured yourself of a free lunch. When they decide where they're going, they come up and tell you and then you get an invitation to tag along. On occasions like this, there's about a 90% chance your lunch will be bought for you.

Yesterday was a bit of a weird day. Everyone was busy. One of my co-workers and I ran out to pick up sandwiches from Potbelly's. We picked up food for a couple of the guys at the office while we were out. I just put the sandwiches for the guys on my debit card. The bill was $14...no big deal at all. Both of the guys I picked up lunch for had previously picked up a bill for me. I figure I'll be nice and let this one be on me for a change...oh heavens no. They both threw a fit. Neither of them could fathom the idea of me buying lunch for them. It took a lot of talking for me to convince one of the guys to let it stand and the other guy flat out refused.

What's the deal with this? Why is it so wrong for me to reciprocate some of the niceties they've shown me? While their behavior is all nice and chivalrous, it's a bit annoying at the same time.

Any thoughts on this?

tomorrow, you will wake up.

Thank you for your patience during the no blogging break. Last week I was sick like death. I didn't go to work for three days. I've never taken three days off of anything to be sick. Fever(topping out at 102.7), achy body, hot/cold, headache, sore throat, runny nose, head congestion, coughing...you name it, odds are I had it. I'm happy to report that I'm mostly better. I'd put myself at 93%.

I'll be one of the many to point out how nice it has been the past couple of days, but honestly, what happened to spring. It seems that we've gone straight from winter to summer. Where are my 50-something hoodie, jeans and flip flops days? Trust me, I'm not complaining. Tonight will be a great, open-window, sleeping night. I'm rather excited.

Now for the title of my post. Today we had a client come in who claims she is a psychic. I got to thinking about something. How do you discover you're a psychic?? It's not like it is as simple as learning you're a good singer or a good softball player. You somehow have to figure out that you can tell the future with some sort of accuracy. How do you know that what you're "seeing" isn't some crazy daydream or hallucination? If I ever had a feeling that some random woman that I saw was having twins or you were about to paint your house blue, I would probably think I was going crazy. How does a person go about validating those things without looking insane or like a total ass? The only things I could come up with are the obvious things like, tomorrow you will wake up or you will put on your pants one leg at a time. It's just something I thought was kinda funny and thought provoking.

Baseball starts in a week. We should all look forward to that.

And just for fun, I've added a few pictures from when Jess came to visit for spring break a while back. Rach, Claus, Jess and I took a trip to the Mall of America. Our most entertaining stop was at Kokomo's. These are some of my new favorite photos. And now I want a moJIto.

they say that new life makes losing life easier to understand

As I stated in my previous post, little Charlotte was born last Friday night.

Sadly, I now have to report that my betta fish, Rob, was found belly up this evening. He was given a proper burial at sea around 5:15 pm.

That is all.

I [heart] weekends

While this weekend was super busy, it was insanely fun.

Friday night led Rachel, Claus, Jess and me to one of my least favorite places on earth...the Mall of America. You know what? We even made that place fun. We started at Teavana where I had one of my new favorite non-alcoholic drinks, the Karma Carmachai. Then it was off to Famous Daves for supper where I was served the worst mai tai in the history of man. Shortly after, it was replaced by a beer. Post Famous Daves drinking was done at Kokomo's Island Cafe. It seems that the guy who started Famous Daves also came up with this place. Anyway, I had one of my favorite alcoholic drinks at Kokomo's, the moJIto. Ok, so I had 2 mojitos. And a cosmo. As well as a strawberry margarita. Then it was off to Reno 911 the movie. It was so good I fell asleep during it. I think it may have had something to do with the alcohol.

Saturday I spent a crap ton of money on my hair. I also drank a lot of coffee. We went downtown to Brit's Pub for supper. Then after a trip to Target, the day ended.

Today I went to Faribault to meet the love of my life. I'd like to introduce my Goddaugther, Charlotte Jessica to all of you.



This little wonder came into the world Friday night. At birth, she was 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 21 inches long. She has a lot of dark hair as well as a pair of beautiful blue eyes. And here she is with her parents Ginger and Peter:

A few weeks ago, I went to visit Ginger. We ended up going down to the furniture outlet store in Medford because they were shopping for a new couch. In the Ashley Furniture store, I saw a little camel statue thing. My first instinct was to buy it for Nick because of a fun apartment shopping adventure that took place last year. It turned out that the thing was in quite rough shape so I decided not to get it. While we were shopping, I told the story about the "this is where we keep the camel" story and she thought it was pretty funny. To make the rest of this story short, they ended up buying a couch from the Ashley Furniture store. While they were there, they picked this up for me:Now I have to find somewhere to keep the camel.

I hope you all had as great of a weekend as I did.

the lost has been found

Today I found my jump drive that has been MIA for over a year.

My Oregon trail program is back(!!) as well as many pictures I didn't even know I had

Let it be known that a jump drive can survive extreme tempuratures. It seems the thing was in my car this whole time.

“Nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute”

- I don't know who said that. The quotes page didn't tell me.

Today has been super productive for me. I took care of a lot of things that I've been putting off, including:

• talking to the insurance people about getting a new windshield,
• figuring out where the ABRA glass place in Eden Prairie is,
  
• opening an ING Direct savings account...the "don't go broke fund",
• laundry,
• making a hair appointment,
• cleaning my room,
• freezing food that I made over the weekend, and
• taking out my bedroom garbage.

It's only 7:09. It's hard to say how much more I'll get done before the night is done. I do know that at 8, I'll be watching Heroes on NBC. You should all do the same.

“I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about.”

-Oscar Wilde

I really don't know anything. It's mostly just day to day grown up life stuff (translation: working, laundry and sleeping). Sometimes I break out into the wild for some fun, but that's mostly on weekends.

Work is going well. For the most part, I like the people I work with a lot. There is one exception, but I won't get into that. I love my short commute as well as
being done at 4:30 every day. I like having meals provided for me at least three days a week. It's good on my grocery budget. I can't get onto the payroll fast enough...this temp to hire stuff is crap. I'm being exploited for my talents, but oh well. For now I'm paying the bills easily which is more than I could say for myself a month ago.

Last night I decided I want to live in the Cloud 9 condo building. It is super close to my office and the condos, while expensive, are quite shiny. It could be a while before I could live in one. A permanent job would be the first step in the right direction, so hopefully that happens soon. Here are some pictures:

Look out the window. See the tall tan building? That's the building right across the road from where I work.

I like to picture myself and a group of my friends having a rockin awesome movie/dinner party here.

Rachel thinks the kitchen is too small. I think Rachel is crazy.

That's all for now. I have to go fold laundry so I have pants to wear to work tomorrow.

ETA: For those of you who care, the Swarm/Get Psyched mix is going to be a 2 cd set. pre-order your copy now!!

the lovers, the dreamers and me

I've had "The Rainbow Connection" stuck in my head for days...hence the title.

My job is still going well. They're already talking about hiring me on full time after the temp period, however long that may last. That's all about that for tonight. I could go on for a long time (ask Claus or Rachel, who both had to hear about it tonight on separate occasions).

Speaking of Rachel, we had a Valentine's Day date tonight. We hit up the Chipotle in Richfield (or one of the Chipotles in Richfield - I don't know if there is more than one). It made today probaby my favorite Valentine's Day. It's quite the contrast from V-Day last year. Needless to say, I'm quite happy about the turnaround.

I'm getting ready for a weekend of chaos. More on that later.

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day.

workin for a livin, livin and workin...

...I'm taking what they giving cause I'm working for a livin.

Day one of work was good. I didn't learn a lot, but I did learn how the phone system works. And believe me, it takes a whole day. It's this giant swichboard type system which takes some getting used to. Other than that, I met a lot of people in the office. There are about 30 people and I have about half of the names down (the ones I see the most of course).

Cool things about my office:

• I work in the area known as "the cage" - the reception area is surrounded by glass
• The only coffee in the place is Caribou Blend which is one of my favorites
• We get free lunch almost every Monday and Tuesday
• Fridays the support staff takes turn bringing in breakfast
• The people are really nice - I felt comforable on my first day
• It only took me 10 minutes to get there
• It's completely ok not to have shoes on unless you're greeting a client

Hopefully day two goes as well as day one did. Lunch tomorrow comes from Davanni's.

ah, Thursday

Today, my friends, was a good day.

As I sit here, wondering why no one is online until I realize that it's a work night, it's almost eerie how light it is outside. If it weren't so cold outside, I would grab a blanket, drive my car out into the middle of the country and just stare at the sky. That's one of the nice things about being in the middle of nowhere...the middle of the country is a mile away in any direction.

Anyway, I made my way to my parent's house this afternoon. I managed to take a few detours on the way here: the gas station, the oil change place, the place where I grabbed lunch, andPetsmart. As much as I hate to admit this, I'm a bit of a softy. Little did I know, the Eden Prairie Petsmart has an adoption center in it. Today's biggest mistake: walking into the adoption center and walking out with a pet. Ok, so I'm kidding. However, I really wanted to walk out with a pet. Her name is Katie. She's a three year old, all black cat with yellow eyes. A little spooky? Sure. But she won my heart. The tag on the front of the cage said she was shy. So doing what any animal loving person would do, I stuck my hand in to pet her hoping that I'd leave with as many fingers as I went in with. I've got to tell you, if that cat is shy, then I'm the Pope. She was adorable. Not only did she love all of the petting, but she licked my hand. So either she liked me, or I smelled like some sort of kitty delicacy. Needless to say, I had to leave her behind and it wasn't easy.

This brings us to the highlight of my day. Around 4 this afternoon I got a call on my cell phone. For those of you that don't know, my parent's house is surrounded by a cellular black hole. So I let it go tovoice mail and then called back on the house phone. To make a long story short, as of February 12th, I'm employed...by the people I interviewed with yesterday. To celebrate, Mom and I went to the grocery store. We came home, had supper and then I watched The Office and Grey's Anatomy. Following that, Mom and I watched 3 hours of Sex and the City. I think I got her sucked into it so I won't feel bad taking over the living room to watch it tomorrow.

So as I said before, today was a good day.

The End.

and so it begins

The job interview went well this morning. The people I interviewed with seemed to like my interest in the financial world as well as the fact that I didn't want to sit in an entry level position forever. One of the guys I interviewed with also thought the interview went well, or so the lady at Prostaff told me. So that's encouraging. The office is a 5-10 minute drive north on 169 from where I'm at. All things considered, I'd be pretty happy if I was offered the job. It might not be the ideal job coming out of college but it's a big step in the right direction.

Lately I've been watching a lot of TV on DVD. I've made it through everything I have, so I've started in on my sister and brother-in-laws stuff. My new project is this:

The complete series of Sex and the City. All 6 seasons. It could take a while. There's something like 95 episodes and they're all 30 minutes each.

As a funny sidenote: My mom just called me. The ringers on my phone are all messed up so when she called, the ringtone was "Sexyback" by Justin Timberlake. It gave me a good laugh.

baby shopping

I finally got it done. One trip to Babies R Us and $90 later, the O'ding family has a present for baby Big Bird. Actually it's a multitude of small gifts, but that stuff adds up fast. Here's the loot:



I discovered it's really fun shopping for a baby. I spent almost two hours in the store. That's pretty unheard of for me. My favorite item is the diaper/messenger bag. Although the picture doesn't display it well, it's made of a brown suede material and has a lot of cool compartments inside as well as a foam changing pad in the back. This isn't an item they registered for, but I couldn't pass it up. It was just that cool. Other items of notability include the Twins blanket and the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" which they had registered for. I obviously hate the Twins but the red part of the blanket is this really nice satiny feeling material and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" is one of my favorite children's books...I was psyched to see them on the registry. Little did the soon to be parents know that they were going to get that book anyway. And you see that package of wet wipes...the only reason I bought them is because there were penguins on the package. I know, I'm a nerd. Get used to it. :)

Enough about baby stuff. I have a job interview tomorrow at UBS Financial Services in Minnetonka. Let's all hope that goes well and I'll be working soon!

chasin' the day away

That's what I do all day every day. This job search is getting slightly frustrating. I know I need to be patient, it's not an overnight process. But money is starting to run low and having no income scares me. I've pretty much got a job as a teller locked down, but I don't think I'm desperate enough for that just yet.

On a more cheerful note, tomorrow should be a good day. I'm most likely going to Twinsfest. And after Twinsfest, I'm going to Dawn's to drink some wine. Baseball, friends and wine...do days get better than that?

I'm going to a baby shower next weekend. Anyone got an idea for a super awesome gift? I know that I have the fallback of the baby registry, but I'd like to think that I'm more creative than that.

no words could describe how happy I am right now

My mom is officially on the transplant list. She's 1st on the list at St. Mary's in Rochester, and 8th in the region.

WOO FRICKEN HOO!

hey rachel....

...Snuffy is skinny compared to this guy


The poor thing got stuck in a doggie door.

Year in Review

I'm a little slow with this, I know. 2006 was a bumpy, busy, stressful year for me. I came out of it more emotional but stronger than I was before it began. Here's the month by month recap:

January: I started a new job. I was very excited about it. Unfortunately it ended up not being what I anticipated. I also started my second to last semester of college.

February: Probably the most difficult month of my year. On February 11th, my favorite old man, my grandpa, died. He was a bright spot in my life and it's been tough without him.

March: Spring break trip to the cities. I wrote a paper as well as babysat Dawn's fish when she went to Chicago for a few days. I saw the Ghostbusters car. I drove home from said spring break in a blizzard. Saw Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers in concert for the first time.

April: Pretty boring month. I bought an iPod. Nevermind! It wasn't boring. I caught a foul ball at a Twins game. That was pretty stellar!!

May: My second to last semester of college ended. My friends Chris and Melissa got married. Summer softball started.

June: 2 softball teams, 6 credits and a lot of work. That's all I did all month

July: Added an additional softball team to the mix. Celebrated the end of my summer classes by going to a Twins game or two. Went to a couple of weddings in the same weekend. Moved into a new apartment.

August: Road tripped to KC for a couple of Twins games. Bought a new camera. Hit up more Twins games. Played in an all night softball tournament. Spent a fairly decent portion of the month in Rochester with my mom. Also not a happy time in my year. My last semester of college started.

September: I looked pretty good in some pictures. That's about it.

October: Bought some movies. Tried to burn my hand off. Saw Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey. Had a great time with friends during Hobo Days.

November: Went to Roger Clyne again. Quit my job. Entered the 23rd year of my life. Had a small mental breakdown over a paper. I got a B on it.

December: My car got hit in the parking lot. I graduated. I moved to the Twin Cities. I got a lot of stuff for Christmas. Went to another wedding. Got asked to be a god parent. Attended a stellar New Year's Eve party in Rochester.

Other random 2006 things (they'd be in the list somewhere if I knew where to properly place them):
Fell head over heels in love with The Office
Somehow got sucked into Grey's Anatomy
Tires

I'm fairly confident I can handle 2007. Odds are it won't be an easy year, but I'm going to give it all I've got.

update

Nothing much new on my end. The wedding last weekend was wonderful. The bride and church were both georgous. Two best friends got married to each other. I got asked to be a godparent to the baby of one of my best friends. New Year's Eve was a blast. It was the normal reunion with my high school friends which lasted until the wee hours of the morning. Had lunch at Olive Garden. Bought both an excercise ball and some new bedding.

Thursday I go to Lutsen as my final hoorah to college. Then I grow up. It's like some sort of weird rite of passage. Oh well. It'll be great fun. See you sometime next week.