girls

I always know when Zac is chatting (typing) with his girlfriend.

He types super fast.

He giggles.

And when I look at him he looks guilty. 

I'm glad to hear Dan is still alive and remembers us.

The Melting Pot or The meal that takes forever to eat!

Two weekends ago we picked up my mom to come spend the weekend with us.  We have had a gift card to The Melting Pot for quite some time now but never felt like it was a good time to use it.  Plus this restaurant is way over on the north side of town.  Starting a new job and having my mom with us I figured it would be a good time.  You have to understand my mom doesn't go to many restaurants.  Her and my dad would go to Furr's for a big night out on the town! My mom also has no idea how this fondue thing works so it was pretty fun watching my mom as each course was brought out.

Zac and I had only been there once before a few years ago so we knew how it worked and our first experience with fondue was in Portland which was totally awesome!  By the third course or really the main course of meats my mom was full and pretty much done with this experience and she was ready to go.  We had to tell her we still had dessert to go and she pretty much rolled her eyes at me while saying that she had never taken this long to eat a meal...we were probably there for an hour and a half at this point.  Dessert finally came out and my mom's eyes grew wide.  I hadn't seen her pick up a fondue fork that fast all evening.  I guess when it comes to chocolate there is always room. 

Pros: it's a fun restaurant for special occasions, make up one if you aren't even going for anything special...they give you a fancy chocolate covered strawberry!

Cons: super expensive, you cook your own food, and it takes a long time to go through four courses.

don't look at me like that! Sparkroot

This past Monday I met up with an old friend from my college days.  Every couple of months we meet up or force our Phoenix or out of state friends to come see us. Out of the group of 4 girls two of us lost our fathers this year, one got divorced and one is currently going through her own version of a mid life crisis or so she says. 

Mid life crisis girl and I both live here in town and try to see each other every few months and as a group we all keep in touch through a group site we have on facebook.  This past Monday we met up at Sparkroot.

We usually try to go to new places we haven't been and it usually has to have wine for my friend. Neither of us had ever been so we decided to meet.  I got to the place pretty early and while waiting I called my mom.  I hadn't ordered anything yet and I had my own water bottle with me.  While I was finishing up my phone call I decided it was time to order a drink and maybe something to eat.  At that moment a man passed by my table giving me the oddest look.  Like what the hell was I doing there.  I'm assuming he was a manager because I saw him giving everybody that look and then asking the cashier girl about another customer.  I almost wanted to tell the dude to chill out.  None of these people look like bums just taking up space. My friend finally met up with me and we chatted for a few hours. 

Pros:  downtown so easy to get to,  great place to people watch, pretty cool place to study....as long as you buy something, bathroom was clean.

Cons: Mad Eyes Magee Manager, not terribly comfortable for sitting so long, and when you are there to chat with old friends not having a waitress/waiter kind of blows, good if you don't plan on drinking/eating much or meeting for very long. 

Thunder, you scary!

I will forever be afraid of thunder and lightning.  It's  scary stuff.  But the rain we get is all worth it.  I'm pretty sure we are getting good rain this year because my Dad is causing a ruckus with the Rain Gods telling them how we need it.

While watching the Olympics I figured I'd do a little update. I now have two weeks of experience with this new job.  I am really good at looking at the intranet and reading procedures and policies. Changing my last name has really caused quite a problem with getting me signed up on systems.  Over ten years ago, my first job was as an afterschool tutor for a local elementary/middle school with this school district.  I completely forgot about that until HR called me and said that when I attend orientation I need to make sure my paperwork is all updated with my married name.  Check.  Unfortunately HR didn't tell anyone else to make sure to update my name in all systems to Chapman.  So it has taken two weeks to get everything right.  Thursday afternoon I finally had access to the Purchasing system and so the plan was on Friday to get me started working on live data.  Friday rolled around and the system was down.  What luck! 

At least I've been getting paid this whole time.

Starting this job has been a bit strange for me.  My temporary positions for the past 7 months have left me with a feeling of uncertainty. Like this job will be temporary too.  I tried to get over that feeling and this past Monday I brought in a few of my office supplies I had gathered while working at AMO....like the 5 million post it pads I hoarded. I think I have my little cubicle set up the way I want. I just need to start my stockpile of food so I don't visit the cafeteria every day.  The people are all pretty cool so far...even the lady that wears housecoats and slippers to work. 

Swamp Coolers Suck!

As a little girl one of my goals in life was to live in a house with air conditioning. 

To dream big.

My biggest beef with swamp coolers aside from when they just don't work with humidity is that my parents would turn them off at 10pm.  I would stay awake most nights dying.  I don't think I had a fan in my room for most of those summers, maybe I did when I got older.  But I would try anything and everything.  Wet towels to place around my neck or on my forehead that would just get really warm in seconds.  And I would grab ice bags that would just melt in minutes.

When I moved to the dorms in college I was overjoyed to have AC!  When I moved to my first place with Danielle our electricity bill was ridiculous during the summer because we had AC.

Now I'm all grown up and we have a swamp cooler.  But this time it isn't so bad.  Yeah there are those days and nights where it doesn't seem to work but it's better than nothing.  The key is on those really hot days you pick a spot directly under the breeze of the vent and you don't move.  Moving makes everything worse.  And at night you leave on the cooler and use additional fans at all times! 

At least now I don't agonize that 10pm turn off time.

well that sucks....

Nothing bad happened but I was looking at job postings...it's a habit now.  And I saw that the school district posted two other positions in purchasing that pay nicely. 

I guess I should look at it this way...I'm in and can work my way up, I know what to go after. 

And for Dave...yes the Teso's have been blogging. It's too hot to talk to each other so instead we write.  It's safer that way since it seems like SOMEONE can't be bothered when he is hungry or hot.

like a boss

So a month or so before I was laid off from AMO my VP was laid off. She is pretty bad ass.  She kind of reminded me of a female human version of Mr. Burns from The Simpsons.  She was cool but tough.  Instead of eating regular meals she'd eat those plastic carton things of blueberries or any other fruit she could get her hands on.  She had a thing for classic cars and any day she had her pick of a vintage Jaguar, Mustang and Corvette.  Since being laid off I've kept in touch with her telling her of my bad luck with jobs and then finally giving her the good news that I got a job.  Every couple of days she was sending me job links...even though I was already seeing the same job postings I was nice and thanked her for sending me the links and thinking of me.  When my dad died she sent me her condolences and just recently with the hospital job I told her how another former employee of hers got the job and she was shocked.  She hasn't had any luck finding a job, not that I think she really needs one but I just saw a Director position open up with the school district and I told her about it just in case she was interested.

This morning I received an email from her asking for a letter of recommendation.  A letter from ME?!!! Crazy how things turn around.  I hope I did her justice with my letter.  It was tough writing a letter for a former VP! 

I guess we'll see how things work out.