BEES!

One of the perks of my husband's job is that it's located in the heart of some awesome commerce, and they offer a lot of free participation in local events.  This week that local event was a trip to the Salt Lake City Bees baseball stadium to watch a game against the Ohio Owls!

Each free ticket came with a voucher for a hot dog, chips, and a drink, and we got to invite 2 of our favorite local couples to come along with us!

That's right!  A baseball date for six!  Our team lost, and it seemed like every tattooed person in Salt Lake had been invited to attend, but the night was warm, the company was superb, and the atmosphere was engaging.  The couple seated in front of me were obviously on a first date, and it got me feeling reminiscent of first dates past, as well as excited for my sweetheart that I get to go home with after the date was over.  Afterward there was even a fireworks show set to hip hop music.

I have arrived

The combination of being my mother's daughter and having worked as an Employment Counselor for people in financial crisis leads to a job search style of flexibility.  That means, I'll apply for anything in my field and would consider accepting anything in my field.  However, having been offered this job, it's as if I had been ENTIRELY picky in only applying for what I wanted and gotten the situation that would be absolutely best for me.

I started on Monday as a Medical Social Worker in South Davis Community Hospital's occupational rehabilitation center, Orchard Cove.

I help people cope with being sick.

I am the primary relationship manager between patients and the hospital.

It is my job to make sure that patient's care goes the way the patient wants it to as much as possible.

And it is an AWESOME job!  SDCH is an AMAZING employer.  The kind that you wish you had, but believe went out of existence in your grandfather's generation.  As a professional, my hours are largely up to me.  Most of what I do in those hours is up to me.  I am given a huge amount of flexibility to be creative in how I organize my responsibilities and how I can help our treatment community.  My partner colleague is GREAT and I really am excited to develop our friendship and professional partnership.  Bountiful has a small town feel that fosters a friendly and supportive community atmosphere.

And the best part is that I really care about the community of people who I get to serve.  People who come in for orthopedic treatment are getting better, and have accepted a new type of learning experience where they need to be more vulnerable and patient than they have yet been in their adult lives.  Many of them are from the Great Generation, and it is so fun to learn from their kind, genuine, and classy demeanors.  It's fun to be the one who gets to sit and get to know each resident, the one whose job it is to be patient and kind, and express caring from a staff who really is trying to help them. 

Hurrah for my awesome co-workers!
Hurrah for a great management team!
Hurrah for me who gets to be there too!

The job search

So, just to recap:
In May, I attended my graduation ceremony

In June, I finished the last of my 8 credits and got an 88% on my licensure exam

In July we moved into our new place, which I still LOVE, and I was finally ready to job search

In the month that followed, I was able to experience a brief window of what it might be like to be a full time homemaker, and I job searched for about two hours each day.  After 4 weeks, I had applied for approximately 56 jobs.  On Wednesday (8/10/11) I got my first call to interview.  In the following two hours, I also got my second and third.  Interviewing for professional jobs is much different from pre-college jobs.  The interview starts on the phone.  They ask a few questions clarifying some parts of your resume, then they tell you all about what the job really does, so you can be sure if you really would want to make a commitment to them.  Some of them seemed nervous, and really wanted me to like what they had to offer. 

My first interview lasted an hour and a half as they told me all about the agency and asked how I would want to fit into the cogs of their inner workings, took me on a tour of the facility, and introduced me to all of my would-be co-workers.  15 minutes after I left, I received a phone call from HR requesting that I fill out an online application with references, 3 hours later I received a job offer.

WAAAHOOOO!!!!

Hello, my name is Alana and I have a problem

So, something I am loathe to admit, I watch Star Trek.  My dad was way into it when I was a kid, and it was an okay show, but I never really paid attention to the finer points of it.  When Dale and I first got married we had no internet or cable, so we started watching whatever DVDs we could find in the evenings.  Dale had access to all 7 seasons of "Star Trek: the Next Generation" and I felt like it was safe, after having been visually traumatized by over 5 seasons of the TV series 24 during our dating months.  In order to have one thing less that we're trying to transition into, we watched episode after episode of Next Gen.  

There's nothing wrong with the show.  Patrick Stewart is pretty amazing, and it's rife full of AWESOME statements like "Last night I was reading some very erotic passages from my grandmother's journal."

The unfortunate side effect is that now I have a detailed knowledge of an entire Star Trek series.  And the thing is, when you're watching it, you WANT to understand the sociopolitical problems that are happening in the universe of the 24th century.  You just pick up the details as you watch it.

Dale likes to have a "full set" of things, so once we were done with that series, we started another... and another.

I'm not a trekkie, I swear.  I can just have a very intelligent conversation about the intricacies of a very involved and consistent TV show.

As if that weren't problematic enough, when we finish them all, Dale is super excited about going to a convention.  And he wants me to come. 

I love my husband, and his happiness is important to me.  It's just that I dread this on so many different levels.  What have I become?

A brand new car! (or a used one, but still great)

Along with all of the awesome changes in the month of July, we sold our old car.

This was the car we had with our first kiss.  We took our first road trip in this car.  Dale drove to California to ask for my hand in marriage in this car.  We had our first two years of marriage in this car.  And it truly was a sexy and classy car!  We put an online add up and had 3 offers within 2 days.  Goodbye dear car.

And on to the new one.

It's the exact same model, only with 100,000 LESS miles on it and 5 years newer.  This new car is also beautiful.  It also comes with some sweet new features like bluetooth connection, and how the car seat automatically changes to my specifications when it recognizes that I am coming to the door.

(Sigh)... add this to our situation with the new apartment and it's hard not to feel pampered!

On getting older

One of the great things about getting older is that so many of the things that bothered you about yourself in childhood suddenly FIT.  I had a beef with my height, my hips, my skin, and my hair.  Well, I married a guy who is tall enough, which nixes that gender expectation insecurity, and my skin cleared up 98% about a month after I got married. 

That leaves the hair thing.  I remember being in the second grade and feeling like my hair looked like Peggy Bundy from an old TV show, Married with Children.  I was the only child with curly hair in my family, and my mother had no idea what to do with it except brush it out.  Those of you with curly hair know that you NEVER brush out curly hair while dry, except in that rare occasion when you're doing a party trick.  I ended up pulling it back a lot and having a dry, frizzy halo all of elementary school.

I discovered gel around age 11, but didn't discover defusers until age 17. That's when I started looking attractive with my hair down.  Since I've gotten married, I don't know what it is, but I've grown my hair out for the first time in my life.  I have some sweet layers that my Mom can only put in right and when the curls are pulled straight, it almost goes to the bottom of my bust. 

It's great, but the most recent development is the best.  At least to me.  I find it exhausting to face the prospect of having to style my hair from scratch.  You know, shower, shampoo, condition, deep condition, dry, mousse, wait appropriate time, diffuse, wait appropriate time, crunch and hairspray.  It makes a 30 minute prep time into a 90 minute prep time.  I do feel like I look awesome at the end of it, but I still avoid it sometimes.  It produces a result remarkably similar to the image on the right.


Well, Dale and I went swimming earlier this week, and as I had learned as a kid, chlorine leads to damaged hair, so I put a bunch of conditioner in my hair to make it combable, and to keep it from getting damaged.  Little did I know that would produce curls indescernable from my 90 minute prep time routine. 

I love this situation!  Now the only thing left to figure out are my hips...

The new place

I feel like we haven't really moved in until a tour of it is available for my network of online friends to see.  Nothing special, and the camera work is occasionally a bit shaky, but it's our new place and I am SO in love with it.  I wake up every day excited that I get to live here.

It also features our new couch.  It's our first piece of adult furniture, brand new, purchased from the store, no bargain basement discount deal to take whatever fashion mistake they're trying to move off the floor.  We did haggle the price down $350.  I felt powerful at that moment :)  We shopped for and purchased it in June, it was delivered the afternoon we moved in and it is BEAUTIFUL!!!  Super comfy too.  But the beautiful part is the most important, of course. 

So, parouse, enjoy, and admire how AWESOME it is with me!

P.S.  Here's the sight from our porch for your viewing pleasure.