Job update

So I've been at my new job for just over a week. People keep asking me if I like it. That is a very impossible question to answer at this point. Training is long and tedious. I spend 95% of my time reading everyday about a portion of the tax code. I'm learning a lot and I know it's necessary but I seriously want to poke my eyes out just so I don't have to read anymore. I'll let you know how it is when I actually am able to start doing my job. I do like the environment and the people that work here. I do like the part of town that I work in (but I don't like the commute). I think I'll like the job. That's all I have to say about that right now.

I start Tuesday

I finally got an official offer of employment from the company I was hoping for. I am so excited to finally have a solid plan. It should be great. I will be working for an investment company facilitating real estate transactions. The company is a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 company which means great benefits. My division only has 11 people, so it is the benefits of a huge corporation with the feel of a small company. I think I will really like it. I'm not excited about the commute to Phoenix every day, but that's really the only down side. Plus, I'll be making more money - WOO HOO! Of course I had to go shopping this week for new work clothes!

Friday Night Freaks

My friend Ally's boyfriend plays in a band called Jed's a Millionaire. They are actually pretty good. Anyway, Ally sent out an e-mail that they were playing last Friday night at Paper Heart Gallery in Phoenix. She said it was part of Phoenix's "First Friday" art walk where all of the galleries stay open late and artists line the street trying to sell their art and there is entertainment, etc. It sounded kind of fun, so Brandon and I decided to make it our date night. HOLY COW! It was not as described. First, Paper Heart Gallery is a bar with an art gallery in the back room. Second, the gallery show was death themed. Third, the place was FILLED with freaks. It was actually a lot of fun, but only because I could not stop staring at all the freaks. When we first got there, we said hello to Ally and a few of my law school classmates who were also there (I met Ally in law school). The band hadn't gone on yet, so we decided to wander a bit.

We went out to the front parking lot and saw the funniest thing I had seen in a long time! There was some sort of belly dancing convention and everyone was dressed like gypsies, taking turns belly dancing for each other. There was quite the crowd. This was made only more interesting by the fact that more than half of the belly dancers weighed at least 300 pounds. There were even troupes of 300 pound belly dancers that performed! I could not look away. They were very proud of their bellies. While this was disturbing, part of me was proud of them for their high self images! We tried to take pictures, but none of them turned out. We watched for quite a while before going inside.

We went back inside to listen to the band and had just as much to look at. There were several very distinct groups there. It was crazy. First, there was our group, which consisted of several attorneys and their friends, spouses, etc. We were pretty normal. Then there was the gypsies, which I previously mentioned. There was also the cross dressers. They were this group of men that tried, but failed to look like women. Well at least I thought they failed. One of the guys in our group was checking one of them out before another guy told him that "she" was a man. Ha ha! There was this one "she-male" that was balding and his hairline didn't start until half way back on his head. It didn't matter. He just grew it out long and pretty and dressed like a woman anyway! That was my favorite! So disturbing. There was also the gray faces. This group all painted their faces gray with dark circles around their eyes. Why do people do these things? I told Brandon I bet they are all regular people during the day, working at the bank and the library, and turn into gray faces at nights. The last group was the lesbians that stood right in front of us and kept kissing while the band was playing. They were interesting too. Brandon kept mentioning the one with the butch hair and the service station shirt on. I don't know why she was so interesting, but she was definitely the boy in the relationship. Her girlfriend was a girly girl.

I guess the summary is that it was good to see some of my friends and the band was good, but I'm so glad I've led the sheltered life that I have. I mean...how do you get on the path that leads you to become a balding cross dresser?

30 only makes you more handsome!

My gorgeous husband turned 30 on Saturday. It was so much fun. He's not accustomed to the multi-day birthday celebrations that I enjoy, so it was fun exposing him to a new way to do birthdays. Last Sunday was the first celebration...a Miller family gathering at my mom's with his favorite dinner and a cheesecake with 30 candles in it! Then on Friday night, he and I went to Carrabas for dinner to celebrate Brandon's Eve. Yummy! Saturday was his actual birthday and I had a lot of work to do. I've had some problems getting him a present that he didn't find out about. I bought him a miter saw a couple weeks ago, but he found it in my trunk a week before his birthday. Then I was going to buy him an electric razor, but he tried to buy one for himself so I had to tell him that it was one of his birthday gifts. So I tried one last thing. We live in a three bedroom house and we each have our own office. A couple months ago, I decorated my office and I think it looks great. His office was still bare. You see, he and I don't have even close to the same style, so he put most of his stuff in storage. Well I went and got a lot of his stuff out of storage and decorated his office. I made curtains made of tan suede. My dad helped me make wood shelves that wrap up high in the room on three walls and I filled every piece of wall space with his decorations from the dead animal, cowboy, southwest design area. He absolutely loves it. Here are some pictures. Tell me what you think.

Saturday night, we had a bunch of friends over for a barbeque. It was fun and I think Brandon had a good time. Happy 30th Birthday love of my life! It's going to be a great year!

Now here's the job search update: My last day of work was on Friday. I had one interview last week with an investment company that helps facilitate 1031 exchanbe property and land transactions for investors. I have a second interview with them tomorrow for lunch. On Saturday morning, a law firm that I sent my resume to called and said they were in a hurry to make a decision and wanted to interview me that afternoon. I told them I couldn't, but went in for an interview on Sunday after church. I loved the firm and felt like it would be a good match for me. I felt like they liked me too. I got an offer first thing this morning from the law firm. It was for a lot less than I was hoping and it's pretty far away (North Scottsdale), but I told him I needed a couple days to think about it. I could start working this week. We'll see how my interview goes on Tuesday. They pay more, but the work would be all transactional and the hours would be shorter. Plus, there would be no billable hours requirement. On the other hand, I don't know if I'm ready to give up litigation work yet. We'll see. Hopefully I have a job by the end of the week. Wish me luck!

Job Search and Furniture

You know, I have had a rocky employment history during my short legal career. First, I got a job with a good sized, stable law firm with infinite growth opportunity and without a compensation ceiling. All of my law school friends envied me...that is until this great firm spontaneously combusted, leaving me without two months pay or a law firm to work at. No worries...brush myself off and venture into starting up a law firm. So exciting...be my own boss, get lots of court experience and build a firm from the ground up! Yeah, that sounds cool until your boss (because even though my name's on the shingle, I didn't contribute any cash to the operation so I'm not actually a partner) tells you that after months of working for a pittance, trying to make this thing work, that you should probably look for another job since he's not going to afford to pay you for much longer. So here I am, only employed for another 13 days, looking for a job. But hey, how can I look for a job effectively when I'm still supposed to come to work and bill a full day's work in order to collect my last paycheck? The other problem is that I don't know exactly what I want to do! I hate knowing that I'll probably just settle for whatever job I can get because I need the paycheck, and also knowing that I'll have to stay there at least for a couple of years because the stability of the work history on my resume is less than stellar. If anyone hears of anything wonderful for me to do for a living, go ahead and send the info my way. Thanks!

On a more exciting note- I have taken on the huge project of refinishing all of the wood furniture in my house. It's a lot of work, but husband is excited about it too, so it's tons of fun to work together on it. The first phase includes taking all living room tables (coffee, end, and sofa) and stripping them down, replacing engraved panels of wood with straight pieces, sanding the heck out of them and re-staining them a beautiful shade of chocolate brown that I concocted by mixing stains because all of the stains at Home Depot are ugly. So far we have stripped all of the tables and replaced the busy, engraved panels. We are in the sanding process and so close to done with that. I'm so excited for the staining part! They are going to look so much better! After these are done, we start on the bedroom set. That's going to be an even bigger job! I'm hoping I don't get burned out, because I'd love to do the kitchen cabinets too. My goal is to have it all done by Christmas. What do you think? Will I make it through all of my projects or will I end up poking myself in the eye with a screwdriver because that actually sounds more pleasant than stripping or sanding one more thing? I don't know...I'll let you know! :)

Teen Elect

I'm the Beehive Advisor in my ward, which means I work with the 12 and 13 year old girls. Once a year, they have a stake (10 wards) activity called teen elect where they teach 12 and 13 year old girls and boys manners and have a big dinner to practice. That was last night and one of the most humorous things I've experienced, only partially because that's the age where girls are so much taller and more developed than boys that age. When they all went into the room to eat, they told the girls not to sit down until a boy had pulled her chair out for her. It was hilarious because there were a bunch of girls standing next to chairs waiting for a boy to come and at the next table there were a bunch of boys standing by chairs waiting for a girl to come. Well eventually they all got through dinner relatively unscathed, even though some of my girls were sure they were going to die before the evening was over.

Next came the dancing!!! It was awesome. They lined up the kids, giving no thought to matching heights, and paired them up. They then attempted to teach them such complicated dances as waltz and swing. Eventually they gave up and stuck to line dances. I even joined in on the line dances and actually had a really good time. I'm so glad I never have to be 12 again! I took a few of the girls home afterward and the following is a conversation that they had that I wished I could tape and let them listen to in 10 years.

Katelynn: Hey, you guys know how I was dancing with Chase, right?
Girls: Yeah
Katelynn: Well when we were dancing, he had a bugar hanging out of his nose.
Girls: (Hysterical laughter)
Katelynn: And I didn't want him to be embarrassed, so I told him about it.
Girls: (Hysterical laughter)
Katelynn: And he said he didn't know what to do about it so I told him that no one was watching, so he should just pick it.
Girls: Ew! Gross! (Laughing even harder)
Katelynn: He said he couldn't pick his nose in public and I was like "But you can let a bugar hang out of your nose in public?"
Girls: That's disgusting! You know that if he picked it, it would be on his hand and he was holding your hand to dance.
Katelynn: I don't care, I'd rather touch it than look at it!
Girls: SICK!!! (More hysterical laughter)

29!!!!!!

I can't believe I'm 29! I still feel 19 sometimes. There is no way I'm knocking on 30's door! Well, anyway, it was a good birthday week. My birthday was on Wednesday, but I had mutual, so Brandon took me out on Tara's Eve. In the morning, I got in my car and he had written sweet notes on my windows and left a Tara's Eve card in my car. So sweet! After work, he took me to a really good, nice steakhouse called The Keg. It was so yummy! Then we went and saw the Bourne Ultimatum. I really liked the movie, but the camera was shaking the whole time so it made me kind of sea sick. It was a wonderful night spent with my husband. Couldn't have been better.

On my actual birthday, I went to work all day, but let's be honest...how much work did I really get done with so many wonderful people calling to wish me a happy birthday all day? I'm so happy that so many people love me! I even received another birthday card in the mail from my sweet husband. My wonderful friend Lynda (aka Hollywood) took me out to lunch. It was so fun to hang out with her. I also got flowers delivered at work from my dear friend Stacy. I'm so spoiled. After work, I went home and got ready for mutual. Normally I probably would have skipped it, but the youth I'm in charge of were in charge of the whole activity that included all the youth (boys and girls) and not just the 12 and 13 year old girls like usual. So I felt like I needed to be there. All of my girls wrote cards for me and tied them together to make a book of birthday cards. It was so sweet. For the activity we did "Where's Waldo" at the mall. We split the kids up into groups and went on the search through the mall looking for other people in the ward that were "disguised." For instance, one lady dressed up like an old woman who was reading outside a coffee shop. My sweet husband wore an eye patch and a doo rag. He looked so funny. It actually was a lot of fun. I was a group leader and my group came in third. Brandon said he even had fun.

After that we went back to our house and Owens and Jill came over. I opened presents from Jill and Brandon and we all ate leftover cake. Jill gave me a book and some nail polish. Last night she took me to dinner too. She's such a good friend. I can't imagine my life without her. Brandon thought he was so funny because he gave me a bag that was full of smaller wrapped presents that included: a yo-yo, a glow in the dark plastic ring, an informational pamphlet on Cialis (drug for erectile dysfunction), and a wooden bracelet with pictures of the virgin Mary on it. I pretended to be mad and told him I wanted my real present NOW. He thought he was so funny. It was worth the wait!!! He got me a half-day spa package with a pedicure, facial, and massage (and another birthday card). Thank you love of my life! Tara's Eve and my birthday were perfect!

Wedding Report

So I do have a reason I haven't written about my wedding day. I wanted to put up pictures, but I didn't have any yet, so I've been procrastinating. I found some wedding pictures on my photographer's blog so here you go. It was the most perfect day of my life.

We decorated for the reception the night before the wedding. I didn't want the reception to look like it was on a basketball court, even though it was so I had to do some improvising. The reception was held at the oldest LDS church in Mesa. It's an old Spanish-style church with an entrance into an open air courtyard before you get to the doors to the gym. It is so cute. In order to make the gym look like more like a ballroom than a basketball court, I (along with the help of some great friends) strung up white Christmas lights all over the ceiling and then draped a thin cream colored fabric across the whole ceiling to give the illusion of a tent. It turned out so good. My colors were Cranberry Red and Cream. The tables were draped in crushed velvet red tablecloths with mammoth white calla lily centerpieces. It was simple, but classic looking. I loved it. The tables also had candles, a small cream fabric center and red rose petals. There was a dance floor on one side of the room with the tables on the other. The refreshment tables were in the center of the room. I hung clusters of lighted white paper lanterns on each side of the room. Okay, I'm realizing that I'm not describing this very well, but I thought it was perfect and beautiful.

The day was PERFECT! I slept in a little, then got up and Brandon and I went over to my mom's house for a late breakfast. Most of the family from out of town was there so it was good to hang out with everyone. About noon, I went home and took a long bubble bath. At two, my beauty team (THANK YOU ANNELL AND SARA!!!) came over to get me ready. It was so much fun. By the way, Brandon had been staying at my house and I had been staying at Jill's or my parent's house, so Brandon was getting ready in the room down the hall. Then my mom came over and we all left for the temple.

The ceremony was perfect as well. I can't believe they fit so many people in the sealing room. I think there were over 70. In fact, Brandon and I were waiting a floor above the sealing room and could see as everyone was filing into the room. I never thought it would end. The sealer was so sweet and sat and talked to us right before the sealing. I was so overcome with emotion. I had never been happier in my whole life. During the sealing, I couldn't even say "Yes" when I was supposed to because I was crying. I think Brandon thought I was having second thoughts! :) Not really, but I knew with my whole heart that I was marrying the right person in the right place at the right time and that I was the luckiest woman in the universe.

The reception was so much fun! We started with a family and close friends dinner with the most delicious food - chicken cordon bleu, green beans wrapped in bacon, garlic mashed red potatoes and salad and rolls. Yummy! My mom made all the food and it was much better than any caterer. After dinner, the reception started. We decided not to have a line and that was the best decision! We just walked around and talked to people and danced when we wanted to. Because we started everything so late in the day, I wasn't tired and could just enjoy myself. It really couldn't have been more perfect.

After the reception, Brandon's aunt chauffeured us to the hotel in a very expensive Mercedes. All of my siblings and cousins had chipped in to get a room at a nice hotel that they had scattered rose petals and kisses throughout. It was the PERFECT DAY!!!

Funny news

BIKER FAILS TO NOTICE MISSING LEG

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese biker failed to notice his leg had been severed below the knee when he hit a safety barrier, and rode on for more than a mile, leaving a friend to pick up the missing limb.
The 54-year-old office worker was out on his motorcycle with a group of friends in the city of Hamamatsu, west of Tokyo, on Monday, when he was unable to negotiate a curve in the road and bumped into the central barrier, the Mainichi Shimbun said.
He felt excruciating pain, but did not notice that his right leg was missing until he stopped at the next junction, the paper quoted local police as saying.
The man and his leg were taken to a hospital, but the limb had been crushed in the collision, the paper said.

*Commentary - WHAT???!!!??? I don't even know where to start with this one. How do you not notice if your leg is missing???

BLIND DRIVER CAUGHT AGAIN

TALLINN (Reuters) - An Estonian man who was caught driving a car even though he is blind has been at it again, police said on Monday, and this time he faces jail.
Police first arrested the man, 20, a week ago.
"We arrested the same blind man driving his car again on Saturday in the town of Torvandi, near Tartu (in southern Estonia)," said Marge Kohtla, a spokeswoman for Tartu police district.
"He was drunk. There were three people in the car with him giving him instructions."
She said police wanted the court to jail the man for 30 days and confiscate his car.

*Commentary - I don't know why, but I find this hilarious. What blind man would even want to drive a car and who are these people that get in a car with a drunk, blind man???

MEME

(Tagged by Jackie) I usually don't do these, but I just feel like it right now, so here goes:

Jobs I've Held:
1. Waitress
2. Stock broker
3. ESL Teacher (English as a Second Language)
4. Lawyer

Places to go for a Weekend Getaway:
1. San Diego
2. Cabin in the mountains
3. Mexico
4. Laying in my bed with my husband and a good book!

Movies I can watch over and Over:
1. Save the Last Dance
2. Sweet Home Alabama
3. How to Lose a Guy in 10 days
4. Return to Me

My Guilty Pleasures:
1. McDonalds Double Cheeseburger (don't laugh)
2. Kick Butt Garlic Bread with Cheese (Oregano's)
3. Carmel Cone Haagen Daaz
4. Pizza Cookie (White Chocolate Macadamia Nut at Oreganos or Peanut Butter at BJ's)

Places I have lived:
1. Mesa, AZ
2. Flagstaff, AZ
3. Beijing, China
4. Atlanta, GA (just for one summer)

T.V. Shows:
1. Gilmore Girls
2. One Tree Hill
3. Anything on HGTV (Home and Garden)
4. Law and Order

Favorite Foods:
1. Anything Italian
2. Anything Mexican
3. Navajo Tacos
4. Dessert

Places I'd Rather Be Right Now:
1. The Beach
2. At Home
3. At a cabin in the woods
4. Wherever my husband is.

People I'm Tagging: ALL OF YOU WHO READ THIS! :)