The new job

As you may have heard, I got a promotion! Now instead of "teacher in training" I am "Assistant (to the ) CEO." I work at the corporate office and it is fun! Now, some people are surprised to hear about a school having a CEO, but we are a pretty big company-- 23 campus in 4 states and well over 1000 employees. We are a private, for-profit company, after all! And we sell a great product that people love. (For example, 20% of our students score in the 99% percentile of national tests. True story.)

My position is great! My boss is great! I am learning all about the school and always learning fun new things.

I've composed a list of things I love about my job.

1. I have my own office with a door. The door even has my name on it.



2. I learn new stuff all the time. Or get to spend time thinking about and discussing interesting things. As part of my work, I study the Constitution. This morning I spent an hour with my boss discussing whether the emotion or the thought comes first and how we can use that to motivate children to be conceptual thinkers. The day before the main topic of discussion was how much of your personality if trained and how much is innate, and how effective teachers can influence that. Lately my boss has been very interested in my views on energy, chakras, meridians, etc. As an extension of that, I've been watching youtube videos explaining quantum physics.

3. I get to be politically involved. I've helped plan several events for candidates. I organized a field trip (including chartering a bus) to the Tax Day Tea Party at the Capitol Building, which I also attended on company time. I made myself a sign for the event: (I could have had the Publishing Department make me one, but I wanted to look grass-rootsy.)

4. I get to read all the resumes and decide who gets to come in for testing. It is fun-- most of the time. I have also learned that of all the possible bad grammar things that could bug me, the thing that bugs me the most by far is how often people omit much-needed hyphens. For example, I guarantee you that 95% of the people who apply, would have left the hyphen out of the previous sentence. It drives me nuts!

5. When I have a hard decision to make at my job, I ask myself "What would Ayn Rand do?"

6. We are a very pro-America company. When I moved into my office, there were (by actual count) seven flags there.

7. Since I'm not standing in front of a class all day, I can wear high heels every day. And that makes me feel pretty. Also, since I'm trying to impress the higher-ups, I usually wear earrings. It's nice.


8. Since I have my own office with a door and it's in an openly politically conservative office, I finally have a nice place to hang my Ronald Reagan calendar and my NRA plaque.


Of course, it's not all kicks and giggles. There are some things that I do not like about my job. Namely, sending rejection letters to people who came for an interview, but we decide not to hire. On one hand, it's a good thing because before I started they didn't send them at all, which is kind of inconsiderate. But I have learned that I do not like signing anything where a smiley face after my name is not appropriate. And I send a lot of them-- I bet an average of one per day. But that is about the only thing I don't like, so I guess I should complain too much.

So, as you can see, life is quite good. No surprise that things are working out very well for me. I am Holly Bluemlein, after all.

Normally I'm a good influence on people

Here is a picture I took of Michael shortly after we started dating:

Here is a picture I took of Michael this Saturday, after five months of dating:
Interesting.

Northwest Tour 2010

I had a week off for Spring Break. Since the northwest is the last region of the country that I have never been to at all, and since one of my best friends just moved to Seattle, I decided to drive on up (863 miles, estimated 14 hours) and see what I could see.

Seattle did not disappoint! The report of my adventures will revolve largely around the things I remembered to photograph while there.

I saw the sights.

The troll under the bridge (yes, that is a real VW Bug under his hand)

The World-Famous Pike's Place Market (the flowers were my favorite by far)
I had fun seeing lots of friends. Originally, I just thought, "I'll go see Becca in Seattle." Then when I was checking my route and saw I would pass through Boise, I decided to stop and visit Rachel (which I have been meaning to do forever) and meet her hubby. While I was driving up, I remembered my hero/adventuring mentor Amber who is currently running a disaster clean-up business in southern Washington. She is my favorite and I haven't seen her in years. Plus, when I changed my plans to see her, I saw my new route would take me through Portland, which made me wonder if Amy still lived in Oregon. Turned out she does, and I got to see her for breakfast Saturday morning! Add wonderful Jenn, who also lives in Seattle, and I got to see five awesome friends for the price of one! I love my life.



One night Becca, Jenn, and I stayed up until 3:30 playing Ticket to Ride and laughing laughing laughing. I kept telling myself: "Married people don't get to do fun things like this."
Jenn took me to a brothel-turned-pizza restaurant for dinner. They even have lingerie there that you can put on while you eat. (You might think that it would be a cute idea to send your boyfriend a picture of you wearing lingerie in a former brothel because, after all, you add MORE clothes to what you had on before, so it's really not scandelous or seductive or anything. Oh, what a silly little naive girl you are. Don't do it.)

I came out one day to discover my hubcap was missing. I couldn't figure out why anyone would want to steal just one hubcap and then it occurred to me that it must have fallen off. Which might explain why my wheel had felt woobly the day before.

In other car-related news, I hit another milestone which, true to form, I missed by about 6 miles



As it should be, the vacation food was unbelievable!

Becca and I accidentally ate an entire container of fortune cookies in a little over 20 minutes. They were very delicious. But there were only four fortunes in the whole box and all of them were, oddly enough, sponsored by the US Census. I am not making this up.

Jenn and Becca and I went and got some heavenly cake

This pie I ate with Amber in southern Washington. It was so good I literally had to put my head down on the table and pound my fist. Seriously. It was that good.



My time in Seattle reminded me that there are things I love about big city life (the architecture, the stores, the parks, all the people), but that there are definite advantages to small-town life (most notably- parking lots).

I had so much fun shopping, looking at beautiful spring in Seattle, and mostly catching up and laughing with friends.

Then right after my breakfast in Portland with Amy on Saturday morning, I took off quick like a bunny to get home because I wanted to spend Easter with Michael.

I got home at 11pm and was very pleased to see Michael (who had been sufficiently lonely while I was gone) had gotten there before me to turn on the heater so I wouldn't be cold and put dinner in the oven so I wouldn't be hungry. What a man! This picture is actually the next day when he was carving the Easter ham. One of the best things about having a man around is never having to carve the meat yourself.

The next day I got to watch conference with my special fella, while cooking up a nice Easter dinner. What a good way to celebrate Christ's triumphant over death and sin. As I listened to the choir sing about Him and His living prophets and apostle talk about Him, I felt very very thankful to Jesus Christ for what He did for me on the first Easter and how he continually manifests himself in my life today. I know that He lives and that He is the Son of God. I am so thankful for my testimony of His restored gospel.

Should have seen this coming

Most beautiful sunshiny day ever + the assignment to teach PE all afternoon + the decision to play softball so we could be outside = (seriously, it's redder than it looks here)

I'm just glad I put a 30 spf on my face every single morning, just in case.

Still Alive

I'm at my sister Ann's house getting some training for my triathalon, and I've decided to take advantage of the computer situation to do a little blogging. In lieu of some of the clever blogs I've been composing in my head, I'll just do some bullet points about what's going on in my life, in case you care.

1. Like I mentioned, I've decided to become a triathalete. I guess I'll need to learn how to spell that if I"m going to be serious about this. Ann (who is a swimmer and a triathalete) gave me some personal training and in a 20 minute session, I went from horrible, afraid-to-put-my-face-under-the-water (I know, isn't that embarrasing) to below-average, but not hating it. In fact, I kind of liked it after a bit. All told, I probably swam about half a mile and walked away just fine.

2. The decorating of my house is going great! I only have one picture because I didn't plan ahead for having this unlimited computer access. This is the view of kitchen from the living room.


I love it very much. Warms my heart and makes me happy. The plaid was an inspired (literally) solution to the fact that I didn't like the way the yellow and green looked together.

I'll post other pictures later. Hopefully. (teaser--the bedroom is violet)

3. I like my job (even though they have me in preschool right now). I'll put more about that later too.

4. I went through the pictures on my phone to see if there was anything else I should be reporting on and I found a picture of the flowers Michael sent me for Valentine's Day.

So, things are going well with Michael too.

5. I got called to be my ward's Emergency Preparedness Coordinator (church assignment helping to make sure that everyone in the congregation is prepared in case of a disaster). I am very excited about it. I used to think that Sunday School teacher was the best calling in the church, but I see now that I was very, very wrong.

I've now reported on my house, my job, my boyfriend, and my exercising. Those are the main things in my life right now. Have I moved to Utah and turned boring? I hope not. Well, only time will tell I suppose. But I am going to bed now.

An Unexpected Turn of Events

First, let me explain/justify my lack of blogging. I am currently without a computer, so that has been a hinderance to my updating. Even now, at great personal sacrifice, I am blogging from my iPhone. But I couldn't stand to have the same post up for a whole month, so I'm putting aside my dislike of typing large amounts with my thumbs and taking one for the team. But THAT is not the surprising thing that I alluded to in my blog title. This is--

Last Saturday while I was riding my bike to the gym, I had a very startling realization: I LOVE Draper. (Draper is the town where I live.) I don't just tolerate it (which I was expecting) or like it okay (which I was hoping), but I full-blown love it. I love looking at the big beautiful old houses and the big beautiful new houses and the regular-sized houses. I love that there are horse stables all over the place. I love that sometimes it smells like cows. I love how it is nestled right next to the mountains. I love the variety of stores that are on the Parkway. I love that there are so many biking and jogging paths. I super love that I share a highway exit with Ikea. I love that despite being so close to Sandy, it's not boring like Sandy. I love that it used to just be cow farmers and now it's full of regular people (although I do feel a little sorry for the cow farmers who must have been forced out). I love that it's part of Salt Lake County. I love the super awesome water park Cowabunga Bay, even though I've never been yet. I love the way all the houses look with their Christmas lights. I love the feel of it. I love looking at it. I love the way "I live in Draper" rolls off my tongue.

When I decided to move to Utah, I knew it was a decision that would bring me joy because I knew that's what God wants for me. But I did not expect that I would find any amount of that joy from my geographical surroundings. Having known and loved a city the way I love New York, I didn't figure that another place could be worthy of a description involving the word "love.". And while I love Draper in a very very different way than New York and not quite with the same fierce intensity, I am happy to realize that I love it with a peaceful, firm and even a little excited feeling. And that makes me happy.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I forgot this

As I was painting my kitchen this evening, all the sudden out of nowhere I remembered one of the very best, most wonderful things about my birthday celebration in Vegas, and I knew right away that I simply MUST share it with you.

My super wonderful boyfriend HAPPILY snuggled up with me and watched ALL FOUR HOURS of my favorite version of Jane Eyre.

I am a lucky woman.

Subtitle: birthday addendum

The Big 3-0

I always figured that I would be like my mother and age gracefully, not giving much concern to the meaninglessness of numbers as they slipped by. But as I found myself approaching thirty, I realized that I was a creature of a different flavor. I don't think it would be accurate to use the words "freaking out," but "slightly bother and concerned" seem appropriate. But as I reflected on it, most people do eventually turn 30; most people in the world already have, and really it is much more tragic to NOT hit that milestone.

Also, it helps if when that birthday appears you have a special fella in your life.

After bringing it up in a what-shall-I-do-for-my-birthday brainstorming session, I was surprised and pleased when Michael volunteered to take a day off of work and spend it with me in Las Vegas.

Since I always like to blog report about how I spend my birthdays (see 28 here and 29 here) I have prepared a "Top 11" list about my favorite things about my Vegas birthday vacation.

1. My birthday dress

Upon arriving in Vegas one of the first things we did was take a picture of us by the famous "Welcome to Fabulour Las Vegas" sign.
When we got back in the car and I looked at the picture, I was shocked by the sheer, blantant loudness of my dress. I had seen in a store several days earlier and knew that it had to be mine to be worn on my 30th birthday. I tried in on in the store to make sure it fit, but wasn't paying attention to the colors. And since I didn't have a full-length mirror in my house at that point, I had not actually seen myself in the full get-up. I still love the dress, but was surprised to see just how bold it was.
(Michael has since personally seen to it that I have a full-length mirror in my house.)

2. This response from every single person who heard we were going (including, I believe, Michael's mother): "Are you eloping?"

It made me laugh.

3. Staying with the Stays

I will confess that when I first planned the trip to Vegas, I thought of my wonderful ex-New York roommate Megan as an afterthought. I felt guilty using her for a free place to stay in her her brand new and totally gorgeous house in Henderson. But after a reassuring "get your butt down here and stay in my house" email, I felt okay about it. And seeing Megan and her husband Luke turned out to be a major highlight. She even baked me a birthday cake!
(Megan, if you're reading this, please know that I have written you a lovely thank you note, but I haven't been able to send it yet because all my stamps got lost in the move. I'll get that out soon. Please feel appreciated.)

4. After only 3 or 4 hours of driving from our snow-encrusted homes we arrived in St. George where it was so nice and sunnyshiney and warm we were able to eat our lunch outside. (Michael looks unhappy here, but he's not. It's just because the sun is in his eyes. There was seriously THAT MUCH sun.)


5. The Stratosphere.

Since we were a couple of wild and crazy people with disponsible incomes and no small children we decided to live dangerous and buy the all-access tickets to the thrill rides on top of the Stratosphere. For the sake of brevity, I will not go into detail here, except to say that when you're on the elevator ride on the top of the Stratosphere it is impossible to be anywhere higher on a building west of the Mississippi.

6. There was a yummy hole-in-the-wall Mexican place where we ate dinner both nights we were there. I love me some good Mexican food.

7. Falling asleep in the car to the sound of my man singing along to Garth Brooks.

In his online post where I first became of his existence, Michael caught my attention by saying that he was musically "a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll" but this was the first indication I had had of that fact. It was was a really pleasant, memorable moment.

8. At the end of a hectic, action-packed, and throughly exhausting second day, by sheer happenstance (AKA divine intervention) we walked in front of the Bellagio hotel's famous water show at exactly the moment they were starting The Hallelujiah Chorus. It was awesome and made me glad that everything that entire day (even my car window breaking) had perfectly lead us up to that point. It was especially nice having just seen Michael perform that piece several days earlier.
(
this video courtesy of youtube)

9. Hoover Dam

We decided to fork out the $30 each and go into the belly of the beast. It was worth it. Even before we went inside, it took my breath away. And I"m not even an engineer.

Turbines in the power plant. Very cool.


Us on the inside


The view from inside

This box cracked me the heck up. I'm not sure why.

And of course the highlight of any trip to any dam is the great excuse for all the dam jokes. You know the drill: "My dam boyfriend and I took a dam tour. We had a dam good time. The dam traffic was pretty bad though." After several hours of peppering "dam" in front of just about every noun I said, I asked Michael, "What? Don't you like making dam jokes?" To which he replied that he would like to, but I was too quick with all of them.

10. On the way home we stopped in southern Utah to visit Michael's cousin who was staying with her in-laws. A quick stop-by turned into a three hour political discuss with her Obama-supporting mother-in-law. I was surprised by how calmly and reasonably Michael discussed this topic that he is very passionate about. But I must confess after about two and a half hours, my patience for tranquility wore thin, the gloves came off a tiny bit and Michael had to politely pull me off the woman and drag me to the door. (Don't worry, I made nice with her before we left.) I wouldn't have guessed I would be the one to start being a bit aggressive in that situation.

11. All the crazy, random things that are Vegas

My man looks a lot like Harrison Ford, don't you think?


My favorite sage made a visit in honor of my special day

Whoopie was there too

Totally shutting down Rocky Balboa


All told, it was a super great birthday. And I'm excited to be 30, flirty, and fabulous.

A Little of This, A Little of That

Since today is the one month anniverary of my birthday, I was determined to blog report about my trip to Las Vegas, but I just don't feel like it. So instead I"m going to share some other random going-ons from my life.


*I would never have guessed that something like this would happen to me, but it seems that Rexburg, Idaho has become a premiere vacation destination for me. Since arriving in Utah I have been there three times. While the very idea of this seems odd to my Manhattan sensibilities, I do have to say that it is a lovely spot. I was there this weekend and was liberated from my life-long misunderstanding that I don't like fish. Turns out I LOVE fish. Now I just have to convince Michael to go fishing more often (shouldn't be hard) and figure out how to cook them up so yummy myself (could be a bit more difficult)


* after five weeks in my new place (but only being home one of those weekends), I am happy to announce that I have finally hung up all my clothes and organized my underwear. This should make getting ready in the morning a fair shake easier. My bedroom is still a disater though. Good thing I sleep in the living room. (Just FYI, the kitchen has been done for weeks. I love love love love love love love having my own kitchen.)


* Upon arriving home from my Christmas trip to Michigan I realized that in five months since I left New York, I have driven across the country FIVE times. I've put more than 12,000 miles on my car the six months I've owned it and keep it mind that it was stolen for one of those months. I've decided that I"m ready to just be at home for a little while. At least that was the plan, but I was in Idaho last weekend and I'll be in Provo next weekend. Maybe in February I'll be able to have a little bit of time without traveling. But who am I kidding-- if a good offer comes up, I'll take it.



*I love my iPhone. I don't know what I'd do without it. I can't figure out how so many of you go about your day-to-day lives without one.

* Michael recently told me that he likes me more than his guns. If you know Michael (which I guess none of you do) you would understand that this was quite a compliment. (now that I think about it, he might have said gun singular, not guns plural. either way, i think this is a major development for him.)


*I used to be confused and slighly annoyed by people who hated snow. Now I understand. I"m sorry for being so hard-hearted before. Because now I know that its not just the snow, its the salt. Also, snow that stays on the ground for more than 3 days is just plain lame.

* In case you were wondering, my job is going great! I love it and I love my co-workers and I super love all the great stuff I"m learning. I feel so blessed in this aspect of my life. My new church congregation also seems really great.

An Admirable Girl

(Explanation of title: My mother and little sister have become highly involved [the word "obsessed" was deleted by Sara during the editing stage of this post] with an Asian soap opera [I would expect this kind of behavior from my sister {who frequently watches international things online}, but was surprised that Mother {who doesn't even know how to comment on blogs] had also fallen prey} and apparently in this soap opera world the praise "an admirable girl" is doled out for young women who keep themselves busy, ie-- "she works and takes two classes. she's an admirable girl.") (too many parenthesis! was anyone else confused by that paragraph? I was. that's why I'm not editing it)

Since I'm home in Michigan again, I feel called upon to give another "trip down memory lane" report.

But before I tell you that story, let me tell you how Michael and I met. We met online after I'd succumbed to Facebook's advertising "Do you want to meet Mormon men?". When I finally decided "yes" and clicked on the advertisement, I searched for my ideal candidate and saw Michael and though he looked cute and liked that he was "a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll" and that he liked to hunt. So I sent him a brief email saying that I was also a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll and that, although I had never been hunting I supported the idea and even won an essay scholarship from the NRA in high school. I had no way of knowing at the time that no sentence could have more quickly and deeply endeared me to his heart. He sent me back an email saying (among other things) that I was on the fast track to getting on his good side. And the rest is history.

So while I was home, I thought it would be fun if I could find the essay I wrote, so I decided to go through my trunk in which is stored all the memories of the first 18 years of my life.

My goodness, I had no memory of being so busy!! My business is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that my mother says her main memory for me during this time was how frequently I would fall asleep behind the dining room table while working on homework and other projects. She was always a great support for me, as evidenced by the fact that during high school my after-school chore list typically included "take a nap." Bless her. (Also, she made me tell my boss at Pizza Hut that I could only work four days a week.)

I have very few memories of my life pre-college, but (as illustrated by the items in my trunk) it turns out I was up to all sorts of exciting, important, and/or time-consuming activities.

For example, did you know that I was a paper girl for four years? I had completely forgotten. And yet, every day of my life (except Saturday) fifth grade through eighth, I made sure the papers were out by 5:30. And, if the delivery bag I used is to be believed, I even earned the title "Honor Carrier." Good thing I held on to it.

Apparently, I was very involved in Speech competitions. I remember that my friend Jamie and I formed a Speech and Debate team at our high school just so that we could be co-captains (also, I believe we were the only members). But I had forgotten that I also competed in middle school (where there was already a team established). In my trunk I found several of the judges' reviews and I got a kick that over the approximately seven years I was competing, most of the reviews were exactly the same: "Good expression and diction. SLOW DOWN!!!"

And speaking of Jamie, I found a folder full of poetry we (or mostly she) had written on a field trip once. We went through quite a poetry-writing stage in middle school and if the sample I currently have in my possession is accurate, the re-occurring theme in our work was to somehow including the word "Moo" in every piece. While our infamous five part series "The Brady Brunch Massacre" is still missing, I am happy to have found these originals. Although, I must say they are not a sample of her/our best work. The good ones were all committed to memory decades ago. I have decided to share one of the ones I store in my head

Ode to Glue
(Sung to the tune of "Home on the Range")
By Dr. Jamie S., chief resident of Pediatrics at the 3rd best children's hospital in the US (in her pre-MD life)

Oh give me some glue
With a wrapper that's blue
And a nozzle that's awfully big
If you give me glue,
Then I will thank you
'Cause glue's made of horses, not pigs.

Glue, glue, glue, glue, glue
The cow on the wrapper says "Moo"
If you don't give me glue
I don't know what I'll do.
So please, please, please, please give me glue.

(Jamie, do you want me to send you these originals? They include "Druggies on the Street", "Ode to Buddy," and "Bus Seats, subtitle The Seats on the Bus".)

Just because people like pictures, I've decided to include one of me and Jamie earlier this year while I was visiting her in St. Louis. No review of the first 18 years of my life would be complete without her.

Also, in high school I was a scripture mastery diva. (I use the word "diva" on purpose, wanting to include all the snobbery and attention-seeking that is usually involved with the word.) At the conclusion of every school/seminary year, Sister Goldman would van us down to Louisville to compete in the Multi-regional Scripture Chase Smackdown (not official title) where we would be tested on our academic scripture prowess again seminary students from four states. Since this is my blog, I"m going to go ahead and tell you people that I kicked butt every year. Need proof? These are journals I won every year. One year one of the Hardie boys (I can't remember which one) tied with me for first place. I still haven't quite forgiven him, which ever one he was.

In high school, I was SO proud to have earned a letterman jacket. I bought one, but for some reason never got around to sewing on the letters I had earned, so I never wore it. But I think one time I decided to wear it to a football game, so I pined one of the letters one and that's how I found it in my trunk. The other letters were nearby, but still not attached. I think I"m probably at the stage of my life where I can start wearing my high school letter jack in an ironic way, but I don't want to have to deal with another coat (I already own about 6 and I never wear any of them).

In middle school and high school I started my obsession with the theatre. Unfortunely, in my little town in southern Indiana it was a three hour drive to any theatre that got the good traveling shows. Fortunately, I had an awesome big brother (with a driver's license) who was also interested in shows and so we would go together. That was always a highlight in my small-town girl life. Apparently, so much a highlight that I kept the newspaper advertisements in addition to just the playbills. This trip through the trunk, I decided to throw the newspaper clippings away.

In my trunk, I also found an old friend. In our family, my cabbage patch kid Nelly is famous for being in more family photos than Sara as a baby.

Now that I've been through the trunk, I am dealing with all sorts of important life questions. Will I ever need my high school diploma, or should I throw it away? Will I ever have to prove to anyone that I did, indeed, earn my Mia Maid medallion? What should I do with these medallions-- perhaps a charm bracelet? Is it petty for me to keep the dress I wore to high school graduation and my favorite jeans from my senior year just so I can periodically put them on and see if they still fit? Why did I keep this fifth place ribbon? Is it gross that I still have the cast from when I broke my fingers playing basketball when I was 14? These are the questions that currently plague my existence.

In conclusion, I did NOT find my NRA essay, but I did "find myself." Also, the plaque the NRA gave me at their Christmas Banquet that year where I was their honored guest. (I had forgotten about that.) (please note that the "Third Place" was for the entire state of Indiana. and I don't think I need to remind you that guns are important there.)