Pretty decent

Well, I had my meeting at eBay yesterday morning to fill out paperwork and I received a welcome packet, complete with 27 pages that I need to read and fill out. And then they sent me the second half of the packet today via email. Good times. I'm pretty excited about working for eBay, though, they seem to be a cool company. Only time will tell.

I'm loving out apartment more and more. Jess and I keep discussing what kind of aquarium we should get, and a part of me doesn't want to consolidate our tanks into one, because holy crap, it would be a behemoth to move. Then again, if we don't move for a couple years, it wouldn't be a problem. It's that whole thing about not being able to see into the future again.

I haven't played my GW games lately; here's to hoping they don't kick me out of the guild. I've been reading books like crazy lately, having found out there's a county library a few blocks away from the apartment. Jesse got home last night and flipped on the tv, which had previously been set to a radio channel for music and was like, "You didn't watch tv today?!" and I was all, "No, I rarely watch tv during the day." I think he thinks I just sit around at home, watching tv and eating bonbons:)

Mexico ploygamist sect targeted by drug cartels

All in all, this is a fairly sad turn of events.

Oregon vacation

Well, here we are, back from a great Oregon vacation, and today I got a job! I emailed eBay asking when they'd next have another training session and was called this morning with an offer to start August 3rd. Yay me! I'll be working in the fraud department, and that sounds a bit fun for me. The benefits appear to be spot on as well...maybe Jesse should apply there as well!

Here, for your viewing pleasure, are some photos of the trip.

Oh, vacation

I know, it seems weird I'm excited to go on vacation when in fact I haven't worked since January, but still, I'm excited! It's our annual Mercer Lake trip in Oregon coming up, and it always makes me a happy camper. I mean, the car trip is usually a pain, but this year we are breaking it up into sections on the drive over, so hopefully it won't be so tedious. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't run into any heavy road construction or traffic jams, because we all know how those usually send me into panic attacks for whatever reason.

I applied yesterday at Marie Calendar's for a server position. The job at the airport I felt strongly about I haven't heard anything positive. I was trolling Craigslist and saw that my staffing agency had just put another ad in for that same job. They keep telling me they haven't heard anything at all from the company, so why are they posting another ad for that job?! Kind of strange.

Luckily I've been able to get on the emergency unemployment compensation, so I'm still able to bring in my pittance toward bills. All this really makes me wonder if I should be getting back to school. But then, which program do I go for? That really is the question. It pretty much swings from hair school to culinary school...but who knows?

We are all moved into our new apartment and I must say that we are quite enjoying it. Almost everything is unpacked except we have a lot of camping gear sprawled out onto our living room floor. We're still trying to decide if we want to go really large with our aquarium tank, or just get rid of almost everything except for a couple of the clowns. If we went small, we could put in a couple exercise equipments, but a tank would be soothing. To Jesse, at least. He can spend hours staring at the tanks, whereas I just give them a cursory glance and sometimes throw in some food.

Well, all for now. I should start packing up more stuff for the trip. See you on the other side!

Ready to move, ready to move!

How excited am I to move this weekend?! So excited! This ----------------------------------> excited! That being said, I haven't begun to box up the items we have here in the house. One reason being that after we do the major move, we still have to sleep here for a week because in-laws are going to be gone and we're watching the dog. But still, if I don't have a job by next week, I'll probably be spending a good chunk of the day over at the apartment, unpacking. Maybe I can persuade Jess to put some of our Ikea stuff together on Sunday. I just can't forget that we need to remember to grab my dresser from here. It's the only large item we have here that needs to be moved in the truck...I'll just have to leave a couple changes of clothes here to make up for it.

I realized yesterday that I've read three more books and haven't written their synopsis (what's the plural on that?) yet. I'll need to get on that. But not today. Today I'm headed over to Velvet's to meet up with mom so we can hang out and mom can cut my hair. Isn't it funny that when hair is cut short, it needs to be trimmed more than when it's long? I'm not rocking a mullet by any means yet, but we're going to Oregon in July and the back of my hair is starting to bug.

Haven't heard anything back about the job yet. eBay called two days ago off ask if I would like to begin in their class, but I'm going to Oregon and it would be in the middle of the training session, so I asked them to please sign me up for the *next* time they start a group. Trying to hedge by bets, see. I want the job out by the airport, but in case I don't get it, maybe I could fall back to eBay. But keep fingers crossed about airport job. It's not actually AT the airport, just near it. They engineer and manufacture airplace/jet parts.

We're on the lookout for a cheap 120 gallon aquarium. We want to consolidate our various tanks into one, and Jesse can build the stand for it, so we're just looking for the aquarium right now. Oregon had *tons* of large tanks on the cheap, but Utah has more of an aquarist hobby nature, so good deals get snapped up quickly. We could potentially pick up a tank in Oregon, but we'd need to rent a trailer to get it home, and that would make it a wash for an savings we could have received.

Ok, so today I need to hit up Costco and the liquor store. (Liquor store to get boxes...I pretty much don't drink anything with alcohol these days.) I hope Costco has flats of nectarines for sale! I've bought a couple from Albertson's and oh my goodness, they are divine!

Homemade sushi!

Jesse and I just attempted our first-ever attempt at homemade sushi, and all I have to say is...YUM! Definitely not professional grade, but sooo good. We bought the nori wraps, wasabi, rolling mat, sashimi-grade tuna (which is frozen so we're probably going to thaw it and use it in a couple days), hot sauce, and dried rice at the Japanese market, and then bought the crab, sesame seeds, pickled ginger, scallions, soy sauce, ready-to-steam rice, sushi vinegar, and avocado at a grocery store.

We bought more rice that was ready-to-steam because I hadn't eaten yet and we needed something in a hurry. We put it all together when we got home (thank you YouTube how-to videos!) and the hardest thing about it was the rice. When they call it sticky rice, they are not kidding! So, it's definitely a learning curve, but even if the rolls didn't look great they still tasted fantastic and really hit the spot.

The rolls we made used the crab (bought in a can from Costco), hot sauce, cream cheese, avocado, scallions, and rice. Neither Jesse nor I like lots of rice, so it was very nice that we could control the amount put in the rolls.

We're kind of kicking around the idea of maybe just renting again for awhile. We could probably find some cheapy apartment, but we're still debating on whether or not we should wait until I get a job. I went in this morning for an interview at a placement agency, and she said she would send my résumé to the company who is hiring. Hopefully I hear from them soon...

Soy confundido

I just *do not* know how this all is going to end up. I'm so frustrated with the job market right now, and I'm getting very anxious to be out on our own again, and everything is just getting all jumbled up together and it makes me unhappy. Our friend was our realtor and decided today he couldn't do it anymore (it's only been about 2 weeks) because Jess and I like to offer low to begin with, and I think he thought we are more trouble than we're worth or something. So, now we're out a realtor, and I'm thinking that maybe it's a sign because I still don't have a job yet.

You know, if the economy is in as much trouble as it appears to be, I don't understand why prices haven't really fallen to match the times. I'm talking consumables and whatnot. You'd think that with half the nation out of work, prices on rent, houses, food, etc., would all tumble. And I know that many people would say that housing has fallen, but I don't think it's fallen enough. How do people living on single-person incomes do it?! I'm seriously considering working at a fast food restaurant, and a part of me is like WTF...why did I spend $40k to get a flippin' degree then?! And, as much as I don't want to look down on those in the fast food industry...I feel like I'm better than that. Which isn't fair, I realize, because if there wasn't anyone to work the chains, how would I get my chicken nuggets?

I have another interview tomorrow, with another job placement agency. They'll then send my application and résumé to the employer, and all of it just seems like a big waste of time. Why bother with the middle man? How much more work would it be to scan every app that came in instead of letting someone do it for you? Talk about a money-saving opportunity.

I'm very antsy right now. Sometimes Jess expresses a dislike for his work, but all in all I think he's lucky he has something to do all day. I know staying home might seem like it's glamorous, but I don't have a kid yet to occupy my time, and rattling around with the in-laws day in and day out can be tedious. You know, I like them, you act different when your around others, want to make at least kind of a good impression, and I'm tired of being "on" all the time. Even when I'm just roaming around in my PJs or whatever. I don't want to have to talk with someone if I'm not in the mood.

*sigh* Man, I'm depressed.