Office Matters

Ok my faithful readers, both of you, I have decided to give you a day in the life of me. Since everyone knows what DJ's workplace looks like or at least part of it - on the game days (I'm still working on him to take a camera to the training room and start snapping pictures, don't get your hopes up on that one) - I thought you should know where I spend the majority of my life. You might want to run and fill up your coffee so that you have something to keep you awake. That's my warning. So don't blame me when you wake up and can't explain the sudden onset of drowsiness and then waste all sorts of money on doctors trying to determine the cause of your random weariness only to find that you are perfectly healthy - you just have a lame friend who shows pictures of gray walls taken on her low quality camera phone. Anyway, let's get started...

I've been "upgraded" from a cubicle in Albuquerque to a cubicle WITHIN an office in Knoxville. Yessssss.

As you walk a few steps and pivot, you see this…

A step toward my desk and now you’re almost ready to sit…

What’s that? My phone is ringing! I better get it…

“Oh, I billed the client 5 million dollars and I was only supposed to bill them 4 million dollars? That's bad.”

“Are you sure that was me???”

“Oh, look, a bug. Gotta go.”

Ook, time to turn on some tunes. (Sorry especially for these terrible pictures. A girl's doing her best with the resources she's got. And while I'm apologizing, sorry for the terrible formatting on this post. You would not believe the problems I've been having trying to post today!)

Pandora.com. Anyone heard of Pandora? It’s basically the best. You choose what artists you like and it creates a radio station with those artists and artists similar to them from some Music Genome Project or whatever. If you don’t like a song, give it a thumbs down and it will change to the next song. These are my radio stations.

Cross off a day on the ol’ calendar. I do this for sanity's sake. I like to see that days are going by cause sometimes I forget when I'm sitting in my office with no windows.

Ok, time to get to work.

This is my new computer. It’s giving me problems. When I first got it, I said “Computer, you and me can be best friends or we can be worst enemies. It’s your choice.” It chose worst enemies. Nuff said.

So here's a funny story. I walked into my office the other day and I noticed this.

Apparently the maids didn't know whether they should throw this box away. But how much more obvious could it get??

So I took my note and stuck it on top of their note as a way to say “Hello! You can take it away! Remove this box from the premises! Leave! Be gone!” It’s still sitting there.

So that's a day in the life of me. Anyone feel free to come join me. I know it looks fun and exciting. Oh, no? Not really? Well now maybe you can understand why I am the way that I am and why this blog is what it is and why I am starting to match my clothes with the colors of my office and... Please send emails (and cookies) to brighten my day. I work in a sad, sad place.

Things to do, places to go...

I made a list. Anyone who knows me, you this statement does not surprise. (I'm channeling Yoda apparently this morning.) Yes, I decided we needed a clear avenue of our sightseeing adventures while we are living in the beautiful (and lately, very rainy) southeast. My goal is to focus on the local, in-town activities during football season when DJ and I only have Sunday afternoon and evening free to spend together and then advance outside the Knoxville borders as more and more time is freed up, aka post-football season. There are sunspheres, marketplaces, downtown shops and restaurants to investigate and further out we've got an amusement park, mountains, festivals and rivers to enjoy. I, for one, am all jittery and twitterpated when I think about all the new nooks and crannies that are still to be discovered. I think DJ is too but I don't think he would describe it that way. For the record, the plan tomorrow is to go walk around this ginormous park with Maia and enjoy the weather. The weather better cooperate. Must. follow. the list. (Ok it's not really that strict...not really.)

I have four boxes sitting in my living room. Those four boxes contain decorations among other things. The decorations in particular though must start doing their job. They will be clocking in today and will be working overtime since they have been on a very extended vacation. No more mister nice guy, no siree. I expect their utmost cooperation so that I can present you all with some nice educational pictures of our new home.

Also if anyone had wondered, because I know I have, why I don't have more pictures on this blog it's because my camera is one of those other "things" in the aforementioned boxes. This week, I expect the picture content to greatly increase. In case anyone had wondered.

Peace out homies. (Now I guess I'm channeling a gansta. yo.)

New address and more

In case you start fancying the idea of coming to visit and need to put an address in your GPS, I would like to provide that to you if you want it. Just email me! It's available!

Some other reasons to use the address could be...

...warm, homemade cookies (I know it might be a challenge to figure out how to keep them warm, but I don't got dumb friends or kinfolk, so anyone reading this will know how to do that),

...gifts (I tend to lean toward fine upscale items so if you must send gifts, please keep this in mind - *snort* huh, what? I must have fallen asleep for a second there. I was just having the craziest dream...),

...pictures (I don't really know what kind of pictures you would want to send but I would never turn down a good picture) or

...money (I think this one speaks for itself. I like it, I want it and if you have extra, just send it).

So I think we can all agree that these are all common and logical reasons that may lead to you to ask for my address.

And now for some other things that are on my mind...

Some of you may be very aware of the challenges of moving to a foreign country, uh, I mean, new state. It's amazing how different the southwest is from the southeast. Sometimes it really feels like I'm in another country! Some of the challenges stem from things that we left behind in New Mexico that we really couldn't take with us.

I have to find a new vet, new bank, new doctors, new post office, new insurance companies, new hair stylist and it seems there's always something else that is no longer just a phone call away.

It's a little overwhelming because for the most part, I have to open the phone book, close my eyes, spin around 5 times and plop my finger down on the page and whatever it lands on is the lucky winner. So-and-so will now be my new (fill in the blank). I bet they don't even know how lucky they are. Out of all the people I could have chosen, I chose them. Maybe when I call them, I should tell them they need to go buy a lottery ticket.

Now we've been fortunate for a few of the newbies.

DJ's coworker recommended a vet, check!

I drive by an insurance company everyday on my way to work and it's the same company we used in NM so it caught my eye, check!

We have very limited options for banks so we went with the only national bank in town, check!

But as for everyone else, they'd better hope they either have a really big ad in the yellow pages with lots of information or a really nice website that's pretty, has soothing colors that are my favorite and soft music playing in the background. As you can see I put a lot of thought into each one my choices.

And now to leave you with a song that plays often around these parts... The chorus gets played by the school band at all the games and the whole stadium erupts into singing about every 5-10 minutes. (Or so it seems.) It was cool the first 10 times and then I began to wonder if that would get old by the end of the year.

OK so I just found this video that shows what the song sounds like in the stadium.

Evil Eye

We've all had 'em. Don't lie, you know you're guilty. We've all possessed the evil eye at least once in our lives. Some more than others. I will be honest since I'm trying to keep it real around here. I have definitely possessed the evil eye more than once, ok more than twice. OK so I'm a habitual keeper of the evil eye. I'm working on it people. But really would anyone care if it was as cute as this??

If only we could all be as cute as that when we're trying to shoot daggers with our eyes. And seriously, I'm working on it people!

I went to another football game on Saturday and I didn't just have the football game to keep me entertained...

We have Billy Bob from the backwoods who just bought himself a brand new camera...(I was a little jealous.)

We have his mother, "Fro"lein-Susy, who really was quite pleasant other than the fact that I was constantly on alert for bees.

And then we have this cutie, little miss Addison, who I had the pleasure to cheer on the Vols with.

She is the daughter of one of the trainers DJ works with. They call him JD in the training room. (His wife called him John so that's what I call him.) People say that they are mirror images of each other. Ha. I was just fascinated by this little girl - she kept me entertained for much of the game with that constant smile of hers and her adorable dimply elbows and legs. Precious, precious, precious.

And lastly, people, we aren't in Kansas anymore - we attract the big timers here. As I do not possess such a nice camera as Billy Bob, you can't make her out too well but Erin Andrews from ESPN was reporting on the game. She seemed very friendly. People kept yelling at her and she would turn and smile and wave her hand and get back to work. It's nice to see people who attract so much attention not turn into crazies.

So maybe you're wondering why I was so often distracted from the game? Well the Vols played like poo. There is really no other way to describe it, I'm sorry. The Vols played the UCLA Bruins and not only did the Bruins play very well, our Vols played terrible. SO you put those two together and you get a final score of Vols 13 and Bruins 19. I really hope they don't make that a habit because I am tired of losing teams!

What's it like you ask?

Most people that I talk to back home (whether it be NM or SD) want to know what it's like out here. It's very difficult to explain because I don't really know how to compare something that is so different from what they (and myself) are familiar with. So I've been putting together a list of the things Tennessee has that New Mexico (and South Dakota for that matter) doesn't. They say you shouldn't compare your children so I won't. But I am going to compare cities. (And keep in mind these are my first impressions still so all statements are subject to change without notice. There, disclaimer inserted. I can now begin.)

Two words that Knoxville weathermen use frequently - patchy fog. To me those two words are so funny. Just say them to yourself now. Patchy fog. hahaha Ok deep breath. So for the last couple of days, I have woken up to and driven to work in patchy fog. In NM, I drove to work on patched up streets. Not really the same at all. But really, I think I can count on one hand how many times I saw fog (patchy fog?) in Albuquerque. I'm still deciding whether this is a positive statement or not.

Yesterday I experienced my first torrential downpour in TN. My naivete caused me to believe that I could wait it out in the car so I wouldn't get drenched running inside to my house - just like I would have done in NM. However after several minutes I realized that it hadn't let it up and was still raining big giant raindrops. So I made the run for it. And ended up looking like I had just taken a shower. I literally felt like I could have stepped outside with my shampoo bottle and saved some on my water bill. But I didn't. Maybe next time. (For the record this would be similar to rainstorms in SD.)

Take a look out your window. What do you see? Do you see a sea (crazy English language, "See a sea" - whoever came up with the American English dialect should be sentenced to many years of hard labor for their practical jokes. Anyways....) of evergreen trees, leafy trees, viney masses, grassy knolls, prancing squirrels, and a general sense of rainforest? No? Well there's another difference. As Chace stated quite accurately, Dr. Seuss was most likely from Knoxville or at least the surrounding area because the way the flora intertwines itself in and around each other, it looks like whimsical cartoon characters just waiting to be sparked to life. Quite remarkable really that there is an actual place like this and to think someone (well, lots of someones) built a whole huge metropolitan city smack dab in the middle of it all.

Here's one of my favorite differences...Knoxville is:

• 11.5 hours from New York City
  
• 9 hours from the Atlantic Ocean
  
• 8.5 hours from the Gulf of Mexico
  
• 8 hours from Washington D.C.
  
• 2 hours N from the Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee intersection


• 1.5 hours S from the Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee intersection
  
• 1 hour W from the North Carolina border

All of these amazing places, that I've never been to by the way, with the exception of the bodies of water and D.C., are within driving distance! Quite excited about that. DJ and I will have very busy weekends in the winter. Please still come visit us then but just know that we will probably drag you along with us to these places because we can't waste a moment.

Now for one random similarity. There are little multi-colored lizards here. They have green bodies and neon blue tails. They keep to themselves mostly. I have only seen one. Once. So it might have been a hallucination but I'm pretty sure it wasn't. Even though I had just finished staring at a moving road for the three days prior to that. But yeah, I'm quite sure I saw it.

 

 

Someplace to be missed - Part 2

 

Photo by Ambidexy (flickr.com/photos/59068872@N00/2661414188)

I have had the opportunity now to move to two separate cities of which I had no previous knowledge of before moving there. First Albuquerque and now Knoxville. It’s interesting because I can still remember vivid details of my first ever experience in Albuquerque and I'm wondering what my first memory will be of Knoxville when I look back in a few years. 

My mom and I made a trip to the southwest to look at colleges.  I can remember when we first drove into Albuquerque – it was very dark and must have been pretty late. We hadn’t planned on where we were going to stay so we just started looking for hotels.  We made it to this street called Central Avenue. Hm, I thought, surely now that we've found the main drag, we can find a nice hotel? For those of you who know Albuquerque, you know that this is the last place you want to find a hotel. You can find your hookers, your local drug dealers, runaways looking for whatever runaways are looking for, the latest homeless man, and other sorts of hoodlums up to no good. It's not too bad during the day but at night, it was never really somewhere I planned on being. People die there.

Needless to say my first impression of Albuquerque was not really ideal. We definitely did not see any suitable lodging, let alone actual hotels, on Central that night, thank goodness.  Actually it might have made this story a little more interesting had we decided to rent a room at the Aztec Motel in all its rundown glory. But alas, we ended up finding a nice Red Roof Inn somewhere along the interestate which I would pass by often during the next 7 years. The location would always cause a flashback to that fateful night when I drove into ABQ not yet knowing that I would make that my home the next 7 years OF MY LIFE. It turned out to be a great 7 years, in spite of my apprehensions thanks mainly to some pretty stinkin' amazing friends. They are what kept me there. More on them soon! And if it's not already apparent why I chose that dingy, lurking, dark city, it was because of a certain dark and handsome (and not dingy at all) 18 year-old boy that had stolen my heart.

Also just for the record, the picture I chose to show above is really truly the Albuquerque that I will remember but aren't first impressions fun to recall?

Another Day, Another Dollar

Yesterday I walked into my new office and it was like I had arrived home. It was weird to think of my job in such a fond way. It was nice to have some sense of normal amidst all the change. Same company, same procedures, same emails from the same people, same clients. But some new things that made it a little exciting too. New coworkers, new computer, new office, new office culture, new building.

I know the picture is a bit fuzzy but it gets the job done. (Actually Chace took the picture, thanks for your tools bro.) It's a nice building though huh? I was pretty surprised actually to see such a nice building. I had imagined a space that one could barely call an office, little to no supplies, so quiet you could hear a cricket chirping and no other people for miles. Ok, well maybe not miles but I figured it would be pretty desolate. Like a cave or something. They told me it was a satellite office with 7 people that weren't even there most of the time. What was a girl to think? So, I was right about little to no supplies but in all actuality the whole set-up is more than ideal for what I need. And even better, I get to handle everything myself because there are no administrative personnel! Not that I don't appreciate the administrative staff but really, I can do all that stuff myself. I'm not so busy I can't handle mailing a package or ordering some supplies. I always felt weird asking people to do things for me that I could easily do myself.

All in all, the day was a great day and I think it's all working out just fine. I'm just so thankful to have a job that I would have worked out of my house if I had to so the office is a nice perk. The people are really nice too although I won't be working with them too much, let alone even see them since they will mostly be at the client. My office itself needs a little pick-me-up but I can handle that. Throw up a picture here and there and it will instantly be homier. Now if I could just figure out a way to build a Starbucks in the parking lot and we'll be good!