Wedding Receptions

Things I Hate About Wedding Receptions:

• Having to talk to people I don't know and whom I'll never see again
• Wearing a dress and heels for way longer than I'd care to
• The incredibly cheesy music playing in the background
• People asking me if I have kids, and when I say no, them informing me that I should have them soon because I'm "really missing out"
• Seeing my brother-in-law come without my sister because she refuses to be around the family, and feeling responsible even though logically I know it's not my fault
• Cleaning up after it's over

Things I Love About Wedding Receptions:

• Seeing important people from my life whom I haven't seen in forever, like the sweet old lady who taught me how to play the piano
• Showing off my husband to...everyone
• My ex-boyfriend's father coming up to me just to see how I've been and to tell me that I am still his favorite out of all his son's girlfriends
• Seeing that the people who used to think they were better than everybody else have gained just as much weight (or more) as the rest of us
• Chocolate-dipped pretzels
• Reminiscing about my own wedding
• Seeing my brother-in-law, even without my sister...because it's been 5 years
• Hanging out with my photographer friend when she's not busy snapping pictures
• Watching a 22-year old guy befriend my grandma by talking to her about Peter, Paul & Mary
• Seeing my sister and her new hubby look so happy

All in all, I think it was a good night. :-)

Kajsia's Wedding

My little sister got married today. It was good times.

SO not what I had in mind...

First, the good news: I still have a job. Not that most of you knew I was potentially not going to have a job...but I do, so go me.

See, they recently (as in, last week) reorganized the entire call center where I work by combining the 2 largest departments: customer service and data entry (I work in data entry). While I had originally taken comfort in the fact that I was hired on as a permanent employee, I've been an unwilling participant in the stupidity of corporate America long enough to know that none of that shit matters in a merge situation. And a merge always means lay-offs. The "letting go" began with the assistant manager of my department (although between you and me, I'm quite positive that wasn't really due to the reorganization; she was, um, not the best employee), followed by another 13 or so people from customer service and a couple more from data entry. FORTUNATELY, I was one of the very few to survive...and as a bonus, I made it through without having to take a pay cut, and I even think I'm going to stay a supervisor.

But now the bad news: we have to take customer service calls as well as data entry calls. NOT that I am opposed to having more work to do. Truth be told, sometimes I felt kind of guilty for getting paid to do such an easy job. So more work is definitely not the problem...it's the type of work we're now doing. In data entry, our calls were primarily sales reps and technicians, which is good mainly because there's really no reason that you'd ever get yelled at. Sometimes they're rude, but for the most part it's pleasant work. Customer service calls are a different story. When I worked in a call center for Sears, I was yelled at on almost a daily basis, and I really did not like it (I only lasted about 3 months before I quit--my last day there still ranks pretty high on my list of best days ever). In fact, I vowed never to work that type of job ever again. And now, here I am. Tonight a customer yelled at me for 20 minutes...no exaggeration, the call was 23 minutes long and she was irate from the moment I answered the call...and of course, my hands were tied by the fact that she signed a contract so there was nothing I could do for her, which only raised her ire. Sigh. To be fair, most of the people I talk to are very nice...but it only takes one call like that to ruin your day (or in my case, night).

Am I gonna quit this job? Nope, I really don't think so. The management experience is valuable to my resume, I like my co-workers (mostly), we REALLY need the health insurance, and I've been watching the Utah Dept. of Workforce Svcs job board and I know I won't be able to make this much money without going to Salt Lake because Utah County is horribly cheap (and I have already done the commuting thing--I don't care to repeat it). So now I gotta find a coping mechanism because while I am a professional and will get the job done, this is not what I thought I'd be doing when I took the job.

Suggestions, anyone?

I've Been Tagged...

8 Things About Yours Truly...


8 TV shows that I watch (in no particular order):
1. Scrubs
2. Arrested Development (on DVD, of course. Sigh.)
3. Gilmore Girls (reruns)
4. Whatever is on CNN
5. The Daily Show
6. The Colbert Report
7. Scream Queens, Charm School, or whatever other brainless Vh1 reality show I get hooked on, as much as I had to admit it...
8. Yesterday I discovered Top Chef on Bravo while watching TV at my parents' house--sigh, if only I had satellite...

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Happy Sumo
2. Chili's
3. Bajio
4. Porter's Place (gotta love those scones!)
5. Cracker Barrel
6. Village Inn
7. Tony Roma's (not that they have any in this state--but they have one in Anaheim)
8. Sizzler

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:
1. Did laundry
2. Wrote an e-mail to my Grandma
3. Bought a snickerdoodle hot chocolate from juice n' java--YUM!
4. Went to work
5. Worked
6. Worked
7. Worked
8. Worked

8 Things That I am Looking Forward To:
1. Friday, for so many reasons
2. My sister's wedding next week
3. The Neil Diamond concert in December (YEAH!)
4. The holidays being over
5. Jacob getting his private pilot's license
6. Jacob getting his commercial pilot's license
7. Moving out of this apartment
8. Someday in the very distant future when I will not need to work any more...

8 Things on My Wish List
1. To be a Mom
2. To grow old with my husband
3. Being able to travel the world (which will be a lot more possible after Jacob becomes a pilot)
4. Just enough money to be financially stable, I don't need to be rich
5. A mediterranean cruise
6. The trip to Disneyworld Jacob has been promising me
7. Being able to buy a house
8. Ah hell, I'll say it: equal rights for everyone

8 Things I Love:
1. Jacob
2. My kitties
3. My family
4. My friends
5. Vacations, especially to Disneyland or Las Vegas
6. Good movies
7. Eating out
8. Music, especially The Veronicas

8 Things I don't like:
1. Infertility
2. Hypocrites
3. Closed-Minded People
4. Vegetables
5. Going to the dentist
6. Dieting
7. Exercising (haha maybe I should just put "being healthy in general")
8. Ignorance

8 People to Tag:
1. Kajsia
2. Maureen
3. Peter
4. Amy
5. I don't think anyone else reads my blog...
6.
7.
8.

The Air Show...Part 2 (The Thunderbirds)

After we saw a bunch of demonstrations of various fighter jets and what not, the day ended with a performance by The Thunderbirds, which is the Air Force's elite Air Demonstration Squadron. They fly six F-16 jets and perform around 80 times a year. It was quite impressive.

Here's a video of four of them in their delta formation:

In this one, four are flying in the delta formation and one of the solo planes flies through the middle of their formation. I did a really bad job of filming it, but you can still get the general idea.

So if you're ever in the Las Vegas area at the beginning of November, I'd highly recommend dropping by the air show. It's free and it's really good times. But be sure to bring camping chairs or something, otherwise you'll have to stand all day and that part kinda sucks. Yes.

The Air Show...Part 1

So, on our way back from Disneyland we stopped by the USAF Air Show at Nellis Air Force Base. That was, to my surprise, actually pretty cool. I ended up taking a lot of video of the demonstrations, so I wanted to post a few of them here (forgive my shakiness--it's hard to get good shots of stuff going really fast over my head)...this first one is of a jet car racing a MiG-17 fighter jet:

This next one is of an acrobatic pilot named Sean Tucker...he was amazing:

Vacations Are Fun...

Disneyland is awesome. That's about all I have to say about it.