Day 26: My Week In Great Detail

Ok, I think that yesterday’s post more than covered the “Great Detail” of my life. This is the good parts version of this last week (which means mostly evenings and weekends)… and since many weeks are fairly similar, this is a fair pattern for what I do with most of my time. For purposes of serving my memory a little easier, I’m going backwards starting with today:

Tuesday:
Read (Perfect Shot – Sonia O’Brien)
Movie (Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End)
Ice Cream at Baskin Robbins with Mom and Dad (probably half the Tuesdays out there…)
Dinner (Oh, wait… Not this time.)
Lunch (Arby’s with Mom)
Breakfast (Oatmeal)

Monday:
Read (Perfect Shot – Sonia O’Brien)
Chuck (Regular date night = me + Mom + Chuck)
Dinner (Hash browns, pancake, pears)
Lunch (Carl’s Jr.)
Breakfast (Oatmeal)

Sunday:
Read (Winter’s Promise – Janene Wolsey Baadsgaard)
Movie (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest)
Dinner (Turkey, cranberry orange glaze, mashed potatoes, green beans)
Flute Practice for Stake Conference
Church
Breakfast (Hash browns, pancakes, eggs)

Saturday:
Read (Winter’s Promise – Janene Wolsey Baadsgaard)
Talked with Mom for 2 Hours
Dinner (In’N’Out Burger & fries)
Midsingles Halloween Activity (This was awesome!)
Oakland Temple Shift (2:00pm-6:00pm)
Cleaned House
Breakfast (Oatmeal and soft boiled eggs)

Friday:
Read (Winter’s Promise – Janene Wolsey Baadsgaard)
Movie (How to Train Your Dragon)
Dinner (Leftover, I think…)
Lunch (Chipotle with Mom)
Breakfast (Oatmeal)

Thursday:
Read (All I Hold Dear – Jennie Hansen)
Book Club (The Elegance of the Hedgehog – Muriel Barbury)
Dinner (Baked potato bar & chicken enchiladas)
Lunch (Los Panchos – mini happy super wet chunky beef burrito… at least that’s what it said on my receipt)
Breakfast (Forgot… to eat it, that is.)

Wednesday:
Read (All I Hold Dear – Jennie Hansen)
Dinner (Chicken enchiladas)
Worked 10.5 Hours (Yay!)
Lunch (Madras lentils with Fritos)
Breakfast (Oatmeal)

Day 25: My Day In Great Detail

This officially has the potential to be an excessively boring post. My days tend to be the same in a lot of ways, especially a work day like today. So, in general, this is a normal work day for me:

6:05am My alarm goes off.
6:10am My alarm goes off. I change it to go off at 6:30am.
6:30am My alarm goes off.
6:35am My alarm goes off. I get out of bed.
6:40 – 7:30am Shower, hair, makeup, dressed.
7:35-755am (Depending on the day…) I grab my purse and load up my phone, iTouch and the book I’m reading. I fill up two 32oz cups with crushed ice, set the flag out front and head out the door, usually letting O’Malley (cat) in for the day as I’m leaving.
8:20-8:50am I get to work after taking approximately 55 minutes to drive 21.5 miles.
10:00am I wake up.
8:30am-5:30pm (or 6:00pm or 8:00pm or 9:30pm…) I work. Proofing campaigns, writing copy, approving, reviewing, uploading… My computer and I get a lot of face time.
Sometime after 12:00pm and before 3:0pm Lunch.
6:00pm-Sometime after that… I get home.
When I Get Home-Later Dinner. Usually watch a movie with Mom and Dad. Sometimes we just read. There’s a variety of evening activities… Just depends on the night.
10:30pm I head to bed. Usually read for a while. Battle for bed space with the cats.
11:30pm-12:00am Sleep happens.

That’s probably more detail than anyone ever needed to have written down…

As a side note, I would like to express how obnoxious I think "working" is. Not "work". I love to work. I like being productive and the sense of accomplishing things. I just think it’s really weird, that we spend 80% of our waking hours essentially with strangers, and very little time with friends and family. Does this seem weird to anyone else? Just asking…

Moving On...

Dear Friends and Family,

Sorry for the "impersonal" blast going to basically everyone in my address book. I wish I had the time to contact each of you individually. First, I hope that this message finds each of you well, in good health, and generally awesome. That's all that really is to be desired. ;0)

Many of you know that I was planning to relocate to California at the end of this summer. But life takes its course and the company I've been working for over the last year has been hit pretty hard due to the fluctuations in the economy; as a result, myself and several of my coworkers were laid off last Thursday. Things being what they are, the time-distance between me and my move home has been shortened from six months to approximately three weeks. I will be moving home around the 15th of February, and for those of you who may not have that address, please email me.

My phone number is still the same; my email address will remain the same as well.

While the circumstances surrounding my departure from Utah are not the ones I would have chosen, I am feeling remarkably positive about... well, everything really. I'm not excited to leave behind my friends and family still here in Utah, but I also know that things happen for a reason and have felt my Heavenly Father's guidance and support this last week. I can't help but feel that this is kinda what He had in mind all along. I am grateful that we will have things like email, phone calls, and (addict that I am) Facebook to help us keep in contact. I also know that Utah and everything about it has found a niche for itself in the part of my heart called "home". I know that I'll be back - if only for visits... and California really isn't that far away!

I'm a little tired, so I'm sorry if I'm waxing a little sentimental here... ;0) Some days have definitely been better than others. Thanks to each of you for your love, prayers, and support. And if you hear of any stellar job leads in the San Francisco and Sacramento areas, please don't hesitate to forward them on!

Love you all!

Jessi

Famous... er... Something...

So, the company I work for just started featuring corporate employees in the newsletter that goes out to all of our customers as well as everyone internally. Guess who got featured in the first one - oh, yah. Me! I wasn't super thrilled about having my-magazine-self sent all over the United States... but it didn't turn out soooo bad (just omit the parts that talk about how much I love working there - typical media - I really said everything else ;0):

Jessi has a secret: her hair color is natural! Born in Camarillo, California, but raised in the San Francisco East Bay area, she is the oldest of three girls. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in English from Brigham Young University—and STILL loves to read! “My ideal day (when not at LifeVantage) would be spending time in the mountains with friends and family, but also having plenty of time to read,” she says. Her current read? “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R.Tolkien.

Jessi plays the flute; she has studied it for approximately 18 years. She has a 2 ½ gallon fish tank that is home to betta fish, cat fish and ottocinclus fish. She looks to Shakespeare for inspiration for their names. “I have a betta fish named Othello and his predecessor was Hamlet, because Hamlet is my favorite Shakespearean play.”

Other favorites include the movie “Just Like Heaven,” ballroom dance, travel, and working in the Customer Service department at LifeVantage. “I love talking to all of the distributors,” she says. “It’s fun to meet new people and get to know them. I wish everyone knew what a great place LifeVantage is to work, and how awesome the employees are. We have fun!”

I'M ALIVE!!

So, I'm totally a slacker for not having done ANYTHING on here in over a month. Seriously, time has just flown by! Here are some highlights from the month of July:

My parents and I went up to Aberdeen, Idaho (on the back side of American Falls Reservoir) for the 4th of July weekend. We've been up there several times in the last 12 months helping my aunt and uncle with the electrical on their new house.
On these trips I have completely fallen in love with the country up there! It's so beautiful - not to mention the peace and quiet!!
Mom and I adventured up to Blackfoot on the 4th and happened across a historical gem: the Idaho Potato Museum. It was - sadly - closed, but we wandered around outside to look at the interesting farm equipment and some other odds and ends... like this:
Later the next week, I went to a vendor's open house and showcase where - after dinner - I was privileged (?) to see Macy Gray in concert with her amazing (?) back-up singers in gorgeous (?) pink tasseled dresses. Macy was incredibly sober (?) and sounded great (?). I left after 10 minutes.
About a week later, I was on my way home from a long Friday at work and rear-ended the car in front of me. (I was going all of 3 miles an hour... and the picture below is a testament that that is WAY too fast if there is a car right in front of you. ;0) My sisters would argue that I did it on purpose, as the car I rear-ended was a PT Cruiser and they're basically my favorite (?????) car out there!! (GROSS!!) I was able to get my car in for repairs on Tuesday of the next week and my rental car for 35.7 hours was - drumroll please - yes, a banana-custard-colored PT Cruiser. Needless to say I have been sufficiently humbled and my driving skills are slightly less Californian than a few weeks ago...
I got my car back on Wednesday evening - a WONDERFUL thing, especially as I was driving to California on Friday! Thursday night I met up with some great friends - my old roommate Erika, her husband John, and sister Dana. We went through the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House (amazing!!) and followed that with dinner at Johnny Carino's. It was so good to see you guys again! We need to not make it so long before next time!!
My aforementioned journey to California with the Pearl and none else was due to my parents' celebration of 100 years of life (between the two of them). My sister Julie, her almost-two-year-old daughter Caylee, and I had not originally planned to make the journey (for various reasons, not the least of them being that Julie is due with Cambree (her next daughter) on September 9th). But our great family friends Rob and Tove wanted us to come out and surprise Mom, Dad, and Kimmy - and after a little persuasion and some Dr. approval, we agreed! It was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time! There is NOTHING better than spending an unexpected weekend together as a family, complete with a party, games, Caylee, and a trip to Digger's Diner! Here is a shot of Mom and Dad wearing the birthday hats Kimmy made for them:

HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY, MOM & DAD!!

In addition to everything else awesome that I did at home, I was able to sneak over to my Mom and Dad's hair stylist and got myself a new look. I'd been debating it for about 4 months, but I finally did it and I LOVE IT!!!
Officially carrying over into the beginning of August, my roommate Rachael had her birthday "party" via a girls' night out to Macaroni Grill. It was a lot of fun! I already planning something similar for my next birthday... Any suggestions as to where?
So, that's my last 30 days in a nutshell. I never truly realized how much can happen in such a short time, but even with as rushed as everything feels from time to time, life is amazing! Hopefully the next 30 days are full of as much excitement, laughs, and great memory making moments!

Sea Change in San Diego

So this last weekend was our first big event at LifeVantage, the new company I now work for. It was awesome! Going into it I kept thinking of all the "what-ifs" that could come up to make the event not so wonderful, but in reality everything went great! What a good feeling!!

Our event, Sea Change, was held at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront looking out over the San Diego Bay. San Diego was beautiful and in the 70s the entire time we were there. I wish we'd had some more free time... but by the time Saturday night rolled around, I just needed sleep. Here are some good pics from the hotel:

Here is a picture of what the general session stage set looked like... Not the best shot, but good.

2 New "Jobs"!!

The last few weeks have been a nice roller-coaster ride of stress and emotions. The company that I was working for was going through some major rearrangement in the upper levels of management and - long story short - I was essentially unemployed for the most of February, along with about 35+ of my coworkers. Given the state of the economy and unemployment right now, it would be an understatement to call these last few weeks daunting. While most of us were looking for new jobs on our own, a few of our top leaders were also looking to find one company for us all to move to. I admit that a feat like that was a pretty optimistic goal, but I was reminded this last week that it's still okay to believe in miracles.

 

Monday was my first day at a company called LifeVantage. Myself and most of the 35+ of us who left our former company were hired by the company a little over a week ago. The company is based in San Diego, has another office just outside Colorado Springs, and just opened a new office in Sandy (a little closer than where I was commuting to before). I'll have basically the same position that I had previously, as a Marketing Events Specialist, and will still report to the same person and work with the same people on my team. I am so excited at the prospect of getting back to work, and working with the same people I was working with before only adds to that excitement. We have a ton of stuff to plan and get ready, as the company is basically a start-up, but the things we're planning have already got me excited about what I do! I'll still be traveling a fair amount, so who knows what kinds of fun opportunities will reveal themselves!

The other bit of "update" is that I was called last week to serve in the new Relief Society presidency in my ward. While I'm a little overwhelmed, I am also very excited. I have so much to learn and am anxious to get busy.

Life is amazing! There really isn't much more to it than that.

Soarin' Over California

Okay, so I'll admit it. I'm spoiled. All my friends keep telling me that, so I'm not going to deny it anymore.

On my last business trip (December 8-11, 2008), we chartered a private jet because there was so many of us going from place to place. We flew from Salt Lake City to Denver to Phoenix to Irvine to Sacramento and back to Salt Lake City again... all in the course of those four days. And this is the plane we flew on...

Including the captain and first officer, the plane has seats for eleven people. The main cabin, probably 5 to 6 feet wide, comfortably seats 9 people, but there's technically seats for 10. This is Taylor and a few of our corporate executives on one of the flights. My back is against the wall at the back of the main cabin. A door behind me goes into the really fancy bathroom and then into the cargo hold.

This is the cockpit, seating the captain (left) and first officer (right). Talk about a sweet retirement job! Though, I'm not really sure how these guys found all the gadgets they needed... the number of buttons, switches, controls, meters, and levers needed was mind boggling!

On one of our flights we kind of maxed out our capacity. We had 10 people in the main cabin, while Taylor rode in the very fancy bathroom, and I flew in the jump seat, right at the back of the cockpit! It was seriously cool!

The jump seat was this little chair that slid out like a drawer into the middle of the aisle in the cockpit. We flew from Irvine to Sacramento, and I was there the whole flight! Flying is a whole new experience when you're watching two little old men go through a huge-long check list both at the beginning and end of the flight... I decided that I'm going to add "Learn to fly a plane" to my list of "Want to Accomplish"s in my life.

This is a picture of Santa Catalina Island off the coast of southern California. We had to fly over the ocean in order to gain enough altitude to fly over LAX airport.

When we were landing, Sacramento was foggy and cold. Remember that part about flying being a whole new experience when... Well, it's downright freaky when the two little old men are looking out the window asking each other if they can see the runway! It kinda makes you wonder what we miss by riding coach all the time...

Okay, so I'm admitting that I'm spoiled. I'm seriously so blessed to have the kind of adventures that I've been taking these last few months. I'm not complaining about free trips to really nice restaurants, amazing big cities, and private jets... I will also admit, however, that I really missed the peanuts and privacy my commercial flights provide me. :0)

New York, New York

December 3, 2008 - I flew from Salt Lake City to New York City with the executive team from my company and another person on the events staff. It was my first trip to the Big Apple, and we were only in town for not quite 48 hours. We stayed at the Park Central Hotel which is just off of Broadway between Central Park and Time Square, and right across the street from Carnegie Hall. It took us almost three hours to get to our hotel from the time we landed. After dinner at Rosy O'Grady's - a fish and steak house - several of us decided to wander through the city that was just beginning its night life. Our first stop... Time Square.

Time Square is everything that it appears to be in the movies and at New Years... I'm reasonably sure that my brain actually stopped functioning a few minutes after we got to Time Square - I think it was suffering from sensory overload. There are literally thousands of moving lights and ads... It was kinda funny to feel like I was having trouble keeping up! My hotel room faced out towards Time Square, so it was kind of cool wandering around the part of the city that would be my night light for the next two nights. This is the Time Square tower that has the infamous disco ball that drops on New Years...

One of the things that I didn't get to do was to see an actual play or musical in the Broadway theater district... But I'm sure I'll be going back, if only to add "Saw Broadway play on Broadway" to my list of personal adventures. I was surprised at how many different theaters there were... The musical and play ads greatly contributed to the brilliance of Time Square.

The Tree Lighting Ceremony at Rockefeller Center was happening the night we arrived. We originally attempted to get to the Ceremony, but it was SO crowded that you couldn't even access many of the blocks around the Center. We wandered past Trump Tower, Tiffany's, the biggest Build-a-Bear Workshop I've ever seen, the Apple store (which was made out of glass and ridiculously cool), and the south end of Central Park. It started getting really cold, and the sidewalks were getting really crowded (and stinky) as people put out their day's garbage bags... so we called it a night.

I woke up early the next morning and met Taylor (the other events staff member) for breakfast. We wandered past Good Morning America, Bryant Park, the Empire State Building, and several street vendors before we found a Europa Cafe. After breakfast, we headed over to the Rockefeller Center again where we could see the tree, the Pond (skating rink), and Prometheus (statue of the Greek Titan that brought fire to man).

Taylor and I walked back to the hotel in time to meet the others from our team as they were heading down to lower Manhattan. We took the subway (which was dirtier, noisier, and creepier than the BART I grew up with) toward Battery Park where we were able to wave at Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty across the New York Harbor. We also walked around the artillery battery compound (where the park gets its name) where we saw some street performers from Brooklyn. The Sphere, once located in the Tobin Plaza at the World Trade Center, is temporarily serving as a memorial for 9/11 with an eternal flame. It will be moved back to its original location upon completion of the new towers, but will likely remain in its damaged form to serve as a further memory of the attacks.

From Battery Park we walked up Broadway toward Wall Street. I had heard of the Wall Street Bull before (a large bronze sculpture of a charging bull located in the middle of Broadway at the end of Wall Street), and I am familiar with the concepts of Bull and Bear markets. The Bull is a symbol of aggressive financial optimism and success, where the Bear is generally the opposite... What I didn't know was the tradition associated with the Wall Street Bull itself - if you call it tradition. Maybe superstition is more accurate. Imagine my surprise when I - unsuspecting - approach the Bull and find a crowd of people gathered around the rear haunches of the Bull. At first I kind of stood there like an idiot (most likely with my mouth hanging open and everything) when I realize that all of these people are taking turns rubbing their hands on the big, bronze Bull's testicles. Taylor, noticing that I'd stopped moving, turned to look at me and laughed, no doubt guessing all of the random thoughts and questions going through my brain. He took pity on me and explained that people believe it is good financial luck to rub the Bulls balls (a bit crass, I admit), and with the market in its current state of affairs, more and more people are jumping at the opportunity to increase their financial luck... even if it means a little public embarrassment. I'm guessing that the Bull wasn't quite that shiny in certain areas a few months ago...

And no... I'm not joking.

We continued north on Broadway and crossed over to Trinity in order to make our way up to Ground Zero, our next destination. It is powerful to imagine what the Twin Towers must have looked like... filling the giant void in the middle of a very tall city.

Walking past the focal point of the 9/11 attacks was, in a word, sobering. I had expected it to impact me, but not nearly as deep as it actually did. We stayed mostly on the south end of the World Trade Center area, where the fire station that was the first emergency response on site is still located, still manned, still serving, and (as the fire trucks now say) still standing.

Across from Ground Zero is the Trinity Church. I love the movie National Treasure and watching it was how I gleaned the only real information I had previously about the building. Upon entering, I realized very quickly how powerful a role it played as a sanctuary during the aftermath of 9/11.

Throughout the church were monuments and "artifacts" from the 9/11 attacks. There was an American Flag that had on it printed names of every individual that was lost in the attacks. There were uniforms with plaques telling about how the service men - firemen, police officers, and other volunteers - had taken breaks in the church, a relief from the relentless search for survivors across the street in the rubble of fallen skyscrapers. Perhaps the most powerful display at the Trinity Church, however, was a rack covering in strings of origami peace cranes, assembled by Japanese New Yorkers shortly after 9/11... The plaque on the display explained that many of the individuals that assembled the crane tapestry were survivors themselves of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks during the end of World War II.

Outside the Trinity Church, facing the World Trade Center, is the Trinity Church Cemetery. Located within the Cemetery is the Bell of Hope, presented to the people of New York City by the Lord Mayor of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury on September 11, 2002. It is rung each year on the anniversary of the attacks and also at times that commemorate significant national and international events. It is a symbol of hope during hard times and an encouragement toward peace at all times.

After our visit to the Trinity Church, Taylor and I went back to our hotel where we set up for the meeting that was the purpose of our business trip. We went out to dinner later that night after the meeting was over, and flew back to Salt Lake City the next morning. It was a very short trip, but one that will be powerfully etched on my memory. It was fun, exciting, and touching... all at once.

Some other fun things that I learned in New York, New York.

• East coast oysters are a ton better than west coast oysters.
• Not all of the buildings are as tall as we think they are... In fact, in many ways Manhattan is just like many other cities across the United States.
• Never buy Cashmere anywhere else except from a street vendor in New York City. It's the same thing and a TON cheaper.
• New York City really isn't that much colder than Utah.
• True "New Yorkers" must eat out everyday because you could never buy (nor afford) everything you need at one of their city markets.
• So-called California drivers have NOTHING on New York cabbies. Yes, they really are as crazy as Hollywood portrays them.

Work and Play

This last weekend marked my first "real" business trip ("real" means I wasn't just staying at a hotel in Salt Lake City) - with many more to come. I joined the events team in August and I will be doing a lot more work-related travel in the coming months. Our first trip was to Anaheim, California where corporate put on a training session for the field distributors. We were staying at the Hilton Anaheim on Convention Way and the training sessions were held for 1300 people at the Anaheim Convention Center.



The wildfires in Hollywood and Montecito started sometime early Saturday. By lunchtime, the sky was full of thick brown smoke and ash was raining down on the walks outside. It didn't affect our work at all, though most of us had headaches by the afternoon due to the amount of smoke in the air. It was supposed to be 90 degrees that day, with 70+ mph winds. It didn't feel that hot, but it's possible that the slightly cooler weather was attributed to the smoky blanket that obscured the sunlight.

The Disney parks were completely covered, and when we went to California Adventure the next day, most of the indoor areas still smelled heavily of smoke. In the picture below, just to the right of Hollywood's Tower of Terror ride at California Adventure, you can see the orange glow that the fire reflected up into the smoke.

It's sad that such a tragedy had to occur, but in it's own way the smoke created an eerie kind of beauty. Below is a picture of the Anaheim Convention Center Arena... I have another meeting in February 2009 in that Arena.

I loved looking out at the Arena at night. I could see it well from my hotel room. I also got a great view of the Disney parks...

About 30 corporate employees went down to help out with the event. We all stayed at the Hilton Anaheim, which is probably one of the nicer hotels in Anaheim, excepting Disney's Grand California Hotel. I'd forgotten how many palm trees there are in southern California... and how pretty they are!

After four long, hard days of work, our company treated us to a short day at one of the Disney parks. Most of us went in to California Adventure. I think my favorite rides are Soaring Over California (I get really nostalgic... this ride is just a peaceful, happy ride!) and the Bugs' Life show. It's much smaller than Disneyland, but has a lot of really beautiful areas - including the backside of the GRR (Grizzly River Rapids); the waterfall there looks like something in the high Uintas!

I spent most of my day hanging out with my friends Roberth and Brandon. We had some good times touring the Mission and Boudins factorys - there was also some pretty serious competition on the new Toy Story ride... highly recommended!


Right before we left to go catch our airport shuttle at the hotel, we decided to do a little last-minute shopping. At one of the stores we stopped in we ran into Woody from Toy Story; he was working the cash-register scanners. Woody got his hands on a tape gun, and began holding people up with it. Brandon, unfortunately, got shot by the tape gun... but I succeeded in swiping the gun! (Truth: Woody did not nicely hand me be tape gun and motion for me to use it against him. Well... maybe...)



I wasn't going to buy anything... I'm going to Disneyworld with my family in a few days and I didn't think that I needed anything from California too. But then I saw this painting, by Joe Yakovetic and for some reason it really hit me. I love it! He has some others that are amazing too! I really love his Sleeping Beauty painting (see if you can find Philip kissing Aurora in the clouds... it's way cool!).

This is the wave fountain in the main courtyard at California Adventure. I'm a sucker for fountains and waterfalls and this one is really pretty.

The trip was a lot of fun, but I think everyone was really happy to be going home and sleeping in their own beds that night. The whole trip was also a learning experience for me - not just as far as event planning goes, but on the whole I learned a lot of things about people, about myself, and about how much I really miss certain parts of California and really don't miss a lot of others. I'm excited to have more opportunities to see different things as I travel with work... it's kind of a life-long dream, to travel and see new things, and I know that every trip will be a new adventure!