Crazyness

So... today I had my first day at the bank. I only worked the morning and did a bunch of online training (which sucked). While I'm sitting at this computer doing training... I have my phone on silent. After a couple hours of training I decide I needed a break and went into my purse to check out my phone. BAM, texts, missed calls and voice mails... wow. I'm never that popular. So what is going on?

The BLM wants me back. The day I start my new job. They call and want me back. Wow. After I find this out, I of course cannot concentrate on any of my training so I pretend to train until it is close to lunch and then I call it quits.

I felt really bad because the president of the bank kept coming in and asking me if I wanted to go to lunch... and I just couldn't do it. I couldn't go to lunch with him, excited about my future there, while the whole time I would be thinking about the BLM. He asked me 3 times.. I felt bad.

So I leave the bank and immediately make some phone calls to get more information. I get the low down from Dawn and then call back the HR lady that called me to get more info. There are 2 openings out here in Grants, they are thinking of opening one up as an intern position, which is what I was before I quit in Socorro and they want to give it to me. :) However, rules have changed and they can't just give it to me like they did in Socorro, they have to post it and then I have to apply for it. AKA, the odds are good that I will get it, but it isn't 100%.

The pros out way the cons by far on staying with the BLM.... I have already decided I will. The pay is DOUBLE what I make at the bank, I get 6 hours of vacation and 4 hours of sick leave every 2 weeks and I already know the job.

So now I am in another dilemma. Do I quit my brand new job now or wait until I make sure I get the BLM job and then quit... after they've trained me.

I would just hate to quit the bank job now and then have the BLM job someone fall through and then be completely jobless. So I am half debating staying at the bank until I for sure get the BLM job... but then my conscious kicks in and I feel bad for the bank for training me. Aye.

A Job!

Well yesterday morning the bank called me first thing in the morning and offered me the job. It was a HUGE decision, but after a full 24 hours of deliberating, thinking and talking about it, I called them back this morning and accepted.

To my surprise they wanted me to start working TODAY. Shocker! Fortunately, we had called Direct TV earlier in the week and they are coming sometime between 12-6 today... so working today was out of the question. I did however, go in for about a half hour to sign some paperwork to get my background check rolling. I will go in tomorrow morning for a half day of online training and will continue online training for 2 more days next week.

I left feeling really good. Like I made the right decision. Everyone is very nice and they seem very genuine. They said they were very excited that I took the job.

They put me on Teller #7 , AKA lucky number 7, which is 2 away from the main door, so they said that I should be VERY busy. (I like busy, that means your days go by fast!) Another good thing is, I am a teller inside and not a teller for the drive through, which I think means I don't have to work until 6 everyday. Yay! :) And this bank doesn't work Saturdays... which is another perk. Weekends are ALL mine... and Ryan's!

I know the pay isn't what I desired, heck neither is the job or the lack of vacation. BUT I am very excited! I get out of the house and I get to meet people in my new town. I have yet to make a friend here, after being here almost 9 months,(besides the 3 year old and 9 year old next door) and I am hoping that will change with this job. The tellers all look my age or younger, so that is a good sign that I can hopefully make some friends. Plus, I should meet soo many people from the community and maybe open up some more opportunities for me and my career. Yay!

Lent

I am thinking about giving up PerezHilton.com for lent. I go there every day and probably about 10 times a day. I am going to feel very left out of the celebrity gossip world, but that might not be a bad thing! I am almost obsessive over my celebrity gossip and I think it would be good to take a little break from it... at least until Easter.

If there is anything exciting celebrity-wise that I should know, feel free to tell me. :)

Frustrated

So I had my second interview today with the bank. It went really well, but I left feeling a little uneasy. I know it sounds stupid, but I left feeling really overqualified for the job that I was interviewing for. Everyone was really nice and it was definately the hardest interview I have ever had, I got interviewed by 5 people at once!! Crazy, but I did really good (until they asked my math questions, I suck at math!). I made them laugh and gave them good answers, it was like I knew what they were going to ask me before I answered the questions. I went into full PR mode and made myself their top candidate. But... I am just not sure about it all.

I added up how much I make on unemployement...and if I get the bank job I am not sure that they will be able to pay me more than what I make unemployment.

I was soo frustrated after all of this. In fact I stressed myself out really bad and made my neck and head hurt. Sigh.

I guess I just don't understand how it is soo hard for someone with a degree to find a decent job that pays well.

I know I was spoiled with the government. I know it. The bank was telling me that you don't get any leave until you work there for a year... with the gov't I was getting 6 hours of annual leave every 2 weeks and I didn't take advantage of it as much as I should have. Ryan and I want to enjoy married life and travel... but unfortunately that might not be a possibility anymore.

I know I don't need to stress about this because I haven't even been offered a job yet, but I can't help it. I just want to find something where I will be happy, make more than I do on unemployment and be able to take an occasional day off to travel. Even if it is just a friday or monday (We have been talking about going to California to visit my grandma there and just making it a long weekend), But banks don't like you to take Mondays or Fridays off because that is their busiest days.... so much for traveling and living life to the fullest. lol

Oh and I gave up on the NMSU thing. I don't think it is going to happen. The lady is flaky... I should have remembered that from last summer. She keeps telling me she is too busy to draft a contract and the last email I got said, she will do it, "when she is able to" and that was 2 weeks ago. Sigh.

Small towns piss me off sometimes. I wish I knew more people that knew people.

Moving

So I've mentioned before our wonderful neighbors and our not so wonderful neighbors (The ones with the stupid dog that jumps our fence). I have been wishing that our not so wonderful neighbors would move for some time now. And yesterday, Ryan and I were driving home from the grocery store and Bam... A For Sale Sign! :) Whoo Hoo! I was soo excited!

Now I just have to hope and pray that we get very nice new neighbors or least someone without a big dog and a with a better attitude!!

Pet Peeve

I have a lot of pet peeves, however I don't even think this is a pet peeve... it is much worse than that.

Ryan and I were discussing how I've applied for jobs and how many of the people don't get back to you. He said that was one of his biggest pet peeves when he was applying for jobs. And I definitely agree.

If I didn't get the job, at least have the decency to call and let me know, so I am not sitting around waiting to hear from you.

Today I am going to call someone and make sure that they received my application... which I think is soo silly that I actually have to do this. Ugh.

There is one other job I applied for, but haven't heard from. I didn't really want it that bad and I am assuming I didn't get it, since it has been like 3 weeks since I applied for it. But I just wish people would let you know, dammit.

And the Winners are...

Well, I'm not going to lie... I already knew which handbags I wanted to get before I posted my blog.

B and 3

I must admit the picture of B didn't really do it justice... I couldn't get the picture from the website, for some reason it wasn't working, so I had to just google it. I know it wasn't every one's pick, but I thought it was really *me* and it even has pink little hearts on it. :) And I liked 3 because it is different and big. :)

I will post pictures when I get them, I will be ordering them this weekend! Yay!

Jobs?

So today has been a REALLY good day so far. :) It started off when I found out that one of my good friends is expecting! Yay! It seems like almost everyone is having babies nowadays! Hopefully I'm not next for the epidemic! lol But I am soo happy for her and was soo shocked and excited about the news! She will be the first of the friends I grew up with to have a baby.

Then while I was talking to her, the bank called! I have been waiting to here back from them since I turned in my application 2 weeks ago. It seems like they are still interested and want me to come back in and take an assessment (everyone that works there has to take) and have second interview. I go in Monday afternoon to meet with them.

Also I think I may have found myself another potential job! In our church bulletin, there has been an advertisement for an experienced sales representative to sell advertisements to put in the bulletin. This job has been in the bulletin for WEEKS if not Months! So today I finally called them and the guy was very nice and seemed very excited that I called. I just faxed him my resume, so we will see where this we lead. I have a little bit of experience in Sales from some college stuff I did and he seemed impressed by just that. The bad part is that you work on commission, but he seems to think you can make pretty decent money doing so (More than the bank) and asked if I'd be willing to occasionally travel to Albuquerque to find some sales opportunities. I was actually kind of excited about this possibility because it means more flexibility than a 9-5 job and I should be able to do contract work on the side. I do still need to know a bit more about it, but it sounds good so far.

What do you guys think?

Ready, Set, Choose!

OK, I've narrowed it down and have been allowed to get 2 handbags. A pricier one, and a cheaper one. I have 2 in the pricier category and 3 in the cheaper category. Please help me decide, I am excited to see what people think!

Please Choose one :

A.)

B.)


Please Choose Another one:

1.)

2.)

3.)

Handbags

I never understood handbags until I went to New York and went shopping in Soho. And now... it is like some sort of disease in me. My Auntie Linda, my mom's best friend, is a fashion nut. She took me into a store and introduced me to handbags. She told me how you don't have a nice handbag, unless it has its very own storage bag to keep it in when you aren't using it. In her closet, she literally had a handbag for every outfit, all stored in their very own storage bags. Sigh... what a dream.

Well, I may not have a handbag for every outfit, but I am starting off small... a handbag for every season. This fall I bought 2 handbags. A redish one (my fall) and a black one, my winter. Now that we got our tax money coming I am on the hunt for a spring/summer handbag. It may have to be a combo season since I'm not sure if I will buy 2 or just 1... but those seasons are close so I think it will be ok. Or I may buy a cheaper one and an expensive one...so I can have 2. I'm not sure yet.

For Christmas I got my mom a Dooney and Bourke purse. She had one when I was little and absolutely loved it, so I was excited to get her a new one.... and now I want one. But I don't NEED one.

The past couple of days I have been looking for purses, nonstop. I can't believe how expensive some of them are... it is INSANE! So I am trying to be fairly reasonable and yet find something that I will like and get a lot of use out of.

Anyway, I have had a request to put my handbag options on here and let people vote on which one they like best. :) So I need to narrow down my options and I will work on posting them over this long weekend.

Maybe I will help others get the passion for the fashion! :)

Still hunting...

I just don't have anything exciting going on to blog about lately. Sorry for the lack of blogs!

I hadn't turned in my application to the bank yet and Monday they called me, making sure I picked one up on my way out and to see if I needed another one. Lol, I guess they really want me!

So I went today to drop it off.... we will see where that leads.

I have also tried contacting our Good Samaritan Home (Old people home), they have a couple of jobs open right now, one of which I think I would really like. It is an Activity assistant, where you would help plan and engage the citizens in activities. I thought it would be cool, but I can't get a hold of the lady. I will try calling her again tomorrow. It is a part time job, but I thought that would work well with my NMSU contract and give me more free time to work on that.

Speaking of which, I am pretty frustrated with my contact there, but I need to be patient. I met with her 2 weeks ago and I still haven't received a contract from her. She was supposed to send it the week before last, but she's just been too busy. She emailed last night and said she won't be able to do this week either and will do it when she is able to. She is busy with the legislature so I need to remain patient...


Other than that... I am still searching for jobs everday and hoping something will come up.

Death

I have been having a hard time dealing with Death. Not just a specific death, but Death in general. How do you actually understand death?

My mom was talking to me the other day about how she wanted to visit my grandparents at the cemetery. I've been to the cemetery several times, to "visit" my grandpa. But this time I just can't go because, I guess it kinda of creeps me out. My grandparents aren't there. Their bodies are there, but they are not.

Both of my grandparent's funerals were open casket. My grandpa's was relieving to me, I had seen him at the hospital right after he died and that was not the last sight I wanted of him, but I was also 9 years younger. But my grandma's open casket was different. I walked up to it with my cousin and we just stared at her. I looked at him and said, this isn't our Grandma. She is gone. This is her body, but she isn't here. Is that not confusing?

Because of my faith, the only way I can make sense of this, is that she had a soul and the soul has left her body. So the woman that I knew for 23 years was dead and her soul was gone, leaving just her empty shell, her body.

But it all just baffles me. I am alive, thinking and moving around. But in a quick second something can happen and I could be dead, but what happens to me?

One of my friends, Traci is a biology major at UNM. She told me once that when you die, you actually lose weight. I don't think it is a lot of weight, but I remember her telling me that something is lost right after death. I am sure that there might be some scientific reason for this. But for me, that is proof that we had a soul and that our soul leaves after we die and that is why loose that little bit of weight after we die. (Maybe Traci will remember this?? And comment leaving the exact amount of weight? :) )

I still think about my grandma everyday. I miss her like no other, but I think I can talk to her and she can see from above. I don't have to go to her grave sight and talk to her empty shell. I can talk to her whenever I want and hopefully she can look down and see us and smile, knowing she lives on with us and we miss and think of her everyday.

But can souls look down and smile? I just don't know...

Yard Work

This weekend we did yardwork.... long overdue yard work. As Ryan said, Maybe it was a good thing that football season is over.... lol.

We finished our front yard a couple weekends ago, thank goodness! But we still want to add some bigger rocks to the gravel we put in.

This weekend we focused on our backyard, which I felt like we've been neglecting. There were some bushes that were taller than our house!

We also had this wooden lattice on our back porch with this nasty vine weaved through all of it. I hate vine and Ryan has hated this since before we bought the house, in fact when we first looked at the house, he said that would be the first thing he would take out. We have pretty much ignored it.... until yesterday. Yesterday we knocked it out. All of it... It is gone. Someday we would like to buy some nice patio furniture and have a covered patio... heck even a sun room, but for now we have a concrete slab without any nasty vines!

We felt very productive after it was all said and done. The next time we will be spending that much time out there, we will probably be trying to make our grass grow that we planted last year.

While we were outside yesterday it snowed! Finally!! We've been waiting for snow for a LONG time! It snowed on and off all day, but nothing stuck. However, this morning when I woke up we had a nice white glaze to our yard and we are supposed to get more within the next couple days! Yay!

Fat??

Does this person look FAT to you?

What is your first response when looking at the picture?

To me.. that person looks very skinny.
Probably... no, she IS skinnier than me! This makes me soo very mad because over the past week or two EVERYONE has been talking about this person's weight. And I mean everyone! Even the president was asked to comment about her weight and her ex-husband. If this isn't ridiculous, then I don't know what is. As you may have guessed, this is Jessica Simpson. I specifically put a picture of the back of her so you wouldn't know who she was immediately.

So if Jessica is Fat... and by the looks of this picture she is definitely not... then I am an elephant! Why is the media running with this crap? I bet she weighed under a hundred pounds before and is now over a hundred... just like an average woman is... yet she is being called fat. Anyway, that is my rant of the day.... Jessica Simpson may have gained weight, but she is definitely not fat and I would say she is probably more healthy. And the fact that everyone is making a huge deal of this is stupid.

Interviews

In the past 2 days I have had 2 interviews.

2 interviews that were polar opposites of each other.

Yesterday I met with the President and CEO of Grants State Bank. It was an amazing interview. We spent an hour and half, just talking! I left feeling really good. He seemed to really like me, I really think he got a great sense of who I was (in the hour and a half) and he was very impressed with my experiences, my degree...and, well he seemed impressed with me. He said he wished all of his employees had a Public Relations background and a psychology background like me, so they could deal with the public better.
The only issue... they only have a teller position open.
I have heard the many sides of this. I have had many people say, that I would hate being a teller, or to never ever stoop that low to become a teller, or how horrible it would be for me to be a teller or just how much that sucks.
Then, I hear other sides, It is just a stepping stone to a higher position, the bank only outside hires for tellers and then moves people up from there. Economic times are tough, having any job is better than no job....you may not hate it, or you won't know until you try it.
Either way I took an application home to think about it.

Today I met with an insurance company. I met with the owner for 15 minutes. It probably could have been only 5 or 10 minutes, but I drug it out because I didn't think she could really judge my character in that short amount of time. In fact I think I asked more questions than she did. Pretty much she wanted to meet me, but their company has no openings at this time. The economy is too bad and they are too slow to hire someone new.

So 2 interviews later... I felt really good about one and kinda bad about the other. But I have a potential lead. I know a lot of people may not agree with me, but I am going to fill out my application to the bank and see what I get offered... if anything and it will probably be a teller position... that actually doesn't pay half bad....

Right now it is the only full time job lead I've had in 5 weeks. Maybe next week something else will turn up... but as of now it isn't looking good.

Smile of the day

4 out of 3 people have trouble with fractions...

Valentines Weekend

For the past couple weeks we have been trying to figure out what we would do for Valentines weekend. Last year we got engaged during this weekend. We went to Jemez Springs, NM (It is beautiful, I highly recommend it!) where we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast. We went to some natural hot springs, hiked up battleship rock and attempted to fish on the river. It is very pretty there and we always said we would go back or even make it an annual thing.

But, Ryan didn't seem very into this year... and with my lack of salary, I wasn't into it that much either. (Where we stayed last year was fairly pricey). I finally started looking into reservations last week and almost every place is completely booked. Bummer. I was pretty sad because I wanted to do something, rather than nothing to celebrate our weekend.

Then last night, I was talking to Ryan's brother on messenger. I asked him what he and his girlfriend were doing for Valentines day. He told me they were going out to dinner and movie. Why the hell didn't I think of that? lol

So that is the plan. We are going to go to Albuquerque.... which we haven't been to as a couple in a REALLY long time. I am thinking PF Changs... mmmmm.... And maybe a movie and then Coldstone Creamery afterwards. I cannot wait!

Next weekend will be awesome. A nice quiet weekend home alone with a day trip to Alb! Ahhh... perfect. :)

Nervous/Scared

Yesterday I got the closest thing I've gotten to a bite, or a catch on a job. (Fishing terminology) I got a nibble. You would think I would be extremely excited, but instead I was really nervous and scared.

My resume has been circulating for sometime and yesterday I received an email. Someone in the banking business had gotten a hold of my resume and sent me an email, asking me to give them a call, if I was interested in the banking business.

I told Ryan and he was soo excited for me. It looks like Jackie has a possibility for a job, Yay! But I was soo freaked out.

Banking? I hate money and numbers. What will I be doing? I know that finding a PR job in a small town that doesn't know what PR even is, is pretty unlikely. But what if something better came along. I am scared to commit myself to the first job offer I get, in fear that something else better might come along and I am just scared.

But what if nothing else comes along and I waste the opportunity for a job, because I think there are better opportunities out there. :S

The BLM has always been soo easy. I always knew people and always knew, for the most part, what to expect. But now, all of a sudden, I am freaked out about starting something new.

Ryans says I should just do it, and if something better comes along I can quit. That scares me too. I feel like I am soo loyal to companies, I don't know if I can quit after someone has trained me. Ya know? He told me that people will live without me and they are big companies, so they won't care that much.

I don't know why I am struggling with this.

Today I am calling a banker. I have no idea what to expect, but I am trying to be positive. It is a job, something I haven't had in 5 weeks, I guess I should be thankful for that.

Any advice????

Pictures!

Here are some pictures of our weekend with our sisters!

I love them Soo much! And after posting these pictures I've decided that we are rednecks. lol. Shooting and Fishing..... need I say more? Oh and the picture with Katie and My dad holding Katie's Fish.... She was terrified of it because it kept wiggling. lol