I am employed!

Because I do not wish my blog to come up in a coworkers search for the company, I will not be naming the company I am working for but if you know me, then you know where I work, and that's all that matters.

I am a full-time employee at an organization in Salt Lake City.

I get paid salary and commission on margins I can increase on the sales I close.

It is not a sales position but it does involve sales and negotiation.

Part of my interview was role-play as if I was on a call and I didn't give all of the allotted money away (that's a good thing!)

Because of this job, the distance, and the pay, I am able to go car shopping buying this weekend.

I start Tuesday.

Dude.

Goodnight Hugs

I got a job today, but more on that later.

Right now we are going to talk about goodnight hugs.

I'm a hug kind of girl. It's probably because I'm quite a cuddler too.

TMI? Lo siento.

So tonight's hug... well, one of the many... went something like this:

Yo: Time for you to go home (he was fallin' asleep!)

El: Hm... no....

*after "falling asleep", and getting to look at my new dishes (serious.), he finally gives in

stand at the door, hug commences - somewhere during the hug someone starts shimmying. i wont admit to it being me... but it could have been... and if it was, i don't know why.

El: Ooh! (after he continues shimmying - hahaha this sounds better as I type it)

Yo: Knock it off, you're going to have to buy me dinner (a slight hint at what the besties have been trying to get me to bring up for the last week)

El: Why buy dinner, when we can just cook it

...a man after my own heart... 

Music Monday - It's Time

I get to see these guys so so soon.
Sept 2nd.
Provo Town Square.

imagine dragons... it's such a good name, and it needs italics... doesn't it sound like a name that should just be italicized all the time... oooh, imagine dragons.

:)

Iron Chef: Provo

I know that I was going to do a food blog, and someday maybe I will but I realized as I started to put it together that I don't really use recipes for much of my cooking. I use base recipes sometimes but always try something different with them or I just make them up. They aren't ready for a cooking blog, to be shared with the those in the blogosphere. Not yet at least.

What you are ready for is Iron Chef.

Iron Chef was a concept that began in the DC2 ward long before I arrived. It started as a creative way to hold a dinner party each month and grew to have a great following in the ward.

Competitive Cooking? Sign me up.

I competed twice last summer, Iron Chef: Soda and Iron Chef: Saffron. Both were so fun and really had me exploring, looking for interesting recipes I thought others might not think of. I came in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. I'm so proud, if I can be, of that 3rd place because I received 5 votes for Saffron Cantuccini. 2nd place had 6 votes and 1st place had 7. That's some close competition.


I loved the idea and experience so much that I wanted to try and bring it to SVU. Too bad I could barely get friends together for a decent movie night once in awhile. It was not going to work.

When I moved to Provo the idea crossed my mind but it was a fleeting thought until one night when a guy friend asked if I had ever made gnocchi myself. Gnocci is not difficult, but the idea that someone who barely had scratched the surface in learning what kind of foodie I was asked if I had ever made homemade gnocchi, blew my mind. I knew that Provo had a real chance at being able to handle this thing.

So, I started a blog. I picked a date. I created a Facebook group. I invited friends. I talked it up. I picked an ingredient. and I lost. To someone who got their recipe from me a few hours before the dinner, but took the challenge in true Iron Chef fashion. A pineapple banana granita with red chili pepper flakes. What?!

Brilliant.

And it tasted good, if you were wondering.

So next month he will be hosting Iron Chef: {Chocolate} and I couldn't be more excited.


For now, I will not have a cooking blog. I will be trying to win my first Iron Chef though and you can follow our adventures here at our Iron Chef: Provo blog.

Music Monday - Dirt

Sayde Price.
Take a little of Regina Spektor's mood and lyrics, mix with with some Brandi Carlisle folky sounds, and it still doesn't get you to Sayde Price.

But when my friend Dan (yes, he's technically Spencer's cousin but I think I will call him my friend, because hopefully we're at that point by now) asked who she sounded like that is about the answer I gave him.

Sayde is a local artist - have I mentioned yet how much I adore the Provo/Salt Lake music scene? It's fantastic. Sayde did not let us down.

A few Fridays back a few of us went to this little shindig:

We arrived as the opening act, The Mollie's were finishing up and just in time to see CJane. storm the stage. I geeked out thinking oh my, I follow this woman's blog and there she is. It's probably how I would feel if I ever met Taza (though, her sisters go to SVU so that wouldn't be completely out of the blue) or if I saw Sam from Young People in Love (also wouldn't be so far from possible considering we live in the same general area now and I see her blogging about things I've been to) but STILL. It was pretty cool. No one I was with knew who she was, but I did.

We met up with Dan and listened to Sayde and Joshua James - for free.

Good music. Good company. Free.

I love Provo.


For your enjoyment, I give you Sayde Price, Dirt

Music Monday - Something Good Can Work

Four Words -

Two.Door.Cinema.Club.


I discovered them on amazon when their song "What You Know" was on the 69cent list. I bought it,
I listened to it, and then I listened to it again, and again.

The band was formed in 2007, and is composed of Sam, Alex, and Kevin from Northern Ireland. "What You Know" is their most recent single (one you should obtain) but today's Music Monday is featuring a song they first released in 2009 called "Something Good Can Work". I hadn't heard this song until one of the girls in my apartment complex played it during some pizza night we had and now, it's quickly becoming a favorite.



Confession: (most) Everytime I tell people about Two Door Cinema Club I wind up saying "Two Door Cinnamon Club". Truth.

What kind of girl am I?

Growing up people were always classified. You had the jocks, the nerds, the band geeks, the popular crew (which usually consisted of our Field Hockey team and our Boys Soccer team), and the rest of us that didn't fit in.

Thankfully, once you get to college most of that clique stuff is thrown out and you are just you.

Something that happened today though made me really think, What kind of girl am I? Where do I fit in?


Why do I question this?

Because today I got Letters to Juliet in the mail (thanks, Netflix. I'm dumping you in like twenty days) and instead of watching it, I decided to wait until the closing bell (NYSE) to see how our markets panned out today after yesterday's huge drop in points.

And then, after the closing bell, I'm still watching and haven't even felt the need to change it..


What kind of girl am I?

Weekend in Denver

Timeline:

7/17 - Felicia is looking for cheap tickets, anywhere. Since anywhere is a large pool of options I began helping her look for tickets. I found round trip tickets from Provo to Denver and back for a little over $100 each way. We table the idea.
7/18 - We look up tickets again. I check my budget. I decide I am bored, and hop on the idea for a weekend getaway. We check the tickets again and they are still the same price, and we get to upgrade to what Frontier calls "Classic Plus", or their version of 1st Class. We buy our tickets.
7/22 - We leave Provo
7/25 - We leave Denver

If that's not eventful enough our trip also included: having to carry a backpack full of my things through downtown Denver because the lockers at the hostel were smaller than my backpack, having a guard at the Denver Public Library not only tell us how to get to Cherry Creek but what part houses in Denver are haunted and where he lives (truth), spending our first day trying to figure out where we were going to sleep because our hostel was Creepy (yes, capital C, Creepy), getting lunch at Good Time Burger (which is not worth it) because we were so tired and hungry that we eventually just picked something, getting lost on our way back to the hostel in a part of Denver we probably did not want to be in, Felicia needing to go to the bathroom so badly we ran in to the Art Museum and asked (puppy dog eyes included) if we could please use their bathroom, returning to our hostel to criss cross apple sauce and decide where we were sleeping, texting Kenny "Dear Knight in Shining Armor, we have two Damsels in Distress here who are ready to be rescued", leaving the hostel to wait for Kenny at the Arby's across the street only to come across barely dressed prostitutes and their pimps, waiting in Arby's and being asked if we were homeless, leaving Arby's because we were afraid of the pimps/prostitutes/drug deals and walking to a more lit area, walking past girls that were also poorly dressed who looked at us thinking we were homeless, seeing an unmarked cop car lurking near us, Kenny coming to save the day, spending the night at Kenny's place, going to the Temple & Qdoba, taking Kenny's car to the outlet mall and Felicia's aunt and uncles place, deciding we would stay the night at their place, going to church twice - once to see Felicia's cousin Trenton sing in church and then to the singles ward with Kenny, spending Sunday afternoon at her family's place, Felicia overflowing the toilet and then breaking the sink all before she could shower, waking up early the next morning to pack, eating omeletes made with five eggs a piece, walking to the light rail and then luckily getting on the right bus in to Cherry Creek, buying 5 Godiva chocolates for the price of 3, shopping in a mall that is way out of our price range, meeting up with Kenny for lunch at Duffy's Cherry Cricket (SO GOOD) and then Kenny driving us out to the airport, and Spencer and Lindsey picking us up in Provo.


That, was our weekend in Denver.
But I know all you really want to see is photos so here you go :)

"Are we really doing this?!"

Boarding our Frontier Flight

Not a fan of takeoff...

Classic Plus! 5 extra inches of legroom, 2 free checked bags, An entire beverage and free snacks.

Outside the Denver Museum of Art

Rednek Wine Glass - Mason Jar with a stem

Keys to the City

Taking the Recess pledge for a free t-shirt

Gelato!

Our lockers in our hostel. We had one per person.... yeah...

Stanley and Felicia had a less than friendly relationship

Denver Temple!

Frozen Yogurt @ Swirls in Castle Rock, CO

Longest game of apples to apples, ever.

We left Provo to miss Pioneer Days and left church with Pioneer Day Cupcakes

Fixing the sink, post-toilet overflow-edge

After fixing the toilet, and the sink, and finally getting to shower

Breakfast @ The Original Pancake House

Where do we go now?

Man V. Food

Little Cricket w/ Cream Cheese, Grilled Onions, Bacon and Jalepenos

Kenny decided to slide down the railing with a gimp leg. This is after he swung backwards and hung upside down for a minute... we were pretty sure he was going to hit his head

...because we only have one photo together...

And that, my friends, was our weekend in Denver.

Music Monday - Orange Sky

It has almost been a year since I was introduced to Alexi Murdoch.

I'll give my ex-boyfriends one thing, they've got such good taste in music.

Orange Sky from his 2006 LP Time Without Consequence

Well I had a dream
I stood beneath an orange sky
Yes I had a dream
I stood beneath an orange sky
With my brother and my sister standing by

Update on Life - July Recap

July.

The month I moved to Utah.

And what conversation was I having with my Dad last night? Just explaining reasons why even though I do not have a job yet and it makes things difficult and boring, I can't leave. I am here, and there is no changing that.

Yup. I may or may not (or may) have fallen in love with Utah.

Zoinks.



Okay, so here is the haps:

Life: is good. I've gotten to go to a temple every week (3 times in Provo, 2 times in Timpanogos, and 1 time in Denver). Sam has been a little MIA with family in town so she spends most of her time up in Jordan/Draper area. Felicia and I miss her presence but have been getting along fine. We went to Denver last weekend to try and avoid Pioneer Day craziness and still managed to walk out of church on Sunday in Castle Rock, CO with a Pioneer Day cupcake. Serious. I've been filling my days with cleaning, organizing, trying new recipes, going on walks, and hanging out with some really great people that made the decision of whether or not to stay in this ward, pretty easy. Let's hope they decide to not move our boundaries, oh that would stink.

Unemployed Life: is boring. I'm a busy person by nature, I just like to keep busy so a job is one great way to do that and bring in some money. Problem? If I can't walk to the job and it doesn't pay enough to finance a car then... I can't take it. See the dilemma? I'm trying here.

Funny story about my hometeachers: I don't know if either of them will ever find this blog but if they do, I think they would find this funny anyway. J might just find it typical of something he would say. So, our hometeachers are J and S. Yes, that is all you get. They came over yesterday (last day of the month) with cookies as a peace treaty (good job) and we had a good visit. I don't know who enjoyed the recap of our Denver trip more - Felicia and I could not stop laughing and J and S probably thought we were the most ridiculous travelers ever. They would be right. Well, we were talking about this duck pond on BYU's campus. The thing stinks. J says it is because everyone uses it for a date and there are full loaves of bread just chillin in the pond stinking it up.

Without any segway J says "I don't want to come off presumptuous at all but..."

*Insert panic button here.... thought: presumptuous about what?*

J continues - "and I haven't talked to S about this yet...."

*Insert double panic button here.... Felicia and I are thinking, what are they conspiring about?!

and J for the finish "Gina, we could fast for you this next weekend that you'll be able to find a job."


Won't lie, but that is not where Felicia and I saw that going originally. It took me at least a minute to catch back up to him, say thank you and go on. Is that weird or did anyone else see that ending differently?




Other than that.... well, not much is going on. Life is good though. Oh, and eventually I'll post about Denver and pick Music Monday back up. Promise.