I drove up to Williams today for work...had to drop of a proposal. I volunteered to do this and everyone thinks I'm crazy for doing that much driving in one day. But look at it from my perspective...I got almost an entire day off work paid (but not taking away from my allotted PTO), I got to enjoy a leisurely drive up north and enjoy the cool(er) weather for a little while, and I get reimbursed for gas. Basically I got paid to get out of Phoenix for a day. Nice huh?

I get to Williams at about 10:45...walk up to the Library/City Hall (haha) to drop off this proposal and there is a sign on the door that reads "Tuesday, September 30th, is City of Williams employee appreciation day! Library/City Hall will be closed from 10am-1pm today".

Crap...what do I do for more than 2 hours in Williams. Granted it is a cute little town, but it's about 5 blocks long and the biggest attraction there is the Grand Canyon Railway. So I drove back to Flag (only a 20 min or so drive) and visited my old school. I haven't been back to NAU since I transferred in 2006, and so much has changed. It seemed as thought half the campus was under construction while I was there, and it seems as though it is all finished. Even though the school itself wasn't for me, the campus is gorgeous. A great mix of old architecture and new, modern buildings. And lots of trees. And it's surrounded by cemeteries on 3 sides...doesn't get much better than that! Plus it was not even 70 degrees when I was there, which is lovely.

Sad to say I didn't have my camera, otherwise I would've taken some pictures.

Get lunch, drive back to Williams, where I am informed at City Hall that there is no City Clerk's "Office", just a lady behind a counter who is the "clerk". Love small towns. Amy-there are some great vintage signs there for your project too. Once again...no camera. Dang.

Left for Phoenix around 115p. Get back to work about 345 and decide that I should've just gone home. I was going to just leave, then I started talking to my marketing manager about some upcoming projects, and I ended up staying until 545 (45 minutes past when I normally work).

Now I'm home and tired. Going to read. Maybe watch the not-so-great new version of 90210. Good stuff.

I will leave you with a line from a song that reminds me of someone I know...

"The broken locks were a warning, you got inside my head; I tried my best to be guarded, I was an open book instead"

The Toose 2008

Went to Tucson this past weekend for my friends' birthdays...

DV Girls Reunion

Me and the birthday boys (Brant with glasses, Jon without)
I am lucky enough to be this AMAZING couple's Maid of Honor in their wedding next June :)
the host and hostess, Brant and Heather

So happy I got to be there for Jon and Brant's surprise party, and I got to see so many of my friends from high school. Hopefully I'll get to go once more before the semester is over....

I want to go to Forks, WA for my birthday. Anyone want to come? And possibly pay? :)

"Did you know that 'I told you so' has a brother, Jacob? His name is 'Shut the Hell up'"

haha good stuff. From Eclipse...can't find the page number though. One of these days I'll move on from the Twilight series, but for now I'm happy immersing my self in the world of a seventeen year old girl and her sparkly vampire boyfriend. Lovely.

In case I haven't mentioned it, I love my job. This is my last week at the front desk (I think..last I heard...this changes regularly though due to the previous receptionist's flakiness) then I'll be in my lovely cubicle. I'll take pics. I'm like...an adult. When did that happen?

Random

"Even more I had never meant to love him. One thing I truly knew--knew it in the pit of my stomach, in the center of my bones, knew it from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, knew it deep in my empty chest--was how love gave someone the power to break you. I'd been broken beyond repair." New Moon by Stephenie Meyer pg 219

And a link

Twilight Trailer

you know what i love?

when it's raining and sunny all at the same time. I took a picture of what it looked like when that happened today, but it's on my phone...i don't know how to get pictures off of it.

I think i'm going to start posting random things. Kevin does it alot. Videos, quotes from books, etc. I love it when i come across things like this, but have nothing to do with them. So i guess they'll go here.

nothing today though...on my way out to dinner with one of my best friends. :)

Peace Out.

I keep getting yelled at for not posting...I just never feel like writing much after I get home from work. Plus, my life is boring right now...not really anything exciting to write about and I don't want to bore everyone to tears.

I still love my job, I can't wait until they find someone to fill the front desk position so I can start doing marketing full time. Doing both is getting to be overwhelming, and I feel like I'm neglecting some of the everyday office stuff. But soon enough we will start interviewing and someone else gets to do all that!

I'm still moving out...next month I think. Going to go look at apartments next weekend...

And that's it. That's life. See why I never write?

Here's some funny pictures to fill the nothingness that are my postings....

Excuse me while I brag...

...which I don't normally do.

BUT I had lunch with the president of RPA yesterday and he offered me a permanent position with the company. I don't know what my "title" is yet...since the position is kind of being created for me. Something along the lines of "marketing specialist" or "marketing coordinator" or "queen of the world" (jk...).

Anyways, I'm jazzed. Stoked. Tickled. All those great things. RPA really is such a fantastic company. Someday I'll devote a whole blog to how much I admire my boss...I know I sound like a suck-up, but he really is an amazing person.

So that's my life...new job, moving out in 6-ish weeks, trying out a new relationship...all good things. I'm a pretty lucky girl :)

Would you like me to sing to you? I'll sing all night if it will keep the bad dreams away

Here's some pics from the midnight release party I went to Friday night for Stephenie Meyer's newest (and last...) book in the Twilight series, "Breaking Dawn". It was really good. Unfortunately probably my least favorite of the four because she changed the way she wrote in the last book, but still an excellent book and well worth staying up all night Friday and most of the day Saturday to read all 750 pages. Danielle and her sister Ashley stayed at my house Friday night and all day Saturday so we could read it together. It was technically a sleepover, although it involved almost no sleep and we were all either in seperate rooms or sitting on the couch reading in silence. Great fun :)

Dinner at TGIF before the party

Our "Edward" fake tattoos

Doing some Twilight trivia

Funny bathroom mirror pics

My bite marks

I love these books!

With about 5 minutes to go until midnight....so excited!

Waiting in line...

The next day around lunchtime...took a break to eat and take a pic!

Oh and check out my pretty new profile pic! it's look weird when it's small, but I actually really like the picture. I took it while I was messing around with my webcam on my laptop, then fiddled with it using the Picasa software that you can download from Google. Scha-weet.

So apparently I'm not gonna have as much time to post as I thought...

I already started my "training" under the market manager on, oh...my third day here. I got to go to a marketing meeting last week and actually got assigned some projects to work on before the next meeting (which is tomorrow). Being the incredibly hard worker I am (haha) I finished them all this morning, and am taking a break before I start back up on this ongoing (but no due date) project I'm working on with the marketing manager. So basically I am being kept busy between the marketing stuff, plus all the "normal" receptionist stuff I have to do as well. I still love it and everyone here is great. Not one person I even remotely don't like. yay!

Some other ramblings....

Countdown to move out date (sorry, mom, nothing personal. I'm just excited): I have no idea. Hopefully by October 1st? There's these great apartments I found that are fairly cheap and living there would take about 10-15 minutes off of my drive time to work. Nice! They're right next to the Pointe Hilton at 7th st and Peoria-ish.

I am NOT a morning person! I don't like getting up at 6am. I am usually so tired that I pass out by 10pm. I think if I keep working here I am going to change my hours to 8:30-5:30, instead of 8-5. Give me another 30min of sleep in the mornings. I'm very rarely tired at work, it's just getting out of bed that early that's hard.

Stephenie Meyer's new book, Breaking Dawn, comes out in 9 days. I'm going to the midnight release party with Danielle and her sister, Ashley, who are just as obsessed with these books as I am. Cannot wait! It's going to be a blast...I will definitely take pictures.

Still haven't seen The Dark Knight :(

My sister and I are having a yard sale this weekend for my dad at his house (43rd ave and paradise ln), so everyone should stop by and buy our crap haha. There's actually alot of books, and some kitchen stuff...and possibly even some furniture if my dad decides what he's selling. So come by on Saturday, between 7:30 and 12:30. Tons o' fun! I love yard sales!

Um...I know, no Europe pics. In my defense, there are more than 200 on both my Myspace and my Facebook. It's a pain to upload pics and I've gotten to the point that I don't like to be on the computer much at home now that I'm on it all day here. Soon enough. Aunt Nancy, we really should just have a family get together sometime soon and I 'll bring my disc of pics to show you...they're much more entertaining with my narrations :)

I wish I had enough money to by a house :( so many people I know are getting houses built and it's makes me jealous. It also makes me feel like a loser because I'm 21 and still at home, but such is life. Maybe I'll be able to afford a house in a couple of years... on the beach... in San Diego.

Nothing else....gotta get back to work. FYI- I am working on creating a list of EVERY SINGLE math and science teacher in the Phoenix Metro area. If for some reason you need the name/number of ANY math or science teacher in the Phoenix Metro area, hit me up. Not just high school either...6th-12th grade. Phew. That's why I'm writing this instead of doing that...it's quite tedious. Thank God for the world wide web :)

So I started my new job yesterday...it's pretty fantastic. I don't do a whole lot (obviously...I'm at work right now...), but I like it.

I actually I don't think I ever even posted about getting a job, did I?! I'm working as the receptionist for Ritoch-Powell & Associates, which is the civil engineering firm my brother-in-law Steve is a partner in. It's a good job for now...I'm actually just filling in for the regular receptionist while she is on maternity leave for 3 months. Full time, 8-5 Mon-Thurs and 8-12 on Fridays. Nice!

I kind of just fell into this job. I hadn't found one since I got back from Europe and Steve mentioned RPA needed someone to fill in. I know the president of the company and some of the other partners through Steve, so they basically just gave me the job. But here's the really cool thing...Karl, the president of RPA, sat me down on my first day and told me that he thinks I have a real future with the company and he wants to have their marketing manager train me to take on alot of the work she does now. SO...when my 3 months here at the front desk is up, he wants to move me into a salaried position under the marketing manager. Sweet, huh? He even told me he would work around my school schedule when I go back to grad school in January.

I'm excited...the job as it is right now is kind of boring, just alot of answering phones and mailing things, etc. But the people who work here (all 30 men and 5 women!!!) are so nice and funny. The guys tease and give eachother (and me) a hard time, but it's really a great group of people to work with.

Be expecting me to post more often since, like I said, there isn't alot to do until the marketing manager starts training me some more. Enjoy the randomness that will be my future postings :)

I can't help feeling like everyone around me is moving forward with their lives, and I'm just stuck in the same place. When did that happen?

I know, I'm slacking. No pictures yet. They're all uploaded, but it's so time consuming to go through all 1200+ pictures to find a few worthy ones from each city. Plus, I'm still waiting to get pictures from my friend/roomate who took pictures on the couple of days my camera battery died (and I was not smart enough to have bought a second battery...)

In other news, no job yet. Apparently I suck. Sure, I have a brand-spankin new degree under my belt, but no real world experience to supplement it. Dang me for never doing an internship.

Almost ready to send in my application to grad school

I read the "Twilight" series by Stephanie Meyer in 3 days. For those of you who know, this series is being compared to the quality and poularity of Harry Potter (which I have not read and therfore cannot compare). Right now it's only 3 books, all over 500/600 pages. That's the perk of not having a job, I get to sit around and read all day. The fourth book will be out in August, but I'm sure I'll re-read the first 3 before it comes out. SO good.

There's an artist I was introduced to by Danielle who I am now obsessed with named Chester See. Go listen to him on Youtube (his myspace is hard to find for some reason). Best song by far is "God damn you're beautiful", but there are many other good ones as well. He's unsigned, no songs on Itunes unfortunately. Soon hopefully.

I had a...weird night tonight. Hard to explain and I don't really want to. I get to go camping this weekend, so it'll be nice to get out of the city and clear my head a little bit. Apparently I need a vacation from my vacation.

Pictures up soon. Promise. By next week, if not sooner.

I'm home and in (almost) one piece. Took about 1200 pictures so i will have to pick a few to put on here.

So tired and still jetlagged. Need to unpack, do laundry, and look for a job. Bah. I waana go back!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

To my wonderful mother....

I love sitting around doing nothing all day. Fab-u-lous.

Two weeks from today I will have graduated from college. Ah!

Back to laying in bed...the first day I have had completely free in months and months and I am living it up. Gonna go see Ironman tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to Lake Pleasant to for the first camping trip of summer. Next week is gonna be full of packing and getting ready for Europe, one paper and a few hours of work.

I need a job when I get back...keep your ears and eyes open for something...I will work just about anywhere!

It's 2:30am

and I can't sleep. Why? Well...probably because I am so sleep deprived that I have had about 25 cans of soda today just to stay awake and they all hit me at about midnight. There may be something more useful I could be doing, but really...it's 2:30am and I don't feel like it. So I figured I'd post a lil and bore you all with the thoughts and goings on of my life

I graduate in oh....10 days. Funny thing is that I wasn't really even excited about it until this week. People have been asking me all semester if I'm excited to graduate, and honestly I wasn't. I had too much going on, full class load, work, friends, etc etc to really even think about it. But I had my last class tonight and now all I have left is one final and one paper and I'm done. And now...I am ecstatic. I just can't believe it's almost here...I almost have my college degree. It's amazing feeling. I really am proud of myself, which is something I never say even if I think it. I'm just very thankful that I had the opportunity to even go to college. I'm really very lucky.

Next comes Europe. Leavin May 12th will be gone until June 4th. I met some of the people I will be going with last week and it is a really great group of people. I was nervous because it would have been terrible to not know anyone and get stuck with a boring group, but everyone I met is a lot of fun. I'll be taking TONS of pictures, but I probably won't be able to post em until I get back. I'm not bringing my laptop so I don't know what my interent access will be like because I'll have to find internet cafes. There's so much to do to get ready to leave though. Besides the obvious packing stuff, I have to figure out currency exchanging, call the bank to let them know i will be using my cards overseas, make copies of my important info, order a new drivers licsense, buy some things i need to pack, make sure i get my bills for the month paid before I leave, etc. Ay it's alot. But it'll be worth it. And since all i have to do is work a few hours next week I should have plenty of time to do it (hint hint: if anyone wants to get me a graduation present, a lil monetary donation to my Europe trip would be greatly appreciated...spread the word...)

I need a job still. I've had some interviews, but I'm either too qualified and the people think I will get bored and quit, or I'm not quite qualified enough. It's ok though, I will start seriously job hunting when I get back. I may end up working at one or two or three part time jobs until I find something more permanant. The problem is that since I'm planning on going back to grad school in January, I don't know if it's worth it to find a "permanent" job because I will either have to quit or only work part time come January.

I need to get my grad school stuff in order too. Letters of Rec, personal statement, etc. Hopefully I will have it all done and turned in by the end of June. eek.

I still need someone to sublet my apartment in Tucson...keep your ears open for anyone looking for a place down there. It's a really great apartment I promise!

I guess that's really all that's new. This semester truly has just been a whirlwind. I feel like I just started the semester and now it's already over.

But really that's how this whole year has been. This time last year I had just broken up with Davis, my parents were just about to split up, I was moving, starting a new summer job...my life basically was turned upside down. Ending what I thought was going to be a lifelong relationship was just about the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but honestly I have not regretted it once. I didn't realize how far away from my true self I had gotten in the time we were together. I am not saying that is anyone's fault, but I had gotten to the point that I really did not like myself because I had been sacrificing so much of myself for his happiness for so long. I feel like where I am today, I really am the person I used to be, only better. Well, hopefully better. I have gotten so much of my independent personality back and that was something I always liked about myself. I have allowed myself to open up to so many new people and new experiences in the past year, and I never would have had those opportunities if I hadn't left.

Also, I feel like I have had more honest to goodness FUN in the past year than I had had in so long. I have renewed alot of my old friendships, and strengthened ones that I had kept all along. I've taken chances and opened up and just really enjoyed life. I'm looking forward to continuing to do that. Spontaneity definitely creates some of the best memories.

I guess that's really all. Apparently I get very contemplative at 2:30am...haha. But I'm tired now so hopefully I will fall asleep soon. I hope to see you all at my graduation party next week!

Oh and ps...I've also been dating a really great guy for just about three months now...maybe ya'll will get to meet him soon :)

This is what my grandpa said to my grandma today after we told him that she will most likely not get any better. She's been very agitated and restless...basically won't let anyone touch her. My grandpa kept trying to hold her hand, and she continued to pull away. After she did this a few times he said

"Don't let go of my hand...I might get lost..."

And the next time she held onto his hand for just a little bit longer than usual.

heartbreaking and beautiful all at the same time. after 52 years of marriage they still love eachother like newlyweds...i hope i'm lucky enough to find that one day. i hope we all are...

Just an FYI...

I graduate in 6 weeks. SIX WEEKS! which also means I will be on my way to Europe in 6 weeks and 3 days. awesome.

Of course, I will also be even more incomunicado for the next 6 weeks. What I have going on...

• Surviving taking 18 credit hours. ouch. no fun.
• Sending out graduation announcements and planning a graduation party.
• Prepare for Europe...this means figuring out what I need to bring, learning some key words in 5 different languages, actually packing, etc, etc...
• Work and try not to go completely broke before I graduate
• Not turn into a hermit and try to actually enjoy this last semester
• Apply for jobs. Oh the real world is a joy already.
• Help my family out...for those who don't know, my grandma stratton is very very sick and probably will not live much longer. We've heard this before, but this time it's really happening. So I've been spending quite a bit of time at the hospital lately.

The end. See you all in 6 weeks, because you better come to my party!