July

It's sad that I really don't have that much that I feel is post-worthy. Much of my routine is the same, and my weekends are spent catching up on rest, running errands, and doing laundry.

On the plus side, my bed is finally assembled! I'll work on un-packing the rest of my clothes soon and sotring them in the drawers underneath, then my apartment will be mostly complete. I'll be adding a few more decorative items over the next few months, but right now it's functional and there's no longer a giant air mattress occupying most of my floorspace. Photos will come in the next few weeks.

Work is still moving along. I understand most of the basics now, but still have to go back and re-do a few processes because of missed steps. One of the other analysts on my team is rotating out in August being replaced by a new hire, so I'll be taking on some of his duties as well.

Right now I'm just looking forward to the end of this week. Thursday I have lunch to meet my women in finance mentor circle, Friday is team lunch, then leaving early to pick mom up from the airport, trying a new place for dinner, seeing Harry Potter again. Saturday will be the zoo then Keith Urban concert. Awesome weekend.

Another day, another dollar....

I'm finding myself with less to write about than I originally thought. Working life is just more....monotonous than I estimated. Drive. Work. Drive back. 3 hours to eat, shower, run errands, and go to bed. Sleep. Wake up. Repeat. This week was happy because I got paid. Twice. One moving check and my first pay check! Yay! The mood was slightly dampened when I realized I still couldn't fully refund my move, but that check should be on its way soon.

Hanging out with the same 5 people all the time doesn't help much either. Not that I dislike these people, far from it. But I already spend 50+ hours a week with them. Shouldn't one branch out? With that in mind, I went to church today. I met another nice young woman, and before I left she took my phone number so we cold meet up for lunch or dinner some time. It was nice and the church seemed intimate and connected, but I know they're so small I'd miss some of the offerings larger churches can give. I'll return next week but I found a larger church online that I may attend after my vacation. Either way, I'm hoping to get plugged into the right community so my life isn't totally dominated by work and I constantly hang out with people from work.

Michigan/NC differences

Please note: these are generalizations and I've seen exceptions to every one.

NC: McDonald's workers are older and never really seem happy with their jobs.

MI: McDonald's workers are young and cheery (maybe because there's no chick-fil-a here, so the young people work at McDs instead?)

NC: Gentlemen hold doors for ladies.

MI: Gentlemen rush past ladies, go through the door, then maybe extend a foot behind them as an afterthought to keep the door from closing completely in front of lady.

NC: Cars in parking lots stop to let pedestrians cross.

MI: 5 cars go by before a pedestrian has to rush across in the small traffic break.

NC: You can make a left turn.

MI: Has a "Michigan left" which I fail to recognize as a left at all. It's a right turn followed by a u-turn. Call it what it is, people.

A Formidable Opponent

In my first week living alone, I've managed to assemble a chair and table single-handedly. I put up a shower curtain, organized my tiny kitchen, assembled a tower fan, got my wireless router working (with a little help), and even fixed my closet door when it came off track (that one would have been much easier with 2 sets of hands). Imagine my surprise when the object to finally defeat me was my beloved car. The SOS (DMV for you southerners) drained me yesterday when getting m new driver's license and license plate, so I decided to leave it alone until today. Well, I got ready to go out, grabbed my screw driver and new plate, walked up behind my car, went to loosen the screws and....nothing. Gosh dern things won't budge. Now I'm debating going to a dealership, asking the nice moving men to try for me, or taping my new tag in the back window and hoping officers don't have a problem.

One thing I learned today on my way to Ikea: I live within 10 mins of the Detroit zoo! I sense a membership purchase in the near future and photos of zebras in snow around winter time.

I had a rather interesting trip to Ikea today. I parked far away to find my car easily and have a nice stroll in. But before I drove out of the parking lot, I was in and out 3 times. The main purpose of the trip was to use up coupons I earned on my last visit and to pick up a small ironing board and other small items. I walked in, and realized I didn't have my coupons. Back to the car, and after getting a couple things, I realized my total was less than the coupon and I'd need another item to use it. Finish transaction, back to the car, and back into Ikea for one last time.

After all that back and forth, I needed a cold one (Jordan translation: I went to McD's for a $1 large soda). I saw a smoothie sitting there when the employee opened the window and right when I was about to tell him that wasn't my order, he extended it out and asked if I wanted a free strawberry banana smoothie. I have no idea why it was free. Some sort of promotion to get people buying smoothies? They messed up another customer's order and were trying to pawn the remains off on me? Someone ordered then changed their minds? No idea. What I do know is that I was surprised how much I liked a McD's strawberry banana smoothie. I'm sure being free helped a lot, but I don't care for fruit much at all, and especially don't like bananas in smoothies because they typically overpower the other fruit. This was a perfect balance of strawberry and banana. I got home and looked up the nutrition info, thinking it would be some horribly bad-for-you food. 210 calories and .5 grams of fat. Not bad. There was a significant amount of sugar, but it must have been natural because the ingredients listed are only strawberry banana fruit blend (anyone know how artificial this can be? why doesn't it just say strawberries and bananas?), yogurt, and ice. End of a good day.

First Week Recap

I have significantly less time on my hands than I thought I would. I guess I didn't expect a 9-10 hour workday + a nearly one hour commute each way. As such, I ma dumb-down most of my posts to lists. After one week in Michigan and on the job, I have the following thoughts.

What I like about my job so far:

- the team I work with is awesome and fosters bonding with team lunches, happy hours, and outings to baseball games during working hours.
- people have actually heard of the company and don't ask "oh, what do they do?" when I tell them where I work.

- management is actually committed to making sure employees get the most out of their jobs and learn as much as possible within a 5 year period.

- I won't be "the new person" for more than a few months.

- Spur-of-the-moment 'field trips" to watch our products get destroyed in testing.

What I dislike about my job:

- the 45 min + commute.

- when someone says they're not a morning person, so they come in later than the rest of the team, they mean they arrive at 8:30 a.m.

- 6 months is the norm to fully learn a position. I'm just used to jumping in and going.

- Acronyms.

Also, as per my training in online etiquette at orientation, I give the following disclaimer: if you're reading this, you should know me, and therefore know which company I work for. I'm omitting the name of my company on purpose. Please do not include my company name or position in any comments or replies on this blog.

I'm HERE!

...but that doesn't mean all my stuff is.

I arrived to Michigan and got the keys for my apartment Saturday. Mom and I made a trip to Ikea to buy some furniture for next-day delivery. Luckily, not much furniture was needed, as I'll be living in a 260 sq. ft. studio for at least the first year. No, that's not a typo. 260 sq ft. I like to compare my apartment to living in a dorm room, except I have a private kitchen(ette) and bathroom. The walls are mostly stark white, and although management said I can paint, I didn't have the energy or time to come up with a color-scheme. Once my furniture is in place, I doubt I'll want to move it to paint, but we'll see.

The Ikea furniture arrived Sunday ahead of the scheduled time frame, which gave me time to assemble a couple pieces before making a Target and Trader Joe's run for the basics. The chair I bought was easy enough (I just had to screw the legs on the bottom), but the table was a pain and so I left the bed for another day, knowing I'd call the furniture assemblers Ikea gave me the number for. We'll see how that goes.