Out and About

Nick and I have been keeping busy the past week or so. First and foremost, we bought a new couch/sectional from Target. Each piece is the size of a chair, and you can arrange them any way you please. Currently, we have two end chairs put together, which is about the size of a love seat. We also have two ottomans, one for each chair. The greatest thing about these chairs and ottomans is that there is storage under the seat cushion!! This helps us keep our house clean.

I have about 4.5 weeks left of school, so I have been trying to work on my finals a little bit each night. The last week of school, so much is happening: Harry Potter comes out to theaters (you know I'll be at the midnight showing), we might be going to Reggae on the River up north, etc. I hope I can get my finals done early so I can have 3 weeks to relax before I start my BA degree.

Nick and I attended BFD last Saturday. BFD is a music festival put on by a local radio station. The headliners this year were 311 and the Offspring.. neither of which we saw. What a realization that I'm not young anymore. 80% of the people there were under age. After being at the concert (in the sun) for 8 hours, we were all tired and decided to go home around 9. The headliners didn't even start performing until 9. It was a fun day, though. I took a cute pic of us (see above).

Nick and I are still going to the gym quite frequently. I go almost every day at lunch, and then Nick meets me a few times a week after work to work out with me. I hope SOMEDAY it will start looking like I actually work out!

Stay tuned for more fun stuff in the life of Nick and Emily!

Count your blessings

The past few days have been pretty stressful at work for both Nick and I. For me, it has been all the new interns and hires that I have had to do paperwork with, running background checks on, as well as starting them all on Monday. With Nick, there just seems to be a lot of things in all the buildings that need repairs and tenants are demanding and need things done RIGHT NOW! Usually when I'm overstressed, every little thing seems to make me grumble. My awesome boss pulled me aside yesterday to have a "talk" with me. Instead of telling me to take a chill pill and get over it, he sat me down and "made" me mention at least 5 things I was thankful for. I know I have many things I'm thankful for, but I definitely take them for granted. What were my 5 things?

1. I am thankful that I have a boyfriend who makes me happy every day.
2. I am thankful I have a job that I (almost always) enjoy working at.
3. I have a family who I love to talk to and love very much.
4. I have my health and a strong body.
5. I live in a home and I am able to pay all the bills and not have to worry about debt (other than school loans).

There are many more things I am thankful for, but it is all too easy to forget the good things in my life when things are stressful. I must remember to always count my blessings and hope that others can do the same and count their blessings.

Running

I can not tell you how ecstatic I am that I got my new shoes! When I received the email from the shipping dock at 11 AM today, I felt that I could not wait to pick them up during the designated pick up time (1:30-3:30). I used my "magic" (aka the person who used to be on our Aerotek payroll) to give me the shoes early. These shoes are heavenly. I have Rachel to thank for getting me interested in these shoes. I can't wait to try them out in both the gym and on our mountain roads.

Monthly Update

Once again, I have been lagging on writing a post. SORRY! Let's see if I can remember all that has happened in the last month. Hmm....

Nick and I were able to house sit at our favorite house in Menlo Park last weekend. I may have posted about it before, but we house sit every so often for a friend of Nick's mom. She lives in a gorgeous house.. just her and her cat. The cat is 18 years old and needs medicine to have an appetite. It feels like a vacation being able to stay down the hill. It was fun waking up on Saturday morning, put on our flip flops, and walk to the cafe and get a breakfast sandwich. We house sat Thursday-Sunday.

Mother's day- I attended church with my mom and enjoyed spending time with her. It made me happy to see how happy she was that I went to church with her. Perhaps I'll surprise her again soon..... ;)

I started reading the Harry Potter series again, starting from book one. I am looking forward to the 6th movie coming out in July!! I have read the Harry Potter series 5 times from book one to 7 (well, the 7th book I only read 3 times...) I enjoy getting lost in the world of Hogwarts and magic. I gained my love of books from my mom. Thanks mom!!

Nick has been busy building things. He built a wall on our back porch and painted it black. The idea is for us to get his digital projector and watch movies in the summertime outside. This summer should be really fun.

School: Ah school... Today, it took me 10 hours to write my economics final!!!! I am happy I am done with that class! I realize I always like one class and dislike the other. I did like my marketing class and turned in my final early. For my last block of classes for my AA degree, I am taking nutrition and International Business. I am so excited to graduate on July 19 (in 9 weeks) that I have already done the first 5 weeks of assignments for nutrition!! Granted that they were incredibly easy (i.e. write a 200 word essay about the difference between soluble fiber and insoluble fiber), but I still did them all in one day!

Vacations: We were planning on going to Vegas with my friends, but for financial reasons, we had to cancel. Since the plane tickets are non-refundable but rather transferable, we decided we most likely will go somewhere after I finish my AA degree (so probably the weekend of July 23-26). We were thinking LA, Sunriver, Colorado, etc. So many options. It will be fun to go on another trip. Not sure anything can follow up the Bahamas or Napa!

Gym: Nick and I got our gym memberships this last month. I have been going every day except Sunday (and some Saturdays). Nick has to take the train to meet up with me, so he only works out with me 3-4 days a week. It is great to work out and relieve stress, yet I have seen no change. I have been eating more vegetables, cut down on my carbs, stopped going out and eating fried food, and drinking more water..... yet, no change. :( It is quite frustrating. Working out on the machines has resulted in numb toes and sore ankles, which I figured out is due to my 5 year old Nike's. After much convincing from Rachel on how great the Asics Kayano's are, I went and tried a pair on. OMG!! These are amazing shoes. No wonder they are $145!! I was smart and went home to find a cheaper pair. I was able to find a pair for $109. Still REALLY expensive, but worth it. I should receive them by Friday!

Other than that, Nick and I are happily spending time together and enjoying life! :)

2 years with Aerotek

Today marks my 2 year anniversary with Aerotek. I am not only happy to have a job in this economy, I am happy to have a job I love working at! I love the company and what it stands for, but I also love working onsite at Gilead Sciences. I love waking up every morning and coming to Foster City to work. I admit, there are some moments throughout the day where I get overly stressed and think "I wish I had a billion dollars so I would be able to work part time" but that only happens rarely. I have gotten kind emails today with people telling me that they are happy I work here and that I do a fantastic job. :) Today looks like it's going to be a good day!

Facebook

Originally, I was a MySpace girl. I became addicted to it when I was going to move back to California when I was almost 21. This was a great way for me to get to know what I had missed out on in my friend's lives in the past 2 years that I lived in Utah. As time went on, I realized that there were many other people that I did not know that would friend request me. Many of these people didn't even live in the area! I am all for making new friends, but I found it kind of creepy that they would want to know about my life when I would probably never meet them! About 2 years ago, I was introduced to the world of facebook. Facebook is better than MySpace because if random people friend request you, they can't view your profile without your permission. Also, there is fun little pictures you can put on people's page (send them a little green plant), know about events that are going on, and most importantly: get in contact with people that you have not encountered in a LONG time! My main example is my experience this week with facebook. I received an email through facebook from someone I thought I didn't know. When she asked if I was "Lonnie's daughter", I thought to myself "wow, the only people who call my dad Lonnie are my cousins". So then I added her. Within 5 hours, I now have my 5 cousins plus one of my aunts as my friend on facebook. It has been at least 10 years since I last talked to any of my cousin's on my dad's side. I hope that now we can all keep in contact. As much as I like Facebook, though, I am making it a goal to never join TWITTER!!!

CLEP exam

Ah Math. I enjoy numbers, but when you start adding Statistics, Geometry, and Algebra, prepare to get the eyes-glossed-over look from me. I understand a lot of it, but I lose interest very quickly. I failed Geometry 3 times (with a D) simply because I lost interest about halfway through. So when it came time to set the remainder of my AA degree schedule, I was told I would have to take two 9-week blocks of college Algebra, back to back (3 credits each). My fantastic academic advisor told me the alternative to 18 weeks of hair pulling and frustration is to take something called the "CLEP". This test stands for "College Learning Enhanced Placement". Taking the college mathametics version of the CLEP means that if I pass it, I would get 6 math credits. I was told that it was either a pass or a fail, and my grade would not be affected by the score. Me being the lazy person I am, I didn't even study until the night before..... 5:30 PM-1 AM was spent studying for the CLEP with some practice tests.

Nick and I woke up at 7 on Saturday morning (3/7) to drive to San Jose so I could take the computer exam at 8:30 AM. I got there 15 minutes early, so I was able to attempt to study. The test was done on a computer. It was 90% multiple choice and the rest were fill in the answer. On a lot of the questions, I actually shrugged my shoulders before choosing the answer (the instructor even called me out on it after the exam was done). After I finished, the teacher took me out of the room with the test results. He told me that in order to pass the test, I had to get over 50 points. (There were 60 questions). My score was (deep intake of breath here).....51!! This was the first time in my college career that I was actually thrilled I got a barely passing grade!! Since I passed the test, this means that I will graduate on July 19 with my AA instead of September 20! I am very excited! I wish I could say that I'm going to be totally finished with school, but I am going to continue on to get my BA.