Spring in Utah, a.k.a Crazy Weather

So, the picture here was taken TODAY! Yes, that's right folks, April 18 and we have snow in Utah. This weather is really going to take some getting used to. It's nice, really. I love snow. I didn't get nearly enough of it this winter, but this is a little wierd. Especially since by Thursday it should be in the 70s. Oh well, I'll get used to it eventually. There are more pictures available for viewing at my Flickr site.

Sorry I haven't written in so long. I kept meaning to and then not making the time. Things are going well. Work is good, stuff in general is good. I've been out riding the lovely wonderful Felt bicycle I got. It's a lovely road bike that is so easy to ride and smooth. I see why my mother enjoys biking so much. OH, I went to the ballet. I went to see Swan Lake at Ballet West. It was amazing. It was so beautiful. I've never been to the ballet before, so this was quite the experience. I will definately go again. I'm trying to get more into cultural things here in Utah. I keep looking at the schedule at the University of Utah to look for events and on the local public radio station websites and whatever else I can find.

I can't really think of much else to say. I'll try and post more often.

Not much air up here in the clouds...

Today I experienced the shock of having moved high up in the world. I'm not talking about job status, I'm talking about elevation. My friend Dan was right, it's going to take some getting used to to be able to work out up here. At least aerobic exercise is going to take a little warming up. I went rollerblading today and barely made it 3.5 miles, while back in Valley Forge, PA I could do 6 miles no problem. My lungs felt like they were going to explode. They were screaming "we need air and you just aren't giving it to us"! It was frustrating. So, now my plan is to work out in the gym, where I can find a balance between aerobic exercise and weight training and slowly work up the aerobic stuff to longer and longer times. If anyone has any suggestions (beyond Penny's extremely helpful hydrating suggestion) on coping with this change in elevation on an exercise front, they would be greatly appreciated.

Other than that, work was good today. I got the chance to say "Please give me more to do, I'm bored" (although not quite in those words) and they listened and were able to give me more to do. My boss also praised the fact that I work so quickly. I don't know why I get things done fast, I just do. But, it was nice of him to say in front of a group of managers. I'm really enjoying the job so far.

I also dealt with a minor credit fiasco today and had two completely different experiences with the same company. So, back in October I paid off my Best Buy credit card. However, it seems that the payment got processed ONE DAY late because their payment processing system is pathetic. This ended me up with a $29 late fee, which over the past 5 months has turned into $59 and an over 90 days past due blight on my otherwise fabulous credit report. It lowered my credit score significantly and generally ticked me off. So I decided to call Best Buy about it. I explained to the first woman I talked to that I had assumed it was fully paid off and that I had been traveling and hadn't checked the account. She was a witch and that's being kind. She was evil. She was yelling at me that I was an idiot and that one day late is one day late and so on. She told me I could call customer service but they weren't likely to do anything either. So, I called customer service and got this very friendly man with a very thick accent. He politely listened to my explanation, checked the account and came back on the line and said "we will clear the balance on this and then we will make sure that the credit agencies are told that this was our error and the entire blight will be cleared from your credit report". I'm glad it's cleared up, but I wanted to call the first woman back and say "HA, YOU WERE WRONG!". However, I had not gotten her name, so no calling back. Oh well, probably better anyway.

Also at lunch time today I called and put my name on a list for an apartment here in SLC. Not that there's some kind of waiting list or anything to get apartments here, but I just want a very specific apartment (2 bdrm, fireplace, top floor, east facing windows). I also managed to find the one complex in all of SLC that has gas stoves, so they win my business. I'm planning/hoping on moving into an apartment sometime in late May or June. I'm happy with where I'm living, but it would also be nice to have a place to myself.

Oh, and I think I'm going to try for a little cultural overload. There's a lecture tomorrow night at the University of Utah that I'm interested in going to, they also have a film screening later this week that I want to check out. I'm also going to start going to the library more, cause the downtown library is not only gorgeous, but filled with thousands, possibly millions of books. I walked through tonight telling myself "just keep walking, just keep walking". I am a tad OCD when it comes to books. I LOVE books. I love learning and finding interesting books and such. I'm getting a Utah driver's license purely so I can keep my library card. Going to the library will be so much better than spending money on books. Although I read so slowly I'm going to have to renew them online several times to be able to finish. The nice thing about the library though is that it should force me to try and spend more time reading, so that I can finish it and return it.

First week over, so many more to go!!

Well, one week of work and one weekend since being employed over. The first week of work was good. I really think I'm going to enjoy my job a lot. I'm very happy about it.

I'm also very happy about the location of my workplace. It seems to be situation in an incredibly cultural little corner of SLC. I know, so many of you out there are probably thinking "culture in SLC, what's she talking about? there's no culture there, it's totally white bread". HA!! I thought that once too, I thought that the best culture I was going to find out here was the still very white but slightly open minded bicyclist outdoorsy type. WRONG!!! On my way to and from work there are more than three Asian markets, one of which I think is just Vietnamese, a Halal Middle Eastern market, at least two places to eat Pho (vietnamese noodle soup), at least two places to get Boba (or Bubble) Tea (YUMMY!) and probably much more that I haven't even discovered yet. I am currently very happy with the little city that I've decided to call home. I'm finding it easier to find culturally diverse food here than I ever did in Philly. I know, I know, I'm sure there's just as much, if not more, cultural food options in Philly, but at least here I don't have to worry about getting shot in the sections of town I have to go to to get the cultural food variety.

Anyway, sadly I haven't had much opportunity to check much of these places out seriously yet because on my second day of work a coworkers germs started attacking me. The woman that is training me was sick the week before I started and just kept it all week long. She spread it to me of course, because we spent a lot of time on Monday and Tuesday sitting in her office. So, I spent all week fighting the good fight against whatever evil virus she coughed my way. I successfully managed to not actually get very noticably sick, but I sure felt crummy. But, lots of vitamin C, chicken Pho and hot toddies and I'm much better now. However, this also meant that, just so as not to push my luck, I pretty much did nothing this weekend. Saturday I truly did nothing. I slept in late and then watched DVDs all afternoon/evening. Today I got out of the house, all the way to WalMart, where a bunch of crazy Utahns managed to tick me off. Utahns drive very poorly. Really, they are starting to approach Florida bad. It's awful. I heard an explanation that is really amusing. They are all brought up (as Mormons) to be so nice to people all the time that when they are in their cars and no one knows who they are all their pent up anger and frustration comes out. Seriously, they are mean and terrible drivers. But, I can deal with it, people everywhere are terrible drivers.

Since I was sick all week I really didn't do anything, so there's really nothing exciting to report on other than my first week at work. Maybe next week will be more exciting. We'll see.