Returning

It's always so hard picking something back up after leaving it alone for so long. I don't know how or where to start again. Time keeps slipping by...everyday I mean to write and never do...everyday I mean to get back in touch with old friends and never do.

Well, I want to be better. I want to finally do all the things I've just been meaning to do. Tonight is the night. I have the evening to myself and nothing to stop me but my own procrastination...I've been slowly forcing myself to sit down and log in to this blog for the past three hours.

So much has been happening in my life. It's been a very busy summer and I'm sooo ready for the fall...cooler weather, sweaters and layering, cozy living rooms, life slowing down and becoming more routine. Stephen and I are starting to get into a routine now that we have places to be and things to do.

I was offered a job through a temp agency in June and have been working at this job ever since. The opportunity came right in time...I had been getting really worried about my inablity to get a job and we weren't going to be able to pay our bills after that month. This temp agency found my resume online and wanted to interview me that day. The job they were trying to fill needed me to start the next day, so I immediately had a busy busy life. I work for a company that sets up promotions with big retailers/companies. We provide movie tickets, rewards cards, etc. to these companies (like Disney, Kmart, Expedia and such) for them to have promotions for their consumers/the public. Its a little confusing, but basically we are the middle man for all sorts of free offers and promotions that retailers offer. I work in Customer Service, answering calls and emails from consumers who are having problems with their rewards (we mostly do free movie tickets) or who have questions. It's not my favorite thing in the world, but it's a good job and I feel good inside every time I'm able to help someone. I get a wonderful sense of accomplishment when I finish a bunch of emails, and I'm constantly motivated to be better and faster at getting through all my work.

The only downfall to the job is that the office is up at Incline Village (Lake Tahoe), so I have to drive up and down the mountain everyday. That adds two extra hours to my work day, so I feel like I don't have much time for anything else. Instead of an 8-hour work day, I have a 10 1/2 hour work day (with the half hour of lunch I have to stay there for). At least I get to work somewhere beautiful, though, and have gorgeous views on my commute! Plus having to drive on the Mt Rose Hwy each day has really made me braver and a better driver. I was so terrified the first few times I drove, but now I feel confident and comfortable with all the twists and turns and cliffs. We'll see how I do when it's all snowy this winter.

It was supposed to be a temporary job that would end at the end of June, but we kept staying too busy to let me go. Now the employers at my office have offered me a permanent position. I just accepted it this week and can't wait to get the offer letter and finalize everything. This will be a salaried position with full benefits and everything. It's everything that I was hoping to get out of a full-time job and the salary is way more than I was expecting to get. It will be much more than we need to pay for everything, so we'll be able to save and pay off student loans and live a little more comfortably. I might have to change the title of my blog, since I don't really feel like we'll be just "getting by" anymore! I feel like we have been so blessed; everything just keeps working out for Stephen and me!

Stephen started classes last week. He ended up not taking any summer classes because we just didn't have enough money to pay for summer tuition when it was due; it came too soon. He's changed his major around a few times, but he's pretty excited now about his classes and current plan (a major Anthropology and a minor in Basque Studies). He has lots of reading (he's taking a full load of classes, plus a few extra independent study classes) but he's doing really well at keeping up with everything. I'm so proud of how hard he works! He also got a job at the new UNR library and he seems to be enjoying that. They are working him quite a few hours, though, so we may have to see if that can be cut back (if things get to busy and stressful).

We're both definitaly a lot busier now than we were the last time I updated on here. I wish we had more free time to just hang out and be together, but I think we'll survive. It's funny to remember how bored I was before (when we had no jobs or obligations), and now I just wish I could have that laziness back. I guess it just shows that we need to appreciate and enjoy the circumstances that we're in and try to make the most out of the present while it's there.