LA Vaca

Hey Girls! Summer break has been wonderful so far. The only snag is that I can't find a job to make some extra cash : / I have lots of weekend vacations this summer, which I'm very excited about. We went to a wedding in Michigan for Mike's college friends and it was great because there was an open bar haha. Last week I was in LA with Sarah : ) It was wonderful and we had a blast! We went to Santa Monica, did some shopping, did the touristy stuff in Hollywood, went to a stylish night club, and saw an old movie and picniced in the Hollywood cemetery. In my usual drunk stupidity I broke my camera again. It works but doesn't has a lens cap thingy...oh well, i just look ghetto. Mike and I are going to DSM July 4th weekend for a car show but it's so strange not to have anyone there anymore!
Meg, how's the job and east coast life?
Amy, how's your job and the new roomie? Btw, you look gorgeous at your friend's wedding!
And I know all about the rest of you haha.
Love you all!

Good morning everyone! Hope you all had a great holiday weekend! Mine was busy busy busy! I was in a wedding in New Ulm on Sat, and then Sunday I finally got to move into my new apartment! It is so wonderful to be closer to the city and closer to work! I'm pretty much settled except for a few random trips to Target and IKEA. Why is it when you move, you all of a sudden need new stuff?

Otherwise not much new with me, still working hard for the money. This weekend I have a pub crawl with a young professionals group I joined. The money all goes to cancer research, which will help out when I eventually get liver cancer from all the drinking.

Hope all is well with everyone else! Miss you all!

Star Student Award

This story actually begins yesterday… it was a cold rainy night… the wind was howling and a full moon looked over the haunted graveyard…. our heroine begins her new journey…

Ok, a little dramatic, I know.

Flash forward to this morning. Announcement at the weekly staff meeting – the Star Student Award goes to….. (drum roll please)….. Meghan Moorlach! (clapping and cheering ensue…)

I actually got the Star Student Award for this week! This is the award that goes to a person (or a team) for their accomplishments for the preceding week. I was the recipient since I got a promotion! Yes, a promotion! With a pay raise! You are now looking at the new Call Time Manager for the Lamont for Governor campaign. This means I will now be dealing with all of the call time for our candidate – both political and financial. I’m very excited for this new responsibility. My first call time was today and it went splendidly =)

Also a little more news…. I sold my car today! Good little Sabrina – that I know how many of you heard me agonize over buying. The thing is, a lot of stuff was going wrong with her and it just wasn’t worth it to put the money in to fix her. Will keep you posted on the developing car story…. =)

Miss you all - I'm so jealous of you Sarah! And you Bridge for going to visit! lol

Party Times!

God it has been forever since I posted. Although I have been reading them all I haven't felt like I have had much to say. I do now though. I'll star with boring things first. I'm still working crazy hour, with very little social life, but it is becoming more of a norm now. I try not to think about it or expect to get out at a normal time in the evening because then if I don't I get mad lol. I'm slowly starting to look at new apartment closer to work. My current lease isn't up till Aug, but it doesn't hurt to look. So far to get the same size apartment I have to now I have to pay about $300 more to move to where I want (which I might add is towards the coast!) My justification for being able to afford more is that I will save a massive amount on gas and my work just started paying my health insurance which saves me $150 a month! Ya!

My parents just left their house here in the desert to head back to our lake house in MO :(. I'm gonna miss them, but they said they are gonna try to visit every six weeks, which I feel somehow defeats the purpose of leaving in the first place but I'm not gonna say no to them visiting.

Okay, on to the good news. I recently made my first big girl purchase. I bought a couch! I have been wanting a sectional since I moved here and I finally found one that I figured I could afford. I got it at Macy's. It is an L shaped microfiber sleeper sectional (so if you want to visit you don't have to share a bed with me, unless you want to) It is a pretty long story but I got a crazy good deal on it. I ended up saving through opening a macy's charge, buying during their friends and family, and sheer stupidity of the sales person, over $800!! Long story short I got an really expensive couch for only a kind of expensive price. It is still a lot of money to me, but I'm really happy I did it. It should be here in 6 weeks, which mean Bridget it should be here for you to see

Alright, now for the best news. My company is having its 10 year anniversary party this weekend and it looks like it is going to be quite the hollywood party. I even bought a fancy new dress to wear. I have realized in my year living here that one should have several cocktail dresses, and you all know I am not the biggest dress person. I am however starting to figure out what type of dress looks the best with my curvy body. SOO the big news is that because this party is such a big deal we invited people we have worked with before which includes the Black Eyed Peas and Weezer!! I am totally name dropping by the way. From what Will.I.Am said today (he came into the office today just to chat) the whole group will be here and I have high hopes for a few other musicians as well. I couldn't be more excited. I mean I am totally at the bottom of the company but being involved is better then no job at all.

Hope you all are doing well. It really sounds like our group is getting our lives together and I'm really proud of you guys for doing so much in just our first year out of college.

Oh and yes Amy we should plan a reunion. It will have to be after the holidays for me. I'm using up all my vacation time already :( Two weeks in one year is really not enough.

Love you all!

Finally moving... in a month!

Hi girls!

Bridget, glad to hear things all fell into place with your job! That is such good news! Now what are you going to do with an entire summer off??? I'm so jealous!!!

Well I finally found an apartment! And I love it! It is very much closer to where I work and much closer to downtown and all the activities!!! I am actually moving in with a friend of a friend. The first time we met was when we looked at this apartment so it was kinda interesting trying to decide on one together after just having met! But she seems really nice, and the apartment has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms so we can still keep our distance. Aaaaaannnnddd best of all it has it's own laundry room!!! Cha-ching! (Insert "you know you're getting old when you're excited about a laundry room" joke here)

The only down-side is my new roommates current lease isn't up until the end of May, so I won't be moving til June. But I think I'll make it through!

I'm actually going to Des Moines this weekend... but not for Relays. Since none of you guys are there anymore (uh hem, Meghan), I wasn't even planning on going, but I'm still doing some freelance work for my old job down there so I'm going to have some meetings and get some work done. But I'm not saying a trip to the Library or Dublin is out of the question.......

Hope you all are having a wonderful Spring! And when are we planning a reunion???

Good News!

Hey ladies! I have some wonderful news...but I'm going to leave you in suspense cuz I have to tell you the story from the beginning...
First, I am a second grade teacher now until the end of the year sicne one of our teachers went on maternity leave Friday. I'm a bit stressed and am really sick of telling students to stop making farting noises.
I didn't get the reading specialist job because they ended up hiring someone from within district, so bummer. Then I found out yesterday that I didn't get the 5th grade position at my current school. Major bummer. Then I find out that it went to a frickin student teacher which just made me pissed.
So this morning I get a call on my work phone from the principal at a school i interviewed at on Tuesday. I was upset she didn't call me on my cell so I could let it go to voicemail and have time to think of something intelligent to say. I get offered a multiage 5/6 position but I have two interviews today, one of which with my current principal at her new school so I asked if I could talk to my principal and get back to her since I didn't know if I should just take it or go through with the other interviews. Well this principal was put off by that and didn't want to be a second choice, so my principal is friends with her and talked her down, thank God. My current principal was very supportive and told me to take it...so I did! I talked everything out with my new prinicpal and she just wanted to make sure I was committed, which I understand. So after a crazy year I am finally a real teacher!!! The school is still in my current district and close to home. One of the teachers on my team is around my age and went to U of Iowa so that will be nice to have an automatic connection with her. So yay!
Other things going on...the junior high muscial I've been choreographing is next week. Should be cute but a little stressed about it right now. Mike and I are going to Michigan this weekend to visit some friends. I am going to Cali in June to visit Sarah and can't wait!
Meg, as I write this you are driving cross country to your new home! Update us ASAP!
Amy, how is the job and house hunt going?
Love you guys and miss you!

East Coaster

Hello ladies! Happy April - Spring is finally here!

So I've got some pretty big news =) You guys will now have friends on both coasts! That's right, I'm moving! I just got a job offer yesterday out in Connecticut, New Haven specifically. I've been asked to come out and work on a gubernatorial campaign for finance. It's all happening very quickly - I'll probably be moving in about 2 weeks.

New Haven looks pretty fantastic, though I've never been. It's on the west side of the state so I'm only an hour's train ride into NY city =) I'm very nervous and sad to be leaving Des Moines when I've finally gotten comfortable with my work and social life. I told friends here yesterday and ended up crying most of the day lol. If any of you are out on the east coast please come visit!

love you all!

Suit Up!

That title is for any of you who watch HIMYM. I'm such an adult and bought a suit for the interviews I've been having. I had a pretty chill spring break (aren't you jealous I still get a spring break ; ) ) but i did have an interview for a reading specialist position. It went pretty well and I will hear back about a second interview next week. Today I had an interview at my current school for a 5th grade position. We have a new principal next year so it was with her and some of my co-workers, which was a little awkward, but not in a horribly bad way I guess. I had a friend from work help prep me so I felt good about it. The interview was a whole 10 min long and at the end one of my co-workers was like, "See you tomorrow Bridge!" This new principal has an open facebook, so of course we've all been stalking her. Found out that she is uber religious and has a youth pastor husband so I made sure I wore my cross necklace today ; ) I also have an interview with my current principal at her new school in 2 weeks. She's going to the school that Mike's sister teaches at. I'm hoping that one of these interviews will lead somewhere : /
Amy, glad to hear the new job and living situation are working out well!
Meg, Mike and I will most likely be in DSM 4th of July weekend for the car show : )
Sarah, stop working so much!
Love to all!

My week alone is coming to a close

Hey ladies :) I hope everyone is great and enjoying this amazing weather! So far it has been a typical Chicago spring with beautiful 60 degree days and then it snowed for a whole day and now its starting to get warm again. It's Barrington's spring break this week so my fam has . been gone since last friday. They went to South Africa for Conor's grad present. Conor and Papa get home in about a half hour and my mom and dad come home tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about their return lol. I'm excited that someone else will be getting up early to let Mulder out haha and I wont be freaked out when Mulder starts barking at the back door for no reason :) haha But I will miss my alone time for sure! I might be getting offered a manager postion at my job - but I dont really know if I want to take it. I will welcome the extra money lol, but its a part time job and I dont really want to take the added responsibility in a job that I really dont care about. Lots to think about. Hockey is over and its pretty sad...A couple of the girls have been texting us to see if we would go to lunch or want to hang out because they miss us...so I guess thats a good sign?! One of the girls, Emily, is dating Conor - so thats kinda strange getting used to. Char and I never got to go to Cancun, because the dates of the trip were the same as our hockey play offs. Major bummer - but we are going to Germany in October for Courtney's brothers wedding. Its going to be a blast and we are going to do a little backpacking while we are over there! Miss you all so much its impossible to describe! The other day I was thinking about all of you and realized that we were in Aruba at that point last year...tear! Love you all!

A combination of everything!

Bridget - So sorry to hear about Max! Even though you all know it is for the best, it is still hard to go through that. And good luck with the interviews! Let us know how it goes!

Meghan - You still need to tell me all about your trip last weekend! I'm sure you did great!

Michelle - Keep us posted on the move! And be sure to post pics of your new place!

Sarah - Hope all is well out in Cali! You always impress me with your work schedule... I could never work those hours and still function the next day!

Maggie - How is the job and hockey going??? And did you and Char ever get your trip planned?

My new job is going really well so far! I am basically doing a lot of the same stuff I did at my job in Des Moines, just for different clients. And since this is a smaller company I am able to take on a lot more responsibility so it is definitely a step up in my career. And everyone here is really nice so that makes things a lot easier!

And the commute isn't so bad. For about the first 30 minutes you would seriously think I'm driving through the country-side because there is nothing but trees and lakes and horse stables and a few small towns, but then I get closer to Bloomington and then it's the stop and go traffic which sucks, but at least that only takes me about 15 mins to get through.

Living with my sister and her husband has been going well too. There have been days when I'm like "OMG get me out of here" and I know there have been days when she's like "OMG get her out of here" but overall its been fun. And we worked out rent, so I feel a little better about extending my stay with them if I need to :) I just really have not had a chance to get out and look at some of the areas, and then figure out where makes the most sense to live. And my next few weekends are pretty busy so I think I'll be staying with them for at least this month!

Hope you girls are all enjoying the recent signs of Spring! Which for Sarah probably means temps in the 90s, and for Meghan probably means time to start sand bagging, and for the Chicago girls it means green rivers and St. Patty's day :)

Good news and bad news

Ok, so bad news first. Mike's dog Max is being put down tomorrow : ( He's been having seizures everyday and losing control of his bowels. It's hard because he acts totally normal and happy when we see him, even today. But we know we can't let him go through the pain anymore.
On a happier note, I have two teaching interviews set up! One is with my school's new principal for a 5th grade position at the school I'm at now. My current principal is being tranferred to a different school, ironically Mike's sister's school she teaches at, and she is interviewing me there as well. If I had a choice, I would love to stay at my current school, but either way I will be thrilled! So keep your fingers crossed!
Last night we had a St. Patty's day party at a friends house. It was a crazy shit show and I am still hung over at 9pm. I woke up with a shamrock sticker tramp stamp.
Amy, how is the new job and living situation?
Hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all!!

Traveling Girl

Hey everyone! Amy - I still miss you, come home. Mich - I hope your skin is back to it's normal color! lol Sarah - I love your hair! Mags - when's your tropical vacay??

I feel like I haven't posted in forever! I'm still at the campaign and starting to really get into it. The woman who hired me actually left the campaign last week so now it's only me and Chris on the finance staff and we're just trying to keep our heads above water.

My exciting news is that I'm going to officially start traveling for the campaign! I'm leaving this afternoon to head down to southeast Iowa with the Lieutenant Governor - we'll be overnighting tonight and then I'll be staffing her all day Saturday and we'll head back late tomorrow. I'm very excited - but extremely nervous at the same time! I'll keep you guys updated with how it goes!

(and yay spring is here!)

smurf-skin

Congratulations on you move, Amy! I hope everything is going/went well! Good luck with your new job, too!
I'm still just working lots. Currently my skin has a blue tint because I the other day my work pants split at the crotch - luckily this was before I left for work, but so I have been wearing super dark jeans that have never been washed and haven't had a day off to wash them and so the ink is dying my skin lol I feel like a smurf!

The only other thing in my life is that I am officially moving out in July. For the last few weeks I actually contemplated moving to California with a few girls I work with at the end of the summer, but then I realized that isn't really the best idea. Although I'm totally in need of an adventure and a new living situation, moving all the way to Cali isn't the answer, plus I can't afford rent, a new car and a new job right now. However, I really need to move out, so I am. I'm moving to an apartment complex with my friend, Elizabeth. We're not actually living together but each renting a 1 bedroom in the same complex. I know financially that sounds a little stupid, but there are a bunch of reasons why we both kinda want our own space, which I'm sure you all understand since we've all been in different living situations in the last few years. So we've been looking at a few places and narrowed it down and are in the process of visiting some. She has a dog and might be getting another one so our choices are a bit limited by that, but the place we visited this morning was good and included a bunch of stuff with rent. Plus, it's only 20 minutes from my house now and is the same distance from work as my house is too, which is great because i don't want to have to get a different crappy job just because im moving, so therefore I can just keep up the "real" job search and keep my current job, which I'm finally making money at.  So that's my news. We're waiting until July because she's going on a weeklong vacation in June and that way shes not paying for time she'll be gone, plus July really isn't that far from now.

I hope you're all having a lovely day and enjoying this Spring-ish weather! :) I'm going to try to take a nap before work. Miss you!

Mich

What I Will Miss about Des Moines...

• Living in the ghetto
• The Wal-Mart in Windsor Heights (Pretty sure this is where they get all the peopleofwalmart.com photos)
  
• Meghan :) and Aspen
  
• Raygun (Formerly known as SMASH)
• Big Tomato Pizza
• Big Country Bash
• Central Iowa Bloggers meetings the first Friday of every month (I know, Nerd Alert!)
• Halo Salon and my stylist, Abby
• Gateway Market
• Being approached by crazy ladies selling shampoo at the Red Box by the 31st Street McDonalds (true story)
  
• Driving by Drake and remembering how happy I am to be done with school :)
  

Truely Inspiring

First off, Congrats Amy!!!! You'll be great!
For 2 weeks Mike and I were house/dog sitting for his parents while they were on a mission trip to India. We def missed our own house, but we enjoyed the time with Max : ) The in-laws got home just fine and had a good time.
I've been choreographing the musical at a local jr high and have been having a blast. I got to teach the kids the Thriller dance and now we are doing some Grease and Jersey Boys. Middle school kids are quite the bunch lol.
I have a 4th grade boyfriend at my school. He's obsessed with talking about "Mr. Nolan." I performed in my school's variety show in the teacher act lol. Danced to some 80's music and wore some leg warmers...and yes, Mike took a video.
I know this is getting long, but bear with me, I have to share an unbelievable story. Tonight Mike's college bud Gustavo came over for dinner. He is the one who has Hodgkins lymphoma (sp?) and was spoken about at their graduation. After 5 yrs of batteling cancer, Gus was ready for a stem cell transplant and they found more cancer. He went in to have a small mass removed from his stomach with a 2 inch incision and woke up with a 7inch incision due to more and more cancerous masses found. He said afte that his sense of humor was a blessing and a curse cuz it hurt so much to laugh. He has masses in his stomach, chest, and neck. You can actually see the tumor in his neck when he moves. He has been going through chemo treatment, but is about to endure an even more intensive treatment. He is basically back where he started, hoping to become stable enough to qualify for a stem cell transplant, but has not found a good match yet. Many of us who know Gus have applied to become donors, in the small hope of being a match. Yet through all this, Gus says he wakes up everyday and doesn't even think about the cancer. He says he has come to grips with it emotionally and spiritually. He just kept saying, "It is what it is. You just gotta keep living." he described chemo as 5 days feeling like crap while it's in his system, but living it up the days in between his next treatment. He said when ppl invite to things in advance, he can never say yes or no, in fear that it might not be "a good day." Today was a good day for him. He's lost 30lbs in the last few months, has horrible pain in his back due to the tumors sitting on his nerves, and doesn't have any hair anymore, but his spirits are as high as ever. He quit drinking so when he is having a good day and goes out with his friends, he can remember the moments he has and won't be blurred or forgotten with alcohol. Having him over tonight just blew me away. What a strong person and so much to deal with at such a young age. He'll show you his scars and the visible tubes in his arms that are delivering chemo straight to his heart. He even joked about how he was glad the economy sucks so ppl don't assume he's a slacker when he tells them upon meeting that he graduated school and doesn't have a job. I know this is a bit of a downer, but I just wanted to share to remind all of us how we "just gotta keep living." Please keep Gustavo in your thoughts and prayers.
Love to all!

New News!

Hi girls! Hope all is well with everyone and hope you all had a fantastic Valentine's Day (or Singles Awareness Day as I prefer to call it!)! Meghan and I road-tripped it up to Minneapolis on Sat to go to IKEA and then came back to DSM on Sunday. A nice little get away!

So the new news I have to share is that I was offered a new job in Bloomington (a suburb of Minneapolis). It's with a PR agency called StoryTeller Media and Communications and they specialize in video production and social media (which means I still get to count facebook and twitter as part of my job!). I start on March 8, so I'll be moving probably the 4 or 5 of March.

It was a pretty tough decision since I really wasn't expecting to leave my job here so soon, but it is a really great opportunity and I feel like I need to take it. For the time being I will be staying wiht my sister and her husband at their house in Mayer, MN. So I will have about a 45 min. commute, which will be a big adjustment from my 15 min commute now! But this is a very temporary living situation and as soon as I get settled in I will be looking for my own place!

I haven't officially quit at Performance Marketing yet, saving it for the end of the day today. Willing to take bets on whether I will cry or not!

So if any of you girls are ever in the Twin Cities area, be sure to look me up :)

I think it's Sunday

Hi girls, I really just wanted to say, "hi" since I feel like it's been forever since I talked to any of you! Which is actually true... I haven't seen three of you since Bridge's wedding, Mags, I think I saw you at Halloween? And Bridget... didn't we go out to dinner in January? Eww. That's what my life is right now, I really can't remember when I've seen people and I don't generally know what day of the week it is... but I can tell you my daily specials at work! Anyways, I had a super cool potential job but didn't get the position, so I was kinda bummed about that, but it was 12-weeks and unpaid and considering this past week at work I made $500 in tips, I guess the unpaid thing would've been sucky. So that's my life update. I go to work pretty much everyday either for lunch, dinner or both and then try to sleep when I come home, wake up and do it again. I was working til 3am last night and worked from 10:30am-10:30pm without a break Friday so it was a very restaurant-y weekend. It's not terrible, I actually like it for the most part, but my feet hurt and we just need better scheduling, also last night I felt like I was no longer interested in cocktailing by the bar because I was tired of having my boobs stared at.  Other than that I went to Disney on Ice yesterday morning with my sister and Madeline and I think you would've all enjoyed it! :) Anyone seen any good movies or read any good books? Amy - I always think of you during good Alex Korev scenes during Grey's, this week when he was working with Arizona in Peds, I remembered how much I love him lol Miss you guys!!!

<3 Michelle

Job (s)

Hey! So sorry I've been incommunicado lately - things have been kind of hectic! (B- I promise I'll call you back as soon as I have a free minute!)

So the big news in my life is surrounding my work life. As of yesterday I am officially employed with the Culver Campaign! It was kind of a whirlwind experience to get there - and it all started with an email. and it came the same day i had been given another full time job. talk about life choices - ugh. It was last Friday that the law firm I've been working at offered me the full time job I've been waiting for since graduating. I was over the moon! Not half an hour after accepting I got an email from the Director of Finance for the Culver Campaign, asking if I was interested to come in and talk about an open position on the team. I figured there would be no harm in just going in to talk about it. So I met with the Director of Finance (Grace) at a coffee shop for our "interview", afterward she asked me for a couple references and then told me she'd keep in touch. The next day she called me with an offer!

As of February 1st I will be in politics again! I can't wait - and everyone here at the firm is being super supportive! The other bonus is that the campaign office is in the East Village so I can walk to work every day! =)

Hope you are all doing well!

Might as well do something since I've been immobile all day!

So so bored today since I've been sitting on my couch literally not moving except getting up to pee and eating. Hopefully tomorrow I can get back into life. Anyway you may be interested in what happened.

So I worked 50 hours last week from Tues-Sun, including 4 doubles with hardly any break. Sunday by far the longest - 15 hours, no sitting down. I was working a party upstairs at my restaurant with 4 other servers, it was an engagement party for our general manager's sister - 120 people and my other servers were sucking so I was reloading all of the food trays and busting my butt for hours. At about 830, we were getting ready to bring up all the different dessert plates and my other manager and I were running around looking for the last dessert to plate it. We were in the back prep kitchen and we realized we needed smaller plates for the tiramisu instead of a platter so I ran to get a bunch of them. I literally had 20 plates stacked on top of each other in my arms as I walked to my manager to ask him where I needed to put them. Mid-sentence I slipped on the floor (because the dumb busboys just washed it) and slammed my head, back and butt on the floor, obviously dropping the plates as this happened. About 10 of the plates broke on top of me, leaving me with 2 insta-bruises on my arm. Because I don't cry in public, I burst out laughing but it hurt. This was all at about 9:30pm. Everyone kept asking if my butt was ok, which I knew would be fine lol lots of padding there! But I knew my neck would hurt because I'm prone to whiplash. So I woke up monday morning in super pain and thought i might be ok but then about 2pm when I went to shower for work I was dizzy and blurred vision and so instead of work I went to the hospital where they took xrays and said I have a sprained neck and gave me valium and strong ibuprofen, which led to me having to take today off work too and I guess they gave me off tmrw also. So the funny thing is that I only have 1 shift this week after sure an extreme last week. but i think im ok. Hope you guys are good!!!

Hey girls! Sorry it's been so long since I have posted - I'll try to give you a run down of whats going on with me haha My life right now is very "In the moment" and I'm kinda liking it! lol Don't get me wrong I would love to be finished with school and have a full time job - but I keep coming back to the same thought...I'm 23 and I want to have fun! haha I'm planning on going back to school starting this summer - not sure where yet, but I'm looking around. Hockey season is done at the end of the month :) Char and I are coaching a spring team and a tournament team that starts 13 days later so not too much of a rest there. haha We are also going to CANCUN sometime in the end of feb! So if anyone is wanting to go with its only $693 all-inclusive for a week airfare included! I'm soo looking forward to sun! Char and Steve broke up before Christmas and it was tough on her, but shes getting better - he was such an ASS towards the end which makes it easier. She is working at the Biaggis near us and has met a bunch of great guys that we have been hanging out with lately.

Miss you all tons!

Hello ladies! Hope everyone is doing well. Nothing too exciting here, just wanted to say hello! Mike's friend Andy was in town last weekend and we had a good time going out and dancing like fools : )
Sad news here...Mike's dog Max has cancer : ( His parents came home on NYE and his eye was sunk into his head. Took him to the vet and they thought it was a tooth infection that was causing the nerve endings to mess up his eye. When they took him for another opinion the vet said it was 50/50 the tooth or cancer. They pulled his back teeth and the eye is still the same, thus indicating it is a tumor. Good thing is he is still as spunky as ever, just with a droppy eye. Mike's college friend Gustavo who I have told you guys about before had to go back in for another round of chemo so please keep them both in your thoughts or prayers.
On a lighter note, work is going well. I really like it and have made some good friends. One of which is a 4th grade teacher and interviewing for an assistant principal position, so let's hope I can get her classroom next year! Just went to an alumni reception for admitted Drake students here in the area. Spent 2 hours b.s.ing, but it was sort of fun haha.
Hope everyone is surviving the winter weather! I bet we could all use the Rubes right now!

highlight of my week - pulled a muscle carrying a tray

Hi girls!
   I basically just wanted to say hi because there's nothing exciting going on in my life at all. I don't know if I wrote this, but my sister-in-law is pregnant and due in July, so that is fun, and Michael and Kelly broke up right after New Years, which is fine. I was glad she actually broke up with him so that was good in my opinion since I didn't really think he liked her that much... either way, she is a very nice person, but they didn't fit well. My life consists of going to work, sometimes for 11 hours or more and attempting to make money, and then spending my days off doing laundry, going to the bank and sitting in my bed. Boring.
Still hoping for a real job to get out of spending my nights and weekends at work!
I hope you are all staying warm and having fun with work and stuff! :)

~Michelle

New Job.. New Life!!

So, I know most of you know this, but I just started a new job. This job basically fell into my lap. Somehow this studio got my resume back in august from someone (I didn't even know who until just this week. It turned out to be a random friend from KC who knew a receptionist at the company)and then they had a job open up starting in January. They called me in a for an interview at the beginning of Dec and I GOT IT!! My official title is post-production assistant. My companies name is Motion Theory. You guys should check out the website. We have done music videos and commercials for some pretty big names. I just started Wed and I'm already exhausted. I am in fact still at work now. I start work at 9am, and then usually don't leave before 9pm. Not to mention I live on the other side of LA. I work in Venice (by the beach!) which is over an hour commute to my apartment. Tonight I am actually here till 2am, and then have to be back in at 9am. I know you are probably thinking that this is the worst job ever, but I love it so much. I only started here yesterday, and they already have been on 5 big projects (including a Buick, and superbowl spot) It's just really encouraging that I actually love to work in the career I have chosen for myself. The other great thing is I'm on a salary, have paid vacations and I'm actually making enough money to pay all my bills, put money away, and see the occasional movie (I budgeted out 4 a month). I just never thought this type of thing would happen to me so soon out of college. I'm really happy and I just wanted to share that with you girls.

This all means though, that it will be almost impossible to get a hold of me on the week days haha

Love you all, and I'm happy to hear you are all doing well.

Amy- Your story about your car made me literally laugh out loud. Everyone turned to my desk to look at me

OH that the other thing... I HAVE MY OWN DESK!!

I really am I big girl.

xoxo,
S

Just another reason why I'm awesome...

So my first day back to work after the holidays, and what to do I do? Lock my keys, purse, and cell phone inside my car, with the car running. I was warming up my car and scraping the windshield when I went to actually get into it, I found the doors locked. Needless to say I let you a pretty loud "Merrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh". So lucky my building has a buzzer on the outside so I buzzed my neighbor, who I have met just a few times and she let me in and let me use her computer and phone to call a locksmith service. It cost me $65 to get my door unlocked, and a little bit of my dignity when I had to explain to my co workers why I was later than usual getting into work.

But anyways... my Christmas was fabulous. Went home to MN, spent lots of time with family and old friends. Got a huge hug from my old hairdresser in New Ulm when we were downtown at the bar. Pretty sure she was a lot drunk. Haven't seen this woman in like 5 years but she comes up to me and goes "Oh Amy! I always thought you were the sweetest girl and I just wish you the best in life!" Made me laugh :)

New Years was fun too! Meghan, Lane and I went downtown and met up with some other random friends we know and did a boot plus some more drinks. Gotta stay warm somehow :)

Happy 2010!!! Miss you all!