the big news you've all been so anxiously waiting for: brandon got a new job!! he is the newest account executive on the nintendo team at golinharris.
yes, i said golinharris. yes, that is my current workplace. no, i do not work directly with the nintendo team. we aren't even on the same floor. but yes, it is true -- brandon and i will now be co-workers.
first, a little background. let me make it quite clear that i had nothing to do with this at all. one of our mutual friends, a BYU grad on the nintendo team, ran into brandon at an awards dinner a few weeks ago and was telling him how they were looking hard for new people and said he should send in his resume. they then wanted to interview him, which caused many deep what-if discussions in the payzant-wells household, but ultimately we decided to just go for it and see what happens. bottom line: they loved him and made him a fantastic offer, and he accepted last week.
while this does have all the immediate drawbacks (like, for starters, it might be a little weird to work with all the same people as my husband, and that we'll go to the one and same christmas party every year, and that probably everyone will be trying to catch us in some awkward PDA moment -- which will NOT happen), this situation really allows us to reap unlimited benefits.
i'm sure you can all guess that a job change means you get paid more. :) not to mention he will be working on a great account for a great client. on a personal note, who WOULDN'T want to commute and go to lunch with their husband every day?
but besides that, really his job in santa monica was the only thing tying us to the west side. now that we will both be working in downtown, a VERY public-transportation-friendly area, our housing options have just exploded tenfold. glendale, pasadena, even rancho cucamonga are all possibilities for us when our renewed contract is up in march. (for those of you who aren't los angeles residents, this means we can get a WAY nicer, way newer place for so much cheaper than we are paying now.) so i guess it was actually a huge blessing for us not to be able to find a new place a few months ago when we were looking. everything always works out for the best.
i am not very good with sudden changes or life-altering moves, but so far i'm handling this one pretty well, due to all the aforementioned reasons. it all happened so fast and worked out so perfectly, even i cannot say it wasn't meant to be. i think the best things in life are these opportunities that you can't plan for or even think up yourself, but when they fall in your lap you just take them and run with it and life can only get better.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
will thanksgiving never COME
all right, so a lot has been going on at the wells household lately.
a. last week i went to monterey for work. we brought two groups of journalists up to test ride the new 2008 R6 at the world-famous Laguna Seca racetrack. we stayed at a totally sweet hotel (my room not only had a fireplace but ALSO free snacks, wine and mini bar! yesss...just what i need, free wine) and things overall went well. we had three crashes, but i only had to take one victim to the hospital. he had a concussion and during the drive to the hospital he kept asking me the same questions over and over...HAHA. he was fine so i can laugh about it now, but at the time i was thinking "if this guy goes into convulsions or something with me i am going to FREAK."
b. so i got home on friday and spent the weekend trying to detox, but not really. saturday i went to a baby shower for my friend megan duzy tanner. i met megan when she moved into my neighborhood and ward when i was 15 and she was 16, and we were best friends from then on. she was like the big sister i always wanted and i loved being with her...in fact it was mostly by her example that i chose to follow her up to BYU when i graduated from high school. we've kind of grown apart since then (she got married in 04 and is now living in san diego) but i was so so happy to go to her shower! not to mention the fact that EVERYONE i know is having kids right now and maybe i'm starting to get just a little bit baby hungry.... HAHA.
c. saturday night (literally right after i walked in the door from the shower) brandon and i volunteered at a homeless shelter here in LA with some of our ward friends. i was a little apprehensive seeing as how i usually don't do very well around crazies, but this was a super nice facility for people with "non-violen, non-drug related financial issues". We served dinner and sat and talked with the people while they ate. i met a cute little old lady who told me her whole life story; she's trying to apply for jobs right now as part of her year plan to get back on her feet so we talked about resumes and jobs and she asked me to pray for her cause she was nervous. when we brought out dessert everyone was so excited...i guess they don't get homecooked meals or dessert very often because they all asked for two pieces! i wish i had taken pictures there...sorry :( we will prob go back so i'll be sure to take some then.
d. yesterday we went to church and i had a youth fireside thing at night...i made delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that were a HIT. however, for dinner, some of our friends had invited us to their son's birthday party. these people, the canas, are super nice and we really like them but they are def your basic cholos. HAHA. the wife, carla, is awesome, but i am scared to ever make her mad because she seems like she has a whole lot of latina attitude just brimming below the surface. :) so when they asked us to come to her parents for the party i wasn't sure what to expect...we drove out to this tiny house in ghetto east LA and had a fantastic homemade meal of carne asada, spanish rice, beans, etc. this is authentic, people -- nothing from regular stores. i swear to you we were the only white people there, everyone was speaking spanish and we were in their tiny all-concrete backyard surrounded by run down cars with tarps on them...and it was soooo funny to me. HAHA i laugh even now. but the coolest part was that none of the family or friends wondered why they'd bring their gringo friends -- everyone was super nice to us, made sure we had plenty of food, and even tried to speak english to us. i got to bust out some of my high school spanish but i'm sure my conjugations were horrible...gotta brush up. so that was our cultural experience for the week!
and e. now we're in another crazy week. the only reason i even have time to blog is because brandon is home late from work...this is the only free time i'll have prob till thanksgiving! i'm already stressed thinking about it. however i will probably have some exciting news to announce soon...brandon has a new job opportunity (one that hits a little close to home for me) that we will be sharing with everyone when it's confirmed :)
a. last week i went to monterey for work. we brought two groups of journalists up to test ride the new 2008 R6 at the world-famous Laguna Seca racetrack. we stayed at a totally sweet hotel (my room not only had a fireplace but ALSO free snacks, wine and mini bar! yesss...just what i need, free wine) and things overall went well. we had three crashes, but i only had to take one victim to the hospital. he had a concussion and during the drive to the hospital he kept asking me the same questions over and over...HAHA. he was fine so i can laugh about it now, but at the time i was thinking "if this guy goes into convulsions or something with me i am going to FREAK."
b. so i got home on friday and spent the weekend trying to detox, but not really. saturday i went to a baby shower for my friend megan duzy tanner. i met megan when she moved into my neighborhood and ward when i was 15 and she was 16, and we were best friends from then on. she was like the big sister i always wanted and i loved being with her...in fact it was mostly by her example that i chose to follow her up to BYU when i graduated from high school. we've kind of grown apart since then (she got married in 04 and is now living in san diego) but i was so so happy to go to her shower! not to mention the fact that EVERYONE i know is having kids right now and maybe i'm starting to get just a little bit baby hungry.... HAHA.
c. saturday night (literally right after i walked in the door from the shower) brandon and i volunteered at a homeless shelter here in LA with some of our ward friends. i was a little apprehensive seeing as how i usually don't do very well around crazies, but this was a super nice facility for people with "non-violen, non-drug related financial issues". We served dinner and sat and talked with the people while they ate. i met a cute little old lady who told me her whole life story; she's trying to apply for jobs right now as part of her year plan to get back on her feet so we talked about resumes and jobs and she asked me to pray for her cause she was nervous. when we brought out dessert everyone was so excited...i guess they don't get homecooked meals or dessert very often because they all asked for two pieces! i wish i had taken pictures there...sorry :( we will prob go back so i'll be sure to take some then.
d. yesterday we went to church and i had a youth fireside thing at night...i made delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that were a HIT. however, for dinner, some of our friends had invited us to their son's birthday party. these people, the canas, are super nice and we really like them but they are def your basic cholos. HAHA. the wife, carla, is awesome, but i am scared to ever make her mad because she seems like she has a whole lot of latina attitude just brimming below the surface. :) so when they asked us to come to her parents for the party i wasn't sure what to expect...we drove out to this tiny house in ghetto east LA and had a fantastic homemade meal of carne asada, spanish rice, beans, etc. this is authentic, people -- nothing from regular stores. i swear to you we were the only white people there, everyone was speaking spanish and we were in their tiny all-concrete backyard surrounded by run down cars with tarps on them...and it was soooo funny to me. HAHA i laugh even now. but the coolest part was that none of the family or friends wondered why they'd bring their gringo friends -- everyone was super nice to us, made sure we had plenty of food, and even tried to speak english to us. i got to bust out some of my high school spanish but i'm sure my conjugations were horrible...gotta brush up. so that was our cultural experience for the week!
and e. now we're in another crazy week. the only reason i even have time to blog is because brandon is home late from work...this is the only free time i'll have prob till thanksgiving! i'm already stressed thinking about it. however i will probably have some exciting news to announce soon...brandon has a new job opportunity (one that hits a little close to home for me) that we will be sharing with everyone when it's confirmed :)
Friday, November 9, 2007
a word of warning...
OMG so you seriously have to be careful what you put on the worldwide web. i had heard stories of friends getting caught blogging about work or something only to be caught by their boss, but i had my own little "gotcha" moment last week.
the previous blog below about my experience with habitat for humanity was picked up by CurbedLA, a really cool local blog about neighborhood happenings and real estate development around the city. i actually really love the site. so they were blogging about the build, and somehow found my blog, and posted some of my pictures in their story! they even cite my blog as the source (which led me to fully regret the stupid name i chose for the blog a while back and never updated).
you can see my published photos here.
as if that isn't cool enough, this week in the golinharris western region's monthly staff meeting, i won the Golinnovation award for someone who goes above and beyond with a creative idea. my coworkers and supervisors thought it was awesome that my experience proves media opportunities can come from anywhere, especially when you are just living your life and encorporating current habits into your everyday activities. how hilarious is that!!
so i would just like to let you all know that you better watch what you post...because you really don't know where it will pop up! :)
the previous blog below about my experience with habitat for humanity was picked up by CurbedLA, a really cool local blog about neighborhood happenings and real estate development around the city. i actually really love the site. so they were blogging about the build, and somehow found my blog, and posted some of my pictures in their story! they even cite my blog as the source (which led me to fully regret the stupid name i chose for the blog a while back and never updated).
you can see my published photos here.
as if that isn't cool enough, this week in the golinharris western region's monthly staff meeting, i won the Golinnovation award for someone who goes above and beyond with a creative idea. my coworkers and supervisors thought it was awesome that my experience proves media opportunities can come from anywhere, especially when you are just living your life and encorporating current habits into your everyday activities. how hilarious is that!!
so i would just like to let you all know that you better watch what you post...because you really don't know where it will pop up! :)
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