I LOVE SF

Yep, the news is in the headlines. I am completely head over heals in love with this city.

View of the City on my daily commute

I always new that would be the case (and I was told that I was meant to live in San Francisco by many people before I moved here). Be it my love of yoga, my obsession with local goods, or my inability to throw out what should be composted, the culture of this city is like an embodiment of me.

So, I guess I should tell you the reasons I'm so in love (along with filling you in on my life here so far).

UCSD+Housemate dinner party!

I arrived into the city to the welcome of my good college friend Joeva, who, just so happened was looking to sublet out her room for the month.  For both of us the situation was perfect, I arrived into the city with a 'legit' place to stay while I got settled and started work, and she got to spend some time at home with her family rent-free.  The apartment is a beautiful old victorian right off of the Golden Gate Park, with a muni stop nearby (the strange SF rail/bus/subway) that would take me to the office in 15 minutes. The roommates are an awesome mixture of "young professionals" (aka recent college grads with jobs) and we enjoyed weekly 'family dinners' and a few great morning walks to the muni.  And yes, I still go over there for family dinners even though I'm no longer a roommate....technically.

I lived there for the month of October and was able to do some house hunting from there (what a fortunate event, the housing market here is tough and I'd never have found a place from afar).  I sent out a ton of emails looking for a more permanent place to live and managed to catch the attention of my current roommate, Jeff.  After a successful 'interview' we had an agreement and I moved in at the beginning of November.

Roomate Dolores and I doing acro-yoga

And with this living situation, what a lucky girl I am!  I live in Noe Valley, an adorable neighborhood in SF that boasts 24th street, a cute area of shops, restaurants, libraries, and really everything you could look for in a neighborhood. I knew I was meant to be here when I found the "bulk liquids" shop, in which you bring your own containers to fill up with whatever household liquid supply you may need (shampoo, laundry soap, etc) and pay by the ounce! It's funny to say, but when I found this store, I knew Noe Valley was perfect for me :)  I even love my ride to work!!

So now I'm living here with 2 roommates, Jeff, a 'grown-up' who copy-writes for a living and sings/plays guitar every evening that he's not working on his autobiography (which I'm excited to read!). And the most charming roommate of the house, Dolores, Jeff's 8 year old daughter who is a sweetheart and a great reminder of how much I miss my little sisters at home.

So for now, living situation=superb.

Unveiling of the HT Gong

And what about work! Well, if you call work awesome and ping-pong and snack filled, with gongs and random winery tour adventures awesome, than I guess that's what my work is!  HotelTonight has really offered me an awesome opportunity to be part of an early-stage startup (a year old in December!) and to have a really rewarding role within it.

What do we do you ask? Well, HotelTonight is a mobile only last-minute hotel booking application for the iPhone and Android.  We are a service that allows you to book hotel rooms, tonight (only). And because it's last minute we are able to get you a really good deal. Some special things about it-we only show 3 Hotels per night, per city, they're all 3 star or above, and they're either basic, charming, or luxe style hotels. So take a "staycation" or go out on New Years Eve and don't worry about driving home, instead you can pull out your phone and in 3 clicks book a hotel for the night!

A view of the HotelTonight
app on the iPhone

What do I do? I work on the Partner Development side of things, which is basically reaching out to prospective partner hotels and getting them to come on board with us.  I specifically am doing lots of prospecting for new cities-so for example, we're interested in opening in Vancouver. I'm learning all I can about the hotels there and the layout of the city (where people will be at night and want to get a hotel instead of drive home), and trying to find the best ones in the city for us to partner with. Lots of research and discovery--the only negative is that it is really making my travel bug start to itch!

From the sheer number of exclamation points, you can probably guess that I'm pretty happy about my living situation and work.  And life in general is great too! I have an amazing network of friends from college and life (and I found out this weekend someone from high school in Wyoming!) that live here and they're doing great job introducing me to the best parts of the city, I've just this week found 2 amazing yoga studios that I can guarantee I will be spending lots of time at, I have finally gotten back into a good running routine, and overall I'm loving staying busy and exploring the city (I LOVE walking around and popping in and out of whatever places look interesting).

In conclusion, I'm completely in love with living here. It works wonderfully with my lifestyle, I have an amazing community of friends, and my work excites, inspires, and challenges me.

Life Is Good!

Road Trip! Florida-->California

I know it's been about a month since the road trip that took me to visit many of you readers on my way to my new home of San Francisco. However I wanted to post a quick recap of the amazing trip that took me cross country for my new job in this beautiful city!

Some of you may know, I have a promise to myself to always leave room in my life for adventure. Part of that promise is that any time I switch jobs, I'll take some time off in between to travel or just do some sort of adventure. Ideally these will be bigger trips like visits back to Europe. but for this time, it instead was turning my move form Florida to San Francisco into a road trip littered with visits to friends and family across the country. And so the journey began.

I had a super stressful time leaving Gainesville, with merely a week to pack, sell my things, find a sub letter for my apartment, and make plans for the drive to and arrival in San Francisco.  Thankfully all the pieces fell into place, I was able to sell everything that I didn't fit into my car, a friend just so happened to need a sub letter for her apartment in SF for a few weeks after my arrival, I got a sub letter, and one of my closest friends was able to make the time to meet me out east and drive cross country with me. With all the stress of trying to get the stars to align for my leaving, it was amazing how things just worked out.

I left Gainesville early on a Saturday morning (after visiting the local alligators) and drove about 9 hours to stay with my family near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  After a few awesome days playing with cousins, I took off for Dallas, Texas, where I stayed with some good friends from SkillsUSA.  A day of adventuring there and then Kat, my copilot for the rest of the drive, arrived and we made our

way on the long 14 hour stretch from Dallas to Fort Collins, Colorado where we visited with my mom and took a quick jaunt up to Cheyenne to see my sisters and some dear friends and mentors.

After that, 6 hours took us to the "mountain house" where my grandparents live and we decided to take a few days to rest up and enjoy the mountain air.  Here, we were greeted by snow (the first Kat had ever experienced) before we trekked across Utah and Nevada to stay in Reno with Tom.

After an evening of all-you-can-eat sushi, we made our way to Kat's parents home in Healdsburg where we loaded up on wine, apples, and applesauce.

It was there that I parted with Kat to make my final drive to San Francisco, where I was put up by Joeva in 'our' room before I started work the next day!

I was able to stay in Joeva's room through October and have had an amazing time getting used to the public transportation and life in San Francisco.  I'm completely in love with being here and with my new job. So updates on life in the city will be coming to you soon!!

Thank You to everyone who hosted, visited, met up with, and drove with me on the amazing trip cross country!!

New Job, New Coast!

Yes, the news is in the title. I was offered a new job and now I've moved back to the west coast!!
A few quick bits before I go into detail

It's with a startup: HotelTonight
I'm working in Partner Development as a Sales Coordinator
It's in San Francisco
I spent last week driving across the country...

And now I am so incredibly happy!

So, a little background on where this all came from...

As time was progressing, I considered my opportunity with NCCER, and the reality came to me that while I am passionate about an educated craft workforce, I am not passionate enough about the construction industry to make it my career and my life.

An avid reader of start-up and technology news, one day I came across an article "Top Startups to watch out for of 2011" and among the companies listed I saw HotelTonight. Giddy, I looked into the company, downloaded the iPhone app and because I loved the philosophy and work the company was setting out to do (encourage spontaneous travel, awesome) I looked into job opportunities.

With an application letter like none I've written before and a resume that boasted the color green and varying gray font, I sent in my somewhat spontaneous and fun application with hope for an opportunity.  And behold, a week later I had a phone interview with a Berkeley grad who finished her undergrad degree the same year I did. After a fun conversation, the invite to a San Francisco interview was secured!

The interview was 2 hours of fun, and a few weeks later I was offered a position.  It turned out that while the original job I applied for wasn't the best fit, they had been thinking of another position that wasn't yet created, and after meeting me they decided that I would be an ideal candidate to be the first one to figure it out!

So, with an offer in San Francisco, I of course moved as soon as possible. My dream job after college was to be with a startup, developing and creating something new, in San Francisco. While I didn't make it right after graduation, Florida was a great stepping stone that got me to where I ultimately want to be.

Day one working and living in the city is now complete and I couldn't be happier!

 

I can still Adventure!

I was afraid for a little while that getting a 'real job' would place some severe limitations on my rather adventurous spirit.  And while 8:30-5:30, monday-friday does definitely put a damper on the randomness, I've still managed to get out and about to adventures a decent bit in the last few months.

(By the way, sorry for the long gap in coverage, though I'm keeping up the adventures, sometimes the mundanity of work, yoga, bar, yoga, work doesn't quite inspire the blogger in me)

And on that note, WOW, June was the last update!

Front of the Vizcaya villa

"Sunken ship" aka cement party boat in the ocean at Vizkaya

Well, since then I had a very lovely visitor come to Gainesville for an exquisite week of hiking and beach going and museum viewing. Afterward, I decided I needed an adventure and on a whim I left one Friday to spend a weekend with Steph Paula in Miami. What a kick that was! Steph was a wonderful host, taking me out to some local Miami night spots and some beautiful and historic sites during the day. We visited Vizcaya , a decadent Italian-renaissance style villa that is now a National Historic Landmark. The villa had some of the most incredible and intricate wood and plaster work that I've ever seen, accompanied by beautiful tapestries and carpets and paintings and decorative items. It was a gorgeous house furnished with a collection of items that span the history of the world. It was just superb.  We did manage a bit of time in famous South Beach with a few of Steph's friends, spending time on the jetti and then enjoying strong mixed drinks at a purportedly required South Beach bar.

The next weekend (or was it the one after). Anyway, for Labor day weekend I adventured to a small town outside of Baton Rouge Louisiana, Zachry, where it just so happens that almost all of my father's side of the family lives. This is family that I haven't seen nor been in touch with since I attended an aunts wedding in 1996 (PS my father hasn't been in my life since about that same time, a story for another time).

Only recently I became re-acquainted with my uncle Jimmy Jr., who had mysteriously added me on Facebook just before I moved to Florida (as my mom can attest, I wasn't totally sure how exactly I was related to him at first, but "he's your dad's brother" simplifies it).  Once I moved here to Florida, I got up the guts to actually engage with him and from there a great friendship has blossomed!  After much discussion and one random trip he made to Gainesville for work (where I got to take him to one of my favorite restaurants), we had all decided that Labor Day weekend would be the perfect opportunity to convene and connect.
And so I spent a wonderful weekend meeting new cousins (none were born last I had known anyone) and getting to know my uncle Jimmy, his wonderful wife, and some more of the Moffett family, and eating lots of yummy food you can only find in the south!  I even got to see my gigantic little brother Ben!

Turns out that my cousins are a wild bunch that never sleep! Ben and I (Ben more than I) stayed up with them until nearly 4 am a few nights that we were there!  We, of course, went to the local graveyard to look for ghosts at 2am one night. Jenny and I did manicures and pedicures (pink and white with inverse polka dots) and curled each others hair (I haven't had my hair in ringlets for quite some time)!  And with the grown ups I got to hear stories about my dad growing up, he and my mom when they first married. It was a great historical family gathering while getting to know the more recently added family. I wish I could explain how wonderful they all are!

I also got to catch up on a lot of family history (drama! kidding! (sort of)) that I had otherwise not been exposed to. My mom had told me a lot about my paternal family history, but in talking with them my knowledge expanded a great bit more. What it really comes down to is that this side of my family is the quintessential example of deep southern kindness and charm. Their slow southern drawls and incredible generosity and openness made me feel right at home-just like I was amongst family I had been visiting with every Sunday for my whole life!

Overall, visiting this new found family was an excellent experience. I've always been fortunate to be super close to everyone on my mom's side and I feel extremely lucky that my family just doubled in size and awesomeness! I'm one lucky girl.

Now it's back to life in Gainesville...I wonder what adventures await me next!

Office Supply in My Dreams

#4

Old office supply store...(ew

It’s that time of the month again, time to restock on office supplies and replace any equipment that may be working just exactly wrong.  Don’t get disappointed, this is great news! You get to go experience Inkwell, the office supply store!

Grab your keys and a friend or two, smart phones in tact, and drive on over.  Don’t worry about coffee, they have that and more at the store.  Ensure that you’ve let the team know you’ll be gone for a while, the office store isn’t just about buying supplies, it’s about getting inspired in the process.   

Welcome to InkWell.

You pull up and the parking sign reminds you to bring your phones and leave all else behind.  Open the doors and you are sucked into a vibrantly colored store, clean and organized, with every person engaged in conversation or groups taking notes as they watch a speaker discuss the latest new employee engagement practices.  The entire place is abuzz with conversation and upon closer listening most of them center around the great new chairs they are about to buy, or getting suggestions on how the office they composed virtually would feel and work in real life. 

   

You’re in the Ikea of office supplies (but less of a gigantic warehouse and more like a few compartmentalized office examples organized by general stylistic category) where people are interacting with each other anywhere you look. Picture an office suited for the eco friendly (recycled everything and no printers/paper waste allowed and a local free-trade coffee bean vending machine in the entry, reusable mugs only) or one for the super high tech (gadget plug in hubs everywhere and extreme simplicity in décor).  You and your team meander your way through each space looking at its gadgets, trying out the furniture, or listening to a brief inspirational talk that is projected onto the walls.  

Take your time walking through the different ‘office ecosystems’ and if you see a file cabinet or a leadership poster you like, pull out your handy smartphone and scan the QR code (we’ll get into this part later).  Stop at an office break room and lounge with others who are discussing project management budgeting to get ideas about how to empower employee accountability with company budget responsibilities. Keep walking through the different office spaces, equipped fully with paper supplies and coat hangers and anytime you see something you like just scan away (people not included).  

As you finish experiencing office spaces, you’ll end in an open shared lounge room and an ultra comfortable array of chairs and desks, organized by similarity of course.  On one wall, you’ll see TED talks and excellent keynote speeches, and you’ll be encouraged to Bump your chosen selections to a computer projector, where the InkWell phone app will begin to assemble your selections into a coherent office scene. With this, you can pick and choose the furniture and decorations that you enjoyed (and scanned the QR code of) and arrange them with a drag of the finger to compare styles and see how things fit together in your virtual office.  If you’d like, upload a picture of your current office space (a 3-D model with true-to-scale dimensions, of course, shot beforehand with the phone app) and place the new supplies into your current atmosphere to see how they fit in.

 

If you want to get the input of the team back in the office, just choose to share the office space you’ve created and post the options via a survey using any of the social media tools you’d like. Have your coworkers rate the selections they like best and go from there. Or, be a dictator and just go with what you want.  The office is a place you create and exist within, not just a place you have to go five+ days a week.

InkWell is about creating an office ecosystem that fits your business culture; it’s about providing employees with the tools, both physical and cognitive, that will help them to excel in what they do.  It’s a place that encourages creative business practices and is full of people who do what you do, so share with them and engage in the community. If work is your life, getting prepared for it should be enjoyable!


*Web Content Warning: Inkwell is a fictional business made in the imagination of @stephusry. The nature of this post is exploratory. No armadillos were harmed in the production of this post...

June for Skills

It looks like monthly updates are the new trend with me. I do have a great excuse though…I have yet to purchase internet at my apartment, so I don’t have access to internet when I’m most likely to update my blog and second, now that I’ve switched to the IPhone (yes, I’ve moved on from the dear BlackBerry) it’s much, much harder to type out long messages (I so miss the BlackBerry keyboard!). And you know what, even know, in a little café called Maude’s in downtown Gainesville, I still can’t get the interenet to work for more than a spurt of 10 minutes. Maybe it’s just me…

But on the update note, life during the month of June was busy! (I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures, the internet is being a pain as usual)

I traveled to Tampa, Florida to watch the US Men’s National Soccer Team play (and lose) against Panama in the Gold Cup, I’ve taken my new car in to a few auto body shops to have some repairs looked at (my car was sideswiped in a parking spot downtown one Friday night, it looks like the person dragged their car along the entire side of mine before realizing they hit anything) so I’m going through the process of dealing with my very first insurance claim on my own, and at the end of the month I flew to Kansas City for my favorite week of the year, the week which holds the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference.

Leading up to Skills was quite an experience for me as my company is the industry sponsor of the Carpentry competition at the event. This means we organize all the judges, technical committee members, and the competition itself for the 78 high school and college students that won at the state level and arrive to compete.  This was a side to SkillsUSA that I had never seen, because as a student attendee, competitor, and national officer, one has no clue as to the immense amount of work industry puts in to make the event happen. Throughout June I was part of conference calls and spent days ordering various supplies needed to make the event happen.

On top of hosting the competition, the board of trustees for my company also held their meeting during the conference, meaning that I got to help a little more with the planning and coordination of their schedule. Oh, and my main purpose once I was actually at the conference was as a volunteer for Skills, working with the wonderful VIP/Media team that I’ve now been with for the past 4 conferences!  That group, with our wonderful leadership from SkillsUSA, is composed of a few past national officers and we get to work with all of the government and industry VIP’s, as well as the media people, that attend the conference. It’s a great group.

Skills week is always something I take care to expand by going a little early or staying a little late. Though I was delayed about 7 hours on my way to Kansas City (so much for sailing that day) I was able to stay for a day after the conference, during which a group of us tried to sail, only to turn around immediately after we passed the breaker due to 4 foot swells that would likely have toppled us if we hadn't immediately turned around.  On Saturday night, courtesy of our friend Chad, a few of us went to watch the Sporting Kansas City soccer game, in conjunction with the US vs. Mexico final for the Gold Cup. While Sporting came out on top, the US had a pretty rough defeat at the hand of one of our biggest rivals. It was a high intensity game and we left to the cheers of the Mexico supporters at the end of the game. On Sunday I had the most simple flight to or from Gainesville that I've had yet, no delays and no interruptions, getting me back in town in time to relax before having friends over for the weekly front yard yoga session that I've started to teach.

So other than preparing for Skills, attending Skills, and then doing the wrap-up work post-Skills, June was otherwise a pretty normal month.  I did partake in a few more trips to the atlantic coast to go to the beach. And I over Memorial Day weekend I realized how insane the public beaches in Florida get during those holidays. To all my Californian’s out there, it’s worse in Florida, be thankful you’re on the west coast!

I’m feeling pretty well settled in Gainesville now, and only occasionally do I have to use the GPS on my phone to find places.  I’ve found a yoga studio to take classes at (that I also sometimes teach at as a substitute, which is great). The bad thing is that we’re into the really hot muggy months of Florida summer now. Air conditioning, which I had always considered an optional thing that was never really used, is now a necessity.  I am inside a lot here with work, but some afternoons just leaving I am amazed by the hot mugginess of it.

I hear it’s only this warm through August though, so while it is quite hot, it’s not a depressingly long period of excessive heat.

This month I get to really dive in to my ‘realm’ of projects at work, doing a lot of outreach to our youth programs and their affiliates. I’ll also be traveling to a conference in Nashville at the end of the month for a High Schools that Work Conference. I’m really excited as this is my first solo trip…wish me luck!

Now, this weekend is the 4^th. We took another big group trip to the beach on Saturday, and tonight one of our friends, who’s house we refer to as the “swinger pad” (it looks like a 1990’s pad, big open rooms, angled walls and ceiling, overall an awesome place) is hosting a 4^th of July barbecue which is sure to be fun.  I don’t know how they shoot off or see fireworks in this part of the world as the trees limit ones view of the sky, but I’m set on finding a nice place to watch some fireworks go off on Monday.

I hope everyone has a great long weekend and happy Independence Day!

Settling In

Oh my goodness it's been a while since I've last given an update via this lovely blogsite of mine. And to think of all that has occurred.

I guess the good news that comes with the fact that I haven't been writing is that I've made some really wonderful friends over the last month and the relationships have just blossomed into adventures!

It all started with a wonderful trip to Anastasia State Park on the Atlantic Coast. A group of nearly 20 of us carpooled there (about 1.5 hours) and after lugging a massive cooler about half of a mile to get to the perfect beach spot, we set up shop for a day of ocean wave wading, volleyball, sunshine and fun.  While I did receive a bit of a sun burn (the sun in Florida is like nothing I've ever experienced) the day was excellent.

I've also done some more Gainesville exploring. Trying not only the local Mexican place owned by the drummer from ___, but I got a gym membership (purely for yoga-class taking purposes), I've started to enjoy a few of the other local restaurants, and I've become very good friends with a checkout lady at the local grocery store Wards. 

My apartment is finally looking like a functional home. I now even have a very nice set of silverware courtesy of my mom :)  My paintings that were stored in San Diego have now arrived and I even have barstools at my kitchen counter. I'm all sorts of established in my little apartment now.

The long weekend was really excellent here. Not only did my new large group of friends have a great night out on Friday. We then took another day for the beach on Saturday, followed by an awesome and loud dinner that evening. The next day a few of us rose early to go to a local farm and pick peaches ($1.50 per pound) and we ended up with about $25 dollars worth of them between three of us (I have eaten So many peaches, and created so many random peach recipes in the last week it's quite silly).  Later we attended a big Brazilian barbecue hosted at a friends house that's referred to as the "swinger" pad due to it's 1990's sprawling yet geometric architecture.  That night concluded with an art sale at the house. Monday was the day of recovery and at the end of it I was fortunate to have a few friends come over to my place where I lead a sunset yoga session on the grass.  What a beautiful life!


As I said, Florida has more SUN than I've ever experienced. It's ALWAYS sunny. You may laugh and think how I lived in San Diego for all those years and how it must be sunny there. But it wasn't. San Diego gets the June gloom, the summer days always start off with the marine layer blocking out most sun. So while it's bright, it's not sunny.  Here in Florida the sun shines without fail ALL the time. Seriously, there's very rarely a cloud to block the sun, and when there is it's a massive torrential downpour, so you aren't outside anyway.  While it's been quite warm (upper 80's on average), I've still managed to only turn on my air conditioning on rare occasions, so I'm proud to be doing my best to conserve there (though the car is another story)

Work has been challenging of late, but I'm really starting to feel more comfortable in my role and with the company (I think I actually understand most of what we do now) so I'm really jumping into some projects now. As was determined, I get to focus on the youth initiatives, so I've been working hard to help the team develop and plan for the SkillsUSA National Carpentry competition, which our company hosts. I'm a double duty attendee of the conference this year, working both my normal job with the confrence VIP's and media but also helping my company with its hosting of the competition. It should be a great new way to experience the conference and I'm learning a whole new aspect of what it takes to run the national conference. An excellent learning experience all around.

With so much time to cover I could go on, but I think I've covered the most recent highlights. All in all, things are wonderful, people are excellent, and while I miss my friends from all the other places in the world, I think I'll be happy calling this little tree town of Gainesville my home for a few years :)

12 Hours on the Water-A Sailing Race Adventure

It was a busy week at work last week. We're in the final stages of creating a 'relationship management' database through which we can begin to track and be accountable for, well, the relationships that we form and develop as a  Workforce Development Team. So I was very much looking foward to a lazy weekend of cleaning up the house and reading some classics through iBooks on my brand new IPhone (yes I finally made the switch from the old Blackberry, and while I miss my keyboard, the accessibility of applications via the IPhone are much worth it)

So there I was having a nice evening in on Friday evening. I cooked up a stirfy ensemble of fresh green beans, yellow squash, corn, celery, green bell peppers (my coworkers and I all pitched in for a weekly box of vegetables from local farms, very cool, check it out at http://homegrowngainesville.wordpress.com) and was watching the latest Harry Potter film when I got a call from a recent acquaintance that I had made through the Gainesville Power and Sail Squadron (a group here in Gainesville that hosts events and educational opportunities for people with boat). He happened to be entered in a "Mug Race" (http://www.rudderclub.com/mug.html), which also happens to be "the longest sailboat river race in the country". At a wopping 38.5 nautical miles, he informed me that there were many years that, due to lack of wind, no one would finish the entire race. And most years, it would take people nearly 12 hours to finish.  So, did I want to come along and crew his Sirius 21 foot sailboat with him?

With an opportunity like that, of course I said yes! So I planned to rise at 5:30 the next morning and hit the road to Palatka (about an hour away) where I'd meet him at a marina and jump on the boat to start the race at 7:30. 

Sunrise on the drive west to the St.

His boat is a definite fixer-upper. The two days prior, he had sailed the race course going the opposite direction and had found he had some problems taking on water. So we had some bailing out to plan to do if things got too windy. Other than that he explained that she sailed fine and that the jib (little front sail) was mine to man.

At 7:30 we were off, and after some initial complications with some of the rigging not being up correctly, we were on our way.  Partway through the course, Bill (the man I was sailing with) decided to go wide through one of the bends in the river and then cut across the top section. As crew I just followed along, but in my head, I knew that even if the wind was excellent we'd be putting ourselves way off course and likely fall behind anyway.  Well, it turned out the wind wasn't good like he had projected, putting us about 45 minutes behind the other boats. On a 12 hour course, that's understandable, but it still didn't feel good.

Notice how flat the water is-sailing on glass! Not a good thing!

And then...the wind died. We were sailing on glass, which essentially meant we were not sailing at all but sitting on the water and waiting.  Here and there for the next 4 hours we had some good runs with wind. But when we arrived at a long stretch that we expected to be blowing with wind it was totally dead.  Bill called a friend who was on land and asked him what kind of time we were making (if there was any way we'd make it by the 8:30pm race end time).



After some calculations, he reported that at the rate we were going, we'd make it to the finish in approximately 38 hours.

Ouch. So, with neither of us having a true agenda to be competitive in the race, we decided to sail a bit longer, and then motor on back to our start marina and then take my car to Jacksonville (30 minutes by road) and celebrate with those who had finished (not that we were expecting there to be many people).  After a free spaghetti dinner and some beer, 8pm rolled around and the first boats started to come in (remember, that's after over 12 hours on the water). The only people that ended up finishing the race by the cutoff were about 10 catamarans (who are always faster than monohaul boats) and the other 180+ boats were at various intervals along the river.

To say the race were a success would be false, but even without success I had a wonderful time and made a few new friends (and boy am I tan!)

I'm so happy to be involved in sailing here in Florida. It's definitely one community that I'll continue to be a part of throughout my time here. :)

A little bit of an update

I find myself in a bit of a funny position because in many ways I don't feel like I've been up to a whole lot since I've arrived here in Gainesiville and started working. But then again, I've been doing so so very much!

Every day after work I find myself running errands to various hardware, home and grocery stores to pick up little things that will make life a little bit easier. (A spatula being the most recent necessary acquisition). Nearly every day after work I'm off running errands or picking things up until nearly 7pm before I come home to cook myself a nice meal (in my one skillet or single sauce pan). I will say that as far as the techniques of cooking, having few tools to work with sure makes one become creative (think cutting up a pineapple with a butter knife and pair of scissors).  I've started to do the actual sewing on the few fabric projects that I purchased materials for, and while the 1960's sewing machine that I bought for $20 on Craigslist is winning against me in my struggles to make it work, I've gotten a bit better at hand stitching and have already completed a curtain and finished a few small pillows.

Really, everything so far has been a fun challenge in seeing how I could make do without the tools I'm used to using to complete the projects and daily operations that I'm accustomed to doing. I still need to buy some hangers and a small dresser, but in the meantime have found the boxes that some of my belongings were shipped in to be excellent substitute drawers and sometimes tables. It's really a story of making due with what I have.

You may be curious why I haven't just gone and bought all of these basic 'necessities'. Well, for start, I'm trying to be a responsible budgeter. But on top of that, Gainesville stores just do not have the quality or diversity of things that I would choose to purchase for my home! It's fascinating to me the amount of effort it took me just to find a pair of sheets that I really wanted! Now, maybe I'm a little bit picky, but never before have I had such a hard time finding things I like. And to top both of these things off, I find that I still have a large aversion to owning 'stuff'. It's somewhat funny, but I'm still having a hard time unpacking the last of my things from the suitcases that I've lived out of for the past year. I'm now in a place where I can do some real-time getting-settled-in-one-place-for-a-while, but it freaks me out to think of a life so...stable! It may seem silly, but the last year that I spent living out of a backpack with few things really worked for me!

On another note, I've kept to beign myself and have been sure to have a few adventures since I've arrived here. My first weekend I drove from Gainesville to the Atlantic coast and drove down along the water with my coworker Miriam. Last weekend I traveled to the Florida Key, Marathon, to spend the long Easter weekend with my good San Diego friend Kat, and this weekend I adventured out to St. Augustine, the US's oldest city, to explore cobbled streets and visit old lighthouses.

Work is going well as I'm getting more used to the company and the ways that it works, I'm still learning and waiting to find where I fit into the whole organization, but I can only say good things about my coworkers, the company, and their reception of me so far. I'm a pretty lucky girl.

Soon I'll have some updates on my travels (the Florida Keys were Amazing!) and some more insider scoops on Gainesville (and the groups I'm getting involved with including the Power and Sail Squadron and Alachua County Emerging Leaders). Hopefully I'll be out on my road bike soon (it's arrived but I have to pump up the tires) and possibly I'll be visiting some 'long lost' family in Alabama in not too long!  Lots to look forward to!

The 9-5 life (or should I say 8-6:30?)

I’ve now completed two full weeks of work. And boy have I been soaking up a lot!  I don’t know that I can go into too much detail on specificities, but I’d like to share a little about what kind of role I’m evolving into at work.

First, I am the newest addition to an amazing team of individuals that makes up the National Center for Construction Education and Research, Workforce Development team. Our role is primarily business development, outreaching to schools, companies, and groups to encourage the use of the NCCER educational programs that offer standardized curriculum and a portable credential in nearly 60 construction fields (ranging from crane operations to bricklaying). It’s a system through which both construction companies benefit (they have skilled and trained workers) and individuals benefit (their credential proves that they have certain skills, so when the start work for a new company, they don’t have to start in entry level positions). It’s really a wonderful program of standardization for training within the industry and it is supported by the leading construction companies in the world. A very cool partnership really.

The Workforce development team that I am part of is made up of 4 individuals and myself. All of us come from very different backgrounds. One was in construction and then taught construction trades at the high school and university level, another came from managing the workforce development for one of the largest construction companies in the US, another worked their way up from mail room clerk to Executive Assistant for the President of the organization, and then was brought onto the WFD team, and yet another has been there for years and knows more about the employment/unemployment and construction industry data than probably any person out there.  Everyone comes together wonderfully with our different strengths and I really see our team being a force as we learn to work together and assist each other even more throughout our time as a team.

It felt like things started off pretty slow as during my first week the focus was for me to simply meet everyone in the office and read every piece of literature we produce to get familiar with it. But by Monday of week two we found lots of work to do on the basic research for a white paper (essentially an industry research paper) that we’re supposed to have for publication by April 18^th! Such a fast deadline, but our team has come together in an amazing way and I think that we’ll at least have a draft in time.

It started off slow, but I’ve now had an orientation with every department in the company and my collaborative drive is already whirring with ways that we can all work together more. I’m excited to continue diving in and understanding more as I’m continually introduced to new aspects of the company.

And did I mention that I have my own office? It's slowly becoming mine

In the near future I’ll begin traveling (I’m going to be doing quite a lot of it), starting with attending a Master Trainer class (it’s our required “train the trainer” program that every company must send one individual to in order to start certifying educators to teach NCCER curriculum). I’ve already gotten a brief introduction to how our organization supports SkillsUSA (something very close to my heart) and I’m excited to get to play a part in how our relationship works with the organization (we currently sponsor the National Carpentry competition for SkillsUSA).

So much learning. Wonderful people to work with and learn from. And some excellent challenges. I’m very excited to be here and be working!

You Should Probably buy a New Bed

So here I was with a real job and an apartment and absolutely no furniture or the makings of what you need to live in an empty house.  I went on a drive with one of my coworkers to go visit the historic Florida town of St. Augustine and in our conversation, she offered me the use of a futon type piece of furniture that I could use to sleep on until I had the bed situation figured out. I had to buy some pillows for it, but overall it was a great place to sleep for the first few days.

But still, I needed to get a real bed. Still being in the college living expenses state of thinking, I thought to go to Craigslist but upon mentioning this was warned of the rampant bed bug problem in Gainesville and told I should just buy a new bed.

This was another expense I wasn’t particularly expecting, and shoot, how much do brand new beds even cost?  So it was off to a bed supply store for me. I went with the first place that turned up on a Google search for “mattress store” and while the outside looked a bit dingy, inside they had a beautiful display of beds. After a brief introduction of the layout of the showroom, I went bed by bed and found those that felt the best. Going back and forth, laying on different beds, I narrowed it down to two and then started to look into the prices. They were much more than I wanted to pay, but I really needed a bed. I beckoned the salesman and told him that I wanted ‘this’ bed but that I was only looking to pay around $600 (it was priced $825).  He brought it down to $670 for me and with a look of indecision from me he took to his pricing book. He told me that the absolute lowest he could go was $620 out the door and I said “excellent”.

He let me know that the price included a frame, box spring, mattress and free delivery, so it turns out I did even better than I expected! Because they didn’t have the bed in stock it would take till Friday (this was on Sunday) for the bed to come in. I had the futon so I told him not to worry.

They delivered the bed Friday during my lunch break and had it set up in a matter of minutes.  I signed some paperwork and then ate my quick lunch on the bed, contemplating the color scheme I would soon be moving forward with as my apartment was finally starting to take shape!

And yes, the bed is wonderfully comfortable. I hadn’t had a new-new bed since I was a child so I’ve been feeling very spoiled (thank goodness for tax returns to make it possible!)

Setting up life

My goodness, I can’t believe that nearly two weeks have now passed of me living and working here in Gainesville! In this post I’m going to explain the process of me getting set up with an apartment, and car, though I may have to expand into tangential posts to explain everything because they’re just been so much!

Work had flown me out to Gainesville three days prior to my official start date so that I had some time to start getting my life settled before starting to work. I enjoyed a number of café’s and restaurants and even made my very first friend while watching a soccer game at a local bar called Mothers (excellent spot).

Apartment Hunt

In the first two days I think I visited every apartment complex in the city that had open units. It’s a really interesting dynamic here. First, cost of living is much lower than what I am used to (thanks for the inflated sense of apartment value SD) but prices still are high in some areas due to proximity to the University of Florida. The range of apartments is huge. Some are tall towers resembling hotels, others are little bungalows spread out around “ponds” (which honestly are enormous puddles that stick around all year because of the mass amounts of rain). Some are renovated and beautiful, others are very obviously used and lived in. And most of the one bedrooms’ are shaped exactly the same way—more of a long mobile home than an apartment, so as you walk in from the door you pass through each living space individually.

For me it came down between two quite different but individually beautiful places. It turned out the smaller of the two one based on proximity to things and price, and after a week here I’m so so glad with the decision.  While I’m not currently in my exact apartment that I’ll live in for the year (I wanted one surrounding the inner lawn with a pool, they said it would be open, then the people didn’t move out when expected so I said I’d take another apartment till they move out. Well, they’re out and I’m just waiting for the okay for me to switch places!)  It’s wonderful because the community is ultra quiet, the place is small but very cozy, and I even got out to enjoy the pool and sunshine today (though I didn’t last long in the 90 degree heat!)

Vehicle

I really wanted to get a vespa when I moved here. They’re extremely affordable, fun, and the weather is usually nice enough to warrant riding one. While I had much family opposed to such an idea, I was just not feeling the whole “buy a junky used car” option that seemed like my only other choice. But, before I moved to Florida I had done some research on car leasing, just in case I’d need a car after all.

So here I was, set on a vespa, and then in talks with my boss (wonderful guy) he made it very clear that a manager level employee should probably have an enclosed vehicle, particularly as I may be looked to travel in it occasionally. I wasn’t really interested in buying an old used car and I sure don’t have the funds to buy new, but I had looked into leasing as a viable option. The only problem there is that leases usually require a few thousand dollars down and really excellent credit. Fortunately for me, I heard of this thing called Swap-a-lease, where you take over other people’s leases, getting out of all the multi-thousand dollars of origination and lease fees. You simply apply for a swap and then start taking over payments.  I had spoken with a number of car owners and was ready to move forward with a lease option with someone but they kept falling through.

Finally, I got fed up with waiting around on people and decided to just go to the dealer.  I changed from my after-work running clothes and called the Toyota dealer to ask if they’d be willing to talk with me about leasing if I showed up about 5 minutes before close. They said come on in and so I did.

I sat down with a gentleman named Mike and told him what I wanted. I specified a monthly payment, told him I didn’t want to make a down payment but if necessary I could, and that I wanted to walk out the door tonight with a car.  Of course, car dealers love to hear that so we discussed car options (thought thinking back I just told him “get me a car at this price”, so when he came back with a Camry at the exact prices I asked).  The reason I got it so cheap (this payment was less than anything I had heard of for a lease, let alone a brand new upgraded Camry—he asked if I planned on coming in on the last day of the month and told me that’s the only reason I got such an amazing payment! Talk about fortune!

I filled out paperwork and he realized I just graduated from college. Turns out Toyota has a program for recent grads where there are no down payments or origination fees if you graduated within two years! So there went the biggest fee I was expecting to pay, I simply gave him my first month down payment in cash (I had it because I was expecting to move forward with a vespa purchase in cash)!  Then he sent my paperwork to be processed and we walked outside where I picked my exact vehicle from the lot.  After I chose it, we finalized paperwork and I made plans to go back the next day and get my car! It’s a 2011 Toyota Camry and it has all the perks, electric windows and locks and CD players and an AV hookup. It’s quite nice.

So there I was, papers signed for a brand new car and an apartment to move into whenever I was ready! My work was relieved when I told them I had signed a contract on a place-it meant I wasn't going to decide to leave anytime soon!

Getting grounded in Gainesville :)

As you may know, earlier this month I was given the choice between two wonderful job offers and I made my decision in the affirmative on the one that would take me to Gainesville, Florida.  Once the decision was made, moving plans were developed and I would have 2 weeks of time before my start date with the NCCER.

I spent a wonderful final week in Minneapolis, visiting many of the spots that had been my life during my four months there and soaking up as much time with Tom as I could.  But a decision was made that I would spend a week in Colorado before the move, giving me time to recoup around family and relax in the springtime mountain air.

My time at home was really wonderful. Not only did I get a weekend of fun with my sisters (we found an amazing playground), I spent lots of time reliving family stories with mom, was visited by two of my closest Wyomingite friends, and then I spent a full day in Cheyenne visiting friends, high school teachers, doctors, and even my junior high basketball coach!  It was great to be able to make the trip up to Wyoming and send my thanks yet again to all those people who inspired and encouraged my to aspire to the wonderful life I now live.

But after a week it was off to Florida for me!! The company brought me out a few days before I am to report to the office so that I'd have time without work to find a place to live and a vehicle to transport me around this bustling little college town.

On Gainesville
Gainesville is a college town in every sense of the word. The majority of the 100k residents are either students or individuals that work for the university (even my company is an affiliate of the school).  Everywhere one goes there are signs cheering on the college teams, the Gators (who are quite exception in their NCAA rankings).  Even the local grocery store chain, Publix, has blue and orange themed design.  The town has (as far as I've found) about four different "areas" that each come with their different vibes. First is a distinct and wonderful old(ish) brick and cobblestone downtown area, next a southern part which is dedicated to the mall and other chain-type businesses, the university campus which takes up the entire center of the town, and then a sprawling and heavily wooded northern residential and somewhat commercial area.

To be honest the entire town is heavily wooded. One can see very little when on a road or outside due to the immense and dense spreads of trees that tower upwards of thirty feet into the air.  I have a near feeling of claustrophobia at some points because from my life in the west I'm so used to the wide open skies and expansive ocean views.  What I love, however, is the beautiful green of the landscape, the smell of ever-blooming flowers, and the crispness of the morning air-I'm definitely not in a city here.

After two days of searching , I found an apartment that I know I will love.  While it's not in the downtown area that I've been spending all of my time, I know it will be a nice place to call home for my first year here (this was a very awkward time to look for an apartment as, in college towns, the big moving seasons are late May and early August) and it is only 5 miles from the office.  I'm pretty happy because I think I scored with this newly remodeled, adorable little one bedroom apartment that amazingly has some good natural light (the trees make it so hard!) and a very agreeable rental price. I won't be able to move in until next week due to the maintenance time needed so spruce the place up, but until then I'm being put up in a great little long-stay hotel equipped with a fridge and burners so that I can cook my own food :)

I'm now in the process of a vehicle hunt and, while I have considered and researched car leasing options, I've decided to go with a vespa (an Italian brand scooter/moped) for the beginning of my time here. As many of you know, I'm not a big fan of driving and/or vehicles, so a vespa seemed a good alternative to my bicycle and the local bus options (which I will often take weather permitting). What's wonderful that as a university town, the students too have embraced the little scooters as an affordable and fun way to get around town, so they fill the streets and parking lots, AND, to satisfy those that worry, that means that the cars are also used to looking out for the little guys, so it will be safer to drive them here.

So now, here I am on the Sunday before my first week of work in a "real job", enjoying a chai latte at a cafe called Maude's and enjoying the shade and breeze on their outdoor patio.  Tomorrow is my first day! Maybe I should go buy a new outfit so everything is new and fresh :)