Saturday, August 19, 2006

Our day in Santa Monica

Tom and I spent the morning/early afternoon in Santa Monica at the beach and the farmer's market. We took the Big Blue Bus (which is very cheap and takes you straight to Santa Monica) and then walked around and partook of some wonderful fruit and vegetables. We made it home with raspberries, blueberries, and white raspberries. Here are a few pictures from our day:









Thursday, August 17, 2006

sorry, no pictures

A lot has gone on since I posted anything last, so we'll see if I can remember everything.

I attempted to make our little blog a little better. The only problem is that I don't know how to make the new background wide enough. So . . . if you have a small window, it might look okay, but if you maximize your window, it doesn't quite work. Just bear with me until I have enough time to fix it.

I started my job on Tuesday this week. It is a little exhausting (I do a couple of trips around campus everyday collecting) and then I do a lot of sorting and scanning and data entry. I know that it sounds boring, but the people I work with are really nice and funny and everyone chats while they work. Also, it's interesting to glance through the charts while I'm working on them. I like the office because there are only about ten employees (I am the ONLY white employee in the whole office, ha ha) and so the place is pretty quiet and I already know everybody. The biggest adjustment has been that I now have to wear shoes all of the time. As a long time flip-flop-lover, things are not going very well. I have a blister on my pinky toe. I visited Tom on campus today (today was the first day of his orientation) and had to walk back to work barefoot because they hurt so much. I just want to wear flip flops.

Well, Tom had orientation today. He said that they mostly just reassured everyone that they really belonged. He did a lot of walking, his legs are sore, his peers are very diverse, and they spent half of the day talking about diversity. He is taking Civil Procedure, Torts, Contracts, and Lawyering Skills. Everyone has to take the same classes so they just split everyone into sections. Tom is in section 2 so he will only have other people who are in section 2 in his classes. Today he made friends with a Hasidic Jew and a University of Texas graduate.

The other news is that I changed my cell phone number. We needed a local number so that we can buzz people in through our gate, so I went ahead and changed mine. The new number is:

310-691-9966

I guess that's it. I have been praticing my cooking skills and have recently made lasagna, meatloaf, and scalloped potatoes. That's a bigger accomplishment than it probably sounds . . .

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

pictures and good news

The good news is that I got a job. I am very excited. I got the job at UCLA; I'm not really sure about the details yet, but I am going in to meet with the human resources to fill out paperwork and then I start on Monday.

And here are some pictures of the apartment. I don't know if the pictures quite do the place justice, but basically our furniture fit perfectly so there is barely an inch between any two pieces of furniture.

I'll post more details about the job as I find them out.









Friday, August 04, 2006

California Report

Well, Tom and I have just about settled into our tiny little apartment. We got to LA on Tuesday and our stuff got here on Wednesday so we have everything IN the apartment, but not everything has a home yet.

So far we are really liking Westwood. Just about everything is within walking distance (various shops, reataurants, grocery stores, and Best Buy). The traffic (so far) hasn't been too bad and we have yet to meet any of our neighbors. Our windows overlook the intersection of two streets so there is frequent honking, lots of loud music, and plenty of interesting conversations that drift in through the window. Though our main room is quite small, our kitchen and bathroom are infinitely better than our last place so I guess we can't complain too much. We did have to give up our small couch and hopes of getting a bookshelf, but other than that our furniture fits perfectly within the room. Right now we have about 90% of our things unloaded and hope to get the rest finished up this weekend. Once we have found a place for everything, I promise to post some pictures.

So far I have had three job interviews. Two of them were for one job (the first was just a screening interview and the lady who screened me has actually hired me to tutor her son in math on Saturdays). That job is literally across the street from the ocean and involves setting up long term health plans for large businesses. The pay is ok, but it is a little further than I was hoping to commute. The second job is working for UCLA scanning medical records into a database. While it sounds less interesting, it does pay (quite a bit) more and it is only three blocks from our apartment. I won't find out about either of those until sometime next week and have been applying other places in the meantime.

Other than that we have been filling our time setting up our utilities, internet, and applying for student loans. We attended our UCLA ward last Sunday and REALLY liked it. Our chapel is behind the temple and is old and beautiful. Most of the students who are currently in the ward are in law or dental school, so Tom has already made some friends with his classmates. He starts school two weeks from today so we have a little while to recover from the move before his classes begin . . .

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

new apartment

Ok, I just have a minute to post some pictures because we are borrowing the starbucks internet while we attept to set up all of the utilities/internet for our apartment. So, here are a few pictures. We will give more detail once we get our own internet set up.