At long last, a job!

After ten months of unemployment I finally have a job!!! After sending in tons of job applications to various sources I scored my first interview. I applied in November, interviewed in December, trained in January and will start Monday (aka in February)! It was a long process (including a background check that took me almost two hours to do) but it ended up being worth it. I was hired!

I am an official Library Aid for MCCS.

This week was my MCCS customer service training, three long days of powerpoints and presentations and trust games that at times were enjoyable. Our main trainer was wonderful and tried to make things as fun as possible, which was appreciated, but some presentations were just the kinds you needed to chug caffeine to get through!

Did you know the only 'I' in team is in the a-hole? ;)

 Also being on base for long periods of time was interesting. Especially those moments when helicopters fly so low you feel like you got a little trim off the top of your head!

We also had an interesting little bus tour. I now know where the post office is. Score.

Like I said, our trainer made it fun and every day pumped us up with the Chicago Bulls entrance theme. There was clapping, cheering and maybe even the wave. Well HR got jealous of our fun so one day they started playing the macarena in the hallway and dragged us out of training for a flash mob up and down the hall!

At the end of it all I met my new supervisor and I am pretty excited to start Monday. I will work some evenings but the library I am working in doesn't stay open past 7, so not too late. Also I will probably be working every other weekend, but that is doable. I hope my coworkers like me and I am excited for the opportunity. I will be surrounded by books and that is heavenly to me. We have so many resources that I am anxious to take part in.... if your base has a library check it out! There is so much more than just books.... Rosetta Stone, nooks, DVDs, Wii and XBox and Playstation games for rent, and so much more.

My supervisor took over the library late last year and is open for suggestions and program ideas and I have so many ideas that I hope I can put into fruition.

It has been a long wait but I am so thankful that I got this job. I am hoping it is really meant to be, maybe I had to wait this long because this is the place I needed to go.

Let's hope!

I will keep you posted on how it goes after my first day.

And I plan on auditioning for the show at the community college on Monday so I see a busy few months in my future if I am cast. Fingers crossed!

SpouseBUZZ Live!

This is long overdue! With PCSing in just four days my blogging has fallen behind but I have to try and catch up a bit.

Flying to 29 Palms with SpouseBUZZ was an amazing experience. I got to meet some truly wonderful bloggers like Lori from Witty Little Secret , Sarah, Jacey and Ms Vicki from SpouseBUZZ and Kristle from Forget the Dog Not the Baby.

I was up at around 4am and at the airport and across the country before I was fully awake. The Palm Springs Airport is easily the most gorgeous airport I have ever been to. It was outside and sunny and so warm. Virginia was a brisk 40 degrees when I left and Palm Springs was in the upper 80s! Bliss.







We met up in the airport and went for a delicious lunch together before driving up to 29 Palms to check in to our hotel. It was fancy and on an outdoor patio and delicious. We used the time to get to know one another, just chat and fill in our stories a little bit outside of the internet.



At the hotel we sat out by the pool, remembered to rush and buy Mega Millions Lottery Tickets, and just vegged. Ryan met me there after class and we all hung out and did a rehearsal of our Lightening Talks for the next day. These women are incredible, I was very nervous to be speaking with them, but they made me feel very relaxed and confident in their presence.





We were up bright and early the next day to head to the O Club on base for the conference itself. The spouses that came were pretty terrific too! We all gave our talks first, mine was about GeoBachelorhood... aka the last nine months of my life.





After the talks we broke out into focus groups and made top ten lists that correlated with the topics we discussed, mine being (naturally) 10 Advantages for GeoBachelorhood. I thought nine months was rough... some of the wives in my group have been doing it for YEARS. One woman's husband was in 29 Palms and she is in Utah with their two kids, working full time, for the past three years. And there is not really an end in sight for them.



After that the girls insisted Ryan and I take off and spend time together. They knew being apart was rough and Ryan helped with set up and the like so they were appreciative! My husband scored some brownie points! He borrowed a friend's car and we drove back to Palm Springs to check in to our next hotel. After a nap we went out and FINALLY saw the Hunger Games (SO good!) and went out to a nice dinner.

The next morning I was flying back to Virginia

I hope I get to go to another SpouseBUZZ event in the future. Jacey, Randy, Vicki, Lori, Sarah and Kristle were fabulous and the weekend was a learning experience as well as a blast. If they ever hold an event in your area... GO! It is worth it, even if you do have to wake up early on a Saturday!

Before and After

Before: Saturday 3pm







After: Saturday 7pm










My first new car! And Ryan's truck which he has had for a little bit now. We traded in our old cars and got the Chevy Cruse (I named it Tom as per Ryan's suggestion... think about it!) for me to drive. SO excited!!!

New

New Name.
New Layout.
New State.
New Job.... soon.
New Blog.

I'm working on it! I am home in NJ. My graphics skills are horrible so I have no idea what to do for a header... but I am getting there.

And I got a wedding dress last night!

Stay with me folks! More to come...