All About Work

Well, I said I was gonna post about work, I just didn't expect it to take quite this long. But, I have the day off, so I figured I'd sit down and tell you guys all about it!

So, I think most of you know this, but the end of July I got a job at Safeway in our small town. I applied for Starbucks, which is what my friend Rachel was doing at the time, and is what I really wanted to do.

I applied online the beginning of June. The next day I went in to the store to talk to a manager, because on the website it said that they would contact me to set up an interview, but Rachel had said that I had to initiate contact with them. So I went in to figure out what to do. I talked to Robyn, who was the assistant manager, and she said that I should talk to Cindy, who is the in-store hirer. She happened to be out of town, so I was told to come back when she got back, which was about a week and a half later. So I did. I'm going to attribute this with the fact that the reason she was gone was because she was at her sister's funeral, but Cindy was pretty snappy with me. She told me that they didn't have any openings, but took my name and phone number, and said that they might need a courtesy clerk in a couple of weeks, and would contact me when they were hiring.

So I waited. Nothing much was really happening, so I talked with Rachel about it (she was such a big help in all of this!), and she said to go in and talk to Ryan, the manager. She said that he would definitely give me a job. So I went in to talk to Ryan. Cindy was at the front desk, and she knew right away what I was there for, and told me that Ryan was busy, and that I should come back to talk to him later, and took my name and phone number again. She gave me a day and a time to talk to him, so I came back then. When I did, I had to catch him while he was stocking stuff, and I got the same "We aren't hiring right now, but we might need a courtesy clerk in a couple of weeks" speech. I was getting pretty discouraged, because I really, really wanted a job, and I had already talked to every single person I knew to talk to. Joline, one of the cashiers, knew that I was trying to get a job, and thought it was weird when they said they weren't hiring, but I just let it go.

Towards the middle of July, I got a call from Rachel, and she said that she was working right then, and that her Starbucks manager wanted to talk to me (In case it's not clear, Starbucks is a kiosk inside of Safeway, so even though I'd be working at Starbucks, I'd have to apply to Safeway, and would be a Safeway employee). So, I went down there, and met Laura, the Starbucks manager. She liked me right away, and I really liked her. She took my name and number, and then found out when I could work, was I still in school, etc. and then, since it wasn't too busy, I just hung around there for awhile. I really liked Laura, and was super excited, because I really hoped that this would mean I could finally get the job. Again, it was weird, because Laura had said she had been looking for someone for a long time, but whatever. So I go home, and a couple of hours later I get a call from someone in Phoenix, asking me all of these pre-screening questions. Yay! That was the next step before I could have an interview.

Another couple of days passed, and I didn't hear anything about an interview, so I went in to the store to talk to Laura. She called Ryan, and he told me to come in the next afternoon for an interview. I was so happy on the drive home, because it had been about 6 weeks by this time since I had first applied. So, I went in that afternoon (I think it was a Friday) for my interview. I was kind of nervous, but I had prayed the whole entire drive, and based on what Rachel told me, I was pretty confident about getting the job. The hardest part was I had to wait for Ryan for about 15 minutes up in the break room. I was by myself, and that's when my nerves started to flare again. But, I prayed some more, and I was fine again. The interview went great. The only questions I really got tripped up on were the ones like "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" Geez, I don't know. I'm just hoping I'm alive! I'm not the type of person that thinks that far into the future. He explained the importance of marketing, and then asked me to pretend like I'm selling him my favorite food or drink. I tried to 'sell' him my favorite Starbucks drink, and he told me that was one of the best ones he'd heard since he started managing that store. :D Thanks Rachel for the heads up about that question so I could prepare! :D He never said specifically that I got the job, but generally things like "I think you're gonna be great to work with" means I got the job. :D The only downside was that Laura wasn't certified to train, so I'd have to drive 30 miles to train somewhere else. But I mean, in the scheme of things, that's not too bad. :)

About a week later, I went in for my drug test. Cindy asked me if I would be opposed to being a cashier for a little while, because she really needed someone right away. I said that if that was what I needed to do, than I would. She started me on training that day. :D I wasn't too happy about it, but of course I wasn't going to say no. I finished my training in a couple of days, and started on the registers! It was a little scary at first, but all of the cashiers were so nice, and were willing to help me with everything.

I did the cashiering for a couple of weeks, which I actually found to be a lot of fun. The only thing I didn't particularly like was the closing shift, which is from 4 in the afternoon to midnight. Eek. For someone that's usually in bed at 9:00, working until midnight was no picnic. But, I got used to it, and it wasn't so bad.

Around the middle of August, I was told that I was going to start my Starbucks training the next week. I guess I had to wait for the Starbucks manager at the store that I was going to to have time to train me. So, I did. And it was awesome. Tanisha, the lady who trained me, was awesome. The training was 4 days, but I only ended up doing 2 days there. Laura became certified that week, and didn't see any reason why I should keep training there, especially since the kiosks were so different. So, I finished my training with Laura. Well, at least I think. I'm kinda not even sure if I'm a certified barista. :D At least she never said so. By the time I got to Laura, I pretty much knew how to make most of the drinks, brew the coffee, stuff like that, so there really wasn't that much she had to teach me, except that I worked middle-of-the-day shifts while training, so I didn't know how to open or close. The first day Laura showed me how to open, and the second day Carrie, one of the other baristas, showed me how to close. It was kind of stressful my first time doing both of them by myself, but now they're easy. I mostly close, but occasionally I'll open.

I absolutely love working at Starbucks, Laura is amazing, and I love Carrie, Sabrina and Gilberto, the other baristas. Gilberto moved over to Starbucks right after I did (he was a cashier before too), and it was kind of funny the first time that it was just the two of us, without Laura there, because neither of us had a very solid grasp of what we were doing, and it was just amusing trying to make drinks, keep on top of the brewing system, and keep our sanity. :D

So anyway, there's my story! Sorry it's really long, but I wanted you guys to know all at I've been up to lately! I had today off, and it was so nice to not have to be in town. It seems like that's all I've been doing on my days off. Church and voice lessons. Not that I don't love either of those things, I do, it's just been nice having a day off where I can sit at home and do practically nothing. :D

Ok, and there you have it! Maybe sometime later this week I'll tell you about the craziest thing that's happened to me so far. :D

Awkward and Awesome

Was May 2nd really my last post?!? Wow..... It feels like it was just yesterday. My life has been so crazy and hectic lately, and is totally different than it was a couple of months ago. I have an awful lot to say, but I figured for right now I would just start with an awkward and awesome post. :)

Awkward:

~ That silence when you're talking to someone, but you both run out of things to say, so you just kinda sit there.....

~ When you go to work with Dad, and you see a realtor that you haven't seen in a couple of months. He doesn't remember your name, so he addresses you as "Number 1". :/

~ There's a certain guy at work (yes, I said work, I'll explain in the awesome part) that I'm pretty sure is 17, and there have been a couple of times when I'm pretty sure he's been staring at me, but I'm not sure, so I've just kind of ignored it and not made eye contact with him. That's awkward. 

~ When you're at your dad's softball game, and you make a teasing comment to one of the guys (who says things like that to you all the time, and totally deserves it), so he throws his glove at you (there's a fence inbetween us, so he can't actually hit me), and it falls into the trashcan and gets gum on it. Oops. :D

~ When you're at an appointment, and there's cats in the house. You're really allergic to cats, so you're sneezing like you have a chronic illness or something, and nobody else is batting an eye.

~ When a guy asks you to cover his shift a certain day, but you can't do it, so he has to, and then the next week they need you to work a certain shift on a day that you can't do it, and they get him to do it. 

~ Having customers who don't speak any English becomes very difficult when you don't speak any Spanish. :/ 

~ Watching a movie that is supposed to be awesome, but none of your family members like it, so when it's over you sit there like "Um, is that it?"

Awesome:

~ Getting a job! This deserves its own post, so I'm not going to say much, but I will say that God has been so good to me, and I now have a job at Safeway! It's been totally awesome, except for working closing shifts, like today when I work from 4 until midnight. Oh well. That's what happens when you're new. :)

~ The fact that my awesome friend Rachel is getting married a week from today! Ah!!!!!!!!! I am seriously so happy for her. :) Her and her fiancé are perfect together, and it's going to be such an amazing wedding. :)

~ New nail polish! Between my birthday a couple of weeks ago, as well as Rachel giving me some she didn't need any more, I have quite a lot of new colors! :)

~ Free tea refills at Starbucks :)

~ My coworkers. They are all so sweet, and have been so nice to me as I've been learning everything. :)

~ The fact that football season starts really soon! If you're not a sports fan, you totally won't get this, but the summer is SO terrible for me, because there's nothing going on! I am not a baseball fan in any way, shape or form, so the couple of months inbetween when basketball ends and football starts are like torture.

~ The fact that (hopefully!) I'll get my first paycheck today! Generally it's Friday, but I (think) I'm set up for direct deposit, and those people get payed Wednesday. Thank goodness, because I need money. :D

~ Phone conversations with your best friend. Man, do I love those. Lots and lots of laughing is involved. :D

~ Good books :)

~ Having 474 followers on my business Instagram. Wow! That's a lot of people! :D

Alright, and that's my awkward and awesome! I have tomorrow off, so I'll try and write a post about my job. :)

Long time, no see!!!

Hey ya'll!!!! Sorry for the lack of posting.... Every time I find something I want to post about, I don't have time, and when I do have time, it happened so long ago it doesn't matter anymore. :D Oh well. I finally decided to sit down and write tonight. I don't know if the post will be worth reading, but we'll see. :D 

This is Danielle's first swing experience!!!! She loved it. :)

I just love this picture. This was her first pair of shoes ever, and it was really cute watching her walk in them for the first time. :)

The Pima Air and Space Museum!!!! That was really fun.

Last month I finally finished the queen blanket I'd been working on! It was SO nice to finish it, and such a weight off my shoulders. I haven't heard anything from my customer, so I don't know if she likes it, but I'm going under the "No news is good news" philosophy. :D 

These are little chick cookies that Nana and I made for Easter. They were pretty fun, although we both had a good laugh about the 'feathers' on top of the head. We even tried wings..... Let's just say it didn't work at all. :D The recipe said to put the feathers on top, so that's what we did, although  we both thought they looked pretty funny. :)

The fair!!!! On Monday a couple of weeks ago we went to the Pima County Fair. It was really fun! We met up with some families from church, which was nice. :) We went on a bunch of rides. By the time we were done I was so tired. :) We even got to see an acrobat show. There were so many times when I went "I can't look I can't look I can't look." There were so many dangerous things that I couldn't believe they were doing. 

Danielle's first merry-go-round experience. :)

One of my favorite things about going with Dad to appointments on Tuesday is that I'm going to houses that have recently sold, and at quite a few of them there is very nice landscaping. I absolutely love taking pictures of flowers; it's one of my favorite things in the world to do.

Jonathan just got his braces off last week, and so we bought him a bunch of Pay Day's! They're his favorite candy bar in the world, but because of the caramel, he couldn't have them when he had his braces on. So, of course, when he got them off, the first thing he got to eat were Pay Day's!

Talking with my dear friend Mikala about the things that we say to other drivers when we're on the road, even though they can't hear us. :D We have the most awesome conversations on the planet. I love that girl so much. :) One of my favorite conversations we've ever had was a couple of weeks ago. We spent probably 30 minutes quoting Olaf lines to each other. Ya know, like "Oh, look at that. I've been impaled." Or, "Hey, do me a favor and grab my butt!" Olaf is one of my favorite characters ever. :) And I'll stop on that now, because otherwise I'd start talking about Frozen itself, and then how great the music is, and then how I sing "Let it Go" every single day, and am still not tired of it, or about how in voice lessons the other day I completely forgot Anna's part to the reprise of "For the First Time in Forever". Yeah, we won't go there.....

This is pretty blurry, but Hannah got this picture yesterday of Danielle in sunglasses. :) This was taken during a period of about 2 seconds inbetween when they were put on and when her hands flew up to take them off. :) 

And this was tonight. We had a recital today (I'll talk about that in another post), and when we got back, it was so nice out that I decided to take my crochet outside. I've never done that before, and it was so nice. :) And of course Serina had to make a guest appearance. :) 

Alright, that's all for right now. That should give you a nice update for now. Tomorrow hopefully I'll do a non-picture post of the other random stuff going on in my life lately. Until then, adios!!!

Pictures

Random car selfie... I take a lot of those when I'm bored. :)

Working on blankets. I'm finally making some headway on my orders. Unfortunately I'm behind on quite a few of them, but I'm just taking it one stitch at a time.

I had to take a screenshot of this game to show Dad, because a friend picked Mercer to upset Duke, and Dad thought he was out of his mind for it. So then of course when Mercer actually did beat Duke I had to point out to Dad that his pick wasn't as crazy as he thought. :D

Hanging out at Grandma's house. My cousin Emily was in town on spring break from college in Florida, and she wanted all of us girls to come so we could have a sleepover. I'm really not sure how Grandma was talked into having 5 girls in the house, but somehow she gave in. I thought my grandpa was going to go crazy. :D

A really messy, not cleaned up manicure. Normally to clean up the edges I use cotton swabs dipped in nail polish remover, but I didn't have any, so I couldn't. Oh well. It looked pretty cool, until the sticker peeled off and I had to redo my ring finger with a glitter French nail. 

Emily got out her laptop, and we took like 30,000 pictures. :D

Today while shopping Danielle fell asleep, and I couldn't stand to wake her up, so Sarah and I just sat in the car eating lunch until she woke up. Ah, the things I do for Short Stuff. :)

These are 2 hooks that I ordered online recently. The one on the right says "Kayla's Corner" on it. I'm so in love with them. Unfortunately, the handle on the mushroom one shattered after a little accident in Las Vegas (long story), which makes me super sad, because it's so cute and I absolutely love it, but it's alright. I'm going to order a new one really soon.  I also want to order some different designs. :)

Ok, that's all for now! 

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my dear sister Hannah! She's 13 years old today - a teenager! Wow. :)

Catch up post!

Sorry guys for the lack of posting! Life has been so hectic since I got back I haven't had the time. I tried to do an award post that I got nominated for, and spent most of the day last Thursday working on it on and off, but I didn't realize that the Blogger app doesn't save posts automatically like the web version does..... So, I lost all of it. :( I'll try again maybe tomorrow. Anyway, I thought I'd post the rest of the pictures from my trip. I'll post random pictures tomorrow, because I have so many trip pictures that if I 

posted them too, the post would be way too long. :)

This is a cool picture I got of our hotel. Well, not the actual hotel - that's the tower. You can't really see the building that the rooms are in.

This is right inside the front entrance to the hotel that the arena was in. They had this cool statue, as well as the flags from all the Pac-12 schools, although in the pic you can only see 3. 

This is some guy from Arizona's band that apparently is pretty famous around McKale (the arena that Arizona plays their games in), but I truthfully had no idea who he was. I was just told to pose for a picture, so I did. :D I had to ask Nana later who he was. :D I guess there was articles in the paper about him, and I guess he stands next to the hoop and makes faces and stuff while the other team shoots free throws and stuff like that. I really have no idea. He looked familiar to me, but again, I had to ask Nana who he was. :D

Wilbur! Sorry, the pics are kind of blurry, but that's what happens when you let other people use your phone to take pictures. :D

This is during Arizona's first game against Utah. They got a first-round bye, so they didn't have to play until the second day. They absolutely crushed them. I think the score at the end of the first half was 39-13. It was so awesome, plus there were so many Arizona fans, it may as well have been a home game. It was like that the whole tournament. :)

Final score :)

The first game of the third day wasn't until 6:00, so we went and did stuff around town before that. This is at Circus Circus. I loved this place. :) It's this hotel and casino, but it has this second level, that is literally like a circus. There's a stage for acts, and you have games and stuff you can play everywhere like at Peter Piper Pizza or something like that. I wish I would have gotten pictures, but we were having so much fun I forgot. :) Aunt Suzie and I played ice hockey (or table hockey, I can't remember exactly what it's called), and let me tell you, it is awesome playing with your 78-year-old aunt. Especially when it gets so intense she stands up out of her walker. :D We ended up tying. This is on the third floor, where they pretty much have an amusement park inside. I only went on one ride; the one in the picture. It's one of my favorite rides at the fair, although here it was bigger, which made it even more awesome. :) There was even a roller coaster, and I thought about going on it, until I saw that it went upside down, and then I was like "Nope, not gonna do it, no way no how." :) 

Aunt Suzie got a new hat at Circus Circus. What do you think? It even lights up. During one of the games, Nana and I went to go get an ice cream cone, and when we came back, we could literally see Aunt Suzie's hat from the other side of the arena. :D A lot of people gave her compliments on it. :)

This is blurry too, but this is at M & M's World. Nana and I walked down there before the games the third day. See that in the back? Yeah, that's all m&m's. The lady that worked there told us it was the biggest candy wall in the world. I didn't even get all of it in the picture. Most of them were just different colors, but there were some different flavors, like raspberry, coconut and mint. I didn't get any of those.

This was the text that Dad sent me right before our game against Colorado. :D I still don't think it works quite the way he said, but Arizona did beat them by a lot. It probably was a public embarrassment. :)

I just had to screenshot this. This is Aaron Gordon from AZ blocking one of Xavier Johnson from Colorado's shot. I just found it too awesome not to screenshot it. :D

The morning of the fourth day Nana and I went to the top of the tower that I showed in the first picture. It was 108 stories up. It was amazing. 

These are statues at Ceasar's Palace. We went there after we went to the tower. The statues were awesome, but the rest of it was terrible. It's a long story, and I would go into it, but it would just bore you. Let's just say trying to find things was a nightmare.

And on the way home! Unfortunately, Arizona lost by 4 in the championship to UCLA, but it's alright. It was still an amazing experience even though my team lost. We all had fun, but by the time the trip was over we were all SO tired and ready to be home. Even though we left the hotel at 7, I didn't get home until about 10:00 at night, because they brought me straight to church. I'm afraid I probably wasn't very sociable to everyone that tried to talk to me! :D 

People have asked me what my overall impression of Las Vegas was. And I think I've determined that I would want to go to the tournament every year, but I wouldn't want to go to Las Vegas every year. Don't get me wrong, it was fun, but... It was crowded, it was loud, and I saw an awful lot of immodesty. Not that you don't see skimpy dresses other places, but it was just pretty overwhelming. Another thing that bothered me was that there was so much traffic. Our hotel was about 3 to 3 1/2 miles away from the arena, but because of the traffic and all the lights, it took us over a half hour to get back every single night. It wasn't that much fun, especially on those days when we'd already been at the arena for over 8 hours. 

What I did enjoy was getting to watch all the basketball, and especially spending so much time with my aunt and grandma. That's something I'll never forget. Plus, I got to see a lot of really awesome things! This trip is definitely something I'll carry with me the rest of my life. :)

Day 1 of the tournament

Day one is over! And boy was it a long one. There were 4 games, each one being about 2 hours long, plus a half hour in between. We got there at about 11 (the first game started at 12), and left at about 9:45 I think, and that was at halftime of the last game. I didn't get to bed until almost 11 last night. I am so worn out, but it was a fun day. And guess what? We get to do it again today! :)

This is the view from our original seats (we didn't end up sitting here). It looks farther easy than it is and I'm not sure why...

This is the view from where we actually ended up sitting. See, the steps are too hard for Aunt Suzie, so we talked with some people, and they moved us to a handicapped section, where she didn't have to climb any stairs. We're level with the walkway. That was really nice.

This is in between sessions. The sessions were 2 games long, and then you had a break to go get food and stuff before the last 2 games. 

This picture is an interesting story.... This guy did contests and giveaways and stuff during timeouts and halftime, and before the second session started and there were a lot of people, Aut Suzie actually managed to flag him down (he was on court), and let him know that she was sitting there, and that he should bring something around for her. Then she got her picture taken with him. Nana and I were laughing so hard. :D

Also, Aunt Suzie decided that she's getting married. You see, there was this guy there who was telling people where their seats were, and she started talking to him. His name is John, he's 83, he's had cancer twice, and he's from Iowa. She figured she knew enough about him that she should get married. :D Nana and I have been laughing ever since then about Aunt Suzie and her 'boyfriend'. She really is a character. :D

Nana says hi!!!

And this is me at breakfast. Oh! I just noticed! I'm wearing the necklace that I bought the first day. What do you think?

Alright, that's it for today. We have another long day of 4 games (Arizona's playing today!), and then tomorrow we only have 2. The first one tomorrow isn't until 6, so we're going to go and do stuff around town, since we haven't had time since we got here except for Tuesday night. I'm hoping to have more pictures, although I already have a bunch as it is.  :D

More pictures

Right now we're hanging out at the hotel before the first game in a couple hours, so I thought I'd post some more pictures.

Last night we went downtown to get dinner and walk around. This whole street was under an arch, and this arch lit up like a movie screen. There was a light show at 8:00, but I didn't get a video. This basketball thing is just what they had going as it was getting dark. It was really cool.

The lights are all really cool. I was thinking yesterday about how much the electric companies in Las Vegas must make.....

Sorry, it's not a very good picture, but this is a necklace I bought last night. While we were sitting waiting for the light show, I was looking over at this jewelry stand, and it was just calling my name the whole time. I'll try and get a picture do it on me soon. It's only 16 inches, which is pretty short, but that's specifically what I asked for. I've always liked my necklaces short. It was way more than I wanted to pay for it, but I figured it would be my splurge for the week. :)

We went to a 50's style diner here in the hotel for breakfast. Aunt Suzie says hi!

Alright, that's all the pictures for now. We're leaving in about an hour and 20 minutes to go to the games, and will be there all day. I'll try and post tomorrow morning again before we go to the arena.

Bye!