2011-02-13

2011-02-13, originally uploaded by emmjaneane.

on the way home from a trip to the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. the sun is setting and reflecting off the Sacramento downtown buildings.

so pretty :)

2011-01-10

2011-01-10, originally uploaded by emmjaneane.

My Day 10 of my version of Project 365. More to follow!

The Hunt

I am hunting. Job hunting that is. I have not been in the active job market for some time. I have moved around with in my current employer for the past 4 years. Before that I was with the same company for 6 years. So, its all new (again) to me. I am job hunting because I am getting married and moving to So Cal. Therefore, as our last name isn’t Trump or Gates, I must find employment. It can be overwhelming, daunting and depressing. I know some people that have been out of work for a year almost and they aren’t having much luck.

I am looking on Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com I am also looking at local, county and state government job sites. I have no college degree but I have 12+ years of customer service/admin/clerical experience in various areas including retail, and office. Face-to-face, phone and internal only. I’ve done sales, cashiering, research, agenda writing, scheduling, meeting preparation and minutes, procedure writing, training, etc. I’ve worked in small retail, large retail, major company and local government. All these things have given me many skills but sometimes I get eliminated right off the bat because “no degree”. It can be quite frustrating.

I am also amazed that some places have the nerve to offer a salary of $9 per hour and then require a college degree. As if a person with a degree would take a job that pays so crappy?? I guess someone somewhere might but I sure as heck wouldn’t!!

I am visiting So Cal again for a couple days next week as its my birthday (Yay!) :). I hope to look around for some local options while I am down there. I really am not set on any one type of job, I just want one that wont drive me crazy and pays fairly decent $. I have been spoiled in my jobs of the last 10 years. Making pretty darn good $ and good benefits. All without a college degree.

Not that I don’t want to get one. I do. I’ve even started going back and getting some classes done. But I don’t want to start up again full force until I am settled into my new location.

In the meantime, I will accept a wide variety of employment. Hopefully something fun/interesting because then I’d be more likely to stay on for longer.

Here's hoping!

Back to the hunt!!  :)

Wedding Planning (Part 1 of 1,000000000000)

SO many choices! Its hard to process sometimes. And O.M.G. (and I usually hate that saying) but WOW so many venues are SO darn expensive! The site fees! The food costs!! Can you HONESTLY tell me that it costs $350 for prime rib to be cooked and carved??!?!? I am not a platinum bride! I am a budgeted bride! My last name isn't Trump! And since when should a GARDEN cost $100,000 to rent (site fees only) for a wedding??!?!? (I WISH I was kidding!) ARGH!!!!

Ok Rant over. It is daunting but I do have great people willing to help with stuff like making favors, etc. But as my ♥ and I are paying for it ourselves, we have to be extra cautious and budget minded. If we didn't get an extremely wonderful offer of the flowers being taken care of (thank you!!!) we'd be even worse off. The light at the end of this tunnel is a fun time with friends and family and forever with my ♥! :) But let me tell you, that super small wedding in Hawaii is looking better and better! (even if we had to fly some people in!) lol!

So, I found 2 dresses from DB that I like A LOT. I am going to another big bridal store probably next weekend to try on more styles. Then I am going to bring the parental units in to see my top choices because maybe they can help me decide! (or at least give their opinions!) lol!

Oh and so begins the cake hunt! My future brother-in-law who is awesome and makes cakes for a living, has offered to make our cake. Woohoo! The only thing I need to do now is decide what I want! I need ideas!! :)

My great friend who is going to school for event planning (and is my MOH) is using me as a guinea pig for her planning skilz. (I told her she could) :) She got me the most awesome wedding planner I have seen. It is called "The Complete Wedding Planner & Organizer" and is put out by Elizabeth & Alex Luch. (the makers of weddingsolutions.com) My friend, you are a Gem!! :)

I am getting Married! Woohoo! ♥ ☺ ♥

Road Trip - Short weekend visit in LA

Some pictures I took on the way down to LA. Most of the middle of CA looks like this actually. Except for the cities. Start from the bottom up.

Updating Again

OK. So I totally suck at keeping this up. Oh well. A lot has happened since November. Well a lot of time has passed. But not many new things. I did finally get myself my iPod again. Yay tax refunds! I missed it greatly. I ♥ music. ☺

I've been down to LA quite a few times and its harder to leave each time. I want to be there. One thing that did happen recently was my birthday. #31. One fun thing about my birthday was me and my BF going to Disneyland/CA Adventure. Got in free to both parks. Disneyland on my birthday and CA Adventure the next day. The two-park/two-day thing is a promo for So Cal residents. I'm practically a So Cal resident! haha! It was fun but man my feet hurt!! I forgot how much walking is involved and was soooo tired. We didn't even stay the whole day either day. But it was still a blast! It was just us two adults so we could go on whatever rides we felt like and skip the ones with lines too long.

*We're in the back*
*My totally exciting pic of my BF taking pictures while we rested on the train ☺*
*One of my souvenirs, a cute chubby, soft Eeyore! ☺*

Getting wiped out at Disneyland... Hahaha! Sometimes I feel so OLD! Well not really but I am at an age I thought I'd be doing something completely different. Different job. Having a family. etc etc. I will have to work on those! hahaha. I like the city I live in but it doesnt always feel like home. I guess its true that "Home is where your heart is" Never knew how true those words were. Speaking of homes, my mom and I drove by one of our old houses in So Cal. It looks very much like I remember but with a few improvements. The neighborhood is still nice too.

It was a fun few days and I didnt want to leave (as usual). I then went back two weeks later for the weekend. lol. I am sure I will be going back again soon!

Catching Up

So apparently I'm not too good at this blogging thing. Or at least not real consistent. I read some of my favorite blogs and admire the way their words just seem to flow across the screen. The way they can paint pictures with their words makes the writer in me slightly envious. Only slightly :)

Some things that have happened since my last post... I went to a really fun concert on Saturday. Yay Ingrid Michaelson! :) It was a very fun small venue and she's a great singer/performer. One of those natural, non-studio-created types. And she has a fun sense of humor. She sang songs from her new and previous albums and also did a cover of Creep. It was awesome. She for fun sang the Ice Ice Baby song and the Fresh Prince of Bel Aire song. It was amazing to me how many people in the audience actually knew all the words! hahaha :)

A much less fun thing happend after that concert. My friend and I walked less than a block back to my car only to find some loser had busted out my front passenger window and opened my glove box and center console. They ended up taking my iPod. Those Ba$tard$!! my poor ipod was in my center console, not left out and they won the robbery lotto by picking my car out of the others and finding my ipod. Now I've been ipod-less for a week and I miss it terribly. Its funny because not 3 years ago I didnt have one. However, I did have a CD player, so music is frequently around me. As the police dont respond to petty theft calls, I took my friend to her house and she invited me to stay in her guest room because I was pretty upset and I needed to figure out what to do. The next day, I made some calls to get quotes, check insurance deductibles, etc. and try and figure out what to do. Shes such a great friend because she helped me vaccum out my car of the glass and then even took her steam cleaner and cleaned my carpets and seats. Except for a missing window, my car looked all pretty again! The next day she even picked me up and took me to work and met the glass repair guy at her house. I had left it there because she has a garage and I do not and I didnt want my car getting stolen before I had a chance to fix it. So now my car is all fixed but I am still ipod-less. Now I have to decide if I get a new one or make puppy dog eyes at various people in my life, hoping they will get me a new one for Christmas. Hahaha :) I guess time will tell! :)

Happy Halloween!!

A sample of a pumpkin carving I did for Halloween once

oooo pretty :)

Yellow Roses are my favorite

A picture I took of a yellow rose that was a present to me. I put it in one of my favorite cobalt blue vases and snapped a few pics. I then played with it a little to make it look like a painting. Sooo pretty! :)

Oh, Hai! I'm watchin the TV

I Feel Lucky

I am slowly figuring out this blogging thing. I've even modified it to make it more pretty. :) My post of the evening is a song that I was listening to and it fit my feelings regarding someone. So here goes:

♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪

Lucky - by Hoobastank -

I knew how it felt to be another one in need
of someone to show the way
Until you saw a part of me that nobody else
Could see and my life hasn't been the same...

You make me feel lucky as I can be...
You make me feel lucky as I can be...

Before I couldn't get a break,
Never had a chance to make
The impressions I want to
But now it falls right into place
When I get to see your face
Then there's nothing that I can't do...

You make me feel lucky as I can be...

No more dark days, only sun rays
No more hard ways with you today

You make me feel...

You make me feel lucky as I can be...


♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪