Baby Girl!

My boss just had a baby girl! I am so excited for her!! When I talked to her husband/my cousin he said they didn't have a name picked out quite yet. Picking out a name is such a big deal though. You will be using that name in many different ways for the rest of your life. You will be saying and perhaps at times yelling that name at least once a day for many years to come. As far as I am concerned I like my name. It is pretty simple but it is somewhat unique because it is not short for Elizabeth or Bethany or anything. It is just Beth. I had a conversation with my boss' sister-in-law on Christmas about names as well. She is pregnant as well and has been trying to come up with a few names before the baby arrives. She brought up the complicatedness of it all when it comes to family and friends and making sure you don't pick a name that someone else has their heart set on. I have a few names that I like but am not planning on having kids for quite a while so my choices will probably change.

Maybe I just hang out with too many people who are in a different life stage than I am :) They are great people though and I do enjoy hanging out with them.

Don't Remember

I have realized for a while now that I have not put a post up in a long time. Whenever I had time to write one I could never thing of anything to say so I kept putting it off. Well earlier this week I had an amazing idea for a blog but unfortunately I can't remember what it was so I am just going to write about random thoughts I've had the last few days and other boring stuff like that :)

I've realized lately how little I have in common anymore with college aged students. I hung out with a few girls who were only a year or so younger than me but it seemed like we didn't have that much in common. I spent last Friday night with two pregnant women talking about giving birth and the things that they worried about and if they were going to have a video camera in the room or not. It was so much fun! I laughed so hard that night! I am getting a little nervous about turning 25 though. It seems like 25 is the last birthday you actually kind of look forward to. I have never heard of anyone looking forward to a specific birthday after they turn 25. I have a friend who is going to move up to the Seattle area with me. I have started a list in my head of some activities I want to drag her along with me to. That along with my approaching 25th birthday has made me think about making a list of things I want to do in my life and start working towards them. I've never really been one to make specific goals and things I want to do but lately I have really wanted to do more of it. I do have a couple goals in my professional life that I am working towards but now I think I am going to start making goals in my personal life. If you have any ideas of things that need to go on my list, let me know!

Two Thoughts

I know smoking is not good for you at all and I don't understand spending that much money on something that is destroying your lungs, but there is a lady who works in the same building who makes smoking look really nice. She comes out and sits outside right by the window behind me and smokes. She is out there at least 3-4 times a day and is out there for a good amount of time. When the weather is really nice out I always kind of wish I could take a break and go sit out side. In college I worked at the Olive Garden and a friend of mine and I always joked about how if smokers get smoke breaks, non-smokers should get bubble gum breaks or something. It is so unfair non-smokers. Can you image most boss' faces if you said you were just going to go outside and sit for a while but smokers just say Oh, I'm going out for a smoke and it's no big deal. I don't think it is fair, but that's just me. I guess in a way they get to spend more time outside now but in general non-smokers probably get to spend more time outside in the long run.

My other thought is about the phrase "Drunk people tell the truth" An old co-worker said that to me in an email. Is it really true? I have two another friends who say the opposite. So is there really one way or the other or does it depend on your character to begin with? Can you really take what drunk people are saying seriously? Is it just an excuse we use as society, that we were drunk, we didn't know what we were saying/doing? Are there studies out there about this yet? I think there should be :)

AutoCADD

I realized this week that I think I have been speding way too much time working in AutoCADD. I woke up on Tuesday morning and realized that I had just been dreaming about updating drawings in AutoCADD and saddly that wasn't the first time it had happened. I also have been in other programs such as Word and tried to do things in that program that are not possible but things that can be done in AutoCADD such as the way you change text styles and colors.

On a side note, I am really excited for this weekend. I have a family reunion to go to. I think it will be a lot of fun! One of my cousins will be there that I haven't seen in at least 6 years! Also, 3 of my cousins are pregnant so that should be interesting as well.

Slacking

I realized today as I was stalking my friends' blogs that I have been slacking on my blog. I was waiting until I got back from Vegas to write about my exciting trip but then I just got so busy with work and catching up that I forgot to write something. Well, Vegas was amazing I had so much fun with my friends. When I got back home it just hit me how wonderful my friends are and how much I really miss them. I have a lot of fun stuff planned for this summer which I am excited for! I'll get to see some family and friends and hopefully explore Washington more. Here's a question, there is a lot of stuff I want to see and do here in Washington but I have a hard time just going out and doing it by myself because it might not be safe to do by myself. Like hiking, I really want to do some hiking but have a hard time finding people to go with me yet it is something that many people have told me over and over not to do by myself. I think single guys have it way easier when it comes to trying to be independent. I have friends that keep telling me just to do go activities but there's always that little voice in the back of my head saying "you probably shouldn't go do that by yourself". I feel so limited at times on what I can and can't do, at what point do I just say screw it and go do that activities but then I feel bad because I know my parents worry about me being so far away from home. I just need a dog, no one messes with a girl who has a dog. :)

Six Months

Well, it has almost been 6 months since I moved here to WA. It has gone by so fast but I have enjoyed living out here a lot! For work I have to write up a performance review for myself and it got me thinking about the last 6 months and all that I have learned. Here is a quick recap: I learned how to ski, I learned that I really do like seafood and beer but am a snob about it and only like good seafood and beer. I have learned all about construction site erosion and pollution as well as all about AutoCAD. I learned how to put in a toilet and a shower. I learned that in King County when they want to build something, even roads, there has be a percentage of it that is art. I also learned that those little blue reflectors that are on the roads at what seems to be random spots are really there to show fire fighters where the fire hydrants are located at. Just this last weekend I learned how to play golf. I have grown up playing mini golf but never the real thing but I really enjoyed it a lot. And also this last weekend I learned all about a milk parlor and these nifty devices they put on cows' legs to see how active they are to help determine if they cow is sick or in heat. What a wide range or random things that I have learned :) Hopefully the next 6 months are as exciting and knowledge filled as the last!

Does the world really not know where Iowa is?

When I lived in Nashville, TN there were a few people that I met that didn't know where Iowa was. Most of the time they would confuse it with Idaho. Since then, I have moved out to Washington and everyone here knows where Idaho is but still there are people who don't know where Iowa is. I was at Home Depot getting a funnel and tubing to make a beer bong for my cousin as a joke for his birthday and a very helpful UW frat boy was helping me. We were chatting and when I said that I had gone to college in Iowa he was like "Oh, the Buckeyes" I informed him that no, that was Ohio. Did kids just miss out on geography? I know Iowa is not that big of a state and yeah, I am a little bias because I grew up there. As someone who likes to travel it just baffels me that you can be in college or graduated from college and not know where all 50 states are.

Mountain Biking

So after catching up on my blog reading, I realized that I have been slacking and that I should write another blog. I went mountain biking for the first time in close to 8 years last Sunday. It was a beautiful day and a nice area that my cousin and I went biking in. My cousin is pretty hard core when it comes to doing out door activites. He tore his ACL skiiing last November and biking is one of the few activities he can do now. When he did approch me about going mountain biking, I was thinking yeah I can do that, he'll have to take it a little bit slower and I've been doing some skiing and working out the last couple months so I should be able to keep up. I was wrong, I'm just going to blame it on not all the gears working on the bike and wearing myself out trying to figure out how to work them in the beginning but my legs were jell-o at the end of the hour and a half ride and my butt defanitly hurt the next day. Neadless to say, I am not giving up! My cousin and I plan having many more bike rides and hopefully I can keep up next time :) At least I know now to get the gears to work next time.

Thoughts on a lobby office

When I first heard that the office that I was going to be working in was in the lobby of a building, I thought that sounded pretty cool. It was at first until someone came in and asked for directions. I tried to help them the best I could but no living here for very long I didn't do a very good job. Well, 4 months later, I'm not too thrilled with an office in the lobby. We have windows on 2 sides and in the corner where they meet is where all of the smokers like to hang out. It can feel like I'm working in a fish bowl at times. And the people who stop in for directions, it gets old telling them that no, this is not 10900 NE 8th Street, this is 10800 NE 8th Street. I have had at least 10 people come in this week asking for directions. The bank is right accross the lobby from us why don't they go in there and ask? Do I really look like I know where I am going? It is a little entertaining to see the type of people who come in though. There was a Russian gentleman who came in. To this day I have no idea where he was going or what he was trying to find. Then today there was a lady who came in who definitly had a mullet and she was playing with it like she had just gotten it done. So, if you are thinking about renting an office or starting a job in an office that is in a lobby, my tips are to make sure you know your way around town and just hope that your side of the building is not the smokers hang out.

Hi!

I have decided that I think my blog is going to be pretty boring though I will do my best to try to keep it as interesting as possible. It is definitely going to push me to work on my creative side which definitely needs some help. I am torn between really liking the idea of being able to let people know what's going on in my life without having to spend a whole Saturday afternoon trying to catch up on my phone calls to people who I have been neglecting and worried that my life isn't interesting enough and this blog will end up becoming a series of notes about how much I really like my job and the Seattle area. So here's hoping that I have at least a few interesting things happen in my life so people don't get bored of reading about stormwater drainage and how beautiful the mountains are. :)