A little update here and there

O it has been a while. I keep waiting for something exciting to happen that I can blog about but really how often in life to really really exciting things happen? Exactly.... So here is a blog about the little things.

Life is just rolling along. I have deffinetely settled into my day to day pattern of getting up going to work, going home, making dinner, relaxing, going to bed, and starting all over again. How boring! I really want to be one of those people who go out and do fun things like hiking and biking after work... it's a work in progress.

In my defense though work has been pretty busy and a bit stressful. Things are constantly changing and I never know when I am going to get thrown for a loop. For the most part it is good I am starting to be recruited by other departments to help them with projects which I have been dying for since I started working here. My first year was mostly focusing on learning my job and focusing on doing it well. I wasn't really able to branch out much which after looking back it makes sense I actually think it was very helpful. The transition came when I got a new boss last September. Having a new boss is a huge transition. Or atleast it has been for me. Going from someone who was training me and helping me learn my position, who knew everything to more or less being on my own and having someone manage me who doesn't really have a clue about anything...is a challenge. I have had to remind myself a lot that this is my boss's first year. It is amazing but it has been a great opportunity for me to step it up and stand out to my co-workers and my boss's boss. Hopefully they have noticed. I love being needed and hope to become a excellent asset to the company.

The downsides have been the budget changes. Because this year the economy has been bad we have had to cut the budget 3 or 4 times just to make sure that the Institute is doing ok. I have been working really hard with our budgeting department to enforce our new spending policy and to make sure that everyone understands which budget they should be pulling money from for things. In the beginning of it all HR made sure we all understood that they were going to cut everything first before they even thought about cutting programs or staff. For the most part that has been true although last week our Festival coordinator was let go due to "restructuring" in the festival department. I don't think there is going to be any more "restructuring" but the girl who left was a good friend of mine and it was really sad to see her go. I have no doubt though that she will land on her feet. Farewell Nyna! I love you!!

Other then work, there are little variations in my schedule depending on the day. I am playing indoor soccer right now in Woods Cross on a co-ed team with my boyfriend on Wednesday nights. It is a lot of fun I miss participating in team sports like I did in high school. It's also the best form of exercise I am getting right now. It can be very frustrating though. For example (prepare yourself for a rant) on a night when you only have two girls and you have to have two girls on the field at all times so you have to run around like a crazy person, play well, and not getting a break to catch your breaths in a 50 minute period. It gets even better when your running around like a crazy person and the boys have two subs but still aren't running much or dropping back on defense to help you! Then you loose. :-( I've noticed since playing that the girls who run the team get very stressed out every week trying to make sure we have enough players so the scenario above doesn't happen very often. It's kind of sad that they have to police people like they do, it makes me wonder if the people who sign up to play really even want to play? I have to admit I am glad I am not a team captain and that all I have to do is show up and enjoy myself. Isn't that what a recreation league is for anyways?

So soccer is good. What else? Umm.. I am desperate for spring to arrive. A couple weeks ago it totally teased us with nice weather and it has been crappy snowy guck ever since. COME BACK SPRING!

Things with my boyfriend are good! I am glad becasue he seems to be the only stable relationship I have right now (excluding my parents, they are great!). My two closest girlfriends are leaving me in August and even though I knew it would happen some day I am taking it harder then I thought I would. My best friend for the last five years, roomate for 3 years and sister to my boyfriend (practically family!) is moving to California in August for grad school. I am so happy for her she has worked so hard to get there but now that she is going out to visit the schools she was accepted to and is talking about when she going to move and stuff I realized that I am not going to have any close girlfriends to go shopping with on the weekends or vent to about the stupid things my boyfriend and his roommates say when they are drunk. My other friend leaving in August, although I have only known her for a year and half has become a really good friend, she is the wife of my boyfriends good friend and we all hang out and do double dates all the time. She is from New Zealand and is moving home with her husband in August so she can be close to her family. Once again I totally get it I never would have been able to make the committment to move to a foreign country like she did in the short amount of time that she did it in. August is going to be a sad month. On the bright side I'd like to think I make friends fairly easily so I will be ok after they are gone and I will still be in touch of course.

So as a result of my saddness and stress from work I went out and bought paint to repaint my apartment last weekend. I needed a good stress releif and exercise wasn't cutting it. I will post pictures of it painted later when I get home with my camera. It looks pretty good I think. I hope it is a good improvement for the apartment because I didn't necessarily get permission to do it. ;-) Honestly though I have been waiting for 8 months to get permission for the building management to re-culk around the tub in my bathrrom and it hasn't happened yet so I figured this landlord really doesn't care about the apartment as long as he is getting his money. Part of wanting to paint is also because of my obsession with HGTV and wanting to re-decorate everything! Initially I thought why invest the time and money in re-doing a property that isn't mine it's not worth it and ideally I'd like to buy a house but don't have a down payment yet to do so. I am obsessed with Realtor.com and frontdoor.com though. I like to look at the houses I wish I could buy. Soon though. The more I look at the houses the more dedicated I am to trying to save up for one. I just hope the good interested rates stick around for a while.

So that is a summary of the little things. It was long and probably half the explanation I could give for all the things I talked about but it is just a little update here and there. :-)

M

Can you ever really say the stress is over?

In my position I don't think so. I mean maybe if I miraculously channeled Buddha while I was at work and the silly, ridiculous problems I solve on a day to day basis did not bother me at all. But I find being a "yes" person for my company a constant challenge. On the bright side my patience is amazing.

Anywho to the real story. The 2009 Festival is over!!!!! Wooohooo! After 16 straight 10 hour days of work I am finally able to relax. I have to say that the 2008 Festival is winning on a scale of which one I liked better. It's kind of funny becasue when I first started working at the Sundance Institute everyone told me your first festival will be the hardest and they will get easier. I don't think that was the case this year. There were a few factors that made the difference. For example, 2008 I received lodging in park city which totally helped on the exhaustion level. After a 10 hour + day I could drive five minutes and be able to relax. 2009, no lodging. worked a 10 hour day and then had a 40 min drive home every night. Then getting up an extra hour early to make sure I got to work on time. I didn't think it woudl make that much of a difference because really I make the drive everyday anyways but when the days started to add up it hit kind of hard. There were deffinitley a couple mornings driving up the canyon where I had to constantly remind myself that falling asleep while driving is fatal! Thank goodness the weather didn't much up the roads. Second big difference, well on top of driving as you can imagine I had to fill up my car a lot. In the first week of the fest 3 times in a week time period. My car gets decent gas mileage too. In 08 we got Per Diem's to help supplement us moving up to Park City where everything jacks up the prices. This year no Per Diem so while I was spending a crap load of money on gas to get to work I just ate the cost. My reception team was really bummed too becaue they missed out on everything above. They felt like they weren't important within the company. They knew they were, you take away someone directing calls, office supplies and internal customer service and company falls apart. They just wish that our co-workers would recognize that everynow and then. The woos of being at the bottom of the food chain. I just felt bad that my team moral was so low and I am not sure how to fix it.

On the bright side of it all. It is over. We got tons of compliments from people who came to the festival this year saying it was great. A lot of visitors came in and said thank you for all of our hard work. In the end that makes it. Also seeing how happy the filmmakers are. They are so gracious and excited to be a part of something like the festival.

Here is a pic I snapped driving over Parley's Summit one morning when the sun was coming up. That sunrise made driving to work in the morning worth it.

Over Did It

Christmas was wonderful last week. Having a few days off of work and slowing down for a bit was amazing. Going back to work today was so hard. I do get to look forward to New Years Day and the friday after that off again. Which I am very thankful for. It's going to be hard to focus on the festival after this week. But I think it will get busy enough to where I won't have time to think about it. Just do, you know?
Anyways I have to tell you about how amazing my boyfriend and his family are. They totally over did it this Christmas. Grant and I have been friends for a long time even dated a little in 2003 before I went to school in Oregon and his family has always been so kind to me and welcoming. So this year now that we are dating again we got to celebrate Christmas together and with our families. Grant and I have exchanged gifts for the last few years but usually its just a shirt or a gift card nothing special. This year he and his parents went in together and bought me a frickin' wii! I could not believe it! They totally went over budget I am so spoiled. I am so thankful for their love. I am still in shock to be honest. Then Grant went and pitched in and help buy my mario cart. All the while my present for him still hasn't arrived yet. I feel so bad. That is what I get for trying to be technological. I ordered him a solar power iphone charger. He likes to watch the Green channel on tv and talks about having a Green house some day so I thought he would like it. Not sure if he does though. All he got to open on Christmas was a web site so I could show him what was coming.

Amazing... That is all.

In Peace

I am never sure how to start posts. Some come more easily then others. This one is going to be especially hard... This morning on my way to work my mom called me to let me know my Grandmother passed away this morning. I can't say it was a surpise, she warned me this weekend that the nurses at my grandmothers nursing home told the family to start making preperations but I didn't think it would happen that quickly. My grandmother, is my dad's mother. She is an amazing mother of 10 children. Only lord knows how she pulled that off. I can't imagine trying to manage more then one child let alone 10! Unfortunately most of my life I have not had the pleasure of really getting to know her. When I was around 10 years old my grandma developed dementia and was never really sure of who my dad was let alone who I was. It was really sad to see but we would sit with her and make her smile. I have to admit, that even through these last few years she scared me a little, not knowing who I was. I wasn't sure how to interact with her. Of course I never stopped loving her, she is family. I think what has always touched me the most is to see how my dad and his brothers and sisters cared for her so much. The hardest part about this is not going to be loosing my grandma, because I beleive she is much happier now but seeing my dad is what is going to break my heart. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry. So I am sitting at work taking one deep breath at a time trying to hold it together. Rest in peace Grandma Adele. I love you!!

Supporting the Cause

Warning: Political Garb. Read at your own risk.

The post election frenzy is here. The most influential result on my life so far other then Barak Obama becoming president elect has been Proposition 8. The sadness I felt when I saw that it passed out weighed any excitement I felt for Obama winning his election. I am not sure what the next steps are to fight the winning vote. I know a lot of movements are underfoot. Rallies and protests are popping up all over the country. Recently last Thursday one was held in my city. I didn't go because I had prior obligations but I heard it was just amazing from the friends that did get a chance to go. For the time that my friend was there he said the protest was peaceful and very meaningful. It is great to see the support for diversity here in a state so often overlooked and generalized by the historical majority. I believe in the freedom of speech and that everyone is entitled to their own opinions but more importantly I believe in basic human rights. Last Thursdays rally was a perfect example of US citizens using the gifts and privileges this country has given us. It also was a great tool in helping us continue to developing our rights. It still blows my mind every time something like this comes up that it has taken our country so long to be accepting of everyone in it. Freedom and equality for all? The foundation our country was built on still seems to be a work in progress, but I think it is an excellent goal to work towards. I think we need more peaceful protests and support for people trying to make a difference.

It does sadden me though when people with good intentions grasp at straws to try and get something accomplished. Instead of infiltrating and educating my state people want to boycott it and economically hurt those involved with campaigning for Prop 8. While the tactic makes sense from a general view it over looks all the good things that are currently in the works to try and expand people's minds. In fact it hurts them. Don't boycott Utah. Educate Utah.

Thanks for reading my half educated ramblings. :-)

http://www.indiewire.com/ots/2008/11/park_city_09_in.html

Not taking it personally

How does a person who wears their heart on their sleeve not take things personally?

I know part of growing up is learning to deal with confrontational situations and move on but how do you know when its ok to let go and when it is time to press the issue. I know this is an on going lesson that will follow me through out my whole life but can I just say that I personally don't like it. Who does? I guess.

Work has been a transition the last couple months. My boss who hired me left and I have started working with my new boss who is great so far... It is just turning out to be a bigger transition then I thought it would. Not because of anyone person in paticular but because of a whole bunch of little things here and there. Responsibilities have shifted and the strong relationship I use to have with my old boss, the confidence she gave me, is gone. I feel kind of like I am starting from scratch but with the disadvantage of knowing what I use to do and adapting to the difference. I guess the knoweledge of jobs I have tackled in the past is an asset but when the same job comes up again and it is taken away from me I get a little sad and wonder why I am not the one doing it anymore. I know I should ask why the task isn't mine, or maybe enjoy the fact that people are trying to help and use my time for other productive things but it still makes me grumble a little. grumble grumble.

I also realized in this transition that I am not so good at being an authoritative figure. I crumble and speaking in confrontational issues is a major weakness of mine. I try to think of the best way to say something and my mind just stops... I take a breath and try and think through it and I still end up either confusing people or making it worse. GO ME! Lucky for me I have great support from a few friends at work and some very understanding co-workers. They have been helpful but I still feel sort of like I don't have an answer or am still sorting out how to best fix the confrontations that arrise.

Actually I would simply be happy with being able to deliver a clear conversation during confrontation not even necessarily a way to fix it immediately.

I don't know if any of that makes sense. I am sorry if it doesn't but I have always found I feel better about things when I write about it. So that was me writing about it. Yay for the end of the work day!!

Cheers!

The place I work..

I have to enlighten you all about the place I work. I don't mean Sundance per say but more the physical location, Silver Star. Nestled up on the slopes in Park City, above the city golf course and down the block from Park City Mountain Resort there is a new development of Condos and office buildings called Silver Star. It is a beautiful place with a rustic feel. Getting to know the owners (my landlords, maintenence men, etc) has been a treat. They are two great guys who have all the best intentions but just haven't figured out how to juggle the construction still going underway, building new condos, a snack shop, ski shop, the bar and maintain the buildings they already have up and running. I have to admit my office is very demanding. I feel bad for how many times I have to call them to figure something out.

Today was one of the best. One of my co-workers came over to the main building in a huff wondering why one of the doors to the white building she works out of had been boarded up. Usually I give my staff notice when things are going to be happening to the building so this caught her and myself off guard. I said I didn't know the door was being boarded up and that I will come over right away. When I got to the building, sure enough there was a giant peice of ply wood nailed over the door. I had to investigate. Somtimes when it comes to building management and the things Silver Star does make me feel like a detective. I often have to trouble shoot what is going on and why. So I called one of the owners to see if he knew what happened to my door. His first response was that maybe they blocked out the door so no one got hurt when they were cutting down the tree outside but that he would check and get back to me. Then I was visited by the site forman, Jack. A sweet old man who wears a cowboy shaped hard hat around the parking lot. He came in to see what the problem was. After the details I gave him he went over to look at the building and find out what was going on. 5 min later he was back asking if we got any names on who boarded up the building. We didn't have that information so he then informed us what he thought. The door had a 1" gap in it between the door and the door jam so it didn't seal all the way when closed. He said the contractor who made the door came to pick it up to repair it and would bring it back today or tomorrow. So there is the answer. The kicker is when the building owner called me back he said that the contractor took the wrong door, he was suppose to take another one of our doors on an entirely different building. Apparently the instructions "the north door on the Sundance building" were not clear even though we have our name in big red letters above our building door. Classic. This may not seem that funny to you but after working in this environment for a year, and the things that I have experienced just add to the comedy. :-)

Cheers!