An offer

I took the plunge and made an offer on a house.

It's a small house in a nice neighborhood with lots of windows and lots of light. Three bedrooms, two bath, and a nice big kitchen.

I'm trying not to get too excited because my offer was substantially below the asking price, and I'm not willing to come up too much from it. However, the woman is being relocated to St. Louis, and is actually only living in the house on the weekends, which means she is a "motivated seller."

She has 72 hours to respond, either accept, counter, or reject. I'm going crazy with suspense. I'll let you guys know as soon as I hear.

Some crazy shit!

Gwen Stefani concert: AMAZING! Our seats: EVEN MORE AMAZING! I went with my boss, her boss (my boss boss), and this other broker- and I met them downtown because they had a business dinner/drinks. THEY WERE PLASTERED! It was HILARIOUS! The boss boss tried to get me to drink- I declined- don't want to do that too soon. So we got to the Key Arena and he bought beers and handed me one and said "you've got catching up to do." But we couldn't bring the beers into the seating area, so we basically had to chug them. I finished way before he did- and I called him a pussy for it. He thought that was completely awesome of me. The concert ended at 10:30, and my bedtime is 11. But they dragged me to a bar afterwards anyways. So basically, these people are crazy. And I'm loving it!

Phill

I work hard for the money

... so you'd better treat me right! So yeah, I should have posted this last week, but I got a job, finally! I started last Wednesday at an insurance wholesale firm in Redmond- near Mircosoft. The morning commute is about 25 minutes and about 40 minutes in the afternoon (luckily I leave at 4:30 so I miss most of the traffic. I went out to happy hour with some co-workers on Friday and left there at 6:00... it took me 80 minutes to get back over to my area... never doing that again!

Basically I'm in charge of (or eventually will be in charge of) setting up new accounts, reviewing policies, corresponding with our clients and providers, etc. In a few months I'll probably start taking various classes to get certified in various things... they promote from within, and insurance brokers make a killing from what I've heard. So it's cool. Everyone in the office is super nice, it's very casual, and the job is pretty interesting- I actually look forward to going to work in the morning! YAY! The pay isn't great- in fact, it sucks- but I have a review after 90 days and I'm hoping that that review includes a little bump in pay. But I suppose its enough to live off of for now kinda... and mother is always there to back me up. And I guess what it lacks in pay is offset by benefits- AMAZING- they cover the full premium for medical, dental, and vision. So that's hot!

One of the partners is this super funny Asian guy- his name is Larry Woo- you should go to the website (www.amwcorp.com) and check out Larry's Corner. He posts random jokes and stuff on there- it's totally bizarre and totally awesome at the same time. Oh, and apparently everyone in the insurance industry drinks heavily- and since I'm right out of college they asked me to show them how to do a power hour... I'm gonna burn Della's copy of Derrick's CD and bring that with me. This should be good :) AND, I'm going with them to the Gwen Stefani concert tonight- 9th row center seats- $160- but the partners are picking up $100 of that. Hellz yeah!

Anyways, that's my big news- I'm glad I finally had something of substance to share! Woohoo! And if you haven't heard it, you should all go download the song "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" by Trace Adkins- it's the best song ever!

Phill

A rant post

Hey All,

I just posted what is essentially just a rant about my frustrations in looking for a house to buy on my own personal blog, which you should be able to get to from a link on this one. If you want to read it, go ahead and navigate over there, but I decided not to post it here because I figured many people wouldn't be interested in reading it.

Everything in Baton Rouge is about same as always. I'm still having a lot of trouble making friends, but I do get together with my work friends from time to time. I'm hoping that if this part time Master's thing works out, I'll be able to meet all sorts of people there.

I'm looking forward to Christmas, esp Jenny and Alana's Christmas party! I plan to go get my tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but I may end up going alone. How sad would that be? But you do what you have to, I suppose.

Work is going along fine. My boss broke his jaw after passing out as a result of giving blood, and now has his jaw wired shut. It's sort of funny, but I do feel bad for him. My direct supervisor, of course, is as talkative as ever. ;-)

Derrick, just FYI, I am familiar with the Chicken Soup With Rice thing you refer to. ;-)

I enjoyed seeing people at Homecoming and hope everything is going well with everyone!

Much love,

Carley

Sipping Chicken Soup With Rice

Anyone else remember that poem/book/song? People from Texas might not. It's been in my head all day. Anyway.

So we got our first good snow today. Woohoo. To quote my dorky away message:

let my reaction to snow be calculated by f(x), where x is defined as years of life. f([5,10,15,20,22]) = [this stuff looks cool, i don't have to go to school!, good thing i don't have a car anyway, snow in texas yeah right, why don't i ever see the sun anymore?]

Well that's it. I figured someone should post. And in case you were wondering- yes. It is very very cold. Mad thanks to Jenny for the homemade scarf- I'm sure I kept a good 2 or 3 degrees of body heat while waiting for the bus because of it.

SMOKERS! GO PLAY IN TRAFFIC!

I know I already posted tonight but I'm as happy as a schoolboy and I have to say something: Washington voters just passed the STRICTEST smoking ban of ANY state or municipality in the country! WOOHOO! There will be no smoking in ANY public place or place of employment- which includes bars- OR within 25 feet of any doorway, window, or ventilation opening on any such public building or place of employment. That makes Florida's smoking rules- which have exceptions for smoking in designated hotel rooms, tobacco shops, bars that have less than 10% of their revenue coming from food, and restaurant patios that are more than 50% uncovered- seem like bubkis. And within 25 feet of a door! Smokers are going to have to sit in the middle of intersections! In the Seattle rain! HAHAHAHAHA! YAY! So now my clothes won't smell like smoke and I can go to trivia night at Finn McCool's in peace :)

I just had a happy moment. Also, Seattle voters axed the monorail plan, so now I might actually register my car here eventually because the ridiculous "3% of your car's blue book value" monorail tax will end. Monorail would have been fun. But oh well. Also, YAY for Virginia, New Jersey, and Maine! Booo on Texas. But that was a given.

Phill

Something tells me...

... that I have a halfway decent chance of something good happening in the next week, job wise. I had 2 interviews today and they both went very well. The first was for University of Phoenix (I know I know... but I wouldn't be attending- just working for them). I'd be working in their enrollment division for their programs that are actually taught in classrooms. It's a combo sales and academic counseling job, so it would be fairly interesting. I think both of my interviewers really liked me, esp. the 2nd one who said that he thought I would really fit in there. The pay is pretty good and the commute goes against rush hour traffic, so it's not bad at all. AND, the best part is, they work an extra hour Monday - Thursday so they get off at 1pm on Fridays! That would be hotness.

The 2nd job I was hooked up with through a professional staffing firm who specializes in business, financial, legal, etc permanent staffing (its not an employment agency, its basically a firm that does HR for companies who don't have their own HR departments- like small - mid sized law firms, insurance wholesalers, finanical institutions, etc.) I went to the agency originally for legal positions, but they lady there said that she had the perfect thing for me in insurance. It's a local company that has grown and spread to a few other states- they do property and casualty and executive liability insurance. It's not like boring healthcare or homeowners insurance- they insure things like surgeons' hands, law firms, etc. So it's actually half way interesting. The job has shitty pay and its located all the way in Redmond, but there's an assload of growth potential because they promote from within usually. I called the agency later this afternoon to ask what the interviewer said about me, and apparently she thought I was awesome AND I was the ONLY person (out of 5 or 6 interviewees today) that she actually liked and would consider for the job. Good. So maybe next week I'll have a job? That would be nice...

I also have another meeting with a different legal staffing firm tomorrow. So maybe I'll get another lead there. Cross your fingers for me people. Thanx!

Phill

Who turned out the lights?

I haven't posted in a while, at least for my standards. Here's an update:

It's dark here. Like, seriously dark. We're really far north and now that we're back on standard time the sun is setting before 5:00. It's quite a shock for me, coming from Florida, especially since when I arrived in August the sun was setting around 8:30ish. And the cold and rains have set in as a permanent fixture it seems. It's not so bad. I have two interviews this week. God I need something to keep me busy... and pay my rent.

Della and I went to a RAVA reception last Tuesday night. We ran into Ryan and Aubrey (who apparently works only a few blocks from my apartment) and met some other alums. There's a nice couple who graduated '01 who live right near me, so Della and I are going out for beers with them on Friday night. I'm excited! Hopefully I'll be able to drink again by then... which brings me to my drunken fun. I haven't been drunk drunk since June. My friend Adam and I have this thing where we get together and chug down two bottles of wine on a random week night every week. Well, last week we kinda lost control and chugged down 4 bottles instead. That's two each. And apparently that was enough to put me over the top. Thursday was not fun.

Speaking of getting drunk with friends: I now pretty much have an awesome core group of friends, and thanks to social networking, I'm mooching off of their friends to expand my list. Every Sunday we do Sunday Night Pizza- our goal is to hit every good pizza joint in Seattle, and there are some awesome ones here, including a brothel-themed pizza restaurant! This week was week 7, and we had two other friends tag along in addition to the usual crew of 4 (Kathryn, Greg, Adam, and myself.) We're getting big. It's hot. And thanks to thefacebook and myspace, I've/we've made a few new friends this week. Kathryn and I went through facebook profiles and picked people to message- mostly people who have also just graduated and moved here. Two new friends. YAY!

And that's my update. Maybe next week I'll have a job and will be able to do a monster exciting post. Other than that though, things are going well and I love it! And once everyone is done visiting Carley, everyone should come visit me and Della. I'm not as good a host as Carley, but I give good tours :)

-Phill

Life in BR

Hi guys,

I know I haven't blogged in awhile. I've been pretty busy with work and all, but nothing really exciting is happening.

Work is going well. Last week, I had a performance review with my supervisor, and he had a lot of very positive things to say about my performance. We also talked about things I should be doing- not so much things I need to be doing to do my job better, but more what I need to be doing politically to make sure that I get my name out there and that people know who I am. I've certainly got enough work to keep me busy, but it's really easy to get discouraged and lose motivation. I think this will get easier as time goes on. All the people are really great, especially the inspectors. I'm constantly amazed by how knowledgable the inspectors are- they know these units inside and out. They've all had years of experience so they are a great source of information when I need it.

Let's see, what else. I've been trying to find a house that isn't ridiculously inflated in price because of Katrina- so far, no luck. My mom tells me that I need to calm down and wait it out six months, which is a good idea, but difficult for me because I am very impatient and am starting to feel a little cramped in this apartment. It's a nice apartment, but it is a little small in the kitchen and dining areas, which everyone knows are very important to me, because I love to cook and have friends over.

Speaking of having friends over, Phill and my high school friend, Laura, have been the only ones to come see me. :-( I know that New Orleans is no longer a draw, but I would still love to have some guests! Someone, please come visit me! It's only a four hour drive.

BTW, anyone planning to go back to Houston for Homecoming? I'm gonna be in Houston all next week for training. I'll be staying downtown and would love to meet up with the Houstonites in the crowd for dinner. Anyways, because I'll be in Houston anyways for training, I'll probably stay for Homecoming.

Ok, I have to go get dressed and head off to work. Hope everyone is doing well!

Carley