Events from the Point

Time to clear out the phone

2010-06-24T00:35:00.004-04:00

I downloaded a bunch of pictures and videos from my phone. So the following posts are things that have gone down in the past few months this post is random, but the others are a little more organized by event. My blog is kind of a feast and famine record so I apologize for the historical dump. It pretty late right now so I'm off to bed.

A few months ago, my friend Karissa's Mom and Aunt came into town so we went and saw Lion King and met up for lunch before hand. Having heard about Carnegi Deli I decided we should go. Well they are world famous. HUGE sandwiches and supposedly soooo good. Well like most World Famous places it was super over rates, the sandwiches weren't that good, way more than I would ever want to eat in one sitting, and when we left they didn't take cards. Really? You are world famous, your walls are covered in autographed celebrity photos, you've been around for decades and you can't afford to take cards. Stupid, very very stupid. I hate places that don't take cards...just a pet peeve. Lion King on the other hand was amazing. Story line...cute and well known, but the costumes and set were genious.

Donut Peaches. No joke they were flattened and indented in the middle with a sign that said donut peaches. Who would've known.

Mercedes new muscle car I saw at the Mercedes dealer (no i'm not buying a mercedes, if anything I would buy an Acura TL, but don't want a car payment. My car is going to be driven to the ground... my friend works for Mercedes).

The pictures below are of my room mate John who finally cut down a dead branch that was hanging over our cars. John was very worried about it even though it was thick, the whole thing wasn't dead and it didn't appear to be at risk of breaking off. I think he needed a project.

Brett with the most used appliance at our house. Entertained by John contemplating his next move in the tree.

Three days later, four attempts and 1 trip to Home Depot it finally came down. About 15 minutes before a group of friends were coming over for a barbeque. Perfect timing.

Six Flags

2010-06-24T00:23:00.003-04:00

On the way up, somewhere around the Princeton area we saw this Prius that had a cardboard sign on the back that said "student driver" written in marker. We were quite amused by it and tried to get close enough to take a pictures. It was a middle age guy driving and he appeared to have his wife and kid in the car. I don't know if it was a joke someone played on him, or if it was real. If it was a joke, kudos to the jokester. If it was real...thanks for the warning.

I love funny signs.

Superman

New nanny in the ward that Sadie met ( don't remember her name), Sadie and Elizabeth

Karissa, Emily, Sarah and I

We were going to take a picture in front of all the rides.....this was the first....and the only one, we kinda forgot.

Six flags had lots of good rides. We only had time for the major roller coasters and that was o.k It was a fun day. Plus on the way up we found a Cracker Barrell, which I must go too every time I pass one. I'm not sure if it is the ambiance or the food, probably a little of both, but I love it.

One of these days I want to buy one of those rockers...maybe when I don't have to worry about moving so much.

Nantucket

2010-06-24T00:12:00.003-04:00

I went to Nantucket over memorial day weekend with a friend from Boston. She blogged about it, so I've posted a link. She gives much more detail then I ever could. Martha, I hope you don't mind.
http://marthasmarvelousmemoirs.blogspot.com/2010/06/nantucket-island.html

Bear Mountain Hike

2010-06-23T23:20:00.005-04:00

Recently I hiked a trail in Bear Mountain State park with a beautiful outlook of both sides of the Mountain (er I mean hill). Once I got to the top I found a nice spot to hang up my back packing hammock, kick off my shoes and take a nap before I headed back down the trail. It was a gorgeous hike.

As I was almost back to the parking lot, a 10-11 hacidic jews (I live about 10 min. away from Monroe which has the highest population of hacidic jews in the country) started asking me about the trail, in broken English, side curls, hats, and all. Definitely did not look like they were ready for a hike that was too serious. Even though I felt more at home after my mountainous rondevous this made me miss the west where people are much more likely to be wearing cowboy hats than curls and yamakas. Not that there is anything wrong with that...i'm just saying.

"How do we get to the loop, we want to do the loop" Well I said. There's a lot of trails up here and you can make a loop out of about any of them, it just depends on how far you want to go" ( no laugh, no snicker I just blank stares) "do you guys have a map?"

"No"

"Well I really don't think you should be up here without a map, you should probably go back down the road and get one"

"We'll be fine, can we see yours?"

"Sure, I can show you the hike I took and as long as you follow the white marks on the trees you can hopefully find your way back" ( this would probably take them 2-3 hrs, figured this should be doable)

So I showed them, but they spoke broken English, so I hope they understood me. I wasn't about to give them my map that I just bought for $10, they could have gone back down the road a couple miles and bought one. If they are stupid enough to go hiking without a clue about what they are doing, then I suppose they deserve a Darwin award. They were really kind of arrogant about the whole thing, or maybe they just didn't understand me. That being said, I hope they found their way back to their car, they seemed pretty clueless about the mountain and hiking.

A guy not part of that party then came up and asked to see my map because his fell out of his backpack and he was trying to get back to his car, but couldn't find the right trail back. He parked way down the road and wasn't even close, so we walked to my car and I gave him a ride. I don't think he really ever had a map, he just heard me telling them it wasn't a good idea not to have one and didn't want to appear stupid.

Moral of the story is. Don't be stupid, go to the station, and buy a map. There are a lot of trails and forks etc. It is pretty easy to get lost, the area is pretty hilly and there are no large peaks like in Utah All the knolls and valleys start to look the same so people better have a compass and a map. I was grateful I had been a boy scout and was taught how to not get lost and always be able to find my way back, and just in case I took a picture of the trail number at the trail head and sent it to Brett so someone knew where I was. People rent cars, and come up from the city to go hiking but a lot of them don't know what they are doing (lots of chinese and foreigners, that's almost all I saw on the trial), and I understand it is often a problem.

Get a map people!

O.k. so I'll get off my soap box.

I got home, invited over my friend Karissa and I made bacon guacamole cheeseburgers for her, Brett and I. It was a wonderful day, followed by a good movie "The Prince of Persia"

I liked this movie, it was a mix between Aladdin, National Treasure, Indiana Jones, and a bit of Lord of the Ring. Very predictable but entertaining, and I the lady that played the princess of kalamut was very pretty.

Before I started my hike I drove up Perkins Memorial Drive. A memorial is on top to George W. Perkins who is responsible for preserving the park. The memorial is a tower that is about 4 stories and provides a beautiful 360 degree look out point. This is the highest point within 75 miles of New York City. (only about 1300 ft), but I could at least survey the area I was going to hike etc. Then I drove to the trail head and started my hike.

( I take lots of random videos with my phone, not the best quality but quick and painless.

Fishing

2010-06-23T22:57:00.003-04:00

A few pics of my room mates and I fishing. Keep in mind this was just after work...it was kind of wussy fishing. Lake Hessian is where I go jogging, but this day we fished, actually they fished I need to get my drivers license changed so I can get a cheaper fishing license. It's funny, I have prolonged getting an NY license for as long as possible. It's my own way of hanging onto Utah. I kind of like people looking at it and making comments about Utah. I think I finally have to make the jump though and be a full blown New York Stater. I need my fishing license. I am doing a fishing tournament on Lake Ontario with my roommate John. I'm in Omaha for some work meetings on July 8th and 9th then from there flying to Syracuse to start our tournament on 5:00 AM Saturday morning. Then I'll just drive home with him. I'm told I need pratice so since I can't go up a day early that weekend we need to go up on the weekend of the 4th as well. "Oh darn John, do I really have too?" It took a lot of convincing but I agreed.

John

Brett

Us fishing, turned into chip birding, and then us chipping.

(Chip is the dog, in case you couldn't tell)

Rollerblading aint for wimps...says me!

2010-06-23T22:33:00.008-04:00

This past week I Rollerbladed much of the length of Manhattan from 158th to 10th street, my goal was 1st st. and I could have made it but I was starting to get a blister and knew 10 more blocks were actually 20 more blocks because I had to go back up. A couple sites I really like along the way are 72nd St. boat basin and the Chelsea Piers. Along the way I passed a swim meet in the Hudson (hope everyone had their tetanus shots) and an area where you can kayak for free (definitely noted as a fun activity for another day). I didn't take any pictures, but found some on line just for color.

Tons of people are out on this path. Bikers, Rollerbladers, walkers, yogi's, sun bathers, joggers and skateboarders.

Also in Chelsea is the Chelsea Market. After I rollerbladed all the way back to my car I drove down to Chelsea and parked my car to walk around. The night before I got together with a bunch of friends and we celebrated one of my friends Josh's completion of his first year of Medical School at a steak house. I was introduced to Lobster Bisque and fell in love. So I was out to find some good Lobster Bisque. I only had a spoon full Friday and I needed more. When I finally did find it, I was so hot that I decided another day would be better, but I did find a Milk Bar....ya a milk bar. So of course I bellied up to the bar (more like slid it was so hot and humid) and ordered a peaches and cream smoothy and an omelet.

Wow, October...Really?

2010-05-19T22:24:00.003-04:00

Ya...so ya know what they say, time flies when you're having fun. It doesn't seem like October last time I updated. It's just one more thing to stay on top of, so I must admit it isn't my highest priority. But I was transferred to the Eastern District area office in Woodcliff Lake, NJ which is about 20 miles from NYC. It's in the Suburbs and I acually like it, it gave me the chance to move away from the city, so now I am in Stony Point, NY and love it. I have two cool room mates, and one has a Dog. We rent out a 4 bedroom house on about 1/2 acre. It's nice to have some space and have people to talk to when I get home. We have Tivo'd (how do you spell that in the past tense?) Glen Beck pretty religiously lately and watch it when we all get home, if you haven't been watching what's going on out there it's pretty scary. I'm glad I have room mates that care and I can relate with. You should start watching if you don't already. I'll have to post some pictures soon, but I havn't been much of a picture taker lately. A lot has gone on since last post, but it's more than I want to write on my blog..at least tonight, but I do keep a journal more regularly than this blog, so at least my kids one day can catch up. I miss you all back home. I also love summers in NY. Bear Mountain state park is right next to me, so I have been going up after work a lot. I jog around the lake and sometimes John, my room mate and I do trial runs with his dog. He has a black lab that he is training for Duck Hunting, so I get my exercise running out in the field and placing decoy's etc. with scent on them while John keeps Chip from looking. Then chip does his thing. It's pretty neat to watch. He's getting pretty good at following the whistle and knowing where to look based on John's hand signals. We threw one out in the lake the other day and then lost track of where it went, it was just a rubber stick. It was out a good ways, and John just sent Chip out without even pointing him to a general area. Chip was able to find the scent and bring it back. I love the dog, but hate the hair. He knows not to come upstairs so I keep the upstairs as clean as I can but the dang hair floats all over, I have to keep my door closed to my room, and I just have to stay on top of sweeping the floors, at least it's all hardwood.
That's a glimpse into my world, just so ya'll know I'm still alive and I'm slowly starting to love New York, up state (even 40 min.) is a whole different world, Rockland County is a little hickish and it makes me feel a little more at home.

Equipment Rodeo

2009-10-20T19:46:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago I went to some training for work. It was the funnest training i've ever done. The first day was all about cranes and operating them safely. We went over inspections, loads and picks, rigging etc. We saw some disaster videos of why it is so important etc. The second day we did some general equipment training, went over our maintenance and inspection program, and then we hopped on a bus and went to a CAT dealer. They went over several machines with us and then we had contests on operating the mini excavator and backhoe.

We had to pick up the basketballs and dump them in the crate. I got 3/4 balls in but did it in 5 minutes, the winner did it in a 1 min 16 secs, but must have operated them before, so it wasn't quite fair. Second place was 2 min 40 sec. There was about 20 of us, and I think I was almost last, but only a handful got 3 balls in and no one got all 4. Maybe I should have spent more time as a kid playing video games, but I'm convinced if I had more time I would have had it down. Looking back i've never been so good at that kind of stuff. It was a lot of fun though.

With the mini excavator we had to move a weight around the cones without letting it touch the ground, but the weight had a chain below it, and that chain couldn't come off the ground. I was so confident I was the first to hop in, that and no one else was volunteering. I hopped in moved the controls and quickly realized they were a lot more sensitive than I thought. I had more 10 sec. penalties in the first few seconds that from picking the weight off the ground that they didn't even add them up. Oops! I slowed down a bit, then did much better, but after I already screwed up it made me nervous so then i couldn't think. I hate that my brain does that. Why does my brain go blank when i'm in confrontation or in a remotely stressful environment? I've become ever more aware of this since moving to New York and working in construction. When someone asks me a technical question or asks me to do math on the spot, I freeze. The job superintendent jokes about having to slow things down for me, and makes jokes about thinking slower in Utah. Is it Utah or is it just me? I know i'm not stupid, but sometimes I wonder what is going on? I think I'm getting better though.....hopefully. Anyway....the equipment rodeo was a lot of fun.

Today

2009-10-19T22:29:00.003-04:00

I just realized with this post it pushed all my updated blogs to the older blog archive.........to see my updates I just spent so much time on, you'll have to click the "older blogs" link at the bottom.

I still have some catching up to do, but I skipped out on FHE and managed to post about a few of my adventures from summer. I hate how this website posts stuff. It isn't very easy to format things. I'm going to go on a hunt for a new blog site. There has to be one better than this. Today I worked, came home and hopped on the eliptical machine for about 40 minutes and watched Paula Dean on the cooking channel. That woman makes some dang good looking food. But I had home made chicken noodle soup waiting for me. I've had it for a few days now. If it wasn't so good, I might get sick of it. That's about what happens when I cook though, I have lunch and dinner for about 3-4 days. ......anyway, I'm rambling. I'm going to try to catch up on my blogging soon.

Maine

2009-10-19T21:31:00.009-04:00

Pemaquid Light House

New found love for sail boats. Great Grandma Beesley painted a picture of some that I have in my room. Perfect!

Pemaquid Light House...Sunday Afternoon

I went to Maine at the end of August to see my good friend Meredith, who was up visiting her parents. It was such a nice weekend. Thanks Dyer's for letting me stay.

Meredith and I went whale watching, then her brother took us on the coast guard boat, we saw Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, which is on Maine's state quarter. To end the day we went to a Lobster Shack. I ate 4 1/2 lobsters and loved every buttery bite, I liked tearing them apart almost more than I did eating them. (Chelsie and I once went to Red Lobster and had to have the server show us how to eat lobster. Never again Chelsie....I'm a pro.)

Maine is such a pretty state.

3 to share for Meredith and I

Same 3

3? That just won't do...I need 2 more

Meredith sporting the life jacket for our Coast Guard Cruise.
Cool people! Cool boat!

Our guide on the whale watch. She helped us spot some awesome whales. We saw Whales, Dolphins, Porpoises, Seals, Sunfish and different birds (which all looked the same). She could tell what something was just based on it's splash, or blow pattern. She would see it first and then the captain would turn the boat around and we would drive over to it. Amazing eyes! She was also a walking encyclopedia. It was almost like she was reciting a text book for 4 hours, but it was all in her head. I was so impressed, I had to get a picture.

We found Wall-E in Mer's bag.

Mer's nieces and nephew were an added bonus to the trip, they are pretty stinkin cute kids. It would be fun if they were closer. When possible Owen was my shadow.

One big lobster. The average lobster is about 8 years old when you eat him. They can get huge though, there are all kinds of rules about the sizes you can keep. 8 years of growing just so we can have a delectable couple bites. How fortunate. This sounds odd, but it made me quite grateful for those lobsters. The one on the wall was something like 32 lbs. Here's some interesting lobster facts.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0854908.html

Palmyra

2009-10-19T20:26:00.010-04:00

This summer (way back in July) we went to Palmyra as a ward. We all hopped on a bus early Saturday morning and headed North. It was a fun drive through some pretty country. The pageant was great. I was pretty impressed with the stage and special effects. I wish I got more pictures, but didn't get a lot. We stayed in a hotel Saturday night thinking they would have a continental breakfast Sunday morning. They had about 6 donuts and 2 apples for about 40 people. Huh....predicament. Well only us morning birds were up when this was discovered. So Bishop Schneiber and a few of us looked around and saw an ox in the myer, we also happened to see a Panera Bread across the highway...how convenient. So we got a bunch of sandwiches and fed the herd, and I fell in love with Panera Bread breakfast sandwiches....so good.

We loaded all of our stuff up and went to the Sacred Grove Sunday morning and had a special sacrament meeting there. It was a good experience. I wish I could say I had an overwhelming spiritual experience, I didn't, I just really felt happy and peaceful. It bugged me for a while, because I had been really preparing for the trip, but I was reminded the spirit speaks many different ways (Gal 5:22). It was still a special an experience I will never forget, and my testimony was still strengthened.

The ladies were all changing in the bus, getting out of their skirts for the ride home.

Of course the bishop was keeping us far away, so we took a picture.

Patrick, the chef and I. Ya, we're cool, in case you didn't know.

My friend Cassidy in front of the Book of Mormon Publication Site

Random pictures from the Blackberry

2009-07-15T21:06:00.006-04:00

While downloading all my pictures and videos from my Blackberry onto my 1.5 terabyte external hard drive ( what will I do with all that memory...take random pictures and videos) I decided my random pictures needed viewing. So here you go blog readers. Enjoy my adventures.

Swine Flu Pig: Just after the swine flu outbreak, I was walking by a restaurant in Manhattan and saw this statue outside a barbeque place...what a better way to attract customers!

Times Square, almost never stops. What Chaos!

Croton Fountain: Possibly the prettiest fountain I think I have ever seen. It is in the Southern Tip of Manhattan. Very interesting as well. Check out the link. https://www.nyhistory.org/seneca/croton.html

Turns out it was quite the engineering marvel back in the day. In my next life, I want to design fountains and waterfalls. Eternity is a long time, right? I'm going to need something to keep busy.

I pretty much showed him who is boss.

My friend McKay, the Elders quorum president in the ward, house sits for his boss, who is also in the stake. We went over and played games one Sunday and I think the house is nicely done and they have really good taste. I loved this moulding and wanted to remember it for my house one day.

I was in Omaha, Nebraska a few weeks before the 4th for work and while I was there they had a firework show ( they just couldn't wait til the 4th, ). While walking over to the park we saw this hot rod.

This was my first attempt at making gravy. You would think loving to cook like I do, I would have made gravy. Nope, and I didn't have a lot of patience that day ...solution...more cornstarch. Result....we used barbeque sauce.

Somebody in my apartment building just wanted to get to know a Utahn. I'm glad he left his number....good as new.

This is New York City gardening at it's best. A whole block in Harlem was like this. If my picture taking skills were better, and it wasn't night, you would see that the flowers are fake and the rocks are painted gold and white. Very classy I thought. Like the picture of the moulding above, I wanted to remember it so I could implement the design in my future driveway.

Taken in Harlem right after I moved to New York. People here LOVE Obama.

Times square salesman. Uh???

For real???? Sick!

You've been warned!

This picture leaves me just leaves me with questions. This is on a street coming off the Metro North Train station just over the Harlem River. I walk down this every day, and believe it or not, this street is clean compared to normal. Usually it changes from day to day and the garbage strewn about is pretty revealing of the prior nights events.

These shoes look as if they were just stepped out of. My guess? A staggering drunken bum, decided he wanted to go barefoot for whatever reason. A few days ago, a bum was passed out not to far from here holding half a bottle of alchohol...at 11:00 in the morning. He was barely moving, I passed by a few hours later, and he was still there, but the bottle was half gone. The garbage always provides nice conversation pieces with my train buddies.

Do you think this "artist" spelled where's wrong on purpose to prove a point on bailing out the stupid? I doubt it, but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.

He's right though? Why do we bail out morons in business, but not on the street? More spray paint might stimulate the economy.

I bought some roller blades and hoped for my mad skills to come naturally. I'm pretty much amazing...I only scraped up one knee. On my way out of central park the "skate patrol" were giving free stopping lessons. I am much better now.

To Be Continued..................

Memorial Day in DC

2009-05-27T19:42:00.008-04:00

If only I had more 3 day weekends.

6 friends and I went to Washington DC for the weekend for Memorial Day. I am pretty bummed I couldn't be out in Duchesne. I missed you all. If I had to be away though, Washington DC makes for a pretty legitimate Memorial Day. One of the guys in my ward had an old mission companion that let us stay in his house in Kensington, Maryland about 20 min away from DC while he and his room mates were at Duck Beach (the place to go on the East Coast for LDS singles). The girls stayed at a hotel in DC. The house was actually a pretty big dive, so I think I would have rather stayed in a hotel and forked out the dough, but I just viewed it like we were camping.

Ashely, Me and Stacie eating American popsicles and sporting our awesome sunglasses.

Larissa, Me, and Barret making our own bench waiting for "Ladies of the Presidency" exhibit.

Barrett, me and Patrick at White House. My camera has got issues. In almsot every one of my pictures there is a fuzzy spot. Here it is right over Patrick's face. Sorry Patrick.

The gang in front of the DC temples. Very pretty grounds. Trees all over, you think your in the middle of the woods, I actually saw a deer behind the temple and took a picture, and then tried to take a video (ever since I got my blackberry I take little video clips and random pictures of a lot of random stuff, I'll have to post all the random ones soon).

We were only able to go through a few museums, but I think we got a pretty good dose. I don't think I could handle anymore. So much information that after a while I just stop caring, start walking through really fast, and am ready to go. We went to the Smithsonian American History Museum, Holocaust Museum, National Archives where I saw Jacob Broom's real signature (my great ...........great grandpa somewhere down the line), White House, The major monuments, DC temple and the museum of modern art. AFter an overload of reading tiny words on plaques at the museum all day. The modern art was a nice breather, because the tiny plaque only had a name on it, after that it was all up to us for interpretation. It was pretty fun, and it's amazing what interpretations you can come up with when you don't take it to seriously.

Sunday night, we had been walking all day, this was our last monument and we were exhausted. We all ended up sitting down in the most random positions, so Larissa had to take a picture. The monuments at night were well worth the walk.

Just one of the random pictures. You'll have to visit facebook all of them.

This blogging business is just to much work for my attention span lately.

.....and one more random picture.

How big is Stacie's bladder?

Harlem River Tunnel

2009-05-27T18:56:00.004-04:00

I can't seem to move my pictures around, so ya'll forgive my formatting. I found some great aerial pictures of the site. The tunnel is just next to the bridge, look for the cranes on each side of the river and connect them, that's basically the tunnel path. 160 ft under the river. It looks so pretty from the sky, but don't let it fool you. I've never seen so much garbage on streets.

It's been a while, so I figured it was about time I update my life on the www. Work is a little bit better. Some days I think I really like it and I could do it for a while. Others times I am wondering what I got into. Maybe that's just the way life is. Summer is beautiful here in New York. I spend a lot of time up in Connecticut since that is where most of my friends are. I love it up there. The trees are thick and some of the small little towns have the coolest old houses and a very old colonial feel.

Out tunnel excavation is almost done. As of today we have 5 more blasts left, which means we should have it done the end of next week. Then we will start on the final lining. I am working on plans for the concrete and forms and will be one of the field engineers during the operation, so that is very exciting and keeps me interested and busy learning all kinds of new things.

Today I went to Aberdeen, Maryland with the Equipment Superintendent to look at some machines to work on the concrete at the top of the tunnel. It was an all day trip, and on the way back we saw an old Cadillac on the side of the road in flames, it was pretty cool. The superintendent came to a full stop to take some pictures, how's that for rubber necking.

Lost in Yonkers

2009-02-09T19:57:00.000-05:00

I'm officially in the city of Yonkers, which is about 15 miles from Grand Central, or about 30 minutes on the train. When I got here, I knew of 4 singles wards in Manhatten. I naturally picked the one closest to me, assuming that must be my ward. I was wrong. I was quickly told by the Bishop and Elders Quorum president that they would be happy to have me come to their activities but I couldn't transfer my records because I wasn't in the boundaries. Well fine, I just tried another one, but same thing. Finally I gave in and figured I didn't need them and would just go to a family ward that I was supposed to go to. I looked up the ward and realized there was a small branch about 4 miles away from me, which definitely beat the 30-40 min trip with walking to go to Manhatten, and I could drive my car. This little branch is awesome, I have met a lot of really great people. The branch presidency is really young, the branch president is mid 30's, looks 20. I played halo with one of the counselors at a dinner I was invited to one Sunday. Apparently they do it every Tuesday night. Wierd! The executive secretary in the ward just got married to his 20 yr old wife last year, and he told me that they met in a singles ward in New Canaan, CT. About 40 minutes away. Anyway to make a long story just a little bit shorter, I decided to check it out Sunday. It's a very nice area, and there are lot sof nannies in the ward. I'm not sure if this is good or bad yet, but I think I will keep going. They had a "lunch and mingle" after church and had a bowl with money in it. "so do we pay for this?" I thought. turns out they have a "lunch and mingle" every week. They started doing it because all the nannies used to go out to dinner on Sunday, because they didn't want to eat with the families they nanny for. Well they didn't want people to do this, so they just started having lunch after church, but then it started to kill the budget, so they started asking people to pay $3.oo for lunch after church. ???????? Is it just me or is something just not right with this picture. Huh, i won't get started on this one, but just think about it. On my way home last night, I was following my trusty navigator Maggie, ( a friend thought I needed a name for my GPS, well it's a Magellan, so "Maggie" is my right hand girl). But I didn't listen to her and missed my exit, so I ended up taking a route that would take me on a toll road. Toll roads around here are very sneaky. You never know it's coming until it's too late, and there is no where to get off. "Oh no, toll road, I know I don't have cash, oh it's only $1.25 I surely have that in my ash tray" I thought, but no only 80 cents. "well, I have 80 cents" I told the lady", "1.25" she said. "Well I didn't know I was going to be on a toll road", " i'm from Utah, I didn't know it was here" At this point I was panicking because I heard that if you get to a toll road and don't pay they give you a big ticket. "well, is there somewhere I can turn around?"

"no, you have to pay" she said, (in what I like to call 'big black mama voice')

At this point she started walking toward the front of my car, looked at my license plate, then at me through the top of her glasses, and started writing on her clip board.

"oh, crap I thought I am definitely going to get a ticket"

Mean while cars are backing up behind me. Frustratingly the nearest cars 'waves' something which 'big black mama' mistakenly thought might mean they were going to pay for me.

"you gonna pay for him" big black mama hollered back.

mailto:#$!@#$ (he said no)

She gets on her phone and calls someone then tells me to "pull up, park up there and go up to that littlest window in that small building, show her your ID"

I pull up, get out and grudgingly walk up to the window.

About 3 minutes later, big mama's sister walks up to the window, takes my ID and gives me a ticket, actually just a bill luckily.... a bill for $1.25 to be paid in full in 5 days.

Yep, so I have a bill for $1.25 that I have to send a check in for.

Well, I didn't get an expensive ticket, but never make the mistake of thinking you can get away with something in New York.

O.k. this is going to be a really long post. Let me sum up everything since I left Utah.

Dad, Mom and I left Bountiful on Jan. 28th. Our drive out was great, I listened to books on CD and drove the U-haul the whole way, with no cruise control. O.k. maybe not great, but tolerable. We stopped in Cheyenne, Wyoming on the 28th, just South of Chicago on the 29th, and got here on the 30th at about 9 PM and unloaded the whole Uhaul that night, because we needed something to sleep on. It was nice having Mom and Dad out here for the first couple days, and it was fun. I don't think things began to sink in until after they left, the whole new journey I was embarking on, I felt kind of sorry for myself on the way home, but by the time I got home I think I was over it and haven't really been home sick since. I'm excited to come home in may, but I don't think I would really call it home sick.

Work is keeping me very busy. I started work on Jan. 5th. They knew I was coming, but didn't really know exactly what to do with me. I watched some safety videos, sucked on a swab for a standard drug test, and then.........nothing. I was pretty annoyed. So I started looking on peoples walls and reading things on them. I took stuff down and copied it that looked important. Such as a list of peoples roles and job descriptions, and then a phone directory, and a vendor list, and a page about the roles and responsibilities of engineers. Then I went to our 12:00 noon meeting, where I just sat there, without a whole lot of introduction or explanation of anything. Then back to desk jumping. I was getting a pretty good stack of information I'm sure I would need. I just didn't have anywhere to put it. Then the 4:00 play of the day meeting, where we plan the next day's deliveries etc. (which I didn't know then) I just heard a lot of words and acronyms (which i've decided are evil) I was pretty frustrated by the time I went home ( I didn't even really know when I could go home, I had to kind of ask. I was told I should copy the job specifications and read them, so that mostly took up my next couple of days. These are important to know, but are pretty complicated and intricate when you don't know anything or how to apply them etc.

That should kind of give you a feel for my first couple days. Slowly I started getting to know people, by taking the initiative of introducing myself and asking them what their roles were in the whole scheme of things. I still wasn't really sure who I should report to. I've finally figured out all the menial, yet important stuff, and have moved on to understand more and more of the ins and outs of actually building a tunnel. I now finally have a desk and a computer, and a designated mentor and "boss" who is giving me good tasks to help me understand everything. I wasn't really impressed with the way I got thrown into things, but I'm at least swimming. I've found out since that Kiewit is very specific on how their new Engineers should start and programs are put in place to avoid the situation I was put in, but it has to be implemented from the project manager down, and things just weren't taken care of. I am also told ( I had a good talk with HR) that this project is one of the most difficult management wise etc. Lots of politics and conflicting interests. It's a joint venture project between two districts in Kiewit, "Underground District" and "Eastern District" ( i'm on part of the Underground District).... anyway their have been a lot of problems with the way the project manager has handled things.

To add to all that, I still don't understand some people's humor, never sure if they are joking or not (or what they are talking about at all for that matter). I find it hard to piece together technical descriptions, dates, time frames etc. when every other word is 4 letters and starts with F. Lots of permanent New Yorkers on the job which are blunt, crude, talk real fast and don't listen before they try to answer your question.

I think i've always had a hard time really being precise in my language and thinking of the right words when I speak. I always know exactly what I mean to say, and sometimes I try to explain it, then walk away and realize all the important points I left out that would help with clarification. It's definitely something I need to work on.

Bottom line, i've learned I need to get more aggresive, get thicker skin, and be more quick in responses. I need to find a good balance betwen still being aggresive, but still nice and understanding.

I make things out to be kind of bad, but I've started learning how to interact with people, and have gotten to know them more. Some of the gusy I work with really good people, that i'm gaining a lot of respect for.

I work a lot, but have the weekends free so I usually go down to Manhatten, i've met several people from the singles wards and activites down in the city that I have gone and hung out with. I went to "The Fantastics" with a really cute girl named Rachel who is going to be in the production in Wisconsin, she left yesterday, big bummer for me. I met a lot of cool people with her and she was fun to be with. I went to the Opera, which was not my thing, and a museum. I hop on the train and i'm down to Manhatten pretty quick and easy. So my apartment is brand new, and on the Hudson River. I'm on the front side of the building which has a view of the train, which is kind of cool, although not quite as pretty as the river view on the back side. I really like the immediate area i'm in. my bank, the library, several nice restaurants, and the train station are all within about 2 blocks, although like anywhere in New York if you go a couple blocks in either direction you can be in ghetto pretty quick. I was going to take pictures of the river during the day, but I forgot, but I do have pictures of my apartment. It's not huge, but it's home and if i push the couches aside I have room for people to come visit.

Well, this turned into a very long blog, and I really need to go to bed. So i'm posting this, and if anyone reads this before I wake up and edit it for spelling mistakes and gibberish. Just ignore it.

Finally have internet

2009-02-08T11:51:00.000-05:00

I finally have the internet, and can use my own computer with pictures to post to my blog. However I have been lazy this morning and am going to go to a singles ward up in Connecticut, about 45 minuts away. Church starts at 2 and it's 11:50, so I better go get ready. I promise when I come home I will blog away about New York, and put up pictures of my apartment. I know Sunday is a blog reading day, so I just wanted to keep some of you in suspense. J.k. if that's suspense, ya'll should really get out more. Catch ya soon.

Going private

2009-01-20T20:40:00.000-05:00

I thought I would join the trend and take my blog private. Send me your e-mail address so I can make sure you can see my blog. my email is jessemerkley@yahoo.com

New York

2008-12-15T20:47:00.000-05:00

Quick update on my life. I am moving to New York City. I didn't get the job with the oil company so I took the one I was leaning toward anyway which was with a large contractor called Kiewit. They are nationwide and I thought I would be working on a project in San Francisco, that's the only one they talked about when I interviewed. Well, they want me to go to New York city. We are designing and building a tunnel for conduit under the Harlem River. The project is on the very North tip of Manhatten. This is convenient because it means I could live up North where housing is a little cheaper (although still outrageous). I'm looking at some cool places in Yonkers ride next to the Hudson river. It's across the street to the metro, and door to project should take no more than about 15 minutes. It's about 20-25 minutes to Manhatten, so I think Yonkers is a pretty good spot. I'm told that it's a nice area, ecspecially next to the hudson. I am going out to NY to meet the project managers and just get a feel for it. One of the engineers on the project will be picking me up and showing me around, he's been very helpful in helping figure out the best places to live. I start work on January 12th, so I think I will be leaving on the 4th or 5th, right after Emma's baby blessing. I want to leave on the 28th, so I have a week to adjust to New York and get settled in before I start working. Mom and Dad are driving out with me and they feel to rushed that week, so it sounds like we will be leaving on the 4th. I am excited, nervous, a bit scared, and anxious all at the same time. It's an exciting step.

Waiting

2008-11-13T01:19:00.000-05:00

I went down to Texas for my interview this past weekend. It was a great time. Thursday I got to College Station about 2:00 I traveled with another kid from the U of U studying Chemical Engineering and we became pretty good friends. When we got to the hotel we had about 5 hours before the interview agenda started. We went jogging around a few really nice neighborhoods in Texas and was surprised at how cheap the houses were. There were 9 of us interviewing in Texas, we all became quick friends and I think it really helped in the interview process. It was basically a two day group interview with an individual interview in the end. We traveled to a well site and watched a fracturing job, where they fracture the rock to allow oil to flow. Very cool, lots of neat equipment and technology. I think it all went pretty well.

Friday night we all went to dinner and the server was told it was my birthday, "oh, well happy birthday" he said, almost acting bugged that someone would expect him to care. Anyway...I thought I was safe. About 10 min later he comes out with all the other servers clapping and hollering. 'Oh no', I thought, 'I hate people singing happy birthday to me', I mean what do you do in the meantime. sing along, smile with a sheepish grin....its got to be the most awkward uncomfortable thing ever. The only reason anyone knew is because I had been filling out forms all day, asking for DOB and my license also expired at the airport when I flew in on my birthday, which caused me to be flagged and searched. Agh!!, Anyway, I shouldn't of been worried, instead he has me stand up, he hollers across the restaurant that it's my birthday and tells me to ride a small broom (yes a broom) around the dining area twirling a fake lasso while repeating over and over "It's my birthday, It's my birthday, It's my birthday" so what did I do...just that. At least I didn't have to feel awkward while everyone sang to me and I just sat there. Needless to say Friday night after spending all day with each other and witnessing my debut, the two recruiters knew me pretty well and my final interview session that night was much more relaxed.

I was offered the job with Kiewit in California the day before I left and have until December to let them know whether I want it or not, and I should hear about this one by next week. I'm so grateful for these opportunities and keep praying that I will make the right decision about which job I should take. I truly believe the Lord answers prayers, I just have to figure out how he speaks to me specifically. I will keep ya'll posted.

Halloween

2008-11-13T00:17:00.001-05:00

This clown.....

had a party on Halloween and it was a great time. Sarah Palin showed up, I know you're all jealous you missed her....

.... and so did Bob Ross, infact I bet you didn't know he could sing, he was probably under the witches spell....

......poofer (she loves her nick name) the pirate also stopped by

....some guy rambling about a "van down by the river"

........ a few people that might live down by the river, or should

Miss muffit also came with real pourage

......and a dancing spider

We had tons of food, sang Karaoke, played pool, and when we all got slap happy and everything seemed funnier than it really was, the beautiful witch fell asleep

while the rest of us played gestures.

It was a great night!!

Picture Tag

2008-11-02T13:03:00.001-05:00

O.k. This is it. The fourth picture from my fourth folder. I was saving pictures of rodeo clowns in a folder, to get good ideas on how to do my makeup for Halloween. I will post some pictures of my costume as soon as I get them from some of my friends. Hope everyone had a fun Halloween.

Birthday Plans

2008-10-30T01:04:00.000-04:00

About a month ago I applied online for a job that sounded really exciting. After reading many job descriptions for civil engineers I was kind of bummed, because nothing really got me very excited. I had learned I didn't want to be behind a desk all day, and although I knew field jobs are out there I just wasn't finding any. So I fancied up my resume, wrote a way korny cover letter and sent in my application. I was pleasantly surprised when I got a call from a recruiter saying that they liked my resume and loved my cover letter and she was going to submit a recommendation to Schlumberger (it's French) http://www.slb.com/ and one of their engineers would call me for an interview. I ended up waiting forever and then found out they were going to be at a job fair at school. I went and saw the recruiter at school and finally got a face to face interview. That was about 2 1/2 weeks ago. The interview went really well, and he told me they would let me know in about 1-2 weeks. I've learned that when people say stuff like that it's always going to be the latter, because...well... I don't know why, I suppose they throw the 1 in there cause it sounds better. Basically a euphemistic time line. Then 2 weeks came and nothing. Meanwhile I had sent a thank you e-mail and a follow up e-mail giving them my references, but still nothing. I was going to call them today, and finally I got an e-mail saying that they are flying me to Texas for a 2nd interview on November 6-8 (hence the blog title). Needless to say, i'm pretty excited. The company is an oil consulting company. They don't own any wells. They implement new technology on existing wells and technology and procedures on drilling new wells. They also do testing, and lots of different things to enhance oil and natural gas production. My civil engineering training has nothing to do with this job, but they hire engineers because I guess we've proven that we can think. They will send me through an intense 3 month training program, after 2 months of training with another engineer and then i'll go back out to the field and do more training. Basically I train for 9 months, and then they set me free. I would have a crew of guys and we would go out to different wells and do our thing. The hours would be crazy; long, on call, 14 on 7 off kind of schedules, but it is well worth it. Usually they entry level engineers do this for about 3 years and then move on to something more predictable and normal. Anyway i'm excited for this new chapter of my life, and it's been a long time coming with changing majors etc.

I also applied and interviewed with a company called Kiewit http://www.kiewit.com/ . They do heavy civil construction and mining. I interviewed for their tunnel field engineer position. I would be on site helping operate and plan etc. the building of a tunnel through a mountain on the coast of California for a 4 lane highway. The project is called the Devils Slide project. I would work on that until it was done, and then they would move me to wherever the next project was. So it's a little more stable and not moving around quite as much, but the money isn't as good as the other job, but it's more civil engineering related. Still lots of opportunity for growth, but not quite as good as Schlumberger either. I should hear about this job by Friday, or so they say.

Anyway, lots of cool opportunities for me to be excited about. Kind of crazy to think that I could be doing that kind of stuff. I graduate in December, but don't feel like I know that much. I've talked to a lot of people who feel that way, and I guess that's to be expected. Every engineer i've talked to said they learn more on the job and training for jobs in a month than they did through all of school.

I'm so grateful for the opportunities, and I'm so glad that now I can stop checking my email 5 times a day. Happy Birthday to me!!

.......I figured my blog needed pictures to add some interest, so there are some logos and pictures of where the devils slide project is but I can't figure out how to move them, so the computers in charge and they are placed at random. I'll figure it out eventually. Apparently this blog thing has a bit of a learning curve.

Look at me, I'm blogging!

2008-10-17T01:38:00.000-04:00

Well, after a few suggestions from my friend Meredith I decided that maybe I had some crazy experiences and crazy ideas in my head to share with y'all (yes, it's a word, ask Luke). So here is my blog. I can't guarantee it will be full of laughs and profound thoughts, but it is bound to definitely reveal some of the inner workings of a mind on the verge of insanity ( j.k. i'm not dangerous).