WIPT

I'm linking up for What I'm Playing Thursday with Belle in the City at We're Just Like You Only Prettier

I just bought both of these songs from itunes for 69 cents each so I have been playing them over and over again! I love Luke! And tickets go sale today for when he comes to town with Tim McGraw in June!!

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New Girl on the Job

Hi everybody!! I hope everybody is happy the week is more than halfway over! I always like to think that the week is on a downward path after Wednesday. Nerd Alert! I just made this bell curve so you could have a visual of what I mean.

As you all know I started my new job as a revenue accountant at the Girl Scouts of Northern California on Monday. The office is about 30 miles from my house which in a "normal" commute time takes me about 45-50 minutes. However, Monday morning there was construction on one of the freeways and it took me an hour and half!!! I was so mad and I ended up being late (ugh!) on my first day. I called in and let them know there was a ton of traffic so they knew I just wasn't running late which is the proper thing to do. They were definitely understanding. I started the day at 9AM (well 9:20) and hardly anybody was in the office. I had a talk with the CFO and she seems great. She is really understanding and made me feel good about working there. She stressed how they want to make sure the employees are happy and doing well which is such a change from my previous job.

I got settled into my desk and did a much of orientation stuff. I share an office with another lady. My desk is pretty boring right now, I need to decorate it with some bright colors since there's no window in the room. I have two huge computer screens, one of which is positioned so that only I can see it when people walk into our office. I keep twitter open on that one during the day! (So bad!!)

The whole company is mainly women (I think there are only like 5 men). My department has 12 people in it including myself. I report to my supervisor who I get along with well. The other ladies in my department are kinda on the quite side. I don't know yet if that is just their personalities or maybe they just aren't comfortable talking with me. My officemate is really nice though. Every day so far we have eaten lunch together. The only bad thing is that they all eat lunch at 1 o'clock. I don't know about you guys but I usually like to eat around 12/12:30. I am starving by the time 1 o'clock rolls around but I don't want to be rude. Maybe in a week or so I'll say I'm just going to eat lunch earlier.

So far the work is interesting because it is all so new to me. I was an auditor previously and before I bore you too much describing what I did I will say that it is almost the opposite of what I am doing now. An accountant works for a company and records all the financial activity and the auditor comes in and basically checks the reporting the accountant did to make sure it was done properly. So it is really weird for me to be "on the other side" of the process. Even my supervisor and I have laughed about it.

I am really enjoying learning more about the Girl Scouts since I wasn't one when I was younger. They have a lot of fun programs (with the cutest names) for girls. The "products" that I am working with interest me and I think that is really important. I had applied for a job at a science lab/health-care developer and I am now thinking there was a reason why I didn't get that job. I don't think I would have been too interested in the subject of that work like I am with this job. I think this will be a great fit for me.

P.S. There is all this cute cookie-related stuff around the office! It makes me crave girl scout cookies all day!

P.P.S. I was going to add some pictures of accessories I want for my desk but I'm too tired. Maybe I will take a picture of my desk once I get it all decorated. :)

Thanks for reading!

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ABCs of Me!

I want to write a post about how my new job is going but I have run out of day today so I am just going to do the ABCs of Me post that has been making the rounds. I will share deets about the job soon and thank you to all of you who wished me well on my first day! Love ya!! xoxo

A-Age: 26

B-Bed size: Full

C-Chore you hate: Folding laundry

D-Dogs: I don’t have one but I really want one either a maltipoo or a cockapoo (such funny names).

E-Essential start to your day: Hitting the snooze button.

F-Favorite Color: Pink, obvs! I also like Tiffany blue. 

G-Gold or Silver: Silver

H-Height: 5'5"

I-Instruments you play: None now, I played the clarinet in school but stopped after sophomore year of HS.

J-Job title: Accountant

K-Kids: Hopefully one day I will have two, a boy and a girl.

L-Live: Martinez, CA (check out this post to learn more about it)

M-My Mom's name: Nina

N-Nickname: Jess

O-Overnight hospital stay: Nope

P-Pet Peeve: Heavy breathers

Q-quote from a movie: I can't pick just one! I have toooooo many!

R-Right/Lefty: Righty

S-Sibling: Two older sisters and an older brother (I’m the baby)

T-Time you wake up: 6:00 on weekdays, usually late on Saturday when I don't have anything to do, and 8:00 on Sundays for church.

U-Underwear: Victoria's Secret

V-Veggies you dislike: Brussel sprouts & cauliflower

W-What makes you run late: Not accurately planning how much time it will take me to get ready 

X-Xrays you've had: Just for teeth. I can’t remember if I had them on my knee with a strained a ligament in it.

Y-Yummy food you make: Brownies, cupcakes, baked chicken Parmesan

Z-Zoo animal: Penguins, Pandas or Koala bears

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Hired!

Today I start my new job. I am nervous since it’s all new to me but I think this will be a really great position for me. Hopefully it all goes well.

During my job search I came across a couple of fun blogs that are geared towards careers that I wanted to share with you.

Ms. Career Girl

This is a great website with all different types of tips regardless of whether you’re employed or not, still in college or in the workforce, or female or male, young or old. There are a lot of guest posts so you get tips from all types of people.

One of my favorite quotes is from an article called “What to Do When You Hate Your First Job”: There is only ONE person that’s in charge of your career, and that is YOU. Ignore the masses, analyze your reasons for wanting to move on, make a decision and stick with it.

I hated my first job. I didn’t hate the work; it was more the company culture and the management style that I couldn’t deal with anymore. I made the decision to walk away with nothing lined up. While I don’t recommend that, if you can do it then go for it. I know people (including myself) get hung up on the salary number. One great piece of advice on the website is to not be a paycheck player. This is basically choosing a job solely based on the salary. It is so easy to think that a big salary is everything you need from a job but believe me, it is not! I believe life is too short to be doing something that you don’t love so while the pay may be great, is your quality of life suffering? If so, you may want to consider finding something else.

Classy Career Girl

This blog gives advice on job searches, office etiquette, and business chic fashion. Anna, who writes the blog, is a recent (like on Saturday) MBA graduate and provides a lot of great insight on the professional world.

She has a feature called Monday Motivation which is a great way to start your week. She will usually have theme for that Monday or share some useful links. One thing she has been stressing lately is networking. It is really important to network with everybody you meet. You never know who you will come into contact with and what opportunities be arise. It’s always a good idea to have a calling card or business card on you in case you meet somebody.

If you don’t have one already, I recommend getting a LinkedIn profile. I applied for a couple of jobs where they asked me to include a LinkedIn profile if I had one. While I do have one, I wouldn’t say it is filled out to its potential so I didn’t include it. If you have never heard of LinkedIn, it is a social network website used for professional networking. You can post your work experience and get more in-depth than on your resume. You have “connections” which are your friends, co-workers, basically anybody you want in your network that can help with your professional advancement. I think if you use it correctly it can be a great tool.

Hope you all have a great week!

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Spring Swap!

I participated in the Spring Swap that Liz and Janna hosted.

I was matched up with Kim at Pink, Pearls, and Polka Dots! We are blog twins. :) She is super sweet so go check out her blog!

Here are all my goodies! She picked a cupcake theme for the swap. Everything is so cute!

 These two books are filled with recipes for yummy looking cupcakes. I can't wait to try them out!

 White Chocolate cupcake mix (yummy!) which I can't wait to bake and these cute pink cupcake holders.

 This box is so adorable and includes these really good smelling vanilla berry soaps. Kim is so cute, she included this journal which she thought I could write down cupcake recipes in. That is such a cute idea right? She even included her own recipe for red velvet cupcakes!

Thank you so much Kim! I love everything. It was very thoughtful of you.

I love participating in swaps because you get to meet new people and it is always fun shopping for presents and receiving packages in the mail. If you can you should participate in a swap in the future.

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Good Week...

This has been one of the best weeks I have had in a while.

Last Friday, I got a call that I was offered a job as a revenue accountant for the Girl Scouts of Northern California! This was the best news I had heard in so long! They had to do a credit score check, background check, and reference check before the position was completely mine but everything came back good and I start Monday!

Earlier in the week, we saw The Adjustment Bureau. I didn't really know what it was suppose to be about before we watched but I really enjoyed it. I love Matt Damon and Emily Blunt is so adorable. She makes me want to talk with an English accent.

Yesterday, my mom, sister, and I went into the city and had facials. It felt so good and my skin feels so refreshed. The only bad thing was the weather: it was all raining and super windy.

Earlier, we went to (a late) breakfast at one of my new favorite restaurants. I had an omelette which was delish but so much food! I saw a couple of guys I went to middle & high school with but I wan't friends with them. I never liked one of them and the other one has not aged well. (That was a little rude...sorry)

After breakfast, I came home to find my Spring Swap package! Everything is so adorable but I will be devoting a post to it tomorrow.

Hope everybody has had a great week and has an equally fabulous weekend!

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Me On the Map!

One of my favorite bloggers is having a link-up! Michelle at a little bit of this & that created a fun link up to show off where you live! It is such a great idea. Click on the button to join the fun!

I live in Martinez, California. It is a relatively small town about 30 miles northeast of San Francisco. I have lived here my whole life except when I went to college in Los Angeles. There really isn't much to do here. Basically everything (fun) is in the neighboring cities. I didn't even go to the high school in Martinez, I went to the one in the next town over thanks to the district lines. I do love where I live though. It may seem a bit boring but I think it is the best of both worlds. You are close to a major world city but live in the suburbs which is a great place to grow up and raise a family. 

There are a few things you should know about Martinez. Most importantly we believe that this is where the martini was invented. There are a couple of stories of how it was invented: one is that a San Francisco bartender invented the drink and named it after his East Bay hometown, and the name was eventually changed to its current form. The other story says the martini was born in a bar downtown. Either way, we feel that it's ours! Feel free to wow your friends next time you are enjoying martinis with this piece of information!

Martinez was home to two famous residents: John Muir and Joe DiMaggio.

John Muir lived in Martinez after he married his wife in 1880. If you aren't familiar with John Muir; he was a naturalist and early preservationalist of wilderness. His activism helped save Yosemite and Sequoia Nation Park among other. He founded the Sierra Club, which is now one of the most important conservation organizations in the United States. He is also on the back of "our" (California's) quarter.

Statue of John Muir in a local park.

John Muir's house which is a National Historic Site. This was his house but he considered the Sierra Mountains his "home". In the fourth grade we had a field trip here but I was sick that day and didn't end up going here until I was in the 7th grade on my own with my family. The crazy thing is I would pass it every day since it was on my way to swim practice.

Joe DiMaggio was born here in Martinez and played baseball for the New York Yankees in the 1930s and 1940s. He even married Ms. Marilyn Monroe. Unfortunately it didn't last but he had a half-dozen red roses delivered 3 times a week to her crypt for 20 years. He passed away about 10 year ago. My mom and I met him once while we were having frozen yogurt. He was taking his granddaughter to get some and I honestly had no clue who he was but my mom did. Looking back on it, it was neat that I got to met him even if I didn't know who he was then.

Joe in his Yankee uniform. DiMaggio's bakery - Marilyn supposedly came here - is now Victoria's Cafe downtown.

This picture really has nothing to do with Martinez but I loved it so I included it.

Martinez is definitely the type of place where everybody knows everybody if you live downtown. While I don't live downtown I was on the swim team and everybody on the swim team lived downtown so I got to meet a lot of people that way. There isn't much downtown besides antique shops, a few restuarants, and the court house. Martinez is the county seat so we have the court house, jail, and all that fun stuff. There is a nice marina area which is a great place to go on a nice day and just enjoy the scenery.

Hope you all enjoyed learning about my hometown! Go link up with Michelle and tell us about where you live!

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WILW

I want to share with you what I am loving this Wednesday!

I'm loving that I won the giveaway that Jana at Seashells and Southern Belles hosted. I won these super cute earrings!

I'm loving the dress I bought at Target on Monday. I just want it to be warmer so I can wear it.

I'm loving the Jelly Belly Spring Mix. It is the perfect size for a sweet indulgence and all the flavors are so yummy!

I'm loving Girly Twirly. The website has the cutest things! Here are a couple that I really like/want.

I'm loving the link-up Michelle is having! Click on the button below to join in!

 I'm loving my family as always.  

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Guilty Pleasure: Laguna Beach

I have a ton of guilty pleasures. Most of them are the shows I watch. There are a ton that I watch currently but one of my favorite "old" guilty pleasures is Laguna Beach.

I have to admit that I actually own season 1 & 2 on DVD. It is so fun seeing how "LC" grew up to become Lauren. It actually blows my mind that Stephen is an actor now on One Tree Hill! I was always rooting for the two of them to be together. But I guess they were better off not being together so they could each pursue something else.

I love how the editors would edit the scenes to make us think certain things were going on behind the scenes. Who could forget the gem that is Kristin Cavallari? She was the perfect villian for the show.

This show provided me hours of entertainment. I remember how they tried to keep the series going with new kids from Laguna Beach and even went to a different city, Newport Harbor, but nothing could ever be as good as the original. Oh Laguna,  I miss you...

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Fringe & Rhinestones Can Only Mean One Thing...

Dancing With the Stars is Back!

This is seriously one of my favorite shows. Each season I usually have a celebrity that I like so I root for them but this season there isn't really anybody I am a huge fan of. I also like certain pros more than others so I sometimes I will vote for the pro more than the celebrity.

Here are five of my favorites celeb-pro dances in no particular order. For all the pairings I included here I like most of their performances. It was hard to pick just five but these are some of the best in my opinion.

If you love DWTS and you haven't already done so, after every show you need to go to EW.com for Annie Barrett's recap. She is hilarious and totally "gets" the show. Happy viewing everybody!

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Wimpy Kid Clip

I have been seeing the commerical for the movie "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" a lot and everytime it comes on I love the part when the boy sings along to Ke$ha. It is just so cute and funny! Here are two different clips of it in case you haven't seen it.

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Prom Memories

I am volunteering again for the Princess Project today and whenever I'm there I am always reminded of my prom.

In my high school we had Junior Prom and then Senior Ball. I really wasn't planning on going to the Junior Prom but at the last minute my friends persuade me to go. So since it was last minute I had no date and no real dress. All my friends had dates and nice dresses. The only formal dress I had in my closet was the bridesmaid dress I wore for my sister's wedding (it wasn't as bad as it sounds). I remember the day of the prom because I really didn't want to go not because I didn't have a date, ok maybe partly because I didn't have a date but I knew I would feel uncomfortable the whole time. Anyways, we were all suppose to meet up at my friend CW's house for pictures. My other friend SR was running really late because she had a soccer game and went to get her hair done which was taking longer than she anticipated (I should note that she was/is a bit of a tomboy so it was a BIG deal she was even going to the prom). I remember everybody was getting frustrated with her and she was about to not even come but eventually she showed up.

We got to the prom and I barely remember dancing at all. Actually as I am writing this post I just remembered how one of my friend's date was dancing and it totally took us girls by surprise because we were totally not expecting him to dance like that. I feel like we were hardly even at the prom. I remember SR being upset and we had to console her, typically Prom girl drama right? The one highlight of my whole Junior Prom, actually the only highlight, was when me and my bestie LM ran into our Senior Boy crush SO and he stopped to take pictures with us! That seriously made my night and I think my year. The only bad thing is I don't know where those pictures are now. :(

Senior Ball was so much more relaxed. All my girlfriends (except for I think 2 or 3) went solo (the number of good guys at our school was super low) and we had such a fun time. A small group of us had dinner at a friends house before the dance and she and her mom decorated and made it really nice. One of my friends JP drove us to the venue and I remember we were sitting in traffic at the toll booth at the Bay Bridge and we saw some of our friends and we just rolled down the window and started talking with them. I loved the dress that I wore that night. I actually still have it and need to donate it to the Princess Project.

What are your prom memories?

I leave you with one of the most infamous prom scenes in all of cinema...

(I mean it is totally realistic for a group of students to bust out with a choreographed dance right in the middle of prom, right?)

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College Prep Giveaway

Good Morning!!

I saw this giveaway that Carly over at College Prep is having and I wanted to share. She is giving away a Monogrammed Cup from Marley Lilly!

I have been wanting one of these cups so badly! They are so adorable and you can customize the colors to your liking. So get over there and enter!

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Travel Etiquette

The WSJ had a fun article about travel etiquette titled, "So Who Gets the Armrest?"

This fun graphic shows 3 situations you are likely to find yourself in while on a plane. Some of the "experts" responses are really interesting and kinda weird.

Here is my opinion on each one:

Armrests - if you sit in the middle then you should really get both. If I sit in the middle I try to claim at least one because once I was on a flight where I didn't have one have and I was very uncomfortable luckily it was a short flight. If I sit on the aisle or by the window I will usually lean away from the middle so I don't have to come into contact with the person sitting in the middle.

Reclining - I used to never recline because I didn't like being reclined on. Then I was getting reclined on a lot on my flights so I decided to start reclining. I will usually only put my seat back on long flights (what's the point of reclining on an hour long flight) if I am trying to sleep but since I can never fall asleep I will usually but it back up. I don't even put the seat back all the way because then I feel like I am way to close to the person sitting behind me.

Restroom Usage - As a general rule I don't use the restroom on planes. But if I was in this situation sitting by the window I would wake up the people I was sitting next to because I am sure they would do it so why should I suffer just because of where I am sitting? How awkward would it be to try to climb over people? On long flights when I may have to use the restroom I usually sit on the aisle anyways so I don't have to be in this situation.

How would you/do you handle these situations?

I hope everybody has a fun weekend!

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