Rejoining the World of Blogging

It has been a very long time since I have blogged, which is a shame because this past year has been quite the eventful one. I'm not even sure where to start to catch up on things. There have been a lot of ups and a few downs, but things have been good, for the most part.

So here's a brief catch-up on the goings-on of the Conelly household over the past nine months or so:

• We bought a house, obviously, and have spent a good amount of time decorating and doing minor DIY projects, mostly in the kitchen and dining room. Our current project is updating our framed photos (since our current ones are all engagement/wedding photos) and redoing the collage wall in the living room. I'm hoping to do a post with pictures of some of the little things we've done that I think look really nice.
• Andrew lost his job. Which was a very stressful time for a little while. But we have been blessed with how good my job is, and we have been fine financially. That means that once Andrew finds a new job, we'll be able to save most of his income, which will hopefully get us to our goals faster. 
• We went to Disneyland. This may seem a little frivolous after losing one income, but it had been half paid for before Andrew lost his job, and we had cash and gift cards we had been saving for the trip. The only thing we had to pay for out of pocket was the hotel, which made it feel like a very inexpensive vacation. And it was so much fun to be in Disneyland for Christmas. It's just so pretty. We had such a good time. 

• We adopted a kitty! Andrew and I had no idea we could be crazy cat people, but Bagheera has transformed us. This adorable little fuzzball has completely stolen our hearts and we love her to death. Bagheera is a really fun and rather affectionate cat, and she is spoiled rotten. But I think she deserves it after living in a shelter for six months and being burdened with the name Pink. But we saved her from both, and now she answers to Bagheera just fine. Well, when she wants to, anyway. We're even half considering getting an actual kitten at some point in the future so Bagheera has someone to keep her company, but we'll see.

• We celebrated a fun, quiet Christmas with just the two of us, and it was so relaxing and nice. We didn't have anything big under the tree, but that didn't matter; it was nice to be home together. New Year's was also low-key; I don't even think I made it to midnight. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep on the couch.
• I got a pretty awesome raise at work, which is such a blessing, especially considering it came completely out of the blue. I'm so incredibly grateful for my job and for the company I work for. My bosses care about me and want me to stay and be happy here, and the executives are all so careful in making sure their employees are taken care of. I am incredibly fortunate that I have followed my career opportunities to be where I am today.
• Andrew and I celebrated our second anniversary in the glorious Wizarding World of Harry Potter! We had been talking about this since last year, but when Andrew lost his job, we didn't think we would be able to make it work. But when we looked at our finances, the money was available, so we just went. And it was amazing. Seriously. The expansion with Diagon Alley and the Hogwarts Express is pretty incredible, and I loved every second of being there and feeling like witches and wizards really do exist. I geeked out hardcore and enjoyed myself thoroughly. This trip was only a couple of weeks ago, so I'm hoping to write up a more detailed post once Andrew edits the pictures he took.

And that brings us to the present, which isn't terribly exciting at the moment. Andrew has a couple of solid leads on jobs, so we're hoping and praying that one of them comes through for us. And if it doesn't, he'll keep trekking and keep looking, and we know that he'll find something eventually. We don't have any fun trips planned, so there isn't much to look forward to in that respect. But that's okay. I'm sure we will find fun things to do, and hopefully I will be able to stay up on blogging in the future.

Moving Is the Worst

The move is officially done. Meaning that all our stuff is in our new apartment. That does not mean, however, that the unpacking is done. Not by a long shot.

I've never really enjoyed moving, but I never fully appreciated how much it sucks to move when you actually own all your furniture. All the other moving I've done in my life has been as a single person in student housing where the most furniture I owned was a TV, a piano, and some bookshelves. I never had to move a washer and dryer or a bed or a dresser. With this move, we had a washer and a dryer, a bed, two dressers, two TVs (plus their stands), four bookshelves (with the books to fill them), and assorted shelving units. I know it could have been worse (we could be moving with kids and all that that entails, or we could be moving from one house to another), but this was still abysmal.

But we did it. We managed it with a ton of help from our family who helped us load, unload, and unpack. We have even cleaned and completely checked out of our old apartment. Though we didn't technically have to be out until the end of June, it's so nice to just have it be done.

The unfortunate thing is that the frustration doesn't begin and end with the move. We have a balcony/deck, and the previous tenants had some dogs that they didn't let off the deck. The turf had been destroyed and smelled awful, so it had to be torn up. Under that was rotting wood, so for the first two days, we had a tattered deck that looked terrible. We also only have one garage door opener, which means that one of us has to park our car and get out to get into the garage and open it up before we can park in the garage. It's more than a little annoying. Then there have been the issues with the cable and internet. Comcast has been a beast to work with, and poor Andrew has been so frustrated. A technician is coming out this afternoon and will hopefully fix everything up for us.

On top of those issues, we have to buy a few things we need for this apartment that we didn't need before, like floor lamps and kitchen cabinet organizers and maybe even patio furniture (our deck is huge and I would really like to actually use it). Then we have to agree on how to arrange rooms and decorate. And decorating is going to require us to buy some more frames and print some new pictures.

All in all, moving is a physical and emotional strain, and it's a weeks-long process. I've been exhausted every day for at least six days, and Andrew and I both come home from work a little ornery. Last night I was so tired I fell asleep before 10:00. It will be so nice to be done with everything and have things set up the way we want them, but the process of getting there is rough.

Despite all the whining in this post, I am incredibly glad that we moved. Our apartment is really nice, and I think we'll love it once we get past the initial issues. I love our new furniture. It's so cute and really comfortable. I love that during the day, we don't have to turn on a single light. There are enough windows to fill the entire apartment with natural light, and it's fantastic. I love having a garage. I love having such a big deck where we can grill and relax in the summer. And I absolutely love how close I am to work now. It takes me at most ten minutes to get to work, and it's wonderful.

So even though moving is horrible and I hate it, I'm glad we did it. And I'm glad that every day we get a little closer to being unpacked and to calling this place our home.

Holy Stress, Batman!

Well, I have now been a Health Catalyst employee for a week and a half. It's been pretty good, for the most part, except that I still don't know what my routine will be and what exactly I will be in charge of. I've been told over and over about how I'm supposed to be engaged and involved with the sales team, but how that is going to happen hasn't exactly been made clear. (It's also weird that I'm part of the sales team. Which is nearly all men. That's a definite change for me.)

Which is where the stress comes in. I hate starting new jobs specifically because I hate not knowing what I'm doing. I have such a hard time when I'm completely dependent on other people to tell me what I'm supposed to be doing every minute of every day. Being told to familiarize myself with a website when I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing with said website makes things really difficult. At KLAS, I went to work every day knowing exactly what I would be doing. And if I ran out of editing, I knew three other things I could do to fill my time. At Health Catalyst, if I don't have content to edit or a proposal to work on, I'm sitting on my thumbs, trying to find new websites that can entertain me until I get something to work on.

I know this phase will end. I know this is just how it goes at a new job. I'm still trying to figure out what the company does and how I fit in, and I know that I went through this exact same phase at KLAS. I had the same frustrations and stresses when I started there over four years ago, but now all I can think about is how much I miss the familiarity.

Unfortunately, knowing that I will become familiar with Health Catalyst doesn't make the process of getting there any easier. It's been a stressful week and a half. Just ask Andrew about the (at least) three times I've broken down into tears at the prospect of going to work the next day. (To be fair, I warned him before I started that I would be a wreck for the first, oh, month or so.) I'm so thankful that Andrew's been so understanding. It is definitely nice to have such a supportive husband to come home to every night. I love him a ridiculous amount.

The good thing is that I think I'll like it at Health Catalyst. Eventually. The people have been super welcoming and nice, and the kitchen is fully stocked with candy, granola bars, caffeine, and other goodies. It's a great perk, especially when I forget a lunch and don't have to go out and spend money. However, it is terrible for my calorie counting. I have to exercise some serious restraint.

Speaking of calorie counting, they also gave me a FitBit, which is pretty cool. It tracks my steps, how many floors I've climbed, and how well I sleep. I've looked into getting one before, but I didn't want to spend the money, and now I don't have to! Woot! Even though I have been appalled at just how few steps I take some days.

Anyway, this is a long post that doesn't say much other than that I'm trying to get my feet under me. And on the days that I'm extra stressed and don't know what I'm doing, I just remind myself that this job is where I need to be right now. I know I was supposed to take this position because everything worked out too well for it not to be right. And I also know that in time, I will become as comfortable here as I was at KLAS. I just have to stick it out and take my time. Everything will work out great. Especially once we move and I no longer have this frigging nasty commute. (It's seriously awful. Rush-hour traffic is devil spawn.)

And because I worry that my text-only posts are super boring, here's a picture of my new work space. Because that's not boring at all, right?

Conference Weekend

When the week leading up to conference has been a bit stressful:


Source: Just Say Amen Already

Have I mentioned yet just how much I hate starting new jobs? No? Oh. Well, now I have.