Life Update

(Ok, Mel. You are allowed to sue me for breach of contract. But not for too much because I’m only 24 hours late.)

These last few months have just flown by. I think it’s a function of my age, but time goes SO much faster than it did a few years ago. June was fantastic. As mentioned, I moved out of my parents’ house and into an apartment with some friends. That has been a wonderful, if expensive, decision. I love my roommates and we are getting very close. It’s a great apartment – which is good because I’m stuck with it until at least next June.

June was also wonderful because I was able to spend a week and a half in Utah with my long lost siblings. (Or am I the long lost one?) I was surprised with how much it made me realize that I miss about Utah. Ok, not Utah itself. But there are so many people there that I love. I am tempted – kinda – to head back out that direction when I move on from Delaware (maybe next year). I don’t want to live in Utah, but it might be worth it in order to spend more time with these people.

I was expecting to spend a lot of time with Kathryn and new baby Josh because, let’s face it, that’s why I went. Josh is adorable and my whole trip would have been totally worth it just to hold him once. And I got to hold him a TON! Plus I miss Kathryn. Kat – you are my best friend and I’m so lucky to be your sister.

But I was able to spend a lot of time with a lot of other people too. I had dinner with some of my old middle school friends and their families. It was great to reminisce and remember back when we were kids who thought they were so grown up at 12 or 13. And remembering all the good times since then too. And everyone’s kids are so cute!

I got to spend a day or two with one of my very very best friends ever, Jessica Ellison. She is one of maybe 3 people I know besides my family whom I really trust to love me no matter what. Some people are good friends, but no matter how much you like them you still always feel like you need to impress them or you feel like you have to worry about how much they will judge you before you tell them something really personal. It’s never that way with Jessica (or Ellie as she calls herself these days – which is really weird, by the way Guck). We’ve pretty much decided that the day our mothers met and we started playing with each other in the nursery at church was the best day ever… even though we don’t remember it. She’s also the kind of friend who I can not see or even talk to for a number of months or years and we’d still be able to pick right up where we left off with absolutely no awkwardness. And we’d still love each other just as much.

I got to stay with my Grandma and Grandpa Savage who are two of the coolest people on the earth. I really love my Grandparents. All 4 of them. And I know that I am extremely blessed to have all four of my natural grandparents still living and living together. The older I get, the closer they are to my heart. Which makes me a little scared because I know they won’t be around forever. But I’m hoping for another good 20 years at least.

I also spent some great time with Matt and Rachel. I spent a whole day with Rachel setting up her classroom for this fall (yay Rachel!). The three of us were able to go to the temple together and spend many many hours just talking. Sometimes until so late at night that it was really early morning. (And yes, Grandma and Grandpa noticed that I came in at 5am.) Or watching good movies/shows… I keep telling them they’ve done a wonderful/terrible thing by introducing me to the phenomena of Doctor Who. I have lost many hours of sleep to watching that TV show since. But I don’t regret a minute of it.

After I got back July just seemed like a blur. My team leader pulled me aside at work to inform me that things were in motion to have me transferred to a new team/position here at CSC. She wanted to make sure that that was ok with me before it became official. I said yes, of course. But then it became problematic for me because I wasn’t supposed to tell my teammates until a general announcement was made. But I had a lot of things to do in order to get my filings and my clients all in order so they could be transferred to someone else. So I was trying to make all kinds of arrangements without letting on that anything was changing. But I got things squared away and they announced it and now I’m moving from the role of Annual Report representative to a general Customer Service Representative. This is huge because now, instead of specializing in one kind of filing and being able to manage a very specific list of clientele, I have to be on the phones where anyone anywhere can call me and I have to be an expert in everything. So I’m a little nervous. Since August 1^st I’ve been training with various other teams here so that I can have at least a general grasp of what they do before I head into the CSR training. But I’m excited too. There is a lot more opportunity for growth and advancement there. (Not that I’m planning on making any long term career out of this… but it’s nice to know I have options.)

In other news, I’m still the Relief Society president in the branch. My dad (who is the high councilor assigned to the singles) is talking about the stake cracking down on the age limit in the branch. You know how YOUNG single adults is only supposed to go through age 30? Well my branch is crawling with 31-35 year olds. Since my dad mentioned it to me, I looked around our PEC/Branch Council meeting on Sunday… I’ll be the only one left. Which is why they haven’t moved on I suppose. The Elders’ Quarem president is 30, the Branch Mission leader is 30 (I think… he’s new, so I don’t know for sure.) the branch clerk is 31, the Sunday School president is 35-year-old student working on his doctorate, and even the second councilor in the Branch Presidency is my good friend who’s turns 32 this month, but I guess they’ll let him stay. (We don’t have any other auxiliaries in a singles branch.) So it will be interesting to see what happens and how much will change if they start to enforce the guidelines on that.

Also I’ve decided to be more domestic (just in this last week and a half). I have a couple of talents that I haven’t used recently, and I’ve decided to bring them back out. Mostly because I’ve been watching a lot of TV and I decided that instead of giving that up entirely in order to be more productive, I would just find a productive outlet that I could do while watching TV. : )

Back in February my Dad bought me a sewing machine (it was on sale!) as a thank you present for babysitting the kids while they went to Hawaii. So I finally brought it out and started playing with it. I had a project that was half done that I’ve been carting around with me, so I decided to finally finish it. Matt, you’ll be happy to know that the blanket that I promised you (a year and a half ago) is finally being put together. It will be finished by the time you come out here for Christmas. And don’t worry, you can have it even if I don’t draw your name.

I crocheted an afghan as a Laurel project (when they used to have those) and I decided to do another one of those too. Then, since I've actually never done this before, but always wanted to, I got a simple cross-stitch pattern and I'm slowly working on that too. 

Something else that has been on my mind a lot recently is this Christmas. I know, I know, that’s more than 4 months away, but you don’t even know. First of all, it’s Christmas. I love Christmas. But even better than that, Daniel will be home from his mission. I miss him SO MUCH. We are going to speak in Spanish all the time. (Sorry to those of you who won’t understand us, but you are just going to have to deal with it. I’ve been going through Spanish withdrawals lately.) But even better than that, EVERYONE will be home for the holidays. Just as I’m going to start getting used to having Daniel around, suddenly Matt and Rachel and Reid and Kathryn and Adam and JOSH are all going to show up. AAAHHH!! I can’t handle how amazing and epic that is going to be. This is the first time that we’ll have everyone home since the family started adding in-laws. The Savage family now boasts a whopping 15 members: Mom, Dad, Heather, Matt and Rachel, Kathryn and Adam and baby Josh, Daniel, Reid, Victoria, Caroline, Steven, Nate, and Julie. That’s a LOT of people.

So I’m kinda glad I have my own place. : )

I haven’t been reading a whole lot lately. Moving tripled my commute time into work, so I’ve started listening to audio books while I drive. But it’s not the same. Plus I don’t want to get a book on audio when I already have it on my bookshelf. So I havent been reading the books that I said I would. But I’ll get to that soon. Promise.

Well, I hope that this post will satisfy those of you who have been anxiously awaiting information about my life. It’s random, but then so is my life these days. Please post comments. I’m looking for advice on how to do these projects better, ideas for other projects to start, scathing comments about not spending enough time with you while I was in Utah, Christmas wish lists, declarations of undying friendship, your favorite joke, sympathy for my sad new Doctor Who obsession, or anything and everything in between. Love!

(I was going to take pictures of many things mentioned in this post and put those up too... but my camera is broken. Sorry.)

Light at the end of the tunnel!

So about that whole posting once a month thing… Oops. : )

But honestly, there hasn’t been all that much more to post about.

For the last 3 ½ months I have been just pushing through. I haven’t really been enjoying my life, as much as I’ve just been trying to survive it.  I think it has been wearing me down more than I’m admitting to people. Between CSC still being extremely stressful, working at the YMCA, and trying to hold my Relief Society together – I have just about lost my mind.

P.S. Depression sucks. (But I’m working on that too.)

HOWEVER – there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Everything that is adding stress to my life is going to be better in June. The last huge tax deadline that we have at work is June 1^st, so after that I’ll be able to breathe again. My internship at the YMCA is over on May 26^th. Oh, and I’m moving out of my parents’ house on May 28^th. I have signed a lease with two girls from my branch and we move in in two weeks. I am SO excited about this. Not because I want to leave my family (I’ll only be about half an hour away) but because I will actually be able to have an active social life again. And let’s face it, it’s pretty hard to find a husband when you never leave your house. (I won’t go into how utterly sick I am of being single.)

So, while this post may not be a great play-by-play of my last couple of months, and it’s kind of depressing as it is, I know that the future looks better and I can just move on and leave all this stress behind me.

Though, I’d be remiss if I omitted the fact that I am now an Aunt. Kathryn gave birth to Joshua Adam Christensen on March 10^th. (Yes, he was 5 weeks early.) So once work calms down I’ll actually be able to get to Utah to see the little guy. I’ll be out probably in the last part of June.

Love you all!

February - you can't be over yet!

I decided that I was going to post something on my blog at least once a month. But this month happened WAY too fast. (Hence the last-day-of-the-month post.)

Here's what my month has looked like:

On February 1st my parents went to Hawaii with my Grandparents for a little over a week. This was wonderful for them, and I'm really glad they got to go. But guess who got to be in charge at home while they were gone? Let's just say that I am not yet ready to be a single working mother with 6 children. The only reason that I survived was because I knew it was temporary. And because Victoria is amazing.

Pretty much as soon as they got back I started an internship at the YMCA. This is on top of my regular job. So every day I'm working 8 hours at CSC, and then heading straight to the YMCA afterward to put in another 3 hours. I'm loving it, but it's not leaving a whole lot of time for doing anything else. Forget a social life. I'm working in a couple of different programs. I'm helping to mentor in the Youth in Government program that they offer. It's really interesting because I have never been very political. I know that it's important, but it's not something that I've ever been passionate about. These High School kids are PASSIONATE about the stuff they are discussing, and they really know what they are talking about. But they are all pretty Liberal (it's Delaware) so I find myself trying not to laugh sometimes. They are creating "bills" that they are going to present and debate in April when they get to spend a day in Dover actually sitting in the Legislature. Some of them have really good ideas. Other ones are pretty silly. And some are just dumb. One girl decided she wanted to outlaw Home School because it makes kids anti-social and weird. (I had a few things to say about that.) Another kid has decided that he's going to start taxing the consumption of anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup in it, so that we'll be healthier. Another kid has decided to outlaw any fast food meal that is more than 750 calories. You can see what they are trying to do, but I don't want the government telling me what I'm allowed to eat or not.

Anyway...

On top of that work has been a LOT more stressful. I keep meaning to explain exactly what I do on this blog sometime, so I guess I'll do that now.

Corporation Service Company does a lot of different things for people and their companies. I am specifically on the Annual Report team. Every company has to qualify with the Secretary of State in each place that they are doing business. Then every year they are required to file some kind of registration to stay in good standing. Each state has different requirements and different due dates and it's a huge mess to try and keep track of it. So that what we do for people. We keep track of where they are doing business and we file all their Annual Reports for them. When I first started I was just assisting with someone else's filings. It was a little monotonous, but the people were great, so I liked it. Well, about 3 months ago they started to give me my own clients. So now I'm the point person for some pretty major companies. And they keep giving me more. So I'm pretty overwhelmed by the customer service side of my job now, and hardly have time to do any of the filings. And Delaware is due tomorrow. EVERY Delaware entity (and there are a LOT of them, because everyone incorporates in Delaware) has an annual report due by midnight tomorrow. Our entire team is going crazy trying to get everything done on time.

Oh, yeah. I'm the Relief Society President. Is it bad that that is the least stressful thing in my life right now? (Has everyone done their Visiting Teaching?)

And I turned 26.

I haven't been able to read a whole lot recently, but we are going to start a book club in Relief Society. I'll let you all know how that goes.

The End.

One 'reading update' coming right up…

Sometimes I forget that people actually read my blog… Sorry Mel! 

Here’s what I’ve been reading:

The Help

Kathryn Stockett

I really liked this book. It was an interesting and honest glimpse into the lives of women and what they had to deal with in the south in the 60s. I thought it was brilliant. It really made me think about what my prejudices may be. In this book there are some women who really believe that black women are simply not capable of being as intelligent as white ones. They don’t think they are being prejudiced, they just think they are stating facts. So it makes me wonder what I believe as fact that in reality is just blind prejudice. And how would you ever know it?

I thought the author did a good job of showing a lot of different angles and sides to the stories. She also had diverse characters, and I don’t just mean racially. I appreciated the fact that there wasn’t just a “white woman” type and then a “black woman” type. She showed that whatever your race we are all individuals with different challenges and different dreams. We all handle situations differently and think different things are funny. None of that has to do with the color of our skin.

I also appreciated the fact that the author showed multiple prejudices. Obviously the racial one was a major player, but she also showed how women judge themselves and how even among members of a similar race there are people who are acceptable and those who aren’t.

I highly recommend this book to anyone. I really really liked it.

And Then There Were None

Agatha Christie

I decided to go with something outside of my usual reading genres next. Mystery. I had never read anything by Agatha Christy before, and I thought it was about time I gave her a try.

I have to admit that I have a thing for finding out how it ends. If I’m flipping channels on the TV and I spend any more than about 5 minutes on a show like CSI or Law and Order… I can’t stop. I can’t do anything else until I find out who did it. No matter how terrible the show is. And I also always make a prediction. After the first 10 minutes of the show, you can be pretty sure that you’ve seen the killer already, so I like to make a prediction about who it is. See if I can guess it right before all the evidence comes in. (Sorry if this annoys any of you who watch TV with me.)

That’s sorta what happened with this book. I was absolutely hooked once I got just a few pages in. I liked the way that the story was told – from all different perspectives. But it got a little frustrating because you were seeing into all the characters’ heads and you still didn’t know who did it. I kept waiting for someone to think “wow, I can’t believe they haven’t caught me yet.” But I really enjoyed the way that the plot was outlined at the very beginning of the story. The characters start dying off in the same way that the little Indians do in a poem that is read early on. So it was kinda fun trying to figure out how they were going to make it all work.

But then (I won’t spoil it for anyone who’s interested in reading it) the end came completely out of left field! I was mad because I’d made my prediction early on, and it turned out I was right… but it was really frustrating. You’ll just have to read it to see why. (Ohhh, a little teaser for you there.)

Over all, it was entertaining, but I was upset that there was no way to have figured it out on my own. The author didn’t give enough detail until the reveal at the end to make it remotely possible to even make an educated guess. But still a fun read.

The Screwtape Letters

C. S. Lewis

I have obviously read this book before. But when I first went through what I am simply calling “My Book List” I decided to not just mark it as already-read or need-to-read but also to include an absolutely-must-read-again-because-I-was-way-too-young-when-I-read-it-the-first-time category.

I love the way that this book is written. The whole thing is backwards, if you think about it. The author is trying to help us be better people, so he does into the ways that the adversary works to stop us from doing that.

If you haven’t read this book, here’s the premise: Screwtape, a master Tempter and Devil, is writing letters to his nephew, a young Tempter on his first assignment. He gives him lots of advice on how to coerce his subject into falling away from God.

I tried to explain how wonderful this was to a friend of mine who’d never read it, and she said it just sounded creepy. But it’s not! It’s a brilliant commentary on the little tricks and methods that Satan has perfected over the years to keep us away from the straight and narrow.

I could go on forever. Basically, if you have read this book you know exactly how amazing it is. If you haven’t read this book, go do so immediately because it’s fantastic and will honestly make you better.

The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance

Elna Baker

A coworker/girl I’ve know from church for 10ish years (even though she’s never actually gotten Baptized…) came up to me at work about a month and a half ago. We were just chatting the way coworkers do, when she was like “oh, you would appreciate this. I saw this book at the store and I had to buy it.” She started telling me about this book. She was hesitant to recommend it to me, because as much as the title may be misleading this book probably won’t be sold at Deseret Book (in fact, I’d be shocked if they did). But she made it clear that it wasn’t “anti.” So I told her to bring it in, and I’d love to read it. I read it that night and had it back to her by morning.

This is one girl’s memoir on her life as a single Mormon living in New York. She struggles with a lot of things (her weight, men, actually believing that the church is true…) and she’s very honest. There are some hilarious things (like the way she describes the titular dance… we’ve all been there.) and there are some really emotional things (like her struggles with her relationships) and there were times that I found myself wanting to yell at her “No! Don’t do it! The Church is really true, I promise! You’ll regret that in the morning!”

She’s a bit of a mess when it comes to guys, but I think we can all see ourselves in little pieces of her story. Expecially for me, being a single Mormon way longer than I ever meant to be, I appreciate some of the things that she feels. At the beginning when she freaks out about kissing, I’ve totally been there. Over annylizing everything too. But maybe it’s just a girl thing.

I have always known that the Church is true. It’s one of my spiritual gifts, I believe. (See D&C 46:11-14) It's a huge blessing. But at times it makes it hard for me to really understand people who don’t have the same level of faith that I do. This book helped me to gain better insight into the struggles that some, probably most, people have to go through to gain a testimony.

The really frustrating part is: She never gets it. I’m going to ruin the end for you, but it basically comes down to her saying that she knows the church is probably true, but it’s too hard to live like a Mormon, so she’s probably just going to stop trying. But her thought process and the journey she takes to that completely inconclusive end is still worth a read I think.

Be aware that this book has some language and compromising situations in it. Don’t be thinking that since it’s got Mormon in the title that it’s something you could have your little sister read. That said, I do recommend this book. I think it’s interesting reading and gave me a lot to think about. I’d love to discuss it with people.

(It was really cool to discuss with the friend who loaned it to me, especially because she’s pretty much in the same boat – she came to all four years of early morning seminary, she’s been to church more than a few members I know, she’s currently engaged to a Mormon… but she won’t make the real commitment by actually being baptized. But then, she was raised by the same parents who named her Ruby Tuesday Rock and Roll Griffiths. No joke.)

The Poisonwood Bible

Barbara Kingsolver

I found this book intriguing… but mostly boring. When I think back on it, I find I’m kinda glad it’s over. There were some interesting themes and family dynamics. But I felt like I was trying to finish it just so I could say I had rather than because I wanted to read it.

So I won’t go into it much more than that.  Good book. Long winded. Maybe if I knew more about South African history I would have followed it better. I didn’t really connect with the characters. Thoughts?

Cards on the Table

Agatha Christie

I just finished this one last night. Another mystery. I find that I don’t think I like Agatha Christie very much. I remember watching old british TV shows that starred her iconic character Hercule Poirot. But I didn’t like him in this book. Actually, I just didn’t like this book. But, of course, I had to find out what happened.

There’s a whole lot of bait and switch going on between the author and the reader here. There are basically 4 people who could possibly have committed a murder. And since they’ve all committed murder before, it’s supposedly impossible to know which one would be more likely to have done it. The author leads you to believe that you’ve figured it out with each one of the people before finally saying “ha! Just kindding. It was actually this one!” Which, as with the one I read before, I found really annoying rather than interesting or unpredictable. You literally are convinced that it’s one person for the last 20 pages (because Poirot has said it’s true) and then he changes his mind on the last two pages. I just about threw the book.

And that’s what I think of that.

Persuasion

Jane Austen

I can’t really say that I’m reading this book exactly… I’m almost reciting it at this point. This is absolutely my favorite book of all time. I have read it more times than I can count. I got a fancy new phone last month and now I have Kindle capabilities at my fingertips… so this is what I read when I have to wait around for some reason.

As a side note, this is the first book I've talked about (in any post) that I haven't been able to find a picture of the exact cover for the book I had in my hand. But that's because I have seen or own so many copies, I couldn't pick.

But since I was reading it today I thought I’d talk about why it’s my favorite book. And since it’s not the most popular Austen novel, I feel I need to explain myself.

I am Anne Elliot. This is probably the closest I have ever been to really really identifying with a character in a book. A lot of Jane Austen’s other heroines are more outgoing or charismatic or just stuck up and dumb (I’ve always disliked Emma Woodhouse). But Anne is quiet. She’s content staying in the background. Her goal in life is to make everyone around her comfortable. But she’s not weak. When it matters, she does not back down from what is important. Every time Austen describes Anne’s feelings or thoughts I feel myself thinking “oh, my gosh. I know!”

Aside from the heroine, I love Austen’s commentary on the role of persuasion and influence in our lives. When does being mindful of the wishes of others become a weakenss? When does being strong willed turn into disregard for others or recklessness? Is it possible to live life without being influenced by others? What if you use your influence to hurt other people? Captain Wentworth is so upset by Anne’s submission to the will of her friend that he believes for a time that he wants a woman who will never be influenced by others. When he finds this woman, she nearly kills herself because she will not listen to him when he tells her she’s jumping from too high up for him to catch her. He, and hopefully the reader, learn throughout the story that you must make your own decisions in life, but if you ignore the advice or needs of the people around you, you will never be happy.

I could go on for days. But this post is far too long as it is…

Please leave me your thoughts and comments.

Next on the list (though, I may not have time to read for a while):

-The Book Thief

-1776

-Peace like a River

-Little Women (also on the need-to-read-again list)