Thanksgiving Weekend

It's been a week and a half since I moved to Utah, and I feel so good about it. I feel like I am moving on in life finally, rather than being stuck in Limbo. I finally have a job that I can use in my future photography career (yes, I will tie my degree into that as well), and am happy with my surroundings.

Since I was not going home for Thanksgiving this year, my good friend's mom invited me over to their place in Logan. I grew up with this family when I was ages 8 through 14. They were like a second family to me. So when I got the invite I was so happy I had somewhere to go, and it was just wonderful. I felt like I was at home with them, and, (no offense mom) I didn't even miss being home for the holiday. It's really interesting to have other family's Thanksgiving dinners to see what else people do. And it was oohhh so good! Us "kids" also made gingerbread houses, and after about 20 minutes of making them we became quite lazy and didn't decorate them too much, but it was still fun!

After dinner, Lindsay's daughters and Elise put on tu-tu's and danced around the living room. I got this cool shot of Lindsay's oldest daughter, Audrey, twirling.

Samantha, Elise and I left around 4pm since they had to drive all the way to St. George 5 hours away, and they dropped me off back in Provo around 6pm.

It's really cold here and the mountains all around us have a nice dusting of fresh snow on them. The day before Thanksgiving I was getting ready to leave for Logan, and the power in my apartment went out. I didn't think much of it since it happens all the time back at home, and left. When I came back the following day, Thanksgiving night, the power was STILL out. It was 57 degrees in the place, pitch dark and I was all by myself! Who could I interrupt from their Thanksgiving dinner to have me come over? The only person in town happened to be one of my best friends from high school, who is so caring and easy-going, and I gave her a call. She invited me over for their little dinner they were having with a couple friends, no problem at all. So I went and had a second Thanksgiving dinner. She was so kind to accommodate me with a warm room and a hot shower! The next day I called the electric company, and they said since the girl whose name the bill was under moved out, she took her name off the account, which made the company think no one lived at my apartment anymore! So they turned off the power. The night before Thanksgiving. AND since no one was working the day after Thanksgiving but the guy answering phones, they couldn't set up a new account for me until MONDAY. So that's 5 days without power. I've just been staying at my friend Amanda's house every night and work and do Christmas shopping during the day. I avoid the cold dark apartment as much as possible right now, and so are my roommates.

But alas, this weekend was a time of giving Thanks, and I must say I am so grateful for the path that I am now in, and that things are falling into place so nicely here in Utah. I finally feel like this is where I belong, at least for a while. I am also grateful for all the wonderful people I have in my life!

:)

Well things are coming together quite nicely for me here, and it's only been a day and a half. Yesterday I found myself a place to live. I got a room in a condo with 2 other girls, both named Chrissy. It's a really cute place, only a few minutes from work, which I start training for tomorrow morning. I'm pretty excited for what life throws at me next. BRING IT ON, LIFE!

On the move again!

I'm moving to Utah!

Where to start... Ok, so the past couple weeks have been quite busy. I road-tripped to Wyoming with my friends Bryce and Jared for a friend's wedding, and on the way back stopped in Utah for a week so I could job-search. (Pictures of the road trip I will post soon.) I chose Utah because I have so many old friends out there I would love to be near for a while, and I love all of the outdoor activities Utah has to offer. Not to mention I love living in a place with mountains as the backdrop, and I'd take snow over rain any day.

After job searching for a year and a half all over Arizona, Oregon, Utah, Washington and California, I found myself a job in Orem, UT after one day of job searching there. So I feel like that's telling me something, and it's where I belong right now. It will be nice to have a change in life for a while; I'm excited to see what life throws at me there!

Bryce, Jared and I left Utah on Friday, and since they need me to start work this coming Wednesday, I leave tomorrow (Tuesday)! It's been a fast-paced weekend of packing and saying hello and goodbye to my family and friends here in Oregon, but I will be back for Christmas.

The job is a sales/printing job at a camera/photography shop called "Inkley's Cameras" (Ritz Cameras without the name change). It was the only job out of 6 I applied for that week that I wanted, and happened to be the only one hiring. The manager liked my application more than anyone else's, and liked me a lot so hired me before giving me a formal interview, haha. The job is part time (~32 hours) but could increase soon. I might find myself another part-time job if I need it. I'm excited though, because although this job is not in my "field" (wildlife), it is in my greatest interest right now, since photography is my passion at the moment. At this shop I can learn about all the equipment, AND get discounts!! :) My dream is to work for a magazine like National Geographic or Nature, take photographs and write columns about them. This is where my degree and knowledge of wildlife and earth sciences would come in. So I feel this is something that is needed to get me started in all of that. While I'm at this job, I will continue to search for wildlife jobs in the area, but there has just been nothing for quite some time because of budgeting.

I'll be staying with a friend Amanda until I find a place to live, which shouldn't take long. I'll post my new address as soon as I have one ;).

I will try my best to update this more often, but please check out my new photography blog www.hollandbanksphotography.blogspot.com where I will be adding pictures as often as I can. I've already had 2 clients!