Happy Birthday Jorge!

My oldest nephew, Jorge, turned 13 on July 12th. To celebrate, he spent the day at Lagoon with his best friend and mom and favorite aunt! It was crazy hot, but we braved the heat and rode every single new ride Lagoon has gotten in the past ten years. The Spider was my favorite, Wicked was wicked, BomBora was lame, Samurai was crazy, the new Air*Race was so-so, and the JetStar is completely awful. We got wet on Rattlesnake Rapids, drove like race car drivers at the Go-Karts, drank lots of water, and had a blast doing everything! Happy Birthday Jorge!

 

 

I used to be a pansy when it came to rollercoasters, but I was fearless!

Last Day

Friday was my last day at Myriad Genetics. I started there almost three years ago as a temp on a month assignment. I had only temped once before when I first moved to New York, but when I had returned to Salt Lake and was jobless after almost four months I was willing to take anything. The month assignment kept getting extended and extended, but without an official offer of a job. When I had reached my end, knowing that I needed to work where I was an employee and could get benefits and holiday pay and all that, my boss offered me a permanent position.

It's hard leaving a place where you are comfortable. I very quickly, after various people had transferred or went on maternity leave, became the senior person in the department. I was recognized as an expert and go-to person for questions and problems. After various projects, I was given more autonomy over projects that allowed me to work with various important individuals and departments in the company. I remember wondering if I'd ever have the knowledge my co-workers had when I started, and then one day it was just there.

Now I'm moving on, where my knowledge is useless and I will be the new person. I won't know the answers or who to even ask. I'm very excited to start my internship with Bountiful City, but am a little nervous for the change. I'm the type of person who does not change jobs frequently because I like being comfortable--I worked at Wendy's starting in High School and worked for them for about five years total, I worked at Walmart while an undergrad for almost three and a half years, in New York I worked at J. Crew for over a year, and now Myriad for almost three years.

Change is scary for me, but it must be done to move forward. I'll always appreciate my time at Myriad, and love that my co-workers had an ice cream party for me for my last day.

The New Spiderman

Ten years ago when the first Spiderman was released I was finishing up my first year at Snow College. I loved the movie and developed an instant crush on Tobey Maguire (this was before I had matured and realized that tall skinny guys with beards is where it's at). The sequel was better than the first and I listened to the soundtrack on repeat for months. The day I graduated with my Bachelor's my mom, sister and I saw Spiderman 3 and it was awful.

When I heard they were considering a fourth installment with (no longer attractive) Tobey Maguire I balked. When I heard they were instead going to make a reboot, only 5 years after the last one, I was openly skeptical. But then they announced Andrew Garfield as Spidey. Swoon. I developed a crush on him after The Social Network. He has kind of amazing hair. Just sayin'.

My mom, sister and I saw The Amazing Spiderman on the Fourth and it was great! It was of course better than the third  Spiderman, but also great entirely on its own. The transformation of Peter Parker into Spiderman is done really well, with a nice backstory/mystery of Peter's parents and what happened to them. Peter's love interest is Gwen Stacy instead of red-headed Mary Jane Watson and I like the switch up. I know it's a departure from the comics, but I like that Gwen knows Peter's secret and they work together to stop the Lizard. I do not like love triangles and I hope they keep it out of subsequent films.

Garfield is really great with the emotional scenes; when he's trying not to cry my heart melts. When Peter is trying to ask out Gwen I squirm with him. He also plays Peter  less as a nerd-nerd and more as a cool-nerd. The action is great too, as director Marc Webb tried to stay away from CGI as much as possible. The Avengers might be more dazzling and wham! bam!, but The Amazing Spiderman is just as good. I look forward to the following films.

Happy Fourth

A few pics from my fabulous Fourth:

 

Book Club: Wild Orchid

This month the book I didn't read for Book Club was Wild Orchid, a retelling of Mulan which is Cat's favorite "fairy-tale". Cat didn't read the book either. Since I didn't read the book, I instead had fun with Pam's nieces, Bella and Evie, who are visiting and just moved back from Okinawa. It was a fun night with fun people!

 

This pic was taken with my iPod so it's kinda crappy.

Old Foto Friday

This pic of Em and I in Wyoming in front of a monument regarding the Battle of Little Big Horn is classic Em and Julie. I'm not sure why we are so upset with the picture being taken, though.

Avett Brothers

Summer is full of outdoor concerts and I love it. Tonight my fantabulous friend Pam and I returned to Gallivan Plaza to listen to The Avett Brothers. Last year it rained on us. This year it was hot. Hot and smelly (b.o., weed, something manure-ish, spilled beer). While Pam and I both think last years concert was better--different playlist, longer--we still very much enjoyed this one as well. We enjoyed crazy mustached-man, man wearing a tank top, dude who was very drunk and danced a bit too much, girl turning 30 who bumped up on me too many times, 11 people wearing Avett Brothers shirts (myself included), boy with sunflower shirt, boy who barely moved, and 12-year old on yearbook staff with the older boyfriend.

Oh, and the MUSIC!! They played a lot of older older songs this year, which I'm not as familiar with. Pammy once again did not get to hear her favorite, Ill With Want, and I didn't get to hear Colorshow. But the brothers put on a fabulous show, with banjos, cellos, stand-up bass, drums, piano and guitar. Oh, and the harmonica. It was awesome!

After the show, as we were walking by the vans and such, Scott and Seth walked out to their bus and Seth Avett and I shared a wave. It was kinda awesome.