About Me

This is a survey my sister wanted me to do on my sister-blog on MySpace. I thought I would post it here too:
And since I do try to be a good sport . . .

TAGGED!!!

Here's the rules: Once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird random things, facts, or habits about yourself. At the end, you choose 5 people to be tagged, list their names, and why you chose them. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you're tagged" on their profile and tell them to read your latest blog. ENJOY!!!

So, weird and random, huh? This might be hard.

1. My favorite fairy tale character is Beauty, and I love the many reiterations of the story (my favorite being Beauty by Robin McKinley). So I have a dream to one day have a rose garden as close to Beauty's as possible.

2. When I'm happy, I like to squeal and clap my hands. I think if someone saw this who didn't know me, they might wonder if I'm "special."

3. I think I might be ever so slightly dyslexic, especially with numbers. I frequently mix up numbers either switching or replacing (like earlier when I was trying to call a 442 prefix and instead called a 422 prefix, and had to look at it twice before realizing it was wrong).

4. I know someone who has been an actor on The Bold and the Beautiful, General Hospital, One Life to Live, and All My Children. Can you guess who?

5. I'm extremely stingy. I don't understand how people can have thousands of dollars in credit card debt, and still continue to spend money. That would stress me out so much! So instead, I'm conservative with my money. Right now we have a student loan for Aaron's schooling, but it's government subsidized, so we don't owe interest till after Aaron's done. That's the only debt we have. Even when we were living on $600/month, we still avoided debt. I got a student loan my last semester at BYU ($2500) and it was paid off within 8 months of graduating. We rarely buy "luxuries" or go out to eat. I'm just glad Aaron is with me on this.

6. I'm all about sleep. I always have been. I was sleeping through the night at two weeks old. Of course, my mom LOVED that (especially with 4 other kids to deal with). She said that I would wake up at 6 a.m. to be fed, and go back to sleep for three hours while she got the other kids ready for the day. It was PERFECT. My freshman year of college, there was this required GE class that most students took as freshman called American Heritage (talked about the founding of the US and how the government works). We had a pretty tough professor and there were about 800 in the class. The night before the final, a lot of girls on my floor stayed up all night to study for it. I, on the other hand, took time to study during the day and then slept my normal 8 hours. After the test the next morning, one girl commented that she didn't even remember what the questions were or how she answered and that she fell asleep during the middle of it. I can't imagine she did well (or at least not her best). I got an A-. I just really believe that sleep is important to you functioning and doing well each day.  (I'm not trying to brag, just saying that sleep really helped me in concentrating on what the questions were asking, especially since some were kind of "tricky.")

7. I'm quite a messy person, I admit. I've two or three bosses actually ask me to clean up my desk because it wasn't very presentable. And my apartment is a perpetual mess. Now, this isn't to say my apartment is dirty or gross. There's a difference. I do clean the dishes, I do mop the floor, I do vacuum, I do clean the bathroom. It's just messy again by the next day. And, most importantly, I really make an effort to have a clean and orderly house when I have guests over, so they aren't uncomfortable by my messiness.

8. I have recently starting having a crush on British TV star Paul Blackthorne (who's been on ER, 24, and Monk). I mean just his name is AWESOME. Why can't I have a cool last name like Blackthorne (and it's not cool unless you're born with the name, which I assume he was). He's currently starring in The Dresden Files, a fun show on the Scifi channel about a private investigator who just happens to be a wizard (my favorite genre--fantasy). He's hunky and tall and . . .*swoon*. Well, here, judge for yourself:

Additionally, the character of Bob, played by Terrance Mann, is absolutely delightful and they play off each other very well. And if you're worried, yes my husband knows about my recent obsession with Paul—he's not worried one bit. *Swoon* (They haven't announced if the show will renew for another season, so check it out. The more fans the better, and I think I'll die if it doesn't come back for a second season. Also, just realize that the show has some rocky moments, but really comes into its own around episode 9 or so. Then it absolutely rocks!)

9. I can touch my nose with my tongue.

10. I'm so boring, I can't think of a tenth one, but my sister wants me to post this, so oh well. Maybe I'll think of one later.

New Job, Sort of

So today has been an interesting day. My company has been bought out by Symantec (it was announced in January, but became official last Friday). Today we had a 3-hour orientation that frankly left me quite confused. There was a lot of information to go over and a lot of Web sites reviewed that I can't remember (although now that I'm back at my desk and able to go through them, I'm starting to get where everything is).

In some ways, I'm really excited about this opportunity. With a bigger company comes the ability to do more. I'm also excited to see how professional their style guide is and I'm pleased that most of their decisions are in line with Altiris' Style Guide (which I helped to create).

In terms of benefits, there are ups and downs, but I think there are more ups. The insurance is like 4 times as much, but we had just about the cheapest insurance ever, so it's still not that bad, and they cover SO much. Plus, because of the transition, we're basically getting 2 months of free insurance (we're already on Symantec's payroll, yet we're still covered by the insurance through Altiris till the end of the month. So our pay isn't being deducted for the insurance. And we have till the end of May to sign up for insurance through Symantec, even though we'll be covered on May 1, no matter when we sign up (retroactively). Even so, they said they wouldn't deduct our wages retroactively, thus giving ustwo months of free health insurance). Additionally, even though the insurance is more, they'll be reimbursing us quarterly for the difference between the old insurance and the new insurance until the end of the year (since when we signed up last December, it was supposedly for a whole year), so we won't really be paying the higher premiums till next year. I still think they're rather reasonable (between $216 and $288 a month for a family, only $27/month for an employee only).

They also have cool benefits, like if you join a gym, they'll reimburse you up to $69/quarter for the costs (I haven't found out yet if they'll reimburse me, even though I prepaid for a two-year membership, but if they do, that'd be so cool). I also found out that they have paid maternity leave. I'm not sure how long I would get, if I were to have a baby while working here, but it's nice to know it would be paid (I was worrying that I'd have to use whatever vacation I had accrued and then go back to work).

One of the things I'm really disappointed about is I believe they said Timponogas hospital is not covered, which is the closest and nicest hospital in the area.

So, an interesting day overall.