I got the job!!!

What an awesome feeling being 6 months ahead of the curve! Freese and Nichols (FNI) offered me a great job with even better benefits (which sort of means more to me than the actual job, in cases like health insurance). I will start July 2010. Whoowoo! They are located in the beautiful West End next to TGIFriday's.

Change

Now is a time of change.

Moving from student life to the work force (At least, that's the goal. Interview is scheduled for Friday 10 a.m.)

Clashing of family traditions. He likes the artificial tree (thanks Katrina) and I like a real tree. Btw. Funny story about the real tree. I took Al, Jenna, and Cal out to the tree farm to cut our own tree down. I absolutely love the smell of a real Virginia Pine. This tree farm had 3 different trees: Virginia Pine, Leyland Cypress and something else that I can't remember. We got out there and Jenna picked a V. Pine and I really like the feel of the Leyland Cypress. Alex loved the third tree type. I thought his pick was too pokey and greyish. But, Alex liked its shape. Well in the end, we went with my pick (Cypress) since this was my family tradition of having a real tree. So, I cut down the tree and carried it back to the barn.

Well, we get back to little red barn and the rancher said, "Have you ever had a Leyland Cypress?"

"No, we usually get the V. Pine."

Rancher says, "Well you're in luck. The Cypress is a hypoallergenic tree so if you are allergic, you don't have to worry because it won't put out a scent. That pokey type smells the best though. You'll love the Cypress though!"

Alex just stands there and nods with this "I told you so" face.

And! I look down at my arms and they are covered in a itchy red rash! Hypoallergenic my a**.

On to more changes:

My friendships.

More of Jenna

Less of Drew. Never though economic differences would separate us. That story to come soon once I get my thoughts together.

My Identity.

Name

Initials

Signature

To who I think I am to who I need to be, who I am designed to be. Thanks Erin. Gosh, your blog couldn't have come at a better time. Oceans may separate us but your wisdom is so near.

Interviewing really makes you think about who you are and having to describe yourself in 5 minutes or less... so difficult! (Because what you do is not who you are)

My priorities.

I used to be such a great student. I'm skipping classes, getting bad grades on hwk. But really, I'm happier. I love my husband, my friends (near and far), my job (the lab is so fun. Much better than sitting at a desk 40 hours a week!), my thesis, my advisor, the changes.

Change is good (to be cliche). It is challenging me, making me grow, humbling me, making me more self aware, making me wiser.... and making me miss more and more Erin and Katrina and even Jam (good luck on that GRE! Afterwards, we must celebrate). :)

Generic Update

I told you I was bad at this. I should really follow up on my blog more often. Oh well.

So here's life.

Thanksgiving as a married person.
Since I'm running my reactors 24 hours a day, I have daily responsibilities that I must do in order to complete my thesis. Every 12 hours I have to empty the effluent (the stuff coming out of the reactors) and I have to make new influent every 24 hours (every day at 3pm exactly). The effluent is flexible so I do it around 9-10 am every morning and again at 8-10pm every night. Its really not bad, but when it comes to holidays, it sucks. So, point is that I must do these things on Thanksgiving. Alex and I are spending Thanksgiving "alone" because of the reactors. I'm okay with it, because at least I'm spending the holiday with my new family: Alex. However, I am sad that I don't get to have the traditional thanksgiving that I'm used to: Turkey, Dressing (or stuffing if this is Erin or Kat reading this), 10 different pies, board games, shopping with my mom, etc... I am, though, excited about spending time with Alex. We haven't decided what we are actually going to do on that day but here are some of our options:
1) I run the turkey trot in downtown
2) We volunteer at food kitchen
3) do nothing
4) Watch football... joy

For food, well... I can't really cook anything other than mac-n-cheese and I'm not sure if Al really wants to make a turkey. We may try to catch Eatzi's or Whole Foods for our thanksgiving meal.

One thing I am excited about it started our own traditions as a family. His mom keeps telling us to take lots of pictures, regardless of what we decide to do because traditions will be made without us knowing.

Job hunting:
Its about that time again. I feel like I just started graduate school and now I have to be planning for the next step. I really do love grad school. I absolutely love being in the lab, using lab equipment, putting on gloves 8 times a day, wearing a lab coat (that is 4 times too big for me), wearing safety glasses so not to get chemicals in my eyes, gosh i love the hands on experience. I have learned more in these last few months than I did my 4 years in undergrad! I don't want to move on... but I know I need to.
SO here's how to job situation is panning out:
The market for engineers is the worst its ever been! Its going to be tough. But, with a master's degree and all that goes with it (plus the awards from the senior design project)I am much more marketable. But, remember when I interviewed with Freese and Nichols (FNI) last year in West End? Well I didn't get an offer from them. Also, remember when I went down to Galveston to compete in the Senior Design Competition? Well its a small world... One of the judges at the competition, Leon, worked for FNI. He took the position I applied for. He was much more qualified as he has a PhD! So, I talked with him at the conference and such. Nice guy. That was in April. In June, he contacted me and my advisor, Jimmy (Dr. Yu). He heard I was doing work at SMU with biofilm reactors and since his PhD was in biomembranes (a biofilm technology), he wanted to help out and get some additional research done... to benefit my thesis and FNI. So, I've been working closely with Leon ever since. Awesome guy! A few weeks ago, he brought up the FNI interview that I did in April. He told me why they chose him over me and such (basically, they sensed I couldn't commit... they were right). He asked me if I was interested in FNI, again.
I struggled with this idea for about a week. How embarrassing would be to interview again? Would it look too desperate for the job? I'm still the same general person now and I was in April... what if they turned me down again!? How awful!

But, I decided, I need to keep my options open. I need to humble myself and realize that I need a job, regardless of what or where it is. Their office is in West End, really close to my apartement... they do do technical work in wastewater... gosh. The only thing it is a all male office. They have 1 female engineer. They are a bunch of "good-ole boys".... all are married with kids and all their wives stay home. Not sure of what their views are of women, but I'm sure I can guess.

So, I told Leon my concerns and the conversation ended with: Sure, I'd love to interview. That was Tueday.

Thursday:
I attended a monthly meeting for wastewater engineers (lame, I know) called Water Environment Association of Texas. All of the DFW wastewater engineers come to network, hear a technical speaker, eat, and get free beer. This time it was of course, at that silly cowboy's stadium. I met Leon there with a lot of other FNI people. Leon invited me to go to get to know some of the FNI people to see if I could potentially work with them. I met them, everything went very well... I'm good at small talk with people I don't know. Surprising (I know). Basically, after the meeting, Leon said that the hiring engineer said that he would call me early this week (tomorrow or Tuesday) and set me up with an interview. IF the interview goes well, Leon said that he (Leon) and his wife, the hiring engineer (David) and his wife, would take Alex and me out to dinner that night... very strange, I think. I think they are wanted to sell me the company as a "family" place. I think its just weird. Alex is not being interviewed, I am. Haha, oh well.

So that's the major things going on in my life right now. I'll let you know how the job thing goes. I'm trying not to get too excited for something I don't have yet, but man, if I got the job thing settled now... just think of how stress free my life would be the closer it gets to publishing! I'm excited about FNI. I like Leon and if I could work with him, I'd be veeerry happy! Plus, I would not only be a lame consulting engineer, but they would let me work in their lab and at the SMU lab for additional research!! Soooo cool!

In other news, I've been going through the 1100+ wedding photos. Here are just a few of my favorites:

Getting ready to walk through the green grass

My handsome man

precious

The girls

So it begins...

This is probably the most difficult thing I've ever done. Putting my thoughts into words, sentences, paragraphs, in an orderly manner. This may be a disaster. This may be the best thing I've ever done. I guess I have nothing to lose so I must try.

In summary: I miss my dearest friends. I miss not being about to curl up on the couch or call on yogilious dates with those I used to spend my life with... to cry, laugh, rant, listen, give advice and thoughts, receive wisdom, and to simply be a apart of the unbelievable lives of my wonderful friends. So, here is my attempt to continue to share my life with those nearby and those who I wish I could call any minute.

So it begins...