Happy is an Understatement

My dear friends and readers,
The month of January 2013 has been an incredible whirlwind. It could be described as the Hurricane Sandy of my life, but with some major differences... There where no deaths, power outages or overall bad feelings. So really it was just very life changing I guess!
I made a big life move and up and drove myself across the country to the Phoenix, Arizona area. As I sat in my car to leave my New York driveway for who knows how long I thought to myself, "You are crazy. You have honestly lost your mind. You are leaving all of your family, for a life you don't even know if you'll like."
As I stopped and visited with friends across the country and told them of my plans I received a lot of support, but also a lot of questions like, "You don't have a job?" "Aren't you scared?" "What if you hate it?" and Yes I didn't have a job, I was terrified and if I hated it well.... yeah.
The thing is people I love it.

This is our house!

I love Arizona. I love the people here, the weather, my job at Enterprise, my roommates, our house, my new boyfriend ;),  the trips I've already taken, the food, everything. I am so incredibly grateful that I sucked up my fears, moved out of my little nest of safety in New York and came here! Aside from college, this is probably the scariest, but most rewarding thing I've ever done.

You can't really tell, but I got bangs!

Pooks and Pooks reunited, this is the night we went country dancing!

the best view in the valley, from Camel-back Mountain.

We like to play Jenga and watch disney movies.

If I had any suggestions to you my dear friends it'd be to do what scares you, but prepared because going outside of your comfort zone can often times make you so happy.

Who does that?!?

There is many a night at Buca Di Beppo where I am left wondering "who on God's green earth pulls that kind of stuff?!?," but tonight the charts have been topped.

I was simply performing a table run, which is exactly like what it sounds. We run around like the boys in Juno trying to find places to seat guests. So I'm running around, clearly busy, and then this bizarre looking man holding a baby comes up to me and asks (I kid you not... This is verbatim) "Will you wash this thoroughly for me, it fell on the ground?" And I say "what?!?!" And he shoves his babies binkey INTO MY HAND.He wanted me to wash his child's binkey. And here's the crazy part... I did it. Mostly because I was too shocked to do anything else, and party because I believe in being nice and delivering superior customer service.

But seriously people? I'm a hostess... Not your nanny. Not your sink. I'm a human being who currently doesn't have a child for a reason washing binkeys is one of those reasons, amount others.

So tonight I ask you, the good sane responsible people of the world- please keep in mind that no one but you (and maybe some relatives) should be thoroughly washing your babies binkeys.

Amateur hour? Nope Amateur Life.

I do believe that I have spent most of my life as an amateur of things. Never "really good" at just one thing, just a novice of a lot of things. 

I remember in high school there was this girl Meredith Hall. She was the state's best oboe player... and I knew her! We were friends! I was so jealous. I wanted to be the state's best oboe player, but all I happened to be was quite possible the most awkwardly plump and all around bizarre girl Guilderland High School had ever seen. 

It's been five years since I've graced G-land with my intensely peculiar personality, but I occasionaly find myself still wishing that I was the best at something. I'm even okay with not being the best, I just want to be good at something! To be able to focus myself to produce something worth mention, and not something anyone can do. I am really good at seating tables at Buca, but that doesn't count. 

Now, I'm not saying that I'm ugly and obnoxious, boring or bland...I'm simply saying that I'm afraid of letting my life pass me by without ever doing or becoming anything fantastic. I want to be a force to be reckoned with (in a good way... whatever that means anyway), I want to do something besides go to work, come home and watch t.v. That is my biggest fear. Well... at least in the top ten. So dear readers, please don't ever let me do that to myself.

Tis' the Season

The other night at Buca the phone rang and after a brief order was placed the customer informed that he would be bringing in a coupon that he received for the "Holiday Season," unsure of how to respond to the statement I simply said, "TIS' THE SEASON!" he promptly ended the conversation shortly thereafter.
With that little anecdote out of the way I wanted to share some of my highlights from this Christmas season thus far.
-I saw Manheim steamroller with my family. They're a lovely 80's rock Christmas band that I grew up listening to and were so fun to see live!
-We got our family Christmas Tree super early! This is not a typical tradition in the Welch household. It is typical for us to pick out a tree on the coldest day, which we did, but not before December starts, but we did that as well! Mary Ellen was quite ecstatic.
- I bought my first present today! It was for Alicia, my "Big" sister. While a small gift I hope it will be enjoyed.

And my last highlight of the season isn't really about Christmas, but it will occur in December.
I'M MOVING TO ARIZONA!!!!!! Excited is an understatement here people.
I'm moving in with my old college roommate Michelle, whose already there. I'll keep you posted on details, but I put in my two weeks at Buca and woohooo! I'm going somewhere warm!

Analogies and Mumf & Sons

I'm a big fan of analogies like Utah women are fans of Mary Kay, like Country folk are fond of beer and how New Yorkers are prone to terrible driving. 

I'm also currently a fan of the song "Where are you now?" by Mumford and Sons, or Mumf and Sons as I like to commonly refer to them as. You've probably heard their songs "I will wait for you," and "Little Lion Man," if you don't live in a third world country. No offense to any third world countrians, I hope you too get to hear Mumford and Sons soon. 

I would also like to give a little advice to anyone before they listen to this song: 

- Don't listen to it when you're all sorts of happy and upbeat like a puppy who just found a new home 

- Don't listen to it after you've just broken up with someone 

-Don't listen to it when you're with a bunch of people, it is most enjoyed alone 

-Do share this song with other people though, just as I bless you with it now. 

-Do listen to it when you're supposed to be doing something else, but wouldn't mind being distracted. 

-Do give time to enjoy it, relish in its words and rhythm! (I don't really know anything about music, just that I have a really good taste in it... the rhythm was a stretch for my musical knowledge limit) 

-Do put it on repeat.   

What's your secret?

Everyday that I work at Buca or at my internship, interacting with our board of directors, I encounter the 1%. Okay maybe, they're not the 1% the rich of the rich, but they aren't among the 99%.  Any everyday that I see these people with their own personalized Louis Vuitton bags, or their Mercedes Benz I wonder "What's your secret?", "What are you doing that you make that much money?"
I think this, because money never seems to magically find its way to my pocket. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite. Money tends to constantly find its way out of my pocket and in to my over whelming amount of bills I have to pay. Don't those people with their big fancy cars and purses as large as my car have bills? Did they ever have to wonder how they were going to pay for gas, or their student loans or food?
I know that I'm not starving African child (no offense Africa), and I am grateful for the things that I have, but I am honestly terrified of being poor my whole life. I am terrified that I won't be able to buy  my future children clothes for school (and no, I'm not pregnant, this is very far in the future we're talking here).
Which leads me back to my title "What's your secret?" I feel as if the whole world of successful people are all doing (or have done) something that I'm totally missing! I've read a whole lot of linkedin articles that try and tell me what my problem is, but with every adjustment of my resume, and every cover letter that I send into that abyss that is an online application I lose a little bit of faith in my dream to own my own puppy. Cause let's face it, owning and taking care of my own puppy will doubtlessly mean that I'm successful and happy... and that's all that I want.

Octumber

It was about time they got some new, cute couple pics.

This just goes to prove how good I am with kids.

These past two months have flown by faster than geese making their way south. I know how fast they fly because I often see/hear them thundering over my house at odd hours of the morning causing my resolve to "clean up" my language to temporarily disappear. 

Most of my time is spent at Joe's Basement observing the oddballs that I work with and enjoying the fragile emotions of the customers that walk through the door. Mark my words, restaurants have to deal with the widest variety of people you will ever see in any industry. Oh the stories we could tell. You want to sit in that booth because it's less "drafty"? Oh I'm sorry ma'am, put on a coat. I'm a hostess for a reason here people! Overall, it makes for an interesting time... to say the least.

When I'm not at work, I'm wishing I was at work so that I could have more money to pay my student bills... and when I'm not doing that I'm at my internship wishing it was my real job. I love sitting at my desk in our 250 year old building, and knowing that right below me are artifacts from ancient Egypt and art from 500 years ago. best. feeling. ever.

Now when I'm not at work, wishing I was at work, or wishing my internship was my work I often find myself taking pictures. My sister recently "hired" me to take her family portraits for Christmas. It was so fun to hang out with the nephews and they even paid for lunch after the shoot. Win win! It was my first time really working with kids in photography and let me tell you it was a challenge. I brought chocolate chips to bribe them with and I have to say it worked pretty well. The hardest part is making sure that everyone is looking at the camera at the same time. As a whole I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

I love this picture. Washington Park is gorgeous in autumn.

We took pictures at noon, It was a little challenging working with such strong sunlight.

Action shots often turn out to be some of my favorites. It's easier to capture "real" moments

I brought a blanket on a whim and it turned out to be real handy. Such a precious little family!

The boys loved the pond and the ducks, I couldn't resist capturing this shot.