Soo...summer's not done yet, but it's winding to a close. Somehow it seemed shorter this year. But I'm anxious for it to end - the weather is so hot, and I'm actually missing being in class. I don't know what I'm going to do when I graduate and won't have classes anymore!

Brandon was finally able to buy the HDTV he was saving up for. It's 42 inches of pure awesomeness. Tomorrow we're having a party with a Disney movie marathon - Brandon's calling it "D-Day". :D

I'm working on getting my application materials together to join the Daughters of the American Revolution.  The DAR is a society for women who are blood descendants of patriots who fought in the American Revolution. My great-aunt Lena and her daughter were both members, so most of the genealogy (going back to the 1770's) is already done for me. I just have to get birth, marriage, and death certificates (as applicable) for myself, my father, and my grandfather, who was Aunt Lena's brother. Then I can attach those to a copy of Aunt Lena's DAR application (from way back when, they're indexed by the DAR) and I can be a member :)

The DAR is a very exclusive organization. In fact, I've sat on doing my application for years because I was uncomfortable for how exclusive the organization is. My own mother can't join because she doesn't have the bloodline - mine comes through my father and my father's father. But the bloodline is there, so I may as well join. It's something not everyone can do.

Next weekend Brandon is taking me up to Salt Lake and he's going to introduce me to all his friends that he had growing up and all the places he knows (The Pie and Gravity Hill are on the list). I'm looking forward to it. I've only been to Salt Lake twice before and both times it was December and absolutely frozen. There's no snow up there now so it should be much more pleasant than my 2 brief visits before.

I've gotten connected with a group called the Homeless Animal Rescue Team (HART) of Utah. They rescue dogs from animal shelters so that they don't get put down and then help find them "forever homes" to live in. They need a grant writer - and as a Professional and Technical Writing major at Dixie State, I have taken a grant writing course and I can write grants.

So I called them up today and they were SO HAPPY that I can write grants for them! They're waiting on their 501(c)(3) determination letter from the IRS (a letter that says they're a non-profit organization, like a charity, and that donations to them are tax-deductible) and as soon as they get it they'll call me and I'll get to work. It'll be awesome to swing some grants for them, because grant writers generally get 10% of the grant award. So if I get them, for example, a $5000 grant, I'd get $500 of it for doing the paperwork and getting them the money. That would help me a lot!

A reason grant-writing income would help me a lot is because I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to keep working at Wendy's. I had an MRI done on my ankle (after my health insurance took 3 weeks to approve it) and I'm developing arthritis from my injury back in January. That explains the pain. I can walk and stuff...but standing up for over 4 hours at a time really hurts. So I don't know. I'm working on exercising my ankle before going back to work and trying to build up some muscle, but I don't deal with high amounts of pain well. I'm looking for other ways to generate income right now.

I did an interview this week to be a big sister with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah. It'll take some time before I hear back since they also have to run a criminal background check on every volunteer. I've also encouraged my boyfriend to go volunteer because the waiting list of little brothers is THREE TIMES as long as the waiting list for little sisters in St. George. I'm also going to donate all my old clothing and towels to them. Big Brothers Big Sisters accepts donations of any kind of cloth, torn or stained or whatever, because they sell it by the pound up north. They've made thousands upon thousands of dollars doing that. They also accept small housewares. They've got donation boxes all over St. George, too -  and all donations are tax-deductible, of course.

So...that's what I'm up to. Staying relatively busy, even without work. Life is good!

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Yes, I got a job! I was so down on myself on not being able to find employment - I type 115 WPM (which not everyone can do) and STILL couldn't find anything or the longest time - but I finally did succeed in getting a job!

I'm working at a Wendy's and it's absolutely perfect - I won't have to work too many hours, which is good since I'm still in school, and I won't make enough money to affect my financial aid. I just need a little extra cash to make ends meet, and some work experience to list on my resume after I graduate next May. I have a friend that worked at this same place for two years while he finished his degree and he liked it. So I'm very psyched. I had my first day of training today, and another day of training later this week. :)

So all the hard work of looking for a job DID pay off. The process was really hard...putting in applications and resumes at God knows how many places and almost never getting any calls back. I'm one of those people who wants to see results from the things I do...so getting almost no responses to my applications and resumes was really hard for me. Through the whole almost six-week-long process I got three interviews - a flat out "no" from one, a "I'll get back to you" that never did get back to me (which means "no"), and then, thank goodness, a job out of the third.

The thing is that I know there are many, many other people out there whose job hunts are much longer and yielding even less calls back. I'm thankful that my search was easier than theirs.

Y'know, when I was living in California, there was this strange...almost stigma about jobs. My parents always told me that no honest work is below anyone (honest work = legal work), but when I was in school (from kindergarten all the way up through high school) people I knew, even my friends, would talk badly about other people because of the jobs their parents had. I had a friend whose mom was a health educator for the state of California and made a lot of money, and I remember her talking badly about another girl, whose mom was the head person at the bakery at the local Albertson's grocery store.

So for a long time I kind of had this...complex about jobs, a complex born from growing up in that social atmosphere.

When my dad lost his job when I was in 6th grade and couldn't find another job in his industry, he started looking for any job he could get just to put food on the table - and the job he ended up getting was driving a school bus. And he didn't drive just any school bus. He drove the short bus. He drove deaf kids to and from their special school. My dad was making less money than he'd made at any job since he was 18, but he still did it so me and my mom could eat and have a roof over our heads.

And at the time, I was ashamed that my dad was a school bus driver. I didn't tell anyone. He parked the short bus in front of our house at night and then drove it to work in the morning, but I lived in a different neighborhood from my friends at school, so nobody saw it. But I didn't let anyone come over to my house during that time. I kept my dad's school bus job a secret, and I didn't tell anyone about his work until he got a job with AT&T when I was in high school.

I've worked other jobs in the past. My first job, when I was 16, was holding an arrow on the street corner on the weekends, advertising a new housing development. That wasn't so bad, socially, since a lot of other people I went to school with did that too, but I still got teased about "working the corner."

After I graduated high school, I typed medical documents for a summer (which I absolutely hated). I was an official music theory tutor for my college when I was working on my Associate's degree. After I transferred to a 4-year college in California, I worked at Disneyland (that was always one of my life's goals), which I am very proud of. I've also worked in journalism as a copy editor and reporter. And now I work at Wendy's.

A year or two ago I might have balked at the idea of working in a restaurant. But now I've finally realized that what my parents told me all those years was right: No honest work is below anyone. And that means that I've realized that it's absolutely ridiculous to talk badly about people based on where they or their parents work.

I'm happy to work at Wendy's. My co-workers and my boss are nice people. I'll get to work with the public, which is something I really like to do (I actually hate jobs where I sit in front of a computer all day). The safety standards at work are very thorough, which means I have a very low likelihood of getting hurt at work (and if I do get hurt somehow, there are plans in place to help cover my medical care while I get better). And the work schedule and pay rate fit my needs.

I'm very happy to work at Wendy's, and I'm excited for my future there. :D

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