2014: Change is in the Air

Welp, I knew it was going to be a year of change, I just didn't know it was going to happen so quickly!

As of yesterday morning (Blue Monday), my trajectory for the year changed course and changed it quickly. I've been waiting for a few things to come together, but they were all just loose ideas floating around, with lots of possibilities. But after 10am, my head was spinning for the rest of the day.

It was the first day back to work for most people after the holidays, so I thought I'd maybe hear some news.  Sure enough, early in the day I received an instant message from someone telling me they wanted to extend a job offer to me. A few hours later, verbal offer and acceptance on the phone, and I am moving to Salt Lake City!

Never in a million years did I think I'd move to Utah, but I am excited.  Though seemingly every aspect of my life is going to change.

I've worked from home for two and a half years, now I'll be in an office.
I've lived in warm and sunshine for 6 years, now I'll be in mountain cold.
I wear comfy clothes to work every day, now I'm not sure how to put my work wardrobe back together.
I wear shoes that don't require socks, now I don't know what to wear other than boots.
I've been in a wonderful ward where I feel I can contribute each week at church, now I'll probably attend a congregation with 600 people, and I dread feeling lost and meaningless.
I wait out traffic and run errands at odd hours, now I'll have to drive every day.
I can go run and walk outside every day to get exercise, and now I'll probably have to join a gym for winter months.
I'll get to be a hands on aunt to baby Hallie (yay).

I had applied for this job out of the blue back in November, still with the same company where I work now. I hadn't previously considered the SLC office, as I don't know anyone there, nor what any of those business units do. I saw a job that looked half interesting, but I was hesitant, since it's way different from what I do now.  I emailed the hiring director and had a quick phone call to understand more about the job before I decided if I wanted to apply. I asked him to name three things he wanted in the candidate he hired, and honestly, I scored a 0.5 out of 3 on that. Regardless, it sounded like a great and interesting position, so I applied anyway.

About 6 weeks went by and I heard nothing, so I assumed they weren't going to call me.  No big deal, I'd found a couple other interesting roles to pursue.  Though out of nowhere in mid December, they asked me to do an interview. I had a short phone call with a few people, and I thought it went okay. A week later, I got a note that they want to take me to the next round of interviews, though with holidays fast approaching, it might not be til January.  I headed home for Christmas, but managed to squeeze in another phone interview with a higher-up. We had a great conversation, so I started to wonder - if they offer me this job, do I want it?

Somehow over the last bit of holiday break, I decided it would be a great idea to take it. My grip and fear of losing LA slowly drifted away. I will miss this place tremendously, and I will certainly have some gaps that SLC just can't possibly fill, but I feel good about this new chapter.

I got the note via IM on Monday morning that this team wants to hire me, without even meeting me in person.  Crazy. My new boss called my current boss (who I had to quickly call and fill in, since she's been on maternity leave and I hadn't updated her yet!) to determine when I'll make the switch, and then he called me to officially extend the offer. It's even more money, and I couldn't say no.

I officially start the new job on January 27th, though I have some flexibility moving. I'll be in Utah for a couple weeks to start, then back to LA for a couple commitments in mid-February, then a week in Phoenix for Ragnar, then I'll pack up and move for good. I'll crash with my brother for a bit, put some stuff in storage (or maybe I'll leave it all here and start with everything new, I want a new couch!), and take a little time to find a great place to live.

My roommate is getting married in April and moving out soon, too, so this is truly the end of an era.

LA, I will miss you, and Utah, I'm a little scared, but change is good, right?!

Thanks to MJA for the photo, yesterday at LACMA. 

Links I Like

I've been bookmarking things for months, but haven't shared. Here are a few things I've enjoyed reading.

• I always think I'll cook more, but going out to eat is just easier sometimes. But if I did grocery shop, I'd want to take note of what a week of groceries in my house would look like and compare to these. 
• Orchid is the color of the year this year, which you've probably heard, but have you heard of these colors? Wenge might be my favorite shade. 
• These animals are creepy and beautiful. 
• Finally, a few things to keep your 2014 in good shape: gratitude, kindness, forgiveness - we could all use a little more of those kinds of things. 

Happy New Year Again!

It's been a really nice few days, relaxing in LA in the beautiful weather, without work. I almost dread going back on tomorrow. I think many people are still out of the office until next Monday, so I'm hoping it'll be quiet for the rest of the week. But there will  be news about jobs I've applied for, and I'm a little scared to hear what that news will be. It will  involve some big choices and maybe big changes, and I'm just not sure how things will go. But I'm trying to be brave.

In the meantime, this is what I've been doing - hiking and movies. I've hit a few Golden Globe contenders and will likely see a few more in the next couple weeks. August: Osage County was filmed in my home state and has some great acting, but such a messed up family and hard to watch. American Hustle was the only movie that Jihan and I could get into last weekend at the Arclight, the front row wasn't so bad, and it was a pretty entertaining flick. I also saw Her; Joaquin looks different in every movie and always does a tremendous job, and they took what could've been a kooky story idea and turned it into characters I cared about. 

Cher and I hiked at Runyon last Saturday (after I ran 3 miles that morning to get my car, which was parked at a friend's place to avoid street cleaning tickets while I was gone). I was pretty sore after 8 miles that day. 

Isn't this the coolest van?!

On Monday, I hiked at Griffith with Marcello, Brittany, Andrew, and their two friends. 

 

On New Year's Eve, I totally slept in (I took some Nyquil - getting a little cold) and had a leisurely lunch at Mendocino Farms. It's fresh and delicious, and I love their curried couscous. Took a little nap in the afternoon and got ready to hit up downtown LA's first New Year's party. It didn't quite rival Times Square, but it turned out to be a pretty fun scene, and it wasn't nearly as cold!

I got out my fancy new hair curler that I got for Christmas. It's this funky curling iron that has a motorized contraption that sucks up your hair, wraps it around a hot iron, holds for a few seconds, and then spits out this perfect curl. It's a strange, fun thing. I'll definitely use it from time to time.

Got to downtown after debating the drive vs try and take public transportation. Driving won, there was no traffic, and I got a magical parking space two blocks from the event! I wanted to get there by 10, since Daedelus was going on stage then.  Marcello and I walked around and explored a bit. Loooong lines for food trucks and drinks. Glad I showed up with a fully belly.

Long lines to have your photo taken in front of things like this. So here's a random family instead.

Some cool projections onto City Hall. They even integrated the windows and did some trippy stuff.

Ten minutes to go - I almost didn't think I'd make it.

See - wavy and trippy?

And then a ball was projected, all 25,000 of us yelled and counted down, and Happy New Year!

So, in terms of resolutions and goals, what is it I want to accomplish? I don't really know - I think the first few months of the year may throw me for a loop.

I do want to go abroad this year - I didn't use my passport in 2013, whoops!
I want to read more books - I've already started by 2014 Book page on the blog. If you have any book suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
I'm not sure if I want to get back on Facebook. I've been off for a month, and I don't really miss it. However, it seems like a lot of my social life was tied up in that platform, so it's been harder to connect and spend time with people, even ones who live near me and who I text/talk to on a regular basis. I may have to re-join, but I'll do so in a limited capacity. I'd like to connect more in real life.
I want to read the Book of Mormon all year, and this Instagram account is an awesome way to do it. Follow along!

I do want to do things that make me happy long term - I guess that's the big goal overall.  It's fun to see this clean slate below. 2014, I think you're going to be a year of big change, but bring it on and let's see where it takes me.