Leave of Absence

Not that anyone really reads my blog, but I'd like to apologize for my long leave of absence from the blogging world. I just got caught up in working full time and other things that I just never remembered to update it or felt like writing. But I do now. For the last month or so, I've actually missed it. I was planning on just waiting for the new year to start up again, but I missed it enough to not wait. So, here's to my end of the year resolution to be better. I'm sure you're used to it by now, my promise to be better at blogging, but I'm trying. No matter how much time passes between posts, I always come back. So, to those of you reading I'd just like to say thanks and look forward to reading what ever it is I feel like posting about.

Day Two

Today was a pretty relaxing day. At work, I had a headset that was connected to another employee's headset so I could observe and listen in on calls. Today was just about getting a feel for what I'm going to be doing. I was actually really surprised. There was only one or two negative calls today, that I heard. Almost everyone that called in was nice. Just from what I heard about the position and my own idea of what I would be doing, I thought the customers calling in would be more negative and angry. Or maybe I just got lucky with the person I was observing. I was told he was one of the best and Vivint is sad to see him leave for law school.

I learned a lot today. Vivint really wants to take care of their customers and is willing to work with them. They offered so many discounts and deals to try and keep people from cancelling, especially when the main reason was that they liked the service, but couldn't currently afford it. I'm excited to start working. I also found out I'll be doing a little more than what I thought, including selling (but that's kind of rare and only if the situation is right). I'll also get paid commission and bonuses for different things :) Vivint just keeps getting better and better! I may never want to leave haha.

I also got to meet up with my new friends from yesterday. We ran into each other during lunch. Did I mention how much I love the food? I had a really delicious salad today. I haven't had salad in a while so it was nice to eat one for a change.

Also, I traveled to and from work by bus successfully. Yay me! I'm surprised I've been able to adjust to waking up/going to bed earlier (still not early enough), but I'm going to have to wake up even earlier so I have time to eat breakfast. Yesterday and today I din't have time to eat and so I've been starving by the time lunch rolled around. I need to buy more easy and grab & go options for breakfast the next time I'm at the store.

I'll stop writing work related posts now. I think you get the idea. I'm going to answer phones everyday and enjoy it.

In Training

As of today, I'm an employee in training at Vivint. I will be working in Retention. When people want to cancel their service, I'm the one they talk to. I try and convince them to stick with us or be the bearer of bad news and tell them they can't cancel their contract. Basically, I'm getting paid to talk to angry people on the phone and not take it personally when they yell at me. Sounds fun, right?

New Hires Orientation started at 8am. I had planned to ride with a friend who works there and we were going to leave and 7:35. I went to her apartment and walked in. With the door unlocked I assumed she was awake. Wrong! I went to her room and woke her up. She gave me a nod, said "Hey!" and then rolled over to sleep some more. I asked if she was planning on waking up and she asked for a few more minutes. I told her were were supposed to be on our way out the door. She didn't believe me. She checked the time, jumped out of bed, an ten minutes before I was supposed to be there, we left for Vivint. I was freaking out because I could NOT be late for my first day. I prayed on the way there and things turned out fine. They hadn't started yet and my friend felt horrible. It was a stressful start, but the rest of the day was great. I have a temporary badge on a lanyard. It makes me feel so official haha! I'll get my real one later this week.

I was the only one going into retention from my orientation group; hopefully there were more in the other one. Everyone else was doing sales, tech support, or something else in customer care. Orientation was pretty fun. I met some nice people and I'm kind of sad I won't be working in the same department as them. It's probably for the best though; we got pretty giggly at one point. Watching all the video clips and learning more about the company, I think I'm going to like it at Vivint. We'll have to see how I feel after I really start working.

Vivint really takes care of their employees because they want us to take great care of the customers. There are so many perks to working there. One of my favorites is the free lunch everyday! They have great food. There is also a fitness center that's open to employees 24/7. I just might have to take advantage of that. There are ping pong tables and a pool table in the cafe and I guess they have tournaments sometimes with great prizes. They do a lot of stuff like that. They also have a full size basketball court as well as an onsite doctor. They pretty much want you to never leave. Someone joked that you could practically just live at Vivint and we told that one person actually had done that for a short time until they were caught!

One of my favorite parts was when one of the VP's came in and talked to us. He demonstrated how the home automation system works. He took out his iPhone and showed us inside his house via the cameras he has set up. His son was watching TV in the kitchen and he was like, "Should we mess with him?" Through the app on his phone, he cut the power to the outlet that the TV was plugged into. We saw his son get up and run into another room to tell his mom. It was so funny!

He told us another story about his older son watching a movie with his girlfriend downstairs. Let me just say, when you can control lights, power to certain outlets, locks and the thermostat all from your phone, the potential for for funny stories to tell people increases. He said he was thinking about making a t-shirt that says: Modern Parenting Powered by Vivint. I think it's awesome. The commercial below is similar to the story he told.

I think if I owned a home and had a family right now, I would probably get a Vivint home security system. I can get you a friends and family discount if you're interested!

I can't wait to see how tomorrow goes :)

Oh, and I can dress casually. I love that! To give you an idea of how it is at Vivint, here is a picture of the CEO. He usually looks like this and rarely wears a suit.

Roots Before Branches

If I had to pick a theme song for my life right now, it would be Roots Before Branches by Room For Two. I am completely in love with this song. I feel like the lyrics perfectly describe my thoughts and how I'm feeling right now. Watch the video!

I've been struggling with some things lately, but you wouldn't know it looking at me. It's the main reason for my long blogging absence. I think I'm pretty good at hiding when things are wrong, which isn't always a good thing. Sometimes I wish people could just tell so I wouldn't have to ask for help. I hate asking for help, even when I really need it. I hate feeling like I've disappointed others and myself when things don't turn out the way I think they should. 

This song says it all. Right now I'm working on developing my roots so I can have my branches. It's been a difficult start, but I think I'm slowly getting there. I know it's going to be a long process to get to where I want and deserve to be, but I know I can do it. I have the love and support of my Heavenly Father, my Savior Jesus Christ and my wonderful family (especially my Nana). I am so blessed and grateful and I hope I can one day live up the potential they know I have. 

Take Two

I'm back. This is my second attempt this year to blog consistently and I hope I last longer than the first, which should be easy since I only did two posts. I'm not going to catch you up on what's happened in my life during the last four and a half months because that would take too long. 

I know I promised a detailed post about the surgery I had over Christmas break, but I changed my mind. I can hear your heart breaking because you really wanted to hear it, right? Instead, I will just give the highlights.

• I've discovered that I'm really not comfortable being nude, well, in a hospital gown. I don't like feeling so exposed. I kept asking the nurse if she really meant everything when she said take off everything. She did.
• Hospital gowns do not come in my size. The nurse laughed because I was "swimming" in it.
• I have an allergic reaction the numbing stuff they use before placing the IV in your hand.
• IV's hurt. The nurse tried a few times and then moved to a different spot and switched to a smaller needle before she got it in and by that time the numbing stuff had worn off.
• Going to the bathroom is quite the ordeal for me. After being pumped full of liquid, I had to pee. A nurse escorted me, carrying the IV. When I was done, I had a hard time getting out of the bathroom. I had to hold my IV, hold the back of my gown closed so as not to flash the whole world, and open the door. It took me forever because I don't have three arms. When I finally got out, I walked back to my room only to discover I'm not enough to reach the hook that my IV hung on. I had to walk back out to the nurses station and ask for help. They all had a good laugh and thought I was so cute. 
• After fasting for the surgery and having it pushed back a few hours because other emergencies came up or surgeries took longer than planned, you get really hungry. Liquid breakfast is nowhere near as satisfying as a real home cooked breakfast. And when you're hungry it's a really bad idea to watch a Man vs. Food marathon on TV.
• My surgeon had someone that wanted permission to be present for learning purposes and needed my permission. He ended up being a graduate of BYU-Idaho so was cool.
• It's weird having someone make sure you went to bathroom before being able to go home.
• Even if you feel fine and really want to walk, they make you ride out to the car in a wheel chair. 
• I recover fast. I was pretty much back to normal and off pain pills after two days. I'm now perfectly fine and only have three little scars as evidence of my surgery. 

Well, let's hope I can be successful at blogging this time. 

Winter Break

Here's what I did over break, in list form. At the ripe old age of 21, my memory is starting to fail me so it won't be too long or detailed. 

• Slept in...A lot
• Scheduled consultation with surgeon
• Got Just Dance 3 as an early Christmas present
• Played Just Dance 3
• Christmas Eve with the whole family. Ate yummy food. More Just Dance 3...Klaire was so cute dancing! Opened presents from aunts and uncles. Got some cupcake PJ's (which I love!), cupcake liners and edible ink pens for decorating, a cupcake calendar, cupcake book, and probably a few more things. Seeing a theme? 
• Spent the night at my aunt's and got to spend time with my sisters
• Christmas. Opened presents...three more cupcake books, more cupcake liners, an OSU hoodie (which I also love!), 
• Met with surgeon the day after Christmas. Scheduled surgery for the 28th.
• Watched my sister Sunhee at her Jiu Jitsu class. Ended up being a part of the class. The instructor likes parent participation...older sisters too. It's really hard to practice moves on someone who is half your size.
• Had surgery. Detailed post to come.
• My friend Sara visited me the day after surgery. I couldn't do anything so we got caught up and watched YouTube videos. Not the best idea. Laughing was painful and I felt it for the next few days.
• My cousins stayed with us New Year's weekend. Lamest New Year's Eve ever. I couldn't do anything or eat anything. With 10 seconds left on the countdown, everyone accumulated downstairs in the living room and we hugged, kissed, and wished each other a happy new year.
• Watched Harry Potter 7 Part 2
• Watched the Pretty Little Liars premiere with my sister
• Made my cousins and sister CD's with KPop (Korean Pop) songs. I'm glad they've jumped on the Kpop bandwagon. Pretty soon I'll have everyone listening to it. 
• Went shopping. 
• Hung out with my friend Stephanie, something we hadn't done in a long time (like a year).
• Went to church. The bishop held up a garbage bag filled with a paper chain. It was his Christmas present from the primary children. Each link on the chain represented a week where a child read the scriptures by themselves or with their parents. He had everyone go into the gym after sacrament meeting and had the children hold the chain up for everyone to see. It was so long it stretched around the whole gym. It was pretty impressive and inspiring. My home ward is so awesome.

I think that's pretty much it. 

Hey Stranger!

After neglecting my blog for so long, I'm finally back. I've been meaning to get back into the habit of blogging, but so much time has passed since my last post that I've been avoiding it. I treat my blog somewhat like a journal (minus the really personal stuff), so when a lot of time passes between posts I dread having to play catch up. Because I can't remember everything from the past four months, I'll start with Christmas break and go from there (unless I remember something that I really want to write about). I might span this over a few posts, depending on how much I write. I don't like reading extremely long posts so I won't make you sit and read one.

December 20th: I left for the airport at 6:30 A.M. I actually managed to get a few hours of sleep before leaving. I usually never sleep the night before flying anywhere because it's always a morning flight and I'm extremely slow at packing (plus I'm usually doing laundry so I have all my clothes to choose from). I came really close to missing my flight. I didn't expect there to be so many people at the airport because most students had already left for home. It was also the day that all the missionaries were flying home. It was pretty cool to see so many all in one place. It reminded me of when people in the military come home because so many people were shaking their hands and telling them they did great work as they walked by.

I, along with other people that were cutting it close to their boarding time, got to go to the front of a line to check our baggage. We were told to go through security at the International Flights section of the airport because it would be less busy. It was significantly less crowded, but they were telling many people to do the same so there was still a bit of a line. As I stood in line, my eyes almost never left the clock. It was as if I thought I could slow time down the harder I stared at it. I couldn't. As it got closer and closer to my departure time, I was starting to panic. Luckily I made it through and boarded my plane...with less than 10 minutes to spare.

It was a good flight. I got to the Portland Airport and had an hour to wait for my uncles to get in. When they arrived, we were picked up by another one of my uncles and my sister Sunhee. I didn't know she was coming so it was a great surprise. We stopped at Olive Garden for lunch and it was delicious! Then we went home. It felt so good to be home. The rest of the day was spent just catching up and relaxing...until after dinner.

I went to bed around 10:30 P.M. because I was tired and I was having slight abdominal pain. I tried to sleep, but it got worse and around 11 I got up crying and told my grandma. It hurt really bad. She suggested a heating pad to help ease the pain but I didn't stick with that for very long. The pain was so bad I couldn't lie still and keep it on. I went to tell her it wasn't working and had to run to the bathroom to vomit. *Sorry if this grosses you out.* I threw up a couple times and we decided to head to the emergency room. My uncle came too.

*I know I said I wouldn't make this long, but I don't want to stop in the middle of the story. Sorry I lied.*

There were a couple people ahead of me so I had to wait awhile. I vomited again while in the waiting room. My turn finally came around and I got into a hospital gown. Before they could give me anything for the pain, they had to take some blood. The nurse tried on my left arm first. My blood wasn't coming out very fast and he kept shoving the needle further into my arm. It hurt. Then the blood stopped coming out altogether so he switched to my right arm. Again, not much was coming out so he got someone else to do it. This nurse poked my left arm again and got the blood she needed. Usually I would have been bawling like a baby because I hate needles, but the abdominal pain was so bad I hardly noticed (except when the first nurse was attempting to shove the needle all the way up my arm).

I talked to the doctor and found out for sure that it was my gallbladder and that I was having a gallbladder attack. Between Olive Garden for lunch and the dinner my great grandmother made, it was too much rich food in one day for my body to handle. They gave me drugs for nausea and the pain, but the pain meds didn't work so they gave me something stronger. They kept telling me to calm my breathing because I was hyperventilating. I tried, but it was hard. I came really close to passing out...it's a weird feeling. My hands and arms even started going numb. Once the stronger pain killer kicked in, I was so comfortable and almost fell asleep (it's hard to sleep when people are constantly checking on you and you can hear the people on the other side of the curtain talking about why they are in the ER). I got an ultrasound and then was told I would have to have surgery while I was home. Boo!

After three hours in the ER, I finally got to go home. I was so drugged up and could barely walk to the car. My uncle jokingly asked if they took out my funny bone because I had been having a "Wendi Moment" (extreme case of the giggles, usually with tears) a few hours prior and now I looked dead. I threw up once more in the car (luckily I had a bowl). I finally got to sleep and thus ended my first day of break and being home.

Yay for completing my first blog post of the year!