Stories on the Ranch: Episode 1

Here in San Jose!

We are now in the new home that we will be staying at for a little while. We moved in on Monday. I drove to San Jose with my mom and brother on Saturday. They wanted to drive with me so I wouldn’t have to drive by myself the whole way and so my brother could finally meet his brother-in-law Ricky. We had planned on stopping in Reno and finishing the drive on Sunday, but decided to just go all the way on Saturday. We were tired and ready for bed when we finally arrived. After a long day of driving, I laughed and then cried when I finally saw Ricky after 19 days apart! Ricky questioned why I was crying. "I missed you" I replied. He said, "but I'm right here." We all laughed.

On Sunday, we all went to the ward that would be Ricky’s and my ward for the next month or so. We went to all three hours. It was a really friendly ward, and I really liked it. I’m excited to be a part of it for this short time. After church, we moved Ricky out of his dorm. It’s so nice he was able to stay in the San Jose State University dorms, even with being married and not even going to school there. He also didn’t have to do any cleaning when he moved out, which was nice! He just gathered up his own belongings and turned in the key.

Anyways, after we moved Ricky out, we went to Jack-in-the-Box for lunch, since we don’t get it in Utah. We then went to the municipal rose garden, which was a nice Sunday activity and so pretty! After that, we went to the Winchester House, which Ricky had heard about and thought might be neat. Our tour guide was great, and it was so interesting to see and learn about it. We finished off the day by relaxing in the hotel hot tub.

We woke up early Monday morning to take Ricky to work in Fremont (his first day at the client) and then to go to the house so my mom and brother could help me move in. The couple was very nice and showed us around a bit. After moving in, I drove my mom and brother to the airport for their flight back to Utah. It was such a short trip for them. I broke down and started crying as I was dropping them off. I was worried about driving around this place I didn’t know and living with these people I didn’t know. Plus, I always get emotional with change. After saying bye and calming down, I drove back to the house and waited anxiously until I could pick up Ricky from work.

Since Monday, I have felt more comfortable here. Getting around has been fine (thanks to Siri), but I don’t even get out of the house much. Ricky takes the car around 8:30 am usually to go to work and doesn’t get back until around 7:00 pm. I have started doing laps in the pool for exercise, as well as lifting some weights I found in our room. I pass the time by reading and practicing my piano skills on the grand piano. It has been a nice routine, and it feels like summer now with no responsibilities and all this time to myself.

On the plane

I wrote this on my plane ride to San Jose in June. My editor just barely finished working on it today. Enjoy!

Today I am flying to San Jose. It will be strange to be away from Brooke for so long. It also is going to be weird living in a dorm with some dudes.

The experience really reminds me of my move to Provo. I remember moving into an apartment with a bunch of guys I didn’t know. When I moved to Provo, I also didn’t have a car, so I wasn’t sure how I would shop or other things like that. Fortunately in Provo, I had friends and made friends that I went shopping with. Maybe if I am lucky that will happen again.

I also had to check a bag for the first time in years. I feel like I fly and go to the airport all the time. Like just a month ago I was flying home to San Diego. But my suitcase still had my tag from when I came home from my mission, which was nearly 4 years ago now.

Living on my own seems so strange now. I wonder what I will eat and cook. I also hope I can wake up for work ok. My old job in Provo replaced me 2 weeks before I left, so I have been unemployed long enough to develop a terrible sleep schedule. Perhaps gaining an hour will help me though.

San Jose Internship

Right now, Ricky is on his internship and I am staying at my parents house. I will join Ricky later, but first, I wanted to see my brother who returned from his 2-year LDS mission the day Ricky’s internship started. It is weird because now, my family is all in the same house again. I don’t think my brother really realizes that I’m married, because he has not met Ricky yet and all my family is living in the same house like before he left, haha. I am also going on our annual vacation to Sun Valley with my mom’s side of the extended family. So, Ricky will be on his own in San Jose for a bit longer. I casually looked for jobs in San Jose, but it is just such a short time to find a job. So, I am just enjoying being unemployed since I quit my job in Provo, and enjoying family time. After the Sun Valley vacation, I will drive to San Jose to be with Ricky for the last month of his internship. He’s in a dorm room now, but we will move in with a nice couple from the church when I get there. I am excited for this short new adventure, but am wondering about what I will do to pass the time while Ricky’s out at work. The couple actually owns a cattle ranch, so maybe I can help out on that. We will see.

Our First Apartment Together

So I wrote this all down awhile ago when we were still living in our Wyview apartment. We actually moved out a week ago from today, but I wanted to post about our first apartment together so here it is!

Ricky and my first apartment together is in Wyview, on-campus housing at BYU. It is not actually on-campus, but it’s owned by BYU and a shuttle comes to take the students to school. It is month-to-month, so people can get out of the contract at any time as long as they give a month’s notice. It was so hard to get into! Before we found an opening, we were checking the housing website at 4:00 each night because that’s when it is updated with new openings, if any. One night, with me on my laptop and Ricky on his computer, we were lucky enough to click on a new opening right as it came up! We could move in January 7th. We were glad that we had secured an apartment, but classes started on the 4th...So, after the honeymoon, we stayed in my parents’ house until classes started, but then we needed to be in Provo. Luckily, my amazing cousin Lisa and her husband Travis let us camp out on a matress in their living room at Wymount for the first few days of classes. It worked out great, and we were happy to be able to settle into our own new little place on the 7th.

Wyview has been great! It is actually quite spacious, being a two-bedroom apartment. We use one room as our bedroom and the other room as our study. We have our computers, our TV, and desks in our study. We spend most of our time in there, especially because our living room is practically empty. We could have borrowed a couch from family members, but decided to spare the hassle of getting it up three flights of stairs and then moving it out a few months later. We have a few plants and a few chairs in the living room, but that is about it.

Our kitchen is super cute. We borrowed some cute chairs and a kitchen table from my Aunt Pam. We have many kitchen appliances from the wedding and plenty of space for them! Our cute kitchen makes me want to learn to cook a whole lot more. Actually, I’ve become pretty interested in baking and have tried some good recipes from Pinterest! Ricky cooks most of the meals for dinner because he gets home earlier and I usually don’t get home until about 6:30, starving! He is so sweet for always doing the cooking! I am scared for when I will have to eventually do all the cooking.

In our bedroom, we have a walk in closet with a pole for hanging clothes and so many shelves. We also have another closet where I hang all my clothes up. It is so spacious and nice!! We have been spoiled for our first married apartment together. It is going to be tough to move to smaller and much less spacious apartments in the future.

A short trip home

I suppose we are almost using this as a travel blog of sorts. A missionary I served with got married this weekend. He is from New York/Connecticut and his wife is from Utah. I was surprised to learn they were getting married in San Diego, my hometown. I probably would have gone wherever it was, but it sounded like a nice excuse to go home.

While there, I of course had carne asada fries which are a favorite of mine. I also went to a Chinese buffet. It's surprising that Provo doesn't have a single Chinese buffet. Provo really lacks good Chinese food in general. Anyways, while at the restaurant, I overheard a funny conversation. A boy and a man were at the buffet line. The boy asked “what is this?” while looking at some food. The man replied “it's the food of your people.” (Which to me seems like an inappropriate thing to say pretty much always, although especially true when it comes to Chinese-American buffets [as much as I love the Chinese donuts, they are not really Chinese]). The boy replied, “but I'm Mexican.” And the man said, “no you are not, you are Cambodian.” Needless to say, that really isn't Chinese.

Speaking of Cambodia, I used to email someone in Cambodia at my old job. Part of my responsibilities was checking in on people from all over the world. My last day was this last Friday. It was a little funny, I was importing a new CRM, Sales Force, and I wanted to make sure it was working right. So I called our office in Mexico City. Pretty soon, I was trying to explain the CRM in Spanish. It was pretty funny, I really don't speak much Spanish.

Stuck in DI

Isn’t it the worst when you are shopping with your wife and there are no chairs? I'm currently half leaning half squatting by a pillar in the store, just typing away on my phone. Since the recent Reddit disaster, I haven't written anything  for a while. Maybe a boring life story is what I need to get back on track. I guess for those who don't know, I have a bitcoin blog. I recently published a paper I wrote for a class on it. I shared it on reddit and it was not well received. A lot of it was the over the top abolish-the-central-banks-type people. Regardless of the legitimacy (or lack thereof) of their assertions, it's hard when your work isn't appreciated. Then again, I don't think anyone reads this blog, so maybe this won't help either. Oh well.