Montana.

On Friday, Zak and I went to a sales rally thing in Helena, MT.  It was an ok trip except for a few factors:

-waking up at 4:30 AM to meet at 5:30
-waiting half an hour for the rest of the people because a few people decided to come, even though they said they previous wouldn't be able to
-driving 4 hours to Helena
-being in Montana
-a 7-hour convention rally thing [this is a job, not a career]
-driving 4 hours in the dark, in a van a pedophile would have
-our boss going about 80 MPH on curvy mountain roads [I was on edge the entire time]
-sitting next to a 14 year old kid would was moving his head rapidly from side to side for like, the E N T I R E  R I D E  H O M E
-listening to the kid's suck-up of a dad kiss our boss's butt ["These mountains are beautiful, Jerry." "Thanks for driving, Jerry.", etc. *gag*]

 Like I said, it was an ok trip, but if we had a choice to go back in time and not go, we both would have not gone.  My favorite part was the people we saw.  They were extremely, uh, what's the word....sleazy? White trash-esque?  It was a collared-shirt event and it was just..interesting to see what the people's interpretation of that. Most of the guys had a combination of the following:

-gross facial hair
-multiple piercings
-tattoos
-shaggy hair
-those huge skater shoes that only 13 years old wear
-smoke scent

Either way, I would never have let 97% of the attendees into my house to clean my carpet.  Ugh.  One girl, though, was wearing a red cocktail dress with those fake chandelier earrings one can find at Claire's.  Oh, and there was a matching necklace.  But what made the look complete was not the fake blond hair complete with bangs, but the matching wing tattoos on her shoulder blades.  Ah, yes.  Classy.

But at least Zak and I had each other.  He mostly drew monsters while listening to tips on giving better demos, while I drank as much free tea as I could handle.  I must have used the restroom a dozen times while we were there.  Well, anything to get out of the meetings.

Our general feeling about Montana is...not for us.  I know some people love it, and I actually did enjoy the scenery while driving up there, but I am just so not a country cowgirl.  I am a city girl through and through who occasionally desires nature.  But Montana and I will never be friends.

Here are some pictures I took while driving there:

 

  

our 'being in Montana' faces

  

Working.

This week has been one of the longest, busiest weeks of my life.  Zak and I both started our new jobs on Tuesday.  Zak is now a salesman for the Kirby vacuum company, and I am the cute appointment setter.  (The girls who had interviewed for the job decided not to come back after lunch one day at training, so Zak told his boss I'd be willing to do it.)  Basically what happens is, we meet our boss, Jerry, and some of the other salesman at the set time and place.  We get into this beat up, old van (one has a backwards American flag on it + 1 broken door + 1 door that breaks sometimes, no carpet or heat unless the van is going fast; the other van just has a door that breaks if someone shuts it too hard, but it's a lot smaller) and drive around the area we are working in.  I try to get appointments not only for Zak, but for the other team members, for a vacuum and shampoo demonstration.  (Jerry likes to have girls knock on doors, he says they usually get better results that way. So, whatever.)  If I can get Zak an appointment I go in with him, to be his personal assistant.  He shows off the vacuum (he cleans, vacuums, and shampoos one room in the house) with several tests, and then shampoos the carpet.  The shampoo dries in under an hour, and we're usually done within two hours.  While we are shampooing, Jerry comes back to the house and if the people we're showing are interested in buying the vacuum, he tries to negotiate a deal with them.

So far Zak has done 6 demos-I've gotten about the same number of appointments-and has sold one vacuum!  The way we get paid is...Zak's supposed to do 60 demos a months (60 appointments for me), with an extra couple hundred dollars for each vacuum he sells.  And if a sale goes through on an appointment I set, I get a little bonus too.  It's not hard work, but it is discouraging at times.  Well, first off, it's winter, so it's hard walking around for a bit in the cold.  And we're still getting used to talking to people and getting in the house; we've tried a few different pitches, nothing golden yet.  But Zak had success on his fifth demo; the older couple actually had owned a few Kirbys before, so I guess Jerry worked out a trade-in deal with them.  It took awhile, but it was worth it!  Zak's been very close on a few other demos, two wives had to talk to their husbands, the other family had bad credit and we'll check back in a week to see if they got the cash together. 

And it seems that Jerry likes Zak, because he told him once he gets a few sales under his belt, he is going to be promoted to team leader.  His duties will include driving the van around, being observant enough to pick up and remember where people are, and helping the salesman close the deal.  For every sale his team gets, he gets a few hundred bucks.  And if he makes a sale, I think his bonus is doubled what it is now.  So that's great news!  We are just trying to get into a rhythm, so hopefully by the end of the month we'll be doing well.

I'm just trying to keep myself sane.  It's been hard for me to push myself out of my comfort zone and talk to people, and it's very discouraging at times.  But on the most part, I am happy to be with Zak, and I love going into the demos with him.  I'd like to think that I help the wives feel a bit more at ease.  And our boss, Jerry is great, he's a very nice guy and wants to help us out.  The hours are flexible, but we do end up going until 7 or 8 at night, which gets me nervous some days, since I'm still in school.  I may end up only working four days a week, but we'll see how it goes.  Our legs are getting worked over, especially Zak's, when he does a demo-all the up and down. 

We are just happy to have jobs for now, and hopefully we'll get better at it and start making some serious money.  And hopefully I'll be able to stay sane whilst working and finishing my last semester of college!

Three years.

Yesterday marked three years that Zak and I have been a couple.  I know, not as exciting as a wedding anniversary, but I think it's worth noting.  I'm proud of our relationship history; we stayed together despite school problems, distance, jobs, and every day complications.  I think it's pretty cool that we took the time to get to know each other before we got engaged.  At times it was frustrating, but it has been worth it in the end.  Last year, Zak proposed to me by the elephant periodic tables, and we spent the night telling our family and friends.  The year before that, we were in opposite sides of the country.  I sent him homemade chocolates and cookies and he had a beautiful rose bouquet delivered to my apartment (it completely made my day, considering I had come home from a 2 hour soul-wrenching drawing class). 

This year we had a fun evening out.  We went to a concert at school and to Idaho Falls for dinner.  The concert we went to was the school Symphony Orchestra with a special guest, Stephen Beus.  You can find his website here.  He is an amazing pianist, especially for his young age.  I heard about him about a month ago in a class (a girl showed a clip of him playing) and decided to get tickets for us.  The day before the concert, when I went to get the tickets, I found out that he was going to play Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A Minor Opus 43 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of my favorite favorite pieces of music.  (You should listen to it, it's incredible.  Here is Mikhail Pletnev playing it.)  I was excited before, but now I was S U P E R  E X C I T E D. 

Last night we got dressed up (gotta love concert dress) and arrived with plenty of time.  Once the concert started, to my horror, I realized the seats we had chosen didn't let me see Mr. Beus' hands, which is half of the performance of any Rachmaninoff piece (Rachmaninoff's hands were huge; an average person usually can spread 8-9 keys, he had like an 11 finger span).  I was a bit upset, but got over it, because he was absolutely incredible.  I thought it was just perfect.  I had tears in my eyes, it was so beautiful.

The second half of the concert was just the Symphony Orchestra playing Anton Bruckner's Symphony no. 4: Romantic with four movements.  It lasted a little over an hour and, for the most part, was beautiful and interesting.  I had never heard it before, so I was happy to be exposed to something new.  Although, it did drag a little in a few places, and the final movement had several 'gotcha' moments-the orchestra would build into a crescendo only to reprise an earlier section.

We quickly left, so we would have enough time to eat.  My parents gave us a $50 gift card to Outback Steakhouse, so that is where we went.  We both have only been once, and that was a long time ago.  We had a lovely time, while waiting for food, we enjoyed the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony on the tvs.  Unfortunately, we did not realize how gigantic the portions were; we were unable to finish the entirety of our meal.  Zak had the 'New York Strip' and I had a combo of a third rack of ribs and a 6 oz. sirloin steak.  Neither of us could remember the last time we had steak, so we enjoyed our meals.  We left around 10:45, and at 11:10, right as we got into Rexburg, I realized I didn't have our leftovers.  I felt so stupid and mad at myself, we each had enough leftovers for another meal!  Ughhhh. 

Overall, it was a success.  I got Zak some awesome books about the Hubble telescope and its pictures of the universe; he sweetly got me a hair product I only briefly talked about.  When I got my hair cut, my friend used Moroccan Oil on it, which makes it shiny and beautiful.  I told Zak about it that day and didn't expect anything, because it was pretty expensive.  But I guess he found a good deal and got me a bottle of it!  What a sweetheart I married. :)

Here's us in our fancy clothes before changing.   

Jobs!

Zak has been fortunate enough to get a new job.  He saw a posting on craigslist on Monday and called the guy, who set up an interview for 3 pm that day.  The interview went well, and Zak was told to call back around 5:30 that night to see if he got the job or not.  He did!  He is a salesman for Kirby vacuums.  It's base pay + commission, and it's more money than he was making.  We're really relieved, finances had gotten a little tight lately and this came at a perfect time.  He's had training on Wednesday and Thursday and tomorrow I think he starts doing demonstrations with his group of salesman.  It'll be around the Rexburg area half of the week and down in Idaho Falls the other half, so hopefully he'll only have to drive down there twice a week.

His boss likes to have women go out and set up appointments for the sales team to follow up (it seems that ladies seem to do better with getting appointments).  I guess the girls that were hired went to a morning session of training, and didn't come back after lunch.  Zak mentioned it to me and I told him to tell his boss that I'd be interested, if they could work around my schedule.  Luckily, I get out of class by 1 or 1:45, 4 days a week, so that is good.  Zak called his boss today and asked if I could be an appointment eye candy girl and he said sure.  So I start on Tuesday!

This is probably the first job Zak's had that he got without knowing someone in the business.  I am really proud of him and glad that we both have jobs.  This means we will definitely be moving out of Rexburg because we'll be able to afford it! Yay!

The months, they go so fast.

Yesterday was our 6 month wedding anniversary.  It's hard to believe that we have been married for 6 months already.  But in another way, it doesn't feel so strange.  This Friday marks the third year of us as a couple.  That's a pretty decent milestone at BYU-I, and I'm proud of our relationship history.  I'm glad we didn't get married so quickly, that we took the time to become best friends.  Zak is my bestest best friend in the whole world, he is my one and only.  And I'm so happy to be with him that to imagine a life without him would be awful.  He is so loving and sweet and patient with me that at times I don't understand why he puts up with me.  He always tries to make me smile and laugh, even when I'm in a foul mood, he never gives up.  He is goofy and fun to be with and I love him dearly. 

To celebrate the milestone, we had chocolate chip waffles for breakfast.  We ended up having a LOTR movie-thon for the rest of the day.  We only got through the Two Towers, but it was totally epic and awesome.  For dinner we made our fabulous basil chicken in coconut curry sauce.  To top the day off, we had some of our wedding cake.  I know that it's traditional to have the cake at the one year anniversary, but we decided that it'd be too difficult to hold onto the cake whilst moving across the country this spring.  Either way, the cake was scrumptious and we had a lovely day together.

Being married is the best thing and sometimes the hardest.  I thought we knew each other fairly well when we got engaged last year, but I think I have seriously learned something new about my fun husband every day.  It's great.  And if anything, he loves my cooking and helping me, so that's a big plus.  :)

Snakes in the garbage

1 AM.  Zak is mumbling and patting my body and the bed, distraught. I ask, "Zak, what are you looking for, it's 1 AM...go back to sleep."  He says, "The computer disks."  I reply, "....What?  Honey, they're not here, just go back to sleep."

The next thing I know, he has left the bedroom and is slowly wandering into the kitchen.  I groan and haul myself out of bed to find out what the deal is.  He is standing next to the garbage can, clutching a pillow, one of those with a sham covering, so there's an opening in the back.  I walk over to him, touch his arm, and ask, "Zak, what's going on?  It's late, let's go back to sleep."  A few seconds later, he replies, "Am I sleeping?  Is this a dream?"  I say, "Yes, you were dreaming.  Now let's go back to the bedroom and go back to sleep."  He grins sleepily and complies.  I take him by the arm and gently lead him back to bed, tuck him in and give him a kiss.


10 AM.  Zak says to me, "Did I, uh...get up in the middle of the night?"  I told him what happened and he burst out laughing.  "I was dreaming that there were snakes on the bed and I put them all in the pillow.  And then I was going to throw them out in the garbage!"

This is our life.