Small Town City Boy

Employment Crisis Hits Home...

First I'd better say that I HAVE NOT been laid off.

But a good friend of mine was.  During my time here in California, I have worked in the 3 major departments of a contracting firm: Superintendent, Project Management, and Estimating.  It was in the last of these areas that I felt that I had made some very good friends.

Due to the extremely competitive nature of the current construction market, my company has been bringing in a several people to help with the project bids.  Wednesday and Thursday this week, they asked me to come in and help.  Over those 2 days I was working with the estimating department and socializing with several of my friends.

Last night I received a text message from one of them saying that a good friend, one of the senior estimators, had been let go shortly after we handed in the bid.

My company has let go of several people over the last 4 months because we have not had any new work to put them on.  But this was the first person that's been let go that I knew well.  For the first time this whole economic thing became personal.  It was the first time that it went from being "on the news" to "up close and personal."

I'm reasonably sure that I don't have anything to worry about (knock on wood), but this recent news shook me up quite a bit.

I hope everyone fairs OK in this crisis.  And if this $1 gazillion bailout bill passes, lets hope we see some results (hey, for all of that money something had better happen).

It's about that time...

While I was at home for Christmas someone mentioned that it's about time for my 7 month catch up on what I've been doing.  Just in case anyone is counting, the last post was in October, so it's only been 3.5 months.  So that means I'm improving.

Life for me is about the same as it was last time.  My life is pretty much work and church.  With occasional dates and ultimate frisbee mixed in.  While I was home for Christmas, my ward got a new bishop and I'm the clerk so we've been having lots of meetings as we make changes to the ward.

Work has been going OK.  I'm working on a housing project for California Polytechnic University in Pomona CA.  I should be there until May 2010.  Fortunately it's a state project which means that the funding isn't going anywhere-for now.  Apparently California is so messed up financially that they are taking back the money for projects that aren't 50% complete.  Our project goes on the chopping block in May.  By that time we should be just past 50% so we shouldn't be in any danger.

Lest you think my company isn't dealing with the financial crisis, think again.  Projects that had 3-6 bidders a year ago now have 10+.  I even heard of one of one project that had over 20.  Things are very competitive and getting very ugly.  All of the major commercial companies in SoCal have had significant layoffs-including mine.  I don't know how things will shake out.

That's all for any new updates in my life.  I hope everyone is doing well.  Congrats to Andrew and Bethany on their 3rd little boy.  Welcome home to Dave, who was oversees in Dubai (how was the indoor skiing?).  And congrats to Mark & Liz and Ethan & Heather (Heather, I really hope you feel better soon)-both couples are expecting.

If you're interested in pictures...Here's some from Christmas.  Here are a few shots of the Newport Beach Temple.  They're not very good seeing as how it was at night.

I am abysmally bad at this (writing in my blog)...

Don't have a heart attack.  I have updated my blog.  I'm suprised that anyone still checks it.  But it does remind me that people out there still think about me once in a while.  This post comes to you courtesy of a bad headache and Excedrine.  I had a really bad headache and I finally took Excedrine around 7 pm.  Then I took a 2 hour nap.  The nap combined with the caffine in the Excedrine will keep me up for a while.  Bad for me because I can't sleep.  Good for you because I'm posting.  Don't worry, this is not habit.

Where to start....  There's really only been a few highlights over the last 10 months.  From April through June I was working a ton.  60+ hours/week.  My company was bidding a ton of work to try and gather it up as the market has been drying up.  So that meant burning the midnight oil-literally to midnight on a few occasions.

In June I finished the two year training program I came out for (can you believe I've made it 2 years?), and they gave me a generous raise.

In July I went to Boy Scout camp with the boys.  It was alot of fun and nice to get out of the city.  The camp here is out in the middle of nowhere.  It was really nice to see a dark sky and stars.  The boys were fascinated.  On a few nights I took them out and showed them some constellations.  Things went really well.

The week after camp I went home to Pennsylvania for a few days.  My Grandma was in the hospital in June.  She's doing OK now, but at the time we weren't sure what was going on.  Laura (my sister) and my nephews also went home.  My dad and brother managed to help us surprise my Mom and Grandma.  We all got home while they were out and when they came home we surprised them.  We had to be careful to not surprise them too hard.  My poor grandma could have had a heart attack.  We first sent out my oldest nephew to give "Grandma" (my mom) and "GG" (my grandma - his "G"reat "G"randma) a hug.  My sister and youngest nephew followed.  I gave my mom and grandma a few minutes to recover.  Then I came out.  It was nice to all be home.  Unfortunately my brother-in-law couldn't make it because of work, but we know he would've wanted to be there.

Since then, it's been alot of work.  I've been moved out of the estimating department to a jobsite that's closer to home and opposite traffic.  My 1 hour gridlock commute changed to a 25 minute pleasure ride.  That is an extremely rare blessing in my industry and especially in California.

That's a summary of the last few months.  I hope everyone is doing well.  Congrats to Lori and Cameron on their baby.  And the same goes to Jordan and Heather even thougth I'm 6 months late.  I hope everyone is doing well.  Drop me a line sometime or look me up on facebook if you haven't already.

Trying to Summarize 7 Months...

After an eternity (7 months) without a post.  I figured it was time to write something.  My old BYU Scene Shop friends Dave and Angela tagged my blog two weeks ago.  A few days after I got tagged I got a voice mail from my old roommate Tiatia telling me about his new baby (Congratulations!!).  That week I had the flu and a sinus infection, so I didn't feel like doing anything.  And this last week I spent catching up with work and church stuff.  Today is the first day I've had to write anything.

Since no one has heard from me in so long I'll try to give a short review of the last few months.  A few of you know that I am in a 2 year training program in my company.  I have three 8 month rotations in different departments and at the end of the two years I get to pick where I want to be.  Last July I started in my third rotation (a few months early due to some unavoidable circumstances), which is my rotation with the estimating department. 

It was the rotation that I had dreaded since I started with the company.  Surprisingly it has been the one I have liked the most and I will likely stay there in June once my training period is up (who'd have thought that I would have lasted 2 years in Los Angeles?).  My first project in this department was an 18 story condo building in LA.  We were about to start  construction right before Christmas when the developer's bank pulled the plug on the financing due to the sub-prime crisis.

After that I worked for 6 weeks on a brand new high school.  It was what's called a "hard bid" process.  It's considered the most difficult and most stressful type of bid process.  Everything comes to a head on the day the bid is due. 

I had 6 people working under me on "bid day" and I didn't eat lunch or anything because I was so stressed out.  In a morbid kind of way it was really fun.  If there is a type of initiation into the construction industry, the hard bid is it.  I seem to have gained a bit of respect since I handled it so well.  One particular point I would like to bring up is that I made $1.7 million dollars worth of decisions in the last 20 minutes of the day.  All of them were right.  I hope that sounds impressive to someone.  I haven't been that stressed out since the finals week at BYU when I got 7 hours of sleep from Monday to Saturday.

I'm still in the Spanish family ward and I wouldn't trade it for anything.  I love working with the young men in Boy Scouts.  Sometimes I want to knock some heads together (I'm learning to appreciate how well Ken Bratt, Dave Christensen, my Dad, and my other young men's leaders did with us).  But overall the boys are really great kids and the other young men's leaders are great people to work with.  I'm also working with the bishopric as the clerk.  I'm the only clerk for my ward so my bishop and the stake clerk call me "El Secretario de Todo"...The Clerk for Everything. 

We have a large ward on paper; however, like most hispanic wards, the records haven't been kept very well.  I spent all last year fixing the financial records (they were really bad).  This year my goal is to get all of the membership records up to date.  I found out two weeks ago that the stake wants to get me some help so I have time for "social activities."  It's their way of saying they want me to get married.

Just because I know many of you are curious, no I'm not dating anyone right now.  I was seening someone for a while at the end of last year, but it didn't work out.

Although wordy, I think that's a pretty good summary of my last few months.  I've posted some new pictures.  In November, Ben (my brother) and I went to Minnesota to visit our sister, brother-in-law, and most importantly, our nephews.  I recieved a couple of comments after my 4th of July pictures asking for some photos of my sister.  Since she is the one who usually takes the pictures, she's not in any of the ones that I have.  But I will try to get her to send me a couple to post later.

I mentioned I was tagged, so here it is.  I'm supposed answer the 5 questions about myself.

Five things on my to-do list today (I'll use tomorrow since today is almost over):

1. Call Salt Lake and order tithing evelopes
2. Make lots and lots of phone calls because if I don't, my subcontractors I won't get me what I need.
3. Go to a friends house for dinner and Family Home Evening
4. Beat some of my co-workers at ping pong
5. Do laundry

Things I would do if I became a billionaire:

1. Buy 300(or more) acres in Pennsylvania and move very far away from any big city.
2. Buy season passes to the Canyons, Brighton, and Snowbird (I'm sure there are other great places, but these are the only ones I've been to).
3. Pay off my student loans

3 of my bad habits:

1. Hitting the snooze button way too many times
2. Not writing in my blog as often as people would like
3. Getting mad at all of the stupid drivers here in California.  I don't know if they are worse than Utah drivers, or if there are just more of them.

5 places I've lived:

1. Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania
2. Fairfax, Virginia
3. Provo, Utah
4. Fullerton, California
5. Minatitlan, Veracruz, Mexico

5 Jobs I've had:

1. Trim carpenter for my Dad
2. Assistant Superintendent for Pulte Homes in Virginia
3. Set carpenter for HaleStorm Entertainment (Check the credits at the end of the LDS pop culture film, "The Home Teachers")
4. Early morning custodian for BYU
5. Set carpenter in the BYU Scene shop (Combine #4 with #1 under my bad habits)

Things most people don't know about me:

1. I once ran around a farm, being chased by sheep, while I was wearing electric lime green stretch pants.  Why? For a stake seminary film festival.  The down-side?  All of the girls knew just how skinny and lanky I really was.  The up-side?  At the dance afterwards, all the girls already knew who I was.  The title of the film?  Ammonhood:Men in Tights.  To my knowledge, only one copy of this film exists and my parents currently have it.  It's the kind of thing you don't want a girl to see until after you're married...along with those "cute" pictures when you're 1 year in the bathtub.

I'm supposed to tag 4 people now.  Here you go.

1. Ethan and Heather
2. Drew
3. Ken and Beth
4. Mark and Elizabeth

Here are the rules:

1. Answer these same questions about yourself
2. List 4 people at the end of your post who you want to tag
3. Leave them a comment in their blog letting them know they've been tagged.
4. No tag backs

The best 88 cents I've ever spent

First off, thanks to the people that hopelessly check here every couple of days.  It's nice to know you're checking up on me.

This is a story that I think most of the guys will appreciate.  The girls that check this (especially the moms) will shake their heads.  But just remember I'm a single guy and someone has to teach his nephews what his parents can't or won't.

Over 4th of July my whole family was home together for the first time in 2 years.  My oldest nephew, Isaac, was about 2 3/4 years old.  So far he's a boy.  He's into big trucks, the movie Cars, dirt, tools, tractor rides (I think my crazy dad even let him drive a little), etc.  I couldn't be a prouder uncle.  One day, my brother Ben and I took Isaac shopping for some new toys.  We only took Isaac, because his younger brother, Seth, was less than a year old and we really couldn't buy him much at Walmart.  Of course, Isaac was thrilled to spend some time with Uncle Ben and Uncle Marc (what three year old wouldn't be thrilled to spend time with two more three year olds who wanted some new toys as much as he did?).  His dad came with us, but we made him keep his distance so as to not interfere with the uncles/nephew experience.  Isaac picked out a car that looked like Lightning McQueen, some other Matchbox cars, and a few other things.  After we decided that he had bought enough, we headed to the check out line.

On our way to the check-out line I happened to catch, out of the corner of my eye, a bright yellow rubber bag for 88 cents.  My brother saw me look at it, and before he could say, "Laura's going to kill you,"  I had thrown it in the cart.  My brother-in-law shook his head and I solmenly accepted full responsibility for any reprecussions.  I hid the treasure from my sister when we got home and I waited for Isaac to open all of his toys.  I until the two of us to be alone in the living room and then I took it out.  He watched curiously as I took it out of the package and blew it up.  He came over and asked if it was a baloon.  I told him that it was like a baloon.  I set it on the floor and told him to sit on it.  He persistently said no.  So I had to resort to force.  I picked him up (Do you know how much 3 year olds can squirm?), set him down hard on the bag (he didn't weigh that much), and waited for the reaction.  He sat looking at me like,"Now what?"  Then I said, "EEEWWW!!! Isaac made a stinky!!!"  He looked at me for a few seconds trying to figure it out.  Then, all of a sudden he got the biggest smile I could have hoped for and said, "EEEWWW."  Then he gave it to me again and said, "Blow it up, please."  I've never wanted to blow up a whoopie cushion so much in my entire life.  As fast as I could blow it up he jumped on it, said, "EEEWWW, Isaac made a stinky." And gave it to me to blow up again.  Well he giggled so loud that he woke Laura up from her nap (note to self, don't wake Laura up from a nap).  She came downstairs not looking very happy and was about to make sure we all knew it.  Just before she said anything, Isaac jumped on the whoopie cushion and said, "EEEEEWWW.  Mommy, Isaac made a stinky!!"

It was an epic moment.  In a few milliseconds I saw a myriad of emotions in my sisters face.  First, anger that someone had let Isaac wake her up(I was really sorry.  It was inconsiderate of me to do that.  But if she had seen me take out the whoopie cushion, it might never have gotten used).  Second was anger that it was me who had allowed (even encouraged) that noise.  And third was anger that I had corrupted her son with such a devious thing as a whoopie cushion.  I guess that they were all one emotion, but she wasn't sure which to address first.  The fourth (and fortunately the prevailing emotion) was laughing at her son with the whoopie cushion.  Whew, saved by the 3 year old with the big smile.

After disaster was avoided, Isaac and I kept playing with the whoopie cushion for a while.  Then I had a brain flash.  I blew it up again.  And instead of setting it on the floor I gave it to him and said, "Isaac, go get Daddy."  He looked at me again for a few minutes thinking.  Then he got the same big smile that he got when he had first figured out the whoopie cushion.  He walked up behind his dad, put the whoopie cushion to his but and pushed as hard a he could.  Then he ran back over to me and said, "EEEWWW, Uncle Marc, Daddy made a stinky!"  Well within the next half hour everyone in the family had made a stinky.  I think I did see a little too much enjoyment when he did it to his little brother.

Over the next few days until they left, Isaac and I had a great time making stinkies.  It really was the best  88 cent I've ever spent.

I'm going to put up some pictures of our time at home.  I don't really have time to put up captions to all of them, but I think that most of you will enjoy them anyway.

A Gift for my Nephew

For the last little while, my nephew has been into "Big Trucks."  So I took some pictures and I've been working on making a slide show for him.  I mixed the music, voice, and sounds in one program, then I timed the pictures and stuff in PowerPoint(I know I'm a nut when it comes to overcomplicating simple stuff-some of you might remember how I organized our Ultimate Frisbee team on Excel).  Anyway, I'll be trying to capture the attention of a 2 yr-9month old boy, which my sister tells me is nearly impossible.  Anyway, I'm almost done and I wondered if you could tell me what you think.  I still need a few pictures and I need to time the last 2 slides, but I'm getting there.  I've got 2 week till I go home to show it to him.  To view it, you'll need PowerPoint, and a fast connection (or lots of patience) since the file is almost 5 Mb.  So take a look and let me know.  Here is the link.Download isaacs_slide_show.ppt.  My dad told me that he could get the slides to show up, but he couldn't hear the sound.  I went through all of the normal stuff (was the computer muted, were his speakers connected, etc).  So if anyone has any ideas of what's going on, I'd appreciate you letting me know.

So it's been a while

FYI:I didn't think I had alot to say, but I guess I lied.  You may need 2 sittings to read it all.

I'm glad to see that there are still people checking my website even though it's been 5 months since my last post.  Unfortunately, my life really hasn't been that exciting and I don't have alot to talk about.  But here it goes:

Much to my surprise, I'm liking the office.  Well, I don't really like the office per se, but I like what I'm doing.  I would still like to be outside and enjoy the "fresh" air (air in LA is about 50% air and 60% pollution so how fresh can it really be?) more than I do, but I like what I'm learning.  My boss has been very good about letting me do everything I want to try.  So I've been dealing with the subs, owners, architects, and engineers.  I'm getting to see more of where the $$$ goes and where it's coming from.  I'm getting to do things that I wouldn't normally get to do for another 2-5 years depending on the company.  So even though I still don't like the cubicle, my opportunities to learn and get things done give me alot of opportunities to get out of it.

Oddly, the thing I'm have the hardest time with at work is the construction process.  Since January, I've been in the project management area of construction management.  A project manager has a finger on every aspect of his project!!!  He has to know where the money is going and where it's coming from; hen needs to know the owner and his expectations; he has to know all of the contracts for every subcontractor; he needs to know the plans inside and out.  There are alot of other areas that he needs to know also.  So as much as I want to step up, my boss lets me.  I'm a quick study for pretty much everything except for how the building actually goes together.  Before anyone says, "Didn't you study construction in school?  Shouldn't you know that already?" let me explain.  Houses are one thing and 50-400 room multi-family buildings are completely different.  Add to that that I'm in LA.  It's like building a 20 piece snap together model with no paint while you're at your dining room table (house) or building a 1:20 scale remote control fighter jet while your kids are hanging of both arms and shaking the table (multi-family).  My boss assures me that with some time and experience I'll understand everything that goes into one of these buildings.  But for the time being, I continue to be overwhelmed by how much I still need to learn.

That's work.  Now for my part-time: Church.  Since my last entry my responsibilities at church have slightly increased.  I don't like to talk about how much I do, to leave it out means not talking about a significant part of my life (trust me I would rather tell everyone about my hot girlfriend or fiance, but I'm still looking for her).  So Church is the next best thing.  Since Christmas I have acquired 2 more callings: first Assistant ward clerk (later upgraded to ward clerk (unofficially) when the previous clerk was called into the Bishopric, and "permanent" substitute primary teacher (8-11 yr. old boys), then a week later Assistant Scoutmaster (later upgraded to Scoutmaster (unofficially) because the previous ward clerk was also the previous Scoutmaster). 

It would take way too long to talk about all of my callings, but let me talk about what I've learned.  Heads and shoulders above being clerk, I like working with the kids and youth.  All of the youth in my ward would be considered "underprivileged" and "at-risk."  They deal with gangs and drugs and cultural identity on a daily basis.  The one that I see most of their struggle with is their cultural identity.  Unfortunately and somewhat paradoxically there is very room in the schools for a "Hispanic American" youth to straddle the 2 cultures (latin origens of their parents and their own American experience).  Their parents want their children to fit into the molds that they themselves were forced into.  And the children rebel against their parents to the point that many of them speak very little Spanish and know very little about their background.  Many school teachers have very little tolerance for the language barriers that some kids have (even when the kids speak English, it's generally a very colloquial "street" English and the grammar and vocabulary problems affect the kids at school).  Also, many kids don't get the support they need at home because in many cases, a youth in 5th or 6th grade has already surpassed his/her parents in school. 

The culture of the Church helps alot of the youth to find a balance between the two cultures.  For a number of parents, the principles of the Church help them find a standard for their children to focus on.  Instead of saying, "Do better than I did," they can say, "Do the best that you can."  But there are still several that struggle with who they are and what they should do.  Even when the parents want their children to do well, they can't always help them get there.

I've got some pictures that I want to put up of a few things so check back within the next week and I should have some more stuff up.  Leave me some comments and let me know how everyone's doing.  Congratulations to Craig and Allana and Dave and Angela, each family on their new arrivals.

What does your dad do?

For whatever reason, I’ve been thinking a lot about that question.  It seems like every week at church or when I hang out with the YSA group someone asks me what it is that I do.  Not a very hard question.  Or is it?

Frequently at BYU as I would get to know people I would ask them what their dad did.  I don’t know if that seems like a personal or irrelevant person, but to me it’s very important.  I guess that’s because so much of me and who I am has to do with what my dad does for a living. 

I built my first tool box when I was 5 or 6.  Later that summer my dad started giving me tools to put in it.  As I got more stuff, I could eventually build rudimentary pieces of furniture that I would give to my friends.  I think I got my first power tool when I was 8 or 9.  It was an old jigsaw that my dad gave me.  It wasn’t anything fancy, but it got the job done.  I didn’t have to cut as much with my handsaw anymore.  I started working the summers with my dad when I was 7 or so.  I swept floors for $.50/hr.  I was the only second grader with a summer job that was more than selling lemonade.  It was either the first or second summer I worked with dad that I nailed down almost all of the plywood in a really big house by hand.  I would get home from work with blisters on my hands and my mom would insist that I stayed home the next day.  But I wouldn’t, I had a job to get done.  I think I worked every summer since with my dad.  As grew and could do more, he would teach me more.

Eventually as I got into high school, I became very interested in chemistry.  I was quite good at it too (I placed in a regional competition in NEPA [northeastern Pennsylvania for all of you that don’t know]).  After my mission, I decided to continue chemistry in college and I got an A in chem 111H (you should all be surprised at that.  Chem. 111H and American Heritage were two of my 3 As in college).  But at the end of that semester I decided that 8 more years of school wasn’t for me (3.5 to finish my bachelors and 3.5-4 for my PhD).  Not my cup of tea.  I almost left BYU and went home to work with my dad.  Fortunately one of my sister’s roommates told me about BYU’s Construction Management program.  So turning from one interest back to another, I applied and got into the CM program at BYU.

So you see a lot of who I am and what I am has to do with what my dad has done for a living.  That’s why I ask people that question.  And as I’ve learned a lot of people’s ideas of work vs. family has to do with their dads’ job’s.  Did he work so much he couldn’t be at family activities?  Was he so stressed that he couldn’t leave work problems at work?  A lot of girls learn from their moms how to deal with their husband’s careers-in both good and bad ways.  Did he enjoy his job so much that you want to see that same kind of enjoyment in your (or your spouse’s) career?

There’s one other part to asking people what their dad does.  I think you could only call it “the cool factor.”  Once in a while you meet someone whose dad has a very unique job.  My all time favorite was when a girl in one of my wards told me her dad was a colonel in the military and was in the Pentagon when the plane hit it on 9/11.  But all too often, people tell me that they don’t know what their dad’s do for a living.  They know he works for some company and he’s in an office most of the day.  But aside from that, they don’t have a clue.

I would always think how sad it was that they didn’t know and thus couldn’t appreciate what their dad did.  For instance, among those of you reading this are a future pilot, future family therapist, and some future engineers.  All of those occupations have straight forward answers to their purpose.  You’re kids will all know more or less what you do.  And be able to appreciate it because of that.

Now fast forward 12-13 years in my life.  I’m married (a miracle in itself) and hopefully have some kids.  Now for a primary, young men, or young women activity one of my kids asks me what I do for a living.  Honestly, I don’t know where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing in 12 years.  But if that were to happen today, I would be one of the dads left fumbling and telling my kid that I work for some company in some office.

I vaguely remember one time when I had barely started Cub Scouts.  I think we all had to take our dads with us for some kind of job show and tell.  When my dad got up he had brought some tools with him.  All of the kids thought my dad was cool.  If my kid took me to a Cub Scout meeting, I would show up in a shirt and tie with a bunch of papers.

So what does your dad do for a living?  Do you know?  If he does work for some company in some office, have you tried to understand what he does there?  Have you added your own “cool factor” to it and shown him how much you appreciate what he does?

Life in a Box

Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed that my blog has gotten a lot of hits.  I hope that means that a lot of different people a checking it and it’s not just 6 checking it out 5 times every day.  Either way, thanks.  Also, I’ve enjoyed the comments from everyone.  It’s nice to hear from you.

I think most of you know that my first 2 years in this company would be an extended training period.  I would spend 8 months on a jobsite with the superintendent.  Then 8 months with a Project Manager (in commercial construction, they are responsible for maintaining the budget.  They also write the contracts and process change orders).  Finally I would spend 8 more months with the estimating department.

As I’ve mentioned, I spent my first eight months on a $60 million apartment complex.  I had two really big buildings I could walk through when I got tired of the office.  There were tons of people walking around, coming in and out of the office, and asking me for help.

As of 2 weeks ago, I was caged.  I was moved to my next 8 month rotation 1 month early.  As my parents will tell you, I was not happy about being locked in an office all day.  Now I have to wear a shirt and tie.  I can’t go outside whenever I want.  For the first 3 days I sat in a cubicle without a whole lot to do.  My new supervisor was busy with another project and couldn’t get away to show me what I was supposed to be doing.

First I flipped through the plans then I got bored of it.  After that I checked my email.  When I had checked it for the sixth time in one hour, I finally gave up on anything new or interesting.  And I could only surf the net for so long.  Then after that, I flipped through the drawings for the twelfth time that day.  Slowly, I began to lose consciousness and nod off.  So I would check my email, surf the net, flip through the drawings….  FOR THREE DAYS!!!!

Some time in there I started writing notes about all kinds of things I could say in a blog entry about cubicles.  In those three days Dilbert started to make a lot more sense.

My entry would have ended right here if I had made time to write it last week; however, some things have happened to make me not mind it so much.

After those 3 days, my new supervisor started me out working on a new project with him.  I am actually doing real work.  I’m talking with subs, negotiating prices, submitting questions to the architect, etc.  This might not seem like a big deal, but it really is.

For the last 4 months of my first rotation, I was stuck in the office doing secretary work.  I was supposed to be out of the office and working with the workers.  But because of the size of the staff, someone had to handle all of the paperwork.  That someone ended up being me.  So for those 4 months, I was doing a lot of stuff that they could have paid a high school girl $10/hr to do.

For the first time since I’ve been here, I'm finally enjoying going to work.  I’m still not excited about the cubicle, but I don’t mind it so much.   It’s not so bad now that I’ve got something else to focus on other than how to keep busy until the end of the day.

What Money Can't Buy

First off, I’ve learned my lesson.  Yesterday, I spent about 45 min writing and rewriting another adventure on my blog’s website.  Then when I clicked the “Save and Publish” button, my screen came up with a “This website is unavailable, because it is down for scheduled maintenance.”  Apparently, during my 45 min, they took the site down.  I desperately tried to hit the “Back” button to see if I could get back what I had typed.  I couldn’t (I hate computers).  So now I’ve got to start over (I’m writing this in Word and will copy it over when I’m done), which isn’t such a bad thing since I’ve thought of something else to write about.

My title today has to do with a lesson I’ve been learning since I’ve been here.  As I explain it, most of you will probably say, “duh.”  It’s something I’ve always known, but never really appreciated.

I think by now you all know that I’m attending a Spanish ward here in Fullerton.  Many of you have been asking me why I don’t go to a single’s ward or someplace else where I could meet people.  Well, please believe me when I say that I know I’m supposed to be here, and among other reasons, this lesson I’ve learned is part of why I am here.

If you live in SoCal (southern California) and are white, you are generally making more than other people at your position in other parts of the country.  You have to be to be able to live here (a 1500 sq. ft. house can run $400-550k and a 1 bedrm. apartment can run $1200-$1800).  Since that higher wage is so predominant, affluence is all over the place.  And with affluence, usually comes a certain amount of pride, confidence is your own ability to provide, learning of men, etc. (see the BOM when the Nephites prospered and got prideful).  The perspective of people here is so different from the people in Pennsylvania, that sometimes I have a hard time not judging them and saying, why do you think like that?

So that is the general point of view of most of the white folks here.  Contrast that with the circumstances of most of the Hispanic people.  Most are here illegally.  Because they don’t have immigration papers, they can’t get the wages that they otherwise would.  To make ends meet, they live together.  One of the guys from my ward lives with 6 guys in a 2 bedroom apartment.  I know of a few apartments where there are 2 families in a 2 bedroom apartment-1 family per bedroom.  And I mean mom, dad, and kids in each bedroom.  Living under those circumstances tends to keep people humble and appreciative for what they have, instead of expecting everything on a silver platter. 

Those are the 2 descriptions of the 2 predominant ways of live here in SoCal.  Now for some experiences and lessons learned.

After my first few weeks here, once people started to know me and realized that I’m out here away from friends and family, they started inviting me to spend time with them.  For the first few months, I spent a lot of time with one older sister in the ward.  She has a daughter with a little girl that live with her, and two family friends.  In total, that’s 5 people in a 1 bedrm. apartment.  The guy that has 6 roomates (the one I talked about above-his name’s Martín) and I would go over there a lot on Friday nights and take ice cream and soda and just spend the night visiting with them.

Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time with the Rosas Family.  This family consists of a mom, dad, 2 teenage daughters, and a little 5 yr. old boy.  They’re luckier than a lot of other families.  They have their own 2 bedroom apartment.  Both the mom and dad work a ton to make ends meet.  Over the last 2 months I’ve gotten to know them very well.  That’s about when I found out that they had a foosball table in their garage and the husband and I both realized that we each play pretty well.  Every time I’m there I feel a strong warmth (cariño-what is that in English?  I hate when I can’t remember my own language.).  I feel the same when I’m with the first family I talked about.

Most of my close friends here are Hispanic.  So, when I get a call from someone, I usually end up speaking Spanish.  A few times I have taken some calls during my lunch break at work and my coworkers here me speaking.  Some of them realized I could speak Spanish that way.  But after a while, they started realizing that I was talking to friends and not just aquaintances.  One day someone asked why I had so many “Mexican” friends.  To which I answered, “Why not?”

“Don’t you know any other white people?”

“Sure, but most of my friends here are Hispanic.  What difference does it make?”

“Where do you go when you want to hang out, or do something?”

“I usually go to one of their houses, or I go pick them up and we go do something.  What do you do when you want to go do something?”

He said, “So you hang out in one of their small, dirty apartments, or go out in public with them?  Don’t you get embarrassed?  Where do you go?”

Now he started getting on my nerves.  How could someone be so closed minded?  “We go wherever we want.  And do whatever we want to.  They’re people just like you.  Don’t look down on them just because you can’t understand them.”

He looked kind of surprised at that statement and just walked away shaking his head.  The sad part is I have gotten varying degrees of that reaction from more people than I would like to admit.

Thus, what can’t money buy?  Seeing everyone as God’s children and living that way. After that conversation, I decided that I would rather live in a small apartment where the Spirit has to cram in than in a large house where the Spirit can’t fill it up.

So in my Spanish ward I found 2 things I didn’t expect. First I found a pocket of humble people in a huge, affluent city, and second a valuable lesson about how we’re all the same in God’s eyes.