Anniversaries

As Ken and I are approaching our first year wedding anniversary, I have had some thoughts. A lot of people who are dating like to keep vigilant track of how long they have been dating, which is fine. But sometimes it bugs me when people say it's their anniversary when they aren't even married. Maybe if they said it's the anniversary of when they started dating or something it would be fine, but I just feel like saying it's their anniversary implies that they are married. Oh and people definitely should not say it's their anniversary today if what they really mean is that they have been dating for a month. That is pretty weird to me. I'm sorry if anyone reads this who does these things, but I am just saying my opinion. Also I think wedding anniversaries are a lot more to brag about than how long you've been dating. But the way other people use the word anniversary kind of makes it mean less I think. Like if I say it's my anniversary, I don't want people to think that I have only been dating the same guy for a month or even a year. Anyways, it's not really that big of a deal I guess I was just thinking.

First week in MN

Sorry I know I said I would write on Tuesday and I still haven't. It's just been pretty busy. Basically after I get home from work I just want to relax and play and do as little thinking as possible. But anyways now I will summarize my week. So on Tuesday I met my supervisor. He is really cool. And then I went to a fancy important meeting with him. At the meeting I found out more about what I am doing. Basically we do work on these super thin plastic films which are used in various products. The most recognizable of which are ipads, iphones, and ipods. So basically we make this fancy film that Apple puts on their screens in order to increase the battery life and make it easier to what's on the screen when the sun or a bright light is shining on it. 3M makes $4 for every ipad that is sold. So that's what we work on. But the other side of the building is where they are made. We just study them and try to improve them. What I am working on specifically is kind of a quality engineer thing. So when they make these films, sometimes defects are created and they can't use that portion of the film. I am going to be working this summer to help figure out why the defects are created so that we can minimize the amount of film that needs to be thrown away. Basically. Anyway the meeting was interesting also because they gave out plaques for everyone who had received a new patent in the past two months. And there were five plaques awarded! Crazy. And my supervisor told me that one guy has gotten over 100 patents in his life. These people are insane. And soooo smart. But anyway ya the rest of the week I just met a lot of people and tried to figure out what was going on. I started examining the defects under a microscope and taking pictures of them. And then I am apparently going to be using photoshop to enhance the pictures. We are going to make a manual for the manufacturing people so that when they find a defect, they will be able to look in the book and discover the cause and then try to go fix it so it doesn't happen again. I work with some cool people, although 90% of them are a ton older than me. But that's fine. Let's see... I have two desks :) in my little "cube" as they call it haha... although there really is plenty of space for me. It's nothing like some of the tiny cubicles you see on TV shows and movies. Also today we are going garage sale hunting. They have one huge garage sale weekend here and that's about the only time anyone ever does garage sales I guess. And it's this weekend. I've already seen tons of people setting up stuff. So it should be super exciting. I hope we find some cool stuff!

Intern Orientation

So today was my first day of my internship! It was pretty exciting. So I am going to pretty much go through my whole day today. Feel free to skip or skim parts if it's boring. So I woke up in the morning and there was a thunderstorm and it was pouring rain :( that definitely made me not want to get out of bed. But eventually I did and then I got all ready for the day and tried to dress somewhat "business casual." The only really tough part about that was that I didn't have any businesscasualy coats to wear since I left that kind of stuff in Provo for the summer. So I just wore a not so nice coat. Then I drove to work which was sooooo stressful. Because half of the city is trying to get to 3M at 8 o'clock in the morning. Because everyone works there. But eventually I made it. Then all of the interns and new employees went into this conference room and they gave us donuts and juice. My donut was especially delicious but also messy. Then we learned all about how to have good ethics and not sexually harrass each other and stuff like that. Then they gave us a break to socialize amongst ourselves and walk around the room and look at their various displays. They told us that it would be preparation for a trivia quiz which was to come. Then in the trivia quiz I knew the first question, so I answered it. But then the next five questions no one answered. So I felt kind of dumb. I knew the answer to another question later on but I decided not to answer since evidently no one else wanted to participate in the quiz and I didn't want to look like a suck-up. So the lady just told us all of the answers. I don't think that was as much fun for her but oh well. Then we got lots of free 3M products like highlighters, post-it notes, fancy pop-up tape, and adhesive bandages (not band-aids of course, that's Johnson & Johnson and they are our arch rivals). But then after that we got to learn about security and how to let someone know if we see something suspicious going on. Also 3M requires that you notify them if you have a restraining order for anyone. See, very valuable information. Then the interns and the new full-time employees split up. The interns went to take their pictures to get fancy employee badges. I think my picture looks pretty good. And it's on a really fun lanyard that I played with for the rest of the day. Then we got a mini tour of one of the buildings and saw the 3M store that is exclusively for employees where they sell all of their products at the manufacturing cost. They have all sorts of Scotch tape for 25 cents there! Crazy. But anyways then we went downstairs into another conference room. Then we went through some more meeting stuff and they tried to get us really excited to work for 3M. Then they fed us lunch. They had many choices, few of which appealed to me. I ended up going with the turkey caesar wrap. This turned out to be a good choice because it came with a cookie! Everyone else's came with potato salad except for the other guy who chose the turkey caesar wrap. The potato salad people were jealous. During lunch we played a game where we had to try to find similarities and differences between us. Differences were super easy. Similarities were much harder. Oh and here is a run down of the other interns. There were about 12-15 of them. 2 girls besides me. One black guy. One Chinese guy. One guy from Nepal? I think he said that... No other chemical engineers. A couple IT guys, a couple MBAs, a PhD student, a couple computer scientists, one mechanical engineer, one electrical engineer, one supply chain, one materials science. One girl from Georgia. Several from Michigan. A few from Minnesota. One from Iowa, a couple from Ohio. None married except me. Mainly about my age but a few older. Anyway then after lunch this guy from IT came and taught us a bunch of computer stuff. That was the most boring. I kept yawning and was getting super tired and it was hard to stay awake. Then a girl came and taught us about the service projects that 3M does. Then we filled out some paperwork and each got a laptop! That was pretty exciting because I didn't know that I was getting a laptop. And then I went home. My GPS directed me not to go on the freeway because of traffic so I took a side road instead. And that was the end of my day at work. The End.
Then Ken and I watched some 30 rock and made chicken cashew salad for the family. And now we just made brownies. That's all for today. But tomorrow I meet my supervisor so stay tuned to find out how that goes. I really hope he likes me. I'll let you know tomorrow!

Church Today and 3M Tomorrow

Today was my first day of church in Minnesota. It was fun. Except for a lot of people expected me to remember meeting them once at our wedding reception. I can't remember that well. Also Ken and I made a big poster out of construction paper that said Happy Mother's Day for Ken's mom. That was a super fun project. Oh the other thing about church was that a lot of people were asking me about my internship. All I really know is that I am working for 3M and I just figured out that it is in the Display and Graphics division. Well, half of the ward here works for 3M so they were all asking me more about what I would be doing and what building it's in and who I am working for. I really don't know. That's what I will find out tomorrow at Intern Orientation. Which I am excited for but also nervous. I really have no clue how many other interns will be there. I've always pictured in mind that there would be tons... like a few hundred but now I am thinking that there will be a lot less. But I really don't know what to expect. I also wonder if the other interns will be about my age and what the boy:girl ratio will be. Ken is convinced that I will be the only married one there. That could very well be. But I'm excited to see how it goes. I'm more nervous for the next day when I have to actually try to figure out what I will be doing the rest of the summer. Also I wonder if I will get any free Scotch tape or post-it notes. I will definitely post tomorrow about how it goes. Tonight we are having hamburgers and hot dogs. That will be good. Also I got a long nap today so that was super nice. But not much else to report for today because it hasn't really been all that eventful.

We made it!

Hello readers of my blog. Ken and I made it to Minnesota today. And we were welcomed. Also to Iowa. There were no welcome signs entering Wyoming or Nebraska but both Iowa and Minnesota had welcome signs so I felt much more welcome in those states. Also I forgot to say that on our drive yesterday, we saw an interesting statue of Abraham Lincoln. Except it's really only his head on top of some rocky stuff. We had some more super fun dance parties today and I also slept a lot on the road. But luckily Ken didn't so we made it safely. Then when we got to Ken's house we made a cheese pizza for dinner and then Ken's sister and nieces came over. They are very fun. One is especially talkative and tends to dominate conversations. But then the other girls just cut her off whenever they have anything to say so it works for them. We are staying in Ken's room, which is green. Ken loves green so much. I don't really mind it, it's kind of fun. Also I've been thinking a lot about our future. Ken's dad gave us updates on Ken's siblings and so it made me kind of wonder what we would be doing at their age. I'm pretty nervous to start my internship. I try not to worry about it too much but sometimes it's hard. Although I am super excited. I really hope people will be nice to me. I wonder if I will ever find any friends in Minnesota. I kind of feel like everyone will be a lot different than me, but I guess I don't know. I mean I feel like Ken and I are very similar so maybe there are more people kind of like Ken. So far Ken's family doesn't remind me all that much of him. Maybe his dad a little bit. His mom is mainly like Kari. Like very very similar to Kari. And I really like Kari so that's good. I miss Kari. She is so much fun. Also Kari is Ken's sister for people who don't know. She is on a mission. It would be fun if she was here, although it would definitely limit alone time for me and Ken. Also I decided I am not that big on grammar sometimes. Especially with "me and..." I live for that kind of grammar mistake. Ok not really but I like it. Also I decided I am super stubborn. Like with that for example. I like it and if anyone tells me to change that it will probably just make me want to do it more. That's probably not the best trait. I'm kind of worried about it. What if anytime anyone wants me to do something a certain way I purposely want to go against it? That wouldn't be ideal for anyone else. Luckily Ken mellows me out quite a bit. He is just so nice and caring and agrees with me but then helps me realize when I'm overreacting. But also he knows when I don't want to be told that I'm overreacting and then he just understands. I don't know how he does that when I'm being so ridiculous but he does. I am really glad that I will always have Ken to talk to about all of my thoughts, feelings, and worries. Also I have this blog. I will post a lot of my thoughts on this blog this summer I think. So keep reading. But that's it for tonight. Come back soon!

Adventures

Sorry to anyone who actually noticed I haven't written on my blog in forever. Basically, I've just been finishing an entire term in a week and a half... nbd. But anyway now I am in North Platte, Nebraska just hanging out and having dance parties. Tomorrow we get to drive across the rest of Nebraska and Iowa. That should be exciting. So far I've only seen Nebraska in the dark. But I have definitely been able to smell Nebraska. It's not the best smelling state I've ever been to. Actually, it's probably the worst. But we will see how Iowa turns out to be. Wyoming was fun, although everything was super dead so that was pretty boring. We stopped in Cheyenne at Arby's. That was... pretty much like every other Arby's I've ever been to. I guess that's the idea of a franchise. Oh but earlier we stopped at a place called Little America and I got an ice cream cone for 50 cents.That was good. Also my throat has been hurting a lot. It started hurting last night and this morning it got much worse. It probably doesn't help that I sing at the top of my lungs across the entire state of Wyoming. Maybe tomorrow I will focus more on the dancing than the singing. Anyway, I should probably go to bed so that I will be ready for ten more hours of driving tomorrow. Also I am soooo excited to start my internship on Monday! Also pretty nervous though. I hope people will like me and that I won't do or say anything dumb. I'll write about how it goes. Also we will be living with Ken's parents. I'm super excited about it. I will let everyone know how that is also.