I mean....better two weeks later then never!
And California struggles....all the chocolate was melted :(

Just some healthy eating

Worried about my living on my own and not eating well? FEAR NOT

Yeah thats quinoa with chicken, peppers, onions, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes and fresh basil. Boom...healthy meal. 

10 Things I want to Do in My First Year in Cali

There is so much I want to do in California, I decided I should list my goals and dreams for the next year. Hopefully my blog with follow me knocking these off the list!

1.  Bike the Kern River Bike Trail
This is a 45 mile round-trip trail that runs right behind my apartment. Going to have to wait until its not over 100 degrees for this one. 
2. Climb The Jar
3000 foot hike in just 3 miles. Very steep trail but its just 20 minutes away from my apartment. Going to need to train for this one! 
3. Learn How To Dirt Bike
Yes Mom, I know it's dangerous. Dirt biking is really popular around here and the more I hear about it, the more I want to give it a try! 
4. Surf Malibu
First, I will need to learn how to surf. Minor details. 
5. Camp in Death Valley
Obviously I will be doing this during the winter. My co-worker showed me pictures of a group of Nestle people who went last February and it looked magical. 
6. See a Live Taping of a TV Show
Being so close to LA, this is a given. My main goal is to see Conan or The Price is Right, but any show would be interesting to see. 
7. Hike Yosemite
Obvious. The real goal is to go more then once.
8. Go to a Napa Winery
I really want to go on the train throughout all the wineries, but in my first year I will take any. 
9. See a Kings Game
Seeing the current Stanley Cup winners would be pretty cool. Bakersfield has a team too but that's just not the same. 
10. Go to the Rose Bowl
I mean, it won't be as cool as a Penn State game (and we can't be in the rose bowl grrrrr) but the history and pageantry of the game would be neat.

Hopefully I will start in on these soon! I've been making friends at work who have similar interests, its just a manner of planning. 

I Live A Tough Life

This sums up my weekend.

6 Things I Learned in my First Week at a Real Job

1. Training is Boring But Useful
The first week involved a lot of sitting at computers and doing eLearnings. I've been taking notes and studying all the time. I feel like I am cramming for finals right now. But it means I will be caught up on the basics and will actually know what I am talking about once I start in on my projects. 
2. College Didn't Prepare Me For Very Important Things
What healthcare plan do I want to pick? How do I budget?  Whats the difference between a 401K and a pension? How do I gain respect from old factory guys who have run the line for 40 years and don't trust a 22 year old scientist? How does one teleconference? There should be a class for this.

Also, despite the fact I have an English minor, and took a business writing class, writing emails causes a large amount of anxiety. I never know what to write and not sound like a college kid. 
3. Being Young Means You See Things Differently
This seems obvious, since its why companies bring in new talent every so often. But I really have seen it the first few days. I've already shown one of the older guys a better way to research on google, discussed some popular flavors I saw among college students (cookie butter), and contributed to some new flavor brainstorming. Also, a few of my questions have been answered with "I don't know....I've never thought about it before, it just is that way." 
4.Working 8am-5pm Every Day is Tiring 
This is especially true since I don't drink coffee. But even though I did a million things in college and was constantly busy, I still found time for naps and relaxing. Running from meeting to meeting, and the higher stress is guaranteeing me a 10pm bedtime. We will see how long I can stay off caffeine. 
5. Any Possible Chance of Friendship Is Exciting 
I am a little starved for a social life living out here alone so I've become obnoxiously outgoing. Girls in my gym class, HI! How's it going? Girl at work, want to hang out at the pool? My one friend Curtis says the key is to say Yes to any social gatherings, even if it is something you've never done before or hanging out with people you usually wouldn't. You never know what it may lead to. 
6. Unimportant Things are Suddenly Important To You
Things like cooking a big enough dinner so that I have leftovers for lunch, laying out my clothes the night before, planning my meals before I go grocery shopping, taking care of my balcony harden, and other things I never cared about are sudden top priorities. 


This is a little of what I have learned for now. I am sure there is a million more things to learn. 

From Interviewee to Interviewer

Today I had a very weird experience. One of the older guys I work with stayed at home because he was sick. Because of this, a candidate the team is interviewing had one less person to go to lunch with. So I got subbed in.

It's weird being on the other side. Especially when just a month ago I was in the interviewee spot for the same position. Add on that the two people they are interviewing both have Masters degrees and are older then me....very odd.

The first thing I learned is that interviewers think most of the questions are stupid. What they are really concerned about is your personality and that they aren't going to need to hold your hand in your first days or that they won't strangle you after a few months. My team was all talking about how anyone with a Food Science degree can technically do our job, what really matters is their capability to communicate well with a bajillion people and they can handle the stress. 

I also learned how important it is to answer interview questions in a way that someone would want to ask more questions. It was so awkward when she would answer a question in a way that it ended the conversation. Everyone was uncomfortable.

What I couldn't believe was this girl's resume. It was three pages long, it had jobs from when she was in high school (which was 8 years ago for her), it was poorly organized, it had a weird border, and she wrote "I worked in the lab and while I was there I.....*list of things she did*" She actually broke every rule I could think of with resumes. It was frustrating.

She also looked at her phone during lunch, admitted to never having tried the companies products, and said she didn't do much for one of her internships. Maybe its because I was overly trained for finding a job, but I was very horrified. 

It really surprised me being on the other side how bad a candidate could be. And this girl wasn't even the worst my team had seen. Im nervous to have to interview people in the future. 

It was a very exciting 6th day of work. Mainly I spend most of my time training and shadowing. And eating an endless amount of ice cream. Today I also got to eat plain caramel filling and my team was slightly concerned with how much I was eating. I can't help it. It's delicious. 

Best Part of My Job

This is the bunker:

The bunker contains FREE ICE CREAM. It's next to my desk and its all you can eat. You can't really see it, but on the end they stock Haagen Daas Gelato Sea Salt Caramel which is the greatest thing in the world. They are little cups, and I only had two today.....good thing I got a gym membership last week...

Decorating for days 2

Okay next in my series of decorating!! First my entry way:

 For once, I am keeping it nice and simple. I hung up my diploma (don't worry Mom the door doesn't hit it, I checked) I have my Trader Joe's bags ready to go. A few weeks ago I hand braided that rug out of ripped fabric. It took me over 10 hours and now hold my shoes when I get home. 

My key holder (which I know is slightly askew right now) was made for me by my coursin, Sophia! 

 I have my kitchen set up to. I found a cool sunflower hanger thingy at Goodwill for a dollar!

 Thank god for that space above my cabinets for all of my glasses. I have so many random ones that look good on display and are within reach (for me) 

 Already filled the fridge up with deliciousness! Its weird having so much space to myself. 

 My mom got me this awesome New Jersey cutting board. When it's not in use, I still wanted it on display! I also have my german shield thingies on my column! 

The dining room is still under construction. I don't know where to put my bike for now. and I have a big empty white wall thats needs some art or a tapestry or something to break up the whiteness. 

 I still can't believe all of my books fit on one bookshelf. Probably due to me getting a kindle and donating over half my books. I got distracted when unpacking because I had to glue all of my Harry Potter's back together. Pages were actually falling out of them from being read so much. 

 I hung up my curtain in the opening to close off the hallway to my bedroom and bathroom. I don't know why. I just did.

My living room is a hot mess still so that will have to come later. The main issue is that it would cost $300 to frame my poster of Beaver Stadium the way I want it. Which is ridiculous. So I have to figure that out still. 

Decorating for days!

Friday all of my belongings arrived right after work! It resulted in a lot of chaos and boxes...

The temptation to build a fort is very strong. But I am an adult now. 

I am slowly getting everything together. I have my bedroom all done already! So here is what I ended up with:

I brought a little bit of home and artiness into the room with my six favorite playbills framed with the sheet music from my favorite song of the show. It was really hard to just pick six because I have so many! 

The living room and dining room will take a bit longer as I need to find frames and some art for my dining room. It feels good to have at least one room in order for now! 

FIRST DAY OF WORK!

It was a lot of paperwork.

That's about it. 

Also, I already got free ice cream! Wahoo. Sorry, not much more interesting. The first day of my 45+ year career was very anti-climatic. 

Ticket Display Decorating

Praise all that is holy I have internet! 

An interesting theme it developing among everyone I meet. They all immediately assume that I am here to go to Cal State, that I am just entering college. So I look 18 still? Not sure if this is a compliment or insult. 

Also there are two things people in Bakersfield love talking about:

1. The weather. Everyone always bring up the heat, as it has yet to be under 100 degrees during the day while I have been here. They also mention how it cools off in the winter. Can you believe that last winter it was under 50 degrees for a whole week??? Freezing.
2. How everything worth doing it two hours away. The beach, skiing and snowboarding, the national parks, Los Angeles. I notice no one ever mentions fun stuff to do IN Bakersfield. But two hours away? The possibilities are endless.  

So today I got to spend 5 lovely hours waiting for my internet and cable to be set up, so I decided to use my time to decorate my empty white walls. 

I’ve keep a lot of my tickets through high school and college, and I wanted a cool way to display them. This is what I ended up with:

Yeah, its been done on pinterest before but I didn’t really care. Basically all I did was take a shadow box and put in pretty paper and filled it with my tickets, But I think it ends up looking pretty cool in my hallway! 

Not much else going on today. I’ve never seen Dead Poet’s Society before, and in honor of Robin Williams I am finally going to watch it tonight. 

Telling you of nonsense things,

Katie 

Remember my pretty hibiscus flower from yesterday? It's already dead.

Turns out "6 hours of sun" might not mean "6 hours of over 100 degree weather sun"

My aloe plant is fine though. 

Trying this Blogging Thing

So even though I tend to hate blogs, I decided I should start one up. I’m sure most blogs are perfectly fine, but the ones I have stubbled across in the past all seem to be about people trying stupid diets (looking at you Kale lover blog). But I am starting this blog up for three main reasons.

1. I just moved from New Jersey to California for my (hopefully) dream job working as product developer for Nestle Ice Cream.
2. My mom and my friend Allison told me it would be a good idea and I am succumbing to (very light) peer pressure.
3. I don’t currently have internet or much stuff in my apartment and I am bored. I wandered to my apartment complex’s business center to print stuff out and don’t feel like going back out in the 99 degree weather yet. 
4. My aunt often says my life is like a reality show for her and I want to make it a little easier for her to access. 

So, here we are. I am not yet sure what I’ll blog about. I should have started two weeks ago when this whole process started. But packing and moving was pretty standard. No fun stories, outside of the guys from Trenton that picked up my stuff to ship and hopefully didn’t just steal it. (I’ll keep you posted)

I’ll start in on how I’ve started off. First of all, I have yet to make a friend but its only been two days and I’ve spent most of it running around buying things and setting up my apartment with the minimal amount of stuff I have right now. I have furniture and all that but I am not going to post pictures of the set up until it’s done, which won’t be until my stuff arrives from New Jersey.

Today I decided that I really wanted to work on my balcony. I’ve never had a balcony (stupid meridian) but I have always wanted one. Our shore houses in Ocean City usually have them, and I love sitting out on a balcony reading or sipping on a beer on a summer night. 

I went out to Lowe’s this morning and was instantly overwhelmed. So. Many. Plants. Plants I wanted to plant on my new balcony. I could already imagine my inspirational garden that made it onto some list of Buzzfeed. Then I realized I didn’t want to spend $1000 on plants when I have been wasting enough money.

I settled on buying three things

1. Chairs that I can lounge on in the 105 degree sun and drink some nice cold beer while spying on my new neighbors. Much like my old meridian apartment I have a prime people-watching apartment.
2. A baby aloe plant. I already experienced my first Southern California sunburn and foresee me needing it a lot more often. Also, my friend Kim told me to grow succulents and thats the only succulent I know. 
3. A hibiscus plant. While sunflowers will always be my favorite flower, hibiscus comes in close second. 

Lowe’s didn’t have an basil plants which was a huge bummer. Anyone who has seen me cook knows of my basil obsession. And pesto. Love pesto. 

Here is the start of my balcony! Baby steps. 

Well, now I’m watching 500 Days of Summer for the hundredth time. Tomorrow will involve getting my internet (praise the netflix gods) and my California license, which I assume has palm trees on it or something.

Once I’m settled I am sure this blog will pick up. Read it or don’t, I don’t really care. Just staving off boredom and documenting my experience. 

Telling you of nonsense things,

Katie