Seeing as I do not work today until 4, I have little money to spend, and all my friends and roommates are at work, I figured I would take my ol' lap top out to our back yard, enjoy the sunshine, and write another blog for you interested in my doings.
One week has gone by since my last post, so not too much has happened. I'm living back in my apartment this week, the house I usually am at is currently occupied by its owners. Come Sunday evening though I'll head back over for another two weeks or so. It's nice to be a part of the community here at home. One of my house mates was sitting next to me on the couch while we were playing video games for what seemed to be the eighth hour in a row, only really like four so it's not like we are addicted or anything, anyways, he turns to me and goes... so do you even live here or what?? Because I'm pretty sure you hauled ALL your things into that apartment and then just never came back. I get to hang out with 2/3 house mates a lot simply because we work together, but Brenton doesn't work with us, so it's cool to beat him at video games and just hang out. We've also decided to have a "family" dinner one night a week where all 4 of us are home and we'll all cook and eat and discuss our lives and make sure everyone is happy and healthy. It's nice having a lot of close friends near by, you never know when you're going to need one!!! 
I gave my notice at Cookies, my second job, yesterday. My last day will be July 17th. I intend to take one or two classes this fall and working six days a week and going to school didn't seem like a very viable option for me. So I am going to find a different second job either really early in the morning or late at night and work two sixteen hour days a week, work one job and then go to the next. Then I'll have two days off once again. I'll try to work school so it will be Tuesday and Thursday and have those be my two days off, then I can better my education and self while still being able to afford life... which is a good things to be able to afford. It'll be sad to not have to organize those wonderful cookie cutters for eight hours every Thursday, but I think I'll pull through. :)
Summer is actually here, which is nice. We never really had a spring here, just rain rain rain and then HELLO 80 degree weather. I enjoy the sun, and it's crazy how everyone here just floods outside to soak in all the sun shine before it disappears once again behind clouds for a month or two. Work gets really hot though when it's 75 or higher outside. We're all sweating running up and down the stairs getting shoes for people, I like to camp in front of the fan, at least until people get mad that I'm crowding it and they can't feel the breeze. Oh well, it's fun. We're all dripping and gross and running around like crazy selling shoes. I love my job!
I'm trying to think of a fun story to pass along to you all, but I can not think of one. The guys all like playing X-box 360 with me around, if they get to a Boss and cannot beat it they just pass the control over to me and 80% of the time I beat it on the first try. They've started bragging about me to other friends who filter through our apartment. It's nice being a girl and still well learned in the ways of the video game. I'm still undefeated champion of Guitar Hero. We played a tournament for almost 5 hours the other day and I was invincible. What can I say, having no life and a love for video games comes in handy when you have two game crazy guys living next door.
That's about all my excitement for now. I'm going to my camera shop to inquire about an old looking camera they recently placed in the window before work, maybe I will come home with a new addition to my camera collection. I'll keep you all posted, I'm sure you're at the edge of your seats on that one!! I also put in a few of my pictures throughout the blog just so you can see what I'm calling my art these days. I miss you all terribly.
Love, Jen
Yay! An update all about me! Enjoy!
Hey everyone! So, as the Taylor's know I send out random e-mail updates to them when I'm bored or if something splendid has happened. Well, I decided to make a blog out of it and extend it to all of you so you can just look and see what I've been up to when you have a "thinking of Jen" moment. And besides all the cool kids a blogging right? So I must as well!! I decided to call it my tale because we all know I love to write, so I get a little side tracked some times and things end up being more of a tale than just a fact by fact description. Let us define tale: a narrative that relates the details of some real or imaginary event, incident, or case; a story. See? That's what my life is!!! A tale. I love it! Most updates I get are from wonderful missionaries of mine from around the world, compared to their strength and wonderful experiences my blog will be pretty bland, but it's my life... which adds some spice... right? RIGHT?! I think so, although I will be honest, I am bias. And long winded, so buckle up kids, this is gonna be a long update, just be glad there's spell check and accept my run-on sentence tendencies early on, the letter will be much easier to stomach that way.
Exciting News:
I really don't have any. Tomorrow is payday at Market Street Shoes, I hear the excitement being passed from reader to reader at this point. There is speculation, all the way from here I can smell the thoughts: "Will she save the money?" "Does she pay the rent?" "Is there enough for groceries?!" "Maybe we should send her peanut butter, I know she loves her peanut butter!" "Some great CDs just came out, I hope she buys them instead of pirating like all her friends" "She should just go buy some cute dresses!" ... ... ... OK a couple of those were just my thoughts, but I would like to go ahead a squash a few rumors I fear may start from these thoughts you are having! I am in fact paying the rent, saving, possibly grocery shopping, definitely going out and buying my CD's I don't pirate, and possibly even a dress. I have a lot of peanut butter, my birthday was good to me this year in the peanut butter department. I splurged on jam too last pay check, we have 4 different kinds of jam in our apartment, variety!! Now, I may not have anything to spread the jam on currently, but when a lone cracker or maybe even two wonder my way I'm quick on that kill. Nah, life's ok financially right now, so none of you worry now ya hear!?! Market Street Shoes pays my bills, and leaves me something for groceries and gas. Cookies pays for my dress habits, and my house sitting gig takes care of my savings. See!? Bases covered. As for why this goes under my exciting news heading, well, tomorrow I go to pick up 7 rolls of film I had developed, which includes all of my Utah snaps, and my first go at taking skate boarding photos, I will then drop off 2 more rolls of random down town shots while walking from my nose bleed parking to the Japanese Restaraunt of all our dreams (Umi). I will then go to Sonic Boom, our local independent record shop (here in Seattle we're all about the independent, dunno how it happened, just did!) I will then purchase 1. Cold Play's Viva la Vida; 2. Death Cab For Cutie's Narrow Stairs 3. The Ting Ting's We Started Nothing and 4. FloBots' Fight with Tools. I will then have spent all the money I can spend, and will become a squatter in my house sitting home until I get paid again! I love it. This is the extent of my exciting news. I will be scanning all my photos from now on, just an FYI. It may only be once a month or so, the only scanner I have access to is Ram and Beth's and it's hard to get down there oh so often now a days. But I will put all my photos online so you can see them. A lot of my friends have been pestering me to make them more readily available, so I'll give it a shot!
Random News:
Today is day 19 of my "only wear dresses for all of June" quest. It's going well. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be, and don't ask me why I am doing it, because honestly I have no idea. I've started doubling dresses now, so things are less exciting as the ooh's and aah's of coworkers has died down. Tomorrow I will wear a new dress, so hopefully it'll be welcomed with some enthusiasm. I work 3 doors down from an independent dress shop (here we go with the independent again! Sheesh!) Tess, the owner, know my love for dresses, when she sees me walk by some days she'll call me in to show me new and exciting things. Problem is all her dresses are hand made by local designers, one of a kind, huge splurge types. So I can only afford to go in there once every 3 months or so. I only have 12 days left! Woot. That is all for this category.
Everyday Life:
So, for those of you who have not been to Seattle, or even those of you who have been and not just stopped somewhere on a sidewalk and watched the people walk past for at least 3 minutes, Seattle is a very unique place. Everyone here is an individual, and we all accept each individual as who they are. In Seattle, if you make eye contact with someone you say hey, hi, hello, what's up, how's it goin, or just pe
ace to them. If you don't this doesn't mean they won't say it to you, be prepared for a complete stranger to greet you, greet them back, always, other wise you'll miss out on smiling at a stranger, and that brings you happiness for the whole rest of the day. There are a lot of panhandlers/ homeless in Seattle. Some a kinda crazy, and you always have to be leery of this. If they're mumbling to themselves, they're probably ok, but if you hear a full on conversation try to not attract attention to yourself. By walking by, near, or around a homeless person or begger you are offering yourself up for conversation with them. Just remember, they've been through things you'll never dream of, and although it may sound crazy and a little weird, you listen you smile, agree, tell them to have a beautiful day, and carry on. If you do listen and not just glaze over your face and think, "ahh, this is a crazy person, gotta get away!" you may actually learn something about the world. I've had very random pieces of advice given to me by beggars, here are a few:
"Marry someone intelligent, and always be fruga
l, if all else fails you will still be happy. Remember those two things! Promise me!"
"Love is a good thing to keep close, regret nothing"
"You look like goldie hawn"
"Cinderella shoes and green skirts make me happy, girl you've made me happy, go home happy yourself"
Well, that's all I have for now, I've enclosed a few photos I snapped on the go of some of these beggars, they don't mind if you ask for a photo, they get grumpy if you just snag one with out permission.
There's a strange phenomena here that I'm trying to grasp myself. When the weather starts to get warm, we have "Ave Rats" come. They're kids, usually teens to mid-twenties, that migrate with the weather from the south all the way up here and even to Canada some times. They are technically homeless, all they own is carried on their backs. They don't look too grungie, they keep pretty clean finding friends on the street who will let them crash at their house for a couple nights. They usually have instruments and dogs with them, I've heard many a banjo diddy played by one such drifter. These kids have decided to not let society dictate how they will live, so they live as they please. Coming and going from here and there, making friends and family as they go. They're polite and understanding. They never beg, but they're open for help, they're courteous and never loud and obnoxious. Pretty much they're hippies, just a few generations younger, and less bell-bottoms.
The other odd thing I've noticed lately in Seattle are "Utili-kilts". These looks like kilts, smell like kilts, are wor
n as kilts, only made to be more functional than kilts. They're made out of the same material are carahardts and have pockets a lot like a pair of painter's pants. Construction boots are often worn with these, coupled with a pair of pasty man legs, it's hard not to profess undying love for the men who choose to sport these skirts in everyday situations. I saw such a utili-kilt today while working at 
cookies, I had no camera with me sadly, you have to see this one to believe it.
This is my apartment... I wanted you to see where I live! It's small, a one bedroom that we've made into a two, but it's fun. Our kitchen, notice no stove, oven, or microwave. Fortunately we're best of friends with our house mates and next door neighbors Charlie and Brenton, they let us use their kitchen when we need it. Autumn's my roommate. Her room is sectioned off of the living room by sheets, we're looking to upgrade to drapes next chance we get to go down to IKEA. Our living room.... just big enough for the wonderful couch my Mom donated to the "Jen and Autumn need a place to sit while lounging at ho
me" fund. Then my room!!! It's still a work in progress, slowly but surely.
Work(s):
Market Street Shoes
My first job and true love in the money making department. Full time here, shoe sales clerk extraordinar primarily buyer on the side. I love helping people find shoes for they're out fits. I love helping awkward guys who hate shopping s
o much they're keens are held together with twine and they wait for you to come over and ask if they need help instead of bringing the shoe to you. I love coloring at our coloring station with the few fun kids who come in. We dance to our crazy music that our boss dictate we must play. I'm best of friends with all my coworkers, and we often get in trouble because we act more like a family than a group of coworkers. We know the ins and outs of everyones lives, we stick up for each other, we care about each other, we all love each other! My boss' Lanne and Ryan are the best I could ever ask for. Despite some craziness in Lanne every now and again she and Ryan are the greatest. They're husband and wife, and have 3 kids, and one dog of their own. They're so much parents to all of us who are in Seattle trying to make it on our own. I accidentally spend grocery money on a pair of really expensive s
hoes a few months back, I was determined to live off Ramen for 2 weeks, Lanne heard of it and took me out to lunch that very day, "you must have your protein!" is one of her favorite mothering sayings. She and Ryan then invited me to their family dinner any night at 5 when I knew I wouldn't have anything else to eat. Things weren't that dire in the end, it was Autumn's turn to buy our groceries. Whew. She always has headache medicine, heartache advice, and a mothering warning to any of our crazy antics she hears about. We tend to chat a lot at work, which is a no no. So they continuously move around who works with who. We work with someone different for a couple weeks, but then those 2 people end up getting chummy so they just talk more than the 2 people who used to work together, so they move our shifts around again, and come 2 weeks we're too close to be working with that person. So now we just have to stay at separate sides of the sales floor, I find this funny b
ecause now instead of just chatting we talk across the store, so all the customers browsing are experiencing our stories as well. They fell included, so I don't think they really mind anyways. Plus I get some funny comments from customers who happen in on crazy conversations. There are 8 of us who work there, and we're all tight with each other. Autumn, Charlie, and I all live in the same house, and then Elise only 2 blocks away, so we end up spending most days and evenings hanging out. We're more like a family I tell ya! Well, that's my first job.
Cookies
I work at this little shop cookies one day a week. I work for Caryn (car-in). She's super nice. She works 6 days a week, is the chairman of her home owners association and trying to turn their condo roofs into solar pannels, and recently got elected onto the city somethin or other, she's one busy lady, but she loves doing all of it, so she's pleasant to be around. The only times you have to look out is when he computer goes caput and halts all work for that day. Dang it microsoft! Just build us a computer that works would ya?!?! Anyways. At cookies I weight out baggies of sprinkles, 1 oz, 2 oz, or 3 oz depending on what we're dealing with. I price things, print out barcodes and what not, and I pull out boxes of cookie cutters and restock our peg board walls that are covered in every cutter imaginable. Now I know what you're thinking, lightning bolt cookie cutters!?!?! No, I was like you, I initially thought of that cutter when I walked into the store, they are sold out! Can you believe it! The manufacturer has been sold out now for almost a year! Sheesh. How rude is that. It's enough to make me want to give up on the industry all together. Anyways. It's kind of dull work, but for one day a week it gets me what I need! Plus it's 2 doors down from Market Street Shoes, so I just go take my breaks over there anyways. It's just like any other day aworkin for me!
House Sitting
I'm going on 3 months of house sitting now! I live at my boss Mark's house while he's away in Arizona adopting 3 little girls that need a family. Things aren't going so well for them, so I just keep on a living up here! It gets kinda lonely. I go from really close quarters with all my friends to all alone in this huge house! I have Kerouac, the kitty, and Paco, the doggie, for company. But sometimes they just drive me insane. Paco recently lost hist life long doggie companion Chi Chi, so he has panic and anxiety attacks. He doesn't know how to calm down so you just have to hug him while he whines and shakes and cowers. I know he appreciates it. He always is touching me when I'm home, and we sleep side by side. He wakes me up 3 times a night to let him out to use the restroom though, which is getting old. It's a new habit, one I hope we can get rid of soon enough. Kerouac gets me up at 4 am to feed her, and then Paco wakes me up one last time around 7 or 8 if I'm lucky to take him on a walk. It's major house sitting, but I don't mind. They have cable! : P.
OK kids. I've written now for an hour, and I can imagine only a few of you have actually made it all the way through this crazy rambling. All in all things are going well for me. Church is going good!! I don't have a lot to report. Same old. I have a couple friends, nothing too exciting. No men, so don't get your hopes up too high. Tomorrow is only day 2 out of a six day working streak, so I need my sleep! Thanks for reading, check in every week, maybe two and I'll have up a new post. They'll go up on Friday's for the most part... hopefully I can get those pictures tomorrow so I can get this out. I miss all of you terribly. I hope you're well where you are at and in all that you're doing. I shall leave you with a quote,
"The soul never thinks with out a picture" -- Unknown.
Love, Jen
