Lately, life has been very busy! From Real Estate training in Tigard to working at the branch, it often feels like there's not a lot of time to unwind and do the things we want to do. Katie has also been very busy up to the last few days. Now that the thesis is behind her, she is taking a short, well-deserved break before beginning the full-time job hunt this coming week. I am so proud of her for earning her Master's Degree!
Since I've posted last, Katie and I celebrated our 3 years of togetherness. As mentioned in the last post, she surprised me with tickets to Yanni. It was a phenomenal concert and I feel so fortunate to have been able to see him perform live. His music seems to show up at just the right time (when life gets hard or stressful), which I find really helps me put things into perspective.
I edited it out of the audio clip, but Yanni likes to preface some of his songs with a little story. For the song below--One Man's Dream--he mentioned how it embodies his hope for humankind (and an end to global conflict).
I would buy tickets to his show in a second if he came to Portland again. Here's an audio clip from the show:
NOTE: The clip must be viewed on a computer with Flash enabled (no iPads, sorry dad.)
Despite our schedules, we did manage to take a trip to the Columbia River Gorge. We dined out a couple of times and took a strenuous hike up Wind Mountain. The views were well-worth the 1,500 foot climb in elevation!
After that hike, we went to Walking Man Brewery and got a sample platter. Maybe we've become snobs due to Portland's vast selection of excellent beers, but it seems like Washington doesn't know how to brew! They just didn't taste very good (except for a German Doppelbock, a delicious chocolatey-stout-like beer).
Work has been tough lately. Our new Market Manager has really stepped up his expectations for us to near-impossible levels. The entire Northwest market has hit a lull this month in sales, yet our sales goals have climbed about 15%. How does that work?
Although I am grateful to be working, the pressure to produce is higher than it needs to be for the position. I also found out my incentive bonus has been cancelled for the first semester (January through June 30) because I started one month into the first quarter. It is not going to be prorated as I was once told. This means anywhere from $2,600-$6,000 less take-home pay this year. Another deceptive thing that is really starting to get on my nerves is that I was told to "expect to work an occasional Saturday." Since I've started, I have had only 2 Saturdays off.
Oh well. That just means more opportunities are around the corner, right? I'm happy to say that I will be debt-free other than student loans by August which means I can then afford to take a risk and find a MUCH BETTER JOB!!!
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