Caroland: March 2015

The accompanying Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Quarterly Report reflects all relevant updates which are, in the opinion of management, necessary for a fair statement of the results of operations for the interim period. The interim information and notes thereto should be read in conjunction with my latest Annual Report on Form 10-K. The results of operations for the three months ending March 31, 2015 are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected for the entire year.

Just kidding. I won't make you read my life in terms of a SEC filing, although I can't guarantee it will be any more entertaining. You might want to go make a snack before you start reading. So...what has Carolyn been up to? Well...let's see.
In January I replaced my sump pump. I woke up at 3 in the morning on a Friday to the the gentle whir of what sounded like a dying engine. Sometimes my furnace makes a whirring noise for a few seconds before the heater comes on, so I thought that's all it was. But it kept going and going. And going. For half an hour. Finally, through my half-wakefulness, I decided this was probably something that required my attention. I followed the sound to my sump pit, took off the lid, and found my tank completely full to the brim. So I got out of my wet vac and took care of the immediate issue with just a few full vacuum dumps to the toilet. Then I tried to go back to sleep, but instead spent the next couple of hours wondering how to fix the real problem. Who do you even call to replace a sump pump? I knew my parents had a spare sump pump in case I needed it, but I had examined mine, and knew I'd spend at least an entire Saturday trying to get the old one out and new one in and then there was no guarantee I'd do it right and I'd be worried for the next few years every time I heard it come on, wondering if it was attached right or if water was leaking into my walls somewhere. By the time it was actually time to wake up, I'd come to the conclusion that a plumber is the most likely person to call in this situation, so before work, I called a few plumbers and made the first appointment I could, for the next morning. The next day, a plumber came, checked it out, agreed with me that my pump was dead, went to his parts store, came back with a new pump, and had it sitting pretty in 20 minutes. It wasn't cheap, but at least I don't have to worry about it. And I think with the winter we've had, that pump has come on about four times. But at least it's there.
Interesting bit about the timing of that dead pump. I had a job interview that morning and needed a reason to be late for work. I don't feel good about claiming doctor's appointments or dead cars or whatever when they aren't real, so I'd been praying all week that I'd have a reason to be late. By Thursday night, I still hadn't come up with a reason. I hadn't told anybody that I was going to come in late; I was just planning on showing up about an hour late and hope it worked out. (I've never been more than about 5 minutes late, so I didn't know how it was just going to 'work out'. The sump pump was perfect. It was early enough in the morning that I wasn't late for my interview (though it was pretty close), but a big enough deal that I could use it as an excuse. Certainly, waking up at 3 in the morning and being stressed the rest of the morning isn't ideal for a job interview, but I'll take it.
The job interview: Doesn't matter what it was. I met Greg Miller (the CEO of the Larry H Miller group). We chatted very briefly as I was waiting to go into the interview. I wasn't sure I wanted the job anyway. The entire finance department would have been the finance manager and me. One of the things I don't like about my current job is because we have a small finance department, it's hard to get time off. So that wouldn't have helped. I was really just in it for the perks. I think the reason I didn't get it was because the manager asked me about my preference on a certain accounting style. It turns out the way my company does it is exactly the opposite of what his company does. He told me flat out that was the wrong answer in their company. Great. It's the right answer in mine, so there.
In February, I made a whirlwind trip to Seattle to prove to anybody who cares that I know nothing about market research. I'd been in communications with a certain company for a couple months about a job that seemed interesting because, if for no other reason, it wasn't finance. I was just surprised they gave me a phone interview in the first place. And I bombed the phone interview. It was half an hour of the guy asking me questions about how I would test a market for various conditions. I did my best, and then he would give me the answer and I would agree with him. I thought I did a pretty good job on the phone of letting him know I didn't know what I was talking about. So I was shocked to get an email later that day saying they wanted to fly me out for an interview. It was a few weeks before we could schedule the interview, and by then I wasn't feeling so great about this job. I don't know what it was. When I went to Seattle last year, I loved it and wanted to move there immediately. This time, it just didn't feel right. By the time I got to the interview, I kind of didn't care how it went. It was just a nice day off work. But I still tried. Basically it was five hours of people asking me questions that I had no idea how to answer. Most of the questions ended with the interviewer saying, "that's okay, we can move on." At one point, one of the guys asked me a math question. He wanted me to tell him the formula I would use to solve it, and then solve it. I sat there sputtering for about 10 minutes, and finally he put me out of my misery with the obligatory "that's okay, we can move on." I can only describe it as a stupor of thought. The next morning, after not having thought about that question at all, I came up with the formula and the answer easily. It was a really easy question. I was just having a stupid day. Needless to say, I haven't heard back on that job. The best part about that little trip was the flight home. The plane was almost empty! By the time we started boarding, there were maybe 20 people at the gate. We all got our own rows, the flight attendants were in good moods and gave us extra snacks and free headphones, even my luggage got an overhead compartment all to itself. It was magical. I didn't think airlines still flew flights like that.
In March, since I don't seem to be getting away from my job by getting a new one, I decided to go the other route and try the midsingles ward again. I've never really liked the midsingles ward. I so much prefer going to church with my neighbors, walking there in 3 minutes rather than a 40 minute drive, not having to care if my hair isn't perfect, having demographic variety in the ward, etc. But there has never been a single guy in my ward, so I thought I'd better branch out. I woke up early (the ward meets at 9), and drove downtown (oh, did I mention that the midsingles ward for the SOUTH valley area meets at the U?! Yes, the very north-eastern corner of the valley. That's handy). I made the trek downtown, and when I got there, it turns out you have to have a parking permit to park at church. Even on Sundays. I thought about parking anyway, but I looked around and all the other cars had permits. So I looked for street parking. The three street spaces I found were taken. So I turned around and went home. I don't feel like it was a huge loss, because in my experience with that ward (I used to go every now and then when they met in Midvale), there were more than 1000 people and it was nearly impossible to meet anyone. When I got home I went online and yes, indeed, you have to have a permit, and the only way to get it is to be registered in an institute class at the U. So instead I found the facebook pages to the local midsingles wards and maybe I'll try to step up my efforts at going to activities. Hopefully it's not just the weirdos who go to activities.

Last week I started my garden. So far it's gone from this: