17 days left...

...in 2009! Crazy! This year has gone so fast! With a little less than 3 weeks left in the year, I thought I'd do a review of my 2009 New Year's Resolutions and see how I ended up doing...

Resolution #1: Run the Salt Lake Half-Marathon in April. I'm also considering doing a triathlon in July...considering being the key word
Check! I did the SL Half and beat my last year's time! I also ended up doing the Wasatch Back and a couple of smaller races over the summer. I signed up for a triathlon but realized I'd probably drown and chickened out...perhaps next year?

Resolution #2: Be better at writing thank-you notes
Half check? I definitely wrote more thank you notes than I did previously...but there's still room for improvement...

Resolution #3: Keep my room clean
Um. Yes. My room was clean once in a while? Does that count? This will be a repeat resolution next year for sure.

Resolution #4: Cook more and eat out less
Half check? So when I was in Utah I did alright at cooking more but once I moved to NYC that all went down the drain. I think NYC is slowly sucking all of the domesticity out of me. Does making a bowl of cereal count as cooking? Sad and sad.

Resolution #5: Attend the temple at least twice a month
Half check? Again-when I was in UT I was pretty good at this. Not so much so being out here...

Resolution #6: Write in my journal at least once a week...I have about 15 journals in my room just waiting to be used
Check! I have actually been decent at writing in my journal. I've started writing on the computer because it's much faster. Of course anyone that reads my journal years down the road is going to think I'm completely ridiculous...but whatev.

Resolution #7: Be better at staying in touch with family and friends
Half check. I have kind of been better, but definitely could make more of an effort to stay in touch with my family out here in NYC...

Resolution #8: Exercise at least 4 times a week
Half check. Apparently not working or being in school did wonders for my resolution keeping. I was great at this over the summer and pretty decent during school at the beginning of the year. Again, not so much out here...

Resolution #9: Take advantage of all opportunities that come my way!
Check? I don't really know how to measure this or not. All in all, it's been a great year so far! So I'm going to call this resolution a success!

Overall I have 5.5 checks out of 9. Not too bad...time to start thinking about 2010 Resolutions!!

my new purchase

i may have purchased a pair of these over the weekend. and i LOVE them. i am trying to figure out how i survived winter without them! am i totally ridiculous??

The Garden State

so starting next week I will be working on a client out in New Jersey. now this is not New Jersey across the river New Jersey. this is big time, real New Jersey. like take the NJ transit more than an hour into NJ. honestly-i haven't heard wonderful things about NJ. most people say it and wrinkle their nose. since that is going to be my work home for about 3 months i decided to do a little NJ research via wikipedia...

A few fun facts about NJ:

• It's the most densely populated state in the US
• Jersey oak has been used extensively in ship building
• The median household income is the highest in the US but Newark is the 4th poorest city
• The drive-in movie, the ice cream cone, and the zipper all originated in NJ
• There are more diners in NJ than anywhere else in the world
• NJ state slogan: "come see for yourself"....why I think I will...thank you very much

I will be commuting approximately 2.5 hours each day, by train, to reach Piscataway New Jersey and I'm in search of some good train reading. now that I'm done with the CPA I can read an actual book without feeling guilty that I'm not studying Becker (and hopefully after scores are released I can keep that up and not have to study again...). any train reading suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Thankful

i know i'm a few days late but i'm still thankful for...

my family...my parents came into town this weekend and wow it was great to have them here! i am so grateful for their unending love and sacrifice for me. i can't wait to go back home for a couple weeks over the holidays. AND i get to talk to sister!! ah! these must be the longest 18 months of my life...

my friends...oh my goodness. my friends are seriously amazing. i am so grateful for their love and support. i don't know how i got so lucky to have such great people in my life!

my job...so far (and i know it's only been 3 months-3 slow months at that) i really like my job! i am so grateful to have such a great job right now. we'll see if i still feel that way after busy season...

my Savior Jesus Christ...i am thankful for His sacrifice for me. i am so grateful to have the knowledge of the gospel and for all of the blessings that it brings to my life.

i just love thanksgiving and the coming of the Christmas season!!!

A letter to Jamie

Dearest Jamie Cullum,

Please send Amazon UK more of your CDs so they can send mine out. I want it. Now.

Kind regards,

Erin

Thank you hunter wellies for making my day in the rain much more pleasant.

A change in career?

today i was a teacher. don't worry-i'm def not planning any career changes anytime soon. work has been pretty slow so caroline and i decided to volunteer to teach a junior achievement course at a public high school here in the city. today was our first class.

we're teaching at an "inner city" school (at least i think it's inner city...definitely more inner city than Skyline...) and i had visions of the type of inner city schools you see on tv-complete with gangs, drugs, and unruly scary teenagers. when we first got there we ended up trying to go through the student only entrance. it was complete with id card scanners, metal detectors, those people scanning rod things (have no idea what they're called) and x-ray machines to put your belongings through. it looked a lot like going through airport security. when we finally got to the correct entrance we had to go through the same process and check in. it was definitely different from my high school...

i have never taught anything. ever. not in church. not at school. so i was worried. luckily it turned out i was worrying about nothing (as is usually the case). today's lesson was on budgeting. junior achievement has a great lesson manual and actually has pretty much everything you need to talk about written out word for word. after going through the beginning part of the lesson, we decided it would be more fun to just go to the game part of the lesson. surprisingly the kids actually got into the game and really played it! i think the kids enjoyed a break from the normal school day and we had fun teaching!

can't wait to go back for round 2 in a couple of weeks!