Jobs and houses and moving, OH MY

Ok there is a lot going on in Kara’s World at the moment so I thought I would just put it all down here so everyone has access to the latest information (as of this minute, and things change minute to minute it seems so this will probably be outdated as soon as I post it).

First and most fun – I resigned on Tuesday! Woo hoo! I have been really unhappy in my job for a few months now. I’ve been wanting to resign for ages and I am thrilled that things have finally come together enough that it could happen. I will miss the people I sit with, as I’m around a fun bunch of people, many of whom are my age. But even having a laugh with people every day isn’t enough to keep a person satisfied in a bad job.

Second, the house – we had sold the house about a month ago and found out on Tuesday (about 20 minutes after I resigned) that the buyers have backed out. So it’s back on the market now. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights getting the house spic and span as the house wasn’t in tip top cleaning shape anymore having been off the market for so long. We’ve got a few viewings lined up and hopefully it will sell fast again (and stick!).

Third, the new job – I have been interviewing for consulting jobs at SAP and IBM. This has been going on for a few weeks. The whole time I have been wanting to go with IBM and SAP was my sort of fall back company. I’ve reached the end of the interviewing process with both companies and within the last few days SAP has started to win me over. Everything has been a struggle with IBM throughout the entire process. Every communication I’ve had from them has been initiated by me, and it’s not uncommon for them to not even respond to me. SAP has been very responsive and even proactive, and the topper was when I interviewed on Tuesday with the woman who would be my manager. I really liked her and felt like she would be a great person to work for, and she really made me feel SAP understands and appreciates the sacrifice consultants make by travelling all week and that they do their best to keep you as close to your base city as you can and on a Monday to Thursday schedule as much as possible. IBM’s message is more that they try to accommodate you but you need to be prepared for inconvenience. There’s no guarantee with either company that you will always be home by Thursday evening or not working weekends, but SAP made me feel like they really strive to prevent interruptions of personal time and IBM made me feel like I just need to be prepared for anything.. Anyway, SAP extended an offer to me yesterday! Woo hoo! I have not accepted yet because I’m waiting to get my offer from IBM. They annoyed me even further yesterday however when I was pushing them to finish up the process and they had another manager call me for some type of interview which seemed to have no purpose and was me answering questions I’ve already answered loads of times for them before. She made it quite clear that she used to be employed at SAP and I guess the purpose was for her to ‘subtly’ point out the advantages of IBM over SAP. She did this pretty clumsily, however, and it only served to reconfirm my apathy towards IBM. At this point my mind is pretty made up on SAP, but I am trying to wait to accept until I’ve seen IBM’s offer so I can make sure SAP’s was on target if nothing else. They are both really great companies in the end so I feel that I’ll win no matter which I choose.

So those are the three big things going on at the mo. There are lots of other things happening in the background, like deciding what we’re taking with us and what needs to be left behind, how to get rid of the things we can’t take, apartment searching for when I get to Indy, thinking about what car to get and how to get around before I’ve bought one, and of course organizing the cats’ travel.

Orlando theme parks and Tampa

After the wedding festivities in Sanibel, John and I made the long drive back up to Orlando to see my aunt and uncle. It was a nice drive through the highways which took us through citrus country. We saw signs for bear crossings which I thought was really strange. Isn’t Florida too hot for bears? And flat? There must have been a zoo nearby with rubber bars in the bear holding or something. Oh and as a side note, I picked up Reena from the Ft Myers airport before the wedding and along the road to the airport there were loads of panther crossing signs. Panthers! Florida is cool. My cat Jude is big and black and we call him our little panther, so the signs made me miss my Jude.

So anyway, we got to my aunt’s about 100 hours later. My cousin Marliz and her two kids came over and we all caught up. My aunt has the cutest house out in the country with a pasture for a horse that I hope she gets in the future. They took us out on their friend’s boat for a while. We went in a lake called Gator Lake, but we didn’t see any gators. We also went four wheeling around their property, and John managed to not crash into anything, ha ha!

Monday we went to Sea World, which we both just loved. We got to feed the sting rays. It felt like a really soft vacuum taking the little fish from me, but in a kind of weird way. They were sweet though. But the birds that were around were really aggressive and they flew over and tried to take the fish from our hands! Little buggers. And we got to pet dolphins which was amazing. We stood next to one of the zoo keepers and we got to pet them loads. They recognize the zoo keepers because of their bright uniforms and such, so they come right up to where they stand.

We saw the Shamu show (which John calls Shuhmu for some reason. He claimed that’s how British people say it but all our British friends have been laughing at him when he says it since we’ve been back), which was really good but so cheesy. I have seen it before and don’t remember it being so cheesy so either you don’t notice those thing when you’re a kid or it’s gotten that way since I was last there. And we saw a whale and dolphin show which was funny because the whales decided they didn’t want to go back in their play area when their bit was over so they ruined the whole show because they couldn’t get them out of the performing area!

There was also this really cute pet show where they had trained dogs, birds, a pig, a skunk, a mouse, and – wait for it – cats to do this whole little show. Yes, that’s right, someone has figured out how to train a cat. I didn’t even realize this was possible, and if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I would not believe it myself.

And of course we saw the sea lion and otter show which is the same as when I last saw it but very cute and funny. And the mime at the beginning was fun too.

We stayed in a Disney resort Monday to Thursday. It was nice and had a boat on a canal that you could take to get to downtown Disney, and also horse drawn carriages going through the resort in the evening.

Tuesday was the only day it rained. We went to Universal Studios, which was a good place to go when it rains because most of it is indoors. It was good but ended up being our least favourite of the parks (even though we did like it). I prefer actual rides to simulations, and U.S. was mostly one simulation after another.

Wednesday we went to the water park Blizzard Beach, which was fun. They had a waterslide that was really tall and very steep (like the steepest in America or something like that). We went down that but it was kind of scary, gave me a huge wedgie, and was over really, really fast. Plus you had to walk for miles or take a chair lift to get to it. So I decided I didn’t like it enough to do twice. But the whole park was really fun and we had great weather. We also laid around by the wave pool for a while in the sun, rested, and read our books. In the evening we played mini golf at a Disney course. It was a really cool winter/Christmas-themed course. And I won, might I add.

Thursday was our last day in Orlando and we went to Island of Adventure. That was cool because it had roller coasters and other thrill rides. I went in my first ride that shots you straight up in the air and back down again. It’s like the Tower of Terror thing but I don’t know what it was called. And we went on the Hulk roller coaster which I think is new. It was pretty fun, lots of loops and such.

Thursday night we drove to Tampa and met Faith and Steph, Gordon, and their baby Jaden for dinner. It was the first time I’d met Jaden. He was so cute and good! It was great to catch up with all of them, and Steph and Gordon seem so happy with their new addition.

We stayed with Faith and Jeremy for the rest of our trip. Friday John and I went to Busch Gardens. Faith is 4 months pregnant and rides and pregnancy don’t mix, so they went to work instead (suckas!). That was John’s favourite of all the parks, and my second favourite to Sea World. It was as nice or classy as the Disney or Universal parks, as far as upkeep or the people who were there, but there were so many rides compared to the other parks. They had lots and lots of roller coasters, including a very extreme roller coaster called Sheikra (which John kept calling Shakira) which has two 90 degree drops. That’s straight down, folks! And when you’re at the top you’d think they’d be kind and get it over with as soon as possible, but instead they mind hump you (let’s keep it clean, shall we?) and leave you hanging on the edge for a good five seconds (hours) before you drop down. So other than all the roller coasters Busch Gardens also has lots of animals. There’s a safari ride where a guy actually drives you around the African animals in a little 4x4 vehicle, and this bridge breaks while you’re on it and takes you down this river and all this stuff. It was great. In the evening the four of us went and got some surf (for me) and turf to throw on the barbie.

Saturday (I’m almost done now, hang in there!) we all went to Anna Maria island. We had lunch at a great restaurant on the beach. We’d hoped we’d see some dolphins but we watched all day and they never came by. However, Faith saw online the next day that there had been a shark close to shore the next town over! That night we went to a sushi restaurant and John and I shared this huge boat of sushi and sashimi. Neither of us eats sushi very regularly so we’re hardly connoisseurs, but our taste buds told us it was delicious!

Sunday it was time to go home. We laid around Faith’s pool for a little while before we had to pack up and drive the couple of hours to the Orlando airport. We had a good flight back and arrived in rainy and cold England on time. It’s been raining almost continuously since. Good for the grass, bad for my psyche!

CLICK THE DOLPHIN TO SEE ALL THE PICS

Emily's wedding

Emily’s wedding was so beautiful. It was a whole weekend event that started from as soon as we arrived until we left Sanibel Island.

We got in on Thursday night. We had to drive over three hours from the Orlando airport to Sanibel Island. John and I were tired (jet lag) and starving when we finally got to the hotel, and it was too late for the hotel to serve food. So we went to the first restaurant we came across and quickly ordered food. After a few minutes one of my best friends from high school, Jennifer, walked in with her boyfriend! It was completely unexpected as she does not know Emily so wasn’t there for the wedding, and we had emailed a couple of weeks ago and it hadn’t come up that either of us were going to be in Sanibel.

We had a great time catching up, and the next morning she brought her son around to our hotel so I could see him again. He’s so cute and is getting so big so fast! He’s already 4, I don’t know where the time goes.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner. It was so fun. They had lots of pictures posted around of the both of them growing up, and I was pleased to have made a few of the pics. ;-) Always the ham. There were a couple of hours of cocktails and mingling before dinner, then a three course meal with a couple of hours of open-mike speeches, followed by more cocktails and mingling. There was lots of alcohol flowing for a long time, so I’m surprised that people didn’t seem too hungover the next day for the wedding. The drinking did lead to some tomatoes being thrown at us by Emily’s cousins at the next table over. I know what you’re thinking – she must have some young cousins! But alas, they are adults who were older than us and one of them is a mother of three. They were also bridesmaids so Reena and I nearly had to counter-attack which could have resulted in a salad war, but I think the speeches started and ground the battle to a halt.

Saturday (wedding day) started with a bridal brunch for the special women in Emily’s life. There were about 40 people there for a lovely brunch with more touching speeches. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house for a lot of the speeches, in particular Emily’s mom’s.

After brunch there was time to lay out for a while, and as the sun was shining and hot Reena and I joined John at the pool for a couple of hours. The wedding started in the early evening with the ceremony on the beach. It was absolutely gorgeous. The ceremony was short and sweet, which was good because it was kind of hot standing in the sun and we bridesmaids were facing the sun so were a bit blinded. But even though it was a short ceremony, there was still time for a fat, hairy guy in a speedo to walk along the beach and slow down and stare at the wedding as he was passing by behind the officiant. He was right in the eye line of all 150 or so guests as he passed, which provided everyone with a little giggle (on the inside). Emily and Carter didn’t even notice and didn’t believe us when we told them afterwards.

After the ceremony there was an open bar and appetizers on the beach for an hour or 2 before the reception started. The reception was a lot of fun with loads of dancing. We IU grads even sang the IU fight song at one point.

Sunday morning her parents hosted a Mother’s Day brunch. All the mothers got a little gift. I’m not sure what it was but man is this not the nicest wedding weekend you’ve even heard of??! After brunch it was time for John and I to head up to the Orlando area to visit my aunt and uncle.

CLICK THE PICTURE OF THE BRIDAL PARTY TO SEE ALL THE PICTURES OF THE WEDDING AND REHEARSAL DINNER

Abbey

I have just come back from Florida for Emily's wedding and our holiday, so I have lots to write about. I also have lots going on in preparation for the Big Move that I will share. This stuff will take me a while so until I have made a proper entry giving a complete update, here are some really cute pictures of Abbey.

May Day bank holiday weekend

I’m a bit behind so I’m going to try to cram the last couple of weekends in one entry if I have time. But first! Today is my and John’s two year anniversary! It seems like no very long ago at all that we had the wedding.

Ok so a catch up on what I have been up to. The weekend before last – that would be 29/30 April, John and I went to Jon and Marianne’s on Saturday and stayed until Sunday morning. It was great to see them and catch up. Marianne only has a few weeks left in her pregnancy! It’s so great to see her with her bump. We got to see the nursery and all the baby furniture. They’ve done a great job with the decorating.

We went into town for some lunch at Wagamama, yummy. It was a really pretty day so afterwards we went to a little park area with a lake and walked around for a while. Then we sent the boys out to get some snacks while we caught up a bit (chalk one up for pregnancy!) We watched a movie in the evening (I think it was called Red Eye. It was not good).

The next morning Jon made us a nice sausage baps breakfast and we headed off for John’s mom’s house. From there we had a pub lunch to celebrate John’s birthday, although neither of us were very hungry because of the large breakfast. We didn’t stay long as we wanted to get home and veg out. We had borrowed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from Jon and Marianne and watched that in the evening. Is it just me (and Caroline, since I know she shares this view) or is Johnny Depp one of the most talented actors of our time? He does weirdo ever so well. I’ve never found him attractive, but I’ve decided I really, really like his movies.

So it was a public holiday on Monday and John and I were off work of course. We spent the morning getting all our stuff together for a car boot sale (like a garage sale in America). It seemed to take forever but we did round lots of stuff up. In the afternoon we went into town to pick a few things up and have some lunch. And we did some other odds and ends, the details of which escape me now but I do remember that it seemed like a very long day of doing lots of things.

Now I’ve decided that I will do last weekend’s summary in a different post. It’s the end of the workday and I might not be able to finish it today. Byyye!

Picture update!

Just wanted to alert you to the fact that I have finally added pictures to the blogs about my Indy trip, Emily's bachelorette party, Easter weekend, and the barge trip. I'm still behind so expect some more updates soon!