Done #9: Have my first post-graduate, degree required, job

Well it is now official: I have a job!

After 7 years of school (8 years if you count my year off, 20 if you count since kindergarden) and 3.5 months of looking I have finally entered the working world.  For me this is pretty exciting, and such a big step.  To finally leave the world of academia and be thrust into the career world, it is such a different world, but I was so ready for it.

With work comes a consistent schedule.  No more studying at night or on weekends.  I now feel like my life has such a good balance, which is so refreshing!

But enough ramblings, more about the job:

I am working for Travelers Insurance in the California Sports Workers Compensation Division.  Here I will not only become trained as an insurance adjuster in both CA and TX, but I will get the opportunity to negotiate settlements for our claims.  This is the main reason I wanted this job; it has my favorite part of lawyering (negotiation) with 9-5 hours.  It also has a lot of upward mobility potential (which for someone who wants to be a career woman, is really important).  They offered me an awesome salary + a great benefits package (why hello 20 days paid vacation, where have you been all my life?!?).  All of this added up to perfect job for me.  Challenging + work-life balance = exactly what I was looking for.

It may not be the traditional lawyer job, but I think it is just what I wanted.

I am currently three weeks in and it seems like it is going to be awesome.  Plus Chris and I are thoroughly enjoying everything that comes along with our newfound DINK (double income no kids) status.  We eat out, we plan fun vacations, and we have time to actually hang out with one another!  It turns out living on one salary for almost four years makes having that second salary so much sweeter.

So #9 done.  I have my first post-graduate, degree required, big-girl job.  Yay!

Book #6

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller:

Stepping away from my typical young adult fiction I decided to read this non-fiction religious book.  This book was sitting on our bookshelf (Chris got it during his year in Oakland) and I heard there was a movie coming out.  I always like to read books before I see the movie, so I grabbed it off of the shelf.  I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  Well, at least the first twelve chapters.  After that it got a bit redundant and I got bored.  

The book basically tells the author's spiritual story.  The subtitle of the book is: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality.  I think that sums it up pretty nicely.  The author is a pretty liberal christian and it was so refreshing to read his thoughts.  As a person who grew up in a pretty fundamental religious church I had always struggled with how my religious beliefs and political beliefs didn't seem to line up.  Reading this book helped me realize that I wasn't alone in my thinking, and gave me some newfound enthusiasm for my faith because it helped me realize that what I believe (both politically and spiritually) do line up.  It can all work together.  

It's hard to explain how this book made me feel, but maybe some quotes will help sum it up.  The book was a wealth of awesome quotes, here are just a few of my favorites:

" The thing I loved about Nadine was that I never felt like she was selling anything.  She would talk about God as if she knew Him, as if she talked to Him on the phone that day.  She was never ashamed, which is the thing with some Christians I had encountered.  They felt like they had to sell God, as if He were soap or a vacuum cleaner, and it's like they really weren't listening to me; they didn't care, they just wanted me to buy their product." page 46

"Here are the things I didn't like about the churches I went to. . . . (second): They seemed to be parrots for the Republican Party.  Do we really have to tow the party line on every single issue? Are the Republicans that perfect? I felt like, in order to be a part of the family, I had to think George W. Bush was Jesus.  And I didn't.  I didn't think that Jesus really agreed with a lot of the politics of the Republican party or for that matter the Democratic Party.  I felt like Jesus was a religious figure, not a political figure. . . . They left us thinking that our war was against liberals and homosexuals.  Their teachings would have me believe I was the good person in the world and the liberals were the bad people in the world. . . . The truth is we are supposed to love the hippies, the liberals, and even the Democrats, and that God wants us to think of them as more important than ourselves." page 131-32

"I had to tell my head to tell my heart to love the people at the churches I used to go to, the people who were different than me.  This was entirely freeing because when I told my heart to do this, my heart did it, and now I think very fondly of those wacko Republican fundamentalists,  . . . and I know that we will eat together, we will break bread together in heaven, and we will love each other so purely that it will hurt because we are family in Christ."  page 137-38

I can't really put into words how excellent this book was (until the boring end).  Whether you are a liberal or conservative christian, or someone who has other spiritual beliefs, this book is an excellent read.  If for no other reason, then to understand the thinking of your liberal christian friends :)

6 down, 24 to go.

Book #4 and #5

Well it's been a while since I've updated, which means that I have done a lot of reading.  Next up on my mental list was Inheritance by Christopher Paolini.  But, it's the fourth book in a series that I last read at least 3 years ago.  Because it had been so long, I really felt like I needed to reread the first three so I could really enjoy and understand the last one.  While the first three don't count for the list (I have already read them) I thoroughly enjoyed reading through them again.  After that I read Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller and Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.  I really enjoyed them both.  Blue Like Jazz will get it's own post (to keep this from getting painfully long) but here is an individual breakdown of the other two:

Inheritance by Christopher Paolini:

This series is the younger crowd's version of Lord of the Rings.  Action, adventure and general teenager-turned-hero growing up antics (including an interesting background love story.) The author wrote the first one when he was 15, which is quite impressive.  While his age and lack of experience sometimes shows in the writing and storyline, the books are still really well written and the story is so compelling.

After getting through the first three (Eragon, Eldest, and Brisingr) I was so excited to finally find out how it all was going to end.  There was so much going on in the first three books I wondered how he was going to wrap it up.  I think he did a pretty awesome job of it.  The only thing I was disappointed in was how the love story ended.  He ended it like a guy and I thought it was a bit unrealistic based on how he had painted the characters.  But alas, it is his story, so he can end it however he wants.  I am secretly hoping he was setting it up for another book (I love the characters, so I would be excited to continue following their story!)


Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery:

I grew up watching these movies (or shows?) but, GASP, had never read the books.  So when I came across them at the library I thought they would make an excellent summer read.  I really enjoyed this one (the first of six.  I think.)  It brought back all of the memories of watching the shows as a kid (they were pretty true to the book.)  I now want to add these to my collection because I they will make great read aloud books when I have kids one day!

If you have never heard of the series (which is a tragedy in and of itself), it is about an orphan girl who goes to live in a small town with an older brother and sister who never had their own children.  She is full of life and is always getting into crazy situations.  This makes the book funny and charming (although the beginning was a little too full of her imaginative ramblings, but it definitely got better).  I am excited to read the rest of the series!