All Work and No Play

Fortunately, that is not true. Even though I'm working, I still have a lot of time to play and do my own thing.

Here is a glimpse of what I've been doing this past month:

Winning Olympic Gold at FHE Olympics with my FHE family. I got 41 grapes into my mouth all at once. Definitely gold medal worthy, don't you think?

Hiking to Stewart Falls (my favorite), the Y, and Mt. Timpanogoes Caves

Driving home to California to:

Get a speeding ticket

Get Cronked

See Amanda get her girls' camp name, Flare

Do some drag racing
(I'm in the white car. The point of this was to see who, me or my best friend, could get the manual transmission car going into first gear the quickest)

And to see my Daddy on Father's Day

APX For LIFE!!

Now that I am graduated, I have to somehow start becoming on my own, which means I have to make more than $2.30/hr as I have for the past three summers working EFY. I LOVE EFY, so the decision to not work it again this summer was difficult, but necessary. So what am I doing now?

APX, data entry.... First off, A-P-X doesn't actually stand for anything. It is a friendly atmosphere where fun and making friends with others in the company is encouraged. We are divided into teams of about 16 with a team leader. Our team lead meets with us all together for trainings and for doing fun things, like watching random funny ads or playing games like tag outside. He also helps us track our individual progress and helps us to make goals of how we can do better on the calls. Everyone is really friendly and in between calls people talk to each other and/or send and play games on the computer. They have weekly contests for employees to win cool stuff. On Fridays they have a crazy dress up day where they take pictures and reward those who win. They also have challenges and opportunities to do service in the community.When we are not busy, our team lead takes us aside and we all just chat or are "trained" in some way until it gets busy so we are not sent home early. Being trained in a flexible term in my team leads point of view. We just play games or chat most of the time in the trainings or "coaching" as they are called. However, now that it is getting busier, we are not playing around so much. APX has big parties at the beginning and end of the summer and they form teams of dodgeball, basketball, and volleyball. Some people got a free helicopter ride at the party they had a couple weeks ago. The food was amazing, too. I got a free amazing backpack from them, too.

As much as it is kind of a relaxed atmosphere, they are strict about everything else. I have to go to a shift briefing at the beginning of each of my shifts to be updated on things we have to be doing because things are always changing. They are strict about being on time from breaks and lunches and for bad attendance or forgetting to do something on a call, or doing something I shouldn't on a call. I can get what are called occurrences for any of these things. If I get 10 for attendance or 10 for the calls, I am terminated.

APX is an alarm company. Most people only work for APX during the summer, but it is a year round thing. They sell alarm systems (duh). So what I do is I receive three different calls. Two are from the salesman and one is from the tech who installs the system. APX installs the systems all on the same day as the sale, which is kind of neat. The first phone call is called the qualify call. Basically, I get the potential customers basic information and I run a credit check for the saleman who decides if they can have a system and what they will charge. That call is the shortest of all of them at about 2 mins or less. And no, I can't just run anyone's credit... someone already asked that.

The second call is called Rep Set Up. This is the rep calling in to tell me how much they are charging the customer, how the custumer will be paying, and how many points they approved for the customer's system. Each part of the alarm system is worth a number of points. At the end of this call, I do a survey with the customer confirming the info from the last call and the terms of their agreement. I've heard some really funny things on this phone call. The reps are usually in the same room as the customer when they call so they use all the flowery salesman language to make it sound like they are getting a good deal when really it is the same, or maybe even more expensive than others might get. I've had some funny things happen during the survey, too. It's fun hearing the accents of different customers. The southern customers are the best!

The next call is called the tech call. This can be the longest and hardest call. Now that I've been working for a couple of weeks, I look forward to these calls because they are always different and it breaks the monotony of taking calls. One part of this call is techs calling in to link a cell unit, which is a part of the system that either serves as an alternate number for the home for apx to contact, or just as the main number that is used. Normally tech's call to give the information about where the main panel is, what type it is, and all the parts of the system. I have to put all the different parts of the system in and say what their zones and functions are. This is also hard to explain in writing, so I will go on. Then I check to see if all the signals from the system are being sent clearly and correctly to the main hub of apx. This is the most important part of the call becaues this is how APX is contacted when there is an emergency. If something doesn't work when there is a break in, it's because a signal was either not sent or it was wrong. Very, very, very bad if I mess up here. I have only missed one signal so far, so that is really good. After that we just get other emergency contacts and do a final survey. Then we get their payment information so we can charge them.

Before a call comes in I hear a beep, then what type of call, then another beep. That is nice so I can at least know what to expect and so I have time to think about it before talking to anyone. When I was volunteering in the mtc referral center my freshman year, I would just hear them say hello and have to just start talking because by then they had already said hello two or three times. It's not like that fortunately.

The last couple of days I haven't had much down time at all between phone calls. Last week though, I would have numerous minutes between phone calls I receive. Luckily the time goes by really fast and it has gotten easier for me to do everything. I thought I would never get to be so comfortable and as good as I am already. I took calls for 3 hours straight without a break and had not problem. I then only took a ten minute break and started again because time goes faster when I just work and not stand around on my break. But it does get pretty tiring. By the end of the shift, I just want to go home and not talk on the phone or really be on a computer, although I still do it as you can see.

So really, it's not bad. Yesterday they changed everyone's schedules so they can meet the call demands better, so I am now working in the mornings during the week and the evening on Saturdays. This schedule works better for me because then I can pick up others' shifts when they want off in the afternoon. I am really sad that I won't be on the same team anymore, but we will still see each other and I will make more friends. :)

Graduation!!

It's official!
I am getting some work done on my computer so for now these are the only pictures you can see for now. I will post more later.

The Best Girls' Night EVER!

Have you ever wondered what the best girls' night EVER would include? Well, here you go:

Chinese food


Getting my ears pierced for the first time (I'm all grown up!)


Awesome Roommates


Random Picture taking

 

 

A Chick Flick at the Dollar Theater
with Chocolate Mint Cookies and other Goodies

and a Slurpee for the ride home!

An April Fool... that's me!

Here is the account of the happenings in my apartment on April Fool's Day given by my roommate with permission:

It started with the stroke of genius. Dying Lynnae's milk green. See, Lynnae is a milkaholic, and her milk really means everything to her. It was a near guarantee that she would be having milk for part of her breakfast, because she always does, and lunch, and dinner, and snack. That girl goes through about a gallon and a half a week, all by herself. Anyway, I jumped up and hurried into the kitchen, trying to calm my nervously giggling self with the assurance that I wouldn't get caught, because Lynnae had been up until 3:00 with me, and would still be asleep at 9:30. Well... unfortunately, I forgot that she was meeting a friend and had to shower and do hair and makeup and all that, plus have time to get to wherever she was meeting him. So, she got up like 3 minutes after I had greened her milk. And I mean this was REALLY green. I accidentally put in more than just a couple drops, so it looked like homemade play-dough. Gross! Anyway, I had to leave before she did, so I was disappointed that I would miss her reaction. Lucky for me, she was in too much of a hurry and didn't eat breakfast! So, I came home from school at the same time as her... and I got to witness it. It went something like this.
“Yeah, I was telling my dad that... WHUA??? WHAT IS THIS???”
I had just left the room, and quickly jumped back, looking innocent and curious, and maybe a little confused. “What just happened?”
“Somebody dyed my milk green!!!”
I let my eyes widen and my mouth drop into a wide-open grin. “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! That is freaking hilarious! Who did that?!”
“I don't know!” she answered, then yelled, “Michelle! Was it you?”
Michelle came into the room and saw the milk. She half laughed in a, “Wow, that is kinda mean but really funny” sort of way and said, “No, it wasn't me. I swear.”
Lynnae set the milk down, firmly and resolutely. “Oh, I know. It was Angela. It was SO Angela. That is so something Angela would do. Alright, what can I do to get her back?”
And that, my dear brother, is what started it all. Lynnae embarked on a quest to avenge the dying of her milk, and began plotting evil things to do to Angela and Katrine, because I suggested Katrine might have been willing to do it to. She wasn't completely positive which one it was, but had pretty much settled on Angela, yet decided to get Katrine too, just for good measure. We plotted evil things for a while, before she came up with a stroke of genius. She took Katrine's shoes and loaded them into her bed, under her blankets, then slipped pennies beneath her sheets, for a sort of “princess and the pea” effect. Then, we combined efforts against Angela, Katrine and Janelle too, just so my dear engaged roommate wouldn't be left out. We took all the clothes out of Katrine's closet, and put them in Angela's closet, and Angela's clothes in Janelle's closet and Janelle's clothes in Katrine's closet.
Then came my brilliance. Michelle. In the process of loading Katrine's clothes into Angela's closet, (Angela and Michelle share a room), I noticed Michelle's teddy bear, affectionately named Belle, sitting on the edge of her bed. My first thought was to dress Belle in something funky, but I decided that robbing Michelle's underwear directly out of her drawer might make her feel just a little too violated. So, I came up with a much more brilliant idea. Kidnapping. Ransom. I took duct tape, folded it in half, and made hand cuffs, a blind fold and a gag. Then, I had to come up with a villain name for my dark deeds. With a little help from Lynnae, the resident “word nerd,” I became “The Nefarious Lady Death-Moon.” Next was the ransom note. It said, “Mommy Michelle help me! The Nefarious Lady Death-Moon wants a million dollars in quarters by sunrise. Leave it in the dumpster. No cops or I will get it!” Then, I took a picture of poor Belle, bound, gagged, blindfolded and holding the note, printed it out, and placed it upon Michelle's pillow. Then I hid the bear.
I almost blew it with the note. Michelle saw it and said, “Savannah, this sounds just like something you would do.”
I should have known that note was too much like my sense of humor. Lynnae saved me on that one, though. Our reactions to seeing the note were convincing enough that she wasn't sure, so she actually asked, “Did you guys do it?” Lynnae, who had nothing to do with it other than helping me figure out a name said, “No, I promise we didn't do it.” Because we didn't. I did it. Mua ha ha!
She is currently texting James, because I asked him to tell her he knows who did it, then pin it on our friend, Jonny Weiss. James is brilliant, because he played with her through text, answering all of her questions honestly but still not revealing anything. Well, all but one. I put her up to asking if the perpetrator's name started with J. He answered that yes, it did, which wasn't exactly honest because my name just doesn't start with J...
We are evil, no?
It gets better.
So, Lynnae decided, to further her vengeance against Angela for the milk thing, to ceran wrap her bed. Unfortunately, we had no saran wrap. So, it was off to the dollar store. We got ceran wrap... and silly string... and girls' underwear to dress Janelle's teddy bear with. See, she has this cute baseball bear wearing a flannel shirt and white shorts. I covered the shorts with pink underwear, then put the young teenager's bra under the shirt, which I left open.
Anyway, we came home with our saran wrap, then attacked Angela's bed. It was the funniest thing to watch Lynnae try to fit herself beneath that mattress as we wrapped it three times. But, we couldn't do it on our own... so we got Janelle to help. The three of us girls were in the process of wrapping her bed, when the door opened. We freaked out, because we thought it was Angela. You should have seen Lynnae, stuck beneath the mattress on the top bunk, launch herself out and over the side. Then Michelle walked in, and we realized we were okay. The look on her face, as she opened the door to discover three girls surrounding her bed, all of which had wide, guilty eyes, clearly said, “Oh no. What are they doing???” Followed by, “Phew! Angela, not me.”
Well, we're still waiting for Angela and Katrine to get home, and Janelle to get back home.
James just revealed to Michelle that the culprit behind the abduction of her darling Belle was the nefarious Jonny Weiss. She's plotting revenge now. I truly wonder how tangled this web of deception will become.
There was one more thing. James came over after sending some very suspicious texts. We knew he was up to something, but we got to him first. As soon as he walked through the door, we bombarded him with silly string. We quickly learned that we were right. He was up to something. He was bringing over a surprise loaf of caramel apple bread to thank Lynnae for her help editing his paper.
Oops. : )
This is a little bit later. Angela just came home. Actually, back up a little. Before she came home, James got his hands on my bottle of silly string. I mauled him. He won. : ( Dang guy dumped me over his head when I tried to tackle him. I got a rug burn on my elbow and skewered myself with my own fingernail.
Anyway, Angela came in. She went in her room. She came back out. She went back in. Next we heard, “I hate you guys.” Unfortunately, she'd had a bad day, so while she kinda laughed and said that any other day she would have been laughing her butt off, it didn't quite have the desired effect.
Katrine was really funny, though. She came in and saw what we did to Angela, then got wide eyes and said, “What did you do to me???” It took her a while to discover her clothes, and I never did see what happened when she found her bed loaded with shoes, but she had a good laugh.
Anyway, so Jonny came over later, and Michelle cornered him. I had sent him a text, warning him that I'd blamed him for a prank I'd played on Michelle, and the poor guy was like, “I didn't do it! I swear! I didn't!” Lynnae goes and gets the ransom note, so he can see what the prank was, and thrusts it at him with an accusatory, “Does this look familiar to you?” He read it and started laughing, but still insisting he was innocent. I started busting up. That was about the point Michelle figured everything out, that I'd set Jonny up. She was like, “I knew it was you! I knew it! That note was just like something you would do!” Yeah... I blew it with the note. Dang! Next time I pull something like that, I'll have to have somebody else write the note. Anyway, after that she made me take pictures with the kidnapped bear, and it was awesome. : )
So, that was my April Fool's day.
Oh, and just so you can get a visual, here are some pictures:

 

  

This would be the Nefarious Lady Death-Moon

 

I paid the random by finding a picture of a million dollar bill and cutting it in quarters. Then I stuck it in a mini dumpster.

 

Now, that just looks gross.

 

Janelle's baseball teddy bear

Graduation Announcement

Whoa! Michelle's Clogging!!

Watch this video of me clogging in my ward talent show! I said, "Whoa!" because most of you know that I am not a very good dancer. This was a dance that I learned for a test in my class a couple of weeks ago. I didn't do so hot on the test, but I can proudly say that this video is the best I've performed it, so I am happy about my progress. Clogging is hard at times, but overall it's fun and good exercise! I received a lot of compliments after the show and people thought I have been clogging for a lot longer than I have, so that's good, right? I tried to post the video directly on here, but it's giving me problems, so just go to this page:

http://gallery.me.com/shell_belle/100272