Don’t take candy from strangers!

I’ve been working at my job for about 8 months now. For a beginner job, I love it! Co-workers are great, work environment’s great—they only thing I could complain about was wearing the dress and nylons every day. (It’s just every consecutive day since May 5, 2004 I feel I’ve been stuck in a frumpy dress and fingernail polish spotted nylons! I’m ready to go back to when I worked in a car shop! Give me those jeans and sweatshirt with the smell of car grease! That was a good job. . .)

I was quite intimidated when I first started working at LDS Philanthropies because of all the new faces. (I always hate being the new kid—everyone seems to know you, but how are you supposed to line up 300 names and faces?!) I felt needed to meet everyone and learn to adjust sharing turf with them. My solution to this problem was a candy dish, (which has also helped with my secretary spread !)

There’s been all sorts of different candy in that dish—chocolates, Jordan almonds, Swedish gummy raspberries and even truffles! The whole point of this dish, (which is strategically placed so anyone who’s walking past my cubicle can see the bright array of sugary sweets,) is to have people stop by 5x5 ceiling-less work box and talk to me! (Co-Workers: I want to get to know you!)

With this is mind, I’d like to share with you this week’s events:

Monday, January 12: Noticed my candy dish, (which I stole from my mother) was empty and desperately needed to be filled.

Tuesday, January 13th: I dropped by the BYU Bookstore and purchased a ½ lbs of Valentine colored Jordan Almonds and placed them in the candy dish in my cube.

Wednesday, January 14th: Very few people stopped by to talk to me and/or take my candy.

Thursday, January 15th: Was in a meeting from 8:00 to 5:00 in the Student Athlete Building, resulting in my absence from my regular 313C LDSP Building residence.
Friday, January 16th: I arrived at work at 7:58 and noticed an empty candy dish. My heart was broken.

People take my candy when I’m not even in my office!!! AURGH! What’s the whole point to the candy dish when I’m not here?! I guess people have a candy complex. They only take it when no one’s looking. I’m tempted to leave a sign stating:

“Please feel free to take these delectable, delicious pieces of heaven when I’m here so I may get to know you better. If you choose to take some when I’m absent from my desk, please fill out the attached survey stating where you’re from, where you graduated, how many kids are in your family and do you know any eligible, wealthy, smart, tall with a totally rockin’ bod, LDS men that you can hook me up with? Thank you, and have a good day.”

(Okay, that last part about the guy just might be a violation of HR, but I just had to squeeze that in there somehow. . .)

I mean, it’s not like my work actually tries to do things to build teamwork! We should have events where we do things like rafting and celebrate the Olympics and use our talents at huge conferences. Hmmm, now that I think about it—I guess we do things like that . . . maybe I should take advantage of those things to get to know my co-workers better. . .now that’s a good idea.

This was our "Lighting of the Torch" for the LDSP Olympics. (You can't beat a sparkler and a chocolate drumstick. Gives new meaning to Fire and Ice!)

Our fearless Janalee (Staff Assistant of Athletics) gives her all in the spear throwing contest!

And the crowd cheers on the athletes!

The tough girls of LDSP. (That's my boss standing above me.) Okay, so not everyday we're in a dress!
It's a messey job working here. But hey, somebody's gotta do it!

Water--An essential part of life

A watched pot never boils. I beg to differ.

I have actually sat in front of my stove with a stop watch to see how long it would take a pot of water to boil. (You may think I have nothing to do in life but watch lifeless water. I actually so desperately wanted to prove this cliché wrong!) It took five minutes and 43 seconds. With the same amount of water at the same temperature, at the same elevation and same heat rate I timed the acceleration of water from still to boil being absent from the kitchen. I checked on it at five minutes and 40 seconds. It was at a rapid boil.

My conclusion—you get more done when you’re not watching.

2008 has come and gone and I’m still single. Am I sad? Was I hopping to find that potential someone in 2008? Did I accomplish all I wanted to and could do last year? Am I happy where Father Time has taken me? My answer to all of that is a simple ‘yes.’

Here’s what I did last year:

Taught Family History
Graduated from College
Spent time with my parents
Went on a cruise
Landed a great job
Bought a car
Paid a huge chunk of school debt off
Laughed all summer long
Went Skydiving
Had a boyfriend
Worked two jobs while going to school full time
Made a few new friends
Left a few old friends
Worked on photography portraits
Ended a relationship
Wrote a new song on the guitar and piano
Became a better friend to my sisters
Went to Lake Powell
Spent quality time with my nieces and nephews
Started a 401k


I did so much more, but I can’t write them all down. 2008 was a good year—not the best, but still good. I accomplished many good goals to define my character and give me that much more experience. However, just like any other single girl, I’m still waiting for that one year I’ll never forget . . .

Do you know what I did when I left the room, waiting for the pot of water to boil? I read a few pages in my book—a biography on one of the greatest scientist to be exact. I returned a borrowed item to our neighbor. I wrote a few texts too. I paid a bill and I answered the door when someone knocked on it. A lot happened in those five minutes. Perhaps 2009 will not be that special year, but I’m not going to sit and just watch it boil away. . .

Happy New Year

Salt Lake Snowy Lace

Even though I claim my W-2 and taxes in the state of Utah, I don’t claim I’m an Utahan. I still feel like a tourist when I visit Temple Square. I’m in awe when I hear there’s a member of the Quorum of the Twelve speaking at someone’s fireside and I still giggle at back to back LDS meeting houses which share the parking lot. (It’s true! I promise!)
Last Sunday a few of my sisters, mother and I went to hear the Bells on Temple Square. It was a beautiful winter morning. We were there quite early and our footprints were some of the first in the snow. We enjoyed hearing the Mormon Tab, seeing the dancers and listening to the Prophet. I keep forgetting how lucky I am to be living in Utah where experiences like this happen daily!

Melissa's Gingerbread

For the past 10 years, my sister Melissa has perfected the art of gingerbread houses. She was asked to teach her Relief Society Enrichment last night and I tagged along to help. These are amazing little festive edible homes!

The Cougars are Out!

I can count on two fingers how many times I’ve attended a football game. But by far this was the best game ever! Truly my best friends are my sisters and why not share the love of my work benefits with them! (Free home game tickets!)

We had a breakfast—okay, they were more or less leftovers from a donor appreciation/ pre-game cultivation breakfast, but nonetheless, free food! We even got festive BYU stickers to place on our cheeks! As pathetic as it sounds, I was trying to memorize the BYU fight song before I walked into Lavelle Edwards Stadium because I just knew we’d be singing that a lot! Becky, a BYU Alum, advised me to only sing the chorus, not the beginning of it. My efforts to impress my older sisters were foiled!

The other football game I attended was also at BYU. Jessica was a freshman at the time and I was in the 8th grade. For a day I was her shadow and followed her to class and got the BYU experience. (As I told her about this, she said she couldn’t remember anything like that. This was one of the most impressionable events of my adolescent hood!) I remember we had awesome tickets to the game—we we’re on the 45 yard line, about 8-10 rows back. Now, mind you, this was my first game. . .I had no idea that football helmets actually produced a clashing sound as the players roughed each other to the ground. It was somewhat shocking to a little 14 year old!

'And touched the face of God'

Not too long ago, I took the jump of my life! Yes, I went skydiving and I still can’t get over it! This was an adventure which not only tested, but proved my gutsy side. I strongly encourage anyone who’s ever toyed with the thought of skydiving to do it!

Many people fear the sensation of falling—of having that feeling of their stomach lurching into their throat within the first 10 feet of a free fall. But my friends, you don’t feel it! (At least for me, I didn’t. . .) I wasn’t focusing on that. . .

What I couldn’t get over was the detail of the topography 13,000 feet above the meticulous planet. I knew my fall would be over in a matter of seconds, so I tried to focus on the beauty from this view—a view not many of us see that often in life.

Trees looked like fuzzy patches of mold. Lakes appeared like skies on the ground. Even the massive crevasses in the base of the mountains which fingered into the valley appeared like a rocky specimen under a microscope.

For a few seconds of my life, I felt like a satellite. It was beautiful.

What do say at first?

Well, sorta. You see, if you check out my profile you’ll notice I’ve been a blogger since 2006. There is an explanation behind that. At the time, I was living in NYC and my life was adventurous! I was wineing and dining, (yes I know, there’s no such word as ‘wineing’) traveling to exotic New England getaways and eating lunches with UN Ambassadors. I thought it would be good to record everything for friends and family back home. . .and nothing ever came from it.

So yesterday I posted my first post, (posted a post? redundant, I know!) and showed it to one co-worker! I was so proud of myself! She then taught me cute little tricks to make the wallpaper more appealing to the web traveler’s eye! So I continued to upgrade, change and improve on what naked elements I had, resulting in the deletion of my first post.

So here it is! My official, certified, documented, stamped, approved and recognized post! Ginger Jacobson has left her computer-generated footprint on the beach of the internet! And what a beautiful day it is to go swimming!