Another job

The most important part of this week was that I started my second job! On Monday morning, I headed to the state offices in Millcreek to begin my job as assistant editor for Utah Historical Quarterly, a publication of the Utah Historical Society, which is just in the process of rebranding from its previous name, the Utah Division of State History. I will have to go into the Millcreek office twice a month or so for meetings, but most of the time I will be working remotely. The state history offices used to be in the Rio Grande building, but they have to repair/upgrade the building after the 2020 earthquake. It sounds like that building will be completed in 2026. That is about the same time there will be a new Utah history museum at the capitol. So if I still have this job in three years, I will probably end up at Rio Grande.

I received a state-issued laptop, which I will use at my bedroom desk. I'm glad I bought a desk last year! I had a virtual meeting with the other UHQ people (there's only three of us for now, and one of those is a temporary student position), and my state laptop's camera shows more of my bedroom than my personal laptop does. So I will need to do a better job of keeping my room clean. Also, now I'm paranoid that sometime there will be a meeting going on, and I will have my camera on by accident while I'm changing in my room.

Most of my time this week has been going over orientation materials, but I did spend some time editing an article for the journal. My supervisor had very flattering things to say to me about my experience and about what my other bosses (listed on my references) said about me. It's nice to feel like my educational and professional experience is finally paying off—even though I still don't have a permanent full-time job. I had to talk with my insurance agents this week to update my health insurance. I will be earning full-time wages but without benefits.

And I'm still enjoying my Church History Department work. At the Church, I get to be a historian, and at the state, I get to be the editor for other historians. Having two jobs isn't ideal, and I'm still getting used to a new schedule, but this setup allows me to diversify. I found some fun things in the archive this week, and I suspect that one day (in a few years) you might hear about it.

On Tuesday I attended a North Salt Lake city council meeting because they were thinking of putting new apartments in a strip mall by Orchard Elementary. I didn't know much about the proposal, but I went to learn, and it was my first time attending such a meeting. At first, the crowd was a bit unruly, and I worried it would be an angry meeting like you see on the news, but the city officials professionally calmed the crowd down, and it went smoothly. The city voted against the apartments. (On at least two occasions, I have had dreams that there was a See's Candies location in the strip mall.)

I enjoyed St. Patrick's Day, but it wasn't very St. Patrick's'-y. I made corned beef and cabbage (one of the few times a year I cook meat), but I didn't have time to make Irish soda bread. After I came home from the Church History Library, I changed into all my green clothes.

I attended the concert for the local band the National Parks. They always put on a great show. In the past, if I wanted to attend a concert, I felt an obligation to make it a date and take a girl. But thankfully that's not the case anymore, and I was happy to attend by myself, since I didn't know who else would want to go. I showed my ID at the Union Event Center so I could go upstairs, which is 21+ only, since that's where the bars are—even though I remainly firmly anti-alcohol.

There were two passable openers, but the real draw was the National Parks. On March 3, they released their sixth album, 8th Wonder, but I haven't listened to it as much, since it's new and it's been competing with St. Patrick's Day music. This concert was a release party for that album, but they sang songs from all their albums except their third one, Places. I remember them saying once that with Places, they were trying to sound popular instead of being authentic to their own sound. And indeed, I think Places is their least-memorable album. (My favorite remains their sophomore album, Until I Live.)

Yesterday, I decided to go on a long bike ride, since I'm doing another sprint triathlon in May. Of running, swimming, and biking, biking is my least favorite. But I thought it was a good day for it, especially since trail season will resume soon but not yet. I took my bike to the Legacy Parkway Trail (I'm glad I have a car that can have a bike fit in it), which is nice and flat. I went twenty-two miles, the longest I've ever gone, but since it's so flat, it was easy. There were lots of places with standing water, and in several of them I could hear very noisy frogs! So that was fun. I rode from North Salt Lake to Farmington, but once you get to Farmington, there's lots of street intersections, which makes the ride less enjoyable.

Very noisy frogs here

I gained weight after Christmas, and sometimes I get frustrated that my weight isn't going down very fast. But I am so obsessed with seasonal candy that it makes sense. I wonder what my body would be like if I ate healthier. We are now transitioning from St. Patrick's Day to Easter. St. Patrick's Day has better music, but Easter has better candy. This morning I made carrot cake pancakes, and I was happy to use peach jelly bean whipped topping on them.

I discovered that a Facebook friend unfriended me this week—which is fine, because I regularly unfriend people, and I had wondered how long I would keep him on my friends list. But it got me wondering why, and I realized that we are essentially opposites. He is very right-wing, he loves manly things like cars and watching basketball, and he complains about pumpkin everything and the abundance of Oreo flavors. Pretty much everything I'm not. (I also can't help but wonder if it's old-fashioned homophobia, since I also see he's not friends with another gay friend.)

Have a great week!