Sorry, I’ve been a little busy, but in case you haven’t heard through the grape vine, I found a job! Two weeks ago I Googled dentists around the medical center where we live, and decided to go around and hand out resumes. It turns out that there are more than 150 dentists within a 2 mile radius around our apartment. The first place I went to was about two blocks away. I decided to take the car because it was so hot out and didn’t want to make a sweaty appearance. I handed out two resumes and when I arrived at my car, there was a parking ticket on it. I guess loading and unloading zones are only for big trucks or something.

The second place I went to was just a few more blocks away. The office was on the 20th floor of this building you see below. Immediately when I walked into this office it felt right. The patient waiting area was all decorated in the colors blue and brown (which happens to be my wedding colors, my favorite color combination, and thus the theme of our new apartment). I asked the lady if they were hiring and she laughed and said “Girl, you’ve come to the right place!”. I gave her my resume and she immediately interviewed me and got on the phone with another person and said “Dolores, you won’t believe what just happened… a breath of fresh air just walked through my door!”. I took this as a good sign and proceeded to ask questions and look around. She said their other office in Sugar Land (30 min south) needed somebody for the month of August and she wanted to know if I would work there Mondays and Wednesdays for a while. I told her yes and the next day I met the dentist for a formal interview. The first thing he asked me was if I was Mormon, which legally he’s not allowed to ask, but whatever. He said that for one month we’ll see how things go and after that he eventually wants somebody full time in the Houston office. So for now, I’m working twice a week in Sugar Land and as they need me in Houston (which so far they have scheduled me the other three days of the week).

So far I’m still getting adjusted to working full time, and seeing 8 patients a day instead of 1 or 2 like in school. It’s very fast paced, and by the end of the day I am in desparate need of a massage, but I the pay is good and everyone in the office is very nice and helpful. I’m hoping that starting in Sept I will be working 5 days a week in the Houston office. (I like it much better b/c there is no commute, I have  a sweet view in my operatory, and the office has flat screens in every room.) My patients are also cool, because they are pretty much all medical personel and their families. For now, I’m having fun shopping for scrubs. (I like the fact that I can wear a different color other than green). After all, that’s the reason I became a hygienist in the first place. :)

I couldn’t find a recent picture of me in my lab coat, but here’s one from school.

One thing that I am getting used to here in Houston is the rain. Having grown up in the sunny, but dry state of California, I’m not used to the high frequency of rain that we get here. I’m not complaining about it because it’s always great to get a break from the heat. During these last few days, we’ve had scattered T-storms, which has kept us indoors for the most part.

Since we didn’t want to spend our whole weekend in the apartment, we decided to go out with friends and catch a evening showing of Wall-E. Going into the movie, I knew that it was going to be different from the rest of the Pixar films. This one had very limited dialogue and I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out. It ended up being and OK movie, but definitely not one of our favorite Pixar movies. I think that I liked it a little bit more than Diane, but we were both a little bored during parts of the movie.

After a late night on Friday, we got up “early” (7am) and headed out to a service project that ExxonMobil was holding in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity. A group of us headed to this low-income neighborhood that was built by HfH and we distributed each family in the neighborhood a Dell PC and hooked them up with dial-up Internet from AT&T. They families were supposed to get free DSL Internet, but AT&T hasn’t yet wired the neighborhood for it, so they were stuck on dial-up. After setting up a few houses with the equipment, I am grateful to have a high-speed Internet connection. I don’t know what I’d do without it.

Last night, we went out to dinner with another couple and then played games with some friends over at Mark and Kyra’s. It’s been great to have them in our ward down here. Through them, we’ve been able to meet some fun, young couples like ourselves and we’ve been able to hang out a ton.

After reading Jason and Elise’s blog, I feel like I need to write more about what’s going on. Last night, we were fortunate enough to make it to the Miller Outdoor Theatre located in Hermann Park. Some friends of ours were going to see the free performance (Julius Caesar), so we decided to stop on by after returning from Sugarland. The rendition had a modern interpretation with regards to clothing (they dressed more like fascist military generals than ancient Romans). However, we still had an enjoyable time and were pleasantly surprised by the cool and non-humid weather that evening. We’re definitely going to have to take advantage of our proximity to the park. After all, it’s only across the street from where we live.

For those of you who took the time to watch the Beijing 2008 Opening Ceremony, I hope you liked it. Persoanlly, I thought the two-hour show in the beginning was fantastic! The show was an engineering masterpiece and the imagery and symoblism behind everything was fantastic. You really have to give credit to China for putting on what many might say is the best Opening Ceremony ever. Their creative use of manpower was astonishing (e.g., the Chinese blocks). Anyway, I hope everybody is as excited as we are to continue watching the games.

Source: Getty Images

Source: BBC Sport

Back in June, Ferd and I decided to go to the Utah County Parade of Homes.  There were 28 houses from Seratoga Springs to Santaquin. The tickets were only $10 a piece and they were way worth it.  The houses ranged from $170,000 for a town house to 2.5 million with 13,000 square feet! It was so much fun to get decorating ideas, and see houses that had home theaters and indoor gyms. Enjoy the pics.

So, today’s tropical storm wasn’t very impressive (at least in the Museum District). It did rain a bit, but nothing major for us. I’m glad that I didn’t have to drive on I-10 to work–I was very happy to have the day off. It didn’t mean that I was slept in, though. I still woke up at 6am and headed to the gym while Diane soundly slept for another 90 minutes (even though she was supposed to go with me). Anyway, we got some fun errands done today. We’re very excited to have our HUGE mirror finally hanging on the wall. The mirror is about 5 feet wide and 3 1/2 feet tall. It’s definitely imposing on our wall; it also makes our room feel much larger.

Later on in the day, I decided to fix my bike (it had a flat). Talk about the big pain in the rear. I don’t know who tightened the bolts on my back tire, but I was seriously underprepared (i.e., wrong tools) for the job. After breaking a sweat and shaking a fist, I asked one of the maintenance workers for some tools. He gave me a complete wrench set, which did the trick. I really should have asked him earlier and saved myself the headache and frustration.

Well, not much else really went on. We played some Wii, went shopping at the Galleria, and briefly fantastized about living at the Turnberry Towers. Then I looked up the price of the smallest condo and it’s $800,000. The penthouse goes for a cool $3M+ and is approximately 15,000 sq. ft. One day…one day.

It is reportedly that tropical storm Edouard will be making landfall this evening around 11:30pm. It has the possibility to become a category 1 hurricane. If so, it will be our first hurricane! It’s kinda exciting. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens. Anyway, I get the day off from work, so that’s another reason why I’m really happy right now.