My whereabouts for December

Monday 3 December - last day at EMI
Tuesday 4-Saturday 8 December - in Wisconsin
Saturday 8 -Sunday 9 December - back in NYC
Sunday 9 December - flying to London
Monday 10 December - Thursday 13 December - in England
Friday 14-Sunday 16 December - in Rome
Monday 17 December - Wednesday 19 December - in Marrakech
Thursday 20 December - Saturday 5 January - in Englang
Saturday 5 January - flying to NYC

Utah

I needed to go away somewhere for Thanksgiving. I called up Stephen and convinced him that he wanted me to come visit him in Salt Lake City. I don't see enough of Stephen, my favourite brother. We're seven years apart but we get along so well. So I flew to Utah last Wednesday to spend the holiday weekend with him. I haven't been to Utah in 14 years. All I remember is mountains, a little bit of Temple Square and that brand new rental car whose breaks made an awful stink. The accomodation was top class: I was well set up with my own bed in the lounge downstairs, with the cat Eli for company. Every night I had to get into bed around him, and when he wasn't napping on my bed he was sat on the stairs swatting at us as we walked past.

Stephen made us cornish game hens for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. Good idea, turkey is so much bother. We watched the Jolly Boys Outing and stayed at home all day. I haven't had a lazy day like that in AGES. Stephen was back to work on Friday so I spent the day at the Family History Library. I was all prepared with long lists of books and microfilm to examine. I found some birth/death/marriage/burial information for some distant relatives, but the most important finds was a cemetery transcript for Fairchild Village Cemetery where I knew my great great grandmother Hannah Pettis Bovee was buried. We had no death date for her husband Cornelius, but it turns he is buried with her in Fairchild, along with their son Truman and grandson Hiram. I now have some new leads to follow up when I'm in Wisconsin next week and some places to visit. I also found maps pinpointing the location of the land plots belonging to Charles Henry Patterson and his father-in-law Daniel Baldwin. I also found the marriage for Evelyn Ducie and Elmer Pehrson and the funeral bills for her parents John and Ellen.

Saturday Stephen drove me to Provo (under protest, he's a Univ of Utah man and Saturday was a big game day between the rival schools). I wanted to have a quick look around BYU to see if I could bare to live there. Turns out the law school building is just about the ugliest thing I've ever clapped eyes on. Provo wasn't exactly the Garden of Eden either. The temple was quite pretty up close though, a nice surprise as it looks pretty weird in photographs. Stephen took us up over the mountains on the way home, via Alpine which my roommate Juleen calls home. He had to rush off to meet his mates to watch The Game, so he dropped me at Temple Square. I watchd the Joseph Smith film in the Memorial Bldg and then went to the temple to do initiatories for some direct ancestors (Ellen Mulherin, Margaret Kelly and Annie O'Brien). It was my first trip to the Salt Lake temple so I took the big guns along with me! The temple of course is lovely, although you do get a bit lost in the underground labyrinth, but i'm not complaining. They had a cafeteria and a dozen intiatory booths. Our temple in Manhattan is so dinky, so it was fun to explore one of the big ones. Stephen picked me up after the game. His lot lost and it was surprising how much quieter the car was.

On Sunday, Stephen dropped me at church where I sat with one of his friends, Alison, who is a BYU law graduate. After church, Stephen was back in the kitchen, this time cooking us a Sunday, leg of lamb and yorkshire pudding, with Bisto gravy from England and boiled carrots and broccoli. I think someone misses home... I was ever so proud of him! After dinner, he showed me round the University of Utah, his old dormitories and classroom buildings. I think he really enjoyed his time there and it was nice to see where my little brother spent four years of his life. We made one last trip to Temple Square to take pictures with the Christmas lights, and then it was on the airport. I was just starting to get acclimatised to the city. And I was really enjoying being with Stephen. Shame I had to leave... but I might be back.

New job for Genevieve

This morning I accepted to the offer of a job with Mercer, an HR consulting firm here in New York. I'll be working with their Workforce Sciences Team. I heard about the job through my Dad who has been working with two members of the team on a project at Aramco. His sharp ears overheard a conversation between them about this job opening and he jumped in and told them about me. They interviewed me immediately upon their return to the New York and made me an offer last Friday. I think they really wanted me. It's nice to be wanted. They seem like a good group of people, all braniacs (labour economists, organisational psychologists), they were very friendly when I met with them, but pleasantly quirky as well. I think I will fit in. My new office is at Sixth Avenue and 45th street. I'm scared of midtown but will just have to toughen up a bit. Best part is I don't start till January 7 so I have plenty of time to spend in England, with a couple side trips thrown in. Morocco and Rome have already been booked. There may be more.

Going on my holidays

I'm going to Salt Lake City! I haven't been out of the city since April - I'm climbing the walls. I can't wait till Christmas. So I'm going to visit my little bruvvah. We'll have Thanksgiving dinner at home on Thursday with Stephen's flatmates. On Friday, Stephen has to work so he's going to drop me off at the Family History Library (this will be the real day of indulgence!). I'll take a lunch break around noon and wander around Temple Square. And on Saturday he's going to take me down to Provo to have a look around BYU. I went thirteen years ago but don't remember a thing so it'll be nice to get a good look at the place and see how I might feel about living there. I have all Sunday there as well so we'll take a trip up to the University of Utah so Stephen can show we his old stamping ground and then he says we'll go on up into the mountains and to see the "This Is The Place" monument.

And Stephen says we'll watch a bit of Del Boy on the wide screen tellie. Lovely jubbly!

It hate it when daylight saving time ends. We were in the dark of night at 5pm today. It's quite depressing... and there are other problems. I'm going to make a Lexia-like confession:

I'm scared of the dark.

When Lucy and Jonathan used to go to Saudi Arabia to stay with my parents I would have to sleep with the lights on in all the rooms except my own bedroom. Nuts, huh?!

I have figured it out. I know what to do. I have a life plan and I'm poised to implement it. This is exciting for me, I've never know what I wanted to be when I grew up or where I wanted to live or anything. I'm just a big bundble of indecision. Until today. But, errr, it's a bit personal to go splashing all over the interweb. So if you're close enough to want to know, then you know where to reach me and I'll happily fill you in.

Feels good.