Heat

Kate and I turned on the heat for the first time last night. On December 1st. How many of you can say that!?

I Actually Like Living in the South?

Yes, its true. I love living in Nashville. I never thought I would say it, but its true. I think I like it so much better this time around for a few simple reasons. I am not in school. I am not in Murfreesboro. Nashville is such a melting pot of people that I have met more people not from Nashville than from here.

During the summer there is a free outdoor concert series at Centennial Park called Musician's Corner.It was every Saturday for 6 weeks. We made it to 3 or 4 of them, and it is definitely something that I am looking forward to for next year.


Here is a shot of the last Musician's Corner. All those leaves on the ground hadn't been there the week before. The stage is way up there, it is a bit hard to see in this picture.



At one of the Musician's Corners they had a surprise guest. It was Vince Gill. Here is a picture of him playing his acoustic set. Even though I don't like country, it was still quite enjoyable.


This is Kate and me being excited for Vince Gill. It also got quite cold when the sun went down so I was wrapped up in the blanket... or I was trying to make a fashion statement, you choose.


There was also a concert series that took place every Thursday night outside the courthouse in Nashville. This was basically the same as Musician's Corner except that it was a different location, it was at night, and there were bigger named bands. We went to one that had Sixpence None the Richer and Jars of Clay, and another that had Band of Horses. Fun times.

Unfortunately, both these series are done until next summer. Now we have to find something else to do. It shouldn't be a problem, with the high saturation of artists around here you can always find free music.


And that is a picture of Laura and me. We went out for her birthday this past Saturday. I am in her wedding in April.


In other news, work is ok. I found out today that I got put on a project that is directly for corporate so I will be working hand in hand with the VP of Org Development, which is awesome. I will also get to meet with and interview some of the executives and higher ups for this project, so that's exciting too.

That's about all I have going on for now. Oh one more thing:

Life

• Getting busier at work and traveling lots.
• Bought a new car.
• Still trying to get unpacked.
• Killed a HUGE spider by myself.
  
• Donated my hair to Locks of Love
• Have gained 7 pounds since moving down here.
• In Laura's (my old TN roommie) wedding in April.
• Also in Melissa's (best friend growing up) wedding in June (but I knew that before).
• That's it.
  

Quick Update

Here is a quick update on what is happening in my life.

Thanks to Mom and Dad, I now have all my possessions in my possession. (Well besides those few boxes that get to stay in the Mankato house a bit longer)

I haven't unpacked much because I haven't been at my apartment much. Last week I was in Caruthersville, MO all week and tomorrow I leave for Port Allen, LA and will be there until Friday afternoon.

My apartment has an amazing view of tree covered hills and the sunset in the evening. It sure is beautiful in TN. I will try to get a picture posted once I find where I stuck my camera.

I am car shopping. Well, I will be once I get back from Louisiana. I am going to a Suzuki dealership on Friday and a Honda dealership on Saturday. Any and all suggestions and/or advice on car purchasing is welcome.

I better get to bed... I am still getting used to the "I used to go to bed at 5am and now I get up at 5am" thing...

Work

So I have started work. Nothing too exciting has happened yet, I am just learning about the company and the projects that they would like to get moving on at this point. Next week and the week after that I will be traveling. First to Missouri and then to Louisiana.

Yesterday had a few other interesting happenings though. I went out to get some food and things and realized I also needed gas. I had put in a few bucks earlier in the day just so I had enough to get around, but I wanted to fill up in Mboro where gas is much cheaper than Nashville. So I pulled up to the gas station, walked around to the pump and looked at my car. "Hey wait a second," I thought, "where's the gas cap?" I had pulled up to the wrong side! Not only had filled up with gas earlier in the day, I also have I been the sole driver of that car for 6 years! I just laughed and moved my car over to the other pump, but boy did I feel dumb.

Then I went to the dollar store that had just opened to look around. I was surprised to find a book (Bait and Switch) by an author (Barbara Ehrenreich) of a book (Nickel and Dimed) that I had read for a class (Motivation) in undergrad (MNSU). It is a $24 book and I only paid $1! I was pretty excited. Hopefully when I read it there isn't a reason for it being at the dollar store... like its missing every third word or something.

When I was driving home from shopping I had to be sure to slow down as to not hit the huge family of skunks crossing the road. There was at least 8 of them, and they all had cute bushy tails. Some of them had clear black and white coloring, but others had a lot of white to them too. I didn't get that great of a look at them before they scurried off into the brush, but I was happy I at least didn't hit any of them.

Back in the South

I drove back down to Tennessee today. I left at 2am and arrived at 4:30pm, so made pretty decent time considering I missed an exit and was rained on through the entire state of Iowa. It was a pretty uneventful trip. The highlight was hitting a firefly at night and getting to watch its glowing guts on my windshield. :)

SIOP Conference

This past week I traveled to Atlanta for the 2010 SIOP conference. I have attended this conference the last two years (once in San Fran and then in New Orleans). Its a great conference and it always leaves me loving I/O more than before. I definitely needed a dose of this medicine at this point in my career... or lack there of.

This year was a bit different than years of the past in that I had two of my research studies accepted to be presented. My Master's thesis was presented as a poster and my Undergraduate thesis was presented as part of a symposium. This is an incredible honor since only about 50% of submissions to this conference are accepted, that and the SIOP conference is the biggest conference of the year in I/O.

My symposium was Saturday morning at 8:30. That was a bit earlier than I would have liked, but it was definitely worth it. More people than I expected showed up and so I presented to probably around 20-30 people. It was a great feeling at the end of the presentation when people came up and told me how well I did and that they were really interested in my study (Trust formation in virtual teams). Later that day I got a phone call from my old professor at MTSU. He told me that he ran into the department head of Houston's I/O Ph.D. program. I guess he was really impressed with how well I did and said I really held my own as a Master in a panel of Ph.D.s and Professors. So that was nice to hear as well. Interestingly, I didn't even do this research at a masters level, I did it as a college senior.

My poster was later that day and I got to meet the lady who essentially made data collection possible. She works for Human Synergistics and she allowed me to tailor the "Desert Survival Situation" to the way I needed it. She even had all the copies printed and sent it all to us free of charge. Without her help there is no way I would have graduated on time, so it was really nice to meet her. Many other interested individuals took a look at our poster and it was fun to talk to all the people about it.

It was great to see everyone that I had met at past SIOP's and I am very glad I went. I may not have a company to pay for these type of experiences for me, but it was definitely worth it. Hopefully from all this something will fall into place and I can actually start using my degree.