1. In April I started working at the Gap Outlet in the Park City Outlet Mall. I barely made any money, but managed to do ok. The employee discount was great, my wardrobe got some great updates on the cheap, I made some good friends, and gained some great experience. It is hard to make money while (as a friend of my roommate Amie's would say) "swimming in the river of desire".
2. Every time it came up this summer that I wouldn't be attending Burning Man this year, I would answer my friends questions with: "I need a money miracle in order to make it happen". I was imagining something like a helicopter flying overhead and accidentally losing $1 Million just as I was taking the dogs for a walk. Or that a cushy corporate job would fall into my lap despite my minimal effort to find a corporate job.
3. Doug came home from work one week (Aspen Achievement Academy) and told me that his employer's sister company, the Aspen Ranch had an Equine Therapy program that I might be interested in. I tucked the information away in the back of my mind.
4. Sometime in early August, on a whim, I called the Aspen Ranch's 800# to ask if there were any jobs. The HR Director told me there were two or three openings that hadn't even been posted yet. What he described made me feel really excited. Within a week I had put together a resume and cover-letter. I filled out their application and sent it by fax. A week later they asked me for an interview. I went in on the first Monday of Burning Man. By Wednesday they had offered me a position. I accepted on Thursday.
This weekend, Doug and I moved to Loa, UT. It is a teeeeeny, tiiiiiny, little town in Southern Utah. Most of the National Parks in Southern Utah are within a 100 miles or so of us. The closest shopping (outside of one little grocery store and a few tourist attractions between Torrey, Teasdale, Bicknell, and Loa) is in Richfield 45 minutes away. We're about 3 hours from Saint George and Provo. That freaks me out a little bit.
I start my new job tomorrow!!!
For now, most of our stuff is sitting in a storage unit and we are staying in a private bedroom in a house that is shared (usually) by many Aspen Achievement Academy staff members. We are looking for our own house where we can take in a friend's cat, get our own dog, and have a bedroom for Doug's little boy. Hopefully this will happen before the 1st of October.
