Sweet Sunday

Had another great day today! Mountain View has a HUGE farmer's market on Sunday mornings so a bunch of us went to pick up some great produce early this morning! It was amazing! We also decided to do a potluck this evening with a Mexican theme and watch the GREEN BAY PACKERS whoop Da Bears in a very exciting Sunday night football game! My clutch player (Greg Jennings) came through just like I knew he would. I have been a Jennings fan since the beginning when he was first drafted! His catch tonight was reminiscent of the Broncos overtime play two short years ago (remember that one, Jome?). Ah, the memories of when I loved #4. The unfortunate thing was that the Vikings won, but I'm guessing they will lose every other game the rest of the season (I'm not biased at all as you can tell, haha). It should be a pretty busy week this week, but I'll keep you all posted!

Song of the Day: 'Ocean Avenue'-Yellowcard

Wow, what a week!

So I know everyone's curious about what Google is actually like...so here's my spin on things (so far). Google really is an awesome company. Most say that the "perks" we get are awesome, but I think the best part so far is the people. It's a great culture where there are so, so many smart people with diverse backgrounds. We also are working on really cool projects throughout the organization that will have meaningful impact! And yes, the food and microkitchens are amazing too. Google just makes sure that we have all the resources we need to get our jobs done effectively and efficiently.

A few exciting things from the week:

-I found out my project for my time here in California. All I can say is that I am in PeopleOps (what every other organization calls HR) working on a really cool project that I am very excited about. I will also be doing some training for my role once I move to Michigan (yes! I AM going to Ann Arbor). Once I'm in Michigan I will be in OSO (Online Sales & Operations).

-There are a bunch of us living in corporate housing and Google gave us bikes to use for 4 months (a picture will be posted eventually). We have created the Park Place Panthers Peloton, and it is really fun to watch like 10 of us biking to and from work every day in matching bikes and helmets. The office is about 3 miles away and our motto is "we ride together, we die together." Mark Rathbun would love it here! Additionally, once on the Google campus, we do have little bikes that we ride around from building to building too!

-I sat approximately 15 feet away from Larry, Sergey, and Eric at TGIF on Friday. I almost passed out! How cool is that?!

-Alcohol (in moderation, of course) is allowed at the workplace for special events. Seriously? Yes. Seriously.

-We compost at Google just like we did at GRE. Yay for the environment!

Those are just a few cool things from my first week at the Googleplex, but I'm sure there will be more to come later! I miss everyone...friends, family, and co-workers from GRE! I am thinking of you guys all the time, and I miss you so much!

Song of the Day: 'Swing Life Away'-Rise Against

Awesomeness

Google is awesome. People are amazing. Food is delicious. More later this weekend, I promise!

Epic Fail

So I promised Jordan that I would post pictures of Jome and I golfing, and I don't like to break promises so here they are! For my second time out I think I did okay and so did Jome! I even had a drive where I hit the ball straight on the green, woo hoo! But overall, as noted in the title of this post, we stunk.

To me, Golf is a partially fun sport. The carts are fun to ride around in and driving the ball is super fun! However, it is using the irons and putting that makes golf a buzzkill. Ugh! I suppose I'll just have to keep working at it until I like all of it because

as my mom tells me, "golf is a lifetime sport." I always listen to her (right Mom?). Haha.

In other news, California Day 2 is going well. I met three of my future co-workers already and they are really nice! Tonight some of us will be going to one of their apartments to hang out and get to know one another. It'll be nice to meet some people! I get to meet my roommate tomorrow and I'm very excited for that too. Missing everyone back home!

Song of the Day: 'The Sound of San Francisco'-Global Deejays

I Made It!

I have officially arrived in Mountain View! It's beautiful here and I am really looking forward to exploring the area. I'm exhausted and a little lonely so I'll keep this post short and sweet. My apartment is great, and I promise I'll be posting pictures and more details soon! I walked through downtown Mountain View today and it's really nice, a lot of restaurant options and it seems to have a really neat culture. However, I MISS EVERYONE BACK HOME! :( Wishing you were here....

Song of the Day: 'Califonia'-Phantom Planet

Embarrassing Kate and Jack

Apparently they make Snuggies™ for dogs. This is very exciting and provides an excellent holiday photo opportunity. Kate is the creative genius behind these shenanigans.

Heading: HAVE A VERY SNUGGIE CHRISTMAS!!!

How classy would that be?

Song of the Day: 'Comptine d'un autre ete'-Yann Tiersen (soundtrack from Amelie)

Adios, Minnesota!

I am officially moved out of my house in Dinkytown (a nearly impossible feat) and am about to go back to good ole 'Sconny. My car (Ford Focus) can actually hold a lot of stuff in it; it's pretty impressive since it's a small car. Moving is just no fun though, no matter what way you slice it. I suppose there's a level of excitement in moving to a new place...except when you're moving your stuff back home and mom is not pleased that her garage and basement are overflowing with your useless junk. That would be my current situation. And to add to that (thank you, Jordan) as bad as packing is, unpacking is probably even more excruciating because you actually have to find a place for all that stuff. And if you're like me, you tend to save everything. Example: Is it really necessary to save all of my college notebooks/tests/assignments from all of my classes for the past 4 years? Probably not, but I operate under the theory that someday I'm going to 'need' that stuff even though realistically that likelihood is very slim. Laura Nevens=Packrat Extraordinaire.

Thanks for the memories everyone, I had a blast these past four years! T-minus 4 days until CA. That's pretty scary given the amount of stuff I need to get done! Last night I had a fantastic 'Last Supper' with Kate and Jack at the Cheesecake Factory. Yeah, I know you're jealous. Num num! Anyways, I don't have much exciting news to share, but I promise to let you know ASAP when I get to CA and can shore more interesting stories/pictures/etc.

As hard as it was to say goodbye to GRE, it sure is nice having the week off! I do miss all my GREers though!

Song of the Day: 'So Long'-Guster