My life is good....real good

So today was a great day. I had a second round interview with Savage. While it was nice it was kind of intimidating. This is my career, supposedly I know something about working and business after all these years of school. Really I don't feel I do but I won't let them know that.

I love blogging and I am sad I haven't had more time to blog. I love getting my thoughts onto paper, it seems that everytime I sit down and begin typing a flood of thoughts and ideas wash over me; letting me know that it has been far too long since my last post. I am a very deep thinker and I often look for correlations between everything that I am doing. How football relates to business or life, or how some idea relates to God's glorious Plan of Happiness for me.

One idea that has been on my mind recently is Plato's allegory of the cave. He uses it to illustrate that the most readily available information may not be true and we need to examine everything and get to its source before we can find out how true it is. When we do actually remove ourselves from a cave of easily attainable stimulus and seek that which actually exists our lives take on new meaning. I can't help but imagine that Plato was inspired to share this knowledge with the world. I feel like I have been making my way out of my own cave the past few months. As my mind has been drawn to all the changes going on in my life I am forced to find the most important things and ally myself with them. I by no means live on any higher state of enlightment, but I do feel that I am starting to get a better understanding that what I thought was worthwhile and important really isn't and those things that I thought were stimuli, were nothing more than shadows and echoes of the real world.

Tomorrow I fly to Virginia, I don't know if I will get to see my favorite sister but if I don't it will still be enjoyable knowing we are close once again. I miss and love her but am so proud of her also. I am really looking forward to interviewing out there and seeing if it would be a good fit for me.

For those of you who haven't seen Gini and I had our engagements taken, you can see the pictures in all their glory here. Life couldn't be any better for us right now.

In keeping with the title, I want to share one last quote.

"I am the gatekeeper of my own destiny, and I shall have my hot day in the sun."

Life is Good

So I wanted to drop everyone a line and let them know I am still alive. Life couldn't be any better right now.

1. Gini and I are making great wedding plans. They are coming along great and hopefully we'll have a lot of the big ones out of the way so when March rolls around we can just focus on things that go wrong.

We have been registering which is a ton of fun. I really enjoy seeing our lives come together. It is a lot of fun and I feel that since we are both a little older than most of our friends who got married we have watched them all get ready and now we are able to have our own time. It hasn't been a chore yet.

2. School is great. Funniest thing happened in my class the other day. I have a freshman development class. The teacher says, ohh Chris has announcement. I look up and see this kid just beaming, I got my mission call...then another kid pipes up, yea me too. Wow not what I was expecting. I am old. School is going great though this semester and I am really enjoying myself.

3. I am having A LOT of success on the job front. I wanted to share this with my family because I know they have been praying for me. I had one job interview today, one tomorrow, one on Friday and one next Tuesday. I am really excited for all of them. Two falls ago I did an internship helping a small business owner figure out some finances. It was a lot more than I could chew at first and I had to ask for help from my professors and do a lot of research on my own, but it was so rewarding. I learned so much. I have been looking for a similar job to that, and I have been blessed with three sweet interviews. We'll know February 1 if I get any 2nd rounds. It will be interesting to see where I end up.

I want to say thanks to all those who have remembered us in their prayers and especially me on my job hunt.

Followup

So I got a phone call today and an email last week. They both can be summed up by saying I am still jobless.

The Best Night of my Life

So Gini and I are engaged. Sorry I didn't let you know if you are finding out this way. She posted her story on her blog here. So my story is going to go a long way back so bear with me. October General Conference Gini was in Idaho watching Lori play volleyball. I was in Newton with my brother and his family, Gini was going to come down Saturday afternoon and we were going to watch conference together Saturday afternoon and Sunday. We had kinda talked about marriage but we weren't sure. I don't know exactly what happened but Sunday after conference was over we were on Greg's deck sitting and talking and I said, "would you like to get married?" She looked at me and said ,"Yes" in a sweet soft voice. So she came over and sat on my knee, at which moment Greg's patio furniture could take no more and cracked and ruined our picturesque moment.

Fast forward two months, the ring is being made, but we said we wouldn't make ANY plans until I proposed and we told people. So I had talked to her dad last Sunday and we were just waiting on the ring basically. I hadn't heard back from the jeweler and I was getting kind of worried. He had told me he would have it done by 10th so I could propose around Christmas time. That was the plan. Well Friday morning I just thought you know the ring isn't going to be done anytime soon and I am tired of waiting. So I saddled up and found a ring that looked exactly like hers at Nordstrom in SLC. So I had my mom go get it.

I get out of class, wreck her car, and then head to my parents. I get there and get the ring and we mess around with my Mom's tree for a bit when I am like gini let's just go look at Christmas lights. So we head out. There were two houses that I really wanted to go visit. One was Greg's old bus driver's house, he always had such a HUGE production. I remember going and just being wowed and I wanted to go there and propose there. Well we go by house 1 and just drive by. Then we go to the bus driver's house. he must have passed away because there wasn't a single light on the house. I was like ohhh crud I can't go to temple square that would be way too cheesy. I mean who gets engaged there? Zoobies. So I go back to house 1 and say lets get out and go for a walk.

So we are walking around this house and I have been setting my proposal up from the beginning. I always ask her, "would now be a good time to propose?" Which I follow up with some "fake proposal" some were funnier than the other. So I destroyed any faith she had in me so she wouldn't see it coming. So we are looking at lights and I run my spill of timeliness of proposal and then hit one knee. Which unleashes a fury of blows that resembles something like I got growing up from one of three older brothers. She keeps saying Eric knock it off, get up and smacking me. So I do the only thing I can do, rush the delivery and pull out the ring. At which moment she goes Eric I love you so much you are such a blessing in my life. We kissed and that was history.

The miracle she is referring to is the fact I didn't cry at any point on Friday night.

Dell

I love blogging. I love it because it causes me to think about my family and whenever I am having a rough or tough time, not that I am right now, I just get so full of hope thinking about them.

Today at Dell things were a wash, I had one good interview, one okay one, and one that I had already interviewed with the lady once before. So yea the only thing left to do now is wait. By the end of the month I should have heard back from both jobs to see what they think. I am curious to find out what is going on.

Today I read a talk by President Monson about gratitude. It made me think about my life, especially about the way I acted today. Today I felt really put out by the fact that I have had so many interviews this week and one didn't go exactly how I dreamed it was suppose to go. I was upset with myself, and especially upset with the interviewer. I realize now it was the Lord telling me that I need to be more grateful for everything.

"My brothers and sisters, to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven." - President Monson

I really enjoyed this quote. I love it actually. I need to be grateful and humble. I felt bad this morning because I had been comparing this job to Disney a lot and it was unfair to Dell. I need to be more grateful for everything I have in my life.

Interviews

Sorry to all my faithful blog readers. I know I haven't posted yet and this week has been a pretty exciting week. Let's recap to date.

Sunday night at 11 PM Gini dropped me off at the airport, I took a red-eye to Atlanta and then onto Orlando. It was totally weird. I hate flying red-eyes. Anyways, while we are taxi-ing I make chit chat with the lady next to me. She is flying home to North Carolina from a writer's convention in San Francisco.

Me: What is your book about?

Her: Angels among us, but not your nice angels these are kinda scary ones.

Me: What made you want to write about that?

Her: I had a pretty supernatural childhood

Me: What did you live in a haunted house or something?

Her: My parents were exorcists.

Me: Okay

Yea so I quizzed her about that for a while got some good stories then went to sleep. I got to Disney and had the time of my life. I love Disneyworld and even if I don't get a job there I will probably go back. We are at a reception party meeting and greeting when who shows up? That is right Mickey Mouse! With a professional photographer. I run to the front of the line. I got a sweet picture with him, I have it in a frame they gave all the interviewers and I show it off whenever I get a chance. It is driving Gini nuts. Well during the meet and greet a guy comes up to me and says Eric tell me about bow hunting elk. My jaw hits the floor. I have had that as a personal item on my resume since who knows when and he is the first one to bring it up. He lets me gush and I talk about how much fun it is, how hard it is, and how it is more mental than anything. Then for dinner what do they serve? Elk, so he brings it up to the table of 12 that I am at and I go through again about killing elk. I am in 7th heaven. I grabbed the menu to prove to Gini that hunting does pay off.

So then the interviews were nuts, sprinkled with some of the best food and happiest times of my life and I am back home Tuesday night. I don't want to bore people....

I left this morning for Austin to interview with Dell in the morning I am really looking forward to it also. I am lucky to have so many great companies that are giving me a chance to interview with them. I am happy and safe. Things couldn't be better. I will let you all know what happens.

If by chance I see you around in the next two weeks at any family function, be sure that I will have my Mickey Mouse picture with me. Basically it is the biggest accomplishment of my life.

Good Times

So things have been going awesome, super busy but awesome. Between this week and next, I have two 3-5 page papers due, 4 tests, a 2 page case study, other various assignments, and more volleyball than I know what to do with. PS Go Bengals. Anyways, I have been uber busy but the job offer from Navistar has been consistently on my mind. On Tuesday Elder Costa of the Seventy came and spoke on campus. He talked about leaving the harbor of safety and enjoying the voyage of life outside of Utah. I felt so strongly that I need to look at jobs outside of Utah and I felt really good about Navistar. That night Gini and I were talking about me taking the job at Navistar, I felt good about it and really like the offer. I told her I was probably going to call them tomorrow (today) and commit. She told me to wait a little bit and go to the temple first. I was kinda surprised but I agreed and so I put it off. I planned on going either Thursday or this weekend. Well tonight something amazing happened.

Gini and I were sitting at my house just chatting when my phone rang, I didn't recognize the number but I answered anyways. I hear a familiar voice on the phone say hey Eric how is it going this is Sam. Sam was a BYU alum that I interviewed with last Friday from Disney. In their park and recreation department. I know such a hard job. The conversation proceeded thus:

Me: Sam how are you?

Sam: I am doing great how are you?

Me: Crazy with school but good now that I am not sick anymore, (he told me during the interview he would call and let me know either yes or no)

Sam: Hey we want to have you out to Orlando on the 15th and 16th for second round interviews Me (in my mind): What the fetch, are you kidding me? I thought you were calling to tell me thanks but no thanks

Me (from my mouth): Whoa that would be awesome, lets do it.

Sam: Here is the information

Gini (in her mind): I hope he gets a job with Disney so I get in free to Disneyland

Gini (in her mouth): Congrats Eric

So we both are kinda surprised and we start talking about what to do with Navistar and Disney now knocking on my door. When my phone rings again I see it is an 800 number and I was like hrm I guess Sam is calling me back. I answer

Me: Hello

Man: Is this Eric Phillips?

Me: Yes

Man: Hi my name is Stuart, I am with Dell

Me: (looking incredibly shocked) Hey Stuart how are you?

Stu: We want to have you out for interviews on the 18th and 19th

Me: Done, what do I have to do

Stu: I'll email you

Me: Stu great talking to you talk to you soon

These conversations were a little more full and exciting than this but I just shortened it up for you. When I got off the phone with Dell I looked at Gini and she was all smiles, which is probably what I was. It was so nuts. Then she screamed and ran into my arms, it was magical. So we are both just shocked because in a fifteen minute time window, I got two invites for second round interviews.

So that week is going to be nuts, Monday and Tuesday in Florida; Thursday and Friday in Texas. Good thing I worked at Savage this last summer and this trip is cake.

So it just got me thinking about how blessed I am. I wanted to find a job outside Utah to start my career and I have been blessed with some wonderful opportunities to do just that. I think of all the kids from the Marriott School who have no job offers, let alone no second round interviews and it just floors me that I have one offer already and two second round interviews coming up. In the words of one of my blog inspirators, I am seriously so blessed.

So my living options for next year just grew, from Chicago based, to now include Orlando, FL; Austin, TX; Anaheim, CA; and Burbank, CA. Life is really good for me right now. I can't express in words how grateful I am for the many blessings God has given me in my life right now. I am shocked that of so many wonderful candidates I have been selected for the processes I have been chosen for. I don't think it is anything I have done, I really owe it all to God for these great opportunities.

I'll keep you updated.