Swagger Wagon

Soooo... If you know me well, you know how I've sworn
to never drive a minivan (probably because of the
hideous Astrovan we had when my family was young and in rags)
BUT... after watching this video I might want to join the Sienna Family.

"Thank you for calling University Park Marriott"

So yesterday all of my co-workers kept saying

"happy anniversary!"

I didn't get it... Mike and I's one year wedding anniversary

isn't until JUNE 25th, not May 25th.

At any rate, I thought it was incredibly nice that everyone

remembered it was on the 25th.

Then, finally... one of my favorites, Haylee, said

"I can't believe you've been here 2 years now."

It was my 2 year anniversary of working at the

University Park Marriott.

Some days I think it's been two years too long.

BUT most days I just LOVE my job at the front desk.

Yes, it definitely qualifies as a glorified "joe job" but...

I'm okay with that for now...

Thank you Marriott for the great travel benefits

and thank you Marriott guests, for giving me plenty of

ridiculous stories over these past two years!

New.

First, we got rid of some OLD things yesterday at the

HUGE University Student Apartments yard sale.

There were tons, dare I say at least a thousand, people there.

We threw some things together to sell last minute and made

fifty bones. Ha... that will be spent easily.

Now that we've gotten rid of the old... bring on the NEW!

We move up to Bountiful in two weeks!

Into a brand NEW basement apartment.

(So NEW that it isn't even close to finished right now...)

For that NEW place we plan to buy a NEW couch, NEW bedding,

a NEW painting for the wall and Mikey is planning on a NEW projector.

(Good luck, squeezing that into our budget babe!)

Also, we bought the NEW car. We love it.

We have cruised everywhere in it already... State Street, up Millcreek Canyon,

down to St. George and around Zions National Park!

Mike got a NEW job! He is interning as the

Internet Marketing Assistant at

SkinCareRx.com

He loves it so far! His boss is awesome.

It's the atmosphere that fits his personality and interests the best!

Goodbye USANA.... You've been good to us, but a dead end road nonetheless.....

AND... It's a NEW semester for Mike! He is taking 4 classes this summer

so that we can graduate together next Spring!

He will be busy, busy, busy with 12 credits and an intern position....

I think I'll still see him more than I did last semester though.

As for me, I'm STILL at the Marriott. I feel like I'm long overdue for a change....

Ode {to the Altima}

We've had you but a brief 11 hours.

But we love you.

You have a beautiful brown exterior with

a nice black interior.

But the reason I (Alyssa) love you

the most.... you have a radio/cd player!

I am sure many of you remember Beamer.

Some of you may have taken rides in it while

others were afraid to.

Surprisingly enough, there are some things we

will miss about Beamer.

We will miss the smell of crayons,

the black leather in the summertime, the way it occasionally shook around 40 mph,

the broken radio, the sweet sounds of the outdoors as we drove....

Okay really, I think we'll only miss the sunroof.

Don't worry though! It is not dead yet.

Kelsey Fausett will soon be the proud new driver

of the infamous '92 BMW.

(Why infamous you asked? Well... it had some run-is with Trax,

flying boulders and a dump truck!)

Enough about the past though... Let's talk about the present!

Our brand new (to us) car is a Nissan Altima that had only

35,000 miles on it! We bought it from Levi at Ken Garff Nissan.

Levi was the BEST! He dealt with our picky-ness

from the beginning. He spent at least an hour with us trying to find

the right thing before I asked if there were any used Altimas or Maximas.

He said no and that they go like hotcakes! But then he remember an Altima

the dealership had just got in 2 days ago.

We pulled up to it (in the Nissan Xterra that Mike really wanted....

sorry Mike. You'll thank me with the first trip to the gas station.)

We jumped out and and peeked inside. I loved it! We loved it!

Levi had no clue about the car since it just came in.

I told Levi to go find out about it

BUT

don't come back with the keys unless it

fits in our price range....

LONG story short. He came back with keys.

I fell in love with it. Mike felt he had no choice.

We bought it.

FOR A STEAL though!! We got it for $5,500 below Kelley Blue Book.

They planned on selling it for SOOOOO much more

but Levi knew we (I) wanted it... and now that he made

no commission off of us, I am making him

my wonderful taco soup and cornbread.

I make some killer taco soup and cornbread....

and now, I drive a killer car.

Modern Business Correspondence (1907)

Continuing my last post about my business writing class, I found this book at the University of Utah's library sale. It was written in 1907 and has chapters about how to send Telegrams and Cablegrams, how to send a letter through the mail and how many hours it will take to arrive, and how to write a good advertisement as a merchant. It gives this poem for all merchants to remember:

"We may live without poetry, music, and art;

We may live without conscience and live without heart;

We may live without friends and live without fads-

But business today can not live without ads."

What I found quite funny was the politically incorrect way of writing toward women. check it out for yourself here.

So, if i understand correctly, all women should only be signing their own name if they are unmarried or widowed? When did that change?

"Cross"ing the Line of Traditional Advertising

What is a business writing class good for? I haven't really figured that one out yet... but it did get my brain juices flowing to the point where I crafted a 12 page guerrilla marketing research paper and these photos to show how easy guerrilla marketing campaigns can be. (If you don't know what guerrilla marketing is, it is just doing something out of the ordinary to get a consumer's attention.) So, as part of trying to explain how non-traditional marketing works, I used the photoshop skills within me and took 6 different companies to push my point even further. Let me know which one is your favorite!

Here is the template that I used - Just a common street

AT&T: More Bars in More Places
Tide: Brighten up your way
UtahSymphony.org: noteworthy advertising
Coca-Cola Crossing
Nike: Pedestrian Playoff
Kinko's: white-out walk-out

Open House for the Rich and Famous

Okay, so today Lyss and I were driving down 13th East in Sugarhouse and saw people thronging near the Tuscan masterpiece on Harvard Ave. If it wasn't for the 15 open-house signs and balloons, we most likely would have driven right past it. Luckily though (thanks to quick thinking and a near car accident) we were able to change our course of direction and park ourselves right out front among the BMWs, Mercedes, and Infinities.

As we entered the home, we were asked to take off our shoes or put on little white booties. It reminded me of the time I had gone through the Bountiful Temple open-house. And comparably, this home was just as awe-striking. The entryway had intricate tile patterns and smelled of fresh mahogany. It leads you into the living room, which has been refinished but kept the original fireplace from 1923. Turning left would send you into a small den that opened up to the patio above the garage and continuing forward would send you into the dining room/kitchen area.

The newly renovated kitchen had beautiful cabinetry, subway tile, multicolored tiled flooring, and an awesome granite-mirror counter top (not to mention the stainless steel appliances).

where the camera shows in the kitchen, turning left will take you into a huge hallway with floor to ceiling walnut cabinets on both sides that lead into the mud-room. I was less impressed with the mudroom because of the color, but still loved the layout and design. going back through the kitchen to the downstairs takes you around a wooden spiral-like staircase where two bedrooms and access to the garage are.

The bathroom in the basement had a His-and-Her sink with a beautiful mirror and great tiles (once again). The garage seemed pretty small though, and I don't think that you could've fit a large sized SUV in it. Going back up the stairs to the top level brings you to one more bedroom and bath and the master suite.

The master bedroom was simply amazing with exposed support beams for the extra lofty ceilings. The wood flooring was also a great touch, but kind of left the room feeling cold... but that's okay, because you have a sauna that connects to the room. Equipped with a jet-tub, amazing built in cabinetry for the vanity and walk-in closet, and most of all, a shower built for the gods.

The shower was by far the coolest thing I had ever seen. It had multiple heads from different directions, a bench, and the whole thing was covered in tile. When you are inside the shower, you are actually standing right above the front door (see first picture above). The only downside of the whole house that we could find was that the house had absolutely no yard. The Realtor stated that you could always use the lawn that was across the street, but who would want their kids playing on an island of grass between two busy streets!?

Oh, and did I mention that it is up for sale for $800,000?