So a little more about my job.

The company is a mining consultant with about 30 people in the Salt Lake office. (there is also an office in Calgary, Denver and West Virginia) We have the
whole 12th floor of a 24 story building in downtown SLC. Great views from the windows! (see pics in link below)  Its so cool to be in a downtown area with
cafes, restaurants and a light rail system I can use if I don't feel like driving. If I had to compare the size of SLC, I'd say it looks and feels a bit like downtown
Madison.  There is the Capitol building 3 blocks from us and the University of Utah about 12 blocks away.  There are two small shopping malls as well with a
Borders books and a really neat local bookstore that carries both new and used (all mixed together on the sames shelves). Its in an older building so
there are balconies and basement book sections and a coffee shop.

My job is administrative support that includes formatting reports, publishing and binding them, printing large geological maps on a plotter and
then trimming and folding them in specific ways to fit publication.  I also help out in the accounting office doing accounts payable and
processing expense reports. These can be complicated since the geologists travel many trips a month and go to US and places like Mongolia and
Australia. It's a sophisticated company in some ways but small enough to not have to deal with the red tape of a large company. We have decent
benefits too.

I've been trying to not go out to lunch too much so I don't overspend but its really tempting since there are so many cute little places to try in
downtown. Today we went to Big City Soup which usually has 8 homemade soups, and they include a big piece of bread and cheese for $7. It seems
expensive for a take out but their soups are so interesting. I had Brie Crab today and Melanie had Pork Tortilla. I've also eaten at the Garden Terrace
in the Joseph Smith Memorial building and the Lion House Pantry in the Beehive House (where Brigham Young lived when he led the Mormon church.

One cool thing I got to do after work was go to a the World tour of the Banff Film Festival at the University. It was about 3 hours of mountain
related films from hiking, to kayaking to mountain culture of Italy. Mostly documentaries. It was really cool. My favorite was the parasail guy
who flew over the Grand Canyon (which is illegal unless you are over 11,000 ft). He video taped the whole thing.

The Sundance Film Festival also screened many of their films just a few blocks from my office, as well as their screenings up in Park City. I was able to see
a film called Clearcut about a logging town in Oregon. The documentary was about the local logging company threatening to pull their 100% scholarships
(all seniors get a full ride to any college of their choice) because of a science teacher badmouthing the logging industry during classes.

My commute each day ranges between 15 min and 45 depending on weather or accidents, and also depending on what time I leave for work. But I average 30
minutes which is reasonable. (I was driving 50 min to Motorola)

job related pictures