I like to ride my bicycle

In the spirit of writing neglected blog post topics before Miss Evette comes and steals the show, here's a mini history into my life.

Warning: I'm sure all of my dates and ages are probably wrong. I didn't consult my mom first, so who knows how this all played out in real life.

Ok, so this isn't exactly a bike, but it show's I was an enthusiast even from a young age!

My first bike.  Do you see the training wheels? Me neither. Never had them. Ever. I learned to ride at the age of three without training wheels. Sure, the big pine bushes in Y-Mount Terrace (BYU) and I got to be very good friends, but I never broke a bone and more importantly, I learned without training wheels.

Now that I've written that, I kind of wish I was a professional cyclist.  Wouldn't that be an epic opening to my bio??

 Same bike, probably the same age, with my best friend of the time, Brady Gambles.  

[INSERT PHOTO HERE]

The bike that received the most attention from me, my parents, and the local police force entered and left my life various times.  Most of that leaving was the cause of bike thieves, but despite the fact that we recovered it twice, apparently we never took a photo of it.  At least not one good enough to end up in the scrapbook.  It was big and red and had plastic white rims.

 Don't think I don't know you.  You're not looking at the bike, you're looking at that fat kid holding it.  

Yes, that is me, Sean McQuay.  I went through quite the chunky phase, and here's some evidence of it - I have witnesses and plenty of circumstantial evidence, including more photos, to back it up.  

Now that we've cleared that up, let me mention this bike: I had it forever.  I actually wouldn't be surprised at all if it's still in my parents garage.  Loved it.  I learned the rudiments of mountain biking on that thing (yes, after I lost 100 pounds - don't worry, that would have been dangerous for the bike otherwise).

I also should note, if only for history's sake that that Audi's engine melted (literally) at least twice while we owned it and that house behind me belongs to the Kilgores, a wonderful red-headed elderly couple with whom we still keep contact.  I almost ran into their house while driving a truck at the age of 11 or so.  I don't think we ever told them about that.  I may tell you about that later.

Second historical notes connected to this bike: I was given this bike for Christmas (I think this photo was actually taken on Christmas day - [thank you Seattle for always being green]) and this bike largely contributed to my pre-teen asthma.  You see, I was rather overweight but wanted to ride my new bike anyways, so I took it on a ride for a couple miles.  I came back wheezing and never looked back.

Third historical note: before Santa got me this bike, my Uncle Matthew offered to give me his.  That was an exciting prospect until I saw it - an ugly road bike for old people.  I felt horrible and incredibly awkward - I couldn't figure out how to tell him or my parents that I didn't want his bike.  Thankfully someone read my body language decently enough to understand and the bike was then packed back into his truck.

Fourth historical note (thanks mom for pointing this out): Once, when I was 11-12 ish we were driving in our mini van to the church ranch in the Cascade mountains.  My bike was strapped on top and we were listening to Rock Lobster while we drove.  Then the bike reproved me for the horrible music choice by sliding off the roof and crashing to the freeway at about 80 mph.  Thankfully the bike actually fared pretty well and wasn't destroyed in the process.  Some other horrible thing happened while listening to that song, which is why you'll never hear my family listening to it while we drive.

[INSERT PHOTO HERE]

This bike never got a photo simply because I'm certain we never took a picture of it.  For that matter, I'm not even sure I rode it more than once or twice.  I think we got it soon after arriving to Houston or shortly before leaving Portland, but either way it got no love.  It was silver and incredibly heavy.  It was one of those bikes with the triple spring thing that looks so cool but in reality is 99% useless and adds 50% more to the weight of the bike.

And this is the most recent bike to add to the list - my 1976ish Schwinn Varsity.  I love it.  It's in the shop today (see how the chain is dangling a little bit in the second photo? and its rear brakes needed some help). Heidi blogged about it a week-and-a-half ago.  

It's cut my travel time down to and from (and within) school hugely which is really nice considering we live a little further away from campus than we used to.  I'm kind of missing my favorite time to read (while walking), but I'm making up for that elsewhere.  When I ride it on campus I feel like an amphibian - I can ride either on the roads or the sidewalks and switching between the two fills me a thrill that only frogs and salamanders know.

{And that is how business is done!}

Don't you love it when things turn out way better than you expected them to? I do - let me share with you 2 examples that happened TODAY.

First off - our car has had a flap of plastic hanging underneath the car for... um ever [I don't want to say how long because it's truly embarrassing. You can hear it scraping on the road when you back up, and in the winter time [hint of how long it's been...] it's especially bad and gets caught on the snow. Recently, it got really bad and it could be heard when driving normally - that's not supposed to happen, friends. So, since I am fully capable of dealing with car issues, I put it on my to-do list to get it fixed this week. I was planning on driving around to a couple different car places, explaining the issues, and seeing how much it could cost to get it fixed and then get it done.

My first stop was at Jiffy Lube. The guy was super helpful, listened to what I said, said he noticed the piece of plastic and that he could fix it for me for $900, and then smiled and winked. I asked him seriously and he explained what he would do and I asked him how much it would be - for free. Free, my friends. They guy said it was a stupidly simple thing and that it would take him about 5 minutes - fro free. BAM.
I sat there and made small chit chat with the other worker guys while the one went to go fix it up. 5 minutes later, he came back, said he'd like to see me again when the car needs an oil change, and gave me a bunch of Jiffy Lube coupons. That's how it's done, people! That's customer service.
5 minutes. for free. now i'm a loyal customer. BAM.

Next - The husband and I got our wedding rings at Dave Hur Jewelers - we went there first because I fell in love with my ring there and I'm so glad I did. Dave Hur is a great guy - met with him every single time we went to the shop. We even got to custom design the husband's ring so it would match mine. He was very nice and generous, and easy to work with. I even got my wedding ring re-sized FOR FREE a couple months after we bought it, because that's just the type of business he runs.

Well, fast forward a year and a bit past our wedding and the husband and I were in Salzberg, Austria at the market by the river. I saw this ring and fell in love with it. It's a sea shell!:

I have worn this ring more than my wedding ring - I hardly ever take it off. I sleep with it, shower with it, swim with it, camp with it... everything. I have maybe not worn it one or two days in the last year and a half. But then something happened - I got pregnant. Recently, this little baby has made my body retain water like crazy never mind the extra blood supply and fluids my body has produced, never mind the heat. All these factors add up to some swelling fingers. I took my wedding ring off a couple days ago and haven't worn it since... but I didn't even think about taking off this other ring [husband did tell me a couple weeks ago that I should take it off and leave it off because my fingers were swelling just a little bit, but I didn't listen to him...ooops.]. But yesterday, I started to get nervous - my finger was starting to look like a sausage and hurting a bit. I could not get the ring off despite how hard I tried. I tried multiple times last night and this morning to get it off. I used oil, lotion, windex, held my hand above my head, dunked it in cold water, and used saran wrap and floss to try to get it off. I even combined a couple of these suggestions. It was fruitless and painful.

So this afternoon I went to Dave Hur jewelers and told him of my predicament. I told him I wanted him to cut my ring off [this broke my heart]. He took a look at my hand and said, do you want me to cut it off, or to simply take it off? I said of course, just take it off, but that I had tried everything. He stood there and told me not to look at my finger and then proceeded to massage the ring off of my hand while he just talked to me for the next 3-4 minutes or so that it took. Brilliant! He didn't use any lotions or fancy tricks - he said it was best if your finger was completely dry and it just took patience and some work. A couple minutes later my ring was off and I was free! I now have a lovely mark around my finger where the ring was. It looks scarred - let's hope that that goes away! He said I was not allowed to put it back on for at least 4 months after baby comes and my swelling goes down. I promised him. I then asked him how much it cost and he said - nothing! For Free! He said that that was basic customer service and that of course it was for free. And that, my friends, is one of the many reasons I love Dave Hur and would recommend his shop to anyone.

2 awesome stories for today. Huzzah!

{Baby Shower}

Two weeks ago my friend, Katie, threw me a baby shower! She did a magnificent job, as she does everything. Seriously, check out these pictures! [I'm glad she took some because I totally forgot to...]



And although the pictures might be adorable, you cannot taste the delicious potato soup she made, the yummy cupcakes, hear the laughs, and feel the wonderful atmosphere that she had going on there! It was such a fun party! It was fun to also see a bunch of my friends that I hadn't seen all summer since we were in Chicago. We left when I was barely showing [I thought I was huge...bahahahha....] and I came back just about ready to burst!
Great shower, great food, great games, great friends!!! :) Thanks, Katie!

{Hair Cuts}

I hate getting my hair cut. True story. It's not because I'm afraid of how it's going to turn out or because I hate forking out the big bucks [bahaha - like we have big bucks for that anyways...]- those aren't even issues for me. You see, my hair has basically been the same for...umm.. forever. It's long and straight - crazy right? I might throw in a little bit of layering every now and again but really, friends, it's the simplest thing ever. Thanks to my simple hair I do not care to spend large amounts of money getting it done. The only reason I go in for a hair cut is to get the split ends taken control of - period - the end.

So why do I hate getting my hair cut? Because I am stuck in a chair with the hairdresser thinking that they need to have a conversation with me. Does this make me a terrible person? I hope not. I would love to just sit there in silence answering the occasional "is this length ok?" and then pay them for doing a great job. But that never happens. It's always question after question about my personal life and they don't really care... it's just what they do. I heard them ask the previous person in the chair the exact same questions they ask me.

Fake hospitality, I guess is what it is. It happens everywhere - in the grocery store they ask you about your day and if you found everything okay... but they really don't care and you don't tell them the truth anyways. Even if you're having a terrible day you're going to say "I'm fine, thanks." But it doesn't matter, because 2 minutes later you grab your bags and you're on your way. When you get your hair cut, you're stuck and you can't escape and although I would love to say, "It's ok, we don't have to talk, I just want my hair trimmed and not have life discussions. Don't worry, I'll still tip you." I can't, because it's not socially acceptable. I have the same problem when I go get my nails done. They always want to have a conversation, but I would love to just look through those fashion magazines that I never buy in silence.

I hope this doesn't make me a terrible person - please tell me that I'm not the only one that feels this way.

{State Fair}

On Friday the 9th the husband and I went on a double date with my brother, Dan, and his date, Julia to the Utah State Fair! We had a super great time :)

Dan and Julia

Husband and I

We watched some of the rodeo events - love it.

The men eating their Turkey Legs....woah.

Julia and I with a fried pickle - don't judge :)

We saw all the livestock!

We also got to watch one of Dan's friends perform in a band - great, fun music!

{Labor Day}

I've been putting off blogging the last week or so just because I haven't been in the mood. I figured I'd get around to it eventually. Well, I have to stop procrastinating because soon we'll have a baby and then I won't have time to blog and if I do, it'll be about our cute little baby and not other things and those would never get blogged about, which is no bueno. So, here it goes.

For labor day the husband, his sister, and I went up to Soldier Hollow in Heber Valley for a sheep dog herding contest. Yes, you heard me correctly. Yes, it's just like on the movie Babe, but, with no pigs. I know it sounds weird and boring, but it was actually super fascinating!! The handler would have 25 minutes to have the dog lead the sheep through a certain path, bring them into a circle, and then separate 5 of them with a red collar and get those ones in the gated area.  It was actually pretty intense and interesting! Who woulda thought that I could get so worked up about a sheep herding contest lol.

Also, we had to sample some funnel cake :)

They had some other shows going on as well, but those were not as cool. One show said that they were going to have some acrobatic dogs.... I was not impressed. I think I was about 20 years older than their target audience, oops.

But, they did have a diving contest, which was kinda cool. The owners would throw a toy into the pool and see how far the dogs would jump - some of those were amazing! The owners would get the dogs all worked up and then they would run along that ramp and jump into the water. It was pretty entertaining to watch - especially some of those crazy owners trying to get their dogs excited. 

We had a really great time! It was such a fun/interesting way to spend our labor day!

 

Quant (BCG)

On August 26th I received a rather unexpected email from the Boston Consulting Group, one of the most prestigious management consulting firms in the world, inviting me to early round interviews with them only a week later. I had interviewed with BCG for an internship in February and had apparently done well, but not well enough to land me an internship.  Apparently they were still interested in me, hence the invite to interview with them before the standard rounds in early October - without me even submitting a renewed application.

Consulting interviews are not your average 15-30 minute behavioral-question-based interview.  The interviewee is given 5-10 minutes to talk the interviewer through the resume and answer questions about experiences listed there.  Then there's  25-30 minute long business case.

What does that mean?  Well, the interviewer describes a business problem he and his team was faced with a couple months ago and he/she asks you to walk them through how you would solve the problem.  I've been asked whether or not a construction company should bid on a project to build a nuclear power plant in Mongolia or if a regional convenience store should renew its contract with its current gasoline supplier or find some new source.  They're intense yes but absurdly fun.  It takes some practice to even know how to approach such daunting questions, but once those basics are smoothed out, it's a genuinely fun process. It's simply amazing how many problems logic can solve without a lot of experience in the given issue.

With BCG, for that early round interview, I had two such 45-minute interviews back to back over the phone.  The first one I feel I nailed thoroughly.  Certainly some tweaks here or there for improvement, but overall, I was really proud of that interview.  The second one didn't go so smoothly.  I missed a key detail in the initial business problem description and therefor built an entirely unapplicable framework to start with.  Once that mistake was realized I was able to get back into the groove of things fairly quickly, but then ran into some dumb math issues towards the end. I became flustered, lost my organization, and made a couple more silly math mistakes.  My final recommendation was ultimately a logical and thoughtful one, but I didn't get there without some guidance and correction from the interviewer.

My mental projection of how my two interviewers collaborated goes something like this:
First: "That kid was great, let's definitely invite him back"
Second: "Wait, what?  Sean? No way."

Four days later, I received a disheartening email informing me that I was not being invited to second-round interviews with them.  I knew I'd made some pretty basic mistakes but I was still very disappointed with the outcome.  I was hoping that since the first was more senior, he could throw more weight in my assessment, but apparently despite my high marks in logic and likeability, they were concerned about my quantitative skills - which I really can't blame them for, considering what they saw of me.

So I'm still looking at what opportunities there might be out there for me. And I guess I'll spend more time practicing my basic math skills, too.