New Jobs and No Headsets

When deciding to move from Utah to Washington, D.C., I knew there would be a chance that because of how much it costs to live here, it would be better to return to a full-time financial services position rather than trying to find a full-time photo/video related position.  I spent a month looking for an open "creative service" type role with any company in the area and either I never heard back or the pay offered was so little, it would be hardly worth the metro fee I'd have to pay to get me to the office.  It was fairly discouraging.  Rejection sucks.  Silent rejection sucks even more!  I was applying to at least 8 jobs a week, and very rarely would I even hear back a "thanks, but no thanks."  Companies must be getting so many applicants, that rejecting every one individually takes too much time.  I had one interview to work as a video editor in Alexandria, but the pay was incredibly low, and it was Republican Propaghanda.  (Although, a side note:  Editing ads to promote replubicans probably woud have been a good exercise for me personally!  Learning to edit "the other side of the argument" from my own personal views.) 

In the mean time, I was also applying to positions in the financial sector.  I didn't necessarily want to take a step back since I have worked both as an Assistant Branch Manager for a credit union, and also as a Licensed Investment Rep with Fidelity Investments.  So I was looking for anything requiring a Series 7 and/or 63 License.  For those unfamiliar with what that is, the investment/securities industry is highly regulated, and you have to pass certain tests administered by the watch dog company FINRA in order to sell/solicit/etc stocks and mutual funds and other investment products.   It's sort of like getting a driver's license though--as long as you stay working in the industry you never have to take the exams again.  And they give you a window of around 18 months or something like that if you do something like I did and leave the investment world for a while.  Lucky for me, if I could find a position with an investment firm, I would be in that window of time and wouldn't be required to retest. 

I had been talking with my friend Mark, Ex-Wells Fargo Manager Superstar/Ex-DC Resident, and I guess Ex-Utah resident too!  He told me a little about the job market in DC.  What to look for, what to avoid, etc.  He sent me a referral for a position with Wells Fargo Advisors.  It was essentially perfect for my background, and I jumped on the opportunity.  It was literally two days later that I heard from the Branch Manager requesting an interview.  I scheduled the appointment, dusted off my suit, and a week later made the trip up to Friendship Heights to meet Sin.  Yes--his name was Sin.  Interview went well, I was able to dodge the bullet of being out of the financial industry for a year well, and pleased to remind them that my 7/63 licenses were still active.

We shook hands, I left, and the following day I had an offer. 

Here's the thing.  I've always liked the stock market and how money moves in and out of the market.  It's exciting and is always changing.  I remember visiting my grandma in Palm Desert and she would have the TV set to CNBC all morning and afternoon so she could be checking how her portfolio was doing all the time.  I loved that, and wanted to do that.  I get numbers -- most of the time they make sense to me.  I thought working at Fidelity would be the pathway to doing what my grandma got to do all day, but that's not in their business model.   I can wrap up why my experience at Fidelity was less than perfect:  PHONE CENTER.  I was attached to a headset all day.  Now, I get from an operations perspective why you have to manage a phone center with such strict time policies about breaks, lunches, how long you are actually in the phone queue, etc, but this type of work environment was toxic for me.   

I swore I would never go back.  After the refreshing change that FitFlicks brought, I swore I would stay in the creative services arena forever.  So, I guess plans change, ideas evolve, and maturity tries to settle in.  I'm back in the financial sector, but this time -- I think I'm finally in the right position and the right direction.  I'm doing more with my 7/63, working closely to support three Financial Advisors and their books of business.  It is essentially taking what I loved about the credit union and what I loved about Fidelity, and merging them together while taking a few steps forward.  No headsets and no calls holding.  No red lit days! 

Ultimately, as a military spouse I have to be prepared for frequent and most likely inconvient moves and transitions.  I hope that one day I can work for myself independantly--one step towards that goal is working here with Wells Fargo Advisors.  And for the first time in a long while, I'm excited to come to work everyday. 

2013 Photo Recap

I am what many people may describe as an Instagram-er.  What first was just a more streamlined approach to sharing my photography, has turned into a daily obsession to see what new "likes" my pictures have tallied, as well as disappointment to see photos I thought would be a huge "liking" success were getting a measely 5-10 likes.  But all of that is just Instagram babble. 

White House Obsession

It seems as if I have a new obsession with the White House.  I was able to attend two different events at the White House this holiday season, and then received the Lego White House as a Christmas gift this year.  I don't think you can actually have too much White House in your life.  Ha!  Here are a few photo moments from the WH trip(s) I made.  And the completed Lego WH!

Welcome to DC!

What better way to start a new blog than with an end of the year wrap up? 2013 was a big year for us—better than 2012 in my personal opinion. The main catalyst for many events of 2013 came from the big decision from the Supreme Court with regards to DOMA.

Let me take a few steps back to clarify a few things. The repeal of DADT in 2010 protected service members from being kicked out of the military for being openly gay. Many of our close friends thought that when Cort joined the military, we would immediately be afforded all the rights of any other committed military couple. This was, however, not the case at all. Because of DOMA, the military did not recognize any form of gay relationship—even if you had been legally married in a state that allows same-sex couples to marry. This meant that on all of Cort’s military documents he was “single” in the eyes of the military. Now granted, at this time we were not legally married. But it wasn’t even an option for us, and would have had no effect on his application and status in the Navy. 

Cort left for boot camp in the early part of 2012. At that point, we really had no idea when we would actually be living together again in the same house—or same state for that matter. It was with blind faith in our relationship that we believed we would be able to weather the obvious road of difficult separation that lay ahead. I remember those first few weeks quite vividly. Those who know me can tell you I am sometimes an overly emotional person. I think it runs in the family—we are all hyper sensitive to situation, and cry during movies that never meant to solicit tears from the viewer. I cried. A lot. But I also had a full-time job, and had just started stage managing a play. More so, we were living in a very conservative area, where I think many people I knew just didn’t know how to sympathize with a man missing his man—or more likely they didn’t feel comfortable with the situation. 

Boot camp came and went. I survived. Cort Survived. And then Cort was given a special assignment to work with the Ceremonial Guard in Washington, DC. This is where we began to feel the impacts of DOMA. Other guardsman had their spouses and children join them at the guard. I was stuck in Utah, and Cort stuck living in the barracks. Like I said earlier, the military regarded Cort as single so there was nothing for us to do but feel frustrated.

Flash forward again to this past June. There was a case currently being presented to the Supreme Court challenging constitutionality of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). United States v. Windsor in a nutshell was a lawsuit brought on by the surviving spouse of a legally married same-sex couple who sought to claim the federal estate tax exemption for surviving spouses. Because of Section 3 of DOMA, she wasn’t allowed to claim this on her taxes since the federal government did not consider her to be a “spouse”. I mean, wouldn’t you sue if the IRS wanted you to pay $363,053 dollars if your legal husband or wife died and other legally married couples were allowed to claim the tax exemption and you were not?

I was always talking in the “if’s and when’s” dream language (sometimes to my own detriment), thinking that it would be a much longer time until we would see any sort of legal movement towards equal rights for gay couples, so when the Supreme Court decided to hear the case in March of 2013, I was on edge! This decision was going to decide the future of our military life together, ultimately making it “easier” or letting it continue to be as it was. And of course, they waited the entire month of June to make the announcement. But June 26th came, and so did the decision I wanted to hear. On June 26th, the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision declaring Section 3 of DOMA to be unconstitutional.

I already had a trip planned to visit Cort at the end of July, and in the District of Columbia, same-sex couples can legally be married. So while visiting him, we made the necessary arrangements and were married by a man who looked like a chubby Jimmy Neutron in front of the Lincoln Memorial. We had to hire an officiant because the earliest availability for a justice of the peace was in late September. It was nothing short of a great memory: Cort in a green tank-top, and both of us wearing shorts and flip-flops, we had a no-hassle marriage license signing in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

Because of the repeal of DOMA, Cort and I were legally afforded all the rights of any other married military couple. I am now a proud, card-carrying Mr. Military Spouse, and I want to share the excitement with all of you!

I choose to blog now mainly for myself and to officially create some sort of archival history of our journey together as a military family. But I also want anyone who may find interest in my (our) story to follow me as well. What you will most likely see from my blog of “our life together as a military family” is nothing more than a platform to serve the purpose of allowing parents, siblings, and relatives to keep up with things we are doing. Enjoy the ride, and here’s to a fantastic 2014!