It's been quite a while since I've posted. Life has been consumed by lots of work and preparing for our Europa trip.
Work has been going really well. The theatre has provided a variety of shows and events to work, which I love. Just the other day I worked a kids' audition. It was fun to see all the kids nervous and jittery but so transformed when they stepped on the stage.
The "new" job is still amazing. Having a little bit more leeway and decision power makes the job more enjoyable, as well as my amazing co-workers.
I'm all set for school in the Fall. Not much else to worry about on that front.
And really... that's all. BF and I are doing well. BFF and I are doing well. Roomie and I are going bonkers waiting for the big day to come.
Two weeks, in case you were wondering...
As you can tell, it really has consumed my life.
But I feel obligated to post something fun so amuse yourself with this...
http://www.textsfromlastnight.com/
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
"No cameras or recording devices!"
When going to the theatre, at what point does it cross your mind that you should bring a camera? And for what purpose? Oh, you're going to take pictures of you and your girls near the poster in the lobby as a momento? Okay, fair enough. But if you plan on taking a camera for the purpose of sneaking pictures during the production, please think twice. If not for your guilty conscience, knowing you will be ruining the show for those around you, at least for the sake of your own dignity because I will, without remorse, embarrass you.
This weekend, "Rent" was in full force at our venue. People lined up at 5:30am to score those magical $20 front row seats for the 7:30pm performance and the mega-fans were out to play. Maybe all the excitement of getting the front seats and the fact that "Rent is actually HERE! WITH ADAM AND ANTHONY!" blinded one young lady from the numerous signs not only all over the lobbies but the massive one on stage stating the ever-important policy...
"No cameras or recording devices"
I didn't pin her as the type as I led her to her seats early because she was wobbling around on crutchs. She seemed like one who was just there to watch the show... a law-abiding citizen. Goodness! was I wrong.
After intermission, a stage manager reported that "a boy in a pink wig" in the front row was taking pictures. I poked my head in and couldn't find a boy in a pink wig. As I stepped out into the stairway to radio the other assistant to check his side and see if anyone fit that description, another stage manager came bolting out of backstage frantically saying "It's out now, it's out now!" I bolted in to find it was no boy - it was my crutches friend. All bets were off now. We were no longer friends.
I quickly scuttled my way into the front row and just as she was zipping back up her purse I held out my hand and said, "You can give me your camera now. You can get it back after the show." The girl's face went bright red and worried... people around her started looking and pointing... BUSTED!
I exited to the lobby to delete the pictures she had taken (it's all copyrighted material). She had taken 75 pictures!!! Crazy woman! It infuriated me so much that someone would take that many pictures during a show that I got her back in my own special way...
At the end of the show, I went down to the front of the theatre to meet up with her. I handed her back her crutches and then her camera. I gave her a brief lecture about taking photos inside a theatre during a production. She then flusteredly asked me if the pictures were still on the camera...to which I responded with "Absolutely not." As the tears began to flow and she attempted to verbally reprimand me for invading her privacy by going into her camera I explained to her that what she did was illegal and if she wished to continue to argue with me about it I could get DPS so they can explain to her federal copyright laws. Obviously, that was the end of our conversation.
As I left my ex-friend in tears with a "Have a nice day", in my head I giggled a little bit. You see, because I knew that when she flipped her camera to playback to check if I got aaall the pictures, which she would undoubtedly do... that little glimmer of hope would be shattered by the only picture I did leave. The picture I took of the sign in the lobby stating no cameras or recording devices were allowed inside the theatre.
This weekend, "Rent" was in full force at our venue. People lined up at 5:30am to score those magical $20 front row seats for the 7:30pm performance and the mega-fans were out to play. Maybe all the excitement of getting the front seats and the fact that "Rent is actually HERE! WITH ADAM AND ANTHONY!" blinded one young lady from the numerous signs not only all over the lobbies but the massive one on stage stating the ever-important policy...
"No cameras or recording devices"
I didn't pin her as the type as I led her to her seats early because she was wobbling around on crutchs. She seemed like one who was just there to watch the show... a law-abiding citizen. Goodness! was I wrong.
After intermission, a stage manager reported that "a boy in a pink wig" in the front row was taking pictures. I poked my head in and couldn't find a boy in a pink wig. As I stepped out into the stairway to radio the other assistant to check his side and see if anyone fit that description, another stage manager came bolting out of backstage frantically saying "It's out now, it's out now!" I bolted in to find it was no boy - it was my crutches friend. All bets were off now. We were no longer friends.
I quickly scuttled my way into the front row and just as she was zipping back up her purse I held out my hand and said, "You can give me your camera now. You can get it back after the show." The girl's face went bright red and worried... people around her started looking and pointing... BUSTED!
I exited to the lobby to delete the pictures she had taken (it's all copyrighted material). She had taken 75 pictures!!! Crazy woman! It infuriated me so much that someone would take that many pictures during a show that I got her back in my own special way...
At the end of the show, I went down to the front of the theatre to meet up with her. I handed her back her crutches and then her camera. I gave her a brief lecture about taking photos inside a theatre during a production. She then flusteredly asked me if the pictures were still on the camera...to which I responded with "Absolutely not." As the tears began to flow and she attempted to verbally reprimand me for invading her privacy by going into her camera I explained to her that what she did was illegal and if she wished to continue to argue with me about it I could get DPS so they can explain to her federal copyright laws. Obviously, that was the end of our conversation.
As I left my ex-friend in tears with a "Have a nice day", in my head I giggled a little bit. You see, because I knew that when she flipped her camera to playback to check if I got aaall the pictures, which she would undoubtedly do... that little glimmer of hope would be shattered by the only picture I did leave. The picture I took of the sign in the lobby stating no cameras or recording devices were allowed inside the theatre.
Behind Adam Pascal's...Behind
While working "Rent" this weekend, I got the rare opportunity to accompany my boss backstage to deliver items to the stage manager. We took the back way, passing all the dressing rooms, and, inevitably, the actors. Squeezing down the very narrow hallway jammed full of travel closets and tables, we approached Adam Pascal ("Roger") bent over a table signing posters. We edged by, each whispering an "excuse me" as we passed, and it occured to me how many girls would have loved to be in my position... squeeeezing past Adam Pascal's backside.
Yeah... eat it up, ladies. Haha.
Yeah... eat it up, ladies. Haha.
Save the Duckies...
Maybe this is common knowledge...
Maybe I'm behind the times...
But this made me very happy to learn today.
You no longer have to cut the six-pack plastic binders for soda cans. Nope... just throw them in the recycle bin. Yup, they're recyclable.
Yay for saving Duckies!
Maybe I'm behind the times...
But this made me very happy to learn today.
You no longer have to cut the six-pack plastic binders for soda cans. Nope... just throw them in the recycle bin. Yup, they're recyclable.
Yay for saving Duckies!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Book List...
Apparently the BBC thinks most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.
Instructions:
Look at the list and put an 'x' next those you have read.
x 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
x 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
x 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
x 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
x 6 The Bible
x 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
x 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
x 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
x 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
x 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
x 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
x 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
x 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
x 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
x 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
x 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
x 34 Emma - Jane Austen
x 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
x 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
x 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
x 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
x 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
x 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
x 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
x 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
x 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
x 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
x 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
x 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
x 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
x 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Naboko
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold X
x 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
x 66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
x 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
x 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
x 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
x 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
x 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
x 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
x 87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
x 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
x 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
x 98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
x 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
x 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Seems that I have a few more to read but at least I passed the BBC's expectations. :)
**Thanks Jill.
Instructions:
Look at the list and put an 'x' next those you have read.
x 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
x 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
x 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
x 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
x 6 The Bible
x 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
x 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
x 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
x 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
x 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
x 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
x 22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
x 28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
x 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
x 31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
x 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
x 34 Emma - Jane Austen
x 35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
x 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
x 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
x 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
x 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
x 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
x 43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
x 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
x 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
x 50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
x 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
x 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
x 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
x 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Naboko
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold X
x 65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
x 66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
x 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
x 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
x 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
x 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
x 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
x 83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
x 87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
x 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
x 97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
x 98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
x 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
x 100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
Seems that I have a few more to read but at least I passed the BBC's expectations. :)
**Thanks Jill.
Claim Check #459: Baby
Last night I acted as House Manager for a symphony show and was presented with a truly unique situation. A baby was checked at the hatcheck. Yup, a baby. The parents checked the stroller and much to the surprise of the hatcheck assistant they left their baby in it. The hatcheck assistant didn't notice the small baby all bundled in white until the stroller started to cry. The two individuals working in that area couldn't remember what the parents looked like so they couldn't go get them... so what did they do? They babysat the kid. She cried... they strolled her around. Since when do we provide a babysitting service?!
Intermission came, the family grabbed the stroller, fed the baby, rolled it around. As intermission ended they started to roll the stroller over to the hatcheck and before we could comment to them "Sorry you can't leave your child here"... in very broken English they bolted away from the stroller yelling "Thank you.... one song more..." We went inside to find the parents that were lost in the crowd, gave up... continued caring for the baby. Once the piece was over, they came out, grabbed the stroller and left. As if it was the most natural thing to check your child.
So bizarre...
Probably should have called DPS.
*Sigh*
Intermission came, the family grabbed the stroller, fed the baby, rolled it around. As intermission ended they started to roll the stroller over to the hatcheck and before we could comment to them "Sorry you can't leave your child here"... in very broken English they bolted away from the stroller yelling "Thank you.... one song more..." We went inside to find the parents that were lost in the crowd, gave up... continued caring for the baby. Once the piece was over, they came out, grabbed the stroller and left. As if it was the most natural thing to check your child.
So bizarre...
Probably should have called DPS.
*Sigh*
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Always Celebrate Your Friend's Birthdays
Happy AZ Statehood Day, everyone!!!
The good ol' state is 97 years old and still alive and kicking!
The good ol' state is 97 years old and still alive and kicking!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
More Silver Lining.
I'll admit it - I have an addiction to Vanity Fair magazine. The mix of politics, culture and fashion is precisely my cup of tea. If I had to pick a favorite article or segment in the magazine, without a millisecond of hesitation, I'd pick the Editor's Letter. I received my February 2009 issue, opened it straight to the Editor's Letter and in the end I was so pleased with the month's article that I felt the need to post it. The entire piece is pretty long-winded (read the whole letter here) so I've copy and pasted from VanityFair.com the section that I particularly liked. Please take a moment to enjoy.
"If this is the Second Great Depression, or the Great Retrenchment, or the Great Reckoning, or whatever it’s going to be called, there has to be a silver lining somewhere. Perhaps all those expensive educations and burning talents that wound up on Wall Street moving money around will be redirected to fields of endeavor with some tangible output. In the years between 1929 and 1939, creative talent in the U.S. flowered as in no other period of the last century. The 30s, a decade of devastating hardship for so many, was also the golden age of art, photography, theater, and film. In New York City alone the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center were built during the 10 years beginning in 1929. The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, the Frick, and the Guggenheim all opened their doors during this period. And many of our great magazines, including Fortune, Life, Newsweek, and Esquire, were started during the decade. After the collapse of Wall Street in the 1920s, the culture stopped being all about money, and the country survived and ultimately flourished. Amid the wreckage we’ve created, America will most certainly rise again, and it might even be a better place to live and dream." - Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, February 2009.
"If this is the Second Great Depression, or the Great Retrenchment, or the Great Reckoning, or whatever it’s going to be called, there has to be a silver lining somewhere. Perhaps all those expensive educations and burning talents that wound up on Wall Street moving money around will be redirected to fields of endeavor with some tangible output. In the years between 1929 and 1939, creative talent in the U.S. flowered as in no other period of the last century. The 30s, a decade of devastating hardship for so many, was also the golden age of art, photography, theater, and film. In New York City alone the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center were built during the 10 years beginning in 1929. The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, the Frick, and the Guggenheim all opened their doors during this period. And many of our great magazines, including Fortune, Life, Newsweek, and Esquire, were started during the decade. After the collapse of Wall Street in the 1920s, the culture stopped being all about money, and the country survived and ultimately flourished. Amid the wreckage we’ve created, America will most certainly rise again, and it might even be a better place to live and dream." - Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, February 2009.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
"I've Been Bamboozled!"/The Silver Lining
Well, well, well... a return to the Banana on such a dramatic day...
If you so wish to continue on this post, make sure you're firmly strapped in with all limbs inside the vehicle... it's going to be a rollercoaster of a ride.
This morning I arose not so keen on my plans for the day. I had been set up with an interview at a company, my second of the week, and to be honest... I wasn't as thrilled for this one as the one I had attended yesterday. Oh man, that was only yesterday. Regardless, I put on my second-best "I'm completely employable" outfit and headed into Phoenix. When I got there I was directed to a small office off to the side of building. The nice lady greeted me at the door, shook my hand, and handed me three pieces of paper. The top two were the formal application - "Fill these out and let me know when you're done". The last one was the formal job description they had "forgotten" to send to me. My first impression was "Wow... this is an intense job description for a desk job..."
And then I see it...
Glaring in my face...
"Must know or be willing to learn how to operate a forklift."
A FORKLIFT?! What the hell kind of desk job requires you to use a forklift?! A mental image quickly pops in my head... me... on a large yellow forklift... twirling around in circles... weeeeeeeeeeeee.... then smashing into a large pile of what appears to be important boxes. No - no way could I be employed at a place that required me - scratch that- allowed me to operate a forklift. Do they know what kind of liability they would be taking on?! I can't snowboard without spraining my entire body or carry chairs without almost breaking my foot... let alone operate a forklift without causing a building to collapse.
I read through the rest of the description... purchase orders... inventory... currier services. This was no desk job... it's a warehouse job. So I stood up, very politely told the lady that I was under the wrong impression about the job, thanked her for her time and consideration but... I just didn't think this job was for me.
I had been so bamboozled!
I headed home... laughed my ass off... changed back into pajamas... hung out for a little while. Then it came... the dreaded email...
I had interviewed for a job yesterday morning that I really wanted - REALLY wanted. Unfortunately, there were a number of "very qualified candidates"... blah blah blah. I didn't get the job. I pouted. Yes, even cried a little. Responded with a very polite and professional email. And burrowed.
Yes, I burrowed in my bed. Like a toddler, I grabbed my stuffed monkey, pulled the covers over my head and cried. Yeah... it's as pathetic as you are imagining it in your head right now. After about 20 minutes... I started getting angry.
No, no. Not angry with the school - they just did what they felt was best fit for them. And no, not angry because I had somehow "blown the interview". Angry with me because... what the hell am I doing? Why am I applying for and stressing over full time jobs when I really want to go to Graduate School? IDIOT!
So... I unburrowed myself. Pulled out the very buried Grad School preparation file and went to work. How did I get so far from what I wanted to do? I'll tell you what it was... Student Loan Debt. F That. I'm going back to school.
Now I'm at work. Yes, still one of TWO. At least I have an income, right? I have a roof over my head, food on my plate and a kitty that loves me unconditionally. Eventually things will straighten out for me... but for now I need to stay on a straight path.
If you so wish to continue on this post, make sure you're firmly strapped in with all limbs inside the vehicle... it's going to be a rollercoaster of a ride.
This morning I arose not so keen on my plans for the day. I had been set up with an interview at a company, my second of the week, and to be honest... I wasn't as thrilled for this one as the one I had attended yesterday. Oh man, that was only yesterday. Regardless, I put on my second-best "I'm completely employable" outfit and headed into Phoenix. When I got there I was directed to a small office off to the side of building. The nice lady greeted me at the door, shook my hand, and handed me three pieces of paper. The top two were the formal application - "Fill these out and let me know when you're done". The last one was the formal job description they had "forgotten" to send to me. My first impression was "Wow... this is an intense job description for a desk job..."
And then I see it...
Glaring in my face...
"Must know or be willing to learn how to operate a forklift."
A FORKLIFT?! What the hell kind of desk job requires you to use a forklift?! A mental image quickly pops in my head... me... on a large yellow forklift... twirling around in circles... weeeeeeeeeeeee.... then smashing into a large pile of what appears to be important boxes. No - no way could I be employed at a place that required me - scratch that- allowed me to operate a forklift. Do they know what kind of liability they would be taking on?! I can't snowboard without spraining my entire body or carry chairs without almost breaking my foot... let alone operate a forklift without causing a building to collapse.
I read through the rest of the description... purchase orders... inventory... currier services. This was no desk job... it's a warehouse job. So I stood up, very politely told the lady that I was under the wrong impression about the job, thanked her for her time and consideration but... I just didn't think this job was for me.
I had been so bamboozled!
I headed home... laughed my ass off... changed back into pajamas... hung out for a little while. Then it came... the dreaded email...
I had interviewed for a job yesterday morning that I really wanted - REALLY wanted. Unfortunately, there were a number of "very qualified candidates"... blah blah blah. I didn't get the job. I pouted. Yes, even cried a little. Responded with a very polite and professional email. And burrowed.
Yes, I burrowed in my bed. Like a toddler, I grabbed my stuffed monkey, pulled the covers over my head and cried. Yeah... it's as pathetic as you are imagining it in your head right now. After about 20 minutes... I started getting angry.
No, no. Not angry with the school - they just did what they felt was best fit for them. And no, not angry because I had somehow "blown the interview". Angry with me because... what the hell am I doing? Why am I applying for and stressing over full time jobs when I really want to go to Graduate School? IDIOT!
So... I unburrowed myself. Pulled out the very buried Grad School preparation file and went to work. How did I get so far from what I wanted to do? I'll tell you what it was... Student Loan Debt. F That. I'm going back to school.
Now I'm at work. Yes, still one of TWO. At least I have an income, right? I have a roof over my head, food on my plate and a kitty that loves me unconditionally. Eventually things will straighten out for me... but for now I need to stay on a straight path.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Absentee
Have you been checking the Banana? Have you been greatly disappointed by the lack of posts?
My apologies. In fact, too much has been going on to write about but most of it with too little entertainment value.
Lion King is in town and feel as if it has consumed my life. My dreams rock out to "Hakuna Matata" (with some surprising subconscious effects) and I very frequently run out of black and white clothing. Regardless, I still love my job, the people I work with and the fact that it's definitely contributing to my Europa fund.
Other than that, I would love to report more but so much is in the air. So this will have to do for now. Hopefully I'll have exciting news before the week is out.
Until then....
Hakuna Matata
My apologies. In fact, too much has been going on to write about but most of it with too little entertainment value.
Lion King is in town and feel as if it has consumed my life. My dreams rock out to "Hakuna Matata" (with some surprising subconscious effects) and I very frequently run out of black and white clothing. Regardless, I still love my job, the people I work with and the fact that it's definitely contributing to my Europa fund.
Other than that, I would love to report more but so much is in the air. So this will have to do for now. Hopefully I'll have exciting news before the week is out.
Until then....
Hakuna Matata
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Gay Marriage Can Save the Economy!
I'm sure many of you have seen this video but I love it so I'm posting it. Enjoy!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Marbles
There's something to be said about independence. I'm not talking about the incomparable feeling of being at liberty to do what ever it is that tickles your fancy. I'm referring to the lack of dependence - on other people. More specifically, emotional independence.
There's something to be said about someone who has spent much of their adult life learning not to depend on other people. I'm not talking about the inability to trust others. I'm referring to the lack of relying on someone else for stability and sanity.
There's something to be said about having it together. I'm not talking about having life planned out. I'm referring to the ability to have nothing all put together and still be sane.
I have spent much of the past couples years conditioning myself to deal with life's hail storms solo. I've made a really strong attempt at keeping my head together and dealing with problems with grace. At times, it worked out in my favor - when it was all over with, I thought to myself, "Well done, Jen." However, it seems lately, more often than not, I think, "You're better than that." Having built an emotional cocoon inside of myself, I have spent the past few years striving to prove that I can, as I truly believe, handle it all myself.
This is not to imply that I don't talk to anyone about things that emotionally affect me. In fact, if you're reading this, you know for certain that I do. Nor is this to imply that it is a chore for me to share things that affect me or don't appreciate the time spent listening to me. I certainly appreciate it. A moment always comes to mind when I think of sharing a story with someone. That moment was when a friend told me, "You depend on me too much. You need me too much." That statement, which probably seemed so small to him at that time, has instilled in me a deliberate intention not to tell someone too much. That comment alone has scarred me. What this friend didn't understand was that I didn't need him at all. I share because I want to - not because I need to. I let people into my world because it's something I want to share with them - specifically. Some people are told stories and others are completely left out. But never is my intention to spread the burden. Everyone has heard me say, "I'm not looking for advice - I just needed to rant".
There's something to be said about independence - but lately, everything that could be said is not even remotely positive. There is a breaking point with people and I'm about two bad situations away from cracking. The events of the past week and half have sunk me into the most pathetic depressive state that even the most emo kids would be jealous of my dark mood. The incident at work (G) still has me rattled to the core. The memories won't leave my head and I'm still waking in the night from little terrors. Even more so, I'm filling the role of HM tonight... you can imagine the nervousness. My other place of employment has me so unhappy that I rarely feel fulfilled or even positive about myself while there or after I've left. I frequently think to myself, "What the hell am I doing here?" Then I'm forced to remember that rent must be paid and all those jobs I've applied to haven't even called me back for an interview. A week from Friday I graduate... well, kind of. I haven't completed my foreign language yet, so the relief that is commonly associated with graduation is completely lost. "The Girl with a Plan"... has no plan. A fact I was fine with until I realized that after New Year's I would have to return to a job situation that makes me miserable. Speaking of New Year's, I have the opportunity to take an amazing trip with my amazing boyfriend... issue: no amazing money to pay for it. In addition, I've had crippling knee problems over the past month that are getting exponentially worse - perfect conditions for snowboarding. On the topic of snowboarding, trip to see Warren Miller with best friend (maybe still?) turned out to be a complete disaster. This coming after getting in a fight with both my best friend for the first time ever (for an eight year friendship, that's pretty amazing) and undecided-situation best friend within 12 hours of each other. In addition to all of this, I attended my final fraternity meeting as a student brother - something I didn't think I would be too broken up about but I feel like I just had an appendage severed from my body. I've spent the last four and half years with my fraternal obligations involuntarily at the forefront of my mind - now it's entirely up to me to keep it there.
There really is something to be said about independence. All of this I keep on my shoulders. I don't seek to spread the burden because only I can do anything to make my life any easier. Please note that this doesn't even begin to touch on the outside influences of my life that I must also deal with. Even as I typed that I thought that this isn't to imply that my life is absolutely terrible either. I have my blessings. The point of all of this really is ask people to please consider before they ridicule, question, argue, blame or criticize to consider the situations of someone other than themselves. I am only one person and there is only so much I can do...there is only so much I can handle. Afterall, I've been conditioned to be emotionally independent.
Am I finally looking for advice? No. I just needed to rant.
There's something to be said about someone who has spent much of their adult life learning not to depend on other people. I'm not talking about the inability to trust others. I'm referring to the lack of relying on someone else for stability and sanity.
There's something to be said about having it together. I'm not talking about having life planned out. I'm referring to the ability to have nothing all put together and still be sane.
I have spent much of the past couples years conditioning myself to deal with life's hail storms solo. I've made a really strong attempt at keeping my head together and dealing with problems with grace. At times, it worked out in my favor - when it was all over with, I thought to myself, "Well done, Jen." However, it seems lately, more often than not, I think, "You're better than that." Having built an emotional cocoon inside of myself, I have spent the past few years striving to prove that I can, as I truly believe, handle it all myself.
This is not to imply that I don't talk to anyone about things that emotionally affect me. In fact, if you're reading this, you know for certain that I do. Nor is this to imply that it is a chore for me to share things that affect me or don't appreciate the time spent listening to me. I certainly appreciate it. A moment always comes to mind when I think of sharing a story with someone. That moment was when a friend told me, "You depend on me too much. You need me too much." That statement, which probably seemed so small to him at that time, has instilled in me a deliberate intention not to tell someone too much. That comment alone has scarred me. What this friend didn't understand was that I didn't need him at all. I share because I want to - not because I need to. I let people into my world because it's something I want to share with them - specifically. Some people are told stories and others are completely left out. But never is my intention to spread the burden. Everyone has heard me say, "I'm not looking for advice - I just needed to rant".
There's something to be said about independence - but lately, everything that could be said is not even remotely positive. There is a breaking point with people and I'm about two bad situations away from cracking. The events of the past week and half have sunk me into the most pathetic depressive state that even the most emo kids would be jealous of my dark mood. The incident at work (G) still has me rattled to the core. The memories won't leave my head and I'm still waking in the night from little terrors. Even more so, I'm filling the role of HM tonight... you can imagine the nervousness. My other place of employment has me so unhappy that I rarely feel fulfilled or even positive about myself while there or after I've left. I frequently think to myself, "What the hell am I doing here?" Then I'm forced to remember that rent must be paid and all those jobs I've applied to haven't even called me back for an interview. A week from Friday I graduate... well, kind of. I haven't completed my foreign language yet, so the relief that is commonly associated with graduation is completely lost. "The Girl with a Plan"... has no plan. A fact I was fine with until I realized that after New Year's I would have to return to a job situation that makes me miserable. Speaking of New Year's, I have the opportunity to take an amazing trip with my amazing boyfriend... issue: no amazing money to pay for it. In addition, I've had crippling knee problems over the past month that are getting exponentially worse - perfect conditions for snowboarding. On the topic of snowboarding, trip to see Warren Miller with best friend (maybe still?) turned out to be a complete disaster. This coming after getting in a fight with both my best friend for the first time ever (for an eight year friendship, that's pretty amazing) and undecided-situation best friend within 12 hours of each other. In addition to all of this, I attended my final fraternity meeting as a student brother - something I didn't think I would be too broken up about but I feel like I just had an appendage severed from my body. I've spent the last four and half years with my fraternal obligations involuntarily at the forefront of my mind - now it's entirely up to me to keep it there.
There really is something to be said about independence. All of this I keep on my shoulders. I don't seek to spread the burden because only I can do anything to make my life any easier. Please note that this doesn't even begin to touch on the outside influences of my life that I must also deal with. Even as I typed that I thought that this isn't to imply that my life is absolutely terrible either. I have my blessings. The point of all of this really is ask people to please consider before they ridicule, question, argue, blame or criticize to consider the situations of someone other than themselves. I am only one person and there is only so much I can do...there is only so much I can handle. Afterall, I've been conditioned to be emotionally independent.
Am I finally looking for advice? No. I just needed to rant.
Grab The Closest Book
My China Friend posted this on Facebook as a status game, but I think it's fun... so I'm putting it on my blog.
* Grab the book closest to you. Now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Write that sentence in a comment.
* Don't go looking for your favorite book, or the coolest one you have - just grab the closest one.
Mine:
"And yet," said Smee, "I have often heard you say that hook was worth a score of hands, for combing the hair and other homely uses."
* Grab the book closest to you. Now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Write that sentence in a comment.
* Don't go looking for your favorite book, or the coolest one you have - just grab the closest one.
Mine:
"And yet," said Smee, "I have often heard you say that hook was worth a score of hands, for combing the hair and other homely uses."
Monday, December 8, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
There is a god...
I don't know how many of you out there are as creeped out by Bratz dolls as I am... but I found reassurance that maybe... just maybe... these creepy-ass things will go away.
Don't mess with Barbie
Let's get something straight — Barbie may look like a bombshell, but she's no pushover. Mattel, the makers of the iconic doll, recently won a prolonged legal battle with MGA, the manufacturers of Bratz. The outcome of the legal battle puts into question the future of the creepy-looking Bratz figures. A federal court ruled that MGA was to be banned from making and selling "the saucy Barbie alternative." Why? Apparently, the court found that the creator of Bratz came up with the idea while working for Mattel. Hence, the idea belongs to the house that Barbie built.
http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/92080
Don't mess with Barbie
Let's get something straight — Barbie may look like a bombshell, but she's no pushover. Mattel, the makers of the iconic doll, recently won a prolonged legal battle with MGA, the manufacturers of Bratz. The outcome of the legal battle puts into question the future of the creepy-looking Bratz figures. A federal court ruled that MGA was to be banned from making and selling "the saucy Barbie alternative." Why? Apparently, the court found that the creator of Bratz came up with the idea while working for Mattel. Hence, the idea belongs to the house that Barbie built.
http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/92080
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