Thursday, December 29, 2005 

What Did I Buy?

I know you're dying to know! What did I buy with my $50 gift card to Borders?!

Well...it was kind of weird. After being in Borders all the time looking at all these things I wanted but have no money for, I'm in there last night, and I can't really find anything I'm DYING to have. Veronica felt the same way...it was weird. We're both like, "Now we have the money, and we can't figure out what to buy." Anyone else ever had this problem?

But...of course we were in the Cast Recording CD section and musical section of DVDs and theatre section of books.

I came up with three CDs I wanted to get, so I got them and I'm excited about it!



  • Jersey Boys - Cast Recording of the new Broadway show is the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons and their rise to fame. It is shattering people's views of the so-called "Jukebox musicals" that have been cropping up here in recent years. Others have succeeded (Mamma Mia! and Movin' Out) others have failed (Good Vibrations and Lennon) and others have done ok (All Shook Up) to name a few. I'm listening and it is amazing. Man, these guys are good. The four lead actors are pretty much brand new broadway actors. The guy who plays the beautiful falsetto Frankie is a noname and he is just shining. It's pretty cool.



    and



  • Sondheim Sings: Vol 1 and Vol 2 - This is awesome! My favorite, and the greatest living or dead musical theatre composer, Stephen Sondheim sings his own songs! It's his own demos, previously unreleased, now out for us to hear. I've listened to a couple and it's fantastic, definately something to own! It's just him sitting at a piano, playing his music and singing the songs, his songs. It's odd, Vol 1 is from 1962-1972 and Vol 2 is from 1946-1960. Why is Vol. 2 his earlier works? I have no idea. I'm excited about these two volumes because it's Sondheim and it's himself singing his own works, but they are his musicals that I don't worship as much, at least yet. Right now I'm still just LOVING Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, Assassin, Sunday in the Park With George. But I'm eagerly awaiting, and hoping, he'll release more volumes because those three shows are all his later works, and I just love them to death. You know, he also has Bounce, his latest, and The Frogs, which I also like. Then Company, A Little Night Music, Merrily We Roll Along, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum...just to name a few of the top hits.

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    Wednesday, December 28, 2005 

    Charlie and Willy

    No, it's not some perverted joke. ;-)

    Which do you like better?



    or



    I can't help it...I like the new one better. Well, all except for the oompa loompas. I overwhelmingly prefer the oompa loompa's from the first movie.

    I have seen the new one now about 3 or 4 times since Kaia got it for Christmas ;-) Honestly, I enjoy Johnny Depp's Wonka better, just love it, but that's not all the reason I love it at all. What I really enjoy is a couple other things. The cinematography of the new one. We just have better technology and I dig it, it looks tons better. And I also enjoy the "family life" sections of the new movie. By this I am talking about Charlie Bucket's homelife. Love his parents, they're so loving and genuine, the whole family is. I love the grandparents (Grandpa Joe took a bit of getting used to) and I love their house. I do also like going back in time to when Wonka was a little one, but that could come or go and I'd be fine.

    And having not read the books, I don't know which one follows closer, but I'm told it's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

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    Tuesday, December 27, 2005 

    Merry Christmas Everyone!

    It was a good Christmas, of course it was :-) Christmas rocks.

    The big gift was a 30 gb iPod. LOVE IT! I have tv shows on there, and video clips, and lots of songs (with album covers) and I'm trying to figure out the photos. It's awesome.

    Kaia had a blast, of course! She's hilarious. She said so many funny things, but I can't remember them. She enjoyed all her zillions of gifts from everyone. She just loved the Hallmark penguin ornaments she got for me. She told me, "I wanted to get you something else too, but Mommy said we didn't have enough money for it. I wanted to get it for you though. It was Mickey Mouse. " and she went on, but she couldn't remember exactly what it was. But it was so cute and sad to hear about how she wanted to get me some more stuff. But she knew how much I'd love the penguins, so she got me that.

    I got V 4 CDs, 2 of which also had DVDs with them. She loves music, obsessed with it, and so she loved the gift. 2 of them were by her favorite musical composer, Jason Robert Brown, so she loved that! One was a CD she was going ot buy for herself, but I told her not to!!

    She got me a CD, The Woman in White, Andrew Lloyd Weber's new musical, and then the iTrip for my iPod so I can listen to it through the radio in the car.

    I got some jeans, which I needed badly!, and some shirts and then other various smaller things.

    It was fun, everyone had a good time :-D There were pictures taken, and they were taken by my parents, so there is a chance I might actually get them onto the computer and then onto blogger ;-) Whereas if I took them, they'd still be on the camera or onto my laptop but not onto blogger. But since my parents took them with their digital camera they'll e-mail them to me and I'll be able to upload them to blogger here at work on the FAST Internet!

    How about you??

    Oh, and we saw Chronicles of Narnia, which is good! And Meet the Fockers, which is HILARIOUS.

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    Wednesday, December 21, 2005 

    Can you believe this Yankeebob?!?

    I bet you know what I'm going to say already...but here it is:

    DAMON GOES FROM BOSTON TO NEW YORK!!!!!!!!!!

    WHAT?!? Can you believe it? This isn't happening...he says "it's time for me to move forward" so....the Yankees are better than the Red Sox, so you're moving forward to them? Whatever! ;-)

    He will have to shave his beard and cut his hair though, George has a strict policy at the Yankees of no long hair and beards...

    Oh, Johnny, where did we go wrong?

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    The Bug

    Kaia apparently hasn't caught the performing bug that Mommy and Daddy have yet. We already knew this, but it keeps on getting confirmed!

    She had a Christmas Pageant at her new daycare and she indeed participated (yay!) but she did not do any of the actions or songs...even though she knows them all. I know she knows them all because we worked on them and sung them at home because they're fun.

    Then she also a few weeks later, just this last Sunday, had her Sunday School Christmas Pageant...she stood up there, did not sing a bit or move a bit.

    She's always been a shy girl, some parts of me wants her to grow out of that, but then the other part doesn't want her to be SO outgoing that she can't concentrate and gets in trouble and what not.

    Eh, she's still cute though ;-) Sorry, no pictures right now, just picture a bunch of little kids, most of them yelling and singing the songs and this one little girl standing and watching the other kids and looking out at the crowd and not doing anything and you get the idea!

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    Monday, December 19, 2005 

    "And So I'M back, from outerspace..."

    and so you're back
    from outer space
    I just walked in to find you here
    with that sad look upon your face
    I should have changed my stupid lock
    I should have made you leave your key
    If I had known for just one second
    you'd be back to bother me


    I have been busy, and spacing off, and just somewhere else recently. I haven't been commenting or blogging.

    But, I'm back. Hello! Miss me?

    All the shopping is ALMOST done.
    No cards were sent out to anyone, and believe me I feel bad about it.
    The tree is up
    Christmas decorations are up
    Getting excited for Christmas!!!

    My concerts are done...they went excellent!! We'll be getting a CD of our last concert and I'm super excited about that because I loved the songs, and the sounds we made and all, so I'm excited to hear us!

    Things at my household are going ok, no major catastrophes...that I want to report at least. Things are going...

    We have ZERO groceries...man, we need to grocery shop something fierce!

    I'm been playing chess online more now, just getting back into wanting to play more again, and I have no one to play with, so must play with online people.

    HAPPY HOLIDAYS
    MERRY CHRISTMAS
    WOOOOOO!

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    Wednesday, December 14, 2005 

    I JUST got the call...


    Did not get the job.

    She just called me. It was an "ok" call though.

    She said it came down to me and one other person and she went with the other person because their qualifications just matched the position a little better.

    I guess it's nice to know I was in the final two...but how come my luck does not swing in my favor?! I just want something to go my way for once, I know that sounds selfish...

    I wanted this job bad...I wanted to work with her, I wanted to work in that position, at that bank, with my friend from choir, in AMES.

    HOWEVER

    She talked on for a good 5 minutes about how much she loved me and how I was nothing but great and etc etc...and I loved that, that made me feel good. But why didn't I get the job then!!! Throw me a friggin bone here.

    And, she said she personally gave my resume and application to a dude in the IS department. She said apparently they are trying to merge with a holding company (?) and with the graphics department and I think something about doing more things within the bank and so he is looking to hire and so she personally gave my resume and application to him and talked me up bigtime because she has nothing but good things to say about me and so she's thinking maybe within the next couple weeks to a month he might do some interviews and have a position or two open.

    So that's good new right?

    Honestly, it isn't the exact position I wanted...I REALLY wanted that position with her as marketing assistant...but HOPEFULLY something good can come out of this still.

    I can't decide if it hurts more or less that it was just down to me and one other person. SOOO CLOSE. Maybe somehow this person wont be able to do the job, or take it, or something.

    I'm betting it was a kid fresh out of college, and I'm sure he or she will do a better job that I would have done.

    It just kind of hurts the day/week that I was so excited to get this position and to tell everyone I know that I finally have a job I want and like and to tell everyone at work that I was leaving and just to be so happy.

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    Cute

    "Daddy, I love you."

    "Aww, I love you too sweetie."

    "Daddy...?"

    "Yes?"

    "I miss you when you're at work" *big hug around the neck*

    "I miss you so much when I'm at work too sweetie."

    "You know, Daddy, after I'm asleep and you're asleep...if I wake up I'll just climb into your bed and cuddle with you, ok?"

    "Aww, I would love that, Kaia" *I wont mention tonight that she needs to stay in her own bed...its ok*

    "Well, I'll cuddle with Mommy first...but then I'll cuddle with you."

    *Laughing* "Ok, that sounds good Kaia."



    THAT is what I needed from her. She made my week with that.

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    Tuesday, December 13, 2005 

    Had a rough day yesterday, life is how it is though.

    Got the tree up, some of the house is sort of clean.

    Still waiting on the job...though I've pretty much given up hope. Even though I don't want to because I loved the job and the people...but this is feeling all too familiar to my last interview.

    Yup, my blog is lacking right now...sorry.

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    Monday, December 12, 2005 

    Tiiiiiiiiiiime is NOT on my side, yes it isn't...

    Isn't that how the song goes?

    So, I figure it's been a week, so I called her. She, of course with my luck, wasn't there to talk to in person, so I talked to her voicemail.

    "Hey, *****, It's (me). I'm just calling to check up on the Marketing Assistant position and let you know that I am still interested and seeing if the job was still open. You can call me back here at work until 4:30 at ***-***-**** or leave a message on the cell phone. Hope all went well at the opening last week! Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you. Bye!"

    was that the right thing to do?

    I'm so torn up on whether to call or not to call, I've heard both ways.

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    Thursday, December 08, 2005 

    Waiting...

    Still...waiting...I'm thinking she has to call tomorrow, and I'll still think I stand a chance until she tells me no.

    I'm still just so happy with the interview and all the random things that are pointing toward this job.

    But as Veronica says via "Dave" from Invasion "Don't confuse coincidence with fate."

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    Tuesday, December 06, 2005 

    Big Day Results

    I didn't quite want to post this in case someone who shouldn't, is reading my blog...but it has nothing to do with where I currently work, so I don't see why I couldn't write about it...right?



    I had an interview yesterday afternoon at 4:30 pm! I'm really hoping I get this one. It's for a marketing assistant with a bank in Ames. It would just be me and Angie, the Marketing Director. She is the nicest, sweetest girl in the world. She's gotta be in her late 20's.

    I'm thinking, hoping, this job is a blessing in disguise. I heard about the job two Saturday's ago because my mom saw it in the Ames Tribune. She told me about it, but it was a "come on in a fill out an application" job. Well, I leave Story City at 7 am and don't get to Ames until 5:15-5:30 at the earliest, so I'm never in Ames during normal business hours, so I can't apply for jobs in person. But, when my Great Aunt Arlette passed away, I got a day off work Wednesday to attend the funeral. After the funeral, at 3:30, I was still in my suit, perfect, so I went on in with my portfolio and my resume.

    When I got there the receptionist told me Angie wasn't in but I could sit and fill out an application. I did, and while I was filling it out Angie came back! So after I filled it out and handed it to the receptionist she led me in to Angie's office. We talked for a couple minutes, she said my resume looked great, like I had some great prior work experiences and it looked like I had some good computer skills as well. She was going to do interviews next week, wanted someone in before the end of the year so they could job shadow the woman that's leaving. That all sounded great, so I was very nice and pleasing and we seemed to hit it off, and then I left.

    I got a call Thursday or Friday to get an interview, and I set it up for Monday.

    At the interview it all went just perfect! She seemed to love me and what I had to offer and where I had been and what I had done previously. She asked me some of the corny interview questions and I think I answered them all perfectly. I even caught her off-guard, in a good way, with some of my answers. Inter-mixed with some light off-topic conversation. It was great. She asked me if I had any questions and I asked her if she had any examples of the work that is currently being put out and she loved that I asked that. Showed that I was a real designer because I wanted to see what level of work was being done and what themes were being displayed in all forms of marketing. The only odd thing was she didn't want to see my portfolio, though she mentioned saving it for someone else to see. She talked about callbacks so I'm hoping I get another interview (though I'll have to find a way to skip out of work early again -- and now I have ZERO pto left). She says herself she knows nothing about graphics and designing, so that's part of the reason she didn't need to see my portfolio. Which, if I get the job, is good because she'll probably love what I do, and I'm pretty confident that I can turn out a good product for her and really thrive at this job.

    I just know I did as good at this interview as I could, so now I just play the waiting game. I'm hoping for a second interview, probably from the sounds of it with the HR person and with the woman, Becky, who currently has the Marketing Assistant position.

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    Monday, December 05, 2005 

    Big Day

    Big day today for me at about 4:30 pm. I can't say what...at least, I don't want to on here. Just send me good luck vibes and prayers because I really need them!

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    Friday, December 02, 2005 

    Interesting Question of the Week

    If you could know when, where, and how you would die....would you want to know?

    If yes, why? If no, why not?

    I was talking about this yesterday with a co-worker. She wants to know, she's not afraid to know that the day is here, as long as she can not change that fact of when where and how she'll die. The reasons TO know were good enough for her...so you can have the ability to do everything you've always wanted to do before you die, so you can party hard the night before you die, so you can finish un-finished business.

    Those are not good enough for me.

    No way in hell would I want to know. I couldn't deal with that information. Obviously, it peaks my interest to have the ability to know, but I am just fully aware that that is not something I want to be privy to. Even if I knew I couldn't change it, I probably would try. I would be freaking out knowing I'm going to die that day...especially if it's dying a nasty way and before I'm old and ready to go.

    Nope, let me live in blissful ignorance.

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    Thursday, December 01, 2005 

    Death

    My great Aunt Arlette passed away on Saturday and we attended the funeral yesterday. It was very sad to see her go. She was such a good, faithful woman. She was 79. She had a stroke in 72, then was diagonsed with spasmodic somethingorother which made her head shake constantly if she didn't hold on to it. She didn't let it get her down though.

    It'll be sad to go to family christmas this year and not see her there enjoying all the family and her kids and her grandkids.

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