Spread a Little Sunshine

So I realize it has been a month since I last posted. I do apologize to those who read my blog. A lot has been going on in my life since the days of CNU ended. I left CNU officially in June to start my next chapter back in Richmond. After a month 1/2 of living at home, I moved in with my friend Kelly. It's been a show to say the least. We're crazy together, and it has been pretty wicked. I love living here, and I am almost on my way to a good job. Right now, I work as a Concierge over the phone for Visa customers. If you Google Visa Concierge, you can see what I do. Well, let me just say this: I absolutely hate it. It's been a nightmare going to work, and I hate to work just for good money. If I'm not happy, it's gotta go. So lucky me found another job: Interning with Barksdale! I know, I can't believe I got a job in my field right after graduating college... in theater no less. I feel blessed I got two jobs after graduation, so I wish everyone else the best of luck. You can always have my old job :P

The title of my entry is "Spread a Little Sunshine" for the number in Pippin. Yes, I am doing one of my favorite shows again. Last time, in 2005, I played a player. Now I am playing Lewis, the half brother of Pippin. I get to be an evil mama's boy. I'm pretty much bipolar, and it's great. I love the acting part, and I really enjoy the choreographer who plays my mom. She has been using me a ton in the show as a dancer, and I've been helping her with choreography. Yay, I like this. I've been doing some great theater things post-college, so life is pretty great.

Maybe I'll update tomorrow at work tomorrow if an interesting topic comes while I watch CNN at work...

Hedwig's Theme

I finally have a good topic to discuss that merges my day at work and something relevant to everyone else. Hooray for me!

Today’s topic: Laziness in America … and sometimes Canada . As we all know, I work for a high profile company (I’d rather not mention what company or my direct job title as I need the money, so getting fired would be highly untimely right now), and I answer phone calls of people requesting tickets, travel accommodations and other randomness. These people have no spending limit on their credit cards, and they pay a lot to have this free service. What gets to me the most is that my job is something I and many others have been doing for themselves for years. There is this wonderful invention called the internet (whoa, shocker!), and if you go to hotel websites, Ticketmaster or whatever is appropriate to your request, you can… wait for it… make reservations or do research! Oh my gosh! Apparently only people at my job know this, because the people of America (and sometimes Canada ) have NO idea the internet exists. Oh wait, most of them do. Most of them are even on the internet when they call us… looking at the SAME thing. Has America (and sometimes Canada) gotten to that point where we cannot even book our own damn hotels, buy Lady Gaga tickets or rent a car in Austria? If you have enough money to rent a car in Austria , honestly, you should book your own rental car. People call in to send gift baskets and floral arrangements, too. I find that to be one of the easiest processes… why do you need someone else halfway across the country sending this basket for you? Not only is there the laziness factor, it’s the snootiness of these people that get me. You are not better than me, sir or ma’am, because your credit card limit is non-existent. Do not get huffy with me if you dialed the wrong number because you can’t read properly. It astounds me how rude people are when they are using your services. It’s like I am a burden to them for wanting to assist… well, if I’m such a freakin’ burden, call the Holiday Inn yourself. Book your own damn flight and don’t use our service. The idea of our service is ludicrous. It is encouraging Americans (and sometimes Canadians) to be lazy and have everything done for them. Maybe you work hard for your money… nine times out of ten that is not the case, though. Most of the time it's spoiled rich people who have never worked real work a day in their lives. Maybe I'm just generalizing... I don't care really.

The moral of this story: If you have to go on a trip, book the damn thing yourself. Who else better is there to do it? There's no way of you not getting what you want unless it's just unavailable.

I'm Alive

I’ve had a pretty busy week already, and it’s only Wednesday. My, oh my, how times flies when you’re… um, working? Having fun would not be the correct phrasing, haha. Work has been, well, work. I have become very numb to my job, and as another week is rolling by, I’ve started my search for new employment. I cannot speak on behalf on the entire company, but my department is the most ridiculous service of which I’ve ever heard. I could go on, but I feel like I bitched enough for everyone in my last entry.

So other than work, I’ve actually dragged myself out of the house. This was a great success on my behalf. Monday I dragged myself pretty far… all the way out to Fort Lee, VA to audition for one of my favorite shows: Pippin. Yes, yes, I did Pippin in 2005 (gross… five years ago?), but this time I’m aiming a little higher than ensemble. I think I did rather well! For the dance audition, I was placed in front during the judging round so others could watch and follow me (score for me). I think I nailed the singing, too. My monologue was pretty good, but the reading of the script was my favorite. I read for Leading Player (my dream role in this show, top five dream parts altogether), and I think I did it justice. I tried not to emulate Ben Vareen (the original Broadway LP) or our LP from 2005, and I put my own twist on it, I hope. Who knows? I think I did well. That’s all that matters. If I get LP, Pippin or Lewis, I’ve decided to take it. If it’s another ensemble casting, then the 45 minute drive may not be worth it. I don’t want to get my hopes up at all, and I don’t want to sound snooty when I say the drive isn’t worth it… 45 minutes every day is a lot of gas money. But after three hours of singing, dancing, and reading, I was exhausted and made the drive back to the good ol’ West End.

Last night was a great success, too. I got to perform on stage for the first time since The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas back in February. Every summer, we put on a concert at Godwin, appropriately titled the (in this case, 3rd) Annual Godwin Summer Chorus Concert. It’s funny that it is a chorus concert… when the performances are never bigger than two or three people. Anyways, I have been with this show all three years of its existence. The first year I sang, “As Long As You’re Mine” from Wicked with my good friend Emily Riley. Last year I sang one of my staple songs, “Mama Says” from Footloose. This year I decided to choose a song I never touched before. I chose “I’m Alive” from next to normal. I saw the show in New York in March, and I was blown away. So the performance went well. I mixed up the first and second chorus, but I covered it well I believe. I felt confident during the song, but after I always judge myself harshly. I did better than I think I did, in other words. Haha. Oh well, it just felt good to be back on stage after five months of figuring out the end of college and beginning of whatever you want to call what I’m going through right now.

I wish I had a hot, controversial topic to discuss. Maybe one of these days I’ll be one of those bloggers. For now, I enjoy doing it for myself as I can never keep up with a written journal. I’ve successfully killed almost 40 minutes, only 7 hours and 20 minutes to go!

All the Livelong Day

I have not updated my blog from work yet, and I probably shouldn't (I mean, I'm completely ready for a call to come through), but I have a few things on my mind right now. If I wait until I get home, I know I'll forget. Some I think I've already forgotten. I have a horrible memory. I always have. Why am I an actor? Haha.

First off, there is a guy in the office who sounds like Jessica Biel's brother in the movie I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. He kind of looks like that guy, too... odd. He has a higher pitched voice, and every time he answers a phone call, all I can imagine is the guy from that movie in a butterfly costume. It's nothing against this man in my office; I just cannot get the image of that man from me movie out of my head.

Now that that is out of the way, every day I've been in the office this week has had a different adjective attached to it. I started this when after my first and second days, my dad asked me how work was. Both days I gave him one word answers. That jogged my brain to come up with a word for every day. My first day, Tuesday, was stressful. It was a new job, I was just out of training, and I had no idea what I was doing. Wednesday was frustrating. I had these cases on which to work, and I could not get a thing done. I just could not complete them. I don't want to go into too much detail as I am not sure what we are allowed to discuss and not discuss. I'd rather not get fired, thanks. Thursday was complicated. Everything I got handed to me that day was the most complicated case. Ridiculousness. Friday was busy. I had a lot to do in those eight hours. It was just plain ol' busy. Today is Saturday, and the word of the day is: Unnecessary. When I came into work today, I felt as if my services were unnecessary, but I did not know why. Oh, then I got some calls, and the people changed their minds after I did all of the research. Great. I had a lot of "never mind" calls today. Whatever. I also received the phone call from Hell today. I was on the phone for 20 minutes with this guy over the same thing. I know I'm going to get killed in calibration because he controlled the call, but I had NOTHING to say to get it back on track at all. He just kept going and going and going. UNNECESSARY. After that call ended, I dramatically (how else?) threw my headphones down, hit "Personal" on my phone, and stepped out for my 15 minute break. If I smoked... that was a smoke break time. Trife.

Overall, I do not mind this job! I enjoy the people, I do not mind the research, and I love the pay. It is only until September, so why waste that time bitching? I have about a month and a half more to enjoy these phone calls and these paychecks before Robyn finds me another job. Robyn's my employer through the temp agency. She's also my 2nd mom, aka Jackie's mom. Duh. Signing off, kids.

I Don't Feel Like Dancing

Okay. So I've almost completed my third week of work which has been my first week taking real phone calls. So, okay. My job pays really well, and the work is pretty easy. I really, REALLY hate, though, the nature of my job. Some of these people need to get on their computers or phones and call the businesses themselves. You can book your own flight, you can rent your own car. I don't see why they cannot do it themselves. Some people try to plan romantic ordeals... through us? Uh, no romance is involved when you have someone else do everything for you. I can take it for another month and a half... but after September, I'm getting far away from answering phones in this nature. I want to help people who need help, not lazy people.

That's really most of what I've been doing. Work. I did go out last weekend with Marisa and Evan. Good times exploring downtown Richmond. I need a social life, though. I look forward to The Real World every week... and that is about it. I have nothing else to write about. Nothing too pressing, just wanted to do a quick update. :) This entry was dumb, I'm sorry.

Take Your Mama

It's been a little over a week, sorry blog. I'm not ignoring you. I've been pretty busy, and I like it. :)

When we last left off, I was training for my job and bitching about independence. How appropriate since it was Independence Day Weekend when I did. I went down to CNU for the 4th of July, and it was pretty sick. I saw a lot of people, had a wild and crazy time, and just enjoyed the time off from work. :) Nothing much more to say, haha.

Anyway, the job has been going pretty well. Training is officially over, and I start answering real phone calls on Tuesday. Ack, I think I'm ready, I hope. I wanted to set up my desk and get prepared on Monday. I don't know if it'll be available, but I need that time to get situated for my 8AM shift. Plus, we only really work 37.5 hours a week (30 min lunch breaks five days a week), so I wanted to get that extra 2.5 hours in at least so I can total up to 40. I guess I'll make that up by staying 30 minutes later every day. This job is pretty great because I can do overtime and it's not a big deal. The company needs us as much as possible since so many people are leaving (Visa took their contract away, so people are coming and going). Yay, I need to make bank. I'm ready. It's a pretty easy job, not going to lie.

What else has been going on... hmm. Well, I changed my plans of moving in to that house on August 1st. Instead, I'll be living with my friend, Kelly, and her sister. I'll save $65 a month. That's a lot of money to me. That's groceries. AH I'm even more excited now because Kelly is awesome and I save money. AND SHE HAS A DOG. I'm sold. Cannot wait. It makes everything really exciting. We're also going to the Adam Lambert concert together during our birthday week (although two years apart, our bdays are two days apart). This year is looking really exciting. The one thing that would make it a little more exciting would be if I made the cast of "White Christmas." I auditioned for it earlier this week... and it was pretty hard. The singing was no big deal, but the dance audition was an all-tap audition. I sort of freaked out, but I faked it like a champ. I think I faked it better than all the other guys, so ack, we'll see. I'm hoping I make the chorus; I really need to break into theater. Need it.

I got paid on Friday... and I already spent near $100. $20 on food, $86 on two Adam tickets... at least I'm getting $43 from Kelly for the ticket, but wow. Money goes fast. TRIFE. Peace out.

Drops of Jupiter

I forgot to finish out the 30 Day Song Challenge, but I'll get to that. I want to talk about something really quick.

Ever since I was really young, I have felt a strong sense of independence. I have a hard time asking people for pretty much anything because I feel like I should be able to do it myself. When my dad lost his job way back when, that's when a lot hit hard. I was forced to grow up really quick. We didn't have any money, so I couldn't do as much as I wanted. I was fine with it, though. I got involved with choir and theater so I didn't have to sit at home all the time, and it turned into something I now love and desire to be around 24/7. Going to college was completely perfect for me. It's funny because my mom gets mad that I spent so much money on college (well, I got loans, but I owe a lot) when my sister is going to VCU for next to nothing because of federal aid. Well, she's not living on campus and no meal plan. I wanted to get out of my house. I wanted to experience college and have the college experience I wanted. That meant living on campus and getting the hell out of Dodge. That's what I wanted. I'm actually criticized by family and family friends for doing that because they don't think the "college experience" is important. Well, most of those people never went to college, so I don't care if you're 45 and working full time, I'm better than you because I have a degree, so there. Suck it, douches. Anyway, I bring this up because I'm so dependent at home, and it's causing me to pull my hair out. My grandma tells me I can't do anything for myself, she has to do it, because I'm too busy. I can wash my own clothes.... how the hell am I too busy for that? I have to be driven to work. I just can't do anything without permission or someone doing it for me. I hate it, hate it, hate it. I take nothing for granted, I just cannot do this much longer. One more month until I'm out, and I'd better have a car in two weeks. If I don't, I'll cut a bitch. Cut. a. bitch. Independence is calling me.

Day 29 - A Song From Your Childhood

I chose the ever popular "The Sign" by Ace of Base. Haha, I use to LOVE this song. I had the cassette tape. I knew all the words. It was my favorite song as a child. I flippin' loved it.

Day 30 -Your Favorite Song at This Time Last Year

"Don't Trust Me" by 3OH!3 was our song during Crew Leading last year. During the dance party, we'd crazy dance and scream "BA-BA-BA-BRUISES!" at the top of our lungs. I do that sometimes with Crew Leaders around others, and they just don't get it. It's one of the songs that made last summer great. :)

So that's it! 30 days of songs. :D I was going to do another one, but I decided no. Maybe August, haha.