Springtime! (it's almost here...)

HEY GUYS!

Rach: how's the arm? s'bucks? the new car?

Patrice: update on borders? (heard about it on the news last week) so excited for the JET intv...i'll be sending positive thoughts your way on Wed.

Kelly: How's school? you got a puppy?!?!

Amanda: How's it over there in your neck of the woods?

All the other followers: what's up?

So it's almost springtime! SO CLOSE! tired of cold, dreary weather. yayyyyyy

I think this is update #2 for me. I officially have Sunday's off now! For the month of January I only had one day off because Whole Foods was messing up my sched, but now thats all fixed. So Sunday is the best day to get a hold of me!

WNYC is good. I worked on my first "idea" segment (on how artists build setlists for shows). It's a segment that I pitched and saw through from the beginning to end. Very fun stuff...a little stressful though doing interviews and finding guests. You can listen to it here:

WNYC: Soundcheck. The Art of the Setlist

I'm trying to do a few more idea segs before my internship ends. I've pitched a few already that didn't really ring for the producers, but I just came up with two today: Breakup albums (records or songs that people made after/during a break up) and *ahem* Drinking songs/bands (a seasonal seg for St. Patty's I think). Not sure what the outcome of this internship will be...perhaps I'll get an offer, but I don't want to get my hopes up. I'm kind of in this weird spot right now in which i'm not sure if I should go back to school...are my radio chops at their best? I think I'm going to speak with the senior producer of the show to get his advice.

Other updates: 


I joined the New York Road Runners and ran in my first race a few weeks ago in Central Park. I did pretty well considering I slipped on a patch of ice right before the race and banged up my left knee. It's all better now (no where near Rach's encounter with ice) and I think I'll be running in another race next month, a 15k.


Ryan and I are thinking about moving in together in the summer. I think we want to stay in Jersey City, but move closer to "downtown" where it's more "hip" and not as ghetto. It's cheap here and not as pretentious as Brooklyn. My place is not bad. I have heat now and the downstairs bathroom is all set up, but I'm kind of over living with my landlord and following her weird rules. I shouldn't complain though because it's so cheap and it is her home. so yeah.


I cut this guy's hair:

(also this is ryan)

this is what's happening right now: listening to arcade fire and drinking banana beer


thoughts on this?:

singles awareness day???!!!!!

So.....I kind of don't like valentines day even though during valentines day there are a ton of pink things.

I haven't updated in a while, but i finally have stuff to update on.
I got a JET interview. YAY!!!! It's on the 23rd. I'm super happy/excited/relieved about it but also worried and nervous for the interview.

I recently bought a Sony Pocket Reader. Its pretty neat. I like it so far, except for the shade of pink it is not. More of a fuchsia/magenta. I've been reading a lot. There are tons of free ebooks and my library ebooks to borrow. But I have been buying more and more stuff from my store.

Oh and so I hear that Borders is going to file for bankruptcy sometime this week. But we are told to tell the customers we haven't heard anything and are still operating as normal until then. I read somewhere that they may have to close 1/3 of their stores, meaning 20,000 jobs will be lost. Kind of makes me sad. I really did like Borders more than Barnes and Nobles.

So I officially have to start paying back my loan on April 1st. Doesn't that sound like a joke. Hahaha...to bad it's not. I will be poor come April.

Oh yeah, I've been practicing driving too. The other day it was raining while I was driving. I did not like that.....It was way too distracting. My goal is to get my license before my permit expires in August.

Hope everyone is doing well.

grrrr

um i am pissed, not that yall will respond.
my kids played at solo and ensemble. they were nervous. they played GREAT
they both got twos or silvers, whichever you want to call it
the judge was fucking evil. gave out 4 golds or ones all day
apparently my shit luck is rubbing off on everyone around me
they were so sad. but they played so well!!!
and i am mad

guys
i broke my left elbow
:(

nice update

Okay so I'm going to try to do a "good things in my life" update for everyone
FIRST - since I know Patrice, Amanda, Cait (phone), and Kelly (email) (others have more important things to think/care about) are concerned for my health let me begin by saying that I am officially FINE! YAY NO AIDS OR CANCER! Apparently cancer goes the opposite way anyway. If they say your white count is crazy high, worry about cancer. That's what my uncle told me after this whole scare was over (he's a nurse). The nurse lady told me that if they called it meant something was wrong - so hope for no call. I gave them my home number so I was like spazzing in waiting. Apparently spazzing either isn't a word or isn't spelled correctly. Hmm. Anyway I get home from work on a MOnday and the doc himself left a message circa 830 z(right when they open) to TERRIFY me apparently and then, after a minute of babbling, tells me I'm fine. HIP HIP HOOOOOOORAY!
But I'm not quite fine. Because my dumb ass cut my hand with scissors Friday. Or thursday... no i think friday. Anyway I was using my mom's SUPER GOOD scissors that I'm not really allowed to use (now i know why) to cut up my old health insurance cards so no one stole my identity and straight ahead into my hand, like the fleshy part of my left hand under my first finger. It hurt like a MOTHERFUCKER and kept reopening and bleeding all day that made for some kind of funny situations (walking into a middle school and asking for a bathroom cuz my hands were covered in blood...) and makes it hard to do normal things... but it'll heal. My nurse uncle (yes I ask him for everything) says that it's a judgement call, but unless it starts bleeding again I probs don't need stitches.
Okay but that wasn't very happy. Why is okay a real word?
Happy news - Amanda feels totes happy and comfy in her life now! YAY AMANDA! Me = jealous but SUPER happy for you. Sidenote - did I tell you Jamie (curtner) is gonna be in the EU (can't remember where) soon? I KNOW I've said this to you before, but I can NEVER remember if you guys are friends or if i just think you should be, but if you are then you should hang. She, incidentally, is gonna be teaching too. ANyway YAY amanda!
Patrice, why are you hanging out with NIck so much? Move on. Do you want to get back together or just have osmeone to hang with? If it's just someone to hang with then I approve. Otherwise, I do not.
That blows that your hours are getting cut. I'd be pissed, but then I'm full time. So it would mean no health insurance. Speaking of, still now sure if I have it. I got sent cards (yay) but they didn't take it out of my check (boo) and I didn't call about that letter for fear that I wouldn't have health insurance (i know i know). Hopefully the mystery will be solved soon.
Oh hey music stuff. Yay practicing without feeling shitty! (my blog posts are long...) I don't practice. Sorry. Right now I think it'd hurt my hand, and probs make me cry. Can't deal with that just yet. Once seeing my fucking recital cds made me bawl, just seeing them. But anyways HAPPY THINGS. I just play shitty versions of "la bamba" and random seitz with my students. Speaking of, I have six now and just recently got a call about some more. YAY MONEY. But teaching is always like "oh man i have to teach today" but it's never as annoying as i think it will be. I still dunno if my students like me....
My promotion is finally making progress - yay! I have been trained in doing the order and inventory, I still hafta be trained in taking the order in (notoriously easy) and doing the schedule (i'm not gonna be doing that anyway...) but i get my new fancy badge that can take me downstairs and through the gate and everything TOMORROW and soon i will get KEYS. Yep. I'm a bad ass. Everyone at work (not everyone) is still lazy as fuck but I'm starting to be zen about it and have no expectations for anyone but myself. But that sentence bugs me. Oh well.
I got to see friends this week! MULTIPLE FRIENDS! Me and Nate, my work friend (who quit but it's still a good distinction) met me for a movie. First louisville friend since like october probs. Then I drove to newport and saw Katie (bestie from home) and spent the night with her and had breakfast with the one and only kelly houpt in the morning. Pretty fucking fantastic. Seriously. I don't care if I have to visit everyone (i say that now) cuz i like seeing them. Made me super happy.
AND I finally got a classy mp3 player. No, not an ipod. I am not suckered into that apple shit. It's a 16 gig like memorex or some shit, and so far i like it and can play music that's not the radio in my car. So YAY.
Two more yay things then I'm out. 1. My paycheck was bigger than expected, like $100 bigger. 2. I got my car titled and register and it was about $150 less than expected. YAY AGAIN.
Anyways I love you guys and i miss you tons. I hope everyone stays well

First post

Hi everyone. I figured it was about time for my first post! Yesterday I finished my first week of my first real job. I moved to Tarnow (which is in eastern Poland, about an hour and a half train ride from Krakow) last Friday, and so far I'm really pleased with my situation. I work full time at an English language school called Brytania. I've got a really strange schedule...I teach some mornings (EARLY, as in 7 am) at a company elsewhere in the city, and then I teach at the school in afternoons, typically from 3:30 to 8:30 pm. The whole staying alert and interesting for 90 minutes at a time, especially from the 7-8:30 chunk is sometimes really hard, but hey, at least I'm staying busy.

Overall, things are going well for me at the moment (really the first time I've felt good about my situation since graduation.) I even practiced violin today for an hour, and loved every minute of it. I hadn't really played since whatever my last concert at DPU was. I just so desperately needed a break before I totally burned out. But I'm starting to get back into it again, and instead of feeling blah like I used to after practicing, I felt really good and accomplished today.

So, that's my life post graduation in a nutshell, up to this point. More to come later. Thanks for letting me join the blog :)

~Amanda

2011 post

So....no one has written a post in the 2011 so I'll be the first one.

all my friends that came home for the holidays are peace-ing out. hung out with jeremy wong once. heard some stuff about dpu, but nothing that juicy. hung out with nick a few times....but its so frustrating because hes so shy and doesn't do anything! any tips to make shy guys grow some balls???? saw the black swan the otherday. it wasn't as good as i was expecting it to be.
work is steady. starting to get less hours again....so this guy i work with, his name is noah, hes 21, been working for borders for 3 years and just became a full time manager. he'll be a good manager, but it got me thinking about what my higher goal in life should be. not that i don't want to be working at borders forever, but i don't know what else i want to do either. ahhh
i should be hearing back from JET in the next week or so if i'll get an interview.
been practicing a lot lately, well not a lot...but more than i was before. i keep telling myself that i'm going to do a recital with jeremy when he comes home for the summer.
my horoscope says that 2011 is supposed to be a good year for work, love and money. something about 6 planets lining up in my sign in may, and this is super rare. we shall see.

hope you all are doing well.