Losing It?
I think it is entirely possible that I am losing my mind. It's a slow process.. but it's happening. I am trying to do so many things at once and tie up so many loose ends that my mind is becoming a loose end. I have been typing things I don't mean to type (for example, I wrote "let me know" instead of "I'll let you know") I've been forgetting to do things, spacing out mid-sentence and am basically a frazzled basket case.
Sleep has been pretty much impossible this week. So I am sure that's not helping matters at all. There's nothing like the combo of stress and lack of sleep to make one feel a bit dumber than usual.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Hired and not Homeless
I have a job! I have an apartment! I can finally move on to blogging about more interesting topics!
I was in D.C. for five days with my mom and on the second day (first full day) I got hired to be a PR and Marketing Director at an awesome nonprofit in Maryland (a 30 minute metro ride from where I will be living). After accepting the job offer, my mom and I went back for a second look at an apartment we first saw Thursday evening and I decided to rent it. It's a one-bedroom in a great building in the Penn Quarter neighborhood. The building has a roof deck and a rooftop pool and a movie theatre for residents to screen DVDs and a community room with a pool table. It's awesome. So, in one day my two big big worries were taken care of. (insert big sigh or relief here.)
The rest of the trip was spent shopping and it was fun and exhausting. I had a really good time just hanging out with my mom without the stress of either of our jobs weighing on us.
I am sure there is more stress in my future.. (how to get rid of a bunch of our stuff so we fit into our apartment, how to retrain the dogs for apartment living, how to unload our stuff once we get to D.C., adjusting to a new job and new life...) The list goes on... but I am really excited about all of it, even if it will be a pain in the butt. Adventure here I come...
I have a job! I have an apartment! I can finally move on to blogging about more interesting topics!
I was in D.C. for five days with my mom and on the second day (first full day) I got hired to be a PR and Marketing Director at an awesome nonprofit in Maryland (a 30 minute metro ride from where I will be living). After accepting the job offer, my mom and I went back for a second look at an apartment we first saw Thursday evening and I decided to rent it. It's a one-bedroom in a great building in the Penn Quarter neighborhood. The building has a roof deck and a rooftop pool and a movie theatre for residents to screen DVDs and a community room with a pool table. It's awesome. So, in one day my two big big worries were taken care of. (insert big sigh or relief here.)
The rest of the trip was spent shopping and it was fun and exhausting. I had a really good time just hanging out with my mom without the stress of either of our jobs weighing on us.
I am sure there is more stress in my future.. (how to get rid of a bunch of our stuff so we fit into our apartment, how to retrain the dogs for apartment living, how to unload our stuff once we get to D.C., adjusting to a new job and new life...) The list goes on... but I am really excited about all of it, even if it will be a pain in the butt. Adventure here I come...
Monday, September 19, 2005
Possibilities
Ooh ooh... I have a really exciting new job possibility! No details will be disclosed yet, but more crossed fingers and good wishes are in order.
Also, I have new hair (and I think I am pleased with it), my ugly yellow chair is getting a makeover and will soon be dark blue, and the dresser has been partially stripped of its 50-year-old varnish. All makeovers are well underway!
We went to the NM State Fair twice this weekend and I ate Tom Thumb dounughts, a chocolate-covered banana and some good pizza. I also saw baby pygmy goats and lots of cute bunnies along with other animals. We went in the exhibit hall and watched a bunch of demonstrations for mops and choppers and a sushi-maker -- always entertaining. And mostly, we reveled in the tradition and the folksiness and felt happy about New Mexico. This is one event we will really miss next year.
Happy Monday everyone!
Ooh ooh... I have a really exciting new job possibility! No details will be disclosed yet, but more crossed fingers and good wishes are in order.
Also, I have new hair (and I think I am pleased with it), my ugly yellow chair is getting a makeover and will soon be dark blue, and the dresser has been partially stripped of its 50-year-old varnish. All makeovers are well underway!
We went to the NM State Fair twice this weekend and I ate Tom Thumb dounughts, a chocolate-covered banana and some good pizza. I also saw baby pygmy goats and lots of cute bunnies along with other animals. We went in the exhibit hall and watched a bunch of demonstrations for mops and choppers and a sushi-maker -- always entertaining. And mostly, we reveled in the tradition and the folksiness and felt happy about New Mexico. This is one event we will really miss next year.
Happy Monday everyone!
Friday, September 16, 2005
Oh bla di...
It would be an understatement to say that this has been a rough week. The combination of not yet having a job, not having a place to live, not knowing how we're moving our stuff across the country, not knowing whether or not we're selling our cars and our house, not getting enough sleep and being extremely stressed out at work (I am one of two people responsible for getting 300 people to plunk down $125 to come to a gala dinner and for getting a bunch of businesses to just give us money in exchange for their name in the program and on a sign.) has had me in a sad mood.
Then, on Tuesday, Neil and I realized that we most likely can't move Boo Boo, our four-year-old bunny, to Washington D.C. with us. Rabbits don't do well with moving and especially not our rabbit. When we moved from El Paso to Albuquerque (a 4 hour drive) she freaked out and barely moved and didn't eat or drink for several days. And so, I placed a call to a local rabbit rescue (a much safer way to adopt her out than putting an ad in the paper or something.) I started crying while talking to the lady on the phone, but thankfully, she was really nice and sympathetic instead of making me feel like a bad person. The decision isn't 100% made yet, but it's very likely that we'll not be taking her with us and while I think it's probably the best thing to do, I still feel terrible about it.
Add to all this the fact that I really really really want to work for my favorite tea company and I got pretty far in the interviews and was feeling positive about my chances of being hired and really excited about doing the job. I loved the people I'd be working with. I loved the office. I loved the attitude of the company in general, the team spirit that was apparent, everything seemed perfect...but now I have been waiting for three weeks to hear back from them about whether or not I have been hired. They did tell me that I'd hear this week or next, so maybe next week I will have reason to celebrate? Of course, visions of the super-job-candidate are dancing in my head. My paranoid thinking goes something like this: "What if they found someone who has already been a marketing person for a beverage company and he or she wore a better outfit to the interview than I did and was more charismatic and looked older than me and has already been offered the job, but is thinking about it and I'm just waiting around in case he or she doesn't accept." This probably isn't the case and I realize that trying to imagine what is going on inside their offices is couterproductive and pointless... but here I am imagining.
In good news, last weekend's trip to Colorado with Ryan and Shay was fantastic. We stayed at the Stanley Hotel, the place that Steven King wrote The Shining. We hiked in Rocky Mountain National Park, we saw awesome street performers in Boulder, We went to an amazing Dave Matthews concert at Red Rocks and we got to see Josh at a Rockies game before driving home Sunday night. It was really a perfect weekend. We had a great time with our friends and it was a nice way to celebrate our third anniversary (a little late.) Maybe coming home from all that fun also led to a bit of a let down and put me in a funk this week? Who knows.
Whatever the case, I'm feeling more optimistic today. Tonight we're going to the state fair. Tomorrow, I'm getting a chair re-upholstered and am re-finishing a dresser. And Sunday, I get to have my hair cut and highlighted. There's nothing like some makeovers (me and the furniture) to get back on the right track.
For those of you waiting on CDs... give me another week. I need to design a good label for them.
It would be an understatement to say that this has been a rough week. The combination of not yet having a job, not having a place to live, not knowing how we're moving our stuff across the country, not knowing whether or not we're selling our cars and our house, not getting enough sleep and being extremely stressed out at work (I am one of two people responsible for getting 300 people to plunk down $125 to come to a gala dinner and for getting a bunch of businesses to just give us money in exchange for their name in the program and on a sign.) has had me in a sad mood.
Then, on Tuesday, Neil and I realized that we most likely can't move Boo Boo, our four-year-old bunny, to Washington D.C. with us. Rabbits don't do well with moving and especially not our rabbit. When we moved from El Paso to Albuquerque (a 4 hour drive) she freaked out and barely moved and didn't eat or drink for several days. And so, I placed a call to a local rabbit rescue (a much safer way to adopt her out than putting an ad in the paper or something.) I started crying while talking to the lady on the phone, but thankfully, she was really nice and sympathetic instead of making me feel like a bad person. The decision isn't 100% made yet, but it's very likely that we'll not be taking her with us and while I think it's probably the best thing to do, I still feel terrible about it.
Add to all this the fact that I really really really want to work for my favorite tea company and I got pretty far in the interviews and was feeling positive about my chances of being hired and really excited about doing the job. I loved the people I'd be working with. I loved the office. I loved the attitude of the company in general, the team spirit that was apparent, everything seemed perfect...but now I have been waiting for three weeks to hear back from them about whether or not I have been hired. They did tell me that I'd hear this week or next, so maybe next week I will have reason to celebrate? Of course, visions of the super-job-candidate are dancing in my head. My paranoid thinking goes something like this: "What if they found someone who has already been a marketing person for a beverage company and he or she wore a better outfit to the interview than I did and was more charismatic and looked older than me and has already been offered the job, but is thinking about it and I'm just waiting around in case he or she doesn't accept." This probably isn't the case and I realize that trying to imagine what is going on inside their offices is couterproductive and pointless... but here I am imagining.
In good news, last weekend's trip to Colorado with Ryan and Shay was fantastic. We stayed at the Stanley Hotel, the place that Steven King wrote The Shining. We hiked in Rocky Mountain National Park, we saw awesome street performers in Boulder, We went to an amazing Dave Matthews concert at Red Rocks and we got to see Josh at a Rockies game before driving home Sunday night. It was really a perfect weekend. We had a great time with our friends and it was a nice way to celebrate our third anniversary (a little late.) Maybe coming home from all that fun also led to a bit of a let down and put me in a funk this week? Who knows.
Whatever the case, I'm feeling more optimistic today. Tonight we're going to the state fair. Tomorrow, I'm getting a chair re-upholstered and am re-finishing a dresser. And Sunday, I get to have my hair cut and highlighted. There's nothing like some makeovers (me and the furniture) to get back on the right track.
For those of you waiting on CDs... give me another week. I need to design a good label for them.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Mix CD
In the late 90's I was in the habit of making a mix tape every summer and sending a copy to all of my friends. This was no small undertaking. It involved hours of pressing record and then remembering to flip the tape over and press record again. I also designed elaborate covers for each mix and then spent time at Kinkos and money on color copies. Additionally, I wrote something short about each song -- when to listen to it, who helped me discover it, what it made me think of, etc. For our wedding, Neil and I made a mix for our guests as a favor, but since we got married in 2002, we made a Mix CD instead of a Mix Tape. While a little easier, we still spent hours designing the label and then gluing together our own paper CD cases.
I have been planning to make a CD and mail it to my friends again for some time. In addition to the regular list (Find a job, find a place to live, pack up worldly possessions, etc. etc.) It has been my goal to make this CD before moving in October. And so, this evening, I am proud to report that the song list has been finalized and we are only days (possibly a week or two) away from the big launch of the 2005 Jodi Mix CD. Hopefully I still have good enough taste in music that this hasn't been a total waste of time.
Anyways, I decided that I will mail five lucky blog readers a copy of the CD too. So, if I don't actually know you and you read my blog and would like a copy of the CD, e-mail me via the link on my sidebar and give me your mailing address and sometime before late October, you too will receive some mail from me. (If I do know you and you suspect I don't have your address, please supply it also.)
I'm off to write little descriptions of all the songs. (Nope, I'm not kidding.)
In the late 90's I was in the habit of making a mix tape every summer and sending a copy to all of my friends. This was no small undertaking. It involved hours of pressing record and then remembering to flip the tape over and press record again. I also designed elaborate covers for each mix and then spent time at Kinkos and money on color copies. Additionally, I wrote something short about each song -- when to listen to it, who helped me discover it, what it made me think of, etc. For our wedding, Neil and I made a mix for our guests as a favor, but since we got married in 2002, we made a Mix CD instead of a Mix Tape. While a little easier, we still spent hours designing the label and then gluing together our own paper CD cases.
I have been planning to make a CD and mail it to my friends again for some time. In addition to the regular list (Find a job, find a place to live, pack up worldly possessions, etc. etc.) It has been my goal to make this CD before moving in October. And so, this evening, I am proud to report that the song list has been finalized and we are only days (possibly a week or two) away from the big launch of the 2005 Jodi Mix CD. Hopefully I still have good enough taste in music that this hasn't been a total waste of time.
Anyways, I decided that I will mail five lucky blog readers a copy of the CD too. So, if I don't actually know you and you read my blog and would like a copy of the CD, e-mail me via the link on my sidebar and give me your mailing address and sometime before late October, you too will receive some mail from me. (If I do know you and you suspect I don't have your address, please supply it also.)
I'm off to write little descriptions of all the songs. (Nope, I'm not kidding.)
Unexpected Musical Bliss
Tonight, I attended my first house concert. Apparently, all over the country, people invite musicians to perform in their homes and then open their homes up to the public so that musicians have venues and music-lovers can see their favorite artists in intimate settings. The suggested donation for tonight's concert was $15 and all of the money went directly to the band. Additionally, there were free refreshments from fruit and cheese (donated by Whole Foods) to Angelica's Chocolate bunt Cake (donated by Angelica herself).
The band I saw is called The Bills. Originally, they were named The Bill Hilly Band, but since shortened the name to The Bills. There are five band members from Canada, none of whom are named Bill. I think the music is best classified as Folk. But even if you're not a folk music fan, I would recommend listening to the Bills and, by all means, if you have the chance, go see them in concert. Tonight's show was awesome. Not only was the music surprisingly compelling, but the musicians were so into what they were doing and were enjoying themselves so much that it made the show that much more amazing. (Additionally, it should be noted that they say the word "about" like Canadians and that makes them that much more endearing.)
I have been meaning to write about the experience of listening to live music since I went to the Coldplay concert two weeks ago. Then after the Dave Matthews concert last week, I had even more to say about the wonder of concert attendance... the joy of holding a just-purchased concert ticket...the weeks of anticipation while waiting to attend the show...the pure joy that one feels only when all you're doing is experiencing a song - when the music is too loud to allow you to think of anything else and the performance is so moving that you don't want to. I had intended to write quite a bit more about all of this, but as life is wont to do, it's been keeping me busy. Now, it's well past my bed time and, sadly, I have two loads of unfolded laundry on my bed preventing me from sleeping for at least another half hour while I fold everything...
Moral: 1. Go listen to The Bills or download their album on iTunes.
2. Live music is great, amazing, wonderful...when I am listening to music, I
feel more alive, or remember that I am alive which is a really fantastic
and necessary feeling.
Tonight, I attended my first house concert. Apparently, all over the country, people invite musicians to perform in their homes and then open their homes up to the public so that musicians have venues and music-lovers can see their favorite artists in intimate settings. The suggested donation for tonight's concert was $15 and all of the money went directly to the band. Additionally, there were free refreshments from fruit and cheese (donated by Whole Foods) to Angelica's Chocolate bunt Cake (donated by Angelica herself).
The band I saw is called The Bills. Originally, they were named The Bill Hilly Band, but since shortened the name to The Bills. There are five band members from Canada, none of whom are named Bill. I think the music is best classified as Folk. But even if you're not a folk music fan, I would recommend listening to the Bills and, by all means, if you have the chance, go see them in concert. Tonight's show was awesome. Not only was the music surprisingly compelling, but the musicians were so into what they were doing and were enjoying themselves so much that it made the show that much more amazing. (Additionally, it should be noted that they say the word "about" like Canadians and that makes them that much more endearing.)
I have been meaning to write about the experience of listening to live music since I went to the Coldplay concert two weeks ago. Then after the Dave Matthews concert last week, I had even more to say about the wonder of concert attendance... the joy of holding a just-purchased concert ticket...the weeks of anticipation while waiting to attend the show...the pure joy that one feels only when all you're doing is experiencing a song - when the music is too loud to allow you to think of anything else and the performance is so moving that you don't want to. I had intended to write quite a bit more about all of this, but as life is wont to do, it's been keeping me busy. Now, it's well past my bed time and, sadly, I have two loads of unfolded laundry on my bed preventing me from sleeping for at least another half hour while I fold everything...
Moral: 1. Go listen to The Bills or download their album on iTunes.
2. Live music is great, amazing, wonderful...when I am listening to music, I
feel more alive, or remember that I am alive which is a really fantastic
and necessary feeling.
Friday, September 02, 2005
Katrina
Watching the news coverage of the hurricane makes me cry -- but I can't stop watching. All of my problems, needs etc. seem beyond trivial when I see little children standing on top of cars in a city that has become a river screaming "Help us! Please help us!"
I am so glad to see people on a broad scale finally criticizing the president for his inaction and inadequate action. We may never know how many more people might have lived had the rescue efforts begun in earnest on Tuesday instead of Thursday night...
I am watching the Concert for Hurricane Relief on NBC right now. It's very moving to see celebrities use their fame for good. I wonder if in any other countries, when disaster strikes, they hold a concert? I remember watching a similar fundraising tribute after Sept. 11th...
I realize this post is only a string of thoughts...It's just all so disturbing, sad, devastating.....I wish I could do more to help...
Watching the news coverage of the hurricane makes me cry -- but I can't stop watching. All of my problems, needs etc. seem beyond trivial when I see little children standing on top of cars in a city that has become a river screaming "Help us! Please help us!"
I am so glad to see people on a broad scale finally criticizing the president for his inaction and inadequate action. We may never know how many more people might have lived had the rescue efforts begun in earnest on Tuesday instead of Thursday night...
I am watching the Concert for Hurricane Relief on NBC right now. It's very moving to see celebrities use their fame for good. I wonder if in any other countries, when disaster strikes, they hold a concert? I remember watching a similar fundraising tribute after Sept. 11th...
I realize this post is only a string of thoughts...It's just all so disturbing, sad, devastating.....I wish I could do more to help...
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Disaster
This morning on the way to work, my favorite morning show DJs were making a plea for people to stop by a grocery store called Raley's and donate money for the hurricane victims in New Orleans and Biloxi and the rest of that region. I had about $30 on me and without even thinking I pulled over and put all of it into one of the radio station milk jugs slated to go to the Red Cross. I don't have time to fully express my sadness at the devastation right now, but suffice it to say that I wish I could do much much more. Disasters like this really put all of the trivial things into perspective. I am immensely grateful to have my family and pets and know everyone is safe and I am certainly guilty of taking all that I have for granted. Seeing other peoples' lives and livelyhoods swept away the way they have been is very sobering.
Yes, I sound like everyone else who has been moved by this disaster... but sometimes it is ok to reiterate the cliche.
Neil and I have been married three years today. I feel very lucky to have him in my life and to be celebrating three years of marriage.
More to report, including possible very exciting job news and a treatise on the power of live music...
This morning on the way to work, my favorite morning show DJs were making a plea for people to stop by a grocery store called Raley's and donate money for the hurricane victims in New Orleans and Biloxi and the rest of that region. I had about $30 on me and without even thinking I pulled over and put all of it into one of the radio station milk jugs slated to go to the Red Cross. I don't have time to fully express my sadness at the devastation right now, but suffice it to say that I wish I could do much much more. Disasters like this really put all of the trivial things into perspective. I am immensely grateful to have my family and pets and know everyone is safe and I am certainly guilty of taking all that I have for granted. Seeing other peoples' lives and livelyhoods swept away the way they have been is very sobering.
Yes, I sound like everyone else who has been moved by this disaster... but sometimes it is ok to reiterate the cliche.
Neil and I have been married three years today. I feel very lucky to have him in my life and to be celebrating three years of marriage.
More to report, including possible very exciting job news and a treatise on the power of live music...
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