Victory Rolls! Hey wait! I thought I was trying to lose those…

Manager is away today, all my content is in the hands of others for review, bills are paid….so time to goof off a bit today. First up is trying to figure out hairstyles for the photo shoot. I have a hair appointment with Ruth next week and I need to bring her some ideas on what I want her to do for me. So today I have been looking through all kinds of photos, how-to videos and the like for inspiration. What I have found to be interesting is how much of the 40’s trickled into the 50’s in terms of hairstyles. I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised. I had my 80’s hair well into the 90’s. It’s not like we hit 1990 and just said NO! to everything that came before. So….here are some of the questions I am pondering today.

Bangs – To Betty or Not to Betty

I realize that the iconic bangs for the pinup are the Betty Page U bangs. Do I really want them? Another option (which I hate) is the weird looking rolled bang. I don’t even know why I am debating this one. I would have to let my bangs grow out before I could even attempt the sausage roll on my forehead anyway. Ugh…Ok, let’s have some pictures…

Yeah, I think I may go ahead with the U bangs. Ok, fine. What’s next?

Glamour or Rockabilly?

Ok, this one is a more difficult choice. I may actually try to go for one of each since I have 2 locations, 2 outfits, that sort of thing. Why not branch out and go for both? For the Glamour part of it, I am thinking the shots with the car out in the desert. Chances are my hair is going to be blowing around anyway, so I don’t want some complicated hair do messing up my pictures. Then again, maybe the headscarf might work...SEE? I can't decide! I am thinking more Dita VonTeese/ Rita Hayworth loose curls and a hair flower. Also, I am trying to consider the timing of the shots. Chances are the car shots will be done the first part of the day. For the Boneyard, I’ll be in the swing dress which lends itself to a more rockabilly vibe anyway. Maybe that’s the one where I get the more elaborate hairstyle. I don’t know if I’m ready for victory rolls, but at least I am more open to the idea. I just think it looks like I am putting HoHos on my head.

Ok, here are more shots to consider.

 

  

Final thought…I love Bernie Dexter. Total girl crush right now. FYI she’s the model in the photo I included for my dress…and also the head scarf pictures.

Photo Update

Well I finally heard back from the Neon Museum and it sounds like we are a go for the shoot!!! YAY!!! It’s a big relief to have that confirmed because now I can work on the rest of the plans. I found a web site for classic car rentals and managed to find a red 1959 Cadillac convertible. I swear I think it’s the only 50’s Cadillac available for rent in the whole city. It was surprising to say the least. I did find a 1971 Cadillac El Dorado which I briefly considered since it was the year I was born, but it would clash with the rest of my 50’s theme. Either way, I am able to rent the car for a few hours which is nice since I don’t want to have to be responsible for it any longer than necessary.

Still on the “To Do” list from Hell is reserving the car, recon mission to the boneyard to scope out locations, recon to Red Rock Canyon to scout locations for the car, clothes, hair, makeup, blah, blah, blah…..

I will say that I ordered a dress that I’m excited about. I told myself I wouldn’t order a swing dress and then I saw this one. So much for will power…I think this is the dress for the boneyard. I’m still debating on the outfit for the car shots. More later…

Meeting Agenda

Well, it’s out there now. On Sunday morning I had to attend a 2 hour meeting at work. I use the term “meeting” loosely since generally what happens is a lecture that goes on and on forever. How awesome is it to sit in a room and be told for a couple of hours all the things you should know already and where “some of you” just aren’t cutting it? So inspiring!!

I tell myself all the time to just sit in the boat and row. This is a mindless weekend job that lets me clock in and clock out and no more. I’ve never once been late, never called in, and am focused on the financial end game. Yes, this is of course leading up to the point that I have ditched my own advice. I actually asked them if I could host our next “meeting.” I came home and typed up a sample agenda and included suggestions for team activities and everything. So much for rowing!

I don’t think I can stand to sit through one more of these. All that “leadership” and not one of them have any presentation skills. No sense of their audience at all! We have people that just started and people that have been there for almost 30 years. I was looking at everyone around me and there was a range from half asleep to “they aren’t talking about me” looks to counting tiles in the ceiling and well, you get the idea. Totally lost on the people that were literally reading documentation to us.

So like I said, it’s out there now. I turned in my suggestions. I’m really hoping that I am coming across as being helpful and not over-stepping. Then again, this job was never meant to last this long. Still, if I decide to try and come back around the holidays, it sure would be nice if I didn’t burn any bridges. I’m not going back until Saturday so it should be interesting to see if it even gets mentioned to me.

Row, row, row your boat….

Friday Night

So normally I would wait to write something up after an event, but I’m bored while waiting for a meeting, so let’s do a little warm up first shall we?

My weekend job puts me in contact with the public in general, but also with some pretty interesting coworkers. Most of them are ridiculously younger than me. It’s a bizarre experience. Anyway, one of my friends has reached the end of her Las Vegas experience and has decided to pack it in and move back to Indiana. Kind of a bummer since she was a good person to work with, but not a total shock given her situation. Plus, this was her first big move away from friends and family. At 24 I would have been hard pressed to make that work too. It took me at least 2 tries to get out of the Midwest. Fate is too quirky for me to risk saying that I’ll never go back, so we’ll just leave that for now…

Last weekend I took her out for drinks at where else???? The Peppermill. She loved it. Luckily she was down with the whole lounging vibe rather than clubbing. Now, with her time running out, she wants to go out again tonight. The difference this time is a bigger crowd, probably a club and something we call LBD (Little Black Dress) night. Oy. Not a lot of my favorite things here. Granted, I know I don’t have to go since I technically already had a night out with her. But, soft touch that I am, I am most likely driving tonight. So bring on the Spanx, I guess.

We have tentative plans to go to Red Rock Casino, so at least we aren’t schlepping down to the Strip. I haven’t heard from her yet today, but it wouldn’t surprise me to hear the location change a few times. Whatever. As long as there is breakfast at the end of this night I can put up with a lot.

The Think System

I have a very important project going on at work right now. So important that I can’t seem to make myself work on it. I spend so much time thinking about what I want to say and not a lot of time actually writing it down. It’s weird. I have work sessions scheduled with my subject matter experts and everything is going fine. I haven’t missed a single deadline and yet I feel like I’m not really doing anything. Does thinking about work count as work? I still enter it that way on my timesheet!!

Even as I am sitting here typing this out, part of me is thinking about PowerPoint slides and tone for the narrative that will go with them. I have another work session scheduled for next week and so far not a single word written for it. When it’s finally finished, everyone in the company is supposed to view it. And I am supposed to write up some talking points for the CEO who is supposed to make an introduction video for this training. My quest for perfection is rendering me speechless. I know I am too far in my head right now. That’s why I keep scheduling these work sessions. Deadlines are forcing me to keep actively plugging away at it.

To try and keep myself loose, I keep “walking away” from it and coming back to it several times throughout the day. In the past I have often found it useful to switch focus onto mundane things like laundry or paying bills, or whatever while noodling over some problem or another. So far no lightening bolts of inspiration. Maybe it’s time to try something else.

This ain’t no Olan Mills!!

I’m too excited about it to keep it a secret. I have decided to organize a photo shoot for my upcoming birthday. My mind is going so crazy with ideas that I can’t concentrate on work which is a very bad thing! Still, I have so much planning to do and I have to get everything going right now if I want to make my deadline. I am trying to schedule everything for the first weekend in May. I realize its Mother’s Day weekend, but hopefully that won’t interfere with my plans.

So I have started thinking about locations and I am beyond excited to say that I have set the wheels in motion to have a photo shoot at the Neon Boneyard. How completely cool is that??? I have contacted them to determine if I can get the date I want and to arrange all the particulars. Since its run by volunteers, I have to plan in advance and get permission to even get in let alone bring a photographer with me. Fingers crossed that everything is approved. And speaking of photographers…

I asked a friend of mine to take the pictures for me. I started to go down the road of looking for local photographers since there is certainly no shortage of them in this town. I contacted a few and frankly I was less than impressed with the way I was treated if they bothered to acknowledge me at all. Maybe it had something to do with how far away the date is, maybe not but they can just forget it. I decided to ask my friend David to do it. It’s a bit of a leap of faith for both of us, but even just a couple of conversations about style and tone and we are already on the same page. I feel really great about my choice.

Since I am using a friend that isn’t going to be watching the clock I feel a lot more adventurous to try different things. Case in point is that I am looking into renting a classic Cadillac convertible and have us drive off into the desert. I proposed the idea to David and he loved it. Yay!! Now I just have to start pricing that out and figuring out how far in advance I can make the reservation and if I have to get special insurance, blah, blah, big money blah…

So in case it isn’t obvious yet, I am going with an old Vegas, 50’s retro kind of vibe for the shoot. That means hair, makeup and clothes!! WooHoo!! So far I have been hitting the gym almost everyday. Amazing the things you can accomplish when you have a deadline. Come Hell or high water pictures will be taken of me regardless of the size of my waistline. Ugh. Might be time to invest in some Spanx! My hairdresser is on board and although she has also offered to do my makeup, I am pricing that out too. As for clothing, I am all over the map. I have some ideas and some items earmarked on various sites, but I really haven’t decided yet. Plus, what size do I order? No, unfortunately I have to wait on that part for now. You can count on the fact that something is going to have cherries on it!

Pandora, Yoga, euHReka

So I finally decided to check out Pandora a couple of weeks ago. So far it’s just been whatever the default service is. No upgrading here just yet. I’m still not convinced it’s for me. I am still having some trouble figuring out how to customize the stations. Somehow all of my stations eventually all sound the same. Why can’t I have a station that only plays one artist? Maybe I could if I upgraded. Bah…

So I have started going to yoga 3 times a week at my gym. It’s been rough since I haven’t been to a class in years. I was surprised at how much flexibility I’ve lost over the years. I have to measure success in small steps. Last night I was finally able to do a side plank. It wasn’t pretty but I didn’t fall and I didn’t quit. I don’t know if I am ever going to get to the wheel, but never say never I suppose. The 3 classes each have a different instructor which is good and bad. I find the variety interesting since each instructor clearly has their favorite poses. The frustrating part is that not all of them are necessarily the same when it comes to giving instructions. Seems wrong to get mad during yoga. Still, my incremental results are worth it. I feel stronger.

Yoga isn’t really doing much for my stress. I have a very high profile project starting and everyday I feel a little more excited and nervous about the work ahead and how critical it is to be absolutely perfect. Our flagship product is called euHReka and I am tasked with building some awareness training for it in the next 6 weeks. The whole company is supposed to take the training and in reality this is just the start of an entire training program. As you might imagine, the upside to this kind of exposure is huge. The downside is something I don’t even want to consider. Think positive, right? I have people working with me that have just as much at stake and won’t let this project get off track. I know it will all work out fine but here and now it seems a bit nerve racking.

Tetris

I feel a little rusty starting this back up again. Still, I find myself composing in my head which is what I used to do when I was writing regularly, so perhaps my sabbatical from writing is over. Then again, I am also taking a break from moving the furniture around my apartment, so even writing seems like a better option.

Why am I moving things around my little cracker box? Well, it turns out I am going to have a houseguest for a bit. Not sure for how long (although I have been assured it will be for only 2 weeks). So, here I am trying to maneuver some extra space in my spare bedroom/ office. Isn’t it irritating that before you can clean you have to make a really gigantic mess first? I have already emptied out the contents of one closet and I now have to empty out the storage unit so I can refit all of the old stuff as well as the new stuff. Once again I feel like I am playing a life version of Tetris.

Of course now that I have started this process, I just want to box it all up and then get rid of it. Case in point: I have a large storage bin full of binders that have my textbook/ classroom materials from my Masters program. I graduated 7 years ago and I don’t believe I have opened the bin let alone referenced anything from it. Do I get rid of it? Yeah, I supposed it’s time.

Next issue is books. I have been thinking about buying a Kindle. If I do, do I add books to it that I already own and then get rid of my hard copies? It feels a little like my cassette tape to CD project and my VHS to DVD project. Do I really need to tackle this too? I am finally getting to the point where I am OK about not buying CD’s. (Well, except if it is a favorite band and I already own everything else.) Still, getting rid of a lot of these books would free up more space.

In the meantime, I keep staring at the pile of stuff I have to do something with and so far just staring at it isn’t doing much. Guess my break is over.

Flagstaff for the Long Haul

So this past weekend I had a chance to take a quick trip out of town to see a good friend. My friend Darin is playing in a band and they are out touring right now for their album. I decided to go see them play in Flagstaff. About a 4 hour drive, but I was also interested in checking out the town. I’ve driven through many times, but never really had a chance to explore. Well I can certainly claim it now. I stayed down in the historic district at a hotel called the Monte Vista.

According to the hotel brochure, more than 100 movies were filmed in Northern Arizona in the 40’s and 50’s. The Hotel Monte Vista became the destination of choice for a number of Hollywood stars. I ended up in the Lee Marvin room. The movies I came up with for him (with some help from Dad) are The Dirty Dozen, Paint Your Wagon and Cat Ballou. The brochure even has a picture of my room in it. Hmmmm…yeah, my room didn’t look anything like the brochure.

There was a pair of his boots nailed to the wall and a picture of him passed out drunk on a horse from Cat Ballou in the closet they called a bathroom. The hotel is also rumored to be haunted, but there were certainly no ghost sightings while I was there. The only thing from the brochure picture that I can say was in my room is the horse statue on the dresser. Oh well, not the most interesting part of the story, but a good place to start.

So I breezed into town Saturday afternoon and checked in. I had some time to kill before Darin and the band came in, so I decided to go do some exploring. The historic district is about a 4 block radius of bars, shops and restaurants. The town square is an open red brick affair with iron benches and a little area for bands to play. There was a band setting up as I strolled past. As for the people, it was clearly divided by 2 groups: college kids and tourists. There were plenty of both as I walked up and down the streets. My goals were simple: find the bar where the band was going to play, find the coffee places, find a place for dinner and find a place for breakfast Sunday morning. I accomplished all of these things in about 30 minutes. That’s how small it was. (Reminded me a bit of Yellow Springs, actually.)

The band came in to town and set up around 8 that evening. The bar (Uptown Billiards) was part of a pool hall. Nice place, really. Small playing area for the band, but probably not the worst place they’ll ever play. The bartenders were friendly and the drinks were cheap, so who could complain? The band was awesome. Although they are out promoting their album, they also played a lot of covers. Given the fact that they were playing to a bar crowd, playing the familiar made a lot of sense. The songs they played from the album were my favorites, so it really was win-win for me all night. They also played a song about a trip to Vegas (not on the album) which I really liked. Maybe it will make it on the next one.

I had a chance to meet the guys and they are all pretty cool. (I think traditionally it will be the dreaded sophomore album where the egos emerge, the money, fame and drugs kick in and the “behind the music” cautionary tale begins, but maybe I’m just having a glass is half empty moment.) I also saw the van they have stuffed themselves into as they drive across the country. It suffered a breakdown in Wyoming, which I personally think is critical to the “rising from obscurity” part of the band back story. I told Darin he couldn’t put a price on memories like that. He very smartly told me that the price was a new alternator on the credit card….touché.

Dan Tedesco and The Long Haul rocked out for a few hours. Sure, there was a tense moment with broken glasses being kicked around as well as a bit too much plumber-butt from an “enthusiastic” fan, but it was still a good time. After the show it was time to check out the rest of the nightlife in town. There were still some bands playing at other venues, so off I went with the band. Turns out, the nightlife was winding down in the rest of the town too, so options got limited real fast.

Some of the friends also in town to support the band were staying in the same hotel I was so I got an opportunity to check out the Presidential suite of the hotel. Not sure which president, but the red walls, black trim and gaudy knickknacks made me think it might have been a “chicken ranch” kind of official. Do they have presidents?

I think I finally passed out in the rustic Lee Marvin suite about 4 am. The train station is a block over from the hotel with trains running through about every 30 minutes. So even with the air conditioning unit on and the ceiling fan trying to give me some white noise, there I was awake from my “nap” by 6am. By 7 I gave up and decided to embrace the day. Darin and I got some coffee and found a bench to smoke and take in Flagstaff in the god-awful AM of Sunday morning….

…only to be accosted by a Native American intent on giving Darin a “reading” and a healing, I suppose. There was a laying of hands (germs!) and the Good Book was revealed for a bit of scripture. Now Dad would say that you meet people for a reason. We both sat and listened politely for a bit and personally I marveled at Darin’s patience. Finally, he got to the part where he asked for money. (And THERE was the reason for this soul in our lives at that moment.) We ended up politely breaking away from our hungry shaman and decided to do another circuit around town.

Eventually, we decided to go and have breakfast. The rest of the band was still sleeping in various places and I had no place to be in any hurry, so breakfast was the right choice. The Downtown Diner was a quaint greasy spoon with tape on the torn vinyl booths and a collection of license plates and historic town photos covering every square inch of wall space. The food was fast and hot and cheap. Not bad either, although Darin found a little extra “floss” with his food. (That’s what you get for avoiding tasty breakfast meat, you hippy!)

Eventually, people started to wake up (it was closing in on noon after all) and I dropped Darin off and headed for home. I was so punch drunk from the lack of sleep and the long drive that I literally fell into bed by 6 pm and didn’t move until the alarm went off this morning. I don’t know that I would recommend the town or the hotel, but I would definitely recommend seeing the band. In true band-supporter fashion, I will now insert a link for Dan’s MySpace page so you can check out the tour dates and even hear a couple of songs.

4th of July 2009

This year’s celebration was a change of pace from the last 2 years. Heidi and family were off to LA for some Disney time, so no gathering to watch their crazy neighbor launch missiles from the driveway. No, this year I made a trip to LA too. Chuck is there for work for a couple of weeks and I decided to drive out and visit.

He is staying near the convention center in Anaheim which is right across the street from Disney. I got there Friday night and we went over to the Downtown Disney area for dinner and a movie. We ended up seeing the Transformers movie which I thought was pretty bad.

We didn’t really have any plans made for the 4th which was fine with me. The next morning we went to breakfast and discussed options. We though about going out to Catalina Island for the day, but based on price and the amount of time we would get to spend there it didn’t make much sense. Still, I think I have a location to check out for a future girl’s weekend!

Instead, we decided to go out to Long Beach and check out the Queen Mary. Apparently, it’s been there my whole life and I never knew it. It’s a hotel and museum. It was interesting to say the least. In addition to being a working hotel, they have various tours and things to do onboard as well. They have a tour called ghosts and legends which looked like fun, but we decided to skip it and explore on our own. We wandered all over the ship trying to open locked doors to get a look inside some of the rooms, but no luck. The Promenade deck had some fun shops in it, so I loaded up with some souvenirs.

Right next to the ship is a Russian submarine. Kind of weird, really. No idea what it was doing there, but again they offered a tour to go through it. Now, I’m not claustrophobic or anything, but I wasn’t really in to crawling around an old submarine for fun either. Still, it had its own gift shop so we wandered through that too. I was so excited to see the Russian nesting dolls! I was hoping to maybe get inspired again for my Russian Christmas tree theme, but nothing really jumped out at me except the dolls.

The ship was also gearing up for a 4th of July party. We thought about staying all day to see the show, but after a couple of hours, we had explored everything we could and decided to go find something else to do. Besides, Chuck had access to a suite on top of our hotel where we could see fireworks from Disney and pretty much the rest of the valley. So once we got back to the hotel we made a reservation for dinner at a Hawaiian Fusion restaurant called Roy’s. Granted, it was a sushi place, and I don’t do sushi, but I figured there would still be something for me to find on the menu.

Turns out I was feeling a bit adventurous once dinner rolled around and decided to try the sushi. Um….yeah, still not really a fan. It’s a texture thing. And frankly, I don’t find a lot of flavor in any of it. Still, I was proud of myself for giving it a shot. The rest of the meal was excellent. We each tried a sampler of their most popular fish dishes and it was amazing.
After dinner we walked back to the hotel to go watch the fireworks. In the suite on top of the hotel, people from the convention started to wander in. Interesting crowd. The group Chuck is with is the National Episcopal Church. He explained it as a sort of Church Congress. Every 3 years they all come together to discuss church business and pass laws? Rules? Not sure what to call them…anyway, an interesting crowd to be sure.

While we were waiting for the Disney fireworks to start someone looked up the Declaration of Independence and the started to recite it for the group. And then the singing started. Really? It was like Christmas caroling gone wrong. There was a rousing sing a long of the Star Spangled Banner, America and God Bless America. Oh, and in mostly perfect harmony. The Disney fireworks were good, although another Internet search indicated that although in past years they normally did a special fireworks show for the 4th, this year they were not. And the Recession strikes again…..

Still, all in all it was a nice time. The next morning we went to breakfast and then I hit the road to come home. The traffic was nice and light as usual. It’s always worse going in the other direction. Even with the Michael Jackson business going on, the traffic side of the highway was all about people heading to/ from Vegas for the weekend.

June News Update

So, what’s new? Well, there has been some family news, but I think we have that all sorted for now. The last thing I need to do is rehash the family drama yet again.

Next week is my birthday. 38 is one of those unimportant numbers, so no plans going on this year. I will say that Jeff is coming to town, so I’m sure I’ll get a chance to see him and have him buy me dinner…

Frankly, what I am already thinking about is turning 40. Not so much about the actual number, but what the girls and I are going to do to celebrate the milestone. Seems like a long way off to start planning a trip, but if we want it to be something really special (translation – expensive) I would rather start saving for it now. Plus, prices on some of these things might be better in this economy and this far in advance. So the planning begins…

What else is coming up? The trip to Ohio is in a couple of weeks. It’s supposed to be for my high school reunion, but there was a reminder email that came out that all reservations had to be in by next Friday or dinner was cancelled. I would be really pissed at this point to come all that way just to have it all fall apart. Still, more time for family and friends, which will be nice too. Always good to have a backup plan!

Then in August I have some stranger plans I guess. Time to scatter the ashes for grandma and Linda. It’s weird to think about a planned “event” such as this. Still, I know that Dad has wanted to do it for at least a year now and is tired of waiting for everyone else to decide on a time. So this summer is it. The only worry I have for the event is the state of my stomach while on the boat, so Dramamine is coming with me to make sure the only thing scattered in the ocean are the ashes…

Chicago Weekend

This past weekend I went to Chicago for a visit with Lynnea. It was my first trip out since Nolan arrived and it was past time for me to meet the little guy. Plus, I was also coming out for my first Keane concert in Chicago. I want to try to keep the tradition going to see them in different cities and Chicago seemed like a logical choice.

The weather on Friday when I arrived was rainy, but that was the worst of it. The rest of the weekend was beautiful and much cooler than the record temperatures here at home. Once Lynnea and Nolan picked me up we headed out for a quick stop to pick up some dinner and head back to her house to settle in and visit. Nolan had some different ideas. He is getting close to the 2 year mark and the fun antics that accompany that age. After making a bit of a fuss while waiting for food, we got home and got back on track.

The first night we just took it easy and we watched a movie after the little guy had gone to sleep. Well…and after Lynnea fixed the remote for me. It seems that her simple directions for using the remote were too complicated for me. Long story short, I ended up pushing all of the buttons. Once she came back and fixed it, we were all set. We ended up watching Ghost Town. It was hilarious. Didn’t seem like the movie did too much when it came out or stayed around too long, but we both thought it was good.

Next day was spent playing with Nolan until grandma arrived for babysitting duties. Dave’s mom is really cool. We didn’t get to visit too much before we headed out the door for the show, but we had some time on Sunday morning. Once we got grandma and Nolan settled, we were off to the Aragon Ballroom for the show. As usual, people were already lined up when we got there. It’s always interesting for me to see the types of people that come to these shows. In general, it’s such a nice looking bunch of all ages. I think Lynnea’s comment once we were inside was that it was a warm nice smelling crowd.

The ballroom was very pretty and easily the largest venue I have seen them perform to date. Even with the long line outside, we were still pretty close to the stage. One concern I have for any show like this is that tall people will be in front of me and blocking my view. This place was great because the stage was up nice and high. So same as last week, the first 2 bands came and went. I really like the Helio Sequence. The drummer was just as weird as before and I had a much better view of him this time. Matt Kearney sounded better this time around which led me to believe that the sound system in LA wasn’t all it could have been. I still don’t have an urge to run out and own anything by him, but at least the sound was much better.

The only tense moment (for me) was when 2 guys tried to push their way to the front. Lori would have appreciated this I’m sure, but I wasn’t having it. They pretended to be looking for someone up front but seemed to be getting stuck right in front of me. One guy made a show of trying to apologize and I told him he needed to leave. We talked for a few minutes and I think I actually shamed him into leaving. He made some comment about maybe staying anyway since the view was so good and I told him that yes, the view was good which was why I had arrived so early so I could have it. And then I told him again (nicely) that he was being a jerk and that he needed to get out of my way. He finally apologized to me and then he and his friend (who wisely kept his mouth shut) blended back into the crowd. It’s funny again to think about the type of people who come to the show. How many concerts do you go to where you reason with the idiots and they actually listen, let alone apologize?

And then Keane came on. They changed the set list a bit from last week which was cool. I really tried to stay calm about it, but I could not seem to stop myself from providing some commentary for Lynnea about the band and the songs. Hopefully I wasn’t overly annoying about it, but I might have been. I kept telling myself to just shut up, but that didn’t work out so well. Maybe there is a reason I tend to go to these things by myself? Anyway, it was a great show and the band as always seemed genuinely appreciative of the support and energy of the crowd. I love them.

We were feeling a bit dehydrated after the show. It was so freaking hot in there by the end. So a stop for fluids on the way home and we were still back at a decent hour. The next morning Nolan was nice enough to sleep in until 8. Apparently it was a treat. So Sunday morning was a nice visit with grandma before she hit the road. Then we took a trip to the park near Lynnea’s house. That’s where these pictures were taken. As you can see, Nolan had warmed up enough to me to play and hold hands while crossing the street.

The timing of my flight home and Dave’s flight back from Vegas worked out well, so Lynnea only had to make one trip to the airport on Sunday. The flight home was uneventful although I did end up spending some time talking to the guy next to me who was traveling out on business. I was really trying to stay awake so I could sleep that night, so I didn’t mind chatting.

All in all, a great weekend. It was good to visit and meet Nolan and to see another great concert in a new city and venue. Maybe next year I can try Denver or San Francisco. You never know. I would love for them to come to Phoenix too so I can drag April with me. I’m sure she can’t wait…

Getting Ready

Heading to Chicago tomorrow for the weekend. I find I am full of energy today. Where was all this earlier in the week? Today I am scrambling around like a crazy person cleaning and taking care of things before heading out again. Laundry, bills, air filters, plants…..supposedly doing some work in here too.

Still, it was nice to get back into my walking routine this week after being out of town. Doctor’s visit this week says I have lost 12 pounds since January. Nice! Of course that maniac also wants me to lose about 20 more pounds. Never satisfied! With the temperatures starting to heat up for summer, it’s getting a little more uncomfortable but I won’t let it stop me. The worst part so far has been an unexpected case of allergies this spring. I was really hoping that the move to the desert would be the end of it, but I was a fool. Who knows that the culprit is now, but the windy days don’t help. I have noticed that since the wind died down 2 days ago I have felt great.

It was a great night last night for walking. Yes, it was warm, but the crowds were nice and light. The early part of the week is always the best time to be there. On weekends, I have the luxury of going out early morning to avoid the crowds too. It’s good to get out of the apartment head space and go be in a different head space on the Strip. With the music playing, I find it is a good stream of consciousness time to just let my mind wander. Plus I always manage to amuse myself when I find that I am trying to walk to the beat. Now if everyone would just get out of my way!

I have to say the weight loss is also nice given this summer’s high school reunion. Seems like a good motivator, although that wasn’t my intent when I started. Facebook has been nice since I can see a lot of friends now and the wear and tear over the years compared to mine. It feels a bit silly to be concerned by my appearance, but how can you help it with that group? These are the people you went through that time period with when appearance was everything. Time to let the insecurities of the past go.

Updates

I know it’s been awhile since my last update. I guess I just need to feel that something worthwhile has happened before writing anything. I mean really, how exciting is it to talk about day to day life here when nothing changes?

But that is not true now. So here are the updates.

First up is my new hair color. I know with Facebook that I have already made this update, but for those of you not on Facebook and that I didn’t already shove pictures at, I have added purple highlights to my hair. I really like it, but it sure is a maintenance hassle. My bathtub, my fingernails and my pillow case all tell the tale of constantly bleeding dye. So that would be the biggest drawback to this non-permanent color choice. Still, I love the color, so I guess I will deal with the rest until I can’t take it anymore. Chances are this is just a summer experiment, but we’ll see how it goes. The big test was a business trip I took last week to Montréal. If the client was really going to react in a strange way, then I would have had to do some serious rethinking on my hair choices. Turns out I didn’t need to worry about it, but more on that in a minute.

At the end of the day, the color is so dark that it really is not noticeable until I get out into the sun. The next stage is the inevitable fading and seeing what the heck it’s going to fade into. As long as I don’t see any of the orange that was there before the color was applied I think I will be fine.

Ok, so last week I took another trip to Canada. It was so nice to finally be in Canada in a season other than winter. The weather was nice, even with the bit of rain we had. I really like working with this client since they are so easy-going. Each trip I take to Canada just continues to reinforce my love of Canadians.

And no trip would be complete without an interesting travel story, and I do so hate to disappoint you. Now I know I have covered this, but since I take so few flights these days, it was a reminder tome as well. I am referring to having Las Vegas as my home airport. The trip home was the usual party plane with groups of people all excited to get through a grueling 5 hour flight and get to the playground in the desert. I had a couple of guys sitting next to me and clearly they were part of a larger group scattered around the plane. Since I had already resolved the fact that I would be getting no sleep, I finished the book I brought with me.

The guy sitting right next to me was the interesting story for this trip. I honestly couldn’t tell what his problem was, so let me just describe it here. Once he and his friend were seated, he immediately pulled out some hand sanitizer for himself and then offered it to me. It’s like an updated version of offering someone a stick of gum or a breath mint. I felt compelled to accept and I certainly am not against clean hands on an airplane, so I graciously accepted the offer. Nice Bath and Body stuff that smelled like figs. So far no weirdness, but this was only the beginning.

After applying the hand goo, he pulled out a mask. Now that had my attention. Was this guy a serious germaphobe? Was he in fact sick? Overly paranoid about swine flu? This was the mystery I had in front of me. Over the next 5 hours, he proceeded to use the hand sanitizer about every 20 minutes. I’m not even kidding about this. I think I am going to be reminded of him each time I smell figs. Given the compulsiveness of his hand washing, I was leaning toward the germaphobe explanation. But then there were things that just didn’t fit.

He had no problems touching the tray table, the touch screen TV on the back of the headrest, or the beverage cans that were handed to him. That doesn’t make sense, right? I was expecting to see some serious cleaning or avoidance behavior and I got nothing. Just the constant had washing. He even switched out to a clean mask about halfway through the flight. Then I wondered if he was ill after all? He didn’t strike me as being sick though. Oh well, I just have to live with the mystery I guess. If nothing else, it kept me occupied while I flew ever closer to my own bed.

Friday was back to work, but not a lot going on there and I had to get ready for the next trip to LA. It was finally time to see Keane again!!!! Los Angles is now the first time I have seen them in the same city. Since they don’t appear to be coming back to Las Vegas any time soon, it looks like that may be the trek I have to make each time they come to the states. Still, it’s not a bad drive at all. And rather than stay in LA, I end up near Pasadena which is a bit better for me on the way home again. I didn’t really pay much attention to the name of the hotel I had booked, so it was funny to me when I arrived and realized it was the same place I had stayed 2 years ago when I last saw them.

This year they were playing at the Hollywood Palladium. It was an interesting old ballroom that has been around forever and hosted all sorts of entertainers from Lawrence Welk and Glenn Miller to the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead. Standing room only of course, and there were 2 opening bands. I got there about an hour before the doors opened and the line was already stretched halfway around the block. Still, I was pretty close to the stage, so I settled in and waited. Luckily, I didn’t have amazons standing in front of me this time.

The first band was called the Helio Sequence. Kind of an electronica/ dance sound to them and they were fantastic. The drummer was easily the most entertaining drummer I have ever seen. I love watching drummers anyway since they seem to be in their own world behind the drum kit, but this guy was extra special. He has these facial expressions that were so funny, I thought for sure that he was doing it on purpose. Just really over exaggerated stuff. I swear he had a rubber face like Jim Carrey. Anyway, they were great so it looks like I can add another band to the list.

The next act was Matt Kearney. He was kind of dull, frankly. I know one single of his and its ok, but it sounds like so much other stuff that it doesn’t really make much of an impact, at least not for me. He reminded me a bit of Jack Johnson although not quite that sleepy. Still, my knees were beginning to hurt and I just wanted him to leave. After feeling like he played forever, he finally left. I seriously thought I was going to pass out that that point. I had to keep reminding myself to stop locking my knees. Keane finally took the stage around 10 pm. At that point I had been standing for about 4 hours. I found my mind wandering to how much Aleve I had packed with me and why didn’t I think to take one before the show? Not exactly something I worried about in my 20’s you know? Ugh. Oh well. The boys finally came on and I felt no more pain.

Since this new album is a bit more upbeat and they have finally added guitars back in to the mix, it was a much more rocking show than in previous years. They played the songs a little faster and a little sharper than they perform them on the album and it really works well for the live audience, in my humble opinion. They played lots of songs from the new album of course, along with some mixed in from the previous 2 albums. It was a good set list, but I was a bit sad to see that some of my favorites didn’t make the cut. They finally wrapped up around 11:30 and I had to remind my legs how to work again to get out of there.

Getting back to the hotel was a bit of a nightmare and took about an hour and a half. I am really disappointed over the stupid directions I got from the Internet. Trying to get to the venue, the roads just disappeared and I literally stumbled across Sunset. Trying to go back to the hotel, I tried once again to follow the directions and it was a disaster. I realize I was in Hollywood on a Saturday night, but I could not believe the traffic on the 101. It was bumper to bumper for miles and made it no faster than about 15 mph. Again, fate intervened and I saw an exit for the 110 to Pasadena. Granted, I wasn’t staying there, but I was close enough to it that I figured I would take my chances. Thank God I decided to do it. The highway ended and dumped me out in Pasadena. From there I had no clue where I was. I went another block and there was the sign for the 210. Awesome!!!

This week I am headed out to Chicago for another show and to visit Lynnea. This time, I am probably going to end up in sneakers and take an Aleve before I go. They are going to be playing in another ballroom and it will be my first time to see them in Chicago. I am really excited, but I also know that once it’s over I will go into my Keane hangover. Still, I get to spend time with Lynnea and baby Nolan, so it won’t be so bad.

30 Days of April

Since I couldn't resist posting this to FaceBook today, I figured I may as well post it here too. Clearly not my favorite month (#9). Since I get asked the same questions I thought I would take a more proactive approach this year. It was actually tough to come up with all 10 responses.

Probably the longest 30 days of my whole year. Right then, let’s get to the answers….

1. No, it’s actually in June.
2. Follow up answer to inevitable follow up question: Because they wanted to.
3. No, it’s Inger.
4. No, it doesn’t change. It’s the same every month.
5. Yes, I’ve heard of the group.
6. Yes, I am familiar with that song.
7. No, it brings the water bill.
8. OR…No, it brings relief to my bladder (sickos!)
9. No, it isn’t. I prefer October.
10. Not generally. I think I am more suspicious of everything today.

And here is some good information for you. It’s true. I think…

With the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582, New Year's Day was moved from an eight-day celebration starting on March 25 to the date we know now.

However, because every day was a slow news day then, many, when they finally heard about the change, refused to accept the new calendar and continued to celebrate the New Year on April 1. These backward folk were labeled as "fools" ridiculed and often sent on fool’s errands.

Twilight

I finally watched the movie this weekend. It was ok, but I didn’t think it was great. Since I read the series, I knew that with any book-turned-movie that you are bound to run into some disappointments. No way can they really capture the essence of all those pages into a 2 hour movie. Still, it wasn’t really the story itself that was the disappointment.

No, my biggest complaint was in the actors for Bella and Edward. They just seemed really flat. Its one thing for Edward to appear a bit repressed especially since there was a lot of himself that he was hiding in this particular piece of the story. I could have bought that I suppose. Bella was the real drag in this movie. Her performance was awful. Honestly, it was like watching a female version of Toby Maguire. Bella is supposed to be a bit of a loner and kind of shy, but I wasn’t getting that from her performance. She seemed so deadpan most of the time I found myself rolling my eyes a lot at the things she would say with no emotion on her face.

I think the best part was when James broke her leg and bit her. At least then she was required to do something other than stare and mumble something. The version of the movie I bought was the 3 disc set with a bunch of interviews and a documentary of the making of it. That part was more interesting. There were a couple of interview segments with the actors for Bella and Edward. It was clear from their commentary that they understood the characters well enough and the mindset they had in their performances. The delivery was just off somehow.

Oh well, maybe the second movie with Jacob and the pack will be better. What I will really be interested in seeing is the scene in the beginning when Edward breaks up with Bella and leaves her in the woods. To read that scene and the following pages had me bawling my eyes out. Hopefully seeing it on the big screen won’t cause me to bawl in disappointment.

Frankly, the Harry Potter movies did a better job with the casting.

Busy Bee

Things have been pretty busy this week. Lots of meetings and questions and all the stuff that happens when a new project really starts to hit its stride. Once again I find myself in charge of a group of developers. It’s funny that it keeps happening, really. I know I am going to end up jumping in and developing something and that’s OK. Everything is short enough that I should be able to juggle that with everything else.

So yesterday I went out to the Keane site and saw that they added a second date for LA in May. I am already going to one show and now they have added one for the next day. So tempting to go….I have until the end of this week to take advantage of the presale offer. I would need to take a day off from work though and I don’t think I want to do that. Bad timing for the project. Plus I will be seeing them the following week in Chicago anyway, so why get greedy? Assuming of course that I finally get around to buying my plane ticket. I need to hurry up and decide which airport I am flying in to.

Hmmm…so what else? This weekend I am going to a birthday party. I don’t really know the birthday girl that well, although she seems nice enough. She is doing a themed birthday too. A black and white party. I still need to check with Heidi to find out more info about it. I hope its fun.

It’s starting to warm up ‘round these parts too. I was out for a walk last night and it was still pretty warm out. The Strip was crazy crowded too. I am guessing that we have a ton of people in town for Spring Break and also for the March Madness tournament. I am thinking it might be a good idea to avoid the Strip this weekend unless I decide to go early in the morning.

New Beginning

Today I felt like I did something useful again at work. Now that my last project is fading into a memory, I am able to get started fresh on something new. Last week I headed out to Montreal for a few days for some client meetings. I was a little concerned about the French speaking part, but luckily it never really became an issue.

The meetings were very productive and it was nice to feel like a consultant again. After spending the last 10 months as a puppet and scapegoat, I was really questioning whether or not I even wanted to stay in this industry at all. How quickly that can change given the right environment. So here I am, doing the job I am supposed to be doing and feeling much better about everything. In fact, I even had a bit of a geek moment today when I was asked to talk about virtual classroom content and best practices. I think I bombarded poor Jim with a lot of information.

Other than work, life is good. Drama continues to ebb and flow around me, but still somehow I manage to avoid getting too caught up in it. I had to take care of a friend yesterday and I was certainly glad to help in whatever way I could.

I am still spending a lot of time on Facebook. I figured it would taper off after the honeymoon period, but it is still pretty addicting. What has suffered these long months is this blog. I suppose I just felt that all I had to say started and ended with a complaint and ranting about it was going to bore me and anyone else reading this, so why bother? I am trying to get back in the swing of regular updates now.

It’s strange to think about being out of practice with just jotting my thoughts down, and yet I sat here for a bit with a white page just wondering where to begin. It just dawned on me that I do that for every entry. Truly, once you start it just gets easier.

I wish I had some new fun event coming up to talk about, but so far nothing on the horizon until May. I think I am getting a visit from my brother-in-law in April, which is always nice. Other than that, looks like things will be fairly quiet. (Did I just jinx myself with that?)

Catching Up

Now that things are finally winding down on project Voldemort, I figure it’s about time to start updating the blog again. This past weekend was a fun weekend vacation with the girls. We stayed a couple of nights at THE hotel and then a couple of nights at my place.

As always, it was a lot of fun to see the girls again. I love the fact that we can get together and it always feels like no time has passed.

So the first night we ended up staying in the hotel and just catching up. We hung out at a tiny little bar called the Orchid Lounge in Mandalay Bay. There were a couple of guys playing music but for the most part we had the place to ourselves most of the night. No trip to Vegas (at least when you are visiting me) is complete without a trip to the Peppermill, so we headed there for a very late dinner.

Saturday night we went to the Comedy Stop at the Trop and watched a comedy show. I thought it was pretty good, although the first show I saw there was a bit funnier. Still, it was a good time. Afterward we headed out to Firefly for a late dinner.

On Sunday, Baby headed home and I brought Mimi and ThreeL home with me. On Monday I took them to the wig outlet. We spent a couple of hours there and had a great time. Here are some of the pictures from our photo shoot later that night.

So next week I am headed out of town for a business trip. Should be interesting. I am headed to Canada which means that I have to go dig out some winter clothes. I swear I have never been to Canada when it wasn’t winter.

So it seems that I am spending quite a bit of time on Facebook these days. I like it so much better than My Space. Frankly, I am surprised at how many people I have been able to find. Then again, it isn’t always such a great thing to be found. Having work friends and school friends in the same place is a bit weird.

And finally, I was able to get tickets to a couple of Keane shows in May. I am excited to be able to see them in a new city too. I have tickets for both LA and Chicago. I am going to the LA show by myself, but in Chicago I’ll have Mimi and Dave with me. It will be strange to go to a show with another Keane fan. It should be a real treat!

Making Peace with the Computer

Been a long time since I have made an entry here. I think that with all the long hours at work that I just couldn’t seem to find the energy or enthusiasm for spending any more time than I had to on my computer. It became the enemy.

So here I am now trying to make peace. I was on vacation last week and thought I might try to catch up on the blog then, but I couldn’t make myself turn the computer on all week. I did a whole lot of sleeping and cleaning and reading and basically anything that didn’t involve a lot of technology.

I wish I could say I was done with this project, but I still have some time left on my sentence. I thought I would be done by the end of this month, but I am now hearing it won’t be until the end of February. I would be surprised if at some time that didn’t extend into March. Perhaps I am being a bit too pessimistic.

Still, I know I should be glad I still have a job at all. That’s the rub of it I suppose. Even though I want off of this project, there doesn’t appear to be any other work to replace it with yet. And sitting around with nothing to do is never a good thing.

So, let’s think. What news do I have? After a brief hiatus, I have started walking again. About every other day or so I walk a few miles. It’s nice to get outside for a bit. Plus, the weather seems to be cooperating nicely now. We should be in the low to mid 60’s this week. Last weekend I was walking down the strip and walked through the new hotel, Encore. It’s nice, of course but actually kind of small.

This is another Steve Wynn hotel and the sister property to the Wynn hotel. Like the Wynn it also has moved into the new direction of not having a theme to it. I will say however that both properties do appear to have more of an Asian/ Indian flavor to them. Not really surprising when you think about it.

Other than that, I am supposed to take Harmony roller skating as her birthday present. I am still trying to find the time to pull that off. It should be fun if I can ever manage to get it done.