Commensurate With Experience

This week has not been the greatest for any of us. It’s actually been rather awful (with glimmers of hope- albeit), to be perfectly honest.

It’s been the worst for AV. Her precious grandmother, Dot, passed away on Sunday back in Texas. AV maintains that her grandmother was her biggest supporter in her decision to move to New York, and would not hear of her doing anything other than exactly what she wanted to be doing. You know how there are things about people that precede them? Even before Dot fell ill unexpectedly a little over a month ago, I knew how wonderful she must be because of how loved by AV’s whole family she was. I may have never met her, but I know that she was vivacious and fun, that she was notorious for her great style and that she loved living independently. She will be missed.

AV also resigned from her current job on Monday, and will be starting a new one next week with THE company she would have hand chosen to work for in New York, even years ago. She had to get through the initial blow of telling her boss she was leaving, which she was dreading all weekend, but it had to be done. It was practice in confrontation, and who actually enjoys that? I harassed her all weekend for having two jobs, while I’m still hanging out with my big goose egg.

My friend MJ came to the city for PowerPoint training the past few days. MJ was my roommate during my study abroad program last summer- we shared many a World War II battle site adventure together: trenches, beaches, bunkers. You name it- we saw it. Basically, I introduced her to Nutella, and we became friends.

The company she works for in Houston literally incurred all expenses to send her to New York for two days. Beyond animation and bullet points, what’s there to know? “Oh plenty” said MJ, after spending an entire day with a woman who went through every possible PowerPoint scenario that no one ever wanted to know.

We met up and went to see Hairspray Wednesday night, and enjoyed every minute we spent in our third row orchestra seats. The show was amazing, but musicals really make me wish I could sing well. The woman who played Motormouth Maybelle brought down the house with her song “I Know Where I’ve Been”. Her voice literally gave me chills. I love singers who can do that- it’s the same with people who have really piercing eyes, something about them just reaches your soul. Does anyone know what I’m talking about? Good.

To update you on my job status, I’ll admit to the cyber world that I turned down a job today. It was with a company I had thought I wanted to work for, for a long time. When I got asked to interview for a job with them, I was ecstatic. Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe it just was not a great fit. Regardless, I ultimately said no. Something about it just did not feel right. I’m a big believer in intuition, and I try to pay attention to my own when it’s nagging at me.

Fortunately for me, my parents have been supportive of my decision. That’s been one of the only reassuring aspects of this whole process. I am working with some other options, and hopefully something will come of one of those.

Luckily my friends AG and LB came into town last night, and they have been making me laugh since the minute they got here. They have been taking my mind off of everything with their antics. The three of us went to find inexpensive show tickets this morning, and started out early. They wanted to see the Today Show, and when I reached Rockefeller Center I called to see where they were. They had already taken pictures of Al Roker and the massive Christmas tree that was delivered there this morning, and had moved onto the American Girl Place. Why didn’t I think of that?

We had an adventure looking for tickets- AG serenaded everyone outside of The Little Mermaid, which was just LB, myself and the technical crew who were just trying to eat breakfast. The shows for this weekend were sold out, and we went to check out Wicked. That was also a no-go, as well as a close call buying tickets for the wrong show altogether. After strike two, we made our way over to the Legally Blonde theatre (called Illegally Blonde half of the day by AG), and finally lucked out. We also got to meet some enthusiastic theater students who had rushed over to get tickets for tonight. They had seen it four times. That’s right, four.

We ate lunch at Peanut Butter Company in Greenwich Village today, and in lieu of lunch, I only have two words for you: toasted Fluffernutter. If I know anything- it’s peanut butter. Trust me on this one.

Did I mention it was a guy who told me that? He said you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen frat boys dancing and singing on stage. I don’t know how I feel about that.

We’ll see in a few hours, I suppose.

"People talk about being successful or not being successful, but the concept of success is very ambiguous. There is no need to pursue other people's ideas of success."

-Ichiro