Week Two & Three: The To-Do List

1. Financial Confabulation Starring Mother Abba. It wasn't too bad. I ended up coming out ahead after my internship, but only by about a month's rent. Better than going in debt. And better than getting shot in the face.

2. Dentist Appointment. No cavities, suckers.

3. Finally Renew License So That It Is Horizontal. I squinted during the vision test and lied about my weight. At least now I can get into the Quest Center Bar.

4. Start A Puzzle. We got this Thomas Kincaid puzzle set and ripped open one of the 500 piece bags. The pieces aren't cut well and the shapes are so discombobulated that you're never really sure where a piece goes. I mean we had difficulty assembling the border. Now that's just sad. I'll powerhouse through it and then hopefully we can get one that doesn't suck.

5. Catapult My Family Into The 21st Century. For Mother's Day we got my mom a Wii. For her birthday she got a TomTom. I just bought a new computer with a free iPod Touch. What's next? A hover craft. 

6. Turn 23. It's really just the second anniversary of turning 21. 

7. Make A Trip To The Region. Saw all of the family I could in a 48 hour period. Dominoes, babies, and loud conversations. I'd say it was totally worth it. 

8. Memorial Weekend Explosion. I saw Jackie. Played corn hole and rang a wind chime every time I mistakenly made a good shot. Ate more food than a stomach should be able to consume. Drank for cheap at the casino. Caught up with Ms. Romaine. It was a pretty great weekend. 

Week One: A Return To Form

Tuesday--
-Fairwell McMenamins lunch with Kate then off to the airport
-Awkward man in front of me pushes chair back too far--curse words fly through my head as I try not to vomit on his jerry curl
-Land in Dubuque to a sobbing Mother Abba and a JJohns sub

Wednesday--
-Wake up early and drive to Iowa City, listen to birthday mix from Jessica
-Meet up with baby sister and steal dorm keys
-Go into back office to visit with RAs--Amanda freaked and turned red, got a hug from Jacque (???), avoided Barb and her crazy tinted mom-glasses
-Lunch at Z'maricks with Kristin, ordered Z'pesto and gossiped
-Picked up sewing machine for Mother Abba
-Hit up Joe's Place with Secretary Extraordinaire Jennifer, Amie, Amanda, Justin, Aditi, Ryan, Nick, Chong, Crystal and Bob--discuss the crumbling of Res Life and recreate scenes from Tea Time
-Dinner with Brian and Adam at Oasis--monsoon starts and we wade back to his apt
-L O S T with Brian, Adam, Katie, and Sean--two years in a row, what?
-Drive to Walmart with Nikki to get ice cream and watch bad tv
-Epic fail when blowing up air mattress

Thursday--
-Sleep in? No thanks.
-Visit with Jessica Heacock and Matt French by the piano room--yes, they get two names for being so important
-Get lunch at Hamburg with Nikki and see her office--those computer screens are huge
-Capana with Aubrey and new beau Matt
-Visit Justin in dorm and help him watch YouTube videos
-Java Juice with Elise and David--get the low down on theatre and how everyone's senior year sucks when it comes to casting
-Cheesburger dinner with Kristin, Amanda and Nicole
-Back to Green Gables to watch The Office and other NBC necessities
-Forced to go out to Brothers (yes, I did go back) with Crystal, Amie, Amanda and Justin--ran into Cara Clonch and Rebeka Stein, no where to sit, awkward run in with Burge RAs, left after an hour
-Back to Crystal's room to educate her on YouTube videos
-Crashed

Friday--
-Another monsoon happened--drenched when moving things back to car
-Stole Nikki's ID and ate at Burge--tried to remain inconspicuous, cookies still delicious, I guess I should stop saying, "last time I'll eat at Burge" because it seems to happen more often than it should
-Illegally parked by a fire hydrant to move out Nikki's stuff
-Used RA connections to get a cart and move crap three blocks while crossing Dubuque St.
-Too tired to do anything else we drive home and luckily don't crash
-Dinner with the fam--Happy Joes, you tempt me
-Rewatched L O S T finale

Saturday--
-Up early to get ready for the wedding
-Hit the road at 11:30 with only 3 cds and no caffeine
-Hour later I remedy the caffeine situation and get some Cheez-Its--so necessary
-Made it to the church by 3 to be greeted by Liz Steele, the one and only
-Wedding at 4, sat by Brian and Liz and cried roughly 3 times
-Went to Granite City to get a much needed drink in between events with Liz
-Reception at Hyvee Convention Center was gorgeous--good food, cash bar, Minnesotians across from us hate us for being from Iowa, we all made it in the slide show including a creepy picture cameo by Brian
-Danced to Gaga and the like
-Hit the road, drove too fast, home by 12:15
-Started HP6

Sunday--
-LOW KEY, PLEASE
-Star TREK again--better the second time, more starring at Chris Pine
-Mom breaks the news my room is going to be the new home to Kathy's Kraft Korner--like the KKK needs another meeting room in Dubuque
-We drink two bottles of wine as I begin to move things out and say, "well crap" all of the time

And this was just the first week. I still have 4 left. Oh Mylanta. Iowa--you keep me young.

I O W A

I'm getting on a plane tomorrow and heading home. Star Trek made Iowa look so baller, I'm sure everyone is jealous of me. I'm going to go to Iowa City, a wedding, the region, Minneapolis, Pepper Sprout, Chicago--you name it, I'm going there. It's Midwestpalooza over here. 

It's sad to think that this will be the last time that I get to come home for this amount of time. Mother Abba has certainly planned a lot for me to do. I'm told that there is a two page list waiting for me. I hope "lay on the couch and take a nap" is on there more than once. 

As much fun as it is working 80 hours a week, I'm ready for a break. A long, extended, sit-on-the-porch-and-drink-a-lemonade kind of relaxation. I may even be really daring and get a professional massage so that I don't start forming a hunchback with all of the tension in my shoulders. Ring my bell, masseur. 

I cleaned out my desk today. Everyone said that the pod now looks sad and empty. YEAH you're gonna miss me and my loud singing of show tunes e'r day. Did I mention I'm excited about having a window view next season? Because I am.

Did you all watch JT host SNL? LOL^20,000. Ya dig?

Necessary

Jessica and I were on our way to see a play in Capitol Hill. We were running late, were assuming that this wasn't going to be a good performance, and Jessica was hungry. So we turned around, picked up Michael and decided to drive 30 mins to Puyallup to go to the Sonic that opened up last Monday. This is what spontaneity means to us. 

It took awhile to find it and when we did and Michael screamed the shrillest/girliest scream I've ever heard. We were laughing our heads off and cheering and making a general scene for the green Outback next to us.

Then all the noise on the planet ceased.

There was a line. And not just any line. An hour wait kind of line. We cued up and this 15 year old, chewing gum and spewing attitude, gave us a post it note with 8:38 written on it and told us we could leave now or proceed forward into the hour wait zone. We figured, what they hell, we already drove this far, we were hungry, we had nothing better to do, and we're TOTALLY CRAZY people, so let's do this. It felt like we were at the fairgrounds. They packed us into this gravel parking lot with cones and bright yellow rope. They set up 6 or so lines that were about 7 cars deep. We turned off the car and just sat.

We played a "name that song from the ipod" game, we tried rocking the car, and I even got out of the car to take a picture of the lines, tripped on a rock, grabbed a side mirror on some random car and screamed "Help!" It's fine. 

So once that 15 min time period passed it started to look grim. Michael broke out into sweats. Jessica was sucking her thumb and rocking in the back. I was humming Rocketman while my left eye was twitching. We were hurtin'. Bad.

Thank God the line finally moved an hour later as promised. We rolled up to the stall and gloriously parked the car and started choosing our delights. We ordered $21 worth of food while the women on the speaker said things like, "oh I love that one" "yeah I like those nuggets straight too, no sauce" and "mmm i hear ya on that one." She was a doll and we tipped her some pocket change. 

We feasted.

Then 10 mins later Jessica and Michael wanted more food so they ordered another $5 worth. I was smart and didn't pig out on more food. They were hurtin' units by the end of the night.

It was a long drive home. The car rocked us into a sleepy daze where we were barely talking to each other except to say, "No, not that song."

It felt like summer. It felt eerily familiar. Summer 09, you look promising. 

Now It's Official

So, starting Aug 3 I will be Seattle Rep's official Audience Development Associate. Until then, I'll still be going home to Iowa for a month and then when I get back in Seattle I'll be doing an abbreviated internship with Seattle Children's Theatre. 

The job will be semi-different than the internship I did this year. Instead of being in the Education dept I'll be moving into Communications and reporting directly to our Director, Katie. I'll still get to do a lot of audience programs and hopefully write and perform some more warm ups. They also specifically wrote on the job description that I'll get to continue working on Youtube and Facebook so that's kind of making my day. We're scaling back a lot next year so it's really a miracle that I'll be able to work there. 

Things That Are Awesome:

I have a job

Window view

Health Care

4 day work week

Seattle!

Things That Kind Of Suck:

32 hour work week = working another part time job (aka: lobby managering some more)

Lease ends Sept 1 and my roommate is leaving Seattle

See how much the Pro list out weights the Con? It's really awesome and I'm excited to have a job so that I don't end up in Dubuque, in the basement, eating cereal and falling asleep to baseball games. I just intend to do those things for the next month. YAY!

My last day of work was so great. Katie got me tulips and a sweet card telling me how excited she is for next season. Fran took Jessica and I out to a huge sushi lunch, then I bought a cardi at Gap and then we rode a Ferris wheel. It's like Kiki Abba's Day Off. Then we went to see David Sedaris read some of his stories which was hilarious. (I'm going to start writing more. I am.) Pretty much the best way to end any internship if you ask me. 

Moving to Seattle = worth it.