second day of vacation

I wonder if this is gonna turn into a song..."On the second day of vacation, my true love gave to me..."

Anyways...guess what. This is gonna be another email of random items.

A) So, last night I stayed up pretty late just because my little inner clock is a little confused right now. But that's ok. I had told the girl filling in for me at work that she could call me if she needed any help Sunday night, since I figured that would be her roughest night. And she definitely took me up on that! She called me FOUR TIMES between 11:40 PM and 1:30 AM. Haha! Nice to be needed, I guess. I'm just hoping that she'll be fine tonight and won't need her lifeline ;)

B) Something from Kelsey's blog that I need to do:

what's in my purse
This is tricky, since I switch purses a lot, but we'll go with my current staple purse...(because this could be a LOT longer and MORE random if I included all of my purses!)

-my little leather wallet with all the important things in it...DL, bank cards, insurance cards, my friend Chris's business card, and a ticket stub from "Four Christmases."
-a pack of Orbit Sweet Mint gum
-my camera in its case (I try to always have my camera with me...you never know!)
-my pocketbook (why do they call this a pocketbook; this would never fit in your pocket!) full of library cards, video rental cards, more insurance cards, and some expired "buyback bucks" from Follett's bookstore
-my pink alligator dayplanner book, with Mortar Board (yes, I still buy those), pink Sharpie, sticky notes, more people's business cards, thank-you notes, show schedules for PMO groups, and an autographed headshot of Mike P. that I was supposed to give to a girl in the marching band (oops)
-the holiday issue of "Helen" magazine (the only magazine for the women of Lafayette-West Lafayette and the surrounding areas! We do a tie-in segment with them on our show every week, hence the shameless plug!)
-my emergency make-up kit (blush, mascara, gloss, concealer, and eye-liner...it comes in handy after working overnight for eight hours when I have to go somewhere afterwards, or just when I need a little touching up. Wow, that makes me sound really high-maintenance.)
-a blank DVD-R (meant to record my live shot hits, but then I found out someone else is making a copy for me)
-a "Welcome!" brochure from the TCPL, since I got a library card there last week
-the program from IU Union Board's production of "Cabaret"
-the program from Harrison High School's production of "Alice in Wonderland"
-an almost-out tube of B&BW Japanese Cherry Blossom body cream (my favorite Bath & Body scent!)
-directions to a friend's house from this summer
-trash paper, which I will throw out now
-a heart-shaped Madagascar 2 pin I got for donating money at the movie theater
-some Burt's Bees Beeswax lipbalm
-check book
-ticket stub for "Alice in Wonderland"
-pen from PEFCU (or "Perrfcu" as I like to call it)

That's it. Next time I will do celebrity crushes, also from Kelsey's blog!

C) When I resigned my lease, the building offered a free carpet cleaning, which I signed up for. And it was supposed to happen either today or tomorrow, so I called the office today to find out when the cleaners were coming, because they had told us to get everything off of the carpet in the areas we wanted to be cleaned. The guy at the office said they'd be here today and possibly tomorrow, depending on how long it would take to get all the apartments cleaned that had been signed up.

"Is there a certain day you'd like yours done?" he asked.
"Today," I said. Then I put everything that could be moved up onto my table or my bed, and moved everything else to the bathroom or kitchen so it would be off of the carpet. I even put away everything that was under my Christmas tree so it wouldn't get in the way.

And unless these carpet people work evenings...they are not coming today.

I don't really want to move everything off of my bed just to move it back in the morning, so I'll just sleep on the couch tonight.

D) I went to auditions tonight for "Children of Eden" with civic theatre. I think it went OK. It's just hard to tell...I feel like my song could've been better, but it wasn't terrible. And they had me read some dialogue from the script, but there's not a lot of dialogue in the show, so I don't know how much they were able to get from hearing me say a few lines. I think it's always hard to get a good read on what the directors think. But whatever. The hard part now is trying not to think about it until they cast the show, which they said would be by the end of the week. A friend of mine auditioned too, and told me to call him when I was done, so I called him tonight and we were both just like, "OK, let's just not think about it or talk about it anymore." Haha. Luckily, I have a bunch of music I need to memorize for the Christmas Show this weekend, so that will keep me busy!

E) I made a list of things I wanted to get done today, and I got every single one crossed off! That makes me feel really good!

OK, that's all for today. Until later!

first day of vacation

I'm going to say tonight is my first day of vacation, although it's still Sunday, because let's face it - Sunday night is actually my Monday morning.

Actually, as far as I'm concerned, vacation starts the second you walk out the doors of your place of employment, so technically by those standards, I've been on vacation since Friday morning.

Actually, yes, and actually, I'm Annie.

(That's a Parent Trap reference that only Molly or Marla would get. I just say that whenever I start using the word "actually" a lot. Maybe "actually" should be my word obsession, like Curtis' current "glory" obsession. Which, by the way, entirely changed my worship experience this morning at church. Every time I saw the word "glory" it really made me think. Thanks, Curtis.)

OK, I am obviously a little wound up. I think it's because I don't know what to do with myself because I don't have to work (yay!). Moving along...

I think I am more productive when I'm on vacation - when I don't have to be doing anything - than I am the rest of the year combined. I think I have this aversion to obligation. Like, I don't want to do something just because I am supposed to, but as soon as it's optional, extra-credit, or extra-cirricular, I'm all over it. Explain that to me. That might actually be a middle child thing...actually, yeah, I think it is. (Here we go with the actually's again!) By the way, did you know I am obsessively fascinated with birth order? I've probably mentioned that. Geez, I sound like I'm on speed or something. Anyway, the only reason I'd ever go back to school is to become a psychologist and for my thesis or whatever you have to do to get your degree, I'd probably do something on birth order. I need to get my own copy of the Birth Order Book. Again, moving along...

So I haven't even started the actual part of vacation where I don't have to go to work, and listen what I've gotten done so far:

- Cleaned up/picked up my dining room/living room area

- Found a dress to wear for the Christmas Show. I don't know if I've written about this yet, but this year is the 75th anniversary, so they invited the alumni to come back and sing a few songs in the show. I think they even asked some back to do solos and specialty groups and stuff! It should be pretty cool. Anyway, they told us that for the Purduette alumni set, we needed to have either a black skirt or black pants, and something sparkly that would look good in the stage lights on top. Since I'm not Sheila Klinker, I had to go shopping to find something sparkly and stage-appropriate. I figured I'd just get a black dress that has some sparkle, so I'd cover both requirements with one garment. It was really fun; I haven't had any excuses to wear a dressy dress in years, so it was fun to be able to look in that section of the stores with the anticipation of buying something instead of just looking for fun. I found the perfect dress - a black party dress with tulle trim peeking from under the hemline, an asymmetrical layer over the skirt that gathers on one side of the waist, and a little column of rhinestones where the waistline gathers. It ties in the back, so it can be adjusted to fit to my waist, which is something I have a hard time finding. And the bodice and under-layer of the dress has these little clear-reflective specks that sparkle very nicely in the light but don't look obnoxious in a normal setting, so I can actually (is anyone keeping count here?) wear it to parties or weddings or stuff like that. When I saw it on the hanger, I pointed it out to Marla, and she said, "Eh, I don't really like those shorty-short dresses." But then I pointed out that I'm 5-foot-two, so those dresses end up being just above knee-length on me, which is exactly where this one ended up falling. On someone of average-to-tall height, it would be sexy, but on me, it's just short enough to be sassy. I'm so excited! I love dressing up, and I never get a good excuse to these days!

- I also figured out what I'm going to wear to the station Christmas party this Saturday night. I didn't go last year, and I know people dress up, but I'm not sure just HOW dressed up they get, and I was worried my new little party dress would be overdoing it, so I decided to wear this really basic, classy black strapless dress I got at the Gap. I know, I know, I never buy anything from the Gap, but this year I actually (!!! I promise I'm not trying to do that!) found something there that fit me. Anyway, I figure it's dressy but not too over-the-top, and it's pretty conservative as far as strapless dresses go. So I'm glad that's all figured out.

- I got Christmas presents for Mom and Dad, and for Michelle, and I got great ideas for Marla.

- I bought wrapping paper and ribbon and got my mom and dad's gift and Michelle's gift wrapped and under my Christmas tree! I really wish I had more of my shopping done so I could do some more wrapping! I enjoy wrapping presents! So if anyone has some wrapping they need done, just bring it by...I have really cute wrapping paper!

- I picked out a song for my audition tomorrow night, finally. I dislike picking out audition songs about as much as I like wrapping presents. I just feel like it's a lot of pressure to put onto one song, and that if I pick the wrong one, it's going to ruin my audition. I just don't like auditioning in general, although auditioning for civic shows is a LOT nicer than auditioning for my high school shows was. I'm really excited, though, because I got one of my friends I used to sing with at Purdue to audition for the show too. He is incredibly talented, and he went and tried out tonight and said it went well, so hopefully he'll get the part he wants and we can have fun doing the show together! I hope my audition goes well...I just hate waiting to find out whether you got the part or not. Blech! Anyway, I've been trying out all these different songs, and I tend to be a belter, so I sing pretty loud, and I'm a little worried about my neighbors getting upset with me. But whatever. Hopefully they'll be at work tomorrow during the day when I'm practicing!

OK, I think that's everything I've gotten accomplished so far. I'm not going to set an alarm clock tonight in celebration of the fact that I'm on vacation. Ooh - Casting Crowns "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" is playing on my AOL radio right now...this is such a cool version of this song. Very powerful. I think it would absolutely ROCK as a piece in the Christmas Show cantata...a male solo with the chorus in the background. I wish I could plan a Christmas Show. So many awesome songs out there. Alright, I am finally running out of things to say, so I'm gonna leave it here.

Until later!