Pre-Christmas

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve!!! Have I mentioned how much I love the Christmas season?
Anyway, Mom, Dad, and Cammie are arriving sometime tomorrow. Depending on when they get here, we may try to squeeze in some shopping and then hit up one of the Christmas Eve services at Village (is it sacrilegious that I just talked about "hitting up" church? oh yeah, I went there!). Cassie and Marly fly into Seattle on Christmas/Friday evening, so I think some or all of us will be driving up there to pick them up.
There will be copious game-playing, eating, and movies. We'll be going over to Joel & Kristy's for dinner.
Of course, Adam and I will still have to put in appearances at work, unfortunately. On the upside, I'm loving working at Charlotte's Weddings. I sold my first dress last Friday. It was kind of an easy sell, the bride was home for Christmas from college in Alaska and wouldn't be back again until right before the wedding. She knew which dress she wanted and had to place the order that day, but still...I sold a dress! Krysta (the owner) and Jeri (the general manager) are fantastic and all the other girls are really nice. My first full day on my own will be the 26th, which everybody expects to be a little insane because so many guys propose over Christmas. Apparently that had been Adam's plan, but hubby can't keep a secret and proposed the day he got the ring. :) I am still looking for something else part-time to make ends meet. One possibility that could be really fun is nanny-ing a couple of days a week for one of the other girls who works at Charlotte's. She has a three year old boy, Charlie, and a 14 month old girl, Mary. It could really work out well for both of us if I can watch them a couple of days a week that she's at Charlottes and I'm not.
Abigail and I got to hang out again recently. I went to her house on Monday night so that she could dye my hair and we watched a movie. She cam over to our place last night to borrow some stuff for a James Bond party she and her boyfriend are attending tomorrow.
Adam's internship is beginning to take shape. He'll be in charge of all the life groups starting out of our service at Village, as well as managing the database of attendees of the service. He's currently meeting with several of the pastors to mentor him.
We are navigating our way through another financial set back. Adam's car, the eggplant, didn't pass the Oregon emissions test required to renew his registration. After getting the car checked and second-opinioned, we found out it would cost us more than twice what we paid for the car to get it fixed. BUMMER! So, the crap car that was supposed to last us a year to a year and a half has ended up lasting six months. BUMMER! We've got a temp registration on it until we can find the time to go car shopping. We also have to figure out what kind of payments we can swing on our ever tightening budget. God is really testing us this year, and we're gripping tightly to the belief that He's got a plan and it will get better.
On that note, we do have high hopes and expectations for this next year. Love to all and happy holidays! ~Cori & Adam (and Nestle)

Random Little Stuff

Well, our Lifegroup get-to-know-you did go really well, there were 6 of us all together. Adam, me, Daniel ( a 22 year-old dental student), Sarah (a 24 year-old marketing specialist for an insurance company), Katie (a 24 year-old dental assistant), and Erin (a 23 year-old who, like me, is looking). We all hung out talking about life and what our plans for the lifegroup are, etc. It was a good time. We're pretty sure we'll have another girl, an 18 year-old who's a very new Christian. Ideally, we'd also like to have another single guy and another married couple, just to maintain a balance of participants. Adam has a few people in mind, but has yet to be presented with the opportunity to connect with them.

This morning, I had a second interview to become a bridal consultant for Charlotte's Weddings, here in Beaverton. I like the company, and I think the job would be a lot of fun. I understand that it is still sales, which I'm not awesome at, but at least CW is the type of place that I feel like I could really invest myself in, and maybe get better at the sales part. I don't really know how I feel about this second interview, but I said the same thing after the first interview and then wound up getting a second one, so who knows! If I get the job, I should know by the end of this week and would start training on Dec 7. Please keep the whole situation in your prayers, that I find something different and awesome, or that God changes my heart and makes me happy where I am.

In theatre stuff, I went to the qualifying round of auditions for the Portland Area Theatre Alliance (PATA) last Monday. I passed just fine, which means that on Dec 1, I can sign up for a slot in the city-wide PATA auditions in January. I did get some great feedback from the panel in the qualifying auditions as well, they loved my pieces and made some reccomendations on changes in my resume, etc (I HAVE to get better headshots, though who knows where the time/money for that is going to come from. Also, if I'm going to keep my hair red, I need to change that on my resume). So yeah, that was a fun experience.

On Thursday, for Thanksgiving, we're going with Renjy and Katy to Katy's grandparents' house for dinner. Originally Katy was going to host, but when that got switched, she said her grandparents would still love to have us. We've hung out with both of Katy's brothers before and like them, and met her dad a couple of times, so we're not walking into a house of complete strangers, but it'll still be interesting in a this-is-awkward kind of way. As usual, Adam is providing the Tofurkey for himself, me, Katy, and anyone else brave enough to have a go at it. He's also going to borrow a couple of cambro's of coffee from Starbucks. I think I'm going to attempt Marti's sugar cookies, because I have everything for them, and I'm too scared to try cinnamon rolls again. They intimidate me.

My life lately...

So... I'm bad at blogging in anything that could be called regularity. Unless you consider it regular to pop on and blog once ever 3 or 4 months or so. Anyway... having not blogged in quite a while, there's a lot that's been going on here in the northwest. I'm sure Cori's touched on a few of these things in her blogs, but here's what's going on from my perspective.

As many of you know, Cori and I had moved to Portland with the intentions of finding a place we clicked and wanted to call home, and for me to pursue a career with Starbucks. Some of that is still true. We absolutely love the northwest. Portland is a great place to be (or Beaverton rather... the suburb on the west side of the river where we live) and we love being close to both mountains and ocean. We've taken one trip out to the ocean for a family camping trip and loved it... we have yet to enjoy the mountains nearby, but having enjoyed mountains elsewhere I can say with confidence that when we do we'll love our trip there as well. The people in the area are great, we're making friends, and I think we can both confidently say that this is a place we'd be glad to call home for a number of years. What has changed is the plans to pursue a career with Starbucks. There's a whole jumble of reasons involved, but it doesn't seem like it would be a great place for me to land as a career, and at the same time there are other things I do feel called to pursue.

To start with, Starbucks has changed a bit since my last round of employment with them. We still make some fantastic coffee, and I still enjoy the interaction my position as a supervisor gives me with both customers and staff, but to advance beyond my current position would be a venture into many of the things that would suck the life from me were I to pursue the job as a career. Many of the tasks supervisors used to be able to do have been heaped onto the manager position, along with taking away a good portion of the time the managers have to get these tasks done. Along with this, as our economy has changed, Starbucks has had to focus far more on the metrics of the position. There are some very restrictive rules on labor costs, huge sales goals for limited time coffees, new product releases and seasonal sales; with the looming threat of corrective action should these goals not be met, or labor percentages exceeded. All of this culminates in the reality for me that this job would likely mean ulcers and nervous breakdowns in my future. So... while I enjoy my current position, I feel that it is as high in the company as I really want to go. At the same time I was figuring out all of these things, I was also feeling a drive to return to full time ministry as a career. This started with a frustration that my job was getting in the way of how involved I wanted to get in volunteer ministry at our church, along with looking back over my life trying to look at what jobs have made me feel the most satisfied and fulfilled as I tried to figure out what career to pursue if not Starbucks. Long story short, Cori and I decided that if possible, we'd like to pursue full time ministry as my career.

Our major roadblock to this is that right now I have about 2 years of school at one college, and 2 at another, and am still about 1 year short of my degree after looking at all the transferring around I had done, and the most recent school was about 7 years ago and halfway across the country. I spent a bit of time in correspondence with the Academic Dean at Ozark Christian College, and having looked over my transcripts, he's figured out a way for me to finish my degree from here through a combination of online courses, private study courses, and a couple classes taken at local colleges and transferred back. At the moment we're waiting on tax time so I have the information I need to do my FAFSA application, and we're planning on me taking classes starting next fall, with the intentions of finishing up the following May.

In the meantime, I'm continuing to work for Starbucks and diving into volunteer work with our church, and have briefly talked with one of the pastors about turning this volunteer work into some sort of internship as well.

In other areas, Cori is still trying to find a job that she enjoys enough to go to work every day without the desire to gouge out her eyes. Prayers on this would be appreciated... both that she won't succumb to the desire to gouge out her eyes and that she finds a job where she's happy and fulfilled. For those of you who sent checks for my birthday I want to say thank you in case I missed doing this. The plan is to wait until after Christmas and to pool all of the personal money I have from lots of saving and from your gifts and to build myself a new computer. I've figured out all the parts going into it and it will be pretty freaking cool. I could go into details, but for most of you this would be boring enough that you may wish to join Cori in the desire to end your ability to see. I'm excited though and am glad that you guys can be a part of that with me.

That's about all the time I've got. In about 15 minutes we've got the people coming over for the new Lifegroup we're starting with our church. Tonight should be a fun night of hanging out getting to know each other and making sure we're all looking for out of our Lifegroup. Hopefully it won't take me another 4 months to post on here...

- adam

Down Week

Well, "Women of Troy" has closed. We only spent about two hours striking the set yesterday. I spent most of the time up a ladder, untying all of the drops and branches from their anchors on the ceiling. We do have a re-hash meeting next week to give feedback about the process etc, for Lunacy in their future endeavors.
I'm having kind of a down few days. I'm sure the let-down from the show is part of it. I'm also dealing with trying to get my car registered and all the twenty-seven pieces of paperwork I have to send to my lien holder that they then send to the DMV who'll then send me my plates (truly the most screwy system I've ever encountered). On the whole, though, the last few days I've just been overwhelmed by life and it's demands, financial, legal, business, health, everything. Maybe it's because this has been the first whole week of solid rain since we moved here. There has been some sun, and the rain is quite beautiful, though.
I am going to another audition on Wednesday for a couple of shows Imago Theatre is doing next summer. Amanda, one of the girls from WOT, has worked with Imago before and said they were a good company. I also have a pre-audition meeting for Portland Area Theatre Alliance (PATA) next month.
So, there are things on the horizon, right now though, I just feel exhausted.

ahh life, you enjoy laughing at me, don't you?

So I'm back at the job hunt. We're hoping (ideally) to find me something full-time that will either pay really well, or manage to keep hours that will still allow me to do theatre. On Thursday, I turned in an application to be a dance instructor at the local Arthur Murray Dance Studio, it would mean working nights, however would put me on a schedule similar to Adam's and it would be dancing! Tomorrow I have an interview to be a customer service rep at the Netflix call center, which would be soul-numbing and could be any schedule (the call center is 24/7), but would pay really well. On Tuesday, I have an interview to do front desk/sales at Hand and Stone Massage, I have no idea what that one involves via pay or hours, but it sounded interesting and is really close to home. I've also just sent out a resume to one of Adam's customers who is hiring a data entry/dispatch/receptionist for his gas shipping company, which would be great pay and 10-6.
Today was the end of our second weekend of the show. Our audiences have definitely been smaller than any of us would like, but that hasn't stopped us from having good performances. On Thursday we participated in the National Free Day of Theatre, an effort to get people who can't afford or just wouldn't normally see a play. That also means they have no theatre etiquette, demonstrated by one man taking very loud pictures, and then falling asleep and snoring, and another woman's cell phone going off: a very loud rendition of Aretha Franklin's RESPECT. Awesome.

Our review!

Hey everyone, here's the review of my show as it will appear in The Oregonian as of tomorrow. We were all pretty pleased with it, they were very complementary to Mikke, and all-in-all gave us more positive than negative feedback. Adam came to opening night on Friday, and enjoyed himself from a historical/mythological perspective, as well as meeting everyone that I've been telling him stories about for weeks now. We had a lot of fun at the fundraiser/after party, even though we didn't win the free weekend on the coast in the raffle drawing. A number of people from Starbucks, Kroma, and Village Baptist have said they want to come see it. In fact, Adam's planning on attending again with a large group from church in a couple of weeks.

My theatre class at Village Home (Portlanders apparently really like using "village" in naming things) went really well this last week. It was our last day of "technical theatre" so we combined set and costume design. Together we all came up with two set designs and a number of costumes for "Peter Pan." I was really impressed with the kids' ingenuity, I had told them that we had an "infinite budget" so we didn't have to worry about what we wanted versus what we could afford, they ran with that like wildfire! Next week we start actual monologue work. We'll see how many of them remember to bring scripts to class.

'Women of Troy' ambitiously blends two plays, with a few bumps

By Special to The Oregonian

October 05, 2009, 4:00AM

If you missed Classical Greek Theatre of Oregon's production of "Trojan Women," which closed last week, don't fret. The tragic female survivors of a war-destroyed city are the focus of another production, "The Women of Troy," presented by Portland Ensemble Theatre Company in association with Lunacy Stageworks. This intriguingly ambitious, if occasionally rough, piece is an original adaptation not only of Euripides' "Trojan Women" but also of his "Hecuba."

"The Women of Troy"

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 24
Where: Sellwood Masonic Temple, 7126 S.E. Milwaukie Ave.
Tickets: $12-$15, lunacystageworks.org
Recommended

Put together by Elisabeth Harvey, one of Lunacy's co-directors, "The Women of Troy" combines two plays that may have been written as much as 15 years apart. With overlapping but slightly incongruous plots, both are set among the tents of the Trojan women prisoners as they wait to be split up and carried off as slaves to new homes in Greece.

In "Trojan Woman," Hecuba, the defeated Trojan queen, endures one tragic loss after another. She laments the recent devastation of her city and slaughter of husband, Priam, at the play's start. Her agony is compounded when she learns of her daughter Polyxena's death, helplessly watches as daughter Cassandra and daughter-in-law Andromache are taken away by their new Greek masters, and finally suffers the torment of tending her murdered grandson's corpse. War is shown to be horrible, but the Greek overlords, in their failure to see the horror of their deeds, set their own tragic destinies in motion.

"Hecuba" focuses on the queen's loss of her son Polydorus and daughter Polyxena and her brutal vengeance against Polymestor for the murder of the former. In this savage act, Hecuba becomes like her oppressors - exemplifying how war dehumanizes victor and defeated alike.

Harvey's fusion of the two plays is surprisingly seamless. She develops a poetic idiom that allows for fluid back-and-forth movement, and she makes small changes in the story-lines as necessary to accommodate her amalgamation.

Most interesting is her transformation of Helen, who as the catalyst for the war comes off rather badly in Euripides' "Trojan Women." Here Helen is much more sympathetic, even drawing the sympathy of the Trojan women chorus when Hecuba verbally abuses her late in the second act.

This adaptation's problem is that the revenge on Polymestor and its contribution to an ongoing cycle of violence is so powerfully drawn that the attack on a relatively innocent Helen seems anti-climactic. Harvey might be trying to do too much. By the tragedy's end, Hecuba's emotional and moral development become a bit tangled. Perhaps Euripides was right - the intensity and complexity of the material requires two separate plays.

Even so, director Glenn McCumber's gallant acting company does well with the challenging text. Members of the large cast, including a Greek chorus of four women, occasionally have difficulties measuring up to the classical style, but for the most part, the actors create clearly and thoughtfully defined characters.

As Hecuba, Mikki Lipsey ably conveys a broad range of emotions, smoothly manifesting the depth of the queen's sorrow, the fervor of her fierce hatred of her enemies, and the controlled restraint of her eloquent arguments against Polymestor and Helen.

Among the supporting roles, Aiyana Cunningham's madly ecstatic Cassandra, Nelda Reyes' passionately heroic Polyxena, Brian Guerrero's oh-so-wily Odysseus, and Jake Street's arrogantly deceitful Polymestor stand out.

Most of the actors, including the chorus, wear half-masks, and occasionally actors raise their masks. The logic prompting this doffing of masks isn't always clear; but at least in the case of the Greek characters, removing the mask seems to suggest a temporary but real sympathy with whomever the character is speaking.

Russ and Sue Romas' scenery evokes a sense of both the primitive and the ritualistic: a dirt floor, off-white drops in the background, two off-white tents in the mid-ground and several wooden stumps and a burnt-out campfire of rocks, ashes, and what looks like a large thigh bone in the foreground. This setting, as well as the production's artful lighting and costumes suggesting ancient Greece, work well to carry us into the world of this tragedy.

-- Richard Wattenberg

Adam and I did end up going camping (finally) two weeks ago. We went to Cape Lookout, to the state park campground and it was lovely. The dog had a lot of fun in the ocean, although the waves coming at her never ceased to make her leap over the crest (which we thought was pretty hysterical). She drank a crap-ton of sea water which went straight through her in a way that was rather worrying since she was sleeping in the tent with us, but by the time we went to bed, she seemed to be doing fine again.
Adam is currently investigating the work that would be involved in him finishing his degree and potentially entering full-time ministry. If you're curious to know more about that, ask him. He's put a lot of thought into it and can articulate the motivation behind the idea far better than I can. If he decides to pursue that hard-core, we'll both look into finding soulless, mind-numbing jobs that will allow us a financial cushion (or at least, eliminate some debt) while he's in school.
I guess that's all for now. Adam's current book is an e-book, so it's kind of impossible for him to read while I'm online. Speaking of, if anyone needs birthday/Christmas ideas for him, he would just like money so that he can build himself a new computer and I can adopt this one.
Love! ~C

Days, weeks, months...

Hi everyone, sorry it's been awhile again.

Minor changes happening here. As of the second day of rehearsal for "Women of Troy," I was promoted from being strictly chorus, to the choreographer/chorus lead. Mostly, the change was because, I WAS THE ONLY ONE THERE. The girl who was supposed to do it, apparently dropped off the face of the earth, taking her core of people who were going to fill in the chorus with her. For two weeks, I solo'd the chorus while everyone scrambled like mad to find more women. Finally, a week ago, we found 3 more who were able to commit to the show with only minor conflicts. I have to keep reminding myself that they've been living in the world of the play a good three weeks less than I have, and that I'm not allowed to get frustrated with them for not as knowledgeable about the chorus or as memorized as I am. We're getting there, but it's slow, and we open in 3 weeks. If you'd like to see the show poster or anything it can be found here: Lunacy Stageworks . I'll post pictures and reviews as they come along.

Tomorrow is my first class at Village Home. I have 11 students this trimester, between the ages of 11 and 16. Most of them are younger than I'd hoped and I'm concerned about finding one-act play scripts they can handle.

I've continued putting applications in to just about anywhere I think I could stand and that might hire me. Last week, I'd heard that Powell's Books was hiring, so I got my stuff in to them yesterday. For any who don't know, it's sort of a local, more casual version of Barnes & Noble. I really want to work there.

Once again, we weren't able to go camping two weeks ago. It hadn't even registered with us that it was Labor Day weekend and that all the campsites had been booked for ages. So, we're trying again this weekend. We've got a spot reserved at Cape Lookout and are enjoying planning meals and speculating as to how much Nestle will freak out at the ocean and having to sleep in a tent. Should be fun.

Adam's continued having semi-regular meetings with Renjy about how he/we can be involved in the Emerging Culture service at Village Baptist. This coming Sunday will be the first official service, now that the contemporary service has moved over to the new worship building. As soon as my play is over, we're planning on leading a small group, and it's possible that Adam's been drafted for worship band. He may even get to brush up his mandolin playing.

Ok, I've officially procrastinated long enough and have to get ready for rehearsal. I've discovered that Portland traffic follows no discernible pattern, so always better to leave more time than I think I'll need.

Busy Week

Apparently, my Nebraska drivers license, social security card, and marriage license are not enough to prove that I am in fact, an American citizen, therefore preventing me from getting an Oregon drivers license. The government no longer issues permanent resident cards, and my passport had expired. So, while I can still register my car on my current license, I have to get a new passport before I can get update my Oregon one. Goody.
A week ago, Adam and I met with Renjy, the pastor in charge of the emerging cultures service at Village Baptist. It was great getting to hear his vision and goals for the new ministry. It was also fun watching Renjy and Adam bounce theological tenets off each other and discover that they agree on a lot of points. I say they have a bro-mance blossoming. Adam doesn't like the term. We're having Renjy and his wife Katie (and 7 month old son, Ari) over for dinner on Friday.
It's great timing that the dinner worked out when it did, because on Monday I go into rehearsals for a play! It's a composite of "Trojan Women" and "Hecuba," produced by Lunacy Stageworks. I'll be one of the women in the Greek Chorus, which is actually a pretty significant player in this version of the script. We'll rehearse Sunday through Thursday nights for September, and then perform Thursday through Sunday the first three weekends of October. Each of us involved in the production will receive 2% of the profits, so it is a paid part, but how much will depend on how many people come to the show (I think that's smart, we're all invested in getting as many people in the audience, because our paychecks depend on it!). It probably won't pay much, but I like the company and hopefully it'll lead to more work in the future.
Otherwise, I'm still trying to find another part-time job, not in reception. I've applied for a number of nanny/tutor/teacher's aide positions. Keeping on keeping on....
Poor Adam has been hounded at work again. One of the baristas was let go for being ridiculously late or not calling with enough notice if she couldn't make a shift. Another of the supervisors recently had carpal tunnel surgery and then fell on the wrist, so her recovery has been a lot more painful and debilitating than originally planned. So this last week he's worked probably close to 50 hours, which was normal at the Tea Smith, but on the up side, now he's getting paid for that overtime.
We're hoping to get out to the beach next week to camp for a night. Nestle's never seen the ocean or been in a body of water other than Cummins Lake. We think she'll be totally freaked, but it'll be funny.
I think this week, we're both kind of tired out by the minutiae of carving out a new home.

we're bad bloggers

hi everyone!
ok, since the last time we spoke, a lot has happened.
i had a fantastic time at girls' weekend, reminded once again why i love these girls and simultaneously why it's probably good that we are all together only about five days a year. anyway, i got to baltimore about 9 a.m., after about two hours of sleep (thanks to the woman next to me who kept doing that jerking awake thing and kicking me ever minute or so, yeah, that wasn't annoying at all!). heather picked me up, and we proceeded to dulles airport to pick up jill. evidently, none of us had gotten more than 3 hours of sleep the night before so we weren't super productive that day. unpacking and feeding ourselves was about all we managed. kiah came home and we went out to sushi for dinner (no hiro, but definitely still yummy). on friday, we did the monuments and the mall, covering the jefferson, lincoln, fdr, korean, vietnam, and wwII monuments, as well as breezing by the whitehouse and capitol building and the american and natural history museums, and a sculpture garden. did i mention that the only parking spot we could find was about a mile away from the mall? oh yeah, our legs were in pain, but it was awesome. on saturday, a friend of jill's from the a.s.l. world gave us a tour of gallaudet university, the world's first/only (i'm not sure which, possibly both) all sign language university. albert was a fantastic tour guide, had a great sense of humor and patience with us. he spoke pretty well, so between that and jill's interpreting his signing, we had a great tour. his grandson, riley, was visiting as well and was such a four year-old little boy that we all just had to shake our heads. then we hopped back on the metro to the eastern market, which was this really cool bazaare/farmers market/craft fair/flea market. on sunday, kiah surprised us with with tickets to a second city touring show called "barack stars." we thoroughly enjoyed its nonpartisan irreverence (everybody got slammed, i guess they figured that if everyone was made fun of, no one could be seriously offended). then she took us to the college/young adult service at her church. this place was huge! the program was five pages long with all of the announcements about classes, small groups, bible studies, service trips and projects, activities, and events. crazy! i kind of think she was a little dissappointed by our lack of awe and enthusiasm at the service, but it did spark an interesting debate in the car afterwards. i loved getting the chance to hear where my girls are at spiritually, since that's something i haven't felt free to question them about in a while. on monday we were lazy, spending two hours browsing target and most of the afternoon in the pool. on tuesday, kiah dropped jill at the airport on her way to work and heather dropped me at the philly airport on her way home. it was great, and i'm so excited for my turn to host next summer.
this last weekend, mom, dad, cassie, marly, and cammie all hauled butt out to us for a few days. it was fun getting all of us together in our apartment again. at least this time we had more space/beds than at christmas! since adam and i haven't done much exploring due to lack of finances, we all got to do some new things together. we hit up mcmenamins for food and bluegrass music, the farmers market, azteca for mexican food, uwajimaya (this fantastic japanese market that adam and i are planning to hit again soon!), new seasons market, powell's books, even the beach! of course, we all wore shorts and suits, and it ended up being cloudy and 60 degrees, the complete opposite of portland, but whatever, it was fun. mom was kind enough to drive me to my first audition in the area and even though i didn't get cast, it was a positive experience. they also stopped by kroma so cammie could get her hair cut, and we flooded starbucks to overwhelm adam's staff.
speaking of kroma, leza (the owner) told me yesterday that she's gotten good comments about me from both the clients and the stylists, so that's good. i also found out yesterday that she is a christian of some kind. we'd been talking about moving around and she said she'd spent some time in africa recently doing mission work.
this last wednesday, i attended a meet-the-teachers night at village home. i talked to six or seven kids, mostly girls, and a couple of moms. class registration doesn't open until the 11th, but i think i'll end up with a decent sized class. i already know that i'll have the full spectrum of theatrical experience among my students, so i suspect i'll have to make a "i don't care what you've done before, only what you bring to this class" type of speech. i'd also had a wake up call to how much more involved these parents will be than typical high school parents, i'd forgotten that homeschooling is a very deliberate choice.
adam's continued making a good impression on his coworkers, customers, and district manager. jeremy's begun assigning him various projects, including their bottled water promotion and being his store's representative at a couple of district-wide events.
tomorrow we're planning on doing some berry picking at a local farm, and it'll be our first opportunity to hit up the contemporary service at village baptist church. good times.

It's Purple...

So... we've been bad about blogging... I think Cori's going to do a little more inclusive blog later on, but we thought I should be the one to blog about this. After a month of living in Beaverton and sharing one car, we've finally become a two car family again. There were thoughts of being able to juggle the one car for a bit, but with us each having jobs with slightly odd schedules, my odd schedule never being quite the same from week to week, and having a 20 min or so drive to and from if one of us were to drop the other off, we decided that wasn't really working for us. So... we contacted a friend of my uncle Randy who buys, rebuilds, and resells older cars. Once he had our budget he told us he'd see what he could find for us and said he'd call back. About a week later he called saying he had a 1996 Ford Taurus with "a bajillion miles on it, but it seems to run well." The running well being the important thing (along with something inexpensive that we could buy now, get through a year or so and buy something better) we decided to check it out. Tuesday after work we drove down to meet him and test out the car. He was right... it does have a bajillion miles on it... meaning somewhere in the range of 240,000 but it does run well. When we were looking it over with him we found that it has a ton of recently replaced engine parts and runs surprisingly quiet. The only odd noise we found is that when it sits at a stop for a minute it has a pretty loud hum as opposed to the rather quiet hum while driving. So we brought it home and are still happy with the way it's driving, and are optimistic it will suit our need of getting me to and from work for the next year or so. The only negative thing... it's a bit purple. Not the end of the world, but definitely not my top choice for car colors. Anyway... for your viewing enjoyment, we'll enclose a few pictures of it too. Should you have a good name for a purple car, we're still open to suggestions.

bleh!

I'm back from the 2009 edition of Girls weekend, and had a fantastic time. Unfortunately while I was away, the temperature in Oregon shot up over 100 and something inside my computer melted itself. It won't even turn on. Because our apartment's on the 3rd floor, it takes forever to cool off at night because we get all the heat from both floors below us rising. All of this is one large, lame excuse for me to say, I know I owe you a very long update, but I'm just too hot right now. Instead, I'm going to go work on my monologues for auditions on Sunday. Christian out.

Holiday!

Good week this week. Adam's manager is currently on vacation, so Adam has had several opportunities to step up and prove his leadership and problem solving abilities. Unfortunately, he's also gotten to deal with the headaches of unhappy baristas and broken equipment. Win-Lose.
I had my first opening and closing training shifts at Kroma. I think I'll like the people there, and the work is easy. Abigail, the girl I'm replacing, is giving me a haircut before I go to DC on Wednesday. If I like it, Adam's considering growing his hair to normal guy length and have Abigail style his too.
I have several other possible projects in the works. Tomorrow I have an interview at Sephora. For anyone who isn't familiar, Sephora is high-end makeup, skin and hair care. I'm a huge fan. Some of you have already had to suffer to feed my addiction (sorry Jake and Brian!). Yesterday, I turned in part 2 of my application/interview process to be an Adjunct Teaching Assistant for Ashland University's online adult learning program. On August 2nd, I'm auditioning for the 09/10 season with BagnBaggage Productions here in Beaverton. Time to dust off those audition monologues again!
On Friday, Adam and I celebrated our "Do-Over Anniversary." On our actual anniversary, Adam was loading our moving truck in Omaha, and I was pet-sitting at Mom & Dad's in Ely. So on our pseudo-day, Adam didn't have to work, so we slept in, went to the new Harry Potter movie, and got dinner from Cafe Yumm! (exclamation point included in name). The movie was ok, we both prefer the books. Cafe Yumm! was fantastic. Adam had a teriyaki tempeh skewer with jasmine rice and Asian cole slaw. I had a southwest tofu wrap. We were both very happy with our choices, CY!'s menu, and their prices.
On Wednesday, I fly to DC to hang with Jill, Heather, and Cassiah. The next weekend, Mom, Dad, and Cassie are coming out here for a few days to see our new environment. Result being that it may be a couple of weeks before we post again. Happy mid-summer to all!

Insert clever title (and while we're making one up, witty and insightful as well)

Ok, we've hit the two week mark.
Adam is still loving his job although a lot more of the store politics and drama are starting to make themselves known. Adam's discovered that a lot has changed in the Starbucks corporation, and that some of it is definitely contributing to the in-store tension.
I've gotten a part-time position answering phones and doing reception at a salon about 15 minutes from the apartment, and 10 minutes from Adam's store. It's definitely not something I want to be doing long-term, so it's a good thing that I will have absolutely no problem leaving work at work. Unfortunately, they don't really have the time to train me until after I get back from DC (more about that in a minute). I've also heard back from Village Home, they're only able to give me one class this year. The closest approximation I can come up with is High School Acting and Scene Work. However, next year, they are losing the other woman who teaches theater classes, and since the administrator Lori liked a lot of my ideas, they're hoping to give me more classes next year. So...long story short, I still need more work. I've sent out dozens of resume's, encountered a couple of craigslist scams, done many, many walk-ins. I'm hoping that this will get easier as back-to-school time comes. Afternoon nannies, Barnes&Noble slaves going back to college, something... I've also started sending out headshots and audition requests to local theater companies. The Portland Area Theatre Alliance just had their summer auditions, so I'll have to wait until January to do city-wide auditions.
A few days after we moved here, I email-ed my four best friends from college to let them know I couldn't come to Girls' Weekend this summer due to finances. Every summer, in lieu of Christmas/Birthday presents, we spend a few days together. It started with my wedding, then last summer we stayed with Heather and Jill in the Twin Cities. This summer we're visiting with Cassiah in DC. Anyway, within 12 hours of sending that email, the girls contacted me and said that they were taking care of it and that there was no way they were letting me miss out. So, I'm leaving on the evening of the 22nd and flying back on the 28th. Oh, and we're hosting next summer.
Last night we tried attending the Saturday evening service at The Table. Attendance was small (abnormally so, according the greeters), but the people were very friendly. We're not so sure it was the best fit for us. The message was ok, not exactly the par we're used to (Ethan and Dad are hard acts to follow). The worship was on the abysmal side, it hurt Adam a little. The only people we saw who were our age had children, multiple, in most instances. So, we're starting church shopping. We looked into Beaverton Christian Church (Randy's old church, and I think Joel & Kristy's current). Adam also talked to Tommy about which church they're attending now. As much as we liked an alternatively timed service, if I get into theater, there would have been issues anyway. We're working on balancing that with Adam having to work the afternoon/closing shift on Sundays.
We hit the Saturday Farmer's Market again this weekend. Love those uber-fresh veggies! We're also interested eventually in the artisan breads, local wines, cheeses, and honey. This weekend we're also going to belatedly celebrate our second anniversary by actually going out for food and a movie!
It's raining. Really raining. It's the first time we've seen it since we moved here. It's pretty.

way different

We are now safely ensconced in Oregon. After loading the truck in 110 degree weather, Adam drove 2 days to meet me in Twin Falls. We then drove another full day to stay with Jim & Gail Williams in Portland. They were kind enough to take us to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes (one of Adam's new favorite places), and put us and Nestle up for the night. On Saturday, we signed our lease and unloaded the truck into our new apartment (in 80 degree weather, much nicer). Once again, it was reinforced upon us how much junk we have. Oh well. Fortunately, there was another couple, Johann & Juana and their kids, moving into the apartment right below ours. Adam and Johann were able to trade off helping each other with furniture that was out of my or Juana's league. We actually did a decent job of getting things unpacked that day. On Sunday we hit Ikea to replace a few of the items that didn't fit onto the moving truck, and Safeway for food and cleaning supplies. Adam's been working everyday since then, while I run errands and go on interviews. So far I've submitted about 20 resume's and heard zip from all but one job. While this job is great (teaching theater to classes of kids for a homeschool organization), it's only a couple hours a week and doesn't start until September. I need something with more hours and I need it now. I'm intelligent, qualified, responsible...what the crap?! Of course, how soon I find work will also necessitate acquiring another car, which presents a whole other level of stuff.
On the upside, we've had fun figuring out our new home. We've used the apartment hot tub and workout room. Across the street from Adam's store, we found a vegan restaurant run by a Vietnamese family, which Adam is ecstatic about because he can order ANYTHING on the menu. We got golden raspberries and tayberries at the little Wednesday farmer's market (going back on Saturday when all the vendors are there). We sit out on our balcony with coffee and books until the bugs come out. We're currently looking around for something to do on the 4th, of course something free, and preferably something we can walk to. So yeah, some good, some frustrating, all new...

Waiting...

So... quick update for all of you following Cori and I's adventures. I flew out of Ely this morning... while I don't mind flying, I can't say that I'm a huge fan of planes with only 19 seats. That's right... 19. There were two of us flying out of Ely... and we picked up 3 more in Moab, Utah. The plane wasn't so bad while we were in the air, but definitely not my favorite thing for takeoffs and landings... especially landings. Right now I'm sitting in the Denver airport doing my best to kill time. I've got a layover of just under 4 hours. I decided to start my layover off right with a German Witbeer from a local brewing company... good stuff and only slightly overpriced... better than I expected for airport beer. I'll get into Omaha at about 9:30 tonight. Tomorrow I'll be picking up the moving truck around 10:00 am, and I'll be packing up with Brian and I think Jake. I'll be loading up everything from the storage unit, swinging by Connie and Marty to get my grill that's been living in their garage, and then to Mom's house to clean out the things of ours that have been living in her basement. Tomorrow night all the family who can come will be getting together to grill some stuff at Mom's, and I'll be starting off on the fun trip accross the country Wednesday morning. On Wednesday I'll be going from Omaha to Laramie, WY; Thursday from Laramie to Twin Falls, ID where Cori and Nestle will be meeting me with all the stuff we had taken to Ely; and Friday we'll drive from there to Portland. We'll be staying that night with an aunt and uncle of Cori's and Saturday we'll get the keys to the apartment and haul all our things up to the third floor. Hopefully we'll have things more or less unpacked by the time we go to bed on Sunday, and I should be starting work Monday morning. We won't have internet access at our apartment until sometime Monday afternoon, so if you don't hear from us for a bit that would be while. Anyway... I'm off to get back to my killing time in the airport.

Moving

For those of you who want to know... our new address is:

4635 SW Mueller Drive, Apt E301

Beaverton, OR 97007

We'll be at that address as of next Saturday, June 27th. For the time being we'll have the same phone numbers... at some point in the future we'll be changing those to Portland area numbers. We'll keep you posted!

Across the nation

I once heard of a book written by the members of the band Franz Ferdinand, the whole point of the book was the good, the bad, and the weird of food they encountered while on tour.
As you all know, we've done some extensive traveling since moving away from Omaha. It's been brought to my attention that I could start a similar memoir, if slightly more specialized. The title of my travel/food commentary: "Orange chicken and white mochas across the US."

Orange Chicken:
-Mings Star in Omaha
-Golden Dragon in Carson City
-Oak Tree Inn in LA
-Place I can't remember the name of on the edge of Seattle
-Twin Wok in Ely

White Mocha:
-Starbucks
-Coal Creek Coffee Company
-Carmel Valley Coffee Company
-Peets Coffee
-Tully's Coffee
-Black Bear Coffee House
-Jolts & Juice
-Ava Roasterie

Hmm, I am a creature of habit. But, to be fair, have you had these things? They're delicious and (this is probably why I consistently order them in any Chinese restaurant or coffee place) HARD TO MESS UP!
Click here for the real book

Coming Together...

So... everything looks like it's coming together... way too many details to figure out... and with all those details there's way too much money to pay... but it looks like it's all fitting together. The frustrating apartment situation Cori mentioned in the last blog has worked out ok. We were getting ready to go ahead with all the plans to store things and stay with family for 2 weeks... when another unit miraculously opened up that we can move into on the 27th. So now in the last two days we've had the mad rush of getting all the many things in to the apartments that are necessary to be approved. The leasing agent did all the different steps on her end to get us approved... so at around 5:30 last night we got the call that we do in fact have an apartment to move into. Sweet two bedroom apartment (way bigger than our last little place) with all kinds of cool stuff like a fireplace in the living room, work out facilities so we don't have to get a gym membership, an indoor pool so we can swim year round, and a walking trail that we've been told is somewhere behind the apartment complex... we'll have to go exploring for that. The apartment is about 15-20 minutes from the store I'll be working at, and is located in a good location to give Cori lots of opportunities to find jobs.

We've finished with all the reservations we've needed to make... plane tickets to fly me back to Omaha, truck rental so I can drive our stuff from Omaha to Portland, hotel reservations along the way... all those good things. Last night I had lots of fun (sarcasm) setting up all the things like renters insurance, electric, cable and internet... and we're just waiting to hear back from a couple of those with confirmations. Once we get those I think all we've got left is printing all of our many confirmations, reservations, maps and whatnot. Then we get to pack up our carload of stuff again and be ready to head out. We'll keep you posted on all the good stuff (hopefully that rather than bad stuff) as it comes. You should come see us in Portland!

details a.k.a. what fresh hell is this?

Well, Adam and I are working on our list of things that have to happen in order to move to Beaverton. We thought we'd had an apartment all picked out and were trying to negotiate a move in earlier than their posted July 3rd availability. Turns out that July 3rd is when the current tenants lease is up, with cleaning and turn around processing, we couldn't take possession until July 13. Which means that we'll either have to start our apartment search over or "make do" for the two weeks lapsing between when Adam starts work and when we could officially move into our own apartment. Dad's Uncle Jim and Aunt Gail live in Beaverton and have offered to let us stay with them, which would be a huge financial relief, but also brings up questions about whether to pay for another month on the Omaha storage unity and have Mom & Dad help me move everything in July, or have Adam fly back to move everything out next week and get another storage unit in Beaverton. Situations like this frustrate the crap out of me because there are way too many variables. If this happens we should do that; if it's ready this day, we follow that plan; if you stay here, I do the moving..... On and on, way too many options and different plans. While we're both rejoicing that there's a desitination and a vocation in sight, along with the relief comes a whole new spectrum of detritus.
I'm thinking about becoming a nanny. I'd seen one posting on craigslist.com for a summer nanny, two kids ages 6 & 8 who love to do crafts, go to the zoo, swimming, etc. I COULD TOTALLY DO THAT! I'm great with kids, I have a decent driving record, I'm CPR certified (what parent isn't gonna love that?!). Unfortunately, I don't think I'll find anything like that by the time we get out there, no one needs a summer nanny who starts half-way through the summer. But it's a great idea to keep in mind for the future.
Anyway, it's late, and Adam and I are going to enjoy a celebratory blueberry wine that Mom picked up for us in BC. Christian out.

Portland Part 2

Fantastic news today. Over the last week I've been talking with the manager of a Starbucks in the Portland area, and today he offered me a position at his store as a Shift Supervisor. Taking a step backwards into a supervisor position wasn't my ideal plan... but getting into the company takes care of the immediate need to have a job, and the long term goal of being able to move up from within the company. Portland should be a great location for that. I'm supposed to be starting the week of June 29th, which gives us just over two weeks to arrange for an apartment and take care of all the many details that come with moving accross the country. Starting Monday we'll have the mad rush to make all the details fit together. Once we're there and get back to caffeinating people, we'll be looking at job options for Cori. If you're in the Portland area any time after 2 weeks from now, look us up!

Portland

So Cori and I are in Portland... Marv and Linda were going to a conference in Vancouver, so we hitched a ride. They dropped us in Seattle and we rented a car and drove down on Wednesday. We spent Thursday looking around the area trying to find jobs. Cori stopped into a few Borders/Barnes & Nobles and whatnot... I stopped into a few Starbucks and found some that are looking for Supervisors... hoping if I can get in there I might be able to move up within the company. Today we dropped off applications at those two starbucks and visited 9 apartment complexes in the area. We found a couple that we were excited about... so now we're just waiting on the job to work out. After we finished all of that we drove south a little ways into wine country... did a free tasting at August Cellars, and bought a bottle of gewurztraminer to go with the Thai food we're going to pick up in a few minutes. Tomorrow we're going to find a thing or two to occupy our time... either in the Portland area or up in Seattle. At some point we'll be meeting up with Marv and Linda, dropping off the rental, and beginning the trek back to Ely. That's about all I've got for this trip. Off to get Thai food!

Mileage

Adam and I figured out that between the Cali trip and the Washington trip, we've covered over 3,229 miles in the last 10 days. Adam checked mapquest and apparently that's just 20 miles short of a drive from Seattle to Miami. Needless to say, neither of us wants to be in a car for extended periods of time for quite a while. Of course, Nestle is very glad to have us home again. She's definitely made friends with DeVegas and she and Beckett are putting up with each other. I think we're going to Comins Lake again tomorrow.

On the job front, Adam should be getting a call tomorrow to set up a second interview over the phone. I think we both really want this opportunity to work out.

My first blog post ever!

So I promised I'd start blogging on here... I'm sure some of you were beginning to worry that I might not exist... maybe I'm a figment of Cori's imagination or something.  Those of you thinking that might be thinking that this post proves that wrong... ha!  How do you know this isn't really Cori pretending to be Adam... you'll never know.

Anyway... the blog post.  Sitting at a hotel in Boise, Idaho right now waiting for our pizza to be delivered.  Starving just a little... being the smart ones that we are we didn't eat anything real pretty much the whole day.  Breakfast for me was Jamba Juice and a muffin from the hotel we stayed at two days ago.  Now that I think about it that's the same hotel we're at now... stayed in way too many hotels lately.  Lunch was some mixed nuts, cheez-its, and a couple mini candy bars.  

So our day... started off with a quick americano from Starbucks... needed a bit of caffeine to get me going for the interview... then I left Cori there to drink her white mocha and read for a bit while I drove to Tully's Coffee for an interview.  I think it went well... most of the questions I was able to answer from personal experience from my time managing The Tea Smith.  Assuming they liked me as much as I'm hoping they did I should get a call within the next few days to set up a second interview for next week... should be a phone interview.  After the interview I picked up Cori, checked out of the hotel and headed out of Seatle to start our trip back.  Along the way we stopped (pause - pizza just got here) at a couple vineyards... at the first one we tasted 4 wines and bought two bottles... at the second I tried three different Cabernets... Cori sat and watched while I talked to the wine people.  After that we drove on to Boise to stay the night.  The drive from there took pretty much forever.  We're relatively sure that as we drove Boise was actually getting farther and farther away from us.  Anyway... we got here... ordered the pizza... and that's pretty much it.  I think the plan is to get a pretty early start tomorrow... we're both getting pretty tired of traveling at this point.

You'll probably hear from me soon... if I am indeed real that is.

Home again, home again...Just kidding!

Wow, ok, I honestly intended to be better about blogging this trip as it happened, but who knew how rediculous it would be to find free wifi in SoCal?! Ahh well, live and learn... and then let go.

When I left off last time we were staying in Monterey. The next morning we went on a serious coffee hunt. Apparently all of the coffee houses listed on the quaint Monterey Bay didn't exist! But in our search, we did see some seals chilling on the rocks, a whale/dolphin/shark drifting in the surf, and discovered that the state now charges $10 per car before they allow you on 17 Mile Beach drive. Eventually we did discover the Carmel Valley Coffee Company in Carmel-by-the-Sea. After caffienating heavily, we headed on down the coast, fighting fog and road work. We did find this amazing little beach to take a walk on and play in the surf a bit.

Further down the coast we kept encountering what we first thought was driftwood all over the beaches. Soon we discover that they're seals! This time of year, elephant seals beach themselves for day-long naps and molting their winter coats. These things were huge! Hundreds, possibly a thousand pounds each, and the beaches were piled with hundreds of seals. They were also incredibly smelly and made the rudest noises you've ever heard from an animal! Mom was overwhelmed by how many fish must have been in that area to sustain all of them. Adam loved that they all made Nestle's "bitey face".

We finally made it to the guest house in Arcadia around 8. Adam and I got the chance to hang out with Josh & Kiera Voelker (friends of mine from college), we hadn't seen each other in at least a couple years, so it was wonderful to catch up. We went to the Yard House, which is indeed famous for serving yard tall beers. They no longer serve them, but Adam did get an 18 incher, you can't tell real well from the picture, but he was uber-pleased!

On Friday, we met up with Dad's fam, coffee, shopping, etc. We found a computer desk and a new nightstand at Ikea (oh how I love Ikea)! That night we had dinner with the grandparents, Carole, Phil & the kids. Phil taught me how to make his cinnamon rolls (although I'm still going to need the recipe b/c he went so fast!). Yesterday, after dropping Mom & Dad off at their orientation, Adam and I found coffee and then got lost several times while searching for our lunch spot (the Yard House again!). We met with Adam's dad's brother & wife, and his dad's sister's 2 boys. Once again, had a great time. Their whole family has a gift for making people feel welcome. After our 3 1/2 hour lunch we headed back to pick up Mom & Dad and then met up with some of the leadership from the Chinese team for dinner. Are you getting the picture that we did a lot of eating on this trip? 'Cause it's very true. Today, we had breakfast with the grandparents and headed back to Ely. The temp was well over 100 in Vegas, but other than that, it was very tolerable.

Now I'm waiting for laundry to finish while Adam's giving the dog some TLC. Tomorrow, we re-pack our clothing and road food and head north for Adam's interview in Seattle on Wednesday. We were both surprised and relieved to learn that the drive from Ely to Seattle is only 13 hours, totally doable since we're breaking it up over two days each direction. We'd appreciate any and all prayers and positive thoughts for this interview. Everything we know about this company and Seattle itself makes us believe that this would be a perfect opportunity for us.

The only down-side to the timing of the interview is that Cassie & Marly are arriving tomorrow. They start work in Boise next Monday, so what had originally been hanging out for a week with them, will now be a day or two. Unfortunate, but unavoidable. 

Ok, so wow, that's life, for now. Christian out.

Cali trip, '09

Ok, we're on day 2 of our whirlwind California adventure. Yesterday, Mom, Dad, Adam and I drove from Ely to Oma & Opa's place in Carson City. They took us out to dinner at the Golden Dragon (mmmm, Chinese food!), and then Mom, Grandma and I went to see "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past." Watching movies with Grandma is so funny because she gets so involved with the characters, she kept saying she wanted to smack Matthew McCaughnahey.

Adam and I had to make a late-night run to Walmart to buy more decks of cards to play Hand & Foot, and sunscreen with SPF 50 (we've both gotten burned crispy being pale and unused to the higher altitude).

Today we headed across the Sierra Nevadas, nearly 8000 feet up! It was beautiful, there were lakes still frozen and waterfalls of snow melting down rock walls. In Stockton, we went to the zoo & out to dinner with Adam's cousins, Sarah and Russ and their kids Bella and Peyton, and Josh and Ashley and their boys Jayden, Trace, and Liam. It was great to hang out with them this afternoon, the kids were so much fun. They loved it when I was attacked by the Lorikeets in the aviary at the zoo. These birds were gorgeous, but a litttle overwhelming when they're perched on your head, back, shoulders and arms.

Currently, we're camped out at Motel 6 in Monterey. Before parking ourselves for the night, we cruised Old Town/Downtown Monterey Bay, including Fisherman's Wharf and Cannery Row. I think we're heading back into town in the morning because Dad needs to pay a visit to Bad Ass Coffee Company, then on down the coast. Have I mentioned how much I love the ocean?! Sooo do!

Pausing

Well, after a total of approximately 17 hours in the car, we are safe and sound in Ely. Majority of last week was spent packing and saying goodbyes to family, late Thursday morning we took off. Needless to say the dog was not happy with spending 8 hours straight cooped up on her bed on half our backseat. We tried to stop and give her water, stretch her legs, etc. as often as possible, but it was a compromise between making sure she's as comfortable as possible and just getting there as fast as possible so she could be out of the car.
On Thursday night we ended up staying at the Motel 6 in Laramie, Wyoming. Adam and I were just exhausted and cramped. Nestle enjoyed getting to sleep on the 2nd hotel bed all by herself. In the morning we found this awesome local coffeehouse. If anyone's visiting the Laramie area, stop by Coal Creek Coffee Company, they're a little off the interstate, but cute environment and great coffee.
We did make it all the way to Ely by dinner time on Friday, and haven't set foot in our car since then! We've already taken a trip to Duckwater, walked all the dogs by Comins Lake, played games galore, and only had to set a morning alarm once! Mom & Dad are headed out to the rez for a few days tomorrow, so we'll have the house to ourselves for most of this next week.
Tomorrow we're going to the show at the high school that Cammie's been working on. We also have plans to take a whirlwind trip to visit family through California/Nevada in a couple weeks. If we're here long enough, we may also tag along with Mom & Dad on a trip up the Pacific Northwest. Dad has a conference in Vancouver and while we don't have the appropriate paperwork to cross the border with them, but we may have them drop us off in Portland or Seattle while we investigate jobs, etc.
Which brings me to my last update: still no work. Adam's applying to various coffee places and positions all over the country, but so far has either heard nothing or gotten no's. Blessedly, he's not daunted, every week or so, a new batch of emails/resumes/applications go out. Eventually, one of them has got to be a yes, right? That's our prayer.

DONE

We're done with work! I finished yesterday with two Nebraskalands followed by margaritas! Later we met up with all the Tea Smithies at the Upstream. A couple of Adam's employees figured out how to make a cake with Bright Berry Tisane (one of their herbals) baked right in, both brewed tea, and the actual blended leaves. It was a very pretty cake, but the tea gave it sort of a purplish color and I'm sure the Upstream staff wondered what the heck kind of cake we were eating. Adam also got treated to a couple of the Upstream's very nice scotches. He was a happy boy.
As much as we both feel like a weight's been lifted off our shoulders, I think we're both definitely starting to feel a little of the "Holy crap, we're unemployed!" freak out.
Here's to faith and still having a month!
Tomorrow after church we're headed over to Jake & Cari's for Connie's birthday brunch. Monkey bread and Mimosas, yum! ~Christian Out!

Week of Lasts

Four days left of work at this point. I've got five Nebraskaland performances, and a shift working the spring telemarketing campaign.
Adam's got a health fair off-site on Saturday.
Other than work, here's the rest of our lives:
~Tonight was our goodbye party with 88i. I love these people and it was fun to just hang out. Not gonna lie, I had to stop myself twice from asking if there was business stuff we needed to talk about.
~ Tomorrow we're doing dinner and games with Jake & Cari. I think we're going to the Thai place that we discovered a couple years ago.
~ Wednesday, I work and Adam has dinner with his dad.
~ Thursday, I'm hanging out with Kandace & Mari watching chick flicks, while Adam hangs out with Brad smoking pipes.
~ Friday is both of our going away parties for work. I'll meet up with the girls for margaritas at our usual celebratory/mourning pub. After the Tea Smith(s) close, everyone will head out the the west location of the Upstream.
~ Saturday, Adam works the health fair for the Tea Smith. I'm heading up to OC for the day to say goodbye to people there.
~ Sunday is Connie's birthday so we're partying down at Jake & Cari's. I think this will be the first all-family event hosted at their place, so we're breakin' it in!
~ Monday & Tuesday we'll be packing like maniacs.
~ Wednesday, Adam and possibly a couple of guys will be moving anything we won't need in the immediate future into a storage unit, and we start cleaning.
~ Thursday will be all about finishing up stuff: cleaning, running errands, getting rid of Adam's truck (Which he may have found a buyer for tonight. Luke Hepner went to Northwestern with all of us and has done several projects for 88. Apparently he's been looking for a junker truck to haul around town, which is exactly what Lloyd is.), and finally heading out.

Wow, so there's the rest of our time in Omaha. Holy crap.

Ch-ch-changes

No idea.
No plan.
No jobs.
Three weeks left.

ouch

Well, yesterday's mail brought my rejection letters from Illinois and Idaho... I guess I'd assumed that would be the case, but it sucks that even my back-up school shot me down. I still haven't heard a decision from Ohio, but at this point it's pretty freaking late to be getting an acceptance letter, so yeah.
Five for five, swing and a miss. My friend Cassiah said that when she applied to grad schools 2 years ago, her acceptance rate was 50%. Granted that was 2 years ago, before a lot of the economic recession crap hit the fan, and she was going for a political science masters (a degree which oddly enough is both more globally useful and has far less competition). I'm not sure how to tally my results against hers, so I'm just trying not to. Another one of those annoying little thoughts buzzing at the back of my head that I'm frequently swatting away.
Two and a half weeks of work left. Adam's already got his broken down into hours.
This weekend, we're going over to Connie & Marti's for Easter dinner after church. In the spirit of starting to use up things in our kitchen, I'm taking spinach & artichoke dip (a mix I'd bought from a lady at work who sells Tastefully Simple stuff). I'm also going to attempt homemade cinnamon rolls. I always loved Uncle Phil's and while I don't think I'd get a response in time if I tried to get his recipe, I may have found one online that doesn't look too scary (and conveniently uses up/reduces some of my baking supplies in the cupboard).
On Monday, we have tickets to a Deathcab for Cutie concert. It's not often that we find a band that's in both of our top fives, performing in our city, on a night when we're both available, at a price we're ok with paying. It's the perfect storm. We're bound to have a tornado or something that night.
Off to 88 busines meeting, my second to last one! Christian out.

Change of Plans

Well, still no word from schools. No word from Blizzard.

In other news, through an entirely too long course of events, we are now looking into Adam working at a vineyard in Oregon. Recently, he's done a lot of research and had conversations with people about the sommelier business. So, currently he's compiling a list of vineyards to contact about jobs, either on the production or sales/tasting side of wines. If he decides he likes the business and wants to get training, there's a sommelier certification program in Colorado. We're figuring most cities/restaurants/vineyards/specialty stores big enough to need a sommelier would also be big enough to have a decent theatre scene going on.

I'm still planning on going back for my master's at some point, but I'm ok with that not being for a while yet. As much fun as the Rose and 88i have been, I do need to beef up my professional acting resume.

Speaking of the Rose, I am now down to three weeks of work left. I've finished with doing school shows, and this next week is the last show I'll have to work. After that I'll mostly be finishing up my data consolidation projects and doing Nebraskaland school shows. I think I have a couple each of the next two weeks and then something like five of them my last week. At least they'll keep me out of the office!

We've turned in notice to our apartment building, now we're working on things like doctor's appointments while we still have insurance, canceling our gym membership, finding a storage unit, etc. That much closer!

Merg

Nothing new to report.
Adam sent his resume & cover letter into Blizzard. He may hear from them, he may not. If he is going to hear something, it'll probably be within the next three weeks. If Austin falls through, we kind of have no plan and that's scary.
We're done with work in five weeks! I keep telling Adam that if we're going to cram in as many dinners/get-togethers with his family as possible, we need to start getting on that. I'm a lot better about actually doing these kinds of things than he is, but I'm waiting for him to initiate the plans.
Cari loaned me the book, "The Shack." It's been an interesting theological read for me. I've never been as spiritually well-read as Dad or Adam, but this book is forcing me to take a different look at a lot of things that I just accepted about God and my relationship with him. Thus far, my favorite line (and the most applicable) is where Mack is talking with God about the meaning of life. He says that he feels incredibly lost and God says, "That's alright honey, I am with you always, and I am never lost."

Update

No real news. Still waiting to hear from Ohio and Idaho. Adam's working on his resume and cover letter for Blizzard. He's hoping to send those out early next week. 

We've both been doing some homework on what it would look like to live in Austin. Our church is part of the Acts 29 Network which we discovered also has a branch in Austin, the pastor of it also smokes a pipe and listens to the same bands Adam does. Earlier this week, Adam inherited a bike from Brian. He was seriously entertaining the idea of soley using the bike to commute to & from work and had talked to one of his customers who's a biking enthusiast about gloves, saddlebags, etc. We decided that he should just try the bike out on the bike path by our house before we spent any more $ on paraphanalia. Turns out it was a good thing we waited, after biking 30 minutes, his asthma kicked in and he had issues breathing the next couple of hours.

We finally heard back from Eric, the IT guy who was looking at my laptop. He replaced the keyboard and said that it appeared to be working fine again. I should be getting it back tomorrow! Yay! It's definitely fortunate that the keyboard didn't crash until after I'd finished my applications, resume's, and letters were all done and sent out.

It's thunderstorming here tonight. I like it...I'll sleep well.

Where Things Are...ish

Well, today was supposed to be the deadline to hear whether I'd been accepted to Illinois and Brown. I didn't get a call from either one. These were definitely the two schools I'd been most excited about and where I'd had the most positive experiences. I suppose they were also the ones with the steepest competition.
So.... yeah. I'm disappointed. And a little depressed. Regardless of how much I tell myself that it's not personal, it is. I failed, I wasn't good enough. I put myself out there on an extremely personal level and they didn't want me. Not enough anyway.
I want to believe that even if this door is closed, it's because there's a better plan. I don't want this to be a "shit happens" situation.
I don't know how long I'll have to wait to hear from Ohio or Idaho. I'd actually just re-sent all of my info to Idaho earlier this week. Adam suggested that maybe it's good that I don't have an exact time frame so that I'm not going through this intense waiting period again. I think I agree. So grad school isn't off the table yet, just a big set back.
Adam's been really sweet, he had flowers and candy waiting for me when I got home today. My phone is on time out for a while because I resent how tied to it I've had to be this week.
This weekend, Adam is starting his application processes for Blizzard (the software company that makes the computer game World of Warcraft) and Starbucks. I've gone through my whole application/interview process and depending on how that does or doesn't work out, it's his turn now.
I realized today when I got my next month's schedule for work that my name will only be on one more after this one. That's a beautiful thought.
Love you all, thanks for your prayers (and the wonderful birthday presents!).
Christian out.

No call today.

No call today

end of day 5

Last night in a hotel!
I think the audition went really wells this morning. There were 2 guys, they actually responded during my monologues. They asked about my improv experience, and what I thought my greatest asset theatrically is. I answered my versatility, being able to play any part. They seemed really nice. Then all of the auditionees went to an orientation where the department head talked about what the curriculum looks like, the different opportunities for students, etc. They're taking 16 newbies, 8 men & 8 women. They'll also have a short wait list of 5 or 6, should someone not take their spot, the department will call the person most similar to them from the wait list. They're looking to have a set of types, so if you're on the wait list, who gets called all depends on who dropped out.
If I make the class or the wait list, I'll get a call by the end of the month. That's also when they're able to let me know whether or not they can offer me full, half, or any financial aid.
The whole taxi situation worked out fine. The drivers were both really nice and very talkative. My birthday present from Adam was a shopping spree while on the east coast, unfortunately, there really weren't any shops in walking distance of the theater. Of the ones I saw that I was interested in, most were closed for President's Day. Oh well, it was the thought that counted.
So tomorrow, it's back on the plane to Columbus. From there, I'll drive back to Cassie & Marly's to spend the night and drive home on Wednesday. It's been fun, and apart from going back to work, I'm glad it's almost over. Now the waiting begins....

End of Day 4

Another hotel room. After brake trouble, plane delays, noisy undisciplined children running around airports, and not realizing that I had to call the hotel for a shuttle, I am safe in Rhode Island. Once I checked in, I called myself a cab to take me downtown tomorrow. First taxi ride ever! I hope this company is able to process cards because I forgot to ask when I called.
Also, for some odd reason my "g", "h", and backspace keys are only working on this site. Seriously, I can't use them on anything else anywhere on my computer, emails, web searches, word processing. Anyone know what that's about or how to fix it?

End of day 3 (again)

I'd had this great post about today all written out and then I lost my wifi signal... so I apologize but this one will be shorter.
It took me less time than I had thought it would to get from the school to the hotel this morning, so I got there about 25 minutes early only to find that the doors were card-locked. How do you want me to audition if you make it impossible for me to get in? Anyway, a student heard me knocking and took pity on me. Once again, I was the first one of the day, there was supposed to be a guy before me but was coming from Kentucky and hadn't made it yet. So they took me early. I did my monologues, they asked about me, I asked about the program, and that was it. The whole thing took about 10 minutes.
The program itself is different than a lot of the others I've looked at. It's original works based. They take 10 students every 3 years. The first year is spent building ensemble, coming up with original stuff. The second year a guest director is brought in to create a show with them. The third year, the class does an outreach with a pre-chosen group and collaborate a show with them. For example, the current grad class is working with refugees living in Columbus, helping their families, teaching ESL, etc. Their final show is based on the refugees' stories. The next grad class will be working with Columbus Public Schools and Stand Up for Shakespeare, getting the kids excited and participating with Shakespeare. As part of the that, the grad class will go to Stratford during the first year to study with the program administrators, then one of them would come be the guest director during the second year. Finally the grads would go into the schools to do Stand up for Shakespeare. So yeah, the Shakespeare thing, the creating your own shows thing, the ensemble thing all sounds like me. The problem is I just didn't feel much of a connection with the faculty, I didn't feel like they were particularly interested in me or whatever. Admission here has to go through the school before the department can start making any offers, so it could be a while before I hear anything from them either way.
Anyway, since the whole thing was over so fast, I decided to drive around a bit. On one side of campus I found a theater and a Starbucks. On the other side of campus I trolled that awesome street of tiny book stores, bars, coffee houses and tattoo parlors. After driving off my adrenaline letdown, I crashed at the hotel for a few hours talking to Mom and Adam. When hotel room fever set in, I headed out for a movie (Defiance) and picked up Chinese food.
Tomorrow I'll catch my flight to Providence. It's been sort of on-and-off spit snowing here, so I hope that doesn't cause any problems tomorrow.
Christian out.

end of day 2

Well, I'm currently in my hotel room in Columbus, OH. It's been a crazy couple of days!
I left Omaha early yesterday afternoon and drove to Bloomington/Normal, IL. I met Cassie, Marly, and Amanda (currently a senior at Northwestern, also auditioning at ISU) for dinner. Then Amanda and I went back to watch a run-through of the show Marly is currently assistant designing. It's called BreathBoom and was about women in gangs, hard but fascinating. After the rehearsal, Amanda and I headed back to Cassie & Marly's apartment while they finished up crew stuff.
During conversation, Amanda and I realized that we knew shockingly little about our auditions. I'd been told we needed 2 monologues, she'd been told 3 (good thing I memorized those back-up monologues last month!). Neither of us knew where we were supposed to be or who to check in with. We also found out later from Cassie that they apparently expect students to audition in business attire, which neither of us had with us. Slightly frustrtating.
This morning, Cassie hung out with me until my audition, which kept me from being nervous. I think it went well. There were 2 guys doing the audtions, they both seemed very nice. I did my monologues. One of the guys had me re-do one of them with different pieces of direction, which I think I did. They asked me to tell them about myself, so I talked about 88, why I wanted to go back to school, and why I was interested in Illinois State specifically. They said they were looking for 8 students, and that they'd start making offers in the next 2 weeks. We've been told that they're only planning on taking 2 girls (the grad students feed directly into their summer Shakespeare festival and Shakespeare just doesn't require a lot of women), so apart from having overwhelming competition, I feel good about it. Afterwards, Cassie, Marly and I met up with Drew (graduated with me from Northwestern, is currently a 3rd year lighting design student at ISU). Then we found Cassie & Marly's boss Julie and another grad student and all went out lunch.
I hit the road for another six and half hours, it should have been less, but I got lost at an interchange in Indianapolis.
Now I'm showered, crashed, drained... and set to do it all again tomorrow. Woohoo

Yay, birthday

Hi Everyone, thanks for all the "happy birthdays!" It was a good day. Work was fine, normal, whatever. I didn't really broadcast that it was my birthday because there aren't that many people who I care if they know there anymore. I did have a good conversation with Mom and got what felt like hundreds of messages on my facebook page (I think that's one of the great things about facebook, it has reminders and is the most convenient way to communicate). I picked up food for Adam and I on the way home, and when I got there he had cleaned up the apartment and had flowers and a present waiting for me (Best Husband Ever). Instead of a cake, we got chocolate peanut butter milkshakes from Coldstone and watched a movie at home. All in all, not one of the big-production birthdays I've had in the past (right, Mom?), but it was a good day. So, now I'm 26... Which sounds weird but doesn't feel any different yet. Jake's birthday is the 13, I think we're having a family dinner sometime toward the end of the month.
Tomorrow I'll leave for Cassie & Marly's around noon. I think I'm ready. I tried to print updated resume's and letters of intent, but for some reason the office suite software we use on our laptops doesn't translate real well and kept freezing up my computer at work. We're going to save them to a flash drive and Adam will print them for me at the Tea Smith and I'll pick them up on my way out of town. It's nice that I don't have to rush out in the morning because I'll have a little breathing space and not stress so much about getting everything done tonight.
Actually, one of the things that has me most nervous is dealing with a taxi when I'm in Providence. Do I pay in cash, or can they take cards? How much do you tip for a taxi? This is the stuff I've never had to deal with before but will probably still be cheaper and less hassle than renting a car.
I'm scared. Pretty much, these three are all I've got, if they all say no I'm going to have to do some serious re-thinking about my life goals.

I really don't want to have that conversation with myself.

2 weeks/3 months

Hey all, sorry it's been a while. Last week was my "January Vacation" from the Rose as compensation for working the week between Christmas and New Years. While sleeping in five days in a row was beautiful, it wasn't much of a vacation. I got the oil changed in both Adam's truck and my car. I did our grocery shopping. I bought my plane ticket to Rhode Island. I found new monologues (I ended up with one as Imogen from Cymbeline and one as Lily from A Dirty Job). I borrowed and taped my current monologues (still have to edit those, but Adam found great video editing software). I did our taxes (!) and updated my FAFSA :(. They say we should be able to pay a lot more for our portion than we actually can, but I'm trying to let God worry about that. I cleaned the apartment. I did an 88 business meeting and 2 private shows. One of those shows was at a hotel here in Omaha, when we arrived, we discovered the actual Oscar Meyer Weenie mobile parked outside. We took pictures. We're huge geeks.
Last week I also heard from Indiana State....after having contacted them in October! Their director is going to give me a call next weekend. Seriously though, waiting three months in order to hear back from them does not give me a lot of trust or affinity for the department. Additionally, I just don't know if we can afford for me to take another trip. But I'm getting ahead of myself, we'll see how that phone call goes.
2 weeks from tomorrow I head out on my audition extravaganza! Adam and I decided that it would be safer for me to fly from Ohio than driving 12 hours through the night to fly from here. So I will officially be gone the 12th all the way through the 18th. I'm scared spitless. Next up on my to-do list is reserving hotels for while I'm in Columbus and Providence and putting together packets of my reccommendation letters and headshots, etc.
88improv has a new website up and running. Feel free to check it out: www.88improv.com. We've also started doing shows every other Tuesday evening at the PS Collective here in Omaha. It's a fun little venue, we feel comfortable there, like we have the freedom to play around. In fact, we're calling the series of shows "Whatever we want."
Niki (my manager at the Rose) let me know yesterday that they're planning on hiring my replacement at the end of March. I think that's great, the newbie will have a month to get things figured out and learn how to work shows over the spring ballet, which will be a great one to break them in on before the chaos of Charlotte's Web and High School Musical (SOOO glad I won't be here for that fiasco!).
Tim Smith has also let Adam know that he's in process of scheduling 2nd interviews with a couple of candidates for his job as well. Adam's been getting a little anxious because it takes about two weeks to get someone trained in all the regular tea stuff and then about a month to help them figure out and take over all the managerial stuff. If this person is currently employed elsewhere, they'll need to serve out their two weeks notice and all of this needs to happen in the next 12 weeks.
Did I mention we're done working in 12 weeks! Oh yeah, that's a smaller number than it used to be! Adam's already planning how he's going to pack the car for the drive to Ely (I love him!). Keep on keepin' on...

Planning, again

This week has been pretty quiet. I did finally hear back from Ohio University. I'd emailed them requesting information back in October, and just got a message this last Monday. They're on-campus audition day is Feb 7. I'm ambivalent about auditioning for them: on the one hand, their website didn't sound particularly welcoming and they're definitely focused on professional actor training, not teaching. On the other hand, there's that nagging in the back of my head, what if this is the one school I'm accepted to? Ultimately, I think it would just be too hard on me to audition there are the 7th and come back just to turn around and go on my audition extravaganza the next week.
Marly, thanks for the monologue suggestion. I'd completely forgotten about that one, but you're right, it's a very powerful moment. The only other idea I'd had was one as the sprite from The Tempest.
Fortunately, I'm off work this next Tuesday through Sunday. I'm planning on using that time to pick out and start work on the new monologues, get the oil changed in both of our cars, finalize travel plans (buy plane ticket, etc.) for Rhode Island. Plus, my sister-in-law Cari is off work on Wednesday as well, so we're planning on going to a movie together that neither of our husbands are interested in.
In other life, we're resuming the bi-monthly game night tomorrow. We've relocated to Jake & Cari's house since Brian has moved to an apartment now (he's also gotten another Newfoundland puppy, super-cute little fuzz ball!). Everyone's projected to be there tomorrow so we're all jumping back into being huge nerds and fighting each others' miniature armies.
Tomorrow is also my final rehearsal for "Nebraskaland". I was pretty good at being off-book with my lines last week, but honestly haven't looked at them again since then. I'll have to do a little brushing up later today. It'll also be my only chance to rehearse with set, costumes and sound cues. I don't think I have any actual performances scheduled until March though, so it's not like tomorrow will be do-or-die.
Tim has started advertising for Adam's position at the Tea Smith. The idea is to get this person hired asap, so that they can start basic tea training and gradually take on more and more of Adam's responsibilities. Last we heard, Tim had 4 interviews scheduled and a couple of other possibles to set up meetings with as well.
So yeah, that's how things stand right now. Just FYI, 14 weeks until Moving Week!

New year, new issues

Hi everyone! Happy New Year & thanks so much for the wonderful Christmas presents! We loved loved loved having the fam here over the holidays. So much food, so much energy. I think we were more worn out than they were after the visit.
On January 2, Adam and I filled out my FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), at least, as thoroughly as we could without this year's W2's. As far as I know, they're all approved and submitted pending updates once we've received aforementioned W2's. Finances are out of our hands until further notice.
I'm in process of hunting for a couple of hip-pocket monologues in case any of the schools want more. I've got a comedic Shakespeare and dramatic contemporary, so now I need a dramatic Shakespeare and comedic contemporary. The Shakespeare won't be hard to find, I just need to encounter a character that strikes my fancy. For the comedic modern, I'm hoping to bend the rules a bit and find a decent monologue in a novel by one of my favorite authors: Christopher Moore or Jennifer Crusie, or whatsername Weinstock. Even Sophie Kinsella would go over really well.
At the same time, I'm also working on "Nebraskaland" as state history play I'll be doing a few performances of in schools over the next few months. It's cheesy as all hell, but at least only 22 pages long.
Countdown is at about five weeks to auditions and fifteen weeks until we quit our jobs!