The Kings traded Peja for Ron Artest??!! WHAT??!! When did this happen? Why did I just find out about this now? And is it wrong that I found this out by surfing the web while I'm at work??? But back to the matter at hand... This BETTER result in a winning season for the Kings next year.
Meanwhile, since I happened to write about sports today:
The Winter Olympics in Torino officially begin in T-minus 10 days!!! Yahoooooo!!!!
Speaking of which:
Michelle Kwan is skating in the Olympics! This pleases me greatly. She will win gold. Mark my words! Screw you, little miss Cohen.
Might as well stick this one in too:
Even when he's being (fake) humble, I still hate Kobe and the Lakers. You should too.
1.31.2006
1.30.2006
Working woman, baby!
Well, folks, I successfully completed my first official week as the Patron Services Coordinator for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra! I heart me. So hard.
Report:
* No explosions
* No computer meltdowns
* No emotional meltdowns
* No minor disasters
* No major disasters.....
.....well, except when I came in to my second day of work on Tuesday morning and realized that we had run out of coffee in the staff kitchen. I had to trudge through the remainder of the day in a bleary, caffeine-deprived fog. Oh, brief and glorious 4-month stint at Star*ucks!! What have you done to me??!! At one point I resorted to making crummy instant hot chocolate in an attempt to trick my brain into thinking I was drinking the elixir of life -- but it didn't work.
I'm totally digging this new gig. I'm especially digging the FAT (...and phat, yo!) paycheck I anticipate receiving in two weeks. Seeing as how I have been living at the Struggling Musician Tax Bracket (which, incidentally, is officially 75 cents over the poverty line) for the better part of the last 6 months, the prospect of being able pay my bills (All of them!! On time!!!) and still have enough to put about half of my paycheck into savings every month is enough to make me 'splode with overwhelming rapture. And by "put into savings every month" I, of course, mean "blow entirely on a fabulous new wardrobe and lots of unnecessarily expensive meals." As I jokingly (maybe) said to my older brother over the phone the other day: "Hmmmm...I wonder how much new clothing half of my paycheck will buy....." AHAHAHAHAHA!! I'm only kidding, Dad!!! ....or aaaam I??
Anyway, after training for a few days, I think I have a fairly decent grasp on the basic workings of the administrative and box office duties of this job. A lot of receptionist and general patron service stuff. I guess that would explain my job title. I have yet to encounter my first Grumpy and Mean Old Ticket Buyer, about whom I have received numerous warnings from the other people I work with. But, seriously, after working customer service at Blockbuster, Pier1, Pacific Marketplace (bleargh), and Star*ucks ... I think I'm ready for anything.
The really interesting (mmm...slightly frightening?) other part of my job is when I start doing my duties as J.W.'s (Executive Director) assistant. He has been out of town for the past several days and so I have only had the opportunity to talk to him briefly about my responsibilities as his Executive Assistant. Yeah, I capitalized that title to make myself feel more important. And?!?! Apparently, I will be helping him organize and situate his office (Not a problem. Thanks, OCD.) and will be working quite a bit with the members of the Knoxville Symphony Society's Board of Directors and Executive Committee. From what I can gather, my job will be to communicate with these rich and powerful Knoxville folk and cater to their every whim.
Now, this can be either a thrilling adventure or one gigantic impending implosion. In that, I mean I will either succeed magnificently in this role because I can (if I wanted to) be so unbelievably witty and charming that I will have you eating out of the palm of my hand, or I will self-implode due to my occasional tendency to get in actual fights (mostly verbal, but I'm not ruling the physical out...) with people who demand too much of my patience and/or ego (yes, even -- nay, especially -- the rich ones who have too great a sense of entitlement for my taste). On a related note, I met Jeff, the guy who was J.W.'s Executive Assistant previous to me, the other night. When I introduced myself and explained that I would be replacing him as J.W.'s assistant, he sort of chuckled and then said, "Ha! Good luck." What does that mean??!! Anyway, so it'll be interesting to see how that works out. Stay tuned!
********
ps. I have been in this job for barely over a week and am already using company time to update my blog. Is this bad?
pps. Scott officially finished -- survived -- his Week of Hell (aka. his comprehensive exams) this morning at 9am. Hurray, Scott! I expect he will be doing a combination of sleeping very hard and celebrating even harder for the next few days and then I will have my boyfriend back shortly thereafter. Wheee!!
Report:
* No explosions
* No computer meltdowns
* No emotional meltdowns
* No minor disasters
* No major disasters.....
.....well, except when I came in to my second day of work on Tuesday morning and realized that we had run out of coffee in the staff kitchen. I had to trudge through the remainder of the day in a bleary, caffeine-deprived fog. Oh, brief and glorious 4-month stint at Star*ucks!! What have you done to me??!! At one point I resorted to making crummy instant hot chocolate in an attempt to trick my brain into thinking I was drinking the elixir of life -- but it didn't work.
I'm totally digging this new gig. I'm especially digging the FAT (...and phat, yo!) paycheck I anticipate receiving in two weeks. Seeing as how I have been living at the Struggling Musician Tax Bracket (which, incidentally, is officially 75 cents over the poverty line) for the better part of the last 6 months, the prospect of being able pay my bills (All of them!! On time!!!) and still have enough to put about half of my paycheck into savings every month is enough to make me 'splode with overwhelming rapture. And by "put into savings every month" I, of course, mean "blow entirely on a fabulous new wardrobe and lots of unnecessarily expensive meals." As I jokingly (maybe) said to my older brother over the phone the other day: "Hmmmm...I wonder how much new clothing half of my paycheck will buy....." AHAHAHAHAHA!! I'm only kidding, Dad!!! ....or aaaam I??
Anyway, after training for a few days, I think I have a fairly decent grasp on the basic workings of the administrative and box office duties of this job. A lot of receptionist and general patron service stuff. I guess that would explain my job title. I have yet to encounter my first Grumpy and Mean Old Ticket Buyer, about whom I have received numerous warnings from the other people I work with. But, seriously, after working customer service at Blockbuster, Pier1, Pacific Marketplace (bleargh), and Star*ucks ... I think I'm ready for anything.
The really interesting (mmm...slightly frightening?) other part of my job is when I start doing my duties as J.W.'s (Executive Director) assistant. He has been out of town for the past several days and so I have only had the opportunity to talk to him briefly about my responsibilities as his Executive Assistant. Yeah, I capitalized that title to make myself feel more important. And?!?! Apparently, I will be helping him organize and situate his office (Not a problem. Thanks, OCD.) and will be working quite a bit with the members of the Knoxville Symphony Society's Board of Directors and Executive Committee. From what I can gather, my job will be to communicate with these rich and powerful Knoxville folk and cater to their every whim.
Now, this can be either a thrilling adventure or one gigantic impending implosion. In that, I mean I will either succeed magnificently in this role because I can (if I wanted to) be so unbelievably witty and charming that I will have you eating out of the palm of my hand, or I will self-implode due to my occasional tendency to get in actual fights (mostly verbal, but I'm not ruling the physical out...) with people who demand too much of my patience and/or ego (yes, even -- nay, especially -- the rich ones who have too great a sense of entitlement for my taste). On a related note, I met Jeff, the guy who was J.W.'s Executive Assistant previous to me, the other night. When I introduced myself and explained that I would be replacing him as J.W.'s assistant, he sort of chuckled and then said, "Ha! Good luck." What does that mean??!! Anyway, so it'll be interesting to see how that works out. Stay tuned!
********
ps. I have been in this job for barely over a week and am already using company time to update my blog. Is this bad?
pps. Scott officially finished -- survived -- his Week of Hell (aka. his comprehensive exams) this morning at 9am. Hurray, Scott! I expect he will be doing a combination of sleeping very hard and celebrating even harder for the next few days and then I will have my boyfriend back shortly thereafter. Wheee!!
1.20.2006
In which Ysabel reconfirms her status as Just About the Greatest Thing in this Entire Universe
Oh. My. God.
OhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGod.
I have a new job! Wheeeeeee! Effective this coming Monday, I will officially be the new Patron Services Coordinator for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. (ooooooooh aaaaaaaah...) It's quite exciting to finally have a full-time adult job with an actual official title, but all self-aggrandizement aside I'm fairly sure the job will pretty much largely entail me just being the b*tch for all the KSO patrons (especially the old, rich ones), the Symphony Board and the KSO Musical Director and Executive Director. I can't wait.
***Here's the part where you roll your eyeballs to the back of your skull as I shamelessly pat myself on the back repeatedly and congratulate myself for being so f-ing awesome***
So here's how it all went down: I was working dilligently at Star*ucks last week (and by "working dilligently" I mean "most likely drinking a self-made Soy Raspberry Mocha for free while gossiping about various work-related drama with fellow Star*ucks employee") when I received a phone call from my former clarinet teacher, Gary, saying that the Executive Director of the KSO, J.W., had left a message for him saying that he was trying to get a hold of me because a position had just opened up and he was wondering if I would be interested (Ummm, DOY!!!). Remember, this would be the same gentleman who interviewed a young and naive me last year for the Director of Operations job with the KSO, only to hand me a swift and cruel rejection soon thereafter. I immediately called Jonathan back to tell him that, yes, indeed I am VERY interested, whereupon he informed me that another lady at the KSO offices, L.K., would be contacting me by the end of the week to discuss the matter further.
While my insides were leaping for joy at the prospect (and while I may or may not have been spotted literally jumping for joy later that day in the Hilton hotel staff room...), I was a little bit hesitant because my communications with J.W. had been just vague enough that I was unclear on whether this was a
We-Have-A-Job-Opening-And-We-Want-You-To-Have-It-Because-You-Interviewed-So-Well-A-Few-Months-Ago-
or a
We-Have-A-Job-Opening-And-We-Want-You-To-Interview-For-It-But-In-The-End-We-Are-Actually-Just-Going-To-Reject-You-Then Run-Laughing-All-The-Way-Home-
type of situation.
Anyway, after waiting patiently for about 6 hours for L.K. to call me, I couldn't take it anymore and got her number and contacted her. Long story short, we set up an appointment to meet early this week (which we did) and 30 minutes after the "interview" began, I got me a job! Haha! I quotation-marked "interview" because there really was no interview process. It pretty much amounted to me sitting down with L.K., having her tell me that my letters of recommendation (again, from the previous interview) were very impressive, explaining some of the details of the job description, and then her telling me all the reasons why working at the KSO offices is so great and why I should work there. It was nice having somebody virtually ask me to work for them instead of me begging somebody to employ me for a change, let me tell you.
***More shameful Ysabel self-love upcoming***
The most ego-inflating moment came when we were finishing up the "interview" and L.K. took me around to introduce me to everyone at the KSO offices, whereupon we popped in to J.W.'s office where he and the Music Director of the KSO, L.R., were talking. I shook J.W.'s hand and thanked him for recommending me for the position. I was like, "Yo, thanks for the props, dude!" And he was all, "Damn, no doubt! You the shiznit, yo!" Hahahahahahaha. I wish. But J.W. did say that he was so impressed with me when he interviewed me the first time that he immediately thought of me when this position opened up and made sure that L.K. gave me the first interview for it. At that point, my head ballooned to ten-times it's normal size and I gleefully floated away to celebrate the new job. Wheeeeeeee!!!!!
In any case, I will mercifully now be earning a significantly more substantial wage with this job and I will thankfully not have to plead my wonderfully generous computer-genius brothers for pity-money anymore.
And three thousand miles away along the coast of California, the heavens shook with rapture as Carlo and Jaime shouted for joy...
Also, can I tell you how excited I am at the prospect of wearing super-cute outfits to work now? No more various combinations of black, white and khaki topped off with a green apron. Life is good.
ps. Now I just have to figure out how to still get free cofffee and hotel room discounts...
OhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGod.
I have a new job! Wheeeeeee! Effective this coming Monday, I will officially be the new Patron Services Coordinator for the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. (ooooooooh aaaaaaaah...) It's quite exciting to finally have a full-time adult job with an actual official title, but all self-aggrandizement aside I'm fairly sure the job will pretty much largely entail me just being the b*tch for all the KSO patrons (especially the old, rich ones), the Symphony Board and the KSO Musical Director and Executive Director. I can't wait.
***Here's the part where you roll your eyeballs to the back of your skull as I shamelessly pat myself on the back repeatedly and congratulate myself for being so f-ing awesome***
So here's how it all went down: I was working dilligently at Star*ucks last week (and by "working dilligently" I mean "most likely drinking a self-made Soy Raspberry Mocha for free while gossiping about various work-related drama with fellow Star*ucks employee") when I received a phone call from my former clarinet teacher, Gary, saying that the Executive Director of the KSO, J.W., had left a message for him saying that he was trying to get a hold of me because a position had just opened up and he was wondering if I would be interested (Ummm, DOY!!!). Remember, this would be the same gentleman who interviewed a young and naive me last year for the Director of Operations job with the KSO, only to hand me a swift and cruel rejection soon thereafter. I immediately called Jonathan back to tell him that, yes, indeed I am VERY interested, whereupon he informed me that another lady at the KSO offices, L.K., would be contacting me by the end of the week to discuss the matter further.
While my insides were leaping for joy at the prospect (and while I may or may not have been spotted literally jumping for joy later that day in the Hilton hotel staff room...), I was a little bit hesitant because my communications with J.W. had been just vague enough that I was unclear on whether this was a
We-Have-A-Job-Opening-And-We-Want-You-To-Have-It-Because-You-Interviewed-So-Well-A-Few-Months-Ago-
or a
We-Have-A-Job-Opening-And-We-Want-You-To-Interview-For-It-But-In-The-End-We-Are-Actually-Just-Going-To-Reject-You-Then Run-Laughing-All-The-Way-Home-
type of situation.
Anyway, after waiting patiently for about 6 hours for L.K. to call me, I couldn't take it anymore and got her number and contacted her. Long story short, we set up an appointment to meet early this week (which we did) and 30 minutes after the "interview" began, I got me a job! Haha! I quotation-marked "interview" because there really was no interview process. It pretty much amounted to me sitting down with L.K., having her tell me that my letters of recommendation (again, from the previous interview) were very impressive, explaining some of the details of the job description, and then her telling me all the reasons why working at the KSO offices is so great and why I should work there. It was nice having somebody virtually ask me to work for them instead of me begging somebody to employ me for a change, let me tell you.
***More shameful Ysabel self-love upcoming***
The most ego-inflating moment came when we were finishing up the "interview" and L.K. took me around to introduce me to everyone at the KSO offices, whereupon we popped in to J.W.'s office where he and the Music Director of the KSO, L.R., were talking. I shook J.W.'s hand and thanked him for recommending me for the position. I was like, "Yo, thanks for the props, dude!" And he was all, "Damn, no doubt! You the shiznit, yo!" Hahahahahahaha. I wish. But J.W. did say that he was so impressed with me when he interviewed me the first time that he immediately thought of me when this position opened up and made sure that L.K. gave me the first interview for it. At that point, my head ballooned to ten-times it's normal size and I gleefully floated away to celebrate the new job. Wheeeeeeee!!!!!
In any case, I will mercifully now be earning a significantly more substantial wage with this job and I will thankfully not have to plead my wonderfully generous computer-genius brothers for pity-money anymore.
And three thousand miles away along the coast of California, the heavens shook with rapture as Carlo and Jaime shouted for joy...
Also, can I tell you how excited I am at the prospect of wearing super-cute outfits to work now? No more various combinations of black, white and khaki topped off with a green apron. Life is good.
ps. Now I just have to figure out how to still get free cofffee and hotel room discounts...
1.09.2006
Yeah yeah yeah... I don't want to hear it.
Yes yes, I know I haven't updated in forever. I, frankly, have not been in the mood lately. Especially since [insert violins...] I had to work 3 opening shifts at Star*ucks this past week which left me unable (unwilling?) to do anything during my non-Star*ucks time but recline in a horizontal position -- preferably within reasonable distance of a) the television, b) something to drink and c) something to eat. But so you don't go do something foolish like leap off a cliff in despair of feeling out of contact with me, here are the top 10 most blog-worthy things that have happened to me since my last update, some of which, hopefully, will be expounded upon by me in a future blog entry:
10. The attack of Ysabel's terrible case of consumption is back. Sometimes I want to just rip my throat out and soak it in a nice soothing milk bath. Is that weird? Also, I would like to return my lungs and exchange them for a less-dysfunctional pair. That would be cool.
9. I have a new Star*ucks favorite drink which is simply just a double (or sometimes triple...) tall 2-pump Raspberry mocha. It's the only thing that gets me out of bed at f-ing 4:30 on those fateful opening mornings.
8. I think I may be playing in the UT Wind Ensemble again. Hooray! Because I will once again feel a purpose for getting up in the morning aside from serving my over-priced tantalizing coffee-products to the faithful downtown addicts. However, this presents a few complications as I will now have to re-work the schedules of my two jobs (Star*ucks and clarinet teaching...) around. Not a big deal, I think.
7. Speaking of which, I am going to attempt an audition at the end of the month in Dollywood. You heard me: Dollywood. As in Hollywood + Dolly Parton. You look it up and place judgements on me accordingly. I don't care. It involves somebody paying me to play music. This also involves me having to work up my sax chops in roughly two weeks. Haha! Thanks to Ben for lending me his fabulous alto saxophone. Now I just need somebody to lend me their saxophone skillz as well.
6. I finished reading The Color of Water by James McBride. Again, thanks to Ben for lending me the book. An autobiographical novel based on the half-African American author and his white Jewish mother. I recommend it.
5. I have not been to Target at all this year. What a tragedy. I must remedy this as soon as I a) have the need to buy more Kleenex (wait, that would be now, actually...) and b) start getting paid by Star*ucks again (in two more weeks...agh)
4. I blew dry my hair for the Hilton company holiday party this past Friday (oooh, I have so much more to say about this later...). I liked being able to wear my hair down without it fro-ing so much that I didn't wash it for three days afterwards. Gross. So it is back in its usual hairball formation again now, but at least it's clean and non-greasy.
3. Went to see King Kong with Scott a few days ago. Wasn't really expecting much out of it since I had never seen any other King Kongs before. Ended up really enjoying it. Yeah, I shed a tear or two for a computer-generated giant flea-infested monkey. Ape. Whatever. If you have 3 1/2 hours to spare and want to be entertained, go see it.
2. Had a faaabulous sushi dinner with Heather, Richard and Josh last night. It was the best food I've eaten since I was home for the holidays, I'm pretty sure. Tomo on Kingston Pike. I ordered some beef Soba/Udon (hot noodle soup) and a philly roll. Oh, and some miso soup. Then we all split a delectable delight called the Fantasy Roll (yes, it was as good as it sounds) and Richard bought us all some sake. He rocks. Sushi rocks. I want to go eat there again right now.
1. Ok, and speaking of the Hilton holiday par-tay: let's just say I was canoodled (damn you, Stacy!) into competing in the evening's much-anticipated "Talent Show" in front of a vast majority of the Hilton hotel clan (including the head honcho and all his little minions, mind you...). AAAAAAUUUUGHH. Worst. Nightmare. Ever. ...But not really. It was all in good fun. I won third place. I placed behind Bruce in Housekeeping who rapped and Melvin from the Front Desk who sang an American-Idol-worthy tear-jerking rendition of Amazing Grace. It's good to know that 7 years into working towards a Master's degree in music performance and thousands of dollars in investment later I am now capable of winning f-ing $25 in prize money for tooting my damnable devil stick. Oh, and I also made out with a $10 Kroger gift card. *sigh* Oh, life. What a sick, sick bastard you can be sometimes. I do believe the best part of that entire experience came the following morning when I showed up to work at Star*ucks and a lady from the hotel restaurant asked me: "Was that you who played the flute last night? You were so good!"
Again: AAAAAUUUUGHH.
10. The attack of Ysabel's terrible case of consumption is back. Sometimes I want to just rip my throat out and soak it in a nice soothing milk bath. Is that weird? Also, I would like to return my lungs and exchange them for a less-dysfunctional pair. That would be cool.
9. I have a new Star*ucks favorite drink which is simply just a double (or sometimes triple...) tall 2-pump Raspberry mocha. It's the only thing that gets me out of bed at f-ing 4:30 on those fateful opening mornings.
8. I think I may be playing in the UT Wind Ensemble again. Hooray! Because I will once again feel a purpose for getting up in the morning aside from serving my over-priced tantalizing coffee-products to the faithful downtown addicts. However, this presents a few complications as I will now have to re-work the schedules of my two jobs (Star*ucks and clarinet teaching...) around. Not a big deal, I think.
7. Speaking of which, I am going to attempt an audition at the end of the month in Dollywood. You heard me: Dollywood. As in Hollywood + Dolly Parton. You look it up and place judgements on me accordingly. I don't care. It involves somebody paying me to play music. This also involves me having to work up my sax chops in roughly two weeks. Haha! Thanks to Ben for lending me his fabulous alto saxophone. Now I just need somebody to lend me their saxophone skillz as well.
6. I finished reading The Color of Water by James McBride. Again, thanks to Ben for lending me the book. An autobiographical novel based on the half-African American author and his white Jewish mother. I recommend it.
5. I have not been to Target at all this year. What a tragedy. I must remedy this as soon as I a) have the need to buy more Kleenex (wait, that would be now, actually...) and b) start getting paid by Star*ucks again (in two more weeks...agh)
4. I blew dry my hair for the Hilton company holiday party this past Friday (oooh, I have so much more to say about this later...). I liked being able to wear my hair down without it fro-ing so much that I didn't wash it for three days afterwards. Gross. So it is back in its usual hairball formation again now, but at least it's clean and non-greasy.
3. Went to see King Kong with Scott a few days ago. Wasn't really expecting much out of it since I had never seen any other King Kongs before. Ended up really enjoying it. Yeah, I shed a tear or two for a computer-generated giant flea-infested monkey. Ape. Whatever. If you have 3 1/2 hours to spare and want to be entertained, go see it.
2. Had a faaabulous sushi dinner with Heather, Richard and Josh last night. It was the best food I've eaten since I was home for the holidays, I'm pretty sure. Tomo on Kingston Pike. I ordered some beef Soba/Udon (hot noodle soup) and a philly roll. Oh, and some miso soup. Then we all split a delectable delight called the Fantasy Roll (yes, it was as good as it sounds) and Richard bought us all some sake. He rocks. Sushi rocks. I want to go eat there again right now.
1. Ok, and speaking of the Hilton holiday par-tay: let's just say I was canoodled (damn you, Stacy!) into competing in the evening's much-anticipated "Talent Show" in front of a vast majority of the Hilton hotel clan (including the head honcho and all his little minions, mind you...). AAAAAAUUUUGHH. Worst. Nightmare. Ever. ...But not really. It was all in good fun. I won third place. I placed behind Bruce in Housekeeping who rapped and Melvin from the Front Desk who sang an American-Idol-worthy tear-jerking rendition of Amazing Grace. It's good to know that 7 years into working towards a Master's degree in music performance and thousands of dollars in investment later I am now capable of winning f-ing $25 in prize money for tooting my damnable devil stick. Oh, and I also made out with a $10 Kroger gift card. *sigh* Oh, life. What a sick, sick bastard you can be sometimes. I do believe the best part of that entire experience came the following morning when I showed up to work at Star*ucks and a lady from the hotel restaurant asked me: "Was that you who played the flute last night? You were so good!"
Again: AAAAAUUUUGHH.
1.03.2006
Back to reality...
So, after a blissful month off from serving deliciously over-priced coffee to the masses, I go back to work at Star*ucks tomorrow.
As in, I must get up in precisely 5 hours.
And yet I am not asleep in my bed.
This does not bode well for the kind of day I'm going to have tomorrow.
ps. Oh yeah, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
As in, I must get up in precisely 5 hours.
And yet I am not asleep in my bed.
This does not bode well for the kind of day I'm going to have tomorrow.
ps. Oh yeah, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
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