30th Birthday Celebration

So, Josh just celebrated his 30th birthday week. For those who know me, you know that you don't just get a birthDAY, you get to celebrate the whole week! Josh's actual birthday was on Wednesday, February 18th. I started the morning off by giving him his presents....Stephanie Myers The Host book and the Firefly series on DVD. Wednesdays are also the days that he teaches class.

That was a bit of a bummer...but he let his class out early after on night-of-all-nights a student asked how old he was and he said, "Well, actually, it's my birthday tonight and I'm 30." He had about 40 "Happy Birthdays" from his students at that point, and if you know Josh, such support and positivity was so embarrassing for him.

We went out to eat at a couple of different places during the week to celebrate and then Friday was a furlough day for both of us. I started the morning by going to get my hair dyed. I've always wanted dark brown hair but every stylist I've been to said they would not do that, they would only make me red. Well, this girl I've been going to here for my haircuts was like, "I think you'll look good with dark hair." And, now, I finally have dark hair. I really like it, too!

We also went to the dentist on Friday afternoon. Apparently, Josh and I both have cavities....which is highly suspect as Josh has never had cavities. We think the doctor is trying to be preventative by having us fill in the small cavitites rather than waiting until they are worse. Boo on that dentist....who was really young and asked me what I drank...and I was like alcohol-wise or diet soda? I don't know where he was going with that line of conversation.

On Saturday, Josh and I decided to go up to Sedona so we booked a free hotel online with our points. We grabbed breakfast at Mimi's Cafe before driving up. It's only a 2 hour drive to Sedona and on the way there we stopped at Montezuma's Castle which was this really cool cliff dwelling. AWESOME!



Once in Sedona, we checked into our hotel...not too friendly but we got a room upstairs which is what I wanted. Then, we were off to look at the shops and grab some dinner with a view. We went to Oaxaca's Mexican restaurant. The food was just that, food, no real flavor. Ugh, I hate eating crappy, flavorless, cheese-smothered Mexican food. Blah. The view, however, was nice.

This picture below is in a Sedona shop. Josh's self-ascribed nickname is "Bear." Hence, if I could, I would have him taking photos with every bear in sight. Alas, I must content myself with the few shots I can persuade him to take in public! Oh my gosh, it's such a good laugh!

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and hit up the outdoor hot tub before going out to a local Sedona bar for the evening. This is Josh and I pre-bar. It reminds me of the pictures we'd take before going out for the night at the resort in Mexico.

Ye Olde Sedona Bar and Grille was a joke when it came to the "DJ" playing (seriously, our car stero, let alone our home stero, is better) and the "Security" checking IDs at the door. Josh counted no less than 3 restuarant employees we'd seen in town earlier during the day at this bar. I guess the locals need a place to hang out, too. The beer we ordered was flat, too.

The funniest/saddest thing was this middle aged lady trying to sell herself on the dance floor. At some point, you have to let it go, don't you? I mean, drink a glass of wine at the bar and let the guys come to you, don't dance like crazy exposing your abdomen when you're at least 40 years old! We were back to the hotel around 11....Sedona is much to small town for me.

This morning we woke up and grabbed some of the free breakfast downstairs. After checking out of the hotel we went to some galleries. This sculpture called, "Self Made Man" was our favorite. We love how he is carving himself out of the rock...too cool!

Here are more pictures of the shops in Sedona:

This is obviously a cathedral, not a shop, but still really cool to look at.

After looking around the shops, we were in the mood for more Mexican food so we headed to Jalisco's Cantina. This food was so much better than last night. It was fresh and flavorful! We also had a great view...granted, to reach the restaurant we did have to walk past a shop where people were meditating on vortexes with golden triangles on their heads dressed in white robes(I'm not joking...Sedona is the "New Age Capital of America").

The drive back to Phoenix was crazy with rude drivers who kept cutting us off, however, we made it home safely. Back to work tomorrow :(

Contiki Holidays

So, I was a bit nervous to post this as it regards me going on an interview while I'm currently employed. However, my two good friends, Aimee and Elizabeth, gave me such good feedback regarding the detailed-ness of this email I sent them, that I thought I would share it with the world.
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The Contiki interview was held in Anaheim, California. They did not cover airfare or meals, just offered a free (shared) hotel room one night. I decided I wanted a private room and paid for everything myself. I went for two nights (Mon and Tues). The interview was on Tues and Wed during the day. Anaheim is beautiful! It's like Phoenix but with bigger palm trees and the ocean (the way the palm leaves fan out so wide it's as if you're looking at green fireworks explode)!

There were five of us interviewing while I was there. Walking into the lobby of the Contiki office building, three of the other applicants were already there sitting down. There was one seat left for me and the last girl, when she showed up, was left standing. I swear, it was like walking onto the set of the first day in the Real World house! Everyone is interviewing because they are friendly and outgoing so of course we were all BFF in like 2 minutes.

The first thing we did was learn about Contiki and who they typically serve. Also, the pay...which is ridiculous if you're a professional with a mortgage. You earn minimum wage, tips, and make commission off of selling the optional excursions. This is great if you are straight out of college or are still living with mom/dad/roommate. So, no health or retirement either. After listening to the company info, it was our turn to present.

I volunteered to go first. We had to give a 10 minute presentation on a pre-assigned topic. My topic was Santa Barbara. We had to hold a microphone to show we were comfortable with that. I was nervous but apparently "smile-y" as one of the girls put it later on. I included info in both miles/kms and inches/centimeters for the fake international travelers in the audience. I told them about the history, things to do, places to shop and eat.

The second girl to present was okay (she was a communications major). Her laugh seemed fake and she came off as somewhat insincere. The third girl was so freaking nervous! She started off strong but she melted into a pool of nerves. She had to stop twice, drop the mike, and run over to her chair to get a drink of water because she hadn't carried her water over to where she was speaking. The fourth person was a guy and he talked about San Francisco except that he got tied up in talking about how Italian San Fran is and how he's Italian. It was like the Italian version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding (everything Greek is so wonderful)! Plus, he got cut off by the supervisor at 13 minutes. The last girl to go was really good. She talked about Lake Tahoe and gave good examples of how to visualize how big the lake is. She didn't seem nervous either.

Then we took a quiz on American history, politics, and the states and capitals. I'm embarrassed to say I did not get all of my capitals correct, however, when I saw my test results on the second day of the interview, I felt pretty good about it all. I told the two people interviewing me that I was happy with my results and they agreed that they were definitely on the higher end of some tests that they've seen.

So, that was the first day. The girl who presented really well, Stacey, gave me a ride back to the hotel because she had her grandpa's car and I'd taken a cab to the interview. She and I made plans to meet up for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory later that night.

When we met up at 7, we had such a good time. It was really hard for me to believe that she is 22 because she's very mature. She said she wouldn't have thought I was 29 based on how young I look! Anyway, we had a great dinner conversation for 2 hours where we ranked everyone's presentations. She was my number 1, I was my number 2 and she ranked me her number 1 and herself as number 2. She has tour experience because her mom takes Jewish people on specialty cruises, so she's been all over the world helping her mom out with that. I was like, can I do something like that with Southerners...that's my cultural heritage!

The next day was our individual interviews. Stacey was scheduled to interview at 1 and I was scheduled at 2, so after hanging out at the pool together in the beautiful Anaheim sunshine reviewing the "Western Highlights" itinerary that the supervisor had told us to study, we drove over to the office and I waited an hour rather than paying for a cab or walking to the office.

My individual interview started off by the supervisor and one other person asking if I had any questions. So, I went down my list. What if someone's always late, can you leave them? Who cleans up the puke if we're on the bus? How do you take passengers money for excursions?

Then, they asked me some questions. I completely spaced on two: What song would be the theme song for your bus trips? Dude, I don't know music! Where would you tell your passengers to go shopping if they were in Anaheim? I told them I hadn't seen any shopping areas in all the walking I'd done in my free time but they proceeded to tell me where the mall was.

Overall, I felt good about the interview. I think they could see I'm both fun and responsible which is ultimately what they are looking for in a Tour Manager. I want them to offer me the position so I can feel validated in a way...like, hey, I'm good enough and they like me sort of thing. But if they do offer it, it means I'll have to make a tough choice because of the money. There's just no guarantee for the earnings.

So, that was my trip. Quick but fun and I'm glad I made a new friend. I do hope they offer Stacey the job because she was really good. They said we'd know by the end of the week, so I'll keep you guys posted.
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Note: They did not offer me the job. They did not offer Stacey the job either. What the heck, ya'll. This world is madness!

Rehearsals

Saturday, February 7, 2009

I just wanted to say that I feel like I need more rehearsal time for the Vagina Monologues. I went to Tempe today for "rehearsal" and we spent about 45 minutes blocking the entrances/exits and doing two run throughs of the group opening and one run through of the group closing. We then spent another 45 minutes or so making Valentine's cards for the women in the shelter who are the beneficiaries of the proceeds generated from the ticket sales of the show. I'm not knocking making the cards, I just feel like it would be good to spend more time practicing when we get the cast together.

But, I'm an actress, not the director.

I have rehearsals again on Wednesday for my pieces "The Vagina Workshop" and "My Vagina Was My Village." I'm looking forward to that. I've got my lines memorized at this point. It's just about acting out the words not just saying them.

Next Saturday, Valentine's Day, the cast is going to the shelter to meet with the women. The last week of February is Tech Week. That means from 6-9 on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Fri we do complete run throughs of the show. Our show runs two days, February 28 and March 1. I'm excited as the time gets closer!

On the way home from rehearsals, I stopped by Last Chance to see if there was anything special on sale. I got a gray cardigan (so soft) and a pair of brown high heeled sandals. Josh is out of town this weekend so I'm going out tonight with Kym, a new girlfriend I met during a church small group Super Bowl party. She has a couple of friends who are coming out too.

I must tell you all how much I love Phoenix. Driving to Tempe this morning, it was just gorgeous with the sun and mountains coming up all over the valley.

Oh yeah, we must talk about furloughs at ASU. So, I HAVE to take 10 days leave without pay before the end of June. Josh must take 12 days without pay. Ok, that's fine...whatever. But, then, ASU gets totally shady by offering something called "Voluntary Pay Reduction." So, instead of taking 10 random days off without pay (where you're not supposed to look or answer your work email, take phone calls, etc.) with the Voluntary Pay Reduction your paycheck is reduced by, let's say, 8 hours per pay period, so that your paycheck is consistently reduced rather than one pay period I lose 3 days of pay, for example.

Here's the shady part: If you take the voluntary pay reduction, you're supposed to also get your 10 days off, however, it's all in-house in your own office. There's no tracking to ensure that you actually took 10 days off although you had 10 days worth of pay withheld. This is also shady, because when you have a voluntary pay reduction, you don't have any rights to unemployment, etc. It's just like, "Oh yes, please reduce my pay and I have no rights because I'm doing this of my own volition." Not going to happen here.

My boss was like, I'll be sure to give you guys your ten days off, etc. But, I said, "Sharon, what if something happens to you and we get a new supervisor?" There's too much trust being placed into the institution by taking the voluntary pay reduction. I can't have that. If I have to do this, I'm doing it the manner that's best for me.

Not to mention the fact that if I were to quit my job before the furlough time frame ends at the end of June, the university is going to garnish my wages up to the amount I owe them for my 10 furlough days. Does this make sense to anyone?!?! I OWE the university money if I quit working there?!?! WTF?!?! I asked my boss if I should just cut ASU a check and have them leave me alone.