Can I Just Say That I Love My Job?

In my lifetime of jobs and paychecks, I have never loved my job. I've had a lot of jobs - I sold shoes, worked as a micrographics filmer, a bookkeeper, a food cashier, a green house weed puller, a teller, a receptionist, a radio station promoter, a bartender, a waitress, a client service rep.....blah, blah, blah, the list goes on.

For the past year a half I have been working as a Production Assistant. Since I began working as a PA I have enjoyed ever single day I've been in the office. No two days are the same. I work with three of the best people ever (and I'm the only girl). They are like a family to me. There is no petty, snarky bad mouthing - we are all up front, no lying or negative story telling. I couldn't imagine saying anything bad about my co-workers.

At any of my other jobs, if I came in to what I did today, I probably would have been bitching up a storm. Not now. I came in today, walked into my bosses office and said hi. He looks at me kinda weird, half smiles and says "What are you doing tomorrow? Want to work? We kind of need you to work. Sorry for the short notice." I know that doesn't sound like much. Maybe it was the way he asked me, or the fact that he asked me and didn't tell me. Sometimes it's all about the delivery of the question, not so much the question itself.
Of course I jumped on the chance to work. It's going to be a fun, long day. I have to be at the office no later than 7:30 am and I should be back here by 2:00 pm. There's going to be a lot of moving and setting up equipment, I'll be worn out and tired when I'm done for the day but that's okay. I love my job, it's so worth it

4 Weeks And Counting

Today is March 29. One month from today is the last day of the semester. I couldn't be more excited to finish what has been an up and down semester of writing papers, scripts, director's notebooks, shot lists and treatments.

Mentally, I have been done with the semester for about a month. The classes and work are getting to me. I am burnt out. I want to stop doing homework. I want to come home at night and not have to do homework. I work Monday and Friday nights, I am in school Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. During the day I am constantly doing homework or meeting with Andrea, Keisha or Janelle to work on group projects or running around with them to finish an assignment.

I am one year away from graduation. I have Ethics and Problems in International Politics left to take. On top of that I have Service Practicum, Senior Prod. Practicum and Program Management. That's it. The end is so close I can almost taste it.
I am hopefully meeting with my adviser this week to talk about what I need to do to fill the Practicums and Program Management requirements.

Some days I am so excited to be almost done. Other days I am struggling to find the motivation to go to class. Other days I would like to walk away from going to school completely.

I'm lucky to have such a supportive husband, family and group of friends who talk me out of walking away. I know I can finish school and get my degree. I am four weeks away from the end of this semester and roughly 409 days away from graduation

On The Dull Side

Every week as I write my blogs I seem to struggle with what to write about. I never really have these major "I have to blog about this" moments. When I do decide what to blog about, 9 times out of 10, I delete the original blog - usually because I got so bored writing it, so I walked away for a while and when I did come back I re-read what I had written and realized it was boring so I delete it.

I got to wondering about my life and what I do, I have come to the conclusion that I am a pretty boring person with a not so exciting life. I think I pretty much do the same thing day in and day out. With school and work taking up a lot of my time, I don't really do much else. When I come home from work or school I usually pull out my computer and surf the web,do homework or watch TV. On weekends, unless I have something super exciting going on I am usually vegging on the couch with Drew doing not much of anything.

I can't believe the party girl I used to be is such a homebody now. 10 years ago if you would have told me I was going to be a big fan of vegging I would have laughed in your face. Back in my party days I was lucky to get 8 hours of sleep in a whole week now if I sleep less than 10 hours I am exhausted all day.

I'm sleepy. I'm going to bed.

The Great Parking Permit Mystery

So I had to get to school a little earlier than I usually would. Usually I have to be on campus by 3:30 on Mondays for work. I volunteered to do some shooting for another class so I had to be here at 2:00. As I'm waiting for the light at 10 mile to change, I'm looking at the parking lot by the Technology Building and it looks pretty packed. Who am I kidding, it's almost ALWAYS packed. It's torture trying to find a spot in Technology. So I drive around in circles for a while, take a look at the time and I gotta go! I decide to do something I never ever do, I "invent a spot". I hate when people do this and now I am one of those people. I would have parked by Management or even Science, but I was late and had to get inside. I did this with the intention of going outside either between filming and starting work or sometime after I started work. I "invented my spot" at 2:00 and was outside to move my car by 4:30(ish). When I got out to my car, my fear of (almost) all fears had come true. I got a parking ticket. My first ever parking ticket in my career at Lawrence Tech. I should be glad I didn't get a boot, I would have been PISSED!!!!

I noticed something on my $25.00 ticket that I have a question about. At the bottom of the ticket, there is a section for 'Officer Notes", there is a check mark in that spot and written next to it is "No Permit". Do we really have parking permits here? Were we given parking permits when we started school here? Did I miss my permit in my freshman welcome packet? Do we actually get parking tickets for not having parking permits? I must investigate The Great Parking Permit Mystery..........to be continued

ER

I haven't watched ER on a regular basis in YEARS. The last time I followed the lives of the crew at County General Dr. Greene was still alive, Doug and Carol were still dating, Carter was confused about being rich, Dr. Corday was dating Dr. Benton and Dr. Lockhart was still Nurse Lockhart.

Since I was such of a big fan of ER for years and the show is ending, I feel obligated to watch the last few episodes. I just watched last week's episode and well, I have no idea what is going on and who any of these people are. Well, that's not 100% true, there are a few nurses I recognize. Other than those few nurses, I don't know who the doctors are, what their backstories are, which doctor and which nurse are dating, who the chief of medicne is or what County General gossip is hot to follow.
Although I'm behind and lost, I am going to keep watching. I have read past cast members are coming back and making guest appearances. I don't know if they are going to be flashbacks or what, but I'm curious so I have to watch.

There are three weeks left of the show. Maybe the way it'll end is the old cast will come back, everyone will be in County General and the hospital will blow up. The only staff member that will make it out is Dr. Tony Gates (John Stamos), since his character is getting a spin-off show.

I'm a series finalie junkie. I watch series finalies of shows I never watched. Sad huh? I'm weird like that. So I'll be watching. Unfortunately, I have a feeling I'm going to be disappointed with how the series ends. I'll let you know in a month

Another Great Hair Adventure

I am experimenting with my hair. I go back and forth. Some days I have "I am in love with my hair" days and some days I have "I am so irritated with my hair I should cut it all off" days. My main issue with my hair is damage. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I don't heat style my hair. I haven't in a long time, this helps the fight against damage. I try to go between washings and get my natural oils down my hair shaft, which also helps fight damage. I have learned a lot about shampoos and conditioners. Shampoo is very harsh on your hair. There are strong sulfates in shampoo that can actually dry out your hair and rob your hair of necessary moisture. Due to sulfates and drying, moisturizing shampoos don't necessarily moisturize your hair, the sulfates can make your hair dependent on the sulfates, thus resulting in washing the hair more.

I have been trying to rid myself of shampoo for a while. I do have a TON of shampoos in my shower, if what I'm doing works, Drew won't have to buy shampoo for at least a year and a half (unfortunately, I don't really think I'm joking).
I haven't washed my hair since Friday (3/13). When I showered on Monday, I washed my hair with conditioner, I use Healthy Sexy Hair from the Sexy Hair line. It's a fairly thin conditioner and doesn't weigh my hair down. I use the conditioner as I would shampoo. Put conditioner in my hands, rub it in my roots, paying attention to the sides above my ears (where oily hair tends to show), while massaging my scalp (a way to get the blood flowing on your scalp to promote hair stimulation). I then comb the conditioner through a bit to make sure it's distributed and then rinse. After that I use another, thicker, conditioner on my ends comb that through, let it sit and then rinse. There is another way of washing hair which is called a water only wash (wow), which I've tried, but had trouble adjusting to. With that experiment I went three weeks with out washing my hair with shampoo or conditioner - wasn't very happy with that one.

I was at Sally Beauty Supply yesterday buying hair color and noticed a new/different product. It's called Hair One. It is a cleansing conditioner that does the same thing a shampoo would do but without the harsh sulfates. I have tried WEN cleansing conditioner which is a great product but expensive, Hair One is just like WEN, but $10.00 cheaper. I bought Hair One with Jojoba Oil for color treated hair, I am going to Sally's today to buy the Olive Oil for dry/damaged hair. That way I can combine the two and target my problem areas.

I plan on updating my Great Hair Adventure as I try new products and new ways to not wash my hair. It might sound very gross to some people to not wash my hair. Most people think because I don't wash my hair, I don't shower. Not the case at all. If I am not washing my hair, I pull it up in a bun while showering. As I began my not using shampoo journey, I knew I had to be much more confident about how my hair is going to look and adjusting to sometimes having oily looking hair. Normally I would hair my hair under a hat, but I can't do that anymore. I haven't hidden my roots under a hat since Friday. My hair looks pretty good and feels good too. I have noticed since I haven't washed it that my ends a looking more texturized, my ends hold a curl and my bangs are staying in place without the use of a bobby pin or heavy product. Natural sebum oils are a great styling aid.

I'm pretty excited to see how my hair takes to this. I have gone on different message boards and online hair journals to read about different peoples journeys of going shampoo free.
I'll let you know how it goes =]

To help prove my point, check out this article from NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102062969

So Full Of Yourself And Then Some

I wonder about people. I've always been fascinated with people who are full of themselves. I get that people can and should be proud of their accomplishments, that's fine. I hate when people are too proud of what they do/have done and constantly talk about it. I think these people are the ones who overuse the word I when talking.

There is one person I know who loves to talk about everything them. At first it was interesting, but I'm over the interesting part of it. One day this person and I were talking about relationships and marriage. I asked the person about their wedding and was told they spent quite a while planning it. Understandable. Then I got to hear about all the research they did for said wedding. The research was so they could have the perfect wedding. Understandable. I was then told how this person wasn't going to settle for just any wedding and stressed again how perfect it had to be. Then I was told how absolutely perfect their wedding was and it was because of how strategically they planned their wedding. Okay, thanks for beating the horse, I get it, your wedding was perfect.

This person and I talked about real estate once. I got to hear all about how they did such extensive research about buying a house. Understandable. It didn't stop there. This person went on and on about the perfect house they found and how the area they moved into had to have the best schools and how they weren't going to settle for just anything. Be proud of your house, fine but again the horse has been beaten and then some.

I learned the hard way to not ask this person about education and their background. When talking to them about education I got an earful. The school they attended was so carefully chosen and researched. The school they chose to go to had to be perfect and I had to hear all about how well they did while in school and the awesome grades they made and how much work they put into getting their degree. We've all been there, we know school is tough.

Now when talking to this person, I don't even listen. I get tired of hearing the great stories about this person and what they have accomplished and how much work they did. I also get sick of hearing about how things this person has done is how things are done in the real world. Do I not live in the real world? Last I checked I am not living in a comic book. I am living in the real world. Or am I?

Spiders To Me Are Like Birds To Keisha

Surprisingly enough I was talking to Keisha on the phone when this happened.

(backstory) I HATE spiders. I always have and I'm sure I always will yet I don't know why I hate them so. I remember when I was little, about 5 or 6, I was with my sister in our bedroom "cleaning" (sorry Drew, cleaning has always been an issue with me) when I saw a spider crawling on the back of our bedroom door. I FREAKED OUT. I start screaming at the top of my lungs, not saying anything just screaming. My sister decides to join me (I found out later she didn't know what we were screaming about). There we are standing about 4 feet away from our closed bedroom door screaming. My dad comes flying up the stairs, tears open the door (he probably expected one of us girls missing a limb), tries to calm us down and asks what's wrong. I take a deep breath, stick my arm straight out, point and the door and scream "SPIDER!" My dad stopped, looked at us, walked into the bathroom, grabbed some tissue, came back in the room, squashed the spider and told us to never ever scream like that for a silly little spider.
I have been traumatized ever since.

When I see a spider, I don't quite freakout anymore, but I get a sick feeling in my stomache and I get grossed out. The feeling is worse when the spider moves (ewwww.....)
Last night was a big night for me. I had just gotten home from school, I was getting ready to go out to J's Bar and talking to Keisha. As I was making my way upstairs from the basement (the spider disco in my house), I notice a spider on the backdoor. Trying to ignore the ew feeling, I announce to Keisha that there's a spider on the door, I mustered up what I could, took off my Birkenstock and actually killed the thing. Of course I was giving Keisha a play by play. I make my way into the kitchen, as I'm walking I look up and see another FREAKING spider!! What the deuce? I kickoff my Birkenstock again, give Keisha the play by play and killed yet another spider. The bummer part was I realise I have to dispose of the bodies.
I think that's the part I hate most. What if the spider comes back to life? What if when I throw the body away, not only does the spider come back to life, but actually crawls out of the garbage can? I know I could flush it, but what if, again, the spider comes back to life crawls up the toilet and pays me a visit on my next visit?

I did scraped the bodies off the door and the wall and threw them in the garbage. Of course when I walk by the garbage I check to see if the little buggers have resurrected and made their way out of the garbage can. As of now, they haven't. So far so good.

DC Has A Ghetto? Thanks Mapquest!

Drew and I are in DC. We left Friday March 6. It was a long drive, 12.5 hours to be exact. It wasn't supposed to take us that long, but we had issues. Drew went to Mapquest to get directions. Easy enough right? Yeah, right. We have had issues with Mapquest in the past. We went to Chicago to go to IKEA. We drove around for a while completely lost. We decided to look at our directions for IKEA instead of our hotel, only to find out our hotel and IKEA were pretty much next to each other. Nice!

So back to DC. We are on the freeway looking for our exit. We pass what we now know is our exit and proceed to keep driving South. We drive for a while and end up in the GHETTO!! I'm not kidding. If you would have looked up Ghetto in the dictionary, we would have been in the definition. We were ghetto lost for about two hours. It was interesting. We finally asked for directions to get back to the freeway. We found the freeway and thought we were doing good. Not so much. We stopped again for directions and sort of got where we were going.
After driving around under our new directions, we decided to call the hotel. The first woman we talked to was convinced we were in the "area" of where the hotel was. She was wrong.
We called the hotal back again and Drew insisted the woman we were talking to not hang up with us until we were in the driveway of the hotel. Considering we had a good couple of miles to go in DC traffic, she didn't stay on the phone with us, but was nice enough to let us call her back.

We did finally find where we had to be. It was painful getting here. We spent an additional 4 hours driving around, getting lost. The hotel wasn't (isn't) what we expected. I'll dedicate a whole blog to our hotel! It'll be worth the wait!

Isms and OCD

Some people would say I have OCD. Some people would say my Courtneyisms are odd. Some people would just say I am odd. Drew and I were hanging out the other night. I had just gotten home from work. I did a video shoot. The MC of the show I shot had some issues with breathing. Our sound guy never turned down the podium mic, so as the MC was waiting for a speaker to finish, everyone who was plugged into the audio system got to hear the MC's heavy breathing. After 8 hours, the heavy breathing got a tad annoying.
I told Drew this story and then for some odd reason, I confessed to Drew that breathing really bothers me. Not bothers me as in, I hate the fact that I have to breathe multiple times a day, or that I find breathing to be a hard thing to do. More of a I can't stand to be breathing in sync with another person. It bothers me to no end. I hate it. I've been like this for as long as I can remember. When I was little, if I were sitting on my mom or dad's lap, I would make sure my breathing was off from theirs. Breathing in at the same time bothers me more than breathing out at the same time. For some reason, I just can not be on the same breathing pattern as someone else - this only qualifies for people who's breathing can actually hear.

I also HATE mouth breathing. I am 100% a nose breather. Mouth breathing is flat out disgusting. It annoys me to no end. I have no idea why. The sound to me is beyond irritating. I am also not a fan of open mouths. A person sitting there with their mouth open grosses me out. If someone is sitting there, with their mouth open and breathing through the mouth - it annoys me. It's not quite nails on a chalkboard, but it's pretty close.

I'm going to call this the first of my Isms blog. I have many more to share. I'll take it slow and share more later.