On and On

Spent most of the day researching Graphic Design but don’t feel I’ve made much headway. Probably the best thing I can do I talk to some actual Graphic Designers. Generally the process hasn’t made me too excited about the whole thing yet.

English classes are getting better for me. We’re doing more in-class discussion which makes the time fast quicker.

Went to a cool book sale yesterday and got some nice stuff. I think I’ll stop reading the Dostoevsky I’m reading now as I’m not really that into it. I’ve started reading an autobiography of some guy that helped develop Gestalt Therapy.

Saw my career couselor for the final time last week. We talked about jobs a bit but it seemed like mostly we talked about other stuff in our lives. He used to do a lot of corporate stuff. Got paid up to $400 an hour! Makes you feel like the guy knows what he’s talking about somehow. Anyway, I took advantage of his profession to treat him like a personal therapist in the presense that it was effecting my job choice. Well, it probably is in an abstract way. So that was good. I’ve got some more homework to do. I’m supposed to take my top three choices and break down how I would go about accomplishing them. I haven’t started yet but that’s because my weekend has been pack full of actually money work. After working Thursday morning, I closed Ramsis down that night. Then got up early to teach again only to close Ramsis again even later. The following day I get to work not only all morning, but thanks to a girl getting sick had to come back and work all night too. My last table left at three in the morning at which point I had worked 35 hours in three days. Luckily, I had all today to recover apart from rehearsal from 5 to 8.

They’ve moved me into a new room at KRM. This is my fifth room in the year I’ve been with them! At least the rooms get nicer and nicer. If I stick around long enough, the second floor of our building will be finished and we’ll get to move to permanent rooms. But I kinda doubt it.

Weather is beautiful these days but my body refuses to believe it and insists on keeping this winter cough. Maybe I have TB. It’s been going around.

We have a DATE set for the Project Improv News show. It’s more than a month away but it’ll help having a deadline. Rehearsals show me that we’ve still got a long way to go but you gotta start somewhere. I’ve noticed that, as a director, I’m becoming more and more confident. Or perhaps just more and more arrogant. Sometimes I wonder if I’m really as smart as my improvisors indulge me into believing or if I’m just immitating leaders I see on television. Particularly this really mean doctor who is the star of a show called House – a doctor detective drama based off of Watson of Sherlock Holmes…

Time to clean the room while listening to This American Life. Yeah

I’m addicted to a new show that is so good I’m having trouble getting other stuff done. It’s called Studio 60 and is about the making of a SNL-like show. It’s not a documentary, it’s a normally-scripted show set in the backdrop of a live show. The writing is really good, there are strong characters, relationships and the material is similar to that of making an improv show.

Speaking of, although I was missing an important member of Project Improv yesterday and we couldn’t do a proper rehearsal, we did have a good rehearsal. Very straight-forward. Scenes, then analysis. I feel confident and not a bit proud of myself for being able to give thoughtful advice on peoples’performances. Tonight we’re going bowling. Partly for fun but mostly for ”business.” They have a basement with a pretty cool space. The stage is low but it can’t go that high without getting hit by bowling balls. Seriously, you can watch bowling balls go by! Very cool. There’s a nice bar but no one goes there unless they’re at the show. That’s perfect because people will be able to drink but won’t be there  unless there watching the show. Beats trying to compete with the sports-watching crowd at Ye Ol’ Monkey Wrench.

It’s not at the best location but at least everyone’s heard of it. I’m hopeful.

That’s funny, someone just contacted me about the WWOOF program I did in Japan. They googled the name of the farm I worked at and my old blog came up. The power of the search engine.

I met with the career guy but we didn’t do much for the first session. Just asked me about every job I’ve ever had. It’s a sad list. I was hoping he’d ask about my non-paid stuff but he didn’t. Maybe that’ll come later. He gave me some homework to do. Myers-Briggs being one of them. We won’t have the second session until the results come back on the tests. That should be fun.

Walked Duke today with a friend who’s even worse than me. She’s thirty, got a masters and no job. She’s done the career counseling thing too but it didn’t help her.

Spent much of the week watching the fifth season of The Wire, a Baltimore-based drug/cop show. It’s a pretty great show. Very gritty, very non-Hollywood. The good guys do bad things and get shot and … occasionally win. My favorite character is this bad-ass loner gangster who terrorizes Kingpins and makes out with other guys. Probably the most feared gay character on television.

Gonna try to attend these plays that are hosted on elevators. Cool concept. Each play is only as long as a single elevator trip.

Snowed again yesterday. This time we were ready for it. Still hundreds of people out of electricity apparantly. Less snow this time but it’s become even colder.

The career counseling guy called back finally and we’ve set up an appointment for tomorrow. He thought I had stood him up but had the time down wrong and was the one doing the standing up. He’s given me the first session half off to appoligize. Just glad to get the ball rolling.

All the snow is turning into mush. The entire city is dripping. Ice limbs are falling off the trees and dropping onto unsuspecting cars. Everything is leaning over, recovering from the weight of frozen water. By now, all that water has frozen back and transformed the sidwalks into long, solid sheets. All you need is a push and you’ll  be at the corner in no time.

Still haven’t been able to reschedule my career counseling session unfortunately. Tomorrow is the Superbowl. I might crash the party of a barely acquaintance. We’re gonna have rehearsal a little earlier so that we can go to our respective parties. Feeling less sure about the focus of the group. For a second there, I thought I had it figured out, not sure what happened. But they are definitely improving so the time is paying off.

I haven’t attended class for the past two days. We’ve been having a bit of a snow storm here. A lot of places don’t have electricity.

I took Duke to the hill this morning and we had a fun on the slope for over an hour. He was really into chasing me while I sled down the slope. Then I downloaded a bunch of podcasts onto my phone and listened to them as I wandered around the neighborhood with a camera.

The big dissapointment is that my career counseling session was canceled due to the storm. I was really looking forward to that and now that it hasn’t gone down I almost feel MORE lost. As if I thought that session alone would have made me feel more focused.

Tomorrow things should start returning to normal.

Here are some more photos for ya:
http://s201.photobucket.com/albums/aa285/totoisfree/?albumview=grid

I just got off the phone with a career counselor. We’re meeting up on Tuesday of next week to talk about my prospects and what not. I’m quite excited about it. He’s got a lot of experience in psychology. From what I gathered from talking to him and his website it should cover all the bases. I’m going to take some aptitude and personality tests, do some homework assignments and have up to 9 hours of person-to-person talking time. I’ll have three sessions.

My throat is once again threatening revolt. Should I even bother with the herbal attempts?

I was not on the plane that landed in the Hudson River, I got back just fine. It’s freezing here but nice to be back. The trip and the conversations I had with some old friends has given with some food for thought, so I’ll have some thinking to do.

The plane back to the states was sweet. Interactive personal TVs that you could even pause movies on and stuff like that. It’s only 9pm but I don’t think I’m gonna last much longer as much as I’d like to force myself to get back into the rythm of things, especially since I have to close tomorrow night and I don’t want to be running on empty by this time tomorrow.

England was good. All my old Woodstock friends seem to be doing very well. Even Vidur who I visited in hospital where he’s getting his leg worked on after a bad motorcycle accident. I couldn’t stop looking at it.

On my last night I slept in the same room as my friend Sam who is now an investment banker for a large firm. We talked and giggled about girls and stuff before falling asleep. I felt like I was back in boarding school.

Ugh, I need a shower.