Work to live, Live to work

I got fired, laid off, cancelled...whatever you wanna call it, from the magician. He came to the realization that he should have hired someone with experience and connections instead of me. Not the worst thing he could have done, but the whole experience with that job in general was chaotic. And hilarious. And perhaps a bit beneficial. That, coupled with even less then 2 days available at Caesar's Palace to work per month now, I've gone job searching.
So far my interviewers looked at my resume and-FINALLY-realized i'm overqualified. Yes, i have a college degree, yes i graduated suma cum laude, yes i've done all the work for this position in previous jobs. not getting retail, waitress, or office jobs before was really making me think 4 years of my life was a total waste. But thinking back to all the odd jobs i've worked and even odder ones i've interviewed for, i thought i'd make a list to see just how rediculous 7 working years of my life has been.

Jobs:
Saxophone and oboe teacher to unpracticing students
Waitress and hostess at a family restaurant
Factory worker who packeged abreva, tums, and aquafresh and heard hanover accents all day
Diesel cashier who got super cool free clothes
Intern for Moby and Rufus Wainwright's management company
Newspaper ad designer and pretend promotion chairperson
Radio DJ
Concert organizer/promoter
TV show host. and producer. and editor.
Intern for broadway/comedy/intellecual speaker productions
Deli clerk with more hanover accents
Sitting at a computer answering phones for Peabody
Sitting answering phones for Johns Hopkins
Clothing designer
Paralegal and administrative assistant for a non-profit lawfirm
Professional choir singer
Professional oboe player-but not by too many performances
Urban Outfitters cashier
The Zippo girl for Marlboro who hands shit out at bars
Caesar's Palace promotions and special events rep.
Magician's booking agent

Jobs i've applied to/interviewed for, but apparenlty was not good enough to get:
VJ for "Make it Or Break it" on UPN
"The Biz" reality show
Some child program leader for Johns Hopkins
Oboist for a Chicago summer orchestra
Claire's accessories chashier
Diesel salesperson
Cheesecake Factory waitress

alright so there's way more jobs i totally didn't get hired for. and maybe this list isn't as funny as i thought. but i'm pretty proud to have VJ, reality tv(web) show, agent, and musician all on the same list. I'm happy to have done some weird things. But i just need to pay the bills.

The Break-Up

So i just watched this movie. And it's rediculous how completely realistic it is to an actual breakup. Vince Vaughn is a dick and Jennifer Anniston just wants him to change. i'm wanting to yell at her through the tv-no! no! he won't change! But as much as I wanted it to be like everyone's normal breakup, you kinda wanted the story to turn out a little better than normal at the end. Oh well. Wouldn't it be nice if all boys had some friend to tell them they were selfish and didn't appreciate their girlfriend as much as they should?

Black Friday

...is nuts. 2 years ago I went to Wal-Mart with my sister because she insisted on buying some fake Christmas tree at a reduced price. Once she saw the line, she changed her mind. Last year I went to Kohl's with the bro, sis-in-law and sister. They stocked up on good gifts, but I just observed. It's absolutely nuts and i absolutely love it. People get crazy, greedy, and so excited to be shopping for exciting deals! I wanted to wake up and do a 5am Wal-Mart run again, especially since my roommate, Chad, has never experienced the early morning Black Friday shopping. While at Thanksgiving, we were looking through the paper (which was sold out across Las Vegas because of the advertisements!) and decided that Sears at a nearby mall would be a sight to see. The first 200 people recieved $10 gift certificates!
So, as Chad said, only in Las Vegas: We called the troops, gathered at the Sears parking lot at 1:15 am stocked with a George Forman, car plug adapter, hamburgers, Sparks, and 2 cases of beer. Our friends found a cart in the parking lot, we emptied the beer in the cooler, discovered our plug didn't work after all, and tailgated! Chad even called the local news channels to give them a tip about our hilarious night.

We were the 2nd car in the lot and as people started to arrive, we invited them over for a beer. We met some Japenese illegal immigrant and a worker at the mall

As we got our drunk on and the line started to wrap around the store, Chad got hilarious and rediculous. Yes, it even gets cold in Vegas


They started handing out gift certificates. The first ladies in line were PISSED that Chad could possibly be butting, insisted that they were 4 months pregnant and deserved it more than him, and called him a jackass. We just let other people get the certificates because we didn't really care to shop.

They eventually let us all in, the lines were so long, there would cookies, and we walked into the rest of the mall. It wasn't insanely crazy and people weren't fighting (so we kind of wished we saw the walmart crazies) but it was a rediculous and fun experience!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year is the first year of my life that I will not be with my family on Thanksgiving. It will be the first Thanksgiving in 4 years that I haven't been at IUP, 3 of those when I cooked my own turkey and invited all my friends over. Where Jim and Coleton would fight over turkey skin, where Sami J brought some delicious dish, where Robert would try on my male Le Rat line, where my mother would get mad at my brother for not doing dinner like her, and where i sat around all day not helping like the rest of the family would. It's very sad, but luckily I have incredible friends here and I know it will still be a great holiday. I'm going to Melinda's house who is cooking a 22 pound turkey, cornish game hen, and roast beef, along with all the sides! I've even invited Chad, Morgan, Porno Dan, and his LA Friend. AAAAAnd we're playing board games drunk after we've eaten!

The best part of all...I just finished making my mother's green bean casserole. It's my favorite dish at Thanksgiving and it turned out exactly like hers.

So....I miss you and love you all who I won't see. And I will be there at Christmas :)

The restaurant guide

I may as well change this to a review of Las Vegas venues. That is if i got off my ass and blogged more then once a week.
Searching through the CityPaper, I thought it'd be a good idea to rip out the newspaper's eating guide and cross off everywhere I've visited and try something new everytime i go out. And even better-my new roommate Morgan is just as excited to do it as i am! (she and her mother used to do it back in Portland).
Voted Best Malts and Cheap Eats-we went to Otto's Malt Shop. It's super hip and right across from the college-they even have shows outside on the patio! The chocolate chip malt was definitely delicious and I got a double cheeseburger with mac n cheese. Everything looked very fresh and the burger had a sort of thousand island dressing on it. It wasn't the best thing ever, but the surroundings and family/friendly atmosphere were definitely comfortable.
Morgan, Mike, Nick, and I hit Pink Taco in the Hard Rock Hotel. I've heard it's a crazy night spot-as I'm sure anywhere in the Hard Rock is. I wasn't impressed by the chicken tacos, but the bloody mary's were pretty good and the huge margarita Morgan got was definitely worth 10 bucks.
After seeing all the $1.99 breakfast special billboards for Arizona Charlies, we went there for some drunk food at 2 am, and although it's nothing special and full of many townies, our meals totaled $5 which is pretty rad.
We've also been experimenting around the bar scene. Davey's Locker has a special-$3 for any beer and shot in the place. The Slanted Clam has dollar domestics 24/7 (they have PBR!) and $3 appetizers, and it's stocked with punk rockers standing beside crazy old men townies.
Morgan and I also hit up "Mandalay Mondays" where you get in free to 4 of Mandalay's Nightclubs: Mix, House of Blues, Forty Deuce, and Rumjungle. Ladies drink free 10pm-midnight. Mix is a bit of an older crowd, but has a gorgeous view of the strip from the 64th floor. There are pretty couches and decor and i felt like i should pick up a businessy, rich, sophisticated man in this joint. We headed over to House of Blues to drink free cosmos and watched Rockstar Karaoke where guests got to sing along with a house band to the song of their choice.

My Las Vegas tour so far is going well!

The Buddhist Dating Guide

No recent spam emails about how to date in the single world, no posts lately either-but I came across a good article from Yahoo's main page yesterday:
How Would the Buddha Date?

I studied buddhism just a bit in my religion class, but it flowed together along with every other religion along with every other liberal arts class i had to take. Nonetheless, I read the article and couldn't help but really see myself in what they were describing. Like seeing every person as myself and treating him that way.
The four arms of Avalokitsevara include wishing well for others and yourself, compassion, recognizing equality, and rejoicing in the success of others.
I really feel that, though I may be treated like shit, especially lately, I take each encounter and relationship I have with someone as a good experience and a lesson to be learned. I'm there as a good friend and will always care about people who have been in my life no matter what they have done to me.
The one area I'm not quite reaching in this buddha-advised-article is the ability to detach yourself in a relationship. They advise to live life in the present and not worry about things unchanging in the past. I've worked very hard this past year to do that, and I'm getting a lot better than i used to be. But i still can't help thinking about and missing all my exboyfriends a lot.

I remember talking to Andy about his ex girlfriend and he said, i don't think she was in the position to love me because she just didn't know and love herself. It took me awhile to figure that out and really understand it's truth. I'm very comfortable with myself and love finding out more about how i work. I really do love who i am, despite breakups, rejection, or anything else. And as this article states: "Make yourself the "perfect" mate, without being too perfectionistic about it, and you will be a good mate with almost anyone. When your heart is pure, your life and the entire world is pure."

Hanky Panky

The roommates and i decided to go for a family dinner to Lucky Cheng's. It was a prix fix dinner-for locals only $20 on wednesdays-including a drag show!
Thank god i have good sported, hilarious, male roommates. As soon as we walked in, the queens were all over their asses. I think they especially took a liking to Chad. The following occured:
Chad was invited on stage to sit in a chair while a queen sung Hanky Panky. He proceeded to backhand her ass the whole time while grinning at our table.
Mike was entered into the pole dancing contest. Though we cheered loudly for him, he only got 2nd place. Perhaps a good thing because the winner took a shot-blowjob style-from a penis shaped shot glass, from between the legs of a drag queen.
Todd got his picture taken with the ladies at the end while a queen held his penis for about 5 minutes.
I got lipstick stains on my boobs, as did Chads (they were very excited that Todd and Chad has nipple piercings).

It was good fun, and definitely a good time! I would very much recommend going-with a large group of people-and mainly men.

The answer is....

In an attempt to continue finding fun/random things to do outside of partying at the Double Down, the roommates and i went to trivia night at McMullen's Pub last night. I was a huge fan of trivia in Baltimore, at the Drowned Rat or whatever it was called.
I had to play the first 2 rounds with a man at the bar, but then we all sat down, drank some miller lites, ate some Shepard's Pie, and ended up 9th out of 20th. The best team name went to: Hey Sadam, How's it Hangin? So overall, we did alright. The Crown and Anchor have trivia on Thursdays (not to mention good beer and good food) so I'm tempted to go to that next week!

A Life Story

I love hearing about people's lives. Like gutterpunks-how they squat, don't work, just live and have fun. Like Todd's ex girlfriend who was rich but ran away to hop traintracks and live as a bike messanger in Portland and Chicago. And especially people who are in the business I want to be in-I want to learn from them and hear how they started and how they are where they are.
I was talking with a guy in my office. (he's working for the lady who's developing a new artist for Sony). He's a super nice and young guy and finally I asked him what he does and how he got there. He's a promoter for boxers, for artists (like TI!) and is helping with the bookings of comedians and models. He said "the only way you get anywhere in entertainment is by chance. you know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody" He just happened to grow up with the nephew of a famous boxer trainer.
I mentioned that i used to promote shows, tried setting up a tour-but it was all for smaller bands. And he said to keep doing that. Eventually, someobody's gotta find out about one of the bands. People will have to start recognizing me around town as the girl that does that. I have to put my hands in a lot of different things and get out there and do as much as i can. I don't know if i'm ready to get back into that scene again though-but that story is for a whole other post.
Anyway, each time i talk to someone like this it motivates my life and gives me more ideas for what i should be doing. I should taking advantage of knowing lots of people here in Las Vegas and getting more involved so I can end up where I want to be.

No shoes here! Just a fatass

My coworker was asking what my vice is. You know, some women love to buy shoes...I told her mine is going out to eat. I love food, but most of all i love restaurants and the surroundings. I really don't like going to chains and I really don't like going to the same place twice. There's so many restaurants out there that I want to discover them all! I told Hilary I didn't want to move to NYC unless I had enough money to pretty much eat out every day of the week, that's how many good places there are.
Las Vegas is no exception-there's so many choices and, from what I've been told, many good choices. So far, I've been to Flemings Steakhouse(the one nice place Bob took me) for a delicious steak and lobster dinner! Had I a sugar daddy, he'd be taking me here. I decided to take Bob to Smith and Wollenskys which was super good/expensive steak, but not as delish. I've tried one of the "best of" Mediterranean spots near work which was just ok. A coworker suggested a Thai place on Saharah and Torry Pines-neighborhoody, but definitely affordable and good! Another thigh place I went was on Flamingo, in a shopping center, spicy but good. For my birthday, we tried a chinese place in chinatown-best scallops I've ever had! Bakers Brothers deli was another lunch stop-a lot like panera bread and a bit expensive. I went to the Original Pancake House for breakfast-i should have gotten the apple pancakes everyone suggests, but the semi-german menu was pretty good anyway.
Out of all the places-I'd rather go somewhere where food is maybe ok, but the surrounding is awesome. Like Firefly-a Tapas place which is totally hopping at nighttime with a salsa theme. Hash House a-go-go with the hugest plates, best bloody marys, and a neat hipsterish decor/menu. Crown and Anchor is an English Pub with not only a really great beer selection, but authentic menu choices all while you're sitting next to young, college kids. Next, we're going to Lucky Chengs-apparently they have one in Las Vegas! I hope the drag show and dinner compare to the hilariousness of the NYC karaoke.
And maybe i'll be less lazy and review all these restaurants i'm trying out.