I'm not very graceful, unless I'm dancing. Similarly, I have a tendency to get myself into situations rather clumsily, and always seem to get back out of them with even less grace. Today was just one of those days...
When working down at the symphony, we have special access to some of the restrooms up just outside one of the performance halls. They're down a long hallway, with the entrance to the men's restroom just before the drinking fountains, and the women's further down the hall after them.
Ever since I got hired, and started actively using the restroom, I've had a fear of walking into the wrong bathroom when in a particularly absent-minded state of being. Never mind the fact that there's rarely anyone else in the bathrooms, I've always worried about the embarrassment just to myself of moseying right into the wrong fancy bathroom.
Well, all the set-up aside, today I did it. I was totally spacing out as I walked, and ducked right into the men's restroom. The problem is, not only did I not realize that I had walked into the wrong bathroom, but my boss (a man, if you were wondering) was standing in said bathroom, washing his hands. (I know...thank God he was only washing his hands!) It took my brain a couple seconds to figure out what I was seeing, and then a couple seconds of 'Oh! Hi!' and getting a weird look from him for me to look to my right and realize I was looking at urinals. I'm not sure my face could have gotten more red. I booked it right out of that bathroom, while giggling incessantly while explaining how long I had feared doing that very thing. I wasn't sure if I wanted to cry or just laugh for a long, long time.
Well, work was busy up until the very end, after which I hurried up and over the hill to go to a rehearsal for a trio for a friend's senior recital. The rehearsal went very well, but of course, being me, I wasn't paying close attention to what I was doing. Said friend was kind enough to offer me a ride to the transfer point for the bus, but not three blocks from school, I realized that I had left my cell phone in the string studio. The string studio that was now locked. The locked string studio for which no one at school had the key. Except campus security. Campus security, whose phone number was saved in my phone. *sigh* So, a hilarious misadventure of trying to contact them by looking them up on the SPU website on a computer inside the music building, and calling them using a dying cell phone ensued.
Let's just say I'm happy to be home, and to have my iPhone sitting beside me, right in my sight. And to be back to my house where the bathrooms don't have gender assignments. It's just been one of those days...
Monday, September 30, 2013
Saturday, September 28, 2013
The downside of being busy
I've been busy. Ridiculously busy. And trust me, I wouldn't give anything up about it, considering how much I hate being bored. Free time has become an enemy of sorts, since even one day off will leave me wondering what I should be doing with my time.
Well, now I've found myself with two jobs, and three gigs that are all in performance or rehearsal mode. This coming week, I have one evening where I have nothing going on...or I should say, had nothing going on, since I managed to schedule in going to the symphony that night.
The busy-ness doesn't really hit me until I realize that other friends are doing stuff like going out for drinks and having parties on the weekends, kind of like we did in college. I'm not sure I'll get to be that person in my twenties, considering I almost always work weekends...and if I'm not working weekends, I'm playing some kind of gig on the weekend.
It makes me wonder if I'm missing out on some vital piece of my youth. I'm probably overstating the importance of a social life, but my generation seems to hold having an active social life in high regard. Even in high school, I remember the importance of the fun parties on the weekends, or going over to a friend's house on a Friday night after school got out to get to spend the night. I didn't do a lot of that, since most of high school I was an out-of-district kid, so most of my friends thought I lived out in the boonies. Side note, I still lived in the actual city of Yakima, but past where the bus ran...oh, inconvenience.
Books have always been my friends, and more recently, fiber arts have taken up a lot of my free time. I want to start sewing again, though I'm not sure where in my life I would stick that in.
Anyway, I guess the question I've started posing for myself is whether having a social life would make that big of a difference in my life, or is it better to just concentrate on work and my career? At this point, I don't really have money to spend going out for drinks or eating out with friends, so why not just keep my nose to the grindstone and work on getting out of debt? Maybe I'll get around to my social life later?
Anyway, this has just been another session of musing while it's slow at work. I'll check in at a later date and let you all know the conclusion I come to...if I ever do.
~Allison
Well, now I've found myself with two jobs, and three gigs that are all in performance or rehearsal mode. This coming week, I have one evening where I have nothing going on...or I should say, had nothing going on, since I managed to schedule in going to the symphony that night.
The busy-ness doesn't really hit me until I realize that other friends are doing stuff like going out for drinks and having parties on the weekends, kind of like we did in college. I'm not sure I'll get to be that person in my twenties, considering I almost always work weekends...and if I'm not working weekends, I'm playing some kind of gig on the weekend.
It makes me wonder if I'm missing out on some vital piece of my youth. I'm probably overstating the importance of a social life, but my generation seems to hold having an active social life in high regard. Even in high school, I remember the importance of the fun parties on the weekends, or going over to a friend's house on a Friday night after school got out to get to spend the night. I didn't do a lot of that, since most of high school I was an out-of-district kid, so most of my friends thought I lived out in the boonies. Side note, I still lived in the actual city of Yakima, but past where the bus ran...oh, inconvenience.
Books have always been my friends, and more recently, fiber arts have taken up a lot of my free time. I want to start sewing again, though I'm not sure where in my life I would stick that in.
Anyway, I guess the question I've started posing for myself is whether having a social life would make that big of a difference in my life, or is it better to just concentrate on work and my career? At this point, I don't really have money to spend going out for drinks or eating out with friends, so why not just keep my nose to the grindstone and work on getting out of debt? Maybe I'll get around to my social life later?
Anyway, this has just been another session of musing while it's slow at work. I'll check in at a later date and let you all know the conclusion I come to...if I ever do.
~Allison
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Taking advantage of a mid-week day off!
I feel like true days off are becoming wonderful mini-holidays for me. And for all of those in my life, because it means that I'm actually getting out of my little work-centered world, and instead having adventures! I had a fun trip this morning, so I thought my wonderful friends and family might like a break from the constant updates about work.
I got to have a morning out on the town today! Chris (my boyfriend, in case you missed that update) decided to take me out for a mid morning brunch, and we went to Lowell's, one of the restaurants in Pike Place Market. I had standard breakfast fare: scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast, with a glass of orange juice. We got to sit at a table with a view over Elliot Bay, and discussed the ferries coming and going between Bainbridge Island and Bremerton and Seattle.
We walked around the market for a little bit, enjoying the fact that it was relatively empty since it was a weekday morning. Chris steered me down into the lower levels of the Market, and we dropped in to the comic book store to pick up another Star Wars poster. He already has a reprint of the original Return of the Jedi poster, but with a little rearranging, found room on the wall for both other posters from the original trilogy. He only bought The Empire Strikes Back's poster, citing A New Hope's poster as reason to go back another time.
We didn't stick for too much longer in the Market because one of my goals for coming downtown was to try and find a good winter wool coat before the temperatures start to plunge. When I went through my wardrobe in preparation for moving to Switzerland, I had realized that a couple of my old coats just weren't up to snuff any more, and had been planning to get a new one before I left. I've always wanted a good quality black pea coat, and decided to swing by Nordstrom Rack to find one while I was downtown. Turns out it's hard to find a wool coat in September in Seattle at the Rack, so I turned to the great downtown Macy's (which is huge, if you've never been), and not only found an awesome new pea coat for much less than I had budgeted, but also three new tops for work that put me right within my original budget. And, I have to be proud of this fact...Chris actually pointed out one of those three tops, asking, "Hey, isn't that something you would wear?" Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!
After shopping success, we ran back to the Market to swing by Le Panier (an awesome French bakery) to pick up two big loaves of bread as our final errand. Overall, one of the more fun and productive mornings off I've had, and I still managed to get some cleaning done and a couple other errands run this afternoon, after kicking a particularly awful headache when I got home.
Not much else to report, other than a really early day tomorrow, opening at one job, then going and working another shift at the second job...but then I get to dress up and go out on the town for a concert entirely of music composed by Ravel at the symphony that night! Super excited!!! Then comes a hellish weekend, with a show late Friday night, opening at job #1 on Saturday morning, then pulling a 9.5 hour shift at job #2, then probably coming home and crashing until my show on Sunday (which is a matinee). Yup, this girl goes hard.
Hopefully see you all on the other side!
~Allison
I got to have a morning out on the town today! Chris (my boyfriend, in case you missed that update) decided to take me out for a mid morning brunch, and we went to Lowell's, one of the restaurants in Pike Place Market. I had standard breakfast fare: scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast, with a glass of orange juice. We got to sit at a table with a view over Elliot Bay, and discussed the ferries coming and going between Bainbridge Island and Bremerton and Seattle.
We walked around the market for a little bit, enjoying the fact that it was relatively empty since it was a weekday morning. Chris steered me down into the lower levels of the Market, and we dropped in to the comic book store to pick up another Star Wars poster. He already has a reprint of the original Return of the Jedi poster, but with a little rearranging, found room on the wall for both other posters from the original trilogy. He only bought The Empire Strikes Back's poster, citing A New Hope's poster as reason to go back another time.
We didn't stick for too much longer in the Market because one of my goals for coming downtown was to try and find a good winter wool coat before the temperatures start to plunge. When I went through my wardrobe in preparation for moving to Switzerland, I had realized that a couple of my old coats just weren't up to snuff any more, and had been planning to get a new one before I left. I've always wanted a good quality black pea coat, and decided to swing by Nordstrom Rack to find one while I was downtown. Turns out it's hard to find a wool coat in September in Seattle at the Rack, so I turned to the great downtown Macy's (which is huge, if you've never been), and not only found an awesome new pea coat for much less than I had budgeted, but also three new tops for work that put me right within my original budget. And, I have to be proud of this fact...Chris actually pointed out one of those three tops, asking, "Hey, isn't that something you would wear?" Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!
After shopping success, we ran back to the Market to swing by Le Panier (an awesome French bakery) to pick up two big loaves of bread as our final errand. Overall, one of the more fun and productive mornings off I've had, and I still managed to get some cleaning done and a couple other errands run this afternoon, after kicking a particularly awful headache when I got home.
Not much else to report, other than a really early day tomorrow, opening at one job, then going and working another shift at the second job...but then I get to dress up and go out on the town for a concert entirely of music composed by Ravel at the symphony that night! Super excited!!! Then comes a hellish weekend, with a show late Friday night, opening at job #1 on Saturday morning, then pulling a 9.5 hour shift at job #2, then probably coming home and crashing until my show on Sunday (which is a matinee). Yup, this girl goes hard.
Hopefully see you all on the other side!
~Allison
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Life, as it probably will be for a while...
I do a lot of these posts. I'm realizing that these occasional updates often start with a title about life that sounds reflective and possibly somber, but really, just expect a long blurb about what's going on. Yup, this blog has become that interesting, especially now that I'm done with school.
Speaking of being done with school, it's really weird. All summer I've struggled with the idea that I'm no longer going to sit in a desk or a practice room for hours upon hours five days a week. The reality that I would most likely end up working two jobs seemed daunting.
Well, I've finally settled in. It's been a long first week of juggling my schedule, but I survived a work week that was six days long and somewhere in the realm of 50 hours of work. Whew! It also included three days of rehearsals, and the opening night of a musical. Sleep has been at a premium, and I've found myself having way too many dreams about work as I train at my new job in the box office at Seattle Symphony (which, may I mention, is kind of a minor dream come true?).
Normal grown-up life is definitely different from that which I lived as a student, but I think I'm actually enjoying it more. I love the freedom to do what I need to do, and not having some large portion of my paycheck getting thrown into the incidental costs of school such as books or sheet music. HOWEVER, I'll admit, that freedom is going to be short-lived, considering student loans will go into repayment sooner than later. In the meantime, my goal is to make sure that by January, I'm financially in a place to pay for my monthly loan payments, as well as my other bills, with some money actually in my savings (for probably the first time in four years...oops). Here's to crossing my fingers that it works out! At this rate, working the hours I am, I'm hopeful that I'll be set for loans and maybe even getting a car someday soon...hope springs eternal...
In the meantime, life itself is good, though my only source of social life is through my housemates and my coworkers, but in some ways, I'm getting used to it. It's not necessarily perfect, but this extrovert is learning to accept that introverted-ness can be good, especially when all day is spent talking to customers and coworkers. And, maybe, just maybe, because of downtime at work, I may start updating my blog regularly again! But, don't hold your breath...
Two more shows this weekend, a rehearsal for a trio on Monday, and then we start all over again! Work work work work work play horn work work.
Until I come up with more interesting things to talk about!
Allison
Speaking of being done with school, it's really weird. All summer I've struggled with the idea that I'm no longer going to sit in a desk or a practice room for hours upon hours five days a week. The reality that I would most likely end up working two jobs seemed daunting.
Well, I've finally settled in. It's been a long first week of juggling my schedule, but I survived a work week that was six days long and somewhere in the realm of 50 hours of work. Whew! It also included three days of rehearsals, and the opening night of a musical. Sleep has been at a premium, and I've found myself having way too many dreams about work as I train at my new job in the box office at Seattle Symphony (which, may I mention, is kind of a minor dream come true?).
Normal grown-up life is definitely different from that which I lived as a student, but I think I'm actually enjoying it more. I love the freedom to do what I need to do, and not having some large portion of my paycheck getting thrown into the incidental costs of school such as books or sheet music. HOWEVER, I'll admit, that freedom is going to be short-lived, considering student loans will go into repayment sooner than later. In the meantime, my goal is to make sure that by January, I'm financially in a place to pay for my monthly loan payments, as well as my other bills, with some money actually in my savings (for probably the first time in four years...oops). Here's to crossing my fingers that it works out! At this rate, working the hours I am, I'm hopeful that I'll be set for loans and maybe even getting a car someday soon...hope springs eternal...
In the meantime, life itself is good, though my only source of social life is through my housemates and my coworkers, but in some ways, I'm getting used to it. It's not necessarily perfect, but this extrovert is learning to accept that introverted-ness can be good, especially when all day is spent talking to customers and coworkers. And, maybe, just maybe, because of downtime at work, I may start updating my blog regularly again! But, don't hold your breath...
Two more shows this weekend, a rehearsal for a trio on Monday, and then we start all over again! Work work work work work play horn work work.
Until I come up with more interesting things to talk about!
Allison
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