La, La, La I Joined a Choir…Then Quit

HOBBIES! This is a rare and apparently impossible thing to have with my job of late. Back in January, I was heart set on expanding my non-existent social life with something I loved, namely pretending I’m on Glee (before it got too weird and I gave it up. Swimming proposals…white TOPHATS?! I just can’t).

But I love to sing, and pretty much do it all the time–while I’m cooking, getting dressed, taking out the garbage–I basically have an internal melody coursing through my brain at all times. So I figured I would channel this and join a choir! And lucky for me, there was one that met once a week and sang Bon Jovi! Could it get any better?!

I was able to attend the first couple of rehearsals, and I had a blast! It was literally like being back in high school choir–we were even working on an arrangement of “I Believe I Can Fly.” Part of me felt like I had digressed to the dorkiest stage of myself, sans braces and my unfortunate high school fashion sense, but a bigger part of me didn’t really care! I mean, I wasn’t flaunting my new hobby to the folks at work, but I really looked forward to the weekly jam sessions.

But alas, this past month has been completely insane and it’s been impossible to leave work before 8 pm, ever. Between breaking news specials and projects piled on top of projects, I’ve had no choice but to push this to the bottom of my priority list (along with my laundry…) and I had quit. It pains me to write that, because I really pride myself on my ability to multi-task, but this one just wasn’t happening.

Now it’s back to the drawing board on finding my work-life balance. Right now, the scales are tipped entirely to the work side, and I’m trying to find an extracurricular that meets after 10 pm on weeknights! Until that happens, I’ll just be sitting in my cubicle, humming the alto part to “Livin on a Prayer!”

Refreshed!

What. A. WEEKEND! I headed up to Vermont on Friday just as they were getting pummeled with a whopping 47 inches of snow! Despite the fact that it took 13 hours to get there, is was worth is when I was slicing and dicing my way down the slopes, the fresh air and winter sun on my face, with nary a care in the world! The weekend was so much fun, and it was much-needed after the past few weeks I’ve had at work!

Considering that I haven’t taken any time off since the holidays and every week since has been filled to the brim, it was becoming very apparent that I needed a change of scenery. I was flustered and exhausted, and more scatter-brained than usual–all red-flags leading to vacation. And I know it was only three days, but it was enough to clear my head and give me a little break from the hustle of life lately.  Sure, I was dreaming of those powdery slopes today, but it wasn’t taking over every spare minute!

But only one day off probably won’t be enough to sate my craving for an extended break. While it’s nice to dust the cobwebs off and return fresh and focused, we’ll see how long that lasts! And with another few months until my summer vacation, I may be deploying those floating holidays sooner than anticipated!

My Mind is in the Mountains

This week is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S! It’s really no surprise, because I am taking tomorrow off to go on a ski trip, something I planned a month ago when I figured my schedule would be clear. But with all the craziness of the past few weeks, projects have spilled over and now I’m buried in work when I should be buried in powder! It would’ve been nice to come into work today and tie up my loose ends before the long weekend, but instead I’m racing around, wondering when, if ever, I’ll be leaving tonight!

I’m just having a hard time focusing on the tasks at hand when my mind–and computer mouse–keep getting dragged back to Pictures of the Day posted on the mountain’s website! What is making things even more difficult is how INSANELY AWESOME this weekend is most definitely going to be. Contrary to the spring-like weather we have in New York right now, Vermont is still in winter mode. A snow storm is on the way, just in time to blanket the slopes with some fresh powder. Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!! On Saturday morning, I’ll be cutting fresh tracks through the powder, blissfully far away from the work tasks that are currently hanging over my head. The only thing should be on my head at that point is a ski hat!

Finish Line

The great poet Ice Cube summed up my week last week pretty nicely: “Life ain’t a track meet, it’s a marathon…” And while I didn’t burn as many (if any at all) calories working as I would have if I had run a marathon, it was certainly a bit of a slog! I think I was getting less than 5 hours of sleep a night towards the end of it, I had the same humus wrap for dinner for five nights straight, and my mental playback of Whitney songs made me a human karaoke machine! Give me the first note and I was wailing away, much to the chagrin of the producer I was working with….

But when Friday night rolled around, the euphoria of finishing such a huge show in such a limited amount of time cast a nice wave of relief over everyone. We sat around eating pizza and swapping stories until we were goodnighted, but even then people were hesitant to leave. What were we supposed to do now?! Obviously, I immediately hit the town and partied it up like the hip and crazy night owl I am…..that is a lie. I actually went home and immediately hit my bed and fell asleep. It may or may not have been 9:30 at this point. I have no shame!

Now is the brief but enjoyable time when people are hiding in their cubes, praying for world peace and no more deaths, at least for the next week or so. And since our show did so well, they brought in free breakfast this morning! This is something I could live with: work 60 hours a week for a semi-3-day weekend and a free bagel on Tuesday morning! I’m sure by tomorrow I’ll be ready to jump back into it–give me more than 6 hours of free time and I’m ready to suit up for another crazy run.

Vanilla Latte with a Drizzle of Peer Pressure Please!

This is shaping up to be another busy week! We are working on a tribute special for the late, great Whitney Houston, so I’ve spent the last few days lip syncing to “I will Always Love You” and “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” while doing my work. I’ve worked out some pretty sophisticated   choreography,  in case anyone is interested…

Weeks like this are pretty stressful, because everything is sort of hanging in the balance until the last possible moment. No one really goes outside or leaves the office at all during the day, in case something important happens! The one acceptable location to take a five-minute breather is the Starbucks across the street, which goes against every grain of my frugal fiber. But when everyone is heading over there, and it’s an opportunity for a little chit-chat and office gossip, what can I say! I get lured in by the tantalizing taste of peer pressure and end up dropping four bucks on a thimble of cappuccino!

I’ve been able to resist the 3 times so far today that someone has asked me if I want to get a coffee…my wallet is thanking me but my social status isn’t! Plus, it’s only Wednesday! And with the next two days looking like they will be clocking in at the double digits, the probability that I will be dropping some serious coin on caffeine is pretty probable! O well, the overtime pay I’m making will at least make a dent in my growing coffee bean debt!

Inappropriate Dressing

Today, I’m dressed very inappropriately…for the weather, that is! Every day, I find myself just off the mark when picking out my ensembles. Yesterday for example, I wore jeans and a short-sleeved blouse–no socks, no sweater–and it ended up snowing all day! Then today, to overcompensate, I wore long pants tucked into boots with ski socks, and a heavy sweater. Needless to say, I’ve been heavily sweating all day!

I seem to find it outside my realm of comprehension to check the forecast or look at a thermometer before getting dressed in the morning! I wear sweaters in the summer and tank tops in the winter, stockings on sunny days and bare legs during blizzards. And while my apartment is no longer hotter than the blazing depths of hell, it’s still pretty toasty in there, so more often than not, I’m under-dressing and regretting it for the rest of the day! But then there’s also my office, whose temperature fluctuates from cubicle to cubicle! One side of the floor could be warm, and the other side cold! Since I don’t usually spend my day sitting in the same place, this is quite the conundrum!  Frankly, no matter what I wear I’d be too cold or too hot in the span of a day!

Obviously, there are many viable solutions for this problem I seem to have. I could, for example, not dress like I’m going on an arctic expedition, ever. (Unless of course I’m actually going on an arctic expedition.) I could log onto this great little thing called the internet and check the weather forecast once in a while! I could also–and this is really a stretch–bring a sweater to work. But alas, this requires more thought and organization than I can muster in the mornings. The bottom line is that I end up wearing the first thing I lay my eyes on…who cares if it happens to be a summer dress when temps are below freezing! I consider myself lucky when I leave the house with clothes on at all! Now that would be inappropriate.

This Day Stinks

What. A. Day. I should never have gotten up this morning…or even went to bed last night! After coming home from a Superbowl party last night, I was so exhausted from the excitement of the GIANTS WINNING that I went right to bed. Well, not even ten minutes later, the drunken super of my apartment building started shouting obscenities at the top of his lungs, and began banging away downstairs, apparently attempting to fix the front door of our building, which doesn’t close all the way. May I remind you that it was midnight. Need I remind you also that he had THE ENTIRE WEEKEND to do this. He also has THE ENTIRE DAY. A door not closing all the way is not an emergency that needs to be taken care of in the middle of the night, with power tools no less!

Well, this went on until 3 in the morning. Around 2 am, I got out of bed and pounded on the inside of my door three times, in an attempt to send a message that he should SHUT UP. Well, it sent a message alright, one that sent him into even more of a drunken rage. I was extremely close to calling the police, but I guess I finally got used to the grating tone of his constant stream of chatter and fell asleep.

So this morning, I was naturally expecting the door downstairs to be painted in solid gold and to be hermetically sealed, but it was exactly the same! This sent me into my own internal rage, which of course has colored the rest of my day so far and has set off a slew of other Monday-morning blues. When I got into work this morning, my ID didn’t work, the printer started printing out important documents on fluorescent colored paper, and the coffee machine was once again broken. Is it Friday yet??

Personal Space

Sorry for the lack of posts this week–I’ve been recovering from the massive trauma that was my Monday morning commute. I kid–it actually was not that bad! The past times that I’ve gone home since moving into the city, my dad has driven me back in on Sunday night, but this time, we were too engrossed in the SAG awards and before we knew it, it was a little too late. Which meant that I had to get up very early. By the time I got to work on Monday morning, I had already been up for four hours! Needless to say, it was a rather long day!

When I got on the bus Monday morning, it was surprisingly empty, so I had the row to myself. Because I had my suitcase, I was able to put it on the seat next to me, freeing up the already limited leg room. When we got to the next stop, the line was also pretty short, so I didn’t even bother moving my bag. But just as the last person got on and we were ready to pull away, one lone strap-hanger ran frantically across the parking lot. I’m surprised his coat didn’t get caught in the door as we pulled away!

Now, despite the fact that both the rows in front and next to mine both had empty seats, this guy decides he wants to sit next to me! So I had to move my suitcase under the seat and prop my legs on top of it, which was fine I suppose–who really needs leg room for 2 hours? But then this delightful man decides to read his newspaper, opening it up to its full expanse, cutting of most of my arm room! I went from having an entire row to barely half of a seat, much to the complete oblivion of this idiot.

I finally cast him one sideways-glance too many, and he got the picture and folded up his newspaper. Obviously I’m not the only one that’s a little slow in the mornings! I swear, if it’s not one thing on the bus, it’s something else!