May 2011


So, this morning, I checked my email and saw that the Thesis and Dissertation people at OU apologized for not sending the electronically signed PDF they were supposed to send me on Friday. They did send it to me this morning, so I uploaded my thesis onto the proper website.

Done! Right?

Nope…

Later this afternoon I got another email from them saying that the PDF I uploaded to the website (which was the very same PDF they sent me this morning) was not electronically signed and that they would have to upload the signed version onto the website.

Well… hell.

I totally uploaded the same PDF they sent me this morning. Ergo, it *should* have been the right one. Unless the one they sent me was the wrong one… JESUS. Can’t a girl just be done with her thesis already?

On the plus side, though, my friend Ashley is the most amazing friend ever and she printed out my thesis and had it bound today, so the hard copy of my paper is already in the hands of the head of the graduate journalism program. WOOT WOOT. So, the life lesson here is I can count on my friend, but not on the people whose actual job it is is to make sure all the thesis stuff goes off without a hitch. So, THANK YOU Ashley 🙂

So, the high I felt today when I thought I was all done with thesis stuff has been quashed, but I’m still on a bit of a high because tomorrow night is friggin’ GLEE LIVE in Minneapolis. And my brother is letting me borrow a memory card for my camera so I can take over 1,000 10-Megapixel pictures if I wanted too instead of just 30 (b/c the memory card I have sucks). So, here’s hoping I get some friggin’ sweet shots of my favorite Glee people… you best be believing I will be taking a bajillion pictures of Darren Criss, the other Warblers and Chris Colfer. Like whoa. LIKE WHOA. I promise I will post some pictures later this week.

Other than thesis-related stuff, today was mostly uneventful. My mom and I played tennis for an hour, but it was so windy that it was extra challenging to play well. I mean, we don’t play well as it is, but the wind made it a bajillion times worse. We laughed so hard… so it was totally worth it.

I also got the latest issue of Rolling Stone in the mail (Lady Gaga is on the cover – great article about Mother Monster. “Edge of Glory” is my favorite Lady Gaga song of all time. It’s just so 80stastic and wonderful.) I also got my Starship DVD in the mail!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t wait to rewatch it in all it’s edited together glory. I listen to songs from that show pretty much everyday, so it’ll be totally awesome to be able to watch the DVD whenever I want!

I didn’t get to watch any Starship today, but we did finish watching The Living Daylights. Not the best Bond movie ever, but j’adore Timothy Dalton (he’s my 3rd favorite Bond), so it was fun to rewatch it. Then, later on we watched The Voice. I didn’t quite agree with who some of the judges kept, but I find that show super fascinating. Plus, Adam Levine makes for great television because he kind of just says whatever it is on his mind, regardless how PC it is. Four for you, Adam Levine. You are f-ing adorable.

Well, I should head to bed. My throat is still epically scratchy and I need to rest before Glee Live tomorrow, as I have a feeling I am going to be audibly freaking out by time the Warblers take the stage. I know my mom is already way embarrassed to be going to this concert with me… and I don’t think she’s fully aware of the potential I have to freak out tomorrow. Or maybe she is… either way, I know she’ll be shaking her head at me for days to come.

Have a good one!

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… Well it’s been a long, been a long, been a long, been a long day.

(One of my FAVORITE musicals ever, btw…)

Holy smokes, what a long day.

I worked for about 8 hours and it felt like forever… probably because they didn’t have the air on and it was hot/uncomfortable the whole day. And I’m still feeling a bit off from yesterday. My colleague asked if I was feeling okay because she said I looked like I was off a bit… I told her I felt weird and she said I was looking pretty peaked.

I was super busy today, which meant that work should have flown by. But it didn’t…

After work I was feeling a little bit better just because I now have 4 whole days off… Glee Live is on Wednesday… I get to spend some time with my family… we sat on the deck and made s’mores… and I laughed so hard that there were tears rolling down the side of my face. All that and several cold sodas totally helped my mood and made me feel less blah.

I’m thankful I don’t have to set any sort of alarm for tomorrow morning… I can just sleep.

Hopefully tomorrow someone will email me the PDF attachment I need to finally finish all of my thesis stuff. If I don’t get an email by lunchtime tomorrow, they will be receiving a phone call. I’m getting this stuff done before Friday, mark my words. I did not just drive to and from Ohio and defend my thesis only to not have it uploaded in time because the thesis people neglected to attach the proper link in an email.

So, that should get done tomorrow. And then I will be oh so happy 🙂

Have a good one!

… because I am feeling like crap.

I totally slept fine the past two nights. And today, while watching Tron: Legacy I fell asleep for about an hour (what an unnecessary and horrendously boring sequel). But I am just feeling completely lethargic.

I had to go to work for several hours today, and I was super busy, so I was go go go the whole time (way to schedule me all by myself in my work area during wedding season, workplace, while everyone else had triple coverage…). My throat is still super scratchy from the other day, so I wasn’t sounding 100%. And I had some extra challenging customers today on top of it all… but I somehow made it through okay. And I opened an account. And I was 154% to my sales goal. So, suck it, workplace. Suck it hard.

By time I got home from work around 3:15, I just wanted to curl up into a ball and stay there forever. I kinda did… after I checked my email and changed into comfy clothes, my brother and I started watching Batman Begins. I stretched out on the couch with my Glee pillow and OU blanket and was completely content. After awhile, it was dinner time (pizza Sunday, yo!), so we took out Batman and put in Tron: Legacy. After I finished with my pizza is when I just fell asleep. I mean, I love Jeff Bridges, but the CGI/Benjamin Buttoned version was so horribly done… you’d think with all the technology available to Disney that they would have been able to make the young version of Kevin and then Clu look way better than they ended up looking. For shame, Disney. For shame.

The movie just wasn’t reeling me in. The rest of the graphics were pretty amazing, but the plot wasn’t that great and it stole a lot of story points and visual shots from the Star Wars series.

When that was over, my brother and dad started watching The Last Action Hero. I hadn’t seen that movie in forever, but because I’m feeling so weird, I opted to pack it in early. So, here it is, 9:47 pm, and I am in bed, abouts ready to read for a little bit and then go to sleep. I have to work from 11:15-6:45 tomorrow (boo), but then I have 4 days off to get out of this funk. I best feel better in time for Glee Live on Wednesday night… I need to be at 100% for that so I can fully appreciate the amazingness that is Chris Colfer and Darren Criss. Woot woot.

Well, I’m off for the night… gonna read a bit while I finish my cough drop.

Have a good one

So, this will likely be a quick post, as I’m tired and I should get to bed soon since I have to wake up in 9 1/2 hours to get ready for work. But, I should get back into the habit of posting nightly…

I actually slept last night. Like, a full 8 hours without interruption. Perhaps it was because I was physically exhausted from my time in Ohio and the 15+ hour drive I did yesterday without proper food intake (you don’t even want to know what kept me going yesterday…). Perhaps it was because I was in my bed, with my blankets and whatnot. Perhaps it was because my thesis stuff is almost officially finished.

Anyway, I friggin’ slept like a log. And it was AMAZING.

After breakfast, I went back to my room to see if the thesis people had accepted my final document. They had!! BUT, in their “congratulations on your document acceptance” email, they said to save the attached final document PDF to my computer and then upload it onto the proper website. Well… there was NO PDF ATTACHMENT. The three embedded links in their email were all to the website and instructions of how to upload the PDF. But they didn’t attach any PDF! And since it’s a holiday weekend, no one will see my email about their epic neglect of PDF inclusion until Tuesday. And the deadline is Friday… but still! I was hoping to get my paper uploaded today and send the link to my friend in Ohio who is going to print/bind my paper for me at their Kinkos. WHAT THE HELL, OHIO UNIVERSITY THESIS AND DISSERTATION SERVICES PEOPLE?!?!?!?! Jesus… can’t a girl just graduate already?

I even had my brother look over their email to make sure I hadn’t overlooked an obvious attachment. But he couldn’t find one either. BAH!

So, I vented to my mom for a hot minute, then got a shower and sang Starship songs at the top of my lungs, even though my voice is shot from the drive yesterday (I sang for 15+ hours straight to keep myself awake… I sound horrible today.). I then repainted my nails, while flipping through the latest issue of GQ (yes, I bought it for the Darren Criss photo spread. No regrets. It’s a damn fine spread. Also, GQ is actually a great magazine for girls to read. It’s chock-full of nice pictures of really attractive guys, the articles are actually pretty decent, but mostly it’s chock-full of really attractive guys. Day-yum…).

I then played 5 rounds of ping-pong with my brother… and I won! I beat him 3-2… and all the games I won, I played left-handed. So, that’s obviously working out for me. Woot woot.

Then we sat on the deck for awhile. My mom and I had a soda while my brother played his guitar. He’s one of those people… just kinda strums away playing DMB, John Mayer or America music.

Then I had to get ready for work… since I was gone for over a week, people were excited to see me and hear about my thesis stuff. My colleagues are so sweet – they were super happy for me 🙂

I ended up by myself for most of the night because I was in a non-busy area. (Though of course I had 2 customers buy a bunch of stuff as the store was closing… luckily they did, or I wouldn’t have met my sales goal.)

Speaking of sales goal… I now know why my charts indicate that I’m doing so poorly at work with regard to my sales and whatnot. Meeting 100% of my sale’s goal does NOT earn me full points with regards to my sales score. I’m supposed to be be making 120% or more of my sales goal in order to achieve full points. NO ONE EVER TOLD ME THAT. I’ve been there for over 6 months and NO ONE told me that I’m supposed to be aiming for at least 20% more of my daily goal. So, here I am, thinking I’m doing awesome making 100% of my goal most of the time, but that’s not good enough to earn 100% of my sales points. WHAT THE HELL? Then why don’t you just give us bigger sales goals? No wonder it looks like I’m a huge slacker… because I only f-ing made 104% of my sales goal for the year so far… *This* is why I didn’t get my full raise. *This* is why I keep getting told that I need to be practically forcing people to buy stuff. Because I’ve only made 104% of my f-ing sales goal and not 120%. Well, EXCUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSE ME.

As my new manager was telling me this tonight, I was just thinking to myself how by the end of the week, I will be a Master of Science. And I will be looking for a job that won’t rely on me trying to force people to open store cards or having to be worried about other people stealing my customers. I will look for a job that will help me grow as a person and challenge me in areas I am passionate about… not a job that frowns upon me for only exceeding my ridiculous sales goals by 4% instead of recognizing that I work my ass off and almost meet my sales goal a majority of the time I work. Same with opening store accounts. I met my account goal, but that wasn’t good enough to earn full points. Nothing I do at my job is good enough for the higher ups because it’s all about the numbers. How have I not been fired yet?

BAH

Between the thesis people and my job, today could have been horrible. But, hopefully my thesis stuff will get sorted out on Tuesday. And I will not be working at this job for too much longer… a couple months tops.

So, here’s what I say to them:

(btw – I’m seeing Glee Live on Wednesday… I’m going to be in the same arena as Darren Criss. Cue me having a shit-eating-grin on my face for the entire night… pictures to come, yo. Pictures to come…)

Have a good one

Well, I made it back to MN after a friggin’ 15+ hour car ride today. Construction and horrible drivers can go screw themselves… I shoulda been home in 14 hours. Bah

But, this is going to be a super short post b/c I am bonkers tired.

I submitted my thesis to the Thesis and Dissertation people for the final approval. Once they approve it, I just have to upload it onto some website (and print out a hard copy for the journalism school library… but my friend, bless her, is going to do that for me b/c she’s still on campus!). Soooooooo… I will be checking on all that tomorrow.

If everything goes as planned, I will be officially done with my Masters in the next few days. And come June 10th/11th (whenever the grad school graduation is… though I’m not going, so whenever I get my diploma), I will be an M.S. – a Master of Science. BUH-WHAT?!?!?!?! Crazy, right? Then I’ll have a B.S.C. (Bachelor of Science in Communication) *and* an M.S. (Master of Science). So, on paper, it looks like I’m some awesome Science person… but I’m totally not (although I was awesome at Chemistry back in the day…). So, I’ll have degrees in Telecommunications and Journalism and a minor in Film. Someone needs to hire me for an awesome job right now, right? 🙂

I’ll post more this weekend about my pretty stellar week in Ohio.

Have a good one

Glee Finale – Season Two – “New York”

(SPOILERS LIKE WHOA)

So, that was not the best episode of Glee. Not by far. In fact, for a bulk of the episode, I was thinking to myself that it needed to get better and it needed some Klaine.

Luckily, I was a winner on both fronts.

The episode started in NYC, with Rachel Berry saying “I made it” pretty much right into camera.

That was definitely me the first time I was in Times Square 5 years ago. You couldn’t smack the smile off my face. So, I got what Rachel was feeling.

But then the episode was just kinda meh until probably the last 5 minutes (except for a couple choice bits throughout).

Why did the Glee kids only have 2 rooms? Why were there no parent chaperones besides Mr. Schue? How did they get to NYC without having both of their Nationals songs locked and ready to perform?

These were the questions that were whizzing through my mind as I watched the first 1/3 of the show.

I thought the “I Love New York / New York, New York” mashup was all right. It was nice to see the Glee kids around the city. I was not a big fan of Schue’s solo on the stage – Matthew Morrison’s owe song “Still Got Tonight.” (I predict that his album is not going to be super popular… unfortunately for him. I like Morrison all right, but I’m not digging his solo stuff, from the few songs I have heard.)

This episode was Finchel-heavy, which I was kinda for. I think Finn and Rachel shouldn’t work, but they totally do because they challenge each other to the point where Rachel finally figured out that she would pick a career over love, and Finn would still pick Rachel even though she’s difficult. I thought the Finchel date was cute (though “Bella Notte” was a bit much…), but at a few points throughout I was convinced it was going to turn out to be a dream sequence. But it’s cool Rachel met Patti LuPone, even though the show set her up to be Kurt’s idol and NOT Rachel Berry’s… (btgw – Quinn is still bitter about him dumping her for Rachel. Quinn had a bit of a melt down and griped about how her former beau’s have all found someone else… and asked why no one loves her. Because you’re kinda a stuck up bi-yotch, Quinn. That’s why. Love yourself first, girly. Love yourself first.)

Besides the Finchel (which I will expand on in a bit), I was digging the Kurt-Rachel friendship. As much as I was not a fan of the episode, J’ADORED their duet of “For Good” on the Wicked stage. I can only imagine that was a mind-blowing experience for both of the actors, as well as their characters. Singing a Wicked song on the Wicked stage is any theater-geeks dream. And that song, God that song. It’s just the perfect song about friendship/people you’ve come in contact with over your life. I totally buy into the lyrics of that song (I bolded my favorite lines for emphasis):

(Elphaba):
Im limited
Just look at me – Im limited
And just look at you
You can do all I couldn’t do, Glinda
So now it’s up to you
For both of us – now it’s up to you…

(Glinda):
I’ve heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don’t know if I believe that’s true
But I know I’m who I am today
Because I knew you…

Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good

(Elphaba):
It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You’ll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend…

Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird
In a distant wood
Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?
But because I knew you

(Glinda):
Because I knew you

(Both):
I have been changed for good

(Elphaba):
And just to clear the air
I ask forgiveness
For the things I’ve done you blame me for

(Glinda):
But then, I guess we know
There’s blame to share

(Both):
And none of it seems to matter anymore

(Glinda):
Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood

(Elphaba):
Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a bird in the wood

(Both):
Who can say if I’ve been
Changed for the better?
I do believe I have been
Changed for the better

(Glinda):
And because I knew you…

(Elphaba):
Because I knew you…

(Both):
Because I knew you…
I have been changed for good…

***

Breaks your heart, don’t it?

So, that is definitely one of my favorite Glee music moments ever, even if the episode on a whole did not impress me.

The Glee kids found out via the Vocal Adrenaline coach that Schue was going to leave them for Broadway, but Schue decided his show choir kids are his dream job, so he’s sticking with them. Aw. How nice.

At Nationals, some all girl choir sang Usher’s “Yeah“. It was weird. Their dresses did not really go with their song choice. It was a bit off-putting, though that song is my jam.

Rachel ran into Sunshine Corazon in the bathroom, who was throwing up from nerves. Rachel gave her a very un-Rachel pep talk and then cheered her on during her performance of “As Long As You’re There“. Vocal Adrenaline’s dresses were heinous.

Then, it was time for New Directions. Finn wrote the duet, “Pretending” that he and Rachel sang. (Jesse St. James sat next to Schue, saying he couldn’t stay away… Schue asked from show choir, or from her [Rachel]? The silent answer was Rachel, obviously, as Jesse was pretty pissed when during the end of the duet, Finn and Rachel kissed. Like they were the only two people in the room… which they were, because the camera circled around them, and there wasn’t anyone else there for them, even though the whole crowd watched in silence. And no one clapped. PDA obviously doesn’t earn your points in show choir competitions.

However, the crowd was on their feet with the New Directions group song, “Light Up the World.” It was peppy and up-tempo much like “Loser Like Me.” I dug it. I’ll be singing that in the car on my drive back to MN in a few days.

However, Finn and Rachel’s make-out session ended up hurting their chances at winning Nationals… they didn’t even place in the Top 10 teams to advance to the next round of competition.

But, all is not lost.

Back in Ohio at the Lima Bean, Kurt is relaying to Blaine the excitement of his trip. Blaine just stares at Kurt with heart eyes while Kurt talks. And then THIS HAPPENED. And I was like AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

I LOVE that Blaine was the first one to say “I love you.” And I love how it was so nonchalant.

And I’m *thinking* that this means Blaine will be sticking around for the long haul (those writers cannot break Kurt and Blaine up any time soon… the people would revolt). So, hopefully that means Darren Criss will become a series regular, because that kid needs to be on my television all of next season. Like whoa.

Also – Samcedes happened! How cute are they? This relationship may be a tad far-fetched (I mean, they were cute at prom, but I don’t see them lasting forever like Klaine), but Mercedes deserves to be happy.

And Brittany and Santana are still BFFs. Though Santana needs a girlfriend girlfriend at some point, I’m assuming.

And that’s what you missed on Glee.

Summary – Episode was Meh, but Klaine love is canon. 🙂

(END SPOILERS)

But, since this blog was meant to track the process of my thesis defense, I thought I should let you know that I defended my thesis this afternoon and I PASSED!!!!!!!!

I still have to make some edits and meet with my thesis chair once more on Thursday… but it’s due next Friday and it’s gonna get done. I’m going to graduate in June, by hook or by crook. Woot.

Since I didn’t post yesterday, maybe I’ll recap the past couple days.

Yesterday morning I left my house at 4:45 in the morning… I had only gotten about an hour and half of sleep, so I was not in the best mood to be making a 14+ hour solo car ride to Ohio.

I had my CDs already stacked in the order I was going to listen to them… it was basically a Broadway mix, then a Glee CD, a StarKid and/or Darren Criss mix, a current pop music mix, and then the cycle would start all over again (I have 10 Broadway mixes, 8 or 9 different Glee mixes, 4 or 5 StarKid mixes, 3 Darren Criss mixes, and 5 or 6 current music mixes… and then some.)

I was bonkers tired so I kept drinking Coke Zero and eating gum drops, dried fruit and sesame sticks. My teeth were coated with sugar the whole day… it was kinda disgusting. (Sorry)

I was so tired, so my music was up loud… like whoa. Stuff from The Lonely Island and Lady Gaga were my staple songs. I must’ve sang along to “Jack Sparrow” and “Edge of Glory” probably 15 times apiece, no joke. (“Edge of Glory” may be my favorite Gaga song ever. It’s so good.)

Even though I was super tired, I only stopped 4 times on my trip – twice to get gas for my car, and twice to pee/call my mom and let her know I was still awake. I got to my friends house just after 8… it was so nice to see friendly faces after such a long, horrible drive.

This morning I was super duper nervous for my thesis defense. I met up with a friend from undergrad for lunch. We both couldn’t believe we hadn’t seen/talked to each other in a year. For communications majors, we suck at communicating. But we had a nice chat and it was just great to catch up.

After lunch, I walked around trying to track down the latest issue of GQ. I went to three bookstores before I ended up at CVS and they had it. I *needed* that spread w/Darren Criss in it like whoa. (i.e. I needed to be distracted from thesis stuff, and a Darren Criss fashion spread is the perfect deterrent.) I couldn’t even focus on the pretty pictures because I was so stressed.

But, I had my thesis defense from 3-5. And it was stressful, but it went all right. I was so nervous, but I think I handled myself all right. I did talk a bit too much about some stuff, but all in all, it went okay. And I passed! So that’s all that matters.

And afterward, I got some $4.50 Chinese and bought some treats for my friends and I for later.

I’m staying with my friends Molly and Ashley from grad school 🙂 Molly made us a super yummy dinner, and then we watched soem baseball. Now I’m gonna flip through some Idol and then GLEE FINALE!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I will blog about that later tonight or tomorrow, I promise.)

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