I know it is Friday, but...

I have decided that Wednesday is seriously the best day ever to have a birthday.  Seriously.

I have always thought that my birthday fell at the perfect time of a month: the end.  This way I had the whole month to get excited for and to look forward to my special day!  Well, this year it also happened to fall on a Wednesday.

My delicious Oreo®  Dream Extreme Cheesecake!

Because Wednesday is the hump day between two weekends, I started early on Sunday by visiting with my little and grand-little (whom calls me grandma-LOL) at our favorite place, the Cheesecake Factory.  I had my leftover sandwitch for breakfast on Tuesday and my delicious leftover Oreo® Dream Extreme Cheesecake for my birthday breakfast--breakfast of champions! Right?



Monday I again dined out.  I partook in Longhorn's succulent bacon covered steak with a loaded baked potato and a brownie ice cream sundae for dessert!  It was a tiny bit healthy.  I started with a salad and had plenty to take home!

By Tuesday, you can probably tell I had a few leftovers in the fridge!  I ate my leftover steak and potatoes for dinner.  It was just as good reheated!  And then I enjoyed the company of a good friend as we went out for UDF deep freezes.

Happy Wednesday was the best day I could have asked for!  I had cheesecake for breakfast, my co-workers brought me cupcakes at lunch, I had an ice-cream sunday at I-Hop (where I was also sung to for the first time in a restaurant and used my first of several birthday email coupon offers!), and was surprised (after a 20 minute car ride filled with 'maybe' as the answer to each and every one of my questions about where and what we were doing) with a M&M Ice cream log cake by Dairy Queen!  And I got to keep the leftovers!

My Godiva birthday truffles, Maggiano's full size
entrees to go, and Tiramisu for the road!

But since I-Hop had not been my first choice in birthday dinner (I got off work late on Wednesday and didn't feel like getting dressed up for a nice dinner), I was able to have a rain check for Maggianos for today!  I had cheese ravioli, spinach bacon salad, and tiramisu! And the best part about our trip to Maggianos isn't the birthday coupon, is the complementary full size entrees to go!

And to top off a week filled with great food, I used my birthday coupon to Godiva to buy truffles!  I got one free truffle as a monthly reason to visit, and ten dollars off any purchase of ten dollars or more.  All in all, I walked out with 7 super yummy looking truffles for $3.60!!!!

Whomever said the last fun birthday is '21' clearly has not met my friends, family, or email birthday discount offers.  My 24 has probably been the best birthday yet AND I still have a weekend with my parents and sister to look forward to, AND a trip to pick out my birthday present with my significant other!  (Sperrys to replace my hole filled moccasins!)


What has your best ever birthday been?                                       

Welp ... It's been a while...right?

Monday marked the official seven month-aversary from graduation!  yay?

But of course on Monday I let the last seven months of job rejection and negativity get the best of me.  Let's just say I haven't been helping myself create worthwhile memories as of late.  The Simpsons and books from the BF's Mom's bookshelf are great and all, but lets get honest--they can't help me solve my job woes.

I have ended my streak of 'every job interview I've ever had ends in a 'you are hired' invitation' streak.  Actually, instead of 'ended,' demolished or decimated may be better choice word.  Let's just say that being a 'student' was the best job reference and excuse for lack of experience I could ever use for shelter.

I am not a student anymore though and I need to figure out how to make a success of myself without the shelter of school above my head.  This is me picking myself up.  I know I have potential with what I spent the past five years wanting to do, but I need to figure out how to turn the potential into something more.

I have a few idea paths in mind for exploration and a few people to talk them over with.  I need your suggestions, your support, and your help.  I don't like asking for help because it implies a sense of weakness, but this is me asking because I want to meet the next phase of my life from a better place than I am in today.  And please, if you have a suggestion, please let me know!  Thanks!

Last week's Scorned Adventure!

I had the opportunity to work as an electrician on Scorned last week as a one day fill in.  I am hoping to  get the call to drive out for another shift or two before the end of the shoot.  However, due to the contract I signed, I am not able to take any pictures of the set to share.  Even though I cannot show you any of the awesomeness from set, I will be excited to see the finished project.  This will also be my last post on the subject, as I do not want to let any secrets loose now that I know more about the story than Google could tell me!

Scorned was both my first paid gig and my first feature length movie set.  I saw many lighting designs that I have only ever read about, such as bounce cloths, 12K lights, and a DM 512 control board working in action.  Despite the bulk of some of the equipment, the results are really awesome.  Even with my basic knowledge, I definitely enjoyed the learning opportunity.  After all, kindergarden taught us that we need to learn something new every day!

And speaking of lessons, another lesson I learned, is that it is not a good idea to drive two hours to a job, work almost 12 hours of labor intensive work in the summer heat, drive two hours home, and go to your day job with 4 Monster energy drinks in hand.  When the opportunity presents itself again, I hope that I will have a little more notice so that I can plan more for a crazy work schedule.

Nothing bad happened during my extended day, but I was very very tired by the time I went home.  After being up for nearly 32 hours (19.75 hours of paid time between both jobs) I most definitely deserved the solid 11 hours of sleep I slept that night.

Scorned: My first Paid Gig!

As you may remember, I was hired for a small two day project for the UC Health Cardiovascular institute a few weeks ago.  I worked the gig, knowing I was an unpaid volunteer, simply so I could get my name out and meet other Cincinnati area freelance media professionals.

I think that effort and hard work has gotten me my first paid gig!

Yesterday I was called to see if I was available for a three week shoot that started today.  Since my regular part time job is entering the busiest season of the year, I obviously cannot take that much time off with such short notice.  I offered my availability as is without inconveniencing my current employer and got a good news phone call today!

Tomorrow I will be working on Scorned in Portsmouth, Ohio as a Production Assistant Intern.  If all goes well, I will also have the opportunity to assist the grip and electric with the lighting set ups for a few days at a time until the end of the shoot!  I imagine there will be a lot I can learn--apparently part of the filming will take place in the woods at night which means I will get to learn about generaters first hand as well as controlling shadows when you can't move the source (a tree)!

I do not have much info about the project, but based on what Google told me, Scorned is an independent movie.  The thriller involves the girlfriend seeking revenge on the best friend after learning that the boyfriend cheated with the girlfriend's best friend.

(: Monday :)

It happened again.  The weekend has left the building.

But if you are like me, you made the most of your time off the past few days!  This past weekend, I picked up an online order at the store (free shipping), I went out to dinner to help a recent graduate and his family celebrate, I saw MIB3 at the theater (which is an awesome suggestion if you need something fun to do) and I did several weeks worth of laundry.

With everything all said and done, the start to the new week is among us.  I will be staying on the outskirts of Cincinnati for the next few days catsitting two very different, but very adorable cats.  What this means to me is that I will have a morning commute. 

Lightning: The lovable, purring, attention seeking cat.
This may be understating the qualities of Lightning...

As per my manager's recommendation regarding traffic, I followed her instructions and left for work at 7:00 am.  Considering I don't need to be at work until 8:30 am I thought it might be a little bit early to leave, but I didn't want to be late.  I got to Clifton at 7:32 am ... so I went to my apartment, hung around for a little bit, and then walked to work as I would have any other day.  Although there was a little bit an overestimate for my drive, I was definantly not late!

The cats however are well worth the trip!  Have a great Monday!