Married to Music: Networking at Corey's Summer Festival

I'm finally over the jet lag and settled into the weekend. I've been too tired to write until now, since I went back to work immediately after traveling for 12 hours and sleeping for 7. Corey is on his way home and will be back on Monday night after a brief stop in New York.

This trip was amazing in so many ways. I saw New York City for the first (sort of) time, I spent time in a lovely corner of northern Italy, I heard some great music and I did it all with my best friend. I even did some networking for myself and picked up some career tips that I'm really excited about. I was not expecting to make any career connections for myself at the festival, I was just planning to be a tag-along, but I was pleasantly surprised. I learned that every opportunity Corey gets has potential for me too, which is lifting my spirits after the career drought I've been suffering from since, well, graduation. 

I had a major job interview right before we left. It was a part-time gig, but the company (which for professional reason will remain anonymous) was such that it would have majorly kicked-off my career. A year working part-time for this place could have easily boosted me to a full-time gig in a smaller market. I write in the past-tense because I did not get the job. I'm sad about it but I'm trying to stay optimistic. I've got a few more applications out there, and at least one more to write when I'm finished posting this.

Anyway, someone I met at the festival in Italy told me about weekend courses in arts management that are offered at NYU. It's a little over $500 to take a class Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It would look great on my resume and would be a great test-run for grad school, plus I would make connections just by showing up. Right now I'm digging around for funding. The professional development grants offered by my music fraternity are only offered to applicants who already work in a music field. Boo.

This trip has really inspired me to take charge of my career. I'm going to keep applying, networking, volunteering and studying until I can get a job in arts administration. I will keep my loyal readers posted :)

The Fifth of July

After a huge storm last light, half of Southeast Michigan is without power. We're fine at home, but my office is dark, so I'm on standby until the power comes back. According to DTE Energy and AnnArbor.com, it could be awhile. We have power at home, but since our recent move we still don't have internet yet, so we're hanging out at a Panera Bread in an area of the grid that is still running.

The move went great. We have some awesome friends that came over on Saturday to help us move furniture. About 20% of our stuff is still at the old place, but we have until the 15th to turn in our keys, so we're taking the rest little by little.

For the Fourth, we hung out with some friends, grilled burgers and played lawn games. Their were no fireworks in A2, so we watched the DC and Detroit displays on TV. In Detroit they fire them from boats on the river between Detroit and Windsor, Canada. I'm seriously considering going to Windsor to watch the fireworks next year, just for the story.

Corey is putting the final touches on his piece for Italy. It's for solo electric guitar and electronics. I've heard bits on Sibelius play-back, but he hasn't sat me down to listen to the whole thing. I'm a little bummed because we got the schedule for the festival the other day and I'm going to miss all of the concerts. However, I get to take Italian lessons every morning and a cooking class on Tuesday evening. I'm getting really excited!

We finally booked our tickets and we'll be staying in New York for the weekend before heading to Milan. We'll be staying at Corey's cousin's apartment. She'll be gone for a bridal shower, but we'll just hang out with her husband for the weekend. I'm not holding my breath, but I REALLY want to see the Book of Mormon!

The Summer Solstice that sneaked up on me.

Oh em gee, I can't believe it's June already. Scratch that: June is almost over and I haven't written at all this month.

The following is a list of reason/excuses for not writing in the past 3 weeks:

A. Corey's parents and aunt visited us for a couple of days. We have a great time dining out, visiting the Detroit Zoo, and showing them around Ann Arbor.

B. We are moving NEXT WEEKEND. We have until the 15th to completely vacate our old place, but the 30th was the only day we could get enough friends together to help us move the big stuff. As such, I've been spending a lot of free time packing. We get the keys to out new place on the 29th, and I am so stoked. It's a two-bedroom in Ann Arbor proper and a five minute drive to my office. I'll post pics when we get in. :)

C. I finally started, and finished, the Hunger Games series. I don't want to get too into discussing it, but it was awesome. Two thumbs up, and I can't wait to see the rest of the films. (P.S. Team Gale if you were wondering, but ::SPOILER ALERT:: I wasn't disappointed with how it ended.)

D. The countdown to Italy has started. 26 days until we take off, spend the weekend in NYC, then a week in Pavia. I've been preparing by shopping, mental packing, and studying my phrase book.

E. The Ann Arbor Summer Festival is in full swing! I had only heard rumors of it's awesomeness, but it far exceeds my expectations. Its so great that the community comes together to create and support almost 3 1/2 weeks of concerts, outdoor movies, and other family fun, AND with some pretty big names (Feist, Al Green, and Ira Glass to name a few, plus the improv group born out of MST3K's cast.) We went to see one of Corey's professor's band last Wednesday, hung out in the beer garden with friends on Friday, and we're going to see an outdoor showing of Ghostbusters on Tuesday and Jurassic Park next Sunday.

I'm planning to get back into the swing of writing regularly once we're back from Italy. I'll definitely have some interesting concerts to talk about and hopefully an exciting trip in general. I'm looking into getting tickets to the Book of Mormon while we're in New York.

Total Beauty Collection #1

Click here to read my review of the first Total Beauty Collection on TruBeautyGems!

My favorite thing about life in A2

It has been almost a year since Corey and I moved out to Ann Arbor. We were immediately taken with all there is to do, eat, and experience here. We came from a relatively small town, so we reveled in the variety of culture, cuisine, and people in A2.

After living her for 10 months, settling into a routine, and generally making a life here, I began to reflect on what I like the most about my life here: my new friends.

I'm a very social-relational person. I love being around people, talking and sharing ideas. It's not surprising to me that I've become attached to certain people so quickly.

This is not to say that I don't miss my Wisconsin friends. Many of them are going through HUGE milestones right now, and I'm so sad I can't be right there with them soaking in all the joys and supporting them through all the rough patches. I do my best over the phone, but I miss them terribly, and they will never been replaced in my heart.

On that note, I was actually worried about making friends in this new life initially. I was worried that, now that I'm a "grown-up" I wouldn't bond with new people like I would my college and high school friends. They new me at my craziest, and they still stick by me. How could I form a bond with someone who met me after the "crazy" is no longer age appropriate? (I know I'm being a little hard on myself. I'm only 25.)

But it turned out that I met some amazing people who are just like me. We were all brought to this town for school, work, or by our significant others to try to make our way as adults, and that's definitely something to bond over. We still get silly (plenty silly), but we talk about careers, mortgages, and future families.

I really love that my new friends are from all over the country, some from places I've never been. We grew up with slightly different values and we have different tastes in what constitutes the ultimate in home cooking, but we fit together in awesome harmony. Sure, my Bostonian friends prefer Sam Adams over Leinenkugal's, my friends from the South and I will never agree on iced tea, and I'm never quite going to get what's the big flipping deal about Chik-fil-a, but we are getting along great.

The Single Experiment

Corey was gone for about a week earlier this month. He went back to Wisconsin to speak at his undergrad composition seminar and stuck around to visit friends and family. I, however, was stuck here because I have to earn our living. I love Corey more than anything, but I was getting jealous. I was upset that he got to take off (he's done for the summer) and I have to stay tethered to my job. I got off of work long enough to spend a week with him in Italy later this summer, but that felt like forever away. I was, and still am, restless in my nonexistent career, but I do get a small high knowing that even though I'm not using my degree, I can support myself, my husband and two cats.

(The cats btw, NOT happy that Corey was gone for a week.)

So I decided that while Corey was gone, I would ask myself: WWSLD? What would "Single Lauren" do? (minus the whole getting involved with other men thing).

Serendipitously, a new girlfriend invited me to a girls' night out. It ended up being just the two of us, but I had a blast. On Friday night, we got all dressed up at her place, pre-gamed (I haven't used that word in a while), and when to a flashy dance club downtown. We danced (it was pride night, score!), had delicious drinks, and her husband picked us up and took us through McDonald's drive-thru on the way home. My tweet of the weekend: "Early 20s: getting drunk and crashing on your friend's couch. Late 20s: getting drunk and crashing in your friend's guest room. Upgrade!"

On Saturday, I joined another husband-less girlfriend for lunch and shopping. Something about Corey being out of town made me freer with my money than usual, but hey, Single Lauren lives a fabulous life of overflowing shopping bags and only has to answer to herself about bank statements. (Don't worry, I didn't go divorce-court overboard. Plus, we just got our tax return.)

Sunday, I woke up with a horrible sore throat. It particularly sucked because it hurt so bad I had to cancel two phone dates with besties from back home. I drank tea and watched "Greek" on Netflix all day. It's a decent show for ABC Family.

Corey came home on Monday afternoon and life went back to normal. I had fun as Single Lauren for a few days, but I wouldn't trade my life with Corey for anything. Especially because he makes tea when I'm sick and carries the 27lb tub of cat litter up to our 3rd floor apartment.

Great Day

I feel almost bad blogging about having such an awesome day since it started with me dropping off Corey at the bus to go home for a few days. He is going back to WI to speak to the comp studio at our undergrad at the invitation of his former professor. It's awesome for him, but I'm going to miss him and I'm frankly jealous that he gets to up and leave when I have to stay here and work. But after I kissed him goodbye at the bus stop, the day went up from there.

1. I finally found us a new apartment, and it's exactly what I wanted. We have been lusting after this property that gives an amazing discount for U of M students. I don't want to dish too many details, but it's an amazing price for the amount of space and an Ann Arbor zip code. If we stay here for another 3 years, this will be our home. :)

2. I decided to celebrate by treating myself to a trip to Ulta Beauty. My recent forte into beauty blogging (you can find my guest spots at trubeautygems.blogspot.com) has turned me into a bit of a makeup monster. I snagged a gift set of $112 worth of Too Faced makeup for $45 that wasn't even supposed to be on the shelves until tomorrow. I may do a beauty post in the near future with details, either here or at TBG.

3. I was invited at the last minute to dine at the home of a couple Corey and I have been getting to know since we moved here. I had delicious homemade lasagna and played Balderdash tonight when I was planning to make a Lean Cuisine and watch a chick flick alone. Quel bon suprise!

A few side bits of awesome: I met my weight-loss goal for the week, only 6 lbs left to go! And I shipped a super-secret surprise for someone I love dearly. Can't divulge the details yet, they may be reading!

So I'm doing my best to put positive energy back out into the universe. I don't know what I did to deserve such good karma, but I'm going to try to earn it!