Busy, busy, busy

Thursday I had my first NYC voice lesson! I am taking voice from a girl named Jordan. She has all sorts of training in various genres of singing. I found her website online and thought I'd give her a shot. I had an hour lesson and I learned so much in my first lesson! She's teaching me how to belt properly so I don't hurt my voice. In order to be competitive in the Broadway scene I knew I needed to learn how to belt. Jordan has several students on Broadway now so I knew I could trust her teaching and to be honest with me. I was so encouraged and had a great boost of confidence after working with her. I look forward to more lessons.

Friday I had my first day of work that was appointed to me through my temp agency. I work at a VERY FANCY high end office interior design firm. I am the receptionist at the World Headquarters for the company. Which means my first day was insane. I could go on and on and on about it (ask my parents) but I'll just leave you with some highlights that have happened thus far.

In my first 10 minutes the call volume was so high that I was answering the phones like you'd see in some comedy sketch: "Hello, ...hold please, hello...hold please, hello...hold please, etc." I hadn't been trained how to answer the phones yet so I just said "Good morning, the name of the company, hold please," over and over. I didn't think that kind of thing happened in real life. I'm here to tell you it does. I can laugh about it now but I was sweating bullets when it actually happened.

The office I work in is actually a showroom meaning it is the size of an entire floor of a building on 6th avenue in midtown Manhattan (HUGE). It is also, as I said before, very VERY fancy. The entire office and everything in it is high end contemporary interior design. I don't know how to describe it but it is.....uh....well....fancy (I need to invent a word). I feel so out of place! Ok, how about this, if you see a really contemporary high fashion office space in a movie, it is entirely composed of furniture and design from this company. (Sorry I can't say the name, confidentiality stuff. It's that snooty!)

In spite of the apparent classiness of the joint, everyone there is very nice to me and pretty laid back. I feel like even if I did mess something up, it certainly wouldn't be the death of me, I think. I got to talk to people from all over the world (on the phone) and I am really digging this crazy experience. Plus, the view from the building is spectacular. During my lunch break I sat and stared at the city for a full 1/2 hour, well, at least until the phone rang again.

I am scheduled to work there until the end of September so there is a lot more craziness on the way. Also, I might get to help with some really classy cocktail parties when they are courting clients from all over the world. Could be cool, we'll see.

Friday night I had my callback audition for the children's theatre in Brooklyn. It went well. However, I didn't get cast. Truthfully I'm not that torn up about it. It would've been fun to be working on a show but I got the feeling they wanted to cast me as "Polly Princess." Which was hilarious to me. They ran into a dilemma when the only guys that showed up for the auditions were about 1/4 my size and they couldn't very well cast a 4 foot Prince Charming to play opposite me. So I can have a good laugh and know that a bad audition wasn't the reason for not getting cast. haha.

Also on Friday night, I met up with some friends from UET (College theatre friends). We went to a really great bar in the Delancey area (apparently that's the place to be on a Friday night). We hung out on their outdoor patio which was very cool. After about an hour the bar got swamped and I mean SWAMPED with people coming from some sort of a party. The place was wall to wall people. So we left. About a block away we found another bar with a lot less people so we had some drinks and danced all night. It was so much fun and almost everybody I was hanging out with lives in NY so we can hang out again. Yay!

Saturday I had to do a little recovering, teeheehee so I ventured off on my own for a stroll on the South Street Seaport. It's basically a giant tourist trap but I liked it. There was a great view of the Brooklyn Bridge so I played tourist and snapped some photos. The Seaport is (obviously) on the water on the southern most tip of Manhattan. There are all sorts of shops and restaurants and some great views of the water surrounding Manhattan. It sort of reminded me of Seattle's Pike Place Market. From the Seaport I could see some sort of a marathon taking place. There were about 150 people swimming across the East River and under the Brooklyn Bridge. It looked so hard and I was in awe watching them swim that stretch.

After the Seaport excursion I did some more walking and exploring the city. I checked out Wall Street. That whole area is so cramped. There are tons of huge high rises only feet apart. It's very odd looking, narrow streets with giant buildings close together. It's really just something you gotta see.

I don't know what possessed me to do so but I walked around the Upper East Side some more. I was kind of having fun taking the Subway everywhere. On the weekends there are so many tourists that if you stand without a map on the Subway platform and otherwise look like a New Yorker they'll come up to you and ask you for directions. It's kinda fun. I must've been asked for help from about a dozen people from all over the world coming to visit this crazy city. I feel like I passed some sort of "You know you're a New Yorker when..." test by giving out directions without a map. But I certainly don't know everything yet.

Sunday morning I went to church at Apostles again. We met in their new space this time, in a school's auditorium. I actually really like it. The only problem is how hard it is to get there from where I'm living. There aren't really any major forms of transportation that'll get you there very quickly. You just have to hoof it. It's a bit hot for that but I can't complain. A walk in the heat and humidity ain't anything like the hell Jesus endured, so I'll walk there every Sunday. The sermon was great, again. I learned a lot and I really like how Pastor Vassar preaches. It is very clear, to the point, and based in scripture. Today's sermon was about sex. Moving on....

After church I walked around. (I seem to be doing a lot of that here.) I ran into the street fair the city closes down an entire chunk of street for. I don't know how they do it. I swear I see these street fairs every time I go out! They're fun though. People sell all sorts of crap. It's kinda funny to see people selling bedding out on the street in Manhattan. It's just random.

Next I went to the matinee performance of "Spring Awakening." I got a ticket (by the grace of God) at the TKTS booth at the South Street Seaport on Saturday. It's the hottest ticket on Broadway right now. The show won a ton of Tony Awards earlier this year so it's a big draw. I got a cheap ticket and couldn't wait to see it because of all the hype. I won't say too much because I don't want to spoil it for everyone. It is basically about a sexual revolution or discovery amongst teenagers in a "provincial town" in Germany in the 1890s. I thought it was sort of funny that I was seeing a show with this subject matter considering what I had heard in church that morning. Well, uh, I didn't really think it lived up to all the hype. I'll leave it at that. If you wanna hear more call me. haha

Gym, groceries, laundry, bed. That pretty much sums up the rest of my Sunday.

Wait. That's not it. I saw Elmo today. Sorry kids, he lives in Manhattan not on Sesame Street.