Over the past week, on Facebook and on Twitter I've been ranting about the recent signing of SB 1070 by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. The bill, which essentially states that any officer of the law may question citizenship for anyone if they have "reasonable suspicion" about the legality of someone here. So, let me ask what an illegal immigrant looks like? How is it possible for a police officer to determine a "reasonable suspicion" enough to question whether someone is in the country legally? While the Governor (who was not voted in, BTW....she inherited the position last year when Janet Napolitano became Secretary of Homeland Security) says she "will not tolerate racial profiling," the question still remains how does one go about having "reasonable suspicion" of someone's legal/illegal status?
Let me back up for a minute....I am a Latina, Hispanic, Chicana, heck...you can even call me Mexican. First and foremost, I am a US Citizen. I was born in Tucson, AZ. My parents were born in Tucson. Their parents were born in Tucson. And THEIR parents were born in Tucson. My family ancestry comes from Sinaloa, Mexico and the Tohono O'odham Nation. That's right folks....I have some Native American in me too. Naturally, I am brown-skinned. I have dark hair, brown eyes. I didn't speak a lick of Spanish until I was in college, despite my Dad's best efforts. My parents rarely spoke Spanish to me. I grew up Catholic, and still practice Catholicism. While some traditional Hispanic customs were present in my household, many were not. My grandparents spoke English to me. I've lit candles to various saints in prayer. I grew up on the south side of Tucson, steadily in the middle class. My mother works in the medical field, and my Dad worked in the City of Tucson government. Neither of my parents went to college. I went to college and graduated. I married my high school sweetheart after college. We have two children (who were born after we were married). It was never taught to me to be politically involved. I was told to vote if I wanted to, but it wasn't stressed. My parents didn't get involved in political debates. They are Democrats, always voting on party lines, but rarely paying attention to the issues that candidates presented. Ironically enough, an uncle of my mother's was a Tucson City Councilman for several years. What my parents did stress to me was education. I needed to educate myself to be able to get a good job, to be able to move further in life, and to not depend on anyone to support me.
Interestingly enough, I've been subjected to the prejudicial assumptions of people like me nearly all my life. I can recall being in high school and fellow students making comments about the clothes that I wore or the music that I listened to. I suppose I didn't fall into the trappings of trends and cliques. My high school was filled with hip-hop/rap. I listened to alternative and new wave. I went to book readings, my classmates went to parties. I even had a teacher in high school who told me that while I was intelligent enough to go to college I would never finish because I was too lazy like most Mexicans. [After I graduated I showed her a copy of my degree. She apologized] I saw things like being on a church youth group trip and eating at a Sizzler and the waitress apologizing for something because "we have a lot of Mexicans working in the kitchen." As an adult, I learned to use my voice and speak articulately enough to show people that I know what I'm talking about. Unfortunately, it still has continued.
Despite the prejudices that I've had to endure, I still have shied away from becoming a blaring voice for the left. As a matter of fact, until George W. Bush was elected, I didn't always vote on party lines. I would have voted for McCain in 2000 if he had been successful in securing the nomination (hold the flames!). But, I learned so much in the past 10 years from many friends and co-workers about the reality of the world we live in. Remember, I was the person that just sat idly by when faced with a prejudicial situation. Even still, I've generally kept my rants to myself and my immediate family. I've worked with many who lean more right and we simply avoid discussions about political issues. I also try not to put my political beliefs out there because I have many, many friends who are supporters of the right. My friendship with them is not based on politics, but on something deeper. So, even when I see very good friends complaining about Obama getting elected, or about McCain losing, or about the Health Care Bill getting passed, I have generally kept quiet. I don't want to get into it and the basis of my friendship with these friends is not political, so therefore we choose to swallow those issues.
So, if I was subjected to some racial prejudice growing up, and still am; but have never really gotten politically involved or vocal, it may be a head scratcher why I am ranting about this Arizona SB1070. Well, I believe wholeheartedly in human rights, human values, and the basic rights given to me as a US Citizen. As an adult, I have the coping skills and the know-how to stand up and respond to ridiculous bigotry. My children, who also have brown skin, do not. They know not of this ridiculous bill, nor should they have to. They should not be faced with a situation where a police officer is going to ask me for their birth certificates. It is unfair, unjustified, and uncalled for. Regardless of what anyone may think about immigration (because this isn't about immigration), it is a violation of my rights and my daughters' rights as human beings and US Citizens to have to prove that we are legally allowed to be here.
No matter what you may feel about immigration, the closing of the border, left, right, blue, red, whatever....PLEASE understand that SB1070 is a violation of civil rights, of human rights. There is absolutely no excuse to allow this type of archaic interpretation of the law. The Governor has given a very costly authority to police officers across the state. Even with her promise of "no racial profiling" the fact of the matter is that even those that appear to be not foreign-born may have to provide proof of citizenship. So, you know that guy that is from Germany? Or how about that lady from Kenya? Or, the one man in that department that is Chinese? Or the professor you know that is Turkish? Yeah....all will be expected to provide proof of legal right to be in the US. But, in reality...do you think they will have to provide that proof? Will I?
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Friends and Life Changing Events
In December 2007 I discovered the Twilight world when someone had given me a Borders gift card for Christmas. On a HP message board some people had recommended the Twilight series as a fantasy series to read now that HP7 had been released. I purchased Twilight with the gift card 2 days before Christmas and started reading it the day after Christmas. I devoured it in like 2 days and ran out to buy New Moon and Eclipse. I didn't care that I was spending money on hardcovers, I had to have them. By the time my youngest daughter's birthday rolled around on January 4th, I had read the entire series twice. Obsessive much?
Soon after, I began researching and googling all I could about this Twilight. Why did I become so obsessed with this Bella and Edward story? When was the fourth book coming out? Who was this Stephenie Meyer person? Anyhow, after finding SM's website, I found a link to Twilight Moms and I joined almost immediately. I went through this feeling of utter relief and just a sense of being "home" amongst moms that loved Twilight as much as I did. After I made my introductory post, I was referred to a get together being planned for other Arizona Twilight Moms in March. Nervous and a little excited, I went and met some 15 women of all walks of life here in the Phoenix area that were Twilight Moms like me. And a friendship was born. It seemed like I couldn't get enough of spending time with these fabulous ladies! Two weeks later, I drove to east Mesa to watch a horrible movie, Prom Night, because Kellan Lutz was in it. It was by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen, but I had a great time all because I was w
ith my ladies!
Two weeks later, we got together again and soon, we were meeting nearly monthly. Our group grew and grew and grew and we were on the horizon for Breaking Dawn release, complete with an all night slumber party. We had such a good time and I kept thinking, "Why is this happening when I'm in my 30's?" Was it strange that I felt such a connection to women that I had only met a few short months prior? Did they feel the same? Was I the only one? And as our group grew, the dynamics shifted and smaller groups began meeting separately and soon our smaller group was whittled down to about 12 people. November came, we saw a midnight release and stood in line at 12 noon. Yes, that's how obsessive we are.
As the new year came around, I realized that I had these lovely ladies in my life for nearly a year. While I wasn't posting on TM's very much anymore, these ladies became my rock, my solace, my "out" from every day life. But, more than that, we shared a love of books. I have found some of the best book recommendations through my ladies. I realized that while I connected so quickly, they still knew so little about me and my crazy life. See, I work FT. I am a manager at my place of employment and it just isn't easy most days to work in my job. I am also a mom to 2 daughters. And a wife to a husband for 10 years. PLUS, I am a FT graduate student trying to finish a degree in Public Administration. Still, I had to have time for my ladies. It is a must!
In June of this
year, Jennifer recommended a book to me. Wings, by Aprilynne Pike is a Young Adult novel about a 15-year old girl who discovers she's a faerie. So cute, whimsical, and very character-driven, I fell in love with the book instantly. Jen, being the awesome person that she is, found out that Aprilynne is a local author who recently moved to the Phoenix area and emailed her. We found out that Aprilynne was appearing at Fiesta Con in July and suddenly it was like fate was pointing a big huge arrow that we needed to go there to meet her. So, one Sunday, during 4th of July weekend, Jen and I ventured to Tempe to the convention for the sole reason of meeting Aprilynne. We watched her panel on Harry Potter and were fortunate enough to get our books signed. Aprilynne invited us to sit with her in the lobby of the hotel and chat for a while. She informally introduced us to Janni Lee Simner, author of Bones of Faerie. We chatted with her for about an hour and a half about her writing process, about kids, life in general, and she shared her chocolate with us :-)
Who knew that this would have this impact on us? Jen and I left that hotel and took a side trip for lunch and a book store visit and soon a plan was formulating. During August of this year, Jen and I, as well as 3 other friends went to Creation Entertainment's Twi-Tour and we briefly discussed the creation of a fansite for Wings. In reality, I don't think either one of us thought the other was that serious, but when we returned from Twi-Tour, a plan started taking place. I realized that I wanted to do this. And, Jennifer was the best person to do it with. We got Aprilynne's input, researched other fansites, took a "best practices" approach to things, and launched our forums in early September. Soon after, we realized that our forums were being posted on several different blogs and sites. We figured one of the best ways we could promote ourselves was to start a book review blog. Jen has secured our first author chat for later this month. I can't believe that this is happening and so quickly! Six weeks in and we are on our way! Here is a link to our forums: http://latebloomeronline.forumotion.com and our blog: http://l8bloomeronline.blogspot.com
If anyone doesn't know me, books are my life. They really are my only indulgence and the fact that I've met Aprilynne, and her support has opened so many doors for us in connecting with other YA authors is like a dream come true. It's almost surreal.
Soon after, I began researching and googling all I could about this Twilight. Why did I become so obsessed with this Bella and Edward story? When was the fourth book coming out? Who was this Stephenie Meyer person? Anyhow, after finding SM's website, I found a link to Twilight Moms and I joined almost immediately. I went through this feeling of utter relief and just a sense of being "home" amongst moms that loved Twilight as much as I did. After I made my introductory post, I was referred to a get together being planned for other Arizona Twilight Moms in March. Nervous and a little excited, I went and met some 15 women of all walks of life here in the Phoenix area that were Twilight Moms like me. And a friendship was born. It seemed like I couldn't get enough of spending time with these fabulous ladies! Two weeks later, I drove to east Mesa to watch a horrible movie, Prom Night, because Kellan Lutz was in it. It was by far one of the worst movies I have ever seen, but I had a great time all because I was w
ith my ladies!Two weeks later, we got together again and soon, we were meeting nearly monthly. Our group grew and grew and grew and we were on the horizon for Breaking Dawn release, complete with an all night slumber party. We had such a good time and I kept thinking, "Why is this happening when I'm in my 30's?" Was it strange that I felt such a connection to women that I had only met a few short months prior? Did they feel the same? Was I the only one? And as our group grew, the dynamics shifted and smaller groups began meeting separately and soon our smaller group was whittled down to about 12 people. November came, we saw a midnight release and stood in line at 12 noon. Yes, that's how obsessive we are.
As the new year came around, I realized that I had these lovely ladies in my life for nearly a year. While I wasn't posting on TM's very much anymore, these ladies became my rock, my solace, my "out" from every day life. But, more than that, we shared a love of books. I have found some of the best book recommendations through my ladies. I realized that while I connected so quickly, they still knew so little about me and my crazy life. See, I work FT. I am a manager at my place of employment and it just isn't easy most days to work in my job. I am also a mom to 2 daughters. And a wife to a husband for 10 years. PLUS, I am a FT graduate student trying to finish a degree in Public Administration. Still, I had to have time for my ladies. It is a must!
In June of this
year, Jennifer recommended a book to me. Wings, by Aprilynne Pike is a Young Adult novel about a 15-year old girl who discovers she's a faerie. So cute, whimsical, and very character-driven, I fell in love with the book instantly. Jen, being the awesome person that she is, found out that Aprilynne is a local author who recently moved to the Phoenix area and emailed her. We found out that Aprilynne was appearing at Fiesta Con in July and suddenly it was like fate was pointing a big huge arrow that we needed to go there to meet her. So, one Sunday, during 4th of July weekend, Jen and I ventured to Tempe to the convention for the sole reason of meeting Aprilynne. We watched her panel on Harry Potter and were fortunate enough to get our books signed. Aprilynne invited us to sit with her in the lobby of the hotel and chat for a while. She informally introduced us to Janni Lee Simner, author of Bones of Faerie. We chatted with her for about an hour and a half about her writing process, about kids, life in general, and she shared her chocolate with us :-)Who knew that this would have this impact on us? Jen and I left that hotel and took a side trip for lunch and a book store visit and soon a plan was formulating. During August of this year, Jen and I, as well as 3 other friends went to Creation Entertainment's Twi-Tour and we briefly discussed the creation of a fansite for Wings. In reality, I don't think either one of us thought the other was that serious, but when we returned from Twi-Tour, a plan started taking place. I realized that I wanted to do this. And, Jennifer was the best person to do it with. We got Aprilynne's input, researched other fansites, took a "best practices" approach to things, and launched our forums in early September. Soon after, we realized that our forums were being posted on several different blogs and sites. We figured one of the best ways we could promote ourselves was to start a book review blog. Jen has secured our first author chat for later this month. I can't believe that this is happening and so quickly! Six weeks in and we are on our way! Here is a link to our forums: http://latebloomeronline.forumotion.com and our blog: http://l8bloomeronline.blogspot.com
If anyone doesn't know me, books are my life. They really are my only indulgence and the fact that I've met Aprilynne, and her support has opened so many doors for us in connecting with other YA authors is like a dream come true. It's almost surreal.
So there are my ramblings about how fate intervened and brought me to Jennifer, allowed me to meet the best group of friends I could ever have, and how Twilight has changed my life.....literally.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Twi-Tour Day Three
Okay, so I know it's taken me a long time to put this together, but school has gotten the best of me this past week. If you didn't already know, not only am I a mommy of two girlies, but I work FT in a very difficult and mentally draining job and am a FT graduate student trying to finish my Master's in Public Administration. Sometimes I don't know what direction I am heading.
Anyhow...Here is day three's rundown for the 2009 Phoenix Twi-Tour
On Sunday morning we woke up about 7:30 am and had to be at the celebrity breakfast at 9:50. We were a little "tired" still with bloodshot eyes and definitely did not have enough sleep. Fortunately, Jen called the front desk to arrange for a late check out so that we didn't have to rush to pack up as well. We all got dressed pretty leisurely that morning (looking cute as always) and arrived at breakfast where there was a line out the door. I believe they only sold something like 150 tickets to the breakfast, as it was separate from the regular cost of the ticket. We were told they were running a bit behind, so we plopped ourselves on the floor and waited with Starbucks in hand. When they opened the door, we were back further in the line so we got to the very last table in the back. We figured this was Adam's method of keeping us away from the celebs (he really had it out for us) because they allowed us to get breakfast two tables at a time. Because of the cost of the breakfast, Jen said she was going to take 14 pieces of bacon to make sure she got her money's worth. We totally loaded up our plates and enjoyed while we could. During the breakfast, the Creation people set out some merchandise for us to bid on, but nothing was terribly appealing.
The celebs came in and while we could take pictures of them when they entered, we weren't allowed to take any while they were going table to table to ensure everyone had time with them. The four guests there were Justin Chon, Christian Serratos, Chaske Spencer, and Alex Meraz. They essentially were taken table to table and spent about 5 minutes at each table. I happened to be sitting next to the empty spot at the table, so I got to sit right next to all of the celebs.
We spoke to Justin and asked about his clothing line, which he has two stores-one in San Diego and the other in Santa Monica? The stores are named Attic and his website is THE ATTIC He was super cool and said that he is due to start filming Eclipse on the 25th of August.
Next came Christian Serratos and she is the cutest thing ever. So tiny, but so cute! She immediately gushed about how she likes to go to the movies by herself in her VS sweatpants. She and Jen totally bonded about the movie Practical Magic and she talked chick-flicks with us and how she really didn't like the Ugly Truth with Katherine Heigel. She really is the sweetest thing and so so pretty.
Next we spoke to Chaske and I think Melinda might have had a heart attack when he came to sit down. He is 34 years old and doesn't look a day over 25. He talked about the heat of Arizona, being from New York and how he didn't realize how hot it really is here. He talked about some of this movies and Gil's harem of girlfriends. I told him that we You Tubed the Muscles video and it was hilarious, he has the most infectious laugh ever and a huge, wide smile. I asked him about working with Steven Spielberg on Into the West and he said he was honored and it was a great opportunity for him. Too soon he was whisked away!
Last we got Alex Meraz and OMG....my heart went into palpitations. He said he lives in Cave Creek, that he's been honored to be part of such a great phenomenon that is Twilight. We asked about his capoeira training and if he's had a chance to study in Brazil. He said that he has and that it's been a great experience. Alex has the most intense looking eyes and they totally light up when he's talking about something passionate. He said his family had no idea what Twilight was or the pop culture phenom that it is, but now they realize and they are really happy for him. Once again, we were cut short, but we were the last table there so we got to see them for a couple extra seconds before they were whisked away to the green room.
Melinda, Jen, and I went to change while Carrie and Tina went to stand in line for Tina's photo op with Christian. After this, we went back to the auditorium for another q/a session with Chaske and Alex. During one question, Alex was asked about his wife and Chaske said "s**t" into the microphone and when everyone started laughing, he blushed so hard and jaw dropped open and was totally embarrassed. During this session the Edward cut-out was peeking from back stage so it looked like they were being watched by Edward. They also spoke about their workouts, what the best things about being a part of this process, how much they were looking forward to filming Eclipse. Alex spoke about how excited he was to have a fight with Kellan in Eclipse, and he spoke about the scene where Paul almost attacks Bella and how he got REALLY into character. He had been awake for a few days when that scene was filmed and when he went to attack Bella, he grabbed Kristen's throat. He made mention of the fact that really no one is supposed to touch Kristen (like she's kind of a diva) and that Chris Weitz was totally cool and helped him "internalize the intensity." He once again demonstrated his capoeira moves on cut-out Edward. Following this session we got to take our photos with the wolf pack. Chaske and Alex were taking pictures together and wowowowowowow....it was so worth the expense as pictured below....
It was an amazing experience and one that I will definitely not forget. After the photo session, I went and spent my $100 gift certificate in the vendor's room at the convention. I was only able to use it on official Creation merchandise, so it completely limited my choices. But I ended up with a jewelry box, a Jacob t-shirt, a Vampire baseball hoodie, and a picture. Not bad considering it was free!
After this, Christian and Jusin were on and I have to say that they were probably the most entertaining of the celebs we saw. They totally got into it, walked around the entire auditorium and were so interactive about their q/a session. I'm so glad I decided to stay, as I was so tired and hungry I just wanted to pack up and go.
We did decided to pack up after this and get checked out. I changed my shirt during this time and when we came back into the hotel, Carrie and I went to the photo op room to see if our pics were ready and all of ours were done. The pics (see above) were so HAWT!
After this, we got our autographs from Christian and Justin. I was so tired by this time that I couldn't stay awake and was not interactive at all with them. During the final session of the costume contest, I decided that it was time for me to go home. We all decided to head out by that time and since we had a long drive, thought it best to leave.
All in all, this was one of the best weekends of my life. It is a weekend I will not soon forget, and it was so worth the expense. I am so blessed to have experienced this wonderful weekend with the very best friends I've ever had and it was awesome!
Anyhow...Here is day three's rundown for the 2009 Phoenix Twi-Tour
On Sunday morning we woke up about 7:30 am and had to be at the celebrity breakfast at 9:50. We were a little "tired" still with bloodshot eyes and definitely did not have enough sleep. Fortunately, Jen called the front desk to arrange for a late check out so that we didn't have to rush to pack up as well. We all got dressed pretty leisurely that morning (looking cute as always) and arrived at breakfast where there was a line out the door. I believe they only sold something like 150 tickets to the breakfast, as it was separate from the regular cost of the ticket. We were told they were running a bit behind, so we plopped ourselves on the floor and waited with Starbucks in hand. When they opened the door, we were back further in the line so we got to the very last table in the back. We figured this was Adam's method of keeping us away from the celebs (he really had it out for us) because they allowed us to get breakfast two tables at a time. Because of the cost of the breakfast, Jen said she was going to take 14 pieces of bacon to make sure she got her money's worth. We totally loaded up our plates and enjoyed while we could. During the breakfast, the Creation people set out some merchandise for us to bid on, but nothing was terribly appealing.
The celebs came in and while we could take pictures of them when they entered, we weren't allowed to take any while they were going table to table to ensure everyone had time with them. The four guests there were Justin Chon, Christian Serratos, Chaske Spencer, and Alex Meraz. They essentially were taken table to table and spent about 5 minutes at each table. I happened to be sitting next to the empty spot at the table, so I got to sit right next to all of the celebs.
We spoke to Justin and asked about his clothing line, which he has two stores-one in San Diego and the other in Santa Monica? The stores are named Attic and his website is THE ATTIC He was super cool and said that he is due to start filming Eclipse on the 25th of August.
Next came Christian Serratos and she is the cutest thing ever. So tiny, but so cute! She immediately gushed about how she likes to go to the movies by herself in her VS sweatpants. She and Jen totally bonded about the movie Practical Magic and she talked chick-flicks with us and how she really didn't like the Ugly Truth with Katherine Heigel. She really is the sweetest thing and so so pretty.
Next we spoke to Chaske and I think Melinda might have had a heart attack when he came to sit down. He is 34 years old and doesn't look a day over 25. He talked about the heat of Arizona, being from New York and how he didn't realize how hot it really is here. He talked about some of this movies and Gil's harem of girlfriends. I told him that we You Tubed the Muscles video and it was hilarious, he has the most infectious laugh ever and a huge, wide smile. I asked him about working with Steven Spielberg on Into the West and he said he was honored and it was a great opportunity for him. Too soon he was whisked away!
Last we got Alex Meraz and OMG....my heart went into palpitations. He said he lives in Cave Creek, that he's been honored to be part of such a great phenomenon that is Twilight. We asked about his capoeira training and if he's had a chance to study in Brazil. He said that he has and that it's been a great experience. Alex has the most intense looking eyes and they totally light up when he's talking about something passionate. He said his family had no idea what Twilight was or the pop culture phenom that it is, but now they realize and they are really happy for him. Once again, we were cut short, but we were the last table there so we got to see them for a couple extra seconds before they were whisked away to the green room.
Melinda, Jen, and I went to change while Carrie and Tina went to stand in line for Tina's photo op with Christian. After this, we went back to the auditorium for another q/a session with Chaske and Alex. During one question, Alex was asked about his wife and Chaske said "s**t" into the microphone and when everyone started laughing, he blushed so hard and jaw dropped open and was totally embarrassed. During this session the Edward cut-out was peeking from back stage so it looked like they were being watched by Edward. They also spoke about their workouts, what the best things about being a part of this process, how much they were looking forward to filming Eclipse. Alex spoke about how excited he was to have a fight with Kellan in Eclipse, and he spoke about the scene where Paul almost attacks Bella and how he got REALLY into character. He had been awake for a few days when that scene was filmed and when he went to attack Bella, he grabbed Kristen's throat. He made mention of the fact that really no one is supposed to touch Kristen (like she's kind of a diva) and that Chris Weitz was totally cool and helped him "internalize the intensity." He once again demonstrated his capoeira moves on cut-out Edward. Following this session we got to take our photos with the wolf pack. Chaske and Alex were taking pictures together and wowowowowowow....it was so worth the expense as pictured below....
It was an amazing experience and one that I will definitely not forget. After the photo session, I went and spent my $100 gift certificate in the vendor's room at the convention. I was only able to use it on official Creation merchandise, so it completely limited my choices. But I ended up with a jewelry box, a Jacob t-shirt, a Vampire baseball hoodie, and a picture. Not bad considering it was free!
After this, Christian and Jusin were on and I have to say that they were probably the most entertaining of the celebs we saw. They totally got into it, walked around the entire auditorium and were so interactive about their q/a session. I'm so glad I decided to stay, as I was so tired and hungry I just wanted to pack up and go.
We did decided to pack up after this and get checked out. I changed my shirt during this time and when we came back into the hotel, Carrie and I went to the photo op room to see if our pics were ready and all of ours were done. The pics (see above) were so HAWT!
After this, we got our autographs from Christian and Justin. I was so tired by this time that I couldn't stay awake and was not interactive at all with them. During the final session of the costume contest, I decided that it was time for me to go home. We all decided to head out by that time and since we had a long drive, thought it best to leave.
All in all, this was one of the best weekends of my life. It is a weekend I will not soon forget, and it was so worth the expense. I am so blessed to have experienced this wonderful weekend with the very best friends I've ever had and it was awesome!
Monday, August 17, 2009
Twi Tour Day Two
Let me preface this by saying that my pictures are uploaded onto my FB account, if you're not my friend, send a friend request with the info of where you know me.
Okay, so I had set the alarm on my phone for 7:30 am and we had planned to meet for breakfast at 9:30 am. Saturday was our scheduled panel and we definitely wanted to rehearse. My body clock automatically wakes me up about 6:00 am, and we slept in the room with the curtains open. Thus, I was wide awake at like 5:45. I tried to go back to sleep, but it was to no avail. We all very slowly and sluggishly got ready and got checked out of the hotel by 9:30 am. We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel and practiced our panel presentation. We all looked cute in our red/black/white color coordination.
We got to the Wigwam and arrived just in time for Twilight Yes/No trivia. I got to go with the first group of 30 people and they fire questions at you really quickly and you have to choose yes or no. I did fairly well and I totally blew it with a super easy question that my mind did not catch up with. We tried to get Whitney up on stage as well, but I really think that Adam had it out for us. Carrie and I did not want to sit next to the Smelly Girl again, and fortunately Whit's seats next to her were not taken. So, we moved up and got to sit with Whit and across from Jen and Melinda.
We get settled in and Mike Welch was up first. He is super adorable in person and has a beautiful smile. He stumbled on a lot of his questions and later we wondered if he wasn't hung over. He did the booty dance three times and talked about dancing professionally. There was time for one more question and this unbelievably dumb person totally wasted it on asking him to throw his water bottle out to the audience.
After Mike, we got to see Edi again and he was the same as the night before. Super cool and eyes still piercing, he spoke about the phone call that he was going to make the day before. He is very very cool spoke in the Kelly voice in front of us. He talked about how wonderful it was to play a bad guy and that even though he isn't in Eclipse, he appreciates being able to be a part of such a project. There weren't any obnoxious fan questions this time around. He made another phone call on stage and it turns out he was calling Stephenie Meyer, but she was unavailable.
After Edi was the wolf pack with Gil Birmingham, Chaske Spencer, and Alex Meraz. Before I get into what they spoke about, let me just say that Chaske and Alex are absolutely beautiful. Seriously stunning. Like Lisa Hansen said when the stills of the Wolf Pack came out, they never looked like this in my imagination. Shoot! Understatement of the year!! The spoke about their experiences on set, funniest moments, including one in which Alex, channeling his "inner Paul" grabbed Kristen's throat. He said Chris Weitz was super cool about the mishap and told him to "keep the intensity inside." Chaske laughs and jokes around a lot and has an accent. He says he's known Gil for 10 years and he admires his work. He suggested we all You Tube the "Muscles" video by Diana Ross, in which Gil appeared in a Speedo. Go do it! It's funny! Alex talked about his capoiera group, which he would be performing later at the ball, what they do to work out, all the protein they have to eat to bulk up, and having to go film Eclipse later this month. They all talked about the relationships they've built with the cast, and Chaske got to talk about kissing Tinsel Korey. Alex said, "That's HAWT." Gil says that he had it easy because he got to be in a wheelchair the whole time and he didn't have to walk anywhere and he totally used it to his advantage. The funniest part of their Q/A was that Chaske and Alex both had cups of Starbucks with them and placed them rather strategically between their legs. Well, let's just say that some of us were a bit distracted by the cup placement. They ended the panel by having Alex demonstrate some of his capoiera moves. Super cool.
After the wolf pack q/a session, we had to wait in another very disorganized and super long line. We had autographs with Mike Welch, Gil Birmingham, Alex, and Chaske. Gil was asked about his harem of girlfriends, per Catherine's words. Jen braved asking him the question and he cracked up. I had you tubed the Muscles video while we were sitting in our seats still and I mentioned that I saw it on my phone. Gil started shaking his head and just laughed and re-told the story of how one day when they were on set that he was talking about what he did in his youth. Then, around midnight they all went to bed. Around 3 am, he gets pounding on his door by Alex and Bronson and they were squealing that they found the video. I said, "Gil, you can find anything on the Internet." He said, "yeah, I learned that." We got autographs of Alex and Chaske as well and Jen asked Chaske if they could be in costume for our photo ops and he laughed and said no. So then we get to Alex's table and Jen said, "Hey Alex, Chaske says you guys will be in costume for the photo ops." Alex starts laughing and says, "No he didn't." And I chime in and say, "Well, he is your alpha, right?" Alex laughed at that one. I also asked if Alex spoke Spanish because I knew he was part Mexican and he said he only understood a bit. I also asked what his wife thinks of all the female attention and he said she absolutely loves it.
After the q/a session and the autographs, it was time for our Twilight Mom panel. Suddenly we were super nervous. Fortunately, the room cleared out pretty much and there was probably only about 20-30 people in there. Jen did an awesome job moderating and asked us a series of questions about being Twilight Moms and how the world of Twilight has brought us together. Despite the few people in the audience, I think it went well, but I don't want to do it again. We got to see Joyce from Cullen Boys Anonymous, who was a TM as well and we got to do the Breaking Dawn slumber party with her. It was cool to reconnect.
After all this, we were starving like crazy and decided to head back to the room and order some pizza and soda and we started getting ready. Curling hair took the longest for everybody and we all shared that responsibility with helping one another out. I did my makeup super smoky eyes and Whit asked me to do her makeup and I was so proud of it, she was looking super cute in her gold dress and turquoise jewelry. We practically had to sew Melinda into her dress, she had just finished it that afternoon. Jen looked absolutely adorable and Carrie looked absolutely stunning. We got to the ball just as Alex's capoeira group was nearing the end of their performance. I'm super sad we missed it, but what we did see was amazing. I've always been enthralled with capoeira, it's an amazing art form and to see it performed again was awesome. We sat at a corner table and Melinda and Jen set up their amazing centerpiece that they created. It was a replica of the gazebo at the end of Twilight with a rotating dance floor, miniature lights, greenery, and a Bella and Edward doll. Melinda even sewed a blue dress and white cardigan for Bella. It was beautiful. It didn't win, but another, bigger gazebo entry won. After the centerpiece competition, we started drinking and dancing. I spilled my drink on the dance floor, but it got cleaned up really quickly. Really cool moment at this point was that Kiowa Gordon and Christian Serratos and Justin Chon were there at the Vampire Ball and dancing like crazy. Kiowa danced with the winner of another trivia contest, as did Justin and Mike Welch. Very cool. Kiowa is the cutest thing ever and has the most piercing eyes. Mike Welch performed a song from Dreamgirls (I'm Staying/You're Gonna Love Me) and afterward posed for pics in the hallway with various fans. I got a really good one of Melinda and Jen. I took a couple of pics of Kiowa as well as he was leaving. I wanted to follow and stalk him, but alas...he had to go.
After this, Whitney decided she was going home so we went back to the room and I changed shoes and refreshed my makeup. We walked Whit to her car and then went back to the ball to dance more. We had a couple more drinks and by this time the four remaining of us were a bit tipsy. We closed the vamp ball down that night, danced like mad women, hung out with people we didn't know, had random people coming up to us, and just danced our tushies off. It was awesome! Afterward, the bar was no longer open even though we wanted to continue drinking, so we hung out by the pool for about a 1/2 hour and put our feet in the water. We had more drunken antics at this time and there was some rock climbing involved. Then, as we were walking back to the room, we stopped at the giant chess board and took some pictures there with the chess pieces. Once we got back to the room we totally collapsed we were so tired.
Day three will be up with my next post!
Okay, so I had set the alarm on my phone for 7:30 am and we had planned to meet for breakfast at 9:30 am. Saturday was our scheduled panel and we definitely wanted to rehearse. My body clock automatically wakes me up about 6:00 am, and we slept in the room with the curtains open. Thus, I was wide awake at like 5:45. I tried to go back to sleep, but it was to no avail. We all very slowly and sluggishly got ready and got checked out of the hotel by 9:30 am. We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel and practiced our panel presentation. We all looked cute in our red/black/white color coordination.
We got to the Wigwam and arrived just in time for Twilight Yes/No trivia. I got to go with the first group of 30 people and they fire questions at you really quickly and you have to choose yes or no. I did fairly well and I totally blew it with a super easy question that my mind did not catch up with. We tried to get Whitney up on stage as well, but I really think that Adam had it out for us. Carrie and I did not want to sit next to the Smelly Girl again, and fortunately Whit's seats next to her were not taken. So, we moved up and got to sit with Whit and across from Jen and Melinda.
We get settled in and Mike Welch was up first. He is super adorable in person and has a beautiful smile. He stumbled on a lot of his questions and later we wondered if he wasn't hung over. He did the booty dance three times and talked about dancing professionally. There was time for one more question and this unbelievably dumb person totally wasted it on asking him to throw his water bottle out to the audience.
After Mike, we got to see Edi again and he was the same as the night before. Super cool and eyes still piercing, he spoke about the phone call that he was going to make the day before. He is very very cool spoke in the Kelly voice in front of us. He talked about how wonderful it was to play a bad guy and that even though he isn't in Eclipse, he appreciates being able to be a part of such a project. There weren't any obnoxious fan questions this time around. He made another phone call on stage and it turns out he was calling Stephenie Meyer, but she was unavailable.
After Edi was the wolf pack with Gil Birmingham, Chaske Spencer, and Alex Meraz. Before I get into what they spoke about, let me just say that Chaske and Alex are absolutely beautiful. Seriously stunning. Like Lisa Hansen said when the stills of the Wolf Pack came out, they never looked like this in my imagination. Shoot! Understatement of the year!! The spoke about their experiences on set, funniest moments, including one in which Alex, channeling his "inner Paul" grabbed Kristen's throat. He said Chris Weitz was super cool about the mishap and told him to "keep the intensity inside." Chaske laughs and jokes around a lot and has an accent. He says he's known Gil for 10 years and he admires his work. He suggested we all You Tube the "Muscles" video by Diana Ross, in which Gil appeared in a Speedo. Go do it! It's funny! Alex talked about his capoiera group, which he would be performing later at the ball, what they do to work out, all the protein they have to eat to bulk up, and having to go film Eclipse later this month. They all talked about the relationships they've built with the cast, and Chaske got to talk about kissing Tinsel Korey. Alex said, "That's HAWT." Gil says that he had it easy because he got to be in a wheelchair the whole time and he didn't have to walk anywhere and he totally used it to his advantage. The funniest part of their Q/A was that Chaske and Alex both had cups of Starbucks with them and placed them rather strategically between their legs. Well, let's just say that some of us were a bit distracted by the cup placement. They ended the panel by having Alex demonstrate some of his capoiera moves. Super cool.
After the wolf pack q/a session, we had to wait in another very disorganized and super long line. We had autographs with Mike Welch, Gil Birmingham, Alex, and Chaske. Gil was asked about his harem of girlfriends, per Catherine's words. Jen braved asking him the question and he cracked up. I had you tubed the Muscles video while we were sitting in our seats still and I mentioned that I saw it on my phone. Gil started shaking his head and just laughed and re-told the story of how one day when they were on set that he was talking about what he did in his youth. Then, around midnight they all went to bed. Around 3 am, he gets pounding on his door by Alex and Bronson and they were squealing that they found the video. I said, "Gil, you can find anything on the Internet." He said, "yeah, I learned that." We got autographs of Alex and Chaske as well and Jen asked Chaske if they could be in costume for our photo ops and he laughed and said no. So then we get to Alex's table and Jen said, "Hey Alex, Chaske says you guys will be in costume for the photo ops." Alex starts laughing and says, "No he didn't." And I chime in and say, "Well, he is your alpha, right?" Alex laughed at that one. I also asked if Alex spoke Spanish because I knew he was part Mexican and he said he only understood a bit. I also asked what his wife thinks of all the female attention and he said she absolutely loves it.
After the q/a session and the autographs, it was time for our Twilight Mom panel. Suddenly we were super nervous. Fortunately, the room cleared out pretty much and there was probably only about 20-30 people in there. Jen did an awesome job moderating and asked us a series of questions about being Twilight Moms and how the world of Twilight has brought us together. Despite the few people in the audience, I think it went well, but I don't want to do it again. We got to see Joyce from Cullen Boys Anonymous, who was a TM as well and we got to do the Breaking Dawn slumber party with her. It was cool to reconnect.
After all this, we were starving like crazy and decided to head back to the room and order some pizza and soda and we started getting ready. Curling hair took the longest for everybody and we all shared that responsibility with helping one another out. I did my makeup super smoky eyes and Whit asked me to do her makeup and I was so proud of it, she was looking super cute in her gold dress and turquoise jewelry. We practically had to sew Melinda into her dress, she had just finished it that afternoon. Jen looked absolutely adorable and Carrie looked absolutely stunning. We got to the ball just as Alex's capoeira group was nearing the end of their performance. I'm super sad we missed it, but what we did see was amazing. I've always been enthralled with capoeira, it's an amazing art form and to see it performed again was awesome. We sat at a corner table and Melinda and Jen set up their amazing centerpiece that they created. It was a replica of the gazebo at the end of Twilight with a rotating dance floor, miniature lights, greenery, and a Bella and Edward doll. Melinda even sewed a blue dress and white cardigan for Bella. It was beautiful. It didn't win, but another, bigger gazebo entry won. After the centerpiece competition, we started drinking and dancing. I spilled my drink on the dance floor, but it got cleaned up really quickly. Really cool moment at this point was that Kiowa Gordon and Christian Serratos and Justin Chon were there at the Vampire Ball and dancing like crazy. Kiowa danced with the winner of another trivia contest, as did Justin and Mike Welch. Very cool. Kiowa is the cutest thing ever and has the most piercing eyes. Mike Welch performed a song from Dreamgirls (I'm Staying/You're Gonna Love Me) and afterward posed for pics in the hallway with various fans. I got a really good one of Melinda and Jen. I took a couple of pics of Kiowa as well as he was leaving. I wanted to follow and stalk him, but alas...he had to go.
After this, Whitney decided she was going home so we went back to the room and I changed shoes and refreshed my makeup. We walked Whit to her car and then went back to the ball to dance more. We had a couple more drinks and by this time the four remaining of us were a bit tipsy. We closed the vamp ball down that night, danced like mad women, hung out with people we didn't know, had random people coming up to us, and just danced our tushies off. It was awesome! Afterward, the bar was no longer open even though we wanted to continue drinking, so we hung out by the pool for about a 1/2 hour and put our feet in the water. We had more drunken antics at this time and there was some rock climbing involved. Then, as we were walking back to the room, we stopped at the giant chess board and took some pictures there with the chess pieces. Once we got back to the room we totally collapsed we were so tired.
Day three will be up with my next post!
Twi-Tour Day One
Here is the run-down of Day One of Twi-Tour....I will post pictures as soon as I take them off my camera and edit some of those. Let me preface everything by saying I had THE most amazing weekend ever with some of the best friends ever. It was an experience I will totally not forget and I hope I can do this again next year.
Our Twi-Tour weekend started really on Thursday evening when Creation Entertainment sent out an email to all attendees that Kellan Lutz had canceled his appearance for Sunday. To say that I was disappointed would be putting it mildly, I cried. Literally was crying in my office at work when I read the notice. This had been followed by Billy Burke canceling on Monday, and Jackson Rathbone and Ashley Greene canceling on Wednesday. So, four of the five original guests had been replaced by other celebs and the new line up became Mike Welch, Edi Gathegi, Gil Birmingham, Catherine Hardwicke, Justin Chon, Chrisitan Serratos, Chaske Spencer, and Alex Meraz. While it was quite exciting that we would get to meet eight celebs, it still didn't detract from the fact that we would not get to meet any Cullens. But, I was resolved to have a good weekend because I had spent too much damn money on this to let it get me down.
Friday morning I finished packing up and we met at Estrella Nails in Litchfield Park for pedicures and manicures. Cut-out Edward joined us and watched while we were pampered. After we left there, we checked in at the Best Western (we only had one night at the Wigwam) and quickly left to the Arrowhead Mall to pick up some last minute things we needed. We spent way too much time in the largest Forever 21 we've ever seen. We rushed out of the mall and sped down the 101 and stopped at Borders to pick up the New Moon calendar for autographs. Off to the hotel, we quickly got dressed in time to get to the Wigwam. The line was rather disorganized and the people that were working the check-in desk were obviously disgruntled and a little upset. It was hot, felt like the AC was not working, and we had to wait a while. We met Laura (Pel) from the Lexicon and she took a picture of me holding my Peace Love Vampires bag. Since I had purchased Photo Op tickets with Kellan and Jackson, and supposedly had gotten my credit card refunded (I still haven't), I had to fork over some more $ to purchase photo ops with Edi Gathegi and the Wolf Pack. After finally getting all that taken care of, we got to our seats. Whit, Melinda, and Jen were in row C and separated by an aisle and one seat. Whit was sitting by herself. Carrie and I were in row F and sitting beside the most obnoxious girl ever (more about that later). The Hillywood Show came on and served as our "hosts" for the weekend and they were pretty cool. Hilly and Hannah are the tiniest things ever and the boys aren't all that big also. I loved Jasper the best, he had a funny stare about him.
Catherine Hardwicke was up first and anyone attending could write questions out for them and drop them in the boxes outside. I didn't write out a question, but nearing the end, they took audience questions and I raised my hand. Jasper came and I stood up and said, "We all know the story of Rob auditioning on your bed and you and Kristen knowing that he was THE one. I'm wondering who else was up for the role before you decided that Rob was it?" She then answered that she had never been asked that and it was a good question and told us that Jackson Rathbone, Ben Barnes, and Shiloh Fernandez were all up for the role. She had labeled them bachelors 1, 2, 3, 4 and that Rob got "overheated" when he and Kristen were making out and that she needed to give him a few minutes to "collect himself." It was awesome! (More on this later)
Edi Gathegi came on next and he is so amazing, I don't have words. He has the most piercing gaze, and a great smile. He sags his jeans and several times he turned and the shirt was pulled up in the back a bit. He watched New Moon on Friday with Stephenie in a private theatre and mentioned that Taylor was with him. He made a phone call on stage, but it went straight to voicemail. During the Q/A, they pulled out one of Jen's questions and Melinda gasped really loudly so much that Edi laughed about it. He did the Kelly voice while he turned around "because he couldn't do it if people were watching him." A crazy fan girl asked for a hug and she was shaking and crying. Another actually just walked up to the stage and stood right in front of him to ask her question. It was a bit obnoxious, but he was such a good sport about it.
After this was over, they had photo ops and we stood in line for our pictures with Edi. Melinda went first and she had word vomit and said, "I'm Melinda, you're pretty hot." We cringed and then made tons of fun of her all weekend long. She was forbidden from speaking to any celebs again. After photo ops, we stood in line for FOREVER for autographs. This is the one thing that Creation doesn't have down to a science...the autographs. They had them on one side, then on another side, then in a different area....it was a mess! And the Creation people are total police-like if you do anything that deviates from their master plan. They are CRAZY! We finally got to the autograph table and got our Movie Companions signed. They are personalized signatures, it's very cool. Catherine is so down to earth and so awesome to speak to. All weekend I was twittering and checking my twitter on my phone. Well, Pel at the Lexicon was there and twittering as well about everything the celebs were saying. So, she tweets about the other actors up for the role of Edward and then about 12 other Twilight fan sites pick it up and retweet it. And all I could think was "OMG! What did I do?!" Nonetheless, I couldn't do anything about it now.
After the autographs, we were starving and went to find something to eat. We went to Village Inn and sat in a corner. Of course, we were the most obnoxious group there and I asked the waiter if we could take a picture and he shoved his way into the booth. He was irritating, took too long to take our order, bring our drinks, and bring our food. We devoured our food and when paying the bill we scared Jen by doing a "JENHOW" all at the same time.
We headed back to the Wigwam for the musical concert and got there just in time to see Gil Birmingham come out with his acoustic guitar. Although we missed Mike Welch with Goodnight Juliet, Gil was awesome! Very folksy, bluesy, and really fun to get into. I was so tired by the end of the night. I ran to the bathroom and then we left back to the Best Western. We were all so tired, but we squished onto our beds and then giggled like school girls for about another hour. I set the alarm for 7:30 AM and crashed. We had a big day on Saturday and Day Two will come up next!
Our Twi-Tour weekend started really on Thursday evening when Creation Entertainment sent out an email to all attendees that Kellan Lutz had canceled his appearance for Sunday. To say that I was disappointed would be putting it mildly, I cried. Literally was crying in my office at work when I read the notice. This had been followed by Billy Burke canceling on Monday, and Jackson Rathbone and Ashley Greene canceling on Wednesday. So, four of the five original guests had been replaced by other celebs and the new line up became Mike Welch, Edi Gathegi, Gil Birmingham, Catherine Hardwicke, Justin Chon, Chrisitan Serratos, Chaske Spencer, and Alex Meraz. While it was quite exciting that we would get to meet eight celebs, it still didn't detract from the fact that we would not get to meet any Cullens. But, I was resolved to have a good weekend because I had spent too much damn money on this to let it get me down.
Friday morning I finished packing up and we met at Estrella Nails in Litchfield Park for pedicures and manicures. Cut-out Edward joined us and watched while we were pampered. After we left there, we checked in at the Best Western (we only had one night at the Wigwam) and quickly left to the Arrowhead Mall to pick up some last minute things we needed. We spent way too much time in the largest Forever 21 we've ever seen. We rushed out of the mall and sped down the 101 and stopped at Borders to pick up the New Moon calendar for autographs. Off to the hotel, we quickly got dressed in time to get to the Wigwam. The line was rather disorganized and the people that were working the check-in desk were obviously disgruntled and a little upset. It was hot, felt like the AC was not working, and we had to wait a while. We met Laura (Pel) from the Lexicon and she took a picture of me holding my Peace Love Vampires bag. Since I had purchased Photo Op tickets with Kellan and Jackson, and supposedly had gotten my credit card refunded (I still haven't), I had to fork over some more $ to purchase photo ops with Edi Gathegi and the Wolf Pack. After finally getting all that taken care of, we got to our seats. Whit, Melinda, and Jen were in row C and separated by an aisle and one seat. Whit was sitting by herself. Carrie and I were in row F and sitting beside the most obnoxious girl ever (more about that later). The Hillywood Show came on and served as our "hosts" for the weekend and they were pretty cool. Hilly and Hannah are the tiniest things ever and the boys aren't all that big also. I loved Jasper the best, he had a funny stare about him.
Catherine Hardwicke was up first and anyone attending could write questions out for them and drop them in the boxes outside. I didn't write out a question, but nearing the end, they took audience questions and I raised my hand. Jasper came and I stood up and said, "We all know the story of Rob auditioning on your bed and you and Kristen knowing that he was THE one. I'm wondering who else was up for the role before you decided that Rob was it?" She then answered that she had never been asked that and it was a good question and told us that Jackson Rathbone, Ben Barnes, and Shiloh Fernandez were all up for the role. She had labeled them bachelors 1, 2, 3, 4 and that Rob got "overheated" when he and Kristen were making out and that she needed to give him a few minutes to "collect himself." It was awesome! (More on this later)
Edi Gathegi came on next and he is so amazing, I don't have words. He has the most piercing gaze, and a great smile. He sags his jeans and several times he turned and the shirt was pulled up in the back a bit. He watched New Moon on Friday with Stephenie in a private theatre and mentioned that Taylor was with him. He made a phone call on stage, but it went straight to voicemail. During the Q/A, they pulled out one of Jen's questions and Melinda gasped really loudly so much that Edi laughed about it. He did the Kelly voice while he turned around "because he couldn't do it if people were watching him." A crazy fan girl asked for a hug and she was shaking and crying. Another actually just walked up to the stage and stood right in front of him to ask her question. It was a bit obnoxious, but he was such a good sport about it.
After this was over, they had photo ops and we stood in line for our pictures with Edi. Melinda went first and she had word vomit and said, "I'm Melinda, you're pretty hot." We cringed and then made tons of fun of her all weekend long. She was forbidden from speaking to any celebs again. After photo ops, we stood in line for FOREVER for autographs. This is the one thing that Creation doesn't have down to a science...the autographs. They had them on one side, then on another side, then in a different area....it was a mess! And the Creation people are total police-like if you do anything that deviates from their master plan. They are CRAZY! We finally got to the autograph table and got our Movie Companions signed. They are personalized signatures, it's very cool. Catherine is so down to earth and so awesome to speak to. All weekend I was twittering and checking my twitter on my phone. Well, Pel at the Lexicon was there and twittering as well about everything the celebs were saying. So, she tweets about the other actors up for the role of Edward and then about 12 other Twilight fan sites pick it up and retweet it. And all I could think was "OMG! What did I do?!" Nonetheless, I couldn't do anything about it now.
After the autographs, we were starving and went to find something to eat. We went to Village Inn and sat in a corner. Of course, we were the most obnoxious group there and I asked the waiter if we could take a picture and he shoved his way into the booth. He was irritating, took too long to take our order, bring our drinks, and bring our food. We devoured our food and when paying the bill we scared Jen by doing a "JENHOW" all at the same time.
We headed back to the Wigwam for the musical concert and got there just in time to see Gil Birmingham come out with his acoustic guitar. Although we missed Mike Welch with Goodnight Juliet, Gil was awesome! Very folksy, bluesy, and really fun to get into. I was so tired by the end of the night. I ran to the bathroom and then we left back to the Best Western. We were all so tired, but we squished onto our beds and then giggled like school girls for about another hour. I set the alarm for 7:30 AM and crashed. We had a big day on Saturday and Day Two will come up next!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Difficult to work with...Ha!
So as someone new to the blogging world, unless you thus count the silly MySpace blogs I had, I had something that occured today that threw me for a loop.
About 8 months ago my life went on somewhat of a downward spiral and I went a little crazy. Not crazy in the way of someone saying they are "crazy-busy" or "things are crazy at work" but literally crazy. I fell into a pretty deep depression with a whole bunch of stuff from financial issues, health issues, family issues, and mostly work issues. From July 2008-about January 2009 things just sucked rocks. I lost 5 staff from Dec to Feb and I had to do a whole bunch of hiring. So, I hired 3 PT staff in January and then I had to hire a FT staff and I offered a promotion to an internal candidate. Before he was hired I met with him extensively to see if this was what he really wanted. I also suggested that he ask some of the other people that I have worked with about working with me because I didn't want him to go into this situation blindly and he may not want to work with me. He accepted the promotion about 6 weeks ago and I have to say that I am tickled pink by his work. For being so young (and I say that like I'm so old, but he's 7 years younger than me) he's got an incredible work ethic and I've noticed that we share similar work habits. I've reiterated with him on more than one occasion that if he's got issues with me he should bring them up to me so we can work on it together. Today I was meeting with another staff and we were discussing our new guy and what a great guy he is. I shared with this other staff what I had spoken to the new guy about and this other staff tells me that the new guy came by before he accepted this position and said that he'd heard that I was difficult to work with. I about laughed my butt off. I know I'm not the most easy-going person to work with, but I've never considered myself to be difficult to work with. But, what is funniest about this is that he still took the job! I must be doing something right! Ha!
About 8 months ago my life went on somewhat of a downward spiral and I went a little crazy. Not crazy in the way of someone saying they are "crazy-busy" or "things are crazy at work" but literally crazy. I fell into a pretty deep depression with a whole bunch of stuff from financial issues, health issues, family issues, and mostly work issues. From July 2008-about January 2009 things just sucked rocks. I lost 5 staff from Dec to Feb and I had to do a whole bunch of hiring. So, I hired 3 PT staff in January and then I had to hire a FT staff and I offered a promotion to an internal candidate. Before he was hired I met with him extensively to see if this was what he really wanted. I also suggested that he ask some of the other people that I have worked with about working with me because I didn't want him to go into this situation blindly and he may not want to work with me. He accepted the promotion about 6 weeks ago and I have to say that I am tickled pink by his work. For being so young (and I say that like I'm so old, but he's 7 years younger than me) he's got an incredible work ethic and I've noticed that we share similar work habits. I've reiterated with him on more than one occasion that if he's got issues with me he should bring them up to me so we can work on it together. Today I was meeting with another staff and we were discussing our new guy and what a great guy he is. I shared with this other staff what I had spoken to the new guy about and this other staff tells me that the new guy came by before he accepted this position and said that he'd heard that I was difficult to work with. I about laughed my butt off. I know I'm not the most easy-going person to work with, but I've never considered myself to be difficult to work with. But, what is funniest about this is that he still took the job! I must be doing something right! Ha!
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