Mostly Wordless Wednesday: And the nominee is...

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: and the nominee is....

...Penelope Strand. For her role portraying a 3 year old in Spoiled Rotten Only Child. The power struggle scenes with her parents were captivating and inspiring for any 3 year old. The award winning portion of course was the sweet apologies and little smile that always melted her mommy's best intentions. This little firecracker will surely have fans from the preschool generation for years to come.

I'm headed to the library this week to raid the parenting shelf. It has been a tough few weeks...

Anything Goes

For those of you who knew me as a kid and through high school, you'll know I was a little bit interested in theater. Okay, it was my life, and I wanted to be big on Broadway. By college I realized I wasn't the next Great White Way's triple threat...one director wrote on my audition sheet "we just wish your dancing and singing was as great as your smile," I don't take a lot of criticism well and I really like stability in a job. But it turns out that my really talented friends from Arizona had the right stuff. I know 3 people currently making their living on the stage and if I add in those who did it earlier in their twenties it is 6 people who broke into the professional world. That's a lot from a small town in AZ!

So when we were in New York, my mother in law bought us orchestra seats to Anything Goes. Now Anything Goes has always been one of my favorite shows. I was in the chorus when I was in the 4th grade. (On a side note, I question if that was an appropriate show for a 9 year old. I also question why I had the cassette to The Chorus Line at 10 years old.) But the really exciting part about seeing Anything Goes is my friend Ward from high school is in the chorus. I think this is his third or fourth stint on Broadway. I pretty much watched all the dance numbers he was in and thought two things: "oh, my gosh, this is his job!!!" and "I want to tap dance right now...or be in some kind of tap dance flash mob or something".

Okay, so we didn't tap dance, but I made Ward pose with me to reminisce our old musical high school days.

If you want to see his amazing talent. check out this video of the Anything Goes cast singing acapella http://playbill.com/multimedia/video/4851.html (Halfway through he has a solo of "I Get A Kick")

On the road again...

...don't know where we're goin', don't know where we've been...

Okay, we do know where we're going, I just love singing that song. We're headed to Rochester, MN. So for all of you who don't know MN geography...or you New Yorkers who don't know American geography*, Rochester is 80 miles southeast of Minneapolis and home to Mayo Clinic, my new employer.

Yup, another new job. I know I just changed last year...in fact my last day at this job will be on my 1 year anniversary.  A couple of months ago the development officer I know at Mayo Clinic called me to see if I'd be interested in a position there. I said yes right away. At my last job I met with other national fundraising organizations once a year to brainstorm and get ideas. Mayo Clinic was one of them. Thanks to those meetings I know the team I'll be working with, and I understand their program pretty well. I feel like I know what I'm getting into this time around! After 2 long interviews, essay assignments, and a background check I got the offer. We had a lot to consider but we feel this is the right move, especially since Chris's job will let him telecommute and Rochester has a lot to offer a young family.

For my high school/college friends and possibly even some family members who don't know what I do, I'm in direct response fundraising. You know when you get those mail pieces with labels in them, or that telefundraising call or email solicitations? That's me. I help manage the strategy, production and data analytics for all those things. You'd be surprised how many people are involved in getting that one piece in your mail box and making sure it was a successful fundraising mailing. It actually is really fun for me, but I often find discussing it with people not in the business, I get dazed glassy stares pretty quickly. So I've been in various parts of this industry since I graduated college and have worked with some really great people who have helped me along right from the beginning when I got the data entry job. Of course, I only planned to do the data entry until I realized my goal of  breaking into the publishing world and moved to NYC to live in a birdcage-size apartment.

Funny where life takes you, isn't it? I can tell you I had a lot of "nevers" when I graduated college. Never live in a small town or suburb, never have a car, never have kids (that's the worst one to think about). It's a very good thing I've changed my mind on all those "nevers." And despite some people's attitudes about Rochester, it does have 100,000 people---35,000 are Mayo employees, many recruited from around the nation and world--so it really isn't a small town. I mean it isn't like I'm going back to Sierra Vista.

So on to the next adventure! Anyone want to rent a cute bungalow in Minneapolis?

*This is not a stereotype. I had 3 coworkers in NY ask me where Minnesota was when we were moving here.

so behind

I know I'm really behind on the blogging....still have to tell about our great holidays in CT, seeing an old friend dancing on Broadway, our raucous new years (okay, not really, I was in bed by 10), and some big big big news.

But for now I'll just tell you about the conversation in the car today:

Penny: I didn't wet the bed at night time! I went to the potty.
Me: Yes, Penny. That was very good.
Penny: And then I came to Mommy's bed because I love Mommy and Daddy.

Ummm....our hearts melted....but I still said "Thank you Penny. I love you too, but you still need to sleep in your bed so we can get a good night's rest.

(By the way we have a theory that she wets the bed so that she can sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed. At 3 am I change her pajamas and bring her into our bed. I've tried to be better about changing the sheets and making her get back into her bed. She throws a tantrum when I do that. Last month at bedtime she was begging to go to Mommy's bed, Chris said no, and she peed right then and there. Agh! What would Freud say)