Merry Christmas everyone!  I’ve had such a chaotic semester, and I’m sure that I’ll be able to share more details after the holidays, but I wanted to allow myself to enjoy the stillness and wish everyone a very happy holiday!  May the joy of the Christmas season be with you!  And Oscar and Miles say Merry Christmas too

Merry Christmas from Miles and Oscar!

These days I can barely keep my head on straight.  My classes are much more work-intensive this term than they were last year.  I’m enjoying the material and I feel like I’m learning a lot, but there is so much homework!  It’s exhausting me, especially with two jobs.  I never have any free time anymore, LOL!  I will have one less class next term, and the one class that I have that is particularly time consuming (my advanced marketing class) will be over, so hopefully this will slow down in a couple of weeks once the term is over.

I am still working in the school’s development office as the development intern and the production marketing office as a marketing associate, so I’m really getting a feel for many different aspects of the business.  And I’m also gearing up for applying for internships for next year. To prepare, I reworked my resume (#26 on my 101 in 1001), which it DESPERATELY needed.  I’m pretty satisfied with how it turned out too!

I actually had a sort of phone interview this week with a theatre that I would really like to work with in Atlanta next year, and they’ve asked me to come for a more formal interview in person, probably in January.  I’m also starting to prepare other applications, though I may wait to act on them until this term is over (most of my classmates are waiting until January to start this process, so I am a tad early).

Exciting news came through this week about one of my other classes - we’re going to New York!  My Producing in the Commercial Theatre class will be going to NYC for a week to meet with various different people in the commercial theatre (Broadway) industry - producers, marketers, etc.  We really didn’t think the funding would come through on this, so we are so excited that it’s going to happen!

And once I’m back from that trip, I’ll have just a couple of weeks off from school (but not work) before we start back up again.  I can’t wait until school is over, LOL!

Today is Blog Action Day, and we’re talking about poverty!

Something simple that I do is sponsor children in third-world countries.  I have 2 boys right now (one through Children International and one through WorldVision), but one of them will be turning 18 very soon.  I have enjoyed getting see little snippets of their lives, and I feel great about the fact that I can help them receive proper care and education.

Another thing that I think is awesome is the gift guide that WorldVision sends out each year around the holidays.  Gifts that you can give to people include a donation for building a well, donations to buying livestock, donations for school supplies . . . or you can buy 12 months worth of gifts!

I know that by placing my money into the hands of trusted organizations such as Children International and WorldVision that I can make a difference even in places that I can’t go to myself.

Sidenote: This post fulfills #67 on my 101 in 1001.

Well, it’s been 1001 days since I decided to take on the enormous feat of my first 101 in 1001.  Grand total . . . 67.33% complete (68 items crossed off)!

Of course I was hoping for 100% completion, but considering how daunting MANY of my tasks were, I actually feel pretty good about this!  I did several things that I didn’t think I would get to do (travelling to Europe probably ranking #1), so I’m pretty excited about how it turned out.

Item #101 was to publish a new list today, and I am thrilled to say that I will now be crossing off that item!  Here is a link to my new 101 in 1001!  Can I beat my completion percentage from last time?  Check back in 1001 days . . .

Alright, time for a few more updates!

#12 - Learn to eat at least 3 new fruits and vegetables. I’ve learned to eat grapes, mangoes, and romaine lettuce!

#23 - Get Living Parables scripts published.
#25 - Make a video of Living Parables performances for all members.
I kept these on the list even after I graduated and was no longer a member of Living Parables.  However, this is proving to be difficult.  The resources that I had available to accomplish this were at Wake Forest, and since I am no longer a student, they are either not readily available or completely unavailable to me.  So, I kept them on just in case, but now it’s time to cross them off.
#29 - Get post office box at wherever I move to after graduation. I tried to do this, but I must be a NC resident in order to get a P.O. Box.  I left this on the list in case I moved within my 1001 days, but I’m still in NC, and still a FL resident, so I’m crossing it off the list!

#43 - Pay for the person behind me at a fast food drive thru. I did this one today at Steak N Shake!

#45 - Give blood. I’ve tried twice to give blood, and they always find an excuse to turn me away, LOL!  Perhaps next time around . . .

Only 3 days left to go!!!

OK, time for some more updates to my 101 in 1001.  Considering I only have 43 days left, it’s pretty clear that I’m not going to completely finish this list.  However, I’m still working away at it, and I’ve already got some great ideas for my next list.  One of the things I will be doing is try to carry over uncompleted goals from the current list to the new one, so I’m not letting myself off the hook, LOL!

#33 is host a formal dinner party.  I don’t know if you’d consider the dinner party that AJ and I had as formal, but it involved lots of awesome homecooked food, people we hadn’t seen in a while, and showing off all of AJ’s brand new dishes.  There was a theme, the house was spotless . . . in my mind the goal was a grown-up dinner party, and that’s what we had.

I had wanted to get Mama’s beads inventoried and make the inventory something she can easily work with daily (#61).  I got the system in place, but her interests have shifted somewhat, so this isn’t 100% complete.  I did my piece of it, even if she didn’t follow-through with actually utilizing the inventory system I set up.  Same goes for #72 - getting all of Mama’s email switched from Yahoo to her ISP account.  I got a great deal of it switched, but there are still a few things that she is choosing to keep on Yahoo.  I can’t force her to change that, but I did help her get set up better.

#70 - search for organic and free trade coffee and tea that I like, and make the switch.  I’m not going to do this with coffee right now because I get a free pound of coffee every week from Starbucks since I work there, and I’m not a particularly big fan of the fair trade or organic coffees that we have.  I can’t pass up the free coffee (I’m a poor grad student).  On the teas - I’m not really seeing a classification for fair trade tea, so perhaps that is yet to come.  However, i have found some awesome organic teas, and I have made the switch there.  Check!

The iTunes is sooo much happier now that #73 (reformat artists’ names on my iPod so that each one isn’t listed more than once) is finished.  However, I can tell that this might be something that I may have to constantly monitor and maintain.

When we went to Napa, we drank so many different wines.  I can’t really get a solid definition on what a “vintage wine” is, because they all have vintages, but we did some really cool barrell tasting, and I’m sure that somewhere in there I completed #90.

Only . . . 40 to go!  Sigh.

Oh man, am I tired, LOL!  Over here at Suspension of Disbelief I have been blogging for Children’s Literacy Initiative. During Day of Blogs 2008 my posts raised a total of $30! Here’s a little shoutout to my sponsors:

Khouria Jen @ The Literate Khouria
Myself

It’s been a small crowd this year, but I know that everyone will be out in full force for the official Blogathon in 2009! I really appreciate all the dedication of the people who put together this alternate for us, and I know I still had a lot of fun and met some cool people!  Thanks for a great day, and I’ll see you next year (if not sooner)!

This post is for the Day of Blogs 2008! I am blogging for Children’s Literacy Initiative. For more information about what I am doing, please click here, or you can sponsor me!

Thus we reach the end of Day of Blogs 2008!  I’ll post later on with a bit of a wrap-up, but right now my bed is calling my name!

This post is for the Day of Blogs 2008! I am blogging for Children’s Literacy Initiative. For more information about what I am doing, please click here, or you can sponsor me!

I can almost taste it!  Pillow, I’ll be there soon!!!

This post is for the Day of Blogs 2008! I am blogging for Children’s Literacy Initiative. For more information about what I am doing, please click here, or you can sponsor me!

I’m gonna go stand in the corner for half an hour . . .

This post is for the Day of Blogs 2008! I am blogging for Children’s Literacy Initiative. For more information about what I am doing, please click here, or you can sponsor me!

I loved Dr. Seuss when I was growing up - I mean, who didn’t?  My favorite was the Cat in the Hat since it had the pink ring in the bathtub.  What was your favorite?

This post is for the Day of Blogs 2008! I am blogging for Children’s Literacy Initiative. For more information about what I am doing, please click here, or you can sponsor me!

Harry Potter books - yay or nay?

I’m personally a resounding yay, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts . . .

This post is for the Day of Blogs 2008! I am blogging for Children’s Literacy Initiative. For more information about what I am doing, please click here, or you can sponsor me!