Life is to short to live it without a smile...or a mustache

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Sizing up the people and land.

It is finally official, I have started my blog!  To some this may seem like a small task but for me this is huge.  I in theory hate the idea of blogging because it is so simple for readers to take things out of context and somehow people seem to get hurt.....just and FYI, this will not be that type of blog.  My intent for this blog is to show my growth over this next year and allow friends and family to stay current on my busy life.  I don’t know how often I will post but I hope to try and at least post every couple of weeks if not more.  Now to the stuff you actually care about....

I have now called sunny Sarasota my home for a little over two weeks yet it feels like months already.  I love work, my housemates, and the beaches! I live in a four-plex apartment with two other interns and I couldn’t be happier with our fit.  Below are a couple pictures of our place.














Matt is the Intern Pianist and Blake is both the Marketing and Development Intern.  Our apartment is located on the upper right side of the building (mostly behind the big tree over the little palm tree).  It is a cute little four bedroom apartment and seems to be fitting us well after a GOOD clean and mopping.  It is now known as the BEST intern apartment and we were asked after our first bi-weekly cleaning inspection to invite the other interns over and show them what clean is.  My room is no joke a back porch but it is very cool.  Two complete walls of my room are giant windows and I even have a little porch off my room. I can't wait for it to cool down a bit so I can open my blinds more to see all the palm trees right outside my windows and to be able to sit out on my little deck.

The city here is very cute but we have learned quickly that things shut down really early since the population here is quite old.  I have already been to Lido Beach (an island beach only 1.5 miles away), Siesta Key (only 2.5 miles away on a second island and it was recently voted again the best beach in America), "The Salty Dog" as seen on Man vs. Food, a new little Irish pub in town that we took an elevator up to off the sidewalk, multiple little fast food places that we don’t have on the west coast, and a couple 7- Elevens to get a slurpee and cool down.  Below is a picture of my two housemates and Kate the Lighting Intern at "The Salty Dog".

Work over the past couple of weeks has been amazing and crazy all at once.  I walked in the first day and was given a desk, a computer, a company email, a personal sewing machine station as well as a high top work table (roughly 4'x10' that takes up half of the huge costume shop).  I have a real job basically!  Already I have attended two "Meet and Greets" with two casts of shows that are now under construction in my world, been to multiple production meetings and multiple production staff meetings, conducted measurement fittings for the first show all on my own, built two pleated tea length skirts, made two shawls, and constructed from small baby cow hides, a full length leather trench coat with all the bells and whistles.  The designer and my boss were going to hire out the coat work to a local guy that specializes in leather work but they decided to let me try it because the liked my work on the skirts earlier.  It is still a work in progress and pictures will be up soon but today there was talk of auctioning it off for a profit builder after the run.  Talk about an honor since one, I have never worked on leather before and two,
I have never used an industrial sewing machine that is needed to sew the leather.  You can bet I am the leather master now and I will be updating my special skills section on my resume.

The most exciting things that I have had happen to me thus far include, the coat job, having my supervisor tell the casting/hiring person that she is glad that he found me and pushed for me, being introduced to a women that owns a dress shop in town that produces her own line of dresses and recently has “dressed” shows on Broadway for over 10 years, and I  was told that I could most likely dress the first Equity Main Stage show Next to Normal (look it up if you don’t know it).

Over all I am very happy that I am here and I love the things that I am learning and getting to do.  I will admit there is nothing like sneaking into the Ritz Carlton that is across the street from my apartment and tanning poolside with a waiter waiting on you for free (all because the pool was accidently built on public park property; they are not allowed to ask you if you are a guest I guess).  As much fun as these first couple of weeks of extended vacation have been, I miss my homes back in Spokane and Idaho.  Things are just so different here and life is just not the same.  I miss my friends and family like you will never know but am excited to continue to make friends and family here too.  I miss the mountains, the inside jokes that no one gets here, the stupid everyday habits of the guys in the house, cool evenings, walks on campus in the rain, school and everything and everyone that comes with it (yes, even hw), walking in and sitting down in someone’s room or office just to bullshitting, smiles from people you don’t even know in the store or on the street, bugs that don’t crawl like crazy, clean tasting/smelling water, running around the block (clothed or not) without worry of someone shooting you or something, and driving. 

You can say I have been sizing up the people and the land here and I can’t wait for what is next!

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like great fun Court! You are missed here too, I can vouch for all of us when I say that I think. I can't wait to hear more from you soon. Ill be waiting : )

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  2. Court it sounds like you are having such a blast! And that you are making a great impression there :) I am so excited to see how your year continues to go! Keep us all up dated.

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