Livin' the life

Here's where I just found out my family will be living for the summer and early fall:


So sweet!

Gettin back in the game

Is it Thursday? Really?

I am three days in to my home stand, and things have gone well so far. I've worked 27 hours over the last three days, but I'm not exhausted or anything. I didn't run today, but there were other factors involved in that, and I think I may have to just suck it up and run in the morning, because the end of the work day is so completely unpredictable, especially if I want to run before dinner.

My family watched the season finale of Lost last night, which was really good but left me wishing they had answered another question or four before abandoning us for 8 months.

I saw a truck with a sign on the back today that asked "How am I driving?" and had a phone number, which caused me to wonder how they got their license if they don't know how they are driving. Had the sign read "How is my driving?" I could answer that question (actually not really, since it was parked), but I cannot assert, based solely on the state of the vehicle and its position on the road, how you are able to drive. That's not my problem.

The next 10 days look like this for me:

Friday: Work
Saturday: Pack and move
Sunday: Rest
Monday: Pack and move
Tuesday: Pick up Katie from the airport, pack and move
Wednesday: Work and clean
Thursday: Work, Abby's graduation
Friday: Go to Seattle
Saturday: Autumn's wedding
Sunday: Fly back on the red eye, Abby's grad party

Should be interesting.

Feeling Minnesota

12 days is simply unacceptable as a break on this blog, and I'm terribly sorry for the delay. I will try and make sure that doesn't happen again.

I guess there's been a ton that has happened over that time though. I graduated, a fact that has not sunk in at all, but that's to be expected I guess. My whole family was in town, and we had a great time driving around Nashville.

So I was going to go into this whole long explaination of the last couple of weeks, but I'm tired, so all I'm going to say is that I've done a bunch of stuff and now I'm back home for a couple weeks.

I've been here for one day, and I spent today running and then working, a tough combination that I will need some time to get used to. I have a feeling my legs are going to be pissed at me tomorrow.

Keep it real or else

I'm back in Nashville, ready for the end.

The rest of the week in Dallas went really well. Our team won our opening-round league, beating the #3 team from last year's competition. We placed second in our semi-final round, losing to the eventual runner-up in the nation. A great time was had by all.

I've spent the last couple of days moving all my stuff over to the new house, which is coming together quite nicely. We had our walk-through with our old landlord today and are now officially out of the Beech House. It was fun while it lasted, but I was ready for a change.

My parents and Abby got in tonight, and are now resting peacefully at the Main Stay Suites in Brentwood. Tomorrow I have commencement rehearsal at 10, during which time they will be seeing Melinda Doolittle perform in the Belmont ampitheater for a taped segment of American Idol. Belmont loves to have terrible timing. Around noon my other sisters and John will arrive, and we'll get lunch before hitting up Baccalaureate. Tomorrow night is the big open house party celebration thing at the new place, should be loads of fun.

Did I mention that I'm planning on going home for a month and a half in May and June? Well I am, unless I get a job offer too sweet to pass up. That's all there is on that.

i'll update more later, but I wanted to post a few links for press about the piracy video:

Belmont: http://forum.belmont.edu/umac/archives/007091.html
MPAA: http://mpaa.org/press_releases/sife%20release%205.7.pdf
More MPAA: http://mpaa.org/Issues_EduOutreach_OnCampus.asp
University Update: http://www.universityupdate.com/PAC10/UCLA/2566144.aspx

That's it for now... I'll try and keep you updated on if MTV works out...

VICTORY!!!!!

I'm down in Dallas for the SIFE National Competition right now. Today was a pretty low-key day, leading up to the "Rally of Champions Opening Ceremonies"; think the Olympics except the opposite of any coolness that image may conjure. It included a stirring rendition of "God Bless the USA", if that's any indication for you.

Anyway, at the end of the ceremony they announced the winners of the PSA competition. All the teams went up on stage and they announced:

3rd place: Rock Valley
2nd place: Roberts Wesleyan
1st place: BELMONT UNI-FREAKING-VERSITY!

I couldn't believe, and still don't really. My goal from the beginning was to make a commercial that was of great quality and had a clear message, and anything on top of that was bonus. And what a bonus this is! Such an awesome day. I'll try and post links to the press we get once they start coming in.

AND, when I called my sister Katie to tell her about it, she told me she's coming into Nashville on Friday for my graduation! Now everyone in the 'Ville gets to meet the missing piece of the Ahlberg puzzle. Let's hope they're ready...

The Future is Now

And then there were none.

I just completed my last final, a group verbal essay test that took about 25 minutes and was quite easy. Now I have no idea what to do with myself. Sarah was asking me the other day what I wanted for graduation from her and John, and I told her I hadn't even fully grasped the idea that I was graduating, let alone that someone would give me something for doing so.

What a crazy life it is. My mom called me yesterday morning to tell me that my parents' house sold. Thus, I guess I would be OK if I didn't find a job right away, because she's going to need some help back home, what with them coming down next weekend for my graduation, having Abby's graduation and subsequent open house the first weekend in June, and closing the deal on June 8. There are no plans on where my parents and Abby will live for the summer as far as I know either, so that adds another wrinkle to the landscape. It looks like they will spend the summer building a house though, and it wouldn't be a terrible situation to end up helping with that for a couple months. I guess we'll just wait and see, since I still have no word from O'Charley's or the Ryan Company guy or Dapco Investments. Awesome.

The rest of my weekend will include packing up my room, hanging out, and watching Spider-Man 3 tomorrow night. I'm excited; I haven't been to many movies this semester, and this summer I plan on making up for it.

I should probably get back out to where my class is waiting for all the groups to finish in case they get done early. But that's where I'm at right now, counting down the days to graduation and the realization that Belmont, as a student, is behind me.

PS - As much as I feel bad for Ryan that the Mavs lost last night, the Warriors have steadily grown on me, and will be my team to cheer for out of the West.

Bye Bye Belmont

On Tuesday, May 1, at 4:48 PM CST, I was released from my final class as an undergraduate student at Belmont University.

Wow.

Actually, yesterday was one of the weirdest days of class I have ever experienced at Belmont. I spent the morning working on two projects that I had been, as always, putting off until the last minute. I got to strategic management at 12:30, and we discussed for about an hour before Dr. Woodard told us that our final exam was going to:

A. Be taken in groups
B. Be verbal
C. Include pizza
D. All of the above

That's right, the correct answer is D on that one, so my final in there just got a billion times easier. After class, I had to run up to the 3rd floor computer lab to print off my group report for record company operations. During this process:

A. The machine to add money to the print cards was full
B. The printer was out of paper
C. The print station wouldn't print half of my documents
D. All of the above

Again, D is correct. So, for the first time in my career at Belmont, I turned in a project that didn't include everything it was supposed to. I think my prof was OK with it, and the class is a joke really, but it still felt weird to do. We presented anyway, and it went very well, so I'm not worried about that.

Then it finally came time for artist management, my last class. I'm not sure I could have planned a more boring way to end it all: the entire class was presentations on the life of Elvis, most of which went into far too much detail and were far too long. Rather anti-climactic.

Now I'm down to three finals (two tomorrow, one Friday), none of which I plan on studying for for longer than 20 minutes.

I'm starting to get excited for all the stuff that's coming up. I get to see my family, go to Dallas, be in Minnesota, all that fun stuff. I wish I wasn't in wait and see mode on the job front, because if that was worked out I would be able to enjoy this all that much more.

I've decided that I get really frustrated with people who have this need to feel indispensable. People who somehow need to know that the party or the evening would not be the same without their presence, that they are needed. Really, all you should need to know is that people like having you there, and even that, in my mind, is debatable. Why do people have this need for something that goes beyond acceptance to the feeling that their presence is a necessity, that people would not be able to enjoy themselves without them? And, if it's apparent that this is not the case at a social function, they decide to just up and leave because the only place they know they can go where they will be fully appreciated is where they're alone. When I was younger my mom always used to tell us when we didn't get our way that, half-jokingly, we deserve nothing but death. The older I get, the truer this statement has become to me though, and it really helps me to put things into better perspective. As much as I may think I need or deserve something, the truth is I don't. At all. No matter how hard I've worked, it's just not inherently mine. I think that's why these people bug me: you don't deserve to have attention and affection and respect. You really deserve the opposite of that, as do I. So suck it up and be happy that you're still here.

And that, friends, is my rant for the week.