Sleeplessly leaving Seattle

All right, the craziness is slowly coming to an end. A recap:

Abby graduated on the high school football field Thursday night. It was probably the most student-centric graduation I've ever seen. They got to do a bunch of stuff they wanted to, and the administration was great at giving them that freedom. After the ceremony and the obligatory Dairy Queen run, I was off to John's house to get some sleep before my flight Friday morning.

I got to bed around 2 Friday morning and woke up at 6:30 to get to the airport on time. Not much for traffic, small lines at the airport; I was ahead of the game. My first flight was to Las Vegas, which was around 3 hours long and including a showing of "Breach" with Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillipe. It was quite entertaining, worth a rental if there's nothing else you want to see.

Anyway, I had about an hour and a half in Vegas before my next flight, so I took my time deciding what over-priced airport food I was going to purchase (ended up at Pretzelmaker or something like that (quite good)). I also played $2 worth of slots in the terminal, which I swiftly lost. We boarded a little behind schedule, and had to sit in our seats for an hour with no explanation as to why we weren't moving. I took advantage of this time to continue in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which I began Friday morning and am currently beyond the 400 page mark. Once in the air, the flight was a bit over 2 hours, and I arrived safely in Seattle at 3:04 (Pacific).

Ben picked me up and we went straight to the church, where the rehearsal was finishing up and people were getting ready for the rehearsal dinner, which was pizza and Jay Berry's. Dinner was great, I got to know Autumn's friends Amelia (actually named Emily) and Jena, whose house me, Ben, and Jess would sleep in that evening. Jena even knew how to play hand and foot, so we took advantage of that before adding Amelia for a few rounds of Pit. Bed time arrived between 10:30 and 11, and we all were up and out the door by 8:30 AM.

I spent the next several hours setting up for the reception with the wedding party and Autumn and Andy's families. I figured out at this point that this was a fairly small wedding, judging by the size of the hall and the number of places set. It's what they wanted, and the main reason they had it in Seattle in the first place, so I was cool with it.

The wedding itself took place at 3, followed by pictures and the reception. I was seated at the band table for the reception, since that's where Ben was and Jess was at the head table. We had some interesting conversations regarding foaming hand soap and platypuses, among other things, over a buffet dinner including salmon, chicken, potatoes, and lighter snacky foods.

Next up came the live music and dancing, which sounded great but didn't have as many people dancing as they had hoped, although I don't know how many of the 50 people they were expecting to dance... I did get a few spins in with Jess, and then it was time for the bride and groom to jet off to Seattle, where they awaited their Alaskan cruise.

The rest of us stayed behind and cleaned up the hall, which took about an hour, and then it came time for me to go to the airport; not because I wanted to, mind you, but because it was a half hour away and few people with cars were heading that way. So, I was dropped off at the airport (I'll switch to Central time for perspective's sake) at 11 PM for my flight that departed at 2:50 AM. Again, more Harry Potter was read, and by the time we boarded I was exhausted. I fell asleep before take-off, and woke up 2 hours later, somewhere over the Dakotas. We landed at just after 6 AM, at which point I got in my car and drove home, pulling in just before 9 (I almost fell asleep a couple of times, and my mom called me at the perfect time to make sure I was staying awake, otherwise it could have been disastrous). Sleep came again, this time in a bed, and I was out for around 3 and a half hours.

When I awoke, family and friends had already started arriving to help set up Abby's grad party. I made small talk in my pajamas with my grandpa for a bit, then finished up the slide show I had promised Abby I would do. More getting ready, more food prep, and before I knew it, 3 o'clock rolled around and people started coming.

Though the party officially ended at 6, they didn't really stop coming until 7:30 or 8. My parents made the comment that it was nice to have four grown children to share the hosting burden with, but I was unfortunately stuck with the proposition that any guest who talked to anyone else in my family undoubtedly asked how I was doing, and, when they found out I had graduated, wondered what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I can't count the number of times I had to explain how I kind of had a job, but not really, and that I loved Nashville and yes, the weather is quite lovely down there, blah blah blah. I was also given the joy of trying to explain the concept of a music video to my great-aunt Dolores, whose only point of reference are the Gaither Homecoming videos, which she says are getting a bit too modern for her tastes. I am now supposed to send her some of these odd four minutes videos so she can see if she likes them, and she told me I may even have a customer in her, or even a salesperson. She really has no idea what Just Kidding does (she thought the name was quite ridiculous in and off itself), I might just send her the newest Gaither video and she won't know the difference.

Anyway, that's that. My family is moving out on Saturday now instead of tomorrow, which gives my mom and sisters some much-needed time to finish up the packing while my dad and I have another banner week in the flooring world.

I'm gonna try and read some more Potter now, peace out.

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.

Nothing left but time

How can it be that I feel like I've been doing homework for the past week and yet I look at what I've accomplished and it isn't anything substantial. I wrote the most pointless paper of my collegiate career, a 5 page reflection on my internship experience this semester. The guidelines were incredibly vague, and I had to go back through twice in order to add enough fluff to make it onto the fifth page. I know I repeated myself probably three times in the paper (something I never do), and the structure was completely disjointed and sporadic. However, if Anita O'Dell actually reads these reflections, she is stupider than I give her credit for.

I am now down to one paper, two article summaries, two small presentations, and three tests. I will be completely done with everything on May 4th, giving me a day to get the rest of my stuff packed up before heading to Dallas.

Wow, with so much happening you'd think I'd have something new to say, but anything I write would be just a rehash of past postings on here. So, instead, I'm going to post a couple of great videos involving music that I've been shown recently on YouTube. Enjoy!







And finally, something amazing:

A house is not a home until you sign a lease

Have you ever tried coordinating three group projects simultaneously? It kind of sucks.

But... WE HAVE A HOUSE!!!!!!

At least, assuming my convictions for assault and battery don't show up on the background check, we have a house. It's just north of Murphy Road in West Nashville, and the house has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a basement that is at least usable as a Nintendo room/ card shack. There is lots of color on the walls, and the floor plan is compact yet open. I think it's a great house for us, and at a great price too. We should know for sure in the next couple of days.

It's kind of nice to have that mostly worked out, now I can focus on finding a job and finishing school. I have five more class periods this semester. Three weeks from today I will be done with all of my finals and on my way to Dallas for the weekend. Four weeks from today I'll be all graduated and saying goodbye to the fam as they head back to MN. And 7 weeks from today I'll be coming back from Seattle to MN for Abby's Open House (at least, that's most likely the plan). That's a butt load of change in less than two months.

I really wish that some of the variables in my job search would work themselves out. If my parents were going to move, I would be tempted to stop looking for now and go home for the summer to help my dad build the new house. If Just Kidding is able to get some more business, I would be tempted to stick around and temp around town to supplement whatever income they can give me. If I get the job at Rocketown, I'd be tempted to take it and work with Kurt and Tyler on more of a consulting basis. Again, I say there are too many variables in play at this point. I just need them to whittle down and preferably soon.

Matt and I went on a date Friday night to see Shooter, featuring my partial namesake, Mark Wahlberg. It was pretty good, a great guy movie. Lots of sweet guns, lots of blowing crap up, lots of revenge and deception. A great formula if I've heard one.

Time to work on my Artist Management project now. Lame.

Same old same old

Still no job: I heard back from on one of my applications (they've already filled the position). I don't think I'm going to hear from my other two. There's a new position I just found available at Rocketown as the weekend event manager. It involved a lot of booking and promoting and other things that I haven't necessarily done before but I think I could figure out. I may apply.

Still no house: The house that Jon and I looked at on Saturday seemed really promising, and the owners seemed genuinely interested in renting the place to us. But we've called and e-mailed them several times since, and they have yet to respond. A shame. Ryan and Tim are going to look at an apartment complex later this week at a 4 bedroom unit, and I'm in contact with another house to get a showing this week. So the options continue...

Still in school: My classes are all winding down. I have three weeks of class left (not including finals) in the semester. My Record Company Ops teacher canceled class today (which seems to be a weekly occurrence at this point), and my Strategic teacher loved the final draft of my individual case study. She thanked me for giving her something worth reading. I do what I can.

The group case in there is due one week from Thursday. My group has done relatively little of the project, and yet I don't get the sense that anyone is worried. Ah, the joys of being a senior.

Today is absolutely gorgeous. It's in the low 60s, partly cloudy, and dry. I put on a sweater when I left this morning after getting a little chilly on my morning run; I'm now thinking I need to take it off.

Tonight, rather than my usual Tuesday night ritual of... nothing, I will be helping with the filming of the next Just Kidding Production, a music video for Sarah Silva. Starts at 5, I get free food, and we're shooting in the new JKP office space, which we just gained access to yesterday. Should be a sweet deal.

And still no word on if the SIFE video made it into the top 10. Waiting...

Peripheral Constipation and the Rainbow Bridge

The first half of the above is the result of a well-timed game of charades that took place this evening at the Beech House. Seeing Doug act this out was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.

My mom sent me this poem earlier this week, and I think it's one of the funniest/most ridiculous things ever. For those of you that don't know, I am not a huge animal person. If you want to have a pet, I am cool with that, but don't expect me to play with it. Especially if it's a cat. And I really don't understand why people would have pet birds either. ANYWAY, this poem was sent to the owners of Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby-winning horse that they finally put to sleep earlier this week, on an internet message board. I am so happy that horse is gone; I don't see the point of CNN, or SportsCenter for that matter, wasting my time with updates on the health of a horse that won one race. It is people who write crap like this that make me wonder about the sanity of man. Enjoy.

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.

The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

I pray that this poem by an unknown author will help you in your time of loss. As a member of the veterinary profession I can assure you that you did the right thing and that he passed without pain. He will be waiting for you in Heaven.

I now have less than 100 days until graduation (97 to be exact). 14 weeks.

Beginning of the End

Today begins the last semester of my academic career.

Not that I actually had classes, mind you, but the semester did technically begin today. I spent my day at Gotee, getting reacquainted with how things work down there and discovering how things have changed. There are five people left who worked there a year ago, and one of them is leaving at the end of the month. Crazy. The new people seem real cool though, so the transition should be rather smooth.

I return to Reverb tonight. Oh joy! Oh rapture! I am apparently the inventory manager this semester or something like that, I'm not exactly sure. But that basically means that I get to tell them what they need to order, thus insuring that we don't end up without the big releases.

This Christmas Break was probably as perfect as I could have hoped. The first half was spent in MN, where I worked and hung out with my family. The only thing that could have made that better was more snow. The second half, back in Nashville, consisted of one of the truest stay-home vacation experiences ever. I have no regrets about how much or little I accomplished during the last two weeks. It's been incredibly refreshing.

I just realized that I have not mentioned how Children of Men turned out. Let me just say, you will be happy that you saw this movie, it is incredibly intense, well-made, and emotional. It's just great all around.

I've been watching some Grey's Anatomy this week with Jess, Kendra, and Julie. This is the first extended experience I've had with this show, and I can definitely see why people, particularly girls, can become addicted to it. It's extremely entertaining, and the characters and story-lines are well developed. Watching it though, I can't help but get frustrated with a lot of the characters from a guy's point of view, with complete jerks suddenly becoming charming and whatnot. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but I can't get through an episode without getting frustrated with the female mindset.

But that's just me.

'Twas the best of times

Things in Nashville today are quite amazing. I'm not just referring to the fact that it is 5 PM and my desktop weather guide still says 74 degrees either.

I remembered last night as I was reading before bed that I had an appointment with Tina Dishman, resident expert on all things graduation requirement related in the music business department, at 9 this morning. I knew going into the meeting that there was the potential, if everything went my way, that I could come out of this meeting only needing 14 credits this spring. Lo and behold, Belmont did not screw me over, and I will be taking 4 3-credit classes and a 2-credit internship this spring. That is approx. 4 credits fewer than any semester I've had since fall of freshman year, and by far my lightest schedule ever.

It will be very easy to fit these classes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, possibly all in a row even. That allows me to intern at Gotee (which is a for-sure thing now) two days a week and spend a day at Showdown helping with publishing. That place is connected to so many places in the industry, and they're really nice and the work has kind of grown on me, so I figure why not right?

My regular class schedule today consisted of a test in Mgmt Comm, which was rather easy, followed by lectures and discussions in Intl Business and Investments. I skipped Business Ethics for the first time this afternoon, and I feel no remorse whatsoever. I also found out last night that I convinced my ethics prof that one of his test questions was wrong, giving me an extra 2 points on my last test and keeping my hopes of an A in that class alive. That's really the only grade I'm mildly worried about, besides my grade from Gonas, and that will essentially come down to the 15-20 page final paper he's having us write. Should be a grand time.

My mom told me yesterday that they're dropping the price on our house (it's still for sale, in case you've forgotten), and the new price is so low that if someone doesn't buy it they're an idiot. That means that I may be doing some packing when I go home for Thanksgiving, and there's a better chance at Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I've been listening to Christmas music since September (although when do I really stop during the year?), and it just can't be topped. Even on a sunny day like today when I wore shorts and was feeling quite warm in a long-sleeve button up, I can still listen to my "Best of Christmas" playlist on iTunes and not feel stupid. Good times.

And now tonight I get to watch "The Office." I'm not sure what's going to happen though, this episode is called "Branch Closing." So unless a miracle happens, I have a feeling we're gonna see some major changes in the next few weeks. The best aspect of this whole turn of events is that it makes the chances of a Pam/Jim reunion infinitely better in the near future. Guess we'll wait and see!

And a side note: I like the fact that "Lost" isn't going to just show reruns mixed in with new episodes, but three months is far too long to wait for new episodes, even if the ending of this last one wasn't spectacular, as much as they tried to make it a cliff-hanger.

Oh, gravity, why can't we seem to keep it together?

I am now in Blogger Beta. I’m hoping this doesn’t make too much of a difference, but it will let me label stuff and eventually do other cool things too, so I figured I should just go for it.

Facebook added a “share” feature today, which I’m not exactly sure how it works, but I posted the America We Stand As One video on there, and I think other people can see that now. Possibly. Kind of confusing to start off with.

I had my investments mid-term yesterday, which went decently well. I know that I was wrong on part of one question, but I felt really good about the rest of it. Plus, Gonas likes to put things on a curve, so I’m not worried. All I have left for that class now is a massive out-of-class final paper that I think he expects to be 15-20 pages. Huh.

This weekend will include a little more Reverb than normal. I’m covering a few hours today and a few extra hours tomorrow, which should be loads and loads of fun. I've decided that, between my 18 hours of class and roughly 12 hours at Reverb, I spend at least 30 hours a week just kind of suffering through waiting for the event to pass. Kind of crappy way to spend 4 and a half months, but I need the credits and I need the money, so I will suffer through.

I officially applied for graduation today, which I didn't even know I had to do until yesterday but is completely done now. Weird.

The rest of my weekend, beyond Reverbage, is pretty wide open. I'm going to catch up on season 3 of Lost, go to the UM Harvest Party, and watch Nacho Libre, among other things. If that doesn't sound fun-filled, I don't know what does.