Times are a-changin'!

My first post was about being jobless, show-less, and cookie-less.  I fixed the cookie problem by the second post and the results were delicious.

Well, GUESS WHAT?  I have solved the other two as well.

First, my show.  I got a paid chorus part for Night Blue's production of Evita - a brief tour in Michigan to perform with the Michigan Symphony Orchestra, and a run from October through November.  Yay for being paid to do musical theatre!  I also have a call-back for a well-paid show out in the burbs tomorrow, so auditioning has been going well.  An indication I'm doing the right thing?  I think so.

The job bit is slightly more complicated.  After (almost) 100 applications, I finally was hired at Massage Envy Spa as a sales associate/receptionist.  I started last week, and everyone there was so nice and wonderful, but the pay was not ideal and I could only get 20 hrs/week.  That I wouldn't be able to pay rent/save/have any extra was bad enough, but I want so badly to be a significant contributor to our household income, not just a miniscule fraction.  Hard to do as a working actor, ain't it?  (Resounding head nod from about 60% of my friends).

So the job search continued.  Long story short, I got a long-term temp job with Groupon as a Market Researcher, with some data entry.  Better pay, 40 hrs a week, possibility for permanent hire.  Woohoo!  But most of all, it means that, for the time being, I'm a contributor. 

So things are good.  I start Wednesday.  Panic attacks have stopped, at least for the moment. 

And now for a funny story.  We were out this weekend at Madison's Bar in good ol' Madison, WI for a friend's birthday, and I ordered my fav - Jameson on the rocks.  Later on in the evening, I wen to the bar to order another drink, when I woman at the bar calls me over to her. 

"The bartender and I saw you order the Jameson on the rocks....did you drink that entire thing?"

"Um, yeah."

"Holy shit!  We both agreed, that girl's got BALLS"

And there you have it.

K

Birthday Cake

I make, hands down, the best cheesecake of anyone anywhere.

I know what you may be thinking - "Oh I make a really great cheesecake, too" or "My mom is 5 TIMES better at making cheesecake" or "That's an awfully big claim - have you ever TASTED all of the cheesecakes in the world?" And to that my answer is yes, I have tasted every single cheesecake in the history of cheesecakes and mine is far superior.

It's simply adorable that you think anything would compare.  You're so cute!

My friends are coming down to celebrate Mehran's and my birthdays, and I made a white chocolate raspberry swirl cheesecake.  If it sounds amazing, it's because it is.

Here are some pictures.  Commence drooling.

Whipping egg whites

Sponge cake bottom

Swirling!

Finished product!  A little dark on the top, but it was my first time baking a cheesecake in the new oven.

K

Nobody likes you when you're 23

Stompy McStomp-Pants upstairs must be moving out, because it sounds as though an entire Iron Man gym has been repeatedly dropped above my bed.

Mehran and I saw Threesixty Theatre's production of Peter Pan last night.  It was nice.  Tech was awesome - they had Imax style projections on the screen above us, which made for some really cool scenes while the kids were flying to Neverland.  Great mermaid scene with ribbon acrobatics.  And the crocodile was a whimsically constructed two-man powered vehicle that came out at the audience and growled. The rest was nice, just nice.  The acting was fine, although a bit hard to hear sometimes over the roar of the AC.  Overall a pleasant evening.  My favorite part was watching the kids' faces when Tinkerbell would come flying in, or when the crocodile bellowed a roar.

He got me the tickets as a part of my birthday present - you see, my birthday is July 5th and is the absolute best time of the year (or so I've heard).  I'm 23 now.  The likelihood of me being cast as Natalie in Next to Normal is diminishing with every single day I'm alive so HURRY UP AND CAST ME, ALREADY.  The likelihood of me being cast as Cathy in The Last Five Years is ever increasing, so feel free to consider me now, casting directors, as I could totally ROCK that part.

I've had some auditions since we last met, but I will not be telling you what they are because I don't want to subject you to the nerve-racking waiting period and drink-inducing rejection that follows.  I just don't think you have the stomach for it, world.  But in all honesty, I kicked ass at both of them and won't hear back for a while so just cool your jets.

As for the job search - The only response I've gotten in a while came today, and it was a scam trying to get me to send a money-order to an mysterious orphanage, so YOU tell ME how it's going.

Today I think I'm going to explore the Chicago Public Library and pretend I'm Belle from Beauty and the Beast, so if you're in the stacks and hear someone singing "Be Our Guest", stop by and say hello.

Oh, and as promised, pictures of the snickerdoodles that were DELICIOUS - a perfect balance of crispy and chewy, sugar and cinnamon.  Also, some of the strawberry rhubarb pie I made a while ago.

See you in the stacks.

K

Jobless, show-less, cookie-less

Ok, let's do this.

HI.  I'm blogging! Ha!  How 21st century 20-something of me!

You may be thinking to yourself, "How very clever of her to be incorporating her two favorite things to do, acting and baking, in her blog title".  Alas!  It's not so clever.  There's actually a bakery in Britain with this very same name, although in my defense I discovered this after deciding upon this title. http://www.muchadoaboutmuffins.co.uk/

At the current moment I am in my fabulous new apartment in Chicago listening to Amy Winehouse contemplating my next move.  You see, I am jobless and have applied to nearly 50 jobs in the last week and a half, and have only been called back/interviewed by ONE of them.  Darn this economy!  I won't complain about my lack of employment for too long - but REALLY, people.  I can answer your phone.  I can file your files.  I can email your emails, set up travel itineraries, and order muffins for your big company meeting.  Hell, I'd personally MAKE YOU MUFFINS (see blog title).  But I'm an eternal optimist, and my money hasn't run out quite yet, so I'll keep going.

I have an audition for Summer and Smoke (T-Williams) tonight, and I'm excited for that.  I haven't done a straight play since Blood Wedding (Lorca) when I was still a student at the UW-Madison, and I could really (artistically) use this show.  I put up a white board in the apartment with all my auditions listed there, which I've determined will either need to grow in size or I need to find a new method because it's full.  Also on my to-do list: Find somewhere to take ballet lessons.  Hold me to it, folks.  Of course, one needs money to take ballet lessons, and we all know what that story is.

And now, food!  Mehran's birthday was yesterday.  (Mehran is my boy, which I'm sure you're all aware since we've been dating for almost five years).  We went to a Persian restaurant in Andersonville called Reza's, and it was phenomenal.  For the appetizer we got dolmeh, which are stuffed grape leaves.  They also brought out some lavash (yummy Persian flatbread), a feta block, and some radishes and greens.  YUM.  We each got a glass of the house Shiraz (to be extra Persian), and it was perfect.  Mehran got the kabob sultani, which is sirloin kabob over lima beans and dill rice and it was amazing.  I got the chicken kabob on the bone with white saffron rice and grilled tomatoes and onions, also great.  THEN they gave us some baklava and Persian donuts with rosewater for free because it was his birthday and they knew he was Persian.  That conversation went something like this:

Waitress: "Oh, you're Persian, aren't you?"
Mehran: "Yep!  How could you tell?"
Me: "I'm clearly NOT Persian".
Waitress: "No, you're just cute American girl!".

Needless to say, we were stuffed.  Now, usually for his birthday I make him an elaborate cheesecake (last year was either the Oreo cheesecake or a white chocolate raspberry), but the boy wanted to have a Dairy Queen ice cream cake.  Go figure.  So I got him a big ice cream cake and decorated it with edible glitter and now there's a ton in the fridge.  Come on over, I'll give you a piece.

So that's it!  I'm going to make some snickerdoodles and get ready for the audition tonight.  Pictures to come.

K