Am very tired and my go to be ridiculously early tonight. Have been unpacking and am settling in to the new place. I have too much stuff.

I walked to work this morning and it only took half an hour - this is actually a little faster than it will take me on the metro. Very exciting.

Anyway, I know you all don't care about that and want to hear more Honors stories.

For act two I was moved around a bit and for one segment was in a very prime location which will likely end up on the television broadcast. So if you are watching on December 29 on CBS, during the speech by Stephen Schwarzman (our chairman) and Aretha Franklin, I'm sitting dead centre of the orchestra about...ten rows back. People watching backstage said I was on the monitors which means I was taped. Of course I may end up edited out (shameful!) but we'll see. It's hard looking interested and engaged for extended periods of time.

For act one I had a terrific view of the Presidential box with the Obamas, Joe Biden and the Honorees. I was just below them, slightly to house right, two rows in front of the balcony overhang. When they first all came in, I was surprised that I actually felt chills seeing Bruce Springsteen next to Michelle Obama. It was really quite a remarkable experience.

Michelle was in purple and so was I! Look at me being all trendy. I had a pink wrap on though all the better to be spotted on TV :-)

We started our new rotations today. And of course because bureaucracy runs slowly, I had no computer. Apparently a computer had been requested, but IT believed that there was a computer at my work station and so did nothing. When being told that there wasn't one, they didn't believe it, but didn't come look until 2pm either. Supposedly I'll have one tomorrow. I left at 4 and went to Target.

Quick recap

Am just now home for the Honors extravaganza - it ran long so dinner was served at midnight - weeee!! Anyway, pretty remarkable event. I was a seat filler for the ceremony itself. In act one I sat next to jazz musician Christian McBride's wife while he played in the Dave Brubeck (apologies for spelling, it's 2am...) tribute (amazing by the way). His wife was lovely. When I explained to her that I was there to fill in for her husband she took me literally and talked to me throughout like we were old friends. To her left was the head of national counter terrorism. Yup, top guy looking for terrorists. I told him that in a movie he'd be played by Harrison Ford. He asked me if I meant young Harrison. I said yes, but I hadn't meant it! He actually was remarkably young for such a demanding job.

Celebs spotted up close: JON STEWART (yay!!!), Melissa Etheridge, Meryl Streep, Sharon Stone, Christian McBride (when he returned to his seat - jazz celeb), Herbie Hancock among others.

Best moment of the night, during the Bruce Springsteen tribute, seeing President Obama groove away while Melissa Etheridge played. He looks so tired, I think he could use a night off.

Bruce Springsteen is hot - something I'd never noticed before. Must now try to go see him in concert....

Good night, more tomorrow...

Honors here we come

I've moved!!! yay! Officially a resident of the District. Haven't unpacked, though made the bed. Hair = check

Nails = check

Now must hope the dress still fits and that I can find the appropriate undergarments to wear...and must leave in an hour. Wish me luck...

And so the crazy begins!

First I apologize to everyone who called me today that I could not speak with or have not called back. And it seemed that everyone I know called me! (which is lovely - but it's Honors weekend people! did you not read the last few posts?)

Adding to the crazy of Honors today was SNOW. Yes, it snowed in DC. I think a couple of inches in total, though none of it has lasted. It started this morning as I was on my way in to work and it sure did make people cranky. It was that pretty fluffy snow which in Canada we'd all just look out the window and say "awww pretty" and then go about our business. Here people can't drive and things shut down. Now it's just raining which is worse in my mind.

Today's major event was the Chairman's luncheon for the Honorees. Lots of big wigs in attendance. As well as all the Honorees of course- except Bruce Springsteen, not sure where he was. Anyway, so I got my first sighting of Robert De Niro and Dave Brubeck. I've met Mel Brooks of course because of The Producers in Toronto, and the fifth honoree, Grace Bumbry I'm sure is a lovely woman, but really no one is there looking for her autograph if you catch my drift.

Carol Burnett was at lunch as well as a couple of the folk from Criminal Minds (don't know their actual names). Senators and Congressmen were everywhere. I gave Michael York directions which was pretty much the hi-light of my afternoon.

The other big news this weekend is that tonight is my last night in Virginia. Tomorrow I officially live in the District. Yay!! It's very cool. I picked up my keys this afternoon and took a few bags over there tonight to ease the move in the morning. It's only a cab ride, but I thought if I didn't have to lug 4 cases all at once, that would be best. The place is bigger than I remember and my new roommate still seems very sweet. My own bathroom has a small tub - I had thought it was just a shower stall so this is really amazing news. Anyway, I'm feeling very positive about the change and all that it will bring. Tomorrow will be a crazy day, but will definitely be worth it.

Hmmm...this is my first posting from work and the site is coming up all funky, so I hope the end result is normal...
Honors madness has begun so I may not be able to post again until Monday - please be patient! That and the move makes for one very busy weekend.
I have very little to do actually - much less busy than I had anticipated. Tomorrow I'm at the Honorees luncheon - probably at a table in a different room from them! (but that's okay) and Sunday itself I don't have to be around until about 5pm. I'm a seat filler for the awards show itself, which means I'm likely to be on camera at some point as I sit next to a presenter's wife - bit stressful really, but should be fun. We have also just found out that we will be seated for the dinner afterwards as well - which is very unexpected. And kinda cool.
Preparations have already begun with areas of the building off limits and the front plaza being powerwashed. I have my Honors badge! (I took a picture, will post it next week :-) )
And I am very glad I don't drive in as the list of restrictions on the parking garage this weekend was about 3 pages long. The sniffer dogs will be in full force. However, the gift store remains open, so if Robert De Niro wants to pop in and buy a KC mug, he'll be able to do so....

Next rotations

So Monday, yes the day after the Honors, we start in our new rotations. As I may have mentioned, I'll be in marketing for half a rotation and then switching to theatre programming for the remainder. I met with the theatre boys here (yes, three of them, all boys) and think that all is going to be just fine. My supervisor John is worried that I'll be bored because it's all work I've done before, but as I said to him, I've not done it for the KC. And it's going to be busy, busy, busy as I'll be working on our McNally 3 play festival so lots of actors and creative types stressing about the place. Love it.

Marketing typically only gets two fellows per rotation and I am a bit of an add on because of my weird situation. So I won't actually be sitting in the marketing department (no room), I will actually take up residence in the theatre department right away but do marketing work - this is actually on an entirely different floor, but okay by me.

There is really very poor communication between departments - which I suppose is not unusual for large organizations. So John calls me today and asks when my marketing rotation starts (and therefore when I'll be joining them downstairs). "Monday", I say. "Hmmmm. There might be a logistical problem with that", he says. "Oh?" "Yes, that's where Max (VP of theatre programming) likes to put the Christmas tree. Looks like you are going to kill Christmas, I hope you're okay with that..." Imagine this completely deadpan.

I love it already. My plan tomorrow is to show up with some sort of Christmas tree thing (perhaps a hat if I can find one...) and present it to Max in order to save Christmas.

A typical Tuesday

Today was a very bizarre day. I ended up at three events, none of which I was attending when the day started.

In the afternoon I went to the dress rehearsal for our next TYA show Teddy Roosevelt and the Ghostly Mistletoe. A significant portion of our children's programming seems to focus on tales about presidents. The stories are fiction, but they give little educational tidbits throughout - helpful for me, because I know very little about American Presidents. This one was about the President not wanting a Christmas tree but his kids trying to persuade him to get one. It was quite cute, with some fun slap-stick bits which I'm sure the kids in particular would enjoy, but I didn't find the writing overly strong.

I then attended a panel discussion with four of the actors from August Osage County. Why did I do this??? I was kicking myself about 2 minutes in. Actors, when given the opportunity to speak in public, talk about themselves. Endlessly. And they aren't very interesting or articulate (with rare exceptions of course). This was mind-numbing. My Toronto friends will be pleased to know that they loved the audiences in TO (though they slammed the Canon Theatre itself - which is hard to fault them for...). One of the actresses kept saying "hilar", because of course saying the full word "hilarious" is just too much work. How many ways can I say annoying??Anyway, in addition the event was poorly moderated and so the hour felt much, much longer.

And lastly I went to a lecture by these folk:

http://www.nysocialdiary.com/node/281959

It was on:

“A World of Trouble: The White House & the Middle East--from the Cold War to the War on Terror”

I felt a bit like there should have been a secret handshake or something to get in. It was a room full of retired journalists and high up Capitol Hill folk (who I'm sure I should likely have recognized). It was interesting, but far too broad a topic to be covered in an hour and the speaker basically summed it all up with "it's complicated", which wasn't really anything we didn't know going in. It was like a DC lefty version of some of the political groups some of my Canadian relatives have been known to attend :-) It was that high functioning, retired but still engaged demographic. It was however, a pleasant change from talking about arts management in these troubled economic times! Which is what I spend all day talking about and debating...