Chapter three

[Since the weather can’t decide whether it wants to storm or not, I figured now would be the perfect time to finish my blog post.]

August 15, 2009 – Happy birthday sister!

And so ends my second full week in the windy city. It’s slowly starting to feel more comfortable here (except for the incredible heat wave that decided to arrive the same time I did…oh, and my AC isn’t working…splendid).

I met some really cool girls who were taking the TDC intensive this week thanks to Jessica Ehlert. It’s nice to meet other dancers who have been in the city for a while – they went to school at Columbia College which, by the way, has a 5 year BFA track instead of the U of M’s 4…I found that interesting. One of the girls I met has started her very own “pick-up” company that has had a few fundraising shows already. I plan on checking it out and maybe even getting involved in it. It’s funny how grabbing a bite to eat can end in a meeting a potential colleague or (hopefully) friendship.

In other news, I got the job at the Harris Theater and I started working last Wednesday. It’s tougher than I originally thought it would be; selling, that is. Instead of people coming to the box office and buying tickets – which is what we did at the Southern – we are calling patrons who have been to the theater before and selling them our pitch in hopes that they agree to buy tickets through us. I don’t get paid much but we do have a small commission. However, the thing with the commission is we only start making commission once we sell $400 worth of stuff (tickets or donations). With what the other newbies and I are working on, it is hard to make commission. I only made one sale last week for $75 (but that is the equivalent of selling 3 subscriptions of what I’m working on). Normally, a single ticket would cost that much…making it much easier to make commission. The other factor is actually making contact with people on the phone. For every person I talk to I probably called about 20 numbers. Hopefully it will get better and easier with time. Let’s just say I think I will continue my job search just in case.

Tomorrow starts week three with TDC and my third week in Chicago (what’s more, I think I can make it to the weekend without doing laundry…saving money, yeah!). I will be working in the office Monday and Tuesday answering phones and taking messages because the Managing Director will be on vacation…in HI. JEALOUS! Because I will be working in the office right after class, my days Monday and Tuesday will be VERY long – I will leave the house at 8:15 a.m. and get back a little after 10 p.m. and one of those days will be even later because I will be getting together with my uncle Geoff after work since he’s coming in to town for work. I’m not complaining about getting together with him by any means, I just wish I could go home and drop my dance stuff off and take a shower at some point. The list of a busy dancer!

Thanks to Naomi’s assistance I have put up most of my photos in my room. It now looks almost homey. Almost. There are still a few things I need to hang on the walls and I may need to get a rack for my DVDs but other than those two things I think my room is pretty much done.

I guess that’s about it. Yay for fresh cookies!