I finished my first week of work this afternoon. It was only 16 hours over 4 days. The second day I had to literally give myself a pep talk to go into work. I haven’t really worked in so long that I am completely out of the habit of having to be somewhere at a certain time in a certain outfit. But once I got there, I was fine and actually enjoyed it. Well I didn’t exactly enjoy hours on the computer by myself, but I have to learn their system. I did enjoy the last hour of work last night because I was out front talking with the guests giving advice on where to have dinner. Today was a training class, which was fun. Next week I’m only working 17 hours over 3 days because it’s slow for Thanksgiving, but I’ll be out front with the guests – not on full concierge duty yet, still learning how the hotel works, but at least I’ll be helping the guests while learning.

I was feeling better Sunday morning and deciding whether or not to go out to watch the Denver Broncos game because I really didn’t think I could take watching them lose again in public. My fate was decided for me when the power went out at 2:30.

I couldn’t drive anywhere because the community gate runs on electric. Luckily my laptop has a 4 hour battery life and my iphone was almost fully charged, but I plugged it into my laptop to fully charge it anyway. I called MLGW and they said about 3000 people were without power and it should be restored by 4:30. So for 2 hours I wrote and listened to my itunes on my laptop.

4:30 came and went with no power. I called MLGW again and they said by 6:30 power should be restored. So I turned off my laptop to save the battery because I only had about 2 hours left. Luckily I was still tweeting and facebooking from my iphone. I read for about an hour and ordered a pizza. I turned my laptop back on, plugged my iphone back in to charge it and watched $5 Cover from my itunes.

6:30 came and went and still no power. I called MLGW again and they said the power would be back on by 8:30. My laptop ran out of battery, so just before 7:30 I gave up and went to bed. I was going to read my kindle on my iphone. It was spooky though because the entire street was dark and I could hear every sound. As soon as I get settled into bed, the power came back on – and luckily stayed on. I went back out onto the couch to resume my evening.

I was without power for 5 hours. But in a way it worked out because I would have been devastated watching Denver lose by 40 points at home. Ugh!

I looked at my painted fingernails this morning and remembered I painted them Thursday morning in anticipation of all the plans I had this weekend. Thursday I started feeling allergic and had a terrible headache, so I didn’t go to the premiere of The Grace Card at Indie Memphis Film Festival Thursday night. Friday afternoon I developed chills even though it was 75 degrees inside my house. I didn’t go to the free showing of Mystery Train at the Shell. Instead, I went to bed at 7:30 – and didn’t get out of bed until after 10am this morning. I wasn’t sleeping the entire time though, only about 8 hours of it. I was feeling ok when I woke up, sleepy but ok. Then I started with that feeling, the one you get right before you get sick. So I took an amoxicillin left over from this summer, with hopes of getting rid of it before it gets too bad. I am supposed to be at the River Arts Festival right now, but I’m waiting it out to see how I feel. Maybe I’ll just rest until the screening of The Poor and Hungry with Craig Brewer tonight. I know I could power through and go to these events if I really wanted, but it’s just not worth it to me if I’m not feeling well.

So now it looks like I’m going to be the Memphis Travel Examiner as well as the Memphis Cultural Events Examiner. I’m very excited! This is a great way for me to get my name and writings and videos out there. Maybe one day I will be able to make a living at this. If not, at least I am enjoying myself.

With the Memphis Travel Examiner, I can write about all the Memphis tourist attractions I visit (Graceland, Sun, Pink Palace, etc) as well as all the daytrips I take and review tourist attractions in neighboring cities (Tunica, Tupelo, Jackson, etc). With the Memphis Cultural Events Examiner, I can write about all the events that take place in Memphis – festivals, concerts, movie and art openings, etc. This way I can cover everything I do and both examiner pages will be linked to my blog (links are to the right under ‘writings’) and my blog to examiner.com.

I went to Graceland today, but too tired to write about it now. Will post review and pics tomorrow.

It has been a crazy 24 hours. I lost 2 friends. I didn’t misplace them and they didn’t die. One just acted so incredible towards me with insults and judgements out of nowhere that I had to end our friendship. The other one is her wife, so by default I lose her too. Oh well, such is life I guess. Luckily my best friend talked to me about it and made me happy – the wine and Happy Days didn’t hurt either. But it was really Cindy who made me feel better.

I was supposed to go out this afternoon for lunch with a bunch of people, but I decided to stay in and watch bad tv and write. I feel great, even hopeful. Writing really helps me, even if I’m just writing my feelings or my memoirs, as I’m trying to do.

Tomorrow football starts! I have such an afternoon planned for myself with my vegan queso, vegan pizza, vegan beer and watching the Denver Broncos!!!

And just so there is no confusion, I’m not a vegan – I’m a vegetarian trying to be a vegan. But I can still eat vegan food and write about vegan food and promote vegan foods, right? I don’t want to lose any more friends over such an important issue

Yesterday was Labor Day, the unofficial last day of summer, which means today is the unofficial first day of Fall – my favorite time of year. September, October, November and December are my favorite months of the year. I always feel as if Fall is a new beginning. So as such I started a new journal.

Rather than starting it on new year’s day, I start it on Labor Day, which is the start of Fall and one month before my birthday. I’d rather record my life according to my years, rather than the calendar years. So I started a journal to record my 38th year. I had stopped writing in a journal when I started this blog, but began to realize that I need a journal too. I can’t make everything public can I ?

September starts the football season. Next Sunday is the first Denver Broncos game! September is also the start of my new job with the Grizzlies. There is much local Memphis music to hear in September. This past weekend was the Memphis Music & Heritage Festival and Cooper Young Festival is next Saturday. I’m also going to hear local bands at the Metal Museum and at the HiTone – and I’m sure many other places I don’t even know about yet. Also September brings baseball playoffs and the Redbirds won their division, so again are heading to the playoffs. I have my ticket to the first game on Wednesday!

October is my most favorite month of the year because it is my birthday – october 4th! This year I’m celebrating by spending the weekend in Nashville planned around my Denver Broncos playing the Tennessee Titans on October 3rd. I’m going to Nashville on Saturday, hanging out in the honkey tonks on broadway Saturday night, going to the broncos game sunday then the honkey tonks on broadway again sunday night, touring RCA Studio B Monday morning on my birthday then back to Memphis. Sadly Elvis and Cilla won’t be coming with me on this trip. October also brings the start of the NBA regular season. Go Grizzlies! Then end of October is the Indie Memphis Film Festival, which I hope to be volunteering at, but at the very least attending some great local movies. I also plan on visiting Graceland and Harrah’s a few times each this Fall.

November is the beginning of the holiday season – Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping and decorating for Christmas. And of course December is Christmas and New Year’s Eve, but more importantly I get to go home and visit my parents and Cindy’s family. Elvis and Cilla will go with me on that trip.

So maybe I do make all my thoughts public?

Finished my 3 days of training – a total of almost 14 hours. Now I won’t work again for at least 2 weeks and then only 4 events through October. So I guess I’m getting back into working very slowly. But it should pick up in November when the regular basketball season starts. I’m looking forward to it actually.

Planned my birthday weekend in Nashville. It was mostly planned. I had the hotel and my ticket for the Broncos game. Today I bought my ticket to tour RCA Studio B where Elvis recorded a lot of his songs, it’s actually an additional part of the Country Music Hall of Fame. I also found vegetarian restaurants in Nashville, but I’ll have to drive to them as they are not within walking distance of the hotel – rather northeast of the stadium.

I had my first day of work last night. Haven’t worked in over a year. It was a little slow because it was mostly just a bunch of HR stuff. I really liked the people, and I think it is going to be a really fun job – at least that’s what everyone keeps saying. Anyway, I’m looking forward to it - to meeting new people, to having a bit of a purpose, to getting out there. And because this job has flexibility and isn’t everyday 9-5, it doesn’t freak me out.

Go Grizzlies!

Elvis in the conference room my 1st day of work

So Sunday I mentioned that I had plans for the next 6 nights, well I didn’t do anything last night and I may stay home tonight. I didn’t back out on anyone though. I just decided not to go to the events I thought I might. But for sure I’m going out tomorrow during the day and out Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights and Sunday day. Tomorrow I have to get my car inspected and get the dogs their food and review a vegan restaurant, so I can write my Examiner.com article. Thursday and Saturday night’s plans I can’t back out of and the weather is supposed to so nice Friday that I will definitely attend Trolley night. So I guess my plans for next 6 nights really starts tonight – and it’s 5, not 6. No worries, that’s the beauty of doing what I want when I want.