New Job

Check it out - Fox & Obel - the site is a little dated but you'll get the gist of it.

Fools

I was in a play called "Fools" this weekend. It was a smaller production out at the MCC barn theater. We've been rehearsing once a week for the past five months and all of our hard work finally paid off. We all did an amazing job. It was a very amusing play about a small village in the Ukraine that has been cursed with ignorance. My character's name was Sophia, and my parents hire a school teacher to come and educate me in the hopes of breaking the curse. I am a hopeless case, though..."Nineteen years old and she just learned to sit down" :p

It was such a wonderful cast, and we had so much fun with this show. It was one of the best times I've had working on a show. I am more than a little sad that it is all over and done with. We may complain sometimes that it is hard work and long nights, but no one ever wants a show to end...and we all eagerly await the next one. We don't have to wait long, though, because half of us are already in rehearsals for "A Christmas Story" :)

Bush Babies and Libraries

Nobody said that having kids was so much work! Albeit extremely rewarding work! Ian is getting smarter every day. He can make a tower of up to ten blocks using the museum picture blocks and then knock it down and sort them into their correct order by size. He can count to three. He does so each night when I turn off the light at bed time. "1, 2, 3!" Lights out. He is creating 3 word sentences describing actions and loves naming books. He now knows a number of animals on site, from cats and dogs to seals, penguins and bush babies.
One of our favorite things is to go to the library and read books and then walk across the street to the play ground. He says goodbye to the "slides" and "ups" when we leave. Yesterday we went to the playground only and he got upset that we were not going into the library. He kept saying, "read books" as I strapped him into his bike seat and making a fuss because we were going home.

so so tired

We made it through this deadline. Some of us worked until 11:30 last night... I got home at 12:30, Ian woke up at 12:45, I spent some time with him and probably got to bed at around 1:15 or 1:30... he woke up around 3:30 and realized I wasn't in his bed anymore and had a bit of a meltdown/tantrum. We got him to relax and breathe only by me sitting in a chair with him wrapped around my neck. So we sat like that for about 20 minutes before he decided he would be ok just sleeping between Mom and Dad. Then I slept and slept and woke up at the leasurely 7:30. I'm at work, it's 10am and I want to be back in bed... so so tired. Tonite I get to sleep. I am thinking a half day sounds good.

End of sumer update (sort of)

This summer has been somewhat frustrating for me because I had major problems finding a job. Actually, I still don't have one, but that's ok because I got something better. :)

An internship at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C.!!! Two weeks ago, I was in the kitchen getting ready to make cookies and watching a movie on my computer. All the sudden I heard talking coming from the front room, so I walked out there. Christine Mullen-Kreamer, a curator at the National Museum of African Art was leaving a message on our answering machine. I never heard the phone ring because of the movie. Anyway, I just let her leave a message because I walked in during the middle of it. She was calling to ask if I was still interested in/available for an internship at the NMAFA! She also wanted to know if this internship would be for college credit and if so, how many hours per week I would be able to work. They have a few different projects that they think would be good for me because of my previous experience in a museum. :D She left her number and said that she also saw that I had an e-mail address, and would maybe try to touch base with me that way. Lol, after practically hyperventilating for a minute, I called my mom to tell her and to calm my nerves so that I'd be able to call Ms. Kreamer back. So I did! But I got her voicemail. So I left a message saying that yes I am very interested in an internship and that I had recently graduated from college, so the internship would not be for college credit and that I would be available to work as much as they want me to. I left her both my house number and cell phone number and said that I was looking forward to hearing from her. YAY!!!!! :D This was the first internship that I applied to, and I hadn't heard anything yet, so I had figured that I wouldn't be getting one. And then this call!! :D I haven't heard anything further, so I e-mailed her as a sort of follow up to reiterate what I said in the voicemail. Both my parents and my brother said that I should call her again tomorrow too. I don't want to seem desperate or anything, but they all said that it'll just show how much I really want it. And they all said that I am desperate for this. :P at them. Later that evening I sent a follow up e-mail just to make sure that Ms. Kreamer received at least one message from me. The next morning I got this e-mail:

Hi Ashlea—Thanks for taking the initiative and following up via email. Yesterday I had zero time to myself to even get back in touch. I recall from your call that you are available and for as many hours as we need. However, since you have finished your studies and this would be a volunteer, unpaid internship, I need to ask you to think about your time commitment and what your goals and plans are in the DC area. Do you want to have a career in the museum field, given your experiences at Hope? Do you hope to go to grad school in the spring semester and, thus, this is sort of a semester-long professional development move you are making? Do you anticipate getting a part-time job to make some money? I see from your numbers that you live in the DC area, but want to confirm with you that you do have a place to live? I guess I am asking all this to make sure you have thought through the internship commitment and could devote the time this fall to it.

Okay, with that being said, we curators did think that you have a good set of skills that could assist we three curators in a number of activities:

--selected library research for various exhibition and article projects [ephemeral art; creativity of work; cosmos] and for object information on objects to be posted on the Web

--research on political figures featured ..ed factory print textiles in our collection

--search through contemporary art files to locate missing files [we have a list] and/or assist in completing those files

--compare existing label copies on same object and identify labels or passages of one or more that provide the best, most interest, most complete information for our public access Web site [you can check the objects information on our Web site to see that we feature particular objects and it comes along with an object ID and label copy, but we need to sort through versions of labels for the same object to ID the one(s) best suited to public access]

--general assistance re: filing, photocopying and the like

NOTE: given the list of activities, we will need to narrow down and manage your time so that you feel you have a fighting chance of making progress while you are here as an intern … identifying particular hours in a day to devote to one task; then shifting to another; etc. It will require you to manage your time well and to work independently to some degree once you get comfortable with the topic or activity.

I believe our internship commitment is for 10 weeks and, I believe, 20 hours a week, but I am copying Frank Esposito, our internship coordinator on this note to let him know that we are in contact. Please copy us both on your response. Once we hear back from you and can confirm your commitment re: time and start-up date, I will pass our emails on to the other curators in the department, Bryna Freyer and Karen Milbourne, as we three did review your application and liked what we saw!

Thanks again for getting in touch via email. Cheers--Chris



I GOT IT!!!! :D I got the internship!!!!!!! :D So now all that needs to be done is to figure out the details. I'm still not sure which projects I will be working on, but I do know when my internship will be. It's going to start October 8th and end December 12th (I think). I was originally going to start October 6, but Chris just e-mailed yesterday and said that she is in conferences all day on the 6th and 7th, so she pushed it back to the 8th. So, my internship is ending right before Brandon is going to head home for Christmas. So we're thinking he could swing through D.C. on his way home and pick me up and save my Mom and Dad the trip back down. :) My Mom, Dad, and Grandma Guernsey are going to move me down there, and I think we're leaving around September 25th. We're going to stop and visit Brandon before moving me in with my brother's friend Rebekah. She went to Hope with him, and told him that I could stay with her if I got an internship. She lives just outside D.C., just over the border of Virginia. We've talked on the phone once and she seems like the nicest person in the world. She has two dogs, one that's hers (a mutt named Ava) and one that's a foster dog (she watches them for the local shelter). The foster dog is a blind jack russel terrier and she said that he's the sweetest thing in the world. So I'll have some animal company while I'm down there! :) Josh is thinking about visiting for Thanksgiving, so hopefully I'll have some visitors while I'm down there. So yay! There's my good news! :D

Progress

BEFORE

AFTER

Isn't the master bedroom looking so much better now that it isn't that terrible lavender color? I think so. It also looks less like a cave and more like a liveable space. I am not usually a huge fan of white walls, but this room needed them. We are going to add a lot of color, though.

As you can see, we have already started adding color in the rest of the house. This is the blue accent wall in the living room. We are going to spend the weekend painting the rest of the room "trenchcoat" tan. We also put a fresh coat of red on all of the dining room walls. As we were peeling the tape off, we discovered that the crown molding in the living room and dining room are all the same beautiful hardwood as the rest of the trim in the house. I will never understand why people feel the need to paint wood trim. It baffles me. All the kitchen cabinets are the same hardwood as well! Afer our painting party this weekend and our moving in party next weekend, we are going to have to have a wood striping party. Who wants to come help?

We Closed!!!!

It's official! I'm a homeowner! Scary, idnit :p

The Black Beast of Arrrrrrgh!

My job is driving me CRAZY!! I can't stand it anymore! I am gettin' out.
I have applied to a bakery in town that a friend has recommended initially as weekend market help and possibly as an extern, which is a learning position that would take up 15 hrs a week. I would love to be a baker there, they make awesome stuff, but I gots ta sharpen me skills first. Charlie Trotters is still in the works. I am considering asking if they need any part or full time help in the interim so they can get taste of what they're in for. Anything to get away from where I am. The display cases have been down since last Tuesday! They new it might happen when they opened,I posted something about it a bit back, but they opened anyway. Turns out that their solution was a no go in reality and so they are back to square one. They have engaged the bureaucratic machine and the lawyers and are applying band-aid solutions.

Our New House

I figured I would get this whole blog thing going by updating everyone on the status of our new house. We finished up all the required repairs and the appraiser went back through this week. He gave everything the okay, so now we are just waiting for the mortgage company to finish up the last of the paperwork. We will hopefully be closing next Friday. It's very exciting...and more than a little bit scary :)

The house has tons of potential, and we have so many plans. Once we close, we are going to start cleaning and painting. The carpets are in desperate need of love. Since there are beautiful hardwood floors throughout the house, I just want to get rid of the carpet, but Joe wants to try cleaning it first. If anything, it will protect the floors from the paint. Go to my flickr site to see a "virtual tour" of the rest of the house.

The one room that doesn't need to be painted is the dining room. I love the dark jewel tones, so we are going to run with this theme throughout the house. The living room is going to be the tan and blue that we have in our current house. The master bedroom is going to be white with blue and purple accents. Ashton's room is going to be the best, though. It is going to have a whole jungle theme. Mom is making him a tree that will go floor to ceiling and we got him a leaf shaped canopy for his bed and a rope ladder for him to climb in on (in the hopes that he won't try to climb the tree). We'll be sure to post plenty of pictures as we progress.

Well, I am being informed that it is time for our bedtime story. Ashton is very anxious to know what happens next with James and his giant peach :)

Kaa-POW!

I wanna see some serious action on this blog! Time for some serious Blogger Kung Fu!

Meanwhile, our hero is establishing his alter ego....

The Stek Action Blog!

I thought that since I get such a good response to my blog that the Steks as a whole might want to get in on the action. A way to keep each other up to date on what is going on in our lives. Share what your doing, how your feeling, vent, rant, or share something you just think is cool. I don't have Joe's email address or Ashlea's so let me know what it is and I will add them. Maybe I'll just make everyone an administrator, that way you can invite people as you choose. I don't know how extended in the family we want to go so I will leave that up to you as individual's. Invite who you want. Might be fun to get as many as possible involved. More posts, more Action!