This is my 100th post. Whoa!

All of the sudden I have so much to tell about, but I am so tired from all of the excitement that I don’t know if I have the energy to write about it all!

From my last post, you can get the general tone of the weekend. I have told the story of it so many times that I’m starting to lose details because it feels so surreal, like a story, rather than something that actually happened. But there are some really exciting things that I don’t want to ever forget, so I’m going to attempt to capture a bit of them here.

Saturday morning and afternoon was much like the day before. We were catered to by the chef and butler, every meal was divine, and we went swimming three times in her glorious 93 degree pool. After the fourth pool time (after lunch, but before tea time), we retired to our rooms to make ourselves beautiful. Did I mention in the last post that our rooms were behind a secret door in the library that was made to look like one of the many shelves? The books had been cut in half and glued to a mock-shelf that swung open to reveal our little two bedroom, two bath apartment.

Anyway, we showered and the little one and I dressed in our first outfits for the evening. After which we strolled around the gardens and took lots and lots of photos looking cute. Guests started arriving, so we went into the house and said hello for a bit, then R. and I darted back to our rooms to get ready for our outing. As we were sitting there singing songs from the Lion King, our door opened and I expected J to walk in. She did. And Yo-Yo followed. In my bedroom! He snuck us into the private rehearsal of the quartet, which was happening in the bedroom of our hostess. An aside here – he remembered my name and gave me a big hug and I even got a picture with him – I am floored by what a wonderful, sweet, modest, fun person he is. He has the spirit of a little kid – totally playful!
After our private concert, R and I ducked out as to not disturb the grown-ups from their big person concert. This was of course sad for me and the small one, because we wanted to hear Yo-Yo play, but getting to meet him was a huge honor in itself. We hung out at Staples instead.

The party was nice. There were a lot of very old people, and I was more interested in playing with R. than socializing. We had a good time. The champagne was fabulous. I had three glasses. Yum. I started putting R. to bed, then grabbed her mother for the end of bedtime and wandered around alone for a bit and had some cake. Things started winding down and I switched with J so she could say goodbye to the guests. Again, after R was supposedly cuddled down in her bed, I emerged and talked more with Yo-Yo and the other musicians, who were the last ones to leave. Just as they were about to walk out the door, a huge thunderstorm broke and it started pouring, thundering and lightening. They were parked elsewhere on the property and didn’t want to leave in a downpour, so they decided to stay a few minutes longer.

R is terrified of storms. Which I knew was going to be a problem as I put her to bed. Well, as we were standing there in the hallway, a cute little girl in her pajamas peeks out of the secret passageway, holding her blanket, crying because she’s so scared. Of course we cuddle her and tell her it will be okay. Yo-Yo rubs her back and tries to talk her down. It’s not working so he says “here, I know what will make you feel better. Come with me!” He ducks into the library, and she snuggles down on the couch between me and her mom, and Yo-Yo opens up his cello case and asks her what type of music would make her feel better. Yo-Yo’s wife, standing in the hallway says something to the effect of “we have to go. Now!” but he paid her no mind and started playing some soft music to cheer her up. For about 2 minutes we were mesmerized by the best cello player in the entire world performing just for the four of us (our hostess was there as well). I happened to have my camera in hand, which I quickly switched to video, so happily, I have the entire moment saved for life. After a minute or two R asked his to stop playing, so he did, and then she asked “why does it rain??” and Yo-Yo answered her by telling her all about how rainclouds are like sponges and that they drip when they get too much water in them. It was a magical moment. He rushed away quickly to his bellowing wife, but not until giving out more hugs and thanking us for letting him play (what?!?!).

I am completely overwhelmed by this man. In every way. It was awesome.

J. and I stayed up and talked to our hostess for a while longer, then crawled off to bed. Sunday morning we had a lovely breakfast, another swim, then I drove back to the city to prepare for my interview. It was a whirlwind of excitement. A crazy, crazy, crazy whirlwind.

Amazing.

Sometimes life is just so perfect you feel the need to record it for all time so you won’t forget the feeling. Today is one of those days. Today was the start of a two and a half day, two night luxurious stay with a friend of the family for a party in the hostess’ honor.

We arrived at the home of our lovely hostess this afternoon a day before the other guests. Today is the day that the musicians rehearse (to make sure the acoustics are okay), and the hostess relaxes and her guests have fun! We arrived just in time to move in all of our bags (packing for this weekend was an event in itself. Today required three outfits (arrival, lunch/outing and dinner), and tomorrow requires four (breakfast, lunch/outing, dinner, party), not including the swimming attire, the cover-ups, the nightclothes, and of course make-up and jewelry – eight outfits each for three people equals a lot of bags. For lunch, the chef treated us to grilled salmon with a delightful dill sauce, the most delicious potato salad I have ever partaken of, a summer green salad with strawberries, peas, with a sweet, light dressing, a pasta dish that I can’t even begin to describe (it had pasta of all colors and a dressing that was reminiscent of a pasta salad, but with flavors that were totally out of this world), and fresh bread, right from the oven. It was served buffet style (the butler came in to tell us it was served and we meandered over as we pleased), and I had to go back for a second plate because it was so amazing. When we had finished, the butler came out (we were sitting at an outdoor dining table overlooking some of the most beautiful mountains ever), cleared our plates, and came back with a delightful surprise – dessert! Each plate had a small chocolate lava type brownie, and the tastiest lemon bars ever. MmmmmMmmm! [I keep using superlatives, which would usually bother me, but I honestly have never had food this amazing before!] It was so perfect.

Perfect is the best way to describe this entire experience. After lunch, we jumped into the pool which overlooks the mountains and even has a fake waterfall end, so it appears that the pool ends in a gentle waterfall into the valley below. It is kept at a delightful 90 degrees, so it feels like a perfect spa. When I finally removed myself from this joy (I wasn’t “done” because I could never be finished properly with such a delight), I set myself upon one of the four loungers with giant plush pillow tops that I have only ever seen before in spa advertisements. After out swim, I had to remove the small party as to not disturb the musicians, so we wandered around the quaint little town and did some errands such as going to an auto shop to read the codes for the check engine light on the car. When we returned (promptly 15 minutes after the rehearsal was scheduled to end), there were a bunch of cars in the driveway. Oooo lala. Was I about to meet the most amazing musician ever? Yes!!! We walked in and said a quick hello to everyone (YoYo included), then darted to our rooms for a moment (the youngin’ was pulling a Britney and had forgotten to put on underwear with her dress[!?!]), and when we returned we talked with everyone and I *ahem* flirted a little with YoYo (okay, he’s just a personable guy and flirts with everyone, but I was star-struck, so it’s exciting). The other musicians are some famous quartet that is based out of the Chicago area, and this is their first time playing with him as well, so we all got to be awed together. But I’m sure they’re great as well.

After the musicians left, we jumped into the pool once again for a quick dip before emerging for drinks and light snacks before dinner. There were the most delightful cheeses and wonderful offerings, and a most delicious white wine. Yum! We then were ushered over to the table for the beginning of our fancy dinner. We started with blueberry soup (it sounds odd, but it was delightful!), then we moved on to the main course of baby potatoes, asparagus, and a grilled chicken stuffed with basil and tomato (a grilled portabella was a substitute for the vegetarian). This is a little bit sad, because I very much dislike asparagus, and despise the texture of mushrooms, and after the previous offerings I was SO excited for dinner. But I actually didn’t hate the asparagus (it was a little crisp, and not at all stringy), and I politely choked down half of the grilled fungi. The baby potatoes were good though! And there was more fresh bread! Oh! And corn on the cob! So it was delightful. Dessert for this meal was a profiterole, a French dessert which I’ve only had a few times (most recently in Paris), but as with all of the other things, it was so much better. The pastry portion was similar to a cruller (did I spell that correctly?), with the soft inside that is so light and airy! I cannot begin to say what a treat it is to be waited on hand-and-foot like this. The chef is absolutely divine, her husband, the butler is very nice, and it so nice not to be the one to cook and do dishes for six or more people for a weekend!

After dinner we jumped in the pool (again! I know!), and put the small one to bed. It is now very late and I cannot wait to crawl into bed myself, but I am happy to have written down my thoughts. I hope tomorrow is just as lovely as today. I cannot wait to put on a pretty dress and enjoy this fancy fancy party tomorrow. If this is what money can buy, then maybe the saying that money can’t buy happiness is totally wrong. It’s not even my life and I’m happier than I’ve been in a very long time.

Work is… work. 10 more days!
S. has been in Central America since Sunday, and he’s already sick. I am both worried about him (I know what it is like to be alone and very sick in a foreign country when you don’t speak the language…), and I am also worried for me, because I don’t have the “iron stomach” he has. Luckily he was smart and got a prescription for Cipro before he left, so hopefully he should be feeling better soon. I have a ton of antibiotics left over from my sinus surgery, so I may preemptively self-medicate. I am aware that makes me selfish and I am helping create super-bugs, but I will admit that I want to be selfish here. Ps – I still have 10 days before I leave, but I’m about as packed as I can be.
One piece of very, very, very sad news. My parents got a dog the summer before I moved out for college. She was my “replacement” so they’d have someone to yell at :p Since I was home that summer, I really bonded with this cute little creature during that summer. So in many ways I still think of her as “my” puppy, even though she’s very much my dad’s. My mom told me last night that she ran off to catch a squirrel (as she often did) and she ended up on a main road about a mile from their house. She was hit by a motorcycle. Sad, sad, sad. I cried a lot when I heard that. My poor parents :/
On a brighter note, I have finally received some interest in my awesomeness as an employee, and will hopefully have a few interviews before I leave the country. It’s funny how it works – no one talks to you at all, then all the sudden the calls and emails start pouring in (that statement is slightly optimistic because it’s only a slight trickle at the moment, but I am excited nonetheless). I have an interview Monday and it’s not the job I would pick first out of a line-up, it is a job. WHOO!

I forgot to mention another wonderful/miserable thing.

A new tiny kitten!

She is sweet and loves to cuddle. She is also a terror who runs around like a wild savage.

So this post isn’t going to be too different from the previous: I am not content with my job/living situation, I am excited for Costa Rica, I love my iPhone.

My current position is that of a babysitter/personal assistant who doesn’t make a quarter of what she should be making, isn’t appreciated for her value (I am still thought of as the college girl who was hired as a babysitter, not a woman with an advanced degree in the field), and is basically doing a charity job for a friend, but the friend has no realization of that. I need to get out, but as of now, I have no housing options for the fall other than with this family – although that is leading to more menial, unappreciated tasks. (ex. on my weekends off I spend 6+ uncompensated hours doing work).

I have no problems taking constructive criticism from supervisors when I have a valid chance to defend my choices, but my employer has gone a little off the deep end and her unfounded criticism about people (which runs wild constantly because she thinks that every person who doesn’t devote his or her entire lives to her child is evil) turned toward me last night in a public setting, with no chance to defend myself. It was concerning a book which her child created that was left in a final version as the child had written, with pictures the child chose – not edited to copy my adult, stylized version. She does when she works with her, and as she did with her husband, the noble prize winning author as he was suffering from severe dementia. I will make no judgments about helping along an author who was once glorious in his decline (I think her “editing” in his final years was probably a large portion), but I do not find it appropriate for a young, special needs child. When I discover stories from my childhood, I am pleased to find silly writing styles, and interested by the decisions I made, and I am glad that they were not changed drastically from the original. (This books was edited for misspellings, major grammar, etc., just not COMPLETELY rewritten). </RANT>

Moving on… S. sent me a guide book for Costa Rica, and I am SO excited! Since moving, I have been feeling apathetic toward most things, trying to feign excitement because I know I should be excited, but I have been so stressed out that most emotions have been filtered for survival, including excitement. I’m afraid this colored much of my time in Paris, which is majorly disappointing. However, last night I finally felt truly excited about going. Not just excited to leave here, as has been my recent sentiment, but in reading about the places we may be staying and the things we may do, my fake excitement has turned a corner to genuine. It is quite refreshing (although I think some of my repressed frustration with other situations may be oozing out as well – but I am aware it’s not so healthy to keep it all pent up). I am also happy that I am going to be visiting someone this weekend who can always make me smile and I generally spend hours laughing with. I need it.

In the technological realm, I am happy again. Once the fiasco with transporting my computer was over, it was fixed and returned promptly (with no reformatting, thankfully)! Upon its return I remembered how much I love it. It is so fast, the keyboard is so lovely, and it is just such a wonderful machine. It helps that it’s set up just the way I like it and I don’t have to deal with other people’s junk cluttering it up or slowing it down. whooo!

So… the iPhone! I have to admit I haven’t had a lot of time to play with it or test it out because I have only had two days of being in a typical service area, and I didn’t have access to my computer to get it set up as I wanted during that time period. There are tons of things I love about it. I was concerned about typing without keys, but I have found that if I allow myself to trust the auto correct software, I can be even sloppy about my typing and it still gets it right. I love, love, LOVE the web browsing, my main gripe with my blackberry – it is actually easy to use, and fast!, and unlike my blackberry, I will actually use it on a regular basis. The Google maps is similar to the blackberry version. I haven’t had a chance to really use the gps, as I didn’t want to drive and test it simultaneously, but when I get back to civilization, I will test it out. Standing still, it seemed as accurate as the cell tower version, giving a pretty wide circle, but I may have had it in a mode where the GPS was disabled. I’ll have to play with it more. There are some features that I’m really surprised that it doesn’t have, as expressed by every other reviewer in the world – the lack of picture texting (what?!?), which my blackberry shared. It sends you a message asking you to log into a website from what I’ve been told. As long as all your contacts have phone email, this isn’t a problem, as emailed photos are easy, but still a weird thing to be left out. Another gripe is the lack of copy/paste which I used frequently on my blackberry. Also the lack of push email for Gmail, although I currently am signed up for a free trial of mobileme, from which I have created a hybrid forward, and I will switch it to Yahoo when the free trial is over. Although I expected there to be some sync with google calendar and such, which was also surprisingly left out. Overall though, I really do love it. I am very glad I waited for the second generation model, because the shortcomings now are few enough that the 3g and gps make up for it, but otherwise it would have been a questionable trade from my blackberry simply for better, but slower, browsing. Especially since I no longer have the majority of my friends in in-network calling (sorry guys!).

This entry took two days to write due to the annoyingness of my days, so I am not going to promise anything good in the near future. I will continue to whine up until my departure for C.R.

Oh yes – I am going to a fancy, fancy party this month at which Yo-Yo Ma is giving a private concert (he’s one of the many prominent guests), although “the help” (me) has to remove the child from the property for that section of the party as to not ruin it. Same for his rehearsal the day before. Although, the staff will be forced to cater to us as we are taking up the only two guest rooms on the grounds – because we are also guests of top priority (much to the chagrin of the staff, who recognizes we’re not as internationally known). Although I am excited to meet everyone, including the hostess who has had an interesting enough life to have published an autobiography and enough mula to toss around that she has started a 3 million dollar charitable foundation, and has donated at least triple that to a prominent university. Her other home (not in the sticks of the northeast), has an original Chegall and gardens that are supposed to be absolutely glorious, this property is supposed to be pretty nice as well. I am excited for this party.

Well, I’m back from Paris and have been travelling around the Northeast doing work stuff. I haven’t updated recently because 1. Dial-up, 2. all I want to do is whine, and 3. my computer is broken.

What? My precious, brand-new computer. Broken?? Yes. My backlight failed. I think little hands may have had some part in that. The last week has been a nightmare of calls to Sony (to get the repair order), FedEx (to schedule a pick 3 times before someone came) and back to Sony (they didn’t include the correct return label). Now I am in the exact place I was last Wednesday: broken computer, awaiting a package from Sony that I will send, then wait three weeks to get back. Probably wiped clean for absolutely no reason, with all the spamware reinstalled. UGH! We’ll see. In the meantime, dial-up and J.’s giant, annoying laptop with a faulty spacebar will have to do.

In other news, my job hunt has not returned so much as a “thanks for sending us your resume, now please go away.” I guess I’ll just keep sending out mass mailings of my resume and see what I can muster.

Anyway, all of these things won’t matter in a few weeks because I will be sitting in paradise with my lovely boyfriend. We’ll rendezvous in Costa Rica and spend three weeks backpacking through rainforest, hiking up volcanoes, and lounging on the beach. Perfect.

Also, on a much geekier note, I am also very excited about the release of the new iPhone on Friday. I hope there are some left by the time I get out of work and make it back to civilization! Although I am not excited about switching to a cruddier network, I am very excited to be rid of my ancient blackberry and move into the world of GPS, 3G, better web browsing and visual voicemail. Also, picture messaging will be nice to have again and I guess it will be nice to not have to bring my ipod and phone everywhere!