BYU Management Society Dinner

 I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I had volunteered to help out with this annual dinner.  It's held each Spring at the Crystal Gateway Marriott and is held to acknowledge scholarship recipients as well as honoring others.

 So Thursday afternoon I met Judy (who is organizing this little extravaganza) at Wilson Florist to pick up all the flowers.  Jean, who owns the floral shop is in Judy's stake and had designed the floral arrangements for us and the other volunteers to put together the following day at Judy's house.  The Marriott had let us borrow the tall vases.  The table cloths were a shiny silver so Jean had designed the arrangements in a red and white motif.....which turned out to be pretty funny when we opened the door and all these BYU graduates came in.....a sea of RED awaited them!  Anyway, Judy and I got quite a bit done on Thursday between cutting flowers, misting, cutting and gluing the shiny beading for the vases so we were in really good shape when all the volunteers arrived Friday morning. In fact what was scheduled to be most of the day & evening turned into just a couple of hours allowing me to run a few errands out in her neck of the woods.

 

We got there early on Saturday to put everything together and the tables turned out beautifully. Our guest speaker was Sheri Dew who had sent enough books that every attendee got two as favors in their gift bags.

Really bad photo or they're all being translated......

Entertainment was by the Mormon Choir of DC who did a couple of songs then Sheri Dew spoke. She was terrific and really spoke off the cuff about men and women in the workplace.  She spoke of being unmarried and her struggles with that, and how she often has to speak about the power that the LDS church gives women in a world that perceives them as being persecuted.  I didn't get the impression that she planned on talking about that, but I could be wrong.  Anyway, I thought she was awesome.

Sheri Dew

It took us some time to break everything down at the end but it was fun giving away the flowers to all the volunteers who had helped and everyone was thrilled with their gift bags.  The Metro leaves right from the lobby of the hotel and man, oh man, were my feet killing me.  I took the long ride home to just relax and to gather up enough foot strength to finish the walk home from the metro to our apartment.  Rolled in about 11:30 pm and enjoyed a nice hot bath after a great evening.

Our Father's Farm or Taylor's Excellent Adventure

So, as I've mentioned here before, Taylor has a keen interest in being self-reliant, living off the grid, being self-supporting, etc.  He doesn't really plan to have a career in commercial farming but our friends Tom and Dalliss Furhmann have some land in VA (about a 4 hour drive from DC) and Tom has a brother who has adjoining property which he farms with pasture raised beef, poultry, eggs, milk, etc.  So when the opportunity arose for my Tom and Taylor to join other Tom on a weekend adventure, they jumped on it.

 Our Father's Farm has an interesting back story which you can read on their website, but Jack's family spent 7 years as missionaries in Africa before settling on the farm.  They don't use hormones, synthetic chemicals or antibiotics and subscribe to natural farming techniques.  The whole organic aspect of it is what most appeals to Taylor.  Though he is really more interested in the growing of organic plants and food, this part of it is attractive to him in terms of having just enough milk, eggs, etc. to keep him self-sustained. We've got 1/3 acre at home in Farmington and I think he's got his eyes set on turning our backyard into a mini farm.  He's talked about bee keeping as well.  Yikes!

Tom and his brother Jack with one of Jack's 8 children

Checking out the pond with one of Jack's boys and his friend

They got to help on the farm while they were there.  Setting up a new greenhouse.

More family photos but this one includes Tom and Jack's mother (Grandmere-she is french!) who also lives there.

Tom brought his gun with him for a little target shooting so Taylor gave it try.

 The "boys" came home plenty dirty after a full day of work, play and animals!  They also brought home some tasty things for our freezer.  We're grateful they let Taylor have the opportunity and for the hospitality they showed them.

Foggy Bottom

Old hair clippers but I like this cute little suitcase

Now that Eleanor is moved into the Seashore Gardens Living Center, Tom and his siblings are trying to get her house ready to sell.  While he was in NJ over the weekend they went over and started going through things.  A few treasures he brought home: 

Yep, that's a KitchenAid mixer!

Trinkets for Taylor to go through

A huge box of letters that he saved from when he was in the service.  I won't tell you how tall the pile of "old girl friend" letters was!

I met my friend Dalliss at the Foggy Bottom Metro station.  She's helping me with a project and this is about half way for us, PLUS she had never been to the Kennedy Center and I thought it would be fun to head there.   I like this Metro stop because it's always bustling with activity.  It's right outside George Washington University Hospital, the university itself, and the free Kennedy Center shuttle picks up every 15 minutes so there are always cool people hanging around.  Great for people watching  AND a little flower stand where the proprietor sells pretty bunches of roses for $5

 

We had a great walk around the Center (bazillions of kids there with their schools) then found a booth in the KC Cafe that we took over for a couple of hours of lunch and talk.  Great day!

Saint Patrick's Day

 From today's sermon: So St. Patrick was not actually Irish but was kidnapped from Scotland and taken to Ireland and held as a slave for six years until after much prayer he felt God telling him to run away. He escaped, but later felt called to go back to convert the Irish to Christianity after prayer and receiving a letter from his captives saying "We beg you, young man, come and walk among us once more". So Patrick returned and for 30 years planted hundreds of churches and baptized tens of thousands in Ireland who in turn sent missionaries throughout Europe to spread the gospel. So of course we've deemed the correct way to observe and celebrate this holiday is to dress in a subtle fashion and to drink green beer. Go figure.

I'm paraphrasing that very small part of today's message and he of course was making a point but I still found it humorous.  Tom left early this morning to head back to NJ.  His mom is being moved into a nursing home tomorrow and he wants to be there for the transition.  After I taught Sunday school I headed out to find the St. Patty's Day parade.  Taylor was there too but he kind of wanted some "alone" time after hanging at the apartment all weekend. He likes to wander the crowds and people watch. We went to dinner last night with our friends Jeff and Denise Jones, who we knew from Utah (this pix is from a ball we attended at Hill Air Force Base...we actually did very casual dining last night) and invited Taylor along but for whatever reason he wasn't much interested in hanging with the old people!  Denise and Jeff invited us to stay at their home while we were looking for a place to live out here then Jeff was deployed so we stayed there with Denise.  They've only been here for 18 months and were supposed to be here 3 years but just found out their getting moved again to Colorado.  They're kind of bummed about it as both their families are here in the area and their daughter is just starting middle school, but being in the Air Force they understand that when plans change you have to make adjustments.  They are perfect examples of being flexible and of looking at change as a grand adventure.  But I digress!

 I found the parade and watched for a bit but there wasn't a whole lot Irishness about it.  Taylor said there was much more at the beginning but I guess I just got the portion where other cultures were performing.

Don't know these gals, but thought they were cute!

 After getting my parade fill, I walked inside the National Gallery of Art to wander around in the quiet and just enjoy the amazing art.  I'm still stunned that these remarkable pieces are right down the street from me.  Talk about a blessing!  And I can go anytime, FOR FREE and enjoy their gorgeousness!

 Was going to jump on the Metro to head home but it was fairly nice out so opted to walk.  It's just fun being with people out having fun and enjoying a glorious Sunday afternoon.

Job Hunting

 This past week has been full of seeking employment!  I was invited to come in and meet with an agency and audition for them.  I had to do a comedic monologue, a classical monologue, a song, a dramatic AND a comedic scene from a screenplay.  Sheesh!  I got there early because I took the Metro and I'm never quite sure how far I'm going to walk (well, the directions on the website tell you how far it is but I have a tendency to not trust them) so I always show up a little early just to make sure!  Anyway, the building where Capital Talent Agency is just happens to be RIGHT where you step off the Metro so I had plenty of time to look around.

 Had a lovely little sitting area where I could relax for 20 minutes before going up to the tenth floor for my appointment.

It went well, but you never know about these things.  Will just have to wait and see!

A little wall art on my walk in Crystal City to the Marriott

Next I had an appointment with the LDS Job Resources office and met a great guy named Stephen Boyd who after our discussion, invited me to the BYU Management Society luncheon where they have networking and guest speakers.  The speaker was terrific and used to be a big shot with Ford and spoke about ethics in the work place.  I also signed up for a 2 day workshop in Maryland which is the office of the Job Resources people and it's also the Bishop's Storehouse.  Anyway, there were about 12 of us and they talked about re-working your resume', networking, figuring out what you really want to do, etc.  A lot of great info.  I'm going back this coming week for a 2 hour class just on resumes.  I'm having a hard time making my 30 years of acting, 5 years of real estate and my 20 years ago event and banquet planning translate into marketable skills on a resume'.  Hoping they can help me!

Brother Boyd also suggested I call Judy Istook who is in charge of the big BYU Society Dinner coming up next weekend and see if she needed any help.  So we communicated, I went to her volunteer meeting at The Marriott Hotel where the dinner is being held and it just so happened she lost her person in charge of flowers so I got that job in a hurry.  That will be a story for next week!

Finally, I got an invitation to come back to Ford's Theatre for another audition for a musical they're doing next winter.  They sent me music and some scenes but I don't have a piano so fortunately I found this little piano AP on my phone along with a recorder so I could plunk out the notes, record them and play it back.  Awesome!  I did feel a little ridiculous doing it but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do!

I took the Metro again and when I came around the corner there a ton of people lined up in front of Ford's Theatre.  I thought, "Oh brother!  So much for an invited audition!"  But it turns out they were all tourists waiting to get in to see the theatre.  The audition was actually across the street in the education/museum portion.  Pretty sure I was the only dorky actor snapping pictures while we waited to go in. But look at this cool tower made up of books about Lincoln!

They took us up in groups of about 8.  While we were waiting I overheard a girl talking about attending an audition in Salt Lake. We talked for a minute.  Have never met, her face kind of looked familiar but I don't know where from.....anyway, creepily small world!  Audition went well.  Man, it's been refreshing to have great accompanists who can sight read music.  Big shot director from NYC who seemed to like me so again.....who knows?  It's the name of the game....in this business they call show!