Hi there...again...

So...it's been like two years since I've written anything on here. I don't know why that is. I have a laptop, iPad, iPhone and crazy, chronic insomnia. So what I'm getting at is, I can literally blog from wherever I am and whatever hour I desire, and yet it's been two years. Maybe writing just isn't my thing. I mean I have been working on two short stories now, and both have seemed to fizzle out. Then I tell myself that I must have adult ADD. I do get bored fairly quickly with things, ie: video games and the like. The only things that seems to keep me fully entertained are movies. Anywho, I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again, but I'm gonna try and be better at maintaining this blog that no one ever reads. Maybe it's time I get a tumblr blog, like everyone else in the world...I guess that's all I have to say for now. So, till next time...have wonderful days.

Thanksgiving 2011...

It has just turned midnight making it Thanksgiving 2011. I thought I'd take this opportunity to make the typical "what I'm thankful for" list. So here goes:

First off, I'm thankful for my wonderful family. Without their continued love and support, I don't know how I would have made it through all these years. I have the best family in the world and I wouldn't trade them in for anything.

I am thankful for my AMAZING job at Sea World. Not only do I get to perform for thousands of people a day, but it has also given me the opportunity to meet and work with some of the best people I've ever met. Every day at work is awesome and I feel blessed that I have been given a wonderful gift.

There's my roommates and their kids (my Godchildren). I wouldn't have a home without them. They are always there for me no matter what.

Of course I am thankful for all my other friends. Even though I don't see all of them on a regular basis, I hope they know that they are a large part of my life and have helped make me who I am today.

As 'bad' as it may sound, I'm thankful for all my material possessions since at the start of this year the majority of my stuff was stolen out of my storage unit. I have been lucky enough to build up my collection of stuff to not be so small.

I am thankful for my kitty, Chase McGuff. He is the best cat ever.

There are so many things to be thankful for this year. I know I have forgotten so many things.

I suppose mostly I am just thankful to be living my life the way that I want and with all the love and support I could ask for from so many wonderful people.

Thanks for reading! Adios for now.

Bad Blogerness...

I must be the worst blogger ever. I go far too long in between posts. I think it is because I never kept a journal while I was growing up. I feel that people who kept a journal or diary are more likely to keep up with their blogs, but maybe that's just a 'random thought' I have...see what I did there. Anywho, I shall try and rectify this going forward...not that anyone reads this anyway. SO, till my next post in the near future, adios and thanks for reading.

Update...long overdue...

So it has been entirely too long since my last post. So much has happened over the past few months, so here we go.
I have been doing theatre pretty constantly this year, for which I am very grateful. I love performing so much. I did a show with the playwrights project, which was a really great experience. I am on summer break from school right now which allowed me to audition for Sea World; Something I've wanted to do for quite some time. I went to the audition and got the part of Biff in the Sea Lion and Otter show. I've been doing the show all summer so far and I absolutely LOVE it there. I get to perform for thousands of people a day and make them laugh. I get to do all sorts of goofy dances and skits. I am having so much there. My "contract" with them is technically up in September, at the end of summer, unless I get cast/kept on to do the Halloween show there as well.
The only downfall of all this is not having any free time as I am still working at ProFlowers for the time being. Working two jobs is quite exhausting. I only get a day off once in a blue moon, or if I specifically work it out for one, but usually, if I am not working one job, I have to work the other, so I have been far too busy for my liking. The only plus is every two weeks when both paychecks show up in my bank account.
Also, since my last post, I have moved out of my Dad's house in Alpine and moved into a large house with two of my best friends in the world, Patrick and Jessica. I have a very large room that is basically a studio apartment without a kitchen. I have been there for a month now and it is working out great. My commute to both jobs has been significantly cut by about half the time, which saves not only time, but gas as well.
Thanks to my two paychecks every other week, I have been able to get my finances in check. I am paying off my bills before they are due and was even able to buy a new HDTV and playstation. I am fixing up my car and getting accessories I want/need for my bike. So, to sum up and make a long post short, I am living the good life right now. I get to perform on an almost daily basis with fantastic people at a great place and I am living in a nice house with people I love. I do miss my Dad and Cynthia, but I think my situation right now is pretty great. I think that about sums it up for now. Till my next post (which hopefully doesn't take 6 months to write), thanks for reading!

Crash...

Yesterday I had quite the afternoon. I was leaving my house to go to my brother's house. I was gonna drive my car, but when I looked outside, it was too gorgeous to not ride Miss Sally. So I get ready by putting on my leathers and gloves and boots, etc. I am heading down the road, enjoying the beautiful day and I get close to the 8 on ramp. While making my right hand turn, my back tire hits an oil slick, or some reflective paint, or some sand or SOMETHING that causes my bike to slip. Now, this could have put me down right away, but I remembered my saftey course info and straightened the bike up and proceeded to hit to the brakes. Since I was in a right turn when Sally slipped, I was headed straight towards the opposite lane. I had about .5 seconds to react and I realized that I wasn't going to be able to stop in time. I had two options at this point, continue braking and hit one of the cars sitting in the opposite lane that were waiting at the stop sign (not fun), or I could crank the bars and take a dive (also not fun). I decided upon the latter. So I pull hard right on the bars and shift my weight to the right side and drop the bike. We slid on the ground and the bike ended up pinning me to the ground. We slid to a stop about 3 feet away from the cars. One of the guys in one of the cars got out and instantly helped me get the bike off me and helped me wheel it to the side of the road. I had done everything that I was trained to do and I was able to get up and dust myself off and walk away. The bike needed a little bit of TLC, but my dad and I were able to tweak most of the parts back into place and she is still ridable. I was able to "crash" correctly which means that I am able to keep riding. They say there are two types of riders: Those that have crashed, and those that will crash. I hopefully have experienced my one crash to meet those expectations. In short, I crashed, but it was with purpose (good purpose) and thanks to training, proper gear and safety classes, I walked away with a bruised leg and scraped elbow and a dinged up bike. What could have been terrible, wasn't that bad. Still scary, but all is well.

Food...

I don't know why I haven't begun doing so already, but I am now planning on taking photos of most of my food stuffs that I make. I already started to do so on facebook, but I will try and blog about it too.The first entry is what I made and plated in my culinary class on 2/7/11. This is a braised herb pork tenderloin with sweet braised red cabbage, maple glazed carrots and finished with a red wine dijon sauce.

I shall post more as I make them, not just from class, but from my own personal kitchen adventures as well. Hope you enjoy. And if ya want the recipe, I'm working on getting them all written up and posted with the photos, but that will come in time.

Robbed...

My storage unit was robbed on 2-1-11. I went in yesterday to see if there was anything missing and file a report and all that jazz. I was ROBBED. They took my bass, my guitar, my entire DVD collection, all my performance DVD's, DVD player, my entire CD collection, my desk accessories, etc, etc...Let's just say that they got A LOT of my stuff. And that is just the noticeable stuff, not to mention all the stuff that could be missing from all the boxes that were opened and lying around. The bass, guitars and dvd player type things, those can be replaced. I would prefer to not HAVE to replace them, but it is what must be done now.
But they took my DVDs and CDs. I had easily over 300 titles. All gone. I had a lot of boxed sets: Indiana Jones, Rocky, Back to the Future, Jurrasic Park, etc. I also had an EXTENSIVE collection of Kirsten Dunst, Jim Carrey and Tom Hanks films.
I also had 300+ albums in there too. All gone. All my musicals, New Found Glory albums, My un-opened Black Market Hearts and Piehead CDs.
Worst of all, they took my home videos and performance DVDs. The stuff that isn't worth a damn to anyone but me. No more high school plays. No more college shows. No more short student films. No more musical theatre performances. All. Gone. These were things I was supposed to be able to show my kids and grand kids. "Look at Daddy when he was in college...etc." But the bastards robbed me of that.
I had so much stuff. Granted, I am glad that they just got my stuff and no one was hurt, but it took me my life to collect all that stuff and I really am not looking forward to starting over.

My newly found motivation...

Today is the first day in a long series of long days.

Today is the day I start my new diet and workout program, a new semester at school, rehearsals for a new show I'm doing (Next Train to Nowhere at the Lyceum) and my V-day/M-day jobs at work.

It's nice being busy. It keeps my mind active and focused. I had my first workout today. Felt good. I didn't push myself too hard, but I got my cardio pumping a bit on the treadmill. Did a little core strengthening on the exercise ball. Did a few weight lifts, but not too many. Spent about 45 minutes in the gym and then showered up and now I'm working.

Looking forward to getting back into the kitchen in my culinary class tonight and then my front of house classes later this week. Full load of CA and BUS classes. Should be beneficial.

Rehearsals meet on my non school days, so I'll be busy busy busy, hence, morning workouts.

I am feeling good about my new ventures and WILL stick with it. I have motivation and am feeling good so far. 20 lbs....pssh. Please, that'll be gone in three months. Wanna bet?

My day...as told through Haiku...

Eye the creeping sun
Cold water washes my face
Morning has arrived

Totally awake
Always there to stimulate
Coffee is quite good

Sitting at my desk
How can I help you today?
Repetitive work

Driving in my car
Honk! Beep! Swerve! Outta my way!
I despise traffic

Hanging with my friends
Finding time to laugh and smile
Sunlight is fading

Relaxing in bed
Snuggle with the purring cat
Another day done


© Jarrod Weintraub 1/6/2011

A children's story I wrote...

Norman

Once upon a time there was a goat. This was no ordinary goat. This goat was special. He had magic horns that grew atop his head. The horns were not like the usual goat horns you would see, these were more like horns you would see on a giraffe; You know the type, short and slightly furry. The goat was not always fitted with such horns. This is the story of that goat, and his name, is Norman.

You see Norman thought he lived a normal enough life, I mean, he was a goat after all, but one morning when he woke, he felt a strange tingle coming from his brow. He waddled over in his usual goat way over to the pond to get his morning drink of water and when he saw his reflection in the water, he saw something rather strange. His head had sprouted two soft little bumps. He thought maybe it was from when he slipped and knocked his head on that rock, but that was months ago and the bumps weren't there before. Norman ran over to his friends and asked if they saw the bumps too and they all agreed that they looked bizarre and had not been there before. He needed to know what they were so he ran to the doctor to find out what they were.

The doctor told Norman that the bumps were just his horns that were growing in, but they were very strange. He told him that the horns were very unique and that he would soon start to see their uniqueness show through.

Norman ran home and was so nervous and excited that he fell asleep. When he woke the next day, the horns were fully grown in. He felt stronger and faster and smarter. He strolled very proudly out to the field with his new horns. When he got there, he saw that all of the good grass had been eaten already since he slept so late. He thought to himself how great it would be to have more of the freshest grass under his hoofs so he could chow on the best like everyone else, and just as fast as he thought it, there was more grass there. He could not believe it. Did he make the grass grow? Where did it come from?

After his meal, Norman decided to go rest for a bit. The sun was so hot and all he wanted to do was rest in the shade and all of a sudden, it was dark. First the grass, and now the dark. It's like Norman was thinking things and then they happened. He had to test this out. Tin cans. Rubber balls. T-shirts. Cardboard boxes. All of Norman's favorite chewables appeared before him. Soon he had a stack taller than he was.

For the next couple of days Norman just stayed at home. He didn't have any need to go anywhere since whatever he needed just appeared for him. His friends would come over and knock and knock on his door, but Norman just stayed there.

After a couple more days, Norman's house was getting very full and crowded but Norman didn't even notice. He was loving all his new toys and food. His friends didn't even bother knocking on his door anymore since they knew he wouldn't come out. He was completely happy with all of his stuff, he didn't need anyone else around.

Eventually, Norman's house couldn't take anymore. He thought about so many things that he wanted, he could barely move around. He had trapped himself in behind all of his prizes. He called for help, but the amount of stuff inside just muffled the sound and no one could hear him. Norman had a great idea to just think of someone to come and help him. He thought about it very hard, but no one came. But how could that be? Norman got whatever he thought about, why was no one coming to help?

Norman squirmed and squirmed but still could not budge. He tried thinking of less things, but the mountain of stuff stayed there as well. Why were his horns not helping him? Norman got scared and started to sob softly. He realized that he ignored his friends too many times and now there was no one there to help him. He thought about the fun he used to have with them and that thought was much better than all this junk.

Just then, Norman was standing in the middle of the field with all the other goats. They were all laughing an playing. Norman's friends came over and he apologized for ignoring them. They hugged him and forgave him right there and they all started to play tag.

Norman made a promise to himself that he wouldn't let his magic horns get the best of him ever again. He only thought about things that would help everyone around him have a better time. He would think of large feasts to share and toys for everyone to play with.

Of course, he did allow himself his own personal tin can to munch on every once in a while too.

The End


© Jarrod Weintraub 1/2011