Thanksgiving Song

I know this is a little late, but while job searching I ran across a posting for a puppeteer position for a children's tv show. I thought it was kind of funny and I started imagining the interview process for a puppeteer. I vividly pictured my response to the question "what kind of experience do you have with puppets?"

Me- "Well actually, my siblings and I went through a puppet phase once when we decided to perform a musical reenactment of the First Thanksgiving with homemade puppet Pilgrims and Indians. It was very brief but we wrote a song that went:

One day long ago, on a very long trip
There were some Pilgrims who were getting sick
And then all a sudden they spotted some land
They saw some Indians running through the land
The Pilgrims said 'Hi' and the Indians said 'How'
The Pilgrims said 'LET'S MAKE PEACE!'
and they all had a 'GREAT BIG FEAST!'"

I would have that puppeteer job in no time.

Note the reuse of the word "land"... there may have been 'sand' for one of those, but I'm pretty sure we said land for both lines, which makes it that much more humorous now. We may not have even written the song, I was about 5 or 6 and in my memory we created it, I could be a wrong though.

Thanks a lot Bush.

Chalk another 1 up for the Economy in the reasons Whitney remains unemployed.

I feel like I was waiting for this morning as anxiously excited as I was waiting for Christmas morning as a child. This was to be the "Morning of my *Interview*" (said fantastically), something that now seems to be as imaginary and frequent as visits from the tooth fairy. I wake up early, ready to make this the first day of my new life as a *Production Manager*--looks in the mirror and repeats title to self and place arms on hips, elbows out, chin up, superhero posing. This is my "Morning of my *Interview*" (said fantastically) routine. Well, I guess it can't qualify as a routine if this is the first experienced "Morning of my "Interview*". But I will carry on the tradition, it worked well. I was pumped, I was confident, I was the BEST potential Production Manager in the world! I was also minutes away from a phone call canceling the interview due to "the state of the economy." I put down the phone, along with my chin, and the superhero pose took on more of a fetal position back in bed to sleep off the news. I dreamed of better times, where the economy was fruitful, jobs were a-plenty, that's right AAAA-plenty, and George W. Bush was no longer in office. I woke up still unemployed. Any one hiring superhero stand ins?

Stay

After a brief visit home for Thanksgiving, I came back ready to tackle the job hunt and make a success of it here. Thankfully, I finally got a callback to set up a phone interview with an audio archiving studio up here. That is this week, and I'm hoping for the best. I would like to be able to stay, but if the job hunt is still unsuccessful by the end of January, then I will have to consider moving back to VA. It's crazy how the emotions flip flop so severely. All of November, I could think of nothing but how much I wanted to move back, but then the last two weeks, I've been incredibly happy and motivated here. One thing that has helped is with all my unemployment free time, I set up an art nook in my living room, and spend a lot of time drawing, painting, whatever I feel like doing each day. It's definitely helped take my mind off of how I'm doing nothing but filling out applications and waiting on phone calls. So far, one phone call for about 300 applications....I need this to go well. I will update after the interview.

Homesick

It's been two months and I don't know how much longer I'm going to make it here. I'm really missing the mountains, my friends, and Virginians in general. Maybe I'm being bias, but 90% of people I meet here have no sense of human decency, most are self-centered douche bags. I knew that Autumn would be the hardest month for me to be away from the valley because it was my favorite season there, but I had no idea it would be THIS hard. I'm not making enough money here to be able to take advantage of city life, and I'm actually missing Rosetta Stone a lot. I've become addicted to HGTV, and my heart breaks a little every time a RS commercial comes on. Also, watching home improvement shows just remind me of how just one year ago I was looking into getting a house in Harrisonburg, and now I can barely pay my rent. If this keeps up I may go home for the holidays and decide not to come back.

Life isn't going too well right now for this nomad.

Website

I've been m.i.a for a few weeks buried in CSS code and teaching myself how to use Joomla! content management system in effort to put my audio and graphic design portfolio online. The final product being www.whitneytolley.com

Check it out and hire me for any of your design and sound needs.

creating graphic art and stuff

Poster for the JMU Fall 2008 Opera. You should go to it if you get the chance.


Advertisements I've made for clients:

A lesson on Sportsmanship

Some people believe the word "sorry" should never be said/heard during game time. These are also the ones that believe in the phrase "no pain, no gain". Which, I'm not trying to change that, yes, say sorry AFTER the game. What I'm here to talk about is that in a competitive environment where "sorry" isn't allowed... NO words should be said to the other team on the court... NONE. Trash talking should only be allowed when you're able to follow it up with "just kidding".

If you run your mouth because you're losing and you can't win unless you think your words might get into the person's head, then you have no skills on the court, only skills for the debate team.

I'm ranting about this because, I played hockey tonight for the first time in Philly, and when the other team started to lose they started taking cheap shots and just saying things that made them come across as complete jackasses. For example, tripping me, and falling that up with "stay down, b*tch".

I was startled... not by the trip, it's hockey, trips happen... but the smack talk, too? really?! I thought, maybe I mistook the tone and perhaps it was going to be followed with a "just kidding"... but no, my laugh was followed with a "yeah, keep laughing while you still have your teeth"....

Yes, this man's words got into my head. This 40-something year old man's words. FORTY!
I don't know why he plays hockey, but I play for the really great plays, the hard earned goals, the running workout, and to learn from better players. This guy plays to win. At least my way, no matter who wins, I come out feeling fulfilled. This guy, only enjoys himself if he's winning, and what will that get him? maybe a small plaque that says Philly Sport and Social Club Hockey champs Fall 2008? Something to brag about at the office... where no one cares anyways?

Here's a man that may be a completely different person off the court. Maybe he donates blood in his spare time, sends a nickel everyday to starving pygmy babies in Africa, greets everyone in the office with a genuine smile and even knows all of their names when he says "good morning, [insert name here]." He could be a real swell kinda guy off the court.

But here's the difference between him and I, I believe in sportsmanship. I believe in telling the opponent when they had an awesome move. When I shake their hand I know at least one thing to complement each player on individually, maybe it was their speed, their stick handling, their shooting, their defense, etc... and I tell them that instead of "good game, good game, good game."
And because I not only believe in sportsmanship, but also believe in SHOWING it, when I leave the court and go about real life, I might run into one of them in the city somewhere and they will say "I know her, she plays hockey, she's really nice AND she can play"

Whereas if this guy were walking down the street (could be on his way to go volunteer at the orphanage), anyone that knows him from sports will probably just say to whoever their with, "I know that guy.... he's a complete a**hole."

The moral of the story is, it doesn't matter who you are in life, who you are on the court can define who you are in life in some people's eyes... and you never know when that could come back to you.


And, oh yeah, we won. ;o)