I’ve been doing a bit of research into being a virtual assistant. According to Wikipedia:

A Virtual Assistant (or simply VA), is an independent contractor providing administrative, technical, or sometimes creative assistance to clients–usually to other independent entrepreneurs and solo and small business practices, such as that of a lawyer or realtor. Virtual assistants work from their own office (hence “virtual”), thus making it a fairly popular (and growing) profession. It is estimated that there are about 5,000-8,000 virtual assistants worldwide. Common modes of communication and data delivery include the Internet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and fax machine. Although the occupation gives a degree of independence, work is on a contractual basis, and a long-lasting cooperation is standard. Typically 5 years of administrative experience in an office is expected at such positions as executive assistant, secretary, legal assistant, paralegal, legal secretary, real estate assistant, office manager, etc.

This is basically the work that I do at E. Webscapes. Even though I’m technically the Assistant Project Manager, when Lisa first started looking for someone she referred to them as a virtual assistant. In all honesty, I’d never even heard of a virtual assistant until I read Lisa’s post. I thought that it seemed like something I’d be good at and a great way to earn a little extra money.

However, I have LOVED working at E. Webscapes, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe I should look at this whole virtual assistant thing a little more seriously. There’s an intensive training course offered by AssistU - basically it’s a semester long certification. If I were to do this seriously, I would apply to AssistU. But I still don’t know if that’s what I want to do. Don’t really have any resolution on this, it’s just been on my mind, so I thought I’d post it. Thoughts?

I sure hope that my entry gets counted - for some reason I thought we were supposed to post our results on December 1, and today I realized it was supposed to get posted today, but I was at work and didn’t get home until after 1AM EST . . . so I’m hoping that this goes through by the deadline of 11:59PM PST!

This post is very picture heavy, so read on at your own peril !

(more…)

OK, let’s try this again! I really do want to get back to blogging regularly, things just seem to be a little unorganized at the moment. However, as I am about to tell you, that will soon change.

First off, I’m transferring to a new store . . . today was my last shift at the Starbucks that was “my Starbucks” as a customer, and my first Starbucks home. Our new store is said to be opening on August 4th, but sometimes these things get pushed back a bit, so we’ll see if that actually winds up happening like it’s supposed to. It was sad today though - MANY regulars talked about how they will miss me, and there was a banner and a cake . . . it was really sweet. Oh, and I hit 6 months with the company on the 5th of August, so woo hoo!

OK, enough sadness, onto the AMAZING news! I have been accepted into grad school for next year! This whole things has come together very quickly. A former director of mine (I stage managed Marvin’s Room for him) got me in touch with his wife who is apparently very well connected in the theatre community in this region. I spoke with her on the phone, and she told me about this new program (just graduated their first class this year) that North Carolina School of the Arts is offering - it’s an MFA in Performing Arts Management. Not only is it right up my alley, but it’s right down the road (NCSA is in Winston-Salem). So I contacted the head of the program and went in for what I thought was an informal chat, but wound up being my first interview. We discussed the program (which is set up very similarly to the FSU program), and the possibility of me jumping into their class for this fall at the last minute. This was just over a month ago. Things were left very much up in the air, and then he had to leave town for a couple of weeks.

After much back and forth trying to arrange a time for me to meet with him and the other full time faculty member (who I had not met previously), we finally set a meeting for this past Wednesday. We sat down, talked, reviewed my application (which I had submitted while the head of the program was out of town). They told me that they couldn’t officially tell me if I was in, the admissions department had to do that, but they could tell me if they were recommending me for admission, and they said they would get back to me in the next few days to let me know if they were, in fact, recommending me.

I was quite shocked to check my email Wednesday night with an email saying that they were going to recommend me for admission! So, unless I fail the background check (like that will happen), I’m in! I am currently an unofficial member for the NCSA grad class of 2010! I will be here in Winston-Salem for the next two years, and then the third year of the program is spent in an internship . . . somewhere. They have some people that stay nearby, some people in NYC, some in Boston . . . it just depends.

So yes, I have a life plan, I am SUPER pumped about it, and I can’t wait to get started in September!

Aside from that, my family is doing well, AJ is great, my new apartment is slowly coming together (did I mention I moved 2 weeks ago? - living by myself for the first time EVER - eek!), and I’m loving my job with E. Webscapes. Yay!

Now if only I could convince my mom to let me get a kitten like I want . . .

Oh yeah, almost forgot about the kittens! About a month ago, I helped AJ remodel his condo (repainted EVERYTHING, ripped out the carpet and sanded down and refinished the hardwood floors, picked out all new furniture, the works)! While we were waiting outside for the Chinese delivery guy, a very tiny and very cute little kitten came up to us! We figured he was just a kitten that got loose (actually, at the time we thought he was a she), so we pet him, gave him some water, and then were going to go about our business. Well, the food came and we walked across the street to the park so we could sit at the picnic table to eat. And the kitten followed us! He played in the tree the whole time we ate, coming to us every once and a while for a bite of chicken, and then he followed us back across the street when we went back to AJ’s. At this point we realized he was a stray, so we took him in for the night. The next day we took him to the vet and found out that he was a very healthy 10 week old kitten that we decided to name Jazz.

He is such an awesome cat - so lovable, and playful! I have always always ALWAYS been a dog person, and never in a million years would I think of getting a cat. But Jazz absolutely won my heart over, and I will never feel that way about cats again. Here’s a picture of Jazz when we first got him (he’s grown a lot now) - he’s got really cool markings, including spots on his back:

Well, after about 3 weeks we decided Jazz needed a playmate. So we went to the Humane Society and got another little kitten. This one is even tinier, and we named him Ninja (well, AJ named him . . . I disapproved of that name because it doesn’t suit him, and we never call him that, we always call him “the little one” . . . so there). Here’s a picture of him giving me kisses (bad pic of me, but he’s so cute) - he is COMPLETELY black . . . no white at all:

Anyways, they’re technically AJ’s kittens, and they get to live with him, and I love them so much and they act like I’m their mommy, so I think they’re mine too. But I really would like one (or two) to have at my own place. So, must talk Mama and Daddy into this . . .

Oh yeah - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? AWESOME!!!!!

Thirteen New Year’s Resolutions

Sorry for the late posting. I don’t really have many specific New Year’s resolutions because I am working on my 101 in 1001 - and I’m more than 40% through it! I’m right on track with the amount of time I have left, so that is very exciting! However, I do have a few clarifications about some of the goals in my 101 in 1001 . . .

1. #5 on my list is to officially join the Episcopal Church. So far I haven’t done this because I’m never home at the time that they’re offering the courses. I’m going to make a serious effort to see if I can somehow work that out this year.

2. #50 is to sponsor a child. This was actually one of the first things I completed. However, I would like to become more involved, so a resolution of mine is to try and maintain regular written correspondence with my child.

3. #47 is to stop biting my fingernails. This is one of the things that is the hardest on my list . . . I’ve been biting my fingernails for 22 years! I had stopped at one point my freshman year, but then I started to date a guy who bit HIS nails, and that got me started back again, and it’s only gotten worse since. However, Mama recently told me about something that she heard on the radio. One guy said that biting your fingernails is an addiction just as bad as smoking (which I think is probably true - no chemical dependency, but mentally . . . geez). The way that HE stopped was one finger at a time. He was allowed to bite the nails on 9 fingers, but not the tenth. Then 8 fingers. 7. All the way until he was down to only being allowed to bite one nail. And he said it took him a loooong time to get off that finger, but when he did it he had completely kicked the habit.

I’m starting with my right thumb. Here’s hoping.

4. Since I haven’t made much headway on reading the books for #76 and #87, I’m going to try and keep a list of the books I’m reading this year here on my blog. Hopefully that will make me a little more accountable!

5. To aid in my reading the Bible for #4 I have just purchased the The One Year Bible Companion: Questions and Answers to Help You Make the Most of Your Daily Bible Reading. It leads you through reading the Bible in a year - every day a little New Testament, a little Old Testament, and some Proverbs and Psalms. And this version of the book has questions and things. I like it ;-)!

6. To go with SEVERAL of my health 101’s I am going to continue further implementation of FlyLady’s principles. While her main thing is cleaning, decluttering, and organizing, everything is built on routines, something that I have found is leading me to healthier eating and (gasp!) daily exercise!! Through the FlyLady way and through her book Body Clutter: Love Your Body, Love Yourself I am going to work to have a healthier lifestyle. And if that gets in place, the weight will come off :-D!

7. #27 is to get a job. Now that I am no longer in grad school, this is priority numero uno for the new year!

8. As listed in #42, I want to begin creatively writing again. In the past month or so, I’ve actually felt like I think I can do this soon. I’m slowly working on ideas for a new book, and I’m excited that my little creative spark might be ready to go after a looong hiatus!

9. My books are out of control. I’ve got my closet cleaned, so it’s time for the next step! Not only will this help me declutter and make my room more pleasant, but it will help me through reading my books AND it will get me to the point where I can add them to a database (#56). Lots of goodies rolled into one.

10. I am revamping #61 a bit. Up until now it has said “Get Mama’s bead business online.” While I would still LOVE to do that, it appears as though my big resolution from last year is not going to be completed by the end of the year. However, I don’t consider this to be a complete failure. Mama isn’t ready to go online. However, I have helped her to figure out a system for keeping track of her records, which is just as valuable as getting the business online. I’m not sure when we’ll be able to get her online, but I can help her get completely organized . . . taking inventory of probably somewhere near a million beads. This is just as big a task as getting her online, and it’s something that I have more control over. I don’t want to push her into going online if she’s not ready just so I can complete my list. So, the new #61 is “Get Mama’s beads inventoried and make the inventory something she can easily work with daily.”

11. If I plan on writing 1001 blog posts on this blog and Reading Red Letters in time, I need to get busy or #75 won’t happen!

12. Now that I am getting a little control over my life and I am establishing routines, I am cooking a lot more, so I am really hoping to get my “In the Kitchen” goals completed this year.

13. And one resolution that isn’t addressed in my 101 in 1001. When I was younger I had a little bit of an environmentalist in me, and I pushed that aside when I turned 13 because it made me “uncool” - yeah, such is middle school. Then when I was in high school and college I was so super busy that I didn’t even consider making time for caring about the earth. But as I’ve been out of school and have slowly started to become “a grownup” (like that will ever happen), I’m realizing that this is something that is a part of me. I am going to work on green living this year, and try to conserve and reuse whenever possible. I’m researching cleaning products and clothing lines, as well as how we can make up for energy expenditures. I’ll be posting more about these things throughout the year, and hopefully I will have started some great new habits by the time we get to next year’s resolutions!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Leave me a comment and I’ll give you a shout out!