A day of firsts, and then some...

It's official - I'm in the workforce outside of school for the first time. First drive to first job orientation in Dexter, MI this morning- while accumulating miles on the first car I co-signed for. First time meeting the six other interns that were hired. First lunch party with the interns at the Ann Arbor site. First round of meetings that I had to fight to keep my eyes open for (including one about information security, which made me want to come home and change all of my passwords for everything - and did!) First cubicle. And for the first time in a while, feeling very humbled by the fact that while I've always prided myself on picking up things quickly, I felt almost completely overwhelmed by the new challenges presented by a first job. While I was driving home during my first 5:00 pm rush hour, I was almost certain that I'd want to write about my entire day play-by-play in even more detail than I have just shared now. But now that I'm home (oh yes, that too - first working-life domicile: 443 S. Division, #1; Ann Arbor, MI 48104. p.s. I love mail...) and half-watching Heroes with the roomie and her adorable little yorkie, Maximus, I don't really feel like doing that (due to the fact that my brain is fried from all the information thrown at me today!) I will say though, that towards the end of orientation, I was pretty sure that I was in love - with my new first post-undergrad place of employment, Thomson Reuters. (I actually loved Reuters, the news source, first - for their "Oddly Enough" news...but that another day. In in the meantime, check it out: http://www.reuters.com/news/oddlyEnough)

Now for the "and then some..." I actually wanted to post on Sunday evening, after driving back to Ann Arbor from Kalamazoo - in which I did a lot of thinking and planning for an amazing post full of plugs and favorites (obviously, I didn't write it...) I made a spontaneous trip home this weekend in order to retrieve some things for work that I'd left at home. The fact that my cousin Marie flew in from Orlando on Friday for a wedding and to spend time with baby Emerson also gave me a reason to go home. Picked her up in Detroit, tried getting dim sum with her and Christine Freires (but we got to the restaurant just after 3:00 pm, just after they had stopped serving it. I envy my darlings in Hong Kong who have access to it at any time!), and then made the drive home to Kalamazoo. Okay, now I start random plugs.

Got home in time to go to a CD release concert with my sister. The artist releasing the CD was a Western Michigan University bass professor and husband of a violin professor my sister takes lessons from sometimes. I didn't make the trip home intentionally to attend the concert, but I'm glad I was able to attend it. If fit into a specific genre, the repertoire for the night could fall into the category "jazz" (and the discussion on "jazz" later...) I love jazz because it's music that I can think to. Listening to the music that night made me think about how much I miss music, and how, even though it has been such a huge part of who I am, I haven't invested into it in the past four years. (Oh, and I almost forgot why I mentioned this in the first place. The CD's out, check it - http://www.tomknific.com/)

The night before I actually moved to Ann Arbor (which was last Wednesday - if I didn't tell you already, now you know because you're reading this), I watched a movie with my parents called "Music Within." It's about the man who played an integral role in drafting the Americans with Disabilities Act. I can't remember who said the quote that the main character poignantly shared at the beginning of the movie - or the quote itself, but it had to do with finding the music within us. At first, I was a little bit disappointed at the end of the movie because it didn't actually have anything to do with actual music. After some more thinking, the movie has grown on me because it had to do with finding those things that make us run - and not just the functioning kind of run. (http://www.musicwithinmovie.com/ in the event that you were interested...) (And if you know me, I have a strange way of linking things to one another. Tom Knific's concert inspired me to give my little friend Kate a voice lesson the next day. So there's what little I've done so far with my music minor).

Okay, so I mentioned those things because today was my first day on the job - at my customer service internship, which also has nothing to do with music. But, I guess it's my way of trying to find that music within me. Hope that on day two, my brain is less like mush while trying to absorb everything!