Happy Days

Well I've been home a week now and all I can say is YAY! I have been having a blast so far and it's going to keep on being a blast. Every day I wake up and am in my house I still feel like it's a dream. You have no idea how many times I would wake up in Oman and be so disappointed that I was still there. It's been so great seeing so many friends and my family since I've been back, I've missed everyone so much. You don't realize how great you have it until you don't have it for awhile.
Some of the highlights from my week were eating at some of my favorite places like La Cocina, Sizzler, Sweet Tomatoes, and Charlie Chows. Mmmmm, so much good food. Also having a family get together at my Nana and Pa's, it was so fun! Then I went and saw three movies too, Smurfs, Crazy Stupid Love, and Cowboys and Aliens. And I got to go to lunch with all the girls for my Aunt Shelly's birthday, it was so great to see them all. Another highlight was Sunday dinner last night, it's so simple but so nice being there in person rather than on Skype watching the rest of my family eat some delicious food and I could only dream about it. I'm seriously loving every moment of being home, even when I'm just chillin' on my couch watching TV. Life is good! I know my mom is worried that I'm getting bored already but that definitely will not happen for quite awhile, and even if I do get bored I will still be happy just being here. Also I'll find out soon if I got cast in Frightmares up at Lagoon, so I'll make sure and post about that once I find out!
Well I hope everyone has a great week, Happy Monday!

The End....For Now

Well it's finally here! My last day in Oman, wow. When I think back to when we first got here I really can't believe we made it. The whole time we were here I kept thinking that something was going to happen to make us leave early, or else I was just going to quit. But neither of those things happened, I stuck with it and made it all the way to the end and I'm quite proud of myself. I feel like if I could make it through this I could pretty much do anything for 5 months. I still remember the first week we were here and we were walking from our apartment to do the shows and I was thinking, "I can't wait until it's the last night and we're walking to do our last shows." And now here it is finally!
But even though it's the end of this adventure, it's definitely not the end of MY adventures. I already signed a new contract to do a show on New Years Eve in Singapore so I'm pretty excited about that, and hopefully more little short gigs like that will be heading my way in the future! I feel like I have so many opportunities coming my way now and I'm really excited!
Anyway back to tonight, we will be starting an hour early at 9 tonight and only doing 3 sets so we finish at midnight. After that we have to pack up everything from on the stage, head back to the apartments and grab our stuff then we're heading straight to the airport! I'M SO EXCITED!! I will be back in good ole SLC at 8:30PM Saturday evening! I will see all of you soon!
Oh and by the way, I'll still be posting new blogs once I'm home, maybe like once a week, so keep reading!

Almost Done

Wow, I can't believe it's really almost here!! I'm so happy! I never thought this day would come ha ha, funny, but I'm kind of serious. Anyway things have been going alright up to this point. The shows have been kind of slow but who cares, it's the last week!
Today we had rehearsal and that was OK, but then came the annoying part. So we've been having these rehearsals for last 3 weeks to get the new girl ready and she's been doing really great. Well now JD wants me and Trina to make videos of every song that we do so the new girl and new guy can have a copy of it to learn from before Thailand. I feel like he's just trying to squeeze out whatever he can from me before I leave. A video for every single song? Is that a joke? I didn't have that before I came, no one did. So why do I have to be the first one to do all that work when I'm not even going to be there? I already put in plenty of time to help get the new girl ready and now he wants more, come on!! I'm so annoyed. Trina doesn't want to do it either, so if she does it, I'll help but if not then there's no way I'm doing it either. So we'll see what happens.
Besides that I'm pretty much all packed, just left out a few clothes for the last few days and that's it! I don't know if I can say it enough but, I AM SO EXCITED TO GET OUT OF OMAN!!! Well that's about it for now, Happy Tuesday!

Really?

So today we had rehearsal and guess who didn't come?............Are you guessing? ..................................... Trina.
Yesterday she mentioned to me how she didn't want to have to do rehearsals this week because she's annoyed that we're rehearsing in our last two weeks here. Then today she just so happened to have a "toothache" and couldn't come to rehearsal. Really? Come on, that's pretty ridiculous. I know the real reason she didn't want to rehearse was because she was supposed to have had two dance rehearsals with the new girl last week but instead they just ended up going to the beach and the mall. So then I, Cody Jensen, the person who isn't even going to Thailand had to go rehearse while Trina stayed in bed. I mean it's not a real big deal that I had to rehearse, I actually don't mind it, but just the fact that Trina got out of it is so annoying to me. While we were rehearsing JD was asking Jehan, the new girl, about what Trina had taught her and Jehan was trying to cover Trina's butt by saying "oh we went over everything, but I'm not sure I remember it very much, I'll pick it up as we go along." So dumb, seriously, only 10 more days, 10....10....10, that's all I keep telling myself! Whew.
Well that's about all the excitement that has happened lately. The shows have been alright, and the weekend starts tonight so woohoo! Only 9 more nights of shows and that's it! Yes!!
I hope everyone is having a good week!

Latest

It's hard to take time to post when I'm just so freaking excited to come home! I feel like there's nothing to write about because I'll be home in less than two weeks and I can just tell you all about it ha ha. But I'm going to try anyway.
Things have been going smoothly, just doing the shows and the usual. I've been going to the pool a lot more because it hasn't been so hot so that's been nice. Then last Saturday on my day off I just watched some movies and hung out and that was about it!
Last night at the club it was so weird, we had plenty of people in there but it was so quiet. No one was talking or anything so as soon as we ended each set it was just complete silence in the room. It wasn't all that bad though because we just took it easy during the night, so it was kind of a nice change.
I still can't believe we're down to 11 more shows and only 12 days until I'm actually home! I never thought I would make it this far! But here I am, so close! Woohoo!! Well I hope everyone has a great Monday!

Last Few Weeks

Well we're in the final stretch now, only 2 weeks and 4 days left! Ahhhh!! I'm so excited to see everyone when I get home! The time seems to have come to a stand still, each day feels longer and longer but luckily that's about to change. Starting tomorrow we are rehearsing 3 days a week, Wednesday through Friday from 2 to 6, to get the band ready for Thailand. I know I'm not going but they need my help just for spacing and all the dance moves and stuff to help train the new girl. I'm happy to do it though because I know that it will make the time fly by a lot faster if we are busy every day, so I'm kind of looking forward to it.
We had another meeting yesterday, nothing dealing with me, it was just all about Thailand and all the new rules. It's gonna be pretty crazy for them, so glad I'm not going to be there! Besides that things have been good. The weather has cooled down for the last week so we've all been going outside a lot more so that's been nice. The shows have been just normal, nothing crazy, just the usual. And I think that's about it. Well, until next time.....

Beach Party

Trina just uploaded these pictures from the beach party on Facebook so I thought I'd share a few of them here. Happy Friday everyone!

Counting Down

When I opened my blog and saw 23 on the countdown calendar I was so happy! Although now that it's getting closer time feels like it's been frozen! But it will come sooner than I think I'm sure.
Things have been going smoothly. The shows have been pretty normal, nothing too exciting. And everything seems back to normal now that Trina is back. We did have our beach party at the club last night, it was pretty fun. They decorated the whole club with beach balls and palm leaves and baskets full of fruit, and we got to wear our swimsuits! It wasn't like extra crowded or anything because I don't even think a lot of people knew about the party, but it was still a good time, and nice for a change.
Next week we are going to start rehearsing with the girl from the other band so she can be all ready for Thailand, so things will start getting a little busier then, but that's OK because then time will go by faster! I don't have much else to report on, but I hope everyone had a happy 4th of July!

Happy 100!!

This is my 100th post on my blog, so here's a little celebration for that!! Woohoo! Today is also the day I got my ticket to come home!!! So I have two things to celebrate! I'm so excited, I mean I already know I'm coming home but having the actual ticket booked just makes it seem that much closer! I will be back in SLC on Saturday July 30th at 8:30 PM. I can't wait. Only 27 days away now, so close I can taste it!
Besides that there hasn't been too much excitement. The shows have been going pretty good and Trina comes back tonight so we'll see how that goes. I really hope that it's not stressful when she comes back in but I have a feeling it might be. Plus when the band goes to Thailand they have all these new rules and things so we are going to be rehearsing a lot for these last few weeks just to get them ready. I didn't think I would have to be a part of that but they want me to rehearse with them just so they can have 3 singers in rehearsal so it's like what it will be like in Thailand.
My day off yesterday was good, oh yeah I forgot to mention that we didn't have to work an extra day for having last Tuesday off! But anyway I didn't do much all day, but then we went and saw one of the other bands at their club and hung out with them so that was fun. Now today starts the beginning of the last 4 weeks! I can't believe it's here! Hip hip hooray! Well you'll probably all read this on Tuesday after the 4th of July but Happy 4th of July everyone!

Are you......a Ginger??

Yes everyone that is a real question I got asked the other night in the club. This big Omani guy asked me that. I was kind of shocked, I mean I've never been asked that before. For those who don't know "ginger" is kind of like a demeaning word for a redhead. Well I answered "yeah I'm like half a ginger," then he said "well what's the other half?" I said, "non-ginger." He just laughed and then continued to explain that he'd never met a real life ginger before. It was so weird, that's definitely something I'll probably always remember. So there's another event to add to the list of memories.
Besides that excitement everything else is going smoothly. Last week the club was kind of slow, but we did have a pretty good Thursday night. Friday was also really crowded but it was full of drunk British Navy guys and they hardly paid attention to us so it wasn't really the good kind of crowded. This week we were supposed to be having a Beach Party at the club on Wednesday but the Sultan of Oman just decided that Tuesday night and Wednesday are going to be a national holiday so they moved the party to next week. But the good news is that we get Tuesday night off, but they might make us work Saturday to make up for it so it's not really that great. But we'll see what happens.
Now I just want to take the time to talk about something funny I've noticed since being here. I don't know if I've mentioned it before or not but here it is. So in the gym here they have trainers that you can work with just like most gyms but these guys seriously have no clue what they are doing. I watched one of the trainers teaching this lady how to use one of the machines and he was having her sit down on it backwards. I wanted to go over and help but I think it would have embarrassed him. This particular trainer even has his own show on TV. They play it on the TVs at the gym sometimes and the show is a joke. He's speaking Arabic so I can't really understand what he's saying, but the moves he does are ridiculous. Andrea, our keyboard player, was talking to the guy one day and asked him how he learned how to train people, guess what his answer was? He said, "my friend showed me a website that teaches you what to do." Really? A Website. Wow. It's definitely not like the US where you have to have a certification, which is kind of scary because then anyone can become a trainer and could seriously injure somebody. I feel like I should hold a masterclass or something and just teach these guys a few things before I leave! Well I think that's about it, I hope you all have a great Monday. This is the Ginger, signing out.

Air Air Air

You may notice the color of my words goes along with the theme of this post. I would just like to announce that I have air conditioning! Yes it's true, I got a brand new air conditioner in my room, it's like a dream! My room has never felt this good even before when they had "fixed" my old air conditioner. This is seriously going to make life so much better and now I'll be able to sleep good at night too!! I'm so happy!! This will definitely make time fly a little faster!
In other news the shows have been kinda slow the last couple nights, like unusually slow. I don't know what's happening but I hope it picks up for the weekend! Nadia is still doing great and the crowd loves her!
It's still getting hotter each day and more humid. The air is so wet that you literally feel like you got out of the shower and put your clothes on your wet body. It feels really gross! But it's probably only going to get worse so I'm dealing with it. I think that's about all I have to report on. I hope everyone is having a good week so far!

Busy Days

This past week was pretty busy with having Nadia come in and everything. Although it was busy it did make it go by quite fast. The shows were pretty great the rest of the week especially Thursday night, it was packed as usual and so much fun! We rehearsed on Tuesday and Thursday with Nadia and she knows so many of our songs now that it's like Trina is here. I don't even have to do any extra singing, it's awesome! Things have been going so much better lately. I mean the whole show feels new again and there is no drama right now so I'm loving it!
Georges only stayed for two nights and then left, he was even happy the whole time. When he was here he talked to me about some future opportunities like some short gigs, like 5 days at a time, so we'll see what happens with that.
Other than that it's the same here. Still really hot, oh but they did bring my new air conditioner today. But that's all they did, brought it in a big box and left it in the front room. They're supposed to come install it tomorrow now so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. We shall see what happens.
And last but not least I just wanted to say Happy Father's Day to my dad and to all the dad's out there. I wish I could be up at Flaming Gorge with you guys to celebrate! I hope everyone gets to spend some time with their families for the holiday. By the time you all read this it will probably Monday so I hope everyone has a great start to their week!

A Fresh New Feeling

Well last night was our first night with the new girl, Nadia, in the shows and it was awesome! She only did about 9 or 10 songs the whole night but it was still a help, and she is seriously talented. She has the coolest sounding voice, kind of like a mix of Macy Gray and Fergie, and she knows how to work the stage. It seriously made the show feel new again and made it so fun! I'm really glad she's here and she's also really nice!
Guess who else showed up with her though? Georges. Yeah, we all were kinda surprised when we walked into rehearsal and he was there too. But luckily he's in a good mood right now so everything was positive. Plus he's leaving Thursday morning so it's just a quick stop on his way to Abu Dhabi. I guess they have a new gig starting there and he has to go finish negotiating the contract. Another reason I am so glad I am leaving, I would hate to have to go to Abu Dhabi, I've heard that it's worse than Oman!
Anyway tomorrow we are having a meeting/lunch with Georges at 1:30 so that should be fun. I'm actually not stressed or anything about it because I'm leaving after here so he's not going to say anything bad to me!
Hmmm....what else? We had rehearsal today for like 4 hours and then we have it again tomorrow for another 4 hours so that's kind of exhausting but I'm still happy about it just having Nadia here. Oh another good thing is I'm getting a new air conditioner on Thursday! Earlier than expected! Woohoo!! They came today to check if it's still broken(yeah kinda dumb) and then they said "oh yeah we have a new unit ordered and coming for the master bedroom" and I said "uh no, that's for my bedroom." Then he thinks for a minute and goes "oh yes, sorry sir, so sorry, your bedroom." So luckily they mentioned it so I could correct them, I would have been so mad if they had replaced Trina's and mine was still broke! But anyway I am quite happy about that and excited for the weekend shows!

Changes

Well today is the day, our new girl Nadia is arriving this evening! She gets in around 9:30 and gets to stay in the hotel for the first couple nights until Trina is gone. We are rehearsing with her tomorrow and Wednesday for 4 hours each day, that's gonna be some long days but I am just excited! Who knows yet if this will be a good change or not but I am just so bored of the same old stuff that any change will be OK with me! Nadia is supposed to start doing the shows with us Wednesday night, but of course Trina booked her ticket a day earlier than she was supposed to so now either Nadia has to start Tuesday night or we'll just do one night with just me singing, we shall see.
Besides that everything is just normal. The weather has been SO humid for the last few days. Today it's actually a little cooler than it has been, I mean to say the word "cooler" probably isn't right because it's still freaking hot, but it's a little less than it has been. My air conditioner is still broke of course, but at least I'm getting closer to getting a new one!
The shows have been alright, nothing too exciting, we did have a bigger than usual crowd on Friday so that was nice. And then the day off was good, I went and wired some money home, did some grocery shopping and then just chilled the rest of the day, that makes for one relaxing day!
Just in case you haven't noticed, the countdown clock says 47!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! Well that's about it for now, I hope everyone has a great start to their week!

The Scoop

It's been a couple of days since my last post and with everything going on of course I have more information now! So we just found out yesterday that we are getting a replacement for when Trina leaves. Her name is Nadia and she's from Canada. I guess she used to be in one of the other bands but now is just on call for emergency situations like ours, so I am quite happy about that news. Anyway she will be flying in on Wednesday to start doing shows with us. I'm really excited to have somebody new in here and from what I've heard she's really nice and really talented, so let's all keep our fingers crossed that both of those statements are true.
Also yesterday Georges called everyone and told them that they have to start in Thailand earlier than he had told them before. So originally they were going to start like the second week of September, but now they have to start the third week of August so that cuts all of their vacation time by more than half! This is just another check on the list for reasons that I am so glad I am not staying any longer. I would have been so upset to find out that I was only getting like 2 weeks to go home for a visit, that's not long at all, but luckily I don't have to deal with that issue.
In other news they told me that I will get a new air conditioner in my room in two weeks, yeah two weeks, so that means I get to deal with the fun heat until around June 22nd. Yay for that. But I'll make it work. They did at least fix the one in the living room so I can go sleep in there for awhile which is better than nothing!
Last night the shows were pretty awesome, we had a huge crowd and people started dancing from the very first set and that never happens! So it was a great night! So much fun. Well Happy Friday everyone, I hope you all have a great weekend!