Dear Journalism Peers,
Thank you for being kind to my library story even though it was totally all over the place. You were constructive and pointed out the positives and made me feel like a really great writer. Which is hard to do. Especially in real life. Where my palms get sweaty and my face flushes the color of strawberries at the peak of summer when someone is reading something I've written. But today, it was not nearly so traumatic.
Love,
me
Monday, November 15, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
24 Things That Were Awesome About Turning 24
1.) Presents! I recieved so many wonderful things: chanel red lipstick, a gorgeous Kate Spade wallet, silicon baking cups, ramikins, etc. It was lovely.
2.) My roommates threw me a rocking party. They themed it out. People came, they dressed up, they drank, they had a wonderful time. I love that.
3.) My party nearly sparked a resurgence in Communist revolutionary tendencies.
4.) Even though Mollie, Bran, David, Bailey, and Brian were tired and busy and had a million things to do, they still sucked it up and went out on a Wednesday.
5.) I sang "A Whole New World" at a gay bar, karaoke style, with Brandon.
6.) I got really really sick (Ok, that wasn't awesome) and inadvertently was forced to take a week-long vacation to convalesce. Boring, but who can argue with sleeping all day?
7.) Mollie started my day off with coffee and an Ann Sather cinnamon roll. Perfection.
8.) My parents came to visit! I love them :)
9.) Conor and Manny baked me a really excellent cake; yellow with chocolate frosting. And vodka gummy bears. Win.
10.) Bailey did my hair on my birthday and for my party. Without her, I would not have been pretty.
11.) Dancing. Dancing. Dancing. Dirty dancing, swing dancing, slow dancing. Spinning, Twirling, Hands Upping. Dancing was done by all.
12.) I babysat Tessa on my birthday. She just wanted to snuggle. There was no screaming. Amazing.
13.) I'm not 23 anymore. See below.
14.) I did not have to give up on that thing I was going to give up on if that other thing had not happened.
15.) Elyse came home in time for my party!!! <3 money =" new">
2.) My roommates threw me a rocking party. They themed it out. People came, they dressed up, they drank, they had a wonderful time. I love that.
3.) My party nearly sparked a resurgence in Communist revolutionary tendencies.
4.) Even though Mollie, Bran, David, Bailey, and Brian were tired and busy and had a million things to do, they still sucked it up and went out on a Wednesday.
5.) I sang "A Whole New World" at a gay bar, karaoke style, with Brandon.
6.) I got really really sick (Ok, that wasn't awesome) and inadvertently was forced to take a week-long vacation to convalesce. Boring, but who can argue with sleeping all day?
7.) Mollie started my day off with coffee and an Ann Sather cinnamon roll. Perfection.
8.) My parents came to visit! I love them :)
9.) Conor and Manny baked me a really excellent cake; yellow with chocolate frosting. And vodka gummy bears. Win.
10.) Bailey did my hair on my birthday and for my party. Without her, I would not have been pretty.
11.) Dancing. Dancing. Dancing. Dirty dancing, swing dancing, slow dancing. Spinning, Twirling, Hands Upping. Dancing was done by all.
12.) I babysat Tessa on my birthday. She just wanted to snuggle. There was no screaming. Amazing.
13.) I'm not 23 anymore. See below.
14.) I did not have to give up on that thing I was going to give up on if that other thing had not happened.
15.) Elyse came home in time for my party!!! <3 money =" new">
23 Reasons Blink 182 Was Right: Nobody Likes You When You're 23
1.) That ambiguous time between your early twenties and your mid twenties. Ew.
2.) College is over, but in this economy, it's not very likely that the rest of your life has started.
3.) Broke broke broke. Food is expensive. Beer is expensive. Life is expensive.
4.) Walking the line between angsty teen and responsible adult is really hard.
5.) Your friends all start getting engaged and getting married. Because that's clearly the next step toward growing up. This causes much anxiety when you are not even close to ready to settle down.
6.) If you've never seen the world, this is when wanderlust settles around you like a little fog you can barely see anything else through. It's born of the vague, angsty dissatisfaction not quite being a grown up brings.
7.) Champagne tastes. Beer Budget. Familial financial support is cut back on the road to financial independence. This makes it hard to buy those cute shoes in the window at Macy's.
8.) No one cares that you graduated from college in 3 years with a 3.9. No one.
9.) Your friends are very likely just as vaguely dissastisfied as you are. Therefore, making them less than fun to hang out with.
10.) You experience the biggest round of growing pains since kindergarten around this time and that takes a toll on even the most put-together, successful 23-year-old.
11.) In the absence of a real job in the recession, you probably have to pick up a cruddy job. Like working for a salon and spa for rich little girls. Or selling popcorn to tourists. It's a hard life, but it pays the bills.
12.) You have to learn how to do your own laundry. I successfully did not do a load of laundry until I was almost 22. At 23, I had to start learning the finer points of separating and using different soaps and drying certain things outside of the dryer.
13.) You have to learn how to cook. The grown up inside of you is no longer satisfied with doritos and easy mac. So you have to find recipes, devote time to preparation, cooking, experimenting. And sometimes your efforts are less than successful (e.g. -- salsa chicken. ew. not to be confused with chicken salsa. which is a gift from god.)
14.) Sometimes you don't get what you want. This is where that cataclysmic crumbling of everything you thought was going to happen after college that you've been plotting and planning since you were ten falls down around your head and you have to start over again.
15.) You have to make your own doctor's appointments, take your own sick days, pick up your own prescriptions.
17.) You have to buy your own groceries and clothes; le sigh.
18.) Laugh lines.
19.) Credit cards and scores become scary and loom over your every financial move.
20.) No one understands you. No one.
21.) You have to make a serious decision about what you want to be when you grow up which weighs on you at the gym, when you are picking out ground turkey and riding the bus to visit friends from work.
22.) Jealousy rears its little green head alllll the time.
23.) The combination of these factors make you miserable. And whiny. And teary. And it's hard.
Therefore, I'm very excited that I'm not 23 anymore :)
2.) College is over, but in this economy, it's not very likely that the rest of your life has started.
3.) Broke broke broke. Food is expensive. Beer is expensive. Life is expensive.
4.) Walking the line between angsty teen and responsible adult is really hard.
5.) Your friends all start getting engaged and getting married. Because that's clearly the next step toward growing up. This causes much anxiety when you are not even close to ready to settle down.
6.) If you've never seen the world, this is when wanderlust settles around you like a little fog you can barely see anything else through. It's born of the vague, angsty dissatisfaction not quite being a grown up brings.
7.) Champagne tastes. Beer Budget. Familial financial support is cut back on the road to financial independence. This makes it hard to buy those cute shoes in the window at Macy's.
8.) No one cares that you graduated from college in 3 years with a 3.9. No one.
9.) Your friends are very likely just as vaguely dissastisfied as you are. Therefore, making them less than fun to hang out with.
10.) You experience the biggest round of growing pains since kindergarten around this time and that takes a toll on even the most put-together, successful 23-year-old.
11.) In the absence of a real job in the recession, you probably have to pick up a cruddy job. Like working for a salon and spa for rich little girls. Or selling popcorn to tourists. It's a hard life, but it pays the bills.
12.) You have to learn how to do your own laundry. I successfully did not do a load of laundry until I was almost 22. At 23, I had to start learning the finer points of separating and using different soaps and drying certain things outside of the dryer.
13.) You have to learn how to cook. The grown up inside of you is no longer satisfied with doritos and easy mac. So you have to find recipes, devote time to preparation, cooking, experimenting. And sometimes your efforts are less than successful (e.g. -- salsa chicken. ew. not to be confused with chicken salsa. which is a gift from god.)
14.) Sometimes you don't get what you want. This is where that cataclysmic crumbling of everything you thought was going to happen after college that you've been plotting and planning since you were ten falls down around your head and you have to start over again.
15.) You have to make your own doctor's appointments, take your own sick days, pick up your own prescriptions.
17.) You have to buy your own groceries and clothes; le sigh.
18.) Laugh lines.
19.) Credit cards and scores become scary and loom over your every financial move.
20.) No one understands you. No one.
21.) You have to make a serious decision about what you want to be when you grow up which weighs on you at the gym, when you are picking out ground turkey and riding the bus to visit friends from work.
22.) Jealousy rears its little green head alllll the time.
23.) The combination of these factors make you miserable. And whiny. And teary. And it's hard.
Therefore, I'm very excited that I'm not 23 anymore :)
Thanks Elyse
Dear Elyse,
Thanks for coming home, for caring about the radioactive roaches that are living in the microwave, for using your lesbian superpowers for good and not evil. I know that you are a little glum, but I also know that there's no one in the world more incredible and talented and wonderful and warm than you. This girl knows all of your dreams are going to come true and probably sooner than you think. Until then, it's fa-la-la-lattes and netflix and couch snuggles :)
Hugs and kisses forever,
Ashley
Thanks for coming home, for caring about the radioactive roaches that are living in the microwave, for using your lesbian superpowers for good and not evil. I know that you are a little glum, but I also know that there's no one in the world more incredible and talented and wonderful and warm than you. This girl knows all of your dreams are going to come true and probably sooner than you think. Until then, it's fa-la-la-lattes and netflix and couch snuggles :)
Hugs and kisses forever,
Ashley
Reasons It's Not Fun to Have Pneumonia or Similar Respiratory Illnesses
1.) You have to stay in bed. And not do anything. Because when you do leave your bed, you wheeze and cough in a really unattractive, unflattering way. You also feel like your limbs are made of lead so movement becomes challenging. And not in that fun-I'm-doing-the-crossword-puzzle-in-the-New-York-Times kind of way.
2.) Steroids make you puffy. Ew. And this makes fitting into your skinny jeans tres difficult.
3.) Reading is fun. For a little while. So is watching episode after episode of TV show. Eventually this becomes old hat. Even if that TV show is wonderful, like Pushing Daisies.
4.) Inhalers make it hard to focus. So, on top of being wheezy, you are woozy and therefore wholly unproductive. Therefore, it is easy to get behind in work work and schoolwork. Boo.
5.) You cannot work if you cannot stand or move without wheezing or woozing. No work means no money. No money means no shoes, no black eyeliner, and no groceries.
6.) Pneumonia makes you exhausted. Sleeping is nice, but day after day after day. It leaves you desperate for a little energy, a little fun.
7.) Coughing from your wheezy, tight, foggy chest is rather painful.
8.) People are not sympathetic to your cause. They seem to think it's easy to fake respiratory illness. They also lack a basic understanding of pulmonary problems. You can't catch someone's astma, fyi.
9.) Breathing treatments take me immediately back to being twelve and chubby and awkward with my Nancy Drew books and Audrey Hepburn dresses that wouldn't be cool until I graduated from college. Talk about a painful place to land.
Anyway, I'm glad I'm starting to get better. Yay!
2.) Steroids make you puffy. Ew. And this makes fitting into your skinny jeans tres difficult.
3.) Reading is fun. For a little while. So is watching episode after episode of TV show. Eventually this becomes old hat. Even if that TV show is wonderful, like Pushing Daisies.
4.) Inhalers make it hard to focus. So, on top of being wheezy, you are woozy and therefore wholly unproductive. Therefore, it is easy to get behind in work work and schoolwork. Boo.
5.) You cannot work if you cannot stand or move without wheezing or woozing. No work means no money. No money means no shoes, no black eyeliner, and no groceries.
6.) Pneumonia makes you exhausted. Sleeping is nice, but day after day after day. It leaves you desperate for a little energy, a little fun.
7.) Coughing from your wheezy, tight, foggy chest is rather painful.
8.) People are not sympathetic to your cause. They seem to think it's easy to fake respiratory illness. They also lack a basic understanding of pulmonary problems. You can't catch someone's astma, fyi.
9.) Breathing treatments take me immediately back to being twelve and chubby and awkward with my Nancy Drew books and Audrey Hepburn dresses that wouldn't be cool until I graduated from college. Talk about a painful place to land.
Anyway, I'm glad I'm starting to get better. Yay!
Cheers
It's windy. I can see the little puffs of air swirling viciously through the trees; hear it trying to tear through my flue. Not unlike the wind the whirled my slightly shorter hair around my face, wet with rain and tears as I stood on the McClennan's back porch about a year ago one grey afternoon, suddenly realizing that my life as I knew it was crumbling all around me.
I made it through the wilderness, blah blah blah. No one loves to celebrate the accomplishment of having gotten through this whirlwind of a year more than me. No one loves to relish in how far I've come more than I do. But that's not what I'm thinking about today. I am reflecting on the year, of course; how could I not, with the birthday and bedrest and whatnot?
Today, I'm reminded subtly of crushing blows and spontaneous car rides, sleepovers on futons, showtunes, red lipstick, dancing, and more gin than anyone should ever drink. And Katy Perry and the Stanley Cup and hot chocolate spiked with Bailey's when it's snowy. I'm reminded that my life has gone on, in spite of certain unforeseen hiccups, and I'm thankfully nudged to remember that things never stop moving forward. I'm reminded to keep forgiving, myself and others.
But, tonight, I'm feeling that familiar breath of panic, the push toward being a little terrified about what happens next. Mostly because I've finally fallen head over heels for something closely related to a career. And because there are a few other things that I'd like to take a chance on. Things I'm not even sure I know where to begin when it comes to taking chances.
I'm worrying that my wanderlust will never be satisfied; that I might not ever see the Sphinx or the Eiffel Tower or the rest of the world. How do you see the world when you can barely pay your rent? Faith. Trust. Pixie Dust.
And I'm remembering that sometimes it's ok to just hold your breath, hope, and make wishes when you kiss the wall at 11:11 (Confession: I almost always pick the same wish when I wish on the wall, in wells, or on eyelashes.). Wishes help turn obstacles into popcicles.
Cheers to the year it's been and all of the things I've learned, loved, and become along the way. Here's to never forgetting to be a little terrified; it keeps you on your toes. And mostly, here's to wishes and dreams and never giving up on any of them, no matter how far out of reach they sometimes seem. Here's to happy; here's to love in every possible way. And, of course, here's to you.
Adieu, 23. Adieu.
I made it through the wilderness, blah blah blah. No one loves to celebrate the accomplishment of having gotten through this whirlwind of a year more than me. No one loves to relish in how far I've come more than I do. But that's not what I'm thinking about today. I am reflecting on the year, of course; how could I not, with the birthday and bedrest and whatnot?
Today, I'm reminded subtly of crushing blows and spontaneous car rides, sleepovers on futons, showtunes, red lipstick, dancing, and more gin than anyone should ever drink. And Katy Perry and the Stanley Cup and hot chocolate spiked with Bailey's when it's snowy. I'm reminded that my life has gone on, in spite of certain unforeseen hiccups, and I'm thankfully nudged to remember that things never stop moving forward. I'm reminded to keep forgiving, myself and others.
But, tonight, I'm feeling that familiar breath of panic, the push toward being a little terrified about what happens next. Mostly because I've finally fallen head over heels for something closely related to a career. And because there are a few other things that I'd like to take a chance on. Things I'm not even sure I know where to begin when it comes to taking chances.
I'm worrying that my wanderlust will never be satisfied; that I might not ever see the Sphinx or the Eiffel Tower or the rest of the world. How do you see the world when you can barely pay your rent? Faith. Trust. Pixie Dust.
And I'm remembering that sometimes it's ok to just hold your breath, hope, and make wishes when you kiss the wall at 11:11 (Confession: I almost always pick the same wish when I wish on the wall, in wells, or on eyelashes.). Wishes help turn obstacles into popcicles.
Cheers to the year it's been and all of the things I've learned, loved, and become along the way. Here's to never forgetting to be a little terrified; it keeps you on your toes. And mostly, here's to wishes and dreams and never giving up on any of them, no matter how far out of reach they sometimes seem. Here's to happy; here's to love in every possible way. And, of course, here's to you.
Adieu, 23. Adieu.
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