That cursed place

I bought some jeans and a dress from Old Navy's online store last week, and stupidly clicked Ship before checking to make sure they wouldn't be shipped to my old address. Which is why yesterday I had to go back to the house I was so thankful not to live in any more.

We thought we were so lucky to have found such a great place--a duplex with a three-person apartment that we'd be sharing with another friend. At the beginning of our Sophomore year, Christina and I signed a lease for the following Fall, and we were beyond excited about it. It's such a cute place! And the kitchen! And a garage! We are So! Lucky!

And we kept believing it, too, even after Christina moved in a semester early (which is a story in itself, honestly). And sure, it was awful when her computer died. And her cell phone. And then her car. And did I mention she and her then-boyfriend broke up? Because that happened that semester, too.

I moved in during finals week, to get ready for my summer of solitude. And I kid you not, the day I moved in is the day I broke my finger. It was a sign, but I certainly didn't get it.

Then, I proceded to come down with Mono. I chalked both of these things up to my not-so-stellar health record for the year (Shingles! I'm like an old person) and went on my way. But you know, some crazy stuff happened to me when I lived in that apartment. My computer died, and I had to get a new hard drive. My car? It broke down about three times. My blowdryer even stopped working. And I also ended a relationship with a boyfriend in that apartment. Let's not even discuss the depressed spring semester I had.

When we got back to town this fall, Christina and I would often marvel at how absolutely terrible things went when we lived in our old apartment. Not that we didn't have a good time, but do you see the examples of terrible-ness? The only explanation is that the house was out to get us.

So I was not thrilled to go back yesterday, not even a little bit*. I didn't turn off my car when I pulled into the driveway, because I was afraid it wouldn't turn back on. And I made sure I didn't step on any icy patches, because I wouldn't put it past that place to totally break my leg.

*Okay, maybe a little bit, because that dress? It is adorable.

Unemployed, but optimistic. And also crazy.

It's been quiet around here, I know, but I have good reason for it. Why? Well, I finally decided to start looking for a job.

All last semester I enjoyed knowing that next semester I would find a job. And now it's next semester, and for the first couple of weeks I put off the whole job search. But then? Then I started looking.

And for a normal, non-crazy person, it would seem that my search is going well, because just a few short days after I posted my resume (she's such a grown-up, with her fancy resume) (and a portfolio, too) on Monster I got a call from a technical communication company in Cincinnati, and they wanted to meet me in person.

So I had my first grown-up interview today, and the reason I haven't been around is because I have been FREAKING. OUT.

Luckily, it went well, but the fact that I'm not available for three more months kind of got in the way of any further employment discussion. It was good to show off my work--work that was on one occasion destroyed by the university, and that I did at 3 in the morning, and that I am quite proud of--and get a positive response.

I guess I'm still anxious about what comes next. But I have to say, I don't think anything compares to the last week.

If they play that depressing song by The Fray, I'm totally leaving.

A few months ago I started reading websites through an RSS feed, which has changed my life in several ways, one of which is that I read a ridiculous amount of website posts each day. Another is that I have come across a lot of interesting sites that otherwise I never would have kept up with. One of them is BuzzFeed, and the best way to describe it is that it is an internet trend aggregator, pulling together the best stories about a current trend. Today one of their posts was about how today is the most depressing day of the year. Although I've mentioned this before, I had forgotten about the whole thing, as silly as it might sound. Still, I cannot tell you how relieved I was when I read it. I've been feeling a little down lately, so it's good to know that it can't get worse than right now. And today's half over! So that's something!

If I were feeling worse, the music on the radio may have put me over the edge today. Two of the songs I've heard I had to sing in high school choir (Ain't No Mountain High Enough and Build Me Up Buttercup, GAG), and the rest--which included Can You Feel The Love Tonight*--made me a little sick to my stomach. I am clearly a WOXY kind of girl. The paradox is, once the rest of the world became WOXY people, I would probably be disinterested, and complain about how hard it was to find soft rock anywhere.

*They've played this song twice in the two and a half hours I've been at work, and I'm a little confused about it. Also, I keep thinking about this "kings and vagabonds" commentary I read the other day.

2. I have officially decided not to go to graduate school, and so the job search has begun. So far I have applied for jobs in Denver, Colorado and Akron, Ohio. The Denver application was an accident, as in I accidently hit APPLY FOR THIS JOB. So sorry about that, wherever it was I applied, because that's probably not the best version of my application you could have gotten, especially since there was no cover letter. Mom, Dad, is there room in the basement for your flaky daughter?

3. I was watching some old Office episodes last night, and during the episode The Fire they play the game Desert Island, and each person had to list the three books and five movies he or she would take if stranded on a desert island. I decided to put too much thought into the scene and came up with these books:

• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
  
• Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
  
• any one of those Great American Short Stories of the Year anthologies.

And these movies:

• Meet Me in St. Louis
• The Royal Tenenbaums
• Can't Hardly Wait
• Pulp Fiction
• Toy Story 2

What are your Desert Island picks? I had to really think about it, although I think there are harder lists to make, like what 5 albums you'd take. I could pretty easily tell you what I wouldn't take, and the answer to that is anything playing on Warm 98 today.

Proof

You see, I am not completely heartless: I actually liked this video. Probably because it isn't computer animated.



[via BWE]

Wondering

how many other people get to watch Dick in a Box as part of their professor's lecture.

I doubt there are many of us, but I'm not complaining.

My mind isn't completely changed yet, so let's not do anything hasty

The second best gift I got for Christmas (behind Guitar Hero II, natch) was a video iPod, and at first I thought I'd never buy a tv show or movie I couldn't watch on my tv. But, as the well-trained consumer I am, I ended up browsing the tv show section of the iTunes store where I found that the first epsode of the second season of HBO's Extras was available for free. So of course I downloaded it, because 1. I have recently fallen in love with BBC America (Coupling? The Robinsons? The original Office? YES.), which is where the main characters of Extras are from and 2. I have that continuing love affair with HBO series which is what rendered me a sickening tv addict in the first place. I thought, this is a good idea!

And the show was funny, even though I missed the entire first season.* The episode centered around an extra on the set of an Orlando Bloom film, and no matter how hard he tries, Orlando simply can't impress this woman with any of his movie star charms.

I spend a LOT of time teasing my sister about how much I dislike Orlando Bloom (more than penguins, people) but if this was the only thing I'd ever seen him in I would totally have believed she was right. Maybe it was because he was playing himself and couldn't screw it up, or maybe British dialogue and humor suit him better than American writing. Whatever it was, I was surprised to find that his presence on the screen wasn't revolting to me. In fact, I liked his scenes.

So I guess you could say that this is my apology to this actor. Although it is also my plea for him to keep himself on that side of the Atlantic. Because seriously, you do much better work over there. No--don't argue. I mean, did you see Elizabethtown? Or Troy? I certainly wish I hadn't.

*On a side note, I learned through my new BBC obsession that most British sitcoms only have six episodes to a season, which didn't put me too far behind.

On taking all the classes I've avoided during the last four years

Every semester, I like to go to each of my classes a few times and then speculate about what kind of semester I'm going to have. This is the first time I have had a class before 10 a.m. since my Freshman year (oooh, I know, pity party for myself) (my dad is experiencing schadenfreude right now), which I suppose is preparing me for the Real World and a Real Job. And that's fine, but after three days I see that I'm going to have to make drastic changes to my sleep patterns.

I'm taking a statistics course this semester, which fufills my math credit, and I've been putting it off since, oh, I don't know, THE DAY I GOT HERE. It hasn't gotten hard yet, but it has succeeded in being amazingly boring. I didn't have any big lecture classes last semester, and I'd almost forgotten what it's like to be able to write out a shopping list without feeling like my professor was going to call on me (I am a dedicated student, no?). Today, the girls sitting next to me picked out cute boys in the class, wrote a page full of notes back and forth to each other, and played hangman. I can see that this class is going to be valuable for everyone involved, because I also had a productive day: I filed my nails, made a list of textbooks I still need to purchase, and wrote meeting dates in my planner. I also took a few notes, and I'm telling you that so you know I actually paid attention today, not because it was a part of my productivity.

I'm also giving Women's Studies a second try, since I had to drop it at the beginning of last semester to take a course that was actually going to be useful in my field of work. I don't expect much out of this course, mostly because the two times I sat through it last semester we ended up lamenting about how HARD it is to be a woman, oh, we are OPRESSED. I did not enjoy it, despite my love for bitching. My friends suggested that I ask why our classroom doesn't have a kitchen, but I don't think that would help matters at all. Besides, I may be heartless and mean, but I'm not rude.

I thought E.T. only liked Reeces Pieces

I was suffering from that hiccup pain for about two days. I didn't know that could happen--you stop having hiccups, but continue to feel like they could start back up at any minute. Being the crazy worrier that I am, after learning (at a young age) that it is possible to have hiccups for extremely long stretches of time, I have always been a little scared that once my hiccups start, they will last for the rest of my life, making it impossible for me to find a job, or a husband, etc.

I have an active imagination.

So here I am in Colorado, visiting a grad school program and hanging out with some friends. We visited the Coors Brewery in Golden yesterday. It's the largest brewery in the world, so it was sort of like a Wonka factory for college students, except instead of that big room full of giant gummi bears and edible buttercups, there was just a big bar. And also, we did not ride on a boat. And no one blew up like a blueberry. There were no lifetime supplies of anything either, but I think you got the gist of this comparison a few sentences ago.

And now I leave you with this poster from the Brewery yesterday, which leaves me with quite a few questions about what life must have been like in the 1980's:

Shortly following midnight

"Frankly, I prefer 2006." - My brother's best friend

I suppose it's good to start the year off with a good laugh--but what if you spend the first five hours battling off the resulting case of hiccups? Specifically, the kind that hurt?

At any rate, happy 2007.