Dear Ellie,
I know that you are a cat but if for just today you could be more dog like that would be greatly appreciated. You see, if you were a dog, I could call your name and you would come running and I would know you were not lost. If i called your name and you didnt come running I would know that you were lost, and that I should continue searching the building/surrounding areas for you. But as you do not know how to respond to your name, I am not sure if you are lost or just somewhere hiding laughing at me. In the future, if you could come out of your hiding spot every now and then it would do a lot to comfort my nerves.
Thanks,
Allison
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
When daytime drinking is not an option...
So I think there may be something to this whole Second Life thing. The Avatar version of myself (besides having longer and proportionally less unfortunate legs) would probably be sitting at a side walk cafe drinking prosecco and reading a book like "one hundred years of solitude." In my online world I will be significantly smarter and have a longer attention span, and will be able to differentiate between the 8000 characters named Arcadio that appear in the book.
When my friend, LP, forwarded an article about coping with the quarter life crisis, one suggestion was to make a list of where you would like to see yourself in 5 years. Apparently having goals will help prevent the feeling of being a completely unproductive member of society.
What the article is missing, is information on what to do when what you want to do is unattainable. Ideally, I would be at a cute apartment in NYC making crafts, but to live in said apartment and make said crafts, there would need to be some sort of income. Having been completely spoiled by my parents all my life (yes, still now,) I am not ready to give up the life style I have become accustomed to. This sadly means, sticking with my doctoral program. Really, what the article should have included was a subsection titled: What to do when daytime drinking is not an option.
I sadly do not live in an avatar world, and I do not have a second life character as I am completely technically challenged and lazy. I do have 2 things, however, that help me get through the day. I know what you are thinking, friends and family. Yes those are great, and I am very fortunate to have an excellent set of both. But on a deeper level, to really get through the day I rely on food carts and the cupcake truck. If I were now to have a conversation with you, the reader, it may go something like this:
"Really? Food carts and cupcakes get you through the day" you may ask.
"yes!" I say.
"Then why aren't you there now? Why are you blogging?" There is confusion in your voice.
"Because if I go to the carts without deciding between Shrimp and Green Beans or Noodle Salad ahead of time, I may make an impromptu food cart choice. Like Moroccan plate...which will undoubtedly ruin the rest of my day. This is a very important decision. One that must be delayed until properly weighing out the pros and cons of each lunch decision. You see, lunch is the most important meal of the day." I try to explain.
"I though breakfast was the most important meal of the day!" you exclaim matter of factly.
"Lies!"
...and so on.
Fortunately, you are an online audience (all one of you, hi Hayley!), and doth hath no capacity to inquire about such things.
As I still have not decided what to eat for lunch, I will continue on my ramble about cupcakes.
On my google home page on my lab computer, there is a very peculiar application. I am not sure why or how it appeared, but I am pretty sure it was sent from somebody who wants me to feel bad about myself. It lists my most frequented sites in order.
1. google. nothing wrong there.
2. gmail. makes sense, I must stay connected...for work purposes obvi.
3. pubmed. this pleases me. it means that in the year i have been in this office, I actually have done a substantial amount of work to beat out all subsequent websites on the list.
4. the cupcake truck. The cupcake truck blog lists the timing/location/flavors of the truck each day. Apparently I visit this website more than I read the news (cnn is at #5), look to see if old classmates are doing something more prestigious than myself (facebook is #6) or check the weather (#8).
The cupcake truck is more important to me than both the news and the weather. Pathetic? yes. but yet something to be proud of, as it means I am passionate about something!
It reminds me of the little kid that called me out one Sunday morning last month for eating a cupcake for breakfast. I tried to explain to her that it was a muffin. I do not know why I even bothered. She saw it for what it was, and what I deep down knew it was as well. a cupcake.
And with that, I am off to get noodle salad for lunch, knowing that avatar allison is somewhere with a glass in her hand looking down on me fondly.
When my friend, LP, forwarded an article about coping with the quarter life crisis, one suggestion was to make a list of where you would like to see yourself in 5 years. Apparently having goals will help prevent the feeling of being a completely unproductive member of society.
What the article is missing, is information on what to do when what you want to do is unattainable. Ideally, I would be at a cute apartment in NYC making crafts, but to live in said apartment and make said crafts, there would need to be some sort of income. Having been completely spoiled by my parents all my life (yes, still now,) I am not ready to give up the life style I have become accustomed to. This sadly means, sticking with my doctoral program. Really, what the article should have included was a subsection titled: What to do when daytime drinking is not an option.
I sadly do not live in an avatar world, and I do not have a second life character as I am completely technically challenged and lazy. I do have 2 things, however, that help me get through the day. I know what you are thinking, friends and family. Yes those are great, and I am very fortunate to have an excellent set of both. But on a deeper level, to really get through the day I rely on food carts and the cupcake truck. If I were now to have a conversation with you, the reader, it may go something like this:
"Really? Food carts and cupcakes get you through the day" you may ask.
"yes!" I say.
"Then why aren't you there now? Why are you blogging?" There is confusion in your voice.
"Because if I go to the carts without deciding between Shrimp and Green Beans or Noodle Salad ahead of time, I may make an impromptu food cart choice. Like Moroccan plate...which will undoubtedly ruin the rest of my day. This is a very important decision. One that must be delayed until properly weighing out the pros and cons of each lunch decision. You see, lunch is the most important meal of the day." I try to explain.
"I though breakfast was the most important meal of the day!" you exclaim matter of factly.
"Lies!"
...and so on.
Fortunately, you are an online audience (all one of you, hi Hayley!), and doth hath no capacity to inquire about such things.
As I still have not decided what to eat for lunch, I will continue on my ramble about cupcakes.
On my google home page on my lab computer, there is a very peculiar application. I am not sure why or how it appeared, but I am pretty sure it was sent from somebody who wants me to feel bad about myself. It lists my most frequented sites in order.
1. google. nothing wrong there.
2. gmail. makes sense, I must stay connected...for work purposes obvi.
3. pubmed. this pleases me. it means that in the year i have been in this office, I actually have done a substantial amount of work to beat out all subsequent websites on the list.
4. the cupcake truck. The cupcake truck blog lists the timing/location/flavors of the truck each day. Apparently I visit this website more than I read the news (cnn is at #5), look to see if old classmates are doing something more prestigious than myself (facebook is #6) or check the weather (#8).
The cupcake truck is more important to me than both the news and the weather. Pathetic? yes. but yet something to be proud of, as it means I am passionate about something!
It reminds me of the little kid that called me out one Sunday morning last month for eating a cupcake for breakfast. I tried to explain to her that it was a muffin. I do not know why I even bothered. She saw it for what it was, and what I deep down knew it was as well. a cupcake.
And with that, I am off to get noodle salad for lunch, knowing that avatar allison is somewhere with a glass in her hand looking down on me fondly.
Monday, August 17, 2009
What to do when you are bored and in your twenties and worried that you are wasting the best years of your life.
When a well educated female in their 20's has a feeling of discontentment, there are five ways to rectify the situation:
1. Travel. The idea of traveling has this super romantic feel, especially when you see pictures of exotic locations posted on facebook by people that you went to high school with but do not actually remember. Clearly, if they have been eating gyro's in the greek isles, they must be happy. Getting up and leaving the mundane lifestyle that is currently consuming your being seems like the perfect solution to mixing things up. However, there are the issues of time, money, and finding somebody as equally bored as you are to plan this impromptu getaway. In actuality, much time is spent online, searching for deals and scouting out locations for this soul searching trip, that will never come to fruition. It gets postponed to a better time that does not exist. In the meantime there is 2.
2. Online Date. Like traveling, a lot of the time spent with online dating is in the set up process. I spent hours perfectly crafting the witty/charming/quirky online profile to meet the the nonreligious/Jewish/Christopher Guest watching/lawyer of my dreams. Pictures were carefully chosen and cropped to get that perfect combination of pretty without trying too hard look, that I obviously tried too hard to create. The moment comes to publish the profile, and pressing that button comes the promise of happiness and possibilities. This is great, unless you live in a geographically undesirable location, where you end up on a date that is the longest 35 minutes of your life. And online profile removed.
3. Go to law school. Like most people in their twenties, I have dabbled with the idea of law school. This is not a new concept, but something that began 3 years ago with an Elle Woods "I think I will go to law school today!" kind of moment. I was at my friend's apt, and she had a LSAT book on her coffee table. I already had plans to take the GRE and the MCAT (grad school is the twenty somethings best friend/arch nemesis) and decided I would take the LSAT too. After I took the exam, I realized I had absolutely no interest in law, or the pursuit there of, and instead chose to get my PhD at a fancy school that makes me miserable. So obviously, every now and then I get the hankering to go to law school (writer confesses a trip to the law school website 2 days ago). I now must ask myself, "do you really want to be a lawyer?" no? go to option 4.
4. Get a hobby. So I'll admit it, I like to collect hobbies. I have a particular penchant for old lady hobbies that have become popular to the stuff white people like generation. ie. knitting. I have an envious collection of 7inch long scarves, in a wide variety of colors. One day I will sew them together to get a Blossom looking masterpiece. That day will probably never come. Hats fit well into my attention span, but holding yarn in the summer does not have quite the same appeal.
In the spring I signed up for a kickball league in my city. For 70 dollars I got to play a gym class game and I got a team Tshirt. I went to one game, missed 4, went to another and will probably never go back again. It turns out I am not really a team sport kind of girl. Even the promise of post game drinking was not enough to lure me out in the heat (seriously, who wears T-shirts in the summer? I might as well be wearing a faux fur coat). There was only one option left.
5. Write a book. Along with the rest of the middle class twenty somethings, I feel like I have a unique voice that must be heard. I will enlighten everybody with my wit and wisdom! I will find my purpose! However, as I know that I will never complete a book, I decided to start a blog. I may or may not be the target demographic for the blog, and this may or may not last more than one post. I did see Julie and Julia, however, and I feel like that qualifies me for this endeavor.
1. Travel. The idea of traveling has this super romantic feel, especially when you see pictures of exotic locations posted on facebook by people that you went to high school with but do not actually remember. Clearly, if they have been eating gyro's in the greek isles, they must be happy. Getting up and leaving the mundane lifestyle that is currently consuming your being seems like the perfect solution to mixing things up. However, there are the issues of time, money, and finding somebody as equally bored as you are to plan this impromptu getaway. In actuality, much time is spent online, searching for deals and scouting out locations for this soul searching trip, that will never come to fruition. It gets postponed to a better time that does not exist. In the meantime there is 2.
2. Online Date. Like traveling, a lot of the time spent with online dating is in the set up process. I spent hours perfectly crafting the witty/charming/quirky online profile to meet the the nonreligious/Jewish/Christopher Guest watching/lawyer of my dreams. Pictures were carefully chosen and cropped to get that perfect combination of pretty without trying too hard look, that I obviously tried too hard to create. The moment comes to publish the profile, and pressing that button comes the promise of happiness and possibilities. This is great, unless you live in a geographically undesirable location, where you end up on a date that is the longest 35 minutes of your life. And online profile removed.
3. Go to law school. Like most people in their twenties, I have dabbled with the idea of law school. This is not a new concept, but something that began 3 years ago with an Elle Woods "I think I will go to law school today!" kind of moment. I was at my friend's apt, and she had a LSAT book on her coffee table. I already had plans to take the GRE and the MCAT (grad school is the twenty somethings best friend/arch nemesis) and decided I would take the LSAT too. After I took the exam, I realized I had absolutely no interest in law, or the pursuit there of, and instead chose to get my PhD at a fancy school that makes me miserable. So obviously, every now and then I get the hankering to go to law school (writer confesses a trip to the law school website 2 days ago). I now must ask myself, "do you really want to be a lawyer?" no? go to option 4.
4. Get a hobby. So I'll admit it, I like to collect hobbies. I have a particular penchant for old lady hobbies that have become popular to the stuff white people like generation. ie. knitting. I have an envious collection of 7inch long scarves, in a wide variety of colors. One day I will sew them together to get a Blossom looking masterpiece. That day will probably never come. Hats fit well into my attention span, but holding yarn in the summer does not have quite the same appeal.
In the spring I signed up for a kickball league in my city. For 70 dollars I got to play a gym class game and I got a team Tshirt. I went to one game, missed 4, went to another and will probably never go back again. It turns out I am not really a team sport kind of girl. Even the promise of post game drinking was not enough to lure me out in the heat (seriously, who wears T-shirts in the summer? I might as well be wearing a faux fur coat). There was only one option left.
5. Write a book. Along with the rest of the middle class twenty somethings, I feel like I have a unique voice that must be heard. I will enlighten everybody with my wit and wisdom! I will find my purpose! However, as I know that I will never complete a book, I decided to start a blog. I may or may not be the target demographic for the blog, and this may or may not last more than one post. I did see Julie and Julia, however, and I feel like that qualifies me for this endeavor.
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