Whales and Country

Whale's Role Model

At UNC, there’s a lot of really thuper-cool, fratastic guys.  You know what I’m talking about.  The ones with those pastel pants with little whales and giraffes printed on them?  That’s what I’m talking about.  Very sexy.  Very, very sexy.

The other day, I overheard one of these sweet, little princesses telling his friend all about how all male country music singers are dumb and illiterate and just all of this nonsense.  I can’t recall the exact words he said because I was too transfixed by the whales on his pants and was wondering if he knew they were on there when he bought them to really focus on his words.

Anyway, I don’t know if was out of spite for Whales or just because, but I rediscovered my love of country music.  Or maybe I rediscovered my love of tough, strong, rugged men with normal pants without animals on them.   Or maybe both. Whatever.

And, Whales.  Tim McGraw can read.  And bait a hook.  And drive a truck.  And take your Business School courses and count his millions of dollars.   And probably kick your whale-print-pastel-pant-covered ass.  So don’t hate.

Anyway.  I’m always looking for new songs to add to my playlist.  I figure, what goes around comes around, so if I give out some of my favorites, I’m hoping some will come my way!

1. Crazy Girl- Eli Young Band  (AWESOME.  Been stuck in my head for 2 weeks straight.)

2. You- Chris Young  (“No one gets me like you when you kiss me, girl you rock me harder than some downtown band”  Oh my gosh. Chris. Stop it.  You’re embarrassing me.  This is the perfect feel-good song to sing while you’re cruising around with the windows down.)

3. A Woman Like You-  Lee Brice  ( You’re going to want to date Lee Brice, and if you’re super crazy (like me) you may actually convince yourself the woman he’s looking for is, in fact, you.)

4. (Kissed You) Good Night- Gloriana (Just really cute.  The video is really cute too. “I should’ve kissed you, I should’ve pushed you up against the wall”  Mmm hmm. Yes, please.)

5. Over You- Miranda Lambert (Super sad.  But really well-written and beautiful.  It’s a song she and her husband, Blake Shelton wrote about his brother who passed away.  Blake didn’t think that he could handle performing it, but would be honored if Miranda did.  So sad.)

6. Let’s Don’t Call it a Night- Casey James (I really respect how direct he’s being.  No sugar-coating here.)

7. Georgia Peaches- Lauren Alaina  (Hehe.  I feel like this song is silly, but it’s so catchy.  I have to admit it kind of makes me want to be a Georgia Peach.)

8. This Ole Boy- Craig Morgan (This song is just really happy sounding and wonderful.  And I’m pretty sure it’s also about me.)

9. Somethin’ Bout a Truck- Kip Moore ( Mwahaha this song just makes me laugh.  Kip has such a growly voice.  It makes me nervous.)

10. Keep Me in Mind- Zac Brown Band  (Another great feel-good song.  An oldie, but a goodie.)

11. All Your Life- The Band Perry   (WHAT?!?  All she wants is to be the one person you love for your entire life.  Is she really asking that much?  I don’t think so.)

12. Ours- Taylor Swift  (“So don’t you worry your pretty mind, people throw rocks at things that shine”  It’s a nice song.  Everyone likes Taylor Swift’s music.  Even if they say they don’t.  It’s so catchy.  And deep down aren’t we all just 17 year-old girls? )

13.  Alone With You- Jake Owen (Jake Owen is sick of this girl booty-calling him.  I get it.  Quit playing games with his heart, you wench!)

He's just taking Lil' Sally out for a walk with his shirt off. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just your typical country guy.

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weekly update: purple polish, candy peanuts and disco

This week I:

- Painted my nails purple

- Learned to play an “E” chord on the guitar

- Survived 2 tornadoes

- Survived sitting in the basement of Fetzer with a bunch of sweaty jocks during the tornadoes

- Ran a total of 12 miles

- Received 16 mosquito bites.  13 on my legs, 2 on my arms, and one on ze upper right buttock. Very sexy.

- Disco danced to “You make me feel like dancingggggg” roughly 70 times

- May or may not have fallen in love with Leo Sayer (of You Make Me Feel Like Dancing fame)

 

 

 

 

 

- Stayed in and watched “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and drank peppermint tea…. grew increasingly concerned that I am Julia Roberts character and that I’m going to end up all alone like one of those crazy old ladies who only talks to cats, but instead of cats, I will have gay best friends

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Stuffed more orange candy peanuts in my mouth than my classmate in class and won an iPod shuffle (#NMTIFAMP) ( I will make a mental note of this to report to my dentist’s office, as they are always complaining that my mouth is really small so it’s hard to clean my teeth, remove wisdom teeth, etc.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Got dumped by a really sweet, handsome, great guy with a big brain AND big muscles– I’m sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the whole “sexy-stuffing-my-mouth-with-candy-like-a-starving-hillbilly” thing.

See his strong arms? His ability to evoke The Times Square Kiss wonderfulness?

Times Square Kiss

 

 

 

 

So nothing special.  A typical week in the life of the typical college kid.  Just me being normal.

Brownies Baby

Tonight.  To avoid my 789 billion pages of reading assigned in class,  I made brownies.

"Wow! I'm such an amazing baker!"

Here is my recipe:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 (ish) teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Lick Here.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Pam the pan (or use crisco and flour)  Also, this is a baby batch so use a 8×8 or 9×9 inch baking pan.
3. Mix together ze butter and sugar in un bowl.  Add eggs, and mix well.
4. Zen.  In ze other bowl, mix ze flour, ze cocoa and ze salt.
5. Lil’ by lil’ stir the dry mix into the wet (sugar) mix.
6. Add ze vanilla.
7. Spread evenly into Pammed pan.
8. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes (or until toothpick/wooden kabob skewer comes out clean)
9. Take the time while your brownies are in the oven to lick any remnants of the batter from your fingers, the bowl, the spoon, counter-top, etc.
10. Let cool (if you have the self-control) and cut (with a plastic knife) and enjoy!

My little tiny roommate just loving her brownie! Too cute!

Easter Weekend in New York!

This past weekend I made my way up via bus (another story for another time) to New York City to celebrate Easter and had such a good time.

Dinner & Drinks at Grey Dog with Great Friends. I didn't include this in my favorite places list because I felt I was too inhibited to fully appreciate how wonderful it was, but it was so cozy and fun. If I lived nearby, I would have a meal here at least once a day. See how tasty and fresh the avocados in my salad are?! Mmmm mmm mmm

Favorite Places:

Beauty & Essex -  A beautiful restaurant and bar hidden behind the facade of a pawn shop with fur-lined walls, huge cascading chandeliers, and champagne in the ladies room.  So dark and trendy and mysterious.  I feel like really dirty sexy things happen there.  Loved it.

Sweet Revenge- Indulged at one of the best cupcake places ever that excellently pairs their decadent treats with wine and beer.  I tried the “Pure” with Mexican Vanilla Cake and Mexican Vanilla Buttercream and the “Fleur de Sel” with Valrhona Chocolate Cake, Salted Caramel Center and Salted Caramel Buttercream with Pecans and Salted Caramel Drizzle.  Both were delicious, but the “Fleur de Sel” was definitely my favorite.  I also got to meet the owner, Marlo Scott, who was amazingly friendly.  We (Marlo, Me, and my fifth beer) decided that I would be a regular this summer.

The Stanton Social - So fancy schmancy.  The upstairs bar had long, plush, leather couches with little candles at every table, and sexy bossa nova and jazz music playing in the background.  (My favorite is  The Girl from Ipanema)  I felt like I should have been wearing a red cocktail dress from the 40s with  those gloves that go up to your elbows and a Cruella Deville cigarette.  But don’t worry- I made my dark skinny jean outfit feel splendidly sophisticated ordering the Cucumber Vanilla Cosmo and French Onion Soup Dumplings, both of which were absolutely delicious.

Essentially I was fat, drunk and happy all weekend.  It was delightful.

Fun with Friends and Wine at Grey Dog in the West Village

It’s that special time of year… Spring Registration!!!

Courtesy of William Mangum and WilliamMangum.com

It’s springtime.  It’s the time for baseball, sunshine and pretty flowers.  It’s also time for class registration.  A time of year everyone cherishes at UNC.

At UNC, the University has access to super secret information like how many people are in each major and what classes they need to take to graduate.  Unfortunately, these top secrets are essentially worthless to the advising system because they can’t find a use for them.  If only there was a way to somehow combine this complicated information so they could determine how many classes to offer so that students could get into their required classes for their majors to graduate…

Without fail, I have had scheduling issues every semester.  Last semester was my favorite though.  I needed to fill my Beyond the Northern Atlantic requirement, you know, the one that ensures all UNC students will be worldly and cultured?  So I enrolled in JAPN 306 – Japanese Culture.    I was actually really excited.  I kept my fingers crossed for something about eating sushi and Sumo wrestling to be on the syllabus.

However, when I walked into class on the first day, I realized that something was terribly wrong.  There was no professor and almost everyone was speaking in Japanese.  I joined the other English-speaking misfits in the back of the class— a guy named John who went by Silver and Andrew, a fellow journalism major.

Ms. Yuko Kato finally emailed everyone saying class was cancelled due to bad weather.  The other kids told us.  Silver, Andrew and I couldn’t understand her Japanese email.

I emailed her and explained that I was taking the class to fill my BN requirement and that there was nothing in the class description saying that the class was taught in Japanese, but I just wanted to make sure it would be taught in English so that I could stay enrolled and actually have a chance at passing, etc.

Her email response was literally entirely in Japanese.  I went ahead and took the hint and dropped.

Oh, UNC. and Yuko.  How I adore you.

 

UNC Old Well Springtime picture http://www.williammangum.com/shop/catalog/product/view/id/185/s/unc-old-well-springtime/category/10/

the interview.

ah.  the interview.  Que Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5

Yesterday I had my first “real person” job  interview.

A little background information:

Monday, while skimming through  The Daily Tar Heel, before satisfying myself intellectually by reading my horoscope and solving (okay,  attempting to solve) the crossword puzzle,  I came across an ad in the “Help Wanted”  section:

Editorial Assistant

wanted for small company working with publishers.  Maintain manuscript logs, correspondence, some editing and proofreading as well as other clerical tasks.  Attention to detail a must.  Starting $12/hr.  Office in lovely downtown Carrboro.  Call Jack at 123-4567

Now, this section of the paper is usually reserved for awesome college student jobs like changing diapers or cleaning toilets.  So the ad caught my eye and I obviously had to apply.

I gave Jack a call, set up a time for an interview, then prepared.

the interview.

My interview was scheduled for 2 pm.  I was ready.  At 1pm I put on the outfit I had picked out the night before, put the multiple copies of my resume into a folder and into my bag, put a copy of driving directions in my car and sat down at my desk to prepare myself mentally.

During “mental preparation” time, I noticed that my finger nail polish on my left index finger was chipped.  CHIPPED.  People do not get important “real people” jobs with CHIPPED nail polish.  I immediately painted on a fresh coat.  (OPI‘s Chapel of Love if you must know.)

My goal was to arrive at the interview 15 minutes early.  Every set of directions I’d googled estimated my driving time to be between 3 and 4 minutes.  Just to be safe I gave myself an additional 10 minutes to find the building located literally 1.1 miles from my house.

Now, maybe it’s because I got frazzled when I opened the car and smeared wet nail polish on my bag, or maybe it’s because I printed directions from the office to my house instead of from my house to the office, or maybe it’s because I don’t know how to correctly use the GPS in my car or google directions on my phone, or maybe I am just cursed by little evil direction devils, but whatever the reason, the result was that I left my house at 1:32 pm and arrived in the parking lot of the office building at 1:52 pm.

I scurried up the stairs in 4-inch high heels to Technica Editorial’s office suite.  Jack greeted me and invited me into his office.  He introduced me to his wife, Arlene, and sat down.  I was careful this whole time to keep my unsightly smudged fingernail out of view.

Jack and Arlene were both so kind and easy to talk to.  They seemed very intelligent, but not uptight or pretentious.  Their outfits were professional but comfortable.  The office dress code was clearly work casual.  To say the least, my uh, “power suit” was more than a little out of place.

They told me about the company and about the job.  I got out my folder to give them a copy of my resume and explained in an a manner all too gung- ho,  “I have a plain copy of my resume and a copy with my picture on it just in case you want to put a face with a name.”  They smiled politely and took both.  What a tool.  The only thing that would’ve made it worse is if I would’ve winked at the end.

They seemed impressed with my summer job as an editorial intern with Cincinnati Magazine .  They asked me some questions about it and about being from Cincinnati.  While I was rambling out a response,  I mentioned that my sister was a freshman in college and was having a good ol’ time.

Arlene interjected and said, “Oh that’s good to hear she likes it.  Our son is a freshman in college this year too at The University of North Carolina School of the Arts.”

I said, “Oh really? Yeah, my boyfriend is moving to New York in a few weeks.”

What. Is. Wrong. With. Me.

I might as well have just said, “Oh yeah?  I like cantaloupes.”   I can only pray that when she smiled pleasantly at me, that was her way of saying she understood my train of thought in connecting a performing arts school in North Carolina with Broadway/performing arts in New York City.

Before the end of the interview, Jack asked me why I thought I would be a good fit for the job.  While I was answering the question, I really wanted to show  just how passionate I was about the field of editing.  To emphasize this point, I grabbed my copy of  The Associated Press Stylebook out of my bag to show them just how dedicated I am to the craft.   Apparently that didn’t seem like enough to me at the time, so I also insisted that they see all of the markings and post-its I’d made in the book,  proving its frequent usage.

I guess I also just really wanted them to think I was a huge weirdo.

Jack and Arlene walked me out of the office and said they would be “in touch.”

I had to quit

Not everyone is a winner.  There have to be losers to be winners.  Don’t worry.  I’m not a loser.  I am a quitter.

As of Friday I had been working at Restaurant for one week exactly.  I liked it.  When I was hired I told Manager, “I can work two shifts a week, less is fine, but never more.”

Manager said, “That’s fine and dandy, we have lots of waitresses who only work a couple times a week.”

After 3 days of training, I was put on the schedule for my first week.  5 times.

I reminded Manager that really I could only work 2 times a week; and that I wasn’t fibbing when I told him the first time.  Manager smiled and said, “I know, don’t worry, everyone is on the schedule a lot more this week, it will all be back to normal next week.”

That evening next week’s schedule was posted.  I was put on the schedule for my second week.  4 times.

After a few careful minutes of thinking, I made my decision.  I had to quit.

I went in the next day 3 hours before my shift.  I would offer to work this as my last shift; however, I’m aware that normally when you quit people just want you to leave, hence the 3-hours-early arrival.

I thought it rather thoughtful of myself to come in early, just in case they could find a replacement.

Manager was at the bar counter.

I went up to him.  “Can I talk to you?”

Manager, “Ya.”

“It’s kind of something I should probably talk to you about somewhere a little more private.”

Manager, “Here’s fine.”

“Okay.  Well see I wrote down on my schedule card that I can only work 2 times a week, and I talked to you about it and told you I can only work 2 times a week, and this week I am working 5 times, and you said that it was just this week and that next week everything would be back to normal, and so I assumed that would mean that I would only be on 2 times, but I’m actually on 4 times which is double the amount I can actually work, I just don’t think I can work here anymore,  I can work tonight but it will be my last shift, I just don’t have time to work that much in my schedule.  So I have to quit.”

Manager.

“Fill out another schedule card.”

Me.

“Umm, well, okay, but I really just can’t work here anymore.  I have to quit.”

Manager, “Let’s go back into the office before you get hysterical.”

OFFICE

“I really just can’t work here anymore.  I’ve overscheduled myself.  I have to quit.”

Manager, “Just fill that out.”

ENTER OWNER

Owner, “We need more green beans for the special tomorrow night.  People all of the sudden love green beans.”

Manager, “I’ll go get green beans.”

MANAGER EXITS.  OWNER BEGINS CONVERSATION WITH SELF DISCUSSING THE SURPRISING POPULARITY OF GREEN BEANS, ON A COLLEGE CAMPUS NO LESS.

I left.

I called Manager, well, fine, my roommate called Manager about an hour later pretending to be me.  She told Manager, “I am very sorry.  I won’t be in tonight. I have to quit.”

And just like that I was done.  I had quit.

: )

Some silly links to quotes about not quitting.  They clearly don’t know what it’s like to be a girl and have to waitress wearing a tie.

http://www.selfhelpdaily.com/quotes-about-quitting/

http://www.quotegarden.com/perseverance.html

Fourth Time’s a Charm.

Last week was my first week of classes and the class schedule I’d oh-so-carefully set last spring for this semester had just been completely annihilated by the unseen evil that is the UNC registration system.    I had to spend hours in the library trying to enroll in fascinating courses like “GERM 280: 19^thCentury German Philosophy and Modern Cultures” and other fun, light stuff like “GEOL 509: Groundwater” and “MATH 551: Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometrics,” to finally create some semblance of a schedule.  The only class that I was not mysteriously, as I would later learn from an advisor, “kicked out of due to ‘unknown system errors,’” was ECON 101.

Oh. Economics. How wonderful.  I’d literally enrolled and dropped that exact course with the same professor, Dr. Ralph Byrns, 3 times since my freshman year.  But let me explain,  although yes, I did in fact drop this purportedly “easy pass freshman class” 3 times,  I dropped in a productive fashion.   The first time, I dropped as a freshman, was before classes even started because I thought it seemed too intimidating and decided to take “LFIT 181: Advanced Swimming” instead.  The second time was fall semester of my sophomore year and within ten minutes of the first class I’d decided it was indeed too intimidating and dropped.  The third time during Spring semester of my sophomore year, I made it all the way to the first midterm, on which I scored a spectacular “C-,” and thought it hopeless to continue.  It’s like baby steps.  A little closer to the goal each time.

So I’m thinking that maybe, just maybe, this could be the semester I go all the way (to the final exam).

3 am Banana Walnut Bread

Five minutes ago as I sat on my bed ”working” on my final assignment for my journalism class (the one worth 40% of my grade) I realized I was lonely.  So I did what any mature, slightly overweight, college girl would do- I called upon my dear old friend, Carbs.  I know,  I know, carbohydrates make you sleepy- that’s why I grabbed a red bull too (sugar-free, no worries). 

As I made my way to the kitchen, I was relieved, no, ecstatic to see what my roommate and her boyfriend had foolishly left behind.  The glimmers of light shining off of the tin foil wrapped about it ever so gently nearly blinded me the minute I stepped into the kitchen.  There it was just resting there on the countertop, practically begging me to cut a thick, soft slice.  And I did.  After toasting my inch thick (at least) piece of bread, I smothered it in butter, sugar and cinnamon.  BUT the butter was imitation butter.  So it was basically like a power/health snack, especially with the bananas and walnuts in the bread.

It was absolutely the most pleasurable, undeserved, late night reward ever.  I think I’ll have another.