My Twenty-Something Quasi-Soap

Well, this summer has just been flying by, hasn't it? It's already the middle of August, we're well into the dog days of summer, football season is right around the corner, and I have been very busy. Seriously - between a summer class (for my event planning certificate, hopefully by May of next year), a new job (human resources for a pharmaceutical company), getting a jello shot business off the ground (something my sister and I started a year ago), and spending as many weekends as possible with Best Boyfriend Ever (who will be referred to as BBE going forward), Summer '09 has been jam-packed with Adventures in Life. Talk about a complete (or almost complete) 180 from where I was 6 months ago, also known as my Dark and Twisty Period (with homage and apologies to Shonda Rhimes). But in the same way that winter can easily leave us feeling cold and bleak and desperate (I mean, seriously, I was talking about the wind whipping outside my window like I was at Wuthering Height...

Ok, so we're probably all tired of talking about it. This post comes rather late, considering it's been over two weeks since his death, and almost a week after the memorial. But in keeping with my obsession of all things pop culture, it wouldn't be right to not address this here. So you're allowed to roll your eyes and sigh and say, "enough already," but I'm going to say what I need to say so I can move on. Where was I when I heard the news? I was sitting on the couch in the family room with my dad, clutching my cell phone, anxiously waiting for more news. 45 minutes before that moment, I had returned a phone call from my sister. She asked me to check the news to find out if Michael Jackson was really dead. My reaction was, of course, that it was a rumor run rampant and out of control. He wasn't dead. Heart attack maybe, but dead, no. My Google search confirmed my instincts. TMZ was wrong and I was right. He had suffered cardiac arrest, but he was in t...

We have a cat. I've mentioned the cat here and there over the years. He's still here, 12 years old, and fatter than ever. Ah yes, the old Fuzz Bucket. He only gets called by his real name when he's in serious trouble, just like a little kid. Otherwise, he's Fuzz Bucket, Kitty, Stupid Cat, or Dude (as in, "Dude, seriously! You've already had your dinner. Stop bugging me!"). And just like a little kid, he has peed or thrown up on a seemingly infinite number of surfaces and objects, yet, he's still alive and he's still here. He's like the bratty little brother I never wanted. Fuzz Bucket primarily lives in my room, which is actually my sister's old room. None of that matters to the cat: it's his room. Hence, he must have 24 hour access in and out of my room. Failure to provide unlimited access to the room will result in being awoken at 3am by endless pawing and meowing at the door until His Royal Highness has been allowed to enter. Fuzz B...

And yet, I say this while it's currently 57 degrees and raining outside. I'm in my bed, in pants and my beloved Rutgers hoodie, under a comforter, while the cat has just settled in on his side of the bed next to a pile of clean laundry. But being as that we have already celebrated Memorial Day Weekend, and I am no longer a victim of the New Jersey public school system, it is now summer for all intents and purposes. Hooray!! So the seasons are a changin'. My allergies have eased up a bit. The days are longer and the nights are warmer. I already have a tan and I haven't set foot on the Shore (cringe). Bridges are slowly mending, status quos (stati quo? statuses quoi? whatever) have upgraded quite nicely, and the cd's keep spinning in my Ramenmobile. The Ramenmobile that failed inspection a few weeks ago, resulting in me dropping over $400 for new tires, balancing, and alignment (thank god for Visa). But the cd player keeps chugging along! One of the things I have real...

I'm supposed to be doing laundry and/or finishing my book, but I had to jot this down. Up here in Jersey we have had some downright miserable weather. At least, it's miserable to me, as I'm still adjusting to Northeast weather. (I miss the Ft. Lauderdale sun and heat as much as I hated it when I actually lived there. Go figure.) Towards the end of April, we had this gloriously beautiful weekend. Sunshine and temps in the 90's, and just awesome (except for all of the pollen...my allergies are back with a vengeance). And while I thought it was awesome, a lot of people were a bit overwhelmed by the sudden jump in temperature and constant sunshine from sunup to sundown. After 3 glorious days, the temps fell back down, the clouds rolled back in, and the rain poured. And poured. And fell and showered and sprinkled and spat and drizzled and misted. If the clouds managed to clear up, the wind kept the weather chilly. The sun may have shone, but not for long. This is miserable, ...

Just over a month into the project, and I'm on shelf 3 of approximately 15 shelves of CDs. Each "shelf" holds approximately 15 CDs, so that makes roughly...225 discs to get through total. Yesterday I finished up with the B's (Carla Bruni, current First Lady of France - I scored the disc for free from the Neighborhood Bookstore) and started with the C's (a 3 disc Cake marathon, Tevin Campbell in the player now, and Mariah Carey on deck). So far, the project's been pretty fun. If you check out the sidebar on this page, you'll see my list of my favorites, which I'll add to as I progress through the collection. My criteria for making the list is pretty much any CD that I get really excited about hearing, I know almost all the words to, and is a complete listening experience from beginning to end. I already know some of the albums that are going to end up on the list, but I won't add them till they've actually been heard again. The tough part about ...

Here in Jersey we're in the midst of a freak April heat wave that has sent temps into the 90's today. T.S. Eliot actually said it best when remarking that "April is the cruelest month." To that I'd add "especially in New Jersey." April is a big ol' box of meteorologic chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get. In Aprils past we've seen snow and rain and heat and bitter cold. This year we got the heat wave. I welcomed it, especially since we got a tease of beautiful weather last weekend and then utter disgustingness during the week. Yesterday I went shopping with my mom at the outlets down the shore, worked at the Panty Palace for a closing shift, then headed up to Hoboken to hang out with some people. I forgot that I hate Hoboken. Not gonna lie, I wouldn't shed a tear if that town fell into a sinkhole. Ok, ok, I'd be sad for some of the people (since I might actually know people living there), but not the town. The party scen...

Since I now live on the edge of nowhere, attempting to listen to the radio in my car is almost pointless. There is an exact spot on the interstate, just before my exit, where all of the NYC radio stations except Hot 97 turn to static. And don't get me wrong, Hot 97 is the place for hip-hop in New York. I like it. I missed it while I was away. But I can't listen to it 24-7. My aging iPod is not a solution to my music variety problem because I have no hookup for it in the RamenMobile. And it's almost full to capacity. So how am I going to keep myself entertained in my car when all I have is a CD player and a limited budget? I'm going to listen to every single CD that I currently own. Every single CD, with the exception of one (for good reason, and it's built into the rules I made up). Seriously though, how many times have you looked at your CD collection, searching for something to listen to, and you get irritated because you can't make up your mind? I have creat...

...but for good reason. A long, long time ago, back in November of '97, I received The Beatles' Abbey Road as a birthday present. ( Yes, my birthday's in January, not November. It's a long story that I won't go into today because I'm trying to get better about my off topic diversions. And parenthetical asides. Crap. ) The gift wasn't a surprise because my friend was a huge Beatles fan and would spend what felt like hours talking about just how awesome the Beatles were. Additionally, I was in my "hippie" phase, or what my mother liked to call my "grunge" phase, so I was interested in anything having to do with tie dye, peace signs, smiley faces, and Birkenstocks. Hence, it was a perfect time to really get turned on to the Beatles (at least their later albums). Immediately after listening to the CD, I went back to track one and listened again. "Wow," I thought, "The Beatles are, like, totally cool." (I was also heavily i...

Dear Pandora , You are one of the best websites ever. Who would have ever thought that a little website like you could turn me on so so much awesome music? All I had to do was tell you an artist that I liked, and you listened. Then you started sending me all this amazing stuff. No judgements for liking cheesy stuff, or raised eyebrows over something cerebral. Just more and more mind-blowing music, all day long. Sometimes I think you're psychic. In the midst of a good mix, you'll throw on a song, and I'll be all, "OMG, that's one of my favorite songs! How did you know !" And I know that there's a whole scientific process that goes behind it. But you're more intuitive than Netflix. And on the rare chance that you play something that I'm not feeling, I can just skip it. If I hate the song, I can ban it. I remember the time I freaked out because you found a song that I loved from a beer commercial but could never find. But you found it ! And I bookmar...

I got a letter in the mail from one of my credit card companies today. They wanted to jack up my APR to 20.74% variable. Fuuuuuuuck that noise. I rejected the change, called and gave them a piece of my mind, and demanded that they remove me from all of their stupid mailing and phone lists. I've had that card for almost 7 years, and now it's sitting on my bed, cut in half. Granted, I stopped using the card a while ago in an effort to really start paying down the balance on it (which will take a long time considering how much was on it and my current income). But still. This is pure and total bullshit. You know what else is bullshit? Standing around folding underwear for four hours. In an act of desperation, I hit up the mall and put in an application at the local Panty Palace. So now I have to stand around and obsessively fix tables of underwear for hours at a time. It sucks. Especially when I also managed to land a couple of temp gigs that have now rendered the Palace job unnec...

I'll make this quick cause I'm about to watch the series finale of ER. Did my civic duty by going on to NJ's ARRA (stimulus funds) page just to see what they're going to do with the money. The state is getting over $17B in money, but the majority of it will be spent on tax breaks? WTF?!? More to come later....

I could go on and on about how fucking miserable I've been ever since I moved back to Jersey, but it's a waste of energy. My latest tweet says it all: Running out of options, money and time. Should probably start saying goodbye to my car. Poor Ramen-mobile, I hardly knew ye.

It's bad enough that I'm sitting here at almost 5 in the morning still on the computer (because I had too much coffee today so I'm just now getting tired). It sucks that I got my last severance check today and now have to rely on laughable unemployment checks to pay my bills (seriously, when was the last time that $5oo a month was enough for anyone to live on? Unemployment is a joke .). It's unfathomable that I have been out of work for a month and a half now, trying to be patient and secure another job at the neighborhood book store. If all this waiting amounts to nothing, I'll be even more pissed at having sat around for a month and a half instead of finding another job. It's frustrating having to put up with unexplained bullshit (once again with the bullshit) from my (presumably?) best friend who still hasn't learned how to use his words and just fucking tell me just what his problem is. It's laughable that all I do is sit around in my parents' h...

At all. Welcome back to New Jersey, where the temperature is currently 23 degrees and there's approximately 6 inches of fluffy white stuff on the ground that blows around when the wind gusts to 24 miles an hour. I am not amused. Seriously, I haven't been a fan of snow in a long time. And having to look outside at that wretched wasteland of ice and snow and cold is just insult to injury. (I know, I'm acting like I live in Siberia as opposed to the Mid-Atlantic Coast. I spent 18 months in Florida...work with me here.) It's bad enough that I've spent so much time putzing about the house not doing anything for the past month. Now I really can't go anywhere even if I wanted to go outside. Ok, the roads are clear enough that I could go somewhere if I wanted to, but seriously? Unless I was headed to the airport so I could go fly somewhere warm, I would not venture outside today. I am bored bored bored. With cabin fever. Yay.

So I was enjoying my morning coffee (at 1 in the afternoon) and flipping through the local newspaper when I was once again reminded that I am back in New Jersey. Between the local arts scene here and all that New York has to offer, I could potentially be a very busy person. I no longer have to read articles in the Times and sigh because I won't get to see that show or that movie because South Florida can be a cultural wasteland at times. I can actually get in my car or hop on a train and go do stuff and see things! Hooray! With that in mind, and to lift my spirits a bit, I've decided to put together a list of all the shows that I want to go see in NYC over the course of this year. It'll be tough to work it around my work schedule (positive thinking, remember?), but it's doable. So here's the list of Broadway and some Off-B'way productions I plan to see in 2009: 1. West Side Story. In previews now, opens March 19th. Quite possibly the one single musical that I ha...

According to the Weather Channel, it's currently 63 degrees outside. You wouldn't know that by looking outside, however. It's overcast and windy, with gusts up to 30mph at times. I've adjusted to the cold. I'm slowly getting adjusted to not seeing the sun every day. But all of this wind nonsense has got to stop. I fell like I'm at effin' Wuthering Heights or something. It's insane. Oh, and it's supposed to snow on Sunday. Joy and rapture. And once again, the difficulty of transmitting sarcasm in print gets the best of me. In other news...I've finally recieved my first severance check. Didn't get around to applying for unemployment will a few days ago, so it will be a while before I see any of that money. My sincere hope is to not have to get any of it at all since I'll have a job by then. Hopefully. I'm supposed to be hearing back from the store sometime today regarding my interview on Tuesday. I guess if I don't hear anything tod...

I was going to post about how bored I am. Then I got too bored to even do this. Hopefully I'll have better news on Friday.

Provided that I have not destroyed the coffee maker and have actually made a drinkable pot on my own (after spending 5 minutes looking for the coffee filters), today will be off to a better start than yesterday. Feeling a teensy bit more stable. Which is a good thing because the big interview is today at 1pm. So I'm going to go and have my coffee and read the paper, then pick out my outfit and get ready, and try not to freak out or fuck anything up. Just wanted to check in.

Me (on Saturday, to one of my BFFs): Just think, this isn't a dream. When you wake up, I'll still be here in New Jersey. I'm back! BFF: You keep saying that like you're trying to remind yourself that you're really back. My BFF is right. This is all very surreal to me. My whole game plan for coming back to Jersey was totally different from what's been happening. I was supposed to have a job secured and waiting for me to start as soon as I moved back. I was supposed to have time to say goodbye the way I wanted to say goodbye. I was supposed to go ahead and do all the things I wanted to do, like seeing Key West and Universal Studios. I was supposed to move in the summer, while unbearable in Florida, would be quite tolerable here in Jersey. Instead, I became unemployed at the drop of a hat, I have the most crucial job interview ever tomorrow afternoon, I had 3 weeks to pack up everything and leave, and I got here in the winter, and it's freaking cold outside. T...