twenty-one, time for fun

When do I become old enough for my life to start happening?

I'm tired of this waiting game.

sequins, striped fingernails, and a chance of snow

"Dress up as something that starts with 'S'" party + "Whiteout" party at Parizades (aka DTD's Iced Out, Part II)

=

My favorite animal: the snow leopard.

Thank you, Rodarte for Target.

cost-benefit analysis

"I don't want to have a job where I wake up every Monday and wish it were already Friday. Why would I want to wish that my life were a week shorter?"

- Stephanie Tepperberg

Now that the economy sucks, I figure that since it's harder to get that highly competitive, high-paying job, the opportunity cost of me doing something that I love is now lower. (This line of reasoning brought to you by my minor in economics aka The Bain of My Academic Career.)

I'm so excited for my fashion marketing internship next semester (with Eva Danielle), especially because it feels like the pieces are all starting to kind of fit together. (Thomas Edison's quote, "I didn't fail; I found 2,000 ways how not to make a light bulb," has definitely been ringing in my head the last few weeks.)

All I need to do now is make it through the next two weeks (aka Hell) and then it's winter break, Christmas, New Year's in NYC, Marco Island's Florida sunshine, and a second semester senior schedule consisting entirely of dance, film, fashion, and music.

It's all so close and yet so, so far.

personal branding

"Women tear each other apart. ... The problem is, if they think you're attractive, you're either stupid or a whore or a dumb whore. The instinct among girls is to attack the jugular."

- "The Self-Manufacture of Megan Fox" (The Times Magazine)

i don't want to be 21 going on 45

After going to the career fair, I've realized: Why the hell am I in such a hurry to grow up? Why is everyone in such a rush to become their parents?

I don't want to be prematurely old.

why journalism will never die

fast-talking and twitchy

Arjun: i didn't know you were a youtube celebrity
Me: what?!

one in three

Tayo: a PA is basically the same as a gopher right?
me: no i'm sort of like the gopher's bitch

I'm working tomorrow on the new James L. Brooks movie starring Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson, and Paul Rudd.

I am so excited.

Even crazier though is that I met the guy who called me about it in the hospital waiting room. It's a lot less sketchy than it sounds, I promise. And no, he was not the one being checked out.

you thought you were glowing

An office favorite:

one degree down, two more to go

"Blair, you will never be more beautiful or thin or happy than you are right now. I want you to make the most of it."

- Eleanor Waldorf (Gossip Girl)

Finals week makes me feel like I'm wasting away my youth being in the library, getting fat from anxiously munching away on processed foods and going crazy from a combination of overcaffeination, deliriousness, and pure panic.

Summer cannot come fast enough.

cash is the new plastic

Funny story:

So Casey and I stopped by the Namesti Miru Christmas market Sunday (i.e. last) night after coming back from a day trip to Kutna Hora. They are selling hot honey wine and Czech candied almonds. We indulge in both, congratulating ourselves on making good life decisions.

On our walk back to the dorm, I stop by the Bankomat (the European version of the ATM) to withdraw some cash. Buzzed, I insert in my card. I punch in my PIN number. An error message pops up telling me it's the wrong code. I concentrate harder and punch the PIN number in again. The same message pops up. The same message pops up three more times.

Then a new message pops up telling me that my card has been "detained" and to contact my bank for more information.

Confused and still buzzed, I go through the pouch I carry my cards in to see if there is a number I can call and realize that I've stupidly inserted in my credit card instead of my debit card. No wonder the PIN number wasn't working. I turn to the lady standing behind me waiting to get to the Bankomat to seek help. She speaks no English.

Finally, I figure out that I'm supposed to call the Euronet number listed on the Bankomat. The Czech guy on the phone tells me in a heavy accent that a technician service man (?) is going to come pick up my card, which will then be sent to my home bank. "IN AMERICA?!?!" I ask. In America, he says.

He assures me that my card is safe inside the machine, but that it will stay very much inside the machine, thanks to my bank tagging it for "security reasons." Couldn't they just ask me a couple questions to make sure that I'm me? I have awful images of hundreds of tagged and detained credit cards lumped together inside the metal stomach of this greedy Bankomat I now despise. I call my parents to have them cancel my credit card, just in case, and in the meantime realize that that was the first time I've heard my mother's voice since leaving the States in August.

And so here I am, once again abroad without a credit card.
I'm never drinking on a Sunday night ever again.

i'm still not in school mode

So remember when I said I didn't have classes on Tuesdays?

Yeah, well, turns out I do. Of course I found out about this after the class had already met for the day. Apparently, NYU uses "R" to mean Thursday, so "TR" on the schedule actually means "Tuesday and Thursday" and not just "Thursday." That's not confusing at all.

At least I was productive with my time yesterday: I did laundry for the first time (talk about complicated), grocery shopped, applied to a fall internship, and ate endless amounts of cheese and crackers as the boys cooked pasta for us girls. At night, we went to M1, which actually played hip hop music, but it was kind of small and the dance floor was weirdly empty. It's funny that after coming here and getting away from the "Duke bubble," now everyone's talking about how it's so easy to get trapped into the "NYU bubble" while in Prague. I guess with any small group of people, where everyone's bound to be connected through three degrees of separation or less, social bubbles are inevitable.

Goal for the semester: make Czech friends!

Starbucks Guy actually emailed us back and wants to take us out this weekend, but we're leaving on a trip to Northern Bohemia on Friday. I'm really looking forward to it, although I'm starting to wonder if I'm ever going to have a weekend in Prague. I guess I'll just have to make up for it during the weekdays.

just being utilitarian

I suppose everyone has to starve at some point in their life.

And my time is definitely now.

After what I can only describe as a painfully frustrating last dinner at home before I fly out tomorrow morning, I got my budget laid out for me for my upcoming semester abroad. And as everyone knows, the beauty of living life free of food points is that the money allotted for food no longer necessarily needs to go towards food. Granted, this is also a major policy problem when applied to larger government projects, but in the case of little ol' me, life sans a meal plan has taught me one great fact of my life:

I'm willing to starve for cute clothes and trips to faraway places.

I mean, it builds character, right? Didn't we learn in economics that consumers should maximize their utility per dollar spent? I'm just being efficient here.

my body astounds me

OH MY GOD.

I JUST WOKE UP.

And it's like 6:30 in the evening. I went to sleep at around 1 am, totally exhausted but thinking that, hey, that's a time I'd normally go to sleep and I have to beat jet lag! Actually, that's a lie, I totally fell asleep at around midnight, but we were watching a movie and so 1 am is when Carrie woke me up to drive me home.

That means I just slept for... over 18 hours.

HOLY SHIT.

THIS MADNESS HAS GOT TO STOP.

all for one

I mentioned yesterday at work that my wallet got stolen, and since then the editor of the publishing house and the head of the English department that I work in have basically mobilized forces and gone to town with finding a solution. They called the bus station, filled out a report to give to the police station, researched banks to see where I could get money wired, bought me a calling card so that I can call my parents back home, actually took me to a bank to make sure everything would work smoothly, and Joe bought cookies. I wish now that I hadn't wasted all of Sunday not doing anything because 1) I didn't know what I should be doing, 2) I figured it was a hopeless cause, and 3) Erik (the director) didn't really do anything either.

My coworkers are amazing.

pass the fish oil pills

A line from the book I'm currently editing:

"In 137 BC, Trieu Da fell seriously ill and then died at the age of 110, after a 60-year reign."

...110 YEARS OLD?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

the bee's knees

I cannot get over how chill office culture is here. Case in point: I got back from lunch yesterday only to find my coworkers on our little balcony, hovering over a plate. On it was sliced squid, which they doused with alcohol and then lit on fire to cook.

It was delicious. And it reminded me of this dried squid dish that my grandma used to make.

Anyway, the discussion somehow led to the topic of slang terms, which led to Brent and me teaching them phrases like, "Holy crap!" (we kept it pretty PG for the first day), which led to us discovering Slang: The Authoritative Topic-by-Topic Dictionary of American Lingoes from All Walks of Life. It was pretty up-to-date, though some were definitely passe while others really need a comeback (especially "gritch," which means to gripe and bitch).

Conspicuously absent from the book, though, was both "That's what she said" and "Your mom." Brent and I figured we should probably teach those phrases to the office on a later day.

according to certain tests, i am also blair waldorf

The past three weeks have verified two facts about myself I have long suspected:

1. I have an addictive personality. (Case in point: Greek.)
2. I am both a perfectionist and an extremely impatient person.

In other words, I am becoming my mother.