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Showing posts from April, 2012

A&E Do Chicago

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We almost took out the Miata for a joyride along Lakeshore Drive. But we didn't. We almost got tattoos in the shape of South Dakota. But we didn't. We almost ran out of gas while driving a Prius. But we didn't. We almost ate too much, drank too much, laughed too much. But we didn't. 

GET ME OUT OF HEEEEEERRRRRRE!!!!!

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I'm going to miss my family, yes, but I'm ready to leave SD's Rising Star!

Thinking.

"Reading and sauntering and lounging and dozing, which I call thinking, is my supreme happiness." --David Hume (today is his bday!) Now, why can't I get a job doing that?!

Soul Searching in SoDak

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My plan this week was to be totally productive in looking for a job and/or a meaning to my life. I thought that by coming home to South Dakota, I could really reflect on what is going on in my life and figure out what it is I want to do next. I thought, "I'll soul search in SoDak." But it hasn't been going very well. Between watching Law & Order episodes with my grandma, using every possibly excuse to run an errand so I can jam in my jeep, and peeling my sunburned skin off (so sick, I know but addicting!), I am getting zero work done. I just can't focus. I would much rather look at pictures from this past weekend in Verm and dwell in manipulated memories of when my life was (or seemed) easier than it is now than tackle this monster of a unclear future that is presented in front of me. To make matters worse, I just booked a temp job for the next several weeks, maybe even the summer, and so now I really feel like I don't need to figure out my future.

This is confusing

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College Weekend Recap

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" It's not always like this. It's not always like this. It's not always like this. " This is the affirmation I need to tell myself every time I come back to the Midwest for a party or reunion or celebration and I get to thinking that life in South Dakota is ALWAYS full of the people I love and we're ALWAYS just sitting around drinking and dancing and laughing. But the truth is, " It's not always like this ." The weeks and days before I went back to South Dakota for the Theta centennial, I constantly had to remind myself of this. I didn't want to let myself get too excited because I knew that at the end of the weekend, I'd have to come back down to earth again. But then I got there and I thought, EFF IT! It's not always like this, but IT IS LIKE THIS RIGHT NOW. Let's have some fun!! And so I did.... THURSDAY: I got a surprise airport pick up that made up for my otherwise anti-climactic arrival to baggage claim, and I got t

Theta Centennial Preview!

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Here/There

17 months ago I was living in Vermillion, South Dakota, and I was counting down the hours until my move to New York City. 17 months later, I am living in New York City, and I am counting down the hours until I get to go back to Vermillion. Something is wrong with this picture. Here's what I think it is: When I throw around terms like "college" and "Verm," I'm most likely referring to the time I spent in my late teens and early 20's when most of my best friends lived in the same house on east Clark St. and my only job was working a few hours at the writing center. I felt like I knew more people than I didn't know, and I went out more than I stayed in. My biggest stresses were 10 page papers and sorority recruitment drama, and my earliest class was at 10am. Even reflecting back on grad school prompts positive memories: English TA cubicles, crazy student stories, Carey's funk nights. Though just a small midwest college town, Vermillion houses

The Sister Inside the Suit

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OMG my sister made this and I just stumbled upon it on youtube. She's such a weirdo. That's why I love her!

Happy Sunday

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Source: 29.media.tumblr.com via Sherry on Pinterest

R.E.A.D.M.O.R.E.

"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive." --James Baldwin

Thread me

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I did this yesterday! I got threaded! It was weird! But cool! See:

Note to Self: Don't Get Attached

When it comes to relationships, I've always been a clinger. But not in the way that you're thinking. I don't mean to say that I'm one of those needy co-dependent girlfriend-types because I just did a quick 30-second evaluation of my life, and yeah, I'm definitely not one of those. But when it comes to platonic relationships, I'm in it to win it. Ever since I was a kid, if I became friends with someone, I stayed friends with that someone. I was like a friend fungi, or an infection; I grow on people and I'm pretty hard to get rid of. I've always been sort of proud of this about myself; I care about my relationships with people, and I'm dedicated to making them last. *straightens up proudly in her chair* Until recently. I'm not sure if it's because of my transitory life since moving to New York City or the result of several life experiences in the past couple of years that have taken away people that I love and placed them out of

Where I work... this week.

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17 State St. - Fidessa Corporation - 42nd Floor A fancy bathroom mirror that I'm apparently slightly terrified of The blue is the Hudson Office window view

Self-Justification

I'm going back to South Dakota again in a week, for a week. It's kind of random because I was just back a month ago, and the sane, fiscally responsible version of myself would say, "I'm unemployed. I'm running out of money. I think I should stay put and eat canned tuna and apply for hundreds of jobs every day." But if you didn't already know this about me, I'm not a sane, fiscally responsible person. If I was, I would have never come to NYC in the first place! So instead of hanging out alone in my tiny New York apartment falling further and further into a unemployed depression, I got on priceline and started looking for flights home. And here is my self-justification, what I tell myself when I check my bank account and start to freak: "Amanda, calm down. You're ticket was cheap, and what you spent in airfare, you'll save by hanging out in South Dakota for a week eating your mom's free food. New York is expensive, yo!"

What we think, we become.

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words.  Watch your words, for they become actions.  Watch your actions, for they become habits.  Watch your habits, for they become your character.  And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny!  What we think we become.  My father always said that, and I think I am fine." -- The Iron Lady

My life as a temp: How things [don't] change

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CS is having a baby riiiiiiiiight now!!

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Uh, push it. Push it REAL Hard. Oh baby baby, oh baby baby!

Preheating is for pussies

KS and I are planning our first big NYC holiday meal together (at least the first one we're cooking ourselves), and it caused me to first realize and then to confess to KS, that... I'm not very good at this. I mean, I'm really good with food when it's a finished product, but I'm not good at the whole cooking/baking/preparing thing. I don't even have a cookie sheet. My cooking philosophy has always kind of been... 1. Use the right ingredients... or the ingredients you can find. Either/or. And really, how big of difference can there be between baking powder and baking soda? Between olive oil and vegetable oil? One time I made cookies and I flat out forgot to put butter in them. It was fine. No one died. 2. When it comes to actually combining ingredients, I tend to put them together in the easiest/most logical way possible. Usually I try to use the least amount of bowls, plates, and utensils as possible. Easier clean up, right? 3. Finally, I turn on some he

My Week With Weinstein

Yesterday was the kind of day that started out with a Hollywood screenplay writer legitimately asking me if I was an actress (and me blushing immediately and for the following thirty minutes) and ended with my realizing  that I had accidentally written on my face with pen at some point during the day. When you work in a film production office and someone says they need to book the "conference room" because they are having a "production meeting," it really means they need to book the theater room to watch a movie. I may just be a temp, but I'm on to them. Optimistic writers keep calling and begging me to let them talk to Bob or Harvey Weinstein. A little of bit of my writing spirit dies every time I have to turn them away. I hope this doesn't negatively affect my writerly karma! Don't kill the messenger! The Office Services guy (who is my office angel in the body of ginormous black man with tattoos and gray sweatpants) totally hooked me up with 8 fr
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I have a friend who is reading Fifty Shades of Gray (remember it's that really popular novel about a rich dude and a college student and everything I've read about it says that's pseudo-lady porn). Anyway, my friend is totally distraught over the whole thing, but yet she can't stop reading it. Not having read it myself, I wasn't sure what to say to my freaked out friend, so via gchat this afternoon I consulted my favorite librarian in the whole wide world to see what she thought about the book.She gave me a solid review, but then had to go. Preschoolers. This is what happens when you talk books with an elementary school librarian during the middle of a school day.

"We don't have agents in Montana!!!"

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This week I'm temping at The Weinstein Company , which is waaaay cooler than working at a financial office with suits and fancy people. It may not pay as well as other jobs, but the people here are cool and there is a TV in the front office that plays movie previews all day. I can practically taste the popcorn. There is a "Procedures and Policies" booklet that I use to help me figure out how to transfer calls, restock the office fridge, and call for copy machine maintenance (all things I've had to do today). Inside there is a small note that says, "TWC/DIMENSION FILMS DOES NOT TAKE ANY UNSOLICITED MATERIAL. YOU MUST SUBMIT SCRIPTS THROUGH A LAWYER OR AN AGENT." Good thing I noticed this note because I've been gently then not-so-gently having to tell semi-delusional writers this all day. Poor things. These people have been calling all day wanting to get their "original, never before told, real-life stories" turned into movies. While I a

Dance in color!

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Source: youtu.be via Melissa on Pinterest

My Daily Reminder

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Jack of All Trades, A Master of None

So far in my life I have worked with Catholic nuns, college professors, illegal immigrants, and millionaires. I've worked with 7-year-olds and 70-year-olds. I've taught English to people who speak other languages. I've taught English to babies who don't know how to speak any language. I've driven a nursing home mini-van full of youth group kids back to their dairy farm homes, and I've taken classes full of ESL students on subways, ferries, and buses around New York City. I've taken a private jet to Aspen, Colorado. I've taught non-traditional students who were old enough to be my parents. I've taken kids to music and karate class where every one thought I was their parent. I have been responsible for recording college students' grades thereby affecting their college GPAs. I have been responsible for recording international students' attendance thereby affecting their ability to stay in the United States. I have carried a morning cup of cof