I'm going to do something here I rarely ever do. That is, I'm going to actually post in this little blog o' mine. Here's what's up, y'all. I'm about to transition to a new role at work, and I'm incredibly jazzed about it.

You know I love lists, so here's one for you. Why I'm stoked:
- My new managers are hilarious and incredibly supportive. And we type with monster claws.
- This is a new team being built ground-up, which makes my input even more valuable than on other teams in the past. I got to debate and discuss strategy with the Vice President yesterday, and he took my ideas into account, changing his thinking on some things. That would never have happened on another team.
- I get to manage social media outreach. All this blogging and tumbling and tweeting and facebooking and foursquaring and so on that I love so much? It's now my job to figure out how we can use that in our campaigns.
- The mundane tasks that I hated about my current position. Gone. I'm sure there will be other tedious things to deal with, but not the same ones I've been battling for two years now.
- We are awesome at Mafia.

The transition is in about two weeks, and I'm counting down the days. I'm ready for it to officially be summer in the city, and I think that's a nice starting off point.

Back to reality, barely.

I made it back to NYC after a lovely little break in Tennessee and Texas. The holidays were nice, if uneventful. Actually, I think they were nice because they were uneventful. Mine were comprised mostly of hangtime with the family, playing with puppies, playing the piano and watching a lot of movies.

Then it was back to the city and "real life", if you can call it that. I've already caught up with most of my lovelies here in a span of 2 days, so you could call that a success. I also consider it a success that I was able to introduce Emma to the joy of Will & Grace. Seriously, she'd never seen it. Ridiculous, I know.

Somehow in that span of two days, I've also managed to hit up several of my favorite eateries, at least the ones in my neighborhood. Just FYI, ice cream shouldn't crunch - Five Napkin seems to have issues with their desserts, but we always come back. And it was a small joy that the barista at Amy's Bread remembered how I take my tea. Sure, it was only a matter of weeks since I'd been there, but considering how frequently I'm usually there, I considered it a success.

Yesterday was also a sad day - the final performance of Aaron Tveit (and therefore the OBC) in next to normal. Louise and I went, sitting in excellent seats I was able to get thanks to a tip from Adam, and cried our little eyes out.

I'd write a mini review, but most of you haven't seen it and wouldn't really be interested in the details, so I'll just say that it was an incredible show, though also incredibly sad, but I'm quite glad I was able to be there.

Now it's back to work. Joy.

Let me express my feelings with a picture:

This will be me in 30 minutes.



I have never been so ready for 6:00 p.m. on a Friday.

Viva la weekend!

Apparently, I'm now in love with several things...

I have turned into a terrible blogger. I keep saying that I will do better if I blog in little bursts, just covering one quick topic, but then I get lazy or forget and have too many things to talk about. This happens so frequently that big things don't even get mentioned. I'm going to try to catch everyone up.

So, I'm chilling in a hotel in Newark, watching the Oscars (which I'm really unimpressed by). I am here for a work conference, celebrating the end of the application deadlines, gearing up for spring campaigns and brainstorming for next season. It's always fun to bring the RT together, because boy, do we know how to have fun! Let's just say it's a good thing the conference doesn't officially start until 1 p.m. tomorrow.

The past couple of weeks have been transitional at work, switching from crazy finish-the-season-strong mode to admissions focus (i.e. applications and interviews). And it's time to start seriously thinking about next year. Don't worry, once something worth mentioning is in the works more definitely, you'll be updated.

Look at me, breaking one of my favorite rules: Not talking about work on the weekend.

So instead, let's transition to my favorite topic: Fun in the city. I've been having plenty of that. Yesterday I finally ate at the famous Stage Deli, and though I was skeptical, it definitely lived up to the hype. They had the most amazing potato salad I've ever eaten. Yeah, I just used the word "amazing" to describe potato salad. That means it must have been pretty dang good.

Also, my friend and I attended a makeup workshop at Henri Bendel, hosted by Trish McEvoy reps. I'm in love with Trish makeup now, by the way. If you are looking for something to buy me, that's always a good idea.

Hmm, what else? What about the places to eat and drink? Mostly we've been hitting up our regular haunts - like Silk Road, Rudy's, etc. But I would like to point out the fact that I have found the best cupcake in NYC. No, it's not Magnolia (overrated), or Crumbs (overfrosted), or any other chain. There's only one of these places in the world, and it's down the street from my apartment. If you haven't tried Two Little Red Hens Bakery, you absolutely must. I insist. I even brought my RD a cupcake from there as a gift because I had to share the joy that they bring.

Finally, what recap of my life would be complete without mentioning the Great White Way? There's so much to talk about (as always)! For Valentine's Day, I (along with everyone else in the city) went to see a show. I chose Billy Elliot, and that was a good and bad idea. Good because it was seriously incredible. Bad because I'm in love with it and want to see it a dozen times now. And of course, I need to see all of the actors who play Billy! (Kiril's my favorite, right now.)

Also, my friend and I have been attempting all week to win the Wicked lottery. If you're not familiar, Broadway lotteries are systems that allow people to get great seats for cheap, if you're lucky. Basically, you go to the theater two hours before the performance, put your name in a hat, and if it's drawn you get up to two tickets for about $25. We tried a couple of times this week, but to no luck. However, I was determined to win, so we went again yesterday. (Honestly, it was more about trying my luck and wanting to win than having a great desire to see the show at this point.) As luck would have it, I had luck that day, and I won! We sat on the 2nd row and had a blast. I'm now in love with Aaron Tveit, who played Fiyero. That's awesome because he'll soon be in Next To Normal, opening soon on Broadway.

So that's what's going on right now. Hopefully there are plenty more fun and exciting things to be happening in the near future. I can't believe it's already nearly March, but no wonder time flies when I'm having so much fun.

P.S. I watched several episodes of Gossip Girl on DVD this weekend, and now I really want to run into Ed Westwick in the city more than ever. Someone out there, make this happen please?

Looking forward

First of all, I apologize. I've been terrible at updating. Maybe I should update more often with little blips of info, so that the task doesn't seem so daunting when I feel like I have nothing significant to say, which is the current scenario. Nothing terribly exciting is happening right now for me. Mostly, I'm just looking forward. What am I looking forward to, you might ask? (Now you're wondering how I read your mind. I'm psychic.)

First of all, I am so stoked for tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. because that = the end of our final application deadline. Well, at least for me. The deadline is technically midnight, EST. So if you're reading this and are planning to apply to TFA, hit submit! It's going to be nice to have a change of pace around the office. Plus, it's payday, and who doesn't love getting paid?

Then, miracle of miracles, we get a three day weekend. I should have planned ahead and organized myself a little trip to visit loved ones or something, but these 3-dayers always sneak up on me. So I'll spend the weekend here in the city, taking care of business and mostly just relaxing. Any suggestions for a TV show on DVD or book series that I could spend 72 hours diving into are greatly appreciated. Oh! And I just got an email informing me that Bendel's is having a sale. Sweet.

After that, I'm looking forward to the Spring Conference for TFA. It's always nice when everyone comes together from across the country, and I have a feeling this one will be OOC, particularly since deadlines are over. And there's a SundayFunday in the works.

Then comes March, filled with joy and joyness. First, I get to take a 5 day "weekend" to visit mi familia in Tennessee. Then perhaps I can convince some friends from OU that they want to spend their spring break in NYC. That would be awesome. And then on the very last day of March I'm going to the opening night performance of Hair on Broadway!

So, I have plenty to look forward to, but for today things are boring as always. Maybe I'll be back with more interesting things to say over the weekend. But don't hold your breath.

Broadway baby

I think I forgot to fill you all in on this one. I have recently enrolled in a musical theater class here in the city. On Wednesday nights, I head down to 24th Street for my Performance Techniques Workshop to sing my little heart out. So far, I have gone three times and I'm really enjoying it. Any outlet to sing is welcomed with open arms by this girl, of course.

Deciding to enroll kind of happened on a whim -- my friend was trying to convince me to take acting classes with her, but I thought that if I was going to take any classes, I wanted them to be specific to vocal performance. So, I found this class instead. It's basically set up like a master class setting; we bring in songs and perform, then get feedback from our classmates and the instructor, and work through moments.

It's a small class - the most we've had in attendance was 7, and we get a lot of opportunities to perform and work on our songs. What I really enjoy is how performance focused it is. Pretty much all of the classes I have taken in my life have been focused on the vocal technique. Now, I'm not denying the importance of that, nor am I claiming to need no instruction in that area. But it feels good to flex a bit of a different muscle, you know?

Along with flexing different muscles in terms of acting/singing, I am also trying to branch out of my musical style box. I choose a lot of contemporary musical theater stuff - specifically, a ton of Jason Robert Brown songs. And it turns out that I should probably have some variety in my book. Who would have thought, right? So that's what I'm doing.

It's fun to get involved in the theater in this small way, to feel like I'm doing rather than just observing. Of course, it's simply a small step. I don't know what direction I'm headed in, exactly, though. Does this mean I'm looking for auditions? This class is about preparing songs for performance and audition, so I suppose perhaps I should.

When leaving the class one evening, I was walking in the same direction as my teacher, John. He asked me about my background, and was surprised when I told him I was PR major, not musical theater. He said, "So, you moved to New York to do the singer/actor thing..." And, really, the answer is no. That's not the reason why I moved to New York. But John wasn't convinced when I told him so. "Don't be afraid to say it," he said. My response: "Well, it really wasn't my plan to come here and try to do this. But, I suppose this could be a step in that direction."

Then he asked me if I had gotten an agent yet. Now, that's a funny thought, and definitely a step I'm not quite ready to take. Though you never know what's going to happen...

To end on a less vague statement, how about a quick anecdote from the class:
After each song is over, we go around and say something positive about that person's performance. My favorite comment that I have gotten? "Well, you sure can sing the shit out of anything. And this week, I made people cry. In a good way. I sang Still Hurting from The Last Five Years.

-----------
Apologies for the sub-par level of writing in this post. It's 6:30 on a Friday and I'm sitting in the office waiting for everyone's conference calls to end so we can go to happy hour at Blockheads. Viva la weekend!

FREEDOM!

I'm about 40 minutes away from Christmas vacation. I do have to work from home on Monday/Tuesday, but it's a little different when I'm in the comforts of my mom's house instead of in the office. I don't really have time for a thought-provoking insightful post, so here's more linkage and video!

OU people, if you haven't seen this yet... Well, there are no words really.





And I'm in love with this guy:

Can it just be Christmas yet?

We're obviously working very hard. Clearly, Christmas break needs to get here soon.

In case you were wondering, here's what we're discussing.

Also... this makes me smile:

Let's talk about our feelings.

Or, more specifically, since this is my blog, let's talk about MY feelings.

A) Excited
There are two very good reasons for this feeling. First, I am going to the Apple store today to get my Christmas present - an iPhone! Prepare to hear me speaking in my "iPhone voice" all Christmas break. You love it. The second reason is that in one week I will be at my mom's house for the first half of my holidays.

B) Annoyed
I think it's a good sign that I need a break when everything around here starts to annoy me. I honestly am not feeling annoyed at this particular moment; however, it has cropped up a lot this week. However, if you know me, you know the best way for me to cure a bad mood. Last night I checked another Broadway show off my list, "All My Sons."

C) Nostalgic
This is solely due to the fact that Jordan did his annual "reflection on the last year of my life" post on his blog today and I just finished reading it. But it did make me think about how much things have changed from January 1st until now.

D) Christmas-y
Come on, y'all. It's the most wonderful time of the year. How could I not be in a Christmas spirit?!

Let's also talk about the fact that in order to hit and/or surpass 100 posts, I need 14 more. Totally doable, as long as I don't forget while my brain is shut down over break and I'm not looking for distractions. So maybe I'll do a little double duty this next week as a precaution.

P.S. How awesomely creepy are those pictures?

Lincoln Park After Dark

**Note: I wrote and thought I posted this on Friday around 10 a.m. However, it apparently didn't work. I thought I'd post it now, so as not to deprive you. ;)

I'm sitting in an apartment in Lincoln Park in Chicago right now, being extremely jealous of the space and the price. I'm also jealous of the fact that there's a Lush and a Benefit about a block away, and a disco ball in the living room, along with a DJ booth. You know, whatever.

Let me tell you a little bit about my totally random weekend:
We're in the windy city for an RT conference. More about that later, maybe. The highlights were getting to interact with my RD in person, see everyone in my cohort, and stay at a swanky hotel of course. Not to mention making a lot of progress in planning for our campaign. And MSCI, which is too classified to go into details about on here.

Then a small group of us hung around for the evening, staying at one of the girls' friends' apartments, and having a grand ole time. We are in the cutest little semi-yuppie neighborhood - Lincoln Park. Great food, cheap wine, card games and great music make for a good time. Not to mention an 8-person slumber party. Best quote from last evening: "I want to terrorize Chicago right now. I mean burn it to the ground."

Now I'm enjoying sitting here, pausing between creating action plans to play FIFA on the Xbox, grab breakfast from the Chicago Bagel Authority, and watch a few SNL skits on YouTube. Our next move will be to catch a bus to Madison, Wisconsin, where mayhem is certain to ensue.

Don't worry, you'll get a full report.

xoxo--

P.S. 10 points for you if you know the reference for my blog post title.

Not ready for my close-up

Yesterday, at work, they were shooting a documentary on the organization. Specifically, it was focused on an interview with our founder.

However, I guess they wanted some footage of other people within the organization, because they came by my chute and asked Julie (my neighbor) and I if we minded them shooting video of us. We said it would be fine and went about our business.

I didn't sign up to be interviewed; however, that's what happened. So my little speal on what the Recruitment Team does is potentially going to be on some documentary somewhere. Awesome. I think I managed to sound intelligent, hopefully. Then they got around to shooting the B-roll, just footage of us at our computers working. This was super awkward. Luckily, I had enough windows open on my monitors to conceal the desktop picture of Zac Efron's Rolling Stone cover. :)

Now, you should know that I spend most of my time at work with headphones on. I'll listen to iTunes, AccuRadio, Pandora, Z100, even KJ103, depending on my mood. It helps me tune out other things going on and concentrate while also not going crazy when things get mind-numbing. Anyway, on occasion I will also listen to the OU radio station, the Wire, especially when people I know have shows.

So that's what I was doing when this awkward video shoot took place. "Friday Talkternoons" was on, and I was typing away listening to them interview a band and talk about random things, as usual. It was quite unfortunate timing, however, that they switched topics right as the camera was in my face. I barely managed to keep a straight face when Kolt started telling a story about body waxing. In order to keep my composure, I hit the mute button on my computer.

All in a day's work.

Just the facts, people.

Today, I'm not a fan of:

1. Running late (okay, later than usual) for work. Not that I have a set time to be in the office anyway.
2. Having 525,600 things on my to-do list. That have to be finished today.
3. My massive headache.
   
4. Being at the office until God-knows-when.
   
5. The fact that I have nearly finished the book I checked out on Saturday, and I don't have time to go to the library tonight.
6. Being freezing when I'm in the shade, but hot in the sun. Pick a temperature, NYC!
7. My chipped nail polish.
   

However, I do like:

1. Being less than 24 hours from Norman.
2. MGMT and Rufus Wainwright on my iPod.
3. My sassy shoes.
4. Cupcakes from "Burgers and Cupcakes"
5. Being engrossed in the world of Michael Tolliver and company (of course the gay man is my favorite character).
6. Having everything packed and ready to go to Home Sweet 'Homa.
7. The potential of getting a manicure tonight. If I get back to my 'hood before midnight.

Happy 1DL!

Today is the 1st application deadline for Teach For America. (You potential applicants, be sure to get your application completed by 2:59 a.m. EST tonight!) This means that there's a different vibe around the office. Some people are going nuts with things to finish, others are more chill, but everyone's excited to see how many people apply to be a part of the movement.

In the meantime, everyone is sending around fun little "inspirational" links, myself included. It started when one of our directors, Rachel, Rick-Rolled our cohort, and it got passed along to the entire RT. So, not to be outdone, I passed a link to this lovely video. Try not to fall out of your chair or pee your pants.

Happy 1DL everyone, and watch out for the Bobby Batroniks out there.

Working for the Weekend

Everybody's workin' for the weekend.
Everybody wants a new romance.
Everybody's goin' off the deep end.
Everybody needs a second chance.
-- Loverboy, "Working for the Weekend"

Thank God that week is over. I've never been so ready for a weekend countdown, y'all. Seriously. As we used to say back in Texas, "BLESS." That's my commentary for what this ridiculous week turned out to be.

Apparently, it was rough all around the office, because all of my coworkers feel exactly the same way. Of course, they don't say things like "BLESS", since they're not Southerners for the most part. So I am extremely pleased to have my first real weekend since I've moved to New York. It's kind of crazy that I've lived here for so long now and have yet to spend a weekend here, in town, doing just what I want to.

I was actually supposed to be in Tallahassee today and tomorrow for work, but a certain tropical storm named Fay stopped that from happening. Silly hurricanes.

So what am I going to do with this gift of a weekend? I'm equipping myself with a good book - I found a historical fiction about Alexander, who is my favorite human in history, a camera, my Metrocard, a map of Central Park and all the time I want to spend wandering around. I'm also bringing along Where to Wear, the ultimate shopping guide to the city, and New York's 50 Best Places to Enjoy Dessert. You know, just in case.

P.S. For you Sooners, I bought my plane tickets this week for my visit back to the land where the wind comes sweeping down the plains. Prepare yourself because I'm coming home in a month! =) And if anyone has a spare student ticket to the TCU game, help a girl out!

Celebreality

So, I had my first celebrity sightings. I was kind of wondering who the first celeb I spotted would be, and it could not have been better.

Throughout the summer, a local radio station puts on a thing called "Broadway in Bryant Park," where the stars of various shows perform a couple of songs for free, and it always draws a huge crowd. I had gathered up a small group of theater fans from the office to take a lunch break and check it out this week, mostly because of the slated performance by the cast of an upcoming show - called "13" - by my favorite composer, Jason Robert Brown. We were kind of late, so we got stuck standing to the side of the stage, which was actually fine with me, as long as I could hear them sing. After the performance, I turned to make a comment to my friends, and guess who was standing right behind me? Yeah, this dude:
That's JRB, himself, by the way. This man is a genius. Seriously, if you like theater (or just great music, especially piano, he's a beast on the piano arrangements), and you haven't heard The Last Five Years or Songs for a New World, go download them now.

So I turn around, see him there, and freak out. I'm so lame. I finally (okay, maybe 20 seconds later) got my act together, and walked over to where he'd gone to congratulate the performers/talk to his friends and meet him. Sadly, I had forgotten my camera at home that day, which was incredibly unfortunate. But I did get an autograph. From my idol. Sweet.

In meeting JRB, I had inadvertently positioned myself right by the holding area where the actors from each show were coming and going between performances. Which equals more celebrity sightings. I met the adorable miss Bailey Hanks, aka the new Elle from Legally Blonde: The Musical. She's just as precious and sweet as you'd expect her to be. And I met the current (and final) cast of Rent.

All in all, a celebrity filled lunchbreak. It was also a great lunch for another reason - for the first time, really, I felt like I actually live in NY rather than feeling like a tourist on a prolonged visit. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but it kind of felt like this whole New York life is reality. Weird.

Now, I feel like I should also mention another sighting I had this week. In case you didn't know, Wendy Kopp is the founder of Teach for America, and she was also named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People this year. She works in the same office I do, but on a different floor. It's kind of an unofficial game around the office - Spot Wendy. Especially for the new employees like me. So, I was very excited when she walked past me on my way to work on Friday. Of course, she has no idea who I am or that I have anything to do with TFA; in fact, I bet she wondered why the heck this random girl in front of Starbucks was grinning at her. So that counts as a pseudo-celebrity sighting.

Finally, a couple of sightings that weren't of celebrities, but were interesting to me. I got to see my mom and stepdad this weekend! I took a little day trip down to DC, where they were staying for a conference. It was really, really great to get to visit with them. Plus, I'd never been to DC, so we did a little sightseeing too. The last sighting happened during our outing to the White House. We were walking down the street from the front lawn, when who should walk past me but my friend Rod from OU. Isn't it just a crazy small world?

Alright, that's my update on my celeb-reality. Now reality for the rest of the weekend is going to involve vegging out on the couch and getting a lot of work down before the next crazy week starts. And I'm perfectly okay with only seeing tiny versions of celebrities on my TV screen.

Rainy Days and Mondays

I suck at updating lately, apparently.
But you know what didn't suck? Yesterday.

The morning threatened to bode a less-than-great day. Bad hair days + running late + a gross yogurt cup from Amici = Not a fantastic morning. And then it rained, which you'd think would make this day go from blah to blech. But not for me.

My mood is often very contingent on the weather, and of course sunny days are the best, while hazy gray days are the absolute worst. But I love it when it actually rains. (Especially on occasions like yesterday, when my hair was already worthless and I was safely indoors.) I particularly love the rain when I'm having a so-so to bad day. Its cleansing qualities are unmatchable.

So I sat here at my adorable desk, being productive and listening to the steady thrum of the raindrops on the windows. And, almost like magic, the potential for a no-good-very-bad day washed away. I was done with all my work by 6:30, and out the door - and here's the kicker - without my laptop to do more work at home.

It had cleared up and I was in far too good a mood to just jump on a train home and sit there. So I wandered around Midtown, up and down 5th, just enjoying the summer breeze and people watching. I stopped in Bendel's to size up some handbags I'd been perusing online, scoffed at the line of tweens waiting to get into Abercrombie (wtf?), chatted with Kathy and generally meandered until I ended up on the 6 back home.

And the great day didn't end once I got home. I bought groceries for the week (for less than $20, believe it or not), cooked myself a delicious dinner while watching Olympic diving, finished Breaking Dawn and got to sleep before midnight.

I told you yesterday didn't suck. I could get used to that.

P.S. Today seems to be continuing the trend started yesterday afternoon. Here's to making it last!

P.P.S. Only a real FF like myself would use a Carpenter's song as a blog title. Oh, golly.

Nothing to do but daydream of John Mayer.

"My baby takes the morning train.
He works from nine to five and then
He takes another home again
To find me waiting for him."
-- Sheena Easton, Morning Train

When it comes to getting work done, I've always been pretty efficient. I was usually the first person to finish every test, I can knock out an A-level five-page paper in a couple of hours, etc.
That is, I'm efficient once I make myself sit down and start a project. I tend to subscribe to the philosophy of "works best under pressure", which is a fancy way of saying, "I like to procrastinate, but I'll still get things done and on time."

So imagine how weird it feels to be sitting here on my second day of work writing this little blog to you at 9:30 in the a.m., not because I'm putting off some action item, but because I really have done everything I need to do. At least without other teammates sending me their pieces of the project to put together. It could have something to do with the fact that I worked 11 hours yesterday. At the time, it just seemed easier to get the job done rather than set it aside and come back, but now I've learned my lesson. Thought it was nice to stroll in this morning, knowing there was nothing big looming over my head.

Now that I think of it, I haven't told you anything about work, have I? Well, I absolutely love my coworkers, for one thing. It's probably a good thing that a certain few of us have desks spread around the office, because this level of efficiency would drop drastically if I was constantly surrounded by those crazy new friends of mine. Speaking of desks, mine is HUGE. As in, I don't even use half of it. With two phone lines. And it's in a pretty nice location, though I'm slightly jealous of Justin's giant window view.

So far, it looks like a typical day of work for Emily is going to include plenty of time on the headset phone, lots of Pandora stations (a QuickMix of Jason Mraz, Sara Bareilles, Arcade Fire and MIKA is my favorite), more Excel spreadsheets than should be legal and, not to be punny, but tons of legal pads. I like that. I also like walking past Madison Square Garden on my way to work every morning. It just keeps a little of that "I'm working in NYC" magic going.

Okay, hopefully that was a more satisfactory post than the last couple. I'm going to try to fill the hours until my call this afternoon with decorating my desk, scrounging around for spare office supplies and sharing my newfound SLX skills. Not to mention the activity mentioned in the title of this post. ;)

Um, I think those are empty...

There's just been too much going on for me to explain in great detail. I promise I'll be more faithful in updating as soon as real life starts, which is tomorrow. But here are some highlights:

• Baltimore is cool, as long as you're by the harbor and stay out of the blue light district.
• I LOVE working for TFA.
  
• Training was intense - 10 hour days, with maybe two 15-minute breaks, for 10 days straight - but very informative and helpful.
• My cohort has a theme song, "Don't Stop Believing." And we're the Triple Threat.
• My coworkers are amazing.
• "Then the ice melts, and it's like second drink," became a recurring quote for the weeks.
  
• The Orioles suck. But the Hippo is amazing.
  
• We did karaoke twice. And killed it, twice. Apparently, December 1963 is our staple.
  
• I would love to tell you my Patron story, but I don't think I should post it on here. ;)
• On the same note, ask me about McSexyCanI?
• My RD is adorable. I just love her, which is good, since we're going to be working together a LOT!

I'm sure there's a lot more to talk about, I just can't think of it now. If you want to see pictures documenting this, check my album on Facebook titled, "Then the ice melts and it's like second drink!"

Oh, and my furniture came in! (Don't even ask me about all that drama.) I posted pics of the decorated apartment in the "Many the Miles" album.

Again, I promise a better post is on its way! But for now, I need to get back to reading Breaking Dawn. =)

Rich girl.

Ok, I know I've been slacking on posting. I really only have a few minutes before I have to be somewhere, so here's just the quickest of updates.

Training is still going strong in Baltimore. I'm enjoying work and excelling, but I'm definitely ready to transition out of the training phase and into the "doing". It's going to be demanding - but not too difficult - work, but the greatest thing is that it's definitely rewarding already.

I love my coworkers and my team. I'm part of the "Triple Threat" cohort, and we've already established ourselves as the cool kids who know how to have a good time. Expect pictures soon.

For now, just saying hello - I'm still alive, I'm still happy, and I'm ready to get back to the City. Oh, and the subject? That refers to the Hall & Oates song Christa and I are going to sing tonight during the RT's outing to a karaoke bar. You love it.

New Normal

I just had a mini-epiphany. It's weird, because I've been conscious of these facts for a while, but I never linked them.

So, there's no doubt that I love New York. I'm happy to be living here, and I'm excited to start my job. But these past couple of days, I've been in a weird funk. It's actually quite a lot like the mean reds. I'm nervous and a little sad and kind of afraid of, well, I'm not totally sure what. But here's where the epiphany comes in - as my dear friend Rachel said, "realizing it a bit is the first step." And that's what I did, I at least started to understand what it was that made me feel this way.

My life revolves around people. I'm so outwardly oriented - my mood, my happiness, etc. depend a lot on my interactions with others. And it's probably not the best situation that I've been living in towns where I don't have friends for the past 2+ months since graduation. That kind of thing can take a toll on a girl emotionally. You can be in the most exciting, stimulating place on Earth, but if there's no one to experience it with, a girl like me won't be satisfied.

Okay, so how do I fix this issue? Obviously, I make friends. This leaves me in a situation I haven't been in since, well, a long time. Even coming into college, I had several of my (at the time) closest friends coming with me. And we were thrown in a dormitory with thousands of other eager coeds just waiting to find their new best friends. I wish they did that in the real world.

Actually, they apparently kind of do. I'm feeling anxious/nervous/excited/anticipatory about tomorrow, when I go to TFA, get on a bus with my new co-workers, and head to Baltimore. These first impressions are important; these people could be my potential new best friends. Or at least people I enjoy spending time with. So, my feelings could be compared to the first day of Kindergarten: Will they like me? Will I fit in? Will the things I know/do be adequate? (Hey, I was a bright little kindergardener.)

Or maybe a more accurate comparison is of me going into Camp Crimson, the freshman orientation camp at OU. Impressions to be made, friends waiting to happen, ladders of influence to climb. It was when I was texting Ross and IMing Rachel that I made the connection. I had gotten used to being the counselor in this situation (after being a Camp Champ winning counselor at Camp Crimson, mind you). And now that I'm feeling like the camper, the world is a little flipped upside down. It doesn't help that Camp is going on right now, and it's the first thing at OU I'm missing out on because of this whole graduating-and-moving-on-to-the-real-world thing. So I'm feeling a little lost, alone and vulnerable during a time that any year prior to this I would be the one leading the pack, in charge and surrounded by family.

Life is so different, and I don't think it's just because of the city I live in. Unless I was working on campus at OU, I'd be jumping into a place where things feel different and a little weird. I just have to keep reminding myself that this stuff isn't weird. It's just a "new normal."

I think the song playing on my iTunes right now is more than appropriate:
I'm a new soul.
I came to this strange world
Hoping I could learn a bit bout how to give and take.
But since I came here, felt the joy and the fear,
Finding myself making every possible mistake

See I'm a young soul in this very strange world
Hoping I could learn a bit bout what is true and fake
But why all this hate? Try to communicate.
Finding trust and love is not always easy to make.
-- Yael Naim, "New Soul"