Three Days and Counting… Or is it Four?

Sorry I fell of the face of the earth there. I’ve been packing to move down below the Mason-Dixon line. My house is full of stuff in boxes and bags and although I’ve been trying for days, none of my little piles have a rhyme or reason. But I must press on!

Tomorrow is my phone interview. I’m really freaking out and I’m trying to research the position and the institution as much as possible but so many things could go wrong. I could have a hiccup attack (known to happen) I could completely blank and then stutter before uttering a slew of unsophisticated statements (“I put things in boxes and write stuff about them, i’m good at that, oh yeah”) or i could come across as a cocky twat (though some people seem to like that, yet I don’t want my New Yorker go-getter attitude to scare the poor Southerners, they’re just too polite!)

So I’m trying to take a break and watch CSI: Miami, pretending I don’t have a million things to fax and organize before I head on down. I am also ignoring the fact that I can no longer see my bedroom floor because it is covered in ever item of clothing I own because I can’t seem to ever find that one black tank top I need (it was  still packed in my vacation bag).

So once again wish me luck tomorrow. I’m hoping it either all goes well and I get the job or terribly and comically wrong so I can at least have a good story for you.

Dressing the Part

I think it’s time to say goodbye to American Eagle sweatshirts and witty Threadless tshirts. I’m no longer an undergrad, meaning i can’t get away going to the dining hall in my pj pants and university sweatshirt. I need to look like a functioning adult, not a like the squatters who sat in front of the coffee shop on Main Street New Paltz (though it is definitely a more comfortable way of living).

So in honor of realizing that I’ll need some spiffy professional outfits for internships and adult life, here are some wise words from the most fabulously dressed writer in history:

I need to get myself a purple velvet cape

Do I Spy a Glimmer of Hope?

Good news! Finally!!!!

I got a call asking me to interview for a Graduate Assistantship for Collections Access!

Of course I wont be moved down until a few days AFTER they wanted to schedule the interview so I am cursed with another phone interview. Now I did manage to win over one interview team over the phone but I wasn’t so lucky with a second. And as much as I am thrilled to be archiving the office of a certain politician, I NEED this assistantship. Health insurance, a stipend and (the best part) tuition remission? It means a world of a difference as I’m sure all of you college grads and graduate students know. To be educated is to be poor these days. Hopefully it eventually pays (literally) to have two pieces of paper after thousands and thousands of dollars are spent.

The interview is next week, wish me luck!!!

Why Sharks Trump Helen Keller… Just This Once

So today is day three of Shark Week.

Last night wasn’t my favorite combination of shark shows. Mythbusters was kinda a repeat and sharkzilla wasn’t so spectacular to have on while partying (Air Jaws is the best for this). But disappointing shows didn’t kill our festivities!!!!

Thanks to a lovely compilation of shark-themed cocktails, my bartender friend and I had a blast entertaining ourselves while the rest played Apples to Apples (“Sharks” trumped Helen Keller for this game and “The Beach” overruled Michael Jackson).

Shark Infested Waters

Lime Bite

Shark Bite

Shark Fin Ice Cube!

So tonight we have a fiesta, “How Jaws Changed the World,” and “Adrift” to look forward to.

Also this!…..

Thank you to whoever wrote this!

Tonight’s drink of choice, MARGARITAS!!!! And not made with a mix, but from scratch with real limes just as Mexico intended.

Adulthood

So this is how post-college life is gonna be I guess….

It’s 9am somewhere…

I don’t always drink Landshark, but when I do it’s Shark Week.

Things with Teeth.

I was making my traditional Shark Week cupcakes and had some left over so I figured I’d make some cupcakes to munch on while watching True Blood tonight at the weekly True Blood Munch Fest Extravaganza! What do you think?

Shark Week Ooh-Ha-Ha

Today is the day and I’m so freaking excited!!!!

IT’S SHARK WEEK!

Well tonight is (here’s a countdown!!!!)

At 9pm tonight a week of the best television ever and my life as a recluse will begin. I love shark week, I always have and not because I specifically love sharks but its just an epic combination of action, information and the typical guilty pleasure of watching train wrecks happen (can we say a whole show dedicated to gruesome shark attacks?).

This year it will be the 25th year of shark week meaning (I hope) that it will be  more awesome than ever. The only downside to shark week is that many of my friends refuse to go to the beach after. This year it will be quite understandable considering the sound has been full of all kinds of huge fish and even seals. And huge fish mean more seals and more seals mean sharks. We’ve been known to have shark sightings locally (nothing compared to the bull shark incident in New Jersey in the early 20th century) but I’m excited to find out what people see this year, especially with all of the crazy weather we’ve been having.

This year’s shark week will also be bitter-sweet. My dog, Dutchess, died this past

Such a regal shark-puppy

October and she was a main staple of Shark Week. And unfortunately I don’t think my rat Brisby will be too thrilled about dressing up for the occasion.

So I bid you all a Happy Shark Week and stand by for a post on my annual Shark Week Extravaganza, a party full of cupcakes, cocktails and cartilage-skeleton  creatures.

Ridiculousness… Just Because

Thinking about starting up this fall has really made me nostalgic about last semester. My roommates and I were careful about money so we didn’t have cable but that didn’t stop up from entertaining ourselves with a TV. We love the Discovery Channel (btw, SHARK WEEK STARTS TOMORROW!!!!!!)

this is what a college degree leads to

Hola to Ernesto, and Remembering Irene

It is currently raining out. A Lot. Apparently Tropical Storm Ernesto decided to visit and is flooding the crap out of anything and everything. I saw a Dodge Challenger try to clear the sunken part of the road under a bridge and manage to submerge its entire nose. People didn’t seem to think of anything following suit but I decided to take a detour because, you know, I really don’t feel like turning my car into a not-so-air-tight water vessel.

This rain and massive flooding really brings back memories to my last fall semester in college. Hurricane Irene decided to kick the shit out of New Paltz….

New Paltz the day before Irene

New Paltz the day after Irene. This is a road and a sunflower/corn field by the way.

… and drowned my apartment while doing so. We are currently wearing rubber shoes in this shot because we realized that walking through water while the power line was down behind the building probably wasn’t the safest thing.

So we ended up moving into the laundry room for our first day of classes, having to take shifts on baby-sitting all of our worldly possessions and fending off angry apartment-dwellers who NEEDED to use that EXACT laundry room instead of the other three in the complex.

Kinda homey, isn’t it?

In the end it made for some great memories. Watching pumpkins flow down the river along with tubes and kayakers, collecting flood corn, “I Survived Irene t-shirts” and living with our hospitable friends for several weeks while we waited for another apartment. It was definitely an interesting start to my senior year of college though I hope things are a little smoother this fall semester.

But anyway, the rain is slowing down here so it looks like Ernesto is hardly anything to worry about (though why my mom found it absolutely necessary to travel the flooded streets during the thick of it to get her nails done, I’ll never know).

This Kind of Humor Runs in My Family