Holy Samsquamch!

Last night I asked Mike if he'd ever contemplated the existence of Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

Being a wilderness type person and also who believes in evolution and the possibility of missing links, I told him that although I'd never seen one, it's possible such creatures do exist. I began scouring YouTube. A wealth of any kind of video you might want to see on any subject. And I found this:



The video itself is grainy, sideways and unrecognizable. The dialogue, however, is amazing. "Holy fuck, Ricky. I think it's a Samsquanch! *heavy scared breathing*"

I want to believe in them even more after seeing that video.


Meanwhile, I am leaving New York in exactly a week. Most of the time, it doesn't seem fair. I haven't ridden out my time here or seen everything I want to see. But, there is a lot to be proud of looking back on my time living in the big apple. Is it refreshing to live in a city where no one really looks out for anybody but themselves? Is it nice to be able to tune out crowds and drown out the mindless jabbering of those on the train on the way to work? Yes. But more than that, I am simply satisfied that I carry myself better, I have more confidence in myself as a human being and I can definitely say I am one tough chica based on what I have done and seen.

I, for the first time in a long while, am proud of me!

Getting ready to 'head out'

Blogging somehow become less of a priority when you work for two weeks straight, while at the same time getting ready for a cross-country road trip.

This is my last issue at Audubon, and yes, it is pretty sad. I've only ever felt like a real journalist while I've been working there, despite all the bullshit I had to go through as an intern. I've gotten my best clips there, met some amazing people in the process and I'm glad I spent the better part of 8 months there. I am going to continue to freelance with Audubon, as well as contribute to their flowering blog. Please check out my first blog for them:

http://magblog.audubon.org/node/69

This is only the first of many ranting posts about half-assed environmentalism I hope to make. It may be elitist, but at least it's honest. The normal Joe can do so much more for the environment than he thinks. And the high paid people are definitely not doing enough. I hope to reach both groups.

Meanwhile, Mike and I are planning our epic cross country trip.


View Larger Map

This is our trip (roughly). We're heartily planning it.

Meanwhile... just as you are so happy to leave somewhere, you are so aware of the good things about where you live. Going to open-air brunch on Saturdays... Randomly finding Farmers' Markets... When I came home and walked around my Astoria neighborhood, I saw a wedding, shining in the sun. All the guests waited for the couple to come out. They were 50 feet from the elevated subway. I choked back tears as I watched that couple triumphant, emerging from the sun-glazed stone of the orthodox Greek church. So many things you might hate about this place... in the context of all that is good, you never notice how much everything around you is truly beautiful in its own way.

Despite that, we are ready to go. Both of us are eager to find jobs where we will be happier, and moving in together ain't so bad either. I love this kid.

Slowly becoming a responsible adult

As I prepare both for my departure from my internship at Audubon, and my roadtrip across country with Mike, I've started taking baby steps toward being ready to job search hardcore-like once we get there. One of these steps was getting a decent business card. I went on overnightprints.com, and on a whim designed and ordered my own business cards. I read in a book my mom bought me about getting from college to career that if you can't get rid of 250 business cards pretty quickly, you aren't networking nearly hard enough. And seeing how it's about "who you know," I figured it was a good step.

They do include my phone number, BTW but I don't want thousands of blog fans calling me up ;)

So yeah your basic hippie journalist card, equipped with green text and tree. They actually turned out much better than I expected. Can't wait to give them out at the next Greendrinks NY, a group of people involved in the environmental industry somehow that meets every month. I've been on their list for a few months now but haven't had the guts to go because (I know this is silly) I didn't have a card to give out. It's so embarrassing when people give you their card and you have none to give back. Problem solved! Inebriation with other like-minded green people, here I come. Please also see this hilarious "American Psycho" clip that inspired me to make a kick-ass card
Last Thursday my Macbook's hard drive died. Literally. It was about ten minutes before I was going to leave for work and I turned it back on to quickly check my bank balance and all I got was this flashing folder with a question mark. I went to the Apple store and they said there was nothing they could do except give me a new hard drive. Then I went to a place that does data recovery, paid $650 up front for them to get any files they could off the old drive (this was after my editor said they could reimburse me for it). I've been working on Mike's computer (thanks, sweetie!)... waiting for the past week to see what they can do. Got a call today saying that nothing could be salvaged. So once the new drive is installed I get to start all over. I didn't really back up much, but once I think about it, a lot of the stuff that is important to me (including these blog posts) is already on online servers so what I lost is really not that bad.

My roommate Evan's father is here visiting from Greece, just arrived this afternoon. He's staying until the end of the month. Already I can see this is going to be an education. He, with his thick Greek accent, spent the last 20 minutes trying to tell us that the U.S. government gets us too worried about credit cards and money troubles to realize how much they're f-ing us over. If people had more time to get up and protest about things, we'd have month-long vacations and cushy retirement allowances like those in Greece, I suppose.

That's about it for now. If you have any suggestions for specific places Mike and I should visit on our cross-country trip, comment! Neither of us are really very good at planning trips so we could use the suggestions.

Sorry she hasn't seriously blogged in awhile,

Shawno

New York?

Last Friday Mike and I actually had a day off together. This hasn't happened since I started working for the Panhandler and we were quite excited about how we were going to spend it. We decided to have a Whole Foods picnic in Central Park at 59th street and then walk through the trails in the park.

That green thing in the middle is Central Park. If you picture us starting at the white circle in the lower left corner of that green and walking up to the reservoir in the middle... that's what we did that day. It was about 40 city blocks when we emerged from the lovely green.

Mikey is adorable.

This is the Great Lawn. I was actually pleasantly surprised at the birds and wildlife and green I saw during our day at the park. We spent the rest of the day avoiding Pope barricades.

Mike and I have decided to move west. Despite the beauty of Central Park, we are looking for more tranquility, less crowded public transportation and mountains (well, I'm looking for mountains at least). Destination Seattle, approximately mid July. Goodbye metrocards, bums, smelly sewers, rude assholes at every turn, overpriced eats, pretentiousness and false entitlement. I just hope my time here hasn't changed me much.

Oh, frat boy anthems

How many times in a row can you play ACDC's "Back in Black" without getting sick of it?

Me: probably somewhere around 2.5

My roommate: I dunno, I'll let you know when it stops, but this has been going on for days. It started with him listening to it a few times to figure out the guitar riff. Then he was singing it on the toilet. Now I hear it coming from his room and his girlfriend giggling. He is undoubtedly playing air guitar, perhaps doing some kind of Angus strut.

edit: today he sat around all day and then said, "Man I feel fat today. I know what will remedy this!" and he put on... you guessed it... "Back in Black" again. He said "This song is all balls."

ok....

Yet another subway post

Hilarious

Fun ads

Hello. Two posts in one day, I know, scary!

I always said when I was in school that I don't know why anyone would want to be involved in advertising or writing copy for ads. But lately, with some of the campaigns I've seen, it wouldn't be the worst job in the world. These are just two that I really find funny lately

Jameson whiskey has these awesome ads on the subway that may only be understood by someone who has ridden the train in NYC. That being said, they are very basic with pictures of a bottle of Jameson and the question is, why Jameson (I regret that I do not have photos and couldn't find any online)?

"Maybe because it won't pull away right when you show up."
"Maybe because reading this label is more polite than reading your neighbor's newspaper."
"Maybe because 'next round on me' is easier to understand thank 'stanclearclosindoor.'"
"Maybe because these ads give you something to stare at when you don't know where to look."
"Maybe because there are nine wrong ways to swipe your card, but no wrong way to enjoy Jameson."
"Maybe the ads give tourists something to look at so the guy in the map seat can get a break."

That last one makes me laugh every time.

Next... I saw this commercial and now I totally want a Sven.