Abroad in the Real World post 1/?

Hello friends and family,

How are you??? I decided that it was time to revive this blog in hopes of sufficiently updating everyone that has been so supportive of me thus far with news that they deserve. Also, I was talking to my Aunt Heather the other night and she mentioned this blog and i told her i had actually been considering starting it up again, and she was like "YES YES YES!" Sooooo here we go. Where to begin.

Well... I graduated for one.

CHAPTER 1: GRADUATION



But i'm getting ahead of myself (i'm also going back a while now, so forgive me if i leave out important details). The night before everyone in my house and I threw a giant "Family Dinner" for all of our family members to meet and greet each other. Here is a picture of all of the kids (my friend Caitlin's mom gave us red beret as graduation presents):

(L to R: Allison, Jel, Erin, Caitlin, Megan, Sarah Li, Me Matt)

Impostors (a whole lot of proud family):




I by far had the most family at the dinner!



(me, my dad, my girlfriend Leah)

After people left the night was dedicated to breaking down the little home we had all spent the year creating. It was an emotional night...



i have to say, the next day was basically a blur... and not because we started out the morning with a champagne toast:

Pre grad hug


(L to R:) Matt, Allison, Caitlin, Erin, Sarah Li




You know, it's scary being an A name... but at least i was 2nd and not 1st AND got a fantastic seat:


President Karen Lawrence Speaks


Our commencement speaker Jessica Lang gave a fantastic speech about being here now and taking advantage of unlikely situations and offers. Later Fox News ripped it apart.
See a link about about it here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/24/jessica-lange-condemns-ir_n_103435.html


While graduation itself was a blur, the reception afterwards was a chaotic blur. So many family members, so many farewells, so many teachers around. I had no idea what to do. I didn't even say proper goodbyes to most people simply because i didn't know where to begin. Leah's aunt described everyone as zombies because we were all so scatter brained and probably temporarily legally insane. I just kept eating the mini guacamoles.



One of my favorite and most admired teachers, Julie Abraham




CHAPTER 2: BEACH WEEK
After graduation I drove with Leah to Delaware to attend BEACH WEEK '08 with a bunch of my closest friends. We spent a week laying around, eating group dinners, which we all took turn preparing, enjoying the sun, and trying to process all the events of the previous few weeks.





I must say, it was definitely nice to have a little breather before jumping into real life post grad, and also to have a little more time with everyone before we all went our separate was... or so we thought (See Chapter 4).

CHAPTER 3: SUMMER IN CHICAGO
I spent this summer living in Oak Park with Leah in my dad's apartment while he was in Italy and worked for my fourth year at Columbia College's Summer Arts camp:

Picture taken on our trip to the Botanical Gardens

I celebrated Gay Pride 08 with Leah, Matt and Graham. Graham went to my high school. Matt was my first friend at SLC. They are boyfriends. And they are proof that we live in a smalllll world.


Oh and we also celebrated the 4th of July... the theme was "Happy Fourth of July From..." I went at Happy Fourth Of July From The Produce Section


-- all the while i tried to figure out WHERE i was supposed to go come August. I had three options 1) Stay in Chicago 2) go back to Australia 3) Move back to NY


CHAPTER 4: MY MOVE BACK TO NY
Leah and I moved to (and are currently living in) an apartment in brooklyn. There are two levels and both have REALLY HIGH CEILINGS. The upstairs has a kitchen:


(picture taken from a "Pink Sailors" themed birthday party we through for Jel and Caitlin

There is also a little mini living room, couch and chairs area and another little corner where there used to be a kitchen table, but which is currently bookshelves (it's going through a transitional period)


We live in the basement and have painted 3 of the four walls:

The four walls are the colors of candy corn - one is yellow, on is orange, and one is this really nice brown... oh and one is still white

Unfortunately it seems as though my internet is acting wacky so i'll have to hold off on more pictures until later and cut straight to a current update on life. We'll do categories.

FRIENDS: I live about 6 blocks from some of my closest friends from Sarah Lawrence. We have A LOT of group dinners. One particularly memorable one was very very autumnal. We had sweet potatoes, baked apples with fake sausage in them, squash soup, salad, cider, pumpkin beer, and apple pie. needless to say it was a-maz-ing. It so so wonderful having them so close, and it's also really funny because when we graduated we were like "OH NO! We're never going to seeee each other again!" This was especially true when I strongly believed I was never going to live in NY again. Alas, i'm back and so are most of them! A couple weeks ago it really sunk in when a friend of our passed away and we all went back to Sarah Lawrence to go to his memorial service. Obviously there were a lot of feelings being experience dealing with mortality, sadness, and shock... but then also a whole other group of feelings stirred at being back on campus. Such an emotionally complicated night. It was good to be back though, and I'm very glad I was able to go to the service. It was a Quaker service, and was very very nice.

WORK: It's so interesting to be going through this period of life at this time in history... aka entering the real world and trying to find a job during the second depression in American history. It's definitely not an easy process. Even prior to arriving in NY i was sending out my resume and cover letters like crazy. Finally I got an e-mail back from what i thought was a promising job lead. The position was an archival researcher and after a phone interview they invited me to come in for an in person interview the day after i arrived in NY. I was PUMPED! Well I arrived (after no sleep) and the next day jumped on the really intimidating subway and went to the job interview. It went very very well. Helen Whitney (the company's owner) went to Sarah Lawrence... the girl that was interviewing me studied gender and women's studies and her mom went to SLC. By the end of the interview we were laughing and she offered me the job!!!... only to mention a couple seconds later that I "did know it's unpaid... right?" ....uh... right. damn.

I debated for a week or so taking the job anyway in order to boost my resume, but in the end decided i wasn't in the financial position to take it. Then i got another interview with Open Outcry Productions to be an assistant editor... at $50/8hrs....... i took it and spent the next month working 6pm-10pm or midnight tuesday through thursday and Saturdays noon till 8pm. Then i got another call back from a Cynthia Wade Productions, an Academy Award Winning documentary production company, and played phone tag with them. They said they were a women owned production run by 3 women and they were looking for an intern for $25/Day.... with a chance for more money later. I took this job too and worked Tuesdays and Thursdays 9am-5pm.... giving me two 16 hour work days a week (Tues and Thurs). One day I was so beat i took a cab home from work... it cost me $31... the exact amount I'd spent the whole day making. I was displeased to say the relief.

Currently I'm working freelance for Cynthia Wade Productions at $12/hr. It's kind of scary because it's less consistent and therefore less stable... but it is a step up. I'm doing a lot of transcribing, and i really like the people I live with. I also feel like i'm starting to understand better how to exist in a professional work environment... aka i'm understanding the progression in work relationships. It's interesting.

Anyway, I'm also looking for another job. I've sent my resume out to a couple more production companies and I also just had an interview at Reebok Gym, Manhattan's biggest gym where I would be working with kids, which would be fun... and after 3 months of full time work they offer benefits!... which is great because my health insurance just went from costint $416 to $690 per month. so awesome! Thanks so much Bush. Speaking of which,

POLITICS- OBAMA! OBAMA! OBAMA! Election night was so amazing. I went to Leah's friend's place for a little gathering and when it was announced that he won world outside went nuts. We were all screaming and then hushed up and muted the TV and could hear the screaming from the streets. Cabbies were leaning on their horns, people on garbage trucks were shouting and waving, people were dancing in the streets. It was incredible!

So so sad about Prop 8 though. It's amazing how people can possibly take people's rights away. I'll never understand.

HOME: A little more info on my house. As i said, it's 2 levels, connected with a spiral staircase with really really really high ceilings. Most of the furniture we have was found on the street (carpet, couch, rug). Our bed and mattress though were bought from one of our housemate's friends for real cheap. don't worry. Unfortunately the bed is from ikea and must be missing a piece... because it caves in every other day.  So awesome.  It was actually fantastic... one particular day i was trying to fix the bed (nailing pieces of wood into the base so that it wouldn't break anymore... which didn't help) the dresser i got off the street completely fell apart and the floor was just covered in random wood pieces.  POST GRAD LIFE RULES!

Anyway, I am pretty happy where I am. I'm hoping to some day be able to live in a room that has good light... but I'm living with pretty cool people and two VERY VERY cute cats, and i as i said i can't complain about the distance I am from close friends. Oh and the train and bus stops are only 2 blocks away! So handy!

EXCITING NEWS: One of my best friends from Australia, Katie, is coming to visit me for two weeks (December 19 through January 9th) and i cannot even tell you how excited I am to see her!!!!


I think that's basically the end of my update. It's a complicated time in life for a whole lot of reasons and i recognize that. I am happy though. And i am trying. And all I can do is hope for the best and keep my chin up.


Thank you very much for reading. I hope this helps to give you a little bit of an idea of what's going on in my life right now. Let me know if i forgot anything!

I love you all very very very much and hope you're all doing well!!!!!!