I Only Packed One Bag . . . You Should Be Proud

Last night ended poorly. The worst part was the dream that followed that haunted me.

My chest actually hurts after that insanely visual dream.

It was one of those dreams that was so close to reality it was terrifying.

The moral of the story? I think I've forgotten how to start by making myself happy and began with other people, in turn losing myself.

After getting to NJ from DC yesterday I left my phone in my bag, partially unintentionally, to which my bags went upstairs and my phone that once had one bar of battery left soon had none.

I was intrigued after the other night of Gabi telling me her goal was to go completely cell phone less for an entire year and soon give the internet the boot as well. Could I even do it for one night where everyone I cared about knew where I was?

There's something slightly unaltering about a dead phone. Is it okay?! Will it come back?! After my computer battery crapped out in the winter it's always an option for my electronics.

Nothing good comes immediately after turning your phone on after being dead. Especially no good conversations.

I'm trying not to think about it and my dream but it's 7:15 and I'm awake. I finally got my ceiling fan to stop making that horrible noise that played a role in my dream as well.

Last night my family sat on our deck talking until we were almost completely eaten alive by mosquitoes. We moved inside and watched a psuedo video of my brother's wedding. Almost 2 years ago now, wow.

Some cool internet findings I found out about last night thanks to my tech savvy brother:

Texts from Last Night: Kind of like FML.

http://www.textsfromlastnight.com/

A video from College Humor called "Twitter in Real Life."

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1909386

Epic Attempts

I love the summertime. Amazing weather (when the apocolypse isn't crawling over DC) and tons of things to do.

I have recently been in the buying mood despite my low funds. On my list of 1001 things to do in 101 days #99. Finish all shopping for the year by Halloween (Birthdays, Christmas, Etc.) so I am trying to fuel my buying energy in that direction as an excuse.

Speaking of which I am moving along pretty well on my list:

1. Learn Conversational French
2. Learn Sign Language
3. Swim with a dolphin
4. Host a board game night
5. Visit all 50 states
6. Put my feet in the Pacific Ocean (I put my feet in the Gulf of Mexico!)
7. Don’t text message for an entire month
8. Build something
9. Visit the Ben and Jerry’s Factory (In Waterbury, VT)
10. Go to Ireland
11. Watch Star Wars for the first time (just the first movie) Watched Episodes 4, 5, & 6 on 02/14/09
12. Take daily vitamin every day straight for a month (Finished May 2009!)
13. Set and FOLLOW a month long workout routine.
14. Learn how to drive a manual.
15. Make a photography portfolio
16. Buy a bicycle
17. Go two weeks without cursing
18. Keep a piggy bank and put ALL excess change in said bank
19. Read the entire Harry Potter Series… again
20. Read at least 4 books off of a greatest books ever written list
21. See Dave Matthews in Concert... no matter how old he is and no matter how old I am.
22. Decorate an entire room of my own by myself.
23. Go to the New Jersey Botanical Gardens
24. Straddle 5 state lines… Photographed.
25. Finally organize all of the postcards I have collected.
26. Create and mail in a Post Secret postcard.
27. Don’t watch any television for a week.
28. Don’t use any plastic bags for a month.
29. Don’t buy bottled water for a month.
30. Paint a room a crazy color
31. Run in a mini marathon ((5k in October!))
32. Dress up for Halloween (seriously, even though you hate Halloween)
33. Watch the end of the West Wing series
34. Watch the end of the O.C. series
35. Learn how to surf
36. Learn how to play guitar

37. Go to a wine tasting
38. Go to a drive in movie
39. Go to a planetarium
40. Listen to all of the music on my iPod (5535 items, 49.7 days worth of music)
41. Skip dessert for a month
42. Stop biting my nails for an entire month
43. Make something from blown glass
44. Learn how to make pottery
45. Color an entire coloring book
46. Send 101 cards (41/101)
47. Read Gone With the Wind
48. Don’t use Facebook for two weeks
49. Pay Dad back for the accident ($500)
50. See 50 of IMDB’s top 250 movies (http://www.imdb.com/chart/top)
51. Do Photo Project 365 (http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/)
52. Go to a Salsa Club
53. Buy nothing for a week.
54. See the sunrise (01/20/09, Inauguration morning, the day I started 1001!)
55. See the sunset.
56. Do the 26 Things project (http://sh1ft.org/26things/)
57. Reread Childhood books
58. Attend a film festival
59. Go to Atlantic City (Post 05/05/09) and gamble with only $40. Whatever happens, happens, no continuing with winnings.
60. Keep a journal everyday.
61. Go to church every Sunday for three months straight.
62. Organize iTunes
63. Organize all of my crap/memorabilia
64. Don’t eat out for an entire month
65. Ride in a hot air balloon
66. Graduate (Early?)
67. Make my own website (buy the web space... don’t cop out)
68. Keep a dream glass
69. Get over it.
70. Sing in front of people
71. Read five banned books
72. Dress up for an entire week for no reason.
73. Go crabbing
74. Donate to Locks of Love (more than once)
75. Buy fruit from local farmers for an entire month
76. See Penguins in their natural habitat (Saw penguins LIVE at the Florida Aquarium 03/14/09).
77. Travel to a Spanish speaking country and use as much Spanish as possible
78. Seriously consider backpacking across Europe in 07/2010. Do everything humanly possible to go.
79. Read more books per year than the previous year (32 in 06, 33 in 07…)
80. Donate to a charity every year (0/3)
81. Go to the beach without getting Sun burned
82. Finish and frame a puzzle with over 5,000 pieces in it.
83. Attempt (legitimately) a NaNoWriMo (http://www.nanowrimo.org/)
84. Write a message in a bottle and let it go at my favorite spot by the beach.
85. Go through an entire semester without missing class.
86. Go sky diving.
87. Conquer my fear of horses and ride one.
88. Send someone I love flowers anonymously.
89. Keep five plants/flowers/trees, and keep them alive.
90. Fill someone’s expired meter.
91. Go to high school reunion.

92. Give up all caffeine (including chocolate) for two months.
93. Go to the top ten best rated restaurants in DC.
94. Shadow a journalist, designer, or Mr. Zink for a day.
95. Write your life story in a day.

96. Edit it later, make a memoir?

97. Identify 100 things that make you happy.

98. Start a blog and keep up with it.

99. Finish all shopping for the year by Halloween (Birthdays, Christmas, Etc.)

100. Donate $10 to charity for every item I do not achieve by XX/XX/XXXX

101. Create another list.

So many dreams and so little time.

I'm also making every attempt to become a coupon lady. Things are expensive and I hear gas prices are rising too! It's rough.

I have stopped eating out as much as possible. I'm not going to lie, I have broken a couple of times but it's only been 2 or 3 in two weeks, which after eating out almost every meal isn't bad! Attempt number 2 to save money.

Going home in two weeks for my Mom's Birthday and Father's Day and I'm pretty excited. My sister is popping in to visit tomorrow night on her way to VA which will also be a good time. I am having the hardest time finding a birthday card for my mom though. We try to make each other cry due to laugher but I don't want to make my mother cry because of saddness from an old joke which is what EVERY card is now. How frustrating. I might have to make her one and think of something witty. If you know of any good card stores in DC or ideas for messages for inside cards send them my way!

More later, and more often, promise.

Photo for this post: Flowers on campus.

Mother's Day in NJ

So Happy Mother's Day to all of the mother's out there. It would be inconsiderate of me not to start there. 

I find myself sitting in a very comfortable chair in my living room in New Jersey awaiting the arrival of my grandparents and listening to the soundtrack to Juno which I got out from the library. It's relaxing, I'd recommend it. 

Our holidays until very recently have been shockingly monotonous. Arrival, exchange of gifts/hellos/conversation, meal, goodbyes. Weird, right? Last year we abandoned the tradition completely but this year we bring it back with a couple slight changes. The addition of the Phillies Game and Yahtzee. I'm interested to see how this goes. 

I read the New York Times Magazine this morning and found this Mother's Day appropriate article that was touching:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/magazine/10lives-t.html?ref=magazine

And then an interview with Arlen Specter which was solely entertaining, apparently the new found democrat has jokes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/magazine/10wwln-q4-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine

P.S. Did you know graphic designers design the header graphics for the New York Times Magazine? A woman came to speak to the design department last fall and she showed us some portfolio picks that I recognized above William Saffire's column On Language. Maybe there's hope!

I'll be in New Jersey this week hopefully enjoying the beautiful weather but this windy Mother's Day I'll be with the family. We do make our own fun though. 

Here's to a relaxing week at home... cheers. 

((Pictured above... a friend who came from off the deck yesterday to hang out in the family room... a tree frog.))

My Bad

WOW, I am bad at this. 

Let's make this a short update. Seeing as it has been almost a month since I updated last (making me horrible at this blog thing) it might surprise you that not a lot has happened. I have had my head unwillingly shoved into numerous textbooks in a sad attempt to keep up with my studies. But thank God, the semester is coming to a close. One final exam and one paper stand between me, 21, and freedom from this heinous semester. 

Tomorrow I have told myself I will conquer and hand in this paper about Title IX and take my Journalism Ethics exam. Almost immediately afterwards I'm going to have my first legal drink with my parents and my sister in Georgetown. Paint me excited. 

After that the summer of glory begins. Don't hold your breath kids, let the party begin. 

Friends or Not?

I've been thinking about friendships and relationships a lot lately. All of my thinking has boiled down to this. All we really want is someone to care about us. 

My family comes tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited. Mostly because I know that no matter what happens, they'll care about me. How do I know this? Leave it to my brother to terrify a nurse in a hospital in New Jersey on a massive search for me in a bed somewhere in that hospital. I wish I I could say the same about my friends here. DC, with all of its perks, I have come to find is a very egotistical city. If you start paying attention, people only talk about themselves. You'll begin with a story, "So I was walking downtown today..." "REALLY? I walk downtown..." and you've lost a listener. 

My best friend from home Gabi brought this to my attention some time ago, and ever since then I can't forget it. 

This past weekend I had a party to celebrate our friends and the Cherry Blossom festivities. Out of a room of 20. I could only pick out 3 people who I considered friends. One actually asked if this party was going to get any better. If a friend invites you to a party and it blows, I say embrace it. Maybe it's just me, but am I living in everyone else's world? It's not our world, it's theirs. I wasn't once asked about how I was, but I was asked about a summer job or internship and where I was living next year. Is this what makes me a worthy friend? Gainful employment and a place to live? 

At times I felt like I was being judged at face value. Judged period!

Host, female, sarcastic, slightly bitchy, under 21, employed, internship, rent this much. 

Net worth? Not worth their time. 

Wow, she's drinking an awful lot. Can you believe she wore that? Did you hear what she just said?

I can right now, think of Gabi, who would carry me home if I was puking all over myself, compliment me on an interesting outfit choice, and laugh about it WITH me, not at me, and tell me I'm an idiot for saying stupid things... to my face. 

When the first friend I ever met at AU (fellow Jerz-ian) showed up to the party, I cried when I met him in the parking lot. I cried realizing that outside of my boyfriend, he was the only person who cared about me in there. I haven't seen him since we celebrated his birthday in December, but that didn't matter. We don't have to see each other every waking moment to maintain a friendship. When I'm upset, he knows, and asks me about it. Not about if I offered him anything, any benefits from our friendship. 

I recognized this on a microscopic level some time ago, and decided to kill them with kindness, all of them. No one can be mean to a girl who's nice all the time. Well guess what? NO ONE is nice all the time. You slip once and it's back to judgy town. 

I decided then and there to stop wasting MY time. Life is short, man. Why waste my time trying to be kind to people that don't share the same kindness back to me. 

I am thankful for my friends, genuine friends. I don't need millions, the four I have right now will suffice :). You know who you are.

Bottom line? We all just want someone to care about us. Poor, unemployed us. 

My Mission: Make DC More Appealing

I apologize for the gap in time since my last post. I was in glorious Florida relaxing before returning to the heightened pace of DC. I, like a nerdy tourist, love to completely engulf myself in an area I haven't experienced before (Tampa, FL and Naples, FL, being two places I have not experienced). Little did I know, this was not the engulfing crowd. Like the rest of my family, we're up and moving by 9 a.m. Not this crowd. Despite the slightly slower pace, I loved the warm weather, the amazing friends, and glorious beaches. To my boyfriend's (Terence) surprise (and a little of my own) I was defending DC, a place I found individualistic, selfish and uninviting two weeks prior, in a sea of Florida-ites. Tough crowd, I know, but I found numerous people who *GASP* missed the seasons, which makes me even more hesistant to leave them. I plan on posting photos soon (whenever I muster up the strength) but I had a lot of fun. A well needed, enjoyable break.

Fastfoward through my first week back. At the very beginning of the week I made a list of assignments I have to have completed by March 30th (including 3 papers and quite a bit of reading) so that I can afford (AKA not flunk out of college) while driving to the Catskill Mountains the weekend of the 28th. Terence and I are going to surprise his mom and brother (for his brothers birthday!) and hopefully pop in on my parents on the way home as well. Should my car be able to make the 6 hour venture, it will be a lot of fun. Now I just have to make sure I don't miss any massive assignments.

I am on a mission to make Terence like DC. It's not that he doesn't like it.... persay. He just misses Florida... and talks about it... a lot. SO I decided while we were in Florida to do everything that I can to ensure that while DC may fall second best to Florida, that I make it the closest race humanly possible. Tonight I took him on a surprise date. I blindfolded him and took him to the Washingtonian Center in Gaithersburg, MD. Thankfully, the cold weather didn't scare away the crowds and there was enough to do before "going out" time. Tomorrow the mission to make DC super cool continues and hopefully the cold weather won't stop us from going to Glen Echo Park. Another new spot, which I hear has good photo opportunities! If you have any good ideas of things to do in DC that are off the beaten path and won't constantly remind me that I only have 40 days until I'm 21, those would be much appreciative. Tonight when Eddie said, "Hey Natalie, are you coming along" when the guys left for a much needed guys night, I said, "No. Wouldn't that be depressing?" He didn't get it so I had to tell him I wasn't 21 yet, to which he was floored. SO CLOSE!

Now I conclude watching both Leno and Fallon and wait for the boys (plural, I'm hosting numerous tonight) to come back from the bar. Me? I have a date with some homework to ensure that Catskill pans out. 

Goodnight all. Let Spring begin. 

 

"This is What Life's About, Seriously, This is What Life's About."

Thanks to Professor Wapner for the title of this post. I interviewed him yesterday. Really, really interesting guy. I feel like you learn something from every person you interview and I learned a lot from Professor Wapner. He's the Associate Professor and Director of the Global Environmental Politics program at AU and I interviewed him for my Advanced Reporting profile (FINALLY, someone would talk to me). 

I came across an interesting predicament in my search for an interviewee though. I arrived at his office obnoxiously early (1:50 for a 2:00 interview) because I'm compulsive like that, but good thing. A different man answered the door and informed me that Prof. Wapner would be taking his office in the library. Awesome, less pressure, good atmosphere, one problem... I don't know what Prof. Wapner looks like. So here's a question for you: How do you approach someone you've never met and only are able to recognize from a photo you saw on the SIS web site without being pinned as an interview stalker? Second problem, he's with a student, and theres a line of students behind this one. GAH. I freaked because not only do I ALWAYS get nervous for interviews, even if it's nothing, but this interview has been the hardest to get by far. I NEED this interview. So, I walked into the bathroom and gave myself a pep talk, walked back into the MudBox and introduced myself. I got in line with the rest of the students :), BUT I GOT THE INTERVIEW, which makes me a happy camper as my mother would say, even though I hate camping, and I'm never happy while doing it. 

So update time. Only two days until I'm on a train New Jersey bound and I cannot wait. I took my last midterm last night which wasn't as bad as it should have been seeing that I didn't study half as much as I would have had I had the time... (that's a lot of haves, sorry). I texted my parents, my brother, and my sister last night to tell them how excited I am that I'll be seeing them soon and it was great to hear from them. I'm currently in the Rockville Library jamming out to Jack Johnson and searching for a lead for this profile... no luck yet. My only assignment for the next 2 days is to make a new package for the post cards I designed two weeks ago. Which means another trip to the art supply store for Natalie, which means... it'll be windy because I'm buying matt board.  But then American Idol and Lie to Me are on which are the perfect television shows to top off a day off. Prof. Wapner said he doesn't watch TV yesterday and I instantly felt like a moron. I like TV... and you're right, TV is stupid. 

I got a letter from myself yesterday. That sounds weird, but last year I took a creative writing ckass with Professor Noble. She's great. If you have any interest in writing you should take a class with her. On the day of our final she gave us each a sheet of paper and told us to write a letter to us, 6 months from now. Mine was more like a list of to-do's more than a letter. It was a "here's where you should be, so kick your butt in gear" note. Quite profound if I do say so myself. 

Well this post is quite lengthy so I'll end it here, but leave you with something Professor Wapner said. One of the many interesting points he made. He said, "There are so many people who need to be helped out of poverty, it's somewhat our responsibility to do that, but at the same time, we are ushering these people into consumptive lifestyles that they can't handle. So I think we have to reduce our consumptive habits in this country and in the north in general, and recognize that this has to be a part of the larger sustainability trajectory."

<3.