Coffee on a Sunday

I've now been home from college for five months.

Top 5 things I like about being home:

5. I didn't have to buy that hot tub, nor do I pay to heat it.

4. Even when there isn't food in the pantry I know there will be tomorrow.

3. Cable television (even thought it's been only a guilty pleasure since entering college)

2. The warmth of never being alone, and catching up with old friends.

1. A big porch where I can read.

I fought with myself about coming home after school. I hated that I hadn't planned better back in November. (Professor Enrich said we should have started job searching back then... maybe he was right). I couldn't decide where I wanted to go, or how to go about going there. The place that ended up making the most sense was to come home, get my feet on the ground and then move out. I'm still here. And it's okay.

Last weekend I went out for coffee with two of my friends who I don't get to see very often, but who were friends I grew up with. None of us have changed very much. It gave me hope. Ashley is still extremely focused on school and getting ready for graduate school in the fall. Amanda, like myself, made no plans past graduation. We all talked about what that meant, why it's scary, and who has the answers. At this moment another girl we knew from high school and Ash was very close with walked up the steps and then towards us, with her girlfriend ahead of her.

"Hey, North!" she said to us. (The name of our high school)

Ash had ducked her head, saying she didn't want to say hi to Nikki, but was then forced to.

We started talking and Nikki told us that she had dropped out of college three times and the last time realized it wasn't for her. She lived with her mother for a year developing her own business. She now develops businesses from the ground up for other people. She was happy. She said she had found her passion. She was headed off to Miami this week to finalize plans for a nightclub.

That gave me hope. Find my passion. Commit to it.

Today I am making a list of all the great things about being home, and then I'm going to figure out where I want to go next. I'm excited. Anyone know any great cities that you call home? Top five things. Go.

Image by: www.lcdlove.com

Seeing Stars!

We all "see stars" on magazine covers and movie screens. But nothing can quite match the thrill of meeting one face-t0-face. So, I give you, in no particular order...

...The Top 4 Ways to Rub Elbows with Celebrities...

1. Contests. For concerts, tapings of TV shows, red carpet premieres. We all know these contests are out there, and somebody has to win them, right? Might as well be you!!

2. Service Industry. Okay, so this one is admittedly less glamorous, but yuck factor aside, it is probably the most guaranteed way to actually come in contact with celebs. If you live near a star-struck area, score a gig with a catering company, or wait tables or valet cars for a classy restaurant. Instead of carrying dishes from your kitchen to your couch, you could be delivering delicacies to A-listers!

3. Political Campaigns. It's an election year, which the media will not let us forget. Although the two candidates have been chosen, the campaigning is far from over. No matter where you live in these United States, your vote matters and Obama and McCain know it! The fun part? A classic move on part of politicals everywhere is inviting celebrities to help spread their message. You could meet a movie star just by showing up at a rally to show your support. Better yet, volunteer for your party of choice and get active in that campaign right alongside the voting-conscious stars!

4. Hit the District. Shopping district, clubbing district, eating district. Why not take a road trip to L.A. or NYC and walk where celebutaunts walk. As the tabloids remind us, they are "just like us"; they shop, party, and eat consistently. What could be better than bumping into someone famous while buying up the latest trends or dancing the night away?

wow.

Have any of you seen the Denise Richards show on E!?

I watched it like...one time and I thought it was ...funny. But I'd probably never watch it again even if I was bored out of my mind, that woman is horrible! According to ex-husband Charlie Sheen, she is using him and her children to receive higher ratings for her show, and is going to continue using them. Sheen said that he is determined to stop her from doing this.

Her excuse for putting her kids on the show is that she feels they will make it more interesting to watch. Her rep denies this all but I'm anxious to see what happens!

Who uses there kids like that?!? Honestly!

Seriously Silly

Let's get serious...ly silly. What does that mean? It means taking what you love and what you want to do and bringing it all together. I suppose it doesn't have to be silly, per se. Let me explain.

Say you want to sing. Maybe American Idol auditions don't come anywhere near you, but that doesn't mean they never will. Sing in your shower, sing in your car, sing anywhere; the more you do it the more practice you get, and we all know what they say about practice. Keep your eyes open for local karaoke nights, make friends with the DJ at your club, network enough and you just might find yourself in a recording studio before you know it.

Maybe acting is more your thing. Get your stagy-self to the nearest theater company and get to work, son. Drum up a drama group at church. Whatever it takes. Got your heart set on Matt Lauer/Meredith Viera's gig? Well, that one requires a little more certification (diplomas and degrees), but that doesn't mean you get invited to the job. Win internships. Write freelance. Perform your best anchor-impression in front of your mirror at night. Find a news story, write it, and get a friend to tape you delivering it; that way you'll have something solid to deliver at an interview. Experience (like our favorite site) is everything in this world.

Remember that people aren't born with their job, or even knowing what they want their job to be. So have fun with your hobbies, take your silly side seriously, and you may end up finding your purpose along the way!

Financial Services

I feel the need to reflect on my second interview and my first, although extremely short-lived job in the financial services industry. I had been living at home, job searching took up hours of the day in between reading, visiting old friends, snowboarding and cross-country skiing in my backyard. Things felt pretty okay for being a college graduate and unemployed. I was filling my days as best I could, but getting anxious to work and make money, and live the life I felt I was promised. I started applying to everything. It seemed Buffalo, NY was in dire need of financial advisers and I figured, why not give it a try? At the worst, I would be turned down, I didn't really want to do that, but I would see what happened.

I was one of twenty in a group interview in a house-turned-office type building that shared its workspace with a dentist office. It was down the road from my house. Sitting next to me was a boy who I knew, he was a few years older than me but didn't know who I was. I knew him to be the son of my fourth grade teacher, brother of a high school friend, and current neighbor. I had to laugh at the coincidence and resolved to introduce myself after the interview. Handing out the applications was a girl who had worked with this company for a year who I had known for years through gymnastics and had seen a few times visiting her college. That's Buffalo. All of these coincidences had to mean something.

As I became distracted and bored during the informational interview I started to picture my closest friends in the interview with me. It allowed me to be myself and took away my nerves. I was offered the job after my individual interview.

Life Lesson: Be true to yourself.

I worked for this company for two weeks. During that time I learned that one of my colleagues had the same birthday as me. My friend's brother was hired a week after I was. We talked about mutual friends, I was becoming more comfortable with the people I was surrounding myself with everyday. At the same time I was becoming conflicted about the work I was doing. The only class I came close to failing in college was financial accounting. This job was not easy for me to come to terms with. After weeks of studying to become licensed as a financial representative, I told my boss I wasn't going to take the exam. This was not for me. In retrospect I should have known myself better than to try that in the first place. But it taught me the value of being authentic. Good people and new friends won't make up for the discontent of faking interest in work I couldn't have cared less about.

On to the next adventure.

The Dog Days of Summer

Today as I was opening my front door to make a Walgreen's run, (ironically to purchase puppy shampoo), my dog ran out between my legs and took off. Does anybody out there have an escape-artist pooch? Annoying. Well, without missing a beat I hit the ground running after her. Penny--the dog-at-large--is 10 years old. But don't let her senior-status fool you; byotch can run. So there I was, chasing after her, alternately yelling threats and bribes in a futile attempt to persuade her to come to me. Now, this dog has it made; I could write a book about how spoiled she is. So why does she enjoy running away? Maybe she's got a Winona Ryder streak; the rich stealing for the thrill of it...

Looking back, I see a spooky connection between chasing my dog and all of us chasing our dreams. I love my dog, and I don't understand her desire to elude me like she did. I love to write and I don't understand why I haven't gotten a full-time job yet. Point? Sometimes we have to accept that not everything is in our control; just trust that when it's right it'll happen. Furthermore, I know when Penny runs off like that, I have to keep her in my sight; I cannot give up the chase. She could get hit by a car, or dog-napped, or worse if I slacked off. Similarly, we cannot give up chasing our dreams/goals. Even if we don't have a specific job in our sights, we must pursue, because --like a run-away dog-- dreams rarely come to stock-still wishful thinkers.

So keep truckin', people! Remember: if you want to go far in this world, you first have to GO!

And never fear; Penny is safe at home, as cute and content as ever:)

My first interview

Even as I began to write this I could feel myself falling into the habit of writing a cover letter. Over the past six months (since graduating early in December) I have written more cover letters and sent out more resumes than I would like to mention here. In college I was told I could do whatever I wanted, wherever I wanted and would be able to afford it now that I would have a degree. I took that as a garuantee. Of course I would get a great cool job, with benefits and pay, and somehow it would be exactly what I've always dreamed of.

My first trip from Ithaca, NY to Buffalo, NY was for an interview at a local radio station in advertising sales. I could do that. I've done sales, I went to school for advertising, all my internships were music related. I didn't think much else was important except for that I was qualified. I drove home in a blizzard, had to stop on the side of the road and wait for it to end, woke up early for my first interview, dressed for success, called my interviewer by the wrong name, didn't get the job.

Life Lesson #1: Driving 2.5 hours for an interview is not the best preparation.

I decided to move home. I couldn't keep doing that drive. Things would get easier. I didn't really want that job anyway.

how was everyone elses weekend?!??!

Its been an eventful weekend for people around Michigan!

I was at my favorite place of employment on a lovely Friday night when all of a sudden the power went out in the whole restaurant and a storm hit. Obviously, its a Friday night...I couldn't be happier that the power wen out!! We all got to go home. So I went home and enjoyed my Friday night for the first time in....about a month and then woke up Saturday to find that the power was out still at work and I got, yet another, weekend night off!! The power was out in places all over Michigan this whole weekend!

Could life get any better?!?! I loved being able to lay out all weekend and soak up this wonderful weather! Considering I work so much and I never get more than a day off of work, if that ...I was extremely happy. However...being that I'm not used to ever having time for myself..I had no idea what to do with myself!

So looking forward to Sunday, I go to work at Chili Peppers Tanning Salon, my second place of employment to find that its too slow and I get...YET ANOTHER day off of work! Now I really didn't know what to do with myself!!

I got everything that I needed to get done, done on Friday and Saturday thinking that I'd not have another day off anytime soon. And now...as much as I hate to say it, I am missing my jobs!! I can't wait to go back!!

Does anyone else feel this way? I mean...do you guys find that you have no time to do anything and then get overwhelmed with all the free time you have when its given to you?!?! Or am I the only one feeling this way....

Please tell me I'm not crazy!!

This girl (that'd be me) wants to break into the entertainment industry. Shocking? Not really. BUT I'm not gunning to win American Idol. No chance of getting to be America's Next Top Model or Chef. I want to write what America reads. Books, magazines, news stories, screenplays...all of it! Anyone else out there who can relate? The question is, how do we do it? How do we go from writing witty facebook wall posts to seeing our name in a by-line for Glamour?

Fortunately, that Q has an A. I don't know about ya'll, but I've heard the advice that when looking for a career, go directly to the employer. That's probably wise. However, plane tickets from Iowa to the NY headquarters don't come cheap. The next best thing, then, would be hitting up that certain publication's website, right? I say go for it, but only if you're in the mood to take some online quizzes. Don't even bother looking for a "careers" link. They aren't there. Turns out most of the major magazines are owned by larger publishing companies like Hearst, Meredith, or CondeNast. Try looking those sites up and applying for careers through them. That works. Or, to save even more time and find tons more opportunities, check out mediabistro.com. This user-friendly job board is where many of the mags go to recruit employees. I've been haunting it for a few weeks now, and I'm totally impressed! Check it frequently; it's constantly being updated with fresh job openings from all over the country. Plus, it's completely legit; no shady job postings like you'll find on some of those other online job boards.








Anyone else out there ever dreamed of writing killer stories about hot celebs, fashion, fitness or food?