Thursday, August 27, 2009

Mad (wo)Men



As I start getting into Mad Men 3 seasons too late, I'm starting to appreciate how far women have come. And how far women have come in NOT tolerating men.

What I mean is that throughout the first season of Mad Men, women were used in puns, as buds of jokes, and basically told that they should just be happy to amount to a secretarial position at a high end ad agency.

Years later, most of the women I know have attended college, applied that received knowledge towards beginning a career in the working world, and have tried their hardest to make it to the top.

The "top" has changed so drastically in the last 45 years. Rachel Menken, keeping on the Mad Men topic, is nearly the owner of her father's retail store, a version of Bendel's/Bloomingdales (I'd assume) however, she doesn't have a family of her own, only keeps Draper as a love interest (in season 1,) and lives to work. Oh yea, and she got her job because of her last name.

Now, as everyone knows, women are able to become CEOs, CFOs, owners, and idea-makers, AND wives/moms. If a man jokes about a woman, a woman can go toe-to-toe with him with a funnier joke.

Not only are women still smart, brilliant, and beautiful, but now, they can wear their pride on their Chanel suits, while carrying their Macbook in their Hermes bags and pushing Bugaboo strollers.

Thanks, Mom. xoxox

Friday, August 7, 2009

Cape Cod




Tonight begins the last week that I will be living at home. It's totally bittersweet. I'm very excited to start my new job, live on my own, and be closer to B, but it's going to be tough to be without my best friends and family.

However, after work tonight, my girlfriends and I are off to the Cape for a weekend away! We started this "tradition" last year, and wanted to make it an annual thing, but one of us is moving to the West Coast, and it just so happens- she's the one who's house we go to in the Cape! Drats!

But, we are going to make the most of this weekend and have such great girl time. I know that this weekend is going to be awesome because this morning (before 8:30am!) I heard the following songs:
1. Shoop (by Salt 'n' Peppa... and I remembered all the words!)
2. Cold Hearted Snake (the Idol-late, Paula Abdul- love her.)
3. "If you like going to the Cape" to the tune of "Pina Colada song"

So, I know we are going to have a blast. A person doesn't hear those songs before having a bad time with friends. Those songs came to my radio dial because the universe wants me to have a great time this weekend. And I know I will. :-)

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Like Ol' Blue Eyes said...

These little town blues, are melting away
Ill make a brand new start of it - in old new york
If I can make it there, Ill make it anywhere
Its up to you - new york, new york


Now that my secret is out... I'm heading to NY on August 14. Now, what a Wonderful Wednesday THIS is! Less than 2 weeks away and I'm so excited. I've been trying to get to NYC since I saw my first episode of Sex and The City in high school. My friend and I applied to Fordham in an effort to kickstart the beginning of our city lives. Unfortunately, fate had other plans for us and she headed to DC and me to the middle-of-nowhere Connecticut. However, it was there that I had the best time of my late teens and early 20s: meeting awesome friends, my boyfriend, great professors, and making memories out of fun, long, sleepless nights (in the library or at Sidestreet.) Regardless, I was meant to go to CT and my Fordham-friend loved DC so much she's been there the last 2 years out of college.

However, that nagging feeling of wanting something BIGGER never went away. I studied abroad twice- once to Nice, France for a summer and then to London for a semester. I enjoyed both times and met amazing people and traveled to amazing locations, but was very happy to come home to my friends and family.

It's been 2 years since I graduated and 3 years since I came back from London and that feeling has been back full-force for about 9 months now. I was working full-time at this point, but thought something was missing in my life. So, I applied to graduate schools in sunny California, and fabulous New York City. Again, fate had a strange way of treating me as I didn't get into any of the programs (which, is a good thing because I realized I didn't want to go by the time they came in the mail anyways) and then I got laid off.

Drats, right? Au Contraire!

My B and I (after nearly a year of "seeing other people" and "finding ourselves" - well, myself...- and being both secretly heartbroken) had just gotten back together after alumni weekend and I decided that this was what I wanted to do: Move to New York. I applied everywhere and never heard anything back or was broken hearted when I "didn't have enough experience" or if they "went with someone internally." My mom started telling me to start applying to places in my hometown city and I said, begrudgingly, that I agreed and changed my search zipcode on LinkedIn and Monster.

But, as luck would have it, I landed a great freelance position for the month of July. I started believing that maybe God didn't want me to leave my family and friends at this point. So, whatever His path is: I have to follow, even if I don't want to. It wasn't even 3 weeks into the freelance when I received a phone call, email, and LinkedIn message from a company in NYC who I had interviewed with months prior. They wanted to hire me!

I weighed my options and decided that NYC was finally ready for me! ;-)

Immediately, I jumped on Craigslist and started searching for apartments in my price range in areas I loved, but unfortunately, the Upper East Side doesn't serve well those who are recently unemployed without trust funds. Had a feeling that would happen.

Then... fate really took a turn down Brittney St. I wasn't able to make it down to visit apartments and my sister was dancing in NYC for the summer, and B lives close to the areas I wanted to look at (in my price range) so, I recruited the two of them to be my eyes and look at apartments and get a feel of the roommates for me.

Found 1 apartment, emailed B to see if he could visit it and see what the 2 girls were like. Turns out, the apartment was RIGHT NEXT DOOR to my sister's apartment!
So, she went to see the apartment with B that evening. AND one of the roommates happens to know a couple of the same kids me and B went to college with! YAY! AND she shares the same name as me. :-) (I'm so partial to coincidences like that!)

I told B to put down the security deposit the next day (I'd later pay him back,) confirmed with the girls via email that I'd love to live there, heard great things about them and the apartment.

I've been talking to the two of them on gchat for a while now and they are the sweetest girls. I'm very, very lucky.

There are a lot more details, but it's not really important to the moral of the story: Don't Rush God's Plan! I shouldn't even jinx it by saying this because I haven't even physically MOVED there yet, however, my security deposit is down, first month's rent is down, my belongings are all in the apartment (moved down on previous weekends) and my offer letter has been signed. But, really- God has a plan for us mapped out way before we even know what we want to do with our lives. I couldn't be more happy with the way things happened. Had I gone to Fordham, I wouldn't have met the amazing professors, friends, and B that I met in CT and maybe I wouldn't have loved NYC then! But, now that I'm a little bit older, more street smart and appreciative of a dollar's worth, I think I can handle it better.

Let's hope that New York is all that it's cracked up to be!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

My First Blog Award


I have to send out a sincere thank you to Vodka Made Me Do It who has given me my first blog award: "The Honest Scrap." I've read that there are rules to have this award so here they are:
1. “The Honest Scrap” award is not one to hold all to your self but it must be shared!
2. The recipient has to tell 10 true things about themselves that no one else knows.
3. The recipient has to pass along this prestigious award to 10 more bloggers.
4. Those 10 bloggers all have to be notified they have been given this award.
5. Those 10 bloggers should link back to the blog that awarded them.

Here are some of the women I follow and laugh with every day and plan on sharing this with!
All Things Fluffy, Fashionable, and Famous
Blue Eyed Bride
Christine Marie Interiors
Mrs. Newlywed

Ten things that no one knows about me... well, I don't often keep secrets, however, since I was planning on revealing a secret this week, that will be my number 1 thing that some people don't know about me...

10. I don't follow rules. If there's a crosswalk, you'll find me crossing the street outside of the cross walk. I'm a rebel, Dottie.
9. I box. Yep- I put on a pair of boxing gloves and hit heavy bags as well as instructors with pads on their hands. It's way fun. Try it!
8. My new obsession is wedding/baby blogs.
7. The best concert I've ever been to was Coldplay in Hartford a few months ago, where they gave out free CDs. Chris Martin said that they were only the 2nd group (next to singer, Prince) who has ever been able to give out free, full-length CDs at a concert.
6. okay... I can't wait until numero 1- I'M MOVING TO NEW YORK CITY! I will be making an entire blog entry about the hassle that has been my life since getting laid (off) in March, but from Number 5 to Number 1, I will give you some candy to chew on...
5. I haven't met my roomates, but I've moved in, paid security deposit, and first month's rent.
4. My apartment is only 10 blocks away from my B! I can't believe the luck!
3. I've been trying to get to NYC since I saw my first episode of Sex and The City when I was in high school. Fordham/NYU never worked out, but now who has the last laugh?
2. I'm going to be working at a fantastic ad agency in SoHo (SO close to H&M and Bloomingdales!)
1. I've never been more happy in my whole life!

SO, there you have it, folks. My favorite bloggers, (aside from Vodka Made me Do It) and 10 things that you didn't know about me until now.

Thank you for reading, for giving me the award, and I hope to see you around the Big Apple :-)
 
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