Hello, I've waited here for you.
Three thoughts during my 45-minute run outside today
- Why are my lungs so small?
- I would die five minutes into a marathon.
- This slurpee at the end of my route better bet worth it. (It was).
Thoughts After Watching Contagion
- It was funny. Accidental dark humor.
- The inside of Gwyneth Paltrow’s head looks like pizza. I mean…
- What the movie is basically saying:
- China is dirty
- Bloggers are muckrakers
- The CDC is good, y’all!
- Matt Damon is superhuman
- Despite the apocalypse, teenagers are still horny
- I am the asshole who is going to die if a virus like that ever hit the earth
My mother
would sometimes say things like, “your brother’s laugh is exactly like your dad’s,” and I wish I knew exactly what she was referring to. I spent a lot of time with my dad before he passed but I don’t understand why I don’t recall what his laughter sounded like without having to use my brother as reference.
An Ode to InDesign
Oh, InDesign. I love you so. You have never let me down with the things I could do with you. Where would I be if not for your love, InDesign? The only time I remember us in a quarrel was when you crashed at work in the middle of an assignment. But I don’t blame you, InDesign, I’m allergic to work too. You’re always there when I need you, and you make me so happy. I love you so, InDesign, oh how I love you.
Pre-birthday Thoughts
I always look back to the first week of this past June, when I had no job, no clear idea how I’d be spending my post-collegiate life and frustrated with having to live back at home and being distant from people I cared about. I was whiny and simply silly over the fact that I wasted my days doing nothing with no one to hang out with because they all had jobs or internships while I woke up every morning at 5 am from my then-jetlag.
Today I worked on a sample itinerary to hopefully be featured in Town & Country Magazine. As I was about to fall asleep, I see a mail addressed to me. It’s my first paycheck from Gawker Media, and what I considered my first birthday present. Sure, it’s small, but when I stop and look at the big picture, it’s kind of amazing where I am now. I would have never imagined from that miserable week in June that 4-5 months later, I would be juggling two jobs with incredible potentials, surrounded by people who fascinate me, and still manage to creep in a little social life. In hindsight, I was a brat for complaining that I had no real career three-ish weeks after graduating because what I’m doing today is something I thought I might be doing years after. I’m only curious where I’ll actually be by then if I’m starting here, now.
And of course, like all my birthdays that have passed, it would be selfish to take honor of the whole day and not give any credit to the person who should be celebrated most: my mother. She did all the hard work 22 years ago. I just arrived.
Well hey, October 15, you’re almost here. See ya on the flip side.
In Small Towns, Gossip Moves to the Web, and Turns Vicious
Apparently, this article was on the New York Times this morning. On Page One, no less. So when a friend of mine sent the link for me to read and my first reaction was somewhere along the line of, “who gives a shit,” I may have offended him.
I thought the article, while well-written, isn’t news breaking. And not all features have to be, but my initial reaction of carelessness stems from the fact that this article says small towns are using the Internet as a tool for evil; gossips that ruin lives and businesses. As the author puts/quotes it, sites have become a Gawker of each little towns and presumably undeveloped, undereducated folks aren’t using the web very well at all.
I don’t mean to be ignorant, but doesn’t corruption on the web and the Internet as a thruway to maliciousness unsurprising? I have seen this done time and time again especially in my motherland (sadly) but I don’t seem to grasp why America sees it as a big deal now. It’s kind of high school to me. Yes, we need to learn how to use the web better. Maybe the Times stating it on its front page makes it official or something.
RIP Tweeters
I’m afraid of linking the pictures, but news of the most recent victims of social media who were mutilated and left hanging in display under a bridge in Mexico is just brutal, awful and plain fearful. Sometimes, you can forget how lucky and fortunate you are to have a voice and use it while there are other places next door to you in present day that just won’t have it. It just feels weird to ever see freedom of speech as a privilege.
Making it
“Be confident in yourself and all you offer the world. You are worldly, hip, bright, funny, clever. And self-taught in so many ways. You have made so much of yourself without the advantages of affluence.”
This was much needed beyond belief. I don’t have a large support system, but the ones I do have are amazingly top notch and more than I deserve.
Flattery
It’s one of those little things to be completely flattered and overwhelmed about when you find out this is how someone from his side of the circle described me in four short words.
“She is a gem.”
Girl world
I hate to admit to feminine things, but ever since my mom made me grow out my nails to look more put together, buying nail polish has never become more addicting. You always feel like you need all the right colors to go with your clothes! Ugh, I hate being a girl sometime.
I’ve been thinking about this “crying at graduation” thing. At lunch, an alum came up to our table and talked to us about the journey we’ve been through and how important graduation is to families, friends and that life is all about relationships. This brought Noelia to tears, and other friends have admitted they’ve been breaking down over graduating. Ordinarily, I’m not the type to be all that emotional in these situations, but something hit home today, May 12th. Today would have been my dad’s 50th birthday. If I were to cry at all, it’d be that he never made it past his 36 years of existence to see his only daughter (and son — my brother is walking in June for John Jay) graduate college this year.
The one thing that was left behind for me is his tooth encased in a little tube after he was cremated. Usually, my mom would have us pin it onto our clothes before taking long flights to Thailand as a sort of closure; she believed that doing so helped him protect us. Last year, she gave the tooth to me permanently to hold on to for my travels throughout Southeast Asia. Though he won’t be there in person, just having him right there next to my heart is the closest I will ever get. Only the thought of this brought me to the slightest bit of tears.
