Road Trip Recap

When you leave the City, it seems like the rest of the world lives in this strange bubble of nothing. That's how I saw it, at least, probably because "I'm what you call a bonafide city girl" (thanks, Carrie Bradshaw). Take a look at some highlights (or lowlights?) of my ROAD TRIP with PJ to Dartmouth (that's way up in New Hampshire) this past weekend!!

Nature. As we walked to get some margaritas at the local 'watering hole' there was silence. No cars, cabs honking, or loud music pumping. The silence was broken by some ducks quacking. Or maybe they were eagles talking - what do eagles do? Birds chirp and doves cry (thanks, PRINCE). In any case, we were baffled by that noise. The noise, or the deafening silence, of NATURE.

Bugs. On any long car drive on a highway, you'll be sure to see lots of bugs…on your windshield. I guess it's just the wrong place at the wrong time for those guys, but seriously, I needed to clean it off quite a few times and it is not very pleasant when you see them splatter all over your car. Didn't their mothers ever teach them to look both ways before they crossed the street!

Signs. There are some pretty interesting street signs on the highway. Some of them even enjoy rhyming, like this one for instance. Take a break. Stay awake. For safety sake. Someone was actually paid to come up with that. Other signs had to do with a "scenic area." Well, I thought the whole drive was pretty scenic. All that's out there is trees and open space.

Friendly's. When I was young, there used to be a Friendly's in our mall. Sure, it's not great, but it's good diner food once in a blue moon! We thought that maybe on the way up there, there might be one that we could stop at. Well, we passed about 500 of them. Every single rest stop had something to do with Friendly's. I know it's a chain but wow.

I have realized that there is life outside of NYC. I lived in Spain for five months, after all. I just don't think I could ever be in such a place that is so far from a city, where Main Street is truly the main street and civilization consists of a newly opened Dunkin Donuts down the road apiece. I applaud people for being able to live there, but maybe that's the sheltered life.

And just as I thought that the country was completely different than where I'm from, these two guys slowed down, stuck their heads out of their beat-up car, and made inappropriate gestures toward us. Some things never change.

PJ and I realized that life is a highway (one which we drove on for five hours), but we don't think we'd like to ride it all night long, thanks.

Photo: HBO.com

Celebrity Gossip is NOT Always News!

I like celebrity gossip as much as the next gal. I always get my daily fix of Gawker and PerezHilton but after a while it gets to be too much with these celebs.

Case and point: Paris Hilton.

On Monday, at the gym, all the network news stations kept showing her mugshot and the fact that she "surprised" everyone by starting her sentence earlier. Fine, Great. Tell us about it because you think it's huge news. But you don't need to beat a dead horse. Almost every other news report had something to do with her:

"What does Nicole Richie think of her former BFF going to jail?"
"What was Paris wearing when she arrived at county?"
"Paris was at the MTV Movie Awards just hours before she checked herself into the woman's facility."

Tuesday they were speculating on how long her sentence would be and, oh wait, today was the actual day Paris was supposed to go to jail.

Wednesday - Paris' psychologist came to her. He left no comment. But we hear that she's not eating and that she is miserable.

Thursday - Paris is out of jail!!! She'll serve her sentence under house arrest.

Friday 7am - Paris is scheduled to appear in court
Friday 8am - Paris' stylist and hair dresser arrive
Friday 9am - Paris is still in her house
Friday 9:30am - Paris' driver is still waiting outside of her house.
Friday 10am - Will Paris go to jail again??

What is with all the hoopla? It's so frustrating and ridiculous. She's an heiress to a fortune that pulls the occasional publicity stunt and OC cameo. Please, people, get a life!

Cafeteria Food

I went to Cafeteria last weekend in Chelsea with PJ. I had always heard about it but had never actually been. When we walked in, it seemed to be chic-ly posh, especially for a place that bears the name of a somewhere that represented something very different to me in grammar school.

It was like a warm summer night and we were very excited to sit outside amongst the city streets. However, once we got out there it started to storm. And let me just tell you, it really started coming down pretty heavily. We were all dressed up for our Memorial Day Eve night on the town. The waiter came over in a frenzy, after we sat for about 20 minutes and helped us pull our table closer under the awning. But it didn't do much (and I was now sitting on top of an older gentleman), as the wind blew the cold rain onto our backs. He walked away and didn't even take our drink orders! He finally came back 10 minutes later to take our dinner and drink orders. We then attempted to get a table inside. The tall, leggy waitress said she'd help us right away but we found ourselves sitting in the rain for a good while longer, while parties that continually arrived were accommodated before we were. That was frustrating.

As we sipped on our drinks (I had a very yummy white peach margarita, PJ had the wild berry mojito, which she explained as a bit too sweet) we were finally moved inside to a corner booth. We got our food (a turkey burger and a hamburger, both served with fries) and continued the conversations of our lives.

As I looked around, I saw various individuals there. You could note the pretentious older crowd at one table, as they slowly judged the rest of the world, whilst sipping on their wine and nibbling on their salads. The couple next to us was obviously on a first date because she ordered a salad and he was nervously sweating and chuckling in an uncomfortable manner. He finished his meal with a vanilla shake (who orders a vanilla shake at a posh restaurant? The waiter was even confused, but he made it happen). And then, in a table not too far from ours, there were two couples. They couldn't have been more than 17. They began making out hardcore at the table. They were definitely drinking more than they were eating and they finished off their meal with tequila shots, as they continued to make out. Finally, they stumbled out of the restaurant.

We ordered another round of drinks to kill some time before we left to go to the bars but the waiter was very insistent on giving us the check and having us pay. He obviously wanted to get out of there, as his shift was likely over. We paid, but were not rushed out of the table. Though he wanted us to pay, he told us to enjoy our drinks at a leisurely pace, which is exactly what we did.

All in all, the restaurant experience was a moderate one. I would probably go back for the food and drinks. The service was a bit slow and not always polite, but it may have been the crowded restaurant. I'd give Cafeteria another chance. It was average in price, as you can definitely find places that charge more for burgers and drinks. Four drinks and two burgers plus tip came to about $75. A pretty normal night out.

Addiction

I've recently admitted to myself that I have a few addictions. But I see these as normal obsessions of everyday things and resolve that it could always be a lot worse!

1. Coffee. Let's start with an actual addiction. The fabulousness of a good cup of coffee. Though most days I allow myself to drink up some office coffee, I do like to indulge on Dunkin Donuts a couple of times a week. I rarely get Starbuck's in the mornings, but it is possible that once in a blue moon I do splurge.

Yesterday, I didn't have my daily cup o' joe and it threw off my entire day. It really is terrible. I always say that "I can stop whenever I want". It's obviously the case that I can't. I felt a twinge of a headache coming on by lunchtime and by 1:30 I just had to run out and grab my "Large French Vanilla Coffee with Milk and Sugar." I decided against iced coffee because it was a bit chilly in the office.

2. TV on DVD. I absolutely love getting shows I haven't seen before on DVD because I can watch episodes without having to wait until the next week to see the outcome. I realized I was actually obsessed when I told a friend last night that she could buy seasons of the OC at Target because they're always on sale there. Why do I know that?

Each time I complete a series or what's left of the last season they have on DVD, I become so sad and depressed. It's like I don't want to leave my house. OK, that's not completely true, or is it?

PS - I also think it's OK to hook all my friends and family members on my current DVD obsession by talking up the series. Then they become obsessed with the "I'll just watch one more episode" attitude. I rope others in to do what I'm doing. Interesting…

3. Trashy Reality TV. OK, so I know I just talked about TV shows, but I must mention my love for reality TV, specifically those MTV shows. I love watching those Real World marathons. They're just so good! All the things that these people do on the shows is so ridiculous that it's entertaining. How could you not watch them?! Real World, The Hills, Laguna Beach and others, I'm sure, are just so addicting!

4. Shoes and Bags. What girl doesn't have an obsession with shoes and bags? I'm always trying to justify buying a nice Italian leather bag or cute pair of shoes. It's not like I have a whole closet full of stuff already. My friend says that I have a Steve Madden store in my closet (I do own other shoes too, you know) and I have such a weakness for leather bags that are like "butta" if you will. So soft and good-smelling. I'm a little ridiculous I realize.

So, really it could be worse. I do have addictions, but these are things that just make up the person I am. And it seems from my list that I can be easily entertained. I should go read a book now…

Confidence is Key

In an attempt to wake myself up from a dreadful writer's block at the office, I resolved to taking a break by getting out for a bit, basking in the gloriousness of the beautiful day (even though it was only for 20 minutes in my car), and getting myself a large DD coffee. Now, you think, nothing could have happened to her in 20 minutes, but alas, it did!

I like going to this one DD because it is one of the few drive-thrus and it happens to be very close to my office. My only restraint on the subject is that the guy hits on me every time he sees me. But it's not in that creepy, oh-my-goodness-how-dare-you-talk-to-me kind of way. He's kind of nice, but it just makes me feel uncomfortable sometimes. I can't explain it.

So, of course, each time I go there, I try to act as confident as can be because that's who I am, right? Strong, independent, successful (and obviously full of myself…just kidding!). Anyway, as I wait for a good long while (because the idiot in front of me continues an endless exchange back and forth of what he's been handed - I guess he can't be satisfied), the car finally pulls away. As I begin to inch forward, I almost knock my mirror completely off my car. And I think I said something like, "Ahhhhhh!!!" Real smooth and confident, you know. The guy was there, of course, and he said, "Oh, be careful! Ha ha ha." And then he gave me some small talk about working hard or hardly working.

So yes, that's the end of the story but the point is I'm always doing ridiculous things like that when I try to act all confident. Rather, when I try to act OVERLY-confident. It always backfires. My friend (I'll protect her identity for this one) was walking with her iPod and sunglasses on. She's thinking to herself, "Damn, I look pretty good right now." She's just walking (la, la, la) and all of a sudden SPLAT!! She totally tripped on the sidewalk (or her own two feet, I can't recall) and fell on the floor amidst Chinatown madness. She called me up in a fit laughter.

I guess that's all we can do. Believe in ourselves and stay confident. And when you fall, know that you can pick yourself back up, keep walking (just like poor little Miss USA), and replay the scenario in your head, while you laugh hysterically.

Random Google Musings

In fourth grade I learned that a "googol" was a very large number - a 1, followed by 100 zeros. In later school days, the word had a different meaning for me and for the world. In this day of technological advances Google has certainly become a powerhouse and it's more than just a search engine.

I use Google for so much each day. I get my email, my RSS feeds, and even this blog in which I currently write from Google. They have a homepage where you can put a couple of different features, including horoscopes, daily words, daily headlines, and crossword puzzles, among a plethora of other things. It's insane! Sure, there are other search engines but it seems as if Google is really the one taking over.

And the science behind it all is so fascinating to me. When I started my job I didn't know much about Google except that I could get email and look up any topic at all and come up with an answer. Now, I realize that the sponsored ads are there for a nice marketing strategy and that there is a very complex algorithm behind why certain websites show up above others in the organic search results. It's crazy!

My brother sent me an article from the Times this morning, which prompted me to write this blog. It seems that Google will now be trying its hand with radio, TV, and print. It's basically taking over the world. But, I wonder how good that actually is. It's basically like a monopoly taking over. It may take a while, but Google may one day be the only search engine left.

I guess businesses need to expand their services so that they can outweigh the competition and even provide consumers with even more options, but how healthy is that really and what does that actually mean for our society?

Life.. It Happens..

It's so very strange, this time of year. It's not only a new beginning with springtime, but it's also a new beginning for graduates. My all-school commencement was yesterday and it was crazy! And it's funny because everyone keeps congratulating me for my great accomplishment. Others say, "Wait, didn't you graduate already?" Well yes, technically I did graduate in December, already got my very expensive piece of paper (aka my diploma) in the mail, and started my career in the real world. But at least I did get to go. After all, it was probably the only event I went to that was filled with such school spirit.

me, with my best friend at Graduation!!

I spent three and a half years in a place where I was just a number. I joined a sorority so that I could find my niche and a forum to start meeting new people. Everyone at my school, it seemed to me in my freshman year, was so cold and non-accepting. Dorm doors were never open and the people on my floor tended to judge everyone that walked off the elevator. I guess they had nothing better to do - I mean it's not like we lived in NYC, in the center of everything that was open 24/7.

Graduation put me in a place of wondering. I wondered what it would have been like if I had gone farther away from home. I wondered what it would be like to have gone to a smaller school. A smaller town? A religious school? What about picking a different major? I guess these are things that one can always obsess over. The what ifs of life. The road less traveled... and where am I going in the future? But I guess the only thing we can ever really do is accept the path we have chosen and take on the challenges, while rejoicing in our successes, and face life head-on. There's no room for regret.