The Beginnings

Let's keep an eye on this. When revolution strikes, everyone will look to someone...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/opinion/27herbert.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

No, I haven't given up on the dystopias.

IN MY BED WITH THE INTERNET!!!

HEY, FRIENDS! Sorry for my long absence, which is primarily due to the fact that I have not yet had wireless in my house until now. I do scan the blog when possible...and snag the pop culture vidlinks that I can't ever open up (due to government computer restrictions, which btw are way more limiting in a bad way than an activated SafeSearch) and post them on friends' fbook walls.

First, I hope everyone had a delicious t-givs. I made pumpkin cheesecake, which is in fact much easier and quicker than originally anticipated. Two of my friends from AmeriCorps (Colleen and Margaret) came to visit this past week AND IT WAS FANTASTIC. Not in the romanticized omgosh I'm so glad they're gone, but I am now looking upon it fondly kind of way, but in the truly, wow, my friends have disapparated and now I have no idea when I will ever see anyone again. So perhaps erring on the melancholic side? Anyhow, given that we've lived together in among the most strenuous situations nonviolent residences can offer, having them over was not so much like having guests but having my housemates come back to me. And I finally didn't have to walk the trails by myself, nor did I have to see HP7 alone. We also got to hot tub and play nature trivia games with some of the pals here. And of course I get smashed the first night they're here. They're sipping on some beers and I'm rolling back the Tanquerays and Cranberry like no old lady's bizness. They understood.

Moving on, now they've departed. AND everyone else (e.g. the other interns and a ranger with whom I've become friends) all leave next Saturday. I am here to the following Saturday. So. Expect some calls. I'm bound to get lonesome. Infinite Jest will become my 100 new friends. Maybe I'll try out drinking alone. jk.

Finally, I have a job for the following year in Northern California! I'm working at Emandal, which is next to a river in the Redwoods, with which I'm pretty excited to commune. Or climb. Or stare in awe. I get room and board SO POTENTIALLY NO MORE PASTA SAUCE FOR ME. Well, at least it will no longer constitute a full meal. I'll be there from April-September, in hopes of getting another job right after in Palo Alto. I'm trying to get my whole commune idea fleshed out during these next two years.

I wish you were all here. I didn't get to dogpile this week, which vaguely upsets me, so you should come humor me.

With love and mobiles,

rye

happy holidays

In a South Korea amusement park, there is a christmas penguin parade...it's the cutest thing EVER! But the santa in this video has the CREEPIEST ho ho ho I've ever heard...

NY update

I decided it was a perfect time to write because not only does it get dark at 4:30pm, making me inexplicably tired, but I also slept until 3:30pm, leaving me approximately one hour of moderate day light. Since it will likely be a late night, I thought why not blog away the hours?

The weather has been absolutely pleasant for the past 2 months or so... I realize it is entirely old-ladyish to comment on the weather right off the bat, but if living in MN taught me one thing, it is that weather has a HUGE effect on my happiness. Thus said, things have been really great :)

Life Update:
I recently convinced my part-time company to hire me full time (after my art internship fell through) and create a position for me. So now, 2 days a week I do research/create documents/contact organizations for trainings, etc. for human trafficking in youth (specifically sex trafficking for now because there is like nothing out there for labor trafficking). This has been awesome because I basically spend 7 hours reading and writing and feeling like I am in school except it is not every day. I will only have this position for a month or two when my current part-time position should become full-time (keep your fingers crossed that we get a grant making this possible!) The original part-time job is going well and hopefully being there more often will allow me to work on cooler/more interesting projects (sometimes I get bogged down in office-y work which is no fun). The people I work with are really great and interesting and I am learning a lot. The only problem is that I am not speaking Spanish very much, I miss working with clients one-on-one and I feel strange not doing anything with art... it is like college major-related guilt/I really enjoyed it and I was good at it. But hopefully, I will begin once-a-week painting classes in Jan and will be able to volunteer/get more experience in the next place I live.

That said, I am really excited because I am going to Chicago in three weeks and I will get to visit a high school friend who I have not seen in easily 5 years. It will be great! If anyone is in the chicago area around Dec. 17th, let's meet up!

Other than that, things are great. It is kind of scary when you realize how fast life is going by/how old we are. I have a pretty solid routine of work/chores, a regular group of friends, and a job I like... the months are seriously flying by!

Future Plans:
I have recently been meditating on the importance of living near people you like ..... So I propose we all start moving closer together... :D How does chicago sound to everyone? or potentially the LA area in 8 months or so? I will keep you posted...


Living in NYC isn't so bad:
I have been doing NYC-only activities since the clock is officially winding down in my stay here. Recently, I won a pair of tickets from NPR to see a jazz concert at the Lincoln center... it was AMAZING! not only was the performance incredible, but I later found out the seats were $95 a piece! I definitely won't be doing anything like that anytime soon...

Also- On my day off, I got tickets to see a taping of "The Colbert Report"... also a lot of fun :D I even got to see Stephen out of character for a Q&A. totally cool

ps- Carleton quiz
When you get The Voice, the first thing you do is:
A) read the cover story
B) browse through to see if anyone you know has a picture in the most recent edition
C) open right to the wedding picture section and judge everyone who is now married based on age, numbers of carls present, and type of dress

A few seconds of awesome...

You may have already seen these today, but if not check it out:

A woman solved a 27-letter, 7 word puzzle on Wheel of Fortune with only 1 letter:


Definitely the sports play of the week:

I Whip My Hair

So after witnessing an interesting rendition of I Whip My Hair Back And Forth by a drunk man wearing a wig at the Rockefeller Halloween Party (which resulted in him falling head first off the table he was dancing on), my hatred for this song increased exponentially...

But I have to say after watching THIS, I've gotta give the 9-year-old a little respect...

50 Reasons To Be Pretty Damn Euphoric You Live In NYC

I just stumbled across THIS, and laughed pretty hard:

I think my favorite is #38...

#10 made me miss Lauren "we bitch, therefore we are" :)

Pretty sure #25 describes Caro and Andrew's ideal world.

And I dedicate #44 to Briana (oh I do not miss the Stamford local).

For the ladiez.

I have to dedicate this song to my favorite girlies: Amy, Caro, Katie, Lauren, Leah, and Ryeon. You're all 10s! (You are too Andrew and Nate, but the song IS called "pretty GIRL rock" lol.)



Not gonna lie I blast this jam in my car, like, every morning.

It makes me happy...

to think that we were all voting today and making a difference, even if it is a tiny difference.

Pause, communicate, study.

I am utterly failing at communication; for this, I apologize to all of you!! Please bear with me as I complete these three years of insanity. I miss you all dearly, especially on days like this when I have something exciting to communicate and I can't run over to someone's house and jump up and down. Also, because I do nothing but study law, I have become a boring person unless you like you make jokes like, "Hey - there should be a band called Hearsay and the Exceptions!" Wah-wah.

First-off - I have a PAYING JOB for next summer! I had one legit interview this fall (because the top 5% got EVERY other interview...so annoying) with Savannah River Remediation (SRS) and they offered me the job today! I pretty sure I snagged this because of my environmental background, which is rare down here (but the jobs are rare too). SRS is a private company that works in conjunction with the U.S. Dept. of Energy and several other entities to clean up "the Savannah River site," a former nuclear weapons manufacturing hub. Needless to say, I may exit the summer as Spiderwoman (and crash Carleton's superhero party FO' REAL), but I checked out the radiation risk and it's pretty low. Especially for only 3 months. And, because y'all don't go to school here I hope I can brag that I am getting paid $4,000/month to be four attorneys' bitch. I think. I'm still reeling from when the lady on the phone told me the figure - maybe it was only $2500? Regardless - holy shit!!!!!!!!!!

Most importantly, I get to work with environmental clean-up issues and branch out in contract law and employment law, which is excellent because I really wanted to get experience outside of environmental law. In sum, perfect job for me. Unfortunately, I will be in a fairly isolated small town in southern SC, requiring me to pay double rent for three months. But the area is also famous horse country! I'm thinking I will return to my old horse-riding days and go out on a ride at least once while I'm down there and attend horse shows on the weekend.

I'm also in the midst of writing a 30-page paper for the law journal I'm on. The subject is "the enforceability of environmental covenants in SC." When this is done, I will be one more step closer to graduation and a tiny bit less stressed out. And, when I'm done, I will be attending a MUSE concert, viewing the Avett Brothers at the SC State Fair while eating a fried oreos, and apple picking in the western Carolinas.

Finally - I'm excited about the new emissions standards the Obama administration is working on and the EPA made an endangerment finding for CO2, which means it can now be regulated under the Clean Air Act and we may be able to combat Global Warming (a bit) more effectively.

I hope you all are well and keep the updates coming!!

<3 Katie

Best "Comps" Ever!!!!!

It's like cruel intentions but HILLARIOUS!!! This girl did her own research project on all of her sexual encounters in college. I will forever refer to hook ups as data collection...

My Life is a Lucy Sketch?

Hey queridos. Today my store received this enormous shipment of books from the US for which we´ve been waiting for about 3 months and my co-workers and I spent all afternoon hauling boxes around and unloading them. In a struggle with one particularly heavy box, I bent over to pick it up and my pants split right up the middle. Not in a discreet way either. We´re talking a perfect soundclip of a rip from zipper to belt. Every single pair of Gap pants I´ve owned has eventually ripped in the crotch, but never in such dramatic fashion.

I turned around to face the customers in the store, who were behind me incidentally, in this sort of classic way with my head craning around to inspect the damage. I wasn´t really bothered by it (even though I spent all day bending over with my black underwear conspicuously escaping my corduroys...) but now I´m down to two pairs of pants in a country where I can´t buy pants.

I think that means it´s time to come home.