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Resolution Failure 2012

I'm such a persistent failure at New Year's resolutions.  Not at keeping them, mind you... oh, no.  I never make it that far.  I'm a failure at making them.  The part where most people reach for the sky and dream big dreams?  Yeah, not so much.  It never occurs to me to so much as consider my options until January 1st, when all of Facebook proudly posts things about all the improvements they plan to make and all the gyms in town start their non-stop campaigns to bring the guilt-stricken and cookie-bloated masses in to sign up for irresistibly-discounted memberships.  Then I realize that I forgot again (AGAIN!), and that I haven't solemnly sworn to become a better person or a healthier eater or even to have a more organized closet (hah!).  I have failed, once again, to promise myself that I will do Pilates while simultaneously reading more literary books (and less Stephanie-Plum-esque trash novels).  I always neglect to think about resolutions for even a second... right up until I start hearing about everyone else's and think, "oh, those again."

As usual, I didn't make any resolutions, but I did read everyone else's.  I saw some that appealed to me, like the Project 333 concept, which advocates paring down your wardrobe to only 33 items of clothing and accessories to reduce materialism and clutter.  I don't know how why 33 is the magic number, but I agree that most people have too many clothes and that most of us would do well to collect a few quality pieces and resist the urge to collect trendy crap that lasts less than a season anyway.  I'm thinking about how I can do a massive clothing donation and get myself down to 50 items or less without putting myself in a position to have to go out and replace it all at the end of the "project."  I plan to hold off until after the internship match in February, since which city I'm going to will obviously impact what I keep and what I donate.  Houston and Boston require different wardrobe considerations, to say the least.

I have also starting really questioning the usefulness of Facebook in my life.  Of my 400+ friends, I think I probably only really interact with 25-50 of those people at all (in person or online).  Half of them are people who have Facebook, but don't use it, so that puts the total number of Facebook friends with whom I use Facebook to keep in touch somewhere around 5-10%.  So, really, I started thinking to myself that I should probably just send those people postcards or something.  That led to another thought.  Mail is fun.  I like getting mail.  I like getting mail that has human handwriting on it and is actually addressed to me and isn't a bill, I mean.  (No one likes student loan mail or political ads.)  Maybe if I sent people notes in the mail just because, they would reply in similar fashion and I WOULD GET FUN MAIL.  I could get pretty cards or paper and use stamps and it would be so much better than getting a Facebook notification.  I'm thinking it over.  I like stationery.  This could work.

So, in summary, I failed to make any 2012 resolutions, just as I have failed every year for as long as I can remember.  However, I have concluded that I don't like clutter and outdated clothes, I am almost-completely over Facebook as a social phenomenon, and I really like cute paper goods with my name on them.  Unless I see something shiny and get distracted, I might do something about one or more of my somewhat-secondhand ideas for life improvement and change.

Or... I might just go read a book.  Ooooohh, did you know there are lots of "bucket-lists" of books that we are all supposed to read before we die floating around?  Maybe I could choose one of those and check them off before 2013!  You know, unless I'm busy creating my minimalist wardrobe, deleting Facebook friends, and writing adorable personalized notes to send in the real mail.  :)

Narrowing Down the List

My final list of interview invitations has whittled the possible-cities list to six.  I got seven interviews, but two of them were in NYC.  The full list of possibilities is:

1.  Houston, TX
2.  Omaha, Nebraska
3.  Louisville, KY
4.  Boston, MA
5.  New York, NY (2 possible sites)
6.  Dallas, TX

I didn't get any interviews in, near, or really even within a reasonable day's drive of Florida.  All of the cities have airports, so yay for that, I suppose.  Anyway, the proximity issue doesn't matter much when all the cities require a flight to go home for a weekend and all of the flights last a couple of hours.  That makes it a little easier to just focus on the sites and the training... and, frankly, which city is the most appealing to live in for a year since I definitely hope to go SOMEWHERE.

Thoughts?

Where Should I Live For A Year?

As I send out my internship applications, I feel compelled to take a vote.  Not that I really have much control over the final outcome (it's a match process), but where do you think I should go?

Possible cities include:

Gainesville, FL
Miami, FL
New York, NY
Houston, TX
Cincinnati, OH
Baltimore, MD
Atlanta, GA
Columbus, OH
Poughkeepsie/Rhinebeck, NY
Dallas, TX
Austin, TX
Louisville, KY
Tampa, FL
Birmingham, AL
Tallahassee, FL
Orlando, FL
Quincy, MA
Canton, OH
Omaha, NE

Tell me all the wonderful reasons I should live in your favorite city on the list... or why I should run screaming from your least favorite.  Whatever.  :)

Hot Enough to Melt Pumpkins

Want to know how hot it is in Florida in October?  Pretty blazing hot.

It's fall, which means pumpkins and apples and all of that.  We hosted a pumpkin-carving party so that I could at least pretend that it actually felt like fall here in the hottest place on Earth.  Our pumpkins turned out pretty cute:

Want to know how long these fabulous creations lasted?

They lasted from Sunday until Wednesday.  Yes, that's right.  72 hours.  By Wednesday night, they were disgusting, moldy, mushy, gnat-ridden messes.  The relentless Florida sun had massacred them in under a week.  So much for recreating fall, huh?

(To be fair, a friend had informed us in advance that our venture would be unsuccessful and that we should buy faux pumpkins from the craft store to carve instead.  Next year, we'll listen.) 

What Are You Waiting For?

A lot of people are excited about the beginning of college football season.  Not in my happy little world, where football season is just sort of a lull between basketball seasons.  In my happy little world, fall has nothing to do with sports.  It used to be about beautiful leaves and new jeans, but that will be different this year as I learn to adjust to being a resident of the land of eternal summer.   (I'm not sure how to process the sudden realization I had the other day that my mid-September birthday will hereafter be a "summer birthday.")

Nope, in my world, fall continues to be exciting for a completely different reason.  For me, the countdown is in effect because it's almost time for the fall season premieres on television!  One of my favorite technological developments of the past decade absolutely has to be the DVR.  I have a significant relationship with pop culture, and I can't deny my love for TV and movies, but I don't want to be the kind of girl who turns down real life just to catch certain shows.  The DVR and I bonded during grad school, because I almost always left home before 9am and came home after 10pm, which made normal TV viewing an impossibility.  DVR meant that prime time at my house could be 2am if I wanted!  GENIUS!!!  

Anyway, once I got used to the whole set-it-and-forget-it thing (yep, late-night TV reference), I could never go back.  I still like to have a TV night every now and then, but I prefer to record and watch on a delay because I find that fast-forwarding through the commercials keeps me from wanting a snack six times.  (Have you ever noticed how many food commercials there are?!?  It makes me hungry even when I'm not.)  Since the premieres are coming up, I had to spend some time deciding what I would deem DVR-worthy.  These are critical decisions, people.  Precious recording space must be allotted, and time conflicts must be considered.  Charts and graphs must be made.  Okay, okay... so maybe not.  Anyway, these are the shows that have made my cut so far, in no particular order:

How I Met Your Mother
Big Bang Theory
Bones
Grey's Anatomy
Private Practice
New Girl
2 Broke Girls

I also plan to record the season premiere of 2 and 1/2 Men, mostly to see how the show explains Charlie Sheen's departure and Ashton Kutcher's arrival.  I've heard rumors,  but I HATE spoilers so I won't share them.  I like to be surprised.  Entertainment is not nearly as entertaining if you already know the punchlines to all of the jokes and the outcome of all of the cliffhangers.  Incidentally, learning to avoid spoilers is a key to enjoying DVR use.  If you record a season finale or an NCAA tournament game and you want a chance to enjoy it from beginning to end, I have two words for you:  Facebook blackout.  Your 500 closest friends will ruin it for you every time.   

So, that's how I'll be distracting myself from academic pursuits as of late September.  What are YOU waiting for? 

A Girl's Gotta Eat... AND Get Her Hair Done

I don't know about other people, but I cannot possibly feel at home in a city until I know a few particular things about it.  For example, I need to know where the good coffee is.  I need to know which Target location has a better clothing selection than the others.  I have to know which restaurants are good (of course) but, specifically, I really want to know which ones have half-price wine night and which ones have 2-for-1 appetizer night and what sorts of special deal-of-the-night offers there are and all of that.  I mean, who really wants to pay full restaurant mark-up for wine??? 

I knew these things about Louisville.  60 West alternated half-price bottles of wine on Wednesdays and Fridays with half-price martinis on Thursdays and Fridays.  Avalon had an entire Girls' Night Out menu if you sat inside instead of on the patio... and that menu was just as yummy, at nearly 60% off the cost of ordering dinner from the standard menu.  These are the bits of wisdom that separate the locals from the visitors, and I just can't have that "I really live here" feeling until I know stuff. 

Discovering which salons are safe to go to and which ones you should run screaming from are definitely key pieces of information for any girl who doesn't love the troll doll look, and these things unfortunately must be learned from other women's mistakes.  If you don't actually know very many other women yet, you pretty much can't get a haircut without risking months of Fraggle-hair.  If the inevitable phase of new-girl-in-town-friendlessness doesn't knock one's self-esteem down a notch or two, Fraggle-hair will, and scaring people with an accidental K$sha impression isn't going to be conducive to meaningful socialization anyway.       

In other words, don't judge me for googling restaurant deals and asking strangers for the names of the hair stylists while I should be writing some deep dissertationy thoughts.  Research is research, and a girl's gotta eat... AND get her hair done.  ;)