The two most deceiving words circulating my life. I’ve spent the majority of every day for the past three and a half months looking for jobs, not to mention the 5 months I did it last year. It seems the only thing my low paying internships and AmeriCorps term of service have qualified me for are unpaid volunteer positions.

Then there is the problem that I can’t seem to land a retail job because I’ve spent any free time I had in school when not studying to get good grades joining every organization I could to gain experience, when I guess I should have had retail jobs. I didn’t plan ahead for this economy. I’m always a planner! Somehow this one slipped through the cracks. IT’S A SPIRAL, I CAN’T FIND MY OUT! 

These tagged and so called “entry level” jobs are either huge scams after some simple googling, or require 3-5 years of experience, EXCLUDING internships. Who wants the entry level 1-2 years INCLUDING internships? That sounds like fun, right?! I’m ranting I know. Someone please hire me, I’ll make you a mad cup of coffee without complaint! Maybe this guy has it right…

*Insert statement here about how I never update my blog because my life is boring and promise my one maybe two readers who probably forgot I even had a blog and don’t really even care that I will try harder next time*

Whew, now that that’s over with. I recently started my first quasi big girl job working in Disaster Readiness and Preparedness Education for the American Red Cross. So far, I think I am enjoying my work, and am pretending that I am grown up, which is fun. The one thing that I can’t get off of my mind stems from meeting a ton of new people, which all seem to have such exciting lives (and apparently a lot of time on their hands). I am so unbelievably tired of people asking me what my hobbies and interests are. 

I feel like as a child, it was completely acceptable to be asked this question, sure ramble off all of the sports/instruments/arts that I attempted to be good at and I could fill in the blanks of any hobby conversation I found myself in. As an adult, if I can even really call myself that, I don’t even know what to say when I inevitably get asked this question 4 or 5 times a week. 

I’m surrounded by people who travel, who are musically talented, who build computers from scratch, or make their own plastic (I wasn’t quite sure how this worked, but I got lost in the scientific equations a month ago…). I stammer over my words and give some half-assed answer that doesn’t even come close to measuring up to my adventurous peers. 

My hobbies you ask? Trying to keep up with a chalk-full TiVo queue, googling cute pups in halloween costumes, keeping up with my rigorous weekly nail painting schedule, and trying my hardest to harmonize with Kelly, Adele and Taylor and rap along with Nicki while I’m stuck in traffic. 

Hmmm, somehow I don’t think my co-workers would be very impressed with my pastimes and blank answers to these questions.

I promise, it’s not that I forget that I have a blog (I stare at the bookmark daily!) it’s just that I rarely have anything noteworthy to post about.  That is in fact somewhat of a lie though, because I am wrapping up one of the craziest summers of my life. I love the expression of August being one huge Sunday, getting everything wrapped up before a new school year begins, and although this month will not be filled with school supplies and searching for the cutest Twin XL sheets I can find, I still am using the analogy. Get over it. 

There has been so many landmarks and accomplishments to happen over the past three months that I can’t even believe it has all happened. I graduated college and bid adieu to the wonderful Marietta College and some of the best friends I could have ever asked for. The last few months were restless, but I am proud to say I graduated with my goal GPA and barely grabbed those gold honors cords before I walked across the stage. The strangest part of my summer was not spending it at Sweet Home Camp Akita, where I have spent 15 lovingly summers of my life, and as fate would have it, I was able to slip in for a week of work. My college roommate got married and I was a part of my very first (and very humid) wedding. My family was able to snag a vacation all together, and I could just hold onto my babies long enough to find out we have another one on the way! 

All of this is terribly exciting in itself, but perhaps none of it would match up to the biggest, most terrify, and ultimately most exciting thing I have ever done in my entire life. I moved to Los Angeles, California! For my entire life I have made nothing but rational, thought out decisions which are followed by a detailed plan. Not this time! As cliche as it sounds, I have always followed my head, and now I am following my heart. I moved in with my best friend and am loving every minute of decorating, organizing, and pretending I am a grown up and can handle all of this (all while missing my Jack Russell Terrier way too much). 

Now, let’s talk about that whole “getting-a-job-so-I-can-pay-rent-and-groceries” thing. Someone hire me ASAP so my one huge Sunday of an August isn’t just a bust. 

I’m sitting anxiety ridden with a cramp in my fingers after spending the last 2 hours voting for Miss Haley Reinhart. Although every season there are those doubtful few who comment on how the show is rigged and isn’t worth anyone’s time, I’ve always been faithful to the show and my seasons favorite contestants. This season however, I am finding myself each week and little by little growing angrier with the beef that the judges are throwing out about each contestant and how inconsistent their critiques are. I locked my love in with Haley during Top 11 week when she totally nailed Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” (I’ll be honest, I had to catch up the day after because I was studying for an exam, so I was a little behind, but still loved it). Each week I look forward to hearing her belt out another song and wait for the morning to come so I can drop another $1.29 on iTunes on her, and every week I find myself cringing at the unfairness that the judges are passing out. 

For 10 Idol seasons we’ve seen contestants turned away and voted off because their performances are “too karaoke”, predictable, and nothing unique is done with the song. I can’t help but frown as James Durbin chooses one of the most cliche inspirational songs of “Don’t Stop Believin’” and Lauren Alaina passes out the most karaoke version of “I Hope You Dance” and both are praised for it. Each week I’ve been pleasantly surprised to hear songs I’ve never heard of and new takes on classic music coming from Haley and have the judges pass her by. I know the demographic of many idol voters follow what the judges say, and am hoping for a turn in this voting season so that we can actually give Haley a chance to win this thing. 

My last bone to pick with this season is the distance of limelight on Haley’s backstory. I normally hate when we focus too much on where a contestant has come from more so than where they are going (please, don’t get me started on season 8’s Danny Gokey), yet understand it’s important to get a full grasp of the contestant. There has been so little focus on HR’s home life, that my frustration was topped off during tonight’s performances. While Scotty and Lauren had footage of receiving their text messages from the judges with fans surrounding them and cheering them on in a glamourous fashion, we see a few seconds of Haley reading her message in a car alone. Please, let’s make these playing fields even. 

Crossing my fingers for a happy results show tomorrow. 

It never ever fails. I can be incredibly focused and determined throughout an entire semester and then the night before my final exams, I lose all motivation. As I sit the Sunday before my very last set of exams I’ll ever take, all I can think about is what I would rather be doing. Traditionally, my roommate and I will fill this day with mundane tasks we convince ourselves need to be accomplished in order to put off studying just a few more hours: nail painting, eyebrow plucking, room cleaning, car washing, etc. As everyone is off celebrating Easter today, I’m trying hard to get my butt into gear and hit this last week as hard as I have the rest, but am failing miserably. I even have to come up with my own mundane tasks to accomplish. Yes that means that I refolded and color coded my socks, underwear, and t-shirts, shampooed and conditioned my make-up brushes, and apparently thought it was finally time to catch back up on my blog i’ve neglected over the last semester. Really essential to finals week, right? 

I’m not afraid to selfishly admit that I received one of the best materialistic presents for Christmas this previous year- and yes I am referring to my beautiful Friends box set. I set out on a mission for a very lazy winter break with a full series re-watch which I readily completed last week. Although I was faithful for a Thursday night tune in for many years growing up, it wasn’t until a friend recently pointed out to me that I am the epitome of Monica Geller.

 Although I am not the first to demand a Thanksgiving touch football game, I have been known to get my hair a little frizzy in heated game of ping pong or the like, and I too agree that when playing Pictionary “rules help control the fun”. Arguably, my undying anticipation to get married and have babies is a key in to my Monica-ness, yet nothing beats the compulsive nature.

 I laugh as Monica tells her friends to make sure they are careful when pressing down on her markers, and feel her pain immensely. Please, my Crayola 50 Pack of markers is one of my closest possessions, and they are much better when put back in ROYGBIV order. I await the day when I can categorize my towels into 11 categories and take a label maker to nearly every possession in my apartment. Hey, if she can grow up, fall in love, have babies, and great friends with all of her quirks, than there is still hope for me!

Monica: Well, I was thinking that you gave the guys such great haircuts, I thought maybe you’d like to do mine?
Phoebe: Oh. No.
Monica: Why not?
Phoebe: Because, I’m just incredibly anal and an unbelievable control freak.
Monica: No you’re not.
Phoebe: I know I’m not, but you are. 

I’ve been trying for the past two weeks to come up with a good phrase to describe all that is happening. It’s not a mid-life crisis (I better still be alive when I’m 42), and not exactly mid-college, but perhaps, end-is-nearing crisis? See, no good phrase, but open to any and all suggestions. Week three of my last semester of college and everyone is so high strung, and I, sadly enough, am leading that pack. It seems most of my friends seem to be split in half in knowing what’s going on after graduation. On one side we have marriage, grad school, and landing their dream jobs, and then there is the rest of us. Yes I am incredibly happy for all of them, but with every piece of good news I hear I want to rip every hair out of my head one by one with jealousy, and that is just disgusting. Let me just say how pissed I am that I am on the having-no-idea-what’s-going-on side. I’ve always been a big planner and it is tearing my insides apart that this is perhaps the biggest planning stage and I’m stuck. It’s also not helpful that so many people are moving or have moved so far away. In the last 2 months both of my sisters have moved a total 3,000 miles away from everyone! So in other words, if everyone else could just put figuring out what they’re doing on hold until I can join them, that would be just great.

Please, Gods of Dream Jobs, please land me something good. It’s just like writing to Santa, I promise I’ve been good! 

When I was younger I was such a hot mess-so unorganized, piles everywhere, and no rhyme or reason to anywhere I put my stuff. Somewhere along the way I began to become entirely neurotic about my organization. There are few things in my life that aren’t organized by color or alphabetical order, and I pride myself on having my own system although it might not make sense to anyone else. Regrettably, one of my biggest organization flaws is my iTunes library. I’m ashamed to call it my own and it makes me want to throw up a little bit looking at it. I’ve started the process of cleaning it up earlier this year, but have decided to make it my winter break mission to have a perfected iTunes library. I’m not sure if when I am done staring at these 3,000+ songs if I’ll ever want to listen to them again, but in the process I am finding so many gems that are making my musical ADD worse than ever. 

Confession: I can’t pass up a good Backstreet Boys or Spice Girls throw back song when I see it. Stuck in the nineties for the remainder of 2010.