Monthly Archives: December 2011

Reflecting on 2011 and A Year Of Blogging

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As I was told on the phone tonight, “You haven’t blogged since December 16th!” Yes, I know. It turns out that when you uproot your whole life and take it across the country, your day gets a whole lot busier. Not to say that it hasn’t been an incredible whirlwind of a month, because it certainly has, but it seems to have just flown by.

Well, it’s certainly been a year, hasn’t it? If you’ve been with me since January, I’m sure you’ve seen a marked change in my posts, my personality, my lifestyle, everything. Let’s revisit my first post of the year.

If we’re being totally honest here, finding things that make me happy might be a little more difficult in the next few months or so. I’m in the middle of recovering from a pretty intense depression, brought on by an unleashing of suppressed unhappiness for the past eight or so years. I know that sounds really broad, but…that’s what it is. So, yes, finding things that make me happy every day that are outside my immediate world is hard for me right now. I just thought we should be square on how everything is right now.

Later on in the post, I go on to talk about how the only thing that made me happy that day was watching the Fantasia movies. Now, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good Fantasia movie any time of day, but my illness was so bad at the time that I’m pretty sure all I did was watch Fantasia and make that post, and maybe do some reading in bed.

And so I decided to start this project, where at first I was blogging every day to give myself a purpose and to make myself write again – because what is a writer if she doesn’t write? So I wrote every day for months as I worked on healing myself and learning what was really important to me. It was very difficult and at times heartrendingly painful, but at the same time, I set goals for myself and I knew I wanted them to work out as planned.

Almost a whole year later, here we are. This blog is a time capsule of the steady growth my life has taken, as I’ve not only come out of depression but have grown into the person I wanted to be when I started writing a year ago. One of the only things that kept me going while I was depressed was the firm knowledge that I wanted to move to New York City by the end of the year, and as I lived, I kept that plan in the back of my mind. Not one move was made that didn’t push me further toward that goal.

One year later, here I am, just outside New York City, living and working in the greatest city in the world. I cannot believe how happy and blessed I am now. A year ago, this seemed like an impossibility, a crazy goal that I’d placed in front of myself. Sometimes it still doesn’t feel real just because of how perfect it all seems. I feel like I’ve really soared in the last year, personally and professionally, and I couldn’t be happier. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, but as I discussed with a friend the other day, this must be what it’s like when you’re literally living your dream. When everything is as you want it to be, it feels like you’re flying all day every day.

In the last year, I’ve become the woman I was meant to be, kept a consistent blog, written fiction consistently, published a short story, created a successful and thriving Etsy business, became an entertainment/pop culture knowledge powerhouse, uncovered my personal sense of style, and moved to NYC with a position in my field.

Can you believe it?

I know 2011 wasn’t a great year for some people, but it was one of the best years of my life thus far. I’ve improved in almost every area of my life and I’m so much happier than I was a year ago. And with any luck, 2012 will be a banner year, one for the books. I have high hopes for the next twelve months – high hopes backed by ambition and motivation, and I personally can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store for me.

Have you reflected on your year yet? What were your highlights?

What I Read in 2011

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Since the end of the year is nigh, I thought I’d start making my final posts for 2011. As I’m sure you know, reading is one of my favorite pastimes, and this year I started actively using my Goodreads account in order to keep track of what I read, motivate myself to keep reading, and find new recommendations from friends with similar tastes. I love Goodreads as a social media outlet because it isn’t very time-consuming, and yet it’s incredibly useful with its simple features.

Now, first, a disclaimer: this is not the grand total of the books I’ve read this year, because I just started using this account again in July (I think). So, beyond The Hunger Games trilogy, I have no idea what I read earlier this year, since my memory is a little fuzzy due to reasons. But here we are – the books that I tracked on Goodreads. All links lead to the Goodreads page for the book, where you can see a summary and reviews, and add it to your list.

Basically, I loved every single one of these books. I think I got a decent balance of fiction and non-fiction, including what I read for school in the spring. My absolute favorites were probably Bossypants, The Night Circus and The Marriage Plot, if you’re going to make me choose. However, I’d recommend all of them.

*Designates a book read for my book club. I didn’t list books I’d already read, so that’s why there are a few gaps.

**Non-fiction, actually based on the science from the TV show Fringe. Highly recommended.

What did you read this year? Any standouts? Have you started making a reading goal for next year? Add me on Goodreads!

Some extended thoughts on the Golden Globe and SAG nominations.

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It’s been a big week for entertainment, and from here until the Emmys in February, it’s only going to get bigger. In the past couple of days, we’ve had a released list of nominations for both the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Golden Globes.

I don’t have much to say in the way of film. These are all arguably decent lists, and really, I haven’t seen about half of the movies, so I don’t really feel qualified to talk about it. There are some interesting discrepancies between the Globes and SAG lists, but one can usually rely on the SAG to include some lesser-known films, such as A Better Life (which I only know as the film that was supposed to play on my flight to NYC last week and didn’t).

The only list that surprised me was the animated film list: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, Arthur Christmas, Cars 2, Puss In Boots, and Rango. Now, to be fair, I have seen exactly zero of these films, so I could be missing out on something really great–every film here except Cars 2 has a decent RottenTomatoes rating, so they may be on to something. But when you look at the animated films from the past few years, this selection seems to be just a little more than lackluster.

Every other list here seems to be in fairly agreeable order, according to the Internet’s opinion, which I’ll stand by here. Though, I had to laugh at the Lead Actor in a Drama lists for both the Globes (George Clooney, The Descendants; Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar; Michael Fassbender, Shame; Ryan Gosling, The Ides of March; Brad Pitt, Moneyball) and the SAG Awards (DEMIÁN BICHIR / Carlos Galindo – “A BETTER LIFE”; GEORGE CLOONEY / Matt King – “THE DESCENDANTS” ; LEONARDO DiCAPRIO / J. Edgar Hoover – “J. EDGAR”; JEAN DUJARDIN / George – “THE ARTIST”; BRAD PITT / Billy Beane – “MONEYBALL”). It’s almost like the Internet scrambled the ballots to give the most attractive outcome–but hey, I’m not complaining.

Looking at the list of TV noms for the Golden Globes (SAG noms available here), though, it’s become quite clear that the voters for both shows are, to put it lightly, out of touch. New shows like American Horror Story are nominated in the drama category while shows that have proven themselves repeatedly (but not been rewarded critically) continue to be ignored.

As Alan Sepinwall of HitFix put it, “Like the Golden Globe Awards, where the nominations will be announced tomorrow, the SAG Awards treat their TV categories like an afterthought. There are no supporting categories of any kind, for instance, and they mainly seem to exist to appease that branch of the Screen Actors Guild, and to possibly draw some extra audience to the telecast. And like the Golden Globes are every year, this year’s SAG nominations are so bizarre/stupid/silly that they’re probably not worth getting worked up over.”

Yes, normally I would still be annoyed, but the reason I’m out for Internet blood this year is because two of my favorite shows of all time, Community and Parks and Recreation, are allegedly on the verge of cancellation–and they once again did not get recognized here, which is a travesty in itself.

Comedy Show Nominations

Golden Globes
New Girl
Enlightened
Episodes
Glee
Modern Family 

SAG Awards
30 Rock
The Big Bang Theory
Glee
Modern Family (won last year)
The Office

The comedy section always seems to be where my biggest pet peeves fall, and this year is absolutely no exception. These nominations are mostly outdated and if you can find a better way to get my goat, please don’t try it because we’re all already standing on pretty thin ice.

Several consistently good comedies such as NBC’s Parks and Recreation, NBC’s Community (which both need the critical bump now more than ever), and ABC’s Happy Endings have been passed over once again for shows like Glee, which has an enormous fanbase yet is more of a drama than a comedy, or New Girl, which hasn’t even finished half of its first season (we all know that I have a love affair with New Girl, but I don’t think it deserves the nomination over the previous mentions).

I’ll be surprised if Modern Family doesn’t take home the Globe, just because of what it’s up against (Matt LeBlanc is still playing actors? Okay.); however, Glee does seem to have some kind of bizarrely contagious pull over awards shows, so you never know. I’ve heard Enlightened is really good, so maybe they’ll pull one out. As far as the SAG goes, I can’t imagine it not going to Modern Family. 30 Rock seems to be a rock placeholder these days, and I’ve heard the last season of TBBT was quite good. However, I still find it reprehensible that both Glee and The Office beat Community and Parks and Rec this year; for one, Glee isn’t a comedy, and secondly, neither Glee nor The Office has had a very spectacular showing as of late. Yes, The Office has improved, but not nearly to the level of the shows that should have won nominations.

The interesting thing about Glee is that for several years, it’s been the only show of its kind. However, coming this fall is Smash from NBC, a second musical show that stars adults rather than high schoolers. From all accounts, Smash looks like it’s going to be at least a hit at first, and already people are talking in comments about how it’ll get nominated next year. But therein lies the interest, don’t you think? Yes, it’s a musical show, but it looks like it’s shooting to land among the high dramas currently circulating. I don’t mean to say that the two should go in the same category simply because they’re musical shows, but perhaps this will shed some light on the fact that Glee is not, in fact, a comedy and should not be treated as such (and perhaps shouldn’t be nominated at all).

Drama Show Nominations

Golden Globes
American Horror Story
Boardwalk Empire
Boss
Game of Thrones
Homeland

SAG Awards
Boardwalk Empire (won last year)
Breaking Bad
Dexter
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife

Moving right on to the drama category–this should really be an interesting showdown. Once again, the network shows are dominant. As far as I can see, the only reason Breaking Bad didn’t win last year was because it wasn’t eligible for the nomination, and it’s my personal favorite for this year’s SAG Award. I find it shocking that AHS made it to the Globes’ list, while neither Dexter nor The Good Wife did. Except for that one quirk, though, these are basically as expected, and should rally a good conversation before the shows. I predict either Game Of Thrones or Homeland for the Globe, and Breaking Bad for the SAG–all probably rather cut and dried.

Actor Nominations

I’m writing the actor commentary separated by show, since these categories are larger.

Golden Globes

• COMEDY
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
David Duchovny, Californication
Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory
Thomas Jane, Hung
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes

• COMEDY
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation
Laura Dern, Enlightened
Zooey Deschanel, New Girl
Laura Linney, The Big C

Honestly, these lists aren’t too shocking. Most of these are repeats, which is nice because it’s good to have excellent actors rewarded repeatedly, but at the same time, the lack of a supporting category leaves so many deserving actors out of the race. I’m glad to see Amy Poehler get a nod, though I’m disappointed to see the lack of Nick Offerman’s Ron Swanson. All the same, there are more than one or two actors who should be on this list who aren’t, such as anyone from the cast of Community, who all pull equal weight and all deserve a nomination for something.

SAG Awards

COMEDY SERIES — MALE ACTOR
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (won last year)
Ty Burrell, Modern Family
Steve Carell, The Office
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

COMEDY SERIES — FEMALE ACTOR
Julie Bowen, Modern Family
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family
Betty White, Hot In Cleveland (won last year)

I am glad to see Alec Baldwin nominated again, though I don’t think it was necessary, as he threatened to quit 30 Rock last year and I’d be quite upset if he did so on such a bizarre whim. I’m a little puzzled by Steve Carell’s nomination, as it seems to be more of a last hurrah than anything. As far as the actresses go, I personally think Tina Fey is the only truly deserving name up there (for her work within the last year, people, get a grip on yourselves), and that’s disappointing.

The interesting thing about the comedy actor nominations is that it appears that someone finally woke up and realized that Glee actors should not win these awards, and yet, they still don’t appear to have gone to the right people. Jon Cryer, people? Is it a sympathy nomination this year?

Golden Globes

• DRAMA – ACTOR
Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Kelsey Grammer, Boss
Jeremy Irons, The Borgias
Damian Lewis, Homeland

•  DRAMA – ACTRESS
Claire Danes, Homeland
Mireille Enos, The Killing
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Madeleine Stowe, Revenge
Callie Thorne, Necessary Roughness

It’s too bad they couldn’t complete the alliterative titles for Drama Actor here, though I hear that Homeland is one of the best new shows of the season. As far as Actress goes, I think either Claire Danes or Julianna Margulies will sweep here without question. I’d say Margulies has it, but Danes has a habit of coming out of nowhere to get the awards. Mostly, this category means very little to me because, once again, I’d have liked to see more cable shows nominated. We’ll see what happens.

SAG Awards

DRAMA SERIES — MALE ACTOR
Patrick J. Adams, Suits
Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire (won last year)
Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall, Dexter

DRAMA SERIES — FEMALE ACTOR
Kathy Bates, Harry’s Law
Glenn Close, Damages
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story
Julianna Margules, The Good Wife (won last year)
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

As Sepinwall mentioned earlier, there’s no bigger surprise here than Patrick J. Adams’ nomination. I know the Internet seems to be a big fan of Suits, but if I weren’t on Tumblr, I would never have heard of it–have you? It’s another snub for the incredibly talented John Noble (Fringe, another show that needs the critical boost), but otherwise, the male actor category seems quite solid. Again, I’m hoping for another Cranston win, but any of these would be good. And in the actress category, we have yet another American Horror Story sneak entry–maybe I should start watching this show. But at the same time, I’ve heard it’s really not the great. We’ll see. The rest of the nominees are all tried and true, and I’m sure one of them will take home the award.

As far as TV movie or mini-series go, I don’t have many opinions there, either. The only one of these I watch is Downton Abbey, and as far as I’m concerned, they can have all of the awards. I won’t be shocked if Peter Dinklage takes home the Globe for Game of Thrones, though, as it appears to be his year.

All in all, this seems to be a pretty standard and stale list, with few shake-ups that actually make sense within the context of the awards season. I definitely won’t be glued to my seat for either of these shows–more than likely I’ll have them on in the background while I’m doing anything else but watching this.

I’m quite interested to see the Emmy nominations when they’re released near the end of January. Will the shows previously snubbed come to critical light, or will they continue to fall aside in favor of award-winning and quite well known and established actors? I agree that the best actors and shows should win, but I can’t say that’s the case with these two recent nomination reveals. These shows shouldn’t have as much control over the networks as they do, and if anything winds up being canceled because it lacks critical acclaim, we all know who to blame. Too many excellent actors and shows were snubbed this year, and I hope the Emmys are able to save the critical season.

Bridal portraits, SantaCon, and not very much wind.

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I have only two things to say:
1. I present you this picture:

Yes, this is Grand Central Terminal this afternoon. Not only did someone decide this was an ideal time to take bridal portraits (hint: mid-day on a Saturday in December was not an ideal time), but today was also SantaCon. As far as I can tell, SantaCon basically consists of people dressing up in Santa and/or Christmas outfits and roaming GCT and Manhattan. I’ve never seen so many Santas in my life, and it was fantastic.

2. New York needs to suck it up about it being windy, because this is nothing compared to Oklahoma. I wandered Brooklyn last night with Kailee and Katie, and I’ve never heard so many complaints about the wind in my life. And – this wind was, like, an occasional cool gentle breeze. But you know what? I’ll take it. I’m not asking for more wind – Oklahoma, you can keep that one in your hat for when I visit. Deal?

How I moved most of my nail polish collection cross-country.

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First, you should know that I have a mildly substantial nail polish collection. It’s nowhere near what you’d see in a salon, but at the same time, it’s not exactly something I’m willing to just leave behind when I move. That seems like a waste of money.

And second, when I realized I was moving across the country, I started looking online for ways to transport nail polish. I already knew that you can’t send nail polish through the air, in a plane or in a box, so the only option there was ground shipping. And that was cool, because I was already sending some boxes via FedEx, so I could just tuck those polishes in one of those boxes.

But then – how do you pack nail polish?

I looked and looked, and couldn’t find a very good blog post anywhere on how to move nail polish. So, naturally, I decided to write one. First, I sat down and separated what I was going to take with me. I knew I didn’t have room for all of these, so I was only taking my favorites (which, as you’ll see, is still a lot).

Then I taped all of my polishes down in an easily-foldable pattern on bubble wrap, as seen here. You can get bubble wrap really cheap at any superstore – I’ve bought it at both Walmart and Target (don’t get it at the post office, it’s super expensive there). In retrospect, I wish I’d left a little more bubble wrap between the polishes, but that’s just a personal preference. They all made it fine, so I’m not worried. Yes, the yellow tape is double-sided – because I ran out of regular. It was fine. Useful later, but not necessary.

Then I rolled that sucker up into this weird-looking log of nail polishes. I had to wrap my base coat separately, since it didn’t fit into the pattern. After I rolled them all up, I got out a roll of packing tape and wrapped it to death in that. Taking no chances here, folks.

Finally, I got two one-gallon Ziploc bags. I stuck the log in one of them and it was too long, so I wrapped that one in a little packing tape so it would stick. Then I stuck that one inside the other Ziploc bag, and as you can see below, taped that one up more than anything I’ve ever taped in my life.

And, to my delight, they arrived safely and without incident. Unwrapping them has proven to be another chore (so much packing tape!), but it was definitely worth it.

Have you moved nail polish – how did you do it? Moved anything else that was fragile?

Moving to New York, Part Two: The First Day

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Wow, what a great first day in New York! When I woke up yesterday morning (and today), it was such an amazingly pleasant surprise to realize that I had actually moved to New York.

So far, everything has been incredibly perfect. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop because it all seems incredibly ideal, but then I wonder – is this what happens when you follow your dreams? I know not everyone is as lucky as I’ve been lately, and I am so grateful to everyone who’s lent a hand to making all of this happen.

I had the morning off because I was sleeping in (after two hours of sleep in the past forty-eight) and unpacking the rest of my things. Then I met Susan at the train to have lunch in the city, and after that I had some free time. I wandered the city for a while, just catching up on everything and recalling everything from two years ago.

Then, I called my friend Kailee who’s in grad school in the city (but only for a few more weeks, boo!), and she met me down at the 30 Rock Christmas tree. After a few minutes of looking (how hard can it really be to find someone at that tree? very. just fyi.), we found each other and started walking. She’d heard that 30 Rock was filming earlier, so we went to 43rd and 5th to try to catch a sight of anyone famous. No such luck, even after circling back a few times. So we kept walking, and eventually sat in Times Square for a while as she described, in detail, the Quidditch World Cup that took place in NYC a few weeks ago. It was, truly, one of the greatest stories I’ve ever heard. When nerds unite in friendship, it’s a beautiful thing. We ate a quick pizza dinner, and then I decided I should try to take the train back fairly early in the evening.

And then I got home and my boxes were waiting for me! So now I’m only waiting on the box I mailed on Saturday, but I’m not expecting that for at least a few more days.

And magically, I don’t have any pictures. I know. It’s already a disappointment. Don’t worry – there will be many more pictures to come.

All in all, it was a fabulous first day, and hopefully the hint of many more to come. Thanks for everything, New York, and I look forward to so much more!

Moving to New York, Part One: The Prep

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I’m sorry I haven’t been as present in the past few weeks – I’ve had quite a bit of exciting news lately, and preparing for The Big Move was quite an undertaking.

All in all, though, I couldn’t have asked for an easier time. I had three flights on Sunday starting at 6:45, which meant I had to be up by 4:30 and out the door by about 4:50. Yes, that was hard. But ultimately, all of my flights were incredibly smooth, no delays, and everything went so perfectly.

But first – you need to know about the prep week. First, we had James’s birthday, and the only photo evidence I have of that is this picture of me and his and Rebekah’s dog, Desmond. This is just before Rebekah and I went inside to order the ice cream cake, and Desmond thought it would be a good idea to snarf down about half of Rebekah’s previously-untouched peppermint frappuccino. Whoops! This iron-clad stomach seemed fine with it, though. After you’ve eaten a half-pan of brownies overnight with no incident, you’re pretty much limitless, right?

Friday night we had my official going-away party, featuring these delicious desserts. I thought the chocolate-dipped marshmallows were the most beautiful food on the table, though they all looked incredibly delicious. My mom is a really great baker. I said I wanted to have a cosmopolitan black-and-white dessert bar, and she more than came through for me. Cakeballs, brown eyed susans, peppermint torte, black-and-white pinwheels, salted chocolate cookies, chocolate swirl graham cookies, snowball cookies, chocolate-covered pretzels, chocolate chip cookies, and more. Absolutely delicious.

Then…the packing. I started this on Tuesday or Wednesday, but I didn’t really kick it into high gear until Thursday. This is my room after everything exploded.

And here you have the four boxes I shipped on Thursday – that I received this evening. I’m so happy they got here on time! I have one more overflow box, but I didn’t ship it until Saturday, so I’m not expecting it until later this week.

And the rest of my belongings, packed into two suitcases. They both weighed in at just under 50 pounds at the airport. Believe me, I was sweating it that morning. I’d weighed them, but it was still a pretty scary situation. I never want to be rearranging my suitcase at 5 AM at the airport. Yuck. Fortunately, I was in the clear, so I hugged and kissed my family, and off I went through security.

 

Three flights later (to ATL and BWI on to LGA), I was in New York. And I’ve only been here a little over 24 hours, but I already know that I belong. I’ve missed it so much since I was here two years ago, and this really does feel like the right place for me. This is the time for me to live it up and take every opportunity, and I am so relieved to have finally arrived.

Now, on to finding a full-time job! If you know of any in the city, email me! I’m only a little bit kidding :)

Moving across the country is definitely an exercise in prioritization, though. As I sorted and packed and boxed up my belongings, I started to see things that I knew I didn’t want anymore. Things that I had once loved or that had once meant a lot to me now seemed like a waste of space, and I knew someone else would want them more than I did. So really, this packing experience was really an exercise in paring down my own life. As everyone knows, New York is the city of compact living, so I knew there was no way I was going to be able to continue my trinket-packrat ways. So with that, I sliced the sum of my belongings in half, and only brought what I needed (okay, and some fun things, but you need those, too). Yes, I was worried I’d regret some of them, but I really haven’t.

Have you moved recently? What have you found to be the easiest and hardest parts of leaving your life as it stood behind you?