decisions decisions

Which (if any) of these makes you think "yes, I will buy some of her crafts"?

let's put it to a vote

I really want to go to New York for a week in May, after finals. The tickets will probably be around $200.

I also really want an iPod touch. You can buy them refurbished at Apple.com for $349 (32gb).

When I get my tax refund, should I buy a ticket to New York or an iPod touch?

pins and needles

I can't seem to get into a regular pattern with this blogging thing. Minimal posts for a month or two, then multiple posts per day for a week or so, then nothing. I'm trying to get organized and start adding an item a week to my Etsy shop, so maybe I will also try to update this more regularly.

I'm not big on taking things seriously, or at least admitting that I take things seriously, but I do want to start putting more energy into selling things that I make. I applied for a sales tax number and everything. I have to send in a form for my sales through December 31, or possibly January 1st? Not that it matters; I have no sales to report. I did make two sales on Etsy, of these strange face beads that I bought at Bobby Bead, but neither of them were shipped to Wisconsin, so I do not need to pay sales tax on the grand total of $9 that I made last year.

Probably I'm being a little hard on myself. I've only been doing this since mid-October, and I was working two jobs for the first few months and then distracted by the holidays and my grandma's... passing. Wow, that is not an easy thing to write. So, I've been distracted, but I am now both effectively unemployed and temporarily financially solvent thanks to my student loan, so I have a real opportunity to take some time to build up a business. I don't know that it'll ever pay my rent, but if it could possibly pay for me to buy more beads and fabric, that would be pretty sweet.

I labeled this post "important decisions," along with a bunch of other ridiculous labels, because I think I am still going through the long process of admitting to myself that I need to really try to make this crafting thing work. I had a pretty severe panic attack yesterday; possibly the worst one yet. I'm not even really sure what it was about. Everything is going pretty well in my life. Being back in school is amazing, I love Milwaukee, my friends and family are great, my boyfriend makes me so happy, and I'm not broke. I guess that's probably what the problem is though. Things haven't gone this well for me at any point in recent memory; I don't know how to handle not being depressed. (And also I probably have not completely dealt with my grandma and how much I miss her, but this is already personal enough.)

I'm not quite sure how to end this. I'm not quite sure what my point is. I know I started this post to talk about how I got a lot done today and walked around and enjoyed the temporary warm weather. That is obviously not what I actually wrote about. I think for now I'll just leave this be. I'll add some more photos soon; that's more fun than this personal stuff, I think.

goodbye NYU

[Edited many months later: Who are all of you people that are searching for the NYU Bobcat? Do you just want to see what it looks like? Are you using this photo for something? I'm totally okay with that, though I'd prefer you told me about what you're using it for and didn't use it for anything commercial without my permission. Are you applying to NYU and looking to see what you're getting into? Tell me! Leave a comment or email me! This post is responsible for half the traffic to my site; I am so curious about why.]

This is the NYU bobcat. Ridiculous, right? Half of our sports teams (possibly the club teams?) are still the Fighting (Fightin'?) Violets, but for some reason, the other half call themselves the Bobcats (possibly the DIII teams?). According to Wikipedia, our school mascot is "Violet D. Bobcat," which sounds just about right. The best part? The school named the new mascot after the library's search engine, which is called Bobcat (for 'Bobst Catalogue'?), but sadly not "Violet D. Bobcat."

Funny, this is all coming together now. The ridiculousness, the library connection, my soon-to-be outdated use of the possessive 'our' when referring to NYU. Today is my last day of work, which is also my last day at NYU, and so far, I find it to be a little anti-climactic. I've spent five years as part of this "community," which is a loaded word at NYU for reasons too boring to expand upon, and I'm not really sure how I feel about leaving it. I'm going to miss a lot of individual parts of NYU, but on the whole, I really dislike NYU for a lot of reasons, most of which are more than tangentially related to my six-figure student loan debt. However, and beware because this is going to be a little cheesy, I've changed a lot in the past five years, almost entirely for the better (I hope). NYU is the place where I became an adult, the place where I became a person that I actually like, and the place where I met most of the important people in my life. So much as I am ambivalent towards the institution, I'm still sad to leave it.

At the same time, I can still honestly say that most NYU students are complete morons, and I'm really ready to not dodge tourists and film crews on my way to work anymore. I've spent the past five years walking around the same streets, which I've watched become increasingly generic and gentrified, and I'm ready to move on. Sometimes I feel like I haven't really graduated (surprising, right? Since I'm working at my undergraduate school, in the same job that I had for two years as a student), and I think it's time to move on and do something new.

Which doesn't change the fact that I've been sitting in Bobst for the past two hours, because the library is the only place that I'll actually physically miss. Which really shouldn't surprise you since my new life goal is to get paid to hang out in libraries. And that life goal is going to be a lot harder if I don't get into library school, so I'm going to go work on my UWM application.

oh that's right, i have a blog

I'm heading to the Frick in a few minutes, so this will be short and quick (and shocking!).


I gave notice at my job; my last day is August 3.

I'm going to Argentina, Buenos Aires specifically, from August 8-August 20.

I'm moving to Milwaukee at the end of August; I'm driving home, leaving sometime August 31. Hopefully fairly early in the morning.

(Oh, and I'm applying to a History/Library Science dual degree program at UW-Milwaukee.)


Yeah. Everything in my life is going to change.

Off to the museum!

title here

1. Tonight, I got home from work, put on my pajamas, and sat down at the ol' laptop to catch up on the internets. Oh, and I bought a 22oz of Sierra Nevada and some salt & vinegar Pringles on the way to the subway. So, uh, that's what I'll be doing until I pass out from exhaustion. I know what you're thinking, and no, I do not know how it's possible that I am this sexy.

2. Oh, I was out of town last week. Did I mention that was going to happen? I went home for my birthday (also the Fourth of July, I guess). I am now officially 23; I would be freaking out about that if I wasn't so exhausted from all the fun. (I think I might also still be a little hungover, even though I didn't drink at all yesterday.) (Okay, I had one beer, which is basically nothing, comparatively.)

3. In case you were wondering, I had an awesome time at home, just amazing. I don't know how it could have been better. Maybe if I had been there longer? There were a few people that I barely got to see, but I'll see them again soon, so it's okay. There were good things and not-as-good things, but it all balanced out into this perfect week-long vacation. I got to see so many people that I love, and I will probably be less vague tomorrow after I get a solid eight hours of sleep, but trust me, there were fun times a-plenty.

4. Related to the previous point--Wisconsin is so beautiful that it kind of makes me want to cry. And, um, I'm sort of serious... gross.

5. All of those things I've been putting off since May? I'm really going to have to actually do them this month. Boo.

6. Seriously, what an awesome fucking vacation I just had. I love Wisconsin, and I can't wait to go back.

wow

What we have right here is a life-changing moment, for me of course. Like I care about anyone else's life and/or moments! (Kidding!) I have made a decision, actually it's something that I've been thinking about for awhile, and I just took the second-to-last decisive step. But I can't talk about it until I take the last decisive step, so whatever will I do? This is just boring and annoying if you're not me! (Unlike everything else I write, obviously!)

All right. Never mind all that "my life is changing in a way so exciting I can't actually talk about it, woops, why did I even bring it up," check out this clip, hereafter known as The Greatest Thing I Have Ever Seen on YouTube Ever. It starts slow, but it gets so awesome.



Never give up, guys. Never give up.

i will fuck you up

I think if I was going to learn self-defense, I would learn krav maga. I don't need any of that inner-peace, "learn to fight so you don't have to fight" nonsense. I want a self-defense technique whose goal is to fuck someone up as quickly and efficiently as possible. But I would only use my lethal skills if someone attacked me first.