Summertime And The Livin' Is Easy...Sort Of

Good morning readers. I love early summer mornings. I always find that it is easier to wake up for work and other engagements in the summer. The birds are chirping, the sun is shining brightly through my window, and a cool breeze (today at least!) is blowing around outside. Who wants to get out of their toasty warm bed when it’s pitch black outside and there is two feet of snow on the ground? Not me. But I never have a problem ditching the blankets in the summer. If I sleep too late on summer mornings, I feel as if I have wasted my day. There is too much to do in the summer, and sleep just gets in the way. Today is my last day of work before I have a much-anticipated three-day break. I usually only get two days off during the week, but a fellow co-worker needed another day, and I gladly offered up my Friday. I haven’t had three consecutive days off since my summer began. I have a feeling that when Saturday morning comes, I will either be ready and willing to get back to work or one unhappy camper.

Yesterday I went for a run along East Avenue in Bay Head/Mantaloking, NJ. If you run the street end to end and back again, the distance is 3.4 miles. When I finished my run, I had virtually zero knee pain. I woke up this morning with a little aching, but nothing compared to the “I can’t walk to class” – debilitating pain I felt in June. I’m not quite sure, but I think I ran a little differently last night, which may have helped. I was so relieved to learn that I could easily complete a 5K with little pain. Running races, as I’ve stated in previous posts, is my new goal this summer/fall, and I was a little worried that I would have to give up the dream of crossing a finish line and revert back to the elliptical for the rest of my days. After last night, however, I’m certain that I can slowly start training for longer races.

Running is how I deal with stress. I think I’m one of the few people in the world who actually enjoys working out, simply because I feel so much negative energy leave my body as I huff and puff down the road. Last night, I didn’t care about anything else but sweating out all of my worries and anticipations about the future. The job searching is turning out to be a much longer process than I thought it would be. Can you believe I almost didn’t return to my summer job because I was positive I would only be working there two or three weeks? Well, six weeks later and I’m still here. There is nothing wrong with working my summer job. After all, I get to go to the beach four-five days a week. But I’ve started buying the apparel for work. The pencil skirts are hanging in my closet, the dresses are wrinkle-free and ready to wear, and my heels are placed nicely in shoeboxes. They all want to be worn so badly. My degree wants to be put to use. My mind wants to do something that requires mental capabilities. I’m going to keep waiting patiently because I know it’s all going to work out; it has to, but I’m slowly becoming restless. I know I could be quite good at any job that comes my way (except maybe accounting…I would not be good at that.) I just want to begin proving myself, and that is hard to do when I’m sitting at home waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Until the happy day comes where I get the news that I have a starting date, which I hope is soon because I will be unemployed in four short weeks, I’m going to enjoy my days on the beach, send up a daily prayer to God, and run as much as possible.

Decisions, Decisions...

High of 97. Heat Index feels like 110. Awesome. Working at the beach during this hot summer has not been a breeze (ha), but today of all days, I was able to secure myself a day off. Thank God. Today may have been the day that I finally fainted at work (my second biggest work fear. My first is being saved from drowning by the lifeguards). During these heat waves (I feel like there have been ten already…or is it just one continuous wave with a few 80-degree days thrown in there?), plenty of vitamin waters have been provided, ice has been used to cool down body temperatures, and gallons of water have been added to the water cooler, and yet, I’m still grateful that I have a day off. The heat and I are not friends. I want nothing more than for fall to start showing its colors. Summer no longer consists of childhood make believe, water parks, and pool parties. Instead, Summer is hot, and we need to work – It can be over now.

I made a decision today on my day off to not leave the house. There is plenty I can be doing here. I still have yet to secure a “real” job. My summer employment ends in a little over a month, and I have nothing lined up. It’s a scary thought to think I could potentially be unemployed in the beginning of the fall (or longer!). I have plans that need to start occurring. I need (it’s no longer just a simple desire) to move to New York, and I need a job for that to happen. Or do I? I’ve been reading a lot lately about New York success stories. I just finished Kelly Cutrone’s book “If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You.” It was eye opening in so many ways, but the number one thing Kelly taught me is that if you want something, go for it. Kelly moved to New York with two thousand bucks in her pocket and a car filled with clothes. She went on to become one of the biggest names in fashion P.R. Now, I’m well aware that life is not always fair, and stories such as Kelly’s are rare, but if I’m going to work in New York, and try to move my way up through the corporate chain, shouldn’t I be living in New York, not Pt. Pleasant, NJ?

Obviously, this still means I need to sign on the dotted line to begin work at that first job, but so many entry-level positions require that you be at work till the late, late hours. My parents have done the dreaded commute from my town to New York for years, but I think it takes a special person to travel all those hours throughout the week. I’m not searching for a 9-5 job. I know the positions I’m looking at will want me there at 8am, and I won’t be seeing the end of my day till 8, 9 or even 10 pm. That’s the life of an assistant, and I’m willing to put in my time for the reward of being promoted. How am I to do all that and live at the Jersey Shore? I also feel searching for jobs could potentially be easier living in NY. When employers know you are close enough to travel to work/interviews on a moment’s notice, is your chance of being hired greater? I guess I’m searching for advice from my readers once again. Do I start communicating with family friends and relatives who live in the city/ searching roommate websites to see what’s available to me, or do I wait it out and move to the city come winter after I’ve saved some money. I’m feeling risky because life is all about taking chances, but what do you all think?

PS To all my east coast readers…keep cool today!

My Hair Has Other Plans...

I have a wedding to get to, and my hair wants to crawl into bed. How do I fix this?! Countless magazines tell me that my hair is supposed to be bleached by the sun, wavy from the ocean water, and soft to the touch. I’m really not sure what I’m doing wrong. I have thick, colored from time-to-time, red hair that does not like to be straightened or curled. It is so fickle! My hair wants to be what I call “a lion’s mane.” It wants to air dry after a shower, grow four times normal size, and do nothing. I straighten my hair most of the time, and by the end of the night, there is so much “wave” occurring around my face that it goes into a pony tail two hours in. I'm beginning to believe my hair has a life of its own. A pony tail is equivalent to my bed...and that's where my hair wants to be at all times!

Tonight, I’m not having a straight problem, but a curl problem (See above photo!). My hair is not only thick, but long as well, and this presents the “cannot hold a curl” problem. I am attending a wedding on the beach (goodbye sexy hair!), and I thought curling my hair would be something different. Two hours before the wedding and my curls are disappearing before my eyes and turning into lumps of hair. There is no definition, zero style, and I now am pondering why I wasted my hour with two different barrel size curling irons and a straightener. I would love some of my beauty gurus out there – N, I’m talking to you! – to inform me of what I can do to get Taylor Swift curls. Loads of hairspray was used in the process, but there has to be something else. Any advice would be awesome.

It’s a shame I’m having these hair malfunctions, because I love weddings. I’m not quite at the age yet where weddings make me depressed, cynical, and angry because I was seated at the singles table. Give me another five years and I may have another opinion, but for now, weddings are a blast. I love seeing two people commit to one another in front of all of their friends and family, and an open bar is a great, added perk. I have never attended a beach wedding before. I have seen a few of them at work before, but I have never sat there and watched vows be exchanged in front of the ocean. I’m sure it will be a lovely event. I believe if people are going to have summer weddings, the beach is the only setting tolerable. Why else would you risk 93-degree weather (check!), 100% humidity (check!), and sunburns? There should at least be a pretty ocean view available to those attending July weddings. I promise all my friends and family: If I ever get married, and it happens to be in the summer, it will be located on the sand in front of the ocean. As for tonight, I’m hoping tons of make-up, more hairspray, and a little magic will help me look presentable in the next hour. Wish me luck! And I hope all of you have a fun Saturday night.

One Step At A Time

The heat waves in the tri-state area have left me searching for pools and air conditioned houses for weeks now. I did, however, brave the heat today to make a very special and necessary purchase…new running shoes! That’s right, this Jersey girl is out to conquer the world by running some of the way. Thanks to some friends on twitter and a little online searching, I have found numerous running blogs and websites for running in the NJ area. My favorite blog is here – thank you Lucy for tweeting about it one random day! They have so many wonderful entries about running, gyms, and everything else. I’m obsessed! I also found this site on races in NJ. There are so many I want to sign up for, and I’m excited to start filling out my applications. Running an actual race will be an entirely new experience for me...Actually, I never have counted my distance while running before. My running usually consists of minutes. 30 minutes on slow days, 45 minutes when I’m feeling extra energetic, but I haven’t counted the miles on those runs. I assume from treadmill running that I run about 3-4 miles in those 30-45 minutes, but that’s a guess.

I’m excited to run a 5K. I feel that is a race that I can easily finish, and I love new challenges. 3.1 miles should not be too difficult for me, and I feel all of the other runners will push me to improve my time. Others have told me that nothing is better than finishing the race and knowing you accomplished your goal. I’m excited to experience that feeling in the near future. I’m discovering that races are a great way to stick with running. You are working toward something, and most of the time the races are done for charity organizations, so you are working hard for a wonderful cause as well. I’ll stick with my 5K’s for now, and maybe, if my legs stay attached to my body, some bigger races can be in my future...NYC Marathon anyone - A girl can dream right?

As for the shoes – I’m very proud of my purchase (See above photo). After following a friend’s advice, I drove myself out to the Tinton Falls Outlets in search of the Nike Store. I tried on a few pairs of shoes, and fell in love with the Air Citius II model in blue /dark grey. They are beautiful and a real pair of running shoes. The best part of the purchase is that the Outlets are cheaper so I bought them discounted! I ran in them tonight, and because I’m so lucky, it began to pour on my new shoes and I, so I was unable to experience a complete run. I’m excited to try again tomorrow morning (early tomorrow morning to beat the heat!). The shoes feel extremely light on my feet and give great support…I hope we will have a very lovely year together until I wear them into the ground like I did my last pair.

With all of this heat, it is difficult to stay cool. Running certainly doesn’t help, but it does make me feel energized, healthy, and it's great for my mental outlook on life, and that’s what I focus on when I'm wheezing, sweating, huffing and puffing. I have attempted to cheat the heat a little bit by running early in the am, late in the pm, and drinking lots and lots of fluids, but the most important thing for me is that I get out there as often as possible and hit the pavement. I want to be a legit runner, and running a little better each day will help me accomplish that goal. And my new shoes certainly keep me motivated - a big plus!

Oops, I Did It Again...

We’ve all done it – said something inappropriate to other people without thinking, sometimes hurting others inadvertently along the way. I’m the queen on sticking my foot in my mouth. I try hard to play in my head what my words will sound like once they come out through my lips, but too often they just flow out into the air in a steady stream of "She did not just say that." Sometimes, I realize right away what I have done, and other times it takes someone telling me my words hurt them to understand the extent of my perpetual need to state every single thing that flashes through my mind. Why are some of us so prone to word vomit? Are we just more opinionated or more stupid?

Yesterday, I ran into a former classmate who I hadn’t seen in years. He was with a young woman who looked very much like his former girlfriend who I also have not seen in years. I’m usually so good at not stating names if I’m not sure, but boy was I sure. There was no need to stop and say hi (I'm actually still holding onto a glimmer of hope that he did not recognize me), but the social girl inside of me could not help herself. The conversation went a little like this. Me speaking to former classmate’s friend: “Hi (name of ex-girlfriend). Former classmate: “That’s not (name of ex-girlfriend). Girl: “I’m not (name of ex-girlfriend). Me: “Oh I’m sorry, you look just like her (eep!). Both the girl and former classmate stare at me like I’m crazy. I state: “Well that was awkward. See you later.” And I walked away. No joke. This conversation really occurred. B (who hates awkward situations a million times more than I do (and I hate them) would have died if she had been present. By trying to fix the situation, I obviously made it worse. Who tells the new girlfriend she looks like the old girlfriend (even though she really did!)? I didn’t even realize what I was saying until the words came out. I spent the rest of my workday avoiding the two of them like the plague.

That has to be the worse case of speaking without thinking I have ever committed, and I’m curious to know if you have any good stories. I feel like my roommate L may have a few winners. I laughed off yesterday pretty well, because at the end of the day, I made a mistake – we all do that, but I would be upset to find out that I offended this young lady. Who wants to hear they look like the old girlfriend? Hurting her was, of course, never my intention, but it very well may have happened. I can’t tell you how many times I have blurted out words without thinking and offended others along the way. I also can’t tell you how many times others have blurted out words and offended me. I guess my open-ended question of the day is, “Should we censor ourselves?” I want to say no because I tend to believe that we should encourage everyone to speak what’s on his or her mind (I write a blog after all), but in reality, if we don’t censor what we say, people will get hurt (even if the statement is true). I have the friends who tell it like it is at all times, and I have the friends who never tell you the truth, because they fear hurting others. I’d say the former is more helpful. In a month, this former classmate will not recall what I said at work (hopefully!), and I’ll try harder to obey that age-old lesson of thinking before speaking. I’m also going to try to laugh things off more when people blurt out words to me…we are all human after all, and mistakes like these help us grow.

Beat The Heat!

The heat wave has finally (sort of) passed! I didn’t think we’d make it there for a little while. It’s tough working on the beach when the temperature hits 104 degrees with 100% humidity. You know it’s bad when people don’t come to the beach because it is just too hot. We all spent our time in the ocean, under umbrellas, and consuming tons and tons of liquids. I did not pass out, so a successful workweek was had.

I had off of work on Tuesday and went up to New York to spend the day with my favorite Akron-located roommate (see how I did that ☺). Of course, Tuesday ended up being the hottest day of the week (record breaking actually). B and I decided to play a game – how much fun can we have in NYC without stepping foot outside? It ended up being a blast. Too often when I’m in New York, I feel like I’m wasting time inside. There are so many sights to see just walking around, and going inside a store feels like a wasted trip. On Tuesday, B and I had so much fun taking our time walking around high air-conditioned locations. We began our day by meeting at 30 Rock. I can’t even begin to tell you how envious I am that B’s sister T gets to work in such a fun building. B and I drank coffee, watched all the fabulously dressed workers walk by, and discussed how much our lives had changed since we last saw each other (3 whole weeks ago!) We left the building and took our first cab (there would be two more cab rides that day) to the Museum of Natural History. We spent the first 30 minutes searching for a bathroom…no joke. We were laughing the entire time about how silly we were (who can’t find a bathroom?!). We then saw everything! The African exhibits, the Asian exhibits, the Native American exhibit (6 times!), the elephants, the big whale, the deer, we had lunch in the food court because traveling outside for food was not an option, we saw rocks (and we watched a man give a tour about volcano ash that became rocks – B could have given that tour). We saw gems, a big boat, and the evolution room, and then decided it was time to move on.

We stood outside the museum for two minutes before we realized we would bake if we didn’t find cool air. We hopped in a cab and drove down to Columbus Circle. I had been in The Shops at Columbus Circle, which is this mall-like building with fun stores inside, before, so I thought that would be fun to try. We went to J-Crew, Bebe, and Sephora, and agreed that the shops were a fun place to stay cool. B had the woman at Sephora do her make-up (she looked fab!), and I bought more nail polish (it’s becoming a problem). The large glass windows overlooking Columbus Circle allowed us to feel like we were still in New York, but we didn’t have to suffer through the horrible weather – win/win.

A favorite place of mine has always been Serendipity on the Upper East Side. You can get the best ice cream there, and on a hot day such as Tuesday, ice cream was a must! B and I sat at our cute little table and ordered two frozen hot chocolates. They were so yummy and were exactly what we needed after an afternoon of shopping. When I asked B later what her favorite part of the day was, she said Serendipity – I was so happy she liked it!

After Serendipity, we decided to do more shopping…why not right? I bought adorable flip-flops at Aldo, B and I found awesome sales at H&M, we walked through Steve Madden, Victoria’s Secret, and the Gap. It was such a great way to just catch up and spend time with one of my favorite people – she also has totally caught the NYC bug. If T and I work hard enough, I bet you we may have a little New Yorker coming out here next summer. After our fun, yet exhausting day, B and I made our way back to 30 Rock to wait for T. Unfortunately, I had to catch my ferry home and was unable to see her after her first day, but I’m sure we will have many more chances to catch up. I hugged my little roommate goodbye, and I won’t be seeing her again until late August when the whole gang comes out to visit, but it was so great knowing that she will be coming out often over the years. Thanks T for moving back to NY. I have a feeling I will be seeing lots of B over the year!

And that, my friends, is how you beat the heat in New York.

I Want To Be An American Idiot

Yesterday M and I ventured into Manhattan. I love going into New York as much as possible. Work sometimes makes it difficult, but if I can get there once a week, I’m usually a happy girl. There is always one Broadway show that I’m dying to see. This past winter it was Hair, and you all so my post on how that changed my life. When I heard that Green Day was producing a show based off of their American Idiot album and John Gallagher Jr, who won a Tony award for his portrayal of Moritz in Spring Awakening, was starring as the main rebel with a cause, I knew I had to see him rock out once again. American Idiot opened on my birthday, 4/20, which is not too surprising for a show about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, but I took it as a sign.

Our train arrived in the city at 11 am, and I forced M to run the streets of New York so we could get in line at the TKTS stand in Times Square. I recommend using TKTS whenever you are flexible. The tickets are cheaper, and they usually give you decent seats (You need to have other shows in mind, however, in case your show sells out before you get to the booth.) After waiting an hour in line, I finally had two tickets in my hand (and they were 50% off!). Being able to breathe once again (I really wanted to see this show), we had a quick lunch and went on our way to 44th St.

The Theatre District is one of my all time favorite Manhattan locations. Sometimes I zig zag between the streets just to take a look at what is playing where. All the marquees for the different shows remind me of how much talent is hiding behind every stage door and how many wonderful shows I still need to see. My playbill wall is becoming covered, but not nearly covered enough. The best part about being home once again is that now I have the money and the time (until each show closes) to see as many shows as possible. How lucky am I?

When we arrived at the St. James Theatre, M and I stood in line with all the other “Idiots” waiting to enter. The great thing about a show such as American Idiot is that it literally brings every sort of person together. The “punk” crowd was strongly represented at this show…it is all Green Day music after all. The one thing I wish I had done differently was thought more carefully about my clothing choices. My Abercrombie and Fitch ensemble was not cutting it next to the girl with the pink, machine-gun covered dress or the girl with the red and black striped stockings. But hey, that’s the beauty of theater. Not many shows could merge preppy with punk and help us forge a “love for American Idiot” bond.

The actual show was everything I hoped it would be and more. The musical has about ten minutes of dialogue. Everything you need to know is in the music, and it was great to see the numbers performed as a storyline. I knew all the songs already, but seeing them acted out was an incredible experience. From the moment "Don't want to be an American Idiot" was sung to the end when they had their "Homecoming," each character gave their all, and my eyes never left the stage. I think I turned to M once and said, "that's Lea Michele's boyfriend!"...but that was all the chatting we did. I also love how there is no intermission. Just an hour and a half of pure magic on stage. Johnny (John Gallagher Jr) was such a dimensional character, and I connected with him on so many levels. Whatsername is the woman I want to be. She was fierce, fun, and caring – Every character was important, and I was never sure who I should be watching since they all were doing their own thing. It was truly a great show, and if you’re a Green Day fan, I highly recommend. I will be seeing it again soon, and next time I will be wearing black.