Let’s talk first jobs

Last June, I left the intern world and started my current position with my company…my first “real” job. I have been full time for almost eleven months now and with my company for more than a year and a half. Where has the time gone? My mind still thinks that come June 20th, I’ll be walking Bay Head beach again. As most of you remember, I graduated college with a BA in English – which essentially means, I am qualified to do nothing…well I can read and write. Yay. So needless to say, there have been LOTS of challenges with my new job. New industry, new systems, new rules (you can’t wear leggings as pants to work?).

During the first four months, I went home every single day and said to anyone who would listen that my company was going to fire me. My family tried to tell me this was not true, but I was adamant. I was never going to get it. Then, the craziest thing happened. I got it. It all started to click one day. Almost one year later, I still have days where I have no clue what to do next. I still have days where I sit back in my chair and sigh at my computer screen. But then the woman in the cube next to me states, as if on cue, “I feel you, Katie” (I love that she calls me that), and I don’t feel as miserable as I did five seconds before. She’s been working in this industry for years! We all have those days. The days where we want to walk outside and never come back; the days where we want to tell the person yelling on the phone where he can go. But we do come back (most of the time.) A couple deep breaths (and yoga poses in your cubical) can make it all a little better.

So to all of you newbies in the working world, I feel you. It can be terrifying and so overwhelming you could cry, but then the fog clears and things hopefully become a little brighter.

Meatless Mondays – Post 1

Meatless Mondays seem to be the new trend with health and wellness magazines. Not only is eating less meat better for the environment, it can also improve your health and shake up your menus if you’ve been in a meal rut (not chicken again). I’ve been eating meat much less frequently lately, and I decided to do my own meatless posts to help those who may want to try vegetarian or vegan friendly meals, but aren’t sure where to start. Feel free to send me your recipes as well – I love adding to my collection!

Black beans, corn and salsa lettuce wraps, a sweet potato, and green beans.

I made these wraps last night – quite possibly the simplest meal in the world. This is a variation of a black bean and salsa chicken recipe I cook from time to time, but in all honesty, I didn’t even miss the chicken. The lettuce adds a cool, crisp taste to the meal, but you can use whole-wheat wraps as well.  

Ingredients

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup frozen corn

1 cup salsa

4 large romaine lettuce leaves

1 sweet potato (I use half for dinner and half for lunch the next day)

1 package of Steamers Whole Green Beans

Cinnamon

Simply combine the black beans, corn and salsa in a saucepan on low heat until warm (5-8 minutes). Place the washed lettuce leaves on a plate (pat dry) and when the bean mixture is heated, scoop onto the leaves. In the meantime, cook one sweet potato and steam the green beans. I cook both in the microwave (potato setting for the sweet potato and I follow the bag directions for the green beans), but of course, you can cook both in an oven and on the stove respectively. Sprinkle the potato with cinnamon, and enjoy!

Your yummy vegan dinner is served. 

Change is Good

I’ve updated my life lately, and with these changes, I’ve decided to begin blogging once more. I’ve missed it! So much has a changed; a new job, a slightly new body, a new apartment, a new outlook on life. But one must never become too complacent, and so on to the next journey…whatever it may be. I’m running my second half marathon next weekend and have signed up to run the Marine Corp Marathon in October. I moved to Red Bank, NJ – a town Smithsonian Magazine has named the third best small town in the nation! – and have spent the last few weekends familiarizing myself with all the shops and restaurants surrounding me. I’ve completely changed my diet and lifestyle to ensure that my body and mind are the best they can be, and have lost 15 pounds in the process and have never felt more at peace. Speaking of peace, I inked myself for the first time this past winter – a peace sign is now printed on my left foot. A friendship tat that my best friend and I share, but also a daily reminder of Gandhi’s famous quote, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” I have changed almost every facet of my life in the last twelve months, and I hope to take these lessons I have learned and send them out into the world. We all spend so much time searching for our purpose. I believe it’s as simple as sending love to others. So glad to be back.

Resolutions...In November

A friend of mine the other day tweeted that she was starting her New Years Resolutions now, so that by the time January 1st rolls around, they will be formed habits. It was at that moment that I realized in my 22 years, I had finally done something I had never done before – stuck to a New Years Resolution.

Every year I tell myself that I will lose a few pounds and try some fun, new activity (photography, skiing, painting), and every year I work out for approximately three weeks and avoid leaving my comfort zone. This past year on January 1st, I made a resolution to start running, and I mean really running, and in the process I lost more than a few pounds (go me!) and finished my first half marathon this past October. Last weekend, I completed a 5-mile Turkey Trot, my sixth race this year. I’m proud of myself for proving myself and other naysayers wrong and competing in what I thought was the impossible.

It’s not about “How skinny can I get?” although jean shopping is now a guilty pleasure, but how hard can I push myself and how will I be rewarded for my efforts. I have a new connection with my body – every muscle, tendon, and bone feels different to me now. I eat foods based on how they will assist me in performance. You try running a 10k after a night of drinking and see how you feel; or running on a sugary cereal breakfast. It just does not work. Egg whites, spinach, oatmeal, fruits, veggies and lean meats make my body feel good. Cheese, greasy fast food, pizza and ice cream make my body feel lousy. And what the body wants, the body gets, especially when that half marathon I ran in 2:15 has motivated me to run my next half in under two hours.

So in keeping with my friend’s idea of early planning, my 2012 New Years Resolutions are to run my second half marathon AND my first full marathon…Let the training begin!

Who Knew I Was Such A Feminist?

The other night I received a 3 am (so I guess the other morning) phone call from a guy I had gone on one date with two months ago. I chose not to answer the call since I probably would have yelled obscenities I would later regret. It was Saturday morning, the first time all week I could sleep soundly through the night with no alarm clock, and I am tossed from my slumber by a loud ringing on my IPhone – I know, my fault for not silencing the phone. I was hesitant to respond in the morning since the communication we had previously shared had not gone well…

He contacted me three days after our date to say “Happy your people’s day” on St. Patrick’s Day, I wrote back a cheery thank you. Asked me a week later why I hadn’t blogged about our date. I wrote back that I kept some things private…until now, of course. He responded one day later “Want to see each other again?” I responded with a “sure” but that he didn’t seem too eager to see me since two weeks had passed since our last date. He responded 24 hrs later saying his family had been in town. I “forgot” to answer him.

But curiosity got the best of me, and I thought perhaps I had written this guy off too soon. Why else would he think it was okay to call me at 3am? We never did any of the things that people usually do at 3am, so I thought naively, “maybe he’s just up late and wants to chat.”(How many of you are rolling your eyes right now?) I text him when I woke up and asked if he needed to be bailed out of jail – another plausible explanation. He apologized for the call and stated his reasoning was that “my friends were in town and asked if I knew a cute redhead.”

Huh…That’s why you called?!

I was immediately turned off, but couldn’t quite figure out why. He had done this before we met each other too. When we had started chatting on OkCupid, one of his first comments was, “You’re cute!” My response was to change the subject. I wasn’t sure exactly what my problem was until I started to work it out in my head. At first I thought it was a self image problem. “Don’t call me cute, because I’m not” sort of deal, but that wasn’t it. Looks are important in any relationship – it’s a fact that you must be slightly attracted to someone for there to be chemistry. However, at least in my world, there is so much more to a person and it’s that extra “stuff” that I fall for. I’ve liked other guys in the past. Head over heels, infatuated, dressed up, put make-up on and straightened my hair so he’d notice me liked guys. And I found them attractive. Very attractive. But they were also smart, sweet, funny, caring, creative, motivated guys. The attraction grew from all of those other great qualities.

So turns out I don’t enjoy being objectified (Apologies if anyone has stopped reading because they feel I’m being over dramatic.) This person had met me once. He knew nothing about me, and when his buddies came over and asked for a “cute” redhead, he called one up not caring that he had never offered to take her out again and not caring that he was probably waking her up. I know, he was drunk blah blah blah. What exactly did they think would happen? The cute redhead was going to put on her shoes and come over for a group hug? I’m sure he didn’t realize he had offended me, and I played it off. I kept chatting like the nice, easy going girl I pretend to be, and when he left the conversation with no need for me to respond, I didn’t. I won’t see this person again. I considered it before, but now the chemistry is gone, my annoyance would probably be apparent and there are just too many fish in the sea (note square peg, round hole metaphor from a few posts back.)

When Life Gives You Lemons...

I’ve been keeping some important news to myself for quite a while, but figured it was time to share. The truth shall set you free, no? My internship, which has given me so much over the past 8 months including hands on experience and great networking opportunities, is ending on June 17th with no full time position in sight. If that weren’t enough, my apartment’s lease is up on May 30th and since I do not potentially have a job after mid-June, I could not take over the lease from my roommate who is moving out of the city to pursue career opportunities. I am so very fortunate to have family so close and will be moving back home to New Jersey for the summer (Almost as if I’m still a college student…ah the memories.) I could spend time, energy and money searching out apartments in need of roommates on Craig’s List, but without a job in sight, this is just not practical. And Craig’s List kinda scares me.

I also need to begin saving again. I know that when you live in a big city at the age of 22, you are expected to scrape by living on spaghettios, but frankly, I haven’t been able to seriously enjoy New York since moving here. With rent, transportation fees, utilities and groceries ($7 for a box of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios? Really, Gristedes?), I have been unable to participate in all of the things I love most about this wonderful city: Broadway shows, fancy restaurants, museums, cab rides, shopping and so much more. I could never leave for long, so I promise the world this is a temporary arrangement (especially since I have been on several internal interviews with different segments of my company – I’m sure something will work out!), but until I save a little money, land the full time, salaried position and have the ability to live in the city AND eat out a few times a week, I will be calling NJ home once again.

I’m disappointed with the situation, but not with myself. In all honesty, I would have been traveling home every weekend of the summer to soak in the Jersey Shore rays anyhow, so this isn’t a tragedy. There is a part of me that wants to be able to do all of this on my own. Moving back in with my parents seems like a step in the wrong direction, but I keep telling myself that now I will have the money to take a writing course on the side and will be able to buy a new pair of shoes from time to time. Some pressure has been removed. For all I know, I could have a new position starting June 20th and what a happy thing that will be, but I will still stay home for a little while in order to make sure I can get the most out of my salary. In this economy, I know I’m not alone, and that’s a good feeling. Unfortunately, job security for the under 25 crowd is not promising. So Mr. President, Excellent job on killing Bin Laden. If you could now work on the economic crisis facing our nation, that would be great. I’d like to be able to move out for good some day. I think my parents would like that too.

The Lady's Got Potential

Please forgive the "Evita" reference in the title - I couldn't help myself. I’m currently reading “Bossypants” by Tina Fey – I love reading memoirs by powerful, smart women. Kelly Cutrone, Ivanka Trump, Tina Fey; all of these women have the common factor of great success, so I read their books hoping their ambitions and motivations will hop off my Kindle and into the section of the brain that gets things done. Of course, reading their words is only the first baby step. I doubt Hillary Clinton or Condoleezza Rice got to where they are today by reading lots of books about other accomplished women – they went out into the world to write their own stories (both of which have 352 pages each in their Hardcover books. Do you think Condi was trying to one up Hil?) Anyway, I always get the urge to go out and change the world after reading a good memoir about working your way to the top. They also make me feel like I’m not doing enough (in a “push yourself harder” way). Kelly lived in the crack den that was Times Square in the early 90’s sleeping on the couches of people she hardly knew. Ivanka, with the Trump name in tow, got her MBA from Wharton, and Tina, well, we know all that Tina has done and continues to do (She’s my favorite “Hollywood”, although I would call her much more New York, lady of the moment).

At the end of one of the chapters of “Bossypants,” Tina writes after “stealing” an office job from a coworker, “That makes me sound like a jerk, I know. But remember the beginning of the story where I was the underdog? No? Me either.” The minute I read that quick paragraph, I knew I needed to write about it. Because although I’ve haven’t come to the point where I have stolen a job from a co-worker, I’m sure the day will come. It’s all in the nature of the business. I was watching an episode of Dexter last night that was titled “Take it!” The episode focused on going after what you want in order to make yourself whole. I then watched Modern Family (I know, too much TV), and Claire gave a quick speech about how you should grab what you want and not worry about the consequences. I felt like God was sending me some sort of message. Your desires are there for the taking, but the “winners” in life are those who do what they need to in order to get ahead. Now, I won’t be killing anyone or doing any unsavory “favors” anytime soon, but I like the determination of not letting setbacks, people or situations stand in your way.

What I want is success. And I intend to achieve it. Who knows, maybe I’ll be the next Tina and write/produce/star in a hit NBC show; Maybe I’ll start a PR firm like Kelly; Maybe I’ll get into Real Estate and market towering buildings to Dubai like Ivanka; Maybe I’ll become Editor in Chief of a major fashion magazine where people write books that turn into movies about me like Anna; Maybe I’ll run for President someday like Hillary (hopefully without the philandering husband by my side). Either way, I won’t be sitting in a cube for the rest of my life inputting numbers into a spread sheet. I see now that realizing your full potential is the ultimate form of liberation.

I hope all of you will also figure out what you want out of life and take it. I would rather have an entire planet of ambitious freaks than lazy couch dwellers living in their parent’s basement at the age of 30. Work hard, save money, spend it on things you want whether it be schooling, traveling, cameras, computers. Take the time to evaluate yourself and then go for it. What’s the worse that can happen? You fail a few times - That’s a million times better than doing nothing at all.