Any more advice?

I've gotten quite the stack of advice lately. Since most of it has come from reputable sources, I'll take it all into consideration.

• Don't go to grad school unless you know what you want to study
• But take the GRE now, while you still remember how to multiply
  
• Check your work (especially if it's algebra on the GRE)
• Stop being so closed off
• Don't be afraid to realize you don't want something you think you've wanted for a long time
• Change is important, and you have to let it happen (even kicking and screaming)
  
• Go to sleep--stop being the last one awake and the first one to wake up
• Find the balance of giving things time and not settling for something that's not right
• No need to be in such a rush
• Have another glass of wine
• Give people (boys) a chance
• Make sure you find things to fill your life other than the 9-5
• Leave your hair down, instead of pulling it back in a pony tail
• It's ok to ask for what you need, and it's ok to say no.
  

Had a long conversation with a potential client of a friend today (check out the friend if you're in need of graphic/web design!). Entrepreneurs are refreshing--that need to DO something, try something a different way, figure out what they don't like about the status quo and offer another option, even if there's the huge potential to flounder or fail along the way. The process of planning and surveying is part of the joy for them. I love asking someone starting out in a new project all the questions, trying to find the "sweet spot" of what someone is looking to create or offer. It's like editing your own work--almost impossible to find the holes or grey areas in your own writing, or your own ideas. Gaining the perspective of others is crucial to the self-discovery process. If you just continue to self-examine, you'll magnify things or let others fall by the wayside, instead of allowing an outside observer to draw your attention to what's not immediately obvious to you at short distance.

""He left any job where he wasn't learning or when his dignity, however defined, was anywhere compromised" , from You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers. Another book that made me laugh out loud on the T. If someone's not giving you a weird look, you're living too quietly.

Can't Help But Fill Up the Calendar

Now that I've been at work for almost two months, it's about time to get back into a busy little routine. I miss classes and campus life on some level, so the only solution is to start signing up for events, classes, and other ways to get myself involved in things other than my social circle.

• Open Classroom: Northeastern offers the community the chance to audit a class on urban policy and issues taught by Prof. Bluestone. Once you're registered, you can sit in on any of the classes from 9/10-12/10. A group of us are signing up (let me know if you do too!), and while I may not buy all the books recommended on the official syllabus, I'm strangely hungry for poli-sci nerd knowledge and a classroom setting.
• Fashion Week Boston: on the opposite side of the spectrum, I want to take advantage of some of the free events offered during Boston's own Fashion Week, with some events taking place over the course of a month. It's no NYC or Milan, but I'll take a little runway and cocktail action any time, any place. I've RSVP'd to a few already, and open to other suggestions
• Groupon: Danielle and I bought coupons for a month of kayaking at Boston's Community Boating, to get fresh air and a kickass view of the Zakim at sunset, but Groupon has plenty of other discounted options for getting out and about or just relaxing--check it out!
• BCAE: I'm investigating classes at the Boston Center for Adult Education--hoping for a drawing or wheelthrowing class, but like I said--I miss classes and learning something new will keep me from feeling static.
• As more and more people enter the race for Sen. Kennedy's vacated seat, I'd love to get involved in a campaign, but biding my time a little to see who else jumps on board before picking one to volunteer for--anyone have insight or reasons to go for one over another?

Always room for more things--suggestions, resources, and ideas welcome for ways to get over the campus portion of my life but kickstart involvement on a whole new playing field!

Apparently, I miss classes.

The NYTimes Sunday Magazine had a pretty intense article about Memorial Hospital, an institution battered during Hurricane Katrina. The Times has continued to cover various facets and stories stemming from the tragedies during Katrina, and the damage, the aftermath, and the multiple revelations of flaws in our public and private systems, social prejudices and injustices, and capabilities of our government (or lack thereof) are myriad. Katrina is an ideal case study, sadly, for the difficulties in public policy, crisis strategies, big vs. small government, and the government agency and non-profit team effort that running the country has become.

The recent NYTimes article focused on the crisis management and ensuing murder charges that came out of an incredibly difficult, stressful, and tragic situation at one affected hospital during Katrina. The problem with crises is that a crisis only occurs when there are no logical or planned-for responses--if you knew what to do, it wouldn't be a crisis. For all the planning, education, preventative measures, structure, and hierarchies that exist in various organizations, a true crisis throws them all out the window. This is related to the division of public policy and legal or practical implementation--just because you have a great idea of how to solve a problem doesn't mean you will be able to properly structure the system that will actually address it, institutionally, socially, and in the long run.

I apparently really miss classes, because this is the sort of thing I've been thinking about non-stop since I read the article. Check out the piece, and more later...

Yiddish!

On the heels of my last post, and on a lighter note:

Learn Yiddish!

...or at least learn hilarious phrases to pepper your daily conversations with. I never realized how many words/phrases I use until my roommates and friends pointed it out. My grandparents still can speak Yiddish, and used to use it with each other when they didn't want us know what they were discussing. My dad can tell a few off-color jokes and slyly insult people using it. My use extends to words like chutzpah, schmaltzy, shmatte, and other things Tom loves to take out of context.

Spice up your vocab, learn a few choice comments from the link above! Practice the gutteral "ch" sound, and quick reminder: Yiddish can be super sarcastic. My dad loves the phrase "go in good health" (gei gezint, loosely transliterated from how he pronounces it), which is actually kind of like saying "don't let the door hit you on the way out" depending on the situation. Usually, it's a charming language--my grandfather has called me "shana punim" or "pretty face" for years (collective awwwww).

So. Use Yiddish. Use it well. Use it sarcastically or sincerely, whichever works for you. L'chaim.

I am consistently amazed, impressed, inspired by the strength, insight, and compassion of the people I'm lucky enough to surround myself with. The sheer tenacity and aplomb with which they handle stress, tragedy, confrontation, disappointment, challenges, uncertainty, and each other keep me going and remind what I have to live up to. If one measure of a person's success is the company they keep, then I win.

Their toolbox for life includes the following, and more:

laughter, analysis, overanalysis, hugs, snuggling, late night phonecalls, unexpected mail, patience for inanity, calm, tolerance of views that directly contradict their own, the ability to see the bigger picture, love for those they disagree with, and an unconditionality of support and respect and being-there-ness that trumps distance, conflicts, and all the weird stumbling blocks of life.

Vague, yes. But more a side note to myself that I so value the people around me and what they make my life. And a reminder to keep that mentality in the back of my mind even when things seem rough, and to make sure the people that make daily existence possible know how much they mean.

Daily dose of schmaltz over. Daily dose of Yiddish word provided.

Sundays are good for the soul

Sundays are my favorite thing in the world. My latest routine is buying the Sunday New York Times, which, at a whopping six bucks, is a treat in and of itself, and locating a spot on a Panera patio to get fresh air, coffee, and a breakfast sandwich all simultaneously. I stay until I've read the majority of the paper, even occasionally reading the Sports section, watching the suburbanites of Brookline take in their Sundays too, with dogs and babies in tow. Last week I watched a mini rainburst from the comfort of the covered patio, and today I had a great chat with two little girls, one of whom had a Batgirl costume I would've (ok, still would) killed for.

Nothing beats the Sunday NYTimes in hard copy. I usually rip things out, and the format, with inline photos, the ability to jump back and forth between articles, and even getting newsprint ink on my fingertips, is way better than a flickering screen. My guiltiest pleasure of all is the wedding Vows column. The cynic in me secretly loves the charming stories of relationships made good, and whoever writes the column has a non-saccharine way of weaving the tale. If I ever get married, I hope my relationship and my celebration are worthy of being covered in a column. Yes, it makes me feel a little like Katharine Heigl in 27 Dresses, but since I'm sure I'll be subjecte to some ludicrous bridesmaid dresses, the comparison isn't too far off.

Sundays are that potluck day: today I had my newspaper hour(s), cleaned the apartment in a team effort with the roommates, did research on grad schools, watched most of both Legally Blonde movies, and ate Vietnamese food. Productive, cathartic, and relaxing, all in the same day. Plus, now it's only 9 pm, which means watching a little TV (Batman movie = I have such a dirty old man crush on Jack Nicholson), doing more grad school research, and even getting to sleep at a reasonable hour. A potluck, patchwork, slightly ADD day. Exactly what I need before a few days at work and an unexpected trip home for a funeral. On a tangential note: weddings and funerals are bizarre uniters of friends grown apart. I wish it didn't take major events to do that. I also wish funerals didn't happen.

“American Values” — A Smoke Screen in the Debate on Health Care Reform

Interesting article by my uncle, a doctor at University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia. Some of my thoughts on the health care issue later.

I shall blog again!

Uh. Apparently a brief blogging hiatus transpired. Numerous apologies. The last weeks of college, graduation antics, a stint of frustrated unemployment, two months of rain, and my recent three weeks of legitimate employment are to blame. Excuses are silly though. Blogging will recommence.

I am hungry to learn. Three months after graduating, I miss classes already. To the point where I signed up for the GRE in a fit of frustration yesterday morning. September 26, bring on the math (eeeek). I'm currently working in a development office, and while it's interesting and I'm learning new skills, my liberal arts, politically nerdy brain misses some of the content I soaked up in college. Not that I have a really concrete idea of what I want to study with my hopefully fabulous GRE scores. I have lots of ideas, actually, so I'm doing some serious research into cities, schools, programs, and professors that hit a nerd nerve with me. A smattering of concepts include:

• political rhetoric, inspired by my favorite professor senior year
• public policy
• global communications, inspired by a 2 year program through the London School of Economics and the Annenberg School at USC
• urban planning/city design
• nonprofit management
• business --don't laugh, I'm serious and I have my reasons.
• development/women's issues related programs.

I want to bring both a solid knowledge of material and a real skill set to what I do in the future, and I think a combination of work experience and more school is the way to go. Any insight into what YOU see me doing, or programs you've heard good things about?

On a completely unrelated tangent: I love cooking. I bought a set of cookbooks, and had a little internal monologue about needing to cook more often, and bring leftovers to work. Cooking's also such an easy way to entice friends over for dinner and dessert, and gratefully fed friends often bring wine :). Made delicious chili corn cakes, baked apples with balsamic, and some other tasty things (inquire for recipes), and I'll post recipes/photos as I get more creative. I also baked two batches of treats without burning them, a little more cautious after I charred two sheets of chocolate chip cookies I'd been daydreaming about.

One final note: I am reading like a fiend, due to my onset of desire to learn/think. Suggestions are welcomed, and I'm accumulating what is a pretty intense library of my books and a friend's books I'm babysitting for the year. Let's give/borrow/discuss? There's been murmurings of an actual bookclub, on the heels of our Twitter book club attempt, and I'd be so down.

The Happy List

Trying to write more on the Happy List. Check it out! Ladies, let's get back to posting more often, everything you add makes me smile too.

Always helps put things in perspective. If you want to get in on the catharsis and be added as a contributor, let me know!

Getting Involved

I'm all signed up to volunteer at Wine Riot next weekend! Sponsored by the Second Glass and the Weekly Dig, Wine Riot's goal is to ignore the snobbery of other wine tasting events, and get a younger, less stiff crowd involved. As part of this, they offered a free voucher for one of the sessions to people who would volunteer at another session. I'll be working set-up Friday morning, and then going to the night session on Saturday with the girls! Danielle has been really into wine lately and sparked some interest on my end, and this is a freeee way to get some new insight/a good buzz. I finish classes tomorrow, so it'll be a great way to celebrate!

I'm also planning to volunteer at the United Nations Association of Greater Boston's [UNAGB] Consuls Ball next weekend. My student group on campus, the Northeastern United Nations Association, works with UNAGB to host and staff Model UN conferences for middle and high school students. The ball is the big fundraiser for their Global Classrooms program, and I'm hoping to be able to talk up Northeastern's involvement as well as do a little on-the-sly networking for my jobless self.

To round off my volunteer excitement , my old roommate Sam is a project leader for Boston Cares, and I signed up to play with cats at the MSPCA with her on a few Saturdays in May! Boston Cares is a great volunteer organization that allows people to sign up for various projects and events without a long-term commitment, but lets them take advantage of free time they have to give back a little. I want to look into a few regular volunteer opportunities once we finish moving to Brookline as well.

One last volunteer/community give-back note: found HandsIn during some poking around on Twitter. Check it out! Their mission reads:

HandsIn harnesses the unique energy and creative passion of 20-somethings, inspiring them to connect with each other through volunteerism and empowering them to change their world through dedicated service and a shared commitment to a sustainable lifestyle.

As the world changes, the means of service are changing too, and this is definitely not your grandmother’s community service and lifestyle network. Instead, HandsIn uses the strength of what’s new and different to tackle the real problems of today’s world.

Change starts with you. Join HandsIn today to become a powerful agent of 21st century transformation!

Sounds like a plan to me!