My Slice of Life

Ain’t that the truth? Soon enough. (Taken with Instagram)

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 16:34:05 -0400

Ain’t that the truth? Soon enough. (Taken with Instagram)

"Never forget what took me a lifetime to learn: you have only one heart; be true to it."

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 20:01:32 -0400

“Never forget what took me a lifetime to learn: you have only one heart; be true to it.”

- Beyond Borders

Blue Angels flying right over us! Happy Fourth of July :) ...

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 19:48:08 -0400

Blue Angels flying right over us! Happy Fourth of July :) (Taken with Instagram)

5 Different Places You May Live in During College

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:50:00 -0400

This week, I’m back in New York at my old stomping grounds (Go Pride!) for some career help and graduation parties. Although I only graduated a mere month ago, I feel surprisingly distanced from the life I had here, now that I’m an official “adult” (ew, when did that happen?). Yesterday, just for kicks and giggles, I drove around this ghetto college town (the town is ghetto, not the college. LOL love ya Hempstead!) and found myself navigating toward the various places I lived during my college career. And I thought about how different they all were, and how aptly they fit with how my life was going at that point in time. Here are 5 different places you may live in while at college.

1. Double Dorm Room, All-Girls High-Rise Tower: The first place I ever lived in at school was your standard dorm room, with two beds, two closets, and not nearly enough space for two girls to share comfortably. It was also the only all-girls residential building on campus. Now I’m not saying I’m boy crazy or anything, but I’m COMPLETELY BOY CRAZY and thoroughly enjoy hanging out with the male species. So needless to say, I cursed whatever god decided it would be funny to place me in the all-girls tower. How did I end up there, you may ask, when the majority of my freshman class ended up in the suite-style residence halls that were all grouped together in a way that forced everyone there to become BFFs instantly? Because I didn’t fill out the residential paperwork correctly. Yes, the naive little freshman that I was couldn’t even fill out a form right, and therefore was stuck in an estrogen-fueled building filled with high-pitched voices, the occasional cat fight, and too much hair clogging up the showers. Oh, and my roommate had narcolepsy, so there was that.

2. Suite, where you can pretty much do whatever you want: I smartened up my sophomore year and figured out how to correctly fill out the damn paperwork. I was placed in a suite with three of my girlfriends, complete with our own bathroom, a common area, and a kitchen (LOL JK, we had a microwave and a mini-fridge.) We lived next door to a bunch of great guys (BOYS, FINALLY!) who ended up becoming some of our best friends. Suites are the best way to live on a college campus, mostly because the RAs already know that you have friends, which means you are a social person who may or may not enjoy drinking, drugs, and/or dancing to an iPod blasting “Call Me Maybe” on repeat with your suite-mates. They expect that. Once, there was a knock at our front door, so I opened it, with my very own Captain Morgan bottle in hand, and was face-to-face with an RA. He looked at me, smirked, and said, “We’re gonna try this again. Next time, when I knock, you’re going to open the door without any alcohol in your hand. K?” No write-up, no lecture, nothing. That’s just how it is when you live in a suite. You can pretty much do whatever you damn well please because it’s expected.

3. Sorority-But-Not-Sorority House: Greek life wasn’t my thing in college, but I did have a group of close-knit girlfriends who all decided our junior year that we wanted to get a house off-campus like all our other friends. So the six of us found a place and moved in together. This is the house where you will learn the most about yourself, because you will have chosen your own roommates and your own furniture, and you no longer have to follow campus rules. You can no longer complain to your RA if your neighbor is playing Call of Duty on the highest volume level during finals week. You can no longer call campus security to pick you up from a nearby frat party because you’re too drunk to even see the cars on the street, let alone dodge them if need be. No, no - this will be the first time you’re really on your own. You’ll learn how you want to be treated by friends; what bullshit you will and will not put up with; whether or not you really want to try that weird drug you’ve never heard of that everyone else is taking for the party tonight. You’ll make your own decisions. Some friendships with strengthen, others will end abruptly. At the end of junior year, only two of mine came out in tact. You will learn to accept that, because that’s just the way life is. The people who are meant to stay in your life, will.

4. Apartment, next door to your landlord: After the clusterf*ck that was living in a house with five other girls, I decided to change it up senior year and move into a small apartment near school with one other girl. Sure, we could have just moved back on campus, but we agreed that it somehow would have felt like we were moving backward. We had already had the sometimes-sweet-sometimes-bitter taste of freedom, and we didn’t want to give it back. Anyway, the only apartment that was within our budget, close to our school, and that didn’t have spiders crawling out of the walls just so happened to be directly next to our landlord’s apartment. Needless to say, if you ever live in an apartment like this, you will constantly be on your best behavior. That means no parties, no loud music, no playing tag in the middle of the night (What? We were drunk and bored, don’t judge.) Because of this, you will feel like you have aged twenty years in the time it took to unpack your Britney Spears poster (seriously, stop judging me) and bright pink comforter. My roommate and I sipped on red wine now instead of taking turns downing vodka shots. We did our homework instead of inviting friends over for movie nights when we used to squeal (loudly) over Ryan Gosling and/or Channing Tatum. We took out the trash on time, fixed our own sink pipes, and had the rent check in by the first of every month, slipped right under our landlord’s door neatly sealed in a clean, white envelope. We felt cool for a while, I remember; older and more mature than our silly friends out doing their keg stands and smoking their pot and hooking up with various boys. But after a while, we were beyond over it. And while some girls would have been perfectly happy doing what we were doing (more power to you!), we were simply trying to be something that we weren’t. We were out of there halfway through the year.

5. Apartment, where everything will come full circle: The last place you may live in during college, whether it be an apartment, a house or a dorm room, will be the place where it all comes together. I shared my last apartment with three of my best girlfriends, but it was more than that. The last place you live in during college will be visited by more people than any of your other places, because this will be the time when everyone realizes that you’re all leaving, and that no matter what may have happened during the time you spent together at school - growing up, growing apart, growing different - the ones who are meant to stay in your life, will. That’s why this apartment will see your old roommate from freshman year. It will see your first college boyfriend, the one who broke your heart but also made you strong. It will see the guys you lived next door to sophomore year, and the girls who you once called your sisters, if only for a year or so. It will see the people who were there from the beginning, and it will see all the new and wonderful people you met along the way. You will want to invite them all over to your last place, and they will invite you over to theirs. Your last place will be the place where everything comes full circle, where you will realize that the people who are meant to stay in your life, will.

jaclynday: What I’ve Read: 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James I’m...

Tue, 26 Jun 2012 21:27:25 -0400

jaclynday:

What I’ve Read: 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James

I’m not quite sure where to start here. First, let me just confirm what you already know. Spoiler alert! The writing sucks. It sucks so hard that you almost can’t believe it. I could feel my brain cells dying. And that’s not the only reason the cells were dropping off like flies. It’s also boring.

Second, let me just clue all of you in on a little secret. If you want to read about sex, people having sex, people enjoying sex, people having smutty sex, people having BDSM sex, THIS IS NOT YOUR ONLY OPTION. (Here’s the link to Literotica. You’re welcome.)

I was discussing this book with a few friends last week and they said, “Yeah, it’s terrible, but the sex scenes were so good!” So, what you’re saying is that I should sit through hundreds of pages of an abusive relationship, shitty characters that I hated from page one and the most godawful writing I’ve read in years because it has SEX IN IT?

I’m sorry, but no. No. No. No. Good erotica exists. This is not it. This will NEVER be it. If you want sex scenes, look elsewhere. If you’re looking for a love story, this is not it. If you’re wanting an entertaining beach read, Andy Cohen wrote a good one.

You know what really pisses me off about this book? It’s insulting, on top of which, it worked. Millions of women reading this thinking that BDSM sounds so glamorous, and oh, Ana has such an enviable life with her handsome abusive sex master, why can’t I have that life?

Because that life would SUCK. Newsflash! You can have BDSM sex and be in a loving, caring relationship. Yep, that’s a real thing. You don’t need some pseudo-English accent speaking multimillionaire with mommy issues swooping down to control your life.

Basically, I’m just sick to death of reading books that play off the lowest common denominator in their blatant push to appeal to a female audience. Romance, sex, handsome guys? Sure, I’ll take it all. But don’t insult me in the process. Don’t assume I have to imagine myself being utterly controlled to enjoy those things. I’ll be the first to admit I read Twilight and found the series entertaining. I watch the movies too. Do I think that they contain some pretty shitty messages in general, but especially for women—young, impressionable women in particular? Yep. I definitely do. But, if you’ll recall, in Twilight, Bella—while mostly a naive dolt—also makes a few decisions of her own. Maybe stupid ones sometimes, but at least she makes them of her own accord while everyone around her tries to convince her otherwise. Guess what Ana does? She’ll limply protest Christian for a few mind-numbing paragraphs before she inevitably gives in, whether it’s because he’s ploying her with sex or money or emotional mind-games or whatever other currency she seems to value more than her own brain at that particular moment.

I know some people say, “Well, I don’t take it seriously, but it’s an entertaining book.” Bullshit. Insulting your intelligence with this book is not entertaining. Enjoying the blow-by-blow breakdown of getting sucked into an abusive relationship is not entertaining. But what about the sex, you say? Sex is entertaining, sure, so go have it yourself. Or read some quality erotica. OR! Go see Magic Mike.

So far, I whole-heartedly agree with all of the above. But I’m only on page 100, so maybe my thoughts will change! We shall see.

"There are the people who are right for you on paper, and then there are the people who are just..."

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 17:47:33 -0400

“There are the people who are right for you on paper, and then there are the people who are just right.”

- Private Practice

villainsalwaysblinktheireyes: best. movie. Precisely.

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 16:51:47 -0400

villainsalwaysblinktheireyes:

best. movie.

Precisely.

You don’t know what we’ve been through, that...

Thu, 24 May 2012 08:40:47 -0400

You don’t know what we’ve been through, that (boy)’s my best friend.

When I haven't unpacked from college yet and have nothing to wear

Wed, 23 May 2012 15:01:53 -0400

whatshouldbetchescallme:

My life, currently.

I can’t believe how fast these four years have gone by....

Sun, 20 May 2012 19:42:10 -0400

I can’t believe how fast these four years have gone by. Honestly I feel like freshman orientation was yesterday. But through all the ups and downs, I had the time of my life and met some amazing people along the way. I’ll miss you, Class of 2012. “You’ll be with me, like a handprint on my heart.”

Graduation gifts! Congrats Class of 2012 :) we did it!!

Sun, 20 May 2012 12:06:58 -0400

Graduation gifts! Congrats Class of 2012 :) we did it!!

"And I can’t stand the way people say ‘when I was a child, I loved elephants’ or..."

Thu, 17 May 2012 23:21:27 -0400

“And I can’t stand the way people say ‘when I was a child, I loved elephants’ or ‘when I was a child, I loved balloons.’ Are they trying to say that if they stopped and looked at a balloon or an elephant today, they would not love it? Why would they not love it? I think we still love what we always loved.”

- Wallace Shawn, The Fever

the people I’ll miss the most after Sunday. can’t...

Thu, 17 May 2012 16:46:58 -0400

the people I’ll miss the most after Sunday. can’t believe it’s almost here #bestfriends #hofstra2012 (Taken with instagram)

jhnmyr: The official release copy of Born and Raised (just...

Thu, 17 May 2012 16:30:31 -0400

jhnmyr:

The official release copy of Born and Raised (just opened) next to the track list on my refrigerator since 5/11. Keep working for that final product. You will get there.

He’s baaaAack :)

quote-book: e. e. cummings (via helplesslyamazed) So beautiful

Sat, 12 May 2012 12:59:22 -0400

quote-book:

e. e. cummings (via helplesslyamazed)

So beautiful

Marilyn in Vanity Fair (Taken with instagram)

Thu, 10 May 2012 17:27:34 -0400

Marilyn in Vanity Fair (Taken with instagram)

Playing around with PicFrame

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:06:28 -0400

Playing around with PicFrame

How We Talk About the People We Don't Know Anymore

Wed, 09 May 2012 13:09:54 -0400

How We Talk About the People We Don't Know Anymore

WHEN I SHARE MY LUNCH WITH THE HOFSTRA CAT BY ABP

Wed, 02 May 2012 15:22:35 -0400

hofstraproblems:

"Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absentminded. Someone sober will worry about things going..."

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:47:00 -0400

“Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy,
absentminded. Someone sober
will worry about things going badly.
Let the lover be.”

- Rumi (via Swanfeather Songs)