Do you want something to drink?

A friend recently asked for advice on how to enjoy coffee, especially in the business world. Other than the fact that I am a coffee lover, I'm not sure how my History/Comm degrees qualify me for explaining the importance of coffee in the business world, but I am an ardent coffee drinker, so I guess that counts for something. So I'm going to try to explain what you should/ should not order while having coffee in a business setting.

The most important thing to remember while enjoying your coffee is that even if you hate coffee you are enjoying your coffee. That means no making faces, no adding insane amounts of cream or sugar, and above all else no ordering tea instead.

Part I: Sending someone to get your coffee.

If you are sending Intern Rick out to get coffee from a coffee shop, keep your order simple. Ordering an iced half skim/ half 1% soy decaf no-foam fat-free vanilla latte is far too complicated and most likely Intern Rick will have some sort of nervous breakdown trying to remember it and you DON'T want to be the guy/gal who had to write their order down. My golden rule for asking ANYBODY to go get me a drink (which is rare) is this: you can make ONE personalization. If you are ordering a vanilla latte, you can make it skim, soy, decaf, no-foam, OR fat-free. Pick one. Having a personalized order beyond one degree is both difficult to remember and makes you look more than a little pretentious.

Finally, it is nice to keep your order the same from day to day. If your drink is the skinny vanilla latte, then each time someone goes out for coffee, you should order a skinny vanilla latte. It just makes things easier for poor Intern Rick.

Part II: At the Coffee Shop

Okay, so you are at the coffee shop. There are a million choices and personalizations you can choose from but be careful because you are only as strong as your drink. If you are unsure of what you want to order, then I suggest you enjoy a house blend with max 1.5 tablespoons of cream/milk. If you use milk you may have at max 2 packs of sugar but do not use more. Be careful with the amount of creamer you use because your coffee should be at the lightest the color of milk chocolate.

If you want a fancier drink, then stay with the espresso-based drinks and do not drink anything with "frozen," "iced" or "Frapuccino" in the name. Also remember that if you order a straight espresso you do not get a lot of beverage but it is incredibly bitter and very caffeinated. Be wary of the lattes and when in doubt, mochas are your friends.

Most coffee shops have some sort of food available but as a general rule, you don't want to be eating while you are having your meeting. You're going out for coffee, not lunch.

Part III: In the Break Room

Okay, so this one is pretty easy because unlike the coffee shop, there are not a million options. There's the Mr. Coffee which might be out of filters this morning. In this case, you will enjoy whatever coffee it makes and follow the same milk/cream/sugar rules as stated before.

So quick recap:

1) No matter what, you are enjoying your coffee.

2) You can have it your way, but don't get crazy.

3) Your drink should never be lighter than milk chocolate.

4) Be Kind to Intern Rick.

This is what my Week/ Fall Break is going to Look Like:

So, as we all know it is that time of year again (whatever that means....I'm pretty sure "that time of year" happens every couple of months) which means that we are all insanely busy and things are getting backed up, friends are getting neglected, and life is just spinning wildly out of control.

Okay, so it isn't that bad.

Right now, I am taking a break from studying for my (second) American City exam. What do you mean by second? Well, we had one on Wednesday, too. And we're going to have a "take home" exam due on Monday. I love my American Cities professor but sometimes I wonder if he is aware that some of us have other classes other than his...oh well. It's his last semester so I guess there's no real reason to bring it up now. I also have a paper due tomorrow which I haven't started but will and it will get finished tonight (hopefully by 8pm).

Tomorrow, after my exam and I turn in my paper, I will head down to the GAA to pick up not one, not two, but three assignments. I have a sneaky feeling that they're going to want these back before Fall Break (which as we all know starts Wednesday), so this will most likely shoot all of my weekend fun out the window. I'm pretty sure if I plan it right, though, I can definitely finish all three by Wednesday.

After my GAA meeting I will then go to work. 2:30-6. Followed hopefully by our traditional sushi dinner and then off to the Dean Dome for Late Night With Roy. I've never been and I don't care how busy I am, I am a SENIOR and I WILL be going! Nothing can stop me. Nothing.

Somewhere in all of that, I will also hopefully be sleeping. I've already let my parents know that when I get home, I'm probably going to just pass out for a day or two and that they shouldn't really expect anything of greatness from me until Friday at the earliest.

I wonder if I could finish my script over fall break....it's an interesting idea. I'm certainly going to try, if the writing juices are flowing properly.

Goth.

It's not about wearing black eyeliner and chalk white makeup. It's not about the devil. It's not about death.

The trouble with any subculture is that the mainstream community usually has some sort of misconception about it, and because human nature is what it is, these misconceptions usually lead to trepidation, misgivings, and fear. So, let me take a moment to tell you what goth means to me, your humble closeted goth girl.

Let us look first at the history of the word "goth." A goth was a term used to describe anything "non-Roman." The Goths were a tribe of people who did not take to being "conquered" by the Romans in the early part of the first millenium. The Romans brought with them a new way of life which stood to undermine every part of the Goth's heritage and culture. If this would happen today, people would be outraged and white girls would probably host a 5K.

But that was thousands of years ago. The world was different. How does this pertain to the "goth" subculture of today? It might sound super cliched, but the goth subculture is to an extent an attempt to fight back the "Roman" (read mainstream) influences on our lives. It's a mindset, not a fashion, though we often use fashion to express ourselves. What's the easiest way to show that we do not go along with the mainstream? Dress against the mainstream.

But Goth is much more than a reactionary effort. My experience with goth has led me to believe that it is about honesty. The type of honesty that people are afraid to admit. It's that honest little voice that tells us life is hard and the same voice that tells us it's okay to be sad sometimes. Our society has had this obsession with happiness ever since some guy who wore knickers declared that we have a right to it. But sometimes, it's okay to be unhappy. Bad things happen to good people because that's the way life works.

I think a major misconception that a lot of people have about goths is that they are sad people, but if you ever meet some, you will find that a lot of times they are in fact incredibly happy individuals who love life. Part of this love I think comes from the fact that they accept the good and the bad that comes their way.

Another misconception is the notion of religion. While yes, there are many among the goth community who are either atheistic or worship some form of "pagan" religion...there is even a satanic church, many goths do not. Worshiping the devil is NOT a requirement to being Goth. I am a perfect example of that: I consider myself to be a closeted goth girl, yet I am a devout Catholic.

And finally, we don't all wear black. I wear Carolina Blue and paint my face on game day. I wear reds and purples and a few teals. I do not wear all black. I don't need to in order to fit into the mold of being a goth. There is no formal dress code.

So there you go...I know that from that little blurb there is a lot left unsaid about the goth subculture, but hopefully some misconceptions have been corrected.

So....last week I wrote a pretty hateful Post...

about all the things I hate. Today I'm going to dedicate my post to all the things I love.

1. My Peter Pan Coffee mug. It holds the perfect amount of coffee and is really pretty. I'm a big Peter Pan fan and I like carrying with me a reminder of being young at heart. I think holding onto a youthful spirit is one of the most important things you can try to do in this life.

2. My giant gothy wall clock. This is literally a wall clock. It's a wall which has become a clock. Actually, it's a wall with a giant clock sticker on it and a small clock hand thing in the middle, but it's still REALLY cool. And, now I know what time it is in my room without having to find my cell phone!!

3. The air on the first days of autumn. That almost cool, crisp air and sort of wakes you up in the morning and makes sweaters required...that air is heavenly. I love it. Especially when there is a slight breeze to go along with it. Not too strong, but just a sort of "hi, how are you?" type of breeze. This brings me to...

4. Sleeping with the window open. I can't really do this in Chapel Hill for safety concerns, but when I was a kid in the summer, I would sleep with the window open which was amazing. This practice was partially because I liked it and partially out of necessity (we don't have A/C out there). The only downside was if I had my lamp on, bugs would come in and that was bad news.

6. Alice in Wonderland. I guess this ties back to the whole Peter Pan thing again, but I love the idea of keeping a sense of wonder about you. Yes, I know that Lewis Carrol is a little strange/ druggie/ might have been Jack the Ripper? But I like the idea of imagination.

7. The way Swain Media Labs smell. It's comforting and familiar now...whenever I stumble into it at 2am to get some work done, it makes me feel glad to be back. This was never more true than when I got back into Swain after a summer of being banished to the MRC "media lab." It was good to be home.

8. Extra-Crunchy Leaves. Yeah....I'll go out of my way to step on one.

9. Gothic Novels- Because they are ridiculous and amazing. Because they are som completely a break from reality. Because so often they are rather poorly written but the stories will pull you in better than anythign I know. They are simply fun.

10. Last but certainly not least (and actually possibly most): My friends. You all keep me sane, or insane, whichever it may be. I really can't imagine my life without you guys and in all likely hoods, it would be far less interesting without you all. It seems so weird that we've only known each other a few years because honestly it seems like a lifetime.

So there you go...ten of my favorite things to go along with my list of things I hate from last week. Time to go get my laundry from downstairs.

Things I hate Today

So....have you ever had a morning where you woke up and for no real reason, you decide that you just hate some things? Maybe you don't wake up with a full list, but as your day continues, you realize slowly but surely that things that may be everyday occurrences suddenly and without warning make you so filled with unexplainable/uncontrollable rage and/or hate. Usually, this comes at the end of what is referred to as a "sneaky hate spiral" (http://www.hyperboleandahalf.com), but sometimes....there's no spiral about it. You just hate.

It's not even 10am but here are some things that I hate today:

1. Wet leaves. These things are disgusting and they stick on the back of my legs and are gross and I want to kill them all. And what's worse is that they ALWAYS stick to that one part of your leg where it's just too difficult or awkward to casually brush it off and so you end up spinning around yourself trying to get a stupid leaf off of you and end up looking like a moron. This might be amplified by the fact that I am already an uncoordinated and ungraceful person.

2. Pedestrians. I know that this was a kvetch a few weeks ago in the Daily Tar Heel, but there are 12 crosswalks on Cameron Avenue between Columbia and Raleigh Street....for the love of all that is Holy, USE THEM!!!!! This brings me to my next hated thing...

3. Drivers who let EVERYONE cross the street. I understand that there are rushes and a driver can't just start plowing through folks after they've had enough waiting, but we've all been behind that one idiot who, after a good 40 second stream of pedestrians, sees a straggler maybe thirty feet off, not moving particularly fast, and decides to wait and then wave them across the street. OMG Just move!!! Someone else can let the kid cross the street! Because of course what always happens is that by the time the straggler kid gets to the crosswalk, there's another rush about to start so it's another 20-30 second wait.

4. Umbrellas left in the breezeway. Okay folks, I know you don't want a wet umbrella inside, but don't make everyone else in the building try (and ultimately fail) to step around it so we can get to our mailboxes. Rude. We all have a linoleum entrance "square" inside our units...put the stupid umbrella THERE to dry.

5. Public Transportation. Alright, let me clarify: public transportation is an amazing idea. However, it can be exceedingly ridiculous at times. I have a class at 8am. If I want to take a bus, I have to be at the bus stop at 7:10. FIFTY MINUTES before classtime. The entire bus ride is maybe 8 minutes. Now, if you look at the schedule, you will see that the bus I need is scheduled to arrived at 7:24, and if it did arrive at 7:24, that would be fantastic and while a little early, not so early as to cause a fuss. But, the bus doesn't come at 7:24. It comes sometime between 7:12 and 7:22. Calling Chapel Hill Transit has thus far proved unhelpful except that they confirmed that the bus is suppose to be at the stop at 7:24. I think so far this semester, the 7:24 bus has been on time maybe three times.

Okay, so a lot of this had to do with general transportation, mainly because we have a tropical depression hitting campus which is really fouling up all forms of movement, be it walking, driving, or riding the bus. I'm sure that this hate was also compounded by the fact that the rain kept me awake all night and I didn't get up early enough to make coffee this morning.

Trust the Process.

That's what my professor said today in class while talking about writing. It struck me, though.

Trust the process.

Trust the process.

Trust the process.

I want to try something in my life: I want to trust the process. I know everyone is stressing out about what they are going to be doing after graduation- graduate school, job, etc, but I think I am just going to trust the process. This doesn't mean that I'm not going to actively look for jobs (okay, real talk...I'm already looking around), but instead of stressing out about it for the next 7.5 months, I'm just going to trust the process.

Because what happens will happen.

I might not get a job after I graduate. Most of us won't but we have to come to terms with the fact that that is okay. It's not great. It's not wonderful. But it won't be the cataclysmic end of the world like we fear. It will happen eventually. We just need to trust the process.

In other news. I am coming to some understanding of what I want to do upon graduation...at least narrowing the field from no effing clue to something in a general vicinity: writing/ publishing. Wouldn't it be great to just sit down and spit out the next Harry Potter or (gulp dare I say it) Twilight? As much as we want to convince ourselves that Twilight sucks, Stephanie Meyer made BANK. SO much bank that she doesn't have to worry about whether she is respected in the literary world....she can just go home and cry into her giant bags of money while her literary-minded critics go back to their one-bedroom flat above a Greek restaurant.

But I digress.....there's at least a plan now. Wish me luck! And don't forget...Trust the Process.

Welcome Back!

So, this week was a wonderful week filled with reunions w/ people I missed over the summer and the semi-excitement of classes starting up again. I can honestly say that I'm very excited about my classes because I'm not taking anything if I don't want to anymore...that's right. I'm a senior and I'm done with all of my requirements!!! Hooray!!!

So this semester I've got Audio Production (possibly the only class that could have gotten me up for an 8am), Russian Revolution, 19th/20th C. American Cities, 19th Century British Lit, Character Archetypes in Screen writing, and Writing the Feature Film.

But that's a lot of classes....

I know, it's the first time I'm attempting 18 hours, but I think I can handle it and honestly I would be heartbroken to drop any of these classes. My Wednesdays are pretty awkweird, however, because I have class from 11am until 9pm w/ two one hour breaks in there somewhere. If anyone wants to start getting dinner w/ me on Franklin Street on Wednesdays between five and six, please let me know.

It was a little strange on the first day of classes because this IS senior year and for some unexplainable reason, it does feel different. I'm trying to get over that and channel it into the Gosh Darn It, I've never had all A's in my entire academic career (save that one semester in 5th grade) and by God this is the time to do it! Wish me luck...I hope this holds out until Fall Break in any case.

I was going to take this time to tell you some amazing stories from the summer/ last two weeks, but alas I have a bus to catch to make it to class today, so I will come back to it perhaps tomorrow. Happy Friday!

It's Official!!!

Our Deep South Generation Now show has been confirmed so I can now give you all the delicious details!

When: August 19th. Doors at 7, show starts at 10.

Where: Deep South the Bar in downtown Raleigh. It's near the train tracks. Google Maps will help you (I honestly don't know how to give directions to the place).

Why: Because you are awesome and you like awesome music and you want to support awesome music. Also, you want to make your dear friend (me!) not look like a complete idiot.

Okay, so you're all excited about the show now, but you're wondering what the show is exactly. We will be featuring the musical talents of Doombunny and Dizzy Smith, two local bands from the Raleigh/ Chapel Hill area. It's going to be a great show and I know I'm shamelessly using this blog to promote this event, but it's going to be a really good show that I think you all will love.

Oh yes...$5 cover. Sorry.

A Day in the Life, or Why I Hate Joe Biden

Sometimes, I'm not sure if my life is a sitcom or an after school special. Regardless of genre, it's always interesting and sure to keep me and everyone around me on our toes. Let's just look at yesterday, shall we?

I wake up feeling pretty good about life; my alarm clock hadn't gone off and I was feeling incredibly well rested. After breakfast and caring for a sort-of-migraine-y roommate, I decided that I would go to my internship early so I could stop by Barnes and Noble and gift browse since the fall birthday season is upon us.

But then, in one of those shots where the camera zoom in and the background does that weird thing, I realized that my car had been left in it's convenient-yet-illegal parking spot from last night. I raced outside and sure enough, Denty was gone. Surprisingly, I didn't panic immediately. Called the towing company (which is really one man named "T-Roy") and sure enough, my car was there. He told me he would let me have my car back for the low low fee of $150 cash.

What college kid has $150 CASH lying around?

So Christina took me to Harris Teeter and I got the cash back so now I have $150 in cash. We go to find this place, which is on the other side of Carrboro, and after a few minutes, T-Roy pulls up, opens the gate and takes my money. He might have said three words during this whole thing.

In any case, we try to get home, get sort of lost because of construction detours, but eventually make it. I'm still not panicking, but do feel pretty lousy for being out $150 for being stupid. I pick up a few things and head first to my on-campus internship to fill out time sheets, then on to Barnes and Noble to finally do some gift browsing, though now I have about an hour left.

And it is here, my friends, that the panicking starts. I don't know why and I can't really explain it, but I just started to feel so very very lousy about the whole incident. Maybe it was because this was the second time in a week my car has been involved in some sort of drama (rear-ended last week on 54), but I really wasn't feeling it. I left Barnes and Noble and headed over to Deep South not in the perkiest of moods. But Deep South is always good for making me feel better and after editing photos for 4 hours, I was back in semi-high spirits, though I was surprisingly very nervous while driving home.

Now, this is where we get to my hate for Joe Biden. I've had a relatively rotten day and I have plans to hang out with friends and relax and there really is very little that is going to keep me from this. Unfortunately, the Chapel Hill police dept have other ideas. I get to Chapel Hill and Country Club is closed. Fine. Stay on south and head up Raleigh. I'm only trying to get to Hillsborough, so it shouldn't be hard. Alas...Raleigh is closed. I asked the traffic guy at Raleigh what was going on. In a very frank and "are-you-kidding-me?" way, he responded "The Vice President of the United States," as if just saying Joe Biden would have gone right over my silly head... I asked what else was closed. Franklin, Rosemary, Cameron, parts of Columbia/MLK, and further up parts of South (which made no sense). He then said it would last about 30 minutes.

I'm not a patient person, and the first thing I could think of shouting was JOE BIDEN WILL NOT KEEP ME FROM MY HOME!!!! I made a U-turn and headed towards Manning, as calmly as any insanely angry person could. I get to the Manning/ 15-501 intersection and there is a CAR stalled in the middle. I rationalized this to being Joe Biden's fault. Further up, there was a lot of construction which caused a delay. I probably more accurately credited Biden for this malady as well. Later, after finding Estes and sneaking back onto MLK, I see that traffic is backed up. I've met the closed part of MLK. An officer came up and I explained that I just needed to get to Bolinwood (which was up a few dozen feet past where the stop was), and I guess I looked pretty desperate/crazy because she left me go.

I got home, angry, tired, and twenty minutes later than I had intended, but in my mind, I beat Joe Biden, and that was the important thing.

Joe Biden. I don't like him.

The Journey to Jordan Lake

Today, Christina and I decided that we wanted to go nature walking/ hiking at Jordan Lake. We got all ready and I mapquested directions. This was my first mistake. See...MapQuest has a misguided assumption that you know in general where you are going, and so gives you directions accordingly.

But nethertheless, we headed out with full confidence that we would have a great day at the lake and still make it home in time for me to pick up another friend at the airport and for Christina to get on skype.

The directions said to take Mt. Carmel Church Rd off of 15/501. We did not find this place and suddenly wound up in Pittsboro, very confused. We stopped at an Exxon station and talked to a rather displeased and grouchy woman.

"Um..we're looking for 64 West?"
"Where are you trying to go?"
"Um...64...West."
"No, where are you going?"
"Jordan Lake?"
"Okay, well, if you're going THERE, you need to get out to this stoplight. Do you see the stoplight? There's a stoplight. When you get THROUGH the stoplight you'll make a left and get into your far most lane....to the right. Then you'll get on 64 and Jordan Lake is right there."

This woman seemed very annoyed that we had interrupted her day to ask directions. But we followed them to the best of our ability/ my own personal willingness, which brought us through the stoplight. I then decided to follow my flawless navigational instincts and go LEFT onto 64 West, because that was the road we were originally looking for. It took about five minutes for us to realize this was wrong (okay, Christina knew the whole time, but I'm stubborn) and turn around. We did find the road where Jordan Lake was off of and got very excited. But then we saw the booth and it is here we met the Ginger.

The Ginger walked out and said it was $6 to park. Christina and I looked at each other. $6?! I asked if he took debit and he said no. I then asked if he could be cool and just let us go, but he also said no. He then said there was an ATM just a little further back the way we came, so we turned around.

There was a plywood box next to the road. I'm not sure if that was the ATM or not, but it was in the yard of two doublewides that had been tied together with what looked to be chicken wire, so I wasn't so keen on finding out. We decided that we might want to cut our losses, since we had been in the car for over 50 minutes to find a place that was 16 miles away. We decided to follow the MapQuest directions back to see if they were right.

We didn't get a chance to find out if they were right or not, because I saw a sign that pointed to Durham and turned there before I could see the road sign. We had gotten onto NC 751. Neither of us had heard of this, but because I am a stubborn driver, I forged ahead while Christina rolled her eyes and tried to convince me to turn around. A half a dozen dairy farms later, I decide to call my mom, who for some reason couldn't understand that we were on NC 751 and was convinced we had already passed I-40, which we hadn't. Knowing that 751 eventually led to 40 was enough information for me, and with a bit more confidence, we continued.

Turns out, 751 comes out near Southpoint, and there was much rejoicing. To celebrate, we went to PETCO and looked at the cats.

We returned home after two confusing hours and without any hiking whatsoever.