Austin City Limits = New (boy)Friends

So it seems like everyone and their mom, or more likely their for year old child, was at ACL this weekend. Being the independent woman I am I strolled down to zilker all on my own this weekend to enjoy my first ever ACL experience. Some people might find it weird that I didn't have a designated group to hang with, but in truth most of my close friends were not in attendance this year and honestly I was pretty justified in believing that I would bump into people once I got there. Most importantly, I went for the music and being part of a group means bring subject to the musical tastes of others. I wanted the freedom to see exactly who I wanted to see, no arguments, bo compromise, no judgement. Being me I of course made some new friends in the process. Friday's massive heat lead me to the misters where I came across a trio of music festival junkies from albuquerque. They regaled me with their stories of showering in sinks when they camped out at sasquatch and were happy to inform me that althoughthey were all over thirty, none of them were married as that would require them to give up their freedom to travel to every major festival in the country. I would like to think if I were married I would let my husband take his weekend trips with the guys, but I'm not exactly the standard for girls. I had the pleasure of bumping into an old friend from high school and spent some time at the strokes concert with him and his family. He informed me that my first high school boyfriend is now planning to pop the question to his current lady...weird. But the most important thing that happened this weekend, side from the must concert which was beyond words, is I met someone completely by chance who ended up reminding me what it feels like to have drama free fun with a guy. Strangely enough he is younger than me, but th has more confidence than many older guys I know. He very clearly has a good heart and being around him was just easy. Perhaps even the recent revelation of my ex's sustained relationship with his not so single friend hasn't completely pushed me into old cat lady territory. I guess for every selfish jerk there is in this world there is a gentleman somewhere to balance him out. It's just a bonus when they kiss like rockstars.

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I'm on the pursuit of Happiness

So I am trying to get a little more organized and actually accomplish legitimate tasks every day. Today I spent at least 2 hours trying to figure out how to get Roadrunner to let more than 1 device connect. See the cool ppl at Time Warner only give u on IP address so I was trying all kinds of crazy things to set manual IPs and private network shenanigans. Finally I figured out there is a setting to share one public IP and have the Apple Time Capsule create IPs for all the devices that connect to the internet through it. Presto, legit wireless network. Awesome! Next up, installing JoliCloud on my Dell. Windows XP is just too heavy of an OS to run well on my little netbook. JoliCloud is amazing. I can actually use Hulu Desktop and the feed doesn't stutter, even without the AC adapter plugged in. Needless to say I am impressed. I have also finally consolidated all of my many email addresses, contacts, and calendars under one Gmail account. All in all I would say a pretty successful day.

I recently moved into a new apartment, my first ever living alone situation. I have met a few of my neighbors, all guys, at the pool. Living alone and working with people much older than me is really cramping my social life. Next task...find some cool people to hang out with, side note, get Zac to stop ignoring me since he is someone cool to hang out with.

Made peace with Matt, that feels really great. Still not at 100% obviously, but doing so so much better. No more unnecessary facebook blurts I swear.

New Campaign: Get Jon to UT over Vanderbilt...we will see how that goes.
Finally...I'm going to write a book, gotta pick one of my many story lines to actually commit to so I will let you know which one I pick, or maybe I will pitch some on here and see which one you like.

That's all for now, off to the hot tub with some neighbors.

The truly tragic passing of an old friend

I was awoken abruptly this morning by a frantic phone call from my mother. She asked me if I had heard about Cameron. I said no and asked what happened, but from the tone of her voice I already knew it couldn't be good. Chances are most of you have already heard or read about the young man who jumped off the empire state building yesterday and that it was 21 year old Cameron Dabaghi, a Junior at Yale University. There are numerous articles, blog posts, and commentaries already out, less than 24 hours after this tragedy. Rather than spend my time posting responses to the insensitive comments thoughtlessly left by people with no connection to Cameron I thought that I would simply make my own contribution here with my own memories of him. I went to school with Cameron starting in preschool and while most of my family and friends will say I am very smart, Cameron was levels above me. He was the smartest of the smart kids at an age when being intelligent didn't usually equate with being popular, even sometimes with teachers. I distinctly remember our fifth grade English teacher constantly having to tell Cameron to put away whatever book he was reading in his lap during class, usually because he already had a firm grasp on whatever lesson she was teaching. He loved to read, he loved to learn, and he wasn't afraid to let people know it. At end of the year award ceremonies we would joke that he might as well just stand up at the front and wait since he was usually the recipient of almost every academic honor, although I think I beat him out for the Spanish award once or twice :) When five of us left our elementary school for a different school in 6th grade, Cameron came along as well and continued to shine. He also developed a great sense of humor that made him an entertaining classmate. I will admit that we were never that close, but it was comforting to have someone around who had always been there, and in many ways Cameron was safety shield for me at a time when I was trying to fit in and was often times embarrassed by being smarter than the kids I wanted to be friends with. Cameron was never embarrassed, not by his intelligence or by his quirky sense of humor, he wasn't afraid to just be himself and I always admired him for that. I can't comment on what he was like more recently, he left our school for Deerfield and aside from the occasional facebook correspondence we lost touch, but his mother and mine would swap updates and it seemed like he was doing well. I obviously now regret the distance that grew between us but I hope that he is in a better place now and that whatever pain caused him to take such drastic action has now been alleviated. I am sincerely sorry for his family and their loss, and for what is really a great loss to the world. I can only hope that the sensational nature of this tragedy will die down and that the online community will allow his family and friends some peace.

Sleepyhead

Major Life Changes since my last posting…

1. I Graduated from college (sort of)

2. I am no longer single…for real this time…no seriously, for real!

3. I realized that if I am ever going to make a legit life plan for myself I cannot seek advice from my dad since I am already pre-programmed to do whatever he wants me too…fail.

 

So yeah, I finished my final semester at ND and am now happily, or at least happier, home in Texas. Despite the two months of pneumonia I managed to finish out the semester with better than decent grades, minus that Lit class that had a 25% participation grade component, kinda hard to fulfill that from bed. I believe I will be getting my diploma in the mail any day now when it will likely be framed and hung in dad’s office until I snatch it for myself. I gave up on the immediate law school plan when I realized that I was once again just deferring to what daddy suggested to avoid having to come up with my own plan. The truth is I have no idea what I want to do, but at least I know a few things I don’t want to do. I don’t want to be a sales drone, I don’t want to be stuck in a cubicle doing monkey work, and I don’t want to work at an office where I am surrounded by people I secretly want to stab with my ball point pen. Aside from that, who knows what I will end up doing with my life. Luckily an ‘07 design alum lives in the Austin area and is going to help me figure out if there are any design related careers I might actually enjoy. So here is to hoping I find employment soon even if it isn’t my dream job at least it will be a starting place and something to make me feel less like a lazy bum with failure to launch syndrome.

On to the second, yes, new boyfriend. Really, really, really wonderful boyfriend. But human, totally human with totally human faults and stupid little things along with adorable moments and gorgeous smile. He is finally the balanced, realistic, un-fake, non girly man that I was starting to think didn’t exist anymore. Someone I can’t help but be completely honest with who treats me like a princess even when I try to stop him. Who knows that as tough as I act I secretly want and need to let someone else take care of me every now and then. Not to say we haven’t had a hiccup or two, but we stay honest and close even through the nasty moments which further proves the unique quality of our relationship. It has been a little strange the past week spending most of my time with him and his friends, feeling a little overwhelmed for sure, but it’s tough when his friend base is here and mine is all over the country. I have plenty of friends in Austin, but I haven’t really lived here in almost four years so I don’t have a set group like he does. So while I already miss him (he went to the Natl Champ game and Vegas for the week) having some time to myself and to see my friends is definitely going to be good for me.

So that is all for now…tomorrow I get to call and see if there is a job for me at my old work to hold me over while I continue my identity quest

A New Life Plan

So I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what on earth I want to do with my life and nothing ever seemed to fit. I got to watch tons of friends discover their passions while I was just floating around in a sea of choice with no direction. But I am happy to announce that I found my path (for now) and will be going to law school in the fall. More importantly, however, I will be graduating from ND this semester and spending the next 7 months in Austin working and enjoying not being a student for the first time since I was about 3 years old. Any of you who know me are probably either thinking, law school? That’s PERFECT! or conversely… law school? WTF? Most of you who think it’s a great match, congratulations, you actually know me, pretty well in fact. Those of you who are totally confused are probably being thrown off by the fact that I just spent 2 years becoming a Graphic Design major and are wondering how on earth that led me to law school. Well, news flash, I am no where near talented or dedicated enough to actually become a designer. I am, however, a kick ass public speaker, and generally a pretty persuasive person. I also don’t actually plan on being a lawyer but rather using a law background to go into international relations. That is where my obsession with foreign languages and cultures comes into play, finally those Chinese classes have a purpose! In alignment with this whole getting involved with other countries thing, I am also starting up a website dedicated to providing trustworthy information about current events and issues on the island of Jamaica as well as info about existing charities and volunteer opportunities. I spent a lot of time in Jamaica as a small child and my family has many friends who have either immigrated to the states or are still living there. There are a lot of issues facing the country that most people don’t even know about, since generally the outside world only thinks of Jamaica in terms of awesome beaches and Bob Marley. So be sure to check out my new blog, Jamaica Beyond the Beach, and wish me luck! (Oh if you want to help out or know anyone who might let me know!)