do it with the bathroom door open

As of tomorrow I am officially moving out of my parents' house for good. I'm sure I thought that very thing as I got onto I465 last November, my car packed full of my things, and headed down South to the land of the pines. This time I do mean it though. I've got a nice little apartment downtown in a cute historic neighborhood called Woodruff Place. There are trees and fountains down the center of the streets and a town hall where neighbors still hold meetings and plan events. I have grand plans for this apartment. Life will be good. No, scratch that, life is good. Mmmm I like being able to say that, though now I've certainly jinxed myself.
The job is good. I'm learning a lot about the inner workings of a magazine while randomly floating around. A small sample of how we spend our days:


Those are my boss's dogs, who accompany her to work every day, eating whipped cream from Starbucks. Other things that have been discussed include killer midget's with boxcutters jumping out of the trees downtown to kill innocent bystanders, penis ties and pictures (this was in an art contest meeting for the children's magazines), the fact that I got a doggy penis stuck in my face (the smallest one in the middle above) and facebook.
I leave you many (and by many I mean few) readers with an excerpt from a Jamie Cullum song that I feel is fitting to my mood these days.

It's just another story caught up
In another photograph I found.
And it seems like another person lived that life a great many years ago from now,
When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.

glad to have a friend like you

the sign of a true friend

• she offers to let you borrow her underwear when you've forgotten yours
• she says if she gets her own place first you can totally...you know...bring guys over
• she comes to get you at 6AM the morning after a late night to take you to your car so you can drive home to your family emergency
• she's there for you after she tried to warn you about him and never says "i told you so"
• she's there for you when you get it right the second time
  
• she reassures you that you're not trashy when you're certain that you are
• she has late night hot pocket eating/kitchen floor posing sessions with you
• you im each other from down the hall. or even better when in the same room
• she laughs at you when you do stupid things like pee in your pants but she never tells anyone
• you can tell her even your most embarrassing thoughts without your face turning red
• sometimes you hate her, but most of the time you love her
• you can call her for no reason at all and end up talking for an hour
• you've read your diaries out loud to each other and died laughing at what they say
• she's been your pee buddy, whether it's in the woods or because the bathroom door is open
• she knows without asking that when you got home from the bars you ordered the big 10 from pizza express
• she's warded off unwanted romantic attention your manager showered on you. countless times.

i will be corny and happy that i have the most lovely girls ever.

deja what?

I've had some very odd dreams lately. They usually include some reference to camp. Other than that, they're pretty random. Last night, in the middle of the part of my dream where a little girl gets kidnapped by a very frightening man in a red shirt, I had dream deja vu. I literally thought, in my dream, I've had this very dream before. I'm not entirely sure if that's true but it was very weird nonetheless. I woke up feeling unsettled.

This weekend has been fairly enlightening. I discovered that it's much easier to trash talk someone to their face when they are drunk. OK, trash talk is a bit strong. Let's go with telling someone that you really think they're a dirtbag because of certain things they've done to certain friends. I also discovered that it's easier than I thought to be friends with someone I didn't really want to see again a short three months ago. And taking a step back as I have now makes me see clearly the reasons that we didn't have a whole lot of contact for awhile. Funny how those things become blurry when you're up too close to someone. I also discovered that as a girl I should apparently be defining myself as "so and so's girlfriend". Well, I have a few problems with this. One, and mostly, I am no one's girlfriend. Two, and really just as mostly, if I was, I would not introduce myself as such. I happen to be my own independent person. This came about because I was at a party with people I didn't know. I sat at a table with three other girls and we did the whole introductions thing. One looked at the girl named Erin and said "Oh, you're Phil's girlfriend." Erin said yes, and oh you're so and so's girlfriend, right? The first girl then looked at me and asked, "Are you anyone's girlfriend?" I replied no and thought to myself when did we start simply being someone's girlfriend?

A continuation of the things I'll miss about the South list
~ma'am and sir
~country songs playing at bars
~prah-leens
~men holding doors for women
~cowboy boots and dresses/skirts
~girls tailgating in cute sundresses

indiana bound

i'm tan and proud as a result of hanging out at the pool for approximately 4 hours yesterday. it'll probably fade soon. i've been missing taco day at camp so i made my own for dinner tonight, complete with yummy homemade guacamole. i would like to say that i'm a decent cook. next on the list: pie. without the help of renee, the pie guru, which could prove to be very difficult.
in other news i'm moving. i'm taking my sweet black and white fuzzy couch and moving back to indianapolis. i feel like a bit of a hypocrite since i spent so much time this past year talking shit about people who graduated and moved back to our home town. this is not the same though. i mean, i went out and experienced the world man. i have good reason. i got a job at a children's magazine in marketing. i'm pretty freaking excited. except that leaving north carolina will be very sad. i love it here and am quite sure that someday i will end up in this lovely state again, preferably in the mountains. i am going to keep a running list of things i will miss about the south and nc. here's a start.

*the mountains and the beach in one state
*perfect strangers saying smiling and saying hello in the street and me not having to worry too much about them being pervy because people are just more friendly down here
*sweet tea, which i've started drinking recently
*southern accents
*people freaking out about 2 inches of snow

i have a feeling that the next few weeks are going to be very hectic. or i will put off preparing for the move until the week before i leave, which will be the week after our trip to ithaca so even better, and then i'll be losing my mind right before i go. yipeeee!!!!!

it's only life after all. yeah.

i feel a bit weird posting bits of my life on the internet. this is an awfully public place to be writing about my life, isn't it? oh well, the personal element often gets left out. seriously just look at my facebook profile if you want personal. you'll see that my religion is worshiping the brits, my music taste is "goodbye earl" by the dixie chicks and that i look hott playing kickball in pink pantaloons.

tonight i was talking to my mom about something that had happened last spring in bloomington and i realized how long ago that seems. in reality bloomington was only a year and a half ago but so much has happened since then. i feel like i've lived a whole other life in that year and a half.

i'm back in raleigh at the moment. well not literally since i'm home in indianapolis right now. i moved into a cute apartment and am the proud owner of a black and white fuzzy couch. i'm going through camp withdrawal, as i do at the end of every summer. i think i can safely say that this ties for my most wonderful summer ever (with my second summer on staff). i ended up having junior line instead of hillside, which meant 8-11 year olds. honestly i cannot imagine having any other girls. i loved giving hugs and holding hands and being all out silly with my sweet junior mints. i have also never been so endlessly proud of a group of girls. every single day one of them did something that made me smile a mile wide. how can girls so little stretch themselves so much? i see so much potential in them. i watched them grow so much over just five and a half weeks. and my staff. i cannot compliment them enough. i would've been lost without such an amazing group of counselors. and we all had so much fun. good summer camp fun. lots of lake jumping in our clothes (especially after hot days at the barn during june camp), nights in town, even getting pulled over by a cop, lots of late nights up in the office, random and ridiculous adventures on days off.

now i'm writing a lot more. i'm looking for a big girl job. i'm wishing i could run back to the mountains where people look up to me and i'm a somebody.