What It Was Like Then, plus beach pictures!

I realized while looking at the pictures of our 2-day vacation to Atlantic City that even though I frequently mention my best friends, I rarely seriously discuss their impact on my life on an individual scale. We’ve been friends since middle school, a best-friend-unit since we were 15 or 16. I feel sort of guilty that I’ve never at least attempted to reflect on how they have each shaped me, singularly, simply by being in my life. I think in this entry I’d like to share my vacation photos and, simultaneously, properly introduce the blogosphere to three of the most important people in my life.

That’s Ilana in the back seat on the left, Lindsay on the right, and yours truly being a total spaz in the foreground there. Karen is not pictured because she was driving, though don’t think that we didn’t endanger several lives on the road by trying multiple times to get a picture with all four of us in it.

Car rides with these girls used to be a frantic gigglefest, often full of gossip and exchanges such as:

M- That billboard is a moving screen!!
L- Did you just say you had false teeth?
K- Melissa has a monkey??
*all explode into hysterical laughter*

These days we are more subdued, which is a bit jarring. We carry on actual conversations about our lives instead of simply mishearing each other all the time. It makes for less belly laughs, but it’s nice to know what real information exchange feels like.

This is our little beach family-style setup. If there’s any one trait that we all share, I think it woudl be a sense of preparedness. With them, I never feel paranoid about being considered neurotic when I talk about my uber-specific packing lists or my daily to-do lists that I put on index cards and carry around with me. I like to know what I’ve got to get done now, later, and even later. I feel like they identify with me in that aspect of my life, or at least tolerate it.

I sat on the beach blanket while Ilana, Karen, and Lindsay collected shells, sea glass, and cool rocks. Yeah. I think that sentence stands on its own.

So here we are, from left to right: Melissa, Ilana, Lindsay, and Karen. M-I-L-K. We’ve been referring to ourselves, for efficiency’s sake, as MILK for 5 years. I think in this picture we’re channeling our high school selves even though we are 21. At the moment we were all really enthusiastic about trying to take an arm’s-length picture that would fit all 4 of us in the frame. We’re sunscreened and gross-haired, pasty (except for Karen, who is peeling from a bionic sunburn), and totally cheesing it up.

Back in high school, I considered Ilana the person to whom I related the most. We had the same tastes in music, movies, books, and significantly older male celebrities. I felt like we had a similar sense of humor as well–goofy, full of adventurous verbal play. I remember her taking so many social risks that I would have been afraid to take–doing 2 music camps in one summer, volunteering in West Virginia, going on an unsupervised trip to Mexico–and yet she confided in me that she looked to me as an example of extrovertedness. I saw and still see her as a completely whole person, confident and composed.

Linds is my Best Friend, capital B, capital F. We have been best friends since 8th grade. In high school I saw the two of us as foils to one another; me, boisterous, funny, a bit clumsy, outgoing, and Linds, poised, pretty, a bit shyer and outwardly self-conscious (although underneath all my bluster I was just as self-conscious as anyone). I envied her musical gifts and her constant string of admirers, but I hope the envy never manifested itself into something detectable. In high school we bonded over a lot of boy and social drama that seems insignificant now, but it created a great foundation of trust, for me. She and I told each other everything, and she never betrayed me once. I never thought about it, but I think this level of trust is one of the things that has made our friendship last so long.

In high school I saw Karen as the sensible one, from her utilitarian haircut down to her refusal to let her closest friends into the most inner circle of her world–her family life, her pressing personal issues. In high school she had the propensity to disappear for no discernible reason so frequently that we referred to her as The CIA Agent. But Karen seemed to be the most drama-free and emotionally stable one out of all of us. To top it all off, she was a social butterfly, belonging to more social groups than any of the rest of us, at ease with anyone, giving her friendship gladly and genuinely. Karen’s become so much more multi-faceted in my eyes over the years, and I’m truly proud to know her–which brings me to my next point.

You know what–I think I will save my next point for another entry.This one is getting to be encylopedia-long. Next time: What It’s Like Now.

But in the meantime, tell me about your best friends from high school or secondary school. Are you still best friends? Are you friends, but have you grown apart? Are you completely estranged due to a disagreement over the pronunciation of “pecan”? What did/do you love most about him/her? I really want to know!

just checking in

Forgive the delay on a nice, meaty entry containing some reflections on the 2-day trip I just took with my best friend from high school. It’ll be posted in the next day or two. Here are some pictures of our [not-so-]debaucherous adventures to tide you over in the meantime:

I totally got carded when I ordered this drink, finally.

First time gambling, ever. We played $5 in the penny slots. We’re big spenders, I know.

Dingdingdingdingdingdingdingdingdingding!

new jersey summers

Hey, remember this list? The one in which I foolishly assumed that I would for some reason become a productive, motivated human being? Yeah, so much for that. Instead, this past week, the Weather Gods bestowed perfect, perfect, 80-degree sunshine and balminess alternated with rumbly, flashy summer thunderstorms. You can’t blame me for going on some Typical New Jersey Summer Escapades, right? Here, pictures:

My best friend Lindsay (in the blogosphere as well as IRL) and I went down the shore. Not pictured: Lindsay’s evil and slowly developing sunburn. Very aptly pictured: My recurring inability to take self-portraits.

Ah, the Jersey shore. I love that you can see the rides in the distance. We were in Wildwood, which has this infinite expanse of boardwalk, the highlight of which is supposed to be the rides, I suppose, but Linds and I of course eschewed the rides. Instead we spent only 15 minutes on the boardwalk, which was long enough to find a funnel cake place, practically inhale said funnel cake, and then walk back to our stuff. That’s our idea of fun. Fried dough.

Unfortunately, instead of a funnel cake picture, I only have another picture of the beach at Wildwood. Note the disturbing lack of any clouds in the sky. This lack of clouds may or may not have contributed significantly to Lindsay’s unfortunate sunburn. She and I are very UV-conscious. Linds is super-prone to them and she reapplies like, 3 times, every time we go out in to the sun. And yet. The sun managed to wreak its usual havoc. CURSE YOU, EVIL BALL OF GAS WHICH SUSTAINS LIFE ON OUR PLANET!!

**

On an earlier occasion, there was an ill-advised Late Night Diner Excursion. You know, I want to see the world, and I ultimately want to end up living outside of New Jersey, but I really hope I can find a place somewhere with at least one decent 24-hour diner. They’ve been a part of my life for so long that I don’t know what I would do if there were no place that I could indulge my 1:49 AM Pie Craving.

Matt and me, in a rare not-taken-15-inches-in-front-of-our-faces picture, thanks to my sister. Yup, this picture pretty much sums our relationship up. Insanity begets insanity. “What is the moral here? Freaks should date other freaks?” NAME THAT QUOTE LINDSAY I KNOW YOU CAN.

Aaaand this is my sister. She’s all alone on the other side of the table, except for her friend the Awkward Ostrich. My sister is 5 years younger than me and Really, Really Stylish. She can pull fashions off that I couldn’t even shake a stick at. In fact, my sister and I are different in many ways. But we share a similar love for apple pie a la mode. And isn’t that what really matters?

***

Today we celebrated Father’s Day by grilling steaks in our backyard. Okay, my dad grilled steaks in the backyard and my mom made other foodstuffs and my sister and I sat inside and watched the entirety of America’s Best Dance Crew, Season 1.

But look! We found a nest of bird’s eggs in one of the hanging plants on our porch! Well. My mom found the nest. I just took the picture. But it’s a nice picture. Aren’t those little eggs so cute? Ahhhn!

And in proper tradition, our sleeping dog, Hickory, was awakened from a shallow sleep…

…and repeatedly emasculated. Success all around!

***

You know what makes me feel less guilty about having so much leisure activity recently? The fact that on June 23rd, it’ll all be over–I got the job at HLC and I’m training in a week! But that, my chickadees, is another entry for another time.

Tomorrow I’m leaving to celebrate my 3 best friends and I all being 21, finally! We’re going to Atlantic City, so that means the beach again, and some gambling maybe, and a fancy schmancy dinner with drinks, and then a whole shitload of outlet shopping. I’ll be back with more pictures! Wheee!

what’s coming up

Job Hunt Update, real fast: The interview went very well, thanks to Katie’s explosively positive reputation at HLC. I barely had to do anything to impress anyone. I probably could have answered every question by shouting the words “HOT TODDY” and still gotten a big smile and an enthusiastic nod. When I went to the center, it was completely devoid of students because it was 2:00 in the afternoon and all children are in school at that hour. So I’m supposed to go back in on Thursday to see the place in action, and then I guess afterwards I’ll touch base with (hopefully!) my boss-to-be and maybe sign some papers and get this show on the road! Employment! I almost has it!

If I get the job I can’t start until after July 4th weekend. So I have been compiling a list of things I want to get done before July 6th. These activities will more or less comprise the entire content of this blog for the next couple weeks. So here’s a Table of Contents:

- Sort through my clothes (and shoes and purses), books, cds, and dvds to bring to Plato’s Closet, this thrift store about 20 minutes away from my house that buys gently used Junior’s fashiony clothing and sells it back.
- Go on a mission to try to find cheapish, used furniture items to use in my room at my house at school.
- Venture into the buggy garage to sift through all the stuff I brought home from school last semester, to decide what I’m bringing back and what I’m leaving here.
- Clean out my computer (pictures, old files, unused programs, etc.)

First order of business? Go to Lindsay’s house for lunch. What, I didn’t say I was going to be efficient with this stuff.

EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT

This just in!

Called HLC!

They’re tewtally hiring! They want me to meet with their manager at 2 PM on Monday and will hopefully hire me on the spot? Maybe? ::Fingers crossed::

I’m thinking of starting even earlier than July 6th, if they need me. I’m getting the stink-eye from my parents daily, recently, because of my total uselessness as a human being. And I do have a place to live up there for which I’m already paying rent. I just…don’t have any furniture yet.

What do you guys think? Stick with the Original Plan or start work ASAP?

everybody’s workin’ for the weekend [except me]

Let this be known: I do not like not having a job.

I thought it would be grand. I remembered the fettered life of the Cashier-at-Target days and thought, oh HELL to the NO, I do not want that again. Let me have a work-free summer WHILE I CAN. So after my leave of absence expired, I informed the great Red and White Corporation that I would not be returning this summer.

And then I came home. And then after about 4 days, The Feeling set in. You know the one. Where you’re sitting around and you have watched Maury 3 times in one day (10 am, 12 pm, and 4 pm) and you are considering taking YET ANOTHER nap in order to pass the time. Where you sadly watch your bank account deplete into the 2-digit figures. Where you enviously eye your best friend’s day planner into which “Work, 2-10″ is written, and long for a day when you, too, can earn some kind of hourly wage.

Maybe I’m just reeling from a verbal assault by my mother (with the occasional snide remark on my father’s behalf of course) about the idleness of my current life. On the one hand, I truly agree with them. I should be working. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, yes–but all play and no work isn’t really a balanced life either. On the other hand…well, I’m trying!

My predicament is that I’m moving up to school on July 6th, and so in lieu of trying and failing to find a place that will hire me around here, my hometown, for 3 whole weeks, I’m focusing on finding a job up there. This makes me look like a complete waste of space to my parents. To them (and probably any other bystander, I suppose), I mooch off of their food, sleep and watch TV all day, and drive off to meet my boyfriend or my best friend at night. And…yes, this is true. But even I can recognize the damaging properties of this lifestyle. So I’m definitely trying to change that. Here, look:

Active Steps I Have Taken To Procure a Job This Summer:

• Hounded my friend Katie continually about her sweet, sweet $9/hr tutoring job at Huntingdenn Lurning Centre (upsetting misspellings added by me; I don’t need an unfortunate Googling debacle. Will henceforth be known as HLC). She offered to refer me. And then did.
• Created a resume for the very first time. I am so, so unimpressive on paper, and yet the experience was very helpful in and of itself. I learned how to make my cashiering jobs sound really, really important (“worked the register until my brain seeped out my eyeballs” became “acted as point of service between customers and the company,” for instance).
• Submitted said resume to HLC–I am anxiously waiting for an email back, but since they haven’t yet, I’ll probably call them and/or just barge into the center, resume in hand, and shout GIVE ME EMPLOYMENT OR GIVE ME DEATH.
• No, those really are the next things I’m going to do. Tomorrow I’ll probably give them a call and gently remind them of Katie’s referral and ask if they’d like to meet me on person. I have to go back up to school on Monday to wait for the electricity guys to come to my house, anyway.

Perhaps that’s not really enough? I guess I’m pretty much banking on the idea that they’ll completely crap their pants over the opportunity to hire me, but something tells me I’d better start applying at Blockbuster or something. Because if they don’t jump at the bait, I still need to find a job. Like. Stat.

I dunno, it’s only a couple more weeks of this. How do you guys deal with the No-Job Doldrums?