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Wake me up when September ends

I’m kind of a nostalgic girl anyway, but three random memories hit me today …

1. I’ve had a serious hankering to work in downtown Birmingham lately. I miss the thrill I got from walking down those busy streets on my lunch break. I always felt so metropolitan (OK, or like a little girl playing dress up) when I crossed to the AmSouth-Harbert Plaza for lunch and coffee. I loved browsing the library’s new books, arriving at the check-out counter with arms so heavy laden that I had to carry my loot back to work in a grocery bag.

And well, I miss the work too. I loved that magazine, loved my editor, loved the designers, loved the location, loved what I wrote about, loved getting to write …

Mmmm yeah. Getting to write.

2. The temperature has dropped slightly tonight. It’s not much, given that it’s still September and I live in Alabama, but it’s enough to build anticipation for the coming autumn. I left work for dinner tonight and walked through the parking lot with my eyes closed, inhaling the nearly-crisp air and imagining the trees changing colors.

(My executive editor walked by as I was doing this. I think he thought me a bit strange.)

As I circled through an off-ramp on my way back to work, I had a sudden flashback to an end-of-the-semester hayride and bonfire during my Florida State days. I can’t recall whether it was the end of my senior year or my last semester at FSU, when I was a grad student. All I can tell you is that it was deliciously cold and I was in a loner sort of mood.

I brought my roommate’s dog with me to the bonfire, providing a handy defense mechanism for those introverted moments. (When you’re busy chasing a dog, it’s easy to slip out of conversations unnoticed, or to avoid getting terribly deep with anyone.)

Come to think of it, I believe it was my last semester at FSU. I’m not sure why I was feeling so anti-social — I probably should have been soaking in all the people-time I could get. But maybe my departure was the cause of my melancholy.

3. As I neared the office, “Please” by The Kinleys came on the mixed tape I was playing. Every time I hear that song (which is, well, not terribly often) I recall the night I broke up with my first boyfriend.

We were sitting in my 1990 Honda Accord parked outside his house. I don’t remember why we got in the car, exactly, I only remember thinking that his mother probably thought we were making out instead of breaking up.

I don’t remember what was said or really much of how he reacted (though I know I was bawling and he tried to comfort me, even though he was the one being dumped). What stands out in my mind is “Please” trickling through the speakers … and although it’s a song about trying not to break up, it still reminds me of that night.

I think it’s kind of amazing that I still have a mixed tape from that long ago.

Philip Randall Morgan is my favorite person in the whole entire world at this moment

Randall has two l’s, right?

He got me a Florida ticket.

All I have to pay is $35 for the upgrade.

I literally almost cried.

And then I ran and danced around the newsroom. My co-workers thought I had gotten a job. No, no. It’s football.

It’s more important than a job. C’mon people.

šŸ˜‰

ROLL DAMN TIDE!

Who knows the answers? Who do you trust?

I’m feeling every bit of this song today. I have a second interview here. I don’t know what to think of it, but I guess I’ll let you know tonight or tomorrow.

Twentysomething
Jamie Cullum

After years of expensive education,
a car full of books and anticipation,
I’m an expert on Shakespeare and that’s a hell of a lot
but the world don’t need scholars as much as I thought.

Maybe I’ll go travelling for a year,
finding myself or start a career.
I could work for the poor though I’m hungry for fame
we all seem so different but we’re just the same.

Maybe I’ll go to the gym, so I don’t get fat,
aren’t things more easy with a tight six pack?
Who knows the answers? Who do you trust?
I can’t even separate love from lust.

Maybe I’ll move back home and pay off my loans,
working nine to five answering phones.
Don’t make me live for my friday nights,
drinking eight pints and getting in fights.

I don’t want to get up, just let me lie in,
leave me alone, I’m a twenty something.

Maybe I’ll just fall in love that could solve it all,
philosophers say that that’s enough,
there surely must be more. Ooooh

Love ain’t the answer nor is work,
the truth eludes me so much it hurts.
But I’m still having fun and I guess that’s the key,
I’m a twenty something and I’ll keep being me.

I knew that triple latte meant that Taylor loved me too

Copy editing has sucked the life out of me.

I suppose I’ve adjusted a bit — I’m more cheerful around the newsroom than I was when I first began (10 weeks ago!). But the schedule continues to kill me, and I don’t make it any easier on myself by committing myself to these insane obligations.

I left work just before midnight Sunday. That’s an almost nightly occurence. But on that particular night, an hour-long drive to Birmingham awaited. (I needed to be in Atlanta the next day, and I figured I might as well make use of those too-wound-up post-work minutes by driving 60 miles closer to my destination.) I crashed at my aunt’s house around 1 a.m.

Morning came too quickly. After mashing snooze several times, I crawled out of bed at 6:12 a.m. and trusted a hot shower to bring me to a state suitable for driving.

That didn’t exactly work.

I fixed my hair and make up, then put my sweats and Virginia Tech t-shirt back on for the drive to the ATL. (Why get all sweaty and wrinkled in my cute interview clothes, right?) I stopped by O’Henry’s for coffee (in my O’Ho’s travel mug!) and a muffin, then set the cruise control for as fast as I could safely travel.

I didn’t feel awake until I crossed the Georgia state line. That’s probably not the safest way to drive.

I spent the day in Atlanta interviewing (one job, one informational) and hanging out with one of my college roommates. After dinner, she and I, and her husband, crashed on their cozy leather couches in front of several episodes of Friends. I fell asleep on the couch with a cat on my stomach before 9 p.m. Eastern.

Yeah. I was tired.

I moved to my bedroom and read a while before turning in for 10 luxurious hours of sleep. Then at 8:55 a.m. my alarm jerked me awake. For the second day in a row, I was confused as to where I was and why exactly I had to wake up. (That’s never a good way to start the day.)

This morning seems like days ago.

I tried the hot shower thing again, to no avail. I was clean but still exhausted (and battling a serious headache). After lunch with another friend, I grabbed a grande latte from Starbucks and headed out of town.

I finished the latte at about mile marker 198 in Alabama, and pulled off at exit 185 for another. (With that information, you’ll certainly understand the upcoming redesign and renaming of this blog.)

And at 2:30 central, I returned to Tuscaloosa and to work, where I quickly grabbed some painkillers and hot tea to keep me from dying at my desk.

I’m scattered and basically wandering through life in a daze right now. I’m not in a good place, but I’m not in a bad bad place, either.

I’m just burned out, and I don’t have energy for much more than watching Friends and drinking lots and lots of coffee.

But outside it’s stopped raining

We still don’t have power — in fact, it could be take as long as until Sunday to get it back. So I’m the rounds of free/cheap things to do in Tuscaloosa. The coffee shops have already taken a lot of my money, and now I’m parked in the visitors deck on campus, which will cost me $3 to get out of. It’s not the ideal, but well, it could be a lot worse.

Oh, and they cut off our gas, too, so we don’t have hot water either.

It’s kind of an adventure for Lydia and I, really. I mean, we’d rather have power any day (talk about realizing how spoiled we are..). But we’re making the best of it.

Tuesday night, Lydia’s boyfriend Michael came over. (His building is the only one in his complex without electricity, and he lives on the third floor, so his place was even hotter than ours!) We grabbed the bottle of champagne we had in the fridge and the three of us spent the evening sitting on the front porch with the cat and dog. We talked about playing Uno, but never got around to it.

The sleeping part wasn’t as much fun, though. It’s always harder to get to sleep when you’re sticky. But we survived. We would have slept in the front yard — it was much cooler out there! — if it were safe, but we don’t think it is… especially after watching this car circle our block roughly eight times. Sketchy?

Work was luxurious yesterday — which is pretty bad, given how much I like my job. šŸ™‚ But it was nice to have A/C, my phone charger and internet. Yeah. I’m pretty much a big baby. I had PB&J from work for lunch, then Lydia, Michael and I went out for dinner.

Michael had to go home and sleep in the heat, because Lydia and I crashed at her sister’s SORORITY HOUSE! How funny is that? But it was so nice. We had beds, and A/C, and they provided us with towels, and the water in the shower was SO hot that I couldn’t even turn it to the strongest setting.

Through all of this, we realize how completely blessed we are. And how undeserving. Lydia had to interview evacuees (is that a word?) at the shelter on campus yesterday, and some of the stories she told me were heartbreaking.

Then today I was at Crimson eating breakfast when I started talking to the random guy trying to connect to the internet behind me. Turns out he and his buddies are from NOLA, so they were telling me all they had lost. (And it was a lot.) Somehow he finds out that I work at the newspaper, and he’s a photographer, so I set him up with our photo editor’s contact info. He’s looking to find a job and settle here, if he can.

As I drove away, I almost lost it. I mean, I’ve watched the news, I read yesterday’s New York Times — I know the stories are out there. But putting a FACE on it is what gets to me. That takes it from the “Wow, what a tragedy” level to “Holy crap, that man has no where to live and even though he’s got 35 years of experience, he has no one to pay him. He is going to move his entire life and rebuild in this little town because it’s the place where he ended up during the storm.”

Why does this city get destroyed and I’m so well cared for? (Well, because they’re on the coast and below sea level and I’m not… but that’s not what I mean and you know it.) I’m sure that’s a question we’re all asking ourselves right now. My thoughts aren’t anything different or profound. But somehow writing them down seems to be the thing to do.

But I’ll admit, I’m still really looking forward to having electricity.

It’s getting hot in here…

When you live this far inland, a hurricane-turned-tropical-storm is the perfect time to catch up on your reading and writing.

My roommate was convinced our house wasn’t safe to stay in last night, and I was nervous too after checking hte tropical storm and tornado watches. I found myself a spare bedroom, created a storm shelter for my cat and took off.

(A sidenote: I’ve really got to relax a little. I spent way too much time worrying about my cat last night. I couldn’t take her with me, so I shut the hall door and closed off the other end with a mattress. I knew the space wasn’t big enough for the mattress to fall and suffocate her, but I worried that the class plates could fall off the wall, or she would tear up the mattress in an attempt to get out, or that she’d just get lonely. Of course, none of that happened, except maybe the lonely part.)

My phone died early in the night, so I had no idea what time it was when I started writing or when I went to bed. (It didn’t occur to me until I was in bed to find a clock elsewhere in the apartment.) But I managed to fill something like six journal pages and a sheet of notebook paper, so it was a good night, even as high strung as I was.

I was woken this morning by the power cutting on and off — printers are pretty loud when that happens! I brushed my teeth and wandered home to assess the damage (or lack thereof). We had plenty of limbs down but the trees were all standing, as far as I could tell. My cat was fine but glad to see me. Our power was definitely out, though (and as far as I know, it still is).

Our hot water heater is the only thing in the house on the gas line, so I showered in the dark and then fixed my face on the front porch (where it was MUCH cooler). I’m at Crimson now (where it’s also hot, but there’s power and I can charge my cell phone!), but I’m gonna take off here in a bit ’cause I’m kind of bored.

Here’s hoping that our power comes back before the end of the day…

oh! and today is my first day off in a week! Too bad there’s nothing to do, but at least I’m not at work! Rock on.

I am 32 flavors and then some

Lyrics I’m obsessed with right now:

ā€œFade like a fashion, the moment is passing
And I can’t stay much longer in the darkā€
Sandra McCracken – ā€œ500 Milesā€

ā€œWe raise our glasses to puzzle pieces
and the way they fit together
we never saw till now.
Here’s to questions that meet their answers
in the bright light of hindsight,
it’ll all come clear, somehow.ā€
Tara Leigh Cobble – ā€œHere’s to Hindsightā€

ā€œI’m tired of looking ’round rooms
Wondering what I’ve got to do
Or who I’m supposed to be
I don’t want to be anything other than meā€
Gavin DeGraw – ā€œI Don’t Want to Beā€

ā€œThis is for all you girls about 25
In little apartments, just trying to get by
Living on, on dreams and spaghettios
Wondering where your life’s going to goā€
Martina McBride – ā€œThis One’s for the Girlsā€

ā€œSomeday I’ll fly, someday I’ll soar
Someday I’ll be, so damn much more
Because I’m bigger than my body gives me credit forā€
John Mayer – ā€œBigger Than My Bodyā€

ā€œI hope you meet someone your height
So you can see eye to eye
With someone as small as youā€
Nickel Creek – ā€œSomebody More Like Youā€
(Because it makes me laugh, not because I actually feel that way.  I’m not in a bitter place right now.)

ā€œAll the other girls here are stars
You are the Northern Lightsā€
And also:
ā€œWell I know you are waiting
And I know that it is not for me
But I’m here and I’m waiting
And I saved you the passenger seat
And I won’t be your last dance
Just your last good nightā€
Josh Ritter – ā€œKathleenā€

ā€œSquint your eyes and look closer
I’m not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then someā€
Ani Difranco – ā€œ32 Flavorsā€

“And it’s true
I tend to follow in his stride
Instead of side by side
I take his cue
True, but there’s no question
There’s no doubt
I said I’d stick it out
And follow through
And when I do”
That part always breaks my heart.
The Last 5 Years — “A Part of That”

ā€œHow full of doubts I am
Though full of grace Thou artā€
I don’t remember who wrote it right now. But it’s an old hymn. And it’s good. Very good.

ā€œAll unholy and unclean
I am nothing but sin;
On thy mercy I rely
Give me Christ, or else I dieā€
Same as before. Excellent.

I was going to continue with other music-related lists, which I started jotting down between designing and editing pages tonight, but the document got to be three pages long and it got to be just after 1 a.m. I’m going to bed instead.

How could I forget? Momma said, ā€˜Think before speaking’

I need you to remind me to stop complaining about work all the time.

It’s not that it doesn’t suck — it totally does. I wanted to quit at least three times last night (and therefore sent out three text messages asking friends to remind me not to quit… ’cause well, that’s counter-productive. and because sending text messages somehow makes the job less lonely). But whining about it all the time doesn’t make it suck less, it just makes me less enjoyable to be around.

So can you help me remember that? please?

And on a similiar note (crap, how do you spell similiar? is that right? And did you know that “crapulous” or however it was spelled is a word? it basically means hungover, which means I don’t have much cause to use it. but it made me laugh really hard. this is why word of the day calendars are awesome.) Oh. right, that similiar note: I am off work today and tomorrow and so I’m going to go do… something. I already had breakfast with Katie (yay! Katie’s my favorite) which involved much discussion of… everything, because we’re crazy. But now everyone is working or in school or whatever, so I’m going to have some good CJ time. Even though that’s not what I want, ’cause that’s all I feel like I ever get anymore ’cause I work when normal people are free. But whatever.

Somehow typing all this out makes it feel less lonesome. Well, and I really DO want y’all to remind me to stop being a big baby. I don’t like who I become in these circumstances. I don’t want to be her. She’s not a very nice girl. And she mutters cuss words under her breath when pictures don’t fit on the page she wants. Which is really silly.

As is this entry.

Bye bye!