Wrapping it Up and Moving On

Today's Plinky question is as follows:

What do you think you'll remember most from the last year?

List your favorite memories from the previous 12 months.

I like this question, mostly because I've been focusing a lot on what I hated about 2009, and that list is long, and is likely to be what I'll remember most. But I'll also remember that I moved here on my own, with no safety net. I went to Ohio State game watches and visited friends across the state of Virginia, put a tie on my cat and got up close and personal with the First Lady, went to two weddings and joined two Tri Delta alumnae organizations, watched terrible television with BC and got hooked to Dancing with the Stars, and even learned to cook a meatloaf. And that was just the four months that I was in DC.

I graduated from college, turned 22, started writing a book that I continue to pursue, sent query letters to book agents, said goodbye to Ohio and Ohio State. I watched my brother become a man, watched my sister become a Mrs., held my step-sister's newborn baby. I got "engaged" to my brother-in-law's brother. I lost two grandparents and went to my first two funerals (I guess these aren't my favorite memories. I digress.)

Here's to 2010 being better.

(God, it needs to be better.)

(In New Zealand, it's been 2010 for nine hours already. Which is comforting in an odd way. I am really ready for it to not be 2009 anymore. I guess this just draws light on the fact that this is sort of an arbitrary cutoff and new beginning. Whatever, here's to new things happening.)

New Year, New You! And other obnoxious cliches for December 31st

So I guess it's cliche to write resolutions, so I won't do that.

The main thing I want to say here is that DR. DREW DIRECT MESSAGED ME ON TWITTER.

I have had a giant crush on him for quite some time, and it doubled in size when he did that CelebRehab show where he trapped celebrity drug addicts in a house and then came and did therapy with them. It was life-changing, and also, as mentioned, made me fall in love with Dr. Drew. He's just plain attractive. In an old man sort of way.

d_cd_c

Ok! mag referred to @drdrew as "secretly sexy." This is not a secret. I've been saying it for ages. Though no glasses in the photo. Boo.

drdrew

And thank you for the kind remark. So keep the glasses?

d_cd_c

@drdrew oh yes, keep the glasses. And keep making good tv. I'm so much of a fan I can't even....I'm squealing a bit. Or like a lot.

drdrew

Thank you Chris...

I think this is the best thing that happened in 2009. I have a thing for men in glasses.

Also, in 2010, I'd like to travel, be able to run 2 miles, talk to the Air Force recruiter, find a job, and work on my depression. Yeah, I said I wouldn't, but what of it?

Happy New Year!

On Being a Tourist

The moving date has been set for January 18th. I am going to move in with momma ten days before my 23rd birthday. Woof.

But because it's been set, I feel more relaxed: I am less worried about money knowing that I won't be paying February's rent (provided I hear back from my potential subletter or find another one?).

Also, because I don't have a job, I plan to take advantage of the time to visit museums. Today I went to the Newseum, one of DC's more popular (and one of DC's few paid-entry) museums. It is fantastic, really worth seeing, even if you have to pay $20 (which I didn't--I got my ticket for $10 on Groupon). Probably my favorite exhibit was the far too small one on Tim Russert. They recreated his office in the NBC building and played clips from Meet the Press, interspersed with interviews from his colleagues, where they discussed his journalistic style and preparation, his love of the Buffalo Bills, his relationship with his family, and the et cetera. I got choked up, I have to say. That man meant a lot to me, to a lot of people, and, to me, exemplified what journalism should be. He asked challenging questions ("Is this a war of choice or a war of necessity?"--sorry I couldn't find the video, which made me appreciate the events of November 4, 2008 even more), but never impossible ones, and was never unfair or mean the way that journalists so often can be. He was also just genuinely likable. And I miss him.

The Newseum website has a slideshow of some of the artifacts found in Tim's office, and one of my favorites in context was the letter he wrote to David Gregory's son, Max, on Max's literal birthday in 2002:

Dear Max,

Welcome to the World!

Always respect your mom and dad.

Your Meet the Press internship awaits.

Your Friend,

Tim

They also have daily papers from around the country, and you can look up your hometown's front page, which is cool in a very touristy/no DC resident is truly native kind of way. They clearly know their audience and are good at pandering. Which I appreciate. Also they had the last edition of the Cincinnati Post blown up pretty big, along with a few others that have died in the past few months. Which was weird in a "my mom loved that paper" sort of way. (As a side note, I met a girl working at Honeybaked that graduated from college in 2005 with a degree in journalism whose professors said "newspapers will never go away," and I think the fact that she was selling hams with me speaks volumes about that how that mantra worked out.)

The Newseum, as you would expect, also had exhibits on events and the way they were covered. While it was interesting to read about the Unabomber's treatise that the Times and Post decided to print against the public's (and their own) judgment, I will be even more interested to come back in 20 years and read about how blogs and Twitter impact some other, also hugely important and probably horrific, event.

The Newseum is also known for its Pulitzer Prize-winning photography exhibit, which was jarring and comforting and shocking and amazing in a way that only photography can be. It's incredible, the things people are capable of doing with a lens. Some of those images will stay with me for years to come--Obama's speech in the rain a week before winning the election, women jumping from an Atlanta hotel fire, children riding a horse, Ruby shooting Oswald. Some of them I'd seen, of course, but still. A great display. I wish I had been able to go into the museum when no one else was there, so I could stay with each image as long as I wanted, study each one, truly appreciate it. But alas, DC is a tourist's city, and I was one of many trying to appreciate the photographs.

Because I'm too dumb for this city, I didn't bring my camera and thus don't have photos of any of this, including the 6th floor terrace that overlooks Penn Ave and the Capitol. Big Mistake.

Merry Christmas 2008

What a difference a year makes?

I don't know, it's been a really rough year, what with both my first and second funerals, and the mess that is my financial plan, and my lack of hope for future employment.

And I really just feel like I'm much closer to where I was a year ago than I'd like. I'm about to move home with my momma again, I'm working at the Honeybaked Ham again, I'm asking for money for Christmas again, I'm unable to buy gifts that I wanted to be able to buy for my family again. I feel pathetic, which is new.

I know it's not my fault and it's the economy and this is how everyone is and blah blah blah, but don't you understand that that is not what I want to hear right now? Everyone around me is all, "I'm not worried about you, you're really great," and it feels nice, it feels good, to hear that, but then it's also like, maybe you should be worried about me? Maybe you should have concerns about where I am in life, or what the hell I'm going to do next? Because I have those concerns. And it doesn't really matter what I'm capable of doing, because no one will look at my resume and why should they when there are people with real-world experience that are unemployed also? And I don't know anyone who can help me, which is what really matters, because my friends/people my age are also unemployed.

I don't know, I'm scared, and it's Christmas, and I feel very much like there's a lot of family asking me what I'm going to do next, and I feel like saying "pray real hard" isn't really an attractive answer. I'd really like to have an answer. Any answer, really, other than "well they're opening a Red Robin in Florence where I'm going to try to wait tables. I hope that this is a job I can actually get, but even that I'm holding my breath over."

In any case, it was a nice Christmas. Ender was his usual ridiculously cute self and everyone is having a grand time, reading, playing Sudoku, watching basketball, or otherwise ignoring one another. (We really do love one another, it's just that we are an unusually solitary family. That said, we have played several family games tonight, and it's been really wonderful.)

Pepsi, please.

And no, that was not a typo. Deal with it.

Does Southwest serve Pepsi?

Southwest Airlines hands out napkins on their flights that have maps of all the places in the US that they service, and I just love them. I like to think, as I fly to Baltimore or Louisville or wherever, about where I would fly if I could fly anywhere Southwest flies. I'd go to Austin, maybe, or Seattle. I've never been to Portland and Kate loves it; maybe I'd go visit Dominic in LA. Did you know they fly to NOLA? Pete Delkus, my favorite weatherman of all time, told me to stop by the station if I'm ever in Dallas.

I think of this only because I found a napkin from some long-forgotten flight in the bottom of my purse. I've never been to any of the above-mentioned cities, though I really would love to see all of them.

In other, sort of related in an 'I-really-want-to-travel' kind of way news, this news came out today:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703581204574600322164130250.html

And I'm going to apply, re: my book. Only blog-style, as opposed to a full book. I think the WSJ made the article sound more like I need to be interested in building a soup kitchen, rather than making a statement about culture in America, which is what I actually want to do, and I think it's something that qualifies me. What I'm saying here, is, "we can't all build soup kitchens," and I think Pepsi's goal here is something that my book/blog fits in with. Or at least I'm going to attempt to prove that in some way.

In other news, tomorrow is my last day on the job. I'm freaking out about being unemployed, but am beginning to think seriously about moving home, and the more I think about it, the more it comforts me. I can apply for jobs anywhere, if I'm not paying rent anywhere. I can save money. I can, if I finally get an agent or Pepsi's money, just take off and write. And I want nothing more than to be able to just take off and write.

Nothing. More.

Tiger Woods

So, like.

I watch a lot of golf, love golfers, have always wanted to be a card-carrying member of the TOUR Wives Association.

So, like.

Obviously, people ask me about Tiger.

I still maintain that if you're going to marry an athlete, make sure it's a golfer, and part of the reason this is such big news, aside from the fact that it's Tiger Freaking Woods, Y'all is that golfers don't really make loud, public, embarrassing moves. And that this is kind of a huge embarrassing move. Not the point, the point is that everyone and their sister station is polling viewers with "Should Elin stay with Tiger?" and the choices are "No, cheating is unacceptable." "Yes, if she gets a new pre-nup agreement." "Et cetera."

No one seems to care that she possibly seriously injured him. I try to point out that if he were a woman, people would be outraged. She would be in jail, or we would at least be having this conversation. We would be talking about whether he should forgive her. But I understand that this is not the world we live, I just cannot understand the disconnect. I cannot understand it. I will not stand behind what he did, no, but I also cannot let people ignore the idea that this is a pretty heavy potential, either. It frustrates me to no end. (Also, I remember saying when they first got married I didn't think it would last. Not really a bet I wanted to win, but still.)

In other news, only 10 more days at my current job and then I am officially jobless. Put into motion: Operation TOUR Wives Association? (Top 50 on the money list? Need only apply/take me to dinner.)