A Girl's Gotta Pay The Bills

Staff Potluck, Fall 2010

The Gals, Welcome Back Party, Fall 2010

Staff Christmas Dinner, Dec 2010

My Bosses, enough said.

SAO Staff, Welcome Back Party, Fall 2010

Student Staff, Spring Orientation

President Zingg and I

Peer Advisor Night Out (One of Many)

Shasta Caverns, Sept 2010

...and boy do I have an expensive lifestyle.

Even sans the great credit card max- outs of '08-'09, I still have trouble keeping up with the Jones's, in a proverbial sense anyway.

In a literal context, I'm just a poor college kid with an unfortunate taste for couture... aren't we all?

Luckily, I am without any decent places to shop, so True Religion jeans go un-worshipped and Tiffany's is just a 1/4 karat glitter in my sparkling eyes.

This post however, is NOT about dreaming of Juicy. It's actually about work...which is related directly to the green goods.

I recently quit my job working for corporate America -the "man" as a current co-worker so affectionately called it. Rude.- making lattes and dealing with cranky coffee drinkers of all ages and incomes marching in the doors of Starbucks.

While working for the coffee giant gave me all the social stimulation I could handle (and more), I just couldn't swing working in a green apron and on campus at the Study Abroad Office - plus that little thing called school.

Isn't that what I'm actually paying for? Talk about the green goods.

Since resigning my post as a professional barista extrodinaire, I have really been able to focus on my job as the International Intern Coordinator for study abroad.

All that extra time (as if) also gave me the time I needed to land a solid spring internship as the -drum roll please- the Social Media Director for Tehama Group Communications, the award winning, student run PR agency on campus.

As this semester came to a close, however, a Lorelei Gilmore quote kept playing in my mind:

" I want to stay here, in this place, just a little longer."

Late November and much of December was a total blur of serious classwork deadlines, Christmas cheer overload, stressful secret santa shopping, menorah lightings, flight delays and the need for happy hour on a Tuesday afternoon; despite all of that, I spent much of those last weeks observing my life and f(r)amily, wishing I could freeze us all together, in that place.

The only other semester I can remember feeling this way about (aside from my time overseas) is my second fall in Rexburg, at BYUI. It was me, Emily, Hannah, Alli and David against the world.

This fall, it mostly felt like just me against the world, but as I look back on the Monday morning staff meetings, Saturday orientations, Wednesday nights at Tres Hombres and countless hours at and around megadesk, I realize it really was us, trying to live our lives in the States, while our hearts were always somewhere else.

MOW: Love and Other Drugs

Size does matter.

Yes, I am talking that that outer appendage that seems to guide the hearts, souls and minds of the patriarchs of our society.

One such example of a hormone driven XY is Jamie Randall (played by the Jake Gyllenhaal) in the latest and greatest romantic comedy to hit the big screen, Love and Other Drugs.

Set in 1996, the movie takes viewers through the day-to-day life of a pharmaceutical rep in the earlier days of pill pushing, when Prozac was a new phenomenon and before Pfizer pens were in every desk drawer in America.

Gyllenhaal, a new rep on the force, works his way onto the prescription pads of his doctor clients, and into the pants of their secretaries by laying on the charm of those big blue eyes.

During an effort to woo a doctor into prescribing Zoloft, Gyllenhaal meets an early onset Parkinson's Disease patient, Maggie Murdock ( played by Anne Hathaway ). His efforts to woo are then directly focused on her, and he succeeds, falling for her (for real) in the process.

Gyllenhaal and Hathaway have undeniable chemistry, and it helps that they are half-naked for the better part of the movie. Their lust is temporarily put on hold when Jamie ( Gyllenhaal) drags Maggie all over the country trying to find her a cure, when really he is trying to soothe his own anxiety about her serious condition.

These days, I don't really love a love story, but there's something oddly real about Gyllenhaal and Hathaway. His underlying insecurity (always?) and her desperate fierceness to remain independent as her disease takes away her dignity feels less Enchanted ( Patrick Dempsey, Amy Adams) and more My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Just two fairly ordinary people with ordinary jobs, who find themselves fighting a common battle: being in love.

The final scene shows Jamie chasing after Maggie, who is in a bus to Canada to get drugs ( a not-so-subtle jab at the pharmaceutical industry and the state of American health care), where he promptly orders her off the bus and claims he can't live without her.

The best part of the movie: when Maggie asks Jamie to tell her four things he likes about himself. I've started doing that.

MOW: College Grad Gets Job

...No, I'm not talking about me.

The grateful grad I speak of is Becky Fuller (played by Rachel McAdams) in the latest comedy-gone-drama, Morning Glory.

Glory starts off with the librarian status ponytail sporting Fuller getting laid off from semi-decent job at a New Jersey news station during a meeting she assumes was called to offer her a promotion.

Oops.

A few weeks and 300 resumes later, Fuller is interviewed by a large and successful station for a position at a failing morning show.

She practically has to beg the producers to give her a chance, and when he tells her the pay is practically nothing, her desperation gets the best of her as she agrees to take the job despite its downfalls.

First day jitters don't get Becky down as she meets her nutty and demanding anchor, Colleen Peck (played by the wonderful Diane Keaton), and is shrilly screamed at from a basement dressing room for attempting to get the show's ratings out of the toilet.

Fuller's perky determination gets the best of her when she, in order to save the show, contacts an old has-been reporter, Mike Pomeroy (played by Harrison Ford, swoon), and demands he help a girl out, as he is still on contract with the station, and will terminate his employment if the station offers him a job and he turns it down.

Reluctantly, Mike joins the less-than-hard-news morning show, Daybreak, and spends weeks and weeks barely participating, fighting on-air with Colleen, and generally making Becky's life more of a living hell than it already is.

A highlight of the otherwise painful-most-of-the-time film is the love story between Becky and a darling blonde journalist-reporter type who works on the millionth floor, Adam Bennett (played by Patrick Wilson).

As their relationship deepens, so does Becky's devotion to the station, and they spend many a night over chinese take-out while she checks her buzzing blackberry and watches the news out of the corner of her eye.

Early one morning, Mike lures Becky up into the catskills for a "breaking" story. Though reluctant, Becky agrees to dish the dirt, whatever it is. They arrive at the governor's mansion in upstate New York, only to out him for some kind of financial scandal, to which Pomeroy has already alerted local media...needless to say, the scoop saves the show.

Pomeroy and Fuller have a quasi heart-to-heart after the governor's bust, and he warns her against the dangers of working too hard and devoting too much to the station, because in the end, it won't love her back like Adam does.

gLeeK

Why are TV shows about high school so popular?

You know what I'm talking about.

The most current (and favorable) example of this phenomenon is the hit FOX show, Glee. The hour long mini-musical episodes follow the trials and tribulations of high school life, seen through the eyes of the Mckinley High School Glee Club.

Like many televisions shows that have shaped American culture, Glee masks underlying adolesent themes into its witty characters and quippy one-liners. The pilot episode of the show tells the story of a jock that loves to sing (High School Musical, much?) but is too afraid to show his sensitive side.

Since then, the show has dealt with teen pregnancy, homophobia, stereotypes, racism, divorce, socioeconomic prejudice and other societal issues facing this great nation, all while breaking into song before every commercial break.

So what makes shows about high school so damn interesting?

Personally, I think it's the characters.

They're what keep me going, especially in Glee. I love a good male lead ( think: Derek Shepherd, Grey's Anatomy) and Finn Hudson, (played by Canadian Cory Monteith,) is no exception.

Hudson is a downright gorgeous, tall, hunk of a man, who says silly high school boy things and has a heart of absolute gold. He falls in love with the pushy, snotty, and downright selfish ( but ridiculously talented) female lead, Rachel Berry (played by Lea Michelle).

One of their best lines as a couple is:
Finn: You're a controllist.
Rachel: Controlling. Controlist isn't a word.

Alongside Hudson is another loveable male lead, gay teen Kurt Hummel (played by Chris Colfer), who is constantly dealing with issues surrounding his sexuality.

Hummel is a fiercely emotional, hilariously quotable dream of a teen, who sometimes gets in over his head when he lets his pathos- driven side take the wheel.

The previews for Never Been Kissed, which airs November 2nd, show Kurt considering switching to a more affluent (and what he believes to be) more accepting high school where an out, proud, and quite darling gay character attends.

Kurt deals with a lot of things that are on the minds of gay (and straight) teens today when it comes to acceptance, self confidence and knowing who you are.

Hummel is a shining example of someone who isn't afraid to be different.

The FOX hit is not a show about rich teens in Orange County or scandalous eleventh graders on the Upper-East side. Glee is about the insecure quarterback of the football team, and the president of the celibacy club who gets pregnant her junior year.

Shows like Glee that reflect pop culture are like time capsules we can take into our later years.

Remember Saved By The Bell, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Boy Meets World? These are shows the babies of the 80's can keep for the future to remember the 90's by.

The cultural references in these sitcoms can transport us back to whatever cultural revolution that decade was in the midst of.

Glee is no exception.

MOW: The Social Network

You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.

These days, even my mom is on Facebook. My MOM. I wonder if Mark Zuckerberg ever planned on his mother "friending" him when he invented the popular social networking site in his college dorm room at Harvard University.

It seems like Mark didn't have much time to plan when he designed and launched The Facebook in 2004. According to The Social Network, Zuckerberg, (played by Jesse Eisenberg) along with his best friend (and later CEO) Eduardo Saverin (played by Andrew Garfield), put the site together within a few month's of Mark's meeting with the Winklevoss twins about their idea "The Harvard Connection", a social networking site designed exclusively for Harvard, and the actual launch of the site.

The plot of the movie follows Mark, Eduardo and the "Winklevi" twins through the time line between the launch and extreme success of the site, to the legal action that ultimately took place between the four Harvard undergrads. The twins sued Zuckerberg for theft of intellectual property, and Saverin sued his best friend and former partner for cutting him out of most of his share of the company.

An interesting twist to the story is the role of Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake), founder of the downloading music site, Napster.

According to the movie, Parker met with Zuckerberg, convinced him to drop the "the" in front of Facebook and take the company and idea to California, specifically Stanford University.

Parker eventually sets up meetings with half of the investors in Silicon Valley to get Facebook off the ground financially, and drives Mark and Eduardo further and further apart emotionally. Eduardo is no longer involved in most of the business deals, and Parker worms his way in, both as Zuckerberg's friend, and as a shareholder in the company.

The entire movie is a flashback during the two trials the four men are facing. As the lawyers are conducting the depositions with Mark, Eduardo and the twins, the events take place in everyone's memories.

Zuckerberg is portrayed as an amazingly intelligent, slight social outcast with a popular friend and a great idea. His character gives hope to all men who didn't get the letter slipped under their door from the exclusive collegiate club, and who aren't on the university rowing team.

Here's to you Mark.

August, September, October...

Shasta Caverns!
One of Shelby's amazing international dinners!
The Study Abroad Team! I adore every one of these amazing people! Me and my Brit, Abby!
Top of the falls!
I ran into Ayaka on campus, and we took a photo!
All the fearless hikers!

So, I've been neglecting my blog! This has been such a crazy semester with working at Study Abroad, Starbucks, and my heavy class load. It has been the busiest semester of my LIFE!

It has been great, don't get me wrong. I LOVE my job at Study Abroad, and I'm taking two great PR classes, strategy and publications. Both are really difficult and time consuming, but I am learning a lot.

I have also had the chance to go to San Francisco with the on campus PR agency, Tehama Group Communications.

We have visited Mozilla in Mountain View, Gladow-Nead in the city and Kimpton Hotels & Resorts in the city. All of those companies have TGC alumni who work there, and they were all totally gracious enough to spend some time with us talking about their lives and their jobs.

I have been thinking so much about my future life in the PR industry. There are so many options! I know I want to work in San Francisco. I would love to go into hospitality PR (after going to Kimpton) or consumer PR. Most agencies in the city are in tech PR, which would be really interesting! I love my Mac computer and don't know what my life would be like without technology!

I have been working a lot with the program inDesign in my PR publications class. I have gotten to make a full color ad, a tri-fold brochure and some fun letter head designs! It feels to great to be learning a skill...besides learning French of course!

Speaking of French, I miss France! I miss traveling, and walking the streets of my beloved little town, Aix! It has been great to be home, but I am getting that familiar itch to travel! I know it will be a while before I get back to Europe, but I think about my time in France almost every day!

That's why I love working in the Study Abroad Office. It is so amazing to work with the international students!

For those of you who don't know, I am the coordinator for the Buddy/Mentor program at Chico State. This is a program where American study abroad alumni get paired with an incoming international exchange student and become their built-in friend! It is a great chance for both American and international students to broaden their cultural horizons and get to meet more people on campus.

It's a great chance for the international students to get opportunities to hang out with American students and really get integrated into American college life.

We have all kinds of adventures enjoying what I call the "splendor of Northern California". We hike, swim, eat, play and enjoy cross cultural communications.

I has been a great eight weeks. Here's to the next eight!

A Quarter of a Century.

Meg and I at the Bear for Sarah's 25th.

Drinks by the shore!

Harrah's....post buffet. I was like DYING.

Sarah and I at Crush 201 for her actual birthday.

What could be better?

Life is uncertain, eat dessert first.

The gals and I went to Lake Tahoe for the weekend of Sarah's 25th... it was a blasty-blast!

The weekend got off to a rough start... as in didn't happen.

The original weekend we were planing to go, Sarah's Grandfather died, and we had to postpone our weekend of fun in the sun so she could attend his memorial service. Once we heard the sad news, Meghan and I quickly made plans to push the festivities back a week.

FINALLY, the Friday we had been waiting for practically all summer had arrived, and we piled into Sarah's ice blue civic and set off!

Sarah and Meghan had been telling me about the glorious and amazing buffets in the casino hotels, so naturally the first night we were there, we HAD to have dinner at Harrah's! It.was.amazing,

As per usual, I totally went for the GOLD, and ended up feeling sicker than EVER as we finished up the evening. I turned to Sarah and uttered the immortal words: Can one just lay down at a buffet? Like, do you think it would be appropriate?

We spent the next two days laying in the sun, reading our Sophie Kinsella novels, and enjoying the heck out of each other. It was the perfect relaxing vacation, which we ALL needed, especially Sarah, who works a million hours a week and is ALWAYS taking care of other people!

It was so different from my Euro adventures because we like literally just laid around for two days. No museums, no train tickets...just Starbucks every morning and sunburns (oops!) in the afternoons...I loved it!

The Monday after the trip was Sarah's Grandad's ash-scattering in San Francisco. She was already headed to Sunnyvale, so I hitched a ride with her to visit Steven, since I haven't been to see him in Santa Clara yet.

We had such a great time gal paling around Santana Row (the shopping center where he works), and I got a GREAT Vera Bradley lunch tote.

All in all, great summer getaway!

Final Fling Before The Ring.

Team Stephanie!

The gals!

This is so awkward but I HAD to put it up

Sarah being blindfolded to do her pinning

Everything should be pink and sparkly

Last weekend was Stephanie's Bachelorette Party. It was so much fun!

Big shout out to Sarah for being the best Maid of Honor, EVER! She ordered all these fun, bachelorette party-themed (if you catch my drift) items, and it was totally embarrassing for everyone, but quite the good time!

We played "pin the manhood on the man", which was fairly outrageous. We had to pick our own "manhood" (or have it picked for us, in my case) to pin on the poster. Mine was bacon and eggs, because Sarah knows I have a thing for bacon. We then had to tape them to us as name tags and wear them out...my tape "fell off" so I shoved it into my purse as soon as I could ;)

We also had fun blinking pink rings that we wore on our wedding ring fingers...

they were so cute! We found them at Michael's one day randomly and HAD to have them!

Sarah and Meghan also made everyone matching "Team Stephanie" shirts in the spirit of Eclipse and team-claiming. They were darling!

The night was a total success. Stephanie and Mike got married on Sunday, and it was amazing and she look so beautiful. Sarah made the cake it was GORGEOUS.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

Alyse, Ashley, Derrick and I supporting our teams.

Voting Station!

The Gals!

So, everyone knows I love the Twilight books. Ever since I picked up the first book at Target ( just to read at the gym, mind you), I have been hooked!

As a disclaimer, I know they are written for 14 year old girls, but let's be real, we're all 14 year old girls at heart, even in our 20's, 30's and 40's. I have read all the books many, many times.

The third movie, Eclipse, came out on June 30th, and I was working the night of the premiere, so my co-worker and I decided to have a little fun with all the "twi-hards" and make it an Eclipse themed shift.

The night before we were to work together, Alyse (my supervisor) and I talked about making a voting station for all the fans to declare their love for either Edward Cullen or Jacob Black. We bought red and black m&m's and made a display for the hand-off plane so the voting could begin!

The day of our close together, Alyse and I met at Hot Topic and purchased shirts declaring our respective teams, I OF COURSE, bought a shirt with a huge photo of Robert Pattinson on it...Alyse is a team Jacob kind of gal...RUDE.

There has recently been a phenomenon called "Team Switzerland". It comes from a quote that Bella says in the book about being neutral territory between the vampires and the werewolves. Being the fair gals that we are, we got a shirt for our pre-closer, Derrick, with the Team Switzerland crest.

It was such a blast!

We wore our outfits to work (special shout out to Tam for letting us do that!) and had a ton of fun chatting with customers about what team they were on, how long they'd been in line, how many times they'd read the books, and of course, if they thought Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart would last as a couple.

The day after it came out, Sarah and I went together to see it. It was amazing! Eclipse is my favorite book in the series, so I was glad the movie was the best so far!

*As a side note, I recently watched Robert Pattinson's new movie, Remember Me.

It.was.awesome! It was a great love story, and had a huge twist at the end that made me GASP out loud then burst into tears. He is SUCH a dream.

So I don't get too depressed...

Me and the gals at the Bear

Bill and Cassie's wedding

Back at Starbucks...

My adorable niece Rylee

Being home has been great.

The first few days after coming home from Paris, I was going to sleep at 6 pm and waking up around 4 am. It was tough, but after a while, I could gradually stay up later and get up later.

I fell right back into the swing of things here in the States very quickly. I started working at Starbucks right away, which really helped me get back into my Chico life with very little wallowing and time to miss France.

The gals (now being Sarah B, Stephanie and Meghan) threw me a welcome home bash, and things have been a blast lately. I'm putting in my time at study abroad, and working night and day at Starbucks.

I went to San Diego in the beginning of June, right on the heels of Bill and Cassie's adorable wedding . I stayed 3 days with Sarah and her parents, and we had the best time GLAMMING around San Diego and the beach.

I am going to continue my blog because I don't keep a journal, and I do enjoy some good documentation.

It Only Took Me a Month..

Our amazing view at Cafe de L'homme the night before we left

The amazing macaroon store Steven told me about from his internship in Paris

If only...

A Longchamp! Thanks Sarah and Nikki!

After a wonderful year!

Birthday Dinner

Rowing the boat at Versailles

Garden jumping picture

Real Cordon Bleu students

We hiked all the way up here and it was so lame!

All.our.luggage.

...to put up the pictures and blog from Paris!

The gals and I spent our last few glorious days in France in the city of light and love. We adore Paris, and for all three of us it was the umpteenth time we'd been there this year.

There were so many things to celebrate in Paris. The end of the most wonderful year abroad, and of course, my 23rd birthday!

Packing and leaving Aix was an emotional experience and we certainly felt the effects as we stuffed (and I mean STUFFED) our suitcases during the week preceding our TGV train trip that would high-speed us to Paris.

I chose to spend my birthday at Versailles. I love the palace, and the darling town that surrounds it. I knew that it would be gorgeous in the weeks before summer, and biking through the gardens would be an experience to remember.

Sarah, Nikki and I jumped on the RER the morning of the anniversary of my birth and headed straight for the gardens at the castle. We rented our cruiser bikes and worked those pedals for nearly 2 hours. It.was.so.fun.

The sun was shining and it was so liberating to know that our classes were over and we had the whole glorious summer lingering ahead to transition us back into real life.

We even took out a paddle boat..something I've always wanted to do!

Our trip to Paris was three days where the world stood still. I like to imagine it now as sacred and protected by our three free spirits untouchable optimism.

The thing about Paris is that it never gets old. Samuel Jackson once said, "when you're tired of London, you're tired of life", and that's exactly how I feel about Paris.

Each and every time my train speeds into Gare de Lyon, I feel a sense of familiarity and overwhelming gratitude for this city that makes me appreciate the beauty of the world, especially Europe.

Paris made me love France, and I will never forget emerging from the train station doors and seeing the apartment buildings with the grey-stone architecture and black metal balcony banisters so classic to Parisian style.

It may seem dramatic, but as the weeks have passed here at home, I sometimes feel a sharp stab of terrible homesickness for Paris. Though Aix-en-Provence was my home for those 9 months, Paris will always be my vision of France.