things and stuf

I’ve been in Connecticut for 8 days and I’m still unemployed.

…what else is new?

Aside from applying for jobs and going to a couple of interviews in NYC, it’s been kinda difficult to fill my time. Most of my time has been spent:

• watching movies
• watching the ABC Family channel (shoot me now)
• playing Brain Age 2
• reading Guns, Germs and Steel
• organizing and reorganizing my temporary room
• reading all the entries in my google reader
• talking to friends on gchat
• “window shopping” on amazon.com

Luckily for my sanity, I had a the chance to break from that routine and join some friends in NYC for an All-American 4th of July celebration.

After couch shopping for a hot minute, Adam, Ryan and I went to a very American restaurant (Wildwood BBQ) for a very American dinner. One whole chicken, pulled pork, sausage, 2 pitchers of beer, mac and cheese, corn on the cob, and $150 later, we were mostly full and satisfied… although, I don’t think I’ll ever eat there again. Anyways, after dinner we met up with a friend of Ryan’s and made our way to a very casual party-shindig to view the fireworks. Fortunately, we had a pretty clear view of the sky:

Unfortunately, as soon as the first fireworks went off, the combination of smoke, clouds and rain put a damper on the rest of the show. Lame. It didn’t matter anyway because everyone was beginning to really enjoy (I didn’t) the extreme liqour supply at the party-shindig.

Saturday with Adam and Ryan began with a delicious breakfast and a bake fest gone wrong - a little worse than the one Adam and I had in May. On the whole, our banana bread and blueberry “cornbread” turned out okay, kinda… Eventually we ventured away from the apartment to attend the free NY Philharmonic concert on Governor’s Island. Of course, the event was canceled as soon as we got to the ferry. It had been raining all day.

We didn’t have the best of luck this past weekend.

To pass the time, we went to Governor’s Island anyway and took a look around:

A little history lesson…

I have no idea.

I really like taking pictures of flowers.

One of the waterfalls around NYC.

Extreme T&A… and another statue I can’t explain.

To top off our not-so-fortunate day, we had dinner at Pizzeria Uno - the last mishap of the day. Service was terrible and our pizza was bad. Go figure.

Eventually, my NYC vacation and all-American weekend came to an end. Despite all of the unfortunate events of July 4th and 5th, I still enjoyed hanging out with the guys. Now it’s back to the Connecticut grind until I make my way to Atlanta next week.

If there’s one thing I don’t have patience for, it’s clothes shopping. Ideally, when I go shopping for clothes, I go with an idea of what I want, and I stick with that plan. Today I went clothes shopping with my aunt and 13 year old cousin, and I needed shorts. What could’ve been a 20 minute visit to Kohls (it didn’t take long to find shorts), actually turned into a 1.5 hour visit because my cousin likes to shop. I wasn’t happy.

Anyways, after venting my shopping frustrations to my cousin, she told me that I needed to have more patience when shopping… Actually, the conversation went something like this:

Me: Ohmigosh, I really don’t like going shopping for clothes. It’s such a hassle. I’m so impatient.

Cousin: Why are you so impatient?! You can’t be that way! You’ll never find anything.

Me: When I go shopping, usually I’m looking for a certain thing - if I don’t find it almost immediately in a given store, I leave the store and search elsewhere.

Cousin: That’s stupid! You’re passing up so much here! You need some patience…

Me: Ugh. But I hate looking through clothes! I’m so picky… and poor. I want my clothes to be easy to find.

Cousin: You need to calm down, Deva. Patience. That’s what you need. And you need a new wardrobe. I’m calling What Not To Wear…

I have a feeling that won’t be the only shopping trip I take with my cousin in the next couple of months. Anyways, my wardrobe can definitely use a mini-makeover. I will need to take my 13 year old cousin’s advice and grow some patience. Until I can hire someone to find the clothes I want, I’ll have to fight the crowds and search the stores on my own. Or I can just become rich and buy whatever I want.

Samson is my 12-year-old chocolate lab, and he’s the coolest.

I got Samson for my 12th birthday and I was completely shocked because I never expected to get a dog. He was such a little ball of chocolate adorableness :) My parents decided on a name before even handing him over to me because they were afraid I’d name him something weird (personally, I don’t think Snickers would’ve been a bad name, but whatever). The name “Samson” worked for everyone.

Twelve years later, Samson is still adorable but not as chocolate as he used to be - he’s more of a white and chocolate lab now. It almost breaks my heart to see my old puppy struggle to walk up and down the steps and even walk back and forth along the (very long) driveway. I still remember the days when he was so full of energy he would drag me on our walks. I even remember when a lot of my friends were all afraid of him because of his size and hyperactivity. He was never a mean dog, though. As a matter of fact, Samson would’ve made a crappy watch dog since he mostly barked at air.

Anyways, he’s pretty old and much less energetic, but I love him just the same. He still burps in my face when I pet him and farts in the middle of the night when he sleeps in my room, but he’s awesome. Every time I leave him, I’m afraid it could be the last time I see him… which really pains me. I hope he’s still around when I go to my parents’ house in a few months.

Here’s the quick reply to your Deva-Jenn transformation post:

1. I already kinda love John Mayer. He’s not nearly as attractive as Buble, but his music is awesome (and that’s what really counts, right?)

2. Everyday I struggle with my sour patch kids v. Swedish fish dilemma. I LOVE Swedish fish, but I can never make a decision on which I like more. The Kids and Fish are tied for first place in my candy book.

3. Ice cream and I definitely have a love-hate relationship. When I was 6 years old, I had a bad experience with vanilla ice cream (it made me pretty sick), and things haven’t been the same since. But I do have a weakness for anything with cookie dough or Coldstone’s cake batter.

4. One of my top 5 favorite Arrested Development lines of all time:

Michael: Gob, Steve Holt is your son. He probably just feels a connection.
Gob: He doesn’t know what he feels. I’m tired of being told - my God. What is this feeling?
[Schmaltzy music begins to play]
Michael: You know, the feeling that you’re feeling is just what many of us call… a “feeling”.
Gob: It’s not like envy, or even hungry.
Michael: Could it be love?
Gob: I know what an erection feels like, Michael. No, it’s the opposite - it’s like my heart is getting hard.
[the music reaches its crescendo]
Gob: Maybe I am ready to be a father.

Best. Show. Ever.

See, Jenn - we’re even more alike than you thought :)

Keep up the awesome,

Deva

And the moment you’ve all been waiting for… a piece of Jenn’s mind for you all to enjoy :)

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“Likes: singing, coffee, music, sunshine, laughter, Arrested Development (the show), Michael Buble, tap dancing, broccoli, sour patch kids, kayaking”

Tomorrow is an important day for this blog. I have a guest blogger! How cool is that?

Meet Jenn.

I’m actually her guest blogger too. Get excited :)

Tonight is my last night in Maryland FOREVER.

For some reason, I’m completely emotion-less about it - I have absolutely no feelings whatsoever about this relocation I’m about to pursue. I mean, I’m moving to Connecticut (and soon after, to NYC)… that’s a big deal, right? I’ve never lived in Connecticut before.

But no. No emotions from me. I think I’ve been thinking too much about other things (mostly whether or not all of my crap will fit into my car) - and the idea of “leaving the place where I spent the past 2 years of my life” hasn’t really sunk in.

…so, it’s 12:06am and unfortunately I’m just realizing I don’t really have time to write at the moment. I have about 5 trillion other things I need to get done before 8:30am… I’ll have to write more when I get home (my parents house in Virginia). I’ll reflect a bit and perhaps try to conjure up some emotions.

Oh, and did I mention I’m really excited about seeing my dog when I get home? I even bought him an adorable doggie treat from the mall :)

Adios, College Park FOREVER. It’s been real. And by real I mean, bunk. And by bunk I mean, grad school has almost sucked every ounce of happiness and optimism out of my life and I’m so glad it’s over…

mixwit.com = a new way to spend my late nights when I’m not doing anything important.

Check out my first ever online mix tape! ahora - recents

By the way, there are a few of my faves that didn’t make it to the list this time. Perhaps I’ll get them later.

Let the countdown to relocation begin.

No - I don’t have a job yet, I’m just getting out from this crappy apartment.

I’m going home next Thursday to drop off my mom’s car and hang out with my parents (of course), then on Saturday my parents are shipping me away. I can’t wait.

So, now that I can see an end to my time in the DC area, I went on one last* Georgetown photo adventure this afternoon. I’ll miss my DC photo adventures. Unfortunately, today’s outing turned into a “buy random things” adventure. I fail.** Overall, I was happy with my purchases.

First, I ended up at Dean & Deluca - the store/market I want to love, but can’t afford to. I did about 3 laps around the market before settling on 3 items:

1. A sun-dried tomato baguette. I thought it would go nicely with my pasta dinner. I’m not sure if I can eat all of it by Wednesday… but I’ll try.

2. A 1/4 pound of Tanzania Peaberry coffee beans. Sure I already have coffee at home, but I need to balance out my Latin American coffee with something African. Plus, Murky doesn’t sell coffee by the 1/4 pound.

3. The Kombucha Wonder Drink. I actually went to the refrigerated section looking for the weirdest drink I could find… this is what I came up with. It’s definitely nothing like anything I’ve ever tasted and I still don’t know if I enjoyed it.*** If it didn’t cost $3, I’d buy another one tomorrow.

I was proud to only have spent $10 in Dean & Deluca. That place ain’t cheap. Eventually, I wandered over to Baked and Wired, where I heard they serve the best strawberry cupcakes. Little did I know, they also serve Counter Culture Coffee. What a treat… cupcakes and coffee!

FYI - the cupcake was pretty delicious. It actually had real chunks of strawberries in it. CakeLove doesn’t do that… On the other hand, I think I like CakeLove’s icing better.

All in all, it was a fairly successful day. Maybe tomorrow I’ll take another photo adventure and take pictures outside of my apartment.

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* That probably won’t be my last visit to Baked and Wired - I was told to return so I could try a carrot cake cupcake.

** I fail because all the pictures (with the exception of the espresso) were taken after I returned from my “adventure”. Lame.

*** Oddly enough, I’m experiencing a strange burst of energy right now. I think it’s because of the drink. I think the back of the bottle says something about being “energy-enhancing”. Crap.

I just came across this website called Blogthings full of all kinds of “informative” quizzes. After pondering on what I’ve always wanted to know about myself, I took a stab at them.

1. What Deva Means:

You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row.
You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace.
People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are very hyper. You never slow down, even when it’s killing you.
You’re the type of person who can be a workaholic during the day… and still have the energy to party all night.
Your energy is definitely a magnet for those around you. People are addicted to your vibe.

You are usually the best at everything … you strive for perfection.
You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.
You have the classic “Type A” personality.

Those results are about 98% right. How does it know so much about me based on my first name? Freaky…

2. What the House Test Says About You

You consider yourself important, but no more important than anyone else. You love attention, but you don’t feel like you deserve more of it than anyone else.

You aren’t against being community oriented, but it’s not really your thing. You tend to prefer to focus on your family and not the neighborhood around you.

You are creative, expressive, and bright. You are always in the middle of some amazing project.

You take good care of your physical appearance. You dress well, stay in shape, and do your best to look great.

You are moved by what’s exotic and unique. You often have the mentality of a traveler, even when you’re not traveling.

Wow. Seriously, this quiz was only 5 questions… I don’t know how they figured me out.

3. Where Should You Live?

You Should Live in a Small City

You are definitely an urban person, but not any old city will do.
You want a city that matches you well. For you, big cities lack individuality.
You prefer a smaller city with lots of personality, local culture, and history.

Well then. I guess that’s that. I actually have no idea where I will end up once I settle down, but this kinda gives me an idea.

I think I’ve learned enough about me for one day.