I used to wear my iPod everywhere.

Walking to school, iPod. Sitting on the subway, iPod. Waiting for class to start, iPod. Grocery shopping, iPod. I never went anywhere without music.

There’s lots of reasons I chose music over realty, strange men telling me I should be their girlfriend at 8:30 AM certainly being one of them, but the easiest answer is that I didn’t really think there was much the world could offer me while I was alone. Walking by yourself can be a semi-lonely activity, especially if you’ve got a long way to go and don’t see many friendly faces on your way there.

So, I was plugged in. Walking quickly and keeping my face blank (looking too friendly in the city is sometimes an open invitation for crazy people to ask you to pet their plastic snake), I spent my days forging ahead and allowing The Police to soundtrack my life.

Until I overheard a conversation that changed everything. Read More »

Last summer, I found myself packing up my life (have you ever noticed that your life seems extremely pathetic when you get around to actually packing it up in luggage?) and heading off, seven hours away, to a world of cheap beer, dirty laundry, and glorious, glorious freedom. It was my freshman year of college.Sure, I had older friends, and they were all dying to give me advice.

Don’t procrastinate, never forget your shower shoes, beware the freshman fifteen, look to your right- look to your left- both those guys probably have chlamydia. You know, stuff like that.

Anyway… it’s about time to pack up life (beware moldy sandwiches) and head back to school, but for you young readers this is a big deal, and there’s no doubt you’ve got questions. So, I’m hooking you up with some vital answers. Read More »

As we all well know, summer is ending. No more long days at the beach and long nights at the bar. Instead, it is time to head back to school where you will spend long days on the couch and long nights at the bar.

Oh, and you will probably be studying too.

Anyways, don’t head back just yet; there are still plenty of things that you must do before packing up your Yaffa blocks and moving back to the dorms.

Since I will not be returning to school this Fall (though grad school is starting to look mighty tempting), I have compiled a list of 5 Must-Do’s before its time to crack those books:

1. The Summer Fling - Three months have gone by and still you haven’t had some good ole commitment-free summer fun? Forget those standards; just get out there and get some. With only a few weeks until you move away again, “commitment” won’t even come up in conversation. But wild nights of romping will definitely be had.

2. Treat Yourself - If you have spent your summer working some crappy job/internship, it is time to give yourself a little treat. Maybe a facial or a massage. Or those oh-so-fabulous jeans you see in every magazine. Or maybe, if you are really feeling frisky, one of these bad boys. Read More »

It is pretty much mid-August already, and for you lucky bastards heading back to school in the fall, it is time for the back-to-school insanity: Back-to-school sales. Back-to-school packing. Back-to-school planning. Back-to-school countdowns.

For me, however – a newly anointed adult – mid August means nothing more than insanely hot days where I don’t want to leave the house because I am so depressed that I am not going back to school in two weeks. No welcome week to look forward to. No reuniting with friends after 3 months apart. No dollar pitchers on a Wednesday night.

Nope, just another fucking day to get up at 5:30, go to the gym and head into my office where I have no windows and no contact to the outside world only to return home to my (fabulous) apartment and do even more work before going to bed and starting it all again. Hell, if it weren’t for the JC Penny back-to-school ads that show up in movie theaters, I wouldn’t even know it was mid-August to begin with!

Without a school year to look forward to, days blend into weeks, which blend into months and before I knew it, the summer is gone and I still look like (a well-dressed) Casper the Ghost. Read More »