I mentioned last week that I had applied to my first "real" job. Well...it was at TFA! Thursday, right before I left for the airport to go to my brother's wedding, I found out that I had made it past the first round and had been accepted for a phone interview. Then, it was a whirlwind of activity to try to book my phone interview time, fly out, prepare, fly back, and finally have it last night at 8:30 (which, by the way, happened to be RIGHT in the middle of the Packers/Bears game. Sigh.)
I think it went pretty well! I didn't want to post about the job until I had at least gotten past the first round and had my phone interview. They have a confidentiality policy so I can't share too much, but I know a lot of people have questions about Teach for America (I still do!), like what the acceptance rate is, how the phone interview and the final interview are scheduled, what the application is like, and I'm sure tons more. So if you got to this post by googling those things, I'd be happy to answer all the questions I can...though I won't say too much, for fear of breaching the policy. I'll keep everyone updated on if I get invited to a final interview, but for now, I can say that my regions of choice right now are Los Angeles and the Bay Area, and I *think* my grade of choice would be third or fourth, but I don't know for sure. I do think high school could be really rewarding...but I'm sort of terrified.
Have any of you ever applied for, wanted to do, or actually done TFA? Have you had friends who have? What did they say about their experience?
I'm so excited/nervous/terrified all at once! (ALSO, if I do get it, I'll know what I'm doing next year by the beginning of November! CRAZY.)
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Wedding Bells are Ringing...
Well, friends, tonight after class I'm heading to Albany for the night, where L. and I will go out to dinner and stay in a hotel so that I can wake up at 4am tomorrow and get on a plane to San Diego!
Why San Diego, you ask?
Because Saturday is my brother's wedding!
It's definitely a rushed trip for me, as I'm leaving Friday morning and then leaving San Diego Sunday morning, but I'm so so happy for my brother and his beautiful fiancee. Full wedding post next week, I promise!
Why San Diego, you ask?
Because Saturday is my brother's wedding!
It's definitely a rushed trip for me, as I'm leaving Friday morning and then leaving San Diego Sunday morning, but I'm so so happy for my brother and his beautiful fiancee. Full wedding post next week, I promise!
Monday, September 20, 2010
The Beginning
Well, it's come.
Senior Year.
It's only the beginning now, but soon enough, it will be the middle.
And the middle, will turn into the end.
But I don't want to think about that right now.
For now all I want to think about is fun times with friends...
Homecoming...
Senior events! (First Chance, 100 Days, Last Chance, Hilton Head trip, and Senior Week, from now until May)...
Concerts...
Great conversations at the bar...
House parties...
Football games in the common room...
My thesis (inevitably)...
and having fun!
Job searching will just have to wait.
(Even though I just applied for my first job...a post on that coming soon!)
Senior Year.
It's only the beginning now, but soon enough, it will be the middle.
And the middle, will turn into the end.
But I don't want to think about that right now.
For now all I want to think about is fun times with friends...
Homecoming...
Senior events! (First Chance, 100 Days, Last Chance, Hilton Head trip, and Senior Week, from now until May)...
Concerts...
Great conversations at the bar...
House parties...
Football games in the common room...
My thesis (inevitably)...
and having fun!
Job searching will just have to wait.
(Even though I just applied for my first job...a post on that coming soon!)
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Return of the Abscess
Over the weekend, I had planned to write about all the fun, cute things I've done since moving back in to my senior-year dorm and beginning my classes and thesis, which I of course find fascinating and hope you will too.
But then, I went to the Emergency Room instead.
See, two weeks ago when I developed that nasty abscess I posted about, I got a 10-day round of Penicillin to ideally clear it all out. And when I confessed to my primary physician that I was terrified we'd have to drain it, she essentially laughed at me and sent me on my merry way.
Well, the Penicillin ran out last Thursday, and I thought all was dandy, and that my horrible painful infection was over. Oh, but I was wrong.
Saturday morning I woke up with a faint sore throat, and at first didn't even attribute it to the abscess. I had gone out Friday night and thought maybe it was just a nasty remnant of a late night. But by dinnertime, I knew that it had come back. The same tell-tale lump only near my right tonsil had returned, along with the aches, pains, and fever that had accompanied it the first time. Annoyed, I told L. that I was going to run down to the health center and ask for a second round of antibiotics to be prescribed to me. I thought it would only take ten minutes, and then I would come back and we could go to dinner.
Again, I was wrong.
The nurse found that I had a fever of almost 100, and when I explained my symptoms to her, she progressively looked slightly worried. This, in turn, worried ME, because nurses are usually pretty good at keeping it together. She asked me to look all the way up, and then tilt my chin down to my chest. My neck was so stiff and my abscess was so tender that I couldn't touch my chin to my chest, and without missing a beat, the nurse said "Michelle, I would like to you to go the ER right now. I want you to get tested for Meningitis."
The next half hour was a blur of everyone, including L., who came to pick me up, and my dad, who I called, saying that everything was fine but looking absolutely scared shitless, which clearly made me scared shitless, and subsequently by the time I got to the ER I was all kinds of panic-stricken. Luckily, when I saw the doctor he said he thought my symptoms were from my abscess and not meningitis...but then he said something that, for me, was almost just as bad: that he wanted to drain it. With a GIANT NEEDLE. He said if we didn't do it then I could go to the ear, nose, and throat doctor, who would then do it with a SCALPEL, and asked me how I felt about it. "Well," I said, "I feel like I'm going to pass out just talking about it!"
Ultimately, the doctor pushed for wanting to drain it that night, since he didn't feel that another round of antibiotics would effectively get rid of it. So I asked for L. to be allowed to come in the room, since I am absolutely, deathly afraid of needles, and he squeezed my hand as the doctor numbed my mouth and throat and PREMATURE tears, just expecting the pain, began to roll down my cheeks. The doctor said that when he said so, to close my eyes and no matter what NOT open them, because he knew I would freak out if I saw the size of the needle. Then, when he stabbed it into my throat, I was awkwardly sobbing from the pain, but my mouth was numb and my tongue was depressed so really it was a series of strange-sounding guttural throat noises and tears running down my face.
Guys. It hurt worse than ANYTHING in recent memory has ever hurt. I don't exactly have the highest threshold for pain, but take my word for it. But it was relatively quick. After it was over, I trembled/shook for a few hours for the sheer trauma of the event (not even kidding), and could barely talk for awhile. L. ordered some lo mein noodles for me, since we had missed dinner, and we spent the evening on the couch, which passed relatively pleasurably after I took my painkillers! It definitely still hurts, even four days later, but I'm just hoping this whole miserable experience will be over soon. Being drugged up on narcotics all day definitely isn't conducive to getting schoolwork done, although the prospect of hours of work hasn't been nearly as depressing, ha! But more pleasant posts soon to come, as soon as I start feeling better.
But then, I went to the Emergency Room instead.
See, two weeks ago when I developed that nasty abscess I posted about, I got a 10-day round of Penicillin to ideally clear it all out. And when I confessed to my primary physician that I was terrified we'd have to drain it, she essentially laughed at me and sent me on my merry way.
Well, the Penicillin ran out last Thursday, and I thought all was dandy, and that my horrible painful infection was over. Oh, but I was wrong.
Saturday morning I woke up with a faint sore throat, and at first didn't even attribute it to the abscess. I had gone out Friday night and thought maybe it was just a nasty remnant of a late night. But by dinnertime, I knew that it had come back. The same tell-tale lump only near my right tonsil had returned, along with the aches, pains, and fever that had accompanied it the first time. Annoyed, I told L. that I was going to run down to the health center and ask for a second round of antibiotics to be prescribed to me. I thought it would only take ten minutes, and then I would come back and we could go to dinner.
Again, I was wrong.
The nurse found that I had a fever of almost 100, and when I explained my symptoms to her, she progressively looked slightly worried. This, in turn, worried ME, because nurses are usually pretty good at keeping it together. She asked me to look all the way up, and then tilt my chin down to my chest. My neck was so stiff and my abscess was so tender that I couldn't touch my chin to my chest, and without missing a beat, the nurse said "Michelle, I would like to you to go the ER right now. I want you to get tested for Meningitis."
The next half hour was a blur of everyone, including L., who came to pick me up, and my dad, who I called, saying that everything was fine but looking absolutely scared shitless, which clearly made me scared shitless, and subsequently by the time I got to the ER I was all kinds of panic-stricken. Luckily, when I saw the doctor he said he thought my symptoms were from my abscess and not meningitis...but then he said something that, for me, was almost just as bad: that he wanted to drain it. With a GIANT NEEDLE. He said if we didn't do it then I could go to the ear, nose, and throat doctor, who would then do it with a SCALPEL, and asked me how I felt about it. "Well," I said, "I feel like I'm going to pass out just talking about it!"
Ultimately, the doctor pushed for wanting to drain it that night, since he didn't feel that another round of antibiotics would effectively get rid of it. So I asked for L. to be allowed to come in the room, since I am absolutely, deathly afraid of needles, and he squeezed my hand as the doctor numbed my mouth and throat and PREMATURE tears, just expecting the pain, began to roll down my cheeks. The doctor said that when he said so, to close my eyes and no matter what NOT open them, because he knew I would freak out if I saw the size of the needle. Then, when he stabbed it into my throat, I was awkwardly sobbing from the pain, but my mouth was numb and my tongue was depressed so really it was a series of strange-sounding guttural throat noises and tears running down my face.
Guys. It hurt worse than ANYTHING in recent memory has ever hurt. I don't exactly have the highest threshold for pain, but take my word for it. But it was relatively quick. After it was over, I trembled/shook for a few hours for the sheer trauma of the event (not even kidding), and could barely talk for awhile. L. ordered some lo mein noodles for me, since we had missed dinner, and we spent the evening on the couch, which passed relatively pleasurably after I took my painkillers! It definitely still hurts, even four days later, but I'm just hoping this whole miserable experience will be over soon. Being drugged up on narcotics all day definitely isn't conducive to getting schoolwork done, although the prospect of hours of work hasn't been nearly as depressing, ha! But more pleasant posts soon to come, as soon as I start feeling better.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Before and After
Last week I mentioned that I was doing something to alter my appearance. Specifically, my hair color went from this...
to this...
Believe it or not, the second, deeper brunette color is actually much closer to my natural color than the first one. Unfortunately, four years ago I was a silly college freshman who had just broken up with her boyfriend of four years and needed a dramatic change; the result was me thinking I could dye my hair blonde from a box (d'oh!) and ending up with an orangey/auburn hue; that, I tried to turn blonde the correct way by highlighting it, but realized how much money and maintenance being a blonde is, and so tried to cover it back up with that same darker color you see in the second picture. In two years, it's faded to the color of the first picture. What I've learned from all this? DON'T TRY TO CHANGE YOUR NATURAL COLOR! I'm terrified mine may never come back, and this whole saga has been literally one of my biggest regrets. It's so melodramatic it's laughable.
So anyways, I LOVE the new color, even though it's already faded quite a bit. What do you think?? Have you ever had a hair-dyeing nightmare?
to this...
Believe it or not, the second, deeper brunette color is actually much closer to my natural color than the first one. Unfortunately, four years ago I was a silly college freshman who had just broken up with her boyfriend of four years and needed a dramatic change; the result was me thinking I could dye my hair blonde from a box (d'oh!) and ending up with an orangey/auburn hue; that, I tried to turn blonde the correct way by highlighting it, but realized how much money and maintenance being a blonde is, and so tried to cover it back up with that same darker color you see in the second picture. In two years, it's faded to the color of the first picture. What I've learned from all this? DON'T TRY TO CHANGE YOUR NATURAL COLOR! I'm terrified mine may never come back, and this whole saga has been literally one of my biggest regrets. It's so melodramatic it's laughable.
So anyways, I LOVE the new color, even though it's already faded quite a bit. What do you think?? Have you ever had a hair-dyeing nightmare?
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Hectic, Hectic, Hectic
Well. To say that my life has been a madhouse for the last few days would be an understatement. Thursday night, L. and our friend Andrew flew into NH, and Friday we had the perfect New Hampshire day. Saturday we packed up the cars and drove back to Williams, and I spent the weekend moving in. Classes officially start tomorrow, but tonight I have a couple organizational meetings, and today is also my first day back to work at the museum. There's lots of fun things to write about, but since I'm strapped for time and want to distract you, Melissa from Duoly Noted tagged me in her 8 Questions post, so I'm going to take this time to answer those. More substantial/less fluff-filled posts on the way soon!
1. If you could have an unlimited shoe budget or purse budget which one would you pick?
Oh, this is easy. Though I don't really consider myself much of a shoe girl or a bag girl (as you all read, I only just bought my first "real" bag last week!), I think definitely shoes. I use one bag and only one bag until it is literally usable-no-more. At least different types of activities actually require different types of shoes.
2. If you could change lives with one person for a day who would it be?
I would really love to see what a day in the life of Ree Drummond, aka the Pioneer Woman, is really like. Her lifestyle is diametrically opposed to mine, and while that alone would make it a super fun experience for a day, I really want to see if her life is as perfect as it seems.
3. What is the one place you haven't been that you want to visit before you die?
Aside from England, I've never been to Europe. (!) I don't think my answer to this question can be as broad as "Europe," but I'd love to go to Italy or Spain. Or Greece. Or France. Or Russia. ...
4. What is your most unrealistic fear?
Pretty much every single fear I have is unrealistic, but I have them in excessive, panic-attack inducing quantities. I'm terrified of spiders, flying, the dark, mirrors facing me when I sleep, and probably tons more. Out of those, it's either spiders or flying that are the worst. Both make me burst into tears and shake when I'm in the proximity of either.
5. If you could compete in one Olympic sport, which one would you pick?
Slalom. It looks SO FUN.
6. What was the last book you read and did you like it?
The last book I completed was A Reliable Wife, and it was probably the best book I've read for pleasure in a really long time. It's totally Wuthering Heights-esque, and since that's one of my favorite books of all time, I was sold from the beginning. Read it! You'll see.
7. What song best describes how you are feeling this moment?
I think the song that will best describe how I'm feeling for basically the next nine months is "A Jagged Gorgeous Winter" by The Main Drag. It's basically about change, both seasonally, as winter comes and changes the way people see/think about things, but also about running out of time, and the potential end of possibility. I know the lines "Huddling against the walls/Shrinking college trends/With the days living faster now/We cast our make pretends" is going to make me lose it more than once as senior year goes on.
8. Who is your rolemodel?
This is a tough one. I'm not sure that there's any one person that has every quality I admire, but I like to think all the people who are important to me have some essential quality that I respect or aspire to have. L. is the most generous person I've ever known, right up there with my mum. C. is incredibly focused and dedicated. My dad always takes time out of his day to help me with anything I ask him, even if it's as silly as killing a spider, or as time-consuming as taking my car to get fixed.
I think I'm supposed to pose 8 questions and tag people now, but I'll just pose the questions, and anyone who wants to participate is tagged!
1. What is one food you cannot/will never eat?
2. You can only ever have five dogs or five babies. If you have five dogs, you don't get any babies. If you have five babies, you don't get any dogs. Which do you choose?
3. If money and location weren't issues, what is the job you would do anything to have?
4. Do you wish you had majored in something different in college?
5. What's your go-to site of choice to waste time? (Mine's Sporcle.)
6. If you could only ever again watch ESPN or Lifetime on tv, and those were your only two channels, which would you choose? Or would you give up tv altogether? (Watching Lifetime for the rest of my life would probably be enough to make me give up tv!)
7. Have you ever/would you ever consider being a vegetarian? What about a vegan?
8. What's one, if any, allergy you have that interrupts the way you would otherwise want live your life? (You can't eat chocolate when you want, you can't enjoy Spring days due to ragweed, etc.)
1. If you could have an unlimited shoe budget or purse budget which one would you pick?
Oh, this is easy. Though I don't really consider myself much of a shoe girl or a bag girl (as you all read, I only just bought my first "real" bag last week!), I think definitely shoes. I use one bag and only one bag until it is literally usable-no-more. At least different types of activities actually require different types of shoes.
2. If you could change lives with one person for a day who would it be?
I would really love to see what a day in the life of Ree Drummond, aka the Pioneer Woman, is really like. Her lifestyle is diametrically opposed to mine, and while that alone would make it a super fun experience for a day, I really want to see if her life is as perfect as it seems.
3. What is the one place you haven't been that you want to visit before you die?
Aside from England, I've never been to Europe. (!) I don't think my answer to this question can be as broad as "Europe," but I'd love to go to Italy or Spain. Or Greece. Or France. Or Russia. ...
4. What is your most unrealistic fear?
Pretty much every single fear I have is unrealistic, but I have them in excessive, panic-attack inducing quantities. I'm terrified of spiders, flying, the dark, mirrors facing me when I sleep, and probably tons more. Out of those, it's either spiders or flying that are the worst. Both make me burst into tears and shake when I'm in the proximity of either.
5. If you could compete in one Olympic sport, which one would you pick?
Slalom. It looks SO FUN.
6. What was the last book you read and did you like it?
The last book I completed was A Reliable Wife, and it was probably the best book I've read for pleasure in a really long time. It's totally Wuthering Heights-esque, and since that's one of my favorite books of all time, I was sold from the beginning. Read it! You'll see.
7. What song best describes how you are feeling this moment?
I think the song that will best describe how I'm feeling for basically the next nine months is "A Jagged Gorgeous Winter" by The Main Drag. It's basically about change, both seasonally, as winter comes and changes the way people see/think about things, but also about running out of time, and the potential end of possibility. I know the lines "Huddling against the walls/Shrinking college trends/With the days living faster now/We cast our make pretends" is going to make me lose it more than once as senior year goes on.
8. Who is your rolemodel?
This is a tough one. I'm not sure that there's any one person that has every quality I admire, but I like to think all the people who are important to me have some essential quality that I respect or aspire to have. L. is the most generous person I've ever known, right up there with my mum. C. is incredibly focused and dedicated. My dad always takes time out of his day to help me with anything I ask him, even if it's as silly as killing a spider, or as time-consuming as taking my car to get fixed.
I think I'm supposed to pose 8 questions and tag people now, but I'll just pose the questions, and anyone who wants to participate is tagged!
1. What is one food you cannot/will never eat?
2. You can only ever have five dogs or five babies. If you have five dogs, you don't get any babies. If you have five babies, you don't get any dogs. Which do you choose?
3. If money and location weren't issues, what is the job you would do anything to have?
4. Do you wish you had majored in something different in college?
5. What's your go-to site of choice to waste time? (Mine's Sporcle.)
6. If you could only ever again watch ESPN or Lifetime on tv, and those were your only two channels, which would you choose? Or would you give up tv altogether? (Watching Lifetime for the rest of my life would probably be enough to make me give up tv!)
7. Have you ever/would you ever consider being a vegetarian? What about a vegan?
8. What's one, if any, allergy you have that interrupts the way you would otherwise want live your life? (You can't eat chocolate when you want, you can't enjoy Spring days due to ragweed, etc.)
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
My First Coach!!!
It's a little difficult to have buyer's remorse when you buy something and all the sales girls clap for you and give you pretty tissue paper and a hug. And that, my friends, is exactly what happened last friday, when I purchased my very first Coach bag!!!
I am a poor college student, it's true. But when I really want something, I save for it. (Besides, you know, my future. 'Cause I really want that too.) Recently I've been figuring it was due time that I got myeslf a "big-girl bag." I'll be going on super important job interviews soon and will obviously be buying a new suit, but will I look polished in a new suit, new heels, and a knock-off bag that I bought at a flea market two years ago that's falling apart? Mmm, not so much. See, I'm not a typical "bag" girl. I get one, I use it 'til it literally explodes/dies, and then I get another. Well, instead of buying cheap bags every year or two, why not get a really nice bag that will last for years, and look professional, and, I'll admit it, just be generally fabulous?
But don't worry, I didn't go to an actual Coach store. That would be hilarious. Because I have bills. I went to the Coach outlet with my mum last Friday, after we got glammed up with mani/pedis (I got OPI's Siberian Nights on both...it's SO fall!) and got a light lunch of salad, soup (NO BREADSTICKS) and a glass of wine at Olive Garden.
Then we hit the outlets for some serious fall spending...and that's when my mum steered me into the Coach store and said, "You've been talking about getting a bag, and I think you should. Do it."
I had been really eyeing the Madison Maggie in Saffron for a long time...but alas, at $348.00, I just couldn't justify it. WELL. I found Maggie's identical twin at the outlets for less than half that price...and it's still GORGEOUS:
I really love it. The color is exactly what I wanted, and the oversize buckle is just so sassy.
OH. And I took these pictures on my new Canon Powershot SD1300 IS! Which I'm completely obsessed with. Too bad I can't take a picture of it! Ha!
And I got this adorable Vera Bradley case to keep it safe, with my two favorite colors: chartreuse and turquoise!
(And yes. I've been engaging in some serious retail therapy while I've been home. It's the only way I can cope with senior year.)
I am a poor college student, it's true. But when I really want something, I save for it. (Besides, you know, my future. 'Cause I really want that too.) Recently I've been figuring it was due time that I got myeslf a "big-girl bag." I'll be going on super important job interviews soon and will obviously be buying a new suit, but will I look polished in a new suit, new heels, and a knock-off bag that I bought at a flea market two years ago that's falling apart? Mmm, not so much. See, I'm not a typical "bag" girl. I get one, I use it 'til it literally explodes/dies, and then I get another. Well, instead of buying cheap bags every year or two, why not get a really nice bag that will last for years, and look professional, and, I'll admit it, just be generally fabulous?
But don't worry, I didn't go to an actual Coach store. That would be hilarious. Because I have bills. I went to the Coach outlet with my mum last Friday, after we got glammed up with mani/pedis (I got OPI's Siberian Nights on both...it's SO fall!) and got a light lunch of salad, soup (NO BREADSTICKS) and a glass of wine at Olive Garden.
Then we hit the outlets for some serious fall spending...and that's when my mum steered me into the Coach store and said, "You've been talking about getting a bag, and I think you should. Do it."
I had been really eyeing the Madison Maggie in Saffron for a long time...but alas, at $348.00, I just couldn't justify it. WELL. I found Maggie's identical twin at the outlets for less than half that price...and it's still GORGEOUS:
I really love it. The color is exactly what I wanted, and the oversize buckle is just so sassy.
OH. And I took these pictures on my new Canon Powershot SD1300 IS! Which I'm completely obsessed with. Too bad I can't take a picture of it! Ha!
And I got this adorable Vera Bradley case to keep it safe, with my two favorite colors: chartreuse and turquoise!
(And yes. I've been engaging in some serious retail therapy while I've been home. It's the only way I can cope with senior year.)
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