So it pretty much rained the entire month of June in Boston. The people at work have two competing theories for why this is so.
Theory A: I’ve never worked for them before and they’ve never had a summer like this before so I must have brought it with me. If it’s sunny next weekend when I’m in Chicago, they’re never going to want to see me again.
Theory B: Mother Nature is crying extra hard for Michael Jackson. ‘Cuz, you know, with women’s intuition and everything, she totally saw it coming.
Theory B wins in my book for sheer ridiculousness.
I hit the halfway mark in my internship this week. In this time, I’ve written the equivalent of about 3 20-page papers, read several books, kicked my caffeine addiction, seen a grand total of 1 Middlebury person, learned several new “games” from my housemates, killed a mouse, broken in 3 pairs of stilettos, danced, had umpteen discussions about what’s wrong with our economy, read the WSJ almost everyday, met a new person everyday, bowled, learned some essential slang, hung out with my uncle, stolen a fridge, played darts, seen a musical and walked absolutely everywhere. I’d say that overall it’s been successful.
I’m in a funk tonight and don’t want to do anything except stare out the window, which is weird, but whatever. It’s the 4th of July weekend.
Have fun, yo.
-Ems
PS: I bought a shirt today which is very quickly going to become my all time fav. It says “I’m a violent, sensual, sensitive, girl.” It’s white, and v-neck and adorable. I saw it in a window a week ago and have dreamt about it all week. I’ll probably be wearing it next time you see me.
In no particular order, the craziest 3 things I’ve ever done:
Cliff Jumping in the Caribbean in February 2008
My living arrangements for Summer 2009
3 days in Rome in October 2008
Last night, someone asked me what is the craziest thing I’ve ever done. Aside from the fact that it was a very odd conversation starter, it did cause me to stop and think. After said thinking, I came up with the above list of the 3 craziest things I’ve ever done. I’ll admit, the list may be biased to the present and recent past, but it’s interesting to pay attention to what I, at the age of almost 22, thought were three remarkable memories. One of them is a single event, the other two are prolonged moments in time. I’ve certainly done a lot of little crazy and stupid things (like punching the ceiling when I was trying to make fun of the guys who lived across the hall from me) but all three things that I actually listed combine and represent times when I did something wholly uncharacteristic to my personality, had a fantastic time, and/or experienced an incredible surge of adrenaline. Feel free to let me know if you think I missed something.
There are so many reasons why September is the best month ever. The new movie/documentary The September Issue, chronicling the assembling of September 2008’s issue of Vogue magazine and the powerhouse that is Anna Wintour is just one more notch on the list.
My freshman roommate just reminded me of this song and how we used to wake up to it every morning. I’m so excited to have rediscovered it. There’s something about the lyrics and the juxtaposition (god I hate that word) of talking about punk rock but not being a punk rock song that it is so amazing. I can’t wait to listen to this as I stroll through the Common on my way home from work tomorrow. Wait…why wait until tomorrow? I’m totally going to get up and dance to it right now.
UPDATE: Dammit. I always pick the links that don’t work. CLICK HERE to watch the video.
Confession: I actually started reviewing wines about a year ago when I was not nearly old enough to drink and when I knew next to nothing about wine. Every Thursday night, a friend and I would buy a nice bottle of wine (or rather, she would) and then take a half an hour out of our week to simply enjoy the wine and chat. What started off as relaxing Thursday Night Wine Nights between two friends, however, quickly turned into a rapacious interest for all things wine related. Now, after living in Italy and actually taking wine classes, I feel I can review wines with a little more expertise…maybe.
Anyone who knows me well will know that I actually prefer reds to whites, so it’s odd that I’m reviewing a white (and a Sauvignon Blanc no less) first. Though, perhaps my lack of interest in whites means that I’m more impressed by a truly good white.
This particular sauvignon blanc I had today at Bravo, the upscale restaurant at the MFA in Boston. I was out for a “light” brunch with my uncle which means that ordering wine with the meal was as obvious as adding ketchup to fries. To eat, my eyes were immediately drawn to a pancetta and spinach quiche (which ended up being delicious and creamy and perfect) so I decided to do the right thing this time and order a wine that I thought would compliment my entree. Recognizing that a red was wholly inappropriate under the circumstances, I went with the only South American wine on the list. I love Chilean Malbecs and the Carmenere varietal from the region so I decided to try a Chilean white, and I was not disappointed.
The wine was quite clear and had an almost sickly sweet ginger and grapefruit smell, which intrigued me. It was served slightly colder than I like, but in this particular instance the slight chill added a certain crispness to the first sip. Given the smell, I was excepting a really sweet taste but was surprised a tarty fruitiness that did not linger long on the tongue. I’m generally horrible at identifying the various flavors in wine, but the overall effect of this wine was something very similar to biting into a pear. Unfortunately, the finish was a little rough which threw off the balance of the wine slightly, but the pairing with the quiche was impeccable.
Final Recomendation:
Overall, this is a great summer dinner wine. Pairing with fruit would be a bad idea, but eggs and rich cheeses would be fantastic. It could also help offset a rich dessert. I’m not sure I could drink it by itself, however, its seeming lack of a high sugar concentration without being too dry and grassy could be a nice addition to cocktail hour.
There were two highlights to my work day today: receiving a new reverse-Polish financial calculator and reading the WSJ for about 40 minutes. Bliss.
When I was about halfway through the Marketing and Investing section of the WSJ, I had a revelatory moment mid-Starbucks grande Americano sip. It went something like this:
I was reading Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s commentary on her recent efforts to push for tax vouchers for people who buy fuel efficient cars. While somewhat whining-ly complaining about a counter effort pushed by auto-industry lobbyists in the House, she made one very revealing point. “Supporters of the auto industry approach,” she said, ” say that our bill’s higher fuel-efficiency requirements give foreign automakers an advantage.”
In the flippant running commentary in my head, I told the auto industry, “Well, that’s because they have a business plan that allows for them to make more fuel efficient cars. If you were willing to change your fucking business plan, this wouldn’t be a problem. Everyone else is changing theirs.”
While I was in the middle of reprimanding myself for encouraging anyone to do what everyone else is doing, it dawned on me that everyone else isn’t actually chaging their business plans. And the evidence was in the WSJ itself.
It was evident in Karl Rove’s Op-Ed (why people are still letting this man write for prominent newspapers I don’t know) on how to prevent America from adopting Socialized Health Care. Ignoring the fact that he uses the very effective tactic of bulleted talking points and unnecessary statistics to make an un-sophisticated argument sound sophisticated, what he’s basically advocating for is the exact same health care system we already have. He and his cronies don’t want a new business plan because it’s too risky, and they’re going to do everything in their power to prevent it.
Then there is Dave Wessel’s column, “Capital,” [available by subscription only] which pointed out that Geithner’s plan to buy back failed banks’ toxic assets hasn’t come to fruition because banks have amazingly begun to raise enough capital to get their balance sheets back in order. Cleaning banks up by buying their toxic assets and effectively re-opening their doors would have been a completely new route for banks to go. (It’s only been done once before, with one bank, in Switzerland, about a decade ago.) But instead, they stuck with what they new and raised capital the old way. How long will it be before they crash again?
There are other examples of people unwilling to change business plans: stores assuming that discounts are the best way to keep people shopping, the NYT deciding just to sell the Boston Globe instead of shutting its door or restructuring to fit a Web 2.0 world.
Why, people? Why aren’t we changing, especially in our core indsturies? Why aren’t we willing to take the risk anymore? Is it that we don’t want to destroy American capitalism? I have news for you, sweetheart, risk taking was what created American capitalism in the first place and it was successful. (Cold, meticulous calculations created Communism and look where that went.) So why don’t we try it again? 230+ years is a long time to be moving in the same direction.
[End note: My apologies for the explicit language, but it's what went through my head and, well, I believe in honesty.]
You would think that after over a year of living in a different place every four months, I’d have this whole moving thing down. But, somehow, I seem to have gotten worse at it. My horoscope for the month said that my home situation around June 7 would be hectic and, hey, what do you know, it was actually right for once because these last few days, while exciting, haven’t exactly been smooth sailing. In fact, they have been a series of minor disasters punctuated by cocktail hour with my uncle. To most of it, I’ve been able to shrug my shoulders and move on, because, in a week, most of it’s not going to matter.
What has become clear in the last couple of days is that there seem to be 3 somewhat universal truths to up and moving to an entirely new place where you only know/are related to a handful of people that you have no idea when you may actually see. (Something I have done 6 times now, if you include summers.)
1) You are reminded of how alone you really are. No matter how many people you meet, parties you attend, places you go, when you reflect on it at the end of those first few days (weeks?), you realize you are so much more alone than in the life you left behind. This phase doesn’t last long (if I remember correctly from past experiences), but the fact that it does exist is often disconcerting.
2) You have to know/learn how to do everything yourself. Whether it’s lugging suitcases, translating documents, or plugging mouse holes in your fireplace with steel wool, when you move someplace new you pretty much have to know how to do everything yourself. Sure, new friends or family will help you with some things, but asking them to do everything quickly puts you at the bottom of future guest lists and makes you look needy. (Always, however, offer to be the person who takes pictures. Don’t ask why, just do it.)
3) You get to start again. When I came to Middlebury, I was a timid little Midwesterner who knew no one and went nowhere. Somehow, that persona stuck for my first few semesters, no matter how much I grew personally. Then, I went to Italy and met people all over again, but this time as the slightly more well-rounded Emily. The result was a person who returned to campus much more self confident and much more outgoing than people remembered and one of my best semesters. My housemates here in Boston have no idea who I am, and there’s something incredibly exciting about that. Who will I be at the end of the summer? Be afraid Mom, be afraid.
Anyway, I start work tomorrow morning, which caused me to have a mini panic attack at the beginning of dinner tonight when I fully realized that a) Shit, I’m starting work tomorrow, complete with real responsibilities (a/k/a a couple million dollars) and b) I’m making my first conscious, drastic career move.
So I have two options: 1) Give my parents my iPod and throw down a couple hundred quid for a new one or 2) Keep my scuffed up iPod Classic and fill it up with sweet mixes to burn for my parents so they stop listening to Blessed Union of Souls for the summer.
Option 2 wins. Simply because it sounds cooler.
So here it is, Ems’ Summer Mix 2009. Listen in order or shuffle accordingly.
Arcade Fire - “Wake Up” - Of Where the Wild Things Are Fame and general awesomeness
Timid Tiger - “House of Love” - I know nothing about this band, but the song is pretty cool.
Franz Ferdinand - “No You Girls” - Franz Ferdinand rarely disappoints, though I beg to differ with the lyrics.
A.R. Rahman - “Jai Ho” - There’s a reason this song won an Academy Award, just be sure not to listen to the version with the Pussycat Dolls.
Metro Station - “Shake It” - Cheap American pop that sounds British, every summer needs one of these.
Animal Collective - “Summertime Clothes” - This one takes awhile to warm up to.
Florence and the Machine - “Kiss with a Fist” - She’s this summer’s Kate Nash.
Wilco - “Bull Black Nova” - Their new album isn’t out for a few weeks, but you can find this song online anyway, I promise.
The Killers - “The World We Live in” - Another strong single off of Day & Age and not nearly as bizarre as “Human”.
You know that Middlebury has become too stressful when Mother Nature intervenes and forces all of us to take a mandatory study break. No lights, no computers, no music, no internet, no homework. For 6 hours. Enjoy. Sure, I was sad that I wasn’t going to finally put on a dress and heels and go to Spring Formal. But then two seconds later I got over it, found some candles flashlights and some friends and had probably one of the most enjoyable Saturday nigths on campus. As did just about everyone else. In the spirit of last night, here are a few enjoyable links to get you through this low-key, Sunday night.
MOTHER LOVER: SNL, Post Secret and HuffPo have told their mothers how they feel. Have you? Well, you should. Right now. Call your mom.
MY LITTLE PONY: Who wants to watch Star Trek when you can watch Live-Action My Little Pony, starring the Horse of a Different Color from the Wizard of Oz?
MIDDLEBURY: Midd’s Web Makeover Team and White Whale are working hard together to get our new website ready. Expect an official debut next January. Yes, it will be different, but it will be awesome. Get used to it.
Website of the Week: The Sartorialist. Most of my friends and my mother have probably been waiting for me to put this website on website of the week because I check it more frequently than I check the stock market or dining hall menus. Basically, the Sartorialist is a chronicle of street fashion at its most stylish. All photos are taken by former GQ photographer Scott Schuman and make yesterday’s facebook uploads look like child’s play.
Website of the Summer: MiddBlog. Yours truly and the rest of the fabulous editors of Middblog and @middblog will be around all summer. Just FYI.
Just in time for the end of the semester, I have a little PowerPoint fact for all of you out there with final PowerPoint Presentations, and it looks like this:
There is a reason that this is the most commonly repeated PowerPoint Public Service Announcement. Less words per slide means more audience attention. If you don’t give everything away on your slides, people have to listen to you, whether they want to or not and whether you’re interesting or not. We somehow seem to have developed this idea that more words per PowerPoint slide means a more thoroughly researched presentation. But the entire point of a PowerPoint presentation is that it is, in fact, a Presentation. It’s a Pitch, a Conversation. A prepared Presentation means you’ve convinced your audience, not forced them to choose between the words you spewed on your slides and the same words spewing out of your mouth. This isn’t rocket science. It’s common sense.
Yes, it is also helpful if you dress nicely, use some humor, use pretty language, don’t present only to the professor, keep graphics and vibrant colors to a minimum, walk around a little, use minimal hand gestures, add a little bit of multimedia, etc.
And, of course, if you could get by without a PowerPoint Presentation at all, that would be fantastic. New media is the future.
But seriously, the first step towards a really great end of the semester presentation is simply fewer words.
Notecards are acceptable, 200+ words/slide are not. That’s it.
It's summer, and that means it's Intern Season. For this 2009, I've left South Dakota as well as Middlebury behind and moved to Boston. Check back frequently for updates on summer life, fashion, books, music and adventure.
