Goodbye Beach, Hello Worcester!

Today was my very last day on the beach for the summer. Sigh... But that just means my return to school is so much closer.

Although I will be devastated to have to leave my beautiful beach front house (that's it, right there, isn't it pretty?! Thanks, Mom and Dad!) I do admit that if my little body spent any more time lying in the sand, absorbing those wonderful UV rays, I'd have to start telling people that I'm George Hamilton's granddaughter. Really. For someone of Irish descent, I get pretty damn brown in the summer. Ok, not nearly as dark as my Polish-Russian-who-really-knows father, but still. Second-Mommy says I have the bottom of the Copper Tone baby.

But really and truly, I cannot wait to get up to Worcester, Mass, on Saturday afternoon. Yes, I will be making the long journey alone (coughthanksBcoughcough), but the hopefully-not-too-long hours spent in the car will give me time to reflect on the almost 4 months of summer I've had at home on the Main Line and provide me with ample ideas on how to celebrate my first night in my new apartment with my fabulous roommates.

While I'm eager to get into my apartment and put on my Suzy Homemaker costume, I'm definitely going to miss the comforts that only Mom and Dad can provide, as any college student knows. Like, say, not having to do my own laundry. Mommy is really good at doing that, as well as the food shopping (although I've been doing that since I was 16, so I really can't complain about that). Or making sure that there's always wine in the house. That could be a bit of a hassle, making sure my favorite labels are in the wine rack waiting for me after a long day of classes and napping. Hey, Aunt G, maybe you could give me some pointers on that one? K, thanks. And everyone knows that Daddy is great at "being handy." If I need someone to open a jar, I always know who to turn to; although, a light bulb? Forget it. He's also great at giving me banking advice. I never understand all the interest percentages and whatever the hell comes along with bank accounts. But Dad is well-versed in all of that stuff, as all 40-somethings should be.

But the things I'll miss the most are stupid things with my sisters. With L going off to school for her freshman year, M will be all alone. As sad as I feel for her, I'm a little envious that she's going to get to be an only child. What this means is that Mommy will stop cooking family dinners in the house and every meal will be eaten at Samurai or Lourdas; and Daddy will offer up the best tickets to Phillies/Eagles/Sixers games as well as a trip to Park City or Aspen or Beaver Creek or  some other wonderful ski resort that L and I will not be informed of until afterwards. And although she will now have the responsibilities of taking care of all 3 of the dogs resting upon her shoulders alone, M will still reap the benefits of being the baby and the last one at home, therefore receiving anything and everything she asks for.... Gee, now that I think about this, M, I'm really not feeling too sorry for you. (Kidding, I'll miss you. Luckily I'll be home once a month to annoy the shit out of you.)

And my wonderful bestest friends. Almost everyone has left to head back to school already, but my monkey, N, is still home. Monkey, this summer would have been dreadfully boring if we didn't have each other for company. And like I told M, I'll be home once a month to see you.

As for school: I'm not looking forward too much to classes, especially the ones on Tuesday and Thursdays that will keep me locked up in Traina or Jefferson or somewhere until 8:15 in the evenings, but I sure as hell cannot wait to see everyone again! It's been a long summer with everybody off doing their own things. That visit for July 4th, was so long ago that an entire lifetime could have passed already. So I am most definitely looking forward to the parties, the people and the catching up.

As I tearfully wave au revoir to my summer and say bonjour to the fall, I don't know for sure what's going to happen with anything, be that classes, socially or anything else. But I'll be sure to keep you updated. 

Gossip Girl, NYC Prep and the Real Housewives: Keeping the Fantasy Alive

Gossip Girl is the best guilty pleasure show. The Real Housewives of New Jersey is the best comedy on cable television. And NYC Prep is Bravo's biggest waste of money created to make a select group of ugly teenagers think they're cooler than they really are. 

But they all have something in common: each show focuses solely on the lives of the ridiculously privileged. In the post-9/11, recession-stricken world we live in, do these shows exist to distract us from the horrifying reality of having to deal with job losses and home foreclosures? Or are they harsh reminders of what most of the country can no longer find attainable?

I realize I ask these questions knowing full well that my family has been relatively lucky and have not felt the effects of the recession as harshly as others have, and for that I am grateful. But not everybody else has been able to withstand the economic crash.

So do these shows, in which wealthy high schoolers and bored housewives with over sized checking accounts and too much free time, help us forget that our last president has put us into a 6 trillion dollar debt funding a useless war? Or that more and more businesses are folding every day as people are losing their livelihoods and homes?

Or do they simply remind us that the economic boom of the dot-com era is long gone and no one is quite sure when something like it will bless us again?

For me shows like Gossip Girl and Real Housewives are wonderful distractions from the pressures of trying to decide what to do after college and if I really want to be a grown up after all. In their worlds the high school crowd spends Monday nights at the hippest bars drinking Grey Goose martinis, plot the downfalls of their former lovers/siblings/friends, and attend weekly charity functions; bored 40-somethings build 12,000 square foot homes, pay cash to furnish them and gossip about their supposed friends' sex lives - and each clique does it all while wearing the most impeccable pret-a-porter couture shipped in from Paris.

NYC Prep is literally the biggest waste of a half hour ever created - well any VH1 reality show can also be considered for that top spot - except to provide fodder for ridicule every time that ugly cross-eyed opens her mouth. But it still stands as an example of the fantasy world some people are still living in despite the fact that the rest of the country can only dream of having a similar lifestyle.

Since the CW's prime-time hit is clearly a work of fiction based on a book series, it can sort of be excluded from my next question, the reality shows, however, cannot. Seriously, what world are these reality show strumpets living in? Who in their right mind spends 4 days a week shopping for new clothing or considers "downtown parties" an extracurricular activity? Do these people not realize they live in a bubble? I think they might burst into flames if they ever step foot outside of their insulated little worlds for even a second. Especially that PC guy. I'd like to see him try to survive in Worcester for 5 minutes, away from his Upper East Side universe.

But that day will most likely never come, so for now I'll just have to pray that these kids will one day grow up. Unless Bravo makes my dreams come true by canceling their show. We can keep the housewives and the crowd from Constance Billard, though: that Teresa is damn funny and the Blair-Chuck love affair is the stuff dreams are made of.

What it Means to (Want) to be a Weasley

I want to be a Weasley. More specifically, I want to be Ginny Weasley. I came to this conclusion about a week ago. Well, actually I think I subconsciously came to this decision close to a month ago while seeing Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I walked out of the theater thinking, "Well, the movie was good, but I can't remember anything from the books. And I most certainly do not want to be one of those so-called fans who only know the films but couldn't give a stranger a single detail from the books. Therefore I will spend the rest of the summer rereading the series."

And thus began the fabulous journey I have been on for the last three weeks or so. I've enjoyed getting re-acquainted with Harry, Ron, Hermione and the rest of everyone at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's been like spending every free moment of time with old friends: I'm sad when they're sad, happy when they're happy, and seeking revenge on Snape for the murder of our beloved Dumbledore just as much as Harry.

But now, as I delve into the 7th and final book, The Deathly Hallows, I'm torn between feeling excitement and sadness: excitement that I've made it this far in less than a month and am looking forward to accompanying Harry and the gang on this final journey; and sadness that when I close the book on the last page, I'll do it knowing there will be no more adventures and I can no longer pretend to be Ginny Weasley.

You see, Ginny is by far one the better secondary characters of the series: she knew to wait patiently in the wings for Harry to realize that he loved her, and she won out in the end! She got to be on the Quidditch team and be Harry's girlfriend. Doesn't everybody want to have that?

And on top of having the love of The Boy Who Lived, she also has a really cool family. Not that my family isn't cool, or crazy like the Weasley's (we definitely are crazy, but since I don't have 6 siblings and live in the Burrow, it's not nearly as cool), but Ginny has 6 older brothers, Fred and George among them to boot! Really, who wouldn't want older brothers who owned a joke shop?! Plus another brother who works with dragons and one who works at Gringott's Bank? We can forget, of course, about Percy because he's a pompous douchebag with a very large stick up his ass. But the rest of the Weasley family is just so cool that I can't understand how someone wouldn't want to be one of them.

Let's not forget, too, that Ginny is a freaking damn good witch on top of being a great Quidditch Seeker and Chaser! She is famous for her bat bogey hex and can perform a pretty strong Reducto spell. But the real reason I want to be Ginny Weasley? She's friendly and nice to everyone when she could easily let her popularity get the best of her and make her like one of those stuck up girls we all went to high school with. She doesn't pretend to be friends with Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood; she really does like them and enjoys spending time with them. And she never bullies the first years like her brother Ron, in fact, she, like Harry and Hermione, is nice to them (or at least that's what I imagine since it's never expressly mentioned in the books). But most of all, she's brave. Anyone weaker than Ginny would have been easily over come by Tom Riddle and the Chamber of Secrets, and anyone less than her would have fled to her room at the mention of going to the Ministry of Magic to save another person at the risk of their own life. Ginny showed bravery in the face of death because of her strong belief in what was right.

Yes, anybody could rebuttal and state that all of Harry's friends have done the same, but I make the argument for Ginny Weasley because I've had a soft spot for her since that first squeak of embarrassment on Platform 9 and Three Quarters when Harry and Ron boarded the Hogwarts Express for the very first time.

My New Year's Resoltions

In just a week and a half I'll be heading back to school. The thrill of having a car, an apartment, and being reunited with friends I have not seen since April is filling me with an almost uncontainable excitement. I'm even ready for classes to start. Seriously, the idea of being in all of those Communications and French classes is actually exciting me to the point that I pre-ordered my textbooks almost 8 weeks before classes start. Yes, I admit that I can be a dork at times.

And while the anticipation of a semester full of fun and debauchery (for school would not be nearly as appealing without those) is at the forefront of my mind, there is also the list of New Year's Resolutions that has become a top priority as well. No, I am not referring to those false promises we make ourselves every January first. I'm talking about the list of things we resolve to do (or not do as the case may be) upon returning to school every fall. It may be a somewhat mundane list of promises, which in some (probably most) cases will probably be broken before the first month of school is over.

I resolve to:
1. Not make Bad Decisions. Everyone knows what the "bad decisions" are: drunk dialing the same person you've been drunk dialing for the last 2 years for a late night rendezvous, which is always deeply regretted the next morning, as is the pounding headache, resulting in the promise that next week the phone will be left at home.
2. Be more frugal. Between the daily trips to Acoustic Java and the liquor store, money runs out fast. This year I promise to spend less; I'll actually use the brand new coffee maker and many bags of Wawa ground hazelnut coffee, and I'll buy the $6 bottles of Barefoot white zin as opposed to the $12 magnums of Yellowtail reisling. This also includes drunk ordering from China King at 1am on a Friday.
3. Not drink everything in sight. We all do this: the pregame starts out with shots of vodka/rum/tequila and the party follows with a few games of beer pong and too many cups of jungle juice. While we may be the life of the party, at least until our stomachs realize what has happened and revolt, the blackout prevents us from remembering anything. A quick check of facebook as soon as we are sober may be more illuminating to our night than anything else.
4.Stay clean and organized. I think this one speaks for itself. I won't let my laundry pile up in the corner until I am forced to wear pajamas to class, and I will ensure that the kitchen is spotless every night before passing out - I mean fall asleep.

Yes, I admit, this is not a very original list of resolutions. It seems like a list similar to those that most people I know make, even if they are subconsciously made. (Doesn't everyone return to school vowing to study harder, stay more organized and not blow their monthly allowance check as soon as it's been cashed? Or am I the only one?) I'm sure all of these promises will be broken at least once, maybe twice, but I'll do my hardest to try to keep them. As long as it's not at the risk of my social life.

Forays into L.A.C. (or more commonly known as Life After College)

The summer internship. The bane of a college student's existence. There seems to be a Catch-22 that no sound-minded college student can avoid, especially if they have parents as persuasive as mine. Every person currently engaged in higher education must persue the increasingly elusive Summer Internship at some point in their 4 years of college; that is, if they want to graduate with a respectable job and a good starting salary and not have to move home and submit themselves to the mercy of Mommy and Daddy. But at what cost do these interships occur? Of course, at the cost of summer fun: having an internship requires waking up and commuting into an office where said student will spend the most crucial hours of the day staring into the glaring screen of a computer monitor day in and day out until school resumes. Weekends and evenings are the only free time the student is given any more, almost as if they have reverted back to the days of high school. Sleeping late is no longer an option, nor is the wardrobe of sweatpants and old t-shirts. No, no. The summer intern's closet consists of "Professional Wear" for the business-savvy man or woman.

This has been my summer, just as it was last summer, in fact. I've started calling the 4 months of the year where I pretend to be an adult my "Forays into Life After College." If all I have to look forward to after graduation is a 9-5 plus commute and only weekends free, then I want out.

I don't know if it's sad, unnerving, or both that my 14 year old sister had to point out to me last night that I have more free time during the school year than I do during the summers now. As much as I love what summer represents, or at least used to, for someone of my generation, I find myself yearning to get back to massachusetts and everyone at Clark as soon as possible. With only limited time to lounge on the beach these days, I have never had more disdain for adulthood than the summer internship instills.

I'm tired and bored by the time I sit down at my desk every morning, especially when I know that I have no work waiting for me, and know that none will come. And so I while away the long, long hours simultaneously Facebook stalking and reading the New York Times Online while my officemates remain silent and the only noise to be heard for hours is the clack-clacking of fingers hitting keyboards.

This daily drudgery has made me dread the summer and makes me pray on a weekly basis that when I do have to grow up and become an "adult" (does anybody ever actually want to take on the responsibilities that come with a college degree? For that matter, does anybody ever have anything to look forward to after turning 21?) that I get a job where office-appropriate clothing is not required and spending time outdoors, with people is a must.

But for now, I'll have to be grateful that these forays only last the summer and appreciate the fact that I still have 2 years to do what I want. Next summer I'm saying "Screw the internship, all hail long days on a beach."