Adult Problems...Girl Problems

Well, I'm probably going to develop back and shoulder problems from this summer. I have a fairly large purse, and I carry everything in it, to and from work every day. Intern handbook, notebook, kindle fire or novel, two wallets, keys, some makeup, a water bottle, and one or two containers of food, depending on what I'm bringing for lunch (and the smaller container always has an ice pack in it), in addition to all of the small things that roll around and end up living in the corners until I eventually clean out my bag and go "woah, I totally forgot about that! and when did I get seventeen ball point pens!?". I don't have many bags here at my apartment, and even with the ones that I have at home, the majority of my bags are of the tote variety, so they'll still be hanging off one shoulder, slowly dragging me down. I don't actually have enough stuff to carry around to justify putting it in my normal backpack that I use for school, either. All that's left is my black messenger bag that has "DURING A ZOMBIE ATTACK, PLEASE FOLLOW ME" printed on it, and as much as I like it, I don't really want to take it to work with me. I've been looking online, and I found the perfect bag. It's a good size, the straps are 'convertible' so I can carry it in a number of ways, it's waxed canvas so it's somewhat water resistant, it's a good color, everything about it is great. Except for the fact that it's $69. Even if I do order it within the special window with a code to get %15 off, it's still $17 for shipping. I did just get paid, but I already blew about $200 on clothes, and I don't want to add another $80 to that total. It's such a cute bag though...and it'll make it easier for me to carry all of my stuff without hurting myself. Maybe I'll just buy this one, and make sure to save more out of my next paycheck. I'll figure something out.

This is the purse I have now (although mine is brown).

This is the bag I desperately want.

It's Not Babysitting This Summer

This summer, I have the privilege (see: I applied and completely earned my position) of having an internship in Washington D.C., at the United States Senate Library. It's a little bit surreal, that I'm a paid government employee. I have a badge and everything. It's such a cool feeling to walk past tourists with their little paper passes clipped on, or a Capitol sticker stuck to the front of their shirts. Even though I'm just a lowly library intern, it still makes me feel important.

My job in and of itself isn't very important; there are 5 library interns, and we just do general office work. I'm pretty sure that the projects that we work on are things that the librarians would have to do themselves if we weren't here though, so it's kind of gratifying to know that what we're doing actually sort of matters. We're not just shredding paperwork or getting coffee. The work that we're doing would be done anyway, by other real government employees, not just interns. I'm sort of making a difference, small as it is, even if it is just to lessen someone else's work load.

Reflections, Sort Of

My cousin Emily started a blog today and I'm honestly so excited about it. Emily loves to cook and to bake, and she's so good at it. She and I were talking a few weeks ago about how she wants to just cook and bake and do interesting things and have a great life and blog about it, and she's finally started and I hope she keeps it up. I'd love to see some of the things she'd write about, I've missed her a lot since I left home for college.

I've started making more lists. I've always loved making lists, I'll do it for anything just for an excuse. A few times I've made lists of everything I'm packing for trips, not so that I wouldn't forget anything but just so that I could make the list. Recently I've been making weekly to-do lists. They've actually been helpful, I'm remembering everything that I have to do, and having it written in front of me so that I can cross it off actually motivates me to get things done. Hopefully I'll keep up with it.

I can't believe it's already the third week of my internship. It doesn't feel like it's been that long at all, but at the same time I feel like I've been there for months. The work, though I'm not going to be very specific, is fine. It's basically just regular office stuff, nothing hard. A lot of sitting in front of the computer (which you'd think I'd be used to anyway). If anything, it's tedious, but it's worth it to be down here and working in the capitol. I'm already thinking about next summer, too, and what kind of job I'll have then. The internship I have now is a one-time-only thing, so I'll have to find something new. I wouldn't mind having just a regular job, working in a store or something. It'd be great to work somewhere where I actually shop so I can have the discount (hah), but I want something that'll be good experience, too. Not that working in retail wouldn't be good experience. I'd be dealing with the public, so that'd be good for the future. And really, at this point in my life, I'd value pretty much any work experience that isn't just babysitting. That's a whole year away though, nothing that I have to worry about now. Not for a few more months, anyway. For now I'm just going to enjoy what I have now, and how well things are going.

I Have Guardian Angels

With the exception of my broken bowl, I've had some damn good luck lately with things that've really mattered. Tonight I spilled hot tea all over myself - with no pants - and my laptop. I was hardly burned, and after fritzing out for a minute or two, my laptop still works fine. That plus a few other things that have happened lately could have gone so horribly, but they didn't! I don't know what's made my luck turn lately, usually things go badly, or at least not well. Ever since I got my internship though things seem to be going in my favor, for the most part. Maybe somebody's looking out for me.

Not-Hipster-Bullshit

This used to be my favorite bowl, until I dropped it last night. I don't even know how it happened, all I remember is I was walking across the room to wash it, and all of a sudden it was flying out of my hands, through the air, until it hit the edge of the table. Then this happened. I called my mom and was sad about it, and she was sad about it with me. She told me to go online and try to buy another one, so I bought two bowls, two plates, and a shirt instead (it's only a small shopping problem, the kitchenware was 4 for $12 it was a DEAL).

I was going to come on here and write some existential bit about my broken bowl and how I was sad but then I got over it and replaced it and how that's how everything eventually is and blah blah, but I'm not really that deep and that's some annoying hipster bullshit. And it's not even true anyway. Yeah I bought some other stuff and two new bowls, and two plates, but I'm still going to miss this one, even if it is just a bowl. It was so pretty, and I didn't even have it for six months.

Home

 While all being crappy pictures taken from my HTC Desire phone, these are some pictures of where I live. Not exactly where I live, but pictures taken from a cemetery near my friend's house, about 20 minutes away from my house. My friends and I always complain about where we live, because it's a small town and it's hard to find anything fun to do locally to occupy our time. I know that living somewhere boring doesn't seem great or anything, but sometimes I wonder if we take for granted what we have. Yeah, there isn't a whole lot to do, especially compared to the area where we all go to college now, but it's so beautiful where we live. I think we're actually lucky to have grown up here. It would have been great to have had more to do, to have been able to go more places and experience different things. But at the same time, I think living here has sort of shaped us into who we are, and is also affecting who we are becoming. I definitely appreciate living in the DC area now, but I also like being able to come home and relax. We all say that when we're adults and have jobs and real lives, we're going to move away and never come back. Everyone says it. I think we'll miss it though. We probably won't realize it, but I do think that on some level, we'll feel good to come home for a visit. I could be completely wrong, but I don't think I am. I guess we'll find out in a few years.

Something New

I've been wanting to do this for a while, start some kind of blog that isn't just Tumblr or something. I used to make blogs all the time when I was about 13, so of course I thought I would write every day (I didn't) about my extremely interesting life (it wasn't) and have so many followers and become famous (didn't happen). Now I'm 18 and I'm sort of growing up, and I guess I just want to keep track of that. I said basically the same thing on this tumblr and tried to write every day and then I failed at that, so I tried to write every couple of days, and I failed at that too. I do think that I need to have rules for myself for this, but I don't think that I should try to post something every day. I don't know yet. I'll let you know when I do. I hate when I always write introductions like this, but it's my way of getting started, talking to myself with a real (probably not) audience. My own soliloquy. Yeah, that means it's time to stop reading and jump to the next link because oh god, this girl is one of those hipster pretentious nerds and she's going to be really annoying (sort of true) and I don't want to bother with that so I guess that's that.

Things are actually going really well in my life right now. I have a great job, I'm living alone in my apartment and I'm OK with that, things are good (for the most part) with my friends and my family and my boyfriend. I'm happy. That's what matters.