the appropriate use of social networking sites

With all the opportunities to network out there (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc), I've started to notice they are all starting to blend together. Either that, or people are mistaking one for another. For example, I was recently on someone's LinkedIn page where they had listed their full date of birth (why) and marital status (single...so what??). Why would anyone on LinkedIn care about those things? That is why we have Facebook. I also saw on someone's twitter page that they described themselves as "a lawyer who enjoys cooking, traveling and long walks on the beach." Seems a little too personal and detailed for Twitter. That's why we have match.com. Or maybe each site is appropriate for all uses and I'm just spending too much time on all of them and can no longer differentiate which site is for what.

2yrs -- a new record!!

As of today, I've officially lived in Chicago for two years, which is a new record for me...sad, I know. Some of my friends here have lived here since graduating college and in that time I've lived in more places than I can count (okay, fine, technically four and yes I can count to four).

I thought in honor of breaking my record, I'd devote a post to the cities I've loved and left (or hated and left).

Post-college I went back to NH, jobless. I proceeded to slack off until the end of July, when I found myself with not one, but three jobs. Prior to July, I did a whole lot of nothing: applied for jobs at ad agencies that had no interest in my resume, drove to Miami and back (alone, no less) and finally got a part-time job at a video store (where I got asked out by a guy who was renting a porno -- but that's a story for a different day). I also went back to the grocery store I'd worked at through most of high school and all of college. The last job I got was as a receptionist at a radio station. I moved out of my mom & step dad's to an apartment an hour away, which made my daily commute total hell, but was an important step to make.

I. Was. Miserable.

I had little free time because I was working so much and the free time I did have was spent at the bars in Portsmouth. Note about the guys in Portsmouth -- most of them think they're hot shit and therefore act accordingly. News flash: most of them were total tools. I quickly lost interest in going out and opted to spend many weekends either working or doing nothing.

Determined to work in sports, I quit both part-time jobs and started working at an unpaid internship at an af2 team. Meanwhile, I was promoted to traffic manager at the radio station but wanted out of NH immediately if not sooner. It was just never a place I saw myself long term. Always the city girl, I was determined to make it to a big one eventually.

Around March of '04, I started applying for internships at athletic media relations departments at DI schools. I got one response. From Villanova -- which is WHY I am completely obsessed with the basketball team. Prior to working there, I was a football girl and could not have cared less about bball. It didn't even REALLY start to seep into my blood until we started conference play. Early that season, when we lost to TEMPLE by like, two points, I couldn't understand why everyone was so upset. Cut to me, still BITTER about the bullshit traveling call against Allan Ray vs. UNC in the 2005 Sweet 16. This is why I had such a hard time watching last Saturday's Elight 8 game vs. Pitt and is why I'll have a hard time watching the National Semifinal vs. UNC on Saturday. Villanova bball is in my blood. My favorite memory is sitting on the floor for the Kansas game when they were No. 2 and undefeated and we beat them by 21 points. It snowed over a foot that day and took us three hours to drive from the Wachovia Center to the office, which was normally 20 minutes.

I vowed that day that I'd never again live somewhere that snowed. Well, that backfired.

After my internship ended in May of '05, I was off to San Diego. I stayed there just under 2 yrs, (one year and ten months to be exact) and I HATED it. HATED. First off, I wanted to live close to work, so I lived in a suburb about 45 minutes from downtown. With no reasonable means of public transit, it was hard to get to and from downtown unless you drove. I worked two jobs and again found myself with little free time. Something about where I was just didn't click. I did meet some amazing people though and of course once I found out I was moving to Chicago, really started to enjoy myself. When I think back about my time there, I think about going to the Lamplighter on Sundays and singing karaoke with Gus & AMay. I will forever be grateful for experience there as I learned a lot about myself. It just wasn't the place for me to stay long term.

But Chicago....oh how Chicago has become the love of my life. Since the day I've moved here, I've felt 100% at home. I've met people who quickly became some of my best friends. I've had the best time. I've stood on a roof top looking at the skyline and have never been happier. I can't imagine living anywhere else.

What I've learned so far

As I've been hunting for a job, I've quickly figured out that the economy really IS that bad. Even though I've only been unemployed for a day over two weeks, I'm in full blown panic mode. The only thing that keeps me going during the day when I'm apparently submitting resumes into a black hole is the reruns of 90210 on the Soap Network.

I have to say, that show is pretty ridiculous. Some observations/thoughts:

1) First of all, can we take down the Tori worship just a smidge? I know her dad created the show, but they created this Donna character that can do no wrong and is also a little too forgiving. Throw her down the stairs? No problem. Steal money from her? She'll probably marry you in the series finale anyway. The only flaw they give her is having shitty SAT scores and even that doesn't do much. She still gets the benefit of the doubt every freakin time. I want to smack her.

2) So this Valerie character is a big wench, but she also has to shoulder all the blame. Why don't the GUYS ever get blamed? Everyone and his father cheats on his significant other with Val. The guys are forgiven and Val is hated that much more. Why, the episode this morning where Donna, Kelly, Claire and Val go on a road trip, take a wrong turn, have their car break down and wind up spending the night in a convent is a perfect example. Val admits to sleeping with Ray and instead of being upset with Ray, Donna and the rest of them just gang up on Val, who also kissed Colin, Kelly's boyfriend, but Kelly and Colin only break up much later on account of his cocaine addiction but not because he cheated on her.

3) I highly doubt ANYONE's college experience was like theirs at good old "California University," (which is supposedly one of the best colleges in the country HA and I think was filmed on Loyola Marymount's campus but I digress). Half of them at one point or another own the Peach Pit After Dark, Ray gets signed from singing there (also b/c Donna's rich parents know record execs), Kelly doesn't get thrown out for aforementioned cocaine habit, goes to rehab and still manages to graduate on time? They go on cruises. They all drive BMW's or the like. Please. Not realistic. Maybe for southern Cal it is realistic for some people, but for everyone? I think not.

4) That beach apartment Kelly & Donna live in. Rent has to be at least...oh I don't know, $4000 a month at LEAST for a 3-br on the beach. Like normal parents would agree to pay for that.

5) they recycle houses -- the Walsh house eventually becomes Steve & Janet's, that chick Hilary Swank plays lives in a house that eventually becomes David's -- how much more incestuous can that show get? Everyone already sleeps with everyone else (David & Donna, David & Claire, David & Val, David and what's her name, Dylan and Val, Dylan and what's her name -- you know who I'm talking about..GINA, that's it, Steve & Kelly, Steve & Val, Steve & Claire, Kelly & Colin, Kelly & Dylan, Val & Colin, I actually have a headache). And they all have messy breakups and are all miraculously still friends? I'm confused.

6) the soap channel is clearly not showing these in order. and I clearly need a life.

Massive Fail

So, I got laid off on Wednesday. I saw it coming, and at the same time I didn't see it coming. On Monday, my BlackBerry completely "died." I'm wondering now if they just deactivated it? Can you do that? I'm not sure. But tech ignored my repeated requests to have it fixed. In the past, when they've done that, my boss has often followed up with me to make sure someone was helping me. She didn't do that this time. So I first assumed I was getting fired. Then, on Wednesday, I came in and a source from our Philly office told me they were laying off 30 people that day.

I decided to prepare myself for the worst. Around 4:45, the worst came, in the form of an email requesting my presence in the conference room. At that point, I knew I was a goner. I think it is a bad sign when you're excited about getting laid off -- I mean, ideally I would have stayed there until finding a new job to have the steady paycheck and health insurance. The actual layoff sucks because it screws me financially (except I did get severance, which will at least pay rent, etc for December), but I was otherwise THRILLED. I was completely miserable and completely drowning and I think they knew that.

They did it at the end of the day and told me I could just leave, so I did, without wrapping anything up (though honestly, that would have taken days). I'm still kind of in shock that I don't have my job. I've always tried to put myself in a position where I was indispensable to a company and CLEARLY did not do that here.

I have NO clue how they redistributed my work, though it really isn't my problem.

This is this time to reevaluate my career path. I'm starting to think maybe it doesn't involve advertising. I've applied for a bunch of administrative related positions at both Rush and NW Memorial. Don't have a clue what I want to do, but since advertising relies on a thriving economy, and this economy most definitely isn't, there is basically a hiring freeze over the industry and I'm not in the position to be able to wait that out. It is such a volatile industry, which sucks. I mean, I guess if I really loved it, that wouldn't matter to me, but I don't love it. I thought I would, but the industry is a monster, agencies are ruthless, you have to have a super strong back bone and be willing to work crazy hours with little reward or appreciation. I don't mind working a lot but would at least like my efforts to be appreciated.

Anyway, enough of this. I'm going to enjoy spending the next week with my family. Of course I'll job search, but if my niece wants to fall asleep on me for two hours again like she did yesterday (in which case I'd only have one arm available), that would be just fine.

Weekend in Madison

My friend Liz celebrated her birthday yesterday (11/15) and so Liz, SG, Forsie and I drove up to Madison on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend in her college town and watch the Minnesota game. My roommate Steph, also a Wisco alumn, joined us in Madtown Saturday afternoon.

We arrived in Madison Friday evening and checked in to the hotel. We were staying right off State St, which was super convenient, and so went and ate dinner by the hotel before moving on to an interesting bar hopping excursion. You'll have to forgive my complete lack of memory of the names of the bars except for one (Crave), because frankly, the night was a blur. I think we went to four bars. So the first bar we went to was pretty chill. We sat by the window and had a drink, and then went on to bar #2, Crave. Crave is a martini bar. Our bartender was pretty hot (and was probably only 21 but that's irrelevant). I decided I would ask him how dirty a dirty martini was, alas I did not yet have enough liquid courage. And my dirty martini was barely dirty because all I could taste was vodka.

The DJ at that bar gets major props for claiming to not have Whitney Houston's, "I Wanna Dance with Somebody," and then playing it immediately. Yes, I requested it, move on.

Bar three was another quick outing, because that one is also a blur, but then we arrive at bar four, where I wind up meeting this random dude from Minneapolis who asked me to meet him in Vegas next weekend. I was like, umm, sorry have plans. Also he was significantly older than me. His friend told me they graduated from college in 1991. I'm no math major, but I think that puts him in the 39 range. He was nice though and his friend was trying really hard to be his wing man, unfortunately he scared off all my friends and they wound up talking to a group of undergrads instead of the 40+ crowd. Random dude was clearly the youngest in his group.

We ended the night after bar four and crashed. Random dude was not happy about this. Oh well.

Saturday morning we got up, got brunch, some U of W apparel and then went back to the hotel to wait for Steph. When she got there, we walked over to the Stadium Bar, right next to Camp Randall (not to be confused with Doak Campbell, because for some reason I find those two names similar even though they aren't).

What I didn't realize is that we'd spend most of the game watching outside, as the bar converted the parking lot into a huge screening area, complete with two bars, which was cool but also freezing. We went inside a couple times to thaw off but wound up having to go back outside both times because it was so crowded you couldn't move.

At one point, Minnesota scored, and a very rowdy, drunk fan in front of us voiced her enthusiasm and then turned around to see Liz glaring at her.

Minnesota Fan: You look like you're thinking "fuck you!"
Liz: Pretty much
Me: TODAY IS LIZ'S BIRTHDAY! (I made this statement to avoid further uncomfortable trash talking, which turned out to be a grave mistake on my part).
MF: OH MY GOD, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HERE IS A WISCONSIN COOZIE, I'M A LESBIAN.

--Okay, so I am paraphrasing the above, but that is pretty much what happened. She was there with her girlfriend and two other guys. She made us guess who was older between her and her girlfriend, and then claimed that she was 12 yrs older at 44. Two things: she looked horrible for 44 and there was NO WAY her girlfriend was younger than 39. So when she announces that her and her girlfriend were 12 yrs apart, I go, "oh so your girlfriend is only 18?" just to be nice, b/c age was apparently a big issue for her, and she was like, OMG I love you, I'll give you free dental work for life and pay you $40,000 a year to live with me in Minneapolis." I was like, ummm, I'll pass? She was apparently a dentist and was telling us about how she gave herself Botox injections.

Of course SG, Forsie and Liz are getting a kick out of this and kind of move off to the side, leaving me to fend for myself. MF's girlfriend was getting really pissed off at this point and I was like, yeah my BOYFRIEND is awesome. BOYFRIEND. AWESOME.

So I don't have a boyfriend, that's irrelevant.

Anyway, MF and her friends wind up leaving to go to the stadium, thank goodness.

Throughout the game, Steph kept running into a bunch of people that she knew, one of whom lives by Fenway Park and so I informed him that I would be visiting him next baseball season so he could take me to a Red Sox game. Even though he is a Yankees fan. Which is unacceptable. (Unless you are HF, which he is not.)

After the game (which Wisco won!!), we walked to the Union on campus, which serves beer, and sat by the fireplace to thaw out. We wanted to eat dinner at the Great Dane but when we got there they told us it would be a two hour wait, so we wound up at some other random restaurant.

That restaurant was fun except our waiter hated us and the food was not that good (example: we ordered cheese curds as an appetizer because I'd never had them before and they were basically mini mozarella sticks, which is apprently not how they are supposed to look/taste).

And our waiter literally did hate us. We're not sure why. But he kept asking us if we wanted our check. And after we paid we were there for at least another hour and he kept walking by and glaring at us.

We made some new friends with the guys at the next table though. They were super fun. Though the cutest one was married (of course).

We were at dinner for quite a while and then made our way back to the hotel around 12:30am. At this point, I'm ready to crash as I feel like someone has put my stomach through a paper shredder (not alcohol related, I actually didn't drink that much -- I think the amount of stress I've had over the past couple of months is giving me a bleeding ulcer or a hernia or something that makes it impossible for me to eat sometimes).

Liz, SG, Forsie and Steph ventured back out and I'm told the remainder of the evening went something like this:

They went to a bar to meet up with some of Steph's college friends and then to an after party. People started rolling back to the hotel around 2:30.

I'm told one guy at the party (wearing a Columbia jacket, if that matters) was cutting "sugar" with a credit card and that type of thing is common for Madison, which surprised me.

Today we headed back to Chicago early as it is about a three hour drive, but not before getting some food.

For some reason, the movie The Land Before Time came up in the car and the convo went something like the following:

Me: Wasn't there a character named Sarah in that movie?
SG: Yeah I think so, she was a bitch!
Forsie: She was a human, wasn't she?
Liz: Umm, that movie is about dinosaurs, there aren't humans in it.
Me: SG, I'm going to start calling you triceratops!!
(I was convinced the character Sarah in that movie was a triceratops)
SG: Please don't.

Overall, it was a highly successful weekend.

So, to recap:
Top 10 Quotes from the Weekend:

10) If you snore, I'll never speak to you again!
9) Are you eye fucking him??
8) Here's a present. I'm a lesbian.
7) Oh look! Better people!
6) Drink five glasses of water....peace out bitches!!
5) I give myself botox when I'm drunk!
4) I thought maybe it was sugar!!
3) He's so hot, I want to ask him if he was in my ceramics class.
2) The Land Before Time doesn't have humans in it, it is a movie about DINOSAURS.
1) Do NOT Irish Goodbye me!!

For those of you not familiar with an "Irish Goodbye" it is when you leave a group event without telling anyone. Our one rule for the weekend was that they were not allowed. We were pretty successful enforcing that. SG and I had never heard of that until I was bitching in the car about how it happened on Halloween and Forsie informed us that there was an actual term.

It was my first time to Madison and I greatly enjoyed it...I'd love to go back in the summer and enjoy the lakes.