Thursday, May 31, 2012

Gwyny P and the Hulk fall in love

I love a lot of really ridiculous movies. Xanadu, The Warriors, Troop Beverly Hills come to mind. I will watch favorites over and over again and find something new to love each time. A movie just gets better with time. You know what's even better? Being able to recite the dialogue. One day this talent of mine will come in handy. I don't know when and I don't know why but it will happen.

I'm not a huge Gwyneth Paltrow fan but there is one Gwyneth Paltrow movie I adore - View From the Top (2003). When I had Netflix, I used to keep adding it back to my queue after I had just watched it, not immediately after watching it but sort of as a bonus. I usually put it between a very serious documentary and something that I had missed in the theaters.

In the tradition of my You've Got Mail post, here are the 36 things I love about this movie.
  1.  Gwyneth as Donna Jensen. She's spunky and looks flawless in every the terrible outfits she has to wear. Donna Jensen doesn't annoy me at all. Sliding Doors is my all time favorite but that has more to do with John Hannah and her haircut.
  2.  This is Kelly Preston's second best role of all time. The first is as the hippie mom in What a Girl Wants. Her hair may have been the inspiration for Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls.
  3.  The fact that Donna had never flown before but decided to become a flight attendant anyway. It's like me deciding to become a skydiving instructor.
  4.  Rob Lowe as Co-Pilot Steve. He is literally made to be a pilot.
  5.  Two words: Mark Ruffalo. I can't even begin to discuss how much I love Mark Ruffalo. The Kids Are Alright is my favorite but seriously, I'll watch him in anything. And he is the greatest Bruce Banner/Hulk ever. Hulk smash! Hulk fall in love.
  6. Sierra Airlines uniforms - yikes but I also feel like they're totally appropriate for the destinations they fly to and the drunks and gamblers they serve. 
  7. Flight attendants have a hierarchy. Who knew? Do you think this is a real thing? Are the US Airway flight attendants "better" than the US Airways Express attendants? Is this like some bizarre version of high school?
  8. Toblerone is delicious.
  9. Christina Applegate is flawless and evil. She cracks me up with her hearts and awkward attempts at putting the moves on Ted.
  10. Ted fixes Donna's bikini top with the twist tie from a bread bag. He is a keeper.
  11. I love Candice Bergen in everything she does. She does not disappoint in this movie. She's the best fairy godmother a flight attendant could ever have.
  12. The Royalty Airlines Learning Center - is this place for real? Is this how flight attendants are trained? There's a point in one scene where I swear they're filming near this frontage road that I have to drive around on every time I go to Houston for work.
  13. "You put the wrong em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LA-ble." John Whitney (Mike Myers) This is way funnier when you hear him say it.
  14. Ted's family and their matching sweaters - if my family every decided to wear matching sweaters I might stop coming home for the holidays.
  15. Mike Myers kills me. He's normally funny (even in only okay movies) but I just love him in this one. John Whitney would have made a hilarious SNL sketch.
  16. I stopped dotting my "i"s with hearts when I was about 11. Maybe I shouldn't have ever stopped.
  17. Didgeridoo, Tectonic plates - word association is fun! Seriously, try it. Tectonic plates - go!
  18. Sally telling the story about how she met her husband, Jack. I'm wondering how many takes it took them to get through that scene without laughing given the continual use of the phrase "warm nuts" and the cast we're dealing with. (Yes, I just became a 12 year old boy for a few minutes.)
  19. Sally Weston's closet. And her shiny pants suits. I feel like Hillary Clinton might have been elected President if her pants suits had been as amazing as Sally Weston's.
  20. Sally remembers a time when people dressed to fly. I don't mind so much that people wear jeans or even yoga pants when they fly. I do, however, have a problem with people who forget to wear pants at all. This happened when I flew to Hong Kong in February. A woman was wearing tights, not leggings but was treating the tights like leggings. It was not pretty.
  21. Remember kids, stealing guest soap is a gateway crime. It leads to stealing airplane minis and captain's wings.
  22. Donna winds up in Cleveland and meets Ted again. I don't believe things like this happen in Ohio.
  23. "Cleveland is like this great big, giant waiting room and all we have to do is put in our year and wait until someone calls our number." Donna to Ted on their time in Cleveland. I'm fairly certain this is what I would feel if I lived in most parts of Ohio.
  24. The ghost rider on Christine's flight is the same guy who played Jimmy Valentine in Shag. And yes, I just knew this.
  25. My life might be different if I could wear hats like Donna Jensen.
  26. Remember how awesome airports and air travel used to be? Good times.
  27. I have to question the Donna/Christine fight sequence. There is no way that Donna was the only person on the plane or that the gate agent would have started boarding the plane without checking with her first. 
  28. The yellow coat she wears in Paris. Flawless.
  29. Is Paris as magical in real life as it is in the movies? I hope so. I also hope to enjoy it and be wrapped in its magic one day.
  30. Donna sends postcards too!
  31. I love how her apartment changes as she travels to new places. Every time I watch this movie I notice something new that gets added. This time around, I noticed the lantern.
  32. "We learn to always keep smiling even when we're out of Bloody Mary mix." Thank you, Sally Weston
  33. "Welcome to New York, where the local time is 7:13 a.m. I'd like to personally thank you for flying with us today, and to remind you that the last one off the plane has to clean it." Another Sally Weston gem. Can you imagine if this was true?
  34. I don't want to ruin the movie for you so I won't tell you what Donna becomes at the end but let's just say it's amazing. She's pretty rock star.
  35. The random dance sequence right before the credits.Why don't more movies have an extraneous but awesome dance sequence?
  36. As Sally Weston reminds us, every pilot needs a co-pilot. 
It totally made my day when I just happened upon this movie on Movieplex. I guess sometimes cable is worth it.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Walking in Alameda

Alameda might be the perfect place for walking. It's an island so it's flat and designed to get you where you need to go even without some form of motorized or wheeled transportation. Also, the speed limit on the entire island is 25 mph and there are lots of pedestrian friendly cross areas so you don't feel like you're going to get hit by a car when you cross the street. (I'm talking to you, Washington, DC. Stop being a jerk when it comes to crosswalks.)

This is great for me because I love to walk for exercise. I don't like the gym and find it difficult to motivate myself to go. Gyms make me nervous and slightly self-conscious. I'm going to have to suck it up and go when I move. My new building has a great fitness center and I would be an idiot if I didn't use it (also I'm paying for it so I would be wasting money). But until then, I'm going to enjoy my walks around Alameda. I walk between 2-3 miles along the same route at least five times a week. I walk up San Jose to Park Street (or to Broadway) and then I walk back to Grand Street (I wish it was Grand Avenue-that sounds so much better) and then back to my building.

Along the way, I'm treated to some beautiful homes, lovely flowers, weird lawn decorations, and some homes that can only be described as "in need of a hug and some paint." When I tell people that one of the things that I liked immediately about Alameda when I moved here was that it reminded me of New Orleans, I get weird looks. If you know New Orleans houses and you've been to Alameda, the similarities are pretty amazing. There are all styles of homes (Victorians, Mission style, Tudors, shotguns, ranch style, bungalows) painted boring beige to wild purple. Here are two of my favorite houses on my walk:



This is on the corner of Willow and San Jose. Gorgeous. The pink house is on San Jose-it's such a great color.






For today's walk I decided that I wanted to change up my path a bit and go see the Alameda Spite House. Seeing this house is on my list of things to do before I move. Yes, we have our own spite house in Alameda. A spite house, a tiki bar, a bowling alley-what else do we need? A spite house is a house built to irritate a neighbor, city, or other parties with some type of land stake. According to Wikipedia (the lazy blogger's best friend), they're usually obstructions or have designs that would be prohibitive to the neighbor(s). Disputes over inheritance, cities taking land for public spaces, and neighbors who dislike one another seem to be the chief reasons spite houses exist.

Charles Froling built the Alameda Spite House in the early 1900s. He had inherited land and intended to build his dream home. The state of California saw otherwise and took a large portion of Froling's land to build a street. He built the home to fit the strip of land left to him: 10 feet (3.0 m) deep, 54 feet (16 m) long and 20 feet (6.1 m) high.

I had read about this house when I was researching places to live in the East Bay. I love stories like this. They add an odd character to a place. The address wasn't listed on either of the sites I originally looked at. When I moved here I asked a few people about the house. Most didn't know what I was talking about. One person did tell me the address but I forgot (and didn't write it down). When I posted my things to do post, Island reader Sue posted the address for me. Thanks Sue!

So today I set out for the Alameda Spite House. I had mixed feelings about taking pictures - I'm sure the residents are used to it but I try to be stealthy since I wouldn't want people standing outside my house snapping away.  I'll say this (just in case the current owners ever read this): the house is really lovely. You can tell they love their home and take excellent care of it.

This was about a block away and I thought it was fun.
Back view - this is what I saw first.
Across the street view
Front view- look at how close the two houses are.
I can't say that the house was exactly what I expected. I'm not really sure what I expected at all. Most people don't even know it's there and I find that fascinating. I've driven past it many times on my way to the theater and didn't realize I had driven past. Charles Froling is probably still pretty mad about the whole "California took my land" thing but I hope that he is at least enjoying that his home is still there, inhabited by people who clearly love and care for it. And that there are people like me whose curiosity always gets the better of them and they have to search out hidden treasures like this house.

On a side note, Happy 75th Birthday to the Golden Gate Bridge! I would come see you today, GG, but there are probably 8 million people there already and I don't want to deal with the crowds. We do have a date before I move as I try to get over my bridge fear by walking further across than I have before. I don't have to cross the bridge, just walk about halfway. I think that's a reasonable goal.

My first attempt on New Year's Day

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Make lists, not war

I'm a list person. If you read this blog regularly, you know this and have accepted it. I can't even decide what I like most about lists. Could it be...
  • Marking things off when you're done?
  • Putting everything you need to do in one place so it seems manageable?
  • Using pretty pens to make said lists?
  • Coming up with your own organizational method that only you know when you make a list? For example, I use blocking notation within my lists. Only another stage manager would know what I was talking about.
  • Creating a system? As my aunt says, you gotta have a system. (We call her the General-fitting, don't you think?)
  • Writing something down? You know I love writing stuff down.
Back in March, a co-worker introduced me to Workflowy. It's glorious. Basically, Worflowy is an online list. You can keep everything you need to do in one place and mark things off as you complete them. You can make sub-lists and sub-lists of your sub-lists. Ultimately, Workflowy supports the notion of list babies. The site describes itself as a way to organize your brain. My brain needs lots of organization. If I let it go off on its own most of my life would be like this Gilmore Girls quote:

"My brain is a wild jungle full of scary gibberish. I'm writing a letter, I can't write a letter, why can't I write a letter? I'm wearing a green dress, I wish I was wearing my blue dress, my blue dress is at the cleaners. The Germans wore gray, you wore blue, 'Casablanca' is such a good movie. Casablanca, the White House, Bush. Why don't I drive a hybrid car? I should really drive a hybrid car. I should really take my bicycle to work. Bicycle, unicycle, unitard. Hockey puck, rattlesnake, monkey, monkey, underpants!" -Lorelei

I'm currently using Workflowy to organize some things for work like ideas for the Fall Survival Guide and an idea I have about movie night; blog ideas (for work and for the Island); and some things related to the Virginia move. However, I can't help myself so I also have multiple lists on paper. Actually, that's a lie. I have an entire notebook devoted to my move and the lists associated with it. So if my Workflowy list is the mama list then the notebook lists are the list babies. 

List babies are what happen when you make lists - you start making a list and then you realize that the main list will be unmanageable if everything was in one place. So list babies are born. Let's say you start with a list of chores you need to do this weekend. One of your chores is to go to the grocery. What happens next? You have to make a grocery list. Then you realize that you also need to go to Target because some of the things are too expensive or you can't get them at the grocery so you make a Target list. And then you make another list for something else on this mama list and so on and so on. It's really not that hard to make list babies.

I feel about lists the way I feel about laundry - both bring order to an otherwise chaotic universe. It's possible that my love of lists is also why I enjoy making mix tapes. Ultimately, a mix tape is a list. It's just a supremely awesome list that you can listen to over and over again. Lists make me happy and so does listening to music I love. When I combine the two, well that's just a perfect day (if I'm in a Lou Reed mood) or a lovely day (if I'm in a Bill Withers mood). 

I have a feeling that by the time July 20 rolls around I'll have an entire notebook of list babies. Hopefully, they'll all be marked off and the satisfaction will come from knowing I did everything I needed to do and that I'm on my way to the next adventure in my life. Because you can have adventures and be organized. I promise.

And a Happy 40th Anniversary to my wonderful parents, Joe and Anna! They're off celebrating in Charleston. Hope y'all are having an amazing time!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Don't disturb the bees

Janis: Gretchen Wieners knows everybody's business, she knows everything about everyone.
Damian
: That's why her hair is so big, it's full of secrets. 
-Mean Girls

Secrets are very powerful. They can make you drunk with power (like Gretchen) or bog you down under the burden of knowing (like when Joey was the only one who knew about Chandler and Monica on Friends). We might not want to admit but we all like to have and know secrets. It's part of being human and interacting with other humans. That's why most of us will never be spies; we just can't keep things to ourselves.

What's even better than having a secret is when you're finally let in on one. It's a magical moment where everything comes into sharp focus and the world momentarily makes sense. Since moving to Alameda, I feel like I've been left out of a lot of secrets. I've been trying to figure out how to become worthy enough to be let in on even a fraction of the secrets that keep the Island going. Well, friends, I have finally been let in on one of the secrets of the Island.

The secret is Alameda honey.

I heard rumors and chatter about Alameda honey last spring. I volunteer at a community theater and was pouring wine before the show. I was chatting with one of the patron about Tucker's Ice Cream. Tucker's Ice Cream is amazing. If you live on the Island and haven't gone yet, go right now. If you don't live here and are ever randomly in Alameda (because that will happen) make sure you stop by. Try the salted caramel; it's my favorite. Back to the honey, the theater patron casually mentioned that he had purchased honey at the ice cream shop. I asked if it was ice cream honey or some other magical topping I hadn't heard of before. He said that it was Alameda honey and it was only available a few weeks in the spring. If you saw it, you bought it. He also told me that the location of the apiary (or beeyard) is secret. You're not supposed to disturb the bees. A couple of other people at the theater confirmed the existence of apiaries (yes, we have more than one) and that the honey was hard to find and really, really amazing.

I searched for it. Tucker's was sold out by the time I got back there. A few other places that normally have it either didn't get any or were sold out. I bought some Berkeley honey at the Old Oakland Farmers Market instead. It's good but it's not Alameda honey. After awhile, I let it go. Spring faded into summer and honey season ended. (I'm guessing-does honey have a season?) No one mentioned Alameda honey again.

Until 3 weeks ago.

I was driving to work and decided to stop for coffee on the way. I've stopped going to Starbucks because I get really annoyed (how hard is it to put milk in an iced coffee that is called Iced Coffee with milk on the menu?) so I went to Wescafe instead. Wescafe is a darling little cafe on Webster Street. It's my new "on the way to work" stop on days when I don't make coffee at home (which is now about twice a week). When I walked in the only two people there were the owner and surfer/hippie guy (clearly a regular). They were talking about...Alameda honey!

I ordered my coffee and they continued to talk about the honey as I waited. The owner was telling surfer/hippie guy that she had gotten word that the honey would be in in the next few weeks. He got really excited and they both seemed to have forgotten that I was there. Then, they got quiet. The guy turned to me and said, "You're not going to tell everyone are you?" I said no and that I didn't really have anyone to tell. He actually sighed in relief. I guess he thought I was going to tell everyone and we would come back to Wescafe and buy all the honey before he could get any.  I got my coffee and left with a parting promise not to let anyone know that the secret delivery of honey would be available at Wescafe sometime in the near future on a date I didn't know.

Really? This might be what's wrong with Alameda.

I also promptly told three people this story, not because I can't keep a secret but because it was just so ridiculous that I had to tell someone. None of the people I told would take the time to come to Alameda and buy all the honey so I figured I kept my promise to surfer/hippie guy.

I stopped at Wescafe this week and there were the jars I had been waiting to see for an entire year. Right at the counter next to the cookies and bananas. Alameda Honey. There were only two left and the woman behind me was looking at me as if to say, "Don't you dare buy them both" so I only purchased this one jar. I didn't want to deprive another person of the joy of Alameda honey. Or potentially get into a fight over a jar of honey. I'm not that crazy.


One of my co-workers, Keith, is from Alameda (although he doesn't live here anymore). I posted this picture on Facebook yesterday and he first called me "gangsta" and described the honey as "liquid gold." Then he called me a hipster - so offensive. I think he's just jealous because he didn't know about Alameda honey and I do.

This weekend I'll enjoy my Alameda honey and revel in the fact that I am finally in the know about something in Alameda. One secret down and I have no idea how many more to go.

Monday, May 14, 2012

So much to do, so little time

Renting my apartment last week made me realize that I will be moving very, very soon (insert sound effect of my hand slapping my forehead because this is such an obvious statement). I have 2-ish months to pack and plan the drive to VA and clean and travel for work. Pretty soon, the planner part of me will take over and I will start to calendar out my life down to the hour to make sure everything gets done. These are the times I wish I was less organized and more spontaneous but that is not my personality. My lists will start to have list babies and I won't be able to stop myself. In the interest of my own sanity, I've made a list (ha ha) of things that I should do before I leave the Bay Area. Hopefully, I'll get to do all of these things while also doing all the necessary tasks involved in moving cross country.

Here's my tentative list:
  • Go to Alameda's Got Talent at the historic Alameda Theater - this sounds like it could be the greatest event ever or an utter disaster. Like the Lou Reed/Metallica album.
  • Do the spirits tasting at St. George's Distillery (and yes, I would like the version that includes absinthe)
  • Go to both an A's and Giants game
  • Walk on the Golden Gate Bridge again. I only went a short distance on it on New Year's Day but I feel like I should try again. I don't need to walk across it but I need to go a little further in order to truly conquer my fear of bridges. 
  • Hang out in Marin so that I can feel better when I roll my eyes when people make Marin jokes
  • Go to a concert - how is it that I haven't seen one show since I moved here? What is wrong with me?
  • One more trip to Napa - I went on Sunday for the second time but feel like I need one more trip before I leave.
  • Visit the USS Hornet Museum
  • Go to the fortune cookie factory in SF's Chinatown
  • Attend the Alameda 4th of July parade which is the second oldest and longest in the US
  • See a movie at the Castro Theatre
  • See the sunrise from Twin Peaks
  • Go to the Oakland Zoo
  • Find the Froling spite house in Alameda  
  • Finally go to the Alameda Flea Market - I always seem to have something else to do on the first Sunday of every month. How is that possible?
  • Take a trip to Yosemite and/or Muir Woods
  • Try a few more restaurants in the area. In Alameda I specifically want to try:
      • Hob Nob
      • Mona's 
      • Ole's 
      • Dragon Rouge 

Suggestions for other things to do? Anyone want to walk the Golden Gate Bridge with me? Or go to find the Froling spite house (or know where it is)?

Sunday, May 13, 2012

We don't have to be Lorelei and Rory


"I can't be making mistakes when I'm a mother. I'm not the person I need to be to be able to do this. I'm not perfect yet. I'm so not perfect... Yeah. I'm scared."
        - Lane, The Gilmore Girls


Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there! Whether you’re a mom (and you can define mom however you want) to an actual child or to a pet child, I hope you enjoy your day. Today marks my second day without Pumpkin in the house (she’s already moved to Virginia) and I miss her perfect mix of affection and aloofness (she’s the ideal cat). She seems to be adjusting to her new environment. She has reportedly been seen walking around the upstairs hallway, playing with her toys, and not scratching people when they come to check on her. I will call this progress and stop thinking I'm a terrible pet mom.

But I'm not going to talk about Pumpkin anymore today. Instead we're going to talk about the best mom of all, my mom. She is the absolute greatest. I not only love my mother but I LIKE her. Not everyone can say that about their mother (or most of their relatives). I like to hang out with my mom and talk to her on the phone. I'm only sort of mortified by some of the posts she writes on Facebook (usually on my birthday, usually involving rainbows). This past week when I was staying at their house, she had my brother text me to see when I was coming home. I was out late with friends and she was worried. My friends found this both amusing and endearing. I would 100% agree.

By no means are my mom and I like Lorelei and Rory on my favorite tv show The Gilmore Girls.  We are not freakishly in one another's lives and I don't think my mom enjoys pop culture references in everyday conversation as much as I do. Much has been written about this mother/daughter duo and there is definitely something unrealistic about their relationship despite the fact that I love everything about it. However, we don't need to be Lorelei and Rory to enjoy spending time together. I do not tell my mother everything (I have friends for a reason) and I don't expect her to be my friend all the time. Moms are moms and I occasionally need a reminder that I am not the only person in the universe or that the decision I'm about to make is a bad one. She is the person I would prefer to hear that from even when I don't want to hear any of it at all. My mother isn't perfect either and I appreciate her honestly about that.

I know that I am extremely lucky to have such a great mom. Lots of people have complicated and unpleasant relationships with their mothers and I'm glad I'm not one of them. I hope that one day if I have a daughter she'll love and like me too.  I hope that she and I will make Christmas cookies together and get the giggles for no apparent reason and then not be able to stop for 10 minutes (while the men in the family look on in bemusement like my dad and brother do now). I hope that I will like her haircut (or at least keep it to myself if I don't) and be okay with her tattoos or piercings or whatever the kids are doing by then. Or at least pretend I'm okay with it. I hope she will tell her friends that I'm a cool mom and truly mean it because I mean it every time I say it about my mom.


-->This is my absolute favorite photo of my mother ever. My Aunt Pat took it a few years ago. My mom was visiting our family in Michigan and went to see my cousins and my uncle (Pat’s family) play at a club in Ann Arbor. My cousins are/were in a punk rock band with their dad, called The Muldoons, and they have/had a pretty loyal following (see girl in yellow shirt in the front of the photo).

I’m obsessed with the 1960s/1970s New York rock scene. I can’t imagine a more perfect time for music, personalities, fashion, and art than that particular era. When I first saw this photo, I immediately thought of several photos I’ve seen of Lou Reed and Iggy Pop and the Warhol Factory gang hanging out at CBGB’s or Max’s Kansas City. My aunt is a great photographer and I think she captured the moment beautifully. My mom is both perfectly in place and perfectly out of place at this club. She's super cool and probably annoyed that she has to stand. And incredibly proud of my talented younger cousins. I'm also hoping that she was thinking something slightly snarky about the dancing girl (because I probably would have been). I like the motion around her and her stillness and awareness that she’s being photographed. Mom isn't a fan of having her picture taken - but isn't it great when you capture a moment like this? I have this framed and next to a picture of both my parents on my bookshelf.

Happy Mother's Day Mom! Love you much and hope you're having a wonderful day!

Spend some time with Pumpkin for me.

Top photo by me
Bottom photo by my Aunt Pat

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Regina George walks among us


The phrase “mean girl” evokes a very specific image for most people: a popular, pretty teenage girl who dresses in the latest fashions, commands the hallways of a high school like a CEO commands a business meeting, and who’s nice to your face but calls you a bitch the second your back is turned. The movie, Mean Girls, put a face to mean girls everywhere: Regina George. Regina George is the quintessential Queen Bee mean girl—she puts mean girls I knew in high school to shame.

Janis: And evil takes a human form in Regina George. Don't be fooled because she may seem like your typical selfish, back-stabbing slut faced ho-bag, but in reality, she's so much more than that.
Damian: She's the queen bee - the star, those other two are just her little workers. 
        -from Mean Girls

Mean Girls is based (in part) on Rosalind Wiseman’s book Queen Bees and Wannabees. Tina Fey (who I adore) did an amazing job adapting parts of the book for the movie. The book focuses girls and friendship and what Wiseman calls “Girl World.”  Wiseman defines the roles in Girl World (Queen Bees, Targets, Bankers, Bystanders, etc.) and how they interact with one another. It’s a fascinating book. I highly recommend it and her follow-up, Queen Bee Moms and Kingpin Dads. I wish I had read these before I stepped into a classroom or admissions office. Navigating Girl World isn’t easy but Wiseman provides a pretty great map.

One of the things that I found fascinating about Wiseman’s book is that Girl World doesn’t just exist in school—it exists in every social or work situation/network you encounter or exist within (that goes for guys too). I can tell you who’s who within my office and my different groups of friends. I worked for a Queen Bee mean girl and it was devastating. While I’ve never been called a mean girl, I know that I exhibited mean girl tendencies during my junior and senior years of college. If ever there was a time to call me a mean girl that would have been it. I was in charge of a lot of things in the drama department and I took it very seriously (probably more so than a lot other people in the department). I was not always nice to everyone and I know that I made it particularly difficult for a few people who “crossed me.” Some people would just describe my behavior as bossy but I’m pretty sure I was a mean girl. I like to think that I’ve made up for that behavior and have not had any mean girl moments since.

I’m moving back to Virginia at the end of the summer and have been in town for the last week for work. I spent today looking for an apartment an had a total mean girl experience that almost derailed my day. I actually don't mind moving (obviously) but there are two things I hate about it: packing and looking for an apartment. Both are time consuming and can be very frustrating. Looking for an apartment is a lot like making a new friend. There are lots of questions you have to ask and like when you hang out with a new friend, you have to feel comfortable and at ease in your new apartment/community. I felt that way when I moved back to New Orleans for college and to a lesser extent, when I moved to Alameda. I believe that the staff of a building is the first indication of whether or not you're going to enjoy your new "friend." The staff doesn't always live in the building but they are there to sell the experience to you and make you feel like you belong.

The first place I looked at today was fine-nice size, the location was good but I didn't feel it. I couldn't see myself living there. I moved on to my second stop which was at a building that describes itself as "urban apartment homes." I hope that gives you a clear image of what this building is and the type of person that might live there. I'm not entirely sure that I am that person but I wanted to take a look at it since multiple people told me that it was a great place and that the neighborhood was amazing. The neighborhood is great-cute coffee shop across the street, walking distance to some great restaurants and a theater but the whole area definitely gives off a "too cool for school" vibe. I put that aside and went in anyway.

I'm an organized mover so I had already spoken to a person from the leasing office about some of the basics. When I entered the office, I was greeted with fancy furniture, Mark Rothko coffee table books, and a mean girl. The leasing office was not separate office spaces; it was an open room with a receptionist and the agents immediately behind her.  So I heard the leasing agent when she said, "Are you trying to ruin my day?" when the receptionist told her I was waiting. Instead of greeting me, she immediately launched into why I shouldn't have come first thing and that she was totally hung over from celebrating Cinco de Mayo. And then she introduced herself and asked me my name. She pulled up the information I had given on Friday and noticed I had actually spoken to someone from their central leasing office so it "was all probably wrong and I had probably been told the wrong information." Way to be a team player. 

Sadly, she was right. My information was half correct and I had been told some very incorrect information about leasing and availability (which is also on their website so they need to get on it and make some updates). I would have been totally fine with the situation if she had told me any of this in a professional and polite way. Instead, she told me "You shouldn't have even bothered coming here today. There's nothing I can do for you and I don't really have time to do this today." Awesome. Then asked me if I wanted to take a tour. No, I don't want to take a tour and I don't want to spend anymore time with you. I did not say that. Instead, I said no thank you and left. 

Rudeness is one thing; I can deal with rudeness. But she was just mean-a mean girl. I'm sure that I didn't fit into her perception of a tenant of that building and I had clearly interrupted her day.  She set a tone for the building and the experience that I would never be able to get over if I had decided to live there. She was a mean girl and I'm fairly certain that being hung over had nothing to do with it. She might not have been Regina George but they're definitely sisters in meanness. I was pissed off when I got out of there. And it must have shown. When I got to the next place, the leasing agent asked if I was okay. I told him what happened and I think he felt bad. He couldn't have been nicer but while I liked this location better than the first apartment it still wasn't it.

My fourth stop ended up being the best of the day and as long as my application is approved, I'll be signing the lease and moving in July 29. The place is very nice and the apartment is what I was looking for this time around. Pumpkin will even have a huge window with a ledge so she can sit and look outside all day long (from 7 stories up). I waited in the lobby for about 20 minutes and every single person said hello to me. That's the kind of place I want to live. No fancy furniture, no ridiculous coffee table books. And no mean girls.