Let’s Get Deep « Jenn Stinnett

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Tina Fey, my hero

I don’t get to read a lot for pleasure any more. When you haven’t read a book of your choice in a while, you can forget how enjoyable it is.

When I read that Tina Fey had a new book out called Bossypants I knew I had to read it.

I dusted off my Kindle and downloaded her book. Literally within the first page or two I LOVED it. LOVED it.

I have considered myself Tina Fey’s long-lost soul sister for a while now. I know that pretty much every single woman in the world thinks that. But seriously, it’s true. When I watch 30 Rock the words coming out of Liz Lemon’s mouth are things I think or say. Here are some samples:

“Lizzing is a combination of laughing and whizzing.”

“Can I share with you my worldview? All of humankind has one thing in common: the sandwich. I believe that all anyone really wants in this life is to sit in peace and eat a sandwich.”

“Sometimes I pee in the shower if I’m really tired!”

“If I have learned anything from my SIMS family: When a child doesn’t see his father enough he starts to jump up and down, then his mood level with drop until he pees himself.”

“My mom used to send me articles about how older virgins are considered good luck in Mexico.”

“God, three weddings in one day, I’m going to be in Spanx for 12 hours. My elastic line is gonna get infected again.”

“There ain’t no party like a Liz Lemon party ’cause a Liz Lemon party is mandatory!”

Can any of you read these and NOT think of me saying them? Especially that sandwich one. All of you know I love a good sandwich. It’s all I eat.

Anyhoo….so not only is Tina Fey’s book just hilarious so far, but it’s touching, too. And you know what, it speaks to me. I really feel like I have a soul sister. Here is an excerpt from her book that I instantly knew I wanted to share. She’s taking the words out of my mouth.

“I’ve always been able to tell a lot about people by whether they ask me about my scar. Most people never ask, but if it comes up naturally somehow and I offer up the story, they are quite interested. Some people are just dumb: “Did a cat scratch you?” God bless. Those sweet dumdums I never mind. Sometimes it is a fun sociology litmus test, like when my friend Ricky asked me, “Did they ever catch the black guy that did that to you?” Hmmm. It was not a black guy, Ricky, and I never said it was.

Then there’s another sort of person who thinks it makes them seem brave or sensitive or wonderfully direct to ask me about it right away. They ask with quiet, feigned empathy, “How did you get your scar?” The grossest move is when they say they’re only curious because “it’s so beautiful.” Ugh. Disgusting. They might as well walk up and say, “May I be amazing at you?” To these folks let me be clear. I’m not interested in acting out a TV movie with you where you befriend a girl with a scar. An Oscar-y Spielberg movie where I play a mean German with a scar? Yes.

My whole life, people who ask about my scar within one week of knowing me have invariably turned out to be egomaniacs of average intelligence or less….”

–Tina Fey in Bossypants

This is a pretty good interpretation of how I feel about people who do/don’t ask me about my neck. There are dumbasses that walk about and are like, “Why are you holding your neck sideways? Does it hurt?” Uh…no you idiot. I usually then tell them I have scoliosis and then they ask what scoliosis and so on…yadayada.

I guess it’s kind of a lose-lose situation, though. I mean, if you ask right away or at a weird time I’m going to think you’re an asshole. But if you never ask I’m also going to think you’re an asshole. Are you really going to pretend like there’s nothing different about me? Come on.

I understand that some people think they should wait to for the other person to bring it up. But I think that it shows an interest and sense of caring when you wait for the right time (after we’ve known each other maybe a few weeks) and just ask.

So if you have a friend that you’ve noticed something different about–wait for the right moment and ask them! Do it in a nice way and they’ll appreciate it, promise!

Oh, and also, buy Tina Fey’s book Bossypants.

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Categories Blogging, Personal

Chicago

8 Jan

First of all, let me say that I’ve been sitting here trying to think of a better title than “Chicago.” The fact that I can’t think of anything doesn’t bode well for my future career.

So I have a lot to fill everyone in on.

But I’m lazy and can’t write it all.

I will say that I just got off the phone with RCN cable and they have to come back a second time (after my cable was only installed 4 days ago) because my cable box is already broken. Fail. If there’s one thing I get pissed about (ha, one thing) it’s paying for something and then not getting it. But at least my Internet is still working. See that, I’m being more positive in 2011. Looking at the bright side.

I had my first classes this week. One teacher I’m in love with and think he’s adorable, one I’m ambivalent about and one I think might be a butt. Whoops, there goes my positivity. I would love to talk about it more, but I think I will be posting assignments on here later, so I’m gonna be PC (mom, that means politically correct).

My apartment is so small. It’s a room. Literally a room. With a bathroom. Anyone ever watch Felicity? Well first off, that show was thebomb.com. Second, Felicity decided to move in with Ben during the beginning of the third season (I think). Anyway, if you saw that my apartment is better than that. My bathtub is not in the middle of my room.

Anywhoooo–here is a pic of the apartment so far. I sent this out to my fam a while ago. I got really frustrated trying to hang pictures, and thus hung them in this schitzo pattern you see on the wall.

So that’s one side of the room. The door to the left of the bed is the entrance to the apartment.

This is the view when you walk into the apartment.

And this is the view from where the bookcase is now. The bathroom and the entrance door to the right. I took this before I “decorated.”

My favorite part is the view from my window…

Talk about worth it!

Let me take a minute and say how lucky I am that my apartment turned out as well as it did. I moved in SIGHT UNSEEN. That’s crazy talk. The thing is, I was moving here two days before classes started. And although it might have been possible to get a hotel while I searched for an apartment, I didn’t like thinking about the stress of that. Having an apartment already in place not only gave me a peace of mind, but also allowed me to ship stuff beforehand, etc. I wouldn’t recommend this to people, though. I lucked out and I knew it. I had done EXTENSIVE apartment research but stumbled on this by chance. I decided to start looking at Craigslist ads and wrote to two people out of the hundreds. One of the girls was subletting her place and I liked it. So I sneakily asked her the address. I think she gave the cross streets. Well I googled the streets and saw the apartment name from Google Maps street view. From there I did my own research, and when she never got back to me about the apartment I kind of let it go.

A few weeks later my mom sent me a link she had found about some guy blogging about the same apartment building. He was talking about how he was going to move in, the prices, etc. Well having already done my own research I decided to email this random guy from Canada to see if he liked the apartments. Turns out, he didn’t end up moving to Chicago, but he filled me in on what he saw. Well, I decided to go ahead and talk to the landlords and after working some stuff out signed the lease.

I am lucky because they were more than willing to help me answer questions, help me sign the lease, etc. And unlike some people once they got my business they were still nice. They went to the hardware store and picked up paint to paint my apartment, accepted boxes and put them in my apartment for me (MANY boxes, some weighing well over 50 lbs) and have been so helpful all around. If you’re looking for a place to stay in Chi I would recommend Dearborn Plaza Apartments. SUPER small spaces (they warned me, though) but awesome location and staff.

PROS:

Location-3-4 blocks from subway
FOB access to building
Staff
Clean building

CONS:

Small apartments
Older appliances
Can sometimes hear neighbors
Radiator heat–can’t adjust temp.

I know that I could have gotten twice the space that I have now if I’d lived further north. But I moved to Chicago to LIVE IN CHICAGO. And, literally as I’m writing this sirens are blazing by, I am IN this city. I feel like I’m in the middle of it, and like this is a big change. And that’s exactly what I wanted.

Going back to school, here’s the Student Center of the DePaul loop campus (downtown–where my classes are).

Next photos from my cell phone

I just love how different this is from UT! Oh, and here’s the view from the student center!

I mean, you can’t really beat that. It’s the freaking Sears Tower!! (I REFUSE to call it the Willis tower…what the heck is that)

When I leave/go to class I get some pretty good views.

Sorry about the poor quality. But the city does look pretty dang impressive sometimes. I think my only gripe about this place so far is the subway system. Now, I do like their fare system better (it’s a flat rate to ride the subway, no matter where you go)…but I have to hand it to D.C. Their subways were clean and much, much nicer than Chicago’s. Plus, D.C. had signs to tell you when the next train was coming…which would have been nice to have the other day when I waited 15 minutes.

I don’t mind the cold that much. It only starts to bother me when it gets below about 20-25 and it’s windy.

Well I’m off, I have to get up for the dang cable guy. Every single day since I’ve been here I’ve had a delivery, appointment or maintenance in the morning. Ugh.

If you have specific questions or want pictures of specific things text/comment or Facebook me and let me know!

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Categories Blogging, Photography

2011 Aspirations

6 Jan

So I don’t think I’ve ever set New Year’s Resolutions before. They’ve always seemed stupid and pointless to me. However, I think they are important for me to do this year. I do think there’s an advantage to putting thoughts and intentions down on paper. It puts it “out there,” and makes it more real. So here are my aspirations for the year:

1. Lose weight. This is a cliche, I know. But there’s a reason this is on everyone’s list. I mean, it’s an important goal. I want to get healthier, slim down, and get back to my more comfortable self.
2. Make new friends, but keep the old. I can’t wait to meet more people (more, meaning more than my building manager) in Chicago. And I want to make sure to foster my long-distance friendships.
3. Travel somewhere new. I don’t know where. Although San Francisco sounds appealing right now. I’ve never been to the West coast.
4. Take more pictures. For someone who loves photography, I am really bad at taking photos. It’s always a production to use my nice camera. So right now, I have it sitting out on top of the fridge so I can grab it at a moment’s notice.
5. Blog more. I’m bad at it sometimes.
6. Do well in grad school. I want to kick butt.
7. Get more relevant experience. I want to really get in to the journalism field, learn technical stuff (“stuff”), and get in the “know.” Whatever that sentence means.
8. Explore Chicago.
9. Be more financially stable.
10. Read more. I just got a Kindle and hope to get through more books this year. I’ve really been a slacker on my recreational reading.

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Categories Blogging

2010 in Review

5 Jan

Alright, so I’m a little behind on this blog post. But life’s been a wee bit hectic lately. And, I’m still within the first week of 2011, so really…I’m totally fine.

I have been in Chicago for about 5 days now, and just got internet about a day ago. That, coupled with a new apartment, numerous errands to run, a new city, new classes, etc. has been a lot to handle and thus I’ve fallen behind a bit on my blog.

Anyway, there are two more blogs in addition to this one coming up (maybe three?), hopefully in the next few days (maybe even today?? Hey, I have ambitions!)….

Ok, so as part of the end of 2010 I wanted to take a look back at the year and share some thoughts I had on what’s been going on.

So, the beginning of last year started off a brand new journey for me (much like this year). I moved to Washington, D.C. to begin an internship with the U.S. Department of State. If you want to read some of those blogs, you can find them HERE.
While I was in D.C. I couldn’t wait to leave. There was a blizzard which was fun for the first few days, but eventually the mystique of that wore off when the whole city was shut down and I had nothing to do and nowhere to go. But, of course, the minute I left D.C. I was ready to go back.
My time in D.C. was something I’ll never forget and an experience to….well, actually I am at a loss as to how to describe my time in D.C. On the one hand, I got to work at the State Department, sit in on meetings planning events for the President and Secretary of State, go to events with Sec. Clinton, and visit tons of interesting places in D.C.
On the other hand, if I had known then just how tough the job market was going to be, I probably would have taken that time to apply for full-time positions and really focus my energy there. Or, at the very least, I would have taken a position that paid (the internship didn’t). So I am torn as to if I would consider my internship in D.C. a good decision or not.

After I came back from D.C. I applied to jobs like it was goin’ out of style. In total, I applied to over 200 jobs. That is a lot. I applied and interviewed for jobs in Atlanta, Nashville, Washington state, Denver, Washington D.C. etc. Some of the jobs just weren’t the right fit, some I wasn’t completely qualified for and some just didn’t work out.

In the summer I moved to Denver. “Moved.” Well, I’m sitting in Chicago right now, so it’s pretty obvious how that worked out. The biggest mistake with that journey was saying I was going to move, when really I should have called it a visit. But NO…I drove all my shit across the damn country. And then promptly drove it right back across the country. Whoops.
After arriving to Denver I quickly realized something just felt “off.” It just wasn’t the place for me. I don’t even know how to properly explain it other than it must have been some kind of gut instinct.

Anyway after I got back I reapplied for jobs, continued the same process over again. I had nixed the idea of grad school from the get-go, determining it just wasn’t the right thing for me.

I don’t know if any of you watch “How I Met Your Mother,” but I’m starting to appreciate that show more and more. Basically, the show describes a man’s journey through life, and how random events and circumstances later lead him to meet his wife.
Now, I’m not saying I’m on the journey to meet my husband or anything (although I guess, technically, if I ever get married I am indeed on the journey to meet my husband..but anyway), but I am starting to see how the little disappointments and set backs in life have created my current circumstances.

For instance, that D.C. internship I’m not so sure about? Well a requirement of that internship was that you had to be accepted into a grad school program if you had graduated. Well, up until that point I had no real interest in grad school, but decided to apply just a) for the heck of it, and b) because I was interested in the program. If I hadn’t decided to do that program I never would have applied to grad school.

Also, all of those disappointments and interviews, etc…? Well, obviously, if I had gotten a job I wouldn’t be here right now. I wouldn’t be in grad school. I always thought it was stupid for people to go to grad school just because they couldn’t find a job. And maybe it is. But I’m seeing it differently now. Now, I see these job rejections and the current economy as a way to get me into grad school and a way to get me to Chicago. I truly feel like this is where I’m supposed to be right now, and if it weren’t for the somewhat disastrous events of last year, I know I wouldn’t be here.

At the end of last year I completed a (paid!) internship with a local company in Knoxville and was able to save money for my trip to Chicago. I was able to enjoy Oak Ridge and time with my family before I left, and come to peace (well sort of…I also spent a lot of time stressing) about my impending move.

I had a great, fabulous, amazing (maybe best ever) Christmas with my mom and sister, and loved spending time with my peeps before I left.

So that’s the year in review…it’s really hard to believe it’s been a year since then, because I feel like it was just a few weeks ago I was getting to D.C. Next up, some goals for 2011.

Parting Pictures…some of my favorites from 2010:

From DC: