Debbie's Travels

When my relatives start asking me why I haven’t found a nice boyfriend yet

whatshouldwecallme:

I’m like, 

How do I [insert simple task] after college?

I have little to say so I will try to say it well.

When you graduate you leave behind a bunch of people most of whom you never hear from again and when you do its mostly awkward or fake. Been there done that with high school. After HS I had some place to be next, college. So making new friends was not only a given but a requisite. Now after college…where do I meet people? How do I make friends? At bars? I don’t drink. Really I don’t. Do I have to pretend to be observant and care about halakha and meet people at shul? Because that is so fake and insular. Do i go to coffee shops with my books and sip my latte as I wait for someone to come up and talk to me? That only happens in the movies! How about a wanted ad and flyers all over NY? That will just be creepy and I’ll probably get a bunch of people who think I’m either an escort or paying for one. So, how dear reader am I supposed to make friends?

Other ideas (read: anxieties) include:

When you graduate and you don’t want to live at home because there is nothing at home for you, your parents pretty much cut you off from most things. So you are left thinking about money, probably or the first time in your life, as you now have to consider food AND rent and not just food if you didn’t have a meal plan.

When your parents are willing to give you money you hesitate, as they have already spent so much on your needs and you could (somewhat) easily work to pay for most of your expenses.

You are not ready for the 9-5 office shit show where you work like a little monkey answering phones and coordinating events or whatever but that is the only sustainable option until you find a Career.

You will miss living within a 10 minute radius of all of your best friends and of not even appreciating how much it costs for you to live in a shit room with a roommate.

You will miss the option of a meal plan as in the future if you want to eat out it will probably be at restaurants and they required you to tip your annoying waiter and tax the bloody government.

You will miss the option of going to school each day in any combination of clothing, especially the Debbie Favorite of jeans, tank top, v neck tshirt, hoodie zip up and 4 year old converse.

So now I reframe the question. How do I [live my life] after college?

Answer - TBA

I suddenly hate life…

…well not really but i am not a happy camper and definitely woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. either im exhausted from my new job, or from finally finishing my thesis, or from running to much whatever it is i am NOT happy. and its not like anything is wrong in fact things are looking up because tomorrow is thursday and we’re getting closer to the weekend BUT i do hate thursdays because thats when i have to sit for hours trying to do my math homework because i dont pay attention or even to go class. then there is friday which is filled with work and recitation and a departmental thesis conference! and i thought i was done with the thesis! and i hate recitation! but i do love work i just dont love doing ALL of those things…plus there is this ever lingering thought at the back of my head of holy shit what is going to happen after june when i am all graduated and moved out of dorms for good.

so whatever it is im in a whiny i hate my life stomp like a 2 year old …

life moves fast and other connections

so im convince that i suddenly love running because i realize that life moves fast and running is a way to control the speed of life. i have to psycho analyze because i have no other reason why I’m loving on running so much and so out of nowhere except to conclude that its part of an inherent need to slow down and focus on the now by controlling time. yeah, major control issues…

so other than loving on life i have to give myself props for an awesome defense. i mean it was clearly mostly bullshit but still, i had to present and sound academic and stop using slang or my iPhone and sit up straight for a full hour. haven’t done that since the SATs…

i also have to say i realized today how awesome things are going for me and how i better stop and smell the roses before the smell goes away - or whatever the metaphor is. so I’m really happy and a little mushy and nostalgic. a friend just turned 22 and i sent her this whole long love note highlighting the past 4 years of our friendship. 

also when lives good, its good and you know it! and when its bad its bad and you feel it. which is obvious really but just highlights the range of emotions that we feel in any given number of years. my feeling now is connection. i just really want to connect to everyone and everything in an attempt to root myself in my current comfy spot as opposed to moving on to a new uncomfortable spot with new people who’s friendships i need to cultivate before i can enjoy them. i do not like moving! 

on another awesome note i got a part time job and its adorably fun! all i do is encourage kids and play with them while they do their work. so i get bored watching them read about the three little pigs or turn improper fractions into mixed fractions so i keep coming up with these games that the kids love for no apparent reason other than that it gives them a break from work. yesterday there was a girl, amanda, who was really shy and to make her confident i gave her an “amanda smiley face” every time she read in her best “amanda voice” or did a problem or page. she loved it by the end i could not get her to shut up and all i heard was the amanda voice and she almost did cartwheels in the room. and they thought she was shy. another girl evelyn and i connected because we are both redheads. she taught me all about how palm oil is being cut down in the rainforest and it takes a lot of trees to make a little bit of oil so without the trees the orangutans in the region would go extinct…and it made me think about when was the last time i thought of orangutans or felt a connection to them? yeah, a long time. so evelyn and i are just sweet pals like we almost have friendship bracelets!! and today there were 4 more kids, two of them these adorably sweet 5 and a half years old who are doing work that is at least a year ahead of them. 

ok I’m going to call it a night but first on the note of connection and the point of reflection  - who do you currently feel most connected to? least connected? and who do you  miss feeling connected to? how can  you measure your connection with another human?

and my workout: 3.46 miles, 38:20, 45 mins, rock climbing and for the best time ever: the weight room!

#peace

My work, my music, my art

Quick thoughts on defending a thesis:

 its pure bullshit, i wrote it and you read it. in a book you can’t discuss your favorite and least favorite ideas with the author. this is similar. you can engage in a text up to a certain point and that point is when the author decides to call it quits and finish writing. after that you are on your own! you may however send emails and write letters that may or may not be answered. you may not however have a private bashing session (that’s what I’m expecting) on my senior thesis.

quick thoughts on music:

1the parent trap soundtrack is so awesome even 10 years later ==> L-O-V-E by nat king cole and somehow kids loved that movie even though it wasn’t trashy pop. listening to the soundtrack brings me back to childhood and to watching the movie.

quick thoughts on running:

check out my blog post tomorrow on sypulse! also stay tuned for a post on gym misadventures and trying to cross-train! also i’m composing the ultimate runner’s playlist - an easy to listen chiller 45 minute soundtrack using only music that talks about running or uses the word run - for example foster the people pumped up kids, etc. i figure the subliminal messages will be really positive. lastly stay tuned as i attempt  to run to my running playlist!

quick thoughts on graduation:

….

alright times up. 

#peace

From 0 to 5k in 1 week!

So obviously I tend to err on the side of the “extreme” and this is just a perfect example of when being extreme and going all out is really helpful. I had 0 running experience (running from taxicabs in the street does NOT count) last Sunday but just had this feeling that I wanted to take up running. Why? Oh I don’t know but here are a few things that went through my head = i have too much time on my hands, exercise is good but since I dropped swimming I need a replacement, shit bikini season is around the corner, running seems like the least time consuming activity.

Yes so I partially ran to look good but mostly I ran to feel good with a drop bit of laziness - its so much easier to just put on sneakers and jog than it is to put on a swim suit, walk to the gym, swim, put on clothes and walk back. Swimming in the winter is especially brutal in a city where you’re just expected to walk everywhere.

So for the time being….running! I don’t plan to give up on swimming just to put it on the back burner, possibly as a cross training exercise. 

So here’s the plan for the week (and possibly for a marathon race) - and I publish it because I’m sure I’ll do it. I mean come on how many people do you know go from no running to a 5k with only 3 practice running sessions? Only me :-) 

So here’s the deal for the week:

Even though I don’t want to, tomorrow is going to have to be a cross fit day or a (gasp) “off” day. My options: yoga, rock climbing, biking, stair master, elliptical, walking, swimming.

Mon: cross train day or OFF

Tues: 3 miles @ E-p

Wed: OFF

Thurs: 1 mile @ E-p, 1 mile @ T-p, 1 mile @ E-p

Fri: 3 miles at E-p or cross train or off

Sat: 3 miles at @ E-p

Sun: cross train day or OFF (only run if 4th run is needed, don’t do 5x)

So the plan, is 7 days - 4 runs, 1 cross train, 1 off, 1 bonus - anything but running. In the meantime I’m going to do a lot of stretching because I’m seriously worried that I overdid it with the whole running Fri-Sat and racing Sun. 

#peace

No too bad right? If all goes well this will be week 14 of a countdown to half marathon.