Square peg in a square hole

I was offered a position today at the company I'm interning with. It was the second position that I'd applied for in-house (the first application was for a contracts assistant position).

On Monday, I will be an official production assistant!

Office Space

The other day, I wanted to make a quick copy. When I got to the copy room, a guy was already using the machine. He had a small book and there were about fifty post-it flags marking which pages he wanted to copy. I stood there waiting for a little while and he turned to me, saying, "I'm going to be a minute." I said that was fine and continued waiting. After he did a few more copies, he said, "I'm going to be a minute."

Oooooh. He's talking about one of those long minutes that will last for a while!

Silly me, and here I thought people who worked in publishing are supposed to be good with words!

Q & A

Why are you quitting law school?
I don't like it. At first I thought I had a prejudice against lawyers and would strive NOT to be a stereotypical, evil lawyer, but I realized that I don't like a lot of the subject matter that a lawyer's education is based upon. The law school's administration did not impress me either, what with its constant bungling of issues I felt were a matter of common sense. In the end, I couldn't see myself doing legal research (and paying exorbitant amounts of money to do so) and writing memos for the rest of my working years.

What are you going to do now?
I'm trying to find a permanent position in publishing, the industry in which I am currently interning. It's what I wanted to do since college, if not as early as high school.

Doesn't publishing pay crap compared to a lawyer's salary?
Don't think that having a piece of paper that says I have a J.D. translates to "please take this six-figure starting salary." Most likely, that kind of salary would only go to the very top students in my class, given that my school is a few tiers below Ivy League.

Did you fail out and are making all of this up as an excuse?
No, I didn't fail out. I actually did a lot better second semester (short of my evil oral advocacy class, where the professor was totally arbitrary in assigning our moot court grades) than first semester.

Aren't you being hasty in your decision?
Actually, I've been thinking about this since February. I've been unhappy with law school since then, but figured I might as well finish the first year since I'd already spent the money on tuition.

Why don't you just finish law school and go into publishing afterward?
Why waste over $100,000 to finish the last two years? I know what I want to do, and it certainly doesn't have anything to do with becoming a lawyer.

So didn't you just waste a lot of money?
I don't think it was a waste of money. I learned that I shouldn't listen to people who don't know anything about being a lawyer when they tell me that they think I'll be a good lawyer. Besides that, I understand what Josh goes through as a law student. If I hadn't gone to law school and gone through the first year, I wouldn't be able to appreciate the time that a law student has to spend on schoolwork. I did learn a lot during my first year, bookswise, that is, and I know that if I can get through a first year of law school, I can probably handle a lot of other things. Also, I don't think I would've gotten my current publishing internship if I hadn't been a law student. It opened the door for me, and I'm able to get interviews now because of that internship.

Is Josh upset about all of this?
No, Josh has been the most supportive friend I could have during this time. When I got rejected from my first application on Friday, he surprised me with long-stemmed peach roses. He said that he wants me to be happy and he knows that publishing is what I've wanted to do for the longest time.

A rant

"Oh no," you say, "it's another Harry Potter post!" Okay, it's another Harry Potter post, but don't worry, I won't go on and on about how much I love the books.

Somebody I know likes to go on and on about how he doesn't have any problems with reading for non-educational purposes. He also hasn't read any of the Harry Potter books. I'm not trying to make a real connection with those two sentences. He said that he does mean to read them, but he'll wait ten years to do so, because he refuses to be a sheep. He believes that everybody's reading Harry Potter because it's a fad.

In a day and age where computers, PSPs, Xboxes, and assorted brethren seem to be foremost in kids' eyes, I think Rowling's books helped say, "Hey, remember reading? It can be fun!" Mr. I-refuse-to-be-a-sheep seems to think that the kids will only read the Harry Potter series and then call it a day because it's a fad, not an enthusiasm for reading. I'm sorry, but fad or no fad, if you're 8 years old and reading a book in the three-digit-page-number-category, you're not reading it just because it's a fad. Harry Potter made way for other fantasy/adventure type books for young readers to become popular again. Yes, I know this genre existed before HP was a baby idea in Rowling's head. In fact, Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles made me into a serious reader and I've never stopped reading for fun since I picked up the first book (definitely a fun read, lovely descriptions, humorous banter, and talking cats - what else do I need?).

To add fire my complete disagreement over Mr. I-refuse-to-be-a-sheep's "Harry Potter is just a fad and I refuse to read any of the novels for a decade" theory, he seems to have no problem watching the movies. How does that make any sense? He's still getting the same story he'd find in the book!

His response to my incredulous, high-pitched question? "Movies are entertainment."

And books aren't???

Laughing at vs. Laughing with

Let me tell you of one of my subway experiences from last week.

P was spending the day with me since Josh was at a Yankees game. While we were riding the 6 subway downtown, P (standing across from me) gestured that I should look at the guy who was sitting on my left. Apparently, P found something amusing about this guy's face so I refused to follow the instructions. P mouthed something about being blue and I said loudly, "What are you talking about?!" and he made up something about the moonstone on my necklace looking blue on my navy blue shirt.

Eventually, I gave in and took a seat across from my original one and noticed very quickly (in a non-obvious manner) that the guy who I'd been sitting next to had blue ink smeared on his face. He had some ink on his hand and unknowingly to him, every time he touched his face, he smeared some on. P was highly amused by this and kept staring at blue guy openly with no attempt to hide what he was doing. I felt like I had a child who didn't have any manners.

When we got off the 6 to transfer to another train, the blue guy (who'd been told by his friend that his face was blue by then) also got off and was waiting for the transfer. P wanted to get onto blue guy's car, most likely to continue staring at poor blue guy. I vehemently said that I refused to get on that car and I would not ride with P if he wanted to continue staring at blue guy.

We rode on the car behind blue guy, and P kept trying to look through the windows to catch a glimpse of blue guy during the rest of our ride.

May I have another?

Here's how big a dork I am:

I started reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince yesterday around 5:00 p.m.

I finished it today around 10:00 p.m. Keep in mind that I did go to bed last night (albeit late) and I did spend the day at work today (without the book).

I really have to say that J.K. Rowling is a great storyteller. There's nothing loosey-goosey about the novels as they progress because she'll mention details that were from her earlier books in the current one. Thanks to that melding of old and new, it feels as though I'm reading one gigantic book, rather than a seven book series. I guess I find Rowling to be a frugal and practical author who doesn't waste any characters she may have written, no matter how brief their appearance in a previous novel.

I feel happy now that I've finished the book, but I bet that tomorrow, I'll wish that the seventh one is about to be released.

A word of warning to those who plan to read/are reading Harry Potter: Don't read the NY Times book review by Michiko Kakutani. It gives away some important parts of the story. As soon as I read one of them, I stopped reading the review so I wouldn't spoil the entire book. My reading really was affected by just that one (although very important) piece of information.

Awaiting Harry

According to UPS.com, my copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blooded Prince is on its way to my eager hands. Once it arrives, you'll probably have to pry each of my kung fu grip fingers in order for me to let go of the book prior to finishing it.

I'm such a dork.

The potato: the king of vegetables

Mmm...deliciousness in a paper cone.

After Josh finally woke up (at 2:30 p.m.), we went out to Pommes Frites. Unfortunately, I gave in to my hunger an hour beforehand, so I had a sandwich and could not fully appreciate my fries.
Pommes Frites is a hole-in-the-wall kind of eatery, but it's still great. The tables and counters have perfectly sized holes cut into them so you don't have to hold your paper cone while working at your fries. The picture shows a regular sized portion of fries, which is more than enough to make a meal. One sauce comes with an order of the fries, which are delicious on their own. Josh and I had five sauces: curry ketchup, rosemary-garlic mayo, roasted garlic mayo, war sauce (European mayo, onions, and peanut satay sauce), and mango-chutney.

I didn't think I'd like having mayo on my fries, but it's not too bad! I'm glad I tried it.

Help feed the kitties

Mia was put down on July 5, 2005. I like to think that she held on until she was sure her kittens were going to be okay.

Happy Anniversary!

SoHo last Friday

It's been four years already!