Book #5: Orange is the New Black

So I know I said I was reading “A Beautiful Mind,” but the book is close to 700 pages long and though it’s an interesting book, I found my mind wandering because I liked consuming different kinds of literature. It’s hard for me keep focus on just one thing. So while I was reading “A Beautiful Mind,” I also picked up “Orange is the New Black” and started reading that as well. It was a quick read and before I knew it, I had finished it!

I chose the book, of course, after binge watching the entire season of the show on Netflix. After learning that it was based on a true story, I was curious to see how much of it is true and how much was fictionalized. The truth is, most of the show is fictionalized to dramatize it all and the names are quite different too. Though there are definitely parallels between the two, the book offers a lot more of the emotion that happens while living in a women’s prison. Piper on Netflix seems to really have it all together while Piper in the book is much more relatable and has moments of weakness and depression and doesn’t really know if she’s going to make it through. Book Piper is also a lot less resourceful than Netflix Piper – I think mostly because you just can’t do everything Netflix shows with the limited supply of materials in prison.

It was a fantastic read and I enjoyed it immensely. It’s not too long and could easily be read in a few two-hour sittings. Next on my list is “Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell. It’s the first book in Tumblr’s official book club and it seems to be all the rage of the Tumblr book club right now. I’ve just started but when I finish, I’ll back with another book review!

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

My cousin from Austin landed today and so I took a half-day from work and went to pick him up. This weekend is going to be filled with tons of fun because I have quite the itinerary planned! First on our list was to go see the live taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live in Hollywood.

I signed up for tickets a few weeks ago when I found out my cousin was visiting. It was the easiest thing ever: head over to 1iota.com and just look for the show you want to see! Though it’s not guaranteed you’ll get a ticket, you have a pretty good shot if you put your name down early enough. We grabbed a quick bite to eat before driving over because our check-in time for 4:30 and arrived at the theater at about 4:15. Parking isn’t that awful but we didn’t park at the place where you could get your parking verified but no worries, the parking wasn’t that bad.

Once we got into the theater (maybe thirty minutes later), the staff was really nice about bathroom breaks and how the show would run. Link (?), our pre-show host, was 1) super hot, and 2) super helpful. He was this nice guy originally from the South (he described himself that way, I’m not making assumptions) who was clearly hired because he’s probably very good at this job, and very good-looking. But enough swooning from me, good-looking man aside, the warm up act, Don, kept us entertained, let us know how the show was going to run and made us practice applauding.

Once Jimmy Kimmel actually came on, I was just too excited. I don’t think I’ve ever been in such close proximity to a celebrity and boy, is he attractive. I don’t say this in any sort of a patronizing way but the camera really does add ten pounds. Seeing him live, he’s really a fit sort of guy and on TV, he looks a little chunkier. Not fat, mind you, but bigger. It was cool to see what happened during commercial breaks: his makeup artist who dab on some powder, the crew would set up his couch and desk set, the band would play and Don would get us all riled up and excited again.

Tonight’s guest stars were Rebel Wilson and Anthony Bourdaine. It was awesome seeing someone I’ve watched and admired being interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel. He’s a great host and lets the guests speak more for themselves than trying to force answers out of them.

Being in the audience surprisingly didn’t take away any of the magic of the show for me. Usually being in the audience will kind of “sober” the experience for me, so to speak: the magic disappears because you know all the behind the scenes stuff. One experience I had with this phenomenon was when my dance team auditioned for America’s Got Talent. More on that at another time but watching Jimmy Kimmel Live didn’t take any of that away at all. If anything, I was impressed by his ability to deliver and not stumble and though it was a short experience, it was one worth having and perhaps going to again! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go look for myself on TV as I watch the rerun of the taping!

Going to Visit my Best Friend!!

Three months. It’s the most my best friend and I have ever been apart since we became friends our freshmen year of college. Whenever someone asks me when we became so close, I can never quite pinpoint it. It was somewhere in between running our audition pieces in our dorm hallway and getting into all sorts of trouble after hours that we became the best of pals. Sometimes your soul mate is just down the hall!

After discussing when we would see each other next, I finally looked up some flights and decided to take the plunge and buy a ticket. Next month, my best friend and I will be reunited for 4 days!! I’m just so excited to see her and see what she’s been up to: her new place, her new friends, her new work life. It’s difficult for me to really write about how excited I am to see her but I’m sure you’ll get plenty of updates!

Plus, it's one more thing off my 22 Things list!

SO EXCITED TO BE REUNITED!

Do it because you want to, not because you have to

Today my boss handed me a gift card to J. Crew as a thanks for staying late on Friday night to help out with her computer. I’ve become somewhat of a resident tech support at my office, mostly because I love computers and all things electronic so when someone has a problem with their computer, I’m usually the first to volunteer to help out. Last week, we were getting ready for a new employee to come into the office so we had to buy a new computer and dual monitors and get them all set up. We had originally scheduled an appointment with Geek Squad to help us with it, but when I saw all the boxes for the computers and monitors, I volunteered myself to set it up instead. It felt like Christmas morning and I unwrapped all of those shiny new things and put them all together.

This was all Thursday and by the end of Thursday, everything seemed to be up and running. Come Friday, my boss brought in her computer and her e-mail wasn’t working. Blame the slow Internet connection or the Microsoft Exchange server, something just wasn’t clicking. I spent most of the day reinstalling programs and trying everything I could so that the computer would run again but by 6:30, things were still sluggish and I had still had a computer to wipe and set up for our new employee! But honestly, time wasn’t an issue to me. I persuaded my boss to go home since her husband had been out of town for the week and she had a three-year-old waiting for her at home! I, on the other hand, am fresh out of college and living on my own so I don’t have anyone waiting for me. I stayed late to figure out what the problem was and eventually, with a little help from my friends overseas, I figured it out and it was up and running! I even offered to drop it off at her house after I got done. It was a little “The Devil Wears Prada” moment but my boss is nowhere as cold as Miranda Priestly.

Fast forward to Monday Morning, my boss gave me a heartfelt shout out during our team meeting and thanked me for staying late on Friday night. I was really touched that she would mention it to the team since it really wasn’t a big deal for me. I saw a problem that I could help with and I genuinely wanted to help out! It was something I thought I could tackle and it was something I was interested in. It made me feel extra good inside to know that it was so appreciated.

My office started an unofficial book club (though we refuse to call it that) where we’re going to try and read a book a month. Last month it was Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell (one of my favorites) and I had suggested it because I felt that it was pertinent to our world of recruiting. I guess I could add it to my list of 20 books to read this year but I’m going to leave it of because it feels like a bit of a cop out since I’ve read it before. This month, we’re going to read Give and Take, by Adam Grant. He’s the youngest tenured professor at UPenn and his book describes three types of people: givers, takers, and matchers. Takers try to get as much out of others as possible while matchers try to trade evenly. Givers give and contribute and expect nothing in return and surprisingly, it’s these types of people who are most successful. I’m excited to start this book but more importantly, I strive to be more of a giver. I think, innately, I already am a giver. I really try to help others without thinking of myself just so I can get that feel good feeling. This really reminds me of that episode in Friends where Phoebe tries to find a truly selfless act.

This has turned out to be quite the long post. Thanks for sticking with it till the end! I know I haven’t been the best at updating but I do try to post something insightful when I get the chance. On another note, I have a student to tutor in SAT II Bio this weekend so I’m spending most of my nights reviewing cellular respiration (I never really understood that) and DNA replication (much more manageable).

BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge

I was scrolling on my dashboard on Tumblr today (surprise surprise) and came across the most amazing YouTube Channel: BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge. I am such a huge sucker for a well-covered song (see Young the Giant’s cover of R. Kelly’s Ignition swoon) so stumbling on this channel was basically a god sent gold mine.

And naturally because I become obsessive about things very quickly, I needed to make a YouTube Playlist of every song that’s ever been covered on Live Lounge. Luckily for me, Wikipedia has done most of the work for me so I just have to go through YouTube and search for the covers I want to listen to.

If you want to jam to these AMAZING covers, click here!

Spending Sunday with Myself

This long weekend I finally made it down to the beach after nearly a month and a half of moving down here and it was lovely! Three-day weekends mean plenty of sleep and catching up on reading and just general lazing about. Over the last two days, I walked down to the beach and had myself a little picnic while indulging in some magazines that I’ve been meaning to read but just haven’t had the chance to. I guess I can cross “Have an ocean side picnic” off my 22 Things list!

Such blue skies. Sorry random people that are in my photo.

One of the downsides of living so close to a beach during Labor Day is that everyone and their mother is at the beach for the holiday. Luckily, I was by myself and I don’t take up too much space so I was able to find myself a little spot by the lifeguard station. You can never be too careful. Unluckily, a middle aged man came to sit by me, which is totally fine – that’s not the part that creeped me out. It was the part where it needed to borrow some suntan lotion and me being generous, I lent him some (for keeps of course), and then he told me he had a present for me and tried to put it on me. At which point I said, “NO I’M GOOD.” We have literally been talk to each other for a total for thirty seconds, why would you think it’s ok to do that?

Anyway, barring that encounter, my time on the beach was nice. Despite the crowd, it was still sort of quiet. The kind of quiet where there’s a lot of chatter but it just kind of mellows out to a humming din and you’re able to concentrate on whatever it is you want to concentrate on. In my case, some Entertainment Weekly, a little Cosmo and a healthy dose of Glamour.

So many umbrellas!

I hope all your three-day weekends were just as relaxing! Tomorrow it’s back to the work world!