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Right now i want...

Ha. Couldn't have said it better myself: "... the joys of Harry, Charlie, and Heath, interdispersed with the heavenly bed...." Yep, that was New York. And i agree, by the way, it does seem like a dream... too far away and distant to be real.

In other news, sorry i haven't really written in a few days. Besides the fact that work is (you guessed it) really crazy, i managed to make myself sick on wednesday. Come to think of it, i'm still sick. Actually, i'm an idiot: i'll rest / relax / nap for a few hours, think i'm all better, only to realize that i'm actually not once i get back to the office; yeah, 'cause i've come in every single day this week. i've left early, too, but that's not quite the point.

oh, this is a fabulous place to start talking about The Undomestic Goddess, but again, that will have to wait. Just for a moment, i promise.



So. I've been very stressed this weekend (probably why i'm sick). Why, you ask? Something happen at the office? Trouble back east? Well, sortof.



Etrade is driving me insane. They got it into their collective heads about 10 days ago that there was a negative balance on my account (nope) and that they should sell MY stock WITHOUT my permission to cover the NONEXISTANT negative balance. Then they did it again. And they STILL haven't given me my stock back. I'm kinda pissed. Maybe i was going to sell my stock myself this last week. Maybe i needed it to pay some bills (i didn't, but that's not the point: it's my money!). I'm starting to wonder if i'll get my stock back. I'm really starting to wonder if i can trust them to be my broker anymore. They keep saying "out departments were within their rights to cover a negative balance!" without addressing the fact that the balance didn't exist and i wasn't notified beforehand. In fact, the only notification i did receive was apparently a mistake, i wasn't supposed to even get the 2 line email saying my stock sale had been executed. That's what really scares me: if i hadn't gotten that email, how long would it have been before i noticed my money was gone? Probably not until i really needed it. Then getting it back would be that much harder, and this great company would have Texas Two-Stepped me right out of my Employee Stock Purchase Shares.

... sorry, i'm tired but hyper. at least my fingers are hyper. how odd.

Right. So quickly back to The Undomestic Goddess. Actually, back to Confessions of a Shopaholic. Both books are by Sophie Kinsella, and amazingly enough, i purchased both books in hardcover (especially strange for what would otherwise be generic chick-lit). Why? (i'm imagining you're asking even if you don't care... though really, if you didn't care you'd have stopped reading by now so i'm going to assume you want to know why). So, right, why: the opening to both books were eerily similiar to my life at the precise moment i opened them the first time. So much so that the first time i read Shopaholic i though i would die of embarassment in the store: how did she know this? was i that obvious? when i bought the book i was beet red. You would have thought i was buying a particularly smutty book and i was embarassed. seriously.

Shopaholic came out when i was a junior in college (yeah, pretty sure that's right... ok, maybe a sophomore). I had my very own credit card that i didn't pay enough attention to. The book opens "OK. DON'T PANIC. Don't panic. It's only a VISA bill. It's a piece of paper; a few numbers. I mean, just how scary can a few numbers be? .... It's only a stupid piece of paper, i tell myself for the thousanth time. And i'm not stupid, am i? I know exactly how much my VISA bill will be. Roughly. Sortof." Yeah. everyone who's had this exact same experience, raise your hands! and yes, i'm still embarassed by it.

Cut to several years later. I work for Apple. I'm stressed, i'm tired, i'm working myself until i'm sick. My only vacation in over a year was 4 days long and passed so quickly i think it didn't happen. Undomestic Goddess (which, really, could be my nickname), opens: "Would you consider yourself stressed? No. I'm not stressed. I'm... busy. Plenty of people are busy. I have a high-powered job, my career is important to me, and i enjoy it. OK. So sometimes i do feel a bit tense. But i'm a lawyer in the City, for God's sake. Why do you expect? My handwritting is pressing so hard into the page, i've torn the paper. Dammit. Never mind. Let's move on to the next question."

The moral of the story? For some reason, these two books had me pegged. They showed my reality, or a portion of it, and then the miracle happens: the heroine escapes. No wonder i feel so strongly about these books. No wonder the car i bought is the Escape.

In other news, i realized i hadn't put up here that i think everyone my age [21-25] should answer Vanity Fair's essasy question of the year "What is on the minds of America's youth today?" I think it's a worthy exercise. You don't have to submit it if you don't want, but maybe put your 1500 word essay on your blogs? That's what i'm going to do. The deadline is September 31st... let's give it a shot. Figure out what we're all thinking about.