So wrap up time. January… God I don’t even remember. My best friend came back from Italy and I was so excited to see her again. It was my junior year of college and I lived with two girls, one I loved and the other I tolerated. 

February I turned 21 and celebrated by taking the LSAT. Fun. Then I went for lots of drinks with R and A courtesy of Y, with whom I celebrate yearly. R, A, and I magically became foreign millionaires and married and divorced and the table next to us thought we were insane. Classy. My really good friend from Canada, J, came to visit too. We crashed a Harvard final club party. No big deal.

Speaking of which, in March I did full on St. Patrick’s in the city complete with a pub crawl. This is a great introduction to my semester of alcohol which happened thanks to my roommate M senior year. Pub crawl, not so fun. Sneaking onto the roof of a certain college and getting to see the city? Worth it.

In April my brother defended his Ph.D. and in May he officially graduated. Hell yeah, smart family member!

May took me to SC which means nothing riveting. Lots of sunshine. Sleep. Good times.

In June I peaced over to Poland and went to my cousin’s wedding in July. 

Summer stuff passed and in August I went back for my final semester of college(!!!!!!!). I started my internship at a really great company and loved every second of it. 

September, October, November, and December are a nice blur of alcohol and good times. The douchiest bars in the city were home to us on the weekends and I have many “memories”. Some choice ones include Australia, Santas and zip codes, his girlfriend turned lesbian, and a mechanical bull. 

Now I’m a college graduate and gainfully (somewhat?) employed. I start in January and holy crap I have a full time big girl job. With business cards. God I can’t wait to get me some business cards. And a desk. With candy. Oh my God I just realized our office is close enough to order lunch from my favorite Thai place to be delivered. This is going to work out well.

Courtesy of R

So, once again I’m off on the path of a terrible good-for-nothing blogger. That’s life, I guess. I keep thinking of half written entries but I never actually type them out or sometimes I’ll type them but they just sit in the draft folder forever, condemned to wait. That’s ok though because this isn’t really something that goes anywhere.

Well, since it’s been so long since I posted I feel like I should do a wrap up of some sort. My last entry was in April but so much has happened since that I feel like doing a New Year’s Eve type post instead.

Since New Year’s Eve, I’ve turned 21. I celebrated my birthday pretty low key with around fifteen of my closest college friends. We ordered Thai food and had really amazing cake.

Hummingbird Cake from Magnolia Bakery

Then I took the LSAT and went out to celebrate with P and R at my friend’s restaurant. We had an amazing time drinking fancy cocktails and eating one of the best creme brulees. One of my best friends from last summer in Krakow came to visit at the end of February and we met up with two more of our friends in Connecticut, where we wore huge fake eyelashes and brightly patterned tights.

We also hit up a Harvard party, which was pretty exciting even though we didn’t know anyone but that’s the beauty of faking it til you make it, right?

March was filled with school work and a few birthday parties. In April my brother gave his defense for his Ph.D and gave an even better example of why he’s the smarter kid He absolutely blew me away with his knowledge and I’m so incredibly proud of my brother, Dr. Witold.

Courtesy of R

In April I also went to see Rusko. Dubstep is one of my favorite things in the world and it was so amazing to see him live. He kicks serious ass. Dubstep is basically house on acid and all you do is jump up and down and wave your hands in the air. It’s so liberating. No one is looking at anyone else and you’re just jumping and moving and letting the beat fill you up.

I went home to SC in May and spent a few weeks relaxing in the hot sunshine before going back to Poland in June for my cousin’s wedding.

Warszawa (Warsaw) is such a gorgeous city and it’s where my cousin (who is basically like my sister) got married. The wedding was fantastic and my brother’s fiancee caught the bouquet! No pictures from the wedding yet because the wedding photographer is taking ten years with them. Hopefully we’ll have them soon.

At the end of July, R finally came down to visit me in SC! I did my very best to show her around my not-so-fun town and we went out with some of the people I went to high school with. We checked out two bars. In the second one, we ended up at a bikini contest in which the DJ paused for a second to thank the God Lord up above for granting us all the gift of life so that we can be here at this bar this minute and thank Him for taking such good care of us. All the boys wore pastel polos and khaki shorts and were all straight, which was a bit of a change.

Courtesy of R

We also checked out Charleston, which is one of the prettiest cities in the world. We stayed at the Charleston Mills House, which is beautiful. It’s right in the center of Charleston and made it easy walking distance to a few bars and scenic locations. Parking there is massively expensive but I had a friend who lives in Charleston and we managed to park at his place.

Charleston was an experience in and of itself. We hung out with some more of my high school friends and it was a lot of fun to go out with them. We also met a lot of guys in the military, which both R and I were completely down with.

And now we’re in August, with me about to go back to school and start my internship and adulthood again. Yipee.

You forget that your parents decide to forgo air-conditioning until the summertime actually hits. The heat is sweltering, mind-melting and it sinks down onto your body like a thick blanket rolling you up tightly. You forget the fan in your bedroom may spin real nice but does little to turn the thick air into something cool. You don’t remember how quickly you dry off from a shower because the air is greedy and sucks up all the moisture. You forget that you used to sleep downstairs because it got too hot in the summers to withstand the heat. The clothes you wear hug your body because of the sweat and you forget that girls down here don’t sweat, they “glisten”. You forget that people in stores smile and say hello not because they know you but because that’s what people do. Country music lyrics ring true as you drive past fields that will grow cotton. The same cotton that makes you homesick when people talk about it up north, because you passed it every day and took a field trip to pick it just like the kids up north picked apples and pumpkins. You forget about the abandoned sharecroppers’ houses out in between two fields, where you have to pass through them and hope that cottonmouths aren’t chasing you. The houses are filled with old magazines from the 1930′s and discarded furniture. You forget that there’s a cotton gin (whose inventor, Eli Whitney, has been drilled into your head by countless southern teachers) in between some of the houses and that old bags of flour sink the attics of them down. You forget that the air is thicker down here, that the accents come and go because half of your heart is used to them while the other half is confused. You forget what it’s like to be hot. Not northern hot, where the heat can be heavy, but real hot, where your body feels lethargic and even your eyeballs feel like sweating. You forget that it’s only April and August is when the real heat is felt. You forget that kids only play outside in the winter, unless it’s to swim in the summer. You forget that pool water should be about 90 and feel like a slightly cooled hot-tub. That 70 degree water in April is unacceptable and a serious reason to wait until May before diving in. You forget what it’s like to have a winter that involves light jackets and the threat of snow causes schools to shut down. You forget hurricane season and the excitement you’re not supposed to feel but still do when one seems to be headed your way. You forget that whenever they say a hurricane’s about to hit your town, it’ll go a little north and hit North Carolina but if it’s supposed to hit North Carolina, it’s time to board up the windows and buy water because it’s sure to go south. You forget that the whole neighborhood shuts down at 10 pm and the streetlights turn on. You forget about the fireflies that you used to run around catching. You forget that birds sing and hammocks should always be beneath palmetto trees and next to a pool. You forget that iced tea should always be sweet and cool as can be. You forget how quickly you can tan beneath a southern sun and how that tan seems to last a little longer than any other tan. You forget what it’s like to be home.

I’m busy spending this week with a book in my hand from the public library that I forgot our town went crazy building and turned into a spectacle and a bottle of sun tan lotion beside me. Sweet southern comforts.

PS. South Carolina according to Flickr.

First off, what is the CR-48? Basically, it’s a netbook. It’s internet browsing only, at the moment. It’s a rough draft for a Google netbook. It runs on Chrome OS, which pretty much means the only thing on it is Chrome. And, surprisingly, there’s little I’m missing. It seems like there’s a lot you’d need to do on your computer that involves many programs but, for casual browsing/basic college student living, the CR-48 is quite good.

I use the CR-48 in class all the time. Because my school uses wi-fi, I just log on and use Google Documents for notes. Prior to the CR-48, I never used Google Docs. I was a Word girl all the way. Now, however, I’ve realized I really prefer using it. It means I can access my notes from any computer and, even better, it means I can easily share my notes with my friends. In fact, a few of us who use our computers in class every week are considering making a group Google Doc so we can share and compare. Study Group 2011.

Another thing I’d like to reiterate is that we are fashion students. We aren’t computer science or engineering or medicine or accounting majors. I go to a school devoted to the study of fashion. So not only do we care about the process of studying, we care about how it looks. And I must say, the CR-48 looks pretty slick. Even though Google keeps saying that the CR-48 is a rough draft version, the keyboard is pretty much the same as a Mac’s. Instead of the apple key, you just have two large ctrl and alt keys. Another keyboard difference is the new search key. No more CAPs lock key, even though you can enable it. But you probably won’t ever enable it because having a search key is extremely convenient. No more ctrl + t to open a tab. Now, just one click and a new tab is open and waiting for you.

The CR-48′s mouse also is pretty much lifted from a Mac. It’s the newer one, without mousepad buttons. Two weeks ago, the mouse lagged and I felt like I had to use both hands to highlight things. With the recent update, the mouse is better but still far from ideal. From my experience, it seems as though there isn’t any left-click options. You also can’t scroll right or left. You have to use the arrow keys.

One update I’m definitely hoping for is the addition of ctrl + up arrow to jump to the top of a page. Pressing the up arrow gets really tedious on blogs with hundreds of comments. I’d also love the addition of the other ctrl + arrow tools, like going to the end or beginning of a line.

The top row of keys on the keyboard has a few new-to-me keys too. From left to right we have:

• Escape
• Backward arrow to take you back to your previous browsing page
• Forward arrow to take you to the page you were on before you hit back
• Refresh key
• Expand key to hide tabs and make the website you’re currently on fullscreen
• A key to shift Chrome windows if you’ve opened another separate Chrome browser
• Darken the screen key
• Brighten the screen key
• Volume lower
• Volume higher
• Off button

The entire “off” system on the CR-48 is awesome. It takes about five seconds to turn the CR-48 completely off because, amazingly, everything is saved online, meaning that the entire hardware shutdown is super fast. And turning it on is just as easy. You open it with your gmail account and it provides a special “Guest” account where the browsing data and cookies are never saved. Press the off button once and you log out. Press it again and the CR-48 turns off.

The battery life is also something to boast about with the CR-48. It currently is at 74% and is telling me that I have 4 hours and 38 minutes left. My screen is fully lit and I have five tabs open, with one constantly refreshing.

There’s also a video camera, letting you call people through gmail. And if you start a conversation in gtalk, the conversation follows you through all the open tabs so you don’t have to keep clicking back. The video camera is good, although the speakers need improvement.

Finally, the shell of the CR-48. Google gives you stickers to decorate it but I’ve been boring and only put a heart in the corner of the screen. I do wish the CR-48 had some sort of outer markings to denote it as a Google product because I’ve had a bunch of people ask if this is a Mac. It’s generated a lot of interest at my school, especially since I keep whipping it out during class to take notes on. Obviously I know Google will somehow incorporate a logo eventually but I think that having something on the CR-48 would have been beneficial. It’s really cool how many people have been interested in the CR-48 and I definitely think there’s a market for this kind of product. Right now, I use it alongside my Mac. I tend to use Netflix in Firefox on my Mac (only because Chrome has yet to support Netflix–let’s get on that please, Google!) and go over my notes on the CR-48. I also use it for casual web browsing while lying in bed, which I’m doing right now. I have to admit that I’m pretty much enamored with my CR-48. It’s so light and it slips into my bag really easily. I can take good notes and share them easily. There’s a slot to place memory cards and I can charge my phone (a blackberry) through it. It’s easy to use and extremely convenient. While there are definite faults and missing tools, I’m sure each update will continue to improve the CR-48.

My first post of 2010 was my resolutions. How did I do?

Well, here is what I resolved:

1. I will refer to 2010 as “Twenty Ten”. None of this “Two thousand and ten” nonsense. I’m sorry, I’m lazy. “Twenty Ten” it is then.
2. I will not obsess over trivial things that will change no matter what. I wouldn’t say I wear my heart on my sleeve, mostly because I don’t trust people very much. I’m petrified of seeming vulnerable, which is something that hinders me much of the time.Then I obsess over crap like why people haven’t texted me back. Hello, who gives a shit?
3. I will say what’s on my mind.
4. I will have adventures. I’ve been doing alright so far with this, in large part due to the messed up luck P and I share when we venture outside of our building.
5. I will remain happy.

Well, I definitely had some adventures where I went to Paris and London and Poland (which I didn’t blog about but it was phenomenal). The no stressing silly things? Well, I did stress about some minor things but, on the whole, I think I did a good job of not killing myself over them. Sure, I made a multitude of excuses for someone who didn’t really need them but, hey, you gotta do what you’ve gotta do. I also admitted wholeheartedly that I am a grammar nazi. Sorry. I blame it on being the go-to child for my mom with translations from Polish to English. As of January, I had never been on an actual date but that changed in London, which I didn’t blog about. Whoops. It ended up being one of the best dates imaginable and, eventually, I will write the story out. That can be one of my resolutions.

In February, I turned twenty. I went out to eat at Elmo and had an amazing time. We had dessert at another friend’s apartment and then went out dancing. One of my best friends, P, and I went and got donuts on Valentine’s Day and found our new favorite band. I also went AWOL from blogging for a few months and wrote a post about wanderlust.

Luckily, the very next post I wrote was in May and I had a plane ticket to Europe. Then I changed my blog layout for the very first time. It was a Very Big Deal to me. I also admitted that I have rather unfortunate crushes on seemingly older guys. Facebook and I became complicated and remain so to this day. I still dislike Mark Zuckerberg but I’ve kept my Facebook because of all the international friends I have. Then I reminisced about my second year of college(!!!) and went off to Europe.

I came back to life in August, where I tried to fill in the blanks about July but failed miserably.

In September I discovered that my favorite coffee place had become a Jamba Juice (which I love but still, come on) and I bought cute new Uggs which were actually both left shoes so I had a slight adventure going back and returning them. I reflected on where I was when the world stopped turning that September day. I also went to Fashion’s Night Out where I became BFFs with Simon Doonan and Alexander Wang.

Then I turned in to a horrible blogger and peaced out til December where I wrote about Thanksgiving and Top Gear. While I was missing, I spent a lot of time in Greenpoint with E, a girl I met in Krakow.

New Year’s Eve was spent at my friends’ college where we went out and had a great time. A really great time where the gorgeous bartender told me to do him a favor and drink a free drink. A fantastic time where everything is lovely and hazy and I told my friend to count to 40 so he wouldn’t be sick. A fun night where I wore a sequined jacket which is now officially my Lucky Jacket and I might have to wear it a certain weekend in February although showing up in sequins to the LSAT might be frowned upon.

I’m going to continue my resolutions from last year. They did me well and I like them. Happy New Year everyone.

It’s hard to watch the show and keep from comparing it to the British original, especially when the British original is engrained in my brain. And so the judgements begin, with my mind playing Clarkson, Hamster, and Captain Slow instead of Adam Ferrara, Tanner Foust, and Rutledge Wood.

What do I think of Top Gear America?

I like it. I think they’re doing a good job. Obviously there is room for improvement but it’s a good show and it keeps important British elements in check. Furthermore, you can’t judge them by the first season. Just try to watch the first season of British Top Gear. It’s terrible. I’m a diehard fan and I could barely watch each episode once. It takes until season 4 to get watchable and season 5 to turn great. Top Gear America has, so far, skipped the unwatchable portion of British Top Gear. They’ve managed to avoid grannies doing donuts or handbraking parking. Instead, Top Gear America played up their talents with Tanner showing off his drifting skills and teaching a blind man how to drive, which was fantastic.

But, like I said, there’s always room for improvement. I wish the guys would properly introduce the Stig. Right now having an anonymous racing driver seems a bit needless when Tanner’s around. There’s so much potential in Stiggie jokes. The show needs that air of irreverence British Top Gear is known for. They poke fun at each other, themselves, and the show. Nothing is sacred, which makes for hilarious viewing. The Stig has untapped potential in the US. Can you imagine Stiggie in Atlanta? Or the Midwest? Including the Stig in challenges would add some of that fun. Additionally, I’d love for the guys to tease their guests more. I understand not wanting to offend anyone so early on but there’s so much untapped potential. I can’t remember which guest drove a Prius but there was a wealth of opportunity and it was largely passed by. I also think sticking to a single interviewer would be beneficial in the long run. I get trying to give each of the guys a chance to shine but I think there needs to be that single Clarkson in the crowd.

I’m not the target audience for either show. I’m a fashion student. I’m a twenty year old girl. At the moment, I’m decked out in snowflake pajama pants, a tank top, and two braids. But there’s something about these two shows that keeps me watching. And if they can pull in someone who they’re not aiming for, well, they’re doing something right. It’s not just me they’re getting either. They’re getting a marketing major a few floors above me who’s newly addicted. They’re getting my older biochemist brother who introduced me to my love affair with Top Gear. They’re grabbing people’s attention and, most importantly, keeping it.

Overall, though, I think Top Gear America is great. Everyone needs to remember how long it took British Top Gear to get its groove. Remember Jason before James May? It took them four seasons to get established. We haven’t even gotten four episodes from Top Gear America.

And at least Top Gear America isn’t putting nuns in monster trucks.

On Friday I’m going to go for a walk around the city. There’s so much to see and do and I need to remember that. I keep getting glum over silly things beyond my control. Time to put an end to that. I’m in Manhattan. Things happen. Life goes on.

I went home for Thanksgiving. I spent a precious eleven days with my parents and I realized how much I’ve changed. Before I’d spend the days upstairs in my room, even on holidays back from college. Now, I try to spend as much time as possible with my family. I took pictures of my brother and his fiancée. I took pictures of my dad cleaning the pool. I took pictures of my mom cooking. I love these memories.

I took this picture too.

This was created by Zac and Lyndsay and sung by Rosie May. I love it. Check out the lyrics here.

Fashion’s Night Out. What an epic epic day. My accidental celeb-spotting began when I went on a K-Mart run and spotted Mr. Big (Chris Noth) from Sex & the City just walking down the street. Luckily, I had a slightly delayed reaction and headphones in so I managed to not look like a complete idiot. Yay!

Then, on my way back from K-Mart, I passed some famous rapper in his black suv with a police guard leading and following him. He was waving out the window like he was the queen. Pretty fun.

At 6 PM, a bunch of friends and I met up at Barney’s. While we’re congregating outside, who do we see? Simon Doonan, creative director at Barney’s. Um hello future employer. He looked dapper in a floral shirt with a skinny black tie and GUCCI sneakers. Gucci, ya’ll. But again, we managed to not make fools of ourselves and kept our composure.

We went downstairs, saw the gorgeous Daphne Guinness, and proceeded back upstairs to see Alexander Wang. When we first got up there, the floor was pretty much empty apart from the DJ so we proceeded to have an impromptu dance party. Then these two fabulous dancers came out and broke it down. They were incredible. By this time the crowd had started gathering and we, luckily, were in the very front.

Well, because it’s the fashion industry, everything happens late. Everyone has to be fashionably late and, truthfully, it pisses me off. If you know you’re going to show up a half hour late, how about COMMUNICATE this to the people waiting for you? Although A.Wang wasn’t who I was most upset with. That comes later.

Anyway, A.Wang and Abbey Lee burst through the crowd with a megaphone and everyone surged forward. I was right near the floor speaker and there were moments where I was about to go crashing down on it. I had a camera directly next to my head. Two little twelve year-old kids were biting people to get near the front. I wish I was joking. But it was all worth it because then Rye Rye came, started performing, and her two dancers (the ones from before) pulled me up to dance with them. Oh yes. I danced with Alexander Wang. My life is fabulous, not going to lie. I grabbed one of my friends and we were there, dancing with celebs and models in the middle of a giant mosh pit in Barney’s. Reality was no where close to last night. A.Wang was throwing shirts to the crowd (three of my friends caught one!) and just being amazing.

After the dance party, we went to the 5th floor, where hell began.

I grew up with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. I mean legit, these kids were as real to me as my American Girl doll. I freaking love them. I have seen every single one of their movies. I watched all their tv shows. I was pretty damn psyched to see them. We managed to get relatively near the front, two hours before they were scheduled to show. Scheduled being the operative word. Because the lovely Olsen twins showed up an hour late to a room filled with people who could barely breathe. Two cat fights almost broke out near me. Again, I wish that were a joke. Two entirely different sets of girls were screaming at each other waiting for the Olsens to arrive. I felt like I was at a Justin Bieber concert.

Once they finally came, the entire crowd surged forward and nearly trampled me. There were moments where I was genuinely light-headed. Security had to come break up the people pushing on us. Then, Ashley got the microphone and very bitchily asked us to “quiet down so that [she] could hear the singing”. I’m sorry. I just stood for two hours, breathing very disgusting air, and getting people’s elbows in my back. I had people’s arms hitting me and we’re in the middle of dealing with a crowd issue. You’re telling us to please quiet down? She also did it later, going through with a nice loud “shhh” in the middle of someone’s song. Not only that but the friend who was close enough to take the pictures of the twins said that not once did they turn to face the crowd. They kept their faces away from everyone waiting. I peaced out of there after two minutes when my head got hit by the security guard on his way through. The best part of waiting for them was when we just started singing.

Chalking up to the Olsen twins to a “never meet your hero” thing, even though they never really were my heroes, we fled for the elevators. Because this had to be the most unreal night ever, our elevator got momentarily stuck between the 2nd and 3rd floors. Fun.

Once we managed to leave Barney’s, we headed for the subway where we ran into SIMON DOONAN again! I’m pretty sure we scared him a bit because we all screamed “SIMON!” when we saw him. He very graciously took a picture with us and got on the train. We followed him and proceeded to ask him loads of questions. He was super sweet and lovely and apparently someone from the Cut was there too because this tweet was posted.

Once he ran away from us (after inviting us over! Only he got off the train right before we left the station because we were talking his ear off), we went down to Soho. In Soho, we saw the beautiful Jessica Stam. We may have followed her a little bit but only because two were major fans. Besides, we ran away quickly. Then we FINALLY spotted the Volkswagen cars that were meant to drive people around. This car had the most gorgeous driver. He was beautiful. And he let eight of us squeeze into his five person car before we realized we couldn’t all fit, no matter how much we shoved. Although we could have had more people on our laps, I suppose. The boys weren’t keen on that idea.

After all that fun, we went home and got pizza. Because after a night of seeing models, you need to eat carbs.

The celeb sightings: Chris Noth, Mysterious Rapper, Simon Doonan <3, Daphne Guinness, Alexander Wang, Abbey Lee, my new favorite WWD photographer, Karlie Kloss, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, the Proenza boys, Liya Kebede, Jaslene, Tavi, and Jessica Stam. I think that’s it.

Important picture note: All the nice fancy shots were taken by WWD. All the other pictures were taken by a friend. As soon as my camera cord gets here, I’ll post my pictures. Oh and you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

All of that changed nine years ago today. I walked into homeroom with all of my friends. We were talking and laughing and acting like the 6th graders we were. Suddenly, our teacher, Mrs. B, told us to be quiet. She told us something happened in New York City. The Twin Towers had fallen. She turned on the radio and we sat in our desks and listened.

I don’t remember what we heard. I can’t remember the wording of the broadcast or what our teacher told us. I remember her being worried; she and her husband were both in the Reserves. She must have mentioned going to war but I don’t know what she said. Then, fifteen minutes later, the lunch bell rang and we went to the cafeteria.

We were the only class that knew. No one talked loudly at our table. We sat and ate. Then we went outside for recess, where we walked in groups of three and four around the track. Two girls ran back and forth. I remember asking them why they were running. “To practice dodging bombs,” one of them responded.

I couldn’t fathom the idea of dodging bombs. Why would we be bombed? But then again, why did we get attacked? It all felt so personal.

After lunch, everyone was sent back to homeroom. The other students were told about the attack. One of the boys in my class had an aunt who worked near or in the Towers. I remember he was scared for her. At one, we had a prayer service. Everyone assembled in the Church and I passed out leaflets with another friend. We had been fighting before but now we were just there together.

I remember going home and watching the TV. My mom saw it happen on Good Morning America. She told me what she saw. She called my brother. She said she debated coming and pulling me out of class but she didn’t. She didn’t want to scare me. I remember seeing footage and feeling goosebumps. I remember feeling confused and scared of war.

I think they cancelled school the next day. I don’t remember. I just remember sitting and watching the TV. The next time I went to history class, our teacher pulled down the map. It was 6th grade world history and, coincidentally, we were going to cover the chapter on Islam. She told us this chapter usually wasn’t very interesting but this year it’d be important. I remember her showing us where Afghanistan was.

Our 6th grade class made tiny American flag pins out of beads. We pooled our money and sold the pins, donating it to the firemen. We wanted to do something. The streets were filled American flags flying on cars. Almost every family had one on their car, supporting our country. The unity was astounding. Everyone was family because we were all Americans. This country rallied around our fallen city and continues to make it strong.