Wednesday, April 28, 2010

End of Year Dash

So right now it is 3:20 in the morning and I'm sitting in my school's 24-hour computer lab, which is in no way empty. I just polished off a redbull and the line "someday we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny" from Bruce's Rosalita just played in my headphones. Incidently, that was also my senior quote when I was in high school. And, being from New Jersey, I was not the only one in my class of 66 girls to quote Bruce (there are a few stereotypes we Garden Staters actually meet).
I guess its althogether fitting that this song is playing now. I'm stuck writing paper number three, during all-nighter number three of the week. And I've still got two papers standing inbetween me and my final Luaupalooza on Friday afternoon. As stressful as the paper deadlines are, its not anything I haven't faced before. Last spring I wrote a 15 page (semester long) paper on the trial of the soldiers involved in the Boston Masacre, worth 50% of my grade, in one night. At 5 a.m. I was flipping through print outs of a scan of John Adam's original closing argument notes. It was not pretty. But I digress...
I think what has me stressed out is the other stuff I have to do. I have to apply to UNC-Charlotte and fill out the FAFSA by Friday, get an FBI background check, get fingerprinted, make a doctor's appointment and actually apply to work in the Charlotte-Mecklenberg School District. Not all of that has to be done this week, but it needs to be done really soon. And graduation is looming on the not-so-distant horizon.
I keep saying I'm ready to graduate and, in a lot of ways I am. You get to a point where you know you've outgrown a place. These days I walk around campus on my way to and from class and I look at the people walking around me. Not only do I not know most of them, but they all look like they belong in the back of my sister's junior history class. That's how I know its time to gradduate. But at the same time, I'm comfortable here. I've spent four years becoming friends with a lot of these people and we're all really close. This Sunday I went to a senior history major reception put on by the department and we all stood there talking about how we want to go out as a group one more time before graduation. The department only has about 40 seniors in it, so we're all really close and have been through a lot together. After that, I had my end of the year banquet for APO.... my last APO banquet. We were given our APO cords for gradduation and they were the first set any of us have received. Talk about reality hitting you in the face. It's all very bittersweet.
I know this will all be done in the next two and a half weeks and soon enough I'll be in Mississippi training and making tons of new friends and in Charlotte actually getting to do what I've been planning for for over a year now. And that is beyond exciting.
I may not be quite that ready to leave college behind, but I know that the next two years are going to be great and I'll eventually come to accept that it was all for the best. So maybe, in the end, I got it right four years ago. Someday we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny....

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The Fighting Okra

Let me first begin with a post I received on my facebook wall from my roommate about an hour ago. It reads:


 Kaitlyn Boyle, I am very sorry that I gave you such a hard time about being a Fighting Okra. Looks like I will be one too.


Now, this would be the same roommate from small town PA, who has spent the greater part of this last semester harassing me about having to spend the summer at Delta State University in Cleavland, MS. But, as of yesterday, she'll be spending the summer there too. So there! HAH!
She was accepted into Teach for America's South Louisiana Corps to teach high school science. When she told me this, I first asked if she's going to buy a riverboat. She said no. I then asked her if she was going to visit Captain Ted, our really awesome swamp tour guide from spring break. She said yes. So, in my book, its all good. 
It'll definitely be great to be at institute together because we'll be able to hang out a bit on the weekends (aka, I'm stealing yo car!!). Plus, we'll each make friends in our own corps that we can introduce the other too so I could see both of us getting to know people that we may not have otherwise gotten to meet because we're in different regions. Definitely a good thing. 

In other news, I have to apply to UNC-Charlotte by the end of next week. I also have to take the GRE by the end of May. And I've got tone more information to go through for Teach for America. And no time to go through it. With 10 days and 6 major papers left (plus 4 finals), its going to be pretty insane from now until... I'm not sure when. Maybe things will slow down by Christmas. If I'm lucky. 

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

One Final Hurdle

Since being accepted to Teach for America, I've had this strange feeling that it was all too good to be true. I mean, things never work out this well. It was the first and only job I applied to. I wasn't ever really convinced I'd be accepted. In fact, for a short time after I was first excepted I was convinced  that some kind of mistake had been made. How could I have been selected from the more than 46,000 qualified people who applied? But, if only by the grace of God, I was. To date, I'm still the only one of my friends with a job secured for after graduation (minus one who is also doing TFA).
I think to justify my own trepidations about being accepted, I've recently taken to thinking and saying, "I was accepted into Teach for America, but first I have to pass the Praxis exam". Clearly, this would be the part that completely derailed the too-good-to-be-true series of events I had been experiencing. It seemed like the cards were stocked against me on this test from day one. Case in point:

1. History major, taking the high school English content and teaching styles tests. my mom basically said she thought I was going to fail. Thanks, mom.
2. I haven't taken a real English class since my freshman year of college and even the validity of that class is debatable because the prof was terrible.
3. the test was being given on the Saturday of my spring break. it's pretty hard to study when you're on vacation.
4. there were no testing sites available in DC, meaning I had to drive home to New Jersey to take the test after getting into DC at midnight the night before and was almost crushed by a poorly driven 18-wheeler around exit 12 on the NJ Turnpike
5. on the day of the test, New Jersey experienced what can only be described as a mini-hurricane. it was the snowpocalypse of rain.

So, put together all of these "signs" and I was fairly convinced I was doomed. The perfect plan would fall apart and I'd end up on the unemployment line with all my other friends. But hey, at least I wouldn't be kicked off my parent's insurance. I do have great insurance from my mom being a public school teacher.
Despite all this, I tried to buckle down and study. The content knowledge seemed to be very much like the SAT English, which I did very well on. Sparknotes provided immensely useful information for studying the books needed for pedagogy. And, against all odds, I found the balcony of my hotel room in the French Quarter to be an excellent place to study. Our flight back was delayed by 2 hours but the 18-wheeler didn't crush my car (poor Consuela couldn't have survived). In the end, I took the test and thought it went fairly well. I figured that I would probably fail by a point or two but that, on the second try I'd be able to pick up the needed score.
Well, I was wrong. I got my results today and I PASSED!!!! On my first try. The Praxis is an exam that most people either pass or fail by a margin of one to two points. But me? I passed with 10 points to spare. No biggie. I'm just that awesome. There are no longer any obstacles standing between me and Teach for America (except for a presentation, a book review, 5 major papers and 4 final exams). Then I'm home free. It's on to graduation, three weeks of vacation and off to Institute.
According to my dad, I can now start to think about Vanderbilt Law, which is his new kick. He wants me to go to Vanderbilt and be a lawyer. He's always wanted me to be a lawyer. He says I used to argue my way out of punishments and effectively deflect blame as a small child. I think I just had him wrapped around my finger (and I have the "Pretty, Pretty Princess" pictures to prove it). I've explained many times now that law school isn't something I ever entirely crossed off my list. Its just something I know isn't right for me now. I've always thought I'd end up there eventually. Maybe after Teach for America. I'd say there's a distinct possibility of that happening. Although, I don't know about Vanderbilt. It's one of the most expensive law schools in the country. I could claim North Carolina residency and go to UNC-Chapel Hill Law for a complete, three year total cost of what one year at Vandy would run me. Besides, as my dad pointed out after I told him this, it would give my family a real justifiable reason to hate Duke and he could get a "Carolina Dad" t-shirt, which he would love. But all of that's too far into the future for me to be worrying about now. I should probably focus on those papers and finals and graduation and Teach for America before I start thinking about what I may be doing from 24-27. Thats much too far away.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Recap

I've been meaning to write this for the past week. Rehash my trip in a bit more detail. But, like this entire year, time seems to be getting away from me and before I knew it, it was already Sunday. So now, without further ado, my experience in North Carolina...
THURSDAY: Despite getting all four of my wisdom teeth out on Tuesday afternoon, I felt perfectly fine. The dentist gave me a prescription for 15 vicodin for after the novocain wore off but I just took two advil and went on with my life. I got up, tried to go to the DMV to renew my registration (which was an epic fail because the car is registered in my dad's name and not mine), got into a mini-fight with my grandmother because she was mad at my dad for not giving me money (even though I didn't need money and she insisted I couldn't drive anywhere without cash) and peaced out of Bayonne. Got back to DC around four, repacked clothes for a warmer climate and showered. Then I got to chill until 10:15 when my parents finally got to school and picked me up. We drove another 45 minutes south and stayed in some town near Fredricksburg. Of course we got the room on the top floor of the hotel. Thats did wonders for my crippling fear of heights.
FRIDAY: Because my dad is a slow driver, we had to get up and out of the hotel early if we had any chance of making it to Charlotte at a reasonable point in the afternoon. We left around 10 and didn't get to Charlotte until late afternoon. In total, we spent about 8 hours in the car that day for a trip that would normally take about 5-5 1/2 hours... my dad does not drive that fast.
We stopped to get burgers at one point in Southern VA, maybe we were into NC at that point. Let me just say, I am not a fan of Southern country living. Southern city living seems great. But the country.... they don't move at any kind of normal pace. I don't want to judgmental, but if you picture a stereotypical Southern country guy or girl or kids, those are the people we saw in this Wendys. I'd never been happier to have grown up in the North and in a city.
Finally, around four, we rolled into Charlotte. We were staying at the Embassy Suites, but I was fairly convinced we were at The Mirage when we first walked in. Just look at the evidence. The first is our hotel. The second is the Mirage.
Embassy Suites Hotel Charlotte North Carolina - Charlotte, NC Hotels    
Add in the blazingly hot weather (90 and humid) and I thought I'd ended up in the wrong state. Not that ending up in Vegas is ever a bad thing, but you get my point.
We decided to go to Uptown for dinner. Its the "downtown" center of city where then have their basketball arena, bars, restaurants, the different bank headquarters and basically a lot of things going on. It reminded me of Chinatown in DC. After driving around for a bit and scoping out the area, I insisted we park and get dinner because I was beginning to weigh the pros and cons of eating my own finger. Leave it to my dad, but he found one of the two Irish pubs located in Uptown and thats where we ate.
The entire time we were in Uptown (and I'm talking the entire time), my mom made comments about how everyone was dressed up. "I mean I just can't get over it. Every other woman I see is either in a dress or a stylish top and heels. Even the guys are all in dress shirts and dressed up. Kaitlyn, you're just going to have to be dressed up at all times down here." She failed to recognize that it was 9:30 on a Friday and people were dressed up to go bar hopping and clubbing for the night. No one was any more dressed up than the people in DC but I let her have her mini-rant.
SATURDAY: For some reason, my mother felt it was necessary to take not one, but two tours of Charlotte. So we took a history tour in the morning and got to see most of the sites in the city, including but not limited to  a club where Frank Sinatra and Elvis once played, the Duke family estate (gag) and a cemetery of Confederate soldiers, one of which was a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln. I really better start becoming interested in the Civil War. It is by no means my favorite era of American history, ranking somewhere between Manifest Destiny and the Industrial Revolution. But the South is all about the War of Northern Aggression and still believes the Confederacy will rise again, as is evident in VA governor Bob McDonnell declaring April to be "Confederate History Month". What is our world coming to?
After our tour we went to lunch at this AMAAAZING burger place called "Big Daddy's Burger Bar". For anyone who is looking to visit Charlotte, I seriously recommend it. I had fried pickles for the first time. That was definitely an experience. Not sure what I was expecting because they're totally a Southern thing that we do not partake of in New Jersey, but they were really good. Definitely worth trying if you ever get the chance. We also got to look at a potential neighborhood to live in called Dilworth. Its got a mix of young 20-somethings living in low-rise apartments that have pools and gyms and lounges and of late 20s/early 30s people who are recently married and buy really cute houses. So I'm definitely a fan of the area.
After lunch we went on our second tour of the day-- a "relocation tour" billed towards people who are moving to Charlotte. It points out the different neighborhoods and tells you about the types of people that live in each area. Honestly, my dad and I thought it sounded like a repackaging of the tour we took in the morning, but we humored my mom. It made her happy.
We went to eat dinner at this sports bar/grill called the Blackfinn in City Center/Uptown because the Final Four games were on. As we expected, every place was packed because Duke was playing that night and, like it or not, we were in North Carolina where many a Duke fan can be found. For the record, let me state my complete and utter hatred of Duke with every fiber of my being. I was raised a Red Storm fan in the days of head coach Mike Jarvis, when the team routinely made the NCAA tournament and Big East championship.  Growing up with a hatred of Duke, Syracuse and UConn, I attended the Lou Carnesecca basketball camp on St. John's campus and had an autographed Jayson Williams poster hanging in my room. To this day, my mom will tell you that one of the best birthday presents she ever got was when my dad took her to the St. John's-Duke game at the Garden (Madison Square, that is) and they somehow ended up sitting in the Duke fan's section. The Red Storm made a huge comeback late in the second half and the section, including one annoying man who had been banging a metal cup most of the game, were stunned into silence. It goes without saying that come this fall, I will be coming down on the UNC side of the rivalry that splits the state.
But I digress. We went to eat at the Blackfinn where, sitting directly across the room, with his back to us, was a man who looked exactly like my father. This isn't really unusual for me because I see people who look exactly like my dad wherever I go. New Orleans? Saw him down by the streetcars along the banks of the Mississippi. Virginia? Saw him at Costco. Inside the District? There have been numerous sightings. What was really interesting to me was the guy sitting across the table from the guy who looked like my dad. With him I'm pretty sure I was seeing through a rift in the space-time continuum to a future version of my friend Mike. This guy was him in like 15/20 years. I contemplated taking a creepy stalker pic with my blackberry from my seat but that would require me explaining to my parents what exactly I was doing. So I chose not to do that.
After spending the entire meal trying not to stare at the guy who looked like Mike, and watching Baylor win and the first half of the Duke game, my parents decided they were tired and wanted to go back to the hotel and go to bed. And thats what we did. It was 10:00. womp -___-
SUNDAY: Happy Easter! My dad was fairly convinced that he saw the face of Jesus in the off-the-cuff drawing of North and South Carolina that I had done to illustrate to my mother where exactly we were in the state. When my mom saw it, she decided it was next Shroud of Turin and took the piece of paper with her when we left the hotel. We spent the entire day driving. Like Thursday/Friday, my dad drove slow and it took us the entire day to get back to DC. Although we did stop to eat at the Cracker Barrel at one point and I proceeded to kick ass on that little triangle peg game that they have on the table. According to the instructions printed on the triangle, I'm a genius. Like I really needed confirmation of that.

All things considered, I think this is a fairly accurate summary/description of my trip to Charlotte. I'll leave you now with a few highlights of what I learned on this trip:
1. driving slow drags out trips to make them much longer than they need to be
2. don't stop at fast food places in the boonies unless you want to meet scary, country versions of yourself
3. spending Friday and Saturday night with your parents is NOT exciting or advisable
4. taking a side in the UNC-Duke debate alienates you from half the state
5. demand a pool and a fitness center wherever you live. It is affordable!
6. if you don't want to be labeled a "northern yankee" start speaking slowly and possibly throw in a bit of a drawl
7. people in the South love to deep fry everything. e.g. fried pickles

Saturday, April 3, 2010

The Queen City

My parents and I are in Charlotte over break to scope out the city and check out where things are. We got here this afternoon and, let me say, I LOVE this city!!!! It's beautiful and cool and clean and affordable and not too big. Even the poor, more decrepit areas that we drove through (when my dad got lost) were not that bad. That's not to say that we saw the worst parts of town, but its definitely a good indication or life down here.
My dad decided to tell me today that he has a friend he used to work with who moved down here a year ago. She and her husband lease a townhouse with three bedrooms and 2.5 baths in a really nice area of town that they only pay $1000/month for. At the end of June they're buying a house and moving there and said I could take over their lease if I get a roommate and want to have it. Its a very Pentagon City-ish area about a 10 minute drive from the heart of the city. So, this could make my life infinitely less stressful.
We're spending the day around the city tomorrow and taking some "relocation tour" for people who are looking to move to Charlotte. I think it sounds like a bit of a scamy way to re-market a city tour, but whatever. It'll make my mom happy. At least we'll get to see the different neighborhoods.
Overall I think I'm really going to like living here. It seems like such a great city.