So You Wanna Quit Your Job

I did it. And I finally feel comfortable enough to talk about it. I gave my two-weeks notice at my job last Monday, which means today is my last day. I've been postponing talking about it because I'm a weirdo and think that somehow I'll jinx myself by making my resignation public. I also didn't want to mention my new jobs lest I also risk jinxing them. How silly. But here it is... in all its public glory.

Alas, my glamorous life as a direct mail copywriter is no longer, and I'm embarking on a new life of part-time jobs and a badly paying editorial internship. But all my new jobs are in Center City, so I won't have a 40-minute commute to deal with! I'm extremely excited about that, and here are some more things I'm excited about:

• Exploring a new field I think I'll like (Journalism, despite that I've heard it's dying and the pay is despicable)
• Working in retail... it's a weird thing to be excited about but I liked answering phones in a Dr.'s office so who knows?
• Working with people my age
• Being able to WALK to work
• Having the flexibility to do some stuff on the side... classes? volunteer? anything's possible!

And... now what I'm a little scared about:

• Strange working hours that include evenings and weekends
• A drastic cut in my income/benefits
• Leaving the people I got to know at my job
• Having to learn 3 jobs at once... all of which I know nothing about

It's all very new and confusing, but I have to say i'm more happy about it than anything. I'm young. I deserve to do some exploring (and even some living paycheck-to-paycheck). I deserve to work in the city I live in, and not spend almost 2 hours each day in a stressful commute.

Most of all - I trust myself and I trust my decisions. And if it doesn't work out... there's always grad school.

So true...

Saving gas, and saving the country from hicks, one step at a time.

Also, I read this morning in People mag that one of Todd Palin's favorite foods is Spam... with Peanut butter on it. I'm thrilled this is what we've come to, really thrilled.

12th and Market - The Gallery

Last night, after gorging myself at the Phillies roller coaster-like loss to the Marlins (SERIOUSLY, guys, getting everyone's hopes up and then leaving men on base is worse than blueballs! Or so I've heard...) I was driving home and heard some disturbing news on the radio.

Foxwoods Casino is in talks to relocate to The Gallery at Market East!

Oh, what horrible news this is. Casinos in general are just bad news - drunk gamblers stumbling around at all hours of the night, increased traffic, people driven into debt by excessive betting and then taking it out on the community - all around there's not much good that can come of it. Sure it might provide some jobs and increase tourism, but there are more sanitary ways to create jobs and are gamblers really the types of tourists we want in the Philly? I think it's safe to say we don't want to become another Atlantic City.

But then to take all the negatives about casinos, and plop them right down in the MIDDLE of a city that's already having trouble with people beating others with hammers on the subway... well that's just adding insult to injury.

To be fair, I don't actually know if casinos elevate crime. And I've gambled myself and find it fun (craps, anyone?) so I don't think all gamblers are lowlifes. But when I think about the sorry state of the Gallery and Market Street as it is today, I don't see converting it into a casino as a step up by any stretch of the imagination. I mean you've got Chestnut, with its restaurants, cafes, and delis, then Walnut with its theatre and quality shopping... and then there's Market Street with its trash, abandoned buildings, graffiti-ridden bus stops and public transportation nightmares... it deserves a better revitalization plan than a flashy slot-machine haven.

Is that really what we want people to see when they step off the train for the first time? Or when they venture from City Hall to Old City to partake in the historical treasures of Philadelphia? I think not.

The Great High-Fructose Corn Syrup Debate

Maybe it's a good thing that the Corn Refiner's Association (basically a lobbying group for said industry) has created a commercial promoting High-Fructose Corn Syrup. Maybe it means they're scared of losing sales because people are becoming more health conscious! We can only hope... If you haven't yet seen the commercial, which definitely freaked me out when I saw it for the first time the other day, check it out here.

It bothered me at first, but that was just because I had a generally negative attitude toward HFSC. My senior year I did a project on childhood obesity, and our research led us to conclude that the advent of HFCS contributed to the rise in obesity that is rampant today. It provided a cheap way to domestically produce sweetener that made food more appealing, jacked up calorie content, and gave things a longer shelf-life so people were more apt to buy in bulk since they weren't worried about things going bad (also the food was less expensive).

Now these reasons have nothing really to do with the actual chemical makeup of HFSC, just the economic and eating-habit-changing implications of the sweetener. This commercial, and its Internet counterpart sweetsurprise.com, focus more on promoting HFSC because it is "natural", has no more calories than table sugar, and is completely "safe" by FDA standards.

I won't argue that they're claim isn't true, mainly because I'm not in the mood to do that much research. But I will say that I think they're missing the point. You can give HFSC as many positive labels as you want, but the really issue is that people are eating TOO MUCH of it. And maybe that's because of commercials like this and people who rationalize that "natural" =" good for you" without actually thinking about it.

Everyday we get conflicting messages about food consumption - fad diets that fade and are replaced with completely different diets, government regulated guidelines that may or may not be influenced by lobbyists (like the CRA), certain trigger words that make us feel good (or bad) about what we're eating (such as trans-fat, lo-fat, fat-free, and all that other stuff most of us don't really understand) - and this commercial just adds to the confusion.

So I'm going to conclude that a) the commercial is unsettling and should be taken with a grain of salt and b) "all things in moderation" is a pretty good mantra to go by. So sure, reach for the HFSC (it's in pretty much everything you eat, anyway), but then maybe for a later snack you'll grab an apple or some carrot sticks. How's that for a compromise?

This girl only sleeps with butterflies

You gotta believe this blog is pretty important to me when I pry my eyes away from the House marathon long enough to make an entry!

This was another philtastic weekend in the 19107. On Friday night I discovered where everyone and their mom in the city has been hiding on the first Friday of the month - that would be First Friday in Old City. It's a great cultural event when the art galleries stay open late and serve wine and goodies (but you have to get there early to partake in those). It was amazing how packed the sidewalks were, and walking through the galleries was like being part of a herd of cattle. Despite the crowds and the heat, it was a worthwhile way to spend a Friday night. 

One of my favorite collections was by a guy named John James Pron, a professor at Temple. It was called Philapocalypse, and it depicted neighborhoods in the city with fragmented grids, buildings missing, and people scattered like the world was ending. Check it out here. I'm no art critic or even an enthusiast, but it was innovative, easy to "get", and interesting to look at. A+. 

Saturday, in anticipation of hurricane Hanna dropping a deluge on the city, we decided to go to the Natural Science Museum. Most of it was old-hat... reconstructed dinosaur bones and stuffed panda bears. But what I really appreciated, and what was probably my favorite part of the weekend, was the Butterflies exhibit. 

It was... in a word... magical. The setting was a very bright, plant-filled room where butterflies of all shapes, sizes, and colors flew free - often right into the people walking through. It seemed like they were everywhere. If you looked closely in the leaves you could see them perched all over, and some were camouflaged so you didn't realize you were seeing a butterfly until someone else pointed it out. 

I've heard that when a butterfly lands on you, it's a sign of fertility. If that's true, I must be ovulating like crazy. 

If you're interested in more pictures and would like to comment on my skills as an amateur photographer, visit my Flickr site. 

And now it's Sunday and so beautiful out you'd never know that we had a monsoon yesterday. Fall is in the air... and maybe it's a good thing, since we're a little tired of the sweat and the electric bills that reflect our air conditioner usage. But I sure will miss the green grass and the colorful blooms and the way the yellow summer light hits the trees and the bricks. Also, I'll miss talking to my boyfriend on Thursdays, Saturday and Sundays... as he'll be too busy watching football to pay any attention to me :)

Postmodernism and Politics

Or... "How the liberal ideas instilled upon me by my English professors seem to make their way into my everyday life at an astounding rate"

So after Palin's speech last night where she equated herself to a "pitbull with lipstick" (and if you need help visualizing that, the following picture is for you),
I was browsing through the news to read some reactions and I came across this quote by Mitt Romey, referenced from MSNBC.com:

“And at Saddleback, after Barack Obama dodged and ducked every direct question, John McCain hit the nail on the head: Radical Islam is evil, and he will defeat it. Republicans prefer straight talk to politically correct talk.”

To me, this shows the inflexibility and single-mindedness of the repubs. They take one signifier, and equate it to a single word that is meant to instill fear and negative reaction, as in Radical Islam = evil. This is totally anti-postmodern, because postmodernism says that things have plural meanings and interpretations. I think Obama's tendency to not immediately categorize our enemies in a negative light shows his progressive attitude and intelligence. He is willing to speak with them, perhaps hear what they have to say, in the hopes that that will improve relations with them. McCain, on the other hand, wants to regard them as incorrigible and argue that the only way to deal with them is to bomb them to heck. Absolutely deplorable. Yet another reason why I'd be devastated if Obama doesn't make it to office.

Also, I think this article is worth a read. It's from the LA Times and by author Gloria Steinem, so of course it's another harkening back to my days as an English major. Though... I never read anything by her.

Ok and I just have to say that I started this blog with the intention to write about my experiences in the city and the past few entries have been largely political. I'm not going to apologize but I am going to say that it's because this is what's on my mind currently. Also, I'm bored at work. I hope once these two issues resolve themselves, I can get back to what I really want to be talking about.

Deconstructing Sarah Palin

With all the buzz around the Republican National Convention right now, how can you NOT be thinking about Sarah Palin? I know I can't get my mind off her, and it's not because she's a good-looking woman!

A few days before she was announced as VP choice, when rumors were swirling about Tim Pawlenty and Joseph Leiberman as possible Repub running mates, my step-mom made the point that if McCain picked a female running mate, he'd be golden with the bitter Hillary supporters who couldn't let go of their so-yesterday candidate. I hadn't thought about this before, but it made a LOT of sense. Fortunately, I hadn't heard of any females who were seriously in the running so I wasn't overly worried.

But then came Palin's announcement, and I thought, "Crap. A new haven for Hillary supporters and bad news for the O-bomb." THAT was before I knew anything about her, and now that I know what she's really like, I'm MUCH more confident that Obama had a better chance.

The woman seems like a nutjob! Bygone beauty queen, never even had a passport until last year, pro-life mercenary, anti-gun control, has 5 kids with strange names like Bristol, Trig, and Track, and now it's revealed her 17-year old is PREGNANT? And the Repubs are OK WITH THAT? Even DEFENDING her? If that news came out about a democrat, they'd be all over it as a case of lost responsibility and proof that pre-marital sex has hellish consequences. But no... she's "every woman" now that she has problems just like the rest of us.

Not ME, though. I never had that problem. And I don't see anything to write home about in Sarah Palin. Except maybe that she used to look like Katherine Heigl. Anyone else agree with me here?
















She's not a VP... she only plays one on TV.