The Forsyte Saga

So apparently I spoke too soon.

I was not back.

I slipped back into depression this past week. What a roller coaster.

When I'm not moping around the apartment in my pajamas and crying, I have been catching up on a lot of great television. A lot of great soap operas, actually.

No, not The Young and the Restless. Nothing like that.

I'm talking about soap operas that take place in the late 19th century.

My favorite?

The Forsyte Saga



This is a series that focuses on the shocking scandals and affairs of the Forsytes, an upper-middle class British family.

It spans generations and decades, with people coming and going, loving and dying.



The costumes are pretty, but not spectacular The acting is the same. But that's not the point. It is simply a delicious storyline, with characters that are not cardboard cut outs. Each character is like a storyline, with their personalities and emotions twisting into a colorful kaleidoscope. You never truly know each character, but you watch them grow and for that reason, your favorite character always changes.



Right now, this is my most favorite character of the series.



He is Soames Forsyte, the twisted husband of the beautiful heroine, Irene.

He is so disturbed, wicked, and head-scratchingly bizarre, you can't help but cheer him on!



Plus, every time he enters a room, he glances around suspiciously, with haughty pursed lips worthy of Doctor Evil (one MILLION dollars!). It is so over-the-top dramatic, I have found myself entering places (restaurants, public libraries, my parents' house) with the same accusing glare and daring arched right eyebrow. It makes people in real life nervous and I love it.

(Okay, I obviously have way too much time on my hands. Haha.)



Definitely pick this series up on Netflix or your local library. I highly recommend it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Mine will be slightly happier because one of my closest friends is coming from Dallas to visit me. I think it will be the bright spot in my month, really.

I promise to catch up with everyone soon! Please forgive my second long period of absence. xoxo!

...and I'm back.

Thank you to everyone for being so supportive and kind to me during this horrible time. The only reason I am surviving right now is because of friends like you.

I'm sorry for being MIA the past week. I've just been so depressed and needed to take a break from blogging to collect my thoughts.

The next two months are going to be extremely difficult because finding a job right now in this economy is practically impossible. I might have to move back home if I don't find anything and that make me very nervous. It took me a very long time to get the courage to leave home two years ago. It was a physically abusive and mentally abusive environment.

On a happier note, a lot of my blogging friends have been bestowing all sorts of awards upon me the past week. How cool is that?!

My sweet friend Sandy, from Getting Fit and Loving It, gave me the Over The Top Award. She is such a beautiful person and a great inspiration to me. Please check out her blog!



The OTT award comes with the following survey. It must be filled out using one word for each.

1. Where is your cell phone? desk

2. Your hair? long

3. Your mother? work

4. Your father? driving

5. Your favorite food? hummus

6. Your dream last night? tornado

7. Your favorite drink? Coke

8. Your dream/goal? happiness

9. What room are you in? bedroom

10. Your hobby? blogging

11. Your fear? poor

12. What do you want to be in 6 years? successful

13. Where were you last night? home

14. Something you aren't? mean

15. Muffins? blueberry

16. Wish list item? job

17. Where did you grow up? midwest

18. Last thing you did? eat

19. What are you wearing? pajamas

20. Your TV? big

21. Your pets? bird

22. Your friends? awesome

23. Your life? frustrating

24. Your mood? nervous

25. Missing someone? always

26. Vehicle? Toyota

27. Something you're not wearing? shoes

28. Your favorite store? F21

29. Your favorite color? pink

30. When was the last time you laughed? Saturday

31. Last time you cried? yesterday

32. Your best friend? pretty

33. One place where I go over and over again? library

34. One person who emails me regularly? editor

35. Favorite place to eat? Chipotle

I'd like to pass this award on to the following ten blogs:

1. tic tac tomato
2. The Little Violet Dress
3. Carrie Bradshaw Made Me Do It
4. The Redhead Fashionista
5. Mouthwash
6. Leah
7. ballerina'sclosetobsession
8. The Trendy Fashionista
9. A Daisy Chain Dream
10. Audrey Allure

One of the most fabulous bloggers I know, Nikosmommy, awarded me with the following two awards.





I am giving the Best Blog Award to these following five blogs:

1. Life in Quotations
2. Getting Fit and Loving It
3. Melanie's Randomness
4. HiFashion
5. Cafe Fashionista

I am giving the Beautiful Blogger award to the following five blogs:

1. Excessive Idiosyncrasy
2. Tales of a Wondering Star
3. Inspiration in Italy
4. The Couture Cookie
5. Girl Whimsy

I also received the Happy 101 award from the lovely Imogen at Tia Cherie. She has been one of my closest blogging friends for the past year and she is an absolute doll. I feel very lucky to know such an awesome gal!



With this award, the recipient must list ten things which make them happy and pass it along to ten blogs which make them happy.

You can read my ten happy things here.

I am not going to pass this award to ten blogs. I am going to pass this award along to all of YOU because every single one of you make me very happy. xoxo!

I lost my job

So...my horrible week snowballed into one of the worst weeks of my entire life.

I did not survive my newspaper's latest round of layoffs.

I found out the news yesterday morning.

It had nothing to do with the twitter incident; upper management simply realized they could hire six interns to fill my position. These journalism students will do my job for school credit. I guess you can't compete with free labor, right?

My last day is at the end of the month.

I'm completely stunned. I barely made above minimum wage, so I'm not sure what the newspaper is going to gain by letting me go.

Plus, I have never been in this position before.

I have never had to job hunt. I have never had to fill out a job application. I have never written a cover letter before in my entire life. I have never had a job interview. All these things mystify me and now I have less than two weeks to familiarize myself with them.

You see, I was given my reporting job upon college graduation four years ago. I had interned at the newspaper in college and they basically saved a job for me until I graduated.

But now...now I am officially in the real world. I am a daughter of the recession. Unemployed, young, and not quite sure what I'm going to do with my life now.

There are no other journalism opportunities in my city, and I kind of want to stay here for at least another year. I want to find a job that will pay the rent until I attend grad school in the fall of 2011.

So...what else could I do? With my four years of reporting experience, I could do public relations. I could dip my feet into marketing. I could be a technical writer (yawn). I'm not sure what else I could do that would make use of my skills and college degree...I just don't know. I write and report and interview people and investigate stories and that is simply all I know how to do it seems.

I have been a newspaper reporter since elementary school and I knew since I was seven that is what I was going to do. I was a reporter for every school newspaper since then. I studied it in college and was an editor at my university newspaper. I recieved a very prestigious journalism scholarship in college, which caught the attention of my now-former employer. They snagged me right after graduation.

Journalism has been my life.

Where do I go now?

I'm scared and confused and sad and feel lost.

It honestly doesn't seem real yet.

On Friday, I have to sign a bunch of legal papers at the office, sign up for unemployment, sign up for independent health insurance, and job search.

I'm terrified.

I don't know where I'm going from here...

My Big Brother

I hate to be the weird depressed blogger who brings everybody down in a state of anguished anxiety, but...

Something happened today that really pissed me off.

I was minding my own business at work when my coworker, a reporter in his late 40s, stood up and cleared his throat. I noticed that he had a Microsoft Word document open on his computer, with my name written near the top.

"I would like to have everyone's attention," he said. "I have been keeping a log of all of Jennifer's status updates on Twitter. And there is one I would like to read right now. Two weeks ago, Jennifer wrote 'haha I am still hung over from drinking with the girls last night. Haha.' Now what kind of message is Jennifer sending?"

I started laughing because I thought he was joking. My editor laughed too. He follows me on Twitter and often teases me about my status updates.

But the reporter turned and gave me a look that was so icy, I stopped laughing immediately.

"This is extremely serious, Jennifer," he said. "What kind of message are you sending?"

His close friend, a 57-year-old business editor, slammed his notebook down on his desk and glared at me. His face was extremely red and he was shaking. He walked up to me and pointed his finger at me, his face filled with rage.

"NEVER PUT STUFF LIKE THAT ON THE INTERNET!" he screamed at me. "NEVER! YOU HAVE SHAMED OUR NEWSPAPER!"

The newsroom got silent.

My mouth dropped open and my face turned dark red. I felt tears in the corner of my eyes. Um, what the fuck?

The editor continued, "THIS IS EXACTLY WHY THOSE DISGUSTING WEBSITES LIKE FACEBOOK AND TWITTER SHOULD BE BANNED FOR REPORTERS. COMPLETELY BANNED!"

My coworker, enjoying the ruckus he had caused, looked at me and smirked. And then he quickly looked concerned.

"Jennifer, if I were an employer, and I looked at you twitter account and saw this comment about being hungover, there is no way I would hire you. Absolutely no way. Getting drunk is disgusting. It's not the type of employee people want at their company."

I was just so stunned, I just stood there with my mouth open. No words would emerge.

I am a 26-year-old woman. I drink. I put it occasionally on my facebook and twitter. The last time I checked, that was not illegal or inappropriate. And if a company does not want to hire someone for having a normal status update like that on their personal twitter, then that is not a company I want to be a part of.

I should have said that to my two coworkers. But I couldn't. I was just too stunned.

My editor, also stunned and shaken because his status updates are worse than mine, tried to come to my defense.

"I think the greater question is why are you keeping a log of Jennifer's status updates?" he asked the reporter. "Are you cyber stalking her?"

But the question went ignored.

And my head has been reeling ever since.

First, I always keep my status updates on facebook and twitter to something I wouldn't mind my boss seeing. He follows me on both. He comments occasionally. I truly do not believe that saying I was hungover in a status update is inappropriate. Especially since my twitter and facebook are not in my full name. People I interview and my readers will never find them. And even if they did, they should hardly be surprised that I am a normal human being.

Second, my editor raised a VERY good point. Why is this reporter keeping a log of my status updates? How long has he been doing it? What is the point? To humiliate me randomly, like he did today? It really gives me chills to think about it. This is a reporter who I, up until today, got along with pretty well. He was always nice to me, although we don't really speak that often. His attack on me today was completely out of nowhere.

Also, for that business editor to say that journalists should be banned from two of the biggest forms of communication online is absolutely absurd. It makes no sense.

And finally, it made me realize how careful we all need to be these days concerning the Internet. There are people watching your every move. Employers do use facebook and twitter to size up job candidates. I've been aware of that since college. Be careful what you say because you never know who is looking.

I have since made my twitter updates private. I'm not going to erase any of my statuses because I don't believe I did anything wrong. Plus, my editor, the one whose opinion really matters, doesn't think I did anything wrong.

I'm just horrified that I was humiliated in such a mean fashion in front of all my coworkers.

And I'm a little scared of that reporter now and what other things he is possibly writing down about me...

The Happy Award

Thank you all so much for your sweet comments regarding my friend's death. I'm still trying to make sense of it all...

The past week has been miserable for me, but I did have one little glimmer of happiness. My dear friend Barry, from Life in Quotations, honored me with the Happy Award. He is one of the most awesome people I have ever met (online or offline) in my life. Please check out his blog!



The rules for this award are:

1. List 10 things that make you happy.
2. List 10 bloggers that brighten your day.

Ten things that make me happy:

1) Barry's blog (seriously, go check it out)
2) getting off work early
3) good hair days
4) shopping for clothes, shoes, handbags, jewelry
5) compliments from a cute guy
6) writing my blog
7) my friends (yes, you)
8) Chipotle
9) sleeping in on weekends
10) getting along with my parents

And ten blogs that brighten my day to receive this award:

1. Getting Fit and Loving It
2. Fashion Layne
3. Minute By Minute
4. Extra Dressing on. the. Side
5. English Rose
6. As I Wrote One Day
7. French Charming
8. Tia Cherie
9. OceanDreams
10. Social Climbers


If you head over to Barry's blog you will notice a really cool project he is working on called "Bloggers Over Borders." It is basically a way to connect bloggers beyond the screen. I encourage everyone to participate, as it will bring our community closer together!

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! Please forgive my absence this past week. It has been a struggle. I will catch up with all of you soon, I promise! xoxo!

My Vintage Vogue

A while ago my friend Imogen shared one of her favorite websites, My Vintage Vogue, on her blog.

It has quickly become one of my favorite websites. It is basically a huge collection of vintage fashion photos and illustrations.

Sometimes when I'm feeling sad or bored, I will head over to this site and lose myself in the glamorous furs, jewels, and hats of the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 50s.

This week has been one of those times. Work has been an astonishingly dreary place to be these days. I will blog more about that later.

But for now I want to dive straight into a world that no longer exists, or perhaps never did.

I want to be in a world where cocktails are served before dinner, extravagant hats are admired on the streets, and every real lady carries a satin handkerchief which matches her pumps.

I want life to be glamorous.

Is that too much to ask?













All photos courtesy of My Vintage Vogue.

PS. I got my laptop fixed! Yay!

The Young Victoria

I saw another great movie over the weekend. I normally don't do a lot of movie posts all at once, but this last film really inspired me.



My editor is the one who recommended the film to me.

"The Young Victoria is one of the greatest movies I have ever seen," he said. "Take Rian."

So, I did.

Rian was wary but went with me to be nice. In the end, he ended up really enjoying it, much to my delight.

The film focuses on the first years of Queen Victoria's rule and her romance with Prince Albert.



It's basically a sparkling history lesson wrapped in a heart-warming romantic storyline. Gorgeous costumes, breathtaking scenery, spectacular architecture, and brilliant acting make The Young Victoria one of the best films I have seen in a long time.





Plus, it really opened my eyes to the astonishing talent of the British actress Emily Blunt, who plays the feisty Queen Victoria.



The 26-year-old has already been nominated for a Best Actress Golden Globe for this role. I expect an Oscar nomination to be announced soon as well.

I didn't really know that much about Blunt before this film.

I only knew her from The Devil Wears Prada.

But the more I learned, the more I adored her. She's a pretty fabulous gal. One of her best friends is Anne Hathaway. She is engaged to Office hottie John Krasinski. She's gorgeous. Um, what's not to like?







Have you seen The Young Victoria? What are your thoughts on the lovely Emily Blunt?

Sex & the Single Girl

We owe a lot to the generations before us.
As a young, single career gal, I have to admit that one of the most important books ever written in the 20th century was "Sex & the Single Girl." It revolutionized modern society as we know it.

The best-selling phenomenon stunned (and alarmed) the general public by stating young, single women actually had *gasp* sex lives and it should be accepted. It celebrates the single woman in all her glory. It paved the way for women today. Know a lot of girls living with their boyfriends? This book helped make that possible. (It also was the inspiration for Sex & The City decades later).

In 1964, the shocking book was turned into a film starring the talented Tony Curtis and the lovely Natalie Wood.



Wood plays Helen Gurley Brown, a psychologist and author of the book, and Curtis plays a womanizing scumbag journalist, Bob Weston, who works for a notorious tabloid. For his next article, Weston woos the 23-year-old psychologist in order to expose whether or not her book is "autobiographical" or not. Obviously, hilarity ensues.

If you haven't seen this film, I highly recommend it. The actors are charming, the dialogue is fresh and smart, and it has some adorable and cheesy laugh-out-loud moments that only retro films can provide.

Another reason I love it, however, is because of Natalie Wood and her wardrobe.


(Isn't she divine?)

I have been a huge fan of Wood since I saw Miracle on 34th Street when I was a little girl. Since then, I have enjoyed all her films, especially Rebel Without a Cause, West Side Story, and Splendor in the Grass.

Plus, she was quite the style icon.



She was amazingly talented, naturally beautiful, and undeniably glamorous.

Here are some of my favorite photos of Natalie Wood.

Enjoy!

New Years Eve Redo

Now that the holidays are over, it's back to the usual stressful nightmare of being overworked and underpaid.

But I did manage to get a little bit of fun in before the week hit me like a tornado.

Kerrie took me out for a little birthday celebration on Saturday. We saw a certain popular movie featuring one sexy shirtless (and sadly, underage) hottie. We went out for dinner. We went shopping. It was a much needed break after all the holiday stress.

Later that night, my friend Mike texted about a New Years Eve Redo bash he was having at his house. Of course, we had to make an appearance. So using the clothes we just bought and dashing to buy new shoes, and giving ourselves makeovers in the car, we managed to swing by his party looking absolutely fabulous.



It was nice seeing Mike again. He is an old college buddy I have recently reconnected with during our weekly outings to open mic at our favorite coffee shop.



I solved one of my resolutions at this party, which is probably why I'm so giddy in all these pictures: I made new friends! Yay!

It was a great way to kick off the new year and decade. Kerrie and I had an absolute blast!

















On another happy note, I managed to make a temporary facebook profile until I can get my old one back (hopefully). I just couldn't stay away! Haha!

I hope everyone is having a great week so far. I promise to catch up very soon! xoxo