(via @kellyoxford, another kick-ass lady)

9. 1st trip to Atlantic City, aka Fake Vegas or “Fegas” - a few of my BU friends and I decided to go to AC in July and since most of them were driving in from Boston and got stuck in traffic, we all didn’t end up getting to the The Water Club Hotel at the Borgata until like 12:30/1 am. (Un)Luckily for us, the bars/clubs/casinos don’t close until super late and everything was right in our hotel, so it wasn’t like we had to worry about getting home. The combination of these elements can be dangerous, especially if you’re me and you need to maintain a certain blood alcohol level just to tolerate being around guidos and their half-dressed prey. I was like the Fred Astaire of dance-pulling my friends away from creepers that night. I also ended the night (or whatever you call 4:30 am) by showering in my clothes and silently crying myself to sleep while listening to Amy Winehouse Pandora station and sleeping on a leather pillow in a fetal position on the floor — an activity my friends and I have labeled “Amy Winehousing.” It’s important to note that this was shortly after Amy Winehouse’s death, and I defend my behavior by claiming it was my delayed reaction to her death. All that talent, you guys.

10. Seeing a Beatle live for the 1st time: Paul McCartney concert at Yankee Stadium & Stone Temple Pilots at NJPAC - This was not only a highlight of 2011, but also a highlight of my life. I’m a huge Beatles fan (even went by myself on a daytrip to Liverpool right before I came back to the states from my semester abroad) and Paul is also my favorite Beatle. I went with my Grandma and my aunt (who share my love for The Beatles, as does pretty much everyone in my family, and who have seen Paul in concert a couple times)  along with my brother. It was a fantastic set and he played all of my favorites, from Beatles classics to hits from “Band on the Run.” This was definitely one the best concerts I’ve ever been to. I also went to see one of my favorite 90s bands, Stone Temple Pilots, at NJPAC with my brother and the same aunt (who also took us to see Pearl Jam twice at MSG, including my 21st birthday concert). They played all their hits and it was another great, high energy concert.

11. Stalking a 30 Rock shoot right outside 30 Rock & seeing Tina Fey - I follow @olv on Twitter and I’m not normally one of those people who would stalk down a movie/TV show set…unless it’s one of my favorite comedy shows, in which case, yes I am that person. So when I found out that 30 Rock was shooting over at my old internship stomping grounds, I knew I had to stop by during my lunch break. When I went over there, they had the sidewalk in front of NBC blocked off, but people were watching from across the street. I saw Tina, Tracy Morgan, and Denise Richards doing a guest cameo. One day I hope to be on the other side of the street, working on the set of a hilarious NBC comedy, instead of stalking it from outside Christie’s.

12. My 1st West Coast adventure: visiting friends in LA - Although I have some family in California and my parents lived there before they had kids, I’ve never even been to the west coast. I was considering moving to LA right after graduation, and I still plan on moving there at some point for at least a year for a different aspect of the TV/film industry than what New York has, but I was excited to at least finally visit the city. My good friend and former roommate moved out there with her boyfriend after graduation, so it was also really nice to see and hang out with them for a few days. We went to Disneyland (which was decorated for Halloween since it was late October), Hollywood (big sign, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Walk of Fame), Universal City, Santa Monica (where my friends live), Venice Beach, Beverly Hills, and the LA Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre to finally see an ASSSSCAT show! I had an amazing time with great company and I’m hoping to visit Hannah and Ryan again soon (possibly in the spring for PaleyFest 2012).

13. Taking my 1st UCB class: Sketch Writing 101 - Right before I went to LA, I signed up and had my first sketch writing class at UCB in New York. I had wanted to take UCB classes for years, but never had the time/money to do so. Also, classes fill up quickly and I can only take weeknights or weekend classes (a lot of classes are scheduled in the middle of the day), so it took a while for me to find a 101 class that fit with my work schedule. I can honestly say that Sketch 101 was the highlight of my week and it made me want to continue taking UCB classes until I complete all of the levels. For Sketch 101, you write a sketch each week (based on what the theme is, such as character sketches, topical/political sketches, parodies, etc.) and your classmates read it aloud and give feedback. UCB has a great, encouraging community for sketch comedy and improv, and although my Mom doesn’t exactly approve (I went to school for a business degree and she still thinks I should go to law school), comedy makes me happy and I plan to pursue it more with UCB. Plus, it’s awesome to be surrounded by people who love comedy and have a weird/twisted sense of humor as much as I do.

14. A week of SNL and 30 Rock performers/writers - A couple weeks after I went to LA, I went to an SNL writers panel for New York Comedy Festival at Paley Center. I was basically sitting a few feet away from people with my dream job and who I idolize. Head writer Seth Meyers was there, along with John Mulaney, Colin Jost, Chris Kelly, Marika Sawyer, and a bunch of other writers.

The next day, I went to Maude night at UCB for my Sketch 101 requirements, and I also got tickets for the John and Scott improv show right before it. It features 30 Rock‘s Scott Adsit and John Lutz, but Adsit was running late from a 30 Rock shoot, so they called up SNL‘s Jason Sudeikis to fill in. Right before the show started, Jason Sudeikis cut me on the beer line and I thought that was the COOLEST. Adsit ended up making the show in time, so all three of them performed and it was hilarious. After their show, my classmates and I were outside on line again for Maude night when Adsit, Lutz, and Sudeikis were talking to people outside the theatre before they biked away (which I thought was awesome, since they clearly can afford any other mode of transportation). Lutz’s wife, fellow 30 Rock castmate, and UCB performer Sue Galloway was outside with them, too. When we went back into the theatre to watch the Maude sketches, we also spotted UCB alum and Gabe from The Office, Zach Woods. If only someone from Community and Parks and Rec showed up, I would have seen someone from all my favorite NBC comedies all in one night at UCB. Though I did see Ben Schwartz (Jean-Ralphio from Parks and Rec) at UCB LA when he performed with ASSSCAT.

15. BU beating Cornell in the Red Hot Hockey game at MSG - MSG hosts BU vs. Cornell hockey games every other year since my freshmen year and although I’m not a huge hockey fan, my school is known for our team and I’ve been to each Red Hot Hockey game during Thanksgiving weekend. The 1st year, we beat them by a lot; 2nd year, we tied; and this year, we beat them in overtime. It was my 1st game as an alum, which was weird, but it was nice to be around fellow BU terriers again.

16. Community flash mob outside 30 Rock - The day before the event, I randomly found out about the Community flash mob that was being held near the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree (also right outside NBC’s headquarters) as a fun attempt for fans to #SaveCommunity, since it has recently been put on a hiatus by NBC. I went down during my lunch break on my last day at work before holiday vacation and was surrounded by people that are as nerdy about Community as I am. We held tiny Christmas trees, wore darkest timeline goatees, and sang “O, Christmas Troy” while being taped by Sony and TVGuide. It got a lot of media coverage, and even Community stars like Joel McHale were tweeting about it. It was a cool, TV-nerdy thing to be a part of.

Also included in this list of 2011 highlights but I didn’t feel like writing a longer thing: free Matt and Kim mini concert for Windows Phone Launch Party at a random warehouse in Chelsea. Awesome music, booze, and food, all ‘FO FREE! Also, the Comedy Central taping of SNL writer John Mulaney’s stand up special at NYU that was HILARIOUS and ‘FO FREE!

Anyways, like last night, 2011 had its “moments that didn’t totally suck (but were actually frigen awesome)” as well as “moments that flat out SUCKED.” Here’s my list of “moments that didn’t totally suck (but were actually frigen awesome),” in chronological order:

1. Writing for TVWithoutPity again & being an NBCUniversal campus rep - I went back to my summer internship at TWoP during my senior year winter break, so it still technically counts as part of 2011. This explains why it’s on this list. Once you read that, you’ll understand why being NBCUniversal campus rep for BU was a highlight of 2011 as well (I’m the 4th place network’s #1 fan).
2. Writing for the Quad and butv10′s The Morning After & meeting the wonderful and brilliant staff - When I went back to BU for my last semester in January 2011, I decided to give myself more free time and not write for the BUzz, BU’s print lifestyle magazine anymore. But then I decided to give myself less time and write for the Quad, BU’s independent online magazine. It was one of the best decisions though, since I was able to write more about stuff that I loved – from TV comedies to social media comedy, and from social media “comedy” to TV comedies. That was pretty much my range. Through writing for the Quad, I met some great people who became great friends, conducted one of the weirdest interviews (rather, “twinterview”) in BU history probably, and even had my own weekly column — BU TweetCreep — where I basically stalked and mocked (in a not-to-be-taken-seriously-at-all way) the BU Twitterverse. I also continued writing for The Morning After (butv10‘s version of Colbert Report/SNL‘s Weekend Update), the show my friends started the semester before. We’ve come a long way since filming the test pilot in my tiny apartment. I only wish I had more than just my last semester to work (and sometimes play) with such an awesome group of talented people.
3. BU Alternative Spring Break in Nashville, TN - I was an ASB coordinator for the Nashville trip and although it wasn’t one of my top trip choices, it became one of the best experiences of my college career. I learned how to build wheelchair ramps with the United Cerebral Palsy of Middle Tennessee, I met and became good friends with the wonderful BU student volunteers on our trip and our awesome chaperone (as well as the best ASB site contact ever and his lovely family that we met on our last day), and I explored a very cool city that I’ve never been to, aka Viva Nash Vegas. My livetweeting of the trip even got us on TV when NBC’s Nashville affiliate came to film us at site the 2nd day (we built 4 ramps in total that week – the article misprinted that).
4. The Strokes concert at Madison Square Garden - Ever since I found out that The Strokes played at BU’s Agganis Arena a year before I went to BU, I’ve wanted to see them at some point while I was in college. I had been a fan of them since high school and when I found out they were playing MSG during my last semester, I immediately bought tickets (right when they went on sale, while I was at work for BU Housing, much to my boss’s confusion as to why I had to be in front of the computer exactly at 11 a.m. that day). It was an epic concert as expected and Elvis Costello even made a surprise guest appearance, adding to the epicness.
5. My 1st baseball game ever, Red Sox vs. somebody at Fenway - I’ve been going to football games since before I could walk (my family members are all die-hard Giants fans with season tickets since they 1st moved the stadium to NJ), but at 21-years-old, I had never been to a baseball game. I’m kind of apathetic about baseball (it bores me compared to other sports I’ve played/watched, like soccer or football), so I have no position on the war between NY Yankees and Boston Red Sox. I’ve actually been to more concerts at baseball stadiums than baseball games at baseball stadiums (DMB at Fenway in summer ’09, DMB at Mets’ Citi Field in summer ’10, Paul McCartney at Yankee Stadium in summer ’11). So my roommate (also a true Bahston girl and Sox fan) and I went to my 1st game. Which I think they won. It was a fun experience, though baseball still bores me.
6. Senior Week with my best friends - The week before we graduate from BU, there is a week full of events (mostly booze-fueled), which is one last chance to hang out with all your friends (and maybe some enemies) that you made while at BU. Highlights include my 1st trip to Martha’s Vineyard, where I spent most of the day riding a bike around the island (I fucking love riding bikes) with two of my good friends who moved to LA shortly after graduation; senior pub crawl (like we need an excuse to day drink — we have an entire holiday dedicated to it); and Six Flags (I also fucking love roller coasters).
7. Graduating BU and earning one of the most expensive pieces of paper I’ll ever own - Although I miss college all the time (especially my time abroad in London), I guess graduating from it should fall under this list of things that didn’t totally suck. And our graduation ceremony was pretty kick-ass, with a great speech by Katie Couric.

…this blog post was getting long, so I separated “things that didn’t suck about 2011″ in college from “things that didn’t suck about 2011″ in the real world. Read part 2 for the real world stuff.

JewelMint is a monthly online subscription service that allows you to purchase exclusive jewelry designs from the creative collaboration of actress Kate Bosworth (the chick from guilty pleasure Blue Crush as well as 21, which they filmed all over BU’s campus) and her stylist Cher Coulter. They offer a range of simple to funky designs for rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. It’s also super easy to use, so here’s how it works:

1. Take a quiz to reveal what type of style you have, which will determine the designs JewelMint will offer you each month.

2. Your showroom will pop up, filled with all different pieces to choose from. You can purchase as many pieces as you want each month (and also select “show me more” to add more designs to your showroom), and each piece is generally $29.99.

3. If you don’t see anything you like that month, you can select “skip month” within the first 6 days of the month. If it’s past 6 days and you forgot to skip, you will receive 1 credit (equal to $29.99) which is good for a year, so you can use it the next month you find a piece you like.

my "pomander pendant"

sister's "fine tune necklace"

Oh, and just because:

Junior year, costume 1 of 2 - Name tag reads "Hello my name is a low-budget version of the early 90's"

This weekend marked my first Halloween weekend (or “Halloweekend” for all you unoriginal-Facebook-album-titling biddies) in four years that wasn’t spent among intoxicated Marios and Luigis, “Sexy Vampires / Cats / School Girls / Mormons / Hobos / Robots / Zombies / Robot Zombies / Communist Leaders / etc.,” or any other multiple sightings of costumes based on whatever current/not-really-current-anymore pop culture or political reference is big that year (see: Sarah Palin & pregnant daughter, and any other shit that’s funny for 5 minutes). This past weekend was also alumni weekend for my alma mater BU, so I actually had the opportunity to use that as an excuse to be that creepy old dude still going to college parties/bars…if it wasn’t for the fact that I generally look like a 12-year-old dressed up as a 22-year-old with the energy of an 87-year-old.

But instead of going up to Boston (based on reasons such as my friends/recent BU alums in NY thinking I’m a nerd for wanting to go to alumni weekend; the fact that I’m going to Boston next weekend to visit schools with my younger sister; and knowing that I probably don’t have enough willpower to avoid the undergrad scene with the prospect of reliving my college days), I opted to stay home in NJ. Plus, I figured I could have just as much fun (if not more) finally experiencing a “real world” Halloween by going out in the city or even Hoboken if I pregamed enough to believe I’m not still in NJ. “I will show those college kids that celebrating Halloween for 2 weeks long while ignoring responsibilities like econ midterms is NOTHING compared to a ‘real world,’ batshit crazy NYC Halloween!” I thought to myself while ignoring all weather reports. I was even planning on proving that New Yorkers were more likely to recognize my obscure TV show character costumes, unlike my senior year in Boston when a Masshole asked “are you Harry Pottah??” while I was dressed as Daria. This year, I was going to dress as Casey Klein from the brilliant-but-cancelled Starz series, Party Down. Granted, this would probably lead to people giving me their drink orders at bars, but I was okay with this (think of all the tips I could have mistakenly be given! probs way more than the girls dressed as stripper nuns/actual real strippers).

At the end of "The Week We Didn't Sleep," taking in all the sights from the Munich train while on our 1st weekend trip away from London

As I’ve mentioned, Halloween in college is celebrated for roughly 2 weeks. That consists of the weekend before Halloween until the weekend after, if Halloween falls on a weekday. This pretty much applies even if Halloween is on a weekend. The only time I can remember partying (or have some photographic evidence of memories) for a week long was the week in between arriving in London for the BU Study Abroad Program and the start of classes there (and senior week before college graduation, but that’s a given). Everyone wasn’t used to the time difference yet but we quickly adapted to the fact that we were all legally allowed to drink (most of us were 20 anyway). I don’t know if I’ll ever reach that high level of alcohol tolerance we all obtained while living in London and traveling throughout Europe (no one appreciates booze more with every meal/event than they do there, and more so in a classy than sloppy way). Despite this and the fact that Halloween fell on a weekend for half my college years, I generally celebrated for 2-3 days at most. Also, I’m secretly an old lady, so I only enjoy partying in moderation for significant reasons, such as holidays and 90′s-themed parties.

When my plans to go out in the city for my sisters’ birthday got pushed from Friday to Saturday, I wasn’t overcome by my college urge to celebrate Halloween for every night that it was socially acceptable (plus having 2ish jobs makes going out more than once a week — if even that much — a super tiring task). So I went to the gym after work, dressed as “girl who enjoys watching Food Network specials like ‘Battlefield Cupcake Challenge Halloween War Top Next Baker Boss’ or just shitty reality TV while wearing Halloween socks on a cardio machine.” Not my most creative costume, but it was REAL. Like Kardashian wedding contract/script real.

Snow in October is as bizarre as not celebrating Halloween for 2 weeks anymore

Saturday morning, I woke up and was not hungover from the no drinking I did the night before, nor was I in half pajamas/half early 90′s or flapper costume. But what’s more unusual than that college norm is that there’s a bastard of a snowstorm occurring outside my window. So now I’m snowed in and any plans for the rest of the weekend are cancelled because that mother of a nature. My goal of an authentic New York Halloween surrounded by inauthentic people (sluts disguised as sluts…actually, that’s pretty authentic) became as unachievable as a 4.0 at BU’s School of Management (don’t tell me otherwise, nerds). So naturally, I ate my feelings (this is what happens when I don’t get to drink my feelings) and watched TV while putting off updating this blog/uploading 7 months of pictures to Facebook/writing my character sketch for the Sketch 101 class I’m (finally!) taking at UCB NY. Oh, I also stayed up until midnight to watch that creepy ass dollhouse episode of 90′s Nickelodeon show Are You Afraid of the Dark? and was planning on watching more episodes (including a 1 am airing of Ahhh! Real Monsters) but then the power went out in my house, so I was forced to depend on my flashlight iPhone app and watch Daria episodes on my MacBook til my battery died…just like people did in the colonial days.

If the weather didn’t suck/I didn’t live in suburbia hell, I would have also tried to see the UCBeast Opening Show and ASSSSCAT with UCB’s founders (Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh), which featured a bunch of other awesome comedians like Sue Galloway from 30 Rock and David Cross from Mr. Show (but most know him as analrapist Tobias Fünke on Arrested Development). To make up for my lame Halloweekend, I was going to check out the infamous West Village Halloween Parade on actual Halloween then head to a UCB sketch show with people from my sketch class, but my plans fell through and I wouldn’t get home until super late (like by the time I publish this article late), which is another downside to commuting from the suburbs when there’s cool shit always happening during weekdays in the city.

This is me celebrating Halloween at my cubicle...really went all out this year

Even my most minor attempt to celebrate Halloween by dressing as Liz Lemon for work this morning (secretly, since I’d pretty much be wearing my normal work clothes and no one would notice anyway) wasn’t accomplished. People in my department don’t seem to dress up any way, and the only thing that confirmed that it was actually Halloween and that I didn’t wash my Halloween socks or paint my nails black with sparkly orange on my ring fingers for NOTHING was when a network rep came around in an Amy Winehouse wig giving out candy from a plastic pumpkin.

And then I thought I was at least making good life decisions by going to the gym after work since I wasn’t staying out in the city, but I found out too late that my gym was closed since it had no power still. So of course I go to get an iced coffee and a brownie from the hipster coffee shop a few blocks away, in an attempt to trick or “TREAT YO SELF!” (copyright Parks & Rec) and because that makes up for the gym, right? Exactly not, but it didn’t last long since I don’t drink a lot of caffeine normally/I’m an old lady so I soon felt like shit and (spoil your dinner alert) barfed up the brownie — in the one instance I’ve ever puked on Halloween/Halloweekend. And that includes my childhood years of gorging myself with chocolate from strangers collected in a pillowcase as well as my college years of doing the same except with booze while surrounded by slutty-looking strangers with the personalities of a pillowcase.

But I did have an awesome weekend before Halloweekend — I made my first trip to the west coast/California/Los Angeles to visit my old roommate and accomplish life goals more important to me than a “real world Halloween.” I’ll eventually blog about that and hopefully it will be more brief than this rambling post. And I didn’t even have to drink alcohol to have an amazing time (mostly because I was chugging water from not being used to the desert weather and because my old lady energy caused me to be sick on-and-off). And this isn’t even a PSA for not drinking (though I don’t condone babies drinking *UKWUR!), but more like a PSA for “postgrad awareness that you’re not in college anymore, and shit’s not the same, like your energy to socialize among peers your age with the presence of alcohol.”

*babies being people who know what UKWUR stands for, which I might have made up but I think means “U Know Who U R” in teen angst language

Too tired/overwhelmed to write out (another) blog post about my excitement for this news so just read…

THIS and THIS and THIS and THIS and gaze at THESE CHICKEN DANCE PICTURES OF THE WHOLE CAST AT THE NEW YORKER FEST REUNION I SOMEHOW MISSED.

TASTE THE HAPPY, BLOG.

UPDATED: Cast reunion chicken dance videos via Vulture!

I was a 7th grader at a Catholic elementary school (pre-k through 8th grade) in Franklin Lakes, NJ (yes, that Franklin Lakes) in a class of about 28 or so kids. We used to be one of the biggest classes in the school (requiring us to be split into two, ex: 5A & 5B in 5th grade), but a lot of kids had transferred to the public middle school in 6th grade, so it was the first year in awhile that we were one class again. Most of us had been attending the same school since we were 5, 6, 7-years-old, so we had also grown up together. That, plus the fact that our grade was notoriously known as the “troublesome” class (by teachers, the unlikable nun principal, as well as ourselves), made us all pretty close with one another. I remember having a false sense of maturity at that school, something most of us had throughout the years which was only heightened by the time we reached junior high. But looking back, I realize how limited my view of the world was and its conflicting issues along with it, especially as someone who had never even been on a plane yet at that age.

What we saw on the TV in the classroom on the morning of 9/11/01

It was only a couple weeks into the new school year on the morning that our 7th grade homeroom and history teacher (also pretty unlikable) had put on a serious expression (not unlike any of her other facial expressions) to tell us what had happened. Some of us, myself included, didn’t even know what the World Trade Center buildings were (thanks, private school history classes). Someone wheeled in one of the ancient TV sets the school owned and at a time when we probably would have preferred to be distracted by the usual attempts-at-a-lesson-plan-via-VHS (Muzzy, School House Rock, 1776 starring likable principle Mr. Feeney), we all watched the news channels reveal what our 7th grade minds could barely comprehend. We watched the footage from the first plane hitting the first tower, then the tower crumble in a way that none of us could ever imagine while gazing up at the giant skyscrapers of New York on field trips into the city. We watched in disbelief as the second plane hit the second tower, wondering what could possibly be causing these planes to fly directly into what we found out were the tallest buildings in New York City. This haunting image of a deathly cloud of smoke billowing up from the Twin Towers would be replayed in our middle school minds as often as it was on the news that day. We would also learn the meaning of a term that never had any relevance in our barely more-than-a-decade-long lives: terrorism. We’d find out that it was terrorists who would take the lives of nearly 3,000 innocent people; who also flew into the Pentagon in D.C. and almost into the White House or the Capitol if it wasn’t for the brave passengers of Flight 93 stopping them.

The events that we watched on the news the morning of September 11, 2001 transformed into something more personal as students became worried about their parents who worked in the city, near that area, as well as inside one of the Twin Towers. I’m pretty sure most of us in the class didn’t have cell phones yet, but one way or another, students and parents were trying to get in contact with another. I remember a couple girls who had parents working in the city as well as down in the financial district were fearing the worst until they got in touch with their parents to find out they were safe. My Dad works in the city and is usually driving all over Manhattan throughout the day, so my mind was racing with thoughts about where he was at that moment and praying he had no reason to be driving down there that day. I don’t remember when I knew he was okay (it’s hard to tell how we made immediate contact with people before owning a cell phone at that age), but I was relieved to find out that he was nowhere near there. However, in our small, middle school class in suburban North Jersey, we’d soon discover that one of our friends and classmates wouldn’t get that direct contact with his father after that day, who worked in one of the Towers.

Other parents began to pick up their kids from school early and I just remember sitting in the cafeteria with the few kids who hadn’t been picked up yet, waiting for a ride home (probably from my grandfather since my parents often worked late). People were saying that you could sense the smoke in the air from the collapsed buildings outside our school, as well as see the smoke from parts of town that overlooked the New York skyline. Our teachers would tell us that this was a day that would go down in history — something that we were alive to experience, unlike the history we studied about in our outdated textbooks that included wars our parents weren’t even alive for. It was a day that would propel our country into war — the first one our generation would be old enough to be aware of, one that would last long enough for people in our generation to enlist in the military and die fighting for our freedom that was threatened that day in 2001.

Some of the heroes of the decade

Lorne Michaels and Mayor Giuliani in Studio 8H with the heroes of 9/11

There was a boost in patriotism in our country. We may have suffered a horrible attack by people who didn’t agree with our democratic beliefs and personal freedoms established by our government, but we weren’t going to let it stop us from being proud-as-hell Americans. American flags were everywhere — on car antennas (remember those?), window stickers, pins, shirts, lawns. I remember my Dad brought home FDNY shirts that my little sister and I used to wear. One of my favorite shows that I had been watching since Clinton’s administration was Saturday Night Live (who else would explain to me best about the Lewinsky scandal??), which even began its 27th season in New York shortly after the 9/11 attacks and let us know it was okay for us to laugh again (I can’t find the video online for the intro featuring Mayor Rudy Giuliani, numerous members of the FDNY and NYPD, and SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels but here’s the transcript).

City Skyline on 9/11/02

Today (probably technically yesterday by the time I finish and publish this) marks the 10th anniversary of those tragic events on September 11, 2001 and it still seems hard to believe that it ever happened. One year after it occurred, I remember watching the lights that symbolized the two towers from a hill in my town where you could see the city skyline. Years would go by, and I would go through high school and college with a fleeting memory of that day as well as a lack of realization of the anniversary when people seemed to make less of a deal about it as we got older. I watched United 93 one summer when I was home from college and those memories of that day returned while I learned details of that flight that I wasn’t quite aware of at a young age. It’s been years since I thought deeply about the events of that day in 7th grade, but today (technically yesterday) when I woke up to family members of 9/11 victims at the World Trade Center Memorial on TV reciting the name of every single person who died that day, it became real again. My little sister put on The History Channel and I found myself watching footage from 9/11/01 that I had never seen because I never wanted to seek out proof in the media of what had really happened when I was younger. I was looking at pictures online that were taken that day, something I never would have done in middle school. Then again, I never would have expected that about 10 years later, I would find out about the death of the piece of shit behind those attacks through Twitter, compelling college students all over Boston to rally together, cheering “USA!” all the way from campus to the Boston Common.

I’m now 22 and not 12; a college grad and not a naive middle schooler (though sometimes I question myself about that one); someone who likes to fly and has finally visited several countries outside the U.S. and not someone who fears a form of transportation she’d never experienced before 9/11; someone who voted for our current president in college when she finally reached the voting age and not someone who had intense feelings of worry even as a naive middle schooler after President Bush was inaugurated; but also someone who still doesn’t understand what could possess a human being to want to destroy the lives of innocent people. I now work in the city that I was born in and dreamt of moving to while I was a 7th grader stuck in suburbia. I haven’t thought about the threat of terrorist attacks for awhile, but when my friend texted me about the alert of a potential attack on NY transportation around the time of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and I proceeded to read every article online and through my Twitter feed that I came across relating to this news while in a state of personal paranoia, this fear became real again.

Let’s begin with the earthquake in Virginia this past Tuesday, which apparently was felt in cities including Boston, Philly, and New York. Although I didn’t actually feel my first earthquake (so sad, I know), I had to take my trust-worthy Twitter feed as validation for its existence. People were bugging out, cheesy earthquake tweets were made, and this was pretty much the extent of the damage for the tri-state area:

via http://jmckinley.posterous.com/dc-earthquake-devastation

Then, the east coast caught wind (oh shit, hurricane humor! #I’materriblehuman) that some menopausal bitch named Hurricane Irene was supposed to be all up in our backyards this weekend. So news reporters broke out their Lands End windbreakers and everyone overprepared for the worst. Which is better than being unprepared, so we’ll all have to deal with our new extensive home inventory of flashlights, batteries, and water bottles (which I predict I’ll see being sold on tables on city streets tomorrow if I have work/can find a way to get to work). Though there was some damage (flooding, power outages, fallen trees) to some towns, we were lucky it wasn’t as bad as a Tom Cruise movie where Dakota Fanning plays his daughter (bad as in end-of-the-world weather and also bad as in any movie past the 90′s that Tom Cruise was in, in my opinion).

So what did I do to prepare for this “raging” bitch named Irene?

• Skipped the gym – besides not wanting to drive in shitty weather, I concluded that I got my workout in by watching news reporters get slapped around by Irene’s mood swings…hey, I didn’t pick their profession;
• Carbo-loaded – those non-perishable foods aren’t going to eat themselves! (or go bad…they’re non-perishable); also good preparation for any storm chasing I might have been compelled to do at any moment, from the couch;
• Instead of going bar hopping in Hoboken as planned, stayed up late enough on Friday to watch ’90s Are All That, only to fall asleep as the Clarissa Explains It All theme was all “na na na na naaa.” I’m an old woman;
• Watched the CW pilots I’ve been putting off watching because I generally don’t watch CW shows, but since I have access to them, figured what the hell. Obviously can’t reveal details, but will say that I didn’t hate all of them. May even try to get into Ringer this fall after it premieres (Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a huge part of my childhood);
• Also watched season 1 of British comedy Peep Show - pretty weird, but equally amusing and some very funny dialogue. Worthy of a position on your Netflix queue.

The cabs aren't here.

All in all, a pretty lazy Hurricanepocalypse weekend. And as this blog title also mentions, summer is winding down and the kiddies are going back to school, which translates as my heightened depression for not returning to my wonderful home of 4 years, Boston University. Normally around this time, I would be finishing up FYSOP Staff training and getting ready for our freshmen volunteers to move in…if only this was a perfect world where college never ends (without having to fail all my classes). But utter post-graduate sadness aside, I’ve had some recent exciting news to share — I’ll be the new Technology editor for The Next Great Generation this fall! I’ve missed writing about social media stuff for the Quad and I’m hoping to churn out a lot of entertaining tech posts with the TNGG team. So it looks like I might be cheating on this blog again…