This post has no pictures.

It’s been a while since I blogged – so why not just dive right into this. Let the ranting begin.

Making friends outside of college is quite possibly the hardest bullshit I’ve ever had the pleasure of encountering (and I suffered through nursing school).

This isn’t some simple pinata you conquer by swinging a big stick and peaking through a blindfold. Oh, no no no. This is some difficult shit. This is like riding a unicycle balanced on a rope above an active volcano. You’re chances of getting burned are high, my friend. I know why it is hard, but knowing is not enough to get results. As a wise GI Joe once said, “knowing is half the battle.” What Mr. Joe left out was what the fuck you need to do for the other half; I need to come out of this battle victorious. Am I getting too abstract here?

So, here is my deduction of why making friends is hard in your late twenties, after moving away from your closest friends.

1. You are different. Yeah, you. You’re a different person than you were when you graduated high school. Or at least you should be. Fuck. Who has the same personality from age 18 to age 28? What kind of character development did you sleep through? Quit whatever job you have and go do some acting for Michael Bay – he loves your lack of character development and he hasn’t even met you yet. (Oooh, sick burn to Michael Bay) My point is, you are a different person now. So obviously any friends you made prior to this point in your life met you when you barely knew who you were – similarly your friends didn’t know who they were either, so it’s like a bonding point. However, now you know you, meaning you know what you want out of life and relationships. You have different needs out of socializing and different expectations. Basically, you raised your standards. Which brings me to my next numerical bullet point…

2. You have higher standards. Yep, don’t you deny that shit either. I did for a while. See, I’ve met some really fucking amazing people in my day. I can’t believe I get to call them friends, they’re so awesome. But that kind of makes everyone else I haven’t met look really dull by default. Are you, future hypothetical friend, as cool as Amanda or Cathy? Probably not. Are you as funny as Steve or Luuk? Probably not. Do you understand me as well as Naty or Kim? I’m gonna go with no. So, whether I admit it or not, I’m kind of reaching for the stars before I even meet potential friends. If we aren’t going to be besties, what’s the point?

3. Work buddies are a bad idea. I know this doesn’t apply to everyone. But it certainly does for me. I can’t hang out with people at my job. It’s a bunch of females who talk shit and throw each other under the bus for any given task. I know shady shit on just about anyone you decide to point to on a given day. I also know, from personal experience, that hanging out with my co-workers doesn’t really make me any better friends with them. I’ve gone to several social gatherings, and besides small chit chat, nothing really comes out of it. People only wanting to bring up the time we went to that male review show (last time I drink with co-workers as well…). My boss seems to think this is a funny thing to bring up, despite my always professional “mode” at work. These people only want something to talk about.

4. Where do you find them? No, seriously. Where do you find potential friends? Cause I need to know. If any of you are familiar with meetup.com you may be under the impression that people “meet” each other on these sites. It has been my experience (trial and error experience) that these gatherings are either not active, or niche hobby-related groups that I don’t quite fit into. I’m going to have to do a whole separate post on my experiences with these, cause it’s kind of ridiculous.

5. Bonding? Yeah, this is a major problem. Let’s say you actually do make a new friend, and they’re interested in hanging out with you – what now? How are you going to build those bonds bro? You can’t just get white girl wasted and have your amigo assist you to the rest room like you did when you were 23. There’s just something about another woman seeing your junk that makes you both closer, I can’t explain it. You can’t take a college class with them and plant the bonding seed through your shared hatred for the professor. You can’t ask them to be your roommate and naturally create countless inside jokes. So what the fuck do you do? Play some board games in hopes that their witty banter will be enough to satiate your loneliness void? Unlikely. Ain’t no body that fucking witty…that I’ve met yet…that also thinks I’m funny.

Trial and error, my friends. That’s all that we are left with. Creating numerous social sparks with people we barely know, in hopes that one of them thinks your Family Guy impression is comedy gold.

Side note, uh, man…I really had to dust off my blog here. Wow, this is like a time capsule. Also I am not going back to edit the grammar in that cuban mom post, holy shit – I do not want to go through that nightmare. So, sorry internet about that. Also still in the process of downloading/paying for art programs to upload onto my new desktop (whuaaaahhht, super adult status). Hence, why there are no pictures in this post. #dealwithit #lazy

Trucks and Tech

So since I haven’t drawn anything, cause I’m on an adventure, I figured I would share something fun.

I don’t know if I ever told you guys, but something I’ve always wanted to do is go to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. I’ve been to Germany before, and it was really cool, but I was also with my family so I couldn’t go exploring.

Well, I guess the closest I’m ever going to get to is the IZEA “Trucks and Tech” social gathering, which happened to be Oktoberfest-themed.

They were selling some cool, beer boots – and cause I’ve never owned a beer boot – I HAD TO HAVE IT.
I tried the seasonal pumpkin beer, but I guess it was more pumpkin spice than pumpkin…so it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.

I thought it was really fun, I got to go with my brother.

Que and Aye

When you’re in trouble you call Dee Dublahyouuu!! Darrrk wiing duuuck – LETS. GET. DANGEROUS!!!

So that was in my head. Glad I got that out of my system.

I took my brother to IKEA today, he had never been before, so I was more than excited to introduce him to the affordable world of the Swedes. GLORIOUS. OMG and they had a Christmas decorating section up, I love exploring new things at IKEA. It’s the fucking best.

Anyway, enough about my day, how was yours?

Cool story bretherns.

My homegirl, Map of Jo, is curious about the oooold Super Saiyan M. Can’t say that I blame her, I am so God damn mysterious. Like a bat in the night. I’m not sure that’s an appropriate representation of mystery. Whatever, its Saturday, no one can judge me. She wants me to answer some questions, with regards to the Leibster Award;  so I’m going to ANSWER SOME QUESTIONS.

Here we go.

Job Interview

In a few moments I will be packing up some essential papers, dusting off some black heels and heading over to my first hospital job interview.

Holy shit.

So this is a big deal, but some part of me has already made peace with the fact that it may not work out. Probably because it took months to even land a phone interview and then months later I am showing up in person for a completely different position. A lot of things can go wrong right now. A lot of things already have. But I am optimistic, if I don’t get this job I’ll get another and if I do get this job I hope that its my chance to exhale. I’ve still got people in my life that I love to pieces and a family that I wouldn’t trade for anything. If I’ve got some sweet, sweet income to accompany that I’ll be pretty satisfied. If I don’t, nothing really changes. I still won’t have a working AC in my car, and I’ll still be broke. But I’ve been broke all my life, so this isn’t a deal breaker. It’s not the end of the world. Rejection is a part of life.

I like to recite to myself the excerpt from Radiohead’s “Meeting People is Easy” anytime I am nervous of any type of rejection:

“If you have been rejected many times in your life, then one more rejection isn’t going to make much difference. If you’re rejected, don’t automatically assume it’s your fault. The other person may have several reasons for not doing what you are asking her to do: none of it may have anything to do with you. Perhaps the person is busy or not feeling well or genuinely not interested in spending time with you. Rejections are part of everyday life. Don’t let them bother you. Keep reaching out to others. When you begin to receive positive responses then you are on the right track. It’s all a matter of numbers. Count the positive responses and forget about the rejections.” -OK Computer’s Meeting People is Easy

Cross yer fingers, I’m not nervous yet, but I think once I step out the door I’m going to feel that wonderfully familiar anxiety kick in.

E-readers are dyslexia friendly

Jenny Thomson, and a bunch of researchers from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, recently released findings from a study that say that people with dyslexia may start investing in e-readers!

Dylexic people, who weren’t reading for fun, started using smart phones and e-readers got them into reading! What started as word-of-mouth from different people with dyslexia ended up being seriously investigated.

Apparently, those who were involved in the study, were able to read faster and retain more information when reading off of an ipad as compared to traditional paper media. The researchers are saying that the text customization of the electronic devices may be the key. Users are able to enlarge text, allowing fewer, larger letters visible at a time.

Keep in mind though, not all dyslexia is the same! The study does make mention that dylexics who had high VA Span Scores did just fine with paper media.

If you are like me, and asked yourself “WTF is a VA Span Score?” then you probably just googled it. If you didnt, I’ll save you some time. VA stands for visual acuity, so basically, a VA Span is how well they can keep their “gaze” or “visual attention” on the text. Therefore a low VA Span score suggests that the person has issues keeping their eyes on the lines of text, while a high score means they can keep that level of focus.

Nevertheless, this is a great discovery!

“It’s great news… Our study shows that you don’t have to create a new device, you can use the technology many people already have to help people read better. It’s such an easy thing you could do.” – Jenny Thomson

Since I’ve seen several great TEDTalks who make mention of dyslexia, I thought I’d share some of them here as well, since we’re on the topic! Enjoy.