AAN Conference in DC

The weekend before last, I again attended the AAN East conference in DC; I caught up with some old friends, attended all the seminars, learned a whole lot and reviewed what I already knew, and so on and so on. But I also did a couple more notable things--I went and toured the International Spy Museum, which was wonderful and fascinating, and I could have spent all day in there, but we were able to spend the morning there before we needed to get back to the hotel for the afternoon seminars. Also, I had some superb meals while I was there. Really, every night we had fabulous food. But the staff and I went to eat at a restaurant called Tenpenh on Pennsylvania Avenue on our last night there, and it was so delicious--the meal was probably on my Top 10 list of favorite meals ever. I had the five-spice chili tea rubbed beef tenderloin with a kimchee-noodle cake and Korean chili Hollandaise sauce. And that was just the entree! I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. Here, for your viewing enjoyment, is a pic of our pre-dinner cocktails.

. . . and here's dessert--spicy peanut and hot fudge sundae with flourless chocolate cake, ice cream and peanut butter cream. Mmmmm.

Valentine's Day Snowstorm

I know it's a little late to be blogging about this, but this is what the Valentine's Day snowstorm did to my poor car:

It's Important to Note. . .

That I have a bat stuck in my window at the moment (yes, the type with wings, not the type used in a baseball game).

The Perfect Bag

As many of my readers (read: friends and family) know, I have been on a continuous, extensive, far-reaching search for what I would consider the Perfect Bag for years and years. I have bought a bag or two here and there, but I have yet to find the Perfect One. Far from it, in fact. As I was pondering this dilemma yesterday, I reasoned that I should probably put together a list of things I want (and don’t want) out of a handbag. So here’s what I’ve come up with so far. . .

The Color
Colors I like in a bag: black, silver, pale pink. Colors I don’t like in a bag: Green, yellow, violet, blue. . . . Yeah, basically, anything else. NO BROWN. I can handle a print as long as it’s not a brandname—those Louis Vuitton and Coach bags are completely and utterly obnoxious.

The Texture/Material
I love leather, but it’s so heavy! Soft, smooth leather is ideal since it’s so light. I’m not anti-fabric, though, and I dig vinyl now and then. So I’m keeping an open mind about the material. But I would prefer to stay away from nylon. I don’t mind some hardware on the bag, but full-on chain straps and whatnot are a no-no.

The Look
The most important thing is that the bag must look classy, sleek, elegant and neat—and it MUST be appropriate for evening as well as day, kind of like this:

The Body
I want a slim bag with a rectangle/square-ish shape. A framed body is ideal—that way there’s shape and structure to the bag. However, I’m not married to the idea of a framed bag. The ugly green bag I’ve been toting around lately is not structured, and it fits everything perfectly. But it’s a bit chaotic in there. Though a framed bag tends to be heavier, I feel like my stuff is safer in it because it doesn’t get so jostled while I walk or toss the bag on my bed, etc.

The Size
Big enough to carry around my essentials: my wallet (luckily I found the perfect wallet a few years ago at Anne Taylor, and I will cry when it finally dies), my small digital camera, my phone, my keys, and basic makeup pieces (mascara, lipgloss, powder), and most of the time, my iPod (which I don’t carry when I’m going out on the town)—but small enough that I feel comfortable carrying it out at a bar, kind of like this:The Strap
The strap might be the most important part of the bag, in my opinion. For the strap, I prefer a single strap as opposed to a double, and it must be the perfect length for me to easily sling it over my shoulder, but also, for it to rest neatly under my arm, like this:

The Closure
I would love for my bag to be able to be zipped close. I don’t like snaps, magnets, buttons, ties, flaps, latches, etc. THERE MUST BE NO FRINGE OF ANY KIND—that means no zipper fringe too.

The Weight
Very simply: lighter = better.

So. Now that my bag requirements are written out for the world to see, if anyone knows where to find this “perfect” bag, please, for Pete’s sake, let me know. I’d be very grateful.

I Told You

. . . Teens are evil.

The Unfortunate Corruption of Language

A terrifying side effect of text messaging:

Teens Use IM-Lingo in Essays

Oh the Fun

I happen to keep a record of some hysterical things that are said in my office. Amusing things are said every day (I happen to work with some funny--if painfully sardonic--people), but every now and then a particularly funny line comes out of someone's mouth. Here are the last few that made my Quotes List.

July 5, 2006
“What is this, White Boy Day?”
--David King (staff writer), in response to Ken Lay kicking the bucket and Rush Limbaugh being cleared of illegal Viagra ownership

July 14, 2006
“If Metroland were a musical, this would be the time of the day where the song comes in, “You’re Never Late With a Boss Like That.” (walking in 20 minutes late for a meeting)
--Shawn Stone (arts editor)

July 26, 2006
“Five-year-olds are so stupid.”
--Chet Hardin (news editor)

Aug. 16, 2006
“I’m the fashion editor. I don’t have a lot to do with fashion, but I’m responsible for bringing the style.”
--David King

Sept. 3, 2006
“I’m glad Howard Glassman exists because he makes me feel like an optimist.”
--Shawn Stone

Nov. 29, 2006
“Who the fuck brought the biscotti?”
--Chet Hardin

Jan. 10, 2007
“Beauty and the Geek is multi-layered.”
--Chet Hardin, in defense of his watching the show.

Jan. 23, 2007
“It’s like Lunchables, only hipper.”
--David King, describing his Norwegian Jake’s LunchBoxers

Jan. 30, 2007
“This is the kind of room where if we had a talking stick, we’d beat each other with it.”
--Shawn Stone

Jan. 30, 2007
“Women that tall, I have no problem hitting.”
--David King, making threats about what he’ll do to the Times Union’s (and my best gal) Kate Perry if she steals his story

Despicable Creatures of Evil and Doom

This past Saturday I was in the city for the day--I had some stuff to take care of in the early afternoon, and then I met up with Joe and we went to have sushi for dinner in the village. After dinner, we had a few drinks at a couple different places on Bleecker Street. It was a lovely day, and at around 11 PM, we went to Penn Station to part ways--Joe back to Long Island; me to Morristown, NJ, to stay with my gram for the rest of the weekend.

I missed my 11:11 train for silly reasons I won't get into, so after Joe caught his train, I sat in Penn for an hour doing a NY Press crossword, waiting for the next train.

About a half-hour into my wait, in what seemed like a blink of an eye, hordes of the most vile, destructive, contemptible creatures flooded what had been a moderately empty Penn Station. I'm talking hundreds (maybe even a thousand or two) of the worst lifeform imaginable: teenagers. They were such wretched, unthinkable beings--puking and spitting and drunk and high and crying and screaming into their cell phones and yelling at each other from across the train station. It took about 30 seconds of this nonsense for my nerves to fry.

Not wanting to be run down when trying to get to my train, I kept a close eye on the board, and when the gate was announced, I was among the first to get to the platform and board, even though those little disciples of Satan did their best to plow people over to get to the train. Seats were being taken at lightning speed, so when I spied a woman my age sitting in a two-seater, I asked, "Do you mind?" And she responded, "Are you kidding? I'd rather have you sit here than one of these hooligans," as she gestured at the teens falling over each other to grab seats. Our seats faced the empty space at the front of the train car that's available for people with wheelchairs and whatnot. That space--and every other available space on the train, including the walkways--was filled to the brim with teenagers. Cussing, shouting, know-it-all, drunk, dehydrated, horny, obnoxious, evil teenagers. And to make matters worse, since there were so many of them, it took about 10 to 15 minutes at each stop to let everyone off who needed to get off. What is usually a 45- to 50-minute train ride ended up being more than 2 hours long!

At one point, the woman sitting next to me said, "This is the longest train ride in history." I agreed, and said that I didn't know why it was taking so long. She looked at me and said, "Because we are in hell."

Update: There had been a sold-out performance of O.A.R. at MSG that night, and apparently every teenager in New Jersey had to go see it. Vile creatures.

Pan's Labyrinth

Go see it. Seriously.

This movie is one of the most magical, imaginative, disturbing, riveting, beautiful and heartbreaking movies I've seen.

Should have been nominated for Best Picture, but nevertheless, I'm hoping it will win Best Foreign Language Film.

Lazy Saturday

Today, I . . .

- slept till 11, then got up, slowly
- did 4 loads of laundry
- watched about 8 or 9 episodes of Grey's Anatomy. In a row.
- had cereal, rice and eggs, 4 cups of tea, and ice cream (at separate times)
- talked to my mom, dad, gram, and Kate. and Joe, twice.


Today, I did not . . .

- shower
- go grocery shopping
- do any work
- put make up on
- paint my toenails
- change out of my pajamas
- see anyone besides my roommate(s)
- study
- go to the gym
- leave my house (except to take the dog out once)
- mop, dust, scrub, wipe or sweep anything
- organize my closet
- pay any bills


As you can imagine, today was pretty great.

New Year's Eve, and New Year's Eve . . . Eve

In the two days leading up to the ushering in of the new year, Nate threw a couple of great parties at his house. And, of course, we were there to help celebrate.

Frank and Joe on Dec. 30--New Year's Eve Eve and the day before Frank's birthday.

Nate and his dad Nick during a game we were playing on New Year's Eve. Of course, I forget which game it was.

This is Joe hitting a wall. Cody was nice enough to keep him company on the couch.

Me and Joe.

Tuesday Afternoon in Photos

Here's our news editor, Chet, editing this week's feature, written by the lovely and talented Nicole Klaas. I'm quite certain this burrowing behavior is indicative of what a well . . . written . . . piece . . . it is. . . . . . . . .

. . . hm.

Holiday Lounging

Mitch and Kathy hang out by the fire.

My brothers and I busy doing nothing at Dad's place.

Meet Tiffany

My first and only piece of jewelry from Tiffany's, one of my Christmas presents from Joe. It's so pretty and shiny! I love it.

And To All a Good Night

Back from celebrating the holiday with friends and family in the lovely Southern Tier. Pictures, details and more are soon to come, but for now, I'm completely beat. So Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and the like. . . I'm going to bed.

It's Kate's Birthday Again!

Happy birthday, Kate!

Welcome to 27.

It's a very prestigious club, you know.

I'm Sick

Head cold, sore throat, cough and headache.

Today, that's me in a nutshell.

Is There Any Cure . . .

. . . for procrastination? I have some very serious things that need to get done and though I did more today than I have in the last few days, I'm still not being nearly as efficient and productive as I need to be.

Seriously, if anyone has any suggestions, please, please help a girl out.

Cuteness Overload

The other day, my esteemed colleagues and I spent far too much time looking and giggling at cuter-than-cute pictures of animals. Here are a couple of examples. . . pandas and kittens and marmosets, oh my!

Three of My Favorite Museums

1. the Tate Modern (London)
2. the Louvre (Paris)
3. MoMA (New York)

Friday Night

Joe came up for the weekend, and we went with Heather to check out the new John DeJohn bar, Legends, on Friday night. He did a great job with the place. It's pretty laid-back, with 1,001 TVs (but it's a sports bar so it's OK), and we had a lot of fun.

Yep, he's special.

Headline of the Day

"Mom: Vodka in Baby's Bottle 'Honest Mistake'"
(courtesy CNN)

Here's the story.

Three of My Favorite Places

1. The Spectrum
2. The Bookhouse
3. Zabar's


What's your favorite place?

Too Cute

A few weekends ago we went home and stayed with Ben and Colleen and the puppies again. The puppies are growing like weeds, of course. This pic was too cute to not blog.

Thanksgiving 06

Joe and his sister Ang out at the bars Thanksgiving Eve. . .

. . . Laura on Turkey Day . . .

. . . Mitch and his girlfriend Kathy on Turkey Day . . .

Us, at dinner with mom and Terry.

More family pictures to come once Dad sends 'em along. . .
Hope everyone had a fabulous holiday!

Kate the Great

Right, I'm talking about Kate Perry, who took me out for dinner and drinks early in my birthday week (on election day, actually) to celebrate me turning 27 (again, oy ve). She surprised me with cake, friends and presents! Here, Heather and Kate smile for the camera.

My yummy vanilla-raspberry-chocolate cake from the Vanilla Bean!

Jeb eats birthday cake. I like this picture because you can see Kate and Heather in the mirror. (I believe Heather's texting Joe here.)

It was a great time. The only thing that was missing (besides Joe, obviously) was. . .

Kristie.

Talk at SUNY Cobleskill

In September, I was invited to give a talk to communication students at SUNY Cobleskill on Nov. 8 about the reasons I got into the journalism/editing business. I am not one for public speaking, but I thought it would be a good experience, and I was flattered that they asked me. And I thought that the students could maybe benefit a little hearing from someone who's been in the business for a while who's kind of close to their age(s). Though I didn't use notes during my talk, I did write down a bunch of stuff earlier in the day (thank-you to my awesome boyfriend for helping me with an outline)--a kind of rough draft--to remind myself of things I wanted to touch on or make points about. I was asked to talk about three things: My academic/professional background; what a typical day at work is like for me; and what I like and dislike about my job. For anyone who's interested, here's what I wrote, and mostly what I talked about.

Hi, my name is Kate. I am a Senior Associate Editor at Metroland, an alternative newsweekly paper serving the Capital Region of New York and Western Massachusetts with a circulation of 40,000.

I’m very lucky in that I’ve practically always known what I’ve wanted to do for a living. I was in junior high school when I decided that I wanted to go into journalism. Many things contributed to my decision. I knew that my strengths, academically, were in reading, writing and English. I knew that I wanted to have a job where I felt that I was contributing to the community, but at the same time, where I would feel personally fulfilled in going to work and in believing that the work I did mattered.

So, I was able to focus my studies and my extra-curricular activities in the direction of my goal, which was to go to college for--and have a career in--journalism. In high school, I was very involved with the school newspaper, writing stories, and learning the basic process of editing a piece for the purposes of publishing. I briefly became a student reporter for the Southern Tier’s daily newspaper, the Press and Sun Bulletin. For my first two years of college, I went to Lock Haven University in central Pennsylvania. There, my major was Mass Communication with a concentration in Journalism. I excelled in my Journalism classes and could pretty much care less about my general-studies classes. I became the copy editor for the college newspaper and worked late nights making sure the paper was as grammatically correct and typo-free as I could make it.

After two years at Lock Haven, I transferred to UAlbany. I didn’t do much research about the school, so I didn’t know that it wasn’t possible to take journalism as a major. I got my degree in Rhetoric Communication with a minor in Women’s Studies. After college, I wasn’t in a hurry to find a “real” job, so I worked as a waitress for a year, which I did throughout college as well. At the café where I worked, we got Metroland delivered every Thursday, and I started reading it, and quickly fell in love with it. I liked that it was an independent newspaper and that its coverage of local politics (and its spin on issues) was different than the mainstream media. I met my current boss—the owner of Metroland—while I was working at the café. I told him that I wanted to work for Metroland, and I applied for a job. There were no positions available at the time, but I was determined to get a job at the paper, so I was content to continue working at the café while I pursued a job there. This lasted for about a year.

Finally, in March of 2002, I started temping at the paper when they needed extra help. That eventually turned into a fulltime position when I was hired as an editorial assistant. Over the course of the four and a half years I’ve been at Metroland, I’ve been promoted four times and, needless to say, I’ve taken on more responsibility.

A Typical Day
Metroland is a small, independent company, and therefore, we have a very small staff and we work in a very relaxed atmosphere. There are four departments at the paper: Production, Editorial, Administrative, and Sales. Each department kind of follows their own set of unspoken rules. There are six of us in the editorial department, not including my boss. We have very flexible schedules—we can come in late, leave early, work late, or work on weekends—whatever works best for us. A typical day for me would be getting at the office between 9:30 and 10 in the morning and leaving between 5 and 6 in the evening. My job varies day-to-day. Since we work on a weekly schedule, I usually take care of different things on each day of the week. Our production day is Wednesday, so Thursday is pretty much the beginning of our week. Thursdays and Fridays are spent planning the next week’s issue—we have meetings, make calls, make sure larger stories are where they need to be, update schedules, and pick out what events we want to preview or review for the next week. Each editor makes sure that his or her sections are taken care of. For example, my main section is music. I contact my music writers, or they contact me, about what shows or stories they want to cover. If someone’s profiling a musician, I make sure there’s a photographer assigned to the story. Think of being an editor as kind of like being a producer. You are the person behind the scenes, making sure everything goes smoothly and the people who need to get in touch with each other do, or if you have a writer going to review a show, make sure that he has tickets waiting for him at the door. And make sure there’s a photographer there to shoot the band, etc.

Mondays through Wednesdays are generally spent writing, editing, and basically producing the paper. I’d love to say that we make our deadlines every week, but we rarely do. I have yet to come across an editorial staff that’s really good about making deadlines. Wednesdays are usually pretty stressful, trying to make our 5 o’clock deadline, but I got to leave early today, so I was happy to leave the other editors with the work.

What I Love/Hate About the Job
I am extremely lucky, because I love my job. I really do. I like maintaining good relationships with my writers, I like that I work in a relaxed office with very smart people, I like that I believe in the product that we put out, and I like the freedom I have in terms of schedule and creativity. There are some fabulous perks—sometimes I get to travel for work. I get to meet really cool people. I get to work with people I admire and respect. What I don’t like? Deadlines. Having to conform to other people’s schedules. Dealing with difficult people. And sometimes, I don’t like the lack of structure.

Metroland's Blog

The editorial staff at the newspaper where I work are very excited, because we finally have a blog on our Web site!

We need to blog more, to be sure, but we did live-blog the election.

Also, another area blog took enough notice of ours to call us "boring." That was nice. At least people are looking.

It's My Birthday!

Today I'm 27. One year closer to 30. Oy ve.

Today is Election Day

Don't

Forget

to

Vote!

Halloween

Running Forrest Gump and Coked-Out Jenny. TLA.

Whose Idea Was It . . .

. . . to make matching sweatsuits fashionable? I don't care how fancy they are--sweats belong in the gym, at home, or walking the dog.

That's all for now.

Top Five Pet Peeves About the Gym

1. People who do not use the cardio equipment during their scheduled time.
2. Women with long hair who don't put it up while they're working out. If you don't put your hair up, you're not there to break a sweat, and therefore don't belong at the gym at all.
3. People dropping weights. It startles me every time.
4. People who try to talk to me while I'm working out. Just don't.
5. Short shorts on guys. ANY guys. Ick.

Anyone have any other gym pet peeves I haven't thought of?

Autumn Weekend in NYC

Spent the weekend in the city with Joe. . . It was fabulous, thanks for asking. :-)

While walking in Central Park, we came across some sort of doggie festival, where we oohed and ahhed at all the pretty dogs. Here, Joe cuddles a Newfoundland that was bigger than him.

We ate at Kunjip, a great restaurant in the teeny area south of Midtown known as Koreatown. The food was yummy, but Joe had a problem separating the noodles. It was quite an amusing display of chopstick ability.

We watched the ice skating in Rockefellar Plaza for a while (does anything feel more New York, or more Christmas-y? I think not). . .

. . . and stole a kiss before walking another 20 blocks downtown.

San Fran (Beyond the Bars)

The Fishermans Wharf, of course.
Boats. Lots of 'em.
Caitlin feasts on crab.

More San Fran Photos

Caitlin sings karaoke!
Michael uses parking meters as hurdles.
Megan, Caitlin and I won a karaoke contest! It was a cash prize: $75. Megan is overjoyed, and therefore sticks the money down her shirt. None of us can blame her.

San Francisco Pics

Here's a smattering of the pics I took in San Francisco:

Michael (Syracuse New Times) and Caitlin (Charleston City Paper) rock out on a San Fran street.

We got a rum bowl at a bar in the Haight. . .
. . . and we drank it. . .
A reminder on the street to not dump waste down the grates--we must protect the sea animals!
Here, I'm enjoying a glass of sangria at a tapas restaurant called Cha Cha Cha's, and giving a look to Andrew, meant to say, "Who is this chick [to the left of me] and why is she so hyper?"

My San Fran Pics (?)

OK, I know, I know, all of you who know me know I took a ton of pics in San Fran. So where are they, you're wondering? They're on my computer and waiting for me to sift through them to select a representational few. Which will not happen until next week, because I am going to New Jersey tonight to visit my Gram and then I'll be on Long Island to spend the weekend with Joe. That makes me super happy. :-) In the meantime, I'll post this San Fran photo to represent the fact that it was FLEET WEEK while I was there. That made for quite the scene!

An Epiphany

As I unpacked and hung up my clothes in my hotel room in San Francisco, I realized something. . .

What does this mean??

The Girls

Kristie was home for a week but Kate and I were only able to visit with her on Tuesday night because Kristie had a death in the family that she was dealing with and I was away in San Fran for the majority of her time home. We went to DeJohn's for drinks and caught up for a few hours. It was lovely.

Flowers in My Hair

I'm heading to San Francisco today for a Web Publishing Conference. I'll be sure to take pics of all the alt-weekly cats to post here when I get back (I'm sure y'all didn't get enough of it from my pics of Little Rock). I'll be back on Monday. Til then. . .