Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

Lately there have been little things getting under my skin. Things at X Mag, people on the street, people who neglect personal hygiene on the subway (yea, gross), cashiers at stores, this intolerable heat wave, etc. But in the past week or so, I keep constantly reminding myself that you really cannot sweat the small stuff. If you let all these little things get in the way of you having a smooth, terrific day, you'd be walking around upset all the time. So I keep trying to remind myself, if something doesn't go the right way (like the A "Express" (what a joke) train taking 25 minutes today to reach 14th st), get over it. Sure, I sweat my @$$ off on that platform that was over 100 degrees but you know what? I eventually reached my destination, and that was that. On the topic of this heat, I'm convinced Mexico has relocated to New York City. Actually, I'm sorry but I'm pretty sure it was hotter here than Mexico the past two days. Ridiculous. Painful to inhale. Feels like a giant sauna (if only the outdoor air was pampering like a spa/sauna). Well, in sync with the current weather, I'm saying, Don't. Sweat. The. Small. Stuff...and it's all small stuff most of the time. Ya can't fret about everything and you also can't let everything get on your nerves. Patience is a virtue.
Besides all of this, I had a fanfreakingtastic 4th of July weekend. Got out of work early Friday, had McDonald's Saturday (yes, this was a highlight of the weekend because it's only the second time I've had fast food here compared to 3-4 times a week in college), went to Coney Island Sunday (no, we did not see the ex-champ get arrested at Nathan's), watched the most amazing fireworks I've ever seen, and crashed a hotel pool Monday to cool off. Well, that was a mouthful, huh? But what a great 4-day lineup I had.
And then...Tuesday morning rolled around. Had an errand to run for X Mag. Set out on the train...success. Store I needed to go to...fail. Reason: remodeling. Traveled way back uptown to another location, did what I had to, hopped in a cab back to the office due to the extreme heat and frustration and then...an unbelievable bonus: The taxi driver turned the meter off for me! I think that's the nicest thing any New Yorker has done for me yet! We started chatting and the second I said, "Yeaaa, I make peanuts here," I caught his pointer finger reaching for the button on his dash. SO nice. Ok, I might be able to get used to the people here afterall...

In the meantime...Would You Wear/Do You Own...

Harem pants? So mine are not Vivienne Westwood like the ones pictured here...just some $5 H & M ones I snagged on clearance Saturday. But I'm a bit hesitant to try 'em....

PS-Lady Gaga Has More Friends Than You!

Karl Lagerfeld Thanksgiving

You'll never guess where I'm typing from right now. Central Park? I wish. Starbucks? Nope, it's even better. I'm currently staring at the large Mac screen on my desk at work. Yup, ya heard me...I'm blogging while I'm at X Mag. Incredible-never thought I'd see the day. Very exhilarating I must say. We barely have anything to do today, coming in was pointless. I'm waiting on some clothing to arrive and that's it so I figured why not play catch up with all of you out there. The office is practically empty due to everyone rushing out to the Hamptons for their oh-so-exclusive 4th of July festivities.
So, I know if I'd get a progress report for this blog, I'd probably have about a C because I've been lazy with my posting, which I am SO not happy about. When I initially started, I had every intention of posting every day and creating a pattern of things I include at the bottom...but that's not really happening now, is it? Hopefully, I can get back on track after the nice, long weekend.
Well, I have a valid excuse for Tuesday night's absence. I attended a Stylecaster party with some gals from work, making Wednesday quite the hump-day struggle. We were all on about 4 hours of sleep, bloodshot eyes...you get the point...we looked fabulous. Needless to say, I crashed in my meat-locker-temperature apt. after work for a solid 3 hours, skipping din and my usual nightly routine of flipping between E!, Bravo, and MTV. Ok sorry for the long rambling sesh, on to more important things.
At X Mag on Monday, I had to find inspirational pictures, and while going thru random blogs just like I go thru random clothing here on the reg, I stumbled across Danny Roberts' blog. Amazing. I feel al little behind the times because I'm sure many of you are already acquainted with his stuff, but whatevs. I mean, I've seen his work before and always thought it was cool but now I'm officially obsessed. So obsessed that I'm covering my entire wall in my room with his paintings. I'll be sure to post a pic of it when it's done. I'm uber excited-it's gonna be my little craft project. He copies covers of international Vogues, uses eye-popping colors and has this technique I can't get over. The one below is my current fave, a "Karl Lagerfeld Thanksgiving" with the girls donned in the Chanel Spring 2010 collection on his side. Furthermore, if you haven't already heard this old news...he just recently collaborated with Forever 21 and did sketches of bloggers like Geri Hirsch from Because I'm Addicted and Alice Point. Check out his interview with Forever 21's mag here.

Love it? Take a peek at my friend Rachel's blog..she's got a grid banner with loads of his portraits.
In other news, it was like Christmas after lunch at X Mag yesterday. After devouring a canoli and cheesecake brownie (whoops! ok ok, I split both with the girls) in the caf, I came upstairs and found a Seven discount card for me. 30% off any pair of my favorite jeans. Wahooo! Annnd a shiny new Blackberry had my name written all over it. Explanations: My boss simply didn't want the gift cards and gave them to us and the Blackberry had been sitting in the back of a prop closet for over a year, craving to be played with and have an owner. Good stuff.

In the meantime, I've got my eye on...

This WRecordsbyMonkey Brooklyn necklace. This is an independent Brooklyn-based design company I discovered at the Young Designer's Market down in NoLita a few weeks ago. Well, actually, my boss was wearing it and I immediately had to have it so I ventured down to the big warehouse on a Saturday afternoon and the guy didn't have this one with him that day..bummer. Oh well. Another time. Love Brooklyn and love it even more because that's where my mommy dearest is from so it's sorta got some meaning behind it, right? :)

These Streets Will Make You Feel Brand New

Today marked the beginning of my 4th week here. So crazy. Time has seriously flown by. I'm definitely still getting acquainted, trying to figure out which neighborhoods I like to roam around the most, shop in, dine in, and so forth. I don't think I can really pick just one though. Also, today I realized there are certain moments that I really feel like I'm here, like actually living and working here. It does seem sort of surreal still when I take a step back and think about it. But these quick minutes or so are great reminders of how happy and fortunate I am to be here. For instance, today I was making my usual trek down to Penn station, passing the same places, and many of the same people who are always outside their offices smoking (yuck), and some song came on my Ipod (if I remembered I'd share) that just caused me to have an extra jolt of energy in my step and made something go off in my head that was saying, "You're in New York City! Be Happy! Look around!" Not that I'm not happy by any means but Mondays can be tough because I tend to hang in my cool apartment at a standstill since I have the day off. And I really like to constantly be on the go and fill my days here, but today was as hot as the Sahara out there, so I stayed indoors as much as I could. Chilling (literally) in my apartment is great and relaxing but when doing so, I tend to start over-thinking unnecessary things and what not, ya know? Overall, getting out of my white box was exhilarating today and for some reason, venturing down the street particularly reminded me that I am creating an amazing life here and still have so much to learn, see, and do.
In the meantime, things I'm loving right now:

1. Meeting Rumi from Fashion Toast at the Forever 21 Launch Party Thursday night!

2. Clear mascara. Perfect for keeping your curl but not as heavy looking as black (although I love caking that on without anything else at times) and won't smudge and show when it's scorching hot.

3. La Roux Pandora station

Not so much..

1. A/C broken on the subway. Over 100 degrees. Melted like a cherry popsicle in the middle of July.

2. Being homesick every Sunday. So strange. Hits me the hardest Sunday afternoons.

3. Jake and Vienna splitting. I realize this is totally last week's news (or maybe even 2 weeks ago) but the cover of the July 5th People did not make me happy when I read, "Why I left Vienna" in big, bold letters. I followed that season religiously and rooted for Vienna the entire time. Yes, I liked Vienna. I said it. When everyone couldn't stand her, I thought she was the best for him. Well, apparently not. And now all these nasty rumors are out, and I'm thinking she did it for publicity, and I just hate when things don't end happily ever after like the season finale makes it out to be. Womp Womp. Oh well, life goes on. It's just "reality" tv, right? (No, I did not make the picture below, just thought it was a funny Google image result)

TGIF

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It's Friday. As in the Friday that I have the day off. So what am I doing cuddled under my comforter scraping the bottom of my Whole Foods salsa, watching "The Last Days of Michael Jackson" on E? Well, let me fill you on the past 24 hours (since I was a slacker and didn't post yesterday) Yesterday was another "good day" at X Mag. Filled my hours with Pandora and Google searching once again. Left early at 5:30, got home and took a breath, and was right back out the door to dinner at Uva on the UES. Afterwards, my friend and I headed to the Forever 21 Times Square launch party. We arrived at the doors, stated our names, and as the doorman checked the list, we didn't feel too confident. We looked at each other like "What's going on? We RSVPed yesterday" After listing what magazine we were with and some of our bosses names, we were standing on the brand spanking new tile floor, adorned in a purple wristband.
While oohing and ahhing at all the cute new clothes and layout of the store, we reached the bottom, where the party came to life. As we were enjoying our champagne flutes, we ran into a friend from another magazine and she immediately said, "Ohhhh, you guys got purple wristbands too?!...You know that everyone with purple on is on the V.I.P list or an editor....I've had a handful of people come introduce themselves to me like I was someone important." Well, well, well...what a nice little surprise. Us twentysomethings were being perceived as big-wigs. So we carried on and chit chatted for a while, turned our heads back and forth like a tennis match at the fashion show, and were on our way out after a few hours at our first fashion-industry-networking-kind-of-event, if you will. We received our goody bags and encountered a swarm of tourists at the exit, curious to know what was going on. Pushing through the crowd, we made our way to a bar across the street. And so on...
8 a.m. this morning, Blackberry screaming in my ear, I knew I had to get up and get on the A train to get on the F to meet my boss to get the Leyendecker sweater, and bring it to Saks. I had my whole routine planned out like a printout of HopStop directions, but I did not want to pull back the covers. Twenty-five minutes later, there I was standing on the platform for the downtown A, feeling like I was run over by a train on 4 hours of sleep. Needless to say, it was one of those subway rides where I didn't slide my Wayfarers up. I had to hide my sleep-deprived face from all. And might I add, I really can't stand when people do that on the train. They try to be so mysterious behind their sunnies but it's like "Really? Everyone knows you're people watching/staring anyways...." I was finally on the F, and I probably would have fallen asleep right then and there if it wasn't for Phoenix blasting in my ears, when I did the unthinkable and leaned my head on the germ-infested hand rail to my right. Sick. Never again. I finally reached my destination, got the freaking sweater from my boss, and got right back on the train to head all the way over to Saks. I'd go on and add all the problems I came across in that time, but it's exhausting me all over to just think about it (and this post is getting rather lengthy). At last, I was back under the covers, chowing down on an everything bagel, watching the current World Cup game (Finally! Our office needs a TV! So mad I missed that 91st minute earlier this week!)
So, after a 4 hour nap, here I am, still not ready to move an inch. I suppose I'll Ebay for a little while longer and then force myself to get moving. After all, it is the weekend, which means it's time for total relaxation and fun. TGIF.

Scatterbrained

My mind is quite scattered right now and I can't focus on a single thing to elaborate on. So I figured I'd leak what's going on up top:

1. Today was a great day in the office. By a great day, I mean a slow day, and by a slow day, I mean my boss wasn't there, meaning I had 4 tabs open completely unrelated to work: Pandora, Facebook, CocoPerez, and Twitter. Ok, so I was sort of working...my task for the day was to find cool, artsy pictures and I did come across some, thanks to links on Twitter and such. I did feel bad for the other gals who were busy bees all day but we simply did not have as much to accomplish. It's not like I don't work my behind off every other day....

2. I totally splurged in the sweets dept. today, One of the girls brought in Magnolia cupcakes and I didn't remember they were in the fridge until I got back from lunch after inhaling fro-yo in the caf (which was topped with loads of chocolate chips and sprinkles) and getting my daily Cherry Jelly Bellies in the news shop. Oh well. Live a little, right? It was delish and well worth the cals.

3. However....feeling a tad guilty for caving for my sweet tooth, I got back on the treadmill after a little week escape. I was doing really well with going last week and then I started making up excuses like being too tired, having a headache, having people to call back, etc. But just when I was going to settle back down on my bed post-dinner tonight, I flipped like a light switch and was in my Nikes before I knew it on my way down to the gym. Motto of the night: Just do it. HA.

4. I'm super excited because I just learned that I have Friday off-whooohoo. 3-day work week. How am I going to spend my Friday? Visit relatives on Long Island? Visit a good friend in Westchester? Lay out in Sheep Meadow? Ehhh...we'll figure that out when it gets here I guess.

5. Also pumped because a few of us from X Mag are gonna check out The Frying Pan tomorrow for din and drinks and are then heading to the Forever 21 Launch Party in Times Square. Should be a good time and fun for all of us to hang outside of the office!

In the meantime, Would You Wear....



A utility/military look dress or skirt? The military look has been around for a bit but with summer in full swing, it's a little more relaxed now without as many buttons and strong shoulders. Khaki has been making a slight comeback and also keep your eyes peeled for dark green, which fits into this trend, and will be a big color come Fall!

On To The Next One

We had a great meeting today in the office. A department wide meeting with an awesome Q & A session. It was informative, inspiring, and refreshing for all who attended. But it also got me thinking a great deal. We discussed a range of things like how long everyone has been at X Mag, the huge web of how everyone is connected, and also what other jobs everyone had prior to X Mag. In a nutshell, everyone interned their butts off and worked their way up. "Okay..." I thought silently to myself..."I'm off to a good start, right?" Well yes and no. Yes, because sure, I love what I do every day and love the people I work with and am building great relationships. But on the other hand, am I 110% positive magazines, more specifically, fashion within a magazine is what I want to do forever and ever? I mean, up until this fork in the road, I've been pretty sure. But after hearing those above me explain their journey that led them to X Mag, I realized they did not consistently work for a magazine.
As a matter of fact, they couldn't stop saying to try new things while you can, and don't stick to one specific area just yet. Here I am, all along, feeling confident knowing that I've had my heart set on working for a magazine, but now (with that quizzical Bradshaw look on my face), I'm thinking, "Am I that passionate about magazines or fashion?" If the answer is fashion (which I don't have an answer at this point hence this post), then I could try on lotsa different hats...fashion PR, trend forecasting, marketing, freelance styling...the list goes on. So all in all, I guess the question I've really got to get to the bottom of is if a job at a magazine is my perfect fit. And I've got time, which is comforting but not a whole lot.
If I plan on staying in NYC indefinitely, I've got to get the ball rolling with July right around the corner. I've got to start handing out my resume like the annoying people who stand outside Dunkin Donuts every morning handing out fliers. But the kicker of this whole shebang is that my first-choice job may not be available. Odds are I won't land my ideal job right away and I'll have to try on those other hats, shoes, whatever. What I'm saying is, I guess I'll have to take whatever I can get at this point, whether it's a mag or a PR company.
But ultimately, that meeting really got me thinking and was a wake up call that said, "Hey! Don't be so narrow minded! There are plenty of options out there." So, even if X Mag can't squeeze me in at the end of all this, I'll be on to the next one, and eventually satisfied wherever I might end up. Variety is the spice of life and the more experience, the better.

In the meantime, I've got my eye on...



A couple of things I've been absolutely loving lately are plain white tees and sequins...separately. But when I spotted this tee on Asos, it caught my eye with the striking combination of the two. Love it.

Politics, Schmolitics

I knew what I was getting into. Sure, I've never actually experienced it in the office but I knew it existed. I've been warned a bajillion times by my dad that it exists. It's something you can't escape and get wrapped up in. "IT" is office politics. "It's all about who you know," "CYA," "Don't trust anyone"...I've heard all the advice since my first job working at a smoothie joint. Now, it's the real deal. It's the cliques, social cattiness, and hierarchies I've always thought about and wondered about their existence and how intense it gets. Forewarning: The following text might evolve into a serious venting sesh. So over at X Mag, I work on the way bottom of the totem pole. I'm talking like the foundation the totem pole sits on in the ground. Therefore, I don't have a say, for anything, no matter how small it may be. I'm voiceless.

However, there are others who also hang with me at the most southern part of the pole that feel they have more power and can do as they please. Why? Beats me. But it's pretty irritating to say at the least. There's a bunch of us that are in the same boat, have the same positions, so why must one think she is better than the rest? We're supposed to be working as a team, right? No, that logic is pretty much out the door because it's now the peak of week 3, and the competition is just heating up.
I previously mentioned that I did not have "an in" like the rest and sometimes I feel like that is almost working against me. I didn't have some mutual friend or someone my dad knew hand me the job. At times, I feel like that is creating a problem because I don't have a point person to go to like everyone else. I am just me. Furthermore, those who knew someone receive better treatment, or "special treatment." Our bosses are more casual with them and I get a sense that they trust them more. It's unfair. We're all doing the same kind of work, we all started at the same time (well it's a matter of 3 days apart, big whoop).
On another note, I'm starting to wonder if people ever learned basic manners. I'm talking "Please," "Thank you," "Excuse me," and the like. While I hear those kind words from the gals in my position, rarely do I ever hear anything remotely close to what's polite from those who are above us. Yes, of course we'll do what you want us to do for you but will it really hurt you to say "Please" while asking? I know these people have a heart somewhere inside and are fully capable of using words they learned back in grade school. But no, they consistently just demand things from us in their notoriously snooty tones. Whatever. I'm slowly learning to just suck it up and smile..but of course I still blow off steam with the rest around the lunch table for an hour. I swear, I wouldn't make it through my days if it wasn't for that hour. "Some days you're the pigeon and others you're the statue." Well, I'm pretty positive I'll always be a statue for now, and those above me will be permanent pigeons.

In the meantime...Would You Wear...


Bright red lipstick? Supposedly, this is going to be a big beauty trend come fall along with matching your lips to your outfit...