Photos from my first day of my internship at Redbook and a year later a picture of from my first day of my job at Cosmo. A photo from my first day renting an apartment during my internship summer and the first day of living in a real apartment in Brooklyn!
It’s been a year since I technically moved to New York (I flew to NY on May 21, 2011) and I had no idea I’d be here again. My birthday is tomorrow (and Jen’s is today! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JHO! or however you say it in Irish) too. My French friends are in town for the week. They bought me surprise box seats to Phantom of the Opera last night, which was a lot of fun and really sweet of them. And the fabulous MELISSA is here this weekend too! I feel so lucky and so happy.
Good things to come. Maybe I’ll be here again in a year, ringing in my 24th… Wow, that is really weird to say.
-Malia
I really like New York City, but
I really miss nature.
When I went home at the end of April and walked outside that first morning into my lush, green backyard, I was overwhelmed. On my last day, I cried pathetically sitting in a lawn chair because it’s hard to leave home and realize that from here on out every time you leave home you’re just going to continue leaving it behind a little more.
-Malia
My freshman year, I met my friend Tegan (I’ve discussed her plenty of times here). She was in a French class running an exchange program with a French class. They visited the U.S. for a couple weeks and the Americans flew to France for spring break in exchange. I never would have guessed it, but when the French kids came, I ended up really liking a bunch of them and flew to France along with Tegan’s class for break. Bonds were sealed. Over the years, because I was fortunate enough to study abroad more than once, Tegan and I proceeded to see the French kids several more times. In fact, the last time I saw them was in Paris to celebrate my 21st birthday.
It’s been…good God, has it seriously been two years since then?? And four years since I met them? That’s weird. But now, two years later, two of the Frenchies—Elodie and Julien—are venturing back across the waters to visit me/the big city and to ring in my 23rd birthday (bleh). The last time we were all together in the States, they saw Obama win the SC primary. They ran into Bill Clinton at our student union’s Starbucks because he was giving a surprise speech about Hillary. And now it’s another election cycle! Already. So crazy.
Here’s to a great week with these French fools and more long-distance memories to come. I’m still in shock a little.
-Malia
Please excuse these photos. We’ve looked better.
Darren Criss (of Glee fame) made a YouTube video with his brother and in it he wears this shirt. Hapa is a term for half-Asian (it’s a Hawaiian term that my parents always use). Anyway, I sent the video to my mother as a joke and four days later, I get a package in the mail with this…
She really should get happy mother’s day credit every day.
-Malia
What, did he major in charisma?
Anyway, kind of clever video about how terrible all majors are.
What the U.S. Can—and Can't—Learn from Israel's Ban on Ultra-Thin Models
Our baller friend Tali who works at the New York Times and who I stayed with when I first got to New York just had an article published in The Atlantic. Check it out. She is so cool!!
-Malia
All these people are getting married on my minifeed (minifeed marriages!) and it occurred to me yesterday that I am the least marriageable person ever.
I can’t cook, sew, ride a bike or fix anything. I’ve never been on a roller coaster and never plan on getting on one. I can’t tie a tie. I know zip about sports because I’ve never played one. Definitely would die in a fight. I’m an only child who’s never babysat or hung out with children, so just forget diapers and rocking newborns to sleep. No clue. I’ve never lit a match or seen Star Wars, Indiana Jones or James Bond. I kick people in my sleep. WHO WOULD MARRY ME? Most people can list skills—like, oh, X is an amazing cook or Y is an awesome volleyball player.
But I…provide maybe max 15 people with moderate amusement and call penis meetings for a living. These aren’t skills that would save my life on a desert island, let alone make me a great wife. I’m doomed. The end.
At least I know the difference between a Phillips and a flathead screwdriver.
Is that Phillips with one L or two?
-Malia
I did used to be fairly good with Paint program. In middle school. And one time I made guacamole for a potluck and people said they liked it.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAITLIN!
This was taken when I went home to SC over the weekend for the first time since moving. Girl looks gorgeous. Not that she didn’t always, but I am so proud of this redheaded harlett for getting into a kickass design program. As if you couldn’t already tell from her pgl posts that she deserved to be there, buuut. Roll out your red carpet, Richmond, or CKB will have to…roll out hers… that was in terrible taste. I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. (Drs.?) Bradley. So foul. Where has my mind gone?
-Malia
Girls
Allison Williams, one of the stars of HBO’s new show “Girls”, stopped by the office today. I got to meet her in the lobby and take her up and so I could tell her quickly that my favorite line so far is, “Well, Joy Lin knows Photoshop.” Also I told her that this show speaks to my life—they just moved to Brooklyn postgrad! And me too. She was very sweet and poised, and it’s a little weird that she’s only a year older than me.
Fame is always close by in my building. I’ve seen Judd Apatow, Nina Garcia and Mad Men’s Sal in the salad line in the café. Oprah was in the building last week (I missed her, bah!). It’s not a big deal, but it always makes me have farfetched fantasies wherein I hit it off with some celeb and we become BFFLs and g-chat each other constantly and get drinks and watch 90s movies and discuss our feelings about weird stuff like subway preachers and the excessive use of hair extensions in “Once Upon a Time.”
It’s a great dream, right? My friends ask me, “What’ll happen if you bump into Tina Fey??” and I pause and realize…absolutely nothing. I’ll be Troy when he meets LeVar Burton. He just freaks out because he CAN’T MEET HIM IN REAL LIFE. I’d hate myself the whole time, hate the wasted opportunities because I can’t be that girl. The girl who throws herself at someone who is just a person at the end of the day. Sure, I’d be a loyal friend. I’d tell LiLo she seriously needs to get off of the drugs and she’d bow her head in shame and say, “I knoow.”
And it’s everywhere here, this celebrity culture, especially where I work. I’m at once over-saturated with it and obsessed.
What’s a girl to do?
-Malia
This boy be cray, but I hope they let him in.
-Malia
