Locks, Keys and Cheese

We arrived in Prague around the time of the attack on the US Embassy in Libya and the subsequent wave of protests and violence across many countries.  Understandably, the four of us were concerned about the tensions in wherever we'd be headed next.  Since our initial final stop on Mr. and Mrs. Reed's vacation was Istanbul, we spent several days debating whether or not to continue with the plan.  Istanbul is a cosmopolitan city, but there had been some peaceful protests at the city's main university.  Eventually we decided it would be better to choose a different location for the last six days of the trip.  Hopefully we'll make it back to Istanbul soon.

As an alternative to Istanbul, we chose Paris.  I know, I know.  "Well, I guess we'll go to Paris."  Le sigh.  We did some extreme last-minute planning, and it worked out wonderfully. 

Panic Button

I had one moment of pure panic during the two months I lived in France.  There were smaller instances of concern, like when I pressed the wrong button and set my host family's washing machine on some kind of infinite rinse cycle and when I learned that the bulk of my internship would be answering phones to speak to nervous French students.  Though embarrassing and stressful, they were things I could deal with.  My panic moment was minor in retrospect, but at the time I freaked out and had no idea what to do.  Here's the story.

I had a long weekend in June, so I went to visit my friend Hope who was living in Roanne, a tiny town outside of Lyon.  She was an intern at Troisgros, which she wrote about here.  We had a very relaxing, very French weekend.  Hope introduced me to comté and Sancerre.  We found a Pirates of the Caribbean-themed local bar.  It was a great weekend, especially since I hadn't seen Hope in six months.

Our picnic of cheese, bread, cherries and wine - amazing!

I Heart NY

Last weekend I fell in love with New York City.  I'd been to the city a few times before and had always had a great time.  My previous trips had been brief with specific events planned: Broadway shows, a tour of Ellis Island, a visit to the New York Historical Society.  This weekend was for a wedding, but on Sunday I found myself with a few hours with nothing planned.  After dropping off my duffel bag at the hotel and praying I could check in with enough time to primp before the wedding started I began carefully finding my way around the neighborhood.  

Our hotel was in Chinatown near Little Italy (on Broome Street and Bowery).  I set out in search of breakfast and coffee, hoping I could find somewhere to sit and read for the three hours I had before I could actually check into my room.  At first I was disoriented, seeming to find only small markets and stores that sold lighting equipment.  I was tempted to sit down and eat cannoli at the first Italian café I found.  I kept going, reached Lafayette Street and saw this:

Cheers to Wine

For many years I've had a very specific vision of what my life would look like after I graduated from college.  I would get a good job - that part was always vague - in a major city.  I would have a well-decorated apartment that was often filled with sunlight.  I would wear professional, fashionable outfits and adorable shoes, which would be miraculously comfortable, and I'd walk around the city wearing cool trench coats and pea coats as the weather permitted.  After work, I'd either go out to a wine bar and have a drink or two with my equally successful and fashionable friends or I'd go home and whip up a nutritiously well-balanced meal that looked like it came from the pages of Gourmet.  Since graduating, I've learned that this is harder to do than I'd thought.  For one thing, decorating an apartment to make it look like a Crate & Barrel catalog is extremely expensive.  But still, I've slowly started on the path towards my Sophisticated Urban Working Girl dream.  

Kind of like Kate Beckett from Castle, though I'm not tough enough to be a cop.

I Want to Be Tina Fey

When I was in seventh grade, I began watching Saturday Night Live. It was a big deal that my parents allowed me to stay up so late and I felt extremely grown up and sophisticated. One of my favorite parts of each episode was Weekend Update, hosted by Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon. Once I realized that Tina Fey was SNL’s head writer, I had a new goal in life: Be Tina Fey.

I worked with my friend Hope to accomplish my goal. Together, we wrote our own sketch comedy show: Saturday Afternoon Prerecorded. (We were so clever.) SNL comedian Rachel Dratch was from Lexington like us, and Amy Poehler was from neighboring Burlington. We were from a core of future SNL stars! We were clearly destined for greatness. Looking back now, I am still proud of some of our sketches. One was about Looming Finals, which would follow you as you studied yelling, “Looooom! Rhymes with Doom! You will be Dooooom…ed!” Not too shabby for seventh graders. Another favorite was one of Hope’s, about James Bond’s illegitimate child who goes to therapy to try to work out his daddy issues only to discover that his therapist was one of Bond’s conquests. We also attempted to write a Weekend Update segment, though that mostly focused on the Lexington Minuteman Police Log. It seems every week, a “group of youths” is seen cavorting around town and wreaking havoc on skateboards. As you can see, my hometown is a hotbed of crime and excitement.

I dreamed of filming an episode of our show and sending it to Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center. Tina Fey would eventually find it, realize how hilarious and brilliant I was, contact me to ask if she could use the ideas Hope and I came up with for the show, and eventually, once I was legally old enough to work, ask me to move to New York City to be her personal assistant/co-writer.

Sadly, Hope and I never got around to filming Saturday Afternoon Prerecorded (which has a really terrible acronym, looking back on it). During high school, I started wanting to be David Sedaris as well as Tina Fey, but I also realized that I am not nearly as funny as I thought I was in seventh grade. I wrote a college admissions essay about how I had wanted to be Tina Fey but recognized that it was impossible, so planned to major in English or History. (Though I thought this would set me out from the crowd, I now think that the admissions officer must have been sad that I had given up on my dreams at age 18 and that is why I got waitlisted at that school.)

In 2006, Tina Fey launched her own show, 30 Rock, of which I am now a devoted fan. Between that and Amy Poehler’s Parks and Recreation, I am reminded each week of my seventh grade goal. Now, as I am about to graduate from U of M with a degree in history and not sketch comedy or even creative writing, I recognize that I am probably not going to be Tina Fey. However, being reconnected with my goals is definitely a good thing. While I might not be the head writer on SNL, at least I know that I want to work to do something creative. Maybe it will creative and clever enough that Tina Fey will eventually call me… We’ll see!

Who did you want to be when you grew up? Let me know!