Texas: day 3.210

Announcement

When it comes to life I like to savor it by the minute so it was with some trepidation that I formally committed myself to graduate school last week. Yes — even though I have wanted nothing more than to be done with college from the instant the doctors surgically removed me from my mother’s tiny womb, I am going to grad school.

Actually, I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve been rejected from four jobs now and have yet to hear from 22. Even though the AP rejected me with a personal phone call from the Dallas bureau chief (which, according to the New Yorker hierarchy of rejection, is a very favorable way to be rejected), that fact does not career make.

Who knows where these crazy economic winds will take us, friends. For me, it’s back to NYC, where I can spend another year eating oatmeal, reading The Chronicle of Higher Education and complaining about finals.

And that is my 10-month plan.

Texas: day 3.196

So I lost my brown sweater and I am sad. With this loss, a particular feeling is reborn — one that co-opted my childhood and stunted my adolescence. It’s the psychology of material sentimentality: becoming inordinately attached to things and subsequently despondent when those things are lost, altered or taken away.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with sentimentality (see: Robert C. Solomon’s “In Defense of Sentimentality;” although it focuses on more visceral aspects of syndrome, the arguments presented are meaningful nonetheless) but it can get a little too Glass Menagerie-y. This is why I don’t collect miniatures anymore. Anyway so yeah if you see my brown sweater let me know. It’s a brown cardigan with brown buttons. Very soft.

Also, because this blog’s mission statement implies that transparency and accountability are its guiding forces, I will concede that I watched “All The President’s Men” three times last weekend. -

Texas: day 3.190

On Friday, within minutes of arriving in upstate NY, I remembered why I left upstate NY: THE WEATHER. Cold, rainy, spiteful, misanthropic. Terrible. Just terrible. More than enough to make one move to Texas for 3 years.

BUT upstate NY does have something on the South: seltzer (not just Henry). The seltzer there is delicious. I’m talking Polar brand Pomegranate flavor, which tastes like pop rocks, and my longtime personal favorite, Poland Springs Mandarin Orange blend.

In Texas you can only get LaCroix which, for some reason, reminds me of menopause, HEB brand, the quality of which speaks for itself or the hippie kind from Wheatsville, which is way overpriced and loses its vigor quickly.

Good thing I’m moving back (kind of).

Texas: day 3.185

This weekend I will be traveling to Saratoga Springs, New York to present at the annual convention of the New York Press Association. I will be talking about blogging, my one true love, obviously, besides the Albany airport — the most memorable place in my life between the ages of 18 and 20 — which I will get to patronize tomorrow and Saturday!!! Albany is the city of the future.

For what it’s worth, here’s a personal reflection on being Rush Limbaugh’s cousin by Rush Limbaugh’s cousin.