people observation #25: Row Mans & Relation Ships

Notice the gum on my cup. I have
 no intention of chewing that later.

I'm currently sitting at a Starbucks window seat in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Coffee shop window seats provide prime location for people watching. One can eavesdrop to ongoings inside, but also watch some awesome people outside. I find a great deal of enjoyment in inventing stories for passersby.

Whenever I see people going on jogs, I pretend it's actually because he or she is running from the next jogger behind them, and depending how soon this next jogger comes, I determine if the first jogger makes it where he or she was going safely.

A Jeep pulls up to a man on the corner and asks for directions. I pretend the man giving directions takes them on a five mile detour passed his small sandwich shop he just opened up, because he's all about nonchalant and passive advertising, pun intended.

The longer I stare out the window, the more complex my stories get.

The person standing right outside the window from me is dressed fairly well. He's bald with decently stylish glasses, but he also has his septum pierced, a very thick metal hoop through both nostrils, with a two iron balls the size of large peas on the ends. I imagine he's a generally conservative fellow who, in a phase of self-searching, dated a free spirited hippie-chick a couple years back that made him do it, and now, he being the low-risk individual he is, is afraid to remove the metal out of fear that it's actually holding his entire nose together. He can make that excuse all he wants, but when he's really being honest with you, he'll confide that it brings back good memories of that strange, strange girl.

As Pandora picks my playlist, I pretend that anyone with headphones on is listening to the same song as me. (Unless they're wearing Beats by Dre. Then they're just sooo hardcore, and I couldn't imagine what explicit Jam they're pretending they wrote. But because the only headphones I could find are the jumbo and ear-sore inducing ones that came with my iPhone, I'm also kind of jealous of anyone's squishy Beats earpad.) Whenever a mildly embarrassing song comes on, I take out my headphones to make sure nobody can hear.

What is the most interesting to watch out the window and inside of Starbucks are the couples. Love is fun to observe, and I can also get the most creative with my stories. An elderly couple passes holding hands. I pretend they are both widows, but fell in love at a local church's BINGO night six years ago and despite the rarity of falling in love so late in life, they have become best friends.

 As a college couple passes, I lock eyes with the girl. She grabs her boyfriend's hand. I thought about hissing at her, just for dramatic effect, but I decided that their relationship is really struggling because she has jealousy problems and he has intimacy issues, and they didn't need some makeupless, messy-bunned, Starbucks writer who's had to pee for thirty minutes but doesn't want to leave her MacBook in an unknown place coming between them.

I watch co-ed groups pass and it seems that I just naturally divide them into couples. If there's an odd number of individuals in the group, I joke to myself about third and fifth wheels. Poor Bryan, he's going through a rough break up and the only thing he could find to do today is hang out with his bros and their clingy girlfriends.

But really, relationships are so weird. We naturally just put so much complexity into them. I mean, no, relationships may not be as simple as a random stranger creeping through the window having the ability to dissect then point out all strengths and weaknesses of a relationship in one passing, but they aren't as difficult as we make them out to be. Reading Cosmo may make me want to buy every single color in the Kardashian OPI line, but I refuse to believe that my boyfriend is cheating on me because he bought me flowers. And when it tells me that a guy's liking of the rounder parts of a woman is directly proportionate to his need to be hegemonic and controlling, I'm going to take it with a grain of salt.

Girls are the worst at over-analyzation. A girl angry at her boyfriend, when asked if something is wrong, may answer "I'm fine," When she is (woah, curveball) not actually fine.  And girls, when a guy says he doesn't want to talk, he doesn't have problems with speaking up or knowing what he wants or a fear of admitting the truth or just an overwhelming feeling because this girl is just the greatest girl he's every met, he probably just doesn't want to talk.

I initially sat down at this Starbucks to write my Gender and Politics paper, a review of several journal excerpts of university studies about masculinity's role in romance. One can study it as much as they want, but when it comes down to it, I think romance is a pretty simple thing. It comes in different forms for everyone, but every single person on this planet likes when they feel special because someone's expressing a care for them. Romance is necessary for first dates. It's necessary for marriages of fifty years. Of course, it evolves and a relationship's definition of what a romantic act is changes through time, as is one different for each couple.  But without it, a relationship will fall apart.


I like to think that Valentine's Day is stupid because we should be romantic and do special things for the one's we love more than one day out of the year. But that being said, time takes advantage of us, and all of a sudden it's been a month since we did something thoughtful for the person that we care about. It's nice to have a designated day to remind us about why we fell for that weirdo on the other side of the bed in the first place.

Two pieces of advice to leave with:
     1. Do thoughtful things. Going out of your way to do something nice for someone is so great.
     2. Don't be annoying about relationships. Just be honest. Don't make it so complex.

Also, when you're watching people through the Starbucks window and making up life stories for them, which I'm sure everybody does, I'm sure is completely normal, try to look at people and find positive things about them. It's very self-esteem boosting when you're being kind to others, even just in your thoughts.

Thanks to Instagram for making me feel like I can take cool pictures. 

people observation #24: buckle up

Grandpa drove a black Blazer before he gave it to my brother. From the time Sean got this black Blazer and until I graduated high school, every time we'd get in the car I'd say the same thing to him: "Whatever you do, don't kill me." It probably had something to do with my 54 memories of brushes with death in  the same car. What do I mean? Grandpa never got in any accidents, but he was one of the worst drivers I ever rode with.

My family used to joke about how my grandpa left accidents behind him as he ignorantly putted down the road. 


The more I think about it, the less funny it became, because he probably actually did in fact leave accidents in his wake.

You know the scene in Toy Story 2 where the toys are trying to cross the street to Al's Toy Barn and they travel via traffic cone? The toys cause mass confusion with all of the drivers left on the road. Mr. Potato Head's shoe gets stuck in a piece of gum as a giant cement cylinder, which has fallen off a truck in the scene, almost squishes him. The scene concludes with an establishing exit shot of mass commotion in the road, honking, Disney-style cursing, shaking fists. The cars are turned in all directions, not sure what to do or where to go.

My grandpa was the toys. My grandpa was Mr. Potato Head.

Even from a young age, I knew that he was a bad driver. I'd grab the 'We'reAllGonnaDieHandle' in panic, as if that would provide any safety as a wreck became imminent.

Once Sean and I were driving with him on the highway; I don't actually remember where we were going, but I do remember after a couple miles of his right blinker on, a failure to notice a speed bump at forty miles an hour, the six feet jump we took through the air, and the scariest merge onto 161 that I had ever experienced, he was doing something else against the law. We see a cruiser flash on his blue and reds, and grandpa pulls over, well kind of. He pulled over on an exit ramp.

Stay cool, Erin. I grew nervous as the Highway Patrol man walked over with his little pad and paper.

"How's your driving record?" He asked my grandpa.

With a mild shake of his head, "Beautiful," Grandpa replies.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?

People are awful at admitting what they aren't capable of behind the wheel. There's that trite joke that says 80% of people think they're above-average drivers, but really, it's actually true.

Have you ever been the passenger of a car where you had no control over the fact that your driver was completely ill equipped? If your life is not flashing before your eyes because said driver's wreckFULL driving, your eye is twitching because they didn't put on their turn indicator for the last three turns. Whenever in the latter situation, I usually mouth a "sorry" to cars that we pass. I suppose when in the former I'm too busy holding on for dear life.

If there's one thing to be learned from realizing you're in the passenger seat of a lunatic driver, it's exactly what not to do. Please use your turn signal. Please don't come to a complete stop before making a simple turn. For godsakes wear a freaking seatbelt. Remember, driving slow on the highway is probably more dangerous than driving fast.

And lastly, whatever you do, don't kill me.

Ellen McCarthy's rules for tree decorating

Every year the family gathers around our plastic evergreen to engage in the American ritual of tree decorating.

One by one we pull ornaments out of the box and unwrap them from the crumbled tissue paper intended to protect them from someone's (my) clumsiness. It's amazing how ornaments collect over the years. We always go into some vacationtown gift shop and come out with some trinket resembling our week's stay. As if a little santa wearing a hawaiian shirt and flip-flops could explain a trip to the beach, or an elf holding a maple leaf flag could explain our trip up north.  Some ornaments we pull out take quite a bit of brain-dusting before we remember where the hell they came from ("Thanks for the Disney Princess ornament Ex-Boyfriend's mom!"). Other ornaments induce laughter immediately, followed by some smart-ass anecdote glittered with nostalgia.

In tree-decorating, we all work well as a team.  My brother and I fluff the pieces. My mom strings lights. My dad sits and watches, brilliantly advising us every step of the way. Once that is finished my mom sits over the boxes of bulbs, unwraps them from their tissue-paper placenta and hands them to Sean and me for our savvy execution of ornament hanging. My father continues his brilliant advising.

My mom is quite particular about the way ornaments hang:

The Rules:

1. Plain bulbs go on the inside. Something she read in some decorating magazine about matching bulbs and how they bring the tree together.

"Erin, 1978. or is it 1998?
not sure.. the paint job looks
 like hell." thanks, Mom

2. Big, heavy ornaments go near the bottom. I suppose this is logical taking weight distribution and balancing the tree into account.

3. Free ornaments you get at a Hardee's don't make the cut. Even though we never hang them, we never throw them out either. Just put them back into the box to go through the same "WTF is this piece-o-crap doing in here" next year. mmmm, tradition.

4. Crappy homemade ornaments go on the back. Remember that little Rudolph you pasted together at a second grade girlscout's meeting? Your little hands put so much effort into making sure that little red pompom was pasted just so. And shoot, remember the considerable time it took you to glue on those antlers made out of sticks you found on the ground? Yeah, well, it looks like shit so put it on the back of the tree where no one can see it.

My brother and I think we're really funny when we put the ugly SundaySchool-crafted ornaments on the front. The best of these includes an ornament my brother made as a fifth grade ceramics project, literally just a brown and black chunk of clay. We called this our Christmas poo long before Mr. Hankey ever came about. 

It's funny how ADD my family gets about tree decorating; it's funny how ADD my family gets about everything, really. After the laughter dies down, somebody will leave the room, even just to go to the bathroom or something, and then one by one we'll get distracted, leaving Ellen McCarthy left to make her final touches. She probably likes it this way as our snarkiness can often be quite a distraction, and now she can make it actually look nice.

Magician ornament in loving memory of my grandpa, Donald McCarthy. 

So You're a Townie, eh?: Journalism Multimedia project

I'm from Columbus, Ohio. Despite being the home of The Ohio State University, we've got a million other things, so of course I would not consider myself a "Townie" to Ohio State. Athens, however, is a little different. It's a college town. The city's economy is centered around the University. To be a townie is to be someone from a college town.

Setting a few british terminologies aside, a townie on urbandictionary.com was loosely defined as someone from a college town who didn't attend the university, and many might consider this the case in Athens. OU Students sometimes come here and never meet anyone from the area. They see Southeast Ohioans in the newspaper, they interact with some at Wal-Mart, but that's where the interaction stops.

Ohio University provides the children of all faculty and staff with waivers to obtain free tuition at the school. This has provided many families of the area with opportunities to go to school free of this financial burden. Because of this, thousands of Athens natives have been able to attend college who wouldn't otherwise.

I have had quite an opportunity to explore the world of townie-dom. Athens County Young Life has allowed me to actually befriend some of these mythical-to-some beings. Believe it or not, they're kind of normal.

I got a chance to interview some of the towniest townies in the whole townieverse:


I suppose leading YoungLife at Nelsonville-York High School has got me to "get in touch with my inner townie", but more importantly, I've been able to get involved in the community, and my heart for Athens has extended beyond Ohio University. There are many opportunities to get involved in the community, and I would recommend students take advantage of these whenever they get the chance.

Some ways to get involved in the community are located on this map, as well as some of the places Athens natives recommended, places that weren't always so busy with students, but rather hidden gems around the county--food, parks, etc.,: (Click the icons to get thoughts and videos about each location)


View Townie favorites in a larger map


Other ways to get involved,
http://www.ohio.edu/communityservice/
http://www.egovlink.com/athensoh/events/calendar.asp
http://www.athenshabitat.org/

21 things i've learned in the last year.

Last year for my birthday I created a blogpost titled "twenty things I've learned in twenty years" and I've found that in only one year, I've learned a ton. This has literally been a crazy year. I've made a lot of mistakes, but I've realized a lot of things about myself, my faith, and about others. Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you TwentyONE things:

1. Grapefruit and Sweet Potatoes sucked when I was little. Now they're two of my favorite things ever. Perhaps this  is some sort of greater analogy for life itself. Perhaps it's not.
2. Complaining is a waste of energy. 
3. It's okay to not know.
4. Take responsibility. Pointing fingers is a waste of time and energy. I realize that if I look at a situation, chances are, somehow something is my fault. And even if it isn't, whatever happened, it already happened. So there's only moving forward and making it better.
5. Punctuality is fricken important. I find lateness to be a huge indicator of a million other things. One in particular is arriving on time to somewhere shows those relying on you that you care about them and whatever work is to be accomplished. I take someone's lateness personally.
6. I need to burn that list of pet peaves It's irrelevant and stupid-long.

7.  There is no reason to sit around and point out things people do wrong. I may have burned that pet peave list, but that's because this is the only thing on it. It's annoying, and I lose respect for you. You have no right to point out other peoples flaws. What good comes from that? What progress can be made? You can sit there and make fun of someones horrible use of a barbell, or you can teach them how to do a beautiful squat. That's a metaphor.
8. "I'm not good with names" is synonymous with "I don't give a shit" I am a strong believer in the importance of remembering names. I am very good with names, but it's not because I was born that way. It takes a TON of work, but it's worth it. I remember names because I take the time to remember names. I think people deserve the common courtesy of you remembering their name.
9. Anger is a waste of energy. Think about it. The fact that we sit there stirring about something someone did, or complaining about them to others.. that does more harm to us. The person we're mad at usually has no idea. Just forgive and let live. It's more for your sake than anything.
10. Don't settle. My boyfriend since Junior year of high school and I mutually ended last December for completely practical and meaningful reasons: we lived 1200 miles away; we were 20 years old. Despite being mutual, it was hard. It then took me a year to realize that guys who don't care about their grades or their health or others or their faith are not guys of interest. Especially because these mediocre men will never understand why someone would spend so much of their time devoted to their schoolwork or their volunteer time. Not settling also applies to far greater than just relationships. Seriously.
11. College is about thinking in new ways. My humor writing professor made a great point the other day about how students often complain "why do I need to take this course?" and "I am never going to use this course in my life" but that it's not about remembering the stuff you know, but rather learning how to make your mind more flexible and think in new ways.
12. Do something everyday that makes you uncomfortable. Do something that scares you.
13. Family gets more important the older I get. Every year, I start to appreciate Christmas and Thanksgiving more for reasons unrelated to presents and mashed potatoes (though still both quite enjoyable) It's a chance to hang out with my awesome family. When I was a teenager, I used to roll my eyes at the things that my family would do, and if I was given the choice between going out with my friends or staying in with my parents, friends would trump every time. Now, it's completely reversed. Most of the time that I go home, I neglect telling anyone because frankly I'd rather just hang out with my family and dogs.

14. Monotony sucks. Unless it's cheesecake, then by all means monotony rocks.
15. Old friends = nostalgia. There were things that happened that seemed to matter so much in high school and middle school. They seemed so betraying, so awful, and they ended some really good friendships. Now that we're over that absurdity, I've been able to reconnect with some of these friends, and it's such a blessing.
16. My parents are still incredible. My parents are so cool. Honest to blog.
17. The only place you can find what you're looking for is in yourself. 
18. Worse things have happened. Sometimes I stress about some of the most trivial things. Then I put it into perspective and it's like good god I'm a sissy.
19. Go outside. I love fresh air and hiking and camping and being outside. I would pick a backpacking trip through Tennessee over a resort on an island every single time. and It's soo good for you.
20. It always gets better. Even when everything feels like shit, I've found that I come out loving life more when I get through.
21. I am by no means wise; I am by every mean still learning. 

look what i did.

messing around with tagclouds. not sure where to put it yet..working on some links.. but iiiiiit's preeeeeetty.

i love stop motion!

Stop motion video is one of my favorite things (besides for dogs).. here's a couple that I REALLY love.

My friend Zoe Davis created this as one of her final projects before graduating in 2010. It's the story of her life. The song is Mumford & Sons, Roll Away Your Stone.


Change from Zoe Davis on Vimeo.




This is a great song I found on reddit.. they used stop motion for their music video..

Hudson - Against The Grain from Dropbear on Vimeo.

The Bobcat Recap

For my final project in Humor Writing I created a fake newsletter called The Bobcat Recap. It included fake articles based on stories I found in the ThePost, University Compass, events I witness this quarter, and I enjoyed just mocking college life in general. I've included the images, but to see the bigger layout, click here and zoom. They're kind of hard to read in this format.