Hot doggery

Yesterday I had a picnic lunch with my friend Megan from Scripps, who is now living in Brooklyn and working on the Upper West Side. While we sat looking out over the Hudson River and New Jersey, M & I talked about how long it's been since we left Scripps. Six months! already!

Here's the big reason why I miss Scripps:

A bachelor's degree is essentially useless in the real world. Potential employers don't care about GPA or extracurriculars or honors thesis or any of the other things I worked my ass off for in college. The real world measures my worth on a whole different scale. College measures on the metric system, the real world uses inches feet and yards. College uses celcius, the real world uses fahrenheit. etc.

"Thinking outside the box" and all-nighters are what get you (got me) through college. Connections and professional experience, that's what gets you a job. I shoulda done an internship in college, right? Maybe. It probably would've helped-- and yes, I know it's not my fault that jobs are scarce now; but let's forget for a sec the sorry economic climate. Even if I was offered the first or the third or the twentieth job I applied for, I don't even know that I'd want it. I'm realizing more and more that entry level jobs are all about paper-filing and copy-making. I know, I have to serve my time, have to start from the bottom and work my way up, but...but...really? Every time I send in a cover letter, it gets my hopes up and my expectations down all over again.

So I guess what I'm saying is, Scripps has made me simultaneously overqualified and underqualified for the real world.

I did apply to work at a cheese shop in the Village, which I would truly love to do. I've linked you to the very cheese I bought the day I handed in my resume. It was delicious. (BTW, how does one tailor one's resume to work in cheese retail? If any of you without food service experience have any ideas, let me know.)


Being unemployed has left me with a lot of free time to explore the city. Last week I went walking down Wall Street, expecting chaos-- men running through the street with their ties untied and their arms in the air. But it wasn't like that at all. People were just walking around, lining up at the hot dog stand and the gyro stand, buying lunch. very nice and calm.

Speaking of hot dog stands, Gray's Papaya--a famous hot dog chain in NY-- is serving a new, aptly-timed special:


And here is a picture of me eating a hot dog in Berlin. More on facebook if you're interested.