Two of my favorite things coming together

Twilight author Stephenie Meyer directed the news Jacks Mannequin video.

I'd post the video, but it's not released yet.

The album is awesome, btw.

Brace yourselves

"The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster.  Men made it, but they can't control it."

                                    -The Grapes of Wrath

I'd like to suspend a few things if we're on the subject...

This week's economic news has left a lot of people feeling uneasy and nervous, myself included. Not that I have some huge stake in the stock market, own an home, or have any huge retirement assets to protect but I'm still a post-collegiate young person who, after November 4th, will be unemployed.

That is scary.

Especially when every other news piece I read is about unemployment being at an 10-year high and companies cutting back expenses (ie. salaries) left and right. Trying to stay positive is not going well. I'd define myself as a realist and the reality is, things are sucky right now. For a lot of people. And yes, I could find myself in a lot worse of a situation, but it's not like I can just think, "Ok, thank God I'm not upside down in my home and been laid off at my job like that poor family down the street." I feel horrible for that family, ok? I can't ignore feeling depressed for them, too.

The point is this: when can we catch a break? I mean, things have got to turn around sometime, right? I feel like I've been sitting at a roulette table with all my chips on black and it's just hitting red over and over and over again.

Sorry for the gambling scenaro, but you get the point.

I guess, if I'm indulging the optimist in me, the silver lining would be that it's Thursday, September 25th and tonight is going to be awesome:

Don't bore Nina!

Two of my very good friends, Rachel and Armstrong, decided a while ago to flee the mainland and marry each other in Hawaii. Thankfully, they asked me and our little group of friends to come along and celebrate with them. We're leaving in a few weeks and while this won't be a very long trip (a few days), I am obviously very excited.

Now the hard part. I am so, so distraught over what I'm going to wear. I have been searching high and low for something to wear for the main event and can't find anything. I hate shopping to begin with so having to go from store to store is torturing me. Not that it matters because I can't find anything island friendly, yet wedding appropriate anywhere. Forget the fact that it's now September and all the cute, summery dresses are long gone, or stuffed into some clearance rack that I just do not have the patience to pick over.

However, Anthropologie (or Anthro, as TAMN would call it) may have saved me from my fashion crisis. Although, I have no business shopping there, Anthro never disappoints making all of my dress dreams come true.

Case in point: This would be close to perfect.

I am rather obsessed with this one, too.

Love this color.

And this is just too freaking cute I can't even stand it. Obviously, I'd need a shirt to go with it, but I saw this in the store last time I was there and stood around looking at it for a good 30 minutes, debating/rationalizing spending $170 for it.

Point went to reality.

Why do clothes have to be so much money? It's just fabric, usually mass produced in a third-world country. I'm seriously considering learning how to use a sewing machine because I would love to just make some simple, cute skirts and dresses whenever I wanted. Maybe I've been watching too much Project Runway, but really, how hard could it be?

Never Forget

No wonder I have no feeling in my back

I just realized, like 2 seconds ago, that I have literally not got up from my desk since 8:30 this morning. It's 5:06. I'm serious, here. Not once.

That's really sad.

Laws of attraction, or physics, or whatever.

I believe there is a grace period after the end of a relationship; a period of time in which one is free from the emotional grind that eventually rears its ugly and depressing head after a few days, or weeks of being alone again.

Break-ups generally happen because something in the relationship has been deemed by one or both partners as "broken,"

"He doesn't understand me."

"We don't mesh."

"I'm just not into him."

"We have nothing in common."

*"He isn't going to med school."

Or whatever it may be.

In my experience, well lately at least, there comes a point early on in dating someone where you realize it's just over. It's not going to work, no matter how nice he is, how well he dresses or how hot he looks in a backwards baseball hat. You just don't feel it like you need to.

Generally, you know it's a good decision to break-up as soon as it's done. As soon as you walk back to your car, turn the engine and drive away; finally able to breathe without a pit of anxiety simmering away in your stomach. No more obligatory phone calls, dates or kisses. The chains are off and it's back to being all about you.

Enter grace period.

My grace periods tend to last 2 weeks. Two weeks of contentment and ease, without more than a passing thought about the person I parted ways with.

But, like most grace periods, there comes a point where you're lying in bed one night and boom. YOU MISS HIM.

Maybe he wasn't that annoying when he laughed...

It was sort of cute that he always wanted to be holding my hand, right?

Do I really care that he wasn't employed?

Will I ever find anyone that looks that irresistible in a backwards baseball hat?

The end of the grace period is a good time to lock away your phone in an attempt to avoid breakdown phone calls or texts. Who are you kidding when you just want to see how he's been doing?

It's like that Rilo Kiley song....

"I know I'm alone if I'm with or without you

but just bein' around you offers me another form of relief

When the lonliness leads to bad dreams

and the bad dreams lead me to calling you

and I call you and say, 'C'MERE!."

Nothing has changed. You're still just not that into him....with or without that baseball hat. Don't get yourself back into that ulcer-inducing state of, "How Did I Get Here and How Do I Get Out." That's no fun for anyone.

And also like grace periods, you eventually have to pay up; pay the emotional fees you contracted to pay when you decided get all involved and what not.

Getting involved is so overrated sometimes.

A backwards baseball hat is not.

* I would never not date someone because they weren't in med school. In fact, I've never dated someone in med school.