19. tides turning

i got the most amazing internship with a wonderful woman! monday will be my last day at chic little devil and then i will begin my internship for Ele Keats!

18. Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth"--this too shall pass

According to an ancient Sufi story, there lived a king in some Middle Eastern land who was continuously torn between happiness and despondency. The slightest thing would cause him great upset or provoke an intense reaction, and his happiness would quickly turn into disappointment and despair. A time came when the king finally got tired of himself and of life, and he began to seek a way out. He sent for a wise man who lived in his kingdom and who was reputed to be enlightened. When the wise man came, the king said to him, "I want to be like you. Can you give me something that will bring balance, serenity, and wisdom into my life? I will pay any price you ask."

The wise man said, "I may be able to help you. But the price is so great that your entire kingdom would not be sufficient payment for it. Therefore it will be a gift to you if you will honor it." The king gave his assurances, and the wise man left.

A few weeks later, he returned and handed the king an ornate box carved in jade. The king opened the box and found a simple gold ring inside. Some letters were inscribed on the ring. The inscription read: This too shall pass. "What is the meaning of this?" asked the king. The wise man said, "Wear this ring always. Whatever happens, before you call it good or bad, touch this ring and read the inscription. That way, you will always be at peace."

From "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle Chapter 8

17. chic little devil wears prada

when i first came to chic little devil, i was introduced to the INTERN HANDBOOK. this worn out white binder was my first friend. after reading over my internship duties several times (as it requested), i had to sign my name in the back and answer some questions about myself. as i flipped through the previously filled-out pages, i noticed there wereway more intern entries than there were interns. after putting the intern handbook back where it was supposed to be, i stood awkwardly in the middle of the showroom.
that just about sums up my first day at chic little devil. i stood around awkwardly. when directed to shaina, the "intern manager," she looked over at me and my friend disgustingly and said "i'm with a client."
interns aren't interviewed before being hired at chic little devil. it's kind of a hit/miss type internship, where it's really up to you to make this worthwhile or not. i have yet to decide if it's a hit or miss for me.
the intern handbook strictly says that one may never miss a day. while this may have convinced me for the first half of my first day at the style house, i quickly learned better. you're lucky if the employees even bother to learn your name. with 6 other interns at the style house at one time, it's that whole "too many cooks spoil the broth" scenario. one intern puts something where it belongs, and another moves it elsewhere, to a place it looks better. after sweeping, an intern might mop the floor of the backroom, requiring another sweep. a lot of the time, the only work we get is to clean up the mistakes of the intern that's standing right next to you.
i feel like it's the first day of school every time i get dressed to go to chic little devil. you have to dress to impress, and wear your best clothes. the trendier, the better. heels are a plus. however, if i wore heels i would be six feet tall and in terrible pain and horrible moods by the end of the day.
i have had to mop, sweep, hang up fallen clothes, fold and refold bags, sweep the balcony, wash the dished, empty ashtrays, glue corkboards to walls, carry mounds of clothes, and fold up enormous and heavy rugs. i have been a janitor to chic little devil.
today was probably the best day for me. i'm hoping this means that things start to look up, because getting another internship this late in the summer seems unlikely. today i helped a "senior intern" (a girl my age who happens to know an employee there and doesn't have to do shit work) and i bsaically sat at a computer all day. this was, of course, while 3 other interns bleached the walls on the balcony for hours on end in an attempt to get the rust off. i realize that i need to play my cards right in this business. i did today and i'll do it again. this is devil wears prada shit. i'm almost down.

16. upbeat friday

i spent today with my mom. we went to moca to see an exhibit that i have been dying to check out. "a changing ratio" featured art by rothko, pollock, rauschenberg, lichtenstein, warhol, and oldenberg. it was pretty incredible.

rothko! there were a room full of them. they all seemed to be vibrating with different types of energy. this one was one of my favorites.

jackson pollock, number 1!!!! this was the first painting of the series that he did. you can see the excitement on my face.

after, we went to phillipe's downtown, where they have french-dipped sandwiches. delicious! i'm back home now, after of course going to the market to pick up the ingredients for our family dinner. summer is nice!

also, i have an interview for an internship on monday. it's for this brand, treesje, that make handbags. they seem to be a really nice company so i hope i get the position! and then i can leave that awful internship at the style house. fingerz crossed!!!

taura comes back on monday! i can't wait to have a nice long video chat with her. it'll be really good to catch up/make plans for when i come to visit her in arizona!

that's all for now, bye!

15. interesting start to summer

at this point, i'm just trying to find another internship/job. i'm a little desperate and i need to leave the style house as soon as possible. fingers crossed.

14. first day of work

bad: anorexic girls eating peanut m&ms and diet coke for lunch, mopping and sweeping floors, pretending to be busy for hours on end, straightening and re-straightening racks of clothes and jewelry, being ignored and treated poorly, standing on my feet for way too long, listening to dumb music and awful conversations.

good: looking at beautiful clothes all day, looking at beautiful jewelry all day, walking through downtown on my lunch break, discovering an amazing hole-in-the-wall mexican restaurant, making new friends, gaining "experience," beautiful views of los angeles from the balcony, very discounted (and originally expensive) clothes i'll probably buy.

13. thoughts

i have been spending the past few days with elayna. it's been nice.

things we have done:

-shopped. got a dress, a skirt, and a couple of pairs of shoes from urban outfitters--all on sale. i got a pair of sandals from anthropologie on sale as well, along with some bracelets from brass plum--3 for $10.

-ate. we have eaten so much goddamn food. 8 oz. (burger place), yogurtland, apple pan, farmer's market, chipotle, kokomo's, enzo's, bobaloca, paco's.

-slept. snuggled. taken pictures. etc.

and others:

-undie run was kind of amazing. i saw ucla in a completely different light, it seemed like a much happier and different place, a school i was actually proud to be a part of, friends i was happy to see.

-i've been exhausted and i haven't slept well in days. but i guess that's okay because it's summer.

-yesterday i saw a friend from high school who hadn't heard about my break-up. so i had to talk about that all over again and reliving it kind of sucked. yesterday was hard, today has been easier. it's a trend and it'll pass.

-i start my chic little devil internship on tuesday. i have to choose an outfit to make a good impression. the task seems absolutely daunting, as it's a style house and it seems practically impossible to dress the part.

-i'm still set on that mannin jewelry internship. i'll be emailing the woman shortly to see what her deal is. i want that internship, it was kind of made for me.

did i mention i'm tired?

12. spring//finals week

finals weekend/week was surprisingly...more than bearable. i actually have enjoyed the last few days:

friday//i moved out. that was surprisingly tiring but it felt so nice to say "peace out!" to the roomies. i left a few things there that i'm going have to pick up. after that, i came home with michelle in tow and we did our astronomy study guide. we went to stir crazy and got it done by like 9:30. then i did all my art history flashcards after she left and let's just say i was going a little mad.

saturday//probably the worst of these past couple of days, and not even that bad. i didn't do all that much studying (i had been really on top of it in the past week so i was able to chill) but a combination of shitty things kind of piled out. i ended my night with "drag me to hell," which i saw with my parents and sissy. although i was scared out of my mind while i was watching it, it was really well done and scary.

sunday//even though i had a final the next day, i did a lot on sunday. i went out to coffee with gigi, which was really nice. we walked over to stir crazy and talked to a strange guy, drank tea and felt the nice breeze. after that whoopi and ron picked me up and we went to wingstop. it was delicious! we brought it back to my house and watched the end of the laker game, which was exciting. then i booked it over to UCLA to pick up some cec people. we all went to yogurtland, the whole speakers staff from the year. joanne paid as a thanks to everyone, and we had a great time. i can't until i'm legit on staff next year. finally, i went the the 2N party that was being held at kip's apartment. it was wine and cheese, which was nice. but the party was a little lame, and i didn't get to see everyone i wanted. i did get to see my RAs, which was a lot of fun. me and michelle left around 12:30 and i got a good nights sleep before my final

monday//i had my astronomy final! i think it went well. i knew at least half of the questions for sure and i was able to make pretty educated guesses on the rest. i'll probably find out about it in the next couple days.

today//i had my art history final today, and i think it went really well! with each essay question i felt like i knew more and more about what the TA wanted from me. i know i'll get an A in the class. then i went to pick up laynie at the airport (after circling about 5 times around) and here we are, hanging out on my bed as if it hasn't been almost a year. ok yogurtland! byeee

11. spring//week 10

i've actually had a good week!

monday-spent the day doing my paper, went to pinkberry with mom. spent the night at home

tuesday-drove to school, learned about dada in art history and the big bang in astronomy. i also got my modernity paper in art history and got an A-. go me! then later that night i hung out with ron and whoopi

wednesday-no class! woohoo. i woke up and walked murphy, it was nice because i had a chance to read my book, i cant wait until i have more time to do that during the summer. then i came home and spent the day inside, it was really nice actually. i had lunch and then i finished my music in LA paper. i think it turned out really well, i'm pretty proud of it. then i printed out all the thumbnails for my art history notecards, i felt very accomplished for the day.

thursday-drove to school and had really boring classes. i had lunch with nigel, lisa, megan and casey at covel and we had long bitchy talks. then i rushed back to my dorm and straightened my hair to go to an internship interview! it's for an art gallery and we'll see if i get it. who knows, but i find out today. then gigi came to ucla for dinner and we saw 500 days of summer, courtesy of cec sneaks. it was really good! i loved it. i basically crashed last night because i was incredibly tired.

now i'm in class and waiting to do my music presentation, and then to turn in my paper. i'm having lunch with michelle and then i'm moving out!! so excited. and then michelle is coming to my house so that we can work on our astronomy study guide. woo!

10. note to self:

things to look forward to:

-interning at chic little devil style house: surrounded by high fashion designers, helping out with photoshoots, doing coffee runs, becoming familiar with downtown LA, getting spoiled/spending all my money on clothes, dressing cute for work, $200 to their style house at the end of the internship.

-elayna visiting: june 9th-14th, going to the beach, shopping, having bezzie time, late night talks and antics, ice cream runs, dressing cute wherever we go, stealing each other's clothes, seeing high school friends together.

-end of the year festivities: undie run with sarah and elayna, elayna meeting my ucla friends (aka 2N), thursday night party with the floor (just stopping by), MOVING OUT on friday.

-being out of school: moving out, having my own room (at home), all my clothes in one place, not having to worry about school, summer weather=summer wardrobe, interning, seeing friends, traveling (SB, SF, OC).

-living situation next year: living in a double, with one of my best friends, decorating it cute, having my own bathroom, meeting new people on my floor.

-meeting new people: CEC, my internships, 2S (in rieber), friends living in apartments.

see? top that.