"so what are you looking for?"

i haven't written in three months.
i haven't written in three months because, well, not much has changed.
well, that's not even true. things have changed, but not so significantly that the earth is shifting. um, let's recap.

in march, my mom, aunt kelly, and cousins katy and emily visited me in chicago. it was great! we went to the field museum, the hancock tower, north michigan avenue shopping, and one of the very first performances of broadway-in-chicago mary poppins!


i have since come to affectionately call it "mary poopins," but of course i'm the only one who says this. my cousins and i did get a kick out of "bringing tappance back," which is a musical number we made up in the car. it was the first time i'd really seen them since my brother's weddings two and a half years ago. it was greatly, greatly overdue.
(if they read this, they will probably hate me for posting this picture. remember i love you two!


a few weeks later, clapham had its spring break, so i went to visit brian and lindsay. we had a great many adventures, including a star-crossed snowboarding session during my first day. brian tells this story best, but i'll sum up here:
see, i have this annoying habit of boarding just behind the people i'm with. brian turned his head to check on me at the wrong moment, and what would have been the easiest part of the easiest slope on the hill became him catching his board funnily and fell really hard. i didn't see it happen, but we ended up at the emergency room and poor guy's left arm was in a sling for the rest of the week.

we went to see watchmen, visited disneyland (DON'T BLAME ME FOR NOT HAVING PHOTOGRAPHS OF THIS. brian and lindsay are supposed to get them to me.), visited mary kate and saw her in her last USC musical, brigadoon.


i understand this picture gives almost zero context, but if you want more of mary kate, her blog is linked in the sidebar. we failed to take any photographs together (emkay, how could we have been so foolish?). but. whatever. she's awesome.

i do have some pictures of brian and i's afternoon in hollywood, which included lunch at made-famous-by-american-graffiti mel's diner:


where they happened to be filming some tv pilot! i don't recall the name of the show, but i think we were actually in the shot, and they kept telling us to be quiet on the set for half the meal. we also visited "ripley's believe it or not" around the corner, and well...


it looks like we're still related.

we also went to mann's chinese theater


and it looks like we're still related.


(brian took this shot. i asked him why–– he said, "someday you'll want a picture that says "nomads welcome." i've taken it to mean that i was welcome back on their couch any day.)



before i knew quite where march was going, it was april. claire and i were blessed when jessie, jenny, and david (all of us high school buddies) visited for easter. we cooked, biked, danced at rez's Easter vigil, and i even lured them into serving baked goods on easter morning. we also got no pictures of all of us (come on, guys), but had a blast.

as all my friends finished classes and took finals, i did my best to sort out what i was doing next. as it would turn out, my good friend and improv buddy alyssa (also in the sidebar) needed a roommate for the summer. i couldn't find any good reason to go home just yet, so i've moved out of my house with the funny polish landlady and into a small apartment with her. here we are at graduation:


oh! and i walked with my class at graduation on mother's day. mom has most of the pictures from this (send them...?). since then, it's been trying to find a new job (as the one at school ends with the summer) and settling into the new place with alyssa. friends have been around but slowly peel off as they begin their summer adventures.

i hate job hunting. my first post-collegiate job was gotten far too easily and has given me really unrealistic expectations for what getting another job would really be like: lots of resumés, time, noes, and no responses. it is exhausting: i'm someone who doesn't quite know how to market herself yet and has trouble believing in that marketability with every rejection. it is exhausting.

all my interviewers want to know, "well, what are you looking for?" long term? short term? hourly? part time? full time? i hate having to say that i don't know, having to explain that i'm booked here for at least the summer, but if i can find a job that i don't mind working that can support me, i'm happy to stay longer. it's complicated and frustrating at this point, but i think that's how it's going to be for awhile. i like that i have more time to figure things out.

so. that's what i've been up to. tell me your stories!