"A" "little" "precipitation"

Oh, Maggie. You want some preciptation? Check it out: we had the BIGGEST storm last Thursday. I mean, insane. I didn't really notice that much because I was at work, and for some reason (I think it's lake effect) the weather downtown is always different than it is other places in the city--I mean, it rained here, a lot, but it was nowhere near the kind of stuff I saw later when I went further out.

The storm was like a symphony (multiple movements). One happened while I was at work. It was particularly bad out in the suburbs where my aunt lives (and where I grew up), and on the northwest side of the city (where I live with my grandmother). Trees--big, old, stable trees--just crumpled and cracked open, blocking roads and falling on roofs and balconies (my friend Paul told me, "You step out on my balcony and immediately your face hits foliage"), etc. Power lines down, twisters, basement flooding--you name it, we had it. My grandmother's basement didn't flood, thank God, but there was a little bit of water in one small area, so of course she promptly freaked out.

By the time I left work, it had stopped raining. I got on the Blue Line to go home and, fortuitously, when I reached the California stop (the last elevated stop before the train goes underground for the Logan Square and Belmont stations) my friend Sandra called me, saying she was home (she lives about five blocks from the Belmont station) and did I want to hang out? I did, so I got off at Belmont and she picked me up and we were on our way to Target when another storm front moved in. It was raining so hard we couldn't see--buckets of water, and completely flooded roads. I was so glad I was in a car instead of having to wait the storm out in an uncovered transit center, looking in vain for a bus that would not come. Sandra drove me home, too. How awesome/coincidental is that?

In other news, my job hunt is still floundering. Many of you may remember me talking about that Mike guy (Kim, Bri, Scott, you met him briefly) who lived in my building and did the same internship as me at Ivan R. Dee? He was nice to me at work, but kind of a douche when we were around his friends? Anyway, he also wants to be in publishing, and he just moved to New York (he informed me on the email) but still hasn't heard back from any job prospects, same as me! So at least we're in the same boat. It's a leaking boat, but at least we're keeping each other company. I'll probably see him when I'm there in mid-September; I'm pretty much living for that trip right now.

I had a long talk with my mom yesterday and she said that if things aren't looking up after I get back from New York she will fly me home so that I can spend some time there (free of charge, free of grandma-related guilt), figuring I can apply for jobs from there same as from here. Which is so nice of her, and I appreciate how she's trying to be on my side about this New York thing now (she slips every once and a while, but she's been pretty good lately), but it's probably not the best thing for me to go home this early in the game. I feel like I'll just be sucked back onto the path of least resistance and start looking for a J-O-B in the Bay Area because I can (not that it's that easy there, either). But I know I won't be happy if I do that, even if most of the people I love live in California. So I don't know. Can I go out for a visit only? Will I be able to crawl back out of it if I do, or will I just cave to family pressure and move back home permanently? God, I hope it won't come to that--I hope things start picking up on the job front--but it would be nice to go home for a while. I don't know--torn! Like Natalie Imbruglia.

I actually disagree about The Nanny Diaries. I really liked it--I mean, I didn't read the book (wow, those words hardly ever escape my lips), but it seemed all right to me. I mean, I liked Scarlett Johanssen in it, and that's amazing, considering how much I've decried her acting talents and general likeability since Match Point. Plus, I mean, isn't Laura Linney amazing? The first thing I ever saw her in that I remember was The House of Mirth--remember when we went to see that in Berkeley? Wasn't Maggie on crutches? Good times! I mean, not the crutches part, but that was a good movie and it was fun to go see it together. Oh, but how gross was Paul Giammati in The Nanny Diaries? Ugh? He should not be cleanshaven, and I almost never say that about men. He did a great job acting--his character was supposed to be hiddeous--but still, when he leered at her? UGH. Anyway, I thought it was pretty good, although bogus stunt casting with Alicia Keys--that girl could not act her way out of a paper bag. Which is an expression I've never full understood.

I should stop blogging now. Even I'm getting sick of myself. Laters!