Accomplishments

Things that I have learned over the last few months:

• Applying liquid liner is not as hard as it looks.
• Mooching of your parents is also not so hard, but not much of an accomplishment.
• Making all of your friends become friends with one another and move in together up the street from you is a good idea in theory, but not in practice.
• The water in New York makes my hair more healthy.
• London is about four-thousand times better than the hellhole I currently reside in, and I really took living there for granted.
• The Audi is the state car of Connecticut.
• Speaking of Connecticut, they don't sell beer in gas stations there.
• I might have hooked up with the guy that plays Cormac McLaggen in Harry Potter 6? Which was AWFUL by JK Rowling standards, by the way.
• Having a baby is also probably more fun in theory than it is in practice.
• Don't think I'm going to grad school anymore...
• I want a gay Jamaican man to be my best friend.

That's about it, I guess.

The Chronicles of McFadden

Obviously I suck at blogging. Fortunately for me and the rest of the natural world though, I also suck at finding a job! Apparently the four months that I just spent in a foreign country in order to do some "resume building" and gain "good work experience" means nothing when the country is in a recession. So with literally the last dollar to my name in my wallet, I forge my way into the long, long summer ahead of me.

I'm anticipating serious mental drainage in the coming months, since I'll probably end up working at a newly opened Gap somewhere wondering where my bright future went. In order to combat this, I'm going to make an actual effort to keep this thing updated. It will keep me sane, and provide me with something solid to look back on when college is over and the years of heavy alcohol abuse have erased most of this time from my memory.

To be perfectly honest, I do some crazy shit unintentionally. And I think that other people would love to hear about it. So here you will find my daily itinerary, outfits, clever insights, attempts at job hunting, and amusing escapades. And if no one ends up reading this, I can probably repackage the blog as a fake journal like The Princess Diaries and maybe get a book deal.

I also have a secret dream to be a web star, so fingers crossed this endeavor goes well.

So let's dish...

Well, here we are again.

I've been wanting make a new blog for some time, but I've been too lazy to do it. Having to apply for an internship this summer has given me the perfect excuse, though! And since Twitter is basically being a huge pain in my ass and not letting me do anything that I want, I gave up on THAT social experiment and moved onto this one. If only everything could be as easy for me to navigate as my iGoogle page...

I am living in London right now, studying and working here until mid-April. I love the city, but I miss New York dearly and I'm pretty excited to be getting back. Before I got here, I thought that the UK was going to be a whole new world full of adventure. Now I realize that my friends in the US are way more exciting.

In an attempt to make this experience more interesting, I've been trying to befriend people at my office. Specifically, one guy who has a desk near mine. I want to make him think that I am awesome and want to spend every waking moment with me because I'm so much fun. Be my BBF, as Paris Hilton would say (British Best Friend, for those of you who live under a ROCK). It's been going slow but steady so far, and I even got an invite to a pub from him last week! Alas, I couldn't go because I had tickets to a Patrick Wolf show, which I ended up being too drunk to remember anyway.

All of my progress could have been wiped away, though. I totes crossed the "you're a fun new acquaintance I might like to get to know better" line to the "whoa back up lady we're not FRIENDS or anything" side yesterday. And now my life is even more bleak than usual.

It all started when I had to mail out some backpacks and soccer balls to Scotland (long story). I realized after I had managed to stuff everything into some large envelopes that I would need packing tape in order to keep it all from falling out. So I sauntered casually over to my BBF's desk and said, "Oh, hey, can I get some tape from you?" He opened up his desk drawer and we both peered into it expectantly. I saw the tape, which was in a very obvious place, and waited for him to give it to me. However, he just sat there, continuing to stare into the drawer. I waited for a VERY long time, almost too long really (well, 2.7 seconds) for him to get it, but he didn't make a move to. I took this to mean that he wanted ME to get the tape out. You know, since we're such pals that he didn't care that I would have the go through his personal belongings to get to it. And this is just what I did. After I had tossed his iPod aside and retrieved what I needed underneath it, he looked at me and said, all polite and British, "I didn't mean for you to get it. I could have done that myself." I said, "Oh," with a weird laugh that I do when I know I've done something dumb. Then we stood there looking at each other awkwardly for a few seconds. And then I walked back to my desk. And then I died a little inside.

I waited until he was on the phone to give back the tape and avoid more uncomfort for both of us.

In essence, this experience really just sums up my life - I ignore social norms when I think it's a good idea, and in turn other people think I'm an idiot.