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One of my biggest pet peeves, is people who live off their parents. I understand it is hard to be young and have no money (trust me, I’m there), and I am not saying that you shouldn’t be able to ask your parents for help (because trust me I do), but I really lose respect for people who don’t even try to be financially independent. It is very easy to move to the city and have your parents pay for your apartment and buy your groceries and give you an allowance but you don’t learn anything that way, and you certainly don’t grow up. I am very proud of all of my friends for the way they handled things post- college. They all managed to find apartments and jobs and make it without asking their parents to foot the bill. Even if they had to borrow money at first, they paid it back.

I don’t know why it bothers me so much- it just does. My ex- roomate from Chicago moved to NY post college and doesn’t even have a job. She volunteers and is not completely useless, but isn’t it kind of pathetic to still be completely dependent on your daddy? Maybe it’s not and I’m just being judgmental.  My other friend’s roomate is from LA. She worked here 5 months before she got fired and now she sits on the couch and watches TV while she collects unemployment. How is it that someone who lived and worked in NY for 5 months collects unemployment for over a year? That doesn’t seem fair, especially considering that her parents pay  her $1700 rent check every month. I know that I shouldn’t worry about it bla bla bla, but it actually becomes my problem when kids with super rich parents move to NY and pay for everything because it drives up the cost of living for everyone else who is trying to make it on their own. I am also tired of paying unemployment money to people who don’t need the money and also make no effort to find a job.

Maybe I’m just bitter because it’s Monday back from vacation…..

I can’t think of a place more different from NYC than Blue Mt. Lake- but I also can’t think of another place that I love equally as much. Blue Mt. Lake is a tiny town on a beautiful lake in upstate New York. There is approximately nothing to do except eat, sleep, read, hike, swim or go on a boat and someone how you never get bored. I stay at this place called The Hedges, which is a quintessential Adirondack lodge run by middle aged women. They make all of your meals for you and enjoy all of it, especially the fact that you don’t have to make any decisions at all. Breakfast is all you can eat- literally, ALL you can eat and dinner is a 4-5 course meal. After dinner there is a fire outside with a smores station ready to go. After you are more than satiated, you sit on the dock with a glass of wine and you are not allowed to leave until you see three shooting stars. I think I sat there until I counted ten while a girl played the yulk and sang tunes. The Hedges is the happiest place I can think of. You forget about money. You forget about possessions and problems. Your cell phone doesn’t work and so you forget all about anything that isn’t right in front of you. All you need is that moment and that is such a hard thing to obtain in the city. City life is about the past, the present and the future all at the same time. Sometimes I get anxiety about things that happened so long ago I am not quite sure why they still bother me. I always worry about the present and the future.  But for three days I escaped to my little magical land at the Hedges where nothing whatsoever matters…and it was absolutely fabulous.

I know I mentioned this before, but I absolutely hate people who move to New York and their parents pay for their apartment. Please stop. It makes life so much harder for the rest of us.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/147767

I don’t even know why I posed that as a question. The answer is yes. I don’t know if it is just because I grew up being friends with lots of boys, or if I am just not wired like the rest of my female counterparts, but I don’t understand girls AT ALL. I had lots of girlfriends growing up and I don’t remember them being this insane. We never cared about how long it took for a guy to call us back, or about minute details of a conversation, but then again, we were smart and had more important things to worry about. My best girlfriend is my best friend because she is NOT girly at all. She is deep and thoughtful and the complete opposite of anything superficial. It took me years to convince her to get contacts instead of glasses and maybe put on some heels. But that is why I love her. She doesn’t get caught up in petty bs. She is who she is and everyone loves her for it. I’m girly on the outside and I admit I have some girl moments (usually when I first start dating a guy), but my tolerance for this nonsense is quickly depleting. As I get older and get more self-confident, I am outgrowing a lot of these crazy tendencies to obsess about everything a guy says to you and I’ve been a much happier person. The one thing I have learned from all my relationships with guys is that they are much more black and white. If they want to see you-they will call. Guys are straight forward and don’t play all of these games that girls spend hours of their lives obsessing over. They don’t look at your text message to see when you sent it and wait a while before responding to seem unavailable. They don’t ask five of their girlfriends how to respond to a basic text message. They don’t break their plans at a drop of a hat to see someone who is making mild effort to see them. I am kind of sad for girls, especially the intelligent ones who should know better. Yes, I admit, part of my relaxed attitude has to do with the fact that I have a boyfriend, but if I was this insane, I wouldn’t be dating him in the first place. I see so many smart girls that literally spend the entire day obsessing (I know I keep using that word but there is no better one I can think of) over everything the boy they like says and I can’t help but wonder- are they even happy in the relationship:? You give yourself anxiety waiting for him to call you, wondering if he likes you, counting the minutes until he asks you to hang out, how is that fun? I keep telling my friend that she needs to focus on her and her happiness, and that if he likes her he is going to want to hang out, but it doesn’t matter how many ways I say it, it does not sink in. It’s completely a lost cause. Everyone is a little neurotic when they first start dating someone, and I’ll even admit I go through a stalker period, but eventually you have to give it up. It’s frustrating for me because I KNOW that guys don’t care about these things that girls are destroying themselves about and yet there is no way to get through to girls to make them understand. Not only do they not care- these thoughts don’t even cross their minds. After spending a girly day, I am ready to hang out with my boyfriend and my best friend and my  guys, and I feel lucky that I do not relate to girls on this level.