While we're on the subject

dc word association

pavement

froyo

potbelly’s

sauna

anyway, i’m exhausted. 

may

I’m going to try to writing here a bit more regularly. I might even set calendar alerts to remind me and everything. 

So I’m going to start, and there’s personal stuff here that’s not me-at-work. Excuse the choppiness. It’s been a minute.

• New York. I just had my one month anniversary here and despite a nasty sinus/cold thing this past week, my time in the city has been phenomenal. It feels like I always should’ve been here; I really enjoy how absurd, dirty, weird and delicious this city is. I remember reading message boards before I moved (idiot idea) and everyone was all like “ROACHES! SMELLY HOMELESS PEOPLE WHO PEE ON THEMSELVES! RENT SCAMMERS! RENT!!! RENT!!!! RENNNNNNTTTT!!!!!” New York has literally all of those things — I have seen it, paid for it, stomped on it, smelled it — but hey, I’m never bored.
• Apartment. It is on the ground floor of an Upper East Side building. I found it on Craigslist and was in a pit of these-people-are-crazy home hunting despair when some nice humans e-mailed me back and asked me to move in. My roommates are normal and neat. My room is tiny and I feel about the size of a buffalo when I try to move around in it. But my bed is here. This is all that matters. 
• Laundry cubes. This is a separate bullet from the rest of NYC. I also feel like I always should’ve been sending out my laundry. It comes back in a perfect cube!
• Alone time. Whether commuting or wandering around, I am alone a lot here. I really love it. 
• Froyo. Lots of froyo has been happening. 
• Social media. So. I have again assumed the full-time label of “social media” person. (It’s actually “social news” at The Guardian, which I thought was a nice twist.) It was something I thought a lot about before deciding on this because the term “social media” itself is something I’m not sure I’ll ever be comfortable with; to me, so much about “social media” comes with practicing journalism and creating original work — not just repacking someone else’s. I used it early on in my career as a reporter, and I’ve always felt strongly that an aptitude for social media doesn’t mean that you’re a certain “type” of journalist, other than one who is willing to try something new. Luckily, I’m at the type of place that encourages this and sees social media as wrapped up in the process as another tool for reporting, not just distribution. (By the way, I hate the question, “Could you push this out?”) I have been pretty astounded by some of the reporters we have here and how advanced and experimental they are with any manner of newfangled storytelling tools — “social media,” if you will. Next up on my plate: Projects!
• All of my friends are getting engaged and married, including my best friend from high school, who (along with her amazing parents, of course) let me spend a lot of time with them when my family and I weren’t getting along. (We’re all good now.) All my life I’ve been lucky to have friends who’ve stepped in for me when I needed them, and one of my biggest regrets is losing touch with her over the past few years — I haven’t spoken to her on the phone in over a year, haven’t seen her in longer, but when she e-mailed me to tell me the news, I was reminded of the bridesmaid pact we’d established when we were young: “When it’s time for you to get married, I will be waiting with a car to get you the hell out of there, just in case.” It’s one of those things I wouldn’t bring up now, but I’m sure she remembers. I wonder if Elkhart, Ind. has getaway Zipcars available? 
• Pinterest. While in bed sick I’ve been revisiting Pinterest, more as a sorting-my-wants tool than a WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR JOURNALISM tool. I have been wanting to dress like a proper adult for awhile now. Maybe Pinterest is the key? I doubt it. Meh. 
• John. He’s still awesome and sweet and just turned 30. I hope he can move here someday soon. 

Here are a few things I’ve read recently that maybe would be nice for you, too:
• Transgender at five - Petula is one of my favorite columnists at any paper. The fact that you can tell in every writing she does that she’s first and foremost a mother sometimes works against her, but not often, and not in this case. A great lens through which to tell a story, and her sons even peek in during the last paragraph. 
• What’s it like to have a spouse die? - I don’t know how I stumbled on this in Quora. But I read it the whole way through. And then I read it again. 
• How much should you save on retirement if you’re in your 20’s? Depressing, but good to know. 
• I am smitten with the TwoXChromosomes board on Reddit, mostly because it’s like Yahoo! Answers with common sense thrown in.