About Amanda
I’m a disgruntled LIRR commuter by morning, real estate journalist by day, insomniac by night, and cancer butt-kicker for life.
Where To Find Me
Staring at the Moon
Published January 3, 2012 | A Writer’s Book of Days (01/03) – You’re Standing In A Doorway
She’s not coming in. No matter how many times I call out to my terrier mix, Obi, she remains firmly seated on the bare concrete patio. My feet are getting cold, because I didn’t wear slippers. I didn’t think I’d have to go outside after her. “Obi,” I call out, keeping my voice loud enough that she could hear me, but low enough that I don’t wake the neighbors. Not many people are up as late as I am.
I bribe her. Her usually favorite, carrots, don’t work. Neither does the promise of a Milkbone. She ignores me.
It’s definitely cold tonight, but I’m too lazy to walk upstairs to get a pair of shoes. My bare feet quickly become numb to the ground below me as I leave the doorway and walk towards Obi. Why was she ignoring me? I know she has a nice coat of fur, but she must be chilly as well.
She’s looking up, and her bearded face is bathed in white light. It’s a full moon, and she’s in a Zen state, staring at it. My neighbors’ property lights are off for the night, allowing me to see a sky sprinkled with stars. Lots of them. Now I know why Obi didn’t want to come in.
We stand there for a few minutes and watch peacefully.
She finally looks at me and nudges my hand. She wants her carrot. We walk back to the doorway together.
The Best Rejection Letter
Published January 2, 2012 | A Writer’s Book of Days (01/02): Write About A Time Someone Said No
The best rejection I received was from my first choice for college – I was wait-listed at Villanova University. At that point, I was applying for scholarships and couldn’t hold on to the hope that I’d get in at a later date. Instead, I semi-reluctantly sent in my acceptance letter for my second choice, Fordham University. I grew much warmer to the school as August came closer, but there was still a nagging “what-if.” I’d really loved Villanova.
A week after I started classes at Fordham, a plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center and the world turned upside down in an instant. But unlike many of my new friends, I lived closed to home – something that turned out to be very important to me during that tumultuous first year of college. Many weekends were spent back on Long Island as I dealt with the stress of 9/11, a horrible roommate, and the worst two semesters of my entire educational life. This is something I wouldn’t have been able to do had I been anchored to the Philadelphia area.
I sometimes wonder if I would have stuck it out at Fordham if I didn’t have that escape. I soon found my place there by joining the school newspaper, The Ram, where I started as a news writer and quickly rose to the ranks of editor and eventually editor in chief. The latter position secured me quite a few interviews post-graduation, and I quickly settled into the world of business journalism.
I wonder where I’d be today had it not been for Villanova’s rejection. Would I have lived in New York? Would I be a journalist? Would I have had all the great experiences of the past 10 years? Would I have traveled to as many places? Would I have such a diverse, wonderful group of friends?
I wouldn’t trade what I have today for all the Villanova acceptance letters in the world.
When Google Takes You Elsewhere
Published January 1, 2012 | Preface: A few months ago, Lexcie and I were in a Goodwill store in Connecticut when I picked up a book called A Writer’s Book of Days by Judy Reeves for 25¢. The book is full of great writing inspiration and has a prompt for each day. I’m going to try and write from a prompt as many days I can this year (although my brain sometimes gets fizzled out since I’m constantly writing for work). I need to get my mind focused on more creative writing again.
A Writer’s Book of Days (01/01) – Write About Sunday Afternoon
New Year’s Day fell on a Sunday this year. Although it has probably fallen on many Sundays in my lifetime, this is only one I’ve remembered. What made it different was the absence of the annual Tournament of Roses parade on TV. Each year, I’d sit in my pajamas and watch it on TV, noshing on the previous night’s leftovers. But Pasadena, Calif. has a city ordinance that doesn’t allow the parade to be held on a Sunday, so it will instead be held tomorrow.
This change led to slight boredom this morning. But Mom, in her annual New Year’s Day calls, found out that my cousins were going to the Bronx Zoo for the afternoon. Perfect! We haven’t been to the Bronx Zoo in quite a while and would join them. (Last week, we went to the Central Park Zoo, which is considerably smaller, and the animals decided it was too cold to be out and about.)
Mom, Lexcie, and I made the hour-long drive to the Bronx. It was a clear, warm day, and despite being a holiday, there wasn’t much traffic on the road. We’d traveled this route to the Bronx often when I was a student at Fordham University – Southern State Parkway to Cross Island Parkway, across the Throgs Neck Bridge to the Bronx River Parkway. Usually, we encounter some sort of delay, but today, we zoomed across the bridge and the tolls. A giant green sign greeted us: BRONX ZOO PARKING. We turned right. Continue reading
The 32nd Day of Christmas – A New Year
Published January 1, 2012 | Happy New Year!
It seems that the majority of people around me count New Year’s Day as the final day of the holiday season. Not me – I will continue celebrating until January 6, the feast of the Epiphany (for the non-religious: the feast day celebrating the Magi’s visitation of baby Jesus). In fact, we keep our Christmas tree up at least January 14, Mom’s birthday (and the tree we picked out in 30 seconds is still nice and fresh). It kind of saddened me to see so many discarded Christmas trees along the curbside tonight. Oh well.
Here’s to a brand new year. I used to make resolutions, until I was about 25. But I never seemed to be able to keep them and always wound up kicking myself over my failures. Really, all I need to do is focusing on bettering myself as a person and understand there’s going to be plenty of missteps along the way. So, no resolutions to lose weight, keep organized, take my vitamins every day, or get eight hours of sleep each night. Instead, I’ll continue to focus on smaller goals, like the ones on my 101 in 1,000 page. I made pretty good headway on that in 2011 and got more accomplished than I’d originally thought.
However, I will be printing this out and putting this above my computer desk as a reminder. The Internet says it’s a Swedish proverb, but who knows where it really came from. But it’s great inspiration:
Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours.
Today was an atypical New Year’s Day. Usually, it’s spent in my pajamas, noshing on last night’s leftovers, and watching the Tournament of Roses parade. Looks like Pasadena has some city ordinance that doesn’t allow parades on Sunday, so it will be on TV tomorrow. Guess I’ll have to DVR it instead.
The 31st Day of Christmas – For Auld Lang Syne
Published December 31, 2011 | I can’t believe 2011 is nearly over. It seems like only yesterday we were sitting in my best friends’ living room watching Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and waiting to see if Y2K would make the world blow up. Even worse, I remember when Prince’s (the artist formerly known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince?) “1999″ was so far into the future.
Overall, 2011 was a decent year.
- Although January saw our car Zephyr’s first accident, it was repaired to even better condition that when Lexcie and I first purchased it. We traveled to many places in that car, including New England and down the East Coast to Virginia to see my friends Chris and Nicole get married. We then traveled to West Virginia, a state I’ve never been to before. I wish I knew how many miles we put on the car this year. Over 3,000, at least.
- Our travels also took us to Great Britain, Scotland, and Wales for 10 days in October, the first time I’ve ever been to Europe. It was a fantastic trip.
- I was promoted to an editorial position at my job.
- Healthwise, I reached my sixth year of being cancer free – each day is a celebration! But additional celebrating at the I’m Too Young for This! Cancer Foundation‘s (i[2]y) OMG Summit in NYC in April sent me in for a battery of tests after I discovered I had a strange reaction to drinking alcohol (so my memories of the booze cruise weren’t exactly as fun as everyone else’s). After eight months or so, arrows are pointing to a potential gallbladder issue, but I don’t find out until January 2. My body really needs to give me a break!
- I met a whole bunch of new friends this year, particularly through i[2]y, my lymphoma support group on Facebook, Long Island Tweetup, and 140ConfLI.
- I accomplished plenty of items from my 101 in 1,001 list.