Thing(s) of the Day: Blogs Part II, and "Regular People"

First things first. Two of my nearest and dearest friends and roommates have started their own blogs! Although this has sparked a lot of BBM questioning on how to make things bold and linked and colorful and et cetera, I couldn't be happier to help them and encourage you all to check them out. Alex of ArtsyVille is blogging about (duh) the arts in her favorite cities of residence: Nashville, New York, and Miami and gracing the blogosphere with her book, movie, and food reviews, while Kelley of Kelley+Kanon is running a photo blog with pictures of her many travels--she is much cooler than me and sailed all over the world from Europe to Asia to Africa this past semester, and has been entertaining our roommates by snapping really artsy and gorgeous photos of us over the past few weeks. The picture above (in Mauritius, Africa) and those of the Music City Barbeque and Beer Festival in my past post were taken with her super sweet Canon.

Although it's kind of creepy/voyueristic that half of our suite now puts things on the internet for all to see, and I really don't want others to start thinking of us as "those girls that REAALLLY like the internet," I am so excited to be sharing this with two of my best friends! Has anyone seen the Julie+Julia preview (I say preview in leiu of movie because the movie looked so boring/chick-flickish that I don't expect any of my fine-tasted friends to have viewed it) where Amy Adams' obnoxious-friend-with-drinking-problem-character (life goal if being Chelsea Handler fails: star as obnoxious-best-friend-with-drinking-problem-character in B list movies. Fine, I'll take C list) says "Oh my god! Showtime bought my blog for a mini-series!"? (Excuse that horrid punctuation. I really don't know how to work the ! " " ? trifecta). Anyway-Showtime. If you're listening. ALEX NIKKI AND KELLEY ARE AVAILABLE FOR MINI-SERIES. We do really funny things, are less trashy than the Kardashian sisters, are now 21 so can legally be documented binge drinking, and have varied interests we would like to talk about on camera. We adore both Weeds and Californication, and even have a Dexter poster (can we talk Dexter with BABY please?!) in our living/dining room. Put us on TV. ASAP.

That being said, can we talk about this picture?


The above photograph of a "model" with an ab roll was featured in September's Glamour and the media and bloggers alike are freaking out about how awesome it is that a "regular" person was featured in the fashion section of a major U.S magazine. No offense, regular people, but I for one am not pleased. I get to see regular people every single day. Whether I like it or not, regular people accompany me on subways and buses, in restuarants and bars, libraries and doctor's offices, and in mirrors throughout the world. The world is suffering from a widespread epidemic of normal-sized, ordinary, not-that-attractive regular people, which we come into contact with all the time. When I pay $3.99 to flip through the pages of a glossy magazine (I know, I know...I should just get a subscription and save 80% off cover price blah blah blah but I don't, so...) I do not want to see regular people. I want to see bronzed, skinny Amazon women who inspire me to put down that candy bar and get my ass to spin, pronto. If I wanted to see "ab flab" I would simply look out my window. We shouldn't have to suffer because some women are so insecure with their own bodies that they demand imperfect humans like themselves to be featured in magazines just so they feel better about their self-esteem. What's next? Shitty actors being picked over good ones in movies so that struggling thespians stop cutting themselves? Clumsy ballerinas to inspire all us klutzes out there? Half-frozen restaurant meals because you can't cook? No thank you, world. I am not perfect. I would like for my entertainment to be.

Another note about my friends' blogs--they are both much nicer human beings than I, so even if you are offended and flabbergasted by my opinions, you probably won't be by theirs.

Things I am looking forward to this week: free dinner (thanks, expert Jewery in acquiring coupons) at Zumi followed by the Weeds finale tonight, my first day at Universal Music tomorrow, Shakespeare in Centennial Park (because I didn't make it to Shakespeare in Central Park in Manhattan) on Thursday, the Wine to Five event ($5 wines and appetizers for ladiez) at The Wine Loft also on Thursday, and the FIRST TAILGATE, ahem, football game of senior year on Saturday. I couldn't find Western Carolina University on a map, nor do I know if it is in North or South Carolina or some new Carolina colony called West Carolina, but I will very gladly drink to their large bulky men playing ours.

Cheers!

Thing of the Day: Nashville

Yo yo yo. Things have been hectic to say the least. I got to Nashville a little over a week ago and it already feels like I not only never left for the summer but also spent spring semester here rather than travelling around Europe. A very wise away message once told me "Its funny how things change--even funnier how they stay the same," and that's definitely how I feel about returning to Vanderbilt.

We've had an amazing first week back, from the 15 hour road trip down, to reuniting with all my favorite Nashville eateries (Sunset Grill changed their dinner menu! Summer salad, anyone? Seafood PLATTER? Artisinal cheese assortment?!? Also the waitress who has worked there for the past 3 years and served me copious quantities of 50% off Pinot Grigio asked me for my I.D last night and upon seeing it very happily exclaimed "You're actually legal! Happy birthday--I can serve you with a clear conscience now...just kidding, I never cared") to exploring downtown Nashville (The following pictures are from the Music City Beer and BBQ Festival yesterday--beer in plastic bottles, roasted corn and sweet potato fries,excellent Nashtrash people watching (favorites included baby with beer bottle and man who offered us sweet tea flavored whiskey and barbecue to hang out by his tent and "make him look good") and fine country music) to our final year of dormitory living (Question: what do you get when you add 6 sorority girls and thousands of dollars spent at Target? Answer: veryyy brightly colored chaos).

Living with 5 of my good friends has actually proved really excellent, and the apartmentmates have already implemented several senior year rules. On Sundays, we take turns cooking family dinners and on Tuesdays, we plan on exploring a new Nashville restaurant that we haven't been to. We've really jump-started this program and thus far have been to Rumours Wine and Art Bar (adorable), and Tayst (delectable). Future venues (on color coded post-its at my bedside) include Urban Flats, The Wine Loft and Cantina Loreda in the all-of-a-sudden really cool and trendy Gulch area, Restaurante Zola, 1808 and Firefly Grille in the greater Vandy area, South Street, The Blue Moon Lagoon and Martha's at the Plantation in the "funny Southern food" category and a wide list of "places we kept meaning to try" throughout Nashville. Reviews to follow. Outside of the eating category, various apartmentmates have pledged to do hot yoga, run half marathons, apply to graduate school, ace LSATs/GREs/GMATs, volunteer, go abroad, learn Spanish/piano/photography and develop post-grad life plans. So it should be a very interesting year, to say the least, and I'm psyched. My personal goals for this year:

1. Take the GREs/GMATs. Since I ideally want an MBA but am the sort of person who sent deposits into three colleges and two study abroad programs,will consistently order 2-3 appetizers instead of entrees and told 2 people I would be their prom date in high school, I really can't make the choice to close the door on graduate degrees of other sorts. I know I don't want to go to grad school for at least 3-5 years after graduation, and by the time that rolls around I could be anywhere from the business world in New York, volunteering in China, a homeless surfer in California or practicing at a monastery in India, so I think I should get both tests over with while I still have brain cells and am in a school mindset.

2. Train for a half/ marathon. I am not sure if I want to bike or run, but due to my diet and excercise pattern of "run when I feel like it" and "eat whatever I want," I've never been in really good hot-girl-jogging-in-sports-bra shape and I feel like it'd be nice.

3. Expand this blog. I want to add photographs, post more often, and develop some sort of following that isn't composed entirely of friends who laugh at my rants and rambles.

4. Get a 4.0: This sounds reaaaaally ambitious, but (duh) it's not. I am doing an internship for my major this semester (hi, Universal Music! I am so excited for my first day this week! I even bought an appropriate length dress with SLEEVES) and the internship program consists of one class and one (really really) long paper. I think I can handle it.

5. Develop a hobby that isn't: eating, writing about eating, watching TV, writing about watching TV, drinking, and reading strangers' blogs. Self explanatory. Suggestions, anyone?

6. Have an amazing senior year! It's off to a great start.

Thing of the Day: Fall

Helloooo darlings! I have been the most terrible of internet perusers lately, selfishly Facebook stalking and buying shoes instead of updating the blogosphere. I come back to you wiser (I now know the favorite quotes and interests of about half my middle school) and wealthier (in closet, not wallet), and full of thoughts, observations, and of course, complaints.

Since finishing my internship one week ago, I have spent a considerable amount of time destroying both my skin cells and my liver while lounging by pools and beaches with wines and beers galore. I would love to say I worked out every day and maintained a healthy diet, but the only days I didn't gorge myself on delicious homemade Russian goods and at eateries still holding on to Restaurant Week (yes, capitalized) were those when I was too busy or too hungover to--so alas, I return not only wiser and wealthier but also wider.

Life goes on. In addition to good food, this past week was excellent in terms of entertainment. Belated, I know, but can we talk Mad Men premiere? Don Draper, I want to bear your illegitimate children. Let's play good, bad and ugly:

Good: Don Draper's illegitimate children, my girrrrrrrrrrllll Joan Holloway, skinny and moderately attractive Peggy, the flashback opening scene with Don's prostitute mother, said mother saying "dick" on cable (AMC! Whoaaaa), Salvatore's new badass TV director position, THE CLOTHESSS

Bad: Hello, Betty Draper scenes? Where art thou? Same for Peggy scenes, you can't just show her slimmed down and sexy without any background information. Don--you are having a small child, stop shmoozing waitresses/flight attendants/anything with an orofice, Pete Campbell--nobody feels sorry for you, stop bitching and let me know what you are going to do about your lovechild with P.O?

Ugly: As happy as I am for Salvatore's televized man-love experience, was it really necessary to pair him with a bellhop half his size? I'm impressed with AMC's reach-in-the-pants-scene ballsiness (mild pun intended), but I think Sal could certaintly do better. He's a pretty suave dude.

That being said, I'm happy enough with the premiere. Mad Men, True Blood, Hung, Dexter and Weeds will be good enough to get me through summer/fall TV.Good lord, I really need to take up some new free time activities. Or not.

Other quality entertainment this week included 500 Days of Summer (great), an impromptu Beatles cover band by Central Park (greater), and an amateur freestyle rapper who "spit sick beatz" for an hour non-stop as I soaked in the sun at Brighton Beach (greatest).

15 hour road trip to Nashville in the AM. Expect musings. I have quite possibly had the best summer of my life since those spent at the mountain house and nerd camp (more on nerd camp later. Just go ahead and Google "Center for Talented Youth" and feel free to judge me. Or lament the fact that I have gone from talented youth to "adult of average intelligence"), and for the first time since getting to college I am kind of sad to leave New York City for Cashville, Tennakee. I had a summer of excellent adventures, from exploring new neighborhoods to trying new cuisines to going out way too much to finding myself in situations I had never ever expected to get in. But it was good--great, in fact. At the beginning of the summer I set a goal to try 100 new restaurants/cafes/bars/clubs and can proudly say that as of my departure I am 102 venues fuller and drunker.

Goodbye Northeast. Helloooo Dirtyyyyy South.

Thing of the Day: Time

Photo Credit

It is the last day of my internship, and I'd like to think that the threatening grey rain clouds precariously waiting to burst with rain are the result of my coworkers weeping for my departure, rather than a byproduct of global warming and yellowcab fumes. It's bittersweet, as all ends are (except the end of the Harry Potter/Sex and the City series. That was just bitter. Do I talk about Harry Potter/television too much?), but I'm glad to be celebrating my last day with a delicious meal with my coworkers, and happy hour and the best pizza in New York with one of my favorite humans and avid blog readers, Lauren. The end of my internship makes me realize that summer will end in one short week and my senior year of college will begin in two.

I'm really confused about how this happened. I am the first to admit that I have a denial issue, I can block out any bad memories on a whim, repress anything I am not looking forward to, and occasionally ask my parents for money with the excuse "but Mommmmm, I'm still a teenager," ("No Neekee. You are not. You are an adult who has to LEARN TO LIVE WITH THE REEPREECUSSIONS OF YOUR DEECEESIONS. Here is $100 dollars. Make it last all year")--but for real, how is my semester in Europe over? How has May faded into August? And when oh when did graduating from high school turn into senior year of college?
Tuesday night at dinner, my friend Inna and I played a game in which we grouped all of the friends we had gone to high school with and still keep in touch with/Facebook stalk into the categories of "Doing Well" and "Not Doing Well." The majority of our friends/acquaintances/people of existence in the internet realm fell neatly into the "Doing Well" category, with jobs, boyfriends, opportunities and general life happiness. A handful of people teetered between "Doing Well" and "Not Doing Well" in the "Getting By" bin, which I suppose in your twenty-somethings (I'm a twenty-something?!?!) is perfectly respectable, and a few had dove headfirst into "Not Doing Well" (This included: Britney-shaved-head-friends, drug-issue friends, sent-to-reform-school-friends, and got-really-fat friends). I guess I can consider myself lucky to be within the "Doing Well" category--I certainly have changed for the better since high school, and hope to continue to do so, but it was a bizarre experience to look back on high school and have had enough time pass in order for us to make such generalizations.

I feel old, man. And to feel younger I think I am going to watch this wonderful video all day. To my Vanderbilt homies--click that. Hilarious.

Happy SENIOR year of college!

Thing of the Day: Birthdays

I really like this picture, and would definitely like to meet this guy if ever I made it to NYC speed dating...but that aside:

I am 21 (!!!!!) Technically, I have been 21 ever since I was about 17, but now I am legally and fully and finally 21 (despite bouncers, bartenders, and waiters having failed to ask me for proof of this since I turned it on Saturday). I had the best birthday weekend I could possibly imagine, starting with a cool (albeit debacle-infused) LMFAO concert (for those who don't know LFMAO, they sound a little bit like Girl Talk meets Shwayze--in other words, great) and some casual drinking on a boat on Thursday, progressing to a much needed day off and subsequent shopping (enter oxfords, cage heels, and little summer dresses), followed by the most awesome birthday party ever ever ever (hi, friends who cook me dinner, supply my party guests with cheeses and dips and crackers, bake me cakes from scratch or buy them from delicious cupcake eateries and provide bottle after bottle of vodka, wine and champagne) on Friday, peaking at a phenomenal dinner with my parents at Tom Colicchio's Craft and a late night of casual wine-sipping with my favorite people at beautiful B-Bar and our go-to-live-music-cheap-drink venue, Red Lion on Saturday, and ending with a dinner party full of crazy/beautiful Russian family friends and relatives actively encouraging me to take shots of Grey Goose at 5pm on a Sunday afternoon (I politely declined) and beyond-words awesome Sunday night HBO. Longest run on sentence ever but--True Blood. What. The. Hell.

This week is going to be excellent for a number of reasons, which I will list here:

1)It is the last week of my internship. I learned so much this summer and was so glad to have gotten this opportunity but I can't wait to lay on the beach and do absolutely nothing but eat, tan, sleep and shop for 10 days.
2)Shakespeare in the Park starts again tomorrow. I can't wait to try to see The Bacchae. Dionysus is kind of an asshole. For more reasons why, please refer to last nights' True Blood.
3)Sex and the City at Hudson River Flicks on Wednesday
4)End of summer sales. NYC End of summer sales are phenomenal, and I am on the lookout for a jumper, a (new) perfect purse, ripped leggings, oxford flats, boyfriend jeans and new sunglasses.
5)Emiliana Torrini & Anya Maria at the Highline Ballroom on Friday. I kind of hate the Highline Ballroom, but I fully love indie chicks with guitars.
6)Possible trips to Long Island. I love the LIRR (trains with cushioned seats and bathrooms > trains with little Hispanic boys who sit next to you and ask if they can "listen to yo Ipod wichu, miss...just one headphone, cmon!"), and the friends on the other side of it.
7)Everyone Hates Katherine Heigl. There are actually 71,600 Google hits for the search terms "Everyone+Hates+Katherine+Heigl." The one I was really looking for was one I read earlier today, which was this.
8)On that note, there are 362 Google hits for me. Considering that I have never actually done anything of note and there is no chance there is another Nikki Bogo on the planet (Seriously. None. I once tried to Facebook all the people with my last name and got my cousin, my sister,and a girl named Natasha who goes to Claremont McKenna that I now sometimes exhange "are we related" and "how are you" messages with), that's pretty impressive.
9)Reservations at Le Cirque.
10)I can't really think of a 10th reason, but odd numbered lists bother me unless they are in increments of 5, so I will say the fact that the Yankees won last night, despite the fact that I consider myself much more of an aesthete than athlete and that I asked my friend Julie what the term "sweep" meant today because I was confused by happy New Yorkers' Facebook statii.

Thing of the Day: Bill Clinton

Two posts in two days! I must be bored this week. This post will be about as positive as yesterday's was negative. I'm much funnier when I'm being a pessimistic bitch, so consider yourself warned. That being said:

William Jefferson Blythe III Clinton. I love you. I have loved you since your presidency and continued to love you through your not having sex with that woman and strengthened my love for you during that Texan's presidency and I love you unequivocally now. This morning as I got ready for work watching The Today Show as usual (what do I have to do to become Mrs. Matt Lauer? Close runner up: Ann Curry), the live video stream of freed journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee reuniting with their families after months of imprisonment in North Korea came on and I actually cried. Embarrassingly enough, I cry at The Today Show relatively often (about as often as I cry at Grey's Anatomy and a little more often than I cry at 16 and Pregnant), but this was a particularly solid display of tears. When Bill Clinton and Euna Lee hugged, shit really hit the fan. What a wonderful wonderful red-nosed man.

Following that rather inspirational and emotional morning, I picked up the AM New York (I swear I only get it for the crossword) and decided to skim through the horoscopes. I normally think that people who take their horoscopes seriously are about as bright as Katherine Heigl, but today's Leo needs to be noted: "Someone has an unrealistic dream. Should you encourage this? Of course. All dreams are realistic until they are not."

Awwwwwwwuhhhh. I have decided I will do something productive with all this inspiration. Thus far, I have channeled it into browsing the shoe selection at UrbanOutfitters.com (but really. I should buy these, right?), trying to make reservations for birthday dinners this weekend (yes dinners plural. I am going to milk turning legal for all its worth), and deciding which award-winning book I plan on reading next (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was phenomenal. Exquisite. I cried on several occasions. Maybe I should consider birth control pills with less estrogen).

After two hours of internet perusing and money wasting, I came upon the website for Urban Escapes. I've been meaning to do an Urban Escapes trip all summer--unfortunately, full time 12 week internships leave little time for one to get out of the city for more than a weekend, and save for a weekend or two at the cousins in Jersey, a short trip to Long Beach Island and an even shorter one to the Hamptons, I've been NY-bubble-encased all summer. I suppose one can't complain after a four month 19 city whirlwind Eurotrip-- it's nice to be grounded for a while, but I've been itching to get out of the city and do something awesome. Since I go back to school a week after the end of my internship, space for awesomeness is limited--I planned to squeeze in a few more LBI days and nothing else until I came upon this.

Rachel and I had been perusing the Urban Escapes trips casually all summer, and I have made up my mind that I am going on one. I have wanted to go skydiving for a couple of years now and have always made half-assed flaky plans with my friends to do so. This trip looks great. Skydiving, snacks, and new friends. What could be better? The free periodical forced upon me by little Hispanic ladies, in combination with our adulterous and adorable ex-president has inspired me and I am finally going. Who's with me?

If I fail at being a badass (I'm giving myself a 50/50 chance of success here), does anyone want to go wine tasting and river tubing?

Edit: In case anyone needed further inspiration to jump out of a plane with me, it's SHARK WEEK. You know how they say "Live every week like it's shark week?" What more encouragement do you need?

Thing of the Day: Katherine Heigl

In case you were wondering, I was on time to everywhere I went this weekend. I started off with being on time for half-day shoe shopping and the gym Friday afternoon, followed up by being 5 minutes early to dinner at Boom in SoHo Friday evening, arrived when expected at Greenhouse (so cool!) Friday night, only made a friend wait 10 minutes for a beach date Saturday afternoon, and left early enough for brunch at Telephone Bar & Grill Sunday morning (does a goat cheese, craisin and walnut omlette sound weird to you? Because it's not. It's delicious) to make it to the 4pm showing of The Ugly Truth.

Let's talk about The Ugly Truth for a minute. For some reason, instead of seeing the well-recieved and adorably Zooey Deschanel-ed 500 Days of Summer, we decided that a good rainy Sunday afternoon film would be this movie. After walking out of the theater and feeling like I would have rather ripped my $12.50 (and while we're on that subject, $12.50 for a movie? Come on, Manhattan) into confetti and sprinkled it over passerby's heads in Union Square, I spent the ride home trying to decide exactly what I hated about it. Was it the completely predictable plot line? Yes, but I expected that. Was it the disappointing lack of (spoiler alert) sex scenes? Definitely, but the movie was rated PG-13. Was it the fact that Gerard Butler got fat? The man has put on at least 50 pounds since 300. And worst of all, in the "sex scene" they show him not glistening and sculpted but chubby, scruffy and actually sweaty. Ew.

Yes, all of these factors contributed to my utter and complete disdain for The Ugly Truth--but somewhere on the Brooklyn Bridge it hit me: it was Katherine Heigl. I am fairly certain that I hate Katherine Heigl. Hate is a strong word, but bear with me. I will admit this and only this: that she was great in My Father, The Hero and that she has nice hair. Also, she smokes cigarettes, which I like in an actress because it shows that they don't care about being a positive role model for children. Children whose primary role models are Hollywood actresses are in need of some serious history lessons and cable package canceling. Other than that, there is absolutely nothing positive about Katherine "Katie" Heigl.

Let us start with Grey's Anatomy. Izzie Stevens is undoubtedly the most annoying character on Grey's. This is saying a lot, because the vast majority (Lexie Grey, The Chief, MERIDETH, The Homophobic Guy They Fired, The New Guy Christina is Hooking Up With, The "Lesbian" (because all shows have to have a lesbian character-duh), and about 70% of the patients) of characters on Grey's are extremely annoying. But Izzie really sucks. Primary reasons: 1)She totally killed her fiance, who was one of the characters who wasn't really annoying at all and 2)(Spoiler Alert) When she was dying of cancer this season I couldn't care less (one more positive quality for KH--she looks great bald. Nicely shaped head).

Let us progress. 27 Dresses. Could have been a really cute rom-com. Definitely had cast potentials. Didn't make me want to tear my $8.00 (I saw this in Nashville, where movies are priced appropriately below the $10 mark) into bits. I actually enjoyed this movie. All of it except for Katherine Heigl. Could her character have been any more pathetic? There is no way somebody that irritating and sad would have been in the bridal party for 27 weddings because there is no way that character would have had 27 friends.

And finally. Knocked Up. Knocked Up was an excellent, excellent film. My favorite characters were Katherine Heigl's sister and her husband, played by Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd. I would have absolutely no issue with being Leslie Mann's character when I grow up. The scene with Leslie Mann and the bouncer--"What am I, not skanky enough for you?"--is exactly how I envision my adult life. The only small problem with this film was its lead character--Katherine Heigl. Not only did the producers have the audacity to cast her in the star role of such a quality movie but they insisted on actually showing her vagina during the birthing scene. Dilating. It was probably a stunt double or a fake, but AHHHH. Ew. After you have seen someone giving graphic movie birth, you can't even consider them hot any more. So when you add up "looks good bald" and "I saw a baby come out of you," you get Katherine Heigl's hot factor right back to zero.

Am I being too harsh? I am sure that in real life, KH is an average decent human. Her husband is pretty hot, and her clothes are okay. But as an actress, she fails. Sorry, blog-o-sphere. I know that my movie reviews here have been rather negative, so to counter it I will provide a short list of movies that I am really excited for and think will be great in no particular order: 500 Days of Summer. Taking Woodstock. Paper Heart. Alice in Wonderland (waaaaaaatch this trailer. Tim Burton is a lunatic). Funny People. The Boat That Rocked. Extract. New Moon.

Sorry about that last one. I had to.