Time Warner came to my apartment to finally install my cable and internet this morning at 9:45 -- my appointment was at 10. Great!, I thought. I can get this over with, sleep for a couple hours and have the rest of my day to do whatever I need to do to finish settling in.

Not the case. I was napping with Project Runway on in the background and all of a sudden the cable box decides to reboot itself. I didn't think it was a big deal and let it do its thing, hoping that this would be the only time it happened.

Unfortunately, the damn thing decides to reboot every half hour on the half hour until around 1:30, when it refuses to even connect at all, and now the box is pretty much dead and won't even switch on.

I called Time Warner at 1:45 to tell them about the problem, and basically demanded that they send a tech over today since the box was LESS THAN TWO HOURS OLD when it conked out. It's 6:10 and I'm still waiting for a tech to show up.

So much for being productive today. I can't even go take a shower now, in case the tech shows up. At least my internet is working okay this time around.

It's really astounding that on the first day I wear a super cute dress to work in FOREVER (because I'm going to a sailing party later tonight), the catcalls on the street increase 200x.

I'm back from a week in the North Woods of Wisconsin. My hell month of travel is over.

All we have left is one more 5-day trip at the end of May/beginning of June, and we'll be done shooting for this show.

So much has happened over the past month that I'm going to have to save for a locked entry later. At this point though, I am definitely looking forward to three glorious weeks back in the city and away from planes, rental cars, hotel rooms, and huts made from mud and sticks.

My travel schedule for the next month:

April 3 - 7: Nashville (tecnically, Summertown, TN)
April 9 - 11: Minneapolis
April 17 - 20: Orlando --> Valdosta, GA
April 22 - 24: Milwaukee
May 1 - 7: Three Lakes, WI (tentatively)

I better get over my dislike of flying real quick.

(Oh and ALSO: I'm supposed to find an apartment and move by May 1 AND find a sublet for my place in the meantime... luckily I have Alexia to do most of the apartment hunt here and send me photos while I'm away, but what the hell am I going to do about the other stuff?!)

Cab ride to bus pickup point: $10.
Bus rides to and from Rhode Island: 6 hours.
5 hours of walking all over Cranston, RI, knocking on doors and talking about Obama: sore body.

Convincing one or two undecideds to lean Obama: priceless.
Seeing an elderly Spanish-speaking woman, who didn't speak any English, go into a fit of excitement just from seeing your Obama button: priceless.
Feeling like a real, concrete part of history: priceless.

Phonebanking tonight, and crossing my fingers that our efforts this weekend paid off.

I just added "CNN's election coverage" to my favorite shows on my Facebook profile (CNN has been on in my apartment pretty much 24/7 since January, with the exception of Larry King).

Remember when we were little and the news was boring? And we thought it would all make sense when we were grown up?

Apparently I'm a grownup now.

Also: shameless plug of Sloan's shiny new blog. He's not using Livejournal, but whatever, it's forgivable.

http://sevenmiddagh.blogspot.com

In reaction to his first post, I told him that if George Allen is on the ticket with McCain and they win, I'm moving to Europe. Macaca my ass.

I was glued to the results last night -- to the extent that I totally forgot about other things in my life (specifically pertaining to my show, but we're not getting into that publicly) blowing up in my face.

I was so, so proud of my man. Obama held his own. He won more states than Hillary, and thumped her in quite a few -- while she never crossed the 60% mark in any of them (except Arkansas, which was a gimme for her anyway). He's less than 100 delegates behind her now. Watching his and Hillary's speeches together last night only served to further emphasize his grace, dignity and class. Anyone who was doubting his electability and his presidential caliber before better shut their mouths now. And judging by the number of my friends who are changing their minds at the last minute, and voting for hope and inspiration and CHANGE, this is just a sign of further great things to come.

I have such a good feeling about this election. America CAN see that the time for change has come.

Now, it's on to March 4. Ohio, don't fail me now.

I just realized that I am no longer eligible to vote in Ohio.

Because, according to my tax papers, I have officially been a resident of New York City for over a year, I have to register here; I can't fly back to Shaker, like I was planning to, in order to vote in the primary and the election.

While this should make me happy because it brings me even closer to this city than I already was, it's a little bittersweet because I no longer have the opportunity to influence the outcome of one of the swing states. Even in 2004, in a sense, I never had a chance to make my voice heard in Ohio -- the absentee votes were never counted, which is why I was planning on actually going back this year. Even my mother was encouraging me to book tickets home for Election Day, at least, if not March.

I know my vote will still count, no matter where I cast it, and I'm going downtown to register first thing next week. It's just a shame that I can't be there to help Ohio redeem itself for 2004. I suppose this is just one more way in which I'm outgrowing my past.

In other news: T minus 24 hours until the exam. The anticipation is killing me. I just want it to be done already.

A haiku:

i missed hot showers.
now that they fixed the heater
i feel whole again.

I am officially a MAN because tonight I switched out the coaxial cables in my splitter and now have internet AND tv, instead of just one. Essentially, I did the repair guy's job. I am so undeservedly proud of myself.

Internet at home is out again for the sixth or seventh time over the course of the year. It probably has to do with the recent snow/ice storm and the wire connections on the roof (which were sketchy at best). Add this to the loooooong list of reasons why I cannot WAIT to move out of my dump of a studio next summer (other pertinent ones being the overheating, lack of legitimately hot water, and the constant fear that the elevator's going to break down. I'm tempted to put the orange walls on there too, I'm starting to get really sick of them).

So right now I'm sitting in the Dunkin Donuts around the corner from my building. Thank god that I have a laptop. I'm also at the window counter people-watching, so it's not all bad.

These past two days have made me realize that I hate how dependent on the Internet I am. Every so often I think about getting rid of the Internet at home altogether but at this point I'm 99% sure that it would never fly. I flipped out yesterday at around 5 when I wanted to check my email and couldn't, and embarked on a two hour trek to every coffee shop and Starbucks in the vicinity. I got so upset at the lack of free wireless access that I ended up just going shopping instead, to try and distract myself. (Tangentially, holiday sales are the best thing EVER. I got a great jacket marked down to $10 from $68, which definitely put me in a better mood.)

I suppose being disconnected from the world is good in a way. It'll get me to edit down my essays and study the 75 Newsweeks I have sitting in my apartment. But at this point I just want my damn cable box to start working again. On a day like today I'd rather be in bed writing this entry than sitting on an uncomfortable wooden stool.

I am on NO SLEEP because the super refuses to turn the heat down in my apartment. And it's not even that really humid summer heat, it's really dry and I wake up all but dehydrated every morning, even when I didn't go out drinking the night before. All my windows are wide open but it's not helping. I also keep having really bizarre and emotionally upsetting dreams which I am SURE are connected to the heat in some way. It's gotten to the point where I don't even care that my hot water doesn't go all the way up anymore because it's actually a chance for me to cool down.

Also, I cannot WAIT to go back to work tomorrow. Having three weeks off seems like a good idea in theory but I've been driving myself nuts.

I almost forgot what I look like as a curly girl.

Maybe it's time to give the straightener a rest for a while.

(Also almost forgotten: how much I want to BE Karen O.)

The water temperature in my shower just went up from "FREEZING" to "comfortably warm!"

Things are looking up!

I wrote a 45-page thesis about Bollywood and Indian terrorist movies. Over the course of my college career I became a pro at churning out a 5-page book analysis in under an hour every week. But who knew that writing sensationalistic bios of thirteen teenagers in Brooklyn would be so difficult?

I've been trying to do this since 4:30 yesterday afternoon and haven't even managed to complete ONE as yet. Granted, it's a nice breather from editing 24/7, but I definitely did not think that it was going to be this hard to take high school drama and shape it into viable plot points.

Add to this the fact that I really cannot concentrate today for personal reasons, and we have a two-hour assignment that's probably going to take me all day.

I wish these bios would just write themselves so that I could tackle the next beast: THE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION.

This may just be me, but if I were writing in to be considered for anything -- a job, a show, an academic program, whatever -- I would want to make the best possible first impression -- that is, literate, intelligent, and capable of writing a short, coherent email to someone.

Apparently 95% of the under-18 set doesn't feel the same way.

You would think that after working on casting shows for almost 5 or 6 months (putting together all the different projects for which I've had to find people), I would eventually have gotten used to the fact that most kids can't differentiate between Internet-speak and proper writing. But I haven't. Every time I get an email in the casting box that says "OMG u shud pick me bc i luv MTV and theres so much DRAMAAAAAA at my skool!!!!1!!" my first instinct is to trash it.

Of course, I can't do that, because then our options would be drastically limited, and we only have 4 more weeks to cast this show. But I just want to make these kids realize that it's not okay to write in abbreviations and Net shorthand to someone they don't know -- especially someone they are trying to impress. Usually it works the other way around.

Maybe I'm just an insane grammar Nazi, but if you can't run your shit through the spellcheck before sending it out, then I don't know if I even want to consider you. OMG WTF LOL.

(Oh and PS, kiddies: Don't try to tell me how to change the show until you see firsthand how much it takes for any idea to get through the development process here. There is a reason that we decided on the location we're using and not your little town in the middle of nowhere.)

Yesterday I FINALLY put Jesus Camp back in the mail to Netflix, after maybe a month of it sitting on my bookshelf.

Today I got an email that told me I'd be getting The US vs. John Lennon tomorrow and I got really excited, because hey, I've wanted to see it for ages and VH1 was taking forever to air it (they were working on the acquisition back when I was still working there).

Two minutes ago I just saw a commercial on VH1 for this Friday's premiere airing of -- wait for it -- The US vs. John Lennon.

Can whoever's in charge of my life please let up a little on the irony? It's getting a bit exhausting.

ETA: APPARENTLY NOT.

From a phone conversation with my mother this evening:
"You should start putting yourself out there, find someone nice, have a long engagement. But don't bring home a boy with tattoos and a ponytail, I cannot have a tattooed son in law."

WTF MOM! If you're going to force me to get married, at least let me find someone who I think is hot. Seriously I don't know who this woman is anymore.

* * * * *
Also I watched the last five minutes of Mission: Man Band this weekend and saw, like I expected, that I hadn't been credited. It's not that I'm torn up about it or anything but that basically ensures that my entire nine months there is going unrecognized. Considering all the grief I went through getting the talent their checks for that show, I think that's a little unfair, but whatever. I'm in a much better place now, both emotionally and in terms of my own career goals, anyway.

These posters appeared all over our office between 4 and 6 PM today. At first I got really excited but then I realized that if this were to happen, and MTV were to revert back to what it once was, my entire department would probably be out of a job.

Last night I went to see The Hold Steady -- only my favorite band EVER right now -- in Prospect Park with Sloan. And now I'm pretty much never going to go to a concert again if it's not them, because it was seriously the best live show I've ever seen.

( ybor city is tres speedy but they throw such killer parties. )

Best. Concert. EVER. They're coming back to the city in September and I cannot wait.

One last thing: keep your calendars free on Saturday, August 25 from 1 to 7 PM EDT for the True Life Marathon on MTV -- the project I've been working on for the past month. It's the first time something I've worked on this closely has aired and I'm super proud of my contribution to it. So watch it!

I've been shooting all day, and transcribing footage all night. I just got home from work maybe 15 minutes ago. And even though the days are long and exhausting, coming home feeling more than ever like my input is truly being valued makes it all worthwhile. I love my job right now.

* * * * *
What was NOT fun was this conversation from tonight:

Me: Hey mom, I'm still at work, I'll be home late tonight.
Mom: Okay, just warning you though, [CENSORED] Auntie called and she wants to set you up with some boy, so just be polite when you let her down... but I also think you should keep your options open and think about it.
Me: ...What?
Dad: You know, good marriages don't carry the labels "arranged" and "not arranged" -- they're just good. Same goes with guys. They good ones aren't hard to distinguish.
Me: What is wrong with you people?
Mom: Say you meet someone tomorrow, it'll be 3 or 4 years before you get married.
Me: So you're saying my time's running out.
Mom: I'm saying that these mothers are looking for eligible daughters for their sons, and that's what you are right now. It's only going to get worse. Soon people are just going to be coming right to you with these ideas.
Me: I thought you were on my side, TRAITOR.

So I guess I'm an "Eligible Desi Bachelorette" now. I've made jokes about this moment before, but I never thought it would actually happen. I am truly terrified. But how do you say "Oh sorry, Auntie, I like white boys" without making her flip out on you?