Introducing...

I'm very excited to introduce a new weekly series here at Not the Mermaid. It's called...Stratejoy Monday!

If you've read any blog post that I've put up at all over the last few months, you probably couldn't miss my numerous references and links to my Stratejoy blog, where I've been writing every Monday for the last 5 months about trying to deal with the rough patch known as the quarterlife crisis.

For anyone who missed out on all those posts, just know that I started blogging about having no job and no confidence and, through the months of personal development and awesome support from the Stratejoy community and the other 6 ladies who took over the other days of the week, I was able to turn my attitude around and make some pretty big leaps toward getting out of the funk I was in. Over the course of those 5 months I learned to embrace my looks, stop relying on alcohol to solve my problems, and embrace who I am without feeling like I constantly don't measure up. I emerged from this experience still without a job (though I have a temp job, yay), but I have way more confidence now.

For the super abridged version of my entire season, I suggest reading my very first post, the post about the time a good friend called me fat on my birthday, and my last post.

That last post went up on Monday, and to say I'm sad about it is a gross understatement. I got so much out of being forced to write openly and honestly every week, things which are admittedly not always in my wheelhouse. I got SO much out of it, in fact, that I decided to continue my efforts. And so while I won't be writing at Stratejoy.com anymore, I will continue to post, every Monday, right here. I am by no means out of areas to explore about who I am and what I'm capable of and I'm excited to continue growing as a person and hopefully as a writer.

I think it'll be a welcome batch of fresh energy on this blog, which, despite being a personal blog, doesn't always actually get that personal.

And if any of my fellow Stratejoy season 6 bloggers are reading this (Hi Caiti, Jill, Rachel, Camila, Cassie and Sarah!), I hope you guys will do the same!

Just to close everything out, here are the Stratejoy posts of mine that I haven't yet linked to:

- On my quest to become more open and less judgmental toward others

- When I went to Boston for a weekend and it made me let go of some negativity I've been holding onto for years

- Finally, the second to last post, interview week!

See you guys on Monday =)

New York - the smallest massive city ever

On Saturday night I went to a bachelorette party for my good friend and birthday buddy Julie.

As our pack of 15 girls walked the 2 blocks from dinner towards the bar that would be our destination for the evening, I heard someone yell my name.

I looked over and, lo and behold, my sorority sister Laura was standing on the corner with some of her friends. I stopped to chat for a minute and then ran to catch up with everyone else. It was an awesome and random encounter because, helloooo, neither of us live in Manhattan yet there we were on the same block.

A minute later we walked into the bar, and I hear, "ARIELLE!"

This time, it was my high school friend who also ended up going to college with me, Jen. RANDOM PART 2.

On Monday of this week, I had my 2nd day at my new temp job, where I'll be working 4 days a week doing marketing for a small accounting firm in midtown. I was on my way to the pantry to get some coffee when I see...a friend of a friend. This guy is friends with one of my kickball teammates, and while I've only known him a few months, I've had an eventful car ride with him where he spilled tea all over his BMW and we've partnered up to kick some ass in beer pong. RANDOM PART 3.

And people say New York is a big city. Pshh.

Defending my wallet, my food, and my honor

Some of you are probably aware that I just returned from a week-long vacay in Martha's Vineyard. It was a lovely week of getting a completely uneven tan, eating delicious food, and hanging out with 2 guys who are wonderful but who pick on me like I'm their little sister (the fact that I'm a few months older than both of them didn't stop me from calling them "my big brothers" all week).

For some reason, my 2 friends/pseudo-brothers liked to make fun of me because I insisted on taking home my leftovers after we would go out to eat. My rationale was that I don't have a job right now, and so if I were to eat my leftovers instead of paying for another meal, I'd save money. I still stand by this logic, but for some reason they insisted on poking fun at me and pretending that they were never going to let me eat any of the food I brought home.

On one overcast day, instead of going to the beach we decided to play some beer pong. And it was decided WITHOUT MY INPUT that in advance of each game, we would choose one of my leftover meals to be on the line, and the winner of that game would get to determine what happened to that food. They both laughed their evil big brother laughs about how they were going to set my sandwich or my chimichanga on fire.

So I played one guy, and then I played the other one. And I'm sure you know what happened.

Damn straight.