Comforted by a Good Book on My Last Day at GH

As excited as I am for this semester to end, my last day at GH was definitely bitter sweet.  I still can't believe that I spent four months working on my favorite magazine.  Sure, every day wasn't always quite so glamorous- between the never ending reader mail, hours spent in the archives closet,fact checking for stories and transcriptions, it got a little tedious sometimes.  But I must admit, I wouldn't trade my time spent there for anything.  The whole point of interning is making connections and figuring out if this is something you'd actually want to do.  And I'll have you know, I've never been more sure of my major!

How Precious Is This?

For my last day, Libby let me write the book memo for this week.  It's my favorite task; basically you sort through all the books our literary editor received that week and write up little blurbs about each book.  After that, it was my last dip in the slush pile; today we got a nice letter from a man in prison, and a how-to guide for making Barbie underwear.  I ordered my Mommy's Mother's Day present.  As I surfed the cafepress.com website, I found the cutest onesie ever.  Complete with  1950 Good Housekeeping cover of a little girl feeding her dauchsund puppy, I wish I knew someone who's pregnant.  For lunch, I ate a veggie burger from the Hearst cafeteria.  Seriously, I've never had a meatless meal that could touch its tastiness.  Around 2pm, I answered more reader mail and looked through the June issue.  Michael J Fox is the cover celebrity, and Katie Couric shares the best advice she's ever received.  I, however, especially liked the "30 Ways to Make This Your Best Summer Ever" article.  I wont ruin the whole list, but a few of my favorites were:

1) Life is short:  Get your hair wet when you swim.
5) There's no shame in shelving the classics when its hot out-it takes too much self-dicipline to page through actual literature.
10) Have a winning, go-to-look, whatever works for you:  "For Jackie O it was all about white jeans, Jack Rogers sandals, and a collarbone-revealing T-shirt. She wore that look all the time, whether she was in Newport or New York City."
11) A pedicure can cover a host of sins.
18) Drive-ins are back!  Or at least they're not gone completely.  Go old-school-down to the tinny speakers and fountain sodas in some cases-at a drive-in near you.  (Drive-ins.com maintains an updated list of venues; I did some checking, and the closest one to Macon, GA is the Starlight 6 Drive-in located in Atlanta.)
27) All hail the almighty flip-flop.  They come sequined, studded, beaded, and ribbon-trimmed; covered in stripes, polka dots, and Brazilian flags from $2 to $250.  Beachy breezy, and decidedly unserious; treat yourself to a new pair.

BUT, the true highlight of my day was my 4pm meeting with the GH Literary Editor, Laura Matthews.  The woman who choses the Book Picks had a conversation with me; the woman who's mail I've been opening for months gave me advice!  I even found out what her favorite book is-Cutting for Stone.  Seriously, just spending 15 minutes with her made the entire internship worth it!  But I'm here to say, GH hasn't seen the last of me; I'll be back that's for sure.

As I was looking through the latest book catalogs today, I ran across this publishing house who I hadn't seen much of before-Rizzoli.  Title after title kept grabbing my attention; I practically earmarked every page showing Libby which one's I thought the magazine should review.  As I was handing the catalog back to her explaining how much I loved their lists, she told me their bookstore was at 57th between 5th and 6th Avenue.  So after my emotional goodbye, I walked the three blocks over and must say the Rizzoli Bookstore is like stepping into another world.  By now, I'm sure everyone's come to realize my perfect day would be spent reading a good book.  I've blogged about the Strand and there miles of books, and my dream job is to one day either be a literary editor or work as a book publisher.  Basically, I'm a mega nerd who loves to read.  But anyways, back to Rizzoli.  I felt like I was in some super swanky 1960s film.  A beautiful chandelier hung from the ceiling, and jazz music played through the speakers.  The most obscure titles caught my attention; worn leather club chairs seemed so inviting, and the cute boy behind the counter wearing a  skinny tie reading Yates didn't hurt either.  There was an entire section devoted just to French cookbooks.  Their photo travel section made me want to grab my passport and forget all about the finals week looming ever closer.  I bought the coolest book, The Repurposed Library; it combines my love of crafting and reading with 33 craft projects that show you how to give old books new life.

I Have a Feeling I know What I'll Be
Doing with My Hot Glue Gun This Summer 

On a completely different note, my mom also called to tell me we'd be vacationing with the Tribbles in just two weeks.  What a wonderful treat for us all; we've experienced quite a few hard times over this past year, and we all deserve a little R&R.  Seven days at the beach sounds perfect, and I'll definitely have a good beach read.