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<editorsnote> Hi, I'm Jen Friel, and we here at TNTML examine the lives of nerds outside of the basements and into the social media, and dating world.  We have over 75 peeps that write about their life in real time. (Real nerds, real time, real deal.) Sit back, relax, and enjoy some of the stories!! </editorsnote>

 

 

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Entries in lindsay and jen (12)

Thursday
Sep152011

#NotANerd: Officially Now A Nerd ... ish

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Lindsay. She's crazy ... and bat shit ... and I love her for it! For reals, she hitchhiked across various African countries!!! The girl is a whackadoodle noodle, but not at all a nerd. That is where I come in handy- I'm Lindsay's navigator on adventures. See, I show her how we get places via google maps, and she reminds me to stop tweeting and look up every once in a while. It's a match made in nerdy/non-nerdy heaven. That being saiiiddddddd ... she lives her life on the road and wants to offer her travel advice to all the nerdy folk out there that may be looking to do the same. Hit it Lindsay!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @LindsayMC

So I started off on this site as 'So Not a Nerd' and I have to confess that today, I have officially become a Nerd... but on my own terms.

I just got on Mobli last week and I have somehow managed to get over 20,000 views and 2,000 subscribers in less that 5 days. Not only am I super super SUPER stoked but I am having an absolutely BLAST uploading in almost real time all of my most recent adventures.

See life through my eyes at www.mobli.com/lindsaymc and if you guys like what you see, please Subscribe and FACEBOOK LIKE me (that parts important because I am rallying for my own channel and I need FB Likes, wootwoot.)

I'm going to be Mobliing my whole cross country trip so you guys can follow me the entire way. Plus I just Moblied from the Doheny Days music festival and from Wakeboarding Wednesday. Just check out my site and you'll be in the loop. :)

ThankyouthankyouTHANKYOU and now I have to get off my laptop because the waves are good today and I gotta get in a surf session... okay, so maybe I'm not totally a Nerd yet... xoxo

#nerdsunite

click here to follow Lindsay on twitter

Editors note: Alrite Lindsay, you may THINK you are being nerdy now ... but let's face facts, nerds are BORN this way!! Products of genetic predispositions, ftw!! You my darling are geeking out over something, not nerding. But yes, you are on your way ... you are on ... your ... way ...

Monday
Sep052011

#NotANerd: Planning a Road Trip with No Plans

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Lindsay. She's crazy ... and bat shit ... and I love her for it! For reals, she hitchhiked across various African countries!!! The girl is a whackadoodle noodle, but not at all a nerd. That is where I come in handy- I'm Lindsay's navigator on adventures. See, I show her how we get places via google maps, and she reminds me to stop tweeting and look up every once in a while. It's a match made in nerdy/non-nerdy heaven. That being saiiiddddddd ... she lives her life on the road and wants to offer her travel advice to all the nerdy folk out there that may be looking to do the same. Hit it Lindsay!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @LindsayMC

I'm about to go on an insanely amazing epic adventure... but don't be jealous because I'm gonna break it down for you every step of the way so if you want to, you can go on one too! 

I am taking the next two months (read 60 whole days!) to go on a cross-country road trip across the US. I don't have much money, I'm not making any plans and I KNOW it's gonna be one heck of a ride. 

 

Three months ago, I literally had $20 dollars in my bank account, I managed to save up about $2,600 (how I saved up was an adventure in and of itself. I lived in my car, worked on a pot farm, picked up random promotional jobs and day-played for television shows on NBC and the MTV's VMA's- phew!) I'm gonna share my budgeting with you every step of the way so you can see how doable this really is if you can afford the time (MAKE the time.) 

Greyhound sells something called a Discovery Bus Pass that is $560 for 60 days of unlimited bus trips anywhere that Greyhounds goes (and they go EVERYWHERE.) That's my mode of transportation. "WTF, Greyhound?!?!?" you ask. Yes, Greyhound. It's perfect. The new buses have free Wi-Fi and any long trip Greyhound has an outlet under your seat to charge your laptop or cellphone- it's literally like a mobile office which is perfect for me because I am going to be blogging and researching the whole time in transit (when I'm not daydreaming out the window.) 

You know I'm a hostel kinda girl but even the cheapest hostel is more expensive than a free couch from www.couchsurfing.com or crashing at a friend house so that's where I'll be sleeping during my cross-country trip.

Because not having a car and only staying places for free is such a variable, everything else is going to have to work around those two things. Absolutely this trip is gonna be a make-it-up-as-I-go kinda thing.

The unknown variables I am foreseeing are:

Getting from the bus station to town. Will I be able to get a ride to where I am staying or visiting? Is there other public transit available? What time does everything shut down, will I get stuck somewhere at night?

Transit Times. Everyone knows that buses and public transit takes forever and sometimes requires double backing to get places but how long really is 'forever?' I totally know that I will be spending an insanely long time on a bus but am I going to have enough time to actually enjoy the places I travel to as well? 

Backpacker rule of thumb is If you don't have much money, you better have a lot of time. I got 60 days- that HAS to be enough. 

I am budgeting $1,200 for spending money for the whole trip which comes out to be $20 bucks a day. That is extremely low if you look at it one way but I'm thinking it will actually be enough taking into account that many days will be spent completely in transit where I'm only spending money on food (I'll be granola bar-ing it up) and I am hoping to be able to spend at least a good few days back in Virginia with my parents so I won't need money then either. I DO have about $500 as a buffer if I really really blow my budget but that $500 is actually for when I get back to LA after my trip for really important stuff, like rent. 

Ugh. Typing all this stuff up gets me not-so-excited and a little anxious so now that that's all out of the way, let's get on to the good stuff.

Okay, sooo I'm beginning to form my IDEAS for my trip. These are IDEAS, very different from PLANS because I am loosely intending for these things to happen however I am not trying to control anything and my panties won't get in a knot at all if some (or none) of these things happen. It's about having intentions, not expectations and just going with the flow. When your backpacking, Ideas are better plans. 

Starting up the coast of California from LA up to Santa Barbara to San Francisco, I am looking at an northern route across the US. I have friends I would love to see up in Oregon and Washington and I have never been up there so that will be super amazing. I want to go up to Vancouver because I have never been to Canada (I know, WTF? right?) which means I'll have to find a place from Couchsurfing there for the night. Then I'm thinking down, all the way down to Colorado, up to Montana and Minnesota (I have friends in Minnesota but not Montana- I want to try to ride a horse in Montana somehow.) Minnesota to Chicago to visit one of my best college girls and then from Chicago up the west side of New England. "Hi" to my girl and her boyfriend in Maine, get a little hippie-ed out in Vermont, meet some college boys in Boston, visit friends and party all night in NYC and finally, kick it in Virginia with my family for a bit. 

Back on the road and down to North Carolina where I went to college and visit my little bro who goes to college there now too. Through the south all the way down to South Beach, Florida to visit my very best girlfriend (we are basically sisters) in Miami. I'm gonna see if I can talk her into partying in Key West for a night, back up the west coast of Florida and hopefully getting involved with a volunteer effort to help clean up the oil spill for a day or so before heading to New Orleans. I want to get rowdy on Bourbon Street and help out with a volunteer restoration project for a few days there as well then off to Texas. I am super excited to meet up with a friend in Austin who is a Texas Roller Girl and wants to see if I have what it takes to make it in the roller ring with her. Bounce around to somehow get to the Grand Canyon because I have never seen it and I have ALWAYS wanted to (I have heard it makes you feel so small, I love that feeling. It must be the same as looking out into the ocean at night or laying in a field, looking at stars in the country.) From the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas, of course. Party it up, fully taking advantage of free booze while I gamble quarter slots (just make sure to tip your cocktail waitress and she'll keep coming back even if she knows you're not really playing.) Then hopefully finding a bus that goes from Vegas to San Diego to have a surf session with some friends in Ocean Beach before a quick 'Tequila shot and Taco Trip' to Mexico for the day. THEN and finally then, back up to good ole' Los Angeles where my car is parked inside my friend's apartment complex's garage holding everything I own. 

Wow. 

Just wow. So that's my trip- it's gonna be a trip. I'll keep you guys posted the whole way. 

I was 'planning' on leaving September 17th but I booked a job just yesterday to make a few extra bucks on the 24th so I will be leaving sometime after then (ha, that's what I get for trying to make plans.) 

I haven't bought my ticket yet but I have basically prepped everything else in my life to be gone for two months (which was extremely easy as I keep everything in my life changeable at a moments notice.)

Absolutely the ONLY reason I see this trip not happening right now is that I am currently in the pitching process for a travel television show based on my adventures (go figure) and if we somehow sell this thing or enter negotiations or anything like that within the next few weeks, that obviously takes precedent over my little cross country expedition (but that would be like, THE raddest reason ever to have to postpone my trip.)

Well, that's that!

#HappyTravels

Click here to follow Lindsay on Twitter!

Thursday
Aug252011

#TrueStory: I Accidentally Took Acid... Twice. 

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Lindsay. She's crazy ... and bat shit ... and I love her for it! For reals, she hitchhiked across various African countries!!! HARDCORE!!! The girl is a whackadoodle noodle, but not at all a nerd. That is where I come in handy- I'm Lindsay's navigator on adventures. See, I show her how we get places via google maps, and she reminds me to stop tweeting and look up every once in a while. It's a match made in nerdy/non-nerdy heaven. That being saiiiddddddd ... she lives her life on the road and wants to share some of her experiences to all the nerdy folk out there that may be looking to do the same. Hit it Lindsay!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @LindsayMc

I love music festivals. LOVE them which is why I had traveled across the country and down the coast to go to Bonnaroo in 2009. Bonnaroo is a four-day, absolutely amazingly insane music festival in the Middle of Nowhere (actually, Manchester) Tennessee. I hopped a flight across the US from California to Virginia to a bus to a train to North Carolina to meet up with an old college buddy and roadtripped from North Carolina to Tennessee.  By the time we got to Tennessee, I had been in transit for over 17 hours and it was POURING rain. A torrential down pour only the southern east coast could muster… and Soto (my college bud) and I were trapped in his 2002 Camry. Not the way we were hoping to start off our four day epic adventure.

It stormed the entire first day –note, the festival camp grounds open a day before the music starts and close the day after so it’s actually six days of camping- which destroyed any tent assembling efforts and soaked what little clothes we had for the whole trip. However, due to sheer determination (and a thirty minute break from the rain) we managed to throw up our not-water-proof-at-all tent and crack open a few beers right before we blew the fuse of the charger box for the car, therefore rendering our cellphone chargers useless and having to go without phones (but more importantly, time-keeping devices) for the rest of the festival. Ah, Welcome to Bonnaroo.

Albeit our admittedly rough start, the rest of the festival was AMAZING. Absolutely, words-cannot-explain incredible. Because it was just the two of us, we floated around and made some new, fantastic friends, got to see some out-of-this-world musical performances (this what the line up, I still tingle when I look at it http://www.inquisitr.com/17160/bonnaroo-2009-lineup/) and generally just had a great fucking time.   

It was the last set of the last day of the festival and Soto and I were rocking out with these guys who had somehow managed to sneak a bright green couch past security and actually into the audience on the lawn.  This was amazing to me because you couldn’t even bring in foldable beach chairs or sneak a water bottle full of vodka on to the festival music grounds but these guys somehow had a freaking couch AND a cooler full of booze. Legendary.

At this point, Soto and I were music fest veterans. We had sustained ourselves off of shakeable pancake mix and beer for the past five days and after flash floods, extreme heat, our half-standing tent and insane partying, we had pretty much gotten this festival thing down.

Phish (one of my all time favorite bands) was closing up the festival but I was keeping it kind of mellow because I knew that after Phish was done at midnight, I was going to have to hitchhike 11 hours back to my parents house in Virginia the next day and any backpacker knows, there are few things worse in this world than hitching with a hellish hangover.

 Enter the Coconut Ice cream Incident.

We were jamming out and enjoying our last festival night when one of the totally fried-out-of-his-mind couch guys handed me a pint of deliciously refreshing, oh-so-yummy coconut icecream. After a full day of drinking (or more like a full five days) who wouldn’t love some coconut icecream? I started mowing down on the pint when his not-so-fried-out-of-his-mind friend comes up to me and goes

Stoner Dude: “Whoa, you should like slow down, that shit’s really strong”

Me: “What?”

Stoner Dude: “Strong, there’s like- a lot of acid in there”

Me: “What?”

Stoner Dude: “Acid, in the icecream. Dude, you’ve musta eaten like three hits already”

Me: “WHAT?!”

WHAT THE FUCK? Acid? In the icecream!? God dammit.

outside the portapotties (drug free, kinda)And this is the beginning of ‘The Time that I Accidentally Took Acid’ (I know you are wondering about the ‘Twice’ part, just wait.)

For one second, I completely panicked. I had taken acid before in high school and I had HATED it. Although there were some parts about it that I had really liked, all and all it was way too intense of a drug for me. For anyone who hasn’t dabbled in recreational drug use, acid is nuts. It’s super intense, super visual and super conditional (as in it can turn on you any second) and, not to mention, it’s a huge commitment as a trip lasts anywhere from six to ten hours. The last time I did acid (which was meant to be my first and last time) I wouldn’t say that I had a ‘bad trip’ but I had a ‘really-not-good’ trip towards the end. Things got weird and scary and I felt extremely anxious and freaked out the whole time. Not cool. Not fun. Not how I was intending to spend my last night and morning at Bonnaroo.

The scariest part to me was how much I may (or may not have) consumed. That, combined with the fact the festival would be ending, how drained I already was and the fact that I was totally not prepared for this at all- conditions were looking pretty prime for a seriously bad trip. Shit.

I started weighing my options. Trying to throw up the icecream wouldn’t work as the acid had probably almost immediately seeped into my empty stomach. I had heard that alcohol decreased the effects of acid but really, how much booze was I going to have to drink to combat three hits of acid? I’d probably just end up wasted and still tripping. It’s times like these that all you want to do is completely lose your shit. Panic and fly off the handle, scream and yell about the injustice of the situation until things are made right.

Unfortunately, it’s also times like these that that is absolutely going to do no good (and actually, a whole lot of bad.) The only thing to do is stay calm, stay positive, stay ‘Dude.’  

So what to do? What to do?

E!

Of course. When in doubt, just do MORE drugs.

And this was the exact moment that I considered ‘candyflipping’ for the first time. “Candyflipping” is when you take acid and Ecstasy together at the same time. If that sounds crazy to you, that’s kind of because it is. Never in my life would I have ever even considered this but when in Rome… or at Bonnaroo…

As intense and as much of a commitment as acid is, ecstasy (or E) is just as well.

Except ecstasy isn’t conditional. At all. I would say it’s probably impossible NOT to have a good time on E. It’s call it ecstasy because it’s suppose to make you feel like that and keep you in that mental space… which is why, when I realized I had just taken three hits of acid, I decided it had to be the perfect (and only) remedy to the situation.

Okay, now where to find it?

I asked the couch guys if they knew anyone and they felt so bad about the coconut icecream mix up that they said to just go over to their friend ‘that dude in the bandana’ and ask him for it for free.

And this is where shit gets silly.

I go up to ‘that dude in the bandana’ and say that his friends asked if he could give me some for free. He says ‘Sure’ and hands me a de-labled Visine bottle.

Weird, I’ve never seen E in liquid form before. But then again, I am no drug expert so who knows?

I drop a drop on my tongue, say Thanks and walk back over to the couch boys.

Me: “Thank you guys so much. I was totally about to freak out… That’s crazy though, I have never seen ecstasy in liquid form before.”

Stoner Dude: “Liquid? Nah, he’s got pills.’

Me: “What?”

Stoner Dude: “He’s got little green pills, E’s not liquid…”

Me: “What?”

Trying to find the communication breakdown in a sea of newly massacred brain cells is like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.

Me: “That dude in the bandana –pointing at the guy with the Visine bottle- he’s got pills?”

Stoner Dude: “Huh? THAT dude in the bandana? Nah, -pointing at ANOTHER GUY IN ANOTHER BANDANA- THAT dude in the bandana, he’s got pills… I don’t even know that other guy.”

Ohhhhh my goodness. Holy freaking shit.

And here is ‘The Time I Accidentally Took Acid… Twice.’

Wow, am I dumb. Of course, E wasn’t in liquid form. Of course, anything coming out of Visine bottle that isn’t Visine is acid. OF COURSE. And of course, my brain was so scattered from partying all weekend and in a tizzy over taking accidental acid that I didn’t put it all together until it was too late. Of course.

New friendsThis time the couch guys walk me up to the CORRECT dude in the CORRECT bandana and he gives me a whole pill and splits one with me (are you calculating the amount of drugs in my system now? Mom, please don’t be mad.)

Ah, situation controlled (kind of.)

As will all of my stories, this one has a happy ending too. The acid kicks in while I’m watching Phish and it is THE MOST OUT-OF-THE-WORLD performance that I have EVER SEEN. Seriously. Words-can-not-describe amazingness. The lights, the jam sessions, oh my God. What I would give to be able to be able to record and relive what I experienced… ah!

But as soon as the set ended, the festival ended too. The ‘ugly lights’ blasted on, lighting up the tired crowd, surrounding trash and beginning-to-be-disassembled vendorbooths for the first time in five nights. Cops on massive, stoic horses lined the walkways, looking down on everyone and making sure no one got rowdy or out of line. Our little community, our little world was ending and no one wanted it to be over just yet. I felt like I was in a scene of Pink Floyd’s The Wall and was starting to lose control of my trip.  

Soto and I walked back to our campsite without saying a word. Soto had never played with drugs before (plus he was totally wasted) so he couldn’t relate what I was going through and drank a quick beer with me and went to bed. I stayed up, chugging beers (remember I said alcohol decreases your trip) and watching the moon pixilate and shift.

Sitting by myself in the dark as everyone stumbled by in groups was starting to trip me out (and trip other people out too, I’m sure.) With my only friend fast asleep, what the heck was I going to do with myself all night in this condition?

The first one is the couple I met at the end during our late night adventureThings were starting to get weird and really ‘real.’ I have been racking my brain about what it’s like to be on acid and what I’ve come up with is that everything feels vividly and weirdly real (which may or may not be ironic depending on how you look at it.) Everything around you and surrounding you has a noticeable energy or vibration. It’s like you are seeing and feeling a reality that our normal senses are not equipped for and honestly, it’s very overwhelming.

I have no doubt that acid can be used as a consciences expanding vehicle in the right circumstances. I also have no doubt that being bored with a few friends in high school or being drained after a five day long bender are absolutely not the right circumstances.

I was starting to get creeped out by the realness of it all when I suddenly realized that I really had to pee. I had been drinking water and beer for hours on end and I had been so concerned by what was going on in my head, I had completely ignored my body.

I booked it across the campsite to the portapotties and made it just in time.

When stepped out of the portapotty, like a ton of bricks or a gust of wind, the E kicked in.

Things changed from overwhelming and weird to magical in an instant.

When I had gone into the portapotty, the campground lights had looked harsh and sterile, like sad lights on a cold movie set. It felt hospital-ly and surreal. When I stepped out of the portapotty (and the E had kicked in) the lights were soft, glowing, sparklely even, guiding the way to where ever I may have needed or wanted to go. 

No joke. The change was that profound.

I could go on forever about the implications of perspective and the influence of our own minds on reality but I would rather just say, as soon as I stepped out of the portapotty, things began to get awesome.

I immediately met a couple standing right outside the bathrooms who were also all sorts of fucked up on God know’s what. We instantly hit it off and ventured together all over the darkened festival campgrounds on what still is, one of the most EPIC adventures of my life.

All and all it was an incredibly epic and expanding (even though completely unexpected) experience. Looking back, my ability to handle and make the best out of a potentially insanely shitty situation gives me a strong sense of gratification and confidence in dealing with life in general. 

Drugs, backpacking and life have a lot in common. You have no real idea what you are getting yourself and all you really can do is- do your best, hope for the best and make the best out of whatever comes out. Life’s a rad trip… candyflipped or otherwise.

#safetravels

Click here to follow Lindsay on twitter!

Thursday
Aug182011

#NotANerd: Always Keep Your Backpack on Your Back (cultural misunderstanding? or attempted kidnapping?) 

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Lindsay. She's crazy ... and bat shit ... and I love her for it! For reals, she hitchhiked across various African countries!!! HARDCORE!!! The girl is a whackadoodle noodle, but not at all a nerd. That is where I come in handy- I'm Lindsay's navigator on adventures. See, I show her how we get places via google maps, and she reminds me to stop tweeting and look up every once in a while. It's a match made in nerdy/non-nerdy heaven. That being saiiiddddddd ... she lives her life on the road and wants to share some of her experiences to all the nerdy folk out there that may be looking to do the same. Hit it Lindsay!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @LindsayMC

When you’re traveling in a foreign country alone, or even with friends you always have to be at least a little bit aware of your surroundings.Now, I’m not saying to be paranoid but occasionally things may not go as planned. “Things escalated quickly” in the movie Anchorman and while backpacking situations can snowball, going from bad to worse rather quickly as well, especially if you are traveling alone as a 105 pound female like myself. Always Keep Your Backpack on Your Back (or in your lap.)

I had been from Portugal to Spain to Morocco in constant overland transit and I was TIRED. Thanks to not enough research on my part and horrible advice from a fellow backpacker on a train, I decided to go to Almaria, Spain to take a ferry over to Nador, Morocco. I had read about Nador in a trusted travel book and it sounded alright. Nothing spectacular but I definitely didn’t get a inkling of ‘Fundamentalist Morocco‘ which is why I was completely caught off guard when I arrived at the port around dusk.

About 130 miles from Algeria, I found Nador to be intimidating to say the least. On the dock, Nador was a desolate, old desert city and unlike anywhere I had ever found myself before. There was the port, a few palm trees and a tent with men sitting outside smoking hookah, staring at me. I couldn’t communicate in my very broken French (French is the business language of Morocco, Arabic being the primary) and even dressed modestly in long black linen pants and a high-necked long-sleeved tunic, I was hissed at by the local men who seemed to have a very different view of a blonde American woman than I would have hoped for.

As the sun was setting, I was being surrounded by men whispering in Arabic and broken English where I learned that the bus stop was over two miles away and there were no taxis here. I looked around at the rubble port town that is Nador and just tried not to completely lose my shit. Enter my ‘Knight in Shining Armor,’ Local Police Officer Karim.

Karim came out of no where, yelled at the men closing in on me and took me to exchange currency and even to get something to eat. He told me that the earliest bus leaving Nador was at ten pm and seeing how it was only eight and I really didn’t want to be sitting at a dark bus stop alone. I agreed to him showing me around the city until my bus was ready to board. My angel!

We drove around and we talked about Moroccan life and Islam and some of the problems the locals are experiencing as progressive ideas like women in the work place are conflicting with the belief as men as the sole provider and the impact of the raising housing market prices on the decline of marriage and the rise of prostitution.

We passed square mud and cement houses and children playing in rubble. I was completely enthralled in the conversation when I started to notice the car slowing down. We were in a dark deserted alley way, but that was no cause for alarm as most of the town seemed like a dark deserted alley way, however the slowing of the car for no apparent reason began to make me a little nervous. I suddenly realized that even though I was with a ‘Police Officer‘ I really didn’t know how ‘official’ that was. I also didn’t know where I was, how I got there or where the hell I would go if I left... and then Karim told me to get out of the car and he asked for a kiss. Refusing to panic, I immediately started running my mouth about Allah and women’s rights, I even threw Karma into the mix but all I really was thinking about was how I could grab my bag and run.

Understanding the situation that was unfolding, the only problem I needed to solve at this very moment was how the heck I was going to grab my little napsack that had my Passport, medicine and wallet (forget the big backpack of clothes) that I had so trustingly placed in the back of the cop car while I was seated in the front.

This is where I experienced a very important Lesson Learned: Keep Your Pack ON You So You Can Take Off.

Because I believe that people are ultimately good, this lesson sucks but trust me on this one- whether your in a taxi, on a bus, hitchhiking or even just staying at a new ‘friend’s’ house, have on you or very near to you anything that you cannot be without. Luckily, my blubbering worked and I did not have to bolt out of the car and into a totally dark, completely foreign and slightly fundamentalist city but I was ready to, napsack or not.

Karim dropped me off at the bus station, thanked me for spending time with him and even gave the bus driver instructions to watch over me on my ten hour bus ride to Rabat. I wrote the whole thing off as a cultural misunderstanding and spent the next ten hours, shivering in the back of a bus that, I swear was part of an electronics smuggling ring through the desert. All the while being gawked at by the Moroccan men sitting in front of me who were completely turned around in their seats, just staring at the little American girl, clutching her never-to-be-let-go-again napsack. But that’s whole other story...

Good luck out there, nerds!

#nerdsunite

click here to follow Lindsay on twitter

Monday
Aug152011

#NotANerd: Examines a life held together by dreams and duct tape

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Lindsay. She's crazy ... and bat shit ... and I love her for it! For reals, she hitchhiked across various African countries!!! HARDCORE!!! The girl is a whackadoodle noodle, but not at all a nerd. That is where I come in handy- I'm Lindsay's navigator on adventures. See, I show her how we get places via google maps, and she reminds me to stop tweeting and look up every once in a while. It's a match made in nerdy/non-nerdy heaven. That being saiiiddddddd ... she lives her life on the road and wants to share some of her experiences to all the nerdy folk out there that may be looking to do the same. Hit it Lindsay!!! </editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @LindsayMC

So up until now you know me as Jen's crazy friend who she goes on adventures with as well as a whiny little girl who had just had her heart broken but I'd like to take a moment to reintroduce myself to you if you don't mind. Hi, I'm Lindsay and I live a pretty interesting life. I somehow manage to talk my way into insanely epic situations and even though I am the first to admit that my life is "held together by dreams and duct tape" (a phase I made up and routinely over use) I am always always on an awesome adventure.

Part of always being on an adventure for me is never having a 9-5 job. This means two things, I never know where my next pay check is coming in from (or if it's coming in at all) and I get to pick up some pretty random and stellar ways to make money.

The job I'm on right now is no exception. I am working as a "talent assistant" on a hugely popular singing competition show... and it is a freaking blast. I get to work with four incredibly talented musicians, not to mention the other behind the scenes crew who are probably some of the raddest people I have ever met. Our show has one host and three judges, one of them being someone who I have listened to religiously since I was 14 and they also happen to be four of nicest and most interesting people I have ever had the pleasure to work with, famous or not. The other four members of our " talent team" and I basically work as the liaisons between the "talent" (the host and judges) and the various facets of production on set (hair and make up, script writers, producers, etc.)

If you haven't worked in television before, you're probably calling bullshit on the importance of our jobs - but we are actually totally necessary and here's why... On set at any given time there can be about 10 to 20 people representing various parts of production that need to interact with or relay messages to the on screen talent. Each persons need is absolutely important and most likely crucial to the flow of shooting and they all know it (IE wardrobe needs to fix a lapel, makeup needs to retouch, scripts needs to go over new lines, producers need them to walk in a new direction.)

On top of those differing needs, each person has their own personality and way of handling things and if we had all those people trying to communicate with the oh-so-very important on screen talent, they won't be able to focus on their sparking personalities shining on screen. See how that works? Plus, we are also totally there as barriers for when shit hits the fan (and believe me, shit always hits the fan.)

There is a lot of money invested into a super tight amount of time so when things get behind or are misunderstood it's like being inside a pressure cooker. People start yelling and freaking out and it's our job to be able to gather all the information, decide what most important at that exact second and calmly and happily relay that to talent. When shit isn't hitting the fan, we basically hang out, Facebook on our cellphones, eat amazing catered meals... and flirt.

Production is a male dominated industry (like every industry I seem to work in) and being in Hollywood, a lot of the guys on set live up to the stereotype of being fun, young and good looking. Let me reiterated the "production" part, as in the behind the scenes guys. This ain't my first rodeo on set (I've worked in production on a few shows on varying networks) and I know well enough not to mess with talent (on this show it is not even an issue because all three guys are happily married.) It's not because I have or because I've been told not to or anything but honestly, once I saw inside of that kind of lifestyle, it's just something I wouldn't be interested in being involved with in anyway (its absolutely not bad and really seems just as fun and as wonderful as the tabloids make it out to be but still, just not my thing)...

But the wise-cracking, Vans-wearing, kinda grungy production boys- now that's a different story.

There are two guys in particular on this set who have caught my eye. One guy, let's call him D who works in stage production and the other guy, hm, let's call him J (I am so creative, huh?) who works in scripts. D and J are super different from each other and I have managed to separately but equally flirt with both since our first day on set. D is the tall, goofy guy who everyone loves (and not just because he is in charge of fixing our walkie talkies and finding missing power cords) and J is the hot new guy all the girls are going for, who may or may not know it.

This is a good time to say that I'm not one of those girls who has shitty taste in guys. Honestly, I date really really great dudes (my most recent ex included even though I totally trashed him out of petty emotional devastation in my previous posts) and the "desirable" guy that every chick wants just doesn't do it for me unless he is actually genuinely really rad. So where you might expect a chick to bypass the "nice guy" and go for the hot, possibly more challenging one, that just simply isn't the case for me. I don't see love or even just hooking up as a game or way to validate my hotness or value, I just don't. Okay, so with that being said, D is not the easy choice either but for a different reason. Me and D were chatting earlier about how he bounces out of town every chance he gets and does all this fun stuff and he was totally making me laugh the whole time and he kinda seems like a dude I would have a really really good and easy time with... Which is really freakin' scary.

I just had my heart ripped out by one of those "nice, fun guys" and it fucking sucked. I never thought I would have fallen for him but then I did and then when didn't work out, I went fucking crazy and I'm not down with being that kind of girl. I just put myself back together and there is no way I am subjecting myself to anything like that anytime soon.

Not that I think me and D will even get to that point, but I am not allowing it and putting myself into the position of being completely and fiercely protective of my heart and I don't want to be even impacted emotionally in the least by any dude... So D might be a dangerous choice for me right now.

Regardless, this is how today went with D and J. D and I chatted over breakfast in the morning and said Hi when we passed each other three times, maybe four times during the day. He was swamped all day and kind of stressed, things were super mellow in talent world so I had a lot of time on my hands to play around (and write this, on my iPhone, seriously on that small ass screen) so we didn't get to hang out as much as we usually do- lame but whatevs. With J-boy however, today we made some strides. He completely fabricated three different reasons to come visit me by the talent trailers. Really. There was no reason he needed to be anywhere near the trailers but he happened to walk by, "run" into me (he knew I was there) and stopped to chat. He's a cool dude. He seems really nice and is not nearly as scary to me as D. We also have the same taste in music, well at least I know he likes Phish so that's rad too.

So hm, I donno. They are both fun... and flirting with new boys is always fun too. It's tough when you only see someone once or twice  a week on a pretty demanding show, even if it is for 12 to 16 hours. By the time we wrap for the night, everyone just wants to get the hell out and during the day its not completely appropriate to get digits yet (they would have to ask me, I don't ask for boys numbers.) but as the weeks go on, things seem to be getting more interesting so I wonder if anything is going to happen... I guess we will have to wait until the next episode to find out... Not literally, I won't see either of them until we shoot episode number 306 next week ;)

#thatisall

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