Jacky Carter

• Embrace Life February 22, 2010
  The last time someone tried to stress to me the importance of using seatbelts was my first NYC trip to the doctor in 2008 (because I didn’t understand my health fund, and therefore didn’t use my health insurance, the first year I lived here). The conversation came from nowhere, just like the decree that she [...] […]
• Bittersweet February 17, 2010
  One of my goals in 2009 was to qualify for the 2010 NYC Marathon. There are multiple ways to do this — run a certain time for your gender/age (not in the realm of possibility for a beginning runner like me), chance it with the lottery (didn’t want to run that risk) or run in [...] […]
• Notes from the Universe February 16, 2010
  I started subscribing to Notes from the Universe after I read one on Penelope Dullaghan’s blog. What’s been particularly ironic is how tailored the notes have been to my life the past few weeks — acknowledging all the fear and anxiety I’ve felt in the job search. The uncertainty about how I want my career [...] […]
• Twinkle and shine February 11, 2010
  I’ve quickly become a fan of the Sparklettes on Swirlygirls’s website, a new category she just added this year. The posts are short, simple and include a handwritten phrase from the story. So often I get tangled in the details and backgrounds of stories. It’s a breath of fresh air to see ordinary moments in [...] […]
• Kids say the darndest things February 9, 2010
  I’ve mentioned my friend Sam here before (you can watch a video of us laughing when I visited her in October). She’s an English teacher in Houston and wears fun socks. She’s really funny. But I think some of her students are giving her a run for her money. Most days her IM status rotates [...] […]
• Happy Anniversary to New York City and me February 8, 2010
  (I wrote this post on my three-year anniversary in New York City — January 27, 2010 — but didn’t get around to posting it then. A couple days later my mom reminded me that I moved to New York on January 26 — and she would know, because it’s her birthday. Regardless of the date, [...] […]
• The periodic chart of life February 7, 2010
  Don’t be too timid or squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. — Ralph Waldo Emerson Sometimes I think the experiments would be a lot easier if I just had a teacher in the corner making sure I didn’t blow off my arm or start a fire. [...] […]
• Hello again. February 6, 2010
  I know I’ve been very quiet here for awhile. I’ve been so consumed with looking for and applying to jobs that things like writing and looking at blogs made me feel guilty — though I did reach some breaking points when I realized those were the exact things I needed to make me feel better, [...] […]
• Best of 2009 recaps January 7, 2010
  A word that encapsulates your year? Unexpected. The magazine I worked for went through massive layoffs in March. Then I got laid off in August. My parents got a second dog. I was a freelance designer for the first time. Then I traveled for five weeks. When I returned from Costa Rica, I served on [...] […]
• Home for the holidays January 6, 2010
  After my eavesdropping experiment at Thanksgiving, I decided to continue the tradition while I was home for Christmas. Technically it wasn’t even eavesdropping, just remembering ridiculous things my family said so I could publish them on the internet. Except this time they knew what was in store for them. And they continued to open their [...] […]