Jennifer J. Caddick

So seriously true and should be required reading before leaving high school/college/etc!

adulting:

(Note: this is one of the first Adulting entries; reprinted because I still think it’s useful even if you don’t feel like scrolling through 30 pages of archive)

This is the most difficult and important thing to accept if you wish to be a grownup: You are not a special snowflake.

Well,…

It’s rather appropriate that on International Women’s Day, I would find a fantastic article about some cool ladies taking things into their own hands. NYTimes: They Made Main Street Their Own: How Four Women Revived a Derelict Mississippi Town Reading this - especially during such a transition time in my life - has given me a serious dose of of ‘we can do it’ inspiration. 

OVER lunch at the B.T.C. Old-Fashioned Grocery here one day last month — pear zucchini soup and cornbread madeleines — the women of Water Valley were talking demolition.

Coulter Fussell, 34, an artist and an owner of Yalo Studio, a gallery a couple of doors down the block on the town’s Main Street, favors a crowbar. Megan Patton, also 34, an artist, waitress and Ms. Fussell’s gallery partner, likes to use a hammer and a screwdriver. Erin Austen Abbott, 36, a photographer, gift shop owner, pop-up gallery impresario and travel nanny, doesn’t care what tool she uses, as long as she has company.

All are particularly skilled at renovation, having stripped and rebuilt, among them, three houses and one storefront. That their husbands are in the music business and on the road for months at a time has only accelerated their prowess with hand tools. They prefer to work alone or with one another.

“Let’s just say it’s better that way,” Ms. Fussell said later.

These women, along with Alexe van Beuren, 28, B.T.C.’s owner, are emblematic of a new wave of business and house owners, many of them female, who are revitalizing this small town of just under 4,000.

And the best part of it all is that it all looks gorgeous. A perfect mix of old and new, comfort and function, small town homey and big city chic. 

Stories like this are what’s great about small town America - a little vision, a little dirt & grit, and a lot of heart can really make things happen. You go ladies! 

So I’ve got this great friend Seth. (And, no this isn’t a Seth-stalking themed tumblr. It really is a coincidence that I’ve written about him twice in about as many months. Really…)

Seth is a really funny guy. He’s also a really smart guy. He’s using his smarts and all that funny-ness to develop an independent radio series. Now take my word for it…this guy knows radio AND humor so when it’s done, it’ll be a must listen. 

But, the thing is….great radio comedy doesn’t just produce itself. You need actors. You need a recording studio. And, I’m sure there are some technical gizmos needed to get it all online.

So where do these dollars come from? You. Seth has started an Indie GoGo fundraising campaign to get this project going. I know, I know. You think your twenty bucks won’t make a difference. Well, it does. I see it every day in my work running a non-profit. Your twenty adds up with someone else’s twenty that adds up with someone’s fifty. And, *voila*, the goal is reached, the project is launched. Please support his project today.

What do you get out of it? Well, if really great funny radio isn’t enough, you will know that you’ve supported someone’s art. (We all could use a bit more creativity in the world!)

How do I know Seth and how do I know that he knows radio? Well, the short version is that we went to NYU together. He spent a lot of time hanging around the dorm room I shared with my friend Laura hoping that our friend Sophie (now his lovely wife) would show up. While doing all of that waiting around, I got roped into a few of his projects including a radio adaptation of something (a Dr. Seuss story?) in which I spent a long time in a recording studio pretending to be a bumble bee. (It’s really hard to get creative with ‘buuuzZZZZzzzzZzzzZZZzzzzzZZZ).