Krystle Nicole Russin on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

JOURNALIST. MODEL. BLOGGER. BEAUTY QUEEN. Ick on the last one. A bunch of labels have been assigned to me but I want to tell you about myself in a way that a resume or random Google-ness cannot. Get ready for a mouthful! :-o

EARLY YEARS: A MIX OF CORNFED VALUES, ALL YOU CAN EAT CHEESE FOODS/MISSISSIPPI MUDPIE AND MICHIGAN AVENUE
I grew up in Illinois and spent most of my years there until I was in my late teens. Every other generation on my mom's side of the family is from Illinois. I used to wonder when I was little about what was out there in the rest of the world, because it seemed nothing much ever happened in Illinois. We were the part of the country people visited to see Sammy Sosa, go shopping, ice skating, eat out a lot and...not much else. I used to watch TV and say, "Why doesn't that happen here?" Everyone around the Midwest seemed generally satisfied with the pace of life. I wonder why I, as a little kid, wasn't. I mean, I love Illinois. But it's so isolated from everything.

Our neighborhood looked like The Stepford Wives movie set. Most of our neighbors were really old and boring, so it wasn't like I had lots of neighbor kids to play with. That is not to say they were bad people. They were really nice. Our house was kind of close to water, meaning the toxic waste-infected bugs half the size of my fist flew around our kitchen like crazy. The old man next door used to be helpful by killing them for us. This sounds laughable until you actually visit the Midwest and see I'm 100 percent accurate when I say houseflies, bumblebees, etc. are the size of a human fist. Yikes!

I liked riding my bike and/or walking from my house into the golf course and back whenever I got bored. Sometimes, I would do random, crazy things with my best friend simply to make people laugh, like making carpet bags after we learned about "carpetbagging" in history class. I remember we went over to the floor store asking to buy sheets of carpet to make for our "carpet bag" purses we ended up giving to our parents. It was hilarious to see the looks of "UMMM...this is great!" [He presented his mother a chocolate brown, ice cream cone-shaped carpet purse.] Or we would get together and record songs all the time. We used to make songs that were bad on purpose, Weird Al type songs and then covers. You get the idea. And for another example of being completely goofy kids, I saw Britney Spears parading a snake back in my day before I flipped it on Newsnight - shows you how fickle I am with my TV shows, doesn't it? - and thought, "She is awesome." For my Spanish class project where I had to make a video, I had my normally very shy guy friend dance around in a wig and gallon of blush, with "I'm a Slave 4 U." Classic!

Last dumb story, I promise: Halloween! Every Halloween, the entire town of kids visited our neighborhood because our dumb neighbors decided to be nice to them, handing out king sized candy bars, glow in the dark sticks and necklaces, money prizes, anything fun and appealing to trick-or-treaters. My best friend and I played jokes on them. We had this big Bowl of Mystery we made kids draw papers out of. They had to read the message(s) and/or learn what they won. It could have been that you won a few chocolate bars, or it could've been you won an old can of octopus for making sushi. We had the most random prizes. One year, we ended up on the news because our messages made fun of the local TV anchors' "sexiness." And our nice, kind of traditional valued neighbors got a scare when two kids from our junior high trick-or-treated dressed as female hookers, right down to the fishnets...

My school was half an hour away, if I left early enough, or it took closer to 45 minutes. I always managed to be near-late to class in the morning from traffic jams of cars and sometimes giant tractors that found their way onto the road. I love how people go to Michigan Avenue to shop, "Oh! I love Illinois! The big city!" and really, it's a bunch of cornfields with suburbs, tractors and strip malls. After school, and um...sometimes when I should have been in school, we would go to visit museums or go to the mall/downtown Chicago. We took trips to St. Louis and parts of Miss-URR-eye, where we'd eat, go the mall - can you say mallrats? - go to a museum there, the bookstore, see a movie and possibly, stay overnight at a hotel to go swimming. All in one day!

Movies! Exactly. I sound like a movie nut to you. That is because after 9/11, we made it a tradition to see every movie that ever came out, once a week minimum. Originally, we saw movies because there wasn't anything happy on TV at the time. Then, we began going nonstop. I remember we watched Chicago probably eight times out of boredom after we had seen everything else, haha. To this day, whether in theaters or on HBO, I watch every movie that gets released.

Growing up in the Midwest, people teach you a lot of things. But most importantly, it doesn't matter what you are like as a person if you don't have halfway decent manners when necessary. I know how to have proper dining manners, call everyone "ma'am" or "sir" and say "thank you." Remember that when you try to rig an election. It doesn't matter that you are rigging one, only that you tell the electioneers thank you when they throw out a few votes.

INTERVIEWING POLITICIANS FOR MY SCHOOL NEWSPAPER
Around the time I got to junior high, I decided I was bored with myself. Instead of channeling my energy into after school activities - me? no, I hung with the crowd of kids that was never overinvolved at school besides showing up! - I started writing for my school newspaper. It turns out, I really liked it. I remember watching the news on TV about Bush and probably not exactly agreeing with all of it, but wanting to write this overdramatic thing like the political commentators did. My first article for the school newspaper was about the big pre-November accusations against Bush in 2000, a Vanity Fair piece that came out right before then, etc. Yeah, for a 13-year old to want to talk about that still makes me wonder, as my older self. From there, I kept on writing little things and soon said, "Why can't I interview politicians like Tim Russert?" Seriously, on weekends I would watch music videos all morning and switch it to Meet the Press I thought Mr. Russert was the most awesome guy ever.

Right after eighth grade finished up, I told my teacher I was going out to DC and the State Capitol, and I WAS GOING TO BE TIM RUSSERT. She gave me this look like, "What are you talking about? Oh no." I actually did place a lot of "grown up" interview requests for different politicians' offices. Guess what? They were all really nice about talking to this five-foot, dorky little girl for her school newspaper. A lot of them, after the interviews, invited me to hang out at their offices and campaign stops. It was awesome, and that's where the next part of my story begins.

MY DOWNWARD SPIRAL INTO JOURNALISM ADDICTION
From hanging out with these people, I learned that "there is nothing in this world you cannot get without asking." I caught that motto of theirs of being really aggressive, always wanting more, no matter what. I was on a roll! I don't know why at 14, I had so much fearlessness. I would say maybe more than I do now. So I called up people asking, "I want to write for your magazine/newspaper." I did this and one place gave me yes, WomanSpeak Magazine, which was also owned by a radio station company.. I lucked out there because I got to write for the magazine with my interviews and contributed to one radio show a bit.

From that, I was able to write for The State Journal-Register in Springfield, IL, which is the state capital's paper. Everyone who matters in politics reads it. I remember the coolest moment when I met Dick Mell, Rod Blagojevich's father-in-law, and over dinner at a campaign stop, he told me all about this "great interview" he read in the paper with Dick Durbin. I told him that interview series was mine, and he just said, "Wow! You? You wrote that? You're so...small!" I got recommended by a state legislator to write for Illinois Leader, an online political site that was widely read by people at the time and whose owner, Dan Proft, is now running for governor of Illinois. I did more of my favorites: political interviews. From that, I used my experience writing to straight up ask my PBS affiliate for a show. At the advice of politicians, because that's how it works in Illinois, I called up the station's main producer asking to host a new show. They didn't have room for a new show, but there was an existing show that had room for a host. Voila. From 15 to 16, I hosted Illinois Stories.

I loved it. Hanging out with politicians helped me grow up faster at some level. I also loved getting "get out of jail free" type passes for school signed by officials. "Oh yeah, I can't be in class tomorrow. I'm going to THE STATE CAPITOL." "I'm going to THE GOVERNOR'S MANSION to check out the Christmas tree sets they just got in. Hmm. I guess that means I'm going to miss about, you know, math class or something. Maybe even the whole day." Big eye roll from my school truancy secretary. I was the girl Ferris Bueller of my day. For anyone who's ever seen that movie, that's a lot what life is like as a teenager in Illinois.

If anyone asked me who I wanted to be, I had this crazy answer I still believe is true today: Nicole Kidman, Barbara Walters and Britney Spears. People then and now give me a response, "Huh?" followed by, "You cannot be all those things in your life." Maybe not instantaneously. I think you can though. I additionally tossed in being Aaron Brown, my favorite TV journalist of our modern media era. He did something called reading the news. I hate watching TV now, seeing news programs going on and on about the latest celebrity gossip, YouTube videos and stuff that's really not news. I always, because of him, wanted to do a lot more in journalism and hope I can in my life, do tons of work he would be happy to see or read.

BUCKET O' STRESS
During this time of me doing writing and also later on helping on campaigns informally and with Illinois Teen Republicans, I was going to school on top of it. I spent my days going to the community college where I lived more than high school. There was a year where my only high school classes were cooking, computers and Spanish. Yeah, the perks of knowing politicians, haha gets you kickbacks like super early release! Actually, I was bored with school the same way I was questioning why life in the Midwest is so slow. The difference is I didn't want to drop out like the other kids who get bored with it. I wanted to get it over with, so I did. I finished high school at 16 and community college at 17.

YOU MAY ALL GO TO HELL. I"M GOING TO TEXAS!
At 17, I moved to Austin, Texas to finish school at the University of Texas, which don't mean to brag, is kind of a big deal. You'll see what I mean if you go to Texas and say you went to UT-Austin. It's regarded as "the Harvard of the Southwest." People fight to get in, the programs are top, etc. Austin was a really different place for me in more ways than school though. I love the relaxed atmosphere there. I took in a whole different culture. As for writing, I kept up with it there. My favorite person I interviewed in Texas has to be Kinky Friedman, the humorist/singer/gubernatorial candidate. You must meet him someday. He hangs out with Willie Nelson and jokes around, and then he'll talk about issues in an intelligent way. People underestimate him.

THAT GIRL WAS A ONE TIME TEENAGE BEAUTY QUEEN [EW...NO]
I finished school at 19, and um...COUGH...entered Miss Texas USA 2008 - actually held in June/July 2007, go figure - as a sort of vanity thing to slap on my resume. I admit, it was a lame rip off of Erika Harold with how she earned a load of respect, speaking engagements and opportunities when people saw her just as a contestant at Miss Illinois. Well, Miss Texas didn't do much for me other than years later, give me the chance to write an awesome op-ed piece and look pretty on my modeling resume. You have no idea how much I wanted to make fun of all its pageantry pomp and circumstance ridiculousness with the op-ed.

WHAT NOT TO WEAR...AND THEY CUT MY HAIR!
A few months later, I had this horrible day in the fall where everyone wanted to argue with me. Every little thing went wrong. That night, my mom ripped out an Elle Magazine, forcing me to enter a contest about makeovers and life stuff. I wrote it thinking I wouldn't actually win, like every other contest I have ever entered. I actually did win it and, around I want to say the middle of the following month, flew up to New York for my severe "makeunder." Yes. Makeunder. No more long hair. I got a cherry colored bob and was thrown into a kind of corny green sweater. In the photo, they bobby pinned it up to my neck because they felt it made me look too curvaceous or something.

Really, the contest wasn't a life shattering moment, but I make a point to mention it because in coming up to NYC, I said, "What am I doing with my life?! I have not done anything since that dumb pageant but hang out at the mall between writing here and there!" It was a true moment of frustration and the realization I wanted to continue on with my life. Oh, right. I got extensions right when I came back. I cannot handle very short hair. It challenges my womanhood. Love that saying. I'm borrowing that line from a tennis player who once said someone was "challenging his manhood!!!" in extra exclamation marks.

NORTH OF THE MASON-DIXON LINE
I wound up coming back and forth between Austin and Manhattan beginning in 2008. I did not care that I was about 21. I had and do have more experience than people older than me. I made this list of goals I wanted to have in my life, personally and professionally, stupid, trivial right up to the big ones. I was and AM going to do these things. Well, I like to believe when I really get to print writing, that I'm pretty good at it and sure, things didn't always happen perfectly for me in getting what I want right when I wanted. People like to misjudge me because I'm a kid. It happens. Or I'm a girl, and they think girls can't do what men can. I can happily tell you that I have done more print work you've most likely read if you live in Manhattan, written for print out of town more and blogged for national PBS - while not writing for Aaron Brown's news show like I used to want as a teenager, that was really neat to blog for a nightly news show.

AMERICA'S NEXT TOP AVERAGE HEIGHT MODEL
I am not 5'11". I wear a size zero but I am not skeletal-gross. On my list of things to do in life though, one of them, is disregarding being vertically challenged, like Victoria Beckham. I think she's really neat how she is short and not modely, but she does major ad campaigns. She does the runway. She was never a career model and got to do that. You know how people constantly advise you and you never listen to them, but when someone who matters to you gives you an idea, you run with it? A friend of mine suggested I work out and eat healthy until I look like a Skipper doll in the meantime while I'm looking for decent journalism work. Doing this, he insisted, would nail me a modeling contract. I know. It's stupid. I followed it. And it worked. It's another case of me following people's odd, crazy advice. There's a quote I love by Aaron Brown that suits me: "If you believe enough in yourself, naively or otherwise, anything you set out to do can happen." Because if you don't follow through with those stupid thoughts you and people get, you are never going to do anything, ever.

TERRY BRADSHAW, EAT THE DUST OFF MY PRINT/ONLINE SPORTS WRITING!
A big one now: while I do write regular news still, I have made a transition into sports journalism, tennis that is. My mom for as long as I can remember always said, "Why do you do politics and news? Do sports!" She's a sports fan, always was. Me? Not really. I followed Midwestern sports teams and always, always keep up with the Longhorns. Like I said, going to UT is a big deal. You do not go to that university and walk away ignoring the amazing football program. UT football deserves its own novel here. But no, besides that, I wanted to switch her ESPN to "Lady Marmalade," the MTV Awards, anything else. That changed when I decided to try my go at tennis writing. For different reasons, I have had sports contacts from different sports and definitely tennis. I didn't really know anyone who would take me, so I asked a guy I met at a US Open party the previous summer if I could interview a tennis player I knew for his blog. He actually said yes. After that, I kept writing it. I have interviewed more tennis players and folks involved with the sport. Somehow, I'm unsure right now, I want to make use of my other non-tennis sports contacts to interview them for other places.

PUBLISHING
In August 2009, I and Christian Hartsock released a book that uses our old op-eds mixed with new writing and a ton of photos. I like to describe it as "Ann Coulter or Al Franken, if he or she wrote a political book that's a PG spin on Madonna's 'Sex' coffeetable book." The title should telll you everything: "Audacious! Political Columns, Essays and Arthouse Fashion Modeling." The best part to me is it includes, in the photos, Chris Cantoya, a really nice guy who's a tie/accessories designer I know from Texas. The book has photos for people who like girls and people who like boys, and interesting political writing to read. It keeps everyone happy! Soon, I'm going to publish more books by other people.

DON'T CALL ME POLLYANNA
This all makes it sound as if I'm perfectly cheerful all the time. I'm not. I get down, frustrated sometimes if something doesn't work out right away. I know I don't talk about myself personally much. I don't enjoy plastering that everywhere, although one day, after I get married and settled for some years, the jinx will be off, haha, but a big part of what I don't mention here is how people you meet throughout your life drastically change your destiny. I wouldn't be doing some of what I had had I met certain people who gave me ideas, direction, helped me out or agreed to give me a chance when I approached them about it. Then there are people who give me a big U-turn. Take sports writing. I know I wouldn't be doing that without...you get what I mean. Above all that, I like to stress the difference when you hear people you care about telling you something. I guess it wouldn't matter to me if someone I don't know well thinks something, but to hear someone I like rattling on about it makes all the difference in the world. And when occassionally, what someone you care about says something hurtful, it hurts twice as much. It makes you want to snap and prove you can do what he or she said you never could. I should add that my parents have helped me so much. Taylor Swift and most young people you can read about who've done something, no matter how small or big that is, have done it because their parents helped them greatly.

HATE LIST
I hate in my life how people think I'm some dumb, little girl bimbo because I don't have a unisex workplace mullet. I hate it when people doubt me because of my age or other reasons before I open my mouth, although I might be looking "cheesy workplace" in boring attire and pulled back hair. I hate it when people easily believe stupid rumors without meeting someone. I hate how someone would think I have ever gotten anywhere because of dating around. That's an assumption lots of people make about young women with work opportunities. There's a story I tell in the book about a professor actually telling me at UT, when I asked for advice about post-graduation life, that I'm a "cute girl. You should get married, not worry about work to continue living a comfortable lifestyle." It made me sick. I want a family and a husband and a great career of my choosing, believing that you can be everything you've ever dreamed of throughout your life, and I want it all. I guess a better way to say it is repeating old advice someone in Illinois gave me: "Use journalism to be more than a journalist and right back again," meaning become a journalist, doing what I really love, and taking advantage of that, reach out to other careers, which will further help me gain the respect necessary to take on big journalism projects at a young age as compared to doing it at 58. OK, still working on that bit for sure. It's going to take a while...

Also, I want to be able to eventually write/produce movies, the same reason I want to do that with news. I enjoy being involved behind the scenes equally as much, or sometimes more, than I do being in front of it. I think producing news and movies are the same thing in some ways except that one isn't a real story.

13 GOING ON 30
As a person, I'd like to say I am very mature and immature at the same time. It's like I really am "13 going on 30." Probably that's because I never really hung out at high school, did the traditional school and college experiences. I hung out with middle-aged people. That's why it feels so refreshing when I hang out with jocks and young people for writing things or just having met them for random reasons. It feels like I'm making up for it. With hobbies, my favorite classes back in school were cooking, Spanish, music and journalism. To this day, those are my same favorite interests and areas I want to reach out to in my life/career/family. I love walking into Williams-Sonoma and eating their samples like crazy and going on to buy a new BBQ rub. I dream of the day when I wake up and cook breakfast for my kids before they go off to school. (Don't worry - I'm going to teach them how to cut class too. I'm not all that cheesy!) That's such a big deal to me to cook Midwestern treats and things for my family once a month as well, because my parents weren't from that part of the country and I was ALWAYS jealous of other kids' food at elementary school. I made my own fair share of lunch trades in my day.

I'm still a bit of a 15-year old girl who likes loitering at the mall, making fun of the clothing they come out with that nobody will want to wear. I like to talk about what I read about in the business section - my fav gig I have going now is really writing for business news - and then go off to critique the cheeseburger I'm eating at the table. I enjoy going out no matter what to run errands. Because I already went out a lot as a teenager, I really don't care to go to bars or clubs unless I have a group of guys with me...don't like being alone. Probably, the reason why I don't hang out with most people my age is because they're just beginning that phase, and I already lived it. I could care less honestly to go find a date at a smoke-infested pub with a gaggle of girls, hahah.

I like to go to the bookstore and read everything in sight, then go off to read tabloids and whatever I get my hands on. I'll flip through everything on sale quickly. OK with tabloids, maybe not read the tabloids but look at the dumb pictures of fashion disasters.

I wasn't like this years ago but now am incredibly nosy and love learning whatever is going on. If I see you redecorating your dining room, I'll ask you about it, genuinely interested in what you have to say. I'm usually on my phone, texting a mile a minute to people about whatever it is I'm up to and vice versa. I really love talking to people about their work stuff. It fascinates me learning about journalism going ons, lame updates, sports gossip... I tend to share how I feel about something most of the time. I'll tell you the truth in a well-mannered way, "I don't feel happy with ______ [something I've done]," preferring not to be fake nice at all times. With TV, I don't like watching actual shows most of the time. I'll watch the news maybe, mostly I watch it during heavy election seasons, and at nights, I really watch movies all the time. See, remember I said something about also wanting to be Nicole Kidman? Someday, in my late 20's/30's, when I believe I'll have more of an ability to speak my mind than I do now and get taken seriously in that path, I want to produce and write and be a part of movies...

I AM MORE FAMOUS THAN BRAD PITT. I WAS ON SURVIVOR, SEASON 49.
OK, a better way to say it: I hate it when people believe success is defined by your level of fame. I don't mean that being famous is a bad thing. What I'm saying is people believe because they're semi-famous for a little while from a tacky, cat fight reality show [or insert another lame thing here] that it's the same as accomplishing something. My goal is to be successful and have longevity, some sort of legacy I can leave to my future kids and everyone.

PETS
I have two dogs and a cat. I LOVE cats. I want to die surrounded by 85 cats. My cat's name is Chanel and I call her that and everything besides her name: "fuzzy meow," "special cat," etc. My dog is Matisse, aka. "Lassie dog." Right, right. I call my animals incredibly stupid nicknames. Sometime in a year or two, I want to adopt a Yorkie. This strong urge to grab myself a pet Yorkie, snatching one out in the street with my bare hands any moment, happened after I met a neighbor couple's baby girl Yorkie, Tallulah. She has to be the most beautiful dog I have ever seen in my whole life. I HAVE to have one for myself! My Yorkie is going to be my next child in the meantime before I start a real human family...haha.

BAD HABITS
I live a pretty clean lifestyle. I don't steal things. I never do drugs or age myself to death by smoking. I don't know about you, but yellow smoker's teeth really attract someone's attention! Really! I do not know a single person who chews tobacco or smokes who hasn't had veneers. Note: my friend Matthew collects vintage Virginia Slims ads in an album, which is kind of neat. We've had our fun cutting them out of magazines and making fun of how glamorous it seemed then!

Drinking really doesn't appeal to me much since I'm over 21 - there isn't a point now if it isn't shocking to others, getting served alcohol as a minor at a restaurant. When I do drink, I can't help but follow the advice given to me by someone as a little girl to "order a real man's drink." Aka. don't get caught with sissy, fruity, women's beverages. There is a family diner I frequent that serves tough drinks any time of day or night with your hamburger. I can handle my alcohol as well, if not better, than any men at the table, without getting drunk or the least bit wobbly. And OK, I have tried somewhat feminine drinks like pisco sour, I'll tell you that. I am still a girl at times.

I can be a little sarcastic sometimes, or I'll goof off a lot. I guess I do it because I've had some sadness happen to me different times, and this is my way of acting like nothing bad ever happens to me or people I know. Then, there are moments where I'll make fun of someone if I really like that person. I know, it's stupid to fight back and forth or kind of say something mean about a guy. It's exactly like little kids making fun of each other in elementary school...I don't mean it deep down...ever. The only time I do mean something I might say to be mean is if someone is kind of creepy wanting to go out with me, or if someone has bad intentions with me. Often, when a creepy guy asks me for my phone numbers, I'll whip out both my phones in front of him and tell him I don't have a phone number whatsoever. Things like that.

LOVE
My favorite story as far as I can remember is Carmen, the old, old opera. I love the story and the music. People, I believe, dislike it because they have no clue what people are saying in French. I do. I'm fluent in 9 languages. OK, kidding. I actually heard "Habanera" first and said, "What is that? It sounds so different for being old music." I got a copy of the translation one day when I was really bored in 9th grade or so, the entire text. And I loved the meaning of the whole story. It's about all the confusion people feel when they like someone: falling for more than one person at the same time, falling in/out of love with people, what it's like when someone is influenced by others not to go out with someone else, how love causes someone to lose any sense of reality when it comes to good decision making - and when it makes your whole life become about trying to outdo someone else because what he/she thinks is important.

Carmen is the first strong female character to not act like a wilting flower, falling for the men. She's really bossy and outspoken at times, romantic at others. She makes the men fall for her, and she's supposedly the most beautiful woman in the world who can have any man she wants, but it doesn't matter. She specifically wants the men she truly falls over backwards for at first sight, initially with the first guy, and the second guy she kind of grows on... Well, isn't that what the whole "Habanera" song is about? That you can't force things, but that love must come to you. You can't help if you fall for someone who's entirely against your type, whatever that means for you personally, because while you may refuse to admit it, it has happened to you...and you won't think clearly a single time you see that person looking back at you. Very good story. I just don't recommend the 2001 MTV hip hopera thing. That was terrible!

Way, way, way in the future, when I am much older and can pull it off, I have plans to do something with making my own version of Carmen the way I see it, as told like a more real story...

THE END? OK, UNTIL I REMEMBER WHATEVER ELSE I FORGOT TO SAY
Trailing off here, I think I've covered most of it, using the word "I" more than I normally ever do. There are a lot of personal things I wish I could share about myself, happy and sad. Someday, I believe I will when the moment is right, probably in a book or something, because I think it would help other people learn from my experiences and laugh at them too. Especially the ones about people I've liked, friends and all that drama! But in going with my phrase I use a lot - which I really took from a guy I talk to who gives that answer every so often when he's interviewed - I don't talk about myself personally...not yet.