I for one enjoyed it and got to sit next to grandma, who said my new name should be Philomena. #fail
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
High Tea
For those of you that couldn't make it, we missed you at our high tea!
I for one enjoyed it and got to sit next to grandma, who said my new name should be Philomena. #fail
I for one enjoyed it and got to sit next to grandma, who said my new name should be Philomena. #fail
Friday, January 23, 2015
This is My Job
We stay until 5:00pm to Skype with a student in China to give them an award. It was fun. The student said it was the highlight of his day (and it was 8:30am Friday morning where he was!)
(I was running out to yoga at that time, I don't normally wear sports bras to work.)
Anyway, I like my job.
(I was running out to yoga at that time, I don't normally wear sports bras to work.)
Anyway, I like my job.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Riverside Friends
I did it! I don't know how, but I did it! I convinced some friendys to come spend a weekend with me in Riverside! On Friday, Rob, Raf and Pearo drove into town for a fun-filled weekend exploring the former 909.
We were able to fit quite a bit into the few days, including some things I hadn't done myself. We went out to the bars, we hiked Mt Rubidoux, we had a picnic at Fairmount Park, we went to the Mission Inn and Mario's Place and the Little Green Onion and the Heritage House and the Citrus State Park where we got to do a citrus tasting.
Some highlights included: realizing how old we were when we were more excited talking about the morning coffee Rob was planning on getting the next morning as opposed to the drinks we were going to get from a bar...
And: at the Presidential Lounge, there are crafted cocktails named after famous people who had stayed at the Mission Inn. Pearo said she was going to get the Amelia Earhart, because they shared birthdays, so Rob said he would get the Henry Ford, since they shared birthdays, so I scoured the list and there was an Albert Einstein, with whom I share a birthday! (What are the chances??) We googled every last name on there in the hopes another person shared a birthday with Rafael, but no such luck. Three out of four ain't bad.
And, as you will see, we had a great time with the GoPro!
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| On top of Mt Rubidoux |
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| Top of Mt Rubidoux |
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| Mt Rubidoux Hike |
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| Peace Tower Pueblo on Mt Rubidoux |
.JPG) |
| Morning friends! |
.JPG) |
So appropriate to pass the MLK statue on MLK weekend!           |
Friday, January 16, 2015
Yes Please
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
As far as these celebrity memoir-type books go, this is an easy read and decently entertaining. The editing feels sloppy; there doesn't not appear to be any linear momentum or cohesive arrangement. It also goes back and forth between being biographical and just entertaining vignettes. It does feel like a more "real" look into who Amy Poehler is, which I certainly loved, but only occasionally has her witty, comedic voice. It is actually much darker and melancholy than expected. Overall, though, I did enjoy it.
* * *
I am interested in people who swim in the deep end. I want to have conversations about real things with people who have experienced real things. I'm tired of talking about movies and gossiping about friends. Life is crunchy and complicated and all the more delicious.
[Lorne Michaels] handed me a rope and it was up to me whether I would climb it or use it to hang myself.
Other people are not medicine
Career is different. Career is the stringing together of opportunities and jobs. Mix in public opinion and past regrets. Add a dash of future panic and a whole lot of financial uncertainty. Career is something that fools you into thinking you are in control and then takes pleasure in reminding you that you aren't. Career is the thing that will not fill you up and never makes you truly whole. Depending on your career is like eating cake for breakfast and wondering why you start crying an hour later.
Ambivalence is key to success.
You will never climb Career Mountain and get to the top and shout, "I made it!" You will rarely feel done or complete or even successful. Most people I know struggle with that complicated soup of feeling slighted on one hand and like a total fraud on the other.
Remember, your career is like a bad boyfriend. It likes it when you don't depend on it. It will reward you every time you don't act needy. It will chase you if you act like other things (passion, friendship, family, longevity) are more important to you.
We did the thing. Because remember, the talking about the thing isn't the thing. The doing of the thing is the thing.
If I have learned anything from hip-hop, it's that there's nothing sexy about a baby that ain't yours.
The only thing we can depend on in life is that everything changes. The seasons, our partners, what we want and need. We hold hands with our high school friends and swear to never lose touch, and then we do. We scrape ice off our cars and feel like winter will never end, and it does. We stand in the bathroom and look at our face and say, "Stop getting old, face. I command you!" and it doesn't listen. Change is the only constant. Your ability to navigate and tolerate change and its painful uncomfortableness directly correlates to your happiness and general well-being. See what I just did there? I saved you thousands of dollars on self-help books. If you can surf your life rather than plant your feet, you will be happier.
I wondered if I was just [going to Haiti] as some kind of ego trip. Then I decided I didn't care. Not enough is made of the fact that being of service makes you feel good. I think nonprofits should guarantee that giving your time and money makes your skin better and your ass smaller. Why not? There are so many people in the world with so little. Who cares why you decide to help?
(Quoting author Pema Chodron): 'There are no promises. Look deeply at joy and sorrow, at laughing and crying, at hoping and fearing, at all that lives and dies. What truly heals is gratitude and tenderness.'
Wendy shared a story about how her daughter was caught in an elephant stampede and lived to tell about it because she ran left instead of right. And because she knew one simple fact: elephants leave the way they come in.
[The Dalai Lama] says, 'I think technology has really increased human ability. But technology cannot produce compassion.' Man, that's good. That's why he's the Big Lama. He goes on to say, 'We are the controller of the technology. If we become a slave of technology, then [that's] not good.'
As far as these celebrity memoir-type books go, this is an easy read and decently entertaining. The editing feels sloppy; there doesn't not appear to be any linear momentum or cohesive arrangement. It also goes back and forth between being biographical and just entertaining vignettes. It does feel like a more "real" look into who Amy Poehler is, which I certainly loved, but only occasionally has her witty, comedic voice. It is actually much darker and melancholy than expected. Overall, though, I did enjoy it.
* * *
I am interested in people who swim in the deep end. I want to have conversations about real things with people who have experienced real things. I'm tired of talking about movies and gossiping about friends. Life is crunchy and complicated and all the more delicious.
[Lorne Michaels] handed me a rope and it was up to me whether I would climb it or use it to hang myself.
Other people are not medicine
Career is different. Career is the stringing together of opportunities and jobs. Mix in public opinion and past regrets. Add a dash of future panic and a whole lot of financial uncertainty. Career is something that fools you into thinking you are in control and then takes pleasure in reminding you that you aren't. Career is the thing that will not fill you up and never makes you truly whole. Depending on your career is like eating cake for breakfast and wondering why you start crying an hour later.
Ambivalence is key to success.
You will never climb Career Mountain and get to the top and shout, "I made it!" You will rarely feel done or complete or even successful. Most people I know struggle with that complicated soup of feeling slighted on one hand and like a total fraud on the other.
Remember, your career is like a bad boyfriend. It likes it when you don't depend on it. It will reward you every time you don't act needy. It will chase you if you act like other things (passion, friendship, family, longevity) are more important to you.
We did the thing. Because remember, the talking about the thing isn't the thing. The doing of the thing is the thing.
If I have learned anything from hip-hop, it's that there's nothing sexy about a baby that ain't yours.
The only thing we can depend on in life is that everything changes. The seasons, our partners, what we want and need. We hold hands with our high school friends and swear to never lose touch, and then we do. We scrape ice off our cars and feel like winter will never end, and it does. We stand in the bathroom and look at our face and say, "Stop getting old, face. I command you!" and it doesn't listen. Change is the only constant. Your ability to navigate and tolerate change and its painful uncomfortableness directly correlates to your happiness and general well-being. See what I just did there? I saved you thousands of dollars on self-help books. If you can surf your life rather than plant your feet, you will be happier.
I wondered if I was just [going to Haiti] as some kind of ego trip. Then I decided I didn't care. Not enough is made of the fact that being of service makes you feel good. I think nonprofits should guarantee that giving your time and money makes your skin better and your ass smaller. Why not? There are so many people in the world with so little. Who cares why you decide to help?
(Quoting author Pema Chodron): 'There are no promises. Look deeply at joy and sorrow, at laughing and crying, at hoping and fearing, at all that lives and dies. What truly heals is gratitude and tenderness.'
Wendy shared a story about how her daughter was caught in an elephant stampede and lived to tell about it because she ran left instead of right. And because she knew one simple fact: elephants leave the way they come in.
[The Dalai Lama] says, 'I think technology has really increased human ability. But technology cannot produce compassion.' Man, that's good. That's why he's the Big Lama. He goes on to say, 'We are the controller of the technology. If we become a slave of technology, then [that's] not good.'
Monday, January 12, 2015
Mrs. Dalloway
I read a lot in 2014. Not only the entire series of Song of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones) but dear God just reading tons. I want to see how much I read in 2015, so each time I finish a book this year, I'll just make a post of it and put down my favorite lines from it. This is more for me than for you, but there you go.
As far as novels go, I've had better. I certainly appreciate this work in its context: it completely redefined the novel and, as the back cover says, split the atom. Instead of grand tales and epic adventures, we have a story that takes place within a single day and still finds the human experience and meaningful insights in something as simple as planning a party in 1900's London.
I am impressed with her use of interior vs. exterior and the way she shifts the scene with the reader as though we are walking along with them, panning our own camera. However, on a superficial and personal level, wasn't entirely in love. Never really connected to characters and often felt bored. Glad I read it, but may not re-visit.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
To love makes one solitary, she thought.
Here she is mending hers; mending her dress as usual, he thought; here she's been sitting all the time I've been in India; mending her dress; playing about; going to parties; running to the House and back and all that, he thought, growing more and more irritated, more and more agitated, for there's nothing in the world so bad for some women as marriage, he thought...
Everyone has friends who were killed in the War. Every one gives up something when they marry.
Those ruffians, the Gods, shan't have it all their own way,-her notion being that the Gods, who never lost a chance of hurting, thwarting and spoiling human lives were seriously put out if, all the same, you behaved like a lady.
Once you fall... human nature is on you.
Because it is a thousand pities never to say what one feels, he thought...
...here he was, in the prime of life, walking to his house in Westminster to tell Clarissa that he loved her. Happiness is this, he thought.
And there is a dignity in people; a solitude; even between husband and wife a gulf; and that one must respect
The tower of Westminster Cathedral rose in front of her, the habitation of God. In the midst of the traffic, there was the habitation of God.
Clarissa had a theory in those days- they had heaps of theories, always theories, as young people have. It was to explain the feeling they had of dissatisfaction; not knowing people; not being known. For how could they know each other? You met every day; then not again for six months, or years. It was unsatisfactory, they agreed, how little one knew people.
She had often wanted to write to him, but torn it up, yet felt he understood, for people understand without things being said, as one realises growing old...
...for what can one know even of the people one lives with every day?
As far as novels go, I've had better. I certainly appreciate this work in its context: it completely redefined the novel and, as the back cover says, split the atom. Instead of grand tales and epic adventures, we have a story that takes place within a single day and still finds the human experience and meaningful insights in something as simple as planning a party in 1900's London.
I am impressed with her use of interior vs. exterior and the way she shifts the scene with the reader as though we are walking along with them, panning our own camera. However, on a superficial and personal level, wasn't entirely in love. Never really connected to characters and often felt bored. Glad I read it, but may not re-visit.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
To love makes one solitary, she thought.
Here she is mending hers; mending her dress as usual, he thought; here she's been sitting all the time I've been in India; mending her dress; playing about; going to parties; running to the House and back and all that, he thought, growing more and more irritated, more and more agitated, for there's nothing in the world so bad for some women as marriage, he thought...
Everyone has friends who were killed in the War. Every one gives up something when they marry.
Those ruffians, the Gods, shan't have it all their own way,-her notion being that the Gods, who never lost a chance of hurting, thwarting and spoiling human lives were seriously put out if, all the same, you behaved like a lady.
Once you fall... human nature is on you.
Because it is a thousand pities never to say what one feels, he thought...
...here he was, in the prime of life, walking to his house in Westminster to tell Clarissa that he loved her. Happiness is this, he thought.
And there is a dignity in people; a solitude; even between husband and wife a gulf; and that one must respect
The tower of Westminster Cathedral rose in front of her, the habitation of God. In the midst of the traffic, there was the habitation of God.
Clarissa had a theory in those days- they had heaps of theories, always theories, as young people have. It was to explain the feeling they had of dissatisfaction; not knowing people; not being known. For how could they know each other? You met every day; then not again for six months, or years. It was unsatisfactory, they agreed, how little one knew people.
She had often wanted to write to him, but torn it up, yet felt he understood, for people understand without things being said, as one realises growing old...
...for what can one know even of the people one lives with every day?
Friday, January 9, 2015
Happy Kate Middleton Day!
Some of you may remember the start of 2011 when I was obsessed with the Royal Wedding. Or maybe you don't, because it was the biggest guilty pleasure ever... and I was ashamed at how much I loved Kate Middleton and tried not to broadcast it too far and wide. But now... well, who the hell cares? She's just a knocked-up married broad with kids. Lulz.
Palak and I both adore her, and since today is Kate's birthday we declared it Kate Middleton Day and decided to "dress like her" (I don't know what that means but it made sense), and drink tea.
This is me today... I've got my long brown hair down and curled, drinking out of my Royal Wedding mug, with my fake Kate Middleton engagement ring on, and a top that felt sort of Kate-y. (When I did a search of Kate in blue dresses I even found something with the same type of feel). Not bad to pull out of nowhere.
Now if you must know, I'm totally cheating, because there's coffee in that mug, not tea. Sorry, but this is 'Murica.
Palak and I both adore her, and since today is Kate's birthday we declared it Kate Middleton Day and decided to "dress like her" (I don't know what that means but it made sense), and drink tea.
This is me today... I've got my long brown hair down and curled, drinking out of my Royal Wedding mug, with my fake Kate Middleton engagement ring on, and a top that felt sort of Kate-y. (When I did a search of Kate in blue dresses I even found something with the same type of feel). Not bad to pull out of nowhere.
Now if you must know, I'm totally cheating, because there's coffee in that mug, not tea. Sorry, but this is 'Murica.
Monday, January 5, 2015
The Grrrrrand Canyon
My two week break was supposed to be characterized by my trip to the Grand Canyon, but it was overshadowed by my sickness I got while I was there and then suffered for the week following. Buuuut, I had a great road trip out to northern Arizona and back, even caught some snow. I listened to tons of music, had a great, long, catch-up conversation with a friend, and listened to all of the Serial podcast on the way back, and became utterly and completely hooked.
It was the first time that I really got to play with my Go Pro, and while I so love it, I forgot my selfie stick, but I still managed to get a lot of great pictures with it. So enjoy.
It's weird (and hard!) to be back at work today, but at least I had a nice Sunday yesterday, reading and cleaning, playing with Khaleesi, and fixing up my headboard. I need more furniture to work on! And I miss the desert. And road trips! Looking forward to the southern bumpkin road trip Jayna-dawg!
Happy 2015!
It was the first time that I really got to play with my Go Pro, and while I so love it, I forgot my selfie stick, but I still managed to get a lot of great pictures with it. So enjoy.
It's weird (and hard!) to be back at work today, but at least I had a nice Sunday yesterday, reading and cleaning, playing with Khaleesi, and fixing up my headboard. I need more furniture to work on! And I miss the desert. And road trips! Looking forward to the southern bumpkin road trip Jayna-dawg!
Happy 2015!
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