ARDIRI

2012--Finally!

At long last, the year 2011 has finally ended!  Watch as I bow down, prostrate my self upon the ground, and thank all the gods! 

Last year was a doozie: the end of a long relationship that truly should have ended at least a couple of years earlier, my re-entry into the dating scene for real, a quick lesson in salary negotiations, my first Bikram Challenge completed*,  a quick weekend jaunt to Hawaii, and a re-realization that the world is damn awesome! (*OK, so I didn't fully complete the challenge, but I did do 27 classes in 30 days while working full-time; I think that is more than pretty good!) 

Now for the resolutions:

1) Complete my Master's thesis. I have no more excuses left and I have no one but myself holding me back.  I must see this as a series of papers and not some big monster lurking under the proverbial bed.  

2) Continue my Bikram practice.  It makes me happy and healthy.  Ideally, I would like to do 4 days a week, but 3 will suffice.  However, I need to be conscious of how my angry little right knee is feeling and back off when necessary.

3) Keep up with the blog. I know that there is a novel,  a non-fiction book, or a series of restaurant reviews hidden somewhere in me and writers only get better by actually writing.  Of course, writing the thesis will help, but I've got to have some fun writing to do as well.

4) Spend more time with my girlfriends. Friends rock and should be prioritized. We all have busy lives, but I know I can make room for them.

5) Start being crafty again.  I used to do a lot of creative things--sewing, knitting, glueing shit from magazines to anything that stood still for more than 5 seconds (decoupaging).  What happened that stopped me?  A lot and really very little.  This year I'd like to return to being a crafty chica and also dip my big toe into "urban art" (but legally, of course).

Alright, I think that is enough for today.  There may be more resolutions to come...

Happy New Year to All!  Hello 2012, you are looking fantastic already!

Human, All Too Human...

 

Human, all too human*.  This has been my constant refrain for the past 6 or so months.  Wish it weren't the case and that I could just be a pre-evolution Cylon; but a Toaster I am not.  As Starbuck would say, "Frak it!"  (I totally geeked out there--all apologies.)

Really though, why does it all have to be such an uphill struggle sometimes?  Why can't we (or--truthfully--I) just tuck away the B.S. from the past and approach new things with soft hearts, willing souls, and ready minds? I know, I know...without the past we learn nothing.  And, thus, I suppose this time of my life is simply an opportunity for me to learn way too much (it certainly feels like that).

Again--Human, all too human.

*Credit to Friedrich Nietzsche for the quote.

Ardiri

Ardiri--Sicilian for taking a risk or being consumed by fire.

We're sick!

We (as in my laptop and I) are sick! 

De-love-ly!  Just de-light-ful! 

Laptop is seriously screwed up right now (for the first time in Y_E_A_R_S!) and I've got some virus, bug, or other illness.  I am just calling it "the flu" for now and desperately hoping it isn't. 

See you all on the other side.

Slightly Sideways*

A lazy, slow sunny Sunday afternoon filled with good wine in the slightly sideways(*) Napa...yum. 

I am looking a bit dazed and sun-tired here, with lips a teensy-bit too stained from red wine:

Vineyards...

More Randomnalia--All Over the Place!

• Despite being car-free for a little less than ten years now, my slight-obsession with tiny cars continues.  Submitted as Evidence: Another picture of vintage Mini; this one in the Haight with a parking meter for perspective on size.

  

• The upside of high gas prices?  Shopping locally and supporting small-business owners!

• **Uh, hello, anybody there Reverend Jesse Jackson???**  Could you possibly be more of an ignoramus?  Really?!  I think not! 

Where the hell was your brain when you said (supposedly off-Mic) that Obama should be castrated? 

Why in the world would a black man suggest that another black man be castrated in light of the fact that black men were often castrated before they were lynched?

Ugh, and so much more that I dare not say here...Let me just say, that the Rev. Jesse Jackson made a fool of himself.

• In a related vein, I am nearly finished reading Toni Morrison's Beloved and am thinking that perhaps the Rev. Jesse Jackson might do well to (re?)read this novel as it provides a graphic, haunting, and all-together disturbing refresher course on the horrors of slavery.

• I am tired, oh-so-tired, sleepy-sleepy.  Teaching  English Literature and Language Arts to 33--yes, 33!--6th-8th graders can sometimes feel like taming lions after being dipped in vat of gazelle blood.

  On the other hand, today's sleepiness is a "rewarding tiredness" earned from getting those same kids to be really excited and engaged with what we're learning.

• The 1975 edition of the Vogue Sewing Book rocks!  So much information!  So concise! Such clear directions!

• I had lunch last weekend with a friend and her husband at Zazil Coastal Mexican Cuisine in the Nordstrom's shopping center and was pretty disappointed.  The food is so-so, but not worth the price, and the ambiance of the restaurant is more suited to a fast-food environment.  The three of us spent $158 dollars on lunch and dessert (luckily, we had $100 in gift certificates to spend there!).  I'm of the opinion that one should never feel as if they are eating in an upscale-cafeteria-like-environment when you're paying $50+ to eat lunch.  Give me a break!  Puh-lease!

• My Princeton Review Career Quiz results are:

My INTEREST color is BLUE:  People with blue Interests like job responsibilities and occupations that involve creative, humanistic, thoughtful, and quiet types of activities. Blue Interests include abstracting, theorizing, designing, writing, reflecting, and originating, which often lead to work in editing, teaching, composing, inventing, mediating, clergy, and writing.

My USUAL STYLE is YELLOW:  People with yellow styles perform their job responsibilities in a manner that is orderly and planned to meet a known schedule. They prefer to work where things get done with a minimum of interpretation and unexpected change. People with a yellow style tend to be orderly, cautious, structured, loyal, systematic, solitary, methodical, and organized, and usually thrive in a research-oriented, predictable, established, controlled, measurable, orderly environment.

So shocking!  Not! 

Some of the suggested careers are: philosopher (got that covered with my Bachelors degree) and teacher (been there, doing that), professor (perhaps someday?).  The quiz also suggested I look into working as a Media Planner, Web Editor, Book Publishing Professional--all of which I would find interesting.  I am definietely intrigued by the Media Planner career as I L-O-V-E to critically tear apart advertisements and their often inappropriate placement.  However, I do not see myself becoming an optometrist, a Rabbi or Imam, or an antiques dealer. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

I'm an Undercover Agent

The excitement never ends...

• I got tickets to see Radiohead in my very own neighborhood!

• 

Today, I got to view and examine the cadavers at a local medical school!  And...

It was amazing! 

I have always been curious about human anatomy/how the body works; and, after reading Mary Roach's Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers, I became interested in donating my entire body to science after I die (rather than just organs/tissue).

The bodies I saw looked very much like that which the University of Wisconsin Medical School shows here. 

Furthermore, I've come to my own conclusion that preserved human cadavers look very much like turkey meat.  Today, I was very happy to be a pescetarian.

Bonnes Vacances!

Ah, tres bien!  This bonnes vacances (good holidays) deal working at a French school is a good thing, indeed.  Five days off in May, although it was supposed to be 4, luck and coincidence of fieldtrips made it five off for me!!  Yippee!

• Today/Monday--Bezerkely!  I mean, Berkeley to meet with my friend Amber for beer and lunch at Jupiter's and a stroll up to Cal to lay on the grass in the sun and talk.

Amber-Lambs:

Me:

UC Berkeley's Campanile and Library:

• Sunday--Oysters and wine at Eos, again!  Followed by one of the BEST MOVIES EVER Donnie Darko (the Director's Cut).

• Saturday--working out, cleaning house, applying for jobs, a million other little things, ending with The Simpsons Movie  (which was actually was funny and well-done).
• Friday--Slept in like there was no tomorrow!  And then off to the dermatologist to get a small bump by my ear checked out. Non-malignant--Yay!  Surgery quite likely--Definitely Not a yay! Here's the lovely view from my dermatologist's exam room (which looks exquisite on a sunny day):

And then a trip to Union Square area to make some exchanges on an article of clothing and a book.  Got to see the Anonymous folks:

hand out fliers in protest of these folks (whom I dare not name since they're very litigious!):

• Thursday--I played faux Project Runway and worked on turning a pair of ill-fitting Lucky Brand Jeans (Low Rider style) into a jean skirt (Season 4, Episode 9 is based on refashioning Levis jeans into other clothing).  Still working on it.  Definitely need a fit model (human) shaped just like me or a fit mannequin (a dressform) to shape the backside.  The frontside is looking awesome, IMO, while the backside is having some issues.   Before and after pictures will come when product is finished.

What Dreams have You Deferred?

I've been thinking a lot about the poem, "A Dream Deferred" by Langston Hughes that I posted a couple of days ago.  Thinking about what dreams I've deferred for whatever reasons: time, money, almost always being in college as an adult (and thus essentially having little to no money to spare), fear of traveling alone even though it is something I have always wanted to do, owning cats (it can be tough to find someone to watch your fur babies for very long), having a significant other, etc.; and I've come to the conclusion that THE BIGGEST DREAM I'VE DEFERRED HAS TO DO WITH TRAVELING.

From childhood, I always imagined myself into the future as a traveler; that I'd go see the world:

• Central America--Especially Costa Rica--La Pura Vida--I would love to return there again and cry yet again when it is time for me to leave as this is a country that you never, ever want to leave.  Oh, and I can speak Spanish--Bonus!

• Burma (Myanmar)--which I've been especially enamored with my entire life after seeing pictures of it as a third-grader in The National Geographic

• Italy--to practice my budding Italian--specifically Sienna, Tuscany, Roma, Ischia, Lake Maggiore and Lake Como, and so much more.

• Spain--to see Gaudi's buildings and to practice the only language I find myself able to speak cohesively besides English.

• Peru--to visit Machu Pichu, Lake Titicaca, the Nazca Lines, and so much more (and to yet again practice my Spanish even more!)

• Patagonia--for wild, adventurous, potentially dangerous backpacking.

• Thailand or Bali--for a bit of luxuriousness beach-lazing and cultural experience.

• Iceland--just because it is the home of Bjork. OK, just kidding, it is more than that: the hot springs, the aurora borealis, the volcanoes, and so much more.

• France--But only now that I've a coworker who will be moving back to Paris next year.  Paris is not a city I want to navigate alone as an "obnoxious" American whom butchers the language of  France every time I open my mouth.

• Morrocco--Just because I am an "Occidental" by by birth and would to love to explore the "Other" (This is so an inside, super-sarcastic  joke based on multiple studies of  Edward Said's book Orientalism.)

• Japan!--Let me go and be absolutely consumer-blotto and have it only abluted by frequent trips to Buddhist monasteries.

• Alaska--only during the Auroro Borealis and with a definite trip somehow, someway (without being eating by Grizzly Bears) to see Mount McKinley.

• Somewhere in the continent of Africa--perhaps South Africa as they seem to make the best wines for their continent (but I could be misinformed).

• The Middle East--Even if it means I've got to wear a hajib or, gods forbid, a burqa. 

So, what is/are your dreams deferred?  Want to win some handsewn goodies--specifically a handmade Aranzi Aronzo's portable tissue cover (scroll down just a bit too see what I am talking about!) just in time for the spring allergy season!   Leave me a comment about your dream deferred and--if it's not too personal or too painful to share--why your dream was deferred. (ETA: Comments close for contest by Saturday, 11:59 pm, May 24th)