It's yoga challenge time again at OM Yoga, the yoga studio where I practice. By 'challenge' they mean practicing yoga everyday, and the most challenging thing I've found has been finding time to do yoga every day. Out of the past 15, I've only missed 4 days, which is a 73% success rate. Two of the days were due to work deadlines, one due to a hangover (damn strong dark and stormies at the Harbor School Benefit!), and one because I felt I needed a break. I'm half way through, we'll see how the rest of the month goes.
I've been taking a lot of classes with Brian, one of the senior instructors who I hadn't taken classes with before. He's very soft spoken and relaxing to be around, which is good characteristics for a yoga teacher. He also talks about movies and TV during class, and that's entertaining - it loosens things up, sometimes yoga can be so serious. The other day he was talking about Alice in Wonderland, today The Partridge Family.
Strangely, all this yoga is making me want to run. I've been running on Fridays and Sundays, days that I don't need to be up for work or boat maintenance. I tried getting up this morning to run, but with daylight savings, that just wasn't going to happen. Maybe tomorrow.
I know it's still technically winter, and we just got through a powerful Nor'easter, but with the arrival of Daylight Savings Time it feels like Spring has arrived. I'm looking forward to it being light later, I'm looking forward to it continually getting warmer, and I'm looking forward to sitting in sidewalk cafes.
In a way, it reminds me of Spring days in Blacksburg, where after dinner, people would gather at Henderson Hill to catch the last sunshine of the day, drinking coffee (or eating ice cream) from Gillies. It would stay light until about 8PM, and the architects would all resign themselves to getting back to Cowgill Hall to finish our projects.
It's also time for Spring cleaning. Cleaning is definitely a chore, but in looking at my closet and shelves, I need to cleanse. I'm going to try to start that today.
Since I joined Facebook, I've always been entertained by what some people have posted, photos that have been shared, and just getting in contact with friends from my past. In the past couple of weeks, I've had some interesting things happen among my Facebook 'friends', in reaction to which I've had a variety of responses. All in all, it's still entertaining, and yeah, some of it, just plain silly. First, a couple of things about my experience with FB.
Earlier this year, a friend told me about a seminar that NYU ran for incoming Freshman about what a friend is. The future students had been questioned about how many friends they had. When the university started getting responses from the kids, the responses were unreal - students were claiming to have friends totaling in the thousands. It didn't take too long for administrators to realize that the kids were referring to their Facebook friends, most of which were people that they hadn't even met. Apparently, NYU felt they needed to explain to the incoming youngsters what the definition of 'friend' was.
In my experience, I have had people that I've never met extend a friend request to me. I ignore all of them. I've also ignored requests from people from high school that never gave me the time of day when we actually could have met face to face. I've somewhat relaxed my standards for friend requests, and have accepted people that I've met once, although recently. This has led to issue number one.
The other day at work, I was running around the office a lot, and when I got back to my computer, I had an IM over gmail from someone I didn't recognize. I ignored it, figuring it was in error. When I did realize who it was, I was somewhat surprised - it was someone that I barely know, but had accepted his friend request on Facebook, so I guess he felt a certain familiarity. I don't IM with a lot of people, in fact I think I can count them on one hand. There are even fewer people with whom I will carry on an electronic conversation with during the day, especially when I'm at work. So I blocked him. The assumed closeness of Facebook can be disturbing.
Issue number two: defriending. Or is it unfriending? I use the two terms interchangeably, not knowing which is correct. Have you ever severed a Facebook friend? I've thought about it, there are definitely people from who I've accepted a request, and then wondered why. It could be because I haven't talked to them in years, but they found me and I didn't see the harm in accepting from them until they started sending me Farmville or Mafia Wars requests, or posted views that are in complete opposition to mine, like thinking Rush Limbaugh is The Man. That's not to say that I don't accept people into my life that have different opinions from mine on the issues of the day. However, if the only thing that we seem to have in common is the proximity of where our parents decided to live, I think I just may cut the cord.
Then there are the people who you were actually friends with, but have had a falling out with for whatever reason. Same with ex-boyfriends/girlfriends. I recently had a former friend drop me from her Facebook family. I've also had an ex drop me. The ex dropping me had a much more profound effect. The former friend, well, no big surprise.
The greatest revelation about FB lately has been the announcement and instant comments about life events. My sister had a baby last week, and the past four days has been a constant parade of photos from her husband, and congratulations from family and friends. Since my sister lives across the country, it's been a great way for the family (all of us on the East Coast) to share in their happiness. I won't be able to see her until mid-April, so this is a satisfying way of keeping up with what's going on in California.
a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time: a nostalgia for his college days. I was looking through some old photos and thought I'd share them. They are from a simpler time - how could they not be? I'm probably not any older than four in any of these photos. I was 18 months old in the above one. It was my second portrait from the Sears portrait studio; an earlier one was from my first year where my head is peaking from beneath a blanket (I do not have a copy of that photo) . My grandmother used to have 8x10's of all of these portraits in her apartment in Staten Island.
This one is from Easter of 1971, I think. Most of the old Polaroid photos that my parents have were taken before Tara, my younger sister, was born in September 1971. At the time, I was the baby of the family. That's me in the yellow coat and matching bonnet, and Erin is in the stylish red tights with the plaid kilt and Aran sweater. The women from left to right are Nana (paternal grandmother), Grandma (maternal grandmother), and Aunt Rita, my Grandma's sister. My mother always made sure we were impeccably dressed for Mass, especially on Easter.At the time, were were living in Old Bridge, NJ. The wooded area in the background of this photo is now entirely built up with more suburban houses. When we lived there, we were one of three houses on the street. That was 1980.
Summer 1972 or 1973. We were at a picnic thrown by the Friendly Sons of the Shillelagh, an Irish group that my father belonged to. That's my mother standing next to me. I've always thought it was funny that whoever took the photo (probably my father) left all the adult's heads out of the frame.
I wonder what I had stuck in my teeth. Although this was a picnic, and my mother wore shorts, she still had my two sisters and I in cute little dresses. All the other kids were in more casual clothes.
Summer of 1971. My uncle lived down in Keansburg, NJ, and we would go down there to visit. I especially liked going there during the summer so that we could go to the amusement park. This photo shows Erin and I on one of the kiddie rides - that's me in the front, 'driving.'
Although I don't remember when I was young enough to ride the kiddie rides, I do remember later visits to the park where we would ride the big slide, the one you would ride down sitting on a burlap sack so that your skin didn't burn on the hot plastic. I also won a mirror from one of the sideshow games, and we'd always get candy cigarettes where you could blow a puff of candy powder smoke.
This is probably from the summer of 1970. I know it's from a petting zoo we used to visit, located up in the Poconos. That's Erin in the stroller.
My favorite thing about this photo is how my grandmothers are dressed. They are so stylish! When I was in college, my friends and I would go shopping at either the vintage shops or the Salvation Army. Dresses like this would always be a real find. We would not wear them with white low healed pumps however. We'd usually wear them with motorcycle boots, Doc Martens, a leather jacket, or an old man cardigan. That was the height of style in Blacksburg, VA.
Summer of 1973. That's Tara in the foreground, I'm in the back with my mouth open, and Erin is next to me. This was taken in our backyard in Old Bridge. This must have been before my parents had the above ground pool installed in the backyard, but I don't recall having only a kiddie pool.
When we had the big pool installed, hanging out in our backyard was a big event for the neighborhood. Erin, who's birthday is in early September, always had a pool party over Labor Day weekend to celebrate.
These are a few of the photos taken while I was growing up. My mother had finally organized all the photos into albums, and we went through them when I was home for Christmas. I always enjoy looking through the old photos; they are a reminder of what a wonderful childhood I had where although my parents were very strict, we were raised with a lot of love, surrounded by friends and family. One of my parents always had a camera ready to capture these moments.
A couple of months ago after having the luxury of having an elevator all to ourselves, the new ginormous public relations firm moved to the 9th and 11th-14th floors, and me and my office-mates on the 10th floor had to face sharing an elevator. It's hard to estimate how many people work for Edelman, but it seems like sometimes there are hundreds waiting for the three elevators in the 9-PH bank.
We have not gotten used to it. It probably wouldn't be so bad if these people knew how to use an elevator. Now I know that none of them read this blog, or may not even be aware that there is another office that shares the elevator bank, but these are some tips that my office would like to share with them:
1. If you are the first to arrive at the bank of elevators, please press the button marked 'up.' There is not a staff member that is assigned to do this task for you.
2. As you pass through the ridiculous security gate (why we have these is beyond me), please move into the elevator lobby to make room for others. It's just like the subway, where you should move into the middle of the car. Oh. Right. You don't use the subway, do you? Just continue moving towards the wall with multiple shades of beige stone.
3. If someone is closer to the elevator door that opens first than you are, please let this person into the elevator first. You will not arrive at your destination any sooner by nearly pushing people out of the way.
4. As there are a lot of you on the upper floors, please be aware that some people will be getting off of the elevator at the 9th or 10th floor (please at least get to know your co-workers on the lower 9th floor). They may be behind you. Please pay attention for people saying "excuse me" when the elevator stops on a floor that is not yours. If you do hear these words, or something similar, please move aside so that they may exit. If you do not have room to move aside, please exit from the elevator to allow people to arrive at their destination, even though it is not yours.
Following these few steps will allow for the people who share the elevator with you to have a chance of a peaceful day, where they don't start their day off mumbling, "I hate those people" or "idiots."
Before I moved about a year ago, I had still decorated my walls with art posters that I had had for the past 10-15 years. I felt that I needed to upgrade the decor from what I had in my 20's, and didn't hang anything. Now that's its a little over two years later, I'm finally getting around to it.
The first to go up was a vinyl decal set of a text in French. When I bought it about a year ago I understood what it said, but have since forgotten it. For anyone who is a French speaker, that would be obvious: I didn't read the instructions, and ended up installing it wrong so it doesn't make any sense. French gibberish. I don't mind though; although it may not make sense, I like it as a texture on the wall.
The second I received as a Christmas gift from Carrie - it's a black and white print in a black wood frame with the word "Congregate". The image could either be:
1. A woman surrounded by a pile a shoes, having finally made her decision as to which pair to wear that day. 2. A woman arriving at a party taking her shoes off and adding them to the pile.
Either way, Carrie said it reminded her of my apartment.
The third is another vinyl application - a series of silloutted birch trees in dark gray with red birds either sitting on the branches or flying. I saw these on Etsy.com last year when I was searching for Christmas presents for family and friends. I like the simplicity of the trees with the added whimsy of the red birds.
I still need to hang my series of photographs that have been sitting on the fireplace mantle for the last year. These I plan to place in the hall so friends can greet me as I come home at night.
The last piece that I have planned is to frame a poster that I purchased years ago that illustrates the history of chairs. Its something I've been looking forward to hanging in my apartment for a while now, and it'll be a great addition to the decor of my home.
I love going to the movies, I always have. Watching a movie on DVD either on TV or on the computer doesn't compare, but it'll do the trick if I movie is no longer in the theater or if its something I want to see again. Movies that rank high enough in my opinion for repeat watchings:
Elizabeth: Although I'm Irish and I know how persecuted the Irish were under England, I'm fascinated by the story of the Tudors, especially Elizabeth. Side note: I was very excited when Showtime announced that in advance of the fourth season of The Tudors, the soap opera cable version of the the reign of Henry VIII, they were re-running the previous three seasons starting tonight. Anyway, Elizabeth is one of my role models, and Cate Blanchett was marvelous in the role. . Amelie: I've always enjoyed the work of the director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and this is my favorite of his films. Set in Paris, Amelie is a quirky girl who lives a reticent life surrounded by people, and has never had much luck with boyfriends. The film captures Paris beautifully, and there is a range of interesting characters.
Pride and Prejudice (the BBC miniseries version): Don't bother with the Kiera Knightly version that changes the ending. I watch this whenever I'm depressed about men. I'm convinced that there is a Darcy out there. So are a lot of other women.
The Royal Tennenbaums: Wes Anderson is also one of my favorite directors, and when this one came out, it replaced Rushmore's place in my heart. Another film with a great ensemble of characters. What attracts me most to this film is Wes Anderson's attention to detail, from the music used in the film to the sets. This film also made me not mind Ben Stiller, who I usually can't stand.
Although these movies are all great pieces of art in their own right, I can watch these movies repeatedly because there is something about the characters that I identify with. I hope for Elizabeth's strength, and understand her reaction to Dudley's betrayal. I recognize Amelie's difficulty with opening up to people. I know Elizabeth Bennett's pride. I empathize with Richie when he learns that Margot is not who he thought she was, and he feels completely distraught. Although, not to worry, I wouldn't ever go as far as Richie.
