coffee break.
coffee break.
Here it is…the list of resolutions.
A friend and I wrote this earlier today - the timing seemed appropriate. Some of these are for her, some for me…most apply to everyone. Millions of lists just like these may have been written before, but I promise, at least some of these will resonate. Hopefully they expand beyond 2012 for us all. Happy New Year!
1. Sleep more. Hangover sleep doesn’t count.
2. Cook more
3. Exercise at least three times a week
4. Shop less, find new ways to wear what you already have (you likely have more than you realize)
5. Take the subway more often; cabs less often. Your bank account will appreciate it.
6. Spend more time with family. Take advice from the older generations, they might sound crazy, but somehow they always end up knowing the answers.
7. Save a little money each month. Even if it’s a little pile initially, eventually it will add up and buy you a house, a car, a trip or some groceries, at the very least.
8. Catch up with old friends. Random texting and gchatting don’t count, pick up the phone and prove that you want to keep the friendship going.
9. On the other hand, don’t force certain friendships. People change and friendships change, it’s okay to move on. Its more respectful than faking it.
10. Take more trips
11. Improve your posture!
12. Do at least 10 minutes of yoga a day - even that little bit will help
13. Drink more tea, less coffee
14. Spend less time on computers, cell phones, etc. There is actually a world outside of a screen. Take the time to explore it.
15. Read more, write more, BLOG more
16. Judge less and give people the benefit of the doubt. Don’t base everything on a first impression. For the most part, everyone does have a lot to bring to the table.
17. Take your job seriously but don’t kill yourself over it. In your 20s, it often feels like a competition - who has the better job, who makes the most money, who gets the greatest perks…worry about these things less, realize that your job doesn’t define you.
18. Try to search for a career, not a job.
19. Breathe. Relax. Most of the time, it’s really not that serious. Things will be okay.
20. Be more spontaneous.
21. Learn something new. Take a class, pick up a new hobby.
22. Be honest with yourself about everything. Transparency may be difficult with others, but know that honestly within yourself brings clarity.
23. Don’t worry about what others think or say - just do you. You don’t owe anyone an explanation.
24. New York is known for its jerks. Don’t be one of them. Nice is still cool.
25. It’s easy to be jaded, but believe it or not, love is real. Believe in it.
26. Reach for whatever “it” is for you. You’ll get there eventually.
27. Be open-minded…about it all.
28. Don’t apologize for things you aren’t actually sorry for.
29. Appreciate what you have. It may be less or different than what others around you have, but its yours and makes you the person you are.
at least somebody is. #dtla #LA #losangeles (Taken with instagram)
What Kind of Fall Am I?
Taken from The NY Times Editorial Page. 10.4.11
There is no single way to measure the coming of autumn. Gardeners wait for the first hard frost, the one that blackens the basil and pulps the tomatoes still on the vine. For some, it’s the smell of wood smoke or the sight of leaves flaming out one tree species at a time. In New York City, there are different measures. Fall begins when street fashion slips into thermal chaos — down jackets, shawls, bermudas and flip-flops all on the same block. Fall begins, as it did this week, when the residual heat in the subway station feels strangely welcome.
The approach to autumn has been murkier than usual this year — a long, damp slog toward October, days of rain all across the Northeast. We can hope, after the first hard frost, for a week or so of Indian summer. But there is really no proper name for the slice of the season we’ve had so far. This fall has been made of moments from late May, a few gray days from early June, some Sundays that April discarded, and a week or so that seems to have been orphaned entirely, with no month to call home.
It will come, we hope — the sky a Venetian blue, the days as crisp as a just-ripe, old-fashioned apple, an Ashmead’s Kernel or a Calville Blanc. That is the autumn we’re waiting for — not a prognostication of winter or a postponement of summer, but actual autumn, a season we hope will last as long as it can. It is a season of gnat-killing nights and afternoons when the sun’s heat is becoming elusive. It is frost on the grass and your visible breath rising in the air.
Went across the street in my pajamas to get a latte from my favorite truck vendor…I was yawning in line and he screams, “get over here, I can fix that,” and gave me a shot of espresso. I laughed pretty hard and he goes, “I’m your first laugh of the day!”
Made my morning.
Coincidentally enough, about a year ago, I wrote a post about LA - the dewy mornings, the untoppable nights, the magical strangers I met when least expected - the lively and sparkling City of Dreams. The city with offerings for young Hollywood-hopefuls, future film moguls and somehow, through its array of opportunities, that city even had something for those searching for a simpler life void of modern day responsibilities; jobs, familial ties, politics (think Venice Beach). How can such a place be topped?
A year later, I find myself strangely hypnotized by a place I never thought I’d call home. New York City. For years, I pictured myself everywhere but here.
“How can one live in a place so large?”
Looking back on that question, I wonder what I really meant. Was I worried that the city was too large that I wouldn’t find my own niche? Was I worried that I’d never find friends because they were spread about places known as UES, LES, Hell’s Kitchen, FiDi, etc? Perhaps I focused on the garbage on the streets and the unapproving glares from strangers as they pushed through busy intersections, somehow knowing their way, while the rest of us gazed befuddled towards…North, or the Empire State Building. Or maybe I saw New York as a disconnected city, one that went from alarm clock, to morning coffee, to client meeting, to afternoon drinks to…
all over again.
Maybe I saw the grey and agitated city as a place where people go to find themselves, but never really do. Or do they…
Could it be, that New York has some of that magic too? Somehow, do the drab, cluttered and oftentimes littered streets provide people with stories, lessons, experiences, growth? In the past year, I’ve frequented far more bars than I did in LA. Some could be categorized as “normal” for my friends and I, whereas others, to name a few, featured a Serbian ice-cage where one could drink as much vodka as possible in 1 minute, salsa lessons for those willing to try, an underground cave that I’ll label as my favorite for many reasons, late night diners, outdoor playgrounds turned wine havens when night falls and South American hole-the-in-wall spots that have a way of making you feel like a regular. Though these places must exist everywhere else…that electricity which they call NYC finally caught hold. But it’s not just the bars and the eclectic faces that fill them. It’s the streets, its the offices, the parks. The dog walkers, the businessmen, the food deliverymen, the bartenders, the taxi drivers, the foreigners, etc.
I won’t say I’ve forgotten the original drawbacks of this city. Somehow though, though they say the city makes you “hard,” maybe we find beauty in the chaos. While the subways in the summer are what I think hell might be like, I can’t help but look at the faces surrounding me, wondering, are they in their first stage of New York or second? Or was NYC always a shining and bubbling force for them? Will they give up too early or push through the masses to get to the top?
Eventually, as routines normally go, the subway stops, the cab ride ends and the life lessons from a strange driver is halted, the walk signal turns white and conversation with a new friend dissipates, the elevator door opens, and it starts all over again. Cluttered, erratic and unpredictable, somehow, a city that lives on routine day-after-day, has managed to provide me with peculiar and extraordinary days, after days, after days.
Forever Young
Coachella 2010
The little boy in this video is crying because, as he put it, “everyone tells me I’m too small to be the governor of New Jersey.”
The now five-year-old, and his twin brother eventually spent a day making political “decisions” with the real NJ governor. This morning on the TODAY Show, Meredith told him that he certainly had the attitude to become the governor one day. His response…
“I’ve got the attitude to stay myself…”
Holiday Spirit
My coworker suggested I read the blog post above, prefacing it with only, “I’m bawling in my office…” What could be more enticing?
I don’t know exactly what people set out to accomplish by having a blog. Do we want people to read our writing, see our pictures, is it an outlet, are we bored, do we want to be a part of some social community? I really have no idea. I just like my blog, that’s all. I don’t know that it touches anyone profoundly or makes anyone bawl in their office. But every so often, like a good movie or book, it seems that a blog post can do just that. The difference being, movies and books are not real.
The Bloggess, in true blogger form, offered her readers a giveaway in light of the holidays - $30 gift cards to the first 20 readers who commented about not being able to afford gifts for their families this year. Her blog was bombarded minute after minute, with brothers and sisters asking for money to buy each other presents, so their parents didn’t have to; mothers asking for money to pay the electric bill or for groceries to feed their families on Christmas morning; small Christmas miracles for prescriptions to be filled and even something as small as a $14 toy.
The Bloggess could only provide 20 gift cards though. Amazingly, for every reader in desperation, was a reader willing to donate. In the end, “over 900 gift cards were sent out by 683 people who were so thrilled to help. 435 people who needed small Christmas miracles received small donations for medicine, food and presents under the tree for their children. No large corporations got involved. No one only offered to donate if they got something out of it themselves. With no sponsorships, no ulterior motives and with only a simple need to reach out and help a perfect stranger 683 everyday, normal people sent out over $39,000 worth of donations to make sure Christmas came.”
We stress about client calls, expense reports, whether we’ve studied enough, what time J.Crew closes, how slow the elevator is, the person standing too closely on the subway, the wind advisory, and so on. Does any of this actually matter, though? Fortunately, so many of us don’t know how that desperation feels, but does it mean we should turn a blind eye to those that feel it every day?
Keep everyone in mind this Christmas. Sometimes even just a smile, $5 and even acknowledgment is enough. Make someones Christmas this year!! :)
