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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Sister

My parents adopted my sister in 1982, (while mom was 7 months preggers with yours truly); they had no idea what they were getting themselves into. At 11 months old, she came to my parents, the only baby crying de-boarding the plane at Sea Tac. After a few weeks here, she would violently bang her head against a wall if she were ever left alone. I argue that this really explains so much about her. She stands an imposing 5’ tall with more speed and energy than most 6 years olds.

Mine and Sara’s relationship hasn’t always been an easy one. For a while we tended to get along better when we are not in the same time zone. We could not be more categorically different. But to that token, I cannot imagine my childhood without her. I would not be who I am today without my sister. I am so very grateful for who she is and how she sees the world.

I will spend more time detailing many antics and adventure of my sister and I that make our relationship so very…ummm...special. But in the mean time, I want to post some picture I recently found that very much sums up our lives and relationship as sisters.

Promise, I love my sister. I really do.































Friday, January 23, 2009

Inaugural Random Thoughts of the Day:

My mind tends to wander throughout the day. And when I say wander, I mean over the river and through the woods through the Redwood forest, Never Neverland, through the Grand Canyon, crossing the English Channel, and eventually goes the wrong direction on the one-way road of life. Seriously, it’s all over the place. But none the less, it wanders I here is the first installment of what anticipate being many entries of my wandering mind.

• I’ve started knitting and I might have scarf by winter…as in winter 2010. I’d like to get good enough to knit socks so that I can revel in my crafty brilliance but not actually wear them. Additionally, I’m feeling inspired to learn how to sew.
• I might be a narcissist. At least I’m honest.
• I need to start hanging pictures in my place so it looks like I’m not about ready to move out.
• I wish my oven/stove was better so that I could bake and cook more, or at least that’s my excuse.
• I’m listening to the Best of Chopin. It makes me feel snobby, but it relaxes me.
• Spontaneous outburst of semi-naked dancing are complete necessary to my mental well-being.
• I have serious issues with commitment, unrealistic expectations of myself and other, and an insatiable appetite for peanut butter.
• Eric Hutchinson’s music makes me want to hit the open highway with no destination, windows down, sunglasses on and tunes up.
• I miss my sister more than I care to admit.
• I wish I was an extrovert, photogenic and less judgmental than I really am.
• I often contemplate the purpose of body hair…I don’t see the purpose. I feel like we should have evolved from that once we started using animal skin to keep us warm.
• It makes me happy when people run for the bus and make it. I giggle a little on the inside when people run for the bus and miss it….does that make me bad person?

More real posts sooner than later. But that’s it for now. Night.

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Privilege

In Mark Twain’s essay The Privilege of The Grave (written in 1905 but published for the first time in the December 22 & 29, 2008 New Yorker), he writes about a privilege we as American citizens, I think, we take for granted. He argues that this liberty that we are provided, we do not exercise to our fullest capability and, in my interpretation, to our fullest obligation. This privilege: free speech. Twain presents the argument that as free speech is not actually something we participate but in fact we, “Sometimes suppress an opinion for reasons that are a credit to us, not a discredit, but oftenest we suppress an unpopular opinion because we cannot afford the bitter cost of putting it forth. None of us like to be hated, none of us like to be shunned.” We as a nation like the idea of free speech but that act of participating in it, is rare. From even our simplest interactions with each other to larger issues that plague our nation and world, perhaps we sit idly by as we allow mainstream thought, popular wisdom, and tradition, take precedence over our fears of disturbing the status quo, challenging the authorities that govern, or debunking mistruths.

Twain goes on to say that the privilege of free speech really only belongs to one group of people: the dead. It is the dead who we hold in high esteem as we canonize their words. Twain states, “We have charity for what the dead say. We may disapprove of what they say, but we do not insult them, we cannot revile them, as knowing that they cannot now defend themselves.” How peculiar it is that those who can speak no longer are the ones that can really speak most honestly. And how true it is that we take more seriously those words of the deceased than those of living present day. Throughout history, philosophers, biblical prophets, human rights activists, world leaders and alike, existed in present day communities and constituents so rarely heeded their words. So much in fact history demonstrates that heresy and rhetoric was grounds for punishment by death. And yet today, we take Socrates as the foundation of logic and argument into many law practices, we take biblical prophets as authorities on righteous living, and look to the thousand in history, recognized and unrecognized, as heros against cruel caused who chose to exercise free speech and paid for it dearly with their lives.

As long as we live in the fear of potentially offending someone, or the fear of being shunned or outcast from those we associate with, we will perpetually live according to laws of the land and rules of the culture that do not reflect what or who we really are. We must realize, that as long as we do not participate in free speech which we are invited to do by the Constitution, we make no progress from the generations before us. And ultimately, “would realize, deep down, that [we], and whole nations along with [us] are not really what they seem to be—and never can be.”

On this eve of a particularly historic inauguration, and day of observance of Martin Luther King Jr. I believe it apropos to take inventory as citizens to the lengths and measures many a great men and women have contributed to the foundation and building of our country. So much of what our country was based on came from the mouths of men exercise their liberty and while though unpopular at the time, become engrain in our society as what is right, just and above all, truth. Today, I re-read King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” and absorb his words with awe and admiration for his message and circumstances for which both were delivered. His legacy will be his ability to exercise free speech to the degree that so few have been able to. To that degree, our challenge and invitation is to honor his legacy by doing the same. Standing up against injustice, exercising our ability to advocate for the oppressed, and using words to challenge the status quo and ultimately changing the world.

5 movies you’d suffer through commercials to watch because they are just that good

2009 is a year of cinema. Some friends and I have compiled a list of movies that we’ve never seen, always wanted to see and should see. Through painstaking efforts of Marmaduke, the list of approximately 800 movies is now categorized and alphabetized. As we slowly make our way through the list, I am always reminded of my top 5 favorite movies that no matter where or what the situation I will watch beginning to end and enjoy it just as much every single time.

Here is my list:

1.) Almost Famous
2.) Good Will Hunting
3.) Dumb and Dumber
4.) The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
5.) The Notebook

My commentary on this list is as follows. I feel like I could take each of these movies and plant myself into each of them and feel perfectly at home.

Almost Famous reminds me of the power of music, being on the edge of invention and making history, following your passions, living a life beyond anyone’s judgments and that many of us live lives that reflect not what we really are. Watch it, get inspired, rewind, repeat.

Good Will Hunting’s script is pure brilliance. I have never seen the power of words and language define characters more and move character more to become their next greater selves. The forward motion in the film stems reactions to the conversations characters have with each other. I love that. The power of language is beautifully in action in every character’s life. Watch it, change your life, rewind, repeat.

Now, Dumb and Dumber may throw you for a loop if you know me. This type of comedy tends not to be my preference, but…the genius (that’s right, genius) of this movie is also in the script. The regular slap stick situational antics are funny but the character’s interactions and dialogue make it side-splittingly hilarious. Watch, pee your pant laughing, rewind, repeat.

Thomas Crown Affair is fairly obvious. A wealthy man who steals fine art for fun, is smooth with the women, polished with his words, loose with his money and emotionally unavailable is right up my alley. Who wouldn’t want to stare at Piece Brosnan for as long as possible? Watch it, fantasize, rewind and repeat.

The Notebook is so cliché to have on this list but the truth of the matter is I should have grown up in the 30s and 40s. Times were simpler, fashion then would have suited me better, and the pace of life was just a bit slower. This movie of course only perpetuates the outrageous notions of falling in love that Disney instills in us from childhood. But I don’t care. Watch it, fall in love, rewind, repeat.

There you have it. If you haven’t seen any of the above movies, run, don’t walk to the store and rent immediately.

Recently Viewed: Funny Face, Roman Holiday, HBO Series Rome, HBO Mini-Series Film John Adams, The Way We Were, The Graduate, The Savages, Shakespeare in Love

Saturday, January 3, 2009

About. Effing. Time.

I welcome 2009 with open arms and hopes that it will not completely blow like 2008 did. Now, I’m not particularly a huge fan of resolution but I do like the idea of the future. Below you will find a list of things that I would like to do in the future, not necessarily particular to 2009, but the future in general.


Cry less: I cry over everything. Happy things, sad things, beautiful things, tragic things, little things, big things, scary things. You name it, I’ll cry over it. (Except for movies. Generally not a movie-crier, except recently when watching When Harry Met Sally, a single tear may have been shed.) I say this because crying over the “bad” things generally means one is holding on to something that doesn't actually exist: a memory, a plan that was unfulfilled, all the if onlys, the shoulda, coulda, wouldas. So shoulda, coulda, woulda all you want, but the fact is, it didn’t, won’t or can’t. Let it go. Crying over the good things is great, I love it. So maybe the goal is to find more good things to cry about. Plus, tears makes my eyes puffy and my nose run resulting in a generally unattractive state of being.

Give More: I’ve got a lot. I’ve got a lot of time. I’ve got more money than I really need. I got more personal space that I really want. I’ve a huge freaking heart to give away. I’ve got a lot of shoes. I’ve all around got a lot of stuff that others could use better than I. So I’d like to give any and all of these things to anyone who is interested. Now taking applications.

Be Funnier: Not sure how, but I’ll work on it. I am surrounded by people who are so funny that the thought of them makes me laugh (not at them, but just at what they’ve said/done or could possibly say/do). I’m occasionally told I’m funny, although sometimes I’m sure its just me talking.

Don’t Get Fat: I just gave away all my fat clothes so it would be extraordinarily expensive to replenish. Not to mention depressing which could potentially coincide with the “cry less” bit so by not getting fat, I’m also crying less…see how that works? Brilliant. And although I love eating and cooking, there really is no reason why either of those activities should result in weight gain.

To fewer tears, more giving, more laughs and less of me to love – Cheers.