On Chilling Out

Relaxation 101.

Having recently transitioned from a subway commute in NYC to a driving commute in Colorado, I find myself checking email and texts at stop lights and turning lanes.  The need to know, to communicate, to be tuned in to a world I just left has not softened or seized but, rather, simply become more dangerous.  Glancing up from my uninspiring iPhone screen, I glimpse fellow drivers engaged in the same resentful trap, unable to step out of the technological hole for a ten minute opportunity to disconnect.  Enjoy!   

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On a Rut

Writer's Block.

Creative juices are often contingent on the moment or mood of the artist at hand.  Willing that song or that poem or that painting to appear on the wrinkled sheets or unexplored canvas without a desperate cry for revision or repair is as futile as the efforts that implore them.  And so we stumble and revise and torment until the perfect shapes and words and meanings convey that (and subsequent) moments revealing the non-linear process of torment, commitment, and inspiration.  Enjoy!

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On Getting Set Up

Fifty/Fifty.

Odds are pretty good that at some point in our lives, our mothers have attempted to set us up on blind dates.  The first instinctual reaction is frequently a combination of annoyance and dismay but, later, as the idea settles in amidst years (and possibly decades) of failed relationships and wide-open-eyed dates, the possibility that the very person who created us and has been there since the beginning, privy to and accepting of our failures, quirks, and misdemeanors, might - in fact - be onto something.  How each of our adventures end(ed)(s) depends on the un-likelihood of success; for the majority, a mere 50/50 chance and, at best, an attempt made with the most probable and best of intentions.  Enjoy!

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On Passion for Pets

Familial Devotion.

In spite of three decades with furry familial companions, including Dodo, Oreo, and Bungee (the cats), the one pet I fell deeply in love with wasn't even mine. But I was immediately drawn to Huck (my fiance's former boss's Italian Greyhound; see photo to the right), whose unparalleled ability to cuddle and distract almost destroyed my friendships and (romantic) relationship on a quarterly basis.  You see, for the span of approximately a year and a half, we were Huck's babysitters when his parents left town and during those visits, when Huck entered the room, nothing else mattered (to me).  And, so, when offered to dog sit on my 31st birthday(!), I seized the opportunity, quickly forgetting that at a picnic celebration with twenty (plus) of my favorite folks, only one (being) would enter my peripheral from the moment the blankets were unfolded until cleanup.  Enjoy!

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On Falling in Love

(With Literature.)

Consider how one falls in love: by fixating on certain attributes of the beloved. The way he looks in his brown cords. The way she flips her hair from her face. The flecks in her eyes, the twitch in his smile. We do not yet know the whole person, but we are lured by primal responses to a few details. 
 --Dean Bakopoulos, the (attached) article's author

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On Unexpected Time Off

This blog will resume on Monday, March 25th, after some unexpected time off.

On Tiny Furniture

One Size Fits Small.

I was born and raised in a non-brownstone (Park Slope) Brooklyn home with access to multiple floors, a backyard and a stoop.   So when I relocated to a nearby apartment less than twenty blocks away with my new-ish boyfriend for my first semi-romantic co-habitation, I immediately adjusted my expectations of what it meant to live in New York City.  As a 20-something employee in the non-profit sector, downsizing furniture, memorabilia, and non-work attire are top requirements to fit decades of experience (and shopping) into a 500 sq ft apartment (for two!) where rent pays for thin floor boards, leaky pipes, and the occasional glimpses of other people's gardens.  Enjoy!

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On Fond Reminders

Remembering When.

While some people throw things out, I tend to hold onto them, to reminisce, to remember when, to remind myself of how I got to where I'm going.  The Snow White birthday card my parents gave me in 1986 (with a number wheel that spins) is a fond memory of my brief yet wild infatuation with Disneyland, where Snow White personally waved to me from the parade float during a family vacation.  Love letters passed between classes with high school boyfriends indicate my first (serious) dabble with romance and heartbreak.  Postcards from best friends at summer camp in the 90s demonstrate devotions to relationships I still have today.  And acceptance, rejection, and resignation letters from universities and job opportunities represent entree into adulthood with many adventures yet to be experienced.  Enjoy!

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On Borderline Insomnia

From Moment to Moment.

While I wouldn’t consider myself an insomniac, I have dabbled with ear plugs and noise makers to drown out the minimal distractions that frequently awake me – in a frustrated state – from my usual slumber.  Depending on the night, I waffle between being a “light sleeper” and impossible to wake, and often torture myself on a daily basis with the unrealistic fear that I’ll never fall asleep again. But put a television or movie screen in front of me after 8pm and I’m sure to miss anything beyond the opening credits, so much so that I’ve gained a reputation for being a terrible date, only to revive with a boost of energy as soon as my head hits the pillow two hours later. Enjoy
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On Highlights of the 80s

(Brooklyn, N.Y.)

The teacup ride at Coney Island;
Plastic charmed necklaces;
Space barbie;
Bike Club in Prospect Park;
Science Club at P.S.321;
The baby swings in the 11th Street playground,
and, later, the big kid swings;
Rollerskating on the Bandshell stage;
Peanut butter on ritz crackers;
Cinnamon Toast without crust;
Sticker club;
Baby Talk;
Birthday parties with pinatas;
Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors;
Lucky from General Hospital;
Bionic Woman;
Leggings with skirts;
Trick-or-treating;
Letters from the Tooth Fairy;
Rainbow sheets;
Rainbow Bright cereal;
Collages;
Sassy Magazine;
Diaries with locks.

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On Kind Regards

Email Exchange.

I often take the “best” route when it comes to email exits, as opposed to “sincerely” or “kind regards,” in the moment of email departure when short and sweet trumps emotional and/or enthusiastic.  And yet every once in a while I come across an email greeting that makes me pause - with delight, interest, or intrigue - at my unexpected but welcomed reaction prompted by succinct yet memorable salutations.  In those brief seconds, I vow to reassess my own traditionally bland approach to typically mundane communication only to quickly distract by something way more enticing.  Enjoy & Best, C

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On City Living

Making Things Fit. 

A newly-relocated Coloradan colleague recently commented that living in Denver feels like a big city and a small town all rolled into one.  Grocery store runs and brunch gatherings can sway in either direction of welcomed anonymity or catch-up sessions with seemingly old (but realistic recent) acquaintances.  During routine visits back to my old stomping ground (Brooklyn, NY, on a semi-monthly basis), I navigate a similarly accessible neighborhood with parallel expectations, ready at a moment's notice to abandon my Dining section of the New York Times for a three sentence summary on life in the Wild West.  Enjoy!

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On a Sick Day

This blog will resume tomorrow, March 13th.

On Deeper Friendships

Post-Breakup Reconciliation. 

After the initial breakup, staying friend with your ex can seem like a reasonable compromise to completely cutting someone (as close as they once were) out of your life forever.  And so (unusually) pleasant dinner conversations, emails, and text exchanges pass the time in between past and future relationships, at which point the next significant other questions why the (former) “friendship” never fizzled. As previous priorities are reevaluated and new romantic companionship solidified, your ex (eventually) becomes just another facebook companion, as shared photos and expired relationship statuses retreat to a past remembered.  Enjoy! 

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On Pleasant Surprises

A Fast One.

Since I pride myself on being the surpriser rather than the suprisee, it's a rare moment when I am completely caught off guard by someone else's intentional sneakiness.  Which is why when I saw the large cardboard UPS box sitting unexpectedly on my Anthropologie bedspread in December 2009, I tore through the packing tape with brute force and unanticipated delight. And there it was-a perfect baby blue, antique Sterling typewriter, the kind you only fantasize you'll own one day, a Hanukah present from my (then) new boyfriend (now fiancé), who proved his expertise in both gift-giving and pulling a fast one.  Enjoy!  

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On State Politics

Colorado, circa 2013.

Non-Coloradan friends want to know what it's like to live in a state where marijuana is legal.  When I first moved to Colorado in 2011, I was immediately struck by its presence in daily life, whether in frequent conversation with fellow Denverites or its physical appearance on every other city block via medicinal dispensaries.  Coming from New York City, where pot is an accepted taboo, it was an unexpected shift, and not so much towards acceptance but an awareness of its existence. Now that it's officially legal, not much has changed, except maybe its emergence in water cooler conversation.  Enjoy!

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On Sensitive Subjects

Tiptoeing Around.

It's easy to tiptoe around sensitive subjects with people we hardly know, let alone with family and friends, when the subject at hand is painful or foreign, and the loss for words a potential sign of inexperience or inadequacy.  Yet broaching the elephant in the room is usually worse in theory than in practice and, more often than not, uncomfortable acknowledgments are welcomed disruptions to ignorance and bliss.  Once accomplished, the thick air clears and previously dreaded conversations pass the time as easily as the preceding ordinary ones.  Enjoy!  


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On Backseat Drivers

You Know Who You Are.

And I am one, a seemingly innocent roadside companion who enthusiastically offers to make runs for Starbucks lattes and sourdough pretzels only to return with way more driving advice than is ever warranted. Unappreciated comments on unacknowledged speed limits and perilous tailgating result in justified threats to pull over or switch drivers or abandon ship altogether, as the volume is (frequently) turned up, windows rolled down, and tacit compromises made by (both) road trip participants. Enjoy!

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On Quoting Wisdom

Imagine (by The Beatles).

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit (Aristotle).  Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant (Socrates).  And when anger dwells in the bosom of fools (Albert Einstein) and humankind cannot bear very much reality (T. S. Eliot), remember that it takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends (J. K. Rowling). And hopefully true friendship can afford true knowledge (Henry David Thoreau) when words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality (Edgar Allan Poe) since telling the truth is a revolutionary act (George Orwell).  Because a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature (Ralph Waldo Emerson) and where there is love there is life (Mahatma Gandhi).  Enjoy!

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On Finding a Job

Crushed Souls.

There's nothing so humbling as looking for a new job, with so many unknowns contingent on graduate school debt, transferable accomplishments, and one's ability to uncomfortably yet succinctly sell his/her skills, goals, and insecurities to perfect strangers and mere acquaintances.   The search can go on and on, with each email rejection akin to pouring salt over a wounded backbone.  Until the moment when that one unexpected offer arrives, with salary and 401K promises to solve world hunger and nurture crushed souls, and free coffee before 8:30a.m.   Enjoy!

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