On This Four-Year-Old Gem

Paper Dresses Galore.

What I wouldn't give to throw on one of these four year old's paper gowns and prance around the house pretending to prepare an Oscar speech for my award-winning performance in this year's favorite rom com.  My own closet fails to present anything as delicately fashionable, as I join facebook fans marveling at her talent and envying her creativity. Counting down to Sunday evening's festivities, where raw talent pours in by the masses and curiosity on how the other half lives invades our psych for three to four hours max, only to seamlessly  reunite with the ordinary yet welcomed comforts of being a normal person.  Enjoy! 

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On the Bachelor this Week

Spoiler Alert.

Andi nailed him to the wall, called him out on this and that, and let America watch Juan Pablo flounder.  I was hooked and stayed up until 1:00 am on a weeknight, glued to her every word and his every reaction. To my fellow Bachelor fans out here, I, too, was rooting her to tear him a new one while simultaneously feeling strangely empathetic for the seemingly disheveled Venezuelan soccer hunk (once she backed him into a corner, of course) who, until that moment, always seemed to hold it together.  Counting down for Women Tell All because I can only imagine what the other 20-something blonde competitors have to contribute. Enjoy!  

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On Our Social Media Haze

(A Word from the Author).

We’re living on a million tiny stages. Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, YouTube. Dinner plates are showcases for our food, beds become venues for our slumber, selfies are curtain calls for our faces. We put our activities on display, our feelings, our families, our skies. We’re not quite sure if there is a point in doing anything anymore if it can’t be documented, if no one is there to observe it. We long for favorites and likes and reposts, compulsively monitor these new forms of applause. The marquees of our lives say, special guest: ME! We play an encore, and then another. The quotidian one-man show never quite ends. -Carrie Browstein

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On(line) Reunions

Long Distance Friendships.

Yeah, yeah, we're all sick of the mundane facebook status updates about this superstar's downfall (RIP PSH [insert sad, sad face]) and that abhorrent BuzzFeed survey results (Lady Edith, really?! Ugh.). But every once in a blue electronic moon, an old friend whom you wish you spent more time with or, alternately, grew up reenacting lines from West Side Story over jump roping and pickle-fests, shows up in your message inbox (fb or otherwise) with a sincere inquiry about your latest goings-on.  In these moments, all vows to vanish from the internet atmosphere are exchanged for nostalgic what if's and remember when's as familiar faces really do connect across state and internet lines.  Enjoy!

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On Subway Connections

Every Opportunity.


Taking the F train to (and from) work, dinner with friends, and free Fridays at the [insert preferential] Manhattan museum, the subway offers an opportunity to ponder the daily lives of the disgruntled and occasionally jovial bystanders.  Avoiding eye contact, physical contact, or any human contact at all costs, minds wander to the people, places and preferences of the total strangers sharing this ride through a conscious and cerebral city.  Enjoy!

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On Being a (Very) Sore Loser

A Board Game Reputation.

My own roommate refuses to play board games with me, citing one too many times where I (nearly) inadvertently-ish wiped the decorative cardboard palate clean out of poor sportsmanship and, essentially, being a (very) sore loser.  Begging to right my wrongs, I swear up and down month after month that this time will be different and I promise I won't cry because accepting my crappy reputation in a lonely, game-less life is way worse than sucking it up when my Poker chips are whisked away or my Monopoly is mortgaged.  And while the Chess board still collects dust in the closet, I am determined to overcome my Board Game Persona and, one day, become one of those competitors whose opponents don't feel Risk in our game of Life.  Enjoy!

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On (RIP) Philip Seymour Hoffman

Character Actor Tragedies.

Every once in a tragic while, the news of a movie star's sorrowful death catches your breath as if you knew them personally even though your non-relationship existed solely through the people they portrayed via a television screen.  For me, I found out in an email from my mother. Did you see this!, she wrote, and I hadn't and, in that moment, I still wish I hadn't, because Philip Seymour Hoffman was my slice-of-life, independent (film) hero, encompassing faces and voices and personalities I had come to pity and empathize with in the most engaging and committed of manners (btw, my mother calls these "boring" films, preferring spy flicks and murder mysteries, but I seriously beg to differ).  Broken characters are where I thrive, my solace from an already-broken world, and PSH represents entree into a deeper, sadder, eternally captivating perspective on what can and does happen on and, so unfortunately, off screen. (RIP.)

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On(line) Romance

Okaaay, Cupid.

Putting faith in the powers that be, the majority of us (by now) have dabbled on the internets to find that special someone (for ourselves, our friends, or our family members), scrutinizing favorite films, must not have's, and quirky breakfast habits to determine if said candidates are good enough to grow into old age with. Okay, Cupid, do what you do-find (us) that perfect soulmate-bestfriend-fivenightstand to give (us) hope that, if not in this particular online rendezvous, love will find the people looking for it, craving it, fantasizing about matrimonial vows, Sunday brunches, and trips around town that actually feel like the whole world and back.  Enjoy!

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On a Home-Cooked Meal

The Happy Place.

Chopping up onions through tear-stricken lenses, the symptoms will undoubtedly be worth the while.  Flavored soups, hearty chilies and colorful stir fries, created through intentional choices with translucent vegetables waiting to be devoured, will appease the chef and subsequent participants over good conversation and savory scents.  The kitchen is where it all begins, cozy and safe, a palate for a garden artist, to create, control, and enjoy!   

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On Sans Lipstick

Au Naturel.

For the ladies out there, we pick and choose the shade and thickness we're most comfortable with, more for ourselves than for anyone else. Some prefer a heavy coat of daily mascara, while others cake on the foundation to cover up self-selected imperfections that, in reality, no one would likely otherwise notice.  Yet we wake, wash, and apply, feeling ever-so-slightly more confident (and prettier) than we did au naturel, quickly realizing in the faces of fellow lipstick appliers that even our minor dabs are hardly noticeable.  Enjoy!

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(In) the Spirit of V-Day

Be Mine?

I keep driving by the local, old school movie theater, well-know for it's weekend throwbacks (Ghostbusters, Goonies, Ninja Turtles and so forth), the majority of which I excitedly ponder for a brief moment and then remind myself that my usual 9pm-ish bedtime is way more important, and there's always our flat screen television if I get really desperate, which I won't.  But this past week, Romeo and Juliet (Leo style, in honor of Valentine's Day, I presume) keeps staring back at me as I pull up to the 6th avenue red light for just enough seconds to nag, and I recall the gigantic (6 foot long) poster I flaunted in college (that the local video store guy gave it to me back when those actually existed), and I debate whether I can comfortably keep my eyes open past curfew (-I am confident I cannot) just to see that one fish scene on a big screen (you know which one I mean).   But a valentine can fantasize because, let's face it, I can always go on YouTube before I hit the sheets, if I really wanted, which I...(don't)? Enjoy!

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On (My Personal) Eternal Bragging Rights

Two Words: Pacey Witter.

While rooting for Dawson Leery to win over Josephine Potter's heart pretty consistently between 1998 and 2003, it was Pacey Witter who I unexpectedly ran into on the side of the highway during spring break 1999 in Wilmington, North Carolina.  He was hitting golf balls at a deserted driving range with a guest character from season three (Andy's latest fling) and I was heading to the beach with a car full of 90210 fans (-in those days, the prime-time competing slot forced viewers to choose sides; a no-brainer, as far as I'm concerned), as we swerved into the parking lot and I rushed to introduce myself.  We laughed together, snapped a photo, and I even invited myself to join in their recreational Saturday afternoon activities (he said yes!) as my friends whisked me away to regroup in the sun and marvel over our starstruck run-in.  Enjoy!

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On My Obsession with Kale

Taste and Texture.

Sure, it's cooooool to eat kale nowadays - salads at work, homemade chips at a potluck, and avocado/lemon amalgamations at your semi-healthy friend's organic birthday party picnic (though, not my personal favorite combo in spite of its scientific reasoning) - but my own personal addiction is all about the taste and texture.  So when acquaintances and (current) roommates compare my favorite greens to "biting into leather" followed by child-like shudders (familiar to me when it comes to, say, meatloaf - ack!), I turn a blind eye and stack on the salt. So now I ask, what's your favorite kale recipe?  Let's exchange and ... enjoy!

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On Mass Emailing

DELETE!

Once per month - or every other - a mass email arrives from that elementary/high school/college classmate who you were never close to, have not seen in a decade, and barely follow on facebook (except maybe that one time...).  Updates on travels, donation solicitations, and requests to follow them on social media you don't even belong you bombard your inbox making you wonder how online access qualifies near strangers to invade your privacy.  And yet, along with this e-invasion, we find ourselves up-to-date and occasionally half-curious about people we haven't thought about in years, as we virtually tune in to perfect strangers and frenemies alike.  Enjoy!

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On Weddings in Mexico

Off to celebrate a family member's matrimonial ties in Mexico (for a week); this blog will resume on Tuesday, February 11th!