On Being Over Winter

 Enough Already.

There comes a point in ever winter season when the below freezing temperatures and necessary layers become tiresome and old.  Springtime teases us with rare but welcomed 50-degree afternoons where sunshine showers our newly naked legs and flip flops tear into our untarnished toes.  And before we know it, blooming parks are sprinkled with unwanted snowflakes one last time as we eagerly anticipate retiring our mittens and gloves for too many months to count...starting tomorrow.  Enjoy! 

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On Ten Lessons From This Decade

(Our 30s Thus Far.)

1. Shutting down weekend plans before or by 11pm is definitely socially acceptable.

2. Birthday cards instead of gifts are a welcomed annual recognition.

3. Eye creams (whether they actually work are not) are a new necessity in our daily morning routine.

4. Reruns of Dawson's Creek makes us feel old.

5. When referring to 80s sitcom characters, like Alf and Mr. Belvedere, blank stares are received from coworkers born in [gasp] the 90s.

6. Dinner parties may (or may not) include babies.

7. Facebook feeds are overrun by gory (in)appropriate details from the delivery room.

8. Movies like "This is 40" appeal to our humor but also make us nervous.

9. Two drink maximum instead of minimum so as not to ruin Sunday morning errands.

10. Cleaning the house (or apartment) (or garage) feels like a great accomplishment.

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On Moving Cross Country

In the Name of Love.

The first five minutes of our relocation to Denver, Colorado are as clear as if they were yesterday.  Sitting outside the airport "departure" section (because it's less crowded than the "arrivals" floor) waiting for our ride, the August sun was immediately hotter (and a mile closer) than New York's.  The Rocky Mountains, my then-boyfriend (now husband) explained, were on the other side of the terminal, reassuring me that one of the main factors in convincing me to relocate hadn't actually been a myth.  It was quiet and serene-a far cry from the one City I knew best-and then he said something like, So we're here now, because in moments like those you don't totally grasp the magnitude of what is actually happening.  And we were, with many unknowns ahead coupled with the excitement and anticipation that however this new adventure panned out, we would (likely) have it together and, in some ways, that's all that really mattered.  Enjoy!     

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On My (Independent) Film Recommendations

Real Life On Screen.

It's the slice-of-life films I adore most, depicting the bitterness of reality in a harsh yet semi-realistic way. Characters flounders, jobs are lost, hearts broken in a ruthless, dismissive, no-nonsense manners.  Relationships are destroyed, mended, and eventually dissipate or succeed based on life changes, crossed paths, and/or the inevitable flawed nature of the players involved.  We watch our own lives unfold through fictional depictions wondering whether we’ll make the same or different choices, and if our outcome will unfold with as much on-screen appeal as the faces looking back.  Enjoy!

Post Scriptum: Some of my favorites (trailers included, all but one without advertising) not in any particular order, and (btw) feel free to add to this list:

Kicking & Screaming (1995)
You Can Count On Me
You, Me, & Everyone We Know
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
This is 40
The Squid and the Whale
All the Real Girls
Away We Go
Blue Valentine
Junebug
Freaks & Geeks (*television)
My So-Called Life (*television)
Dawson's Creek (sorry, I had to!)
Waitress
Somewhere
Lost in Translation
Wonderland
Take This Waltz
Broken Flowers
Greenberg
Half Nelson
Motorcycle Diaries

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On Dreading the Gym

Dread-mill Anxiety.

After running my first (and only) half-marathon less than a year ago, and then immediately vowing it would be the beginning of many, I nearly quit exercising altogether.  Our wedding came and went, the winter arrived, and now-knee deep in inconsistently frigid temperatures and multi-layered winter wardrobes just to get to and from my day job-what once seemed an endlessness of great health and elevated-heartrate-possibility became the often-dreaded obligation of a lifetime. Excuses came and went, cute cold-weather gym clothes abandoned, and my own resting heart rate took a back seat in the very last row.  And then I did it: I rejoined the local gym (ahem) two days ago.  I'm two for two this week, boasting on social media as an exerciser-in-want-of-accolades often does, as I painstaking compare myself to the 19-year-olds who attend the coinciding university while I catch my breath to stay afloat the treadmill, and quickly remind myself that while a life without exercise is easy to embrace, the pros significantly outweigh the cons, and it doesn't take much to find that inspiration to over-commit and reignite the impossible...as long as I don't think I'll ever be twenty again. Enjoy!

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On Celebrity Dopplegangers

Going Public.

As a camp counselor in the mid to late 90s, my favorite icebreaker was having newly-arrived adolescent campers share which celebrities they'd been told they resembled since, more often than not, we all have one or more on-screen dopplegangers out there.  I, of course, was only slightly less-than-embarrassed to admit how often I'd been compared to an unnamed star well-known for his foot-loose moves and narrow cheekbones (-my own jawline quite pronounced at the time).  And my list doesn't end there, of course, with the myriad of large forehead-ed stars (*see baby photo to the left), including Reese Witherspoon and Keri Russell, which would have made my universe had these designations been based on more complimentary features.  But we are who we are and, regardless of how these associations came to stick, reruns of these very faces on 80s blockbusters and 90s dramas bring back the fondest of memories in spite of awkward-looking characteristics we all came to-and likely still-adore.  Enjoy!

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On Other People's Flaws

A facade of Perfection.

As we float through this world looking for and (hopefully finding) true love, we're initially so quick to point out other people's flaws no matter how miniscule, from syntax to size, yet rarely reflect on the imperfections of our own kingdom of craze.  Cringing at deal-breakers that may or may not carry the weight they've (un)fairly been assigned, finding the perfect match is as much about aligning theirs cons with our pros as it is about the reverse.  Enjoy!

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