Beware the cat...

...that feigns slumber.

Weekend with the family...

Fun times out in Boston with S's Mom, Dad, and Little Bro...

The Public Garden in Boston Common

Awkward Me on the Bridge

The Bromance of S and L

Secret Agents: Or today's random, silly, potentially deep thought of the day.

Don't you just want to save the world sometimes? I mean, to lift it up in your hands and squash injustice or equalize/eliminate disparity or just make it sparkly and clean all of a sudden?!?

I think God is in the process of doing this, and inspiring us to do so each day, but not in a way that solves our own issues immediately (that takes humility and introspection and TIME!) or gives us any of the real credit. It's not about us, after all...

In the mean time, however, my colleague and I have been wishing we could save some of the kiddies we work with from exposure to alcohol and other drugs, while all we can do is:

1) Give the adults in their lives helpful data about their community for the sake of improving things, and

2) Invent super-woman aliases for ourselves.

Here's me - "Sydney Bristow" from Alias, of course.


And here's H, "Sarah" from Chuck.


Tee hee.

White walls

Now that the entertainment center has been satisfactorily assembled, we are looking for decorating ideas in the S-D-O household.

I think new O would like the place to be full of peacock feathers, but we've got to be realistic. Along those lines, we're not thinking of curtains for the time being, because the little guy has a penchant for attacking everything that moves, sways, steps or tilts.
We always don't want to go nuts, because a perk of having a simple home is being able to keep it pretty clean. The free space allows us to relax and melt away the stress of the work week. However, I'm always thinking of what to add, revise, or renew.

So what would you do with this white wall?

Bieber Fever

No, I do not actually have a fever over Justin Bieber, but I do enjoy pop culture these days more dare I say than I did when I was a market-driving, trend consuming teenager.

Why? Maybe it's because I work for an organization that needs to be up-to-date with what kids think is cool. Maybe it's because unlike the first 24 years of my life, I now have time away from homework, applications, and extracurriculars and a tired career-brain to relieve instead, with lots of frivolous nonsense. Maybe it's because, unlike my teen days, I can take or leave fads without it affecting my identity. What was once crucial to my knowledge of the world is now fluff, recreation, and a treat to indulge in.

I like how I can be a sophisticated, together young woman (some days) and still be counting down the hours until pop culture events of the summer like the Twilight Saga's Eclipse release in theaters/The subsequent release of the Hillywood parody music video, and The 2010-2011 NBA season draft pick (I am thinking, and now hoping, it's The Bulls for LeBron, becase 1) The Celtics Assistant Coach was just made head coach in Chicago, 2) Joakim Noah's hair is cooler than Varejao's, and 3) I bet my mom really wants to start watching bb again once another Bulls dynasty is set up (right, Mom?)).

Justin Bieber is pretty cool, don't get me wrong, but there's so much media to observe (OMG cat and What the Buck on YouTube; The Cecily von Ziegesar GG series books that I shamelessly checked out of the Young Adult section of the library last weekend) that he and his Zac Efron copy cat hair flip are only part of the youthful equation.And maybe, just maybe, all this is due to the scary potential fact that at 25, I am turning the corner from trying to grow up as fast as possible to trying not to get "old," which S considers 30 and up.

Speaking of being a cross between a college kid and an old fogey, I cannot not wait for my quickly impending next Ikea project - an entertainment center! We need one now that the motherload of all boy-junk, the gaming desktop computer, is making its way to the apartment via S's parents this weekend, and our desk (the most appropriate space for a big computer, no?) used to be where we kept the TV. Let's just say there's been lots of obsessive home staging going on by me, and we'll all now be a lot happier with our Ikea treasure assembled and ready for good use!

Wish us luck blending households. :)

Outreach

What is it that gets us to reach out and do or be something we are afraid of? In a good way, like a more generous friend, or a more forgiving family member, or a less judgmental colleague?

How about being better to ourselves, like being less worried about gaining weight or being ugly, but more willing to love oneself so that one does exercise, eat well, do small things that bring out natural beauty in his or her form, function and character?

Usually when I try to be better in a way that's scary, usually revolving around human relationships, I feel ridiculous and second-guess myself the entire time. For instance, I'll go out of my way to encourage or counsel someone I don't know very well and wonder if they think I'm being nosy about their personal troubles and inappropriate. It feels odd to do this sort of thing, but also sad that I'm sometimes more "comfortable" being aloof, isolated, and disengaged with my fellow humans. After all, I think I would like that sort of compassion were the situation reversed, but there's that anxiety and self-scrutiny all the same.

A month ago, I went to a colleague's birthday, and it was one of those moments. We'd only worked together twice, but she went out of her way to invite co-workers to her 50th birthday party, and I thought that was really kind. So S and I made the drive south to join her family and friends for the casual day, and it was wonderful, but AWKWARD to me on the inside.

Yesterday, though, I got a simple card from her that reads, "It was so cool you came," and that makes all my paranoia all worthwhile.

It makes me think that our life's happiness and/or regrets aren't all made up of those big scary decisions, like where to live, what job to take, and how many kids to have (and what tattoos to get, hee hee), but are more about the small shifts we make in our attitudes to carry us forward.

I am going to try to be more brave in these itty-bitty ways.

C-E-L-T-I-C-S

So the Cavs lost, and the Magic lost, but we've still got hope in Boston because of the Celts!

Good luck tonight at the big game boys. The East is with you!!!

(Garnett > Bryant)

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Behavioral health lessons, hidden in my all-time favorite movie?

Oh, my!

2nd O

The good life with the second Emperor "O" consists of:

• Endless nuzzles
• Enemy area rugs
  
• Chasing Esmeralda the "tickler"
• Shredded shower curtains
• Little mews
• Somersaults
• Early morning hair "massages"
• Cuddle buddies

...and that's all before the weekend!

Introducing...

...our new little one!
More to come!!!

The Res

We hiked...we swam...we lounged...we judged the swans...

...all on a muggy hot Saturday afternoon.

LLO

A much needed and appreciated work tradition for me is LLO or "Ladies Lunch Out."

Started by the client relations department, this event occurs every Friday and includes any one in the office who is of the female sex, plus especially voted upon non-female guests (S joined us once!).

LLO is usually fun, especially when we leave work talk at the office and share our weekend plans, lack of weekend plans, and non-work life dramas (dogs eating KitKats, children with red bumps, etc.).

Some of our favorites places to head are:


A short drive. Endless bread and salad bowl. Pizza, mushroom and mozzarella sandwiches, and flavored ice tea.


A really quick walk. Amazing cupcakes, good coffee, veggie reubens, and Orangina!


A longer walk, but with homemade icecream, breakfast anytime, and custom made old fashioned drinks. YUM!


Always crazy busy, with a million delicious soups and salads, like the chicken pot pie soup for my meat-eating counterparts. And big old M&M chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

While there are plenty of good places we've tried, their are others, like the CRO's legendary Striptease, which I am assured is just yet another soup/salad/deli place, that I've not been to since joining the team.

In any case, good food is waiting, so I'll catch you later!

Spring Forward

Spring fever makes me blog after work. Summertime makes me feel creative. Here are a few of my blog-inspirations for this realm and in the area of design in general. Happy musing!

Little Green Notebook

Young House Love

My Little Corner Of The World

Boston Local

There are so many things going on in Boston, and I just can't keep up with it.With S starting a new job this week, and the commute wearing us out, we'll probably have a couple of low key weekends coming up, but these events, especially the free ones, are tempting.


In addition to getting to the cape for birthday parties and anniversaries, and always heading over to the Blue Hills to practice our mad badminton skills, we've been trying to stay in touch with local culture a bit.


While S is more interested in cheering on the Celtics through the NBA championships (I'm still sad about LeBron not being a part of this series anymore), I got to visit Fenway Park a bit ago with some Hopkins friends. It's a tiny, old park, and very charming, but beware - they charge $6.50 for a cup of hot chocolate!We've headed to some smaller, nearby places too, seeing Babies at the Dedham Community Theater and then checking out the MOBA - The Museum of Bad Art - afterward. I feel like just the fact that there's a MOBA close by is inspiring enough to keep writing, drawing, and painting to my heart's content!This weekend, a colleague is singing in the Mystic Chorale's 20th Anniversary Concert and Sing.


That might be something we attend...in between yoga, video games, and a nice long nap or two.

In Memoriam

Peace is more important than all justice; and peace was not made for the sake of justice, but justice for the sake of peace. -Martin Luther

I wish I had more time to write on about Memorial Day and its significance. But as words will not suffice in any case, my ramblings here will have to do.

Yesterday S and I finished up a series on the 1st through 3rd crusades, as well as we followed along with the breaking news story that international relief workers in international waters were killed for a blockade breach between two nations in a similar type of predicament as those Christian and Muslim peoples at the turn of the last millennium. We also spent our lunch hour talking about why we are thankful for our veterans and our military, from the technological advances wars have yielded, to the brotherhood and sisterhood that can ironically result within and between warring nations and ethnicities who share the common bond of warriors.

Still, especially among those who fight wars based on pure philosophy, I am not sure what convinces us that self-preservation or preservation of a self-interest (like our personal religious faith and the political power that comes by theocracies) is what is righteous to a God who calls us to be sustained only by his/her/its power, a power that, no matter how much impact we can have in human war, is far greater than our own "power" can ever be.

While I do not advocate a physical war of any kind, I do admire those persons who may hold different opinions from me and back up those ideals with action and truly selfless sacrifice. I admire persons whose work may benefit a society or race of people aside from their own family and close circle, such as the work of a military in a diverse nation like the US. I am saddened that we do not reflect more before taking the lives of others, but I am heartened that even in a pursuit as ruthless and distorted as the Crusades, the most well-respected leaders of both Muslim and Christian armies were those who compromised, honored their opponents, and knew the true value of refraining from violence (Salah Ad-din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub/"Saladin" allowed Christians occupying Jerusalem to live when he came to power in the holy city, and later Richard the Lion-Hearted would not allow his depleted army to attempt a siege of Jerusalem, reasoning their imminent fall in such an endeavor.)

If I could ask one thing of all peoples, those who do not claim a faith (which is a form of belief, regardless) and those who do, it would be to reflect, pray, be still, to turn inward prior to blame, and to recognize that all our power, property, and ability to change the world lies within changing ourselves, and only ourselves, to align more and more on the side of peace.