December 31, 2012

So this is the New Year

Happy New Year's Eve/New Year!  I'm back from a vacation-induced blogging hiatus (didn't want to schlep my laptop around), and will post some sort of 2012 recap when I'm less exhausted. Since I didn't get home from the airport until about 9pm tonight, my wild n' crazy New Year's Eve plans consist of eating soup and trying as hard as I possibly can to stay up until midnight pacific time even though I'm still on eastern time.

So, Happy 2013 to all, and to all a good night!

Must...stay....awake...

December 20, 2012

How to Know When You've Found True Love

When you're in love:  

Hours spent together can seem to pass by in seconds

You often feel a tightness in your chest because you're so enamored by your love that you've forgotten to breathe

The idea of spending forever together isn't scary in the slightest. 

But why limit yourself to just one love? Why not have two, five or fifty? In fact, you shouldn't limit your capacity to love to a specific number; welcome new loves into your heart any time one enters your life. That way you can have different loves to suit your different moods, needs, life stages, the list goes on and on.


On that note, have a lovely holidays

 (If you haven't figured it out by now, music is the love of my life).


December 17, 2012

Some People Have Real Problems

I always jump at the chance to slip a music reference into my posts, and tonight's title happens to be a lovely album by Sia that I've spent a good chunk of my life with since its release a few years ago. You should listen to it if you're in the mood for something soothing and not particularly sad.

Now onto the real problems that some people have...

A funky stomach bug kept me couch-ridden for a good chunk of the weekend, so I spent a lot of time watching news coverage of the Newtown elementary school shooting, including all subsequent television programs highlighting all of the violent and tragic events that have occurred in the recent and not-so-recent past.  I doubt I'm alone in this, but after a weekend spent listening to stories of kids getting killed at school and shoppers getting killed in malls and war and death and poverty, I've been pulled out of the world in my head where stupid trivialities become much bigger than necessary because they lack proper perspective.  Because, some people have real problems.

The Newtown shooting also triggered an interesting conversation with my mom about an event from my own childhood, and got me thinking about the kids who survived the Newtown shooting. It happened when I was six, while I was selling lemonade on a street corner with my neighbors.  This particular day was fairly windy, and at one point a stack of styrofoam cups blew out of a plastic bag I was holding and into the street.  My four year old neighbor, always eager to show off his running skills, darted into the street after the cups.  All I remember next is screeching breaks, an indescribable popping sound, screams, and my little neighbor laying still in the street before my sister grabbed my arm and we ran home. 

When my dad told us later that night that my neighbor had died, and my first thought was 'If I hadn't dropped those cups he'd still be alive.  How could this happen?' Armed with a six-year-old's knowledge of death, I though it was reserved solely for old people. I couldn't quite fathom that someone younger than my self could die. I'm sure this event played a bigger role than I even realize on shaping my personality, even though I was so young when it happened.  I can't even imagine how the kids in Newtown must feel, having heard (and possibly seen) the shots that killed their classmates.

December 13, 2012

Cleansing Categories

There are four types of showers:

1. The showers you take because your hair or skin is dirty and needs to be washed.

2. The showers you take because you need to think about something, especially if you are the type who thinks most clearly in a room filled with steam (ironic, isn't it?).

3. The showers you take because you wish to metaphorically wash something away: a rough day, bad feelings, or perhaps because you need to have a good cry in a pre-dampened space.

4. And, the all-of-the-above shower, which I suppose I just took.





December 11, 2012

New Year's Resolution #1: Use The Force

Inertia: a property of matter by which it remains at rest or in uniform motion in the same straight line unless acted upon by some external force.

Physics lesson aside (I can hear your collective sigh of relief), I've started thinking about what aspects of my life I'd like to tweak for the coming year. The first trait that sticks out is my tendency to sit back and wait for the things I want in life to fall into my lap; then be disappointed when they don't.  I know, aside from super lotto winners, life doesn't work like that, and yet I continue to sit back wait for a stroke of luck to put everything in its right place.

I don't think laziness is the culprit here. I am not, nor have I ever been lazy, by any definition of the word, but after spending the first half of the year putting in 80-100 hour weeks, I burned out to such an extent that I never quite burned back in (I know, 'burn-in' isn't an expression, but I needed to create a sense of opposition). 

Since there's no better time to 'burn-in' than the start of a new year, 2013 is going to be the year I make a real effort to move my life in the direction of my choice. Rather than my usual, passive, 'woe is me - better luck next year' attitude, I'm going to go after what I want, be it in my professional, personal or social life. 


The Force: it worked for them...

December 8, 2012

My Hanukkah Bar is Set Nice and Low

As evidenced from my previous post-Hanukkah blog entries.  2011 Hanukkah was right before a CPA exam, and 2010 Hanukkah was during finals week of my most difficult semester in college.

2011 Hanukkah Entry 
2010 Hanukkah Entry


I'm fairly confident that Hanukkah 2012 will be better because  A) I have a menorah, dreidels and gelt, B) I interact with other human beings on a semi-regular basis, so I might actually get to use the items mentioned in part A, and C) I am only two weeks away from a real, bona-fide vacation. 
So, here's to Hanukkah 2012 being better than the last two. Per blog tradition, here's a cute Hanukkah-related picture.




Also, last night while not sleeping, I was trying to recall the hebrew alphabet song and couldn't quite remember all the letters. So here's the hebrew alphabet (minus vowels), in case you're interested. It reads from right to left.