Poems & Lists

The Art of Relationships

on our list of things to do together
the most important item remains
an unwritten glow, bouncing
between our ribs and spines
---------------------------------------------------

We do really have a list of things to do together. It includes:

Go apple picking.
Bake rainbow cookies.
Go to a Weakerthans concert.
See the abandoned City Hall station.
Read e.e. cummings and Ferlinghetti.
Eat Thai noodles for the hundredth time.
Eat creme desserts at the Hungarian bakery.
Eat salmon over coconut rice while touching each other.
Lay together on an uninhabited island in the ocean and the sand.
Watch flying lanterns from a boat and give birth to a baby dragon.

Numb

We sit with his head in my lap. The wind sends snow careening down from the pines. It speckles his hair like dandruff, or bits of salt scattered to ward off evil spirits. We are the only two people in the park, dark silhouettes against the backdrop of baseball diamond lights. The game was canceled, due to the early and unexpected storm. We waded through snow up to our knees to get here, to sit on this particular hill under this particular tree. We sit with his head in my lap and I stroke his hair and brush out little flakes of white dust. He buries his face into my thighs and I squeeze. My fingernails are three shades of blue as I shake his shoulder and say, We should probably go home. He holds up two fingers; he requests two more minutes of sitting here shivering. I say, Please. I'm thinking about how they'll find us in the morning, stiff and intimate, his head in my lap, begging nakedness and warmth. I'm thinking that I should go, now, alone if he won't come with me. He says, We are learning to feel without our bodies. We sit with his head in my lap and I lick the thickening clumps of snow from his hair and swallow them whole.

Weekend Roundup!

Spring is in the 32 degree air... at least in the store at the mall.

Todd and I went shopping today with my parents to look for a dress for me to wear to my cousin's wedding in March. (More about this later; I've never been to a wedding before except once when I was a flower girl and I don't even remember that). Anyway,  nearly every store had some leftover end of the season sales and most shops boasted new summer-ready short shorts and tank tops, even though February hasn't even hit us yet. It really made me miss the warm weather!

On the plus side, we all ate at Johnny Rockets and I had a delicious oreo shake. On the minus side, I treated everyone to dinner and am now less $60. But at least we had a good time, and I guess that's what matters.

(Before consuming a burger, cheese fries and a shake. No wonder my arms are getting fat haha)

 

GRE Website Review

After weeks of study, I recently took the GRE exam, which is the exam you have to take in order to try and apply to most graduate school programs, for anyone who isn't familiar with it. I'm trying to get my Masters in Creative Writing, and although only one (New York University) of the four (Brooklyn College, The New School, Columbia University) schools I applied to required the GRE, I still had to pay about $115 and take the GRE test.

The other day I came across this GRE prep site, GRE Prep Book, run by 3 UC Berkley graduate students. Like many of the GRE prep sites I frequented while studying for the exam, this website is simple, without much flash or pomp. While that adds to easy navigation and user friendliness, I found that there is a bit of repetition between the side links and the bottom links on the homepage. The site's plain appearance takes away from - for lack of better words - it's potential for seduction. Call me shallow, but a website's appearance is a major factor in whether or not I decide to peruse through it's pages and with the GRE Prep Book website, I don't get that little tingle of excitement that tells me: this is a well-run, well-kept, and more than quasi-official website.

I decided to browse the site anyway, and discovered that the material on the site - and there is a ton of it - is actually really helpful if you're looking for practice questions. There isn't too much instruction on how to answer the questions, but there are a fair amount of questions to answer and a lot of word lists, giving examples of antonyms and synonyms and word pairs. Although I think this would not be helpful to someone looking for lots of instruction, it would have been helpful to someone like me, just looking to do practice questions and go over some vocabulary. It would have been even more helpful if they had pointed out high frequency words and questions most likely to be seen on the GRE exam itself.


Link:  http://greprepbook.org

LUSH

I used to hate baths.

And to an extent, I'm still not the biggest fan of them. You sit in water that goes from lukewarm to tepid. You're afraid to read because you might drop your book into the water and then it'll be ruined. Your bathtub drains while you're in it even though you've switched up the stopper...


Or maybe that's just me and my faulty tub.

Anyway, although I'm still not at that point where I want to take baths all the time, they've become much more appealing ever since my best friend introduced me to Lush, where they sell handmade cosmetics, especially bath melts and bath bombs. Both dissolve in the bath water and infuse it with fragrances (which can range from soothing to sensual, depending on your mood and whether or not you're bathing alone) and minerals to make your skin soft and, well, luscious. Thus the name, I guess.

Whether you love or hate baths, you should give these products a try. But even I only buy them when I've got a gift card for the store, because I couldn't imagine spending $6 on a bath bomb or, even more expensive, $25 on some of their creams and lotions. So start hinting at what you want for Christmas early this year.

Here is a video someone posted on Youtube so that you can see how bath bombs work:

Oscar Nominations

They released the full list of Oscar nominees early this morning. I have a few thoughts on it:

Best Picture: I really hope "The Social Network" wins this. Todd and I recently re-rented the movie, which we originally saw in theaters, but we haven't re-watched it yet. However, it is a smart film that really captures the attention and doesn't let it go. (The real test is whether or not it puts my mom to sleep, but she hasn't seen it yet).

Best Actor: I'm torn between Jesse Eisenberg for "The Social Network" and James Franco in "127 Hours." I think I"m leaning towards the latter. In the movie, James Franco portrays a climber who falls while leaping amongst caves. His arm gets caught under a huge boulder and he ultimately cannot get out, unless he decides to cut off his arm. 

Best Actress: I'm hoping for Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine." Although I don't know how I felt about the movie's ending, I did really like her performance. Then again, I like her in most things. And I may be partial to "Blue Valentine" because after Todd and I watched it, we re-declared that we wanted to be together forever, and that always makes me happy. So I think I'm biased.

Best Animated Feature: You know that "Toy Story 3" has probably got this one without question, but I really also enjoyed "How to Train Your Dragon," and I wish that had a chance to beat out the obvious favorite. (Although I do admit that "Toy Story 3" was really good and made me cry). 

Those are just a few thoughts for now. I'll have more as the Oscars approach. Keep watch for them on February 27!

New 2011 Blog Schedule!

After having to rewind and watch the ball drop twice on New Year's Eve because my dad's camera didn't record the first time, the New Year has kicked off to a great start. This first month has been a pretty constant stream of looking for jobs, doing a bit of writing, seeing friends and mostly just spending time with Todd before he heads back to school next week for the spring semester. It's been really great to see him nearly every day and to get to sleep in his arms. <3

And now that I've gotten time to settle into the new year, I've decided to concoct a new posting method that will ensure more regular posts and more regular commenting on the posts of the people on my blogroll (check them out). So, here's the plan:

Monday Creativity: I'll start off each week with a creative / writing post, maybe tips on writing or news about writing or bits of my own writing, like poems and short short stories.

Entertainment Tuesday: I'll post a short bit about music, movies, books, or video games that I'm into at the moment so that I can share those things with you.

New Age Wednesday: I want to get back into posting about things like color healing and gem healing and tarot cards and palm reading, so Wednesdays are going to be my day for that.

Random Thursday: On Thursdays I'll post about whatever I'm feeling at the moment, whether it's a personal post or a recipe or just a photo post giving you a feel for what's going on in my life.

Weekend Roundup: Just a little bit of news and information about what's been going on throughout the week, either in my personal life or in the world. 


If you have any other suggestions about things you'd like to see added to one of these categories or posted on Thursdays, please comment and let me know!

Gifts

After spending approximately 11 hours cleaning my room, I finally have a chance to upload some photos of Christmastime and some of the gifts I gave and received. Last year I blogged about making gifts for loved ones, and I've done that again this year. Now that they've finally received them, I can show you what I've made. I hope you enjoy this photo post and I hope everyone has a happy New Year's Eve. Remember, take with you only happiness into the new year.

Here's  a photo of my Christmas tree at 7 a.m. Christmas morning, after I woke up my brother and my parents with my Linus plush that talks when you squeeze him.

"For behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. And on earth, peace, and good will towards men. That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

 

Above is the frame I created for Todd. Supplies: a plain undecorated frame, card-stock paper for the background, stickers, glue, a photograph. Also woodcut letters help, which is what I wrote our names with, and the top heart is also made of wood and painted. Below is the box I created for my parents. Supplies: a plain box, stickers for the lettering and top designs, ribbon for the center, and card-stock paper for the bottom. I put little envelopes on the inside with Christmas messages inside of them for both of my parents.

 

My dad is a master at decorating gifts. Using wrapped books and ribbon (and empty gold wrapping paper tubes), he created a Chococat sleigh out of all of my gifts. Isn't it awesome?

Todd got me a few awesome gifts; one of them was these custom Converse that he had designed to say "The Weakerthans" on them, the name of my favorite band, which I sort of introduced to him when we first started hanging out. I'm really excited to get a chance to wear them! 

The best gift of all:

Christmas!

For me, the end of the year is a time of self-evaluation, a time when I reconsider everything in my life and hold on to the things that are worth it and get rid of the things that aren't. I love spending time with my family at Christmas, and this year it was extra special and great because Todd got to share in the celebrations with us.

(And I didn't get broken up with, like last Christmas. Not that I thought it would happen, but it's always a bonus either way!)

Now that I've got a ton of new things -- I'll have some pictures later -- it's time for stage two: cleaning. I plan to go through pretty much every single thing I own and decide to either get rid of it or find its proper place in my room. 

But it's not just my room that I have to clean. I think it's important to sort through feelings and character traits, too, and decide which are worth keeping (happiness, love, open-mindedness) and which can be tossed aside (doubt, fear, worry). With the new year quickly approaching, it's important to decide just who we want to be and how we want to live. The most important part of any endeavor, relationship or life circumstance is how we let it change us and how we learn and grow from it.

 I want to start 2011 at my maximum potential, with all of my energy correctly aligned. And from there, who knows where I can go.

"I don't need what I cannot carry on me or inside. And I don't want it. I don't want what I cannot carry with me or beside." - TreeUnion, Kiss the Moon.

What An Adventure!

I love Christmas. And I especially love Christmas in New York - the tall skyscrapers (some of which are decorated with lights), the bustle of Macy's in Herald Square, and most importantly the chance to spend some quality time with my mom shopping for Christmas gifts. Here's some photos from our spree:


 


Here's mom in Macy's, where we looked around a lot at all of the nice decorations, but didn't really buy anything. I wanted to take a picture of the giant Smurf balloon outside, but didn't get a chance to.

In the Manhattan Mall, they had these weird reindeer made out of what seemed to be fake grass. They were really creepy, so I made my mom take a picture with one of them. Of course, then I had to take a picture too.

  




After shopping, we met up with my brother and my dad down at the South Street Seaport, where we saw the decorated Christmas tree (which had actually fallen a few days before). It was nice to hang out as a family, even though my brother said I was annoying because I kept trying to talk to him!

  

Here he is, in close up. I was sad because he didn't want to smile in his picture with me.

And lastly, the best close to the day --- tangerine glazed salmon over a bed of coconut rice with bits of pineapple and melon. As we know, I am such a foodie, so this was nearly heaven for me.