I am a fashion maverick

Got a new pair of eyeglasses. They are by DKNY and have red frames. They make my face look nice. Yay!

(To the kid in the fourth grade who called me Four Eyes: ha, look who's hot now. You're probably in jail anyways. That also goes for the kid who called me Bony Rony in the sixth grade: I know you're in jail. I knew it starting from the day in third grade when you threw that chair across the classroom and then proceeded to bite that other kid on the head. Quality public-school education.)

Tuning out

Hey, word to the media: I don’t care if Obama doesn’t wear a flag pin on his lapel. I don’t care if Hillary “misspoke” about her trip to Bosnia. I don’t really care about whose pastor said what on what day (ever hear of separation between church and state??). I don’t care about seeing John McCain’s tax records; I can imagine he makes much more money than I do anyways. I don't care that Obama is bad at bowling and that Hillary drank a shot of whiskey or whatever it was in a bar in PA. I don’t care that Michelle Obama said that for the first time in her life she felt really proud of her country since her husband is running for president, because frankly I feel the same: it’s about time that we had a woman and a black man that are both serious contenders for the presidency.

I’m so tired of the mud-slinging, Swift-boating, over-analyzing, ridiculous circus that is the US media. It’s an insult to my intelligence. I don’t want a president who is just like the average American. Look where electing a “good ol’ boy,” someone you’d like to have a beer with, got us: the worst presidency ever (and by the way, I don’t think that someone who was born into oil industry money, who attended Andover and Yale, is technically an “average American.”). I, frankly, expect the president of the US to be much smarter than me, and much smarter than 90% of the rest of the American population. I expect him/her to be eloquent, extremely intelligent, diplomatic, open-minded, non-abrasive, and surrounded by some damn good advisers. Sometimes I wonder if the media just tries to spin non-important things into huge controversies so that Americans will keep being distracted from the real issues at hand (and in between their spins, they place commercials so that people can keep buying shit they don’t need. America goes shopping: the national pastime.).

This is what I care about:

What is the next president going to do for the single mother scraping by on 30K a year, with no health insurance, who gets laid off from her job at a factory because she has to take care of her sick kids?

What is the next president going to do for the Iraqi veteran who comes home maimed, with PTSD, and who receives only substandard care in a roach-infested room at Walter Reed?

What is the next president going to do about the US’ tarnished reputation abroad?

What is the next president going to do to ensure that kids coming out of public schools can read and write?

What is the next president going to do about health care costs going through the roof?

So to the media: get back to the important stuff. Please just stop with all the BS and the scrutiny of minutiae, lifting candidates’ words out of context and turning them into convenient little packages of sound bytes so that you can improve your ratings and increase your viewership. Because I’m tuning out.

Every bride's worst nightmare

Last night I dreamt that it was "the big day," you know, the day that symbolizes the beginning of the rest of my life (or the end of it, depending on who you ask) and absolutely nothing was ready. I was trying to set up a tent in my parent's backyard in Davidson and it was raining, dark and muddy, and I already had on my wedding dress, which had mud and grass stains at the knees. The tent's cover was dark blue and had "Blockbuster" written in yellow all over it. The priest was nowhere to be found, nor was the groom.

If anything, at least my real wedding can't come close to being that disastrous....right?

Note to my French peeps

It is absolutely forbidden to eat cupcakes with a spoon!

Spring cleaning

It's funny how springtime always makes me feel like it's not only time to clean out my closet but also clean out my life. And when I say clean out my life, I don't mean getting rid of anything in particular but re-evaluating things: I always get antsy when it starts to get warm again, when the flowers bloom and the trees are just starting to show new, light green little delicate leaves. It's a yearning for renewal in some shape or form, the creation of something new even if that means making the smallest of changes. What I do know is that my next step, career-wise, is either going to be grad school or a new job (this, btw, won't be until at least 2009. Also, my boss knows that I will not be at the Embassy forever - in fact he has urged me to think about the next step).

In either case, whether my next step is grad school or a new job, I am going to be extremely picky (90% of jobs on Craigslist do not appeal to me in the least) because I have to admit I have been incredibly spoiled at the Embassy. It really is the perfect situation for me: I use my French, I get to travel every now and then, I like my colleagues, I have a lot of autonomy in the type of research activities I do, I've met some very interesting people. Alas, it is not the type of position I can stay in forever since there is no room for advancement - unless by some miracle the French Foreign Ministry would let me bypass their entrance exam - and everyone needs new challenges and responsibilities. Somehow, though, I know that things will generally work themselves out - they always do, in the end, that's the optimist in me - because four years ago when I was graduating from college I never could have imagined I would be here, doing what I do. I feel in retrospect that I didn't know anything about anything when I was fresh out of college.

I'm also itching to take up oil pastels, drawing, watercolors again and I really need to devote some time to that soon. That, and maybe take a dancing class. That's also part of my yearning to create something new. I also really need to go to the seaside. Eat some crabs. Have a margarita. And finally learn how to cook & bake. I don't think I mentioned that the other day I tried to bake a lemon cake, and it was a total disaster. The whole apartment was full of smoke. I then tried to redeem myself by making blueberry pancakes, and they were undercooked. Needless to say, I am far from becoming Martha-Frickin'-Suzy-Homemaker-Stewart.

How to tick people off, by anon

1. Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17-inch paper, 99 copies.
2. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors."
3. Specify that your drive-through order is "TO-GO."
4. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
5. Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.
6. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep them tuned up."
7. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what you think."
8. Practice making fax and modem noises.
9. Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and "cc" them to your boss.
10. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.
11. Finish all your sentences with the words "in accordance with the prophecy."
12. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears and grimacing.
13. Disassemble your pen and "accidentally" flip the ink cartridge across the room.
14. Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
15. Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you "like it that way."
16. Staple pages in the middle of the page.
17. Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise.
18. Honk and wave to strangers.
19. Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints at the cash register.
20. TYPE IN UPPERCASE.
21. type only in lowercase.
22. dont use any punctuation either
23. Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.
24. Repeat the following conversation a dozen times.
    "DO YOU HEAR THAT?"
    "What?"
    "Never mind, it's gone now."
25. As much as possible, skip rather than walk.
26. Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce "No, wait, I messed it up," and repeat.
27. Ask people what gender they are.
28. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
29. Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
30. Sing along at the opera.
31. Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn't rhyme.

Might I also add my own:
32. U shud alwayz rite in txt msg format (LOL! OMG! ROFL...)
33. Walk really really slowly on the sidewalk when there are lots of people behind you.
34. Start up a conversation with your next-door stall neighbor while sitting on the toilet.

Love love loving it

Goldfrapp's album "The Seventh Tree" kind of transports me to a different place, and depending on the song, makes me think of a melancholy mime in a park when it's cloudy/James Bond driving in (what else) an Aston Martin on a scenic overlook near Monaco/a lady walking on a sun-dappled street in London in springtime/some high-roller with chrome rims rolling up to a velvet-roped club in South Beach, Miami. What has YOUR music done for you lately? =D

Mr. Picassohead

A throwback to that grade-school classic, Mr. Potatohead.

You know you're getting older when...

you are planning a yearly beach trip with your girlfriends from college!
Charleston, SC, August 14-19, 2008
Wooooooot.

Quite true.

My better half sent me this, by anon:

9 WORDS WOMEN USE (obviously written by a man)
(1) "Fine" This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up [or conversely, when they are mad about something and won't tell you what it is].

(2) "Five minutes" If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

(3) "Nothing" This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

(4) "Go Ahead" This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!

(5) Loud sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)

(6) "That's okay" This is one of the most dangerous state ments a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

(7) "Thanks" A woman is thanking you, do not question, or Faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome' ... that will bring on a 'whatever').

(8) "Whatever" Is a woman's way of saying SCREW YOU!

(9) "Don't worry about it, I got it" Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

Cupcakes

A shameless plug for my future sister-in-law:
http://www.couture-cupcakes.com/
IMHO, they are way better than the Georgetown Cupcake cupcakes and the Baked & Wired cupcakes (and you don't have to wait in line).

Guilty pleasures

I admit it: www.thesuperficial.com has reeled me in. It's crass, mean, insipid, and all about celebrities. But it is so funny.

A second confession: the steak-frites at Bistrot du Coin is so good, I almost didn't feel guilty about eating cow for a second.

Duh.

I'm all for scientific research. I think it serves a very useful purpose for society at large, for the economy, blah blah blah - in essence for many things. If scientific research didn't exist we would still be thinking the Earth is flat and blood-letting to cure disease. What I don't understand is the purpose of scientific research that does not seem to bring anything new to the table. Some recent examples of studies I have read about in EurekAlert! where all I could think of was "tell me something I don't know":

• "Study finds that discrimination varies by gender and race"

• "Childhood mental health problems blight adult working life"

• "Backpack straps can decrease blood flow to the shoulder and arm"
  

• "Basic yoga moves could help prevent falls in women over 65 years old" (Ok, maybe not so obvious to the majority of the population, but to a yoga practitioner that's like telling them the sky is blue.)

And my favorite "Duh" study of the day:

• "Having a husband creates an extra seven hours a week of housework for women, according to a University of Michigan study of a nationally representative sample of US families."
  

While we're on the topic of science, I have just a couple of words for the creationist tour guides of a natural history museum (see Dateline video below): that's totally irresponsible.

Recent obsessions

- Bedtime Tunes.
- Eat, Pray, Love.
- Mint tea.
- Recapturing lost memories from college with Hot Butter (my friend who has just moved to DC from South Beach).
- Cheery cherry blossoms, kites on a Mall, orchids in a botanical garden sanctuary.
- Waking up to songbirds and spring smells in my little pad in the Palisades, and then walking to work in the sunshine .
- Curry cravings (especially the Panang Curry from Bangkok Joe's).
- Crate & Barrel yuppiness.
- The blog 'Stuff White People Like' (sarcasm, people).
- Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii.
- Blockbuster Access (currently on my to-watch list: Atonement, Darjeeling Limited, Ghandi, The Simpsons Movie, Across the Universe, The Syrian Bride, Boys Don't Cry...and about 50 others).
- Kotobuki: the best & cheapest sushi in DC.
- Grinding my own coffee.
- Rooting for my homies from Davidson College in the NCAA tournament...until they lost to Kansas (even though I didn't go there, Davidson will obviously always hold a special place in my heart! And there is something so gratifying about seeing 'the underdog' win).
- Yann Tiersen's "La Chute" and attempting to play it on the piano.
- Enur's Calabria 2008. This song would make a dead person dance.