4.28.2003
things i've noticed
so far today. Cincinatti is very hilly and green.
*We flew over a pet cemetery before we landed for my layover.
*On the plane on the way to Denver, the man across the aisle from me kept staring at his hands...the palms wide and outstretched. He wouldn't touch them--just kept staring at them as though he were memorizing words on them for some test.
*Denver is a very modern city with lots of shops and conveniences in the downtown area, but on a Monday afternoon, curiously vacant--only a few people here and there, no bustle, no hustle. You notice the bums more that way.
*More Mexicans that whistle at me and make noticeable comments. I forgot that about the West coast--in California when I lived there, they used to hang out of the trucks and wave and holler while I would drive to work. They're just a LOT more demonstrative when they find a girl attractive. I wish I could say I was more flattered than uncomfortable, but well...
*They gave me a lock for the mini-bar at the hotel I'm staying at. However, when I open it up. I realize it's a fridge in the cupboard...but most of the alcohol nips are sitting in a basket on the top of the fridge. And there is a huge hole in the back of the entertainment center where this all is, so if I had wanted, I could have just reached around and taken any of the bottles I had wanted. They locked up the diet coke, but not the vakka. Go figure.
7:40 PM | link | up| archives |
4.27.2003
off to
Denver tomorrow AM for a global communications meeting for work. Different marketing heads of the various operating companies are going and so I'm heading there as well, for two days of meetings. I know one other person--a gal from our Atlanta office. Wednesday night though I managed to score Rockies tickets so taking our regional sales rep along with me.
When I get back I think I'm going to completely revamp my site. Yes, yes. I am.
10:10 PM | link | up| archives |
4.25.2003
free speech is a joke
I am still in shock upon reading about the incident with Tim Robbins being BLACKED OUT on the Today show...after the Baseball Hall of Fame cancelled his initiation as part of the 15th anniversary of Bull Durham. I wanted to see more about this and find out the truth behind it...NADA. Nothing from any major news source, just the underground netizens talking madly about it. So much for un-biased reporting in the media.
Randy at Pod Bay Door actually saw the show and made the same observation when he went to see what would be said.
Tim Robbins gave a speech at the National Press Club the next day. The New York Times reported yesterday that Bull Durham is going to show after all--that the BBHF gave in and agreed to continue as planned--but still, no mention of the blacking out. Lots of mentioning from Republican news pundits about how anyone that speaks out about the Bush administration and the war is a whiner, but that's about it.
I have never liked the Dixie Chick's music, but you know, I'm tempted to go out and buy their whole collection in support. I can't believe that we, who have gone out to liberate a country and help them be free, help them to speak their mind without fear, are telling our own citizens that they can't express their opinions.
Again, I refer back to the wisdom of one of America's greatest Presidents:
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -- said Theodore Roosevelt in 1918.
Now go hug your Teddy bear.
6:44 PM | link | up| archives |
i revamped
my poetry section...will be developing it further and probably making more changes to his main site over the next few weeks. My poetry section is more for works in progress and comments are definitely welcome.
1:47 PM | link | up| archives |
4.24.2003
today
i saw a very very fat cop tagging people with radar. I was in the parking lot of a park in Medford (I had stopped on my way home and thought I would say hi to Joe where he was going to be practicing--I was waiting for him to arrive when I witnessed all this). The cop would stand on the side of the road holding his radar gun (which looked like a flat black box) at oncoming traffic. If he tagged someone going too fast, he would try to wave them over. Sometimes they stopped, but mostly they didn't see him. He would just huff and look really frustrated as they whizzed by, then he would just pick up the radar gun and try again. I just sat in the parking lot and laughed and laughed. No sense of authority--no taking down license numbers of the people that just kept going--no, this was a very very fat cop at the end of the month trying to get his quota filled.
btw, the Boston area has some of the fattest cops I have ever seen. I honestly thought that the cops in the donut shop scenario was something only on cartoons. Foolish me growing up on the West coast where there weren't many donut shops anyway, but still, I don't ever remember seeing a fat fat cop until I moved here. Sure enough, every day I pass at least one if not numerous Dunkin Donuts with a cop parked there, heading in for his apple fritter and watery coffee. And 9 times out of 10, he's too fat to be chasing after ME if I were running, much less some frenzied bad guy. It took me a year of living here to get past my amazement at this phenomenon.
8:24 PM | link | up| archives |
wow
what an amazing site. It's so encouraging when you come across something like this--with determined people working to make their part of the world a much better place.
12:26 PM | link | up| archives |
4.21.2003
this weekend
was a full one. Dinner with Joe on Friday night, with drinks at the Summer Shack afterward. Saturday, I made yummy "Everything but the Kitchen Sink" (oatmeal, toffee, cherries and chocolate chip) cookies with my new Kitchenaid Mixer,courtesy of Joe's brother and his wife--awesome wedding gift, thank you! Saturday night, we had a friend over for dinner and Joe made amazingly tantalizing cornish hens with green beans and bacon. Was a great evening, hanging out and chatting and having good food.
Yesterday we drove up to New Hampshire and took in the sights of America's Stonehenge, which is really cool and extremely interesting but it falls into the same trap as a lot of other NH sites and has a very serious cheesy factor to it as well. We had lunch in Portsmouth and I'm wishing that we had stopped in and checked out Strawbery Banke, but instead we took a chance and hoped that corporate America wouldn't be observing Easter and that the outlet malls in Kittery, ME would be open. Alas, they weren't. Evening found us at home, eyes riveted to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
9:27 AM | link | up| archives |
4.19.2003
9:47 AM | link | up| archives |
4.17.2003
the nature of good thinking
Policy makers have sounded
the alarm. People need to learn
how to make attitudes, habits
and how to transform a culture,
a place where six key dimensions
present the basic idea—
a language of thinking.
How language can model
standards, amalgams, inclinations!
Habits of mind that concern
the spirit, emphasize patterns and
sit above the body.
Discipline works.
Discipline thinks.
Transferring from one context to another.
written in accessible, educational
Zero thinking. Edged with the practical
realities of instruction.
* found poem—back of “The Thinking Classroom”
9:25 PM | link | up| archives |
i needed to point out
how incredibly cool that theseare. Gorgeous, hip and EXTREMELY well priced. Seriously, snatch a few up while the prices are low...and they are low! Dig around in the photos for some really beautiful designs. I think I've discovered where some of my Christmas presents will be purchased!
8:55 AM | link | up| archives |
4.16.2003
have you ever
had a moment when you realized you were just staring off into nothing and then realized it...and discovered that it must have been 2-3 minutes that your brain was sort of disconnected from your reality? That just happened, as I stared out into the bay.
I'm not sure what on earth I'm complaining about...I've got it good right now: new marriage with the best husband on the planet--our relationship constantly amazes me in how good it is and how much better it always get. I have a kickass job with a great team of people who I love working with (and a boss who is very happy with the work I'm doing and 100% supportive--rare for someone marketing for a software firm in this economy!). I'm doing well in school and my classes aren't so bad...not like the heinous class I had with the evil woman last semester. It was 80 degrees today (forget that it dropped 20 degrees in an hour this afternoon, however). I have a wonderful apartment and the best kitty in the world. I wrote three poems just last night. I am loved by friends and family alike. And to top it off, I'm meeting a long-lost friend for dinner tonight.
The last few days must be the result of hormones, methinks.
4:50 PM | link | up| archives |
4.14.2003
on my outlook
franklin Covey PlanPlus this morning:
Choose change. If you don't choose change, it'll choose you! As a change agent, you become a link between the past and the future. We all can choose to stop the cycle of our bad habits, even if those habits or problems go back for generations.
See change. What is your life about? How are you going about it? What do you want to do differently? How do you see yourself doing it? It's important to have a personal vision of what you will become as a result of your decisions, and set goals to achieve the change.
Do change. Now make it happen! As you choose to be proactive, you will begin making ripples and, eventually, waves. Some people mistake a can-do attitude for pushy or aggressive. Actually, as you choose, see, and do change, you'll be courageous, persistent, and smart.
~~
It's supposed to be in the high 70s tomorrow, strange, that it's mid-April and finally we're getting above 40 degress. I saw daffodils along the Charles yesterday!
I blogged about this earlier but again, I'm feeling very unproductive in my life right now. I procrastinate on everything, I seem to have no focus and no strong motivation. It touches all that is around me--my desire to get healthy, my writing, my work. I am shrouded in a strange cloud of doubt and frustration. I need motivation--where do I find it? I want to start writing my morning pages every day, but I can't manage to get up that early. It made such a profound change for me last semester--I want to recapture that, the sense of excitement and momentum. I feel so stagnant, so stuck.
I am also frustrated because I feel like I often waste my time with Everquest and the enjoyment isn't there in the way I would like--the smallest comment from people I completely don't care about will make me feel small and stupid, and angry. It's a bigger blow to my self-esteem than I need in my life. Petty, arrogant people dictate my emotions and I hate feeling like that. I play the game to have a good time and the social aspect is the biggest part for me and I'm pushed to the bottom of the social rings because I'm not uber enough. I play to be with friends, not to be with strangers but the game dynamic in our guild has created a rift between top level players and "the rest," forcing me to play with strangers to try and be on the same level with friends. It sucks. When I try to express my view to my guild I get ripped on as being "lazy" for not playing with strangers to level up. It's amazing. The result? I end up very frustrated and sad. HELLO! It's a game! I play it to have fun but instead I end up torn up inside as a result of pixels on a screen. Then I get upset at myself because I let the game take up bits of my life that should be spent on homework, correspondence with friends and relatives and on my writing. In the last 4.5 years I think I have played over a year of my life on that game--literally, and now it is really starting to show how much it eats at me. It's especially difficult because Joe is so into it and I'm so half-hearted about it.
I'm procrastinating on everything right now. There is SO much that needs to get done and I'm not doing any of it. I have such an adversion to work, to doing things--I feel such a terrible drag on my motivation and I hate it. How do I get that motivation back?
I can think of a couple of things:
1. stop playing EQ
2. write every day, even if it is something small
3. keep up on the correspondence that comes in (personal)
Maybe some of that will help. I need to choose change. I did it last semester...now I need to do it again.
2:45 PM | link | up| archives |
4.11.2003
i have to say
that Christopher Walken ROCKS.
9:43 AM | link | up| archives |
4.10.2003
i've been
fairly reflective lately...trying to figure out how to balance my life since we've come back from Vegas. For the last couple of months I've been fairly focused on the planning, the going, the anticipation, and the getting married part of it! I've felt so out of balance in most everywhere else for the most part...my health has been questionable (falling down the stairs three weeks ago didn't help; I've been sick since I came back from Vegas; trying to lose weight and be healthy), my work productivity has been scattered, my schoolwork feels hurried and half-assed, I've been out of touch with friends and family and my writing has been essentially nil. My focus now is to find a way to get back on track. And so here, my "second-quarter" initiatives for 2003:
Health: Lose ten pounds. Those of you that know me realize that I need to lose more, but that's the starting point. I'll worry about more after I get rid of ten. I joined a gym before I left for Vegas and next week I begin going again. Already eating healthier so the rest needs to fall into place. The next few days, I have to shake this terrible ongoing cold thing. SLEEP is a priority.
Work: Continue to develop new programs that bring in revenue, avoid procrastination and continue to find ways to motivate and support my staff.
School: Again, stop procrastinating and doing my work at the last minute. I need to spend more time absorbing, being in thought about what I'm learning and looking for ways to apply the learning very directly to my work and life. Begin focusing on the two final papers that I need to write for each class (one is 20 pages and the other is about 10).
Friends and family: Answer my emails in a more timely manner (sigh, sorry Stephanie, Greg, Sharyl, Lauren, others...). Spend more time with the people that I care about. Call my relatives more often (my grandparents especially). I have been blessed in the last year--two long lost friends have reached out, one asking me for forgiveness for the falling out (although I had given it years ago, forgetting the incident!) and the other was able to forgive me for my serious shortcomings. Relationships have such power and priority in my life and when they are good and positive I need to nurture those. We don't get many second chances in our lives.
Writing: First off, I need to write Greg back, who so graciously commented on a massive body of poems that I sent him. I need to be more active in Zeugma (I think the link has been down), the workshop I joined up last fall--I get so much out of it but I've slacked off in participation. I need to read more poetry, read more in general. I have so little time to read though--I have to find the time. Make the time. There is also a fantasy novel that I began awhile back that I wish I could work more on. I have the world partially built, the first chapter written, but I have felt like I was creating in a vacuum. I have so few literary people around me and in my life--and it's true, when you are in your domain you can feed off of other people in your domain--motivation, ideas, feedback, criticism--but I have none of that. I feel like I'm nitpicking at the sides of it all, and it leaves me feeling nearly like a fraud. Who am I to call myself a poet or a writer? But I know that's not true...I just need to nurture it, believe in it, but mostly, I need to WORK at it. If there is anything that I have noticed about most successful writers and poets...they are prolific, they work hard, they perservere. I am such an admirer of Erin Noteboom's work and one of the things that I really love is watching her process, seeing the revisions, the agonizing over the words, the format, the meaning. It is WORK and while it is hard to balance 50 hours a week at work (with an additional 10 for the commute), getting my M.A. and all that, there is time to write, I just haven't been choosing to do it. I made a pact with myself at the beginning of the year to write at least 1 poem a week and to work on submitting 1 poem a month, and I did good on the writing for the first two months, but submissions, no, and now I've slacked off entirely. I need to get back on track with that pact.
So there, my rather verbose declaration of my intentions for the next few months and indeed, as the year continues.
The sun is out and I am estatic!
10:28 AM | link | up| archives |
4.7.2003
a couple
of people have asked where we're registered and so I thought this would be the best place to post it. If you need to know mine or Joe's last name, because for some reason you don't know it, just drop me an email. You can find us at Crate&Barrel, Williams Sonoma, and Target. The date is 3/27/03 in Las Vegas.
Here's a picture--NOT the best picture at all (it was super windy). We have more shots that need to be uploaded off of Joe's computer and the professional shots should be coming in 3 weeks or so.
We're planning a reception of some sort--something casual, possibly a clambake! But we're not organized enough to know when and where just yet (got to save up some funds to throw it!), although we have a good idea of where we'll have it! Think about an early fall weekend in the Berkshires!! We'll keep you posted!
6:40 PM | link | up| archives |
4.6.2003
i am
not happy. Tomorrow is April 7 and they are expecting 5-8 inches of snow starting tomorrow afternoon and ending on Tuesday morning. SUCKS I tell you. Sucks. I get very freaked out driving in the snow...not so much because of me, but because we live in a land of the worst drivers in the country, total assholes who seem to view inclement weather as an excuse to be even more of an idiot than they normally are. If there is any one source of serious anxiety for me, that would be it--driving long distances in more than 2 or so inches of snow. I get physically nervous, nearly nauseous...not fun. I don't understand why it's not spring yet.
The other frustrating thing is that with a long winter like this, it means that we actually don't even get a spring. Suddenly it will just be summer, 85 degrees with 90% humidity. It happens that way in Boston a lot...winter just becomes summer without the stopover for crocuses (which I haven't seen yet), robins flying in (which I haven't seen yet) and the buds quietly bursting forth.
12:51 PM | link | up| archives |
4.4.2003
T.S. Eliot was
right--April IS the cruelest month. On Monday in Vegas I was happily enjoying 82 degree weather and perfect sunny skies. The next day in Boston--snow. Last night, snow. Tonight? Ice storm. I get in my car this morning and the right windshield wiper decides to quit working. 15 accidents scattered between Burlington and Peabody on my way to work. No, I'm NOT a happy camper.
Been listening on NPR to how the Republicans are blasting Kerry for his comments about the US needing a regime change--how they have been calling him unpatriotic. Amazing--one of the most important things about being an American is the fact that we CAN disagree, that we have the FREEDOM to express our views and that we are built on a framework of democracy. We don't worship a dictator or a monarch--we are free to express dissatisfaction with our leadership and our government. As I saw on one the boards I frequent, a quote from one of the most famous and patriotic Americans---"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -- said Theodore Roosevelt in 1918.
I wish a swift end to this war. I want our troops home and safe and not exposed to months of mindless guerrilla warfare and angry retaliation for American arrogance. Hearing about the bravery of Jessica Lynch ripped at my heart...being found amidst the bodies of 11 others, who knows what violence done to her. I support the troops 500% but I believe that the leadership that sent them there is severely misguided. I want our people home safe on our own soil.
/rant off.
5:56 PM | link | up| archives |
4.3.2003
food for thought
by one of my favorite poets/authors.
“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.”
-Diane Ackerman
6:22 PM | link | up| archives |
4.2.2003
we're back!
The trip was wonderful, even if I am left with a residual sore throat. The wedding was sweet, albeit short, but it was great. I was (AM) so happy! The weather was amazing...sunny the whole time and the day we came back it was 83 degrees. Go figure--it snowed in Boston yesterday, sigh. I don't have wedding pictures yet (they're on Joe's iMac and we need to email them to me since the stupid machines don't have floppy drives) and the professional ones aren't in yet. I'll post them when I get them.
I have great shots of various Vegas landmarks though!
The Flamingo...historic, right in the heart of the strip.
Caesars, equally historic, classic Vegas
Funny how I have so many pictures of the old hotels but not the new (those are on the other group of shots)! Here is the famous Volcano at the Mirage...caught the last show of the night!
Okay, here's one of the newer ones--bet you can't figure out which one! I loved this hotel--but especially the breakfast buffet...which we went back to three times! Mmm. Croissants, crepes---bon appetit!
5:30 PM | link | up| archives |
