Tag: Lists

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Things to Be Happy About, Vol. 10

Melanie

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.
— Albert Schweitzer (oddly enough, this is also often attributed to Ingrid Bergman)

Honestly, I am over this. I think I might drop this feature from weekly to biweekly or even monthly – or maybe just “when I feel like it.” I don’t know; I just wasn’t in the mood to post yesterday. I kept meaning to, and then didn’t. It’s not that I don’t see the value in it, and it’s not because I’m feeling down or anything, I just . . . I guess it’s that this started when I wasn’t sure I’d have enough to say to sustain a blog, and thought this might give me an easy way in to posting. It turns out I’ve got more to say than I thought, I’d rather be free to do that than be constrained by a schedule, even one as lax as this (and I do know that it’s me who’s constraining myself, always demanding that things go in a precise order).

So, here is tonight’s list, which may have to sustain you for some time. [Confession: not all of these are actually in my little notebook yet; I cheated a little today and added some on the fly. I’m unpredictable like that.]

1. my crossdressing 2-year-old nephew [This kid is a riot; he loves his trucks, but he also loves his sister’s dress up clothes, especially her princess dresses. I’ll post a picture if Nate says it’s ok Here’s a picture:]

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2. the National Air Force Memorial at sunset [I saw this through the train window on the way home tonight, and with the sun almost totally set and the clouds, it was gorgeous]
3. fresh mojitos
4. walk-off homeruns
5. playoff football
6. chorizo and Swiss cheese on a fresh, crusty baguette
7. the top of the Empire State Building on a clear day, not unlike this one [that’s me and Aimee]:
ans-and-mdw-at-esb.jpg
8. taking in a show at the Moulin Rouge in Paris
9. being friends with your brother
10. public libraries [when I was a kid, I think the limit at our library was 12 books at a time; I was in there almost every day in the summer – I’d rather read than do almost anything else]
11. sleeping with the window open for three nights in the middle of January [back to coldness tomorrow, boo]
12. an old hotel with lots of history
13. the big ferris wheel in the Toys R Us in Times Square
14. realizing that something you did really made someone’s day
15. when the floor is warm and toasty under your bare feet because the heating pipes run underneath it
16. clearing out clutter
17. waiting for it to rain so you don’t have to wash your car
18. “boy-blue” oxford shirts [you know the ones I mean, right?]
19. making the last payment on a credit card [yeah, this hasn’t happened for me in some time]
20. summer nights when it’s just cool enough for shorts and a sweatshirt

I’m working on Part 2 of Memory Lane; hopefully it will go up this weekend.

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Lighten Up, It’s Just Fashion

Melanie

Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.
— Coco Chanel

D.C. is a great town for people watching. There are tourists everywhere, and you can spot them in a second (the next one I spot standing on the left side of the escalator – standers to the right, walkers to the left, it’s not a hard system – may get an “unintentional” nudge). They dress like you would expect, and they’re easy targets for snark. This post is not about them. This post is about the people who work in the city, whatever their jobs may be (as will become clear in a moment).

Now, look: I don’t claim to be a fashion plate. I don’t subscribe to Vogue or Elle or In Style, I don’t really care what’s “in,” so long as I don’t stick out, and I skip the parts of Glamour (to which I do subscribe) that instruct me to “layer with sheers,” and “don’t forget the girly touches,” and “wear his clothes your way,” because: No. However, I have seen several episodes of What Not To Wear, and I can honestly say I’ve never left the house in any of the following:

1. A hot pink (nearly fluorescent) business suit. With Adidas slides. And ankle socks. (If she had been on the Metro in the morning, I might have excused the footwear; a lot of people change at the office, but this was midday in the middle of the street).

2. Blue (closer to teal) suede cowboy boots, with capri pants. I’m not sure where she was going with this look, but she didn’t get there.

3. A seersucker suit, with bow-tie. In fairness to this guy, this is Virginia (I saw him at my morning Metro station) and I think this is where seersucker country starts, but still. It’s not like he was old, either. He was probably in his 40s. My Torts professor and Tom Wolfe are fond of seersucker, but . . .  they’re in their 60s.

4. Silver lamé halter top with denim (super)short-shorts, and silver pumps. At 9:45 on a Tuesday morning, in a business district. She’s the one I was referring to above when I said “whatever their jobs may be.” I’m not saying she was a prostitute – hey, maybe she was doing a walk of shame, what do I know – but if the silver shoe fits . . .

and my favorite:

5. A navy blue skirt suit. Great, right? What’s wrong with that? Well, when I first noticed her getting off the Metro, she was in front of me. She caught my eye because she was wearing red, patent leather, sling-back, peep-toe pumps with her sort of average, everyday navy suit. At the top of the escalator, she stopped and turned around for a second, and that’s when I hit the jackpot: white oxford shirt with a red and white striped men’s tie. Oh, and big, puffy 80s bangs. I really wanted to follow her to find out where she worked. I’m guessing T.G.I.H&RPatentPalace.

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Everyone Is Doing It

Melanie

Resolve, and thou art free.
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

New Year’s resolutions, that is. I thought I’d go ahead and share mine as well. As if you care. There are only a couple; I know myself, and any more than that would overwhelm me.

1. Become more informed. The primaries are upon us, and I don’t have any idea, beyond the bare bones, what any of the candidates stand for. I read Express (the condensed version of the Washington Post given out free to Metro commuters) from cover to cover every morning, I get the NY Times headlines emailed to me every day (and I read probably 50% of the stories), plus I read the Yahoo headlines and numerous blogs (what do you mean, none of them are news blogs?), and I still feel like I don’t understand what’s going on in the world. Maybe my brain is broken, but it’s like I’m reading the information and it’s not staying in my head. I live in the center of the political world, and I am hopelessly out of touch. But I can tell you what Britney’s latest legal trouble is, so there’s that.

2. Get back on track, weight-wise. I haven’t talked about it, maybe at all, here, but I’ve been on Weight Watchers for nearly 20 months now. I’ve lost 60 pounds, which is great, and I’m thrilled, but I have a long way to go (30-40 more pounds), and I’ve not lost anything since September (in that go up one week, down a couple weeks, back up a couple the next week, kind of way). I am so not one of those people who whines that I’m working the program perfectly and it just isn’t happening. No: I’ve kind of gone off the rails, and I take full responsibility for that. It’s time to get my head back in the game, because WW does work, but you can’t fool the program. Or the scale.

3. Get more involved. I do nothing. Nothing. I get up, go to work, come home, sometimes go to the gym (in my complex, so I don’t even have to drive), make and eat dinner, watch some TV, travel the information superhighway, read a little, and go to bed. Wash, rinse, repeat. The weekends are marginally better because I accomplish more (read: clean my apartment, go grocery shopping, and cook lunches for the week), but they are largely the same. If I don’t go down to Richmond or have someone from Richmond come here, I don’t do anything. It turns out that my “work friends” are just that: friends at work. Which sucks, but it is what it is. One person I thought would be more than that (not the same one from early November – a boy – but not a boyfriend, just a boy friend) is apparently tired of me.

So, now I have to make my own fun. This goes along with that “I swore my life would be different when I moved here” thing I talked about early on. I want to meet people. I don’t know how I forgot about church (I’m Unitarian), but I never even thought to look one up when I moved here. I’m going to do it. And I joined the local bar association when I passed the bar in October, and god knows they send me enough crap about getting involved, so I want to try to do that, especially volunteer work.

Thinking about the effort it will take makes me tired, and I’m tempted to say I don’t have enough time, but: wash, rinse, repeat. Thinking about having to talk to people I don’t know at all makes me kind of nauseous, and I’d rather stay home and watch TV, writers’ strike or not (you guys, they’re bringing back American Gladiators – how freaking awesome is that??), but you get the life you make for yourself, right?

4. Go on a date. I don’t know if that’s so much a resolution as it is a hope, but here’s where I’ll do my part: if I meet someone I’m attracted to, I will ask him out. If someone asks me out, I will say yes, even if I think there’s no way in hell we’ll hit it off, under the heading of “Hey, you never know.” Unless it’s, like, one of the homeless guys who hang out at the top of the escalator at my Metro stop in the city or something. Give me a break: he can’t buy me dinner (don’t worry, I’ve got my room in hell all picked out.).

So there you go. My new year in four easy steps. How about you – what’s your big resolution?

Now, I think I heard something about some political brouhaha in Iowa tonight? (I’m kidding, I promise. I know it’s Idaho.)

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Things to Be Happy About, Vol. 9

Melanie

There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course.  Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word “happy” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.
—  Carl Jung

Happy new year!  As predicted last week, I spent the evening drinking champagne (mostly from a glass, though I got one very satisfactory swig from the bottle) and watching movies (Reign Over Me – very good).  I would have liked to be out, but somehow, when you don’t make the effort to make plans, they tend not to materialize on their own, so . . .

My trip to Buffalo was very nice, minus the sad parts about my grandpa from my last post.  I got to see some cousins I hadn’t seen in a while and hang out in a (very) small-town bar on a Friday night, which was definitely an experience.  It’s not a stereotype for nothin’.  Those of you who know me from the interwebs will understand who I’m talking about when I say that I got to meet Suby, SubyJr, Skipper, and ThinIdentity for lunch on Saturday – what a great time that was!  Such funny, smart, beautiful women.

It’s back to work tomorrow; at least it’s a three-day week to ease back into it.  I don’t think I could handle a full five-day week just yet.  It’s been nice to relax and travel to visit family.  The holidays were good to us; I’ve got no complaints, really.

Here’s this week’s list:

1. cousins
2. a 28-mile canoe trip [I’m not gonna lie – I ended up across the river from the rest of the group at the end of the weekend because I lost my paddle in the last mile or so, but a Good Samaritan saw me and drove me back to the other side]
3. creme brulee
4. people who know that money is not a prerequisite for happiness
5.  going down swinging
6. two-hour lunches
7. floor seats at a great concert
8. curtain calls
9. breakfast foods: eggs, bacon, toast, hash browns, grits, pancakes, and orange juice
10. doing all your laundry and housework on December 31 so you start the new year with everything clean and fresh

I hope your new year is getting off to a great start!

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Things to Be Happy About, Vol. 8

Melanie

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.
— Burton Hillis

Merry Christmas to those of you celebrating the holiday today (and Happy Tuesday to those of you who are not!)!  I am in Richmond, staying with my brother and his family.  We will open presents shortly, then get ready for my parents and grandparents to arrive from parts north.  After what will surely be too much food and not enough time, I’ll head back to NoVa tonight.  I was going to be off tomorrow, but I’m going to Western New York this weekend, so I switched tomorrow’s day off til Friday.  I’ll drive to my mom’s in PA Thursday night, then make the 4-hour trip from there to just outside Buffalo Friday morning in anticipation of a mini family reunion that night.

I’m planning to come back Sunday, even though plans for New Year’s Eve aren’t set yet.  I bet you anything I end up drinking champagne straight from the bottle (try it, if you never have – it’s kind of awesome), alone in my apartment, watching sappy movies.  Honestly, I can think of worse ways to ring in the new year.

Ok, since I missed last week’s list, here’s a double shot of things to be happy about over the holidays:

1. giving lots of little gifts instead of one big one
2.  Christmas lists – not what you want, but who to shop for
3. going to church on Christmas Eve [I don’t think I ever feel a greater sense of community than at that time]
4. the feeling of Christmas in the air
5. Christmas carols [and going caroling]
6. Santa Claus
7. Papa Noel – the “Spanish” Santa Claus
8. setting the official time for opening gifts on Christmas Day [when we were kids, this was inevitably super-early; as we got older and learned the value of sleep, it gradually got later]
9. the first snow
10. when the snow sticks
11. turning off all the lights and watching the Christmas tree glowing in the darkness [this is my absolute favorite thing to do on Christmas Eve]
12. driving through the Maryland countryside after dark, seeing the farm houses lit up with Christmas lights from a distance
13. homemade Christmas gifts
14. a cookie baking marathon extravaganza with a good friend
15. the downtown Richmond skyline at night during the holidays, with all the big buildings outlined in white Christmas lights
Edited to add (12/26/07):
16. the way my almost two-year-old nephew says “Ho ho ho” when you ask him what Santa Claus says
17. decorating cookies and making pine cone “favors” with my three-and-a-half-year-old niece

I hope you all have a wonderful day, however you’re spending it!