Terrible Continuity

I'm terrible with continuity! Only when I come across someone else's blog do I remember that I have my own. Part of it is also that school has started and my schedule is busier than ever, with all my friends back from their jaunts abroad.

I do promise a proper post soon, but until then, I'd like to share something wonderful with all of you: ZIPCAR.



As an international student in the US, it's difficult (and plain unreasonable) to own a car-- Zipcar is the perfect solution!

Prada: The Thunder, Perfect Mind

Daria Werbowy stars in this Prada ad which features a poem called 'The Thunder, Perfect Mind.' She is a beautiful, beautiful model and the ad is so divinely done. The poem reminds me a bit of Desiderata. In it, a saviour speaks a series of paradoxical statements concerning the divine feminine nature. Here are some of my favourite bits:

I was sent forth from the power,
and I have come to those who reflect upon me,
and I have been found among those who seek after me.

For I am the first and the last.
I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am the mother and the daughter.

I am the silence that is incomprehensible

and the idea whose remembrance is frequent.

I am the voice whose sound is manifold

and the word whose appearance is multiple.

I am the utterance of my name.

For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness.
I am shameless; I am ashamed.
I am strength and I am fear.
I am war and peace.

Come forward to childhood,
and do not despise it because it is small and it is little.
And do not turn away greatnesses in some parts from the smallnesses, for the smallnesses are
known from the greatnesses.

I am she who exists in all fears
and strength in trembling.
I am she who is weak,
and I am well in a pleasant place.

Beautiful, non?

Damages

While flipping through the channels one dreary December day (instead of studying for my final exams), I came across a preview of the tv show Damages. On holiday, often with not much to do, I started going on surfthechannel to watch this show. I've just finished watching the first season and cannot stop raving about it!

The show centers around Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), a new first-year associate who gives up a job working for the DA to work for Hewes and Associates, a high risk litigation firm headed by Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), who is in her own right frightful and extremely powerful. Ellen gets caught up in a case Patty is working on, which spirals and basically starts affecting all areas of Ellen's life. The show itself is wonderfully set out, taking place over many time periods as the episodes go on to unravel the story and what really happened. Byrne and Close are brilliant in their roles. I won't give away any more-- just that you should all watch it; you'll be hooked!

Happily, it has been renewed for a second season on FX starting January 7th. Absolutely cannot wait.

2009

Happy 2009! People often associate new years with new beginnings, with a tabula rasa and erasing everything from the year before. I like to look at it more like building on the past, accepting mistakes and improving. At the same time in the new year there is always much to be grateful for-- I am particularly grateful for the people with whom I will be spending 2009 with.

I've been thinking this year about whether or not I should make New Year's resolutions. I read in some magazine (I can't remember which) that we should aim to make small resolutions. Instead of "Eat healthy" (because we all know that we'll break that by day 4), start by saying "I'll cut out something sweet everyday." Slowly but surely it'll add up. Makes sense. Mine, therefore, will be a) giving someone a compliment everyday, and b) having only one indulgence (food-wise) everyday. Fingers crossed that I can follow them.

My New Year's celebration was wonderful. Watching the sun rise at 6am as I get home was simply divine. Although I must admit, I'm ready for a change. I want to celebrate the new year somewhere else next year; somewhere I've never travelled to (gladly beyond).

And since it's now 2009, I have to start thinking about, well, the future. What I'll be doing this summer, law school applications, everything that I have to accomplish academically and professionally this new year. It's a bit daunting, and yet I'm excited. I've been reading law school forums and researching endlessly for internships and fellowships. From today until I return to school, I will be cracking down on those to produce something I can not only live with but that I am happy about. With luck next summer I'll be in a new country. I've had two great summers in Shanghai and New York... I think this year it's time for a change! South America, perhaps?

Lastly, two outfits that I adored (and did not wear out because it was snowing like mad) before I left for the break--


Sorry for the photo-quality; I obviously did not do a very good job taking these.
With much love, light and happiness for the new year!

3 down, 2 to go

I always find a comfort in exams period, at least at the start of it, when classes end and I have the wonderful choice of choosing what time to wake up instead of having it predetermined. But I am reminded a week later, as the exam dates encroach, that reading week is simply the calm before the storm. And in my case, the calm led to a bout of illness that I wish desperately hadn't come about.

It's my fault, though, for not taking proper care of myself. I was sleeping late, waking up a few hours later from anxiety, not eating regularly, not drinking enough water, not dressing well for the cold (it's snowing!). The malaise that came with that was insufferable. I am never going to treat my body in such a terrible manner again.

At this point, many of my friends have finished, and some of them have left campus altogether. It seems emptier, sadder, colder. The people you're with truly make the college experience what it is!

3 exams down, one paper and one exam to go. How I feel right now can be summarized best by this:

I am so glad that in less than a week, I will be jetting off to warm weather, daily massages (okay, not daily), delicious food and family. Counting down, counting down.

Photobooth! Fashion! Theatre!

The heat in my aparment is not working and despite the false illusion of sun outside, it is FREEZING. The fact that this cold is somehow entering my apartment has relegated me to sitting with a huge blanket around my shoulders. I pulled out Photobooth (something I have not used since last year!) to commiserate. Apologies, no make up (yet) today.









On Saturday I went to watch the RISD mid-year apparel critique. As I watched designer after designer step up to present and defend pieces, I was again blown away by the talent these people have! My friend F had two pieces up for crit, shown below. I felt like so rude taking flash photography but hopefully nobody noticed. I love her pieces because she really thinks about her influences. In these two she consolidated different cultures-- Peruvian and Japanese (I think). Either way, they are beautiful: pieces of art as well as something mainstream and wearable. She's working for Vera Wang in January and I have my fingers crossed twice over that she will blow them away!


A few days ago I watched this wonderful student production called Death and the King's Horseman. Theatre is one of those things I have always enjoyed but never fully understood. While watching this play about Nigeria under British colonial rule (fascinating topic, by the way), I started thinking about the reading I had just done for my international law class, about international law norms and the Third World. When my classes and life outside start melding together like that, I am so glad that I am at Brown, learning all these incredible things that I can apply to, well, life. Though the life of an academic is not for me (I'm much to restless.. I want to travel! see the world! try new things!), I can see the lure of it-- constantly delving into new topics, learning, discovering.

So. Enough procrastinating with Photobooth and blogging. I've so much work to get on top of that I need to start. If only I could locate my focus! It has migrated with the birds to warmer climates.

A new plan

My best friend D has had the worst luck lately. On our way to Florida for Thanksgiving, the airline lost her bag. Then, in Florida, she lost one of her favourite hats, a beautiful grey beret. Today, she woke up to find that someone had stolen her bike in the middle of the night. She loves her bike dearly and was so upset to find it gone. And tonight, after her yoga class, she had planned on going to Wholefoods to get groceries, and realized after the class that she had left her credit card at home. Ah, life.

I've had my share of luck like this, and have found that the best way to deal is to look on the bright side-- if you can see all this lightly, you can get through anything. Recent experiences have taught me that there's no use dwelling-- if something has happened, just move on. In economics we learned about this: it's a concept called sunk costs. If the cost is gone, you don't linger on the thought of it, but make your next move based on the present. 

Because the present is so important! To live, and let live, and take every moment for what it is. I walked to Wholefoods this morning at 9am and felt a surge of calmness wash over me as I put one foot in front of another on the long and chilly walk. And as I was engrossed in my own thoughts and my music, I made a firm commitment to myself to do the following:

1. Make a plan for each day and follow it through.

2. Clean once a week

3. Eat healthier 

4. EXERCISE. (Gym, 10am, tomorrow.)

5. Do something different everyday.

6. Be nice, be warm, be HAPPY.

New Year's resolutions a month early? Either way I'm so committed to following these. I have so much in my life that I love and am thankful for that I want to cast all negative thoughts aside. 

The sunshine and relaxed pace of life in Florida over the break helped me see my life in this refreshed perspective. D and I took a crazy 3 hour walk on the beach, talking about life, love, the pursuit of goals and all that had been on our minds. The next day we took a long bike ride with her dad who showed us all the crazy houses in the area. All the while we were eating healthy, taking in a little sun everyday, and laughing and talking.

Ah, what I would give to have had a few more days there! I wish I had more and better photos but unfortunately I was so busy enjoying myself that I didn't take my camera out of its case ONCE. Sad! It would've been a delight to capture the beautiful sunset, the long walk on the beach, the bike ride. 

But honestly, being surrounded by healthy living and happy people made me realize that that is what I want to be. And while I'm not doing something grand like traveling the world or in some exotic locale, I'm resolving to doing something different everyday: either seeing someone new, or taking a walk somewhere, or wearing something I haven't worn in a while, or really letting loose at a party! I want to enjoy this brief time I have left in the bubble of college! 

I've been thinking about this post and writing it for the past half an hour, and I have a paper due tomorrow morning. So onward! With all the enthusiasm and joie de vivre I can muster tonight!