you’re invited

Filed Under home decor, pity party | 2 Comments

Alright, some people have been asking about my house. You know, the water damage and mold issue that arose almost *three* months ago now? Yeah, that. Remember?

Well, it continues. And here are some pictures as my way of throwing a full fledged pity party for myself on this, the eve of Thanksgiving.

Here is my bathroom ceiling…

bathroom ceiling is still a hole

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The only consolation here is that I was able to install a nice new can light to replace the ugly 60s fixture and a ceiling fan to aid in avoiding any of this happening again. Silver lining there. I do my best to find them.

Here is the current state of my hallway…

hallway is disarray

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I’m thinking it’s styled in a very modern, messy, industrial, sort of “coming-undone” style, to match the crumbling state of the economy. Hip, I know. I’m an artist, ok?

And my bedroom is like this…

bedroom floor dismantled bedroom deconstructed

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That’s the floor on the left and the East wall on the right. You can see that it is styled in much the same fashion as the hallway…

Finally, I am still sleeping in my dining room, which hardly helps me want to make my bed…

still sleeping in the dining room

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I am over it and I’d like your pity now please. Tomorrow I will go back to being grateful…

nothing and everything

Filed Under journal, new paths | 1 Comment

I have nothing and everything to report.

Last week I was wonderfully busy! I am remembering that variety is important in my life for my sanity to remain in tact. Total Gemini.

Last week I…

~worked two shadow shifts at lululemon
~had dinner with my friend Robert after not really seeing him for almost a year
~ went to four yoga classes: one kick-my-ass one and three normal ones
~worked 1.5 days at S Factor
~went to dinner with my Wednesday night class
~taught five classes
~had dinner with my friend Rie
~went to a teacher class at S Factor and had a dance that made me happy
~had breakfast with Coco
~went to a screening of Frost/Nixon with RJ (very good, I highly recommend)
~drank two margaritas, which made me sick (??)
~attended the yoga DVD release party for one of my favorite yoga teachers
~napped a LOT, which I think helped me stay cold-free despite signs I might get one

I am also reconnecting with friends.

I realize that with all the travel I did during 2008, I disconnected from people. Everyone, really. I am now working to recreate bonds that have been lost and am learning to be a better friend. I have been delusional about friendship forever, I think, and I am finally starting to understand the meaning of being a friend. I am choosing to make more of an effort now than in recent years. I am ready to be honest with myself about the fact that friendship takes as much work as any romantic relationship.

I see now that I unconsciously built a wall around myself after being disappointed by friendship at different times in my life, but I am now ready and willing to take the wall down, one layer at a time. Relationships of all kinds are important to me, and yet, I’ve been neglecting the friendship kind for too long. I am ready to listen, I am ready to share and I am ready to laugh. I am ready to be a better friend.

And speaking of friendship, my friend Rie, whom I admire and cherish so much, said this during her yoga class:
“Find stillness: When the waters of the lake are perfectly clear you can see to the bottom.”

This is so powerful for me right now as I search for understanding. My tendency is to “do” things in order to see things more clearly, but really, perhaps doing less will help me see more.

My focus now is on friendship, gratitude and “showing up” for myself.

This is what is flowing through my life at the moment. See? Nothing and everything…

happy dancing

Filed Under journal | 3 Comments

I am happy. My insides are doing a happy dance. I looked up “happy dance” on google images and here is what I found…


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This photo pretty much sums it up.
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a new path

Filed Under goings on | 8 Comments

I am very happy and proud to say that I now work for lululemon athletica!

I’ve been researching this company for quite some time and will be joining them for the holidays…and hopefully beyond. I am excited about this opportunity because I believe it will be a good first step toward my future goals. The first thing that drew me to the company was their manifesto, which they print on their bags. Enjoy it below…

manifesto

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bittersweet election elation

Filed Under life in LA | 4 Comments

Sit down…this is a long one.

It was a beautiful, clear day in Los Angeles on November 4th, 2008. We’d had some rain, so the sky was bright blue with magnificent, white, fluffy clouds that make you want to ride a magic carpet up there. Here is the photo I took right outside my house…

Beautiful, right?

election day in los angeles

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I walked around the corner and waited for a mere 30 minutes to cast my votes. As I walked away from my polling place, hopeful and eager, I got a little choked up at the thought of casting my vote for a candidate that I actually believe in. Ever since I first voted I’ve simply voted for the lesser of two mediocre evils and I feel so proud to have been able to choose someone who is shattering my generation’s rampant apathy. (Actually, I might have voted for Bill Clinton as an incumbent. I have a vague memory of filling out my first ballot as an absentee California voter in my sorority’s dining room. Kirsten, could this be true?) In any case, this is the first election where I was really informed and had opinions based on my own beliefs and ideals. I felt the weather was perfect for the kind of day it turned out to be. Yes, my guy won and it was sweet!

The bitter turn took place at about 10pm after teaching my last class of the day. I turned on NPR only to find that Proposition 8 was winning. I was surprised. Everyone I know, almost, was voting NO. When I arrived to a computer I immediately checked in on the county by county results. It was true…most of my dear state was Green, including my home county of Los Angeles. Let me restate that. My HOME counties up North (San Francisco and Contra Costa) were Yellow. My current county was Green. Because many votes had not yet been counted, I ended the evening hoping that I would wake up and the margin would flip, but, alas, it remained 52% Yes on Prop 8. In California!? *sigh*

On the evening of November 5th, at about 8:45 we heard some faint yelling?, chanting?, PROTESTING! We figured out that is was the Prop 8 rally moving East on Sunset Blvd. As they drew closer and closer to RJ’s house, we took off running down the street to join them. The demonstration was peaceful, except for the loud chanting of “What do we want? EQUAL RIGHTS. When do we want it? NOW!”. We marched around Hollywood for about 2 hours before RJ and I returned home at about 11pm. When we got home and turned on the news, the reporters were trying very hard to spin the protest as violent, but for the record, I was standing about 20 feet from the “violence” and it was what I would call non-violence. One idiot did decide it was a good idea to jump on top of a police car, so of course, he was arrested, but I do not call that violence. We all actually sat down in the street in front of the police blockade to show that we came in peace. Just before I left the demonstration, a second group of enthusiastic protesters joined us at the intersection of Hollywood & Highland. Suddenly the group doubled in size and we celebrated the solidarity. Here is my amateur video of the two groups coming together. I’m no filmmaker, but it will give you an idea:


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And here are some photos of the protest in action…

Have you ever seen me with such a stern face? I was a little fired up!
what do we want? equal rights! when do we want it? now.

I am certain that not everyone who reads this post (I know you’re here, reading silently) will agree with my position here, but this cause is very near to my heart because I have numerous loved ones that this proposition discriminates against.

Now, several days after the results of the election I am happy and sad and frustrated and hopeful. Hence, it was a bittersweet election day in my home state of California.

We took one awesome step towards change, and now we have several more to go. Hooray for Obama! Good luck, dear Sir, you’ve inherited a major mess, but I believe in you and this country with all my heart…
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