Reading Is Fun-da-mental

Katie is having a blog contest… and about two weeks ago Crazy Aunt Purl had a post about books that had me “wishlisting” on Amazon like crazy (I am the only one ever buying anything from that dang list though). And this all made me think… I want to talk about books here too. This blog (if I can really call it that) is going to be everything BUT knitting (and the sweater I am done knitting but still have to finish) by the time I am done… Sigh, but at least I am trying to get back up on the horse.

When I was a kid it was hard to find me without my nose in a book. But by the time I got through undergrad and then grad school, the idea of reading… well it was strapped on to the notion of work. So for a while there I stopped reading for fun. Then I realised that there was so little I had read of the classics, I LOVED being in the UVillage Barnes and Noble and damn don’t I want to be a well rounded person?? So I fell back in love with books and have commited more money to the Amazon Gods than any river can carry. As a matter of fact of the 350 lbs of things I shipped to myself from Paris, 275 of them… Books/Papers. Now I know I commit heresy, but I read not knit on my subway rides- and that is where most of my reading takes place. My commute takes me 45 minutes door to door (with my morning muffin stop) each way and it is a rare occasion that I am to be found without a book on my person (cause you never know how long you are going to be in transit, especially if you live on the L train like I do…). Currently in rotation is The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton. And you know what, it indeed does make me happy to read the book.

So I thought I should repost my top ten favorite reads, and a list of reading. So here goes…

A selection of my favorites (not necessarily including everything) from my library thing (which I totally love!)

1. The Zahir (Paolo Coehlo) Brilliant man anything by him is worth the time.
2. Fountain Head (Ayn Rand- lots to read but love to read it!)
3. How Proust Can Change Your Life (Alain de Botton) This book and this author changed my life and has had me pulled into all his books!
4. Cod (Mark Kurlansy) any of the “food” as more than food books from Mark Kurlansy are worth reading and so damn interesting
5. Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami) Liked it enough to get Norwegian Wood which I wizzed through too
6. Lemon Tree (Sandy Tolan) An incredible book on a conflict that has been tearing a region apart for longer than I care to think… a region that has a special place in my heart
7. The Mandarins (Simone de Beauvoir) great to read about when I was living there, but it is still nice when you arent there.
8. Me Talk Pretty One Day (Dave Sedaris) I adore this man. Got to meet and have drinks with him. He makes me laugh inordinately.
9. I Am A Stranger Here Myself (Bill Bryson) Anything by the man is worth it! He often makes me laugh out loud and as a recent “re”patriate from the expatriate life this one totally touches me.
10. Stretching Lessons (Sue Bender) Whenever I feel myself a bit adrift or torn apart a bit… this book brings me a bit back together.

My Summer Time Reading is FUN-da-mental list (a list that will probably carry on into other seasons :))

1. Anna Karenina
2. Life of Pi
3. Great Expectations
4. Foucault’s Pendulum
5. The Grapes of Wrath
6. Les Misérables
7. A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
8. Dubliners
9. Eats, Shoots & Leaves
10. Lolita
11. Persuasion
12. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
13. The House of Mirth

 

Rolling Rolling Rolling…

Keep those doggies rolling…

Where in the world has the time gone and what have I managed to do with my time. NYC has a distinct way of being a time warp/vacuum that sucks people in alive I think. Kind of like how life is a rollercoaster. Eternal things can’t do much about, so it is onwards and upwards.

That said, I am pretty impressed with this month of April… despite all (and I have had my annoyed, angry and lonely moments), things have actually turned out well, or it is me choosing to look at them from that side. So without further ado… here is the 101 in 1001 run down- seemingly the only thing I can every bring myself to blog on… One day I do hope to find my voice again.

Purchase (10/101)

1. Treat myself to a massage or a facial once a year
2. Buy a Lomo camera (Getting one in a deal the first week of May)
3. Buy one piece of art
4. Buy fresh flowers for my room once a month for a year
5. Buy a new “professional” set of luggage
6. Buy one piece of investment furniture
7. Get a subscription to National Geographic Traveller, New Yorker, Economist
8. Buy an antique map of Paris and frame it
9. Buy a new DSLR upgrade (Definitely to be purchased before my birthday)
10. Find and buy one pair of killer jeans

Health (15/101)

1. Run/Participate in a 5k, 10k, and half marathon
2. Participate in an olympic distance triathalon
3. 30 day trial… bikram yoga 3 times a week (Managed twice a week this month. hoping to make it 3 soon)
4. Visit a nutritionist/naturopath
5. Do a master body cleansing/fast/colonic

Travel (31/101)

1. Rent a beach house for a getaway
2. Go surfing in Costa Rica or Hawaii
3. Visit 3 national parks (i.e. Antelope Canyon, Grand Canyon, Muir Woods, Yosemite, Moab, The Arches, Grand Tetons)
4. Take a working vacation at a winery in the south of France
5. Play in the tulips in Netherlands and Skagit Valley
6. Visit 10 friends (SF next month here I come! Yes it will only count as one friend but I am still happy about it :))
7. Rent a convertible and go on a road trip
8. Do an Ashram in India or Bali
9. Camp out in Wadi Rum
10. Climb up Macchu Picchu (Change in plans… but this will happen, yes it will!)
    
11. Visit a buddhist temple
12. Watch an opera at La Scala and a ballet at Opera Garnier (I went and saw the La Fille du Regiment Opera on Gala Opening Night no less, but at the Lincoln Center :))
13. See the northern lights in Iceland
14. Go to Ireland
15. Go on a crazy Thelma Louise girls trip
16. Stay in a luxurious 5 star hotel

Finance (42/101)

1. Work to better credit score (by 50-100 points)
2. Contribute at least 50% of max out to my Roth IRA annually (approx. $2000-2500) (I sucked it up and put $3000 in… camera will wait a little longer)
3. Create, maintain and track my budget for one year (Got part of my medical reimbursements which goes back to savings, shipping reimbursements will be submitted next week… and while not budgeting I have lived within something close to my paycheck  and am working to rebalance all the accounts. Hopefully that will be done definitively in June)
4. Pay off all credit cards and maintain zero balances (Financial flows still going buckwild and I am giving myself a bit of reprieve, but they are all close to zero balances)
5. Save $5 for 1001 days (YUP)
6. Do my taxes annually (2007 done, sent and buggered up but clearing up and looking forward to getting a tax rebate :))
7. Invest in retirement and net worth (10% of income)
8. Pay off 50% of remaining student loans (“High-ish” interest rate loan is set to be paid off possibly by around my birthday! Am also almost 18 months prepaid on the rest of the loans. And then I attack the unsubsidized amount)
9. Invest in socially responsible mutual funds (2% of income)
10. Get a major credit card: use and pay of in full monthly (so I got one… I am a big girl now! Waiting for it to arrive so I can hide it… Ok use it but try not to abuse it.)
11. Save $10000 towards a major investment (purchase of property etc)

Learning (53/101)

1. Take a photography course on light and flash (Going to a speaking engagement with a guru of light May 8th to see if I like him enough to take a class with him)
2. Learn how to fly the trapeze (I am going to do an intro to silks class next month. And this is what I will be doing on the day of my 31st birthday!)
3. Take an intensive Spanish language course in Spain
4. Get my a scuba diving certification
5. Learn how to drive a Vespa
6. Take a wine tasting course
7. Learn how to dye yarn
8. Learn more about buddhism
9. Research travel photography and writing
10. Take skiing lessons in the alps
11. Learn 5 Photoshop tricks

Reading (59/101)

1. Go to 3 book readings
2. Read 6 classics and 5 works pre- 1950
3. Read a banned book, a booker book, a pulitzer prize book
4. Read the Tao Te Ching
5. Read 3 biographies per year
6. Enter all my books into Library Thing (Need to add the boxes of books I just got from Paris storage…)
   

Creativity (69/101)

1. Design my blog (Waiting to hear back from the Etsy designer for my banner… may put a bat-call out to the other savvy friends to get it done with)
2. Do a photographic travel/documentary project (A high up from UNICEF has offered to open the door for me on this… now I need to get myself together on it and pick a place and a story!)
3. Knit three sweaters for myself (Sweater #1: Finished the knitting, now to block and seam)
4. Document all my yarn stash (the box from Paris is here… the accounting will be had shortly!)
5. Print 10 of my photos for framing and hanging
6. Keep a film and book list
7. Sell 5 photos
8. Participate in Sunday scribbles
9. Go to the cinema once a month (Went to see Smart People… I REALLY want to see The Visitor and The Band’s Visit soon though!)
10. Make a quotes book

Gastronomy (74/101)

1. Go berry picking
2. Eat at 12 new restaurants- one three star. (Balthazar’s- fun NYC “cool people” experience! Also part of a very long day/night)
3. Try one new recipe a month
4. Throw a dinner party for 8 friends
5. Try 6 new foods and 6 foods I “dont like” (I had oysters at Balthazars, had never tried them before had thought I didnt like them. Only it wasn’t like I thought :))

Career (77/101)

1. Take GRE Course and Exam (1350 score goal) (Must schedule a test date this month)
2. Apply to 10 PhD programmes
3. Work on creating a career path (While not a career path I applied to two jobs I would be happy to have)

Do (101/101)

1. Go galopping on a horse out in the free range
2. Participate in some volunteer/public service project (maybe dealing with sexual health or at a soup kitchen)
3. Go canoeing in Central Park
4. Watch one classic movie per month
5. Go to a live music festival
6. Go to Shakespeare in the Park
7. Meditate for 5 minutes 3 times a week
8. Purge my wardrobe (of at least 30%) (I think a spring cleaning and closet change is upon me this month…)
9. Attend a meditation retreat (5+ days) (I heard about this one where you dont talk… could possibly be the biggest challenge for me, and something I so want to do! in a very odd turn of thoughts)
10. Go snowshoeing
11. Get rid of 101 things
12. Consolidate and reduce my storage needs and use
13. Go to the HCB museum in Paris
14. Reduce my carbon footprint (by 10-20%)
15. Donate “one meal out” per month to a Food Bank
16. Spend 5 minutes daily in total silence and inactivity for a month
17. Visit my grandmother and father’s graves and take flowers
18. Go to an outdoor movie
19. Live in a new city in 1001 days
20. Hang my mirror, shelves and frames
21. Trace my Irish geneology
22. See a broadway play
23. Preserve my family photos
24. Go to a museum once every other month

 

Back From Paris…

I am still settling a lot of these things inside of me. Not a box of rocks rattling obnoxiously anymore, but there are some rocks that need to stop rolling.

This time it is a bit more than bittersweet, as this time when I left Paris… I left with all my belongings. This trip was to clean out the storage unit and really MOVE myself forward into the present. No more saying I am adjusting. This is where it is at and where I am. Time to be in the now. I know it had to be done, I even know that it is good that I did it (I should have done it 6 months ago as a matter of fact), but that doesn’t mean I wanted to. But limbo is not a good place for me, and swinging around for la vie en rose isn’t productive either. So a year later I am closing that door for the time being. Paris will always be a part of me, I still am there at least 2-3 times a year on average, and I will live there again, I dont doubt that at all… but for now I am not grounded there with my things, just my friends. At the same time I am not 100% grounded in NYC, but I am trying to move it forward.

That said the best part of my trip was catching up with my friends. Sometimes you forget how rejuvenating certain people in your life are to you. To be there with people that I know know me and love me for me. As I bounce around the planet and they do too, we all realise with those who matter and how much that community and its acceptance can mean to you. To recharge to feel like you FIT (like that perfect little black dress you have does or how that “designed for you” sweater does) makes a girl happy. The battle is just to remember, that there are those people in your life. And that despite whatever you might think… They like you. Yes Mikey they really do, and on top of that they know you too and they still LIKE YOU.

And then there is a back that is finished. Actually there is a back and one of the fronts that is finished with the last front started. But I cant really make them more interesting than I will make them when they are all in one pile and done (knitting photos leave me a little confounded sometimes). In the final knitting stretch now. Luckily for sweater possibilities, mother nature and the weather fairy seem incapable of taking their pills like the rest of us and the weather has been of a schizophrenic nature… so if I can manage to get my act together I could plausibly by next week have a finished knit to figure out how I am going to block and then force myself to seam up.

And for those interested a few small photos from Kobenhavn :

 

Another Month, Another 1001

You know it is starting to get pathetic that I can barely bring myself to update more than once between my 1001 posts… even though I have done creatively related stuff. Even finally visited one of the yarn stores in town (hello Purl you are WAY tinier than I expected).

So this time I am writing from my old home (Paris) and feeling a bit off not knowing where is home etc (am here to go through my storage unit and ship things back before you get all romantic on me- well that, visit friends and take a weekend in Copenhagen :)). Anyways, I think we can all just count off the month of March as a slag month and try to step into Spring with a new step! And for whatever the reason, this time I am doing it with an uncharacteristically positive spring in my step

Purchase (10/101)

1. Treat myself to a massage or a facial once a year
2. Buy a Lomo camera
3. Buy one piece of art
4. Buy fresh flowers for my room once a month for a year (Ummm nope. BAD me. Though I was only in town half the month)
5. Buy a new “professional” set of luggage
6. Buy one piece of investment furniture
7. Get a subscription to National Geographic Traveller, New Yorker, Economist
8. Buy an antique map of Paris and frame it (looked but didn’t find one I liked enough… next trip the hunt will continue!)
9. Buy a new DSLR upgrade
10. Find and buy one pair of killer jeans

Health (15/101)

1. Run/Participate in a 5k, 10k, and half marathon
2. Participate in an olympic distance triathalon
3. 30 day trial… bikram yoga 3 times a week
4. Visit a nutritionist/naturopath
5. Do a master body cleansing/fast/colonic

Travel (31/101)

1. Rent a beach house for a getaway
2. Go surfing in Costa Rica or Hawaii
3. Visit 3 national parks (i.e. Antelope Canyon, Grand Canyon, Muir Woods, Yosemite, Moab, The Arches, Grand Tetons)
4. Take a working vacation at a winery in the south of France
5. Play in the tulips in Netherlands and Skagit Valley
6. Visit 10 friends (Visited more than 10 friends in Paris and one in Copenhagen, but I am only going to count it as one… Nine more to go!)
7. Rent a convertible and go on a road trip
8. Do an Ashram in India or Bali
9. Camp out in Wadi Rum
10. Climb up Macchu Picchu (Will be booking my tickets for June in April- who said turning 31 wasn’t going to be fun??)
11. Visit a buddhist temple
12. Watch an opera at La Scala and a ballet at Opera Garnier
13. See the northern lights in Iceland
14. Go to Ireland
15. Go on a crazy Thelma Louise girls trip
16. Stay in a luxurious 5 star hotel

Finance (42/101)

1. Work to better credit score (by 50-100 points)
2. Contribute at least 50% of max out to my Roth IRA annually (approx. $2000-2500) (I have the money set aside but it will be contributed in the beginning of April)
3. Create, maintain and track my budget for one year (Submitted my medical reimbursements, shipping reimbursements in April… and while not budgeting have lived within the paycheck limitations and am working to rebalance all the accounts)
4. Pay off all credit cards and maintain zero balances (Ummm financial flows going buckwild for the next 2 months- so I am giving myself a bit of reprieve)
5. Save $5 for 1001 days (YUP)
6. Do my taxes annually (2007 done, to be revised once more next month and sent in on the 1st of April)
7. Invest in retirement and net worth (10% of income)
8. Pay off 50% of remaining student loans (”High” interest student loan officially now paid OFF, next “High-ish” interest rate loan is set to be paid off in a few months)
9. Invest in socially responsible mutual funds (2% of income)
10. Get a major credit card: use and pay of in full monthly
11. Save $10000 towards a major investment (purchase of property etc) (Created the Investment account)

Learning (53/101)

1. Take a photography course on light and flash
2. Learn how to fly the trapeze (I found courses, I am going to do silks first and wait for it to warm up but this… it is sooooooo on! This is what I might just be doing on the day of my 31st birthday!)
3. Take an intensive Spanish language course in Spain
4. Get my a scuba diving certification
5. Learn how to drive a Vespa
6. Take a wine tasting course
7. Learn how to dye yarn
8. Learn more about buddhism
9. Research travel photography and writing (Bought a reference book on travel writing that I need to read now
10. Take skiing lessons in the alps
11. Learn 5 Photoshop tricks

Reading (59/101)

1. Go to 3 book readings
2. Read 6 classics and 5 works pre- 1950
3. Read a banned book, a booker book, a pulitzer prize book
4. Read the Tao Te Ching
5. Read 3 biographies per year (Finished Ms. Parker- one down for this year two to go)
6. Enter all my books into Library Thing
   

Creativity (69/101)

1. Design my blog (Working on finalising the banner font as I type)
2. Do a photographic travel/documentary project
3. Knit three sweaters for myself (Sweater #1: Finished the sleeves, and the back, this weekend I will probably start a front)
4. Document all my yarn stash (when that one box from Paris gets here… the accounting will be had!)
5. Print 10 of my photos for framing and hanging
6. Keep a film and book list
7. Sell 5 photos
8. Participate in Sunday scribbles
9. Go to the cinema once a month
10. Make a quotes book

Gastronomy (74/101)

1. Go berry picking
2. Eat at 12 new restaurants- one three star
3. Try one new recipe a month
4. Throw a dinner party for 8 friends
5. Try 6 new foods and 6 foods I “dont like” (I tried tofu, had never tried it before and it was eh- 5 new foods left to go)

Career (77/101)

1. Take GRE Course and Exam (1350 score goal)
2. Apply to 10 PhD programmes
3. Work on creating a career path

Do (101/101)

1. Go galopping on a horse out in the free range
2. Participate in some volunteer/public service project (maybe dealing with sexual health or at a soup kitchen)
3. Go canoeing in Central Park
4. Watch one classic movie per month
5. Go to a live music festival
6. Go to Shakespeare in the Park (saw Macbeth at BAM- really really good though!)
7. Meditate for 5 minutes 3 times a week
8. Purge my wardrobe (of at least 30%) (does getting rid of 30% of the clothes I had in the box in storage count??
9. Attend a meditation retreat (5+ days)
10. Go snowshoeing
11. Get rid of 101 things
12. Consolidate and reduce my storage needs and use
13. Go to the HCB museum in Paris (GRRRR Next time I am in town their hours will not confound me!!)
14. Reduce my carbon footprint (by 10-20%)
15. Donate “one meal out” per month to a Food Bank
16. Spend 5 minutes daily in total silence and inactivity for a month
17. Visit my grandmother and father’s graves and take flowers
18. Go to an outdoor movie
19. Live in a new city in 1001 days
20. Hang my mirror, shelves and frames
21. Trace my Irish geneology
22. See a broadway play (well I saw a play at Bam but that doesn’t really count, still it was Patrick Stewart as Macbeth and was very good!)
23. Preserve my family photos
24. Go to a museum once every other month (I went to the Glypotek in Copenhagen, and the Round Tower if you consider that a museum too

 

It Is 2008 Woman!

And this is a knit blog. Thanks to the glory of Scout (really can I tell you how much I love her- oh let me count the ways :)) I am no longer in the knitting Ice Age. I have joined the real world of grown up knitters.
I haz ball winder and Iz not fraids to use it…

See those nice little uneven cakes of soft pretty alpaca yarn… Let’s all clap for them, they took me long enough to wind. Next on my path to enlightenment (aka being a real big girl knitter) get a freaking swift! Though I have to admit the roommate swiveling her hips around to untangle the skein and keep a winding rhythm was entertaining. But they, they are going to become a sweater. There will be knitting on this blog! And in the not so very far future a photo of a sweater I predict. Well at least knitted bits of a sweater… we all know how I am with that whole FINISHING stuff. Nope no questions here, I am a process knitter!

Yes… of all things not only am I knitting, but I am making a sweater! Watch out the lightning might strike and smite us all Indeed. Back at the end of January I finally got futzed enough to say “yes I go gather yarn, hand-wind it into ball I can throw at people and I knit sweater. *grunt*” You know like the good cavewoman I was. That simple sounding step took enough of an internal debate as I am currently in a life wide funk known as Indecision Central or WHAT THE HELL DO I WANT?? I don’t know… Do I want grey? I don’t know. Do I want claret? I don’t know. Do I want neon yellow? I … wait I do know- no I do not want neon yellow. Thus with my impetuous impulsivity, I decided I will go with a peacock teal-ish colour instead. Nothing screams spring like a jewel tone colour you know.

Then it took me and Google harvesting the powers of evil for good old fashioned internet research. Seriously, what the hell is this I live in NYC and I couldn’t find a store with the Berrocco Ultra Alpaca yarn in stock?? I like to touch the yarn and see the colour if possible before investing in a sweater worth- call me old fashioned. Oh internets again let me declare how I loves thee. I cannot heap enough praises on the Yarn and Fiber Company. When I wanted to “test” out the Berrocco Ultra Alpaca for the Minimalist Cardigan, they not only had the yarn, competitively priced and in the colour I wanted but also… they sent it with free shipping, even for one skein (but also for the additional five I got to make the sweater more than an indecently proposed sleeve). SCORE! I love you, hug you and call you GEORGE!

Even better at this point, I swatched a sleeve, actually I have both sleeves done and the back half way done as well. This was followed by the realisation that it would have been smarter to knit the fronts and backs as one unwieldy piece as seaming moss stitch is not exactly a favorite pastime of mine. Eh. Smart never claimed to reside here. An aside… photographing two sleeves is a definite challenge. Really how interesting can you make it look? Silvia managed to have an Orchid that helped. Me I only had the anemic jade plant… I so obviously lost that battle. Anyways, since I have travel going on (am back in Paris and Copenhagen this weekend, and before you get jealous Paris is for storage unit clearance action, and Copenhagen is to visit the best friend) I might just finish this sweater before spring if I am a good and dedicated girl.

That said I don’t know how this sweater is going to work out on me. It could be a bit boxy on me. Being the petite linebacker I am, that could make me look like I am GOING WIDE. And I am a bad swatcher as I haven’t gotten the sleeve wet to see if it is going to expand in gigonormous proportions… Life on the edge- I is living it!

Next up… the fronts let us see if I can get them cast on before I leave the RIGHT side of the pond Until then let us all ponder upon the beauty of my one perfectly wound yummy yarn cake!

 

Blame Game

I am using this as the reason I haven’t posted yet. It is not that I don’t have blog material…

At first it was that I couldn’t find the card reader. I mean I have the post written and ready to go, just waiting for pictures. Right, then I went to purchase one. B&H (where I spent more money than I honestly should have given that the exchange rate is going to rape and pillage me next week- money that is now a new toy and one that enabled me to post this photo thanks to the cool memory card I shelled out for) sold me the wrong one. Sounded like the right one. Got home- wrong one. That is being returned! So I guess I’ll blame technology for the lack of my real post.

And while I am playing this entertaining round of the blame game. I am going to blame Charlie for not knitting on my sweater this weekend… I had been hoping I would finish the back this weekend. Sigh. See Charlie is a very misguided dog. One who ate my peeps!, and who is fairly certain that my yarn and sweater back is his pillow. In the world according to Charlie: this sweater is totally not going to happen

FYI: That blue is the Berrocco Ultra Alpaca Oceanic Mix (you can’t see the pretty green bits that fluff around in there, I promise they are there) that I am using for my Minimalist Cardigan.

 

101 in 1001

Once again it is time to revise review and rededicate. February is an off month in my opinion. While it can be the shortest month of the year (even in a leap year) it often feels like the longest one of the year. The novelty of winter is long gone, spring is still off on the horizon and the grey oh the grey and occasional sludge… they continue. I also think that something about this month can create a palpable sense of unease, that thing you cant put your finger on but that has you in a funk (of whatever sort) nonetheless. But while I cant control the month, I can try to frame my perspective better. And when I chose to look for the positive I realised that over the past 4-5 years February has been a momentous and in some instances very happy month for me. In the 3 of the past 4 years I have started anew in my career, directions that have lead me to here, twice those shifts have been full of glee induced hope. That alone has defined many of my experiences and brought new people into my life. So I have a choice… I can focus on the dark or look towards the light. I choose the light. I choose to think of February is a bit like me… petite, packed full of punch and worth the weight/wait. May not have gotten through everything I would have liked or really ticked off to much additional on the list, but I do think I am moving closer to living my life in a manner that will help me to feel more organic again. So all is on track in my book.

Purchase (10/101)

1. Treat myself to a massage or a facial once a year
2. Buy a Lomo camera
3. Buy one piece of art
4. Buy fresh flowers for my room once a month for a year (bugger with the short month my Sunday bodega flowers fell into March- sigh)
5. Buy a new “professional” set of luggage
6. Buy one piece of investment furniture
7. Get a subscription to National Geographic Traveller, New Yorker, Economist
8. Buy an antique map of Paris and frame it
9. Buy a new DSLR upgrade
10. Find and buy one pair of killer jeans

Health (15/101)

1. Run/Participate in a 5k, 10k, and half marathon
2. Participate in an olympic distance triathalon
3. 30 day trial… bikram yoga 3 times a week
4. Visit a nutritionist/naturopath
5. Do a master body cleansing/fast/colonic

Travel (31/101)

1. Rent a beach house for a getaway
2. Go surfing in Costa Rica or Hawaii
3. Visit 3 national parks (i.e. Antelope Canyon, Grand Canyon, Muir Woods, Yosemite, Moab, The Arches, Grand Tetons)
4. Take a working vacation at a winery in the south of France
5. Play in the tulips in Netherlands and Skagit Valey
6. Visit 10 friends
7. Rent a convertible and go on a road trip
8. Do an Ashram in India or Bali
9. Camp out in Wadi Rum
10. Climb up Macchu Picchu
11. Visit a buddhist temple
12. Watch an opera at La Scala and a ballet at Opera Garnier
13. See the northern lights in Iceland
14. Go to Ireland
15. Go on a crazy Thelma Louise girls trip
16. Stay in a luxurious 5 star hotel

Finance (42/101)

1. Work to better credit score (by 50-100 points)
2. Contribute at least 50% of max out to my Roth IRA annually (approx. $2000-2500) (I have the money set aside but it willbe contributed on April 1st)
3. Create, maintain and track my budget for one year (budget for this past month was kind of all over the place… need to settle the accounts down now that I have a paycheck again, and will be able to submit for all my reimbursements next month)
4. Pay off all credit cards and maintain zero balances (all but one credit card have zero balances, paid off the line of credit, though small balance was put back on it)
5. Save $5 for 1001 days (So far so good- created a separate account to manage/track it as well)
6. Do my taxes annually (2007 done, to be revised once more next month and sent in on the 1st of April)
7. Invest in retirement and net worth (10% of income)
8. Pay off 50% of remaining student loans (approx. $10,000)
9. Invest in socially responsible mutual funds (5% of income) (Revising this goal to 2% when I did the numbers and started looking into it… this looked more reasonable)
10. Get a major credit card: use and pay of in full monthly
11. Save $10000 towards a major investment (purchase of property etc)

Learning (53/101)

1. Take a photography course on light and flash
2. Learn how to fly the trapeze
3. Take an intensive Spanish language course in Spain
4. Get my a scuba diving certification
5. Learn how to drive a Vespa
6. Take a wine tasting course
7. Learn how to dye yarn
8. Learn more about buddhism
9. Research travel photography and writing (Took a less than stellar travel photography course and went to a speaking engagement on aid agencies and photojournalism that was much more stellar :))
10. Take skiing lessons in the alps
11. Learn 5 Photoshop tricks

Reading (59/101)

1. Go to 3 book readings
2. Read 6 classics and 5 works pre- 1950
3. Read a banned book, a booker book, a pulitzer prize book
4. Read the Tao Te Ching
5. Read 3 biographies per year (Almost done with one on Dorothy Parker)
6. Enter all my books into Library Thing (All books on my NYC bookshelves are in :))
   

Creativity (69/101)

 

Pog Mo Thoin

 

Writing is a muscle that when not used atrophies. And as a creature of habit, I am still working on trying to settle in and settle up my life, including trying to incorporate writing/blogging/finding my voice again back into it. So for the mean time you get my random drivel… and know that the blog redesign it be a coming to a theater near you! Soon

I have to laugh my arse off  at my day today… and while it isn’t exactly a NO TINK ONLY YOU story, it made me giggle so I figured I’d pass it on to all two people who stumble across this page.

I have been a special bit of a cheeky thing one might say this week… not that this is to be surprising. For all who think I have even an ounce of Pollyanna in me they are quickly and sharply reminded that I am much more like Mrs. Parker (Dorothy Parker that is) than anyone else. And I have no inhibitions about showing my cheek either.

This morning in my commute through the snow (wheee there is white stuff and it has stuck!) I had my head down to the stone and all. Trudging along grudgingly, I am most certainly not a morning person, I was walking along trying to avoid the sludge… and ALMOST at my office. So as I am crossing the last street, on a green walk light no less- said the jaybird… this diplomatic plated car aims to play bumper cars with my lower half. In my refreshing and ever so Pollyanna-ish way, and reminiscent of an altercation that me and an RATP bus once had, I hit the hood of the car and shouted WATCH IT, GREEN LIGHT! And then proceeded to notice that the diplomatic plated car, it happened to belong to the Irish Permanent Representative (whom I know and have had drinks with). There goes my chances of cajoling a futzing of an Irish passport for me…

As a funny yet related aside at every international organisation I work for I some how end up friendly with the Irish delegations. And everyone in the Irish delegations and that I encounter from ministries etc are 90 PROOF LIQUOR POSITIVE I am Irish. As in they think they know my family is from so and so county in Ireland and did I go to UCD or not Irish. I have had one or two of them call me an outright liar when I have told them that while I have the origins and the ability to say “Pog mo thoin”effectively (kiss my arse in Gaelic), it is unfortunate and as much as I would like to say to the contrary, I am not in possession of that passport. My story is that I enunciate, there is a different cadence to my speech (probably as Spanish was my first language and I do have an ear for language and dialects) and thanks to Grandpa Jack in my wee years of linguistic development, I pronounce a few things in a distinctly Irish manner, including the word Irish. That and my looks which are 120% from my Da’s side of the family scream Irish like no other banshee you have heard.

But what really made me laugh myself through lunch was the contrasting hilarity of having a Mongolian colleague of mine get back to me on some of the “Chinese” Lunar New Year things regarding myself. One of the pages was a Wikipedia one… which had this apropos quote “The person born in the year of snake is the wisest and most enchanting of all. He or she can become an Ambassador, a Mediator…” Yeah those bodies on the floor- them be anyone who knows me… and those aren’t convulsions those are fits of uncontrollable laughter.

Coming up next photos of a finished Clapotis in need of a blocking, the swatch erm… sleeve I have been knitting up for the Minimalist Cardigan (must order rest of yarn tonight!) and my entrance into the year 2008 thanks to a very nice friend

 

Progress

If I manage I will be monthly posting to try update on where I am with this whole 101 in 1001 thing.

Hrmmm so how am I faring?? Well decent and not so decently. But given that I spent the better part of the month sweating it out about a new contract, I am cutting myself some slack. I also know that somethings that were going to be on the list have already been done this month as well as some will be cut off the list next month. So on the overall I am fairly positive with my progress.

Purchase (10/101)

1. Treat myself to a massage or a facial once a year
2. Buy a Lomo camera
3. Buy one piece of art
4. Buy fresh flowers for my room once a month for a year (one month down eleven more to go)
5. Buy a new “professional” set of luggage
6. Buy one piece of investment furniture
7. Get a subscription to National Geographic Traveller, New Yorker, Economist
8. Buy an antique map of Paris and frame it
9. Buy a new DSLR upgrade
10. Find and buy one pair of killer jeans

Health (15/101)

1. Run/Participate in a 5k, 10k, and half marathon
2. Participate in an olympic distance triathalon
3. 30 day trial… bikram yoga 3 times a week
4. Visit a nutritionist/naturopath
5. Do a master body cleansing/fast/colonic

Travel (31/101)

1. Rent a beach house for a getaway
2. Go surfing in Costa Rica or Hawaii
3. Visit 3 national parks (i.e. Antelope Canyon, Grand Canyon, Muir Woods, Yosemite, Moab, The Arches, Grand Tetons)
4. Take a working vacation at a winery in the south of France
5. Play in the tulips in Netherlands and Skagit Valey
6. Visit 10 friends
7. Rent a convertible and go on a road trip
8. Do an Ashram in India or Bali
9. Camp out in Wadi Rum
10. Climb up Macchu Picchu
11. Visit a buddhist temple
12. Watch an opera at La Scala and a ballet at Opera Garnier
13. See the northern lights in Iceland
14. Go to Ireland
15. Go on a crazy Thelma Louise girls trip
16. Stay in a luxurious 5 star hotel

Finance (42/101)

1. Work to better credit score (by 50-100 points)
2. Contribute at least 50% of max out to my Roth IRA annually (approx. $2000-2500) (contributing 2500 for last year)
3. Create, maintain and track my budget for one year (entered all bank transactions from last year and have slightly budgeted out this year)
4. Pay off all credit cards and maintain zero balances (all but one credit card have zero balances)
5. Save $5 for 1001 days
6. Do my taxes annually (2007 done)
7. Invest in retirement and net worth (10% of income)
8. Pay off 50% of remaining student loans (approx. $10,000)
9. Invest in socially responsible mutual funds (5% of income)
10. Get a major credit card: use and pay of in full monthly
11. Save $10000 towards a major investment (purchase of property etc)

Learning (53/101)

1. Take a photography course on light and flash
2. Learn how to fly the trapeze
3. Take an intensive Spanish language course in Spain
4. Get my a scuba diving certification
5. Learn how to drive a Vespa
6. Take a wine tasting course
7. Learn how to dye yarn
8. Learn more about buddhism
9. Research travel photography and writing
10. Take skiing lessons in the alps
11. Learn 5 Photoshop tricks

Reading (59/101)

1. Go to 3 book readings
2. Read 6 classics and 5 works pre- 1950
3. Read a banned book, a booker book, a pulitzer prize book
4. Read the Tao Te Ching
5. Read 3 biographies per year
6. Enter all my books into Library Thing

Creativity (69/101)

1. Design my blog
2. Do a photographic travel/documentary project
3. Knit three sweaters for myself (Swatching for the first one now!)
4. Document all my yarn stash
5. Print 10 of my photos for framing and hanging
6. Keep a film and book list
7. Sell 5 photos
8. Participate in Sunday scribbles
9. Go to the cinema once a month (went and saw Juno, 27 Dresses and There Will Be Blood)
10. Make a quotes book

Gastronomy (74/101)

1. Go berry picking
2. Eat at 12 new restaurants- one three star
3. Try one new recipe a month
4. Throw a dinner party for 8 friends
5. Try 6 new foods and 6 foods I “dont like”

Career (77/101)

1. Take GRE Course and Exam (1350 score goal)
2. Apply to 10 PhD programmes
3. Work on creating a career path

Do (101/101)

1. Go galopping on a horse out in the free range
2. Participate in some volunteer/public service project (maybe dealing with sexual health or at a soup kitchen)
3. Go canoeing in Central Park
4. Watch one classic movie per month
5. Go to a live music festival
6. Go to Shakespeare in the Park
7. Meditate for 5 minutes 3 times a week
8. Purge my wardrobe (of at least 30%)
9. Attend a meditation retreat (5+ days)
10. Go snowshoeing
11. Get rid of 101 things
12. Consolidate and reduce my storage needs and use
13. Go to the HCB museum in Paris
14. Reduce my carbon footprint (by 10-20%)
15. Donate “one meal out” per month to a Food Bank
16. Spend 5 minutes daily in total silence and inactivity for a month
17. Visit my grandmother and father’s graves and take flowers
18. Go to an outdoor movie
19. Live in a new city in 1001 days
20. Hang my mirror, shelves and frames
21. Trace my Irish geneology
22. See a broadway play
23. Preserve my family photos
24. Go to a museum once every other month

 

Witch and the Wardrobe…

I’ll save you the deep pensive reflections currently rippling through my Walden’s Pond… You know the ones about trying to get in touch with my inner-self, what feels organic, what I want and my direction in life. I have spent the past 8 years in a somewhat insecure existence. I survive, even float and on rare occasion swim. BUT… it has come with much anxiety to Ms. Risk Averse myself. The large part of my life over the past 5 years has been lived in wee increments, such that I think 6 months is long term. Instead I’ll just subject you to a “round ’bout” discussion…

All that is to say that the anxiety knitting involved me waiting out contract negotiations (where in since the last post, I started and am half way through a clapotis- photos coming) and they have come to a positive end. Excepting this whole gastritis thing that showed up the same day I got the contract. That SUCKS and is still around GAH! But I want to try and focus getting on track. The big picture that I am working on is sometimes scary. So I want to look at a small attainable goal that gives me a sense of self, that I can control and define… I chose my wardrobe.

So as part of my “I am not on fiscal lock down anymore” modus operandus I gave myself a treat and went to see a movie. I wanted a comedy… so If went to see 27 dresses. Let the velveeta run! Now you might be asking why I am bringing this up (it isn’t to do a movie review… though the movie delivers- it is a fun cheesy chic flick)… Why, cause I have been battling my fashion sense. I am quirky, but I don’t have one of those defining senses of fashion. I am a chameleon, I adapt in part to what is around me. I would never have been able to survive the past 8 years in which I have moved 8 times and had 7 jobs with 12 different contracts; without the skill of being dropped in the FIRE and adapting so that I find my way out with out 80% of my body covered in 3rd degree burns.

What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?? Well I want Katherine Heigl’s stylist to come redo my wardrobe… Serious, I am focusing on the work clothes first and I want her clothes badly. But short of that realistically happening I want to strategise, and then shop. And I want to knit. HAHAHA… there it is! I told you I would find a way to tie it all together

So I am looking at knitting two staple sweaters for the spring/summer. The two that are currently percolating on my burner… Minimalist Cardigan and Tangled Yoke. I am also futzing with which yarn to use (Berocco Ultra Alpaca and Felted Tweed) and what colour to pick (grey and teal or cranberry) for which and what…

In the end this one is about finding and creating a wardrobe that I love more, that fits me more perfectly, that would be in style and reflect who I am as a person more uniquely. Something that wouldnt make my mornings hellish as I attempt to determine what the hell to wear with whatever else… And also to allow me to declutter some, to leave at least 10-20% of the space in the closets, drawers, and bookshelves empty, to leave room for new ideas and better things to enter into my life.