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INSPIRATION :: Have you  been to the 1st Thursday Art Walk in Seattle? Every time I think about going it’s the 2nd Thursday of the month – meaning the 1st has just passed and I have a whole month to wait. By then, I forget about it and the cycle of remembering it  a week after it happens repeats. BUT in December the stars aligned and I somehow had the urge to go to the Art Walk during the 1st week of December – 2 days BEFORE it was happening.  OH and was it ever an evening of creative inspiration. Ready for the highlights:

THIS EXHIBITION – At first glance we were utterly unimpressed, but upon learning that the artist is autistic the art transformed and became instantly fascinating. It was magical being in a giant room with images all over the walls representing the way one human’s mind works. Plus, we got to meet the artist! (Photo #1)

The super cool moving piece pictured # 2 above. I should have taken a video so you could see just how cool it was. We were seriously mesmerized by it. Sadly, I can’t remember the artist’s name or find a worthy link to the gallery.

THIS APARTMENT – We didn’t go in it or anything(someday!), but we spotted it while walking and I was reminded of how amazing of a space it is. (Photo #3)

And we topped the evening off at THIS DARLING RESTAURANT.

First Thursday Art Walk I hope I can remember you more than once this year.

Anne Of Green Gables :: It took all of my willpower to not post a picture of Anne with Gilbert Blythe. As much as I love their fabulous little romance, it was Anne and her smart, independent self, romantic ideals, and feminist strength that I think I was most draw to as a nine year old when I first read the book. That, and she had red hair.

I remember so vividly reading the whole Anne of Green Gables series. It was the summer after 4th grade – I was 9 – I loved being 9 more than I’ve loved being any other age thus far. We spent a good chunk of the summer in Iowa visiting my mom’s distant cousins and the farms my grandparents grew up on. My great aunt taught me how to make the best cinnamon sugar toast in the world, I went to my first rodeo and country fair, and while driving from Atlanta to Iowa and everywhere in between I was deeply immersed in the Anne of Green Gables books.

We rented and watched the entire Anne of Green Gables movie series last week. I had only ever seen the first movie, but wast delighted to learn that there are 3 in the series! I cried my eyes out when Matthew died. My grinch heart grew about 3 sizes at Gilbert’s love for Anne. I laughed at all the amazingly dramatic sentences Anne composes(odd, as they weren’t funny when I was a kid). I thanked my lucky stars that I know what it means to have kindred spirits in this life and decided that one day I shall take a vacation to Prince Edward Island.

Christmas Eve :: I’m behind on my blog posts. Every other day in December I would say “I’m gonna blog about this…and that”, but alas it’s January and I only posted ONE THING in December.

So, how would you like to hear about my Christmas Eve? Well, you’re looking at it. We have this thing in my family – none of us really love amusement parks – stinky people and long lines, but have you been on Christmas Eve in Southern California? Changes everything. Beautiful 70 degree weather, no lines. My brothers crammed 26 roller coaster rides into our 5 hour visit to Magic Mountain. I couldn’t quite handle that many in my old age without my head exploding(seriously I started to black out on one ride), but I’d say I still got my money’s worth.

Pre-Magic Mountain we had a breakfast of chicken biscuits from Chick-fil-a (because they have them in California now!) Post magic mountain we had waffle fries and chicken nuggets with Polynesian sauce from Chick-fil-a. I know they’ve gotten some well-deserved bad press this year, but their chicken is so good. I also know its disgusting that I ate there twice in one day, nonetheless it was pretty great.

And after our day of chicken and roller coasters we scampered home in time for church and our traditional Christmas Eve lasagna dinner. Why we have lasagna on Christmas Eve I do not know, but we always do.

Top 3 Romantic Places :: I know you didn’t ask, but I’m going to tell you anyways. I find the following places to be the utmost romantic locations:

 AIRPORTS

 CAR WASHES

 ROOFTOPS

Not that I’ve ever personally experienced much romance in any of these locations, but perhaps someday. Until then, I’ll continue to spot lovers departing and reuniting in airports, and go through the car wash on bad days(or when I park by the recycling plant at work and birds crap all over my car), and plan fictional parties on rooftops.

What Might Have Been :: Super cute sandals, cool organization. A friend of mine knows the people running it on the Uganda side and she says they are legit. That’s a relief – because I always wonder and hate to be disappointed when I find out an organization isn’t as good as their stated intentions. Anyways, I recently read about the cuteness of these shoes on a hip blog and was reminded that I do want to buy a pair some day – maybe they will be 2013’s summer shoes 🙂

Once upon a time(almost 2 years ago now!), when I was planning to move to Dhaka (thus the title of this blog) I was excited about a job that would’ve allowed me to immerse myself into the world of social enterprises and fairly traded products – particularly those that support and benefit the women who make them. It goes without saying that I am NOT QUITE doing that at present and when I happen upon organizations like Sseko I often think about what my life might have been had things worked out differently. It took awhile, but I think I’m okay with what didn’t work out and okay with what IS working itself out.  That, and being on the consumer end of these endeavors isn’t so bad – because these sandals are CUTE! Check ‘em out, I bet you’ll want a pair too! http://ssekodesigns.com/

Things Learned in Yoga Class

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A couple weeks ago I took what they call a “Yoga Immersion Class”. Every day for 2 weeks I showed up at 7AM at this perfect little yoga studio. The title of our class was Awaken To Grace. If you know me, you know the irony of this as I’ve never once in my life woken up to or in a graceful state – I wake up silent, grumpy, and sometimes slightly aggravated with the simple fact that I have to have my eyes open…AGAIN.

And so it was in my disgruntled morning state that I somehow managed to get myself to yoga class every day. Some days all I wanted to do was growl for 90 minutes, other days I came very close to falling asleep while holding poses, and there were days when thinking about breathing for the entire class was an impossible task.

BUT, on the days when I wasn’t growling, rolling my eyes, or keeping myself from falling asleep I experienced a very beautiful QUIET and sense of ALLOWING — Allowing me to be me, allowing life to be what it is. I was gently reminded that I don’t have to make everything happen or force things to be what I want. There is freedom in the world and in life to ALLOW.  

I guess this isn’t such a new or profound thought, just one that has been hard to put into practice these days. So it was nice, day after day, to gently, slowly, and quietly be reminded of it in the midst of physically breathing, stretching, allowing, and being – and letting myself listen and believe that voice that says “You are going to be okay. In fact, YOU ARE OKAY.“  Goodness, I sound crazy! But hopefully what I’m saying makes just a little bit of sense and offers you – lucky reader – an ounce of that same grace toward yourself and life and a second to take one deep breath and know in your soul that you too are going to be okay, you are okay, you are more than okay – YOU ARE GOOD.

 

Midnight Cami :: I read on a blog that all the hip cool women in New York City are walking around with navy blue painted nails… and I was INSPIRED. So inspired that I decided to give it a try. Perhaps one trip to Walgreens and a simple nail polish purchase could result in life changing coolness. You know when things don’t turn out quite the way you pictured in your head? Yes, this is the case with my navy blue nails. They aren’t quite the “trendy, hip, and perfectly cool” that I had envisioned (I think what I was going for was a blue more like Bobbing for Baubles), but I guess that’s the way it goes sometimes and I can hardly justify ANOTHER blue nail polish purchase. Nonetheless, I’ve been rocking blue nails this week.

Lime Green Success :: Our household is on a mission to make some updates to our common living space. This may seem a simple task, but when you take into consideration the tastes and preferences of four people that are quite different and the fact that furniture is particularly expensive, attempts at making purchases and agreeing on anything are more difficult than one could possibly anticipate. This week we had a giant success though. It came in the form of a lime green couch that we all like and that the purchaser LOVES (An important rule we established: Purchaser must love item, if possible everyone else must like or atleast not hate it). Never in my seven years of knowing her has said purchaser exclaimed love for an inanimate object, but moments after purchasing this couch she proclaimed her love. While I’m sure her eyes will roll when she sees I’ve posted about her couch love on this blog, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about my dear housemate it’s that she says what she really thinks and deeply feels in the moment – which means she REALLY loves the couch –  and I am so glad! Stay tuned for the chair that I purchased and LOVE and perhaps someday our entire living room will be in a state where I can post about it as well.