A misty may morning...

Last week when I was too busy to write (thanks finals) but not too busy for a few quiet moments of observation and reflection on my way to school/work, I found myself in a tiny patch of green in the brick and concrete city world. (My campus is actually good for this, it may not be large but it is quite peaceful and they do the best they can to make it not oppressive feeling.)

It was early morning after a night of rain, still heavily overcast and misting with a gentle breeze. The moment I stepped off the street and onto the path the smell changed. Damp, fresh, living and lush. The smell of grass and leaves and wet soil and a pervasive flowery scent. I looked around for the source but could not immediately identify it. Even the air felt alive, wet and heavy and cool. It made me feel clean and fresh when I brushed against it, made me blink and see the world anew every few seconds. The colors were fantastic. Not the sun bright greens of a summer afternoon but the darker woodsy greens that you see only when the stalks of grass have been bowed by water and the trees have drunk their fill.

I walked through a gap between two buildings and into another green space. A few tall trees bordered the edge of the park, their leaves not yet full grown, but it was a smallish tree that was the centerpiece. Bright white flowers with pink centers covered every square inch of branch space and stood out in sharp contrast to the deep green of the moss growing on the trunk. The rain had knocked even more blossoms loose and scattered them in a wide but perfect circle around the base of the tree. Here was the source of the flowery scent.

The tree, the grass, the flowers combined to make a magical moment. I both wished for and was glad I did not have my camera. It was a once in a lifetime image, but perhaps one of those best burned into my memory rather than film. Being forced to hold on and imagine will keep the image from a sad demise in a shoe box or computer file. Perhaps this is selfish, keeping the moment for myself?

The moment disappeared with the mist and the morning. The flowers are gone now, replaced with leaves that rustle in the wind but don't smell nearly as nice. I have my memory though, and finally, a moment to share it.

Imagine with me.

Baseball

I love baseball.

Something about it just makes me happy.
Actually, many things about it make me happy. Its a complicated and often nonsensical game, yet it's governed and monitored with a rigid mathematical system of statistics. There's no fixed time limit so games are more laid back and length is almost completely a factor of relative skill of the teams. Yet as laid back as it is no sport I know of in this country, and especially in this city (Boston), is capable of so many heart wrenchingly exciting moments. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat... I think perhaps it's the suspense that often lends baseball it's edge... You just never know. (But it's a banner industry and the aim of all fantasy league players to try and predict...)

As awesome as it is to get caught up in the rush of a well played game between rivals or a gripping playoff bid, I think the parts I personally like most about baseball is its connection with the seasons. In earliest spring, as the trees bud out and daffodils bloom baseball is also born again. In the summer it reaches maturity and the season shows its character, some teams flower and others fade away. As summer fades and fall begins the leaves on the trees change color just in time for baseball's biggest show. Its a perfect excuse to get outdoors, to feel the atmosphere of the stadium, to jump up at the sound of a well hit ball.

For me baseball is not so much about dissection of past games or prediction of future ones but about the living entity, the feel of the sport. I think this is the part that makes baseball a national pastime... the tangible effects of sun on the skin, smells of fresh cut grass and popcorn. The cool taste of a coke or a beer to wash down a hot dog. The pop and sting of a ball in the mitt playing catch with dad in the backyard. The first successful curveball. The hiss and crackle of static on the radio or the laughter of a group of friends gathered to watch a game on TV. To have an everyday opportunity to witness the birth of legends and heroes.

In today's majors, awash with steroids, stats and money I fear we might begin to loose sight of these things that make baseball so much a part of our national psyche in the first place. We may become jaded with the game because we've become jaded with the system and lost in the numbers. Since obviously this would be a shame I think we should all make a concerted effort to remember what it's all about. And I have a prescription to help you along the way....

For one of my birthday adventures The Girl organized a trip to see the local AAA baseball team, the Pawtucket Red Sox, (or paw sox). Even I was surprised to discover that this much cheaper alternative to a big league game was just as exciting. All of the important elements of the game were in place, from obnoxious fans to the stadium announcements to patterns mowed into the outfield. It is easy to put asside the fact that you don't know any of the players, that you might not be watching the highest caliber of play. It was more about friends and a day out and about a game well played. This was fun. This is baseball.

So get out and watch your high school team, go see a minor league game, check out your local college schedule, play wiffleball in the backyard with your friends or join a summer league. Have ag good time. Smile! Enjoy the game!

ohh.. and... GO RED SOX!!!

happy birthday to me!!!

I used to not care much about birthdays.   It was just another day  in just another year.  However recently I have had a spat of friends that have put a lot more faith into birthdays than I do.  I'm starting to see their point.

It started with arranging birthdays for a few other people.  I really enjoy this aspect.  I like getting into the emotional nitty gritty of it all, cataloging the looks on the faces of gift recipients, basking in that moment when you know that you got everything just right.  Not to mention that the whisky fountain was quite exciting :-).  This got me thinking about other aspects.  For instance, if I was getting so much joy and satisfaction out of helping other people enjoy their birthdays, and those people believe in the magic of birthday moments, who am I to be a birthday Scrooge?

So, this birthday I resolved to put myself first for one day and to let others in my life have the satisfaction of making me feel special in their own way.  I was surprised by how difficult this was at first.  I felt guilty whenever anyone spent money on me or even went out of their way to wish me well.  In hindsight I'm not even sure  why I felt this guilt.   As the day progressed though I began to embrace the spirit of it it's been the best birthday ever!

I got amazing gifts, had amazing food, a baseball game is in the near future and I have the world's best friends, led by my amazing, wonderful, beautiful girl.   

Maybe the best part is the notes though.  I used to think that the facebook note's that flood in on your birthday were silly.  Why just one day?  Why just one line?  This year is different though.  I've taken it as a challenge.  I'm going to reply to all those notes.  If even ONE good conversation develops as a result it will be another magical moment, another wonderful birthday gift!

So, thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday.  I appreciate you all and look forward to a note in the future in return!  And please do enjoy your birthday when it comes round this year.  Let yourself be spoiled, let go, be happy, be you!  You deserve it!

I scream for Ice Cream!

There is nothing much better than an unplanned evening in an ice cream shop discussing bad poetry and dreaming about the future over a frappe and sundae.  

Note for all you wanna-be-poets.  Don't try and be romantic by using the word 'pheremones' in your art.  I don't care if it is a Haiku. 

Just wanted to beifly write about the benefits of spontaneous ice cream.  I'm feeling hopeful because events are conspiring to remind me that it's never too late to be the person you want to be inside... 

It's a small world...

I think that it's one thing to know intellectually all of the neat things that technology can do and another to see it in action.

It will never cease to amaze me how interconnected the world is through the Internet, and the things that high speed data make possible.  Talked to a friend in Australia last night via video chat over a lagless g-mail video connection.  Her sunlit balcony and cheery countenance was transported to our late night gathering as if it was a phone call to a neighbor across the street. We could see the skyscrapers of a distant city and hear the stock cars of the Australian grand prix roar around their endless circuits in the background.  A sense of life and humor transported across oceans and continents on a piece of fiberglass the thickness of a strand of hair to sit with us around the kitchen table and share our conversation like old times.  While an oversimplification of the engineering and science that makes it possible its the spirit that matters anyway.

A great deal of conversation yesterday revolved around other examples of the new found uses of technlogy. While we are all a little wary of the overreaching and all encompassing nature of technology in the modern world (I still keep paper journals and am a crusading advocate of paper snail-mail letters) we are still in awe of its potential applications.   I encounter other examples in my professional life.  Projects are taking place in my office right now to map the environmental hazards of neighborhoods and overlay them with census maps of income levels, crime and other statistics.  All of this data is available real time, uploaded by groups of high-school students from hand held GPS units and portable computers. 

Google can consistently predict the next location of a flu outbreak days before the CDC simply by indexing searches for flu and correlating them with locations of the computers performing the search.  Maps of other outbreaks are made simply by indexing news stories in local papers.  The city of Mumbai tracks its garbage men on google earth to make sure they are doing their jobs properly in the jumble of the million person slums. This year they will be able to track the flood waters of the monsoon in real time with a map that updates every time people text in that the water has reached their doorstep.  This will allow for better allocation of emergency resources and more organized evacuation plans.

It's exciting to live in a time where the possibilities of technology truly seem to be bounded only by the imagination.  Now all we have to do is imagine!  And communicate, whether it be with our neighbors or the other side of the earth.

Spring into spring...

Went out for the first time yesterday to play some disk.   Frisbee is by far one of the highlights of my summer and I was super excited that the time has come for the season to begin anew!

 Whenever I get together with my friends for any reason I can't help but be reminded of how awesome they all are and how lucky I am to be where I am in life and had the opportunities I've had.  We are all excited about exercise and the outdoors and health... (minus the part of the evening where we scientifically tried to stuff twizzlers with pixi-stick sugar.  And we all look out for each other.  I'm proud to be part of such a wonderful group of people.  It constantly makes me happy to think about it!

Anyway, disk was awesome.  I'm sore, but the good kind, and I'm looking forward to start playing actual games.

Why birds are smarter than most people...

Sitting outside eating my sandwich on a park bench enjoying the sunshine and the (relatively) warmer weather I was joined by a flock of house sparrows. These little guys were NOT shy but hopped all over my feet screeching at each other over each dropped crumb. I went through an exercise of tapping my foot progressively harder just to see how loud a noise or fast a motion would scare them off. Nothing phased them... They didn't so much as blink.

Eventually, about 10 of them all lined up along the back of the bench next to me and each cocked their head to the side to stare me down, as if to say "that's really the best you've got?"

I dug into my pocket to get out my camera and document the long line of identically canted birds on a bench and I was just about to push the button when my flock of of feathered friends flew away in fright. Momentarily confused because my motion to grab the camera was well below their previously demonstrated threshold of annoyance I eventually looked around and noticed the red tailed hawk that lives in the neighborhood.

These little birds with tiny brains had learned that I posed no immediate threat, even in close quarters, because I had about a zero percent chance of being able to catch one of them. Yet they were able to recognize a much more serious threat at a great distance. Who among us could so deftly determine the level of danger in a situation and quickly extricate ourselves without a fuss?

Nature... never ceases to amaze me, even in the middle of the city.

The cutting edge...

I've come to the determination that working at a university (or other academic setting) has a lot of advantages over other places of employment.

Not the least of which is that even when doing mundane tasks related to being an administrative assistant it never fails to be different and often more than a little strange.

A few examples:

One of the professors in my department is on a trip to London... not to have any sort of business meeting, or to sightsee, but to offer testimony before the house of Lords in Parliament about environmental health exposures on soldiers. Other members of the department have repeatedly testified before various congressional committees here in the US. The scope of projects that are routinely worked on range from the office itself, to neighborhoods across the city, to huge global research studies.

And these are some very smart people... Creating mathematical models to improve public health, monitor the cleanup of some of the worlds most toxic dumping grounds and generally go around using lots of big words. Dr's of all types abound. Its hard not to sometimes feel overwhelmed.

Yet my favorite moments almost always involve technology, because as smart as these people all are when it comes to computers, they're still stuck in my parents (or in some cases grandparents) generation. They know what's going on, but when it comes to change it's like watching a glacier move...

Which is why I was surprised when one of them came up to me today and asked if I was on Twitter (I'm not... so far...) This caused a moment of reflection. I was beaten to the technological punch by a 65 year old college professor who's previous technological experience was limited to e-mail and the occasional blog post. I think that's ok though. (I'm on facebook and he's not HA HA HA) One does not have to ride every popular wave yes? (oh no! I'm starting to sound like my parents).

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the ensuing conversation about all the pros and cons of various social networking sites and their possible applications for the advancement of global and public health and coordination of intra-office parties with the doctoral students. How's that for an office environment? Hmm.. Maybe I'll start twittering after all!

**SMILES**

Highschool Flashback...

Went out last night to a swing dance.

Usually these dances are held in church basements or converted warehouse dance studios because the unfinished old fashioned wood floors are perfect for the fast paced slip and slide dance shoes that the hard core dancers prefer.  However, the onset of lent had displaced this particular dance from it's usual hangout in the church basement to the Gym of the YMCA across the street.

Walking in to the darkened gym... with discoball lighting, wooden bleachers and small groups of people hanging out in the shadows on the edge of the room one could not help but be reminded of all those old high school dance scenes.  The in-crowd on one side... the people that just like to be lost in the music out on the floor, the wallflowers hanging out on the bleachers.  Chinese lanterns hanging from basketball hoops and people criss-crossing the floor over the "Y" emblazoned in the center court circle.  It was great.

I think it might have been even more of a flashback for me since I spent so much time in YMCA's growing up.  I love the Y.  I think that they do wonderful things fro a community and keep alive the spirit of good health through exercise and involvement in positive activities.  They do however, all have the same feel... Except for its slightly smaller size and added security, this Y could have been completely swapped with the one in which I came of age and no one would have been the wiser.  In the age of modern gyms with all the latest and greatest equipment and exorbitant membership fees to match I'm glad there are still places where the philosophy and the people are what matters most.  Staffed by underpaid but caring employees and volunteers they are not really a business so much as part of the community.

The dance turned out to be amazing and fun, with live music (more on this later perhaps) and more people active on the floor than in any high school dance than I ever went to...  Not to say that the wallflowers didn't exist...  I think that the high school ambiance ended up being more of a bonus.  There's something to be said for the illusion of time travel and the freedom of youth.

School Bus Epidemic

A crowded city bus I was riding on the other day drew to a stop at a red light. Also at the light, the next lane over, was a school bus filled with students from Plymouth on some sort of field trip to the Big City.

All down the length of the bus curious faces stared out little square windows at tall glass buildings, traffic and the men dodging rush hour traffic to sell single roses to commuters. One child focused instead on our bus and slowly made a goofy face out the window at us. Someone on my bus noticed this and laughed which made the young student laugh in turn.. His laughter caused the pair of girls sitting in the next seat forward on the school bus to notice the face he was making and focused their attention on our bus also. They started making faces. In a matter of seconds the entire school bus was making faces at the passengers of our bus, most of whom were studiously ignoring the display but grinning despite themselves.

Only one student did not participate... immune to the epidemic. Instead he simply flipped us all the bird as the light turned green and the buses separated, leaving one to wonder what the next 'epidemic' might have been if the light had been longer.

I love that the science I'm learning in the classroom can be demonstrated by such a simple situation as students making faces on a bus.

St. Patrick's Day +1

So, Being a relatively new resident of the city of Boston I didn't really know what to expect from this rather strange holiday.

Actually, I still don't. I read in the paper that the police were cracking down on public drinking... The radio DJ's on my favorite morning show were extolling the virtues of people who were cleverly managing to drink before 6AM while they were waiting to get into a bar that opened at 8AM... I went to a party this weekend (that was fantastic... thank you everyone) that was, among other things, a booze fest with Irish food (read corned beef and potatoes). It was a Tuesday night and on my walk home from the subway at 10:15pm there were people wandering from pub to pub all over town. I'm dating an wonderful Irish woman who doesn't really think the holiday is all that...

So... My observations lead me to the conclusion that several things are important about this holiday.

1. The Color Green
2. Drinking
3. Drinking
4. Something to do with Ireland(?)
   

I'm left with one question. What is St. Patrick's Day all about? What is it celebrating? I'm sure I learned this in grade school but I only vaguely remember. Also... the questioning part of me wonders how it ended up being what it is today?

My favorite parts of the whole thing? -- Everyone's having to dress in green, green decorations, green everything. So much Green all together makes me feel like fresh fields, springtime and sunshine which = Happiness. Second, all the homeless people on the way to the subway today were decked out in items discarded from yesterdays festivities... Shopping carts were draped in green flags and 4 leaf clover cutouts. Green plastic hats, beads and masks were in abundant evidence over stained coats, softening otherwise rough countenances. How could you not smile? I'm calling it St. Patrick's Day +1. I think perhaps seeing these people benefiting and having a good time would have made St. Patrick the most proud of his modern legacy.

Bed and Breakfast

A few things from a wonderful weekend... 

I am SOLD on bed and breakfasts!   Definitely the way to go!  Who wants a stale bagel and a cold cup of coffee that comes with standard hotel fare?  I'm telling you.. its nice to roll out of bed and wander down stairs... sit by the fire... stuff yourself with warm fluffy pancakes, hash, hash browns and broccoli and cheese omelets...    If you ever find yourself in the Burlington area and just want to get away from it all for a day, the black bear inn is highly recommended.

I'm also kinda sold on VT...  Granted there's not a lot to do and things are a bit too earthy crunchy sometimes but the people are SOOOO nice!  A fantastic break from Boston,  which I love dearly but would not always use the word "nice" to describe.

Getting to spend time with old friends is awesome.  I love telling old stories and catching up.  Plus, it turns out that nerf makes a chain gun.  This is definitely taking things to the next level.  Just the thought makes me giddy.   Now I have to make an even more serious effort to get back in touch with some other old friends... while the spirit of reconnecting is with me.

Also got to go skiing.  My favorite part of this is riding the chairlift to the top of the mountain and taking in the great views.  Skiing itself is pretty awesome, once I get over my yearly fear of killing myself on a random tree.  Perhaps the most interesting character of the day was the ski-rental guy.  Very friendly, very strange.  Liked to tell stories and change topics without pausing between sentences.  Also observed that all the lift operators and ski-patrol members had the exact same beard and looked like twins on first glance.  The Girl pointed out that if you spent all day every day in the cold wind on the mountain you might benefit from additional facial hair also...  Good point...

All in all..  pretty awesome!  I hope everyone enjoyed the weather and got outside before it started being inclement again!

P.S.  Totally found the hot tub that I was missing here...  One more reason to thank the Black Bear...

Working out for the best...

Two interesting and wonderful things have happened to me today, both involving the usually rather anti-student bureaucracy that runs the school where I go to learn stuff....

First: I lost my ID about four weeks ago while climbing on the bus... Besides being annoying, since I use my ID for everything and must have it prominently displayed on my person at all times at school, its also expensive... $35 dollars to replace! So.. I bit that bullet a long time ago...

Today I learned that some good Samaritan had actually picked up my ID at the bus stop and returned it... Not only that but because they did I get my money back! THANK YOU whoever you are that found a random ID and went out of their way to return it... I wish more people enjoyed the warm feeling that comes from doing the right thing... a simple act of kindness.

Second: I called to ask a question about Financial aid today... This, as anyone who has been through it will know, is a monumental pain. However, today, the lady on the phone answered my question without even having to be asked. She just intuitively figured out what I might need and provided the information in a cheery and wonderful way! Excellent! I love it when people take pride in their work and provide the best services they can!

Yay good moods!

a more real conversation...

I find riding the subway to be a good source of many interesting observations.

On my ride home last night things were similar to how they always are... People more or less minding their own business.  The guy sitting next to me chatting on the phone in a language I couldn't identify, the guy on the other side reading a book in Chinese.  Across the way another man watched sitcoms on his iphone, a girl filled out the crossword while balancing impressively in the center of the car.

Directly across from me a man fiddled with his blackberry when it suddenly broke and spewed (10 bonus points for using spewed in a blog post) tiny pieces all over the floor of the car.  He sat and stared at it for a second and then busted out laughing.  This struck me as a very appropriate response.  I helped him scramble around on the floor to find each widget while everyone else continued to mind their own business around us.  

In the end, we ended up having a pretty interesting conversation about how cell phones are taking over the world.  When I commented on his positive reaction to the self-destruction of his own device he simply smiled and said "Ironic that I'm having a better, more real conversation now that I broke it.  Perhaps it was a sign to show me that I'm more disconnected with the world when I'm connected to my technology like that."

As a gadget person I find all this innovation wonderful and interesting and happy.   I love that I can write here in cyberspace and potentially express myself to thousands of people through a medium that my grandparents couldn't even have imagined.  Yet from time to time its nice to have that broken cell phone moment.  A camping trip without reception, a month in Africa, moments where we can reconnect with ourselves and our immediate world.   The cyber world should be a supplement, not a substitute.

I need to remember this:

Nobody means to get carried away in mediocrity, but it happens, it happens unless you think about everything you do, unless you make every choice the best one you know how to make.

— Richard Bach

Housemates...

I came home from school today to discover one of my neighbors throwing snowballs at the upstairs window of her apartment because her roommates had locked her out.  Not only was this funny in a Hollywood movie script type way but provided me with my first opportunity to introduce myself and be neighborly.   I tried to be nice and invite her in to get warm and use the phone but she refused...  Still, steps in the right direction!

Also, I had a wonderful, relaxed and enjoyable conversation with my housemates.  These conversations help me unwind from my day and usually end up filling the whole house with laughter.  It often strikes me how perfectly suited we are for each other much of the time and how much positive influence we have on each other's lives.  Alas, we are often busy and these conversations are becoming increasingly less frequent...  

...and increasingly more precious.

Simple vs. complex

I spent some time this evening struggling with a problem set working through some complex ideas involved with one of my classes.   Erin, who is always supportive of such efforts was curious about the underlying ideas...   I went through a quick explanation of how even a small mistake in a study can create a great deal of misclassification and error.  She thought about my explanation for a second and summed up all my efforts and struggles in a simple idea, "so little things make a big difference?"

Exactly...

And I hope a motto to live by as well...

Snow day...

Today I accidentally went to work on a snow day...    This, as it turns out, was not so bad.  

I find shoveling snow to be one of those Zen chores.  You can be standing outside in a terrible whiteout and still be warm... the gift of your own exertions.   It's quiet, the snow muffling extraneous noise...   I also love how everyone is friendlier in their shared misery, exchanging snow removal tips and tools and cooperating to dig out cars, driveways and sidewalks.

When else does driving have the added excitement that comes from unexpected motion on a horizontal plane?

The bus stop had become home to 1000 sleeping pigeons seeking shelter from the precipitation and the wind, forcing all the humans out into the snow.  I found this hilarious....

There is a lot to be said for having to climb over snowbanks and break into your own office.  I had the place to myself for most of the day...  I got to run around in my socks and build up static charge on the carpet.  No one called or asked me for anything all day.  I actually got work done!  I got so much work done that I got to toss around ideas for creative video projects with a friend online, and finish some of my homework on the side.   The office was not 1,000,000,000 degrees like it usually is because some kind soul left the stairwell window open over the weekend...  I could have built a snowman inside as a result.   

I got to stand by the window and watch the snow fall on the city from a safe and warm place.  Blanketing, temporarily, the dirt and grime that usually covers the streets and making everything a more pristine white...

The best part about February...

The best part about the end of February and the Begining of March...  I get to set the date on my Watch 3 days  forward..  Feels like time travel!   Yay spring!

Family Friendly

I went to watch my sister play hockey today (yes, sister... girl... hockey...  unnatural) and unexpectedly ran into my brother who had also come to watch the game.  We all love and respect each other immensely but we all live busy lives and rarely manage the trip up to see each other.  When we do it's usually just two of us and rarely three of us together...

To come together in an unplanned and unexpected manner makes it all the more special.  Add to this a trip to the apartment to browse through old photos and meander through memories of the last few years and it becomes downright sappy.  But in a good way.  A way that reminds you what family is all about in the first place...  A group of people who you can rarely see but who will always be there no matter what.  Who will always love you.  A group of people who create home wherever they happen to gather.  I love my family and thank them for a brief but wonderful afternoon.

We wrapped up the evening with dinner at Erin's house, with her parents, which I always enjoy.  The food is excellent, the company is interesting and I never fail to learn something new...  I especially love that this too, feels like home.    Sometimes I feel like I take all of this too much for granted... so here it is..  A giant THANK YOU!!! to my family, new and old.  May there be many more days like this.

The best days

I have done nothing today....  nothing except sit and chat and hold and Love...  Curled on the couch with the other half of my spirit...

Sometimes it is enough to do nothing...  Sometimes it is perfect to do nothing...

Sometimes nothing = happiness

It was a fantastic day.

lighter than air...

Taking a stroll yesterday to do some small errand I invented in order to take a stroll yesterday, I was captivated by the beautiful day.  The sun was shining, the air was crisp and cool but tasted brand new and fresh.  It was still and calm and despite the traffic and the construction it was peacefully alive.  If I stood still, breathed deeply and looked up so that all I could see was the tip tops of Boston's skyline and the deep blue of the sky it was as if - just for a second- the world stood still and became relaxed.  While this undoubtedly generated some odd looks from passersby, I hardly noticed.  It is a gift to be able to find a moment for yourself in the hustle and bustle of American life. 

During one such moment, to my utter delight, I discovered I was not alone at all but sharing my patch of sky with a glorious Red-Tailed Hawk...  

Anyone who knows me will know that I love birds of all kinds.  However within the bird realm 

the raptors are my favorites...  The sleek and deadly hunters that drift with effortless ease on currents of air... So free, so beautiful.

Even on the streets of Boston, with no wilderness for miles in any direction this wonderful bird, feathers fully spread to catch the hint of an updraft off the pavement and rooftops, spiraled as effortlessly around a building as its cousins do around mountains.   When it alights on a rain gutter or window ledge to survey its domain of brick and tar it is no less proud than its cousins who alight on treetop or cliff edge and look out upon field and forest.   A supreme example of adaptability and finding a place in life that I think could benefit a lot of people these days.  One that I try and live by - trying to find a 'home' in everyplace I've ever been. 

For just a moment this master of the skies took me with it. Up, up, drifting right and down, following the streets and dodging cranes, back left and up the glass face of a building.  For a moment it showed me its world and made me lighter than air.

A simple smile...

Nearly every day I wait for the bus at the same station at pretty close to the same times.  Every day the crowd is a little different, some familiar faces, some new.  One face is always there though.  Each and every time I'm in the station a large beggar woman comes up to me

"Hey young man! Can you afford to spare any change for a lady today.  Just a few cents? Makes a world of difference in my bones, those pennies!"

Nearly every day I legitimately have nothing to give her but admiring her persistence I can usually manage a smile and a cheerful "sorry" with a shake of the head.

Without fail, her reply is:

"No worries young man.  A smile is more than I usually get.  Warms my soul"

and she meanders on to the next group waiting for the bus. 

This simple exchange never fails to leave me smiling and often wondering what the world would be like if we all went about our jobs with cheerfulness and simple gratitude?

Pretty close to my philosophy exactly....

But most days, if you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it’s also not impossible. It just depends what you what to consider. If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.

- 

David Foster Wallace

Red Light Moment: Tractor v. Truck

An amusing moment from my ride home today...

Stopped at a red light at a 4 lane intersection.  We were in the far left "turn only" lane behind one other car.  In the lane immediately to the right of that car was a tractor/loader/backhoe combo and to the right of him was an electric company truck.  

Sitting minding our own business when we realize that the tractor and the truck are reving their engines and squeaking forward in the attitude of drag racers waiting for the light to go green at the start of the strip.  At first I could not believe this because it made no sense in my brain... but sure enough, after continued observation they were definitely jockeying for position.

We cracked up... There is something extremely amusing in watching a piece of excavating equipment and a small box truck engage in the rush hour equivalent of "mine's bigger than yours".  The guy in the car immediately behind the tractor didn't look like he was quite as amused as a 2 ton backhoe rocked back and forth 4 feet from his windshield amidst the sound of high RPM engine noise...  but I can forgive him for that.

The light turned green...  Predictably the box truck blew away the tractor, which, lets face it, isn't exactly built for 0-60... ever...   and we were off again back into the commute.  How often can you say you watched a box truck win a drag race though?

More good advice...

ANYTHING is possible :-)

Borrowed thought...

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.

— Dale Carnegie

Makes one think about life philosophy eh?  Stop and smell the roses... no matter what form they might take for you.

Window Shopping for Houses

DREAMIN...

Tried something new this weekend....

Window shopping for houses.   That's right!  I went to a few open houses with the Lady and LOVED it!   Let me be clear in saying that actually purchasing a house is not in the cards for me in the near future...  However, going to look at them is an awesome way to look at new spaces and think creatively!  A great exercise for the mind!

I highly recommend going to check out open houses in your neighborhood... even if you aren't interested in buying a house now or the house is run down or was last inhabited by someone with decorating tastes that trend towards 1940's retro. Try and picture what it COULD look like...  The potential is always there to make the space everything you've ever wanted in a dream home... and if you get the juices flowing the right way all the bits and imaginative pieces you've seen  in houses along the way will coalesce and your perfect house will come to life in your head when you ARE ready...

Fun Fact for the day (2-16-09)

Over 2/3 of all human conversation is gossip...

Source : PBS's series on Evolution...  Specifically "The Mind's Big Bang"

Lovely weekend for Love!

I acknowledge completely that its a commercialized holiday based somewhat loosely on a decapitated saint.  (I'm still not sure how that happened.)  Regardless I still love valentines day!  What other holiday is dedicated purely to the ideas of love and happiness.   I have friends that argue that you don't need a designated day to be happy, and that often the effect is lost on those who are single...  

Second point first...  I've never found being single on Valentines day to be a downer though... you just have to think about it differently.   Boy-girl love is not the only kind (though its awesome when you DO have it, I'm not going to lie) that can be appreciated.   There is also love of family, and friends, the love of happiness itself.   Valentines day to me is a reminder that there is a great deal OF love in the world, and a great deal TO love in the world.  Its an excuse to wander a beautiful city.  To see the lights from a hundred windows refracted and reflected on the surface of a harbor (like along the harbor walk in Boston).  Its a great day to hang out with friends, have breakfast with family... sit around the table and chat about life.  To pass out valentines reminding strangers on the subway to smile!

As for not needing a day to be happy...  of course I agree!  One should make every effort to be happy all the time!  However, riding the subway to and from school its impossible not to notice that people rarely are happy, or take the time to notice the joy in other people or other aspects of their life.  They're too busy trying to forget that they're crammed on a train, or stuck in an office, or too cold or too hot.  I don't think it hurts to have a day were people are forced to remember that beauty exists and that it should be embraced in whatever form it takes...

There was an editorial in the Valentines day edition of the NY Times that I liked written by a former Jewelry store owner. It spoke to the idea of what a valentines day gift should be.  The short version is that the point of a gift is that it comes from the heart and it shouldn't at all matter how much it costs.  I wanted to share it because I believe it to be true.  Make a card, write a story, sing a song.  People will appreciate it more if they know it comes from your heart and that you mean it....   This is what valentines day is all about to me...

Yay for people doing the right thing :-)

Sometimes you remember just exactly how humanity made it this far...




Here's the newspaper article...

Happy Birthday Darwin!!

Charles Darwin would be my answer to that timeless question; "If you could have dinner with any historical figure who would it be."

Seriously, what an amazing guy.  Above and beyond the theory of evolution, which is still ahead of its time in many ways, he was also a world traveler, a wonderful thinker, a champion artist, prolific writer (you can check out his complete works online, including much of his personal correspondence which I find fascinating thanks to this amazing project...), possessed the dedication to study barnacles for many years...  ...and he married his cousin!

Admittedly, I might be a bit biased, being a (much more humble) scientist in my own right but I still think that his powers of observation were astounding.  Just read his journals and letters to see what I mean.  His theories he worked on for 20+ years.  They are written in picture perfect English that still manages to sound contemporary today.  They are amazing... but its his observations of the moment I find most astounding.  His thoughts on all the species of plants and animals he saw immediately after climbing a mountain in Peru for instance, before having a chance to work it all out in his head.  His descriptions of all the myriad colors of rain forest flora and fauna.  His painstaking descriptions of each and every species of beetle he could find.

Maybe having sailed on a ship for 5 years gives you a lot of time just to think, but I'll admit that I don't notice even a fraction of the details of the world around me on a given day.

So... I say again, Happy Birthday Darwin and I highly recommend everyone check out a chapter of his Beagle diary, or a letter or two...

Feeling sick...

"It's like you're body's erupting through your nose!"

Night of the Chicken Dead

For a friends birthday we all went out to Brookline last night for dinner at Zaftigs -the almost Kosher Jewish deli and then to see a midnight screening of the Troma film release of Poultrygeist, Night of the Chicken Dead...

Dinner was awesome. There is not much better than going out with friends of a similar intellect and imagination. Especially when that imagination tends to run along the lines of surviving zombie attacks. On the downside there was SO much good conversation that I didn't really even know where to start paying attention... overload!

Conversation snippets that I caught:
• "I've seen so many zombie movies at this point that a group of zombies could walk by outside right now and I would be like 'oh, zombies' whatever.' Then I would be like 'wait those were zombies!'"
• A great deal of time was spent arguing (good naturedly) about how to save the economy
• Spam (the food) ... as per usual... came up more than once, including a grand plan for a spam focused restaurant and carving boats out of spam, filling them with deviled egg mixture and giving them little sails made of bacon
• A great deal else
Birthday gifts included an entire book filled with zombie haiku.

We expected the movie to be terrible... terrible... terrible...
It was indeed infinitely terrible. Enough said. Check out the preview at the bottom of this page.
Thanks everyone for an awesome evening!

If only there was a hot tub...

I'm sick...

While unfortunate, this is not the end of the world. Being at home for the day, with time to think has led me to consider all the many good things about being ill! Yes.. good things! Here are some...

• Staying in my pajamas all day 
  
• relaxing/cuddling on the couch
  
• Movies and bad daytime television
  
• Ice cream - (especially when its got rasberry cordial's in it!)
  
• TEA! 
  
• Comfort foods - soup, mac&cheese from a box, noodles...
  
• Time to catch up on news and blogs (which I'm recently into) like this one which I like because it's a random collection of things that make someone happy
  
• Catching up on correspondence
  
• Ice cream!
  
• Having permission to be lazy and ignore my homework for an afternoon!
  
• Looking at photos and reviews of gadgets...
  

Most important, I love the feeling of being cared for by my friends. When I'm sick is one of the only times I can be guilt free about getting all this attention. I have the best friends and the best girlfriend ever!

One thing that's missing... a hot tub... a long hot soak would be perfect right now :-)

A funny moment...

While being tickled

"You're sick! Go be SICK!!"