New Years Resolution

I have been reading Eat Pray Love and I can't put it down. And for the times that I have had to put it down, I have been using the most adorable picture of my nephews as my bookmark. And when I pick up the book and begin reading I am greeted by their smiling faces and the reminder of what love looks like. Anyway, I try not to make silly resolutions, so it tends to be a hope for the year. So, this year I am going to be fearless. I refuse to not do something because I am afraid of the word NO. And then I realized while sitting on the train how completely silly a New Year's Resolution is. January 1 is an arbitrary date in our lives, no more important or meaningful than any other day of the year has the potential to be. I will live each moment as if it has the importance of being the first day. And it does. Days are like snowflakes, there is not one that repeats. No matter how monotonous days sometimes feel they are always different, always unique, always the first in which the experiences of the day unwrap themselves into each moment. I plan to get wrapped up in that uniqueness, see through the eyes of a child, and truly live. I want to laugh and smile with utter abandon, and feel more deeply because I understand...

Lines

Obscenely long lines that don't have a cool ride at the end just plain SUCK. I was at the Social Security Office and I stood in line for almost three hours. That was after going to the Manhattan office last week only to find out that you have to go to the office in your county. For me that's Queens and it was the last stop out on the E train. It took a long time to get out there, but I have to say the lady was very nice and very efficient- there were just so many people. I'm sure they were all taking advantage of not having to be at work today, too, but somehow I thought that I might be the only person who would want to be there on New Year's Eve. I was wrong. Something that just struck me as silly was the conversation between two women in front of me. They were complete strangers sharing personal information with one another in a line that was full of people listening including me. The younger girl- we'll call her Kathy to protect her identity (Not that she cared all that much)- was the talker and shared far more information than the other woman (I don't know her name) who was there to get her new baby girl, Elise, a social security card. Kathy is 26, grew up in Westchester, went to college in Albany, now lives in Elmhurst, Queens with her new husband that she married on October 28th. They had previously lived in Astoria (Queens), Greenpoint (Brooklyn) and Williamsburg (Brooklyn). There were 160 people at the wedding and she converted from Catholicism to Judaism for her new husband. But not to worry, he's Reform so she still gets to have a Christmas tree. They are waiting two years to have kids and her mother-in -law was unwilling to help them financially with the wedding. Warning!- if you are already complaining to perfect strangers about your mother-in-law after only two months, get into therapy now! Her job situation is a little precarious. The company she works for (she's a buyer for a retail clothing store- which again I will not name to protect her identity) was bought out and she is in the process of being downsized. I do have to say that I caught all this information while attempting to read my Time magazine in which they named Vladimir Putin as the Person of the Year. When these women said their good-byes I was shocked that they didn't exchange phone numbers. They knew more about one another than some of my friends know about me. Then again, I do have a blog. Strange how we are able to rationalize things...

Oh and by the way- HAPPY NEW YEAR's! Be safe and have a great time!!!

My Very Own Quote

The cup is almost always half full and for those times that it's not I have the ingredients to fill it back up. I just have to dust them off and figure out how to mix it.

Sad

Two teenage boys outside my window last night at 1 AM.

Boy 1: "You gotta go home, man."
Boy 2: (very upset) "I am not going home!"
Boy1: "Well, you can't stay out all night."
Boy 2: "Actually, I can. You're lucky your Dad's dead. I'm not going home."
Boy 1: "You can't stay out, come home with me."

Thank God I have a great family.

Christmas Party

Richard, my musical theatre teacher had a Christmas party last night. He had made tons of homemade Italian food and I had too much red wine! There was artichokes, sausage and peppers, pesto rigatoni, and my favorite eggplant parmigiana. I walked into the party a little nervous because it was super crowded and I wasn't sure I would know anyone, but there were some people from my classes and it was a great time. I was not planning on being there all night, but Leah said that after eleven the Broadway actors start showing up- and who showed up but Karen Ziemba. I have never been to a party like this but it was a ton of fun. There were stars from times past too. I met a lot of people and I am so proud of myself- I carried about 10 business cards and handed everyone of them out. I'm not normally good at things like that, but I knew the party would be an opportunity to network. The best part of the party for me was as the crowd was filtering out a guy I had met (I don't remember his name- too much wine) played the piano and myself and two other women sang Christmas songs. Carols are one of my favorite things about Christmastime and I love to sing them at Mass on Christmas Eve with my family and then all the way home in the car. I'm not going home, so I was sure that I would be singing them to myself in the shower this year, but sitting around a live piano was fantastic! My kids will play piano...

Overheard at Walgreen's

So I was at Walgreen's waiting for some photos to be developed. I was wandering the aisles attempting to kill some time when a twenty-something woman walked rapidly into the store on her cellphone. She passed behind me and this is what I heard:
"(In a defensive tone) I mean, nobody's perfect. That's why Jesus died."

It made me laugh. Bless her heart...

Ten on Tuesday

1. It's officially a week until Christmas! Mere and I just finished trimming the tree. Mere, OB and I went to get it on Saturday, but we ran out of time to do anything other than put it in the stand and water it.
2. I just started shopping for Christmas. OOPS!
3. The elevator in the building I work in has a small flat screen TV that said Monday was the last day to get your cards in the mail to guarantee delivery by Christmas. Thank God for Priority Mail!
4. I'm staying in NYC for Christmas.
5. I've been applying for health insurance. The application is in, now they want additional information and I have to sign a contract to give them my first born...
6. Starting to catch up on some political news. I watched the first half of the Republican You Tube debate. I just have to say, all the talk about guns- silly, in my opinion. If you want to hear an interesting discussion on the topic listen to this interview by Leonard Lopate with a former gun lobbyist Richard Feldman here.

7. I watched Joyeux Noel last night with OB (from his Netflix Queue). I just have to say it was a good movie (I recommend it!), but man's need to battle man is the strangest concept for me to wrap my brain around. As soon as I think I have it figured out, some paradox shows itself and the reasoning for it (or against it, for that matter) breaks into a million little pieces.
8. Opinions can be lethal.
9. Another concept that can set your mind spinning is the "us and them" mentality. There is no way to be separate from this mindset. Even though we think of ourselves as individuals we are constantly placing ourselves or being placed by society into groups. Groups invariably create an "us and them" collective mentality.
10.I think leaf blowers are the laziest invention, EVER!