Oh, doughnuts on a Monday...

Pure bliss.
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I heart my friend George.

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Thankfully this was not my fault

Of course, my mom had to take a picture of me, next to the crumpled car. Like this one is for the album or something. 

On my first visit back to Cleveland in two years, I'm not in my mom's car for more than 10 minutes before some kid in an SUV slammed into her car, while I was stopped at a light, because his sneaker got wedged on the gas, causing me to slam into a car in front of me, which in turn crumpled her hood because she slammed into the SUV in front of a her. Two people were carted off in ambulances, and all sorts of parts of my mom's car were littered all over the road. Oh, and it was raining. And people were rubbernecking cause there were police cars and fire trucks all over the place.

I'm not sure how I was fine, except that the whole incident made me ravenously hungry...so I inhaled a cheese-less bean burrito from Taco Bell after we were allowed to leave the scene and now feel like I might be sick.

I think this is why I only go home to Cleveland every few years.
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I heart Kid 'n Play

Ok, I love this commercial too. Below is the inspiration..

LeBron + Kobe meet the Muppet Show

I saw this new Nike commercial the other night, and loved it. For one, I am delighted by how Nike is obviously channeled their inner Jim Henson to create a campaign featuring muppets of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James living together post season. The last shot where they are both covered in a pile of chalk is so perfect — with LebRon going nuts all over the place with the chalk, and Kobe is just chilling. Plus, love the Akron, Ohio shout out. And then last night I saw the second commercial featuring Kobe going nuts over losing his three championship rings, comparing them to three cookies in a style incredibly similar to Cookie Monster, and then LeBron was like, "uh, maybe they are in your Championship Ring case?" 

Wool and the Gang

Today, as I was eating my Vermonsta' sandwich from Brownstein's and flipping through Paper Magazine, I noticed an article on Wool and the Gang. Founded by Lisa Sabrier and Carolyn Main, Wool and the Gang sells knitting kits as well as ready-made knit wear for those people who cannot knit, or haven't the patience. The wool is from Peru, and the inspiration is from Lisa and Carolyn's friends who are fashion designers, jewelry designers, actors, models, DJs, singers, artists, writers, etc. I totally love the concept, and am so about to buy myself a Lion Zion hat. I would buy the kit, except that the hat already knit is only 10 pounds more than the kit, and the time it takes me to knit the hat would be like 10 days worth of time, knowing how slow I knit.

New Word of the Day: Dreamlette

¹dreamlette 

Pronunciation:

\ˈdrēmlet\

Function:

noun

Usage:

often attributive

Etymology:

Middle English dreem, from Old English drēam noise, joy, and Old Norse draumr dream; akin to Old High Germantroum dream combined with lette, meaning a dimunitive form, taken from Smurfette, the girl Smurf from the popular 1980s cartoon series.

Date:

21th century

1: a quick dream occurring between one snooze cycle and the next, usually only 5-10 minutes in length.

The Thorn Birds

I was home sick today, and did not even get out bed. Despite owning a television, I am still not used to actually  turning it on, so I did not even think to watch Oprah, unfortunately. Instead, I reached for a book that I found laying in a dusty pile at one of our New Jersey offices...The Thorn Birds. I must have already read this book at least 10 times, starting when I was in fifth grade. And every time, I get so sucked in, that I cannot put it down until I have finished the book. Making it the perfect sick in bed kind of reading. It is a classic piece of romantic fiction, with lots of heaving chests and stolen glances; loves lost and unfilled. Of course, I totally love that stuff. Shockingly enough, I am not the most picky of readers — honestly, I will read and enjoy almost book, as long as the author uses punctuation and paragraphs, and as long as it is not fantasy or science fiction. But if you have not read the Thorn Birds, I totally recommend it.

Honest Foods granola bars

Somehow, over the weekend, I became addicted to Honest Foods' Almond Trail Mix granola squares. I bought one on Saturday at the natural foods store on the corner of Bergen Street and Fifth Avenue and then on Sunday I went back and bought two more. And now, I want to buy a case of them. Except of course, they are completely sold out online of the Almond Trail Mix flavor, and the Cran Zest flavor, and all of the flavors, to be exact. Ugh. Because now I am totally obsessed with these delicious little things and it means I am going to have to go back to Park Slope and buy up the entire tray from the natural foods store. I wish it was not raining, or else I would go now.

Trisha Brown at BAM

Helen and I went to go see the Trisha Brown Dance Company this evening at BAM. There were four pieces and we were both truly blown away by the second and fourth pieces. The second piece, O zlozony/O Composite, featured two guys and one woman (Aurélie Dupont, Manuel Legris and Nicholas le Riche) against a backdrop of the Milky Way. The score was, as the Times so eloquently described it, "a recycling spiel in I know not which Eastern European language over some inoffensive rhythms that suggest now African music, now rock." Ms. Dupont, switched back and forth between bare feet and point shoes in a way that was not noticeable, and there were moments when I was like, "surely she is not on point in her barefeet!" Helen and I felt she was incredibly flawless as a dancer, and despite the Times giving it a rather boring review, I was incredibly inspired. 

However, the fourth performance, “L’Amour au théâtre,” which was the world premiere, which was set to excerpts from Rameau’s “Hippolyte et Aricie,” was so uplifting and whimsical and purely delightful in every way that I left the theater wanting to go home and spring around my own apartment in some sort of ode to Summertime. From the superb costumes which seemed to be straight out of some boutique which I wished actually existed, to the mix up of partnering — the women were held and lifted by the guys, and then they provided the support at times for the guys as well, giving the impression that both the men and women were given fully equal roles in this particular dance. This was really quite satisfying, in a way that is not really describeable; as is the fact that the guys also danced with one another...something you rarely see. The intimacy between the dancers was incredible, in the sense that the movements seemed to emanate deep from within each dancer and then flow from one another like emotions.

Purple puff ball flowers on State Street

The Le Gamin Truck!

Every so often, I stop by Le Gamin on Vanderbilt Avenue at Dean Street, and have a crepe with ratatouille, goat cheese, and depending on my mood, either a fried egg or the grilled zucchini. I like to eat there by myself, eating mouthfuls of my savory crepe, while flipping through the pages of one of the New Yorker magazines that they have in the magazine rack on the wall. In fact, I just ate lunch there on Sunday. So imagine my delight as I walked to work this morning and saw a Le Gamin crepe truck on the corner of 25th Street and 10th Avenue. And for a mere $9, I had the very same crepe for breakfast, that I had for lunch on Sunday, minus the mesclun salad the accompanies the crepe if you eat at their place in Brooklyn.

Spotted plywood

My colleague found these terrific samples of routered plywood, on the sidewalk. There were a few different patterns, and I was imagining what the wall of a bar would look like if it was completely covered in a sheet of undulated dots carved into plywood. How cool would that be?

Bumptious from Marcos

An email from from friend Marcos, reminding of my more bumptious days from when I worked at Liska + Associates. I had some brilliantly stupid idea to label different hairstyles as esoteric vocabulary words for a project for American Crew, and one word was Bumptious. The client hated the idea, and I let him know in not so many words that it was actually a great idea and maybe it was him that was just a bad idea, and then he pretty much thought I was bumptious, in my own right, as a 22 year old who thought she knew everything. It took me about nine years for people to forget about that one stupid presentation. And I guess it still has not been forgotten. The ridiculous things we do in our 20s somehow always come back to haunt us. 

Tic Tac in German is...Tic Tac

Onwards by James Jarvis

And lastly, one more from the office blog, this video was made for Nike by illustrator James Jarvis, and it makes me want to run around the world and back. And I don't even like to run. This video is just amazing, in every way; plus the music is perfect. Wow, so blown away. 


Onwards from AKQA on Vimeo.

Scrabble

Here's another video from the office blog, advertising Scrabble, my favorite game. However, these new Scrabble commercials are so weird. I have been reading my back issues of The New Yorker, trying to catch up before I renew my subscription, and there was an article from the January 19th magazine about Scrabble. It mentioned some of the same people from the book, "Word Freak," which is one of my most favorite reads. Anyway, the article made me wish I was a total word maven, and much better in Scrabble, so I could join those online Scrabble games and not lose immediately. Regardless, the new Scrabble commercials don't capture the Scrabble-ness for me, that is so intrinsic to the game. I am sure that they are trying to reach a new and more diverse audience, but even so, I am not sure I get that these commercials are actually for Scrabble until the last bit. They are cool, but not really very Scrabble-y, at least in my opinion. Thoughts?

Honda Insight, Let It Shine

I have been seeing these Honda Insight ads lately on television, and I have been incredibly inspired to trade in my Audi and get a hybrid Honda instead. I am not fully there 100%, of course, but I still love the ergonomics of my car, but this commercial is pretty inspirational. I saw it posted this morning on my office's blog, along with the making of the video, featured below. More and more, I am becoming quite enthralled by the power of video, and how it can move people in so many ways.


Honda Insight - The Making of "Let it Shine” from Honda on Vimeo.

Ten second rule

This tuna sandwich fell on the floor of the parking garage; but the garage was in New Jersey. And parking garages are cleaner in New Jersey when compared to New York City garages, and I was starving and rather desperate for lunch, so I picked it up off the floor (I mean, who leaves a tuna sandwich on the ground?!) and proceeded to eat it, mayonnaise and all.

It was good.
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South Africa

Yesterday, as I drove to work I was listening to coverage of the South African elections on NPR news, and it really affected me. Maybe because when I lived there in 1997, it was right at the height of the Truth and Reconciliation committee's hearings and the newspapers were full of daily notices, like "Steve Biko's killer found." "Winnie Mandela on trial." Living there was like being caught in a giant political downpour. The NPR News feature was interesting because it started with them talking about Joseph Zuma's campaign song "Mshini Wami" (Bring Me My Machine Gun). For me, this song being sung by South Africa's leading presidential elect sums up South Africa very neatly for me with regards to how I felt when I lived there. Pretty much, to me, South Africa is both the most beautiful, and the most scary country that I have ever visited; full of dichotomies, paradoxes and oxymorons. 

I miss many things about living there, most specifically, all of my friends whom I have now lost touch with after 12 years. And I really miss the small things like eating Jungle Oats with jam stirred into it for breakfast; my afternoon Zulu lessons at the breakfast table; the smell of the Johannesburg air when I woke up every morning; bunny chow; riding in the back seat of a 1980 Volkswagen Beetle while drinking Diet Coke and seeing elephants. 

And it makes me wonder if I will ever go back to visit.

Tweenbots

This link was sent to me from my friend, Melissa (Mel), thinking that I would love it. Which I indeed to. "Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal." What I particularly love is that "often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, "You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.” I am not sure if this just appeals to my heart because I love all things that fall into the category of "Kawai-ness" or if its because I tend to personify all things in my life from my bike to the plants on my window sill. But regardless, I think that many people have this same tendency, given people's responses to the Tweenbot project. Which gives me hope that New York City is not as cut throat and intimidating as people would like to think it is. 

Gorp

This is not actually my gorp, because its rather boring looking. Peanuts are so blasé. I prefer to mix together: dry roasted almonds, dried cranberries, dark chocolate and banana chips from Trader Joes. 

Did anyone else join Girl Scouts when they were in elementary school, only to be severely disappointed by the fact that you have to actually clean the latrines at Girl Scout Camp? I quit shortly after realizing this. But not before I was totally hooked on gorp. Thanks Girl Scouts! Gorp, for those of you who have never had it, is pretty much what you eat when you go camping; or in my case, something I eat whenever I am not stationary. It is a mixture of dried fruits, nuts, granola, sometimes there is even carob pieces in there. Or even M+Ms! Gorp in fact, (according to Wikipedia) stands for, depending on the source, "Good old raisins and peanuts," in addition, the Oxford Dictionary from 1913 has gorp listed as a verb, for "to eat greedily." In my case, both apply. There is something deliciously addictive about sweet, crunchy and salty all mixed up together.

Spending the afternoon with Joni

I have not seen Joni in almost three years...and in that time, she has gone and had a baby girl, Kamah, who is now a year old. She is in town for a week, so today we met for lunch. It was my first time meeting Kamah, and I was totally smitten. Maybe it was because she was wearing a little green sweat shirt, but I am pretty certain it was because she was such a sweet heart. In addition to falling in love with Kamah, it was so great to finally see Joni again after such a long time. And that is the best part about dear friends; years can pass by and it is like you just saw each other last week.

I love this car

I heart Jasmine plants

Somehow, I brought my jasmine plant back from aphid hell via Super Thrive, and despite all of the branches initially turning into dead little sticks, I managed to coax a few new shoots, like blood from a stone, and now my little plant is blooming all over again.

The light shining through my blinds

The things I receive in my inbox from Araba

Karin's Floss

My friend Karin worked on the redesign of the packaging of the new Reach dental floss and had given me a product sample last year to try. I am a flosser, but maybe not an everyday flosser, although I would like to give off the impression that I am that type of girl. But when I tried the Ultraclean sample that Karin gave me, I was totally hooked. I flossed every day, morning and night, until the sample was gone. I evens started flossing with like a two inch long piece, in order to make it last longer. So now, every time I go into a drugstore, I check to see if they carry it, because I am that obsessed with this particular floss.

It is that good.

Seriously. Imagine springy elastic in a lovely shade of blue, the exact color of those plastic paper bibs that dentists roach clip onto your shirt whenever you get a cleaning. The floss knocks the pants off of any other floss on the market. Comparatively, Glide is now in the same category as that cheap G.U.M. waxed floss the dentist gives out for free (which I happily use), for me, and it used to be the gold standard. In fact, the moment I came home from the drugstore, I ripped open the package and immediately began to floss (after washing my hands). And I had just flossed before going to the drugstore. It was almost as pleasurable as eating the Smarties + Haribo bears candy that I got in Frankfurt. Almost.

oh, and my most favorite part? How freaking cool the packaging itself is. It is so cool looking that I saved the insert to the package.

Hello Kitty socks

I met my friend Elizabeth for brunch on Saturday, and she had a package of the most wonderful treats for me, including a stack of Hello Kitty socks from H+M. I love these socks so much, I already anticipate wearing them for a few days in a row before I can part with throwing them in the washing machine. It then made me me Google Hello Kitty socks and H+M and I came up with this person on Flickr, who has a whole wardrobe of Hello Kitty socks from H+M.

I heart Teastar

Designed by tea company, Today Was Fun, I found this super nifty package of tea featured on Lovely Package. "There are shooting stars, rock stars, film stars, star fish, star wars, mega stars, and now there’s Teastar™. We’ve taken 10 organic loose leaf teabags, wrapped each in our philosophy and packed them in a clever star shaped box. Once opened, the box is like an old fashioned paper yap yap toy. Peer inside and choose your favourite brew."

Each Teastar contains
2 x Happiness, 2 x Sleepy,
2 x Inspiration, 2 x Love Love
and 2 x Friendship loose leaf organic teabags.

I want a sheep.

This was sent to me by my friend, Sheri. Because we like these sorts of things.

Baby bikes

I saw this tiny child's bike locked to a street sign this morning. I love love love that the parents are teaching their kid proper bike etiquette at such a tender age...or else they are like me in thinking that bikes do not make good apartment decorations.
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Sunrise over Walmart

My view from the hotel window this morning.

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Flickr Clock

How cool is this?! Flickr Clock is an ongoing project that will collect member video and display it according to the (approximate) time that it was taken. As more members participate, we’ll have the opportunity to experience what a moment in time looks like from a diversity of perspectives.

Hello from Northwest Arkansas

All of the little red dots are Walmart stores…

every town seems to have at least one, if not more.

I am sure that the town where I am staying today has an actual name, but the airport is called Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, and that it pretty much what this corner of Arkansas, right nearby to both Oklahoma and Missouri, is called. Sadly, I had to look it up on Google maps to see where Arkansas was even located, because although I knew it was near Oklahoma and Texas and so forth, I was a little in the dark as to exactly where it was. I mean, I am sure that I knew subconsciously that it was located right next to the state of Tennessee, my birth state, but consciously, this did not really register. And I have to say, I am grateful for the chance to travel to a state I have never been to before, but all in all, it is a little too country for me. There are a lot of pick up trucks, and horses, and giant rolls of hay, and no sidewalks. I never thought I was a city girl per se, but the uncomfortableness that I feel when seeing horses running around unleashed, makes me realize that I do indeed have asphalt pumping through my veins.

Hiking Naked

I love that the NY Times online featured a headline story about naked hikers hiking around the alpine town of Appenzell, Switzerland — where women were just granted the legal right to vote in 1990. (What?!) 

Apparently, "in recent years, it has become fashionable for a growing number of Swiss and some foreigners to wander in the Alps clad in little more than hiking shoes and sun screen. Last summer, the number of nude hikers increased to such an extent that the hills often seemed alive with the sound of everything but the swish of trousers."

I love you, Fort Greene

Chez Lola. Never really loved the food here, but the front has always made me think of a super great clothing store in Vancouver, whose business cards looks exactly like the store front.

The clothing store in the old cleaners rocks and carries APC which thankfully did not open until I left, because I would have gone there way too much.

One of my most favorite blocks, South Portland.

The Masonic Temple on the corner of Carlton and Lafayette Avenue.

I read an article on Fort Greene, Brooklyn today, in the New York Times. This is the first neighborhood that I lived in when Kenny and I moved to Brooklyn more than five years ago. While initially freaked out by the fact that at that time, Pathmark was the only grocery store option nearby, I soon got over it, as I had fallen in love not only with our amazing apartment (despite the "rat incident"), but also with the beauty and character of the neighborhood itself. I have never felt more at home anywhere in my entire life as I did when we lived on Lafayette Street in Fort Greene. When we had to move, I cried, and I hope that someday, I can afford to buy an apartment in Fort Greene... because even though I am not sure I want to continue living in New York, or even the USA, I think I might stay forever if I could live in Fort Greene again.

The charm of laying in bed and hearing not only the cheerful chime of the G train doors closing, but also the occasional bus stop scuffles and fist fights that would occur when Mo's closed at 4am, and the drunk patrons would be waiting for the bus right in front of our house. 

There were the small kids who thought it was fun to try to hassle me — a girl who slapped my head while I was walking down Hanson Place and a elementary school kid who tried to steal my Palm Pilot from my hands on Lafayette Street; and the amazing neighbors that we met and befriend, Kate and Doug; Richard the mayor of Adelphi Street; our friends who moved to Fort Greene, like Rich and Chloe, Susanna and Mitch, the list is endless. 

I used to run across the street to Ralph's Meat Corp in the middle of baking cookies, cakes, whatnot, to pick up more flour, butter, because I invariably never had all of the ingredients on the recipe — sometimes even in my pajamas would I run over there, and one time I left my recipe on his counter and had to run back. 

I loved buying my annual red geraniums from Gardel's garden shop on South Portland, getting a slice (this was very, very rare) from Not Ray's, and dropping off my dry cleaning at Jody's place on Fulton Street, where she always could be counted on to give me honest and unsolicited advice with regards to things such as my weight (wow, you've gotten big, huh?) to my dry skin (it looks like you have dried rice stuck to your face!).

Walking home from BAM was a breeze, and it was such a delight to go see a dance performance and then be able to walk home in two minutes, practically; especially if I had to go to the bathroom. The C train stop was around the corner, and took me under five minutes to get from my bathroom to the platform.

And while you might wonder how I could love the potential palm pilot snatchings and the rat eating cupcakes on our front steps, I simply just loved it all. I mean, yeah, at the moment, I was like, "what the fuck, there are 14 rats eating the leftovers of Sheri's bridal shower, on our front steps!" But you know how it is, once the heat is turned back on, and the rats are eliminated via some guy Kenny found on Craig's list under "intrepid tarp removal," then it's easier to look back and see just how lovely life in Fort Greene was.

the Third Bird

I had planned to go to Bird on Smith Street again today — despite having just visited the store on Friday night when I bought a Mina Perhonen scarf with hand drawn stars all over it, after practically skipping around the store in glee when I saw that they carried Mina Perhonen things for Spring. But when I looked at their website to see if they had the scarves online, I noticed that they just opened up a new outpost in February in Williamburg, two doors down from where I get my hair cut. How coincidental, since I had an appointment to get my haircut today at 5pm this afternoon! This never happens, these sorts of conveniences, for me. The new store in Williamsburg is quite fancy (hello, with $350 stuffed, plush mushrooms in the window!), as it is completely LEED-certified, and designed by Ole Sondresen. Apparently, 70 percent of the materials used to fit out the space were sourced in Williamsburg and various wood paneling was actually salvaged from a dumpster in SoHo. Nice. The place was lovely, and I could not stay more than a few minutes, or else I would have bought a crinkly Paul Smith striped scarf ($125), one of the above stuffed mushrooms ($350), a plaid APC blouse ($150), an Isabel Marant belt ($50), and some lingerie by Eberjey ($84, for a bra and boy shorts). 

I see you, Sammy

I met Sara, Scott and their baby Sammy, for brunch this morning at Lupe's East LA Kitchen — a hole in the wall Mexican diner teetering on the edge of SoHo, with incredibly delicious food. I have not seen Scott and Sara in more than a year, the last time was right after Kenny and I came home from our trip to Spain and Romania in OCtober 2007. Fast forward ahead a year and a half and now Sammy is almost one, and a lot has happened in the past 18 months in both of our lives. So we had a leisurely brunch, catching up, interrupting each other to ask about one another's lives, and it was so wonderful to catch up with old friends and reconnect. The lovely part of it was that I felt like I had just seen them last week, not a year and a half ago; albeit now they have a baby. But, there was not any of that awkward small talk; it was a great afternoon with good conversation and some very lovely time spent at the park swinging Sammy on the bucket swings, watching him laugh.