weekend report.

summary

bank of america, pret-a-manger, magnolia, homemade bakery, cafe charbon-epicerie*, alphabet lounge, a faux beer garden kitty-corner from alphabet lounge, century 21, soho bloomingdales, nolita**, les, teany***, flushing, queens (gala manor), moma/dada, gay pride parade, west village, magnolia (again!), home, sleep****

***

highlights

*happy birthday alexis! cafe chambord-epicerie was amazing. everyone cleaned their plate. i had the chicken paillard with lemon-butter sauce. heaven.
**star sighting: in nolita, i wandered into a cute little boutique owned and operated by none other than emmett mccarthy from project runway! i tried not to be so star struck, but i couldn't help myself. i had to leave before i said something stupid.
***i was fiending a baked beans and cheese sandwich. so i had one. (these are surprisingly more delicious than they sound)

***

update

****i'm not usually up at 6:04am, but i walked everywhere this weekend. by 9pm last night, i was immovable and unconscious.

the queen's english: a lesson.

another from the "dictionary of phrases i must start using immediately" (courtesy of carl f.):

snog: verb. to make out, i.e. kissing for extended periods of time, usually involving tongue and suggestive glances. maybe some over-the-clothes action. "we didn't sleep together. we just snogged." could also be used as a noun, to mean make out session: ex. "i met this girl at a bar and we had a cheeky snog."

n.b. not to be mistaken for shag, which is whole 'nother post.

overheard.

(on the 7 train back from flushing, queens... discussing the ways to woo women...)

jordan: i'm kind of traditional... i think love comes from dating someone over an extended period of time. like three months or so. but there are always exceptions... for example, all the rules go out the window when you're in a foreign country.
kristine: well, good thing i'm always in a foreign country.

crush.

i have a crush on ethan's new lady friend, laurel. i admit that 35 percent of that crush might have something to do with the fact that i'm mesmerized by her striking resemblance to one sarah jessica parker... though i made sure not to make mention of it, because according to ethan she gets it all the time. i smoothly scored her number at the end of the evening, so now ethan has to share her. this is what happens when your wingwoman approves.

paradigms.

isn't it funny how what we study frames how we look at/think about/analyze our world. this thought occurred to me while gchatting with another former econ student (who shall remain nameless) about relationships and dating. do other people, of the non-economics/non-finance sort, discuss dating in terms of "diversified portfolios" and "hedging risk" and "return on investment"? (sexy right?) i remember my ex-boyfriend, a biology/twiggy plants man, said love (and all emotions) could be reduced to chemicals and firing neurons. our break-up was inevitable. my political science cohorts at michigan would often discuss relationships in terms of balance of power, who had it, who didn't. now that my frame of reference is organizational psychology, i have conversations like: "it was a benchmark date... i'll send you the best practices over email."

back in college, when i was steeped in microeconomic theory, i came up with a theory of my own. wanna hear it? i decided that promiscuity could not be determined by looking at the absolute number of partners, but rather, the ratio of partners to opportunities presented. therefore, someone who sleeps with the three people who made an offer is far more slutty than the person who slept with 5 out of 10 people. i should add this theory to my list of endorsements.

btw.

for alls y'all trying to make it up to new york before i leave... the weekend of july 8th (formerly known as g-day--gmat day) is now free, and also my very last weekend in the city before i go home (the philippines/indonesia).

and for alls y'all who might be in dc for the fourth of july... i'll see you there. challah at your girl.

satisfaction.

i put one client deliverable to bed this week, and so, for the first time in many moons i have a well-deserved three-day weekend with no obligations. that is, no work looming over my head, no gmat studying to be done... i can actually enjoy and breathe friday through sunday. it's an exceptional feeling. tomorrow, i plan to walk the stretch of broadway, from the upper west side to century 21, downtown. ambitious, yes? but, well worth it if i can find a swimsuit on the way. called my parents today to confirm that we are, indeed, going to some sort of beach this vacation. i just can't believe how much time i will have to just be this weekend. i might finally go pick up paint chips for my apartment, and hang my tapestry, and go grocery shopping. finish reading my book. i will have to pack it all in, because this weekend may be the last free one for awhile.

***

now, usually, i wouldn't bore you with the sordid details of work, but my last assignment was actually pretty fun and the most substantive work i've had yet, albeit stressful because we were on deadline. one of our clients is a large foundation that has hired us to help them create an index of the s&p 500 and s&p 400 companies engaged in community investment and philanthropy. this is a large on-going project involving quarterly updates. my responsibilities this past week were to do the actual research, update the database, rate the companies for inclusion or exclusion in the index, and then summarize findings in a memo for the client. in short, i had a lot of ownership, but also a lot of late nights. the main challenge in our line of work is quantifying qualitative data like environmental initiatives, human resource practices, and commitment to local communities. because this project is still pretty nascent, and the methodology for the index has not been carved in stone, i really am helping establish how the index will be managed in the future, which is a pretty cool legacy to leave. the best part was hearing myself talk about the project with my supervisor, debbie, yesterday. as i went over the methodology i used and justified inclusion of specific companies due to "above-average performance relative to sector peers," it dawned on me that i might actually know something valuable. it's a great feeling, and gives me a lot more confidence at work, and hopefully, for my b-school applications. going forward, the next coming weeks looks like a lot more business development stuff, so i'm not going to see the community investment project until i get back in august.

buying time.

i just spent $50 to buy myself an extra month to study for the gmats. yes, folks, i've made an executive decision and postponed my exam. i will now be at the testing center on monday, august 14, instead of 2.5 weeks from today. could possibly be the best $50 ever spent, especially since i was able to get a 5:30pm testing time (as opposed to the original 9:00am slot, which would have been brutal). between being sick last week, projects at work, yoga, and just general frivolity, gmat studying was not getting done. and i wasn't too panicked until last night, when i was struggling with ratios. and math was supposed to be the easy part of the exam. *eep* a great weight has been lifted off of my smokin' deltoids... and i can actually, guiltlessly enjoy my summer in the city. ah.

endorsements (cont.)

the pigou club: every now and then, i like to revisit my former life as an econ student. like bo dirty and greg mankiw, i support the pigouvian tax, or taxation on the margin. the pigouvian tax is the mainstay for progressive environmental policies, such as the gasoline tax, or the carbon market, in use today in many european countries. basically, for the gas tax, you tax per unit of consumption... and for the carbon market you tax per unit of production (of carbon). it's all great fun, and has the effect of reducing negative externalities while simultaneously earning revenue... one of those positive sum games that are rumored to exist. too bad there's so much resistance on this side of the atlantic. alas.

sports cinematography: i like the new camerawork that's been in use during the nba post-season. the shots make you feel like you are right there on the court and in the mix, though sometimes, it doesn't follow the ball fast enough, and you don't always see the open man until... he has the ball. but, i still like it.

beef negimaki: this is my go-to dinner when i'm too lazy to cook and i need some meat in my belly. i've been sampling the negimakis all over the upper west side, and i think that planet sushi has been my favorite so far. mainly because they are big. and saucy.

endorsements.

things i am backing these days:

pret-a-manger: ah, this wonderful eatery, with locations all over midtown, brings me back to london school of economics days, when young, slightly hungover americans (and myself) would duck into the joint right across the street from school to scarf down exorbitantly priced, ready-made sandwiches. the nostalgia factor is present, but not the dominant reason i have made pret-a-manger my new go-to lunch place (ousting cosi's and chipotle's). first of all, it's all organic, for those of you who care. secondly, it's quick and convenient (right around the corner from work). and most importantly, it's cheap (far cheaper than london)... today i bought a half-sandwich (i love that they have half-sandwiches), soup, and a bottle of water: $8.00. sweet. also, their packaging provides endless entertainment, i enjoy that they make references to lord of the rings (elevenses), especially since i've been eating like a hobbit lately (i have about three breakfasts a day.)

sudoku toilet paper (via make you go hmmm). there are many wonderful places to do sudoku. you can do it in bed, or on the subway, or when you get to work during your lunch break. but the best place to do it, by far, is on the can.

older men. i'm a reformed ageist. i will now raise my ceiling from 26 to 30.

jameson irish whisky. i confess to never having tried jameson without a shot of bailey's and a half-pint of guinness. now that i've tried it with nothing more than an ice cube, i can say that i like it. god bless triple distilling.

brooklyn: did you know that there is a world outside of manhattan? only my second time leaving the island for another burrough (not including the numerous times i've missed my stop and had to travel back on the subway). actually, what i really back is the polish bar, europa, we went to in greenpoint, brooklyn, which seemed to have been plucked from the streets of warsaw: polish bartender, polish waitresses, and the quintessential european dance floor. you know what i'm talking about. and no evening is complete without a polish hip-hop artist singing about the hardknock life of pierogies and slaw.

facetiousness: usually, i'm a very honest person. but, i now understand the appeal of what cameron would call "embellishments." except, i wasn't really garnishing my stories as much as i was downright lying. i'm going to blame it on jason, who started the whole thing by telling me that he was born in a manger in spanish harlem. so, i thought, "two can play at that game, and anything you can do i can do better." over the course of two hours, i told one of the biggest whoppers of my life, and jason was none the wiser. he was particularly stupefied when i convinced him that i had never left the united states, in my whole life, except once when i was stopped en route to windsor canada, and spent five minutes on the canadian side of the border before being sent back to michigan. before we parted ways, i clued him into the fact that the only truth uttered that evening was that i lived on the upper west side. oh, and that i had gone to u of m. the look on his face was priceless.

whoa!

how did my friendster profile go from 68 views to 119 views in 48 hours?

overheard.

while watching the nba finals, game 5 with elie:

kristine: if football is a game of inches, basketball is a game of millimeters.

then later, a tribute to hubie brown:

elie: that was a great timeout. that would definitely go in my book of the 750 best timeouts of all time.

"i like my whisky old and my women young."

in a desperate attempt to get elie to actually read and comment on my blog, i am posting elie-relevant information. this past weekend, i heard about the most brilliant investment idea for a scotch/whisky connoisseur: a dram in time. (this is just an example that i could find) i'm shocked you haven't already jumped on it... good thing you have me in your life. anyways, my new friend, jason, purchased a quarter-cask with a bunch of his friends for $200... in five years, he will reap 50 bottles worth of scotch, complete with his own scotch crest. it's better than bonds, i'm telling you. if i were more astute at finance, i would run some sort of return on investment analysis. it would go something like this: quarter-cask of whisky/scotch... $200... 50 bottles of gadlin's finest... priceless.

the best part of this whole deal is that, in the interim, while the scotch is maturing, one can actually ceremonially visit his cask to pay his respects. this is exactly the kind of incentive we need to plan a trip to scotland. deal or no deal, mr. gadlin? i'm sure you could get dreamy todd in on this pyramid scheme.

squeeze me?

it causes me some concern that, on two separate occasions this week, two different people asked me, casually, if i was married, and both were surprised when the answer was an adamant "uh... NO." engaged? um, i'm as single as they come, friends. is it my new haircut? do i give off a "married woman" vibe?

mojo rising.

by now, everyone should have received the newsletter regarding this past weekend, as well as an invitation to the forthcoming parade that will be thrown in honor of this momentous occasion. without going into too much detail, let's simply say that if it's written in the stars, you can't hide from it. your fate will hunt you down and find you. some may say it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. i'm going to call it a happy coincidence and leave it at that.

freudian slip?

at work, i'm preparing a mailing to go out to foundations we are targetting, which involves personalizing a solicitation letter to each organization. tedious work, no doubt, which would explain the following typo when i saved the letter going out the needmor fund: needmor fun letter.doc.

my subconscious is playing with me.

regimen.

i'm sure everyone wants to know that i've switched from running 3 miles everyday to walking 6 miles everyday. my knee doth protesteth too much; it was beginning to creak and ache, and to be honest, i wasn't very good about stretching, either. while i no longer feel the wind at my feet, walking does afford me the opportunity to chat with other walkers along the reservoir. today, i befriended angelo, an 84-year old man with endearingly awful jokes, but a fine spirit. "do you think i need windshield wipers?" "i don't get it." "that's the joke, see? i'm walking! i don't need windshield wipers!" tugs at my heart strings. when he was 62, he ran pamploma with the bulls. "i can't imagine running that, even at my age!" i said in awe. he chuckled, "well, having a lot of wine in you helps." duly noted, angelo, duly noted. we chatted about japanese movies, police brutality in the middle east, and fidel castro. he did most of the talking, which suited me fine. i love listening to stories. i think i'm going to rather enjoy my new regimen.

interesting...

my horoscope for the weekend reads:

A perfect balance: This influence is favorable for sexual relationships and for all kinds of creative activity. It symbolizes the perfect balance between your need to be yourself and your need to relate to another. But this influence is strongly physical rather than psychological in its effects. A purely romantic relationship with no physical sex would not be very satisfactory, but such a relationship is not likely to occur during this time. Your erotic fantasies will certainly be stimulated, and women or men whom you would not usually look at twice seem much more attractive now. In fact you need to have a certain amount of discretion, lest you get involved in a totally inappropriate relationship. But again this influence is not usually that compulsive.

like i said. interesting. i should plan to be somewhat sober, i guess, lest i lose my discretion. "i am a lady, after all."

pro cra sti nat ing (a quiz!)

wow, i haven't needed a procrastinating post in a long time. but, today, just for kicks, i thought i'd answer one of those quizzes my cousins post on myspace and friendster. filipinos love quizzes!

***

three names you go by:
gomer
kmart/gomart
kiki

three screennames you have:
kmarigom (that's all)

three things you like about yourself:
i'll try most things once, if not twice for good measure
i can spend hour upon hours entertaining myself, without ever feeling lonely.
i can usually find some common ground with most anybody

three things you dislike about yourself:
i take on too many projects at one time
i don't stay mad, even when i should. one person's "laidback" is another's "doormat."
i can justify procrastination, impulsiveness, forgiveness, love, etc. you name it, i could probably justify it.

parts of your heritage:
filipino
chinese
spanish

three things that scare you:
rats (i just had a dream about them!)
being stuck in a job that i hate
unprotected sex

three of your everyday essentials:
email/internet
jersey cotton
comfortable shoes

three things you are wearing right now:
sports bra
underwear
shorts
(okay, i put two out of the three on, just so i could answer this question)

three of your favorite songs (at the moment):
space city
somewhere only we know (not related to the fact that its on the lake house soundtrack)
elegiac

three things you want to try in the next 12 months:
surfing
buying something other than a tanktop
trapezing

three things you want in a relationship:
trust and independence (these go hand-in-hand)
emotional, intellectual, and physical connection
adventures and laughter
(i want a lot of things from a relationship. sue me.)

two truths and a lie:
i have the questionable honor of being the only person to ever lip-sync in carnegie hall (that i know of)).
i hold an american passport with lots of stamps from exotic locales like saudi arabia, indonesia, and the philippines.
i don't like ice cream.

three physical aspects you find attractive:
green eyes
left-handedness
smell (is this physical? if not, then strong jaw would be my final answer)

three things you just can't do:
touch my toes
eat raw meat/fish
be in an open relationship

three of your favorite hobbies:
yoga
the blogosphere
walking/exploring new york

three careers you're considering:
green capitalist
process consultant
existential detective

three places you want to go on vacation:
middle earth
morocco
vietnam

three kids' names:
sophie
jacob
clementine

three things you want to do before you die:
find true love
find my life's true calling
live completely in the moment

three people who I'd like to see take this quiz:
paulix
aja
bo dirty

***

shit. i thought this would take ten minutes... it took forty-five!!

random notes.

• i'm currently going through my annual obsession with band of brothers. not so random, because the anniversary of d-day was last week (and i've seen each episode about three times since) . what is random is jimmy fallon's cameo in the fifth episode, "crossroads," as 2nd lt. george rice (he even has a name! he's not credited as "the guy who drives up with supplies for easy company.") it's a nothing role, but it leads up to one of my favorite quotations in the whole series:
  
  

  2nd lt. george rice: looks like you guys are going to be surrounded.
  capt. dick winters: we're paratroopers, lieutenant, we're supposed to be surrounded.

  oh snap.
  
• my yoga instructor, catherine, is hot. so hot that i can't even bring myself to talk to her; i just smile and nod nervously when she speaks to me. the fact that she now knows my name gets me even more flummoxed. my deep breathing turns into hyperventilating when she comes over to help me bend into downward dog. oy vey.
  
• the recent new york stabbings have made headline news on cnn.com, which means my parents will soon commence calling me every night at around 9:30 to make sure i am tucked safely into bed. i will be advised to not enter central park at any hour (my parents already think its a killing field, thanks to endless episodes of law and order), and that i should refrain from taking the subway. i will add "getting stabbed" to the long list of "things that will piss mom and dad off if it happens to me." other things on the list include: "falling in the subway tracks" and "getting mugged" because my parents have warned me endlessly about these things. they are already annoyed that i am sick.
  
• on friday, i will help caroline celebrate her birthday again, this time in brooklyn. imagine my disappointment when i realized we were not going pole dancing: "no, we're going to a polish bar. they play top-40 hits." oh well. incidentally, uncle ming's in the east village is a great place to dance around poles. i've heard.

accidental hero/pet detective.

talk about being the right person, at the right place, at the right time... i was walking to yoga this evening, musing about my warrior poses and my forward lunge and, as usual, absentmindedly checking out passing dogs on the street. yes, this is what i do. if you know me, you know. anyways, to my absolute delight, i came across a rather chubby french bulldog waddling, as it were, behind a little old lady. "odd," i thought, "there's no leash." even odder was that the little old lady was not paying the dog any mind. not looking to see if the unleashed bundle of joy was following close behind. not stopping to wait for the tiny dog to catch up. these subtle details could only be picked up by someone who has spent some time observing dogs and dog owners. anyways, the whole scene rubbed me the wrong way and i took casual note of it. good thing, too, because two steps later i came across a leash, attached to a pole, with no dog on the other end.

luckily, i have been studying the critical reasoning portion of the gmat exam, and i astutely put two and two together: empty leash, unleashed dog, ergo runaway dog! i quickly lept into action, signalling to the person sitting outside the restaurant closest to the pole: "is that your dog?" at the same time i stealthily approached the wandering frenchie who was enjoying her stolen moments of freedom. by the way, a purebred french bulldog can run someone upwards of $3000. i know this because i used to pretend i was going to buy one. anyways, the dog, like any dog, immediately thought we were playing a game of tag, and began to dart around the sidewalk. using my keen knowledge of dog behavior, i dropped to my knees, clapped my hands together and yelped, in my best high-pitched voice that i reserve for animals and small children, "come here, you, come here!" she totally bought it and approached me, at which point, her owner was able to come up from behind me, swoop in and clutch her to his chest. it was an excellent manuveur, made even more triumphant by the owner's declaration: "how did you get her to come to you? she never goes to anybody!" to which i responded, "oh, i just have a way... you know?" only then did i realize that the dog's owner was absolutely adorable, and that the cosmos had placed me, a lover of french bulldogs, on that particular sidewalk at the exact moment that his $3000 frenchie was cavorting through the upper west side. if milan kundera were writing my biography, the pigeons of fortuity would have pooped on my shoulders at that moment. (this is new york, and not prague, after all).

alas, my yoga class has a no-lateness policy. i know. sorry to let everyone down on that one. sigh. maybe next time.

a quaint turn of phrase.

on saturday night, i was interrogating ethan about orologio, an italian restaurant down in alphabet city. we were with his french friends and, by his own admittance, ethan had taken on somewhat of a french affect for the evening. (i didn't know he spent a semester abroad in france! did you?) anyways, he kissed his fingertips, gestured in the air, and said something i thought was french for "delicious."

"is that french for delicious?" i asked, repeating both the phrase and the gesture. "caz zaz?"

"no, it's the cat's ass!" ethan shouted above the din, "it means 'cool, amazing!' you've never heard of it?"

"what!?!" i shrieked. "friend, you are mistaken. the phrase is the cat's pajamas. or the dog's tuxedo."

interestingly enough, ethan had never heard of "the cat's pajamas" so i smugly assumed that he did not know what he talking about. "you must have heard it wrong!" though i did wonder how a three syllable word for night clothes could have been mistaken for a one syllable word for the derriere (how's that for some french?). but, it turns out, i'm the one who was mistaken. the "cat's ass" is, indeed, a colorful colloquialism in use today.

overheard.

kristine: dad! i did not get sick from being in my apartment. i must have gotten sick from being out in the rain last week. or from riding the subway!
dad: well, then you should take a can of lysol with you and spray the subway.

can you even imagine???

"Oh, lame saint!"

having completed a 500-piece puzzle in under 45 minutes, mark, kaye, and i got overly ambitious when we purchased this 3,000-piece puzzle of the mona lisa with only one week to go over winter break. by my last estimation, i think we have about 1,500 pieces left to put together, all of them some variation of black or brown. how i'm going to finish this, apply to b-school, and watch four seasons of 24 and the second season of lost, i have no idea.

overheard.

elie: you've lost weight! you don't have an eating disorder or anything do you?
kristine: actually, i do. it's called: "eating every hour, on the hour."

oh, pa.

y'all remember the father in my big fat greek wedding? the one who thought windex could fix anything? the filipino version is my dad, who thinks spraying lysol around my apartment will cure the common cold.

hey shorty.

happy birthday moosh!

happy birthday tim!

xoxo.

hang ten.

i can't handle fiction right now. so as much as I am amused by smith's white teeth, i'm putting it on hold to read let my people go surfing (see right). the last time paulix came to visit, he left me a copy next to my ipod speakers and, since i was in the throes of finals, i didn't discover it for a couple of weeks.

"wot's this??" i asked outloud, in my worst scottish accent, as i pulled the book from my shelf. i looked around my tiny apartment and for a split second, i thought that paul had come to new york for the weekend to surprise me. "paul? are you here?" no answer. just to make sure, i checked my bathtub; the only place in my apartment that a grown man could be hiding. (a phone call, later, verified that paul was still in dc.) in the meantime, i also found paul's shirt, which had been hanging on my closet door since his visit. only then did i realize how truly isolated i get during exams.

anyways... the point is... i love this book, and i'm only fifty pages into it. it's written by yvon chouinard, the founder of patagonia (the outdoor clothing company). i'll write more about the book once i'm through, so i can really do it justice. for now, i will say that if you're interested in social entrepreneurship, this is definitely an amazing case study of a company that has managed to marry financial profitability with environmental and social responsibility. and have some fun in the meantime.

***

speaking of which, it seems my surfing aspirations might actually materialize this summer. so far, the tentative summer itinerary includes a short trip to lombok, an island east of bali, which apparently has some excellent waves. i will also be taking orders for indonesian cat poop coffee beans, if anyone is interested, as i think i'm spending a weekend at the losari coffee plantation. i actually don't know if they have cat poop coffee, but i vow to search high and low to bring this indonesian delicacy to the united states.

pang.

i want one.

(link via aja)
(just for paul: melursus ursinus)

wahoo!

yay! i just received my invitation to use google analytics for my blog! i've actually been pretty satisfied with my site meter, but it's always fun to be part of an exclusive group using a new product from google. remember how hard it used to be to get a gmail account? google only gave people a few invitations, so you had to pretty high on someone's list of favorite friends to get an invite. i got my gmail account as part of a divorce settlement. anyways, for those of you who are interested, i'll give you the word on google analytics once i've navigated my way through it.

impulse purchase

for the first time since middle school, i have bangs. i'm not sure if this was a good idea, having just got back from the salon a mere two minutes ago. i've been antsy about getting something (anything!) done, since i've worn my hair in the same long, straight, layers for the last two years. i've been insanely bored. last night, while watching the heat kick themselves in the ass, i asked elie what should be done, and he recommended "face-framing layers to accentuate the roundness of my face." i was expecting a man-grunt and a shrug, so imagine my surprise: "wow, you've had this conversation before." then, this morning, while cleaning my apartment, i discovered the marie claire "best hair issue," which stoked the fire. by the time i left my apartment for a walk around the neighborhood, i was ready to chop off my own hair. the fact that i passed three jeffrey stein salons in ten blocks (they're like starbucks) sealed the deal.

i might have buyer's remorse, now though. i can't decide if the bangs are going to get incredibly annoying, since i can't tuck them behind my ears. the whole thing has already begun to grate at my nerves, since it requires more hair product, hair accessories, and blow drying time that i'm loathe to commit. i might also have to bring back the hairband (hello, 80s.) i can't decide if i like the new length, which rafael claims is only two inches shorter, but to me looks like a good four inches. also, it seems the short layers that were intended to add body have two unfortunate side effects: 1) it makes my already thin hair feel even thinner and (this is really tragic)... 2) from some angles it resembles a mullet. *cringe*

i think it's clear from this posting that as much as i want change, i don't much like it. the problem is, now, that my frequent reaction to change i don't like is to do something even more dramatic (uh-oh). this could get ugly, fast. somebody call me to snap me out of it!

yogi bear.

today was not the best of days on the mat. my breathing was all off. in fact, i don't think i was breathing that much at all, which would account for my lightheadedness afterwards. ironically, nothing makes me feel less graceful than doing yoga. i'm not lithe or smooth... my movements are sweaty and stompy. but the hope that it'll happen one day sustains me. to help with that, i'm considering signing up for a jazz dancing class. more to follow.

***

every session catherine makes us attempt handstands. and every session i don't even come close. anyone else have this problem?

sweet november...

... in june?

"it's long enough to be meaningful, but short enough to stay out of trouble."

i have my fingers crossed. here's hoping!

post-partum

miami played a better game. they played a better series... and, as much as i love the pistons, i have to concede that they simply did not hustle enough to earn it. they were weary and it showed; the drive simply wasn't there, no matter how much i jumped up and down on my couch and screamed. the heat were faster, and they wanted it more: they were there for every rebound, and the managed to find baskets despite broken plays. i give them mad props.

but don't discount the pistons. let's not jump to the conclusion, mr. simmons, that their reign is over. however devastating the loss, let's not forget everything they've been through the last few years. they won the national championship two years ago. they went to finals last year, and took the series to seven games. they gave up 18 losses in the regular season, with the best record in the league. and, they put up a good fight against the heat in the semifinals. they might be a little burned out from all that work. but, it's far from over. they are going to show up to play again next year.

however, a few kinks need to be worked out as a team, and the synergy that makes them so great needs to be revisited. when they move, they move. and when they can't, they trudge in slow motion. but, cut them some slack, mitch, because you'd be tired too, if you didn't half-ass the regular season. the pistons need to examine what went wrong, and make it right... and i really believe they have the maturity to learn from this loss, and come back stronger next year. go pistons. detroit love.

"You can make some changes, coaches, a player," Ben Wallace said, "but, you know, ultimately it will be on you as an individual to accept this loss and look in the mirror and see what you can do, come back ready."

you're so proud of being a mutant, where's your mark?

for the week leading up the release of x-men three: the last stand, i agonized over what my super mutant powers would be. paulix had already determined that, as a mutant, he would be able to shape-shift into any species of animal and take on that animal's powers. entirely fitting for a man who is saving the world, one panda at a time. i turned things over in my head, frustrated that the only super power i could come up with was the ability to "clean up disasters." whenever there is a blockbuster film involving the destruction of urban infrastructure, i always leave the theatre thinking: "god, it will cost millions to clean that mess up!" of course, this is not the sexiest of mutant powers, so as much as part of me thinks it would be practical, given the destructive forces of the phoenix and magneto and their posse, i really didn't want to be the one woman FEMA. so, finally, i've decided that my mutant power would be the ability to travel and manipulate time. mr. panda is concerned, though, that such an ability would wreak havoc and chaos, and that i should only be able to passively observe the past and present. my argument, however, is that the most interesting mutant powers are those that are double edged swords, which challenge their possessors to make ethical decisions about their use. plus, we saw harry potter and the prisoner of azkhaban over the weekend as well, which demonstrates the benefit of being able to back in time and change things.

as for the last stand, i agree with this review in new york magazine. while the film definitely had amazing special effects, i was disappointed with the storyline and the lack of subtlety and finesse. that brett ratner has a heavy-handed touch is an understatement, and what made the movie frustrating was that the blurred lines between good and evil, which challenged viewers in both the first and second installments, had become clearly demarcated in the hands of mr. ratner. most infuriating was how neat and tidy everything ended, as if one event in history could absolve the world of all the tension and prejudice against mutants. the x-men is not a story that should end with a happily-ever after. shame on you, brett, for treating a complex issue like an episode of full house.

tenacious d.

i love the pistons for exactly the kind of resiliance they exhibited last night. for the last two weeks, i've been incredibly frustrated with the lack of team synergy and the uncharacteristic complaints about the referees, the coach, and the opposing team. but, when it comes down to it, the pistons are all heart and soul, and when they remind themselves just how awesome they are when they get down and work as a team, they make the game seem effortless. and they put on quite a show in the meantime. of course, for a fan, you wish that detroit didn't have to have it all down on the line to win, but, of course, its exactly that kind of pressure under which the fab five thrive. it's as if they enjoy clawing themselves out of holes; as if being the underdog is their lifeblood. it's poetic that the most underrated starter on the team, tayshaun, has been so clutch in the last few games.

last night was quintessential pistons ball. fired up and unstoppable... take it to game 7 boys!