my heart goes out to Japan

Everyone has been discussing the catastrophic tragedy in Japan, a devastating earthquake and lethal tsunami topped off with nuclear radiation exposure. The news is heartbreaking and highly emotional to read and watch. My prayers are with everyone in Japan. The world knows of your suffering and we are here for you.

I watched the latest Black Eyed Peas music video 'Just Can't Get Enough' today. It was shot a week before the events in Japan. I suppose a combination of factors contribute to my liking this song and mv immediately and I definitely think there's something for everyone in it. Personally, Fergie's voice on this track is very airy and feminine and it resonated with me. Exposed, she describes how she just can't get enough of her man and wants to jump inside his love.  She, like Tokyo or all of Japan, is vulnerable and addicted. She, like the city, is addicted to love.

The cinematography is also beautiful featuring a modern urban sprawl. Presenting the city night lights, a story of longing love and bittersweet attachment unravels. Check out these still shots from the music video and also watch it in its entirety here.

Another Year Older

I'm about to turn another year older. As usual, like all of my preceding years, this past year has been filled with ups and downs, but it's only worthwhile to remember the good. A year ago, I went to New York to see some of my dear friends and to reminisce about our carefree days as a quartet of girls living in the city. They were memorable days and nights filled with everything I love about the Big Apple: girl talk, afternoon tea parties, Tim Burton's exhibition at MoMa, strolls in Central Park, and braving the weather getting to Max Brenner's for chocolate fondue (gosh, remember that storm?)

Thank you Angela, Jen, Tomoko (in spirit) and Joanne for such a wonderful trip :) I miss you all.

After this amazing trip out East, I headed farther East to Shanghai where I set up house for nearly 6 months. I met driven and powerful individuals, made new friends, and got a taste of what long(er)-term life in China would be like.

I took a couple wonderful weekend getaways with some of the nicest people I've ever met. 

State-side once more, I came back and began the next chapter of my life: getting my ducks aligned.  In other words, figuring out the future career-wise. In between hitting the books, meditating, and job searching, I started this blog as a positive digital diary. Oh, and one more thing about this year...

I fell in love for the first time. And he's nice.

Happy March Everyone!

Hello there! Sorry for my absence during pretty much the entire month of February.
I will try to stay more consistent about updating this blog because I am inspired fairly often by events in my rather mundane life, but I lack the writer's urge of actually putting pen to paper, or in this case the blogger's urge of putting fingers to keyboard. But alas, I am back now.
As some of you may know, I have been spending copious amounts of time in public libraries in my neighborhood. When 3:30 rolls around in the afternoon, it means one thing: a flood of students will come into the library and "do their homework" until dinner time when they get picked up by their parents. I suppose it doesn't really matter to most people, but lots of people need a quiet atmosphere in order to study or conduct their work and they make their presence obviously known with their rowdiness.  I have strategically sat myself down at a round table among some middle school girls today in order to infiltrate their inner-workings and find out what life is all about for youth today.
Copycat chatterboxes
These girls are total chatterboxes. As they're doing their algebra (x-25=4) equations, I realize that they are not actually doing their homework at all! In reality, they are copying right off each other's page! Summer, on my left is directly copying off of Tasia's homework, which in turn was copied off of Daisy. In between giggles, the three of them are poking fun at Tasia's overweight cousin who eats only Activia yogurt in an effort to shed pounds. At their young age, they are already poking fun of chubby people with total disregard for who may overhear.
iPhone, iWhat?
Summer has an iPhone. When asked a simple math problem (90 divided by 5), she promptly whipped it out of her backpack, all her friends herded around in awe, all math questions clearly forgotten.
"Wow! Is that your iPhone?" they chirp.
"Yeah, I have an iPod Touch too, you know?" is her suave reply.
In my middle school days, I distinctly remember cell phones were banned. I had a thrice, pre-loved, hand-me-down black and white Nokia phone by the time I was in eighth grade (its "coolness" came with the interchangeable color face plates I had) for emergencies only. The extent of my use was playing snake on it and losing...frequently.
As I sit around these girls now, they have each had their turn ogling at Summer's iPhone, flipping through her pictures, and asking what app she likes best. Her response is limited; it's clear she doesn't use her phone much and knows little about its functionality. She just has it because it's the latest "toy" to own while toying around with her studies.

Old World Charm

As children, we are taught standards of etiquette from our parents. Some common social manners that are passed on from generation to generation include mothers telling daughters to cross their legs when seated, fathers informing their sons to open doors for ladies, and the of course the "never-supposed-to-be-forgotten" ladies first rule.
As society modernizes and lines of gender inequalities and imbalance blur and cease, these societal standards have taken a backseat. No longer are girls reprimanded for "playing like a boy" (it can even be argued that playing like boys is actually healthy for girls). Gone are the days when boys were scolded for sitting at the dinner table before ladies were seated. And the idea of a man laying his jacket down over a puddle so that a woman could cross is completely unfathomable. The list goes on.
Since I am a part of Generation Y, I can't exactly say that I'm disappointed in young people today and their lack of adherence to standards of society, but I do want to say that it's always a nice treat when I witness people adhering to these "old-school"standards of etiquette.
I am fortunate to have a charming grandfather as my neighbor. He is always in a cordial and happy-go-lucky mood and I love enjoy stopping and chatting with him whenever I see him on our street.  Not only is he wise, genuinely interesting, but he also exhibits oozes old world charm. After spotting him by his mailbox and catching up with him, he took off his hat, brought it down to his chest in acknowledgment and bid me a good afternoon. I was in awe of how wonderful it felt to be acknowledged so properly and so pleasantly.
Then again today, I was walking downtown and a gas and electric serviceman was getting into his pickup, saw me, warmly smiled and nodded his head.  It was more than a regular 21st century nod but more like a 1950's milkman making a friendly delivery and personally greeting the mistress of the house. It was that communicative.
I had previously thought old world charm gestures like these were endangered species, if not already extinct.  But the actions of these two gentlemen have me believing that there may still be a herd or two of these wondrous creatures left.

Update: Where am I Now?

A couple of people have been asking me how my resolutions/positivity pledges are going so far. They're curious to see if I've fallen off the pescetarian horse or if I've given in to some fanciful floral skirt just as spring comes knocking.  Well, here's an update:

I am going strong in the shopping department!

And...

I'm still on the pescetarian horse, but just barely dangling with my bootstraps stuck in the stirrups and my tiny but mighty hands clutching the reins for dear life. Why? Well I was doing fairly well for about 3 weeks and then a piece of steak (of all things, it had to be a piece of steak!) staked its way through my pledge. My mom had marinated  too much and fearing that it would go bad, she ordered ("asked" in reality but you say tomato, I say tomato) me to eat it.  With a dab of honey mustard, I hate to say it but it was rather delicious.  By the fifth bite however, I was regretting my choice.
I haven't slipped up since, but that doesn't excuse this major slip-up.  Thus, I say I am dangling off the horse just barely holding on because my bootstraps are stuck in the stirrups and I stubbornly refuse to let them budge.

Zumba in the Tub

I've been thinking a lot about personal wellness lately and what it means besides the obvious "do-goodery" mentality. It's obviously a personal definition since it's about personal wellness. But while definitions may vary, I think the results are pretty similar. The results are supposed to make you feel serene, centered, content, revitalized and for lack of a better word, full of wellness.
So how do you achieve this awesome state of balanced bliss? Wouldn't you love to know?
But like some things in life, you have to figure out the path to your personal wellness through first-hand experience.
This past week, I've been pondering my special formula. I haven't figured out the perfect concoction yet and I suspect it will always be some sort of work in progress as I change and develop as a person.
However, I have figured out a couple of key ingredients to my recipe and I would like to share them with you...
Taking a Bath. I can't remember the last time I took one, so I changed up my routine and took a bath to relax, to submerge, to soak. For those 45 minutes, I erased the worries in my mind and concentrated on feeling purely in the moment. I reminisced about fond memories, beautiful sunsets, and times of warmth and friendship. At the end of my bath, I felt positive and renewed...and positively renewed.
New Class at Gym. Lately, I've been taking more classes at the gym. Last week, I took a Zumba class and went all out even though I didn't know the moves this last week. When Miguelito (did I say Miguelito? I meant Miguel - the wonderful instructor) popped his booty, I, albeit pathetically, popped too...and it felt good.
There was always an apprehension about going back to Zumba after my first class I attended many months back. I kept thinking that people were staring at me in the mirror, pointing at my failures, and laughing as I turned in the other direction when everyone else was perfectly in sync with Miguel. I was sure that I would make a fool of myself and told myself I wouldn't go back; instead I wimped out and headed to familiar territory like yoga. But this past week, I decided to give it a try since I had resolved to challenge myself in unexpected ways. About a third of the way through this class, I realized that there were plenty of people with two left feet still dancing along multiple steps behind and not caring about how they appeared. They were just dancing to the beat, living, and enjoying themselves...and even if they cared about appearances, no one was staring, pointing or ridiculing them.
So I figure personal wellness should be like Zumba class in a tub for me. I have to relax, submerge and soak until I erase my worries, anguish less, dance to life's beat, remember to live, and of course in time enjoy my booty pops.

Guidelines

Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King Jr!

Like so many, I am at a crossroads in life right now. I have ambitions and doubts about the future, hopes and worries about feeling fulfilled, desires for what my career, my life, myself will/should be this year, in 5 years, in 10 years, and so on. I have to figure out how to get there...hopefully in a happiness-maximizing way.
I took a psychology class called the Science of Happiness last year and learned that certain people feel draft to-do lists and feel satisfaction at accomplishing each task and being about to finish the entire list. I suspect that these people like planning and have a structure. I used to be a chronic "list person" but that hasn't always served me well. So I'm going to try something different and publish guidelines I'd like to adopt because thus far they've work for me. By blogging about them, I feel like I'll be held more accountable for incorporating them into my life.
If you see me, hear from me, happen to find out I'm not following these guidelines, I give you full permission to reprehend me (especially since none of them are difficult, I have no excuses!).

To try:

-personal wellness (more on this later but I attribute this to Angela who brought up how important it is)

-new resolutions that'll reform bad habits and challenge me each month

Must do:
-drink more water
-exercise at least 4 days a week including at least 1 class/week and 30 min swim/week
-get more sunshine
-go for a walk a least once a week
-practice instruments and incorporate art into my life again
-finish a book once a month
-work on Chinese
-let go of anxiety, relax more
-wake up and sleep earlier, regularly
-pray