Building a Bridge (and getting over it)

A week with one's mother can do wonders for the heart. A few days in New Orleans can revive a sad soul. Unexpected visits with dear old friends can bring back remembrances of why we a social creatures that need to have fun and be merry with one another. Needless to say, I think I am a different person than I was when I arrived on Wednesday with a broken heart.

I'm getting back to work, hitting the books by day and the bars by night. I saw my old friend last night who happens to be visiting here from Austin with her jet-setting boyfriend. I've rediscovered my center of gravity, regained composure, and rocked a few pool tables since I arrived. I don't know when I will go back to Atlanta, since I brought all my clothes and books I don't have much to worry about. I might just stay here to bring in the New Year, I can't wait for 2010 to be over.

Tonight the New Orleans Saints are playing against the Atlanta Falcons. I'm hitting the local bars and rooting against Atlanta. I guess you could call me a traitor, but Atlanta has never been my favorite place and New Orleans is much cooler. Until then, it's back to academic writing!

Voodoo Haircuts and the Holidays

Today has been the girliest day ever. Mom and I started the day with a trip to the salon. I got an awesome haircut and blow dry. While I usually argue that the nail salon is my personal panacea, the hair salon works just fine. An awesome dude did my hair and offered me voodoo advice for my current breakup. I laughed, but refused to provide an object my ex has given me to conjure voodoo. Only in New Orleans will your gay hair dresser offer you a shoulder to cry on and a voodoo doll!

Following our trip to the salon, we went and had awesome food at a pan-Asian buffet. The sushi chef made me some spicy tuna rolls to order, and I was stuffed by the end of the meal. We finished off the evening by shopping at a local store. Surprisingly, the place was almost empty, maybe people in New Orleans just don't feel the 2 days before Christmas compulsion to shop as folks in other cities do.

Now we're chilling and listening to Buena Vista Social Club, I got my mom hooked!

Driving, Buena Vista Social Club, and Family

I set out on a long journey today to visit my mom for Christmas. Traveling alone, I naturally caught up on phone calls, smoked a pack of camels and listened to music. I borrowed a Buena Vista Social Club CD for the trip and ended up listening to it throughout the entire drive, despite the fact that I had 5 other CDs in the player.

As I drove along, I wished I was dancing on a beach somewhere in Latin America. Buena Vista Social Club brought me to a completely different place where drinks have umbrellas, no one speaks English, and mosquitoes eat you alive. I drove through Alabama for hours pretending that I was in Mexico and continually tried to translate the Spanish lyrics in my head.




Needless to say, my journey was wonderful and I enjoyed the giddy solitude. As soon as I went over the long bridge from Slidell into New Orleans, I knew I was about to be surrounded by love. I got so happy as I drove down the main drag to my mom's house. For the first time ever, I felt like coming to my mom's house in New Orleans was like coming home. A weird feeling in retrospect, considering that I have never lived here.

After hanging with my mom for hours, I headed out for a game of pool to close out the night. A full day indeed!

Awesome New Song

This is the latest release by Dr. Dre Snoop and Akon off a new album that's coming out in February. It's really sweet so I thought I would share it here and dedicate it to my people in L.A. It's called Kush. Last night I heard Snoop talking about it on Atlanta radio and he mentioned that he has "longevity love." Yes you do Snoop and Dre., I've been listening to you guys since I was in the 5th grade and you still both kick ass.

Shopping!

I have recently discovered that I not only love shopping for myself, but I love shopping for others as well. I finished all of my Xmas shopping today and it was a blast. I wish I could reveal what I bought, but then I would ruin it for some of my readers (namely my mother).

There is one person who I bought for that I know for sure doesn't read my blog--my roomie's 4 year old daughter. I had a great time at Target finding her a Barbie doll. It was almost as exciting as buying clothes for myself. What did I buy her? Fashionista Barbie (of course).

I am amped about leaving for the holidays this Wednesday and saying bye-bye to Atlanta for a short period. Until then, it's back to academic writing for me!

Break-ups, Boots, and Indiana Jones

In my bummed out state my mind wanders a lot. For several hours, that scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where the guy rips out a still beating heart and shows it to his victim kept plaguing my thoughts. This is my filmic representation of the break-up I am currently enduring.


Rather than imagine anthropological parallels to having a broken heart, I did what was best for me: I went shopping, got my nails done and shot some pool. I got an awesome pair of boots from Macy's and some really cute tights with little stars in the stitch. The boots are super cute and go well with the new sweater (mentioned below) and some skinny jeans that I haven't been able to fit into a few years. I guess one good thing about being depressed is that you lose weight--I haven't been able to eat much since this all happened.

Karma

This is a tale of an interesting twist that I cannot resist writing down.

The background: My roommate has been going through a spate of bad luck that doesn't seem to be getting any better.

The setting: the ladies room of a Monday night comedy club.

What happened: My roommate overheard a woman crying on the phone in the bathroom. She was asking someone to come down to the bar and bring cash because her credit card had been declined for her bar tab. My roommate, thinking that she needs to do something about her own bad luck decides to help the woman out. She tells this woman that she'll pay her tab, and writes down her phone number so this woman can call her later and pay her back when she has the chance.

My roommate comes out of the bathroom and tells me about this. She says that she did it because she needs to do something about her karma --this bad luck has to change.

After we got home later, the woman from the bar sent my roommate a text to make arrangements to pay her back tomorrow.

The twist: it turns out the woman from the bar is named Karma. 

Wasted Away Again in Breakup-Ville

Love is by far the most disappointing promise in life. We grow up being told that when we get older we will find the "one" and be happy for the rest of our lives. That is the most unfulfilled promise I can think of. Love changes, people change, they distrust one another and do horrifying things in the name of love.

People often reference the idea that religion has been the justification for more murders and warfare than anything else. I think that love is far worse. It is the justification for more abuse, hurt, anger and the gamut of negative emotions than anything else.

I am pretty sure I am destined to be a spinster. Too bad I don't like cats. But the perennial broken heart is far worse than being alone.

As always, I look to Woody Allen for break-up advice.I guess it's better than listening to REM, U2 or  resorting to the cliche Gloria Gaynor.

Eternal Sunshine

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is by far one of my favorite movies. Although I haven't seen it in a very long time, it still manages to be thought provoking even in its absence. It makes me wonder how far people will go to forget pain and anguish. If you could erase someone from your memory who has hurt you deeply, would you do it?  Are memories the hardest part of walking away? While the upshot of this movie is that the good memories were too strong to erase, it denies a certain recognition of the tipping point where the good no longer outweighs the bad. This musing is definitely based upon hindsight of a film that has influenced me greatly but still remains somewhat of a shadow in my mind. I have added it to my mental queue of films to see again  and I might even muse about it at a later time. For now, I've added a couple of clips...


Here is a music video of this film set to Coldplay:



And of course, the official trailer:

Grappling with WikiLeaks

The immense hype concerning WikiLeaks drew me to the site today to see what this is all about.

Because the site has limited search functions, I was unsure where to begin. Like a moth to the flame I  went to the Mexico page to see if there was any new information I could use for my dissertation. There wasn't a single thing about the narcotics conflict in Juarez that I wasn't already aware of, and I read all of the available information.

However, I did get quite an unexpected laugh from one of the wires. This confidential document described a 2010 conference between Latin American heads of state as " dominated by press accounts of ALBA country theatrics and their usual proclivity towards third world, anti-imperialist rhetoric. Nothing practical was achieved".

It wasn't this part that made me laugh, but a detailed description of an altercation between Hugo Chavez (Venezuela) and Uribe (Columbia):
 
"Chavez reacted emotionally accusing Colombia of having sent assassination squads to kill him and ended a verbal and physical tirade with “You can go to hell; I am leaving (the lunch).” Uribe responded, “Don’t be a coward and leave just to insult me from a distance.” Verbal and body language continued to escalate, until Raul Castro stepped in to urge civilized discussion."

Who would have thought that Fidel's little brother was a peacemaker?

(As a disclaimer, I am still unsure how I feel about this website and if it compromises the U.S or not. I am not promoting or condemning it: I am ambivalent at this point and need to learn more)

What do you think of WikiLeaks? Please leave a comment and help me decide how to feel about this.

Insomnia

It's 5am and I can't seem to wind down for bed. After writing letters and poems that I will never send to the addressee who is plaguing my thoughts, I need something else. Naturally, I reach out of my mind and straight for my blog to put the heavy thoughts away and engage with the world in lighter way.

I am a huge fan of music and have been all of my life. It seems as though I am never at a loss for a song to suit the situation. No matter how I am feeling, a song always seems to come to mind that encapsulates the given moment or emotion. While in the days before internet you had to rely on memory, CDs and radio, now any song that comes to mind can be pulled up with ease.

This morning's tune is Shattered by OAR. The refrain, "turn the car around" keeps running through my mind like there is no tomorrow as it suits my deeper philosophical questions (usually it goes through my head when I am driving, but not today). Can we ever turn the car around when we are not the only ones driving?

New Sweater

Every year my best friend and I buy each other gift cards to Victoria's Secret. I know its not very original or creative to buy the same gift for each other every year (our birthdays are about a month apart), but it makes us both happy and we have done it for years. Last night, in a cold sweat from shopping withdrawals, I went online and spent the whole gift card only minutes before an additional sale on clearance items ended. Here is my favorite (and most appropriate to post online) purchase:

I know you're shocked that I went for the lingonberry (its pretty close to fuchsia!) I really like the sleeves, it looks really soft, and hopefully it won't be too long on me at my grand height of 5'2.

I sometimes wish that Victoria's Secret would get a couple of short and thick models so I could get a sense of how long their clothes would be on me. Their models are so tall that I have to estimate that if the clothes reach their knees, they will probably be down to my shins!

If worst comes to worst, at least I'll have a cute sweater dress to rock with knee high boots and tights.

My First Rock Concert in Years

Last night I had the chance to see Switchfoot and American Bang at the 99x Mistletoe Jam. A few hours before the show a friend gave me the tickets because she couldn't make it and I got to go. It was pretty awesome, these were pit tickets and I stood in front of the stage most of the night.

I hadn't heard of American Bang before, but they put on an excellent show nonetheless. I was totally impressed with their music and performance on stage. Heavy rock, great lead vocals, and really good musicians overall. I think we can expect good things from this Nashville based band.

Switchfoot was off the hook. They are even better live than they are on the radio and really know how to put on a show.

While I really liked the music, I was shocked that there wasn't a mosh pit. Makes me wonder if its my age, or the fact that this was the first rock show I have been to outside of California. Who knows? But either way, I really lucked out with this show last night!

Awesome Song and Video

I think this is my new favorite song.

December

My favorite month of all time and it just keeps getting better as the years go on. Why, you ask?
Well, to begin with my birthday is in December. I love birthdays. I am not one of those people who find them unimportant, depressing, or lame. I don't get embarrassed when people sing happy birthday to me in public, and I don't mind celebrating numerous times over a week-long period.

Then, after my personal little holiday are the birthdays of three of my nieces, one of my nephews, my brother (ok its the last day of November, but close enough), and my best friend since childhood.

Then we have the holidays, which are cool and we all know about them. Great shopping, exchanging gifts, all the good stuff. I always go home. See a movie and hit up the beach on Christmas and eat some very Jewish Chinese food if I am lucky. I can recall the last 5 years of Christmas' by the movies I have seen on that date. (Sherlock Holmes 2009, Yes Man 2008, Juno 2007, Night at the Museum 2006, Cheaper by the Dozen 2005, Lemony Snickett 2004....)

Enjoying my first snowfall on my 24th birthday in New York

But then, the best part of December is that it goes out with a bang: New Years Eve. The best holiday of the year if you ask me, its kind of like the calendar saved the best for last.