A Daily Dose of Zen Sarcasm!

In Like A Lion, Purring

Some days I realize how much I love certain things.  And of course, being who I am, I feel I must share those things with strangers.

So without further ado, a small list of things to whet your palate:

1. I love Capitol Hill.  I will even go so far as to aver that Capitol Hill is THE AWESOMEST Washington DC neighborhood, therefore possibly enraging the über electic hipsters over in Dupont Circle, and the  diverse trendsetters in Adams Morgan, which I do not wish to do because they can kick my ass with their cool shoes and their sardonic glances.  I do not care if I enrage the Georgetowners, however-- I can beat them down with my awesomeness singlehandedly. 
Okay-- back to my point: there is simply no better neighborhood than Capitol Hill to walk around and see pretty and culturally-stimulating things and be a mom (and drink awesome coffee, and get cute baby things and cute things for grown-ups  too).  Now, mind you, anyone can be a mom anywhere, but there are few places on earth where in the span of six blocks you can run into loads of people you have met thanks to the networking efforts of the neighborhood itself and know that people are not just friendly but actually looking out for you.  This place is kid and mom friendly, and every outing is an opportunity to make a friend or just chat to someone nice: that is the kind of overwhelmingly nice atmosphere one can find around here.  It's like a village, which is what is necessary to raise a child.  *dabs tear*

2. I love edamame.  It's good; it's easy; it's good for you.  And even baby loves it :o)

3. I love THIS LIP GLOSS!!!! *SWOOOOOOOON*  This lip gloss will make you feel so very sophisticated and moisturized, you will light a candle at my altar if you should buy it.

4. I am loving this duvet cover and sham set from Ikea.  I TOLD you Ikea was evil.

5. Looooooooving the awesomest book EVER (more on this as I read more of it), called "The Female Brain." It explains so much you'll want to burst into tears of grateful recognition. 

6. I must give a shoutout to one of my favorite gossip sites ever because it's very funny and you'll want to go read often: idontlikeyouinthatway.com

7. Finally, if you live in the DC Metro area and you want to do something really romantic and original for your sweetheart, contact the Singing Capital Chorus. I don't think there is anything more romantic than being serenaded with song, and these guys are great :o)

If there are things you would like to share with me and which fill you with joy, please either comment or email me.  I love trying out new things and having new loves. 

Happy March, everybody!

Just Doing It Because I Love You

I just thought I'd do a quickie blog sending a shoutout to a couple of people who've contacted me through Zen Sarcasm lately. I think the Internet is a wonderful, powerful tool to create communities and build new bonds, so here are several things you should check out because the people behind them are cool and nice. So give them a click and be nice yourself :o)

Check out:

* BirthVillage.com: Brian and Rachel, who seem like a very sweet couple, had a great idea-- come up with a cute site for birth announcements, baby blogs and other tools to spread happy news with wired friends and family even more quickly than you can pick up a phone (and with less-grainy pictures, as well). The result is a really easy to navigate and adorable little site, with a cozy feel. Good luck, you guys!

* I know, this one is not a website. If you're not a reader, I have two things to say: How did you get this far? and, You really should consider reading because it's quite fun.
And if you're a mom, you might appreciate Momma Zen, by Karen Maezen Miller. Her book has the serene voice of a Zen Buddhist priest (which she is, by the by), and fills you with empathy for yourself and for the mother you must become one day at a time.

* Today's Mama is another website (and the mama blog section, where yours truly appears!): Handy guides to the city you live in-- what could be better? Well, there are good articles and other cool blogs, and hey: moms give moms support, right?

________

It just occurred to me that I have zillions more recommendations stored in my brain. I will have to mind-dump and share some more soon.

________

And just to be totally random (and because it is COLD outside), here is a quote from one of my favorite movies EVER:

DJ No. 1 All right, campers, rise and shine! — and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooooold out there today.
DJ No. 2: It's cold out there everyday. What is this, Miami Beach?

Feeling Very 120s W, 36ish N

Sometimes I find it a little heartbreaking to be so far away from California.

Right now I'm listening to "Surf Rider" and thinking of all the things that make living in California awesome. Specifically, the things that make living in *Northern* coastal California awesome:

* The weather, hands down. I am enjoying the summer here, but it is mostly due to things such as central air conditioning, brick construction, malls, and giant doses of ice-cold water. And also, because I do enjoy DC very much. But please-- nothing can EVER beat 65-70 degrees, always.

* The surf culture, and boys (and okay, girls--blah, boys are the better eye-candy for me) on their surfboards and in tight, tight wetsuits. Granted, it does get ridiculed and it does deserve a little ridicule: most people who surf all the time develop this holier-than-thou attitude, as if they were somehow closer to everything important and sacred because they can stand up on a board. But by the same token, it is that sweet and goofily spiritual attitude that has made the state so open-minded, I think. That and, you know, pot.

* Smoke-free restaurants. I hate the fact that people smoke while they eat around here, and that they do it right next to me. Your food should not be complimented by soupçon d'ashtray.

* The ocean is on the correct side: west and left. It's taken me a really long time to get used to the fact that east around here means toward the ocean.

* The lonesome Grizzly bear on the state flag. It's kind of a cheez flag, but I miss seeing it.

* Fresh artichokes, strawberries and Brussels sprouts that don't break the bank. Anytime I look at a Fresh Express salad wrapper or at Bunny Luv carrots, I get a little misty-eyed. Oh, Salinas and Watsonville.... you're so poetic from far, far away.

* A taqueria everywhere you look. And excellent Mexican food too. We have found a couple of yummy places here, but they are not Mexican really. And somehow that kinda makes a difference.

* Fresh avocados nearly year-round. Mm..... avocados.

* Marianne's banana ice cream..... mmmmmmMMmmmMM!

* Driving 5 hours in any direction and knowing with perfect certainty that you're still in California. There is a bit of a testosterone-driven, pissing-contest quality to that I think but I do think it's good to point it out. While it is pretty cool to be so close to everything here on the East Coast, sometimes you can really feel the crunch and the mild claustrophobia of everything being so packed together. But it's also great for exploring different things and for pushing pins into the map.

* The magnificent, wide-open spaces found there. Not that there aren't magnificent, wide-open spaces anywhere else; but they aren't in California.

* The Pacific Ocean. The coast. The breeze. The smell. The coldness. The beaches. Even the seagulls.

* The morning fog-- so thick and pristine and enveloping. Fog is usually best in the mind's eye because it does have this maddening property when it's been 47 days and you still can't see farther than out to the mailbox.

* The smell of coastal redwoods and cypresses.

Hmm...... more later.

I am suddenly craving a burrito really badly. And a barefoot walk in 60-degree water.

Lost in (map) Translation

If you've ever seen the movie "Lost in Translation," perhaps you remember the opening scene where Bob Harris (Bill Murray) looks out the car window as his driver pulls into Tokyo.  The horizon is lit up with neon but, apart from a few quintessential recognizables with their namebrands in English, it's all in Japanese --of course-- and the result is this visual cacophony of things you feel you should recognize but obviously cannot.

Now imagine that you arrive in a city where you can read everything --because it's in English, a-duh-- but it still feels as cacophonous in your brain because you don't know where the streets lead you.  Where is this McLean and why do you keep telling me about it?  Where is east and west and north?  South what?  Tpk?? We're on a toll road?  Where the hell are we going?

But then,out of the murkiness of all those exits arising like a fair and penile beacon, the Washington monument signals proudly and a little understanding dawns in my head.  The next 45 minutes are spent not busying the mind trying to figure out where we are: they are spent repeating the following sentences:

"OMG.  We're dead.  We died.  We will surely die.  That's it: we're dead."

Thank you for the scariest taxi ride ever, Mohad.

Welcome to the National Capital Area.

The Post Where I'm The Butt of the Zen Sarcasm

I have both an inferiority and a superiority complex-- they tend to be one and the same. One side of the coin is arrogant and holier than thou. The other is paranoid and mousy.

It is for this reason that sometimes I don't even know whether I should bother reporting some of my more mundane activities. Part of me thinks that you all will stop your daily lives because *I* will be gone (le gasp!). But apparently the part of me that is connected to the hemisphere of my brain that types up this ditty is the inferiority-complex bound one and I think to myself, ".....but honestly! Who out there reading this is seriously going to care out there that I'm going to have burly men pack up my ENTIRE HOUSE; ship Gracie off with my mother and have her face her first time EVER in 45 degree weather and below; spend a week cooped up in a hotel with an infant (and NO INTERNET!!!!!! AACK!); and then proceed to fly with said infant and husband through the night, having to endure the evil looks of people who do what I used to do when I was childless and just stare with disgust at the baby and roll their eyes and seem to say,

"Oh Jesus F. Christ. A baby-- it had BETTER behave, or ELSE."

And now I want to say to that childless me and to all those glarers the following thing:

"Or else WHAT? He is a baby, for crying out loud! What are you going to do, shame him into behaving????? Hrrumph.

Grr. For the record, he TOTALLY behaved better than the older kids around him. He stayed put AND he slept through both flights. So there.

_____

But as it turns out, the whole point of letting people know where you are is not about haughtiness or megalomania. I'm told that it's apparently more related to good manners than anything else.

Good manners? Who knew. But now you know. And you know why I've been MIA posting-wise.

And okay well, we're not done with our nomadic trek. We will eventually be living out our days full of Zen Sarcasm from the confusing and history-laden grid of the DC-metro area. But for now, it is all about Californ-y and about the family!

I hope you're all warm and bundled up, because peeps... this blog ain't in Hawaii no more!

Happiness is a Warm Kaimuki

As I was driving back home today from one of the cutest, quaintest neighborhoods in Hawaii and looking west toward downtown, I realized just how pretty Honolulu is. It of course helps that today the sky is impossibly blue. And by "impossibly" I mean that it has a weird depth and tonality that almost seem more like today's sky comes courtesy of Sherwin-Williams. There is just one cloud visible where I'm sitting (outside, in the lana'i.... in my shorts..... hahahahahaha). It's shaped like some sort of bizarre flying beagle. Snoopy, is that you?

So yes.... the highway was smooth... the sun was high... and the skyline looked imposing, modern and sexy. The pretty hills looking toward Diamond Head and the ocean were dotted with houses and patches of green. And it was so nice... just..... pleasant and pretty and comforting to know I'm here. There are many things I miss about my old little corner of the world. But then there are things like that are so fun. Like Kaimuki, which is this kind of quirky neighborhood. You wouldn't really think that it's all that great --many things around Honolulu where tourists aren't totally expected often have a bit of a sad air of disrepair. As if shininess and prettiness were deterrents fo' da locals, in a way. But if you look a little closer, you'll realize that there is a method behind the madness: in many ways, in Hawai'i it's always the inside that counts. If you walk around the neighborhood, all the things that looked a little shabby or desperately in need of a coat of paint are holding treasures inside. Some of my favorite treasures in Kaimuki:

The Calico Cat quilt store where you couldn't fit another bolt of fabric if you wanted, but you would try anyway. They have such fun stuff!

Café Laufer has such good and hearty food, that it's a sacrifice to order a small portion. But then dessert comes and you just have to have some.... oooh. The whipped cream alone is worth a trip.

3660 on the Rise (and the "Rise" is Wilhelmina Rise, or the street that intersects Wai'alae Avenue) is a happy dining experience. Happiness, however, is too tame a word when it comes to describe how delicious their taro bread rolls are. Happiness does not begin to compliment how nice the staff is. And happiness might be something you can feel when you realize that you need not pawn off anything to pay the bill.

Otay... enough for now. I have something grown-up to do.