Recently I noticed that this blog is following a pattern much like my academic interests during college; as I’ve stated before, I was an art history major but my real passion was cultural anthropology.  When I first started this blog I thought I would fill it with lovely pictures of feminine furniture/design and great shopping deals I found online.  Perhaps I’d throw in a museum review here or there.  So far this has not been the case, but today I will change my tune.  Or at least return to what I thought my original tune was going to be.

Because I work at a prop house filled with unique furniture and decorative pieces, the only websites I feel comfortable perusing in my down time (which is becoming more precious and rare hence my lack of blog-attention) are design websites and blogs.  This morning while doing my usual apartmenttherapy.com skimming I felt something I haven’t felt for a long time- like I found a new best friend. 

A new, Moroccan best friend!  The soft, fluffy texture of these blankets paired with the silver sparkle is like something that came to me in dream.  I’ve always had a vague recollection that something like this existed, but now that I’ve seen it with my own eyes I truly feel like I’ve found my decorative equivalent of a kindred spirit.  I want to stay up late under one giggling and whispering secrets in its ear.  I want to go backpacking through Europe with it then be maid-of-honor at its wedding.  I feel these blankets understand me and I understand them-  they’re slightly over the top while still retaining a sense of decorum and class- like a drag queen who painstakingly recreates the vintage feel of golden-era Hollywood.  The fact that they can be purchased through websites such as this one only strengthens my loyalty.  However, it may be a while until this good friend and I meet…. my bank account doesn’t exactly match up with my taste.  One day!  One Day!

Kind of a heavy one...

I feel I should start this article with a disclaimer.  I do not like to crap in the woods.  I drove an SUV in high school AND college.  But a recent article, which I shall introduce in un momento, got me really riled up about...

Climate change and global warming.  They were always very distant concepts for me until I spent a month in the the Himalayas of India.  I was there to research Buddhist temples with an Art History professor but the culture and people were really what fascinated me.  The green movement there isn't about trendy grocery bags and light bulbs that look like something from Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century.  It's about the potential loss of a culture that has been perfectly crafted and sustained over thousands of years in one of the world's unfriendliest climates.  All over the regional capital, Leh, I saw posters starkly reminding the locals and tourists that the nearby glaciers, the very thing that allowed any of us to be there, were rapidly dissapearing.  For centuries people have lived in the Ladakh Region of India because of the water the glaciers provide every spring.  If they go, Ladakhi culture will go.  This guy's efforts are certainly valiant, but it's not just a Ladakhi problem....

I couldn't help but be reminded of my experiences in Ladakh while indulging my fantasy of returning to Asia with this photo essay from foreignpolicy.com: Paradise Lost.  The term "environmental refugees" struck me as particularly poignant and that's really why I felt the need to write this entry.  Though there is no mention of global warming, any idiot can connect the dots and conclude that a lot more of this sort of migration is going to happen in coming years; this got me thinking about issues closer to home.

Reading "Paradise Lost" made me feel incredibly lucky that the choice to give up my Midwestern roots and come to New York was all my own.  The force wasn't environmental and it CERTAINLY wasn't economic.  I came of my own free will but increasing amounts of people don't have that choice.  Really, I just wanted to share the FP photo essay... but now I've got myself thinking...

The truth is I'm no better than the average person when it comes to fighting global warming and climate change, but one of the things I do appreciate about New York is the reduction in waste and carbon use it has forced upon me.  I take public transportation.  I reuse plastic bags.  I suppose my one vice is plastic bottles; I will admit though that the sound they make when thrown into the recycling bin does slightly resemble the whimper of a baby seal.....  

 Anywho, for the sake of my sleep (someone has to be at their therapist at 7:15 am tomorrow!)  I will leave you with the articles I've provided.  If nothing else they will make your bed feel warmer and that glass of water on the nightstand taste a little more precious.

We don't need no mo' crap.

WARNING: WHITE PERSON PROBLEM!

No, I don't mean getting a vicious sunburn or not being able to properly fill out the back of my jeans.  My friend who was in the Peace Corp in Senegal introduced me to this term when I complained about not getting enough time on a waverunner.

Anyway, it’s probably more appropriate to refer to my “issue” as a developed world problem.  That “issue” is having too much crap!  I can still pinpoint a particularly resonant moment freshmen year of college- my throat tightened as the shopping cart at Target started to fill.  There was the plastic rolling storage unit along with all the items that would fill it: a mini tool set, light bulbs, pepto bismol, wool socks, cotton socks, nail files, a can of Raid...  It almost scares me how well I knew myself back then- I knew I would carry all of this with me for four years and most likely never use any of it.  And that is absolutely what happened.  That was no easy feat considering I moved roughly 6 or 7 times throughout college.

After college and before I moved to China I purged myself.  I donated, threw out, gave away, burned, and repurposed a large chunk of my possessions.  I had had enough and I was not going to bring this literal “baggage” with me on my Asian adventure.  Shockingly I’ve kept my lifestyle relatively clutter free since then and I hope to keep this good thing going for as long as possible.  Don't get me wrong, I still have a crap-load of stuff but compared to my former life I look like Gandhi.

This brings me to my point of the day- I'm sure you know someone like me.  Hell, you’re probably like me! You're a spoiled, over-indulgent clothes horse to whom an over abundance of things, sometimes figuratively but most often literally, serves as a stumbling block.  If the thought of how much stuff you own or once owned makes you anxious THIS TIPS FOR YOU!  Instead of asking for gifts, or worse yet getting gifts you don’t want/need, ask people to give a donation in your name and do the same for them.

I learned my poor behavior from my mother and I felt silly spending money to buy her another piece-of-crap gift and I would feel even sillier spending more money to put that piece of crap in a box and mail it halfway across the country.  So I did some research and found this: https://www.rescue.org/donate/mothers-day-v3

Father's Day is around the corner and I now intend to give this (even if my father's never picked up a power tool in his life): http://www.fromharmtohome.org/

When I feel the need to change things up I'll probably give a microloan through http://www.kiva.org/  or a group that is closer to my heart: http://en.wokai.org/

If you still aren't satisfied try: http://www.changingthepresent.org/

And if you think you'll  have a difficult time giving up your selfish tendencies, REMEMBER this is not a purely selfless act.  The warm fuzzy, feeling you get when you receive/give a gift like this is far better than the chokey/queasy feeling I described earlier in this entry.  So be a little selfish, its okay.

It's about time

There are few things I enjoy enough to draw me away from tasks such as tweezing my eyebrows while listening to Office reruns in my free time. Writing, however, is one of them. It's likely I am better at tweezing my eyebrows than writing, but please bear with me (insert kitsch picture of me and a grizzly embracing) as I indulge my desire to return to writing.

Like so many members of my generation, as well as a frighteningly high number of baby boomers and grandparents, I think in Facebook updates and Tweets. As any person I would ever associates with in the real world would surely agree "Really loving this Diet Coke right now!"  is not worthy of an update or a tweet.  While "Pondering the existence of god" has no place in an update either.  I do try to keep my FB updates to a minimum which makes it hard to report on my daily capers and quandaries.  Well, here I am, on this blog, trying to find middle ground.  I can't guarantee I won't rave about beverages.  I can guarantee I won't rave about god.

Having lived in China for two years and now moving towards the end of my first year in New York City, I am constantly bombarded with experiences that are too irreverent not to share.  I can't say I haven't heard statements like "weirdos really must like you." OR "perverts really must like you." OR "pyschotics really must LOVE you!" at least a dozen times.  I prefer to believe it's not society's rejects who are attracted to me, its my better than average memory and reportage skills that make it seem that way.

The three things I feel the most fired-up over these days are dating, design, and dogma (or my lack thereof). Damn. That would have been a much better title for this blog.  Well, anyway..... welcome.