Colorstrology

I think it's fun to read my horoscope but I love how this site gives you your unique Pantone swatch to match your personality. I'm not sure that the description is completely accurate, but coincidentally (or not?!) Coral has been my favorite for some time now.

Words to Remember

People might forget what you said, 

people might forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel. 

- Maya Angelou

Burlesque

Can't wait to see this gem.

5 Things

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I thought I would take a moment to be thankful for a few of the little things in life that bring me joy.

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie - Got this recipe from Allrecipes and made it Sunday night. It was a hit with our dinner guests and even made great tasting leftovers.

Hauschka - Dusseldorf (love that word) based pianist and composer. Interesting, complex, ambient arrangements are perfect on the job tunes.

Herbal Tea - Trader Joe's Bedtime Tea is my current fav.

Dark Chocolate Covered Almonds - Once again, Trader Joe's

Kundalini Yoga - Since I started my current job, I have not been great at making a yoga practice priority. I just re-started working the desk at Radiance Yoga in Alexandria and took my first Kundalini Yoga class in quite some time. It really helps to keep me calm and centered.

Yogi Bhajan

Irony in a Nutshell

A few weeks ago I made my first Etsy purchase - a necklace entitled "Irony in a Nutshell". After my former carpooler pointed out that I inappropriately slam on the brakes for squirrels, I realized those furry woodland creatures hold a special place in my heart. I could not resist this little guy.

Thanks Jen Gourley Designs!

If life were a musical...

It has been a very busy and stressful week at work. My evenings have consisted of eating dinner and plopping myself into bed to cozy up to some Netflix. I've been catching up on Season 1 of Glee. I am in love with this show! Sure, it's a bunch of silly fluff where high school problems are resolved in random breakout of song. But it's great.

Of course there a little things about Glee (and the musical genre in general) that are hard to get past.  Like why does the teacher conduct like once every other episode, when clearly the students can sing their songs with no rehearsal or direction every other time? And why is it that there are people playing instruments in the Glee Club classroom for backup but when songs are performed outside the classroom, there are no musicians in site? If I thought about it much more, the list could continue.

No matter. There's just something about music that can communicate an idea or a feeling like no other medium. And when it's placed in the context of a story, it takes you to a whole new place. An escape, if you will.

Now if only I could bust out in song to express my every emotion at any given moment, without being looked at like a freak show. I could sing all my stresses and cares away... I guess that's what wine is for.

What the Fuck?

I know there has been quite a bit of apathy towards the mid-term elections this year. At least among some people who are not insane tea-baggers who think the 1950s were the good old days, and that we need to bring back some sort of idealized delusion of a by-gone era.  

Admittedly, this was the first time I've voted in a non-presidential election. I do understand why many people are apathetic and why many are just angry. But I do believe things are getting better. And even though you may not think you are affected now, policies that are put in place will affect you or your loved ones later. So I wanted to vote for someone who would support President Obama's efforts.

This is a great site that speaks to this apathy, and also gives some clarity to what has actually been accomplished in the past two years.

You Call This Sanity?

Last Saturday we attended Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and or Fear. Our plan was to metro in, get there around noon (when it was scheduled to start) and we'de be golden. Wrong ... After our long wait at IHOP (should have skipped IHOP) we got to the metro station a little later than planned. There was a HUGE line, wrapped around the block JUST to get into the station. OK – plan B. What? There is no plan B? We then decided we would drive in the direction of DC until we came up with a better plan. As we drove along I-66, we saw this line at the next metro station.

We decided on parking at the Arlington Cemetery and walked across the bridge into DC. We finally reached the sea of people around 1pm when Jon Stewart was to take the stage. BUT we could not see the stage OR any of the monitors OR hear any of the speakers! We gradually snaked our way as close as we could, and caught the end of the events audibly (still could barely see anything).

Despite the craziness of it all, it was fantastic that there was such a large turnout. I think it was estimated that nearly 200,000 people were in attendance, and I'm happy that I was there for this historic (will it be historic?) event. It was neat to see some dressed in costumes –

and a plethora of hand made signs:

But the highlight of the event was this panda climbing up a tree. Note the man shaking a Shake Weight.

Later in the day we watched the rally on the internet. It was great.