What I Like About Wes Anderson

I was trying to be vague but it's easier if I'm direct.

I hate when I like something that is relatively below the radar of the masses but then that thing reaches a level of mass audiences. If it's music, I'm glad for the band but still annoyed that all these people who don't even really know what original, good music is now suddenly love this band. They wouldn't know good music if it was performed right in front of them in the subway tunnel. My thoughts only - but, really, it's all good. Same with movies. I'm not a pioneer (because I'm just not that cool) but I consider myself an early adopter of many things. Usually a few steps ahead of the curve.

Wes Anderson writes and directs some of the best movies. They appeal to the masses, I think, in large part due to the artistic cinematography. It's beautiful and unique. Well framed and more "portrait" looking story telling. While I love that aspect, what I love most is the characters. I closely relate. But I think a lot of people just don't. And those characters are really what make his movies so wonderful. They are sad. Not just sad but their entire outlook is based on a sad reality. Always, though, there seems an optimism about tomorrow. That tomorrow will come and sad they may be, it will be OK, everything will just keep on going. There's really not a hope for some unattainable happiness.

Trying to understand why some people relate more to this than others is just a wonder to me. I think maybe I've seen more sad movies than happy and so I see the world as slightly sad. Or maybe because I am slightly sad I relate more to the sad people. If two people with the exact same background watched the same movie, could one person relate more to the sad and one just completely  miss that part? It's weird how our brains appear hardwired to see the world one way or another.

Maybe that's why I'm drawn to create happy, pretty things. Happiness is what I long for. Maybe that's why Anderson's movies are so pretty too.

Who Are These People Anyway?

Alright, the kid is taking a bubble bath right now with his Papa on duty so in light of yesterday's post, I thought I'd take my own advice on write. Who wants to clean off their dinner plate right after they eat anyways?!

Sidenote: whenever we have two kids I imagine this might not be as easily done. (Read: be happy where you are when you're there because it's only like that for right now).

I'd have to say that living in the city is probably one of the most satisfying, fulfilling, exciting, convenient, magical things in my life. I live one mile from downtown. The thought of living even three miles from the center just totally makes me depressed. I'm not your typical city girl. And I say typical in the 'my life is nothing like Sex in the City' kind of way. So I think it rather comical that when I hear stories of friends (let's call them what they really are, acquaintances) that I imagine their life to be too much different than mine. After all, we're living in the same city and last time I checked most people don't live the lives we see portrayed in the movies. They might for an hour or so but never full time the way we imagine city girls in movies to live. But it's fascinating nonetheless.

One particular acquaintance of mine met me for lunch this afternoon with a colleague. She recently returned from a two week vacation to Italy. If anyone has the kind of life I imagine a Sex in the City girl has, it's this girl. She dates a lot. And we all know what I mean by "date". Apparently, it's code. To me, other people seem so much better at living in the moment than I do. It appears as though she goes day to day doing what she wants. She goes to work and after 5 o'clock is set in some social bar scene. Dating so many people is just a mystery to me. It's intriguing to think that people actually live like that. I don't think I could.

Another thing I think about other people is that when they get married their life is an exact replica of your typical wedding movie. It's all roses and diamonds and lush flowers. The hustle and bustle of a big todo. Magic. Excitement. Perfect wedding day. Followed by perfect newly wed couple moves in to their perfect new home/apartment and now lives in perfect HD. Does anyone know what I mean? Let's face it, wedding movies are the best. But not quite reality. Weddings are a blast and getting married is wonderful and living with your spouse is cool but it's not the movies. Maybe I'm the only one who romanticizes about other people's lives but they all seem so wonderful.

I hear the bathtub draining and know the end is here. But it was a good blogging while it happened. And his little voice is singing Happy Birthday to You. Random little bugger of mine.

Making Time for the Things that Fire You Up

Today has been about laundry, meal making and playing with Jack. Oh and dishes. Oh and sweeping too. Anywho. Whilst  sweeping I was thinking about how by the end of the day I will be tired and only wanting to curl out on the couch and watch some mindless show on TV. It made me think about how I never have time to do some of the things that I really love. That made me think about how at the end of the day, when my energy is spent, if there is still cleaning to do I usually will do some of it - but if the cleaning is done, I won't spend time indulging my interests. Conclusion: spend time on the things you love because at the end of the day you will always make time for getting the things done that need to keep the house in order.

This is why I am writing even now. The makings of butternut squash soup are simmering on the stove (it's a lovely, grey day in Seattle) and I could easily be doing more dishes or moving the couch and sweeping underneath it. Instead I'm choosing to write because it fills me up. Actually, it empties me in ways. Very good ways. Emptying my thoughts into this blogspot. (BTW Blogger just tried to autocorrect 'blogspot' into 'bloodspot'. You would think blogger would not autocorrect its own name).

As a practice, one day week I will not come straight home and do household chores. I will do something that I like doing. Frankly, working the job that I have full time does not fill me up at all. There are aspects that are satisfying which is probably why I am slow to make my dreams of self-employment happen. I guess it works for this period of my life.

I Hate Slicing Apples

Food is not my thing.
What I mean is: preparing food is not my thing.

For example, I enjoy a sliced apple with sliced cheese. But do I enjoy cutting the apple and cutting the cheese? No. Do I laugh at myself when I find that I am so stuck on convenience that I cannot even slice an apple with one of those apple slicer tools? Yes.

Another example, I like cookies. But the thought of pulling all of the ingredients out of the pantry, measuring them, dumping them in the stand mixer, folding in the chocolate chips, making little balls and putting them on the cookie sheet and then waiting 20 minutes for them to bake and then repeating the little ball process several times and then cleaning everything up exhausts me.

I mean, am I right here or what?

Luckily, my brain can detect this laziness and point it out as the true bum that it is and pump it into shape to get motivated to do the right thing. Laziness in food preparation is probably one of the main reasons this country has out of control health issues that are constantly on the rise. I'm a firm believer of the quote by Maya Angelou, "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better do better".

This post started as a poke of fun at how lazy I can be but has now shifted to food politics piece so I will just end by saying, once I discovered the real food movement I knew I had to make changes and I could no longer ignore how important it is to pay attention to what we put into our bodies. That's all. :)

The Biggest Let Down of the Year

What's being going on? I definitely feel like I have been running around with my head cut off the last few weeks and by the time I get home I have nothing left to give. I've been supporting three teams at work. We just hired my replacement so that I will be able to solely focus on my new team as an account associate (which might sound fancier than it is). In the mean time I am training my replacement. There simply is not enough time in the day to all that I need to do at my day job that pays the bills.

But let's back track. Awhile back, maybe 2 or 3 months, a mom friend of mine was offering to get me a sweet, dream job at a huge tech company.  Yesterday, I was thrown for a loop when she told me that she gave her job away to someone else. I will admit that I spent the evening on and off crying. I couldn't believe that after she knew how much I had wanted that job and how much she had made an effort to help get me a job there that she didn't even tell me when she was going to pass her job on to someone else. It is beyond frustrating to just feel like you work your ass off and strive everyday to do better and be better to get the life you dream of and always end the day feeling like that life you dream of is never going to be attainable. That big breaks happen for other people but not for you. On top of all of that, I thought this friendship was starting to develop into more than just basic meet the park level friendship and now I realize it's not. And now at this point I'm especially not interested. Honestly, I feel like a complete loser.

Guilt. That's the feeling I get for feeling so sorry for myself. Guilt. Ugly, black, dark and hopeless. Being in love with the world leads to unhappiness. I live a blessed life and feeling sorry for yourself is an ugly trait. Moving on will come with time. In the mean time, I feel a little the way it felt when someone broke up with you in high school.

How a Rose Garden Reminded Me To Stay the Course

Flowers and gardens make me feel so domesticated. The kind of plickity plack, plickity plack kind of way. I love to be surrounded by their beauty. I was in awe of the rose "tunnel". Looking up at the stems and flowers, you could just tell that this was a process. A patient process. 

My parents have an arbor (is that what it's called?) in their backyard. One year my Mom had me go out and start putting the branches through the sides to encourage it to grow like that. It never really did. Fact: that arbor is still bare as bare can be but with some straggly, sorry looking rose bush next to it. 

The thing is. And I've been trying to learn this lesson. If you want to be really amazing, to stand out, to not just be OK at something - you have got to put in the work and know that the work needs to be put in for YEARS. I have to believe that in hindsight the process will truly look  beautiful. 

Right now I can't decide if I feel like my parents rusting arbor or the sorry rose bush next to it. 

Weekend in LA

Earlier this month I visited LA with one of my friends from junior high - we met up with another friend from school who currently lives there. I can't even describe the feeling of jotting down the coast for a quick weekend away. By far it was the best vacation I've had in a very long time.  Not having to think about a toddler for 72 hours was complete bliss! 

I loved the short hike up to the Griffeth Observatory. The view of the city below is just amazing. I wish Seattle had something like that. And the smog is quite magical to look at. The rest of Saturday afternoon was spent lounging on the beach soaking up the sun. Ah, the  sun, the sand and the breeze from the ocean. 

Sidenote: we used Hotwire to book the car and hotel and got amazing deals! I've never used that site before - don't know why - and now I always will. 

We ended Saturday at the most delicious Mexican restaurant in Malibu. I was craving fresh guac for weeks after that. 

Ahhhh, best trip EVER!