92. Cultural Judaism

I am half Jewish/half Christian. Yes, that's a thing. My mother is Christian and my dad is Jewish. We celebrate Christmas (but not the birth of Jesus) and sometimes Hanukkah. I don't do Easter (except Reese's eggs because all seasonal Reese's are reason enough for a holiday) and haven't been to a Passover Seder in years. And never have I actually kept Passover, although I do love charoset and matzoh.

But when I'm asked what religion I am, just to make things less complicated, I say Jewish. But what I mean is that I'm technically culturally Jewish.

I don't necessarily believe in what the Torah says, but what I do believe in is lox and bagels.

I'm proud to share a religion with such famous members of the Tribe as Jerry Seinfeld. Adam Brody/Seth Cohen. Natalie Portman. Winona Ryder. The Stillers! And don't forget - Jesus was a Jew.

It's difficult to articulate exactly why it is that I love being culturally Jewish. But I'm sure there is a Yiddish phrase out there that can explain it ... until I figure that out I will continue to kvetch and schlep and connect on a higher level with Larry David while watching 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' re-runs like the cultural Jew I am.

91. Livin' the Glam Life

Exhibit A:

(Source)

Exhibit B:

(Source: Shelby Siegel)

What do you mean you see a difference??

Diddy is livin' the glam life and so are we. We may not be drinking Ciroc on a yacht but we're still doin' it up like we are.

So the best example of livin' the glam life is throwing a white party. NOT a white person party, ahem. But just a white party. Wearing all white is about as glam as it gets. But I like to inject a little bit of glam into my every day life. So when I'm feeling down, I like to wear a pair of blingy earrings. Or listen to some glam music while driving to school. Watching any Bravo show automatically makes me feel more glam. Even the most mundane of every day activities can be glam if you just live the glam mindset. That's part of the reason I like to dress nice for school whenever I can. Hell, I even upgraded to a Macbook instead of sticking with Dell because it's more "glam."

So as I like to imagine Diddy shouting in front of the step and repeat at his annual White Party:

"Live the Glam Life!"

90. Bikram Yoga

Um, hello? ... Is this thing on? I'm backkkk.

Well today was a pretty life-changing day. I won't go into the details, but I got a new attitudeee. It feels pretty good.

Part of the reason is that I FINALLY made it to Bikram! It had been weeks, I tell ya, since I last got my sweat on.

So Bikram is yoga for crazy people (but anyone who does yoga is kind of crazy I think - I'm including myself). Every Bikram class is the same. It's a series of 26 poses, each done twice, in a 105 degree room. I know. I didn't think it was possible to sweat that much. I still remember the first time I ever went, and I was bent over in this pose which the instructor always says "should be like a Japanese ham sandwich" (meaning you're all smushed together ... I don't know I've never eaten one of those sandwiches) and my face was on my calf and ohmygod the beads of sweat! I guess I'm getting all those toxins out, eh?

I've always played it very safe. With everything. I've been doing more "normal" yoga for awhile (vinyasa flow-type stuff) but was always very intrigued by Bikram. So when I saw a Groupon for it (I go to Yoga 108) I snatched it up. And then thought oh shit what am I getting into? I still remember my first class when I showed up in my little yoga booty shorts and signing a waiver (!) saying that if something happened to me I wouldn't hold them responsible. And the teacher told me that since it was my first time, my only goal was to just stay in the room the entire time. So I played it cool and said, "Oh yeah, of course," like I hung out in 105 degree rooms all the time but on the inside I was freaking. Out.

Anddddd I ended up rockin' it. Not to be that annoying yoga chick bragging about her sun saluations or whatever but I really clicked with Bikram. Don't get me wrong, it's HARD. I get my ass-ana*kicked every single time. I'm a sweaty, nauseated** mess during it all. And sometimes, ok pretty much every time but the classes get so crowded, someone ends up touching my feet or I touch someone else's. And it's weird. But things get real when 30 scantily clad people are in there together. And if you can do one of those classes, you can seriously do anything.

It makes everything else in your life that might have been crazy seem sort of insignificant while you're stretching and kicking and sweating away. My instructor today kept saying wandering eyes, wandering body. And wandering mind. You have to just focus on the poses and not let your life crowd in. And then when class is over and I've properly savasana-ed I can go out and conquer the world. Once I shower though because no one wants to see that. I almost took a picture of myself post-class to put here but then I reminded myself that I do have some dignity.

*ass-ana. Asana. A pose. Never mind, yoga joke.

** They say it's GOOD if you feel sick. Isn't that crazy? It means it's working and you're cleansing your upper colon and stuff. Ok I don't know about that but there are a ton of health benefits apparently. And there is a pose where we're massaging our upper colon ... I don't know why I pay to feel hungover but I swear it's fun!

89. Eggs/Tortillas/Cheese/Salsa

I just cannot get enough of those ingredients together. I am in love with all of them as separate entities but together they are unstoppable!

I don't have a lot to say except mmmm I could eat Mexican egg burritos any time of day.

88. My iPhone

I am a late, and somewhat skeptically so, to the party. But I bit the bullet, and in the words of the highly persuasive Verizon salesperson, I drank the Kool-Aid.

I got an iPhone.

Ever since iPhones, Blackberrys and Droids became somewhat mainstream during college, I resisted. I didn't NEED to be able to access the Internet constantly. After all, I was already usually on my laptop doing schoolwork and spent an embarrassingly large amount of my free time browsing food blogs, drooling over J.Crew and sadly, on Facebook*. I thought it was sad that our generation was always glued to a screen -- laptops, TVs** and now smartphones!

But sometime over my final semester I realized that I couldn't avoid it for much longer. I became jealous of Angry Birds! And Words with Friends! And being able to look up any piece of information I wanted on the world wide web, no computer necessary! And my old skool slider phone had a little too much fun at Pig Roast and was now held together with a piece of scotch tape. So I for my graduation present I asked my parents for an iPhone. Well, I actually asked for a Blackberry, but that Verizon salesman was very, very persuasive.

So now I have a lovely iPhone and I'm tweeting with the greatest of ease! And I can text people pictures - and receive them! I sometimes read food blogs on my phone and sadly, check my e-mail constantly. But it's not like I get anything important, anyway. Mostly I just love how cool the white iPhone looks in my hand. That's no joke, I really do see the iPhone like an accessory, artfully peeking out of my humongous purse.

The phone and I are still in the honeymoon stage, and I hope that eventually I'll stop playing with all the apps compulsively and join the rest of the world again. Well, the rest of the world who is all on their smartphones, too.

Who am I kidding, I love this phone! Too bad I can't take a picture of the phone with my phone though...

*Speaking of screens, I also got a Kindle this summer and I kind of love it. Not that it'll ever replace a real book or anything. Also I can't always have my face glued to a screen, ya know?

**While I almost never watched TV while at school, while at home I am a legit couch potato.

87. Getting Mail

Getting mail makes me happy. Very, very happy. But it is so rare to get mail these days! I mean, mail that is exciting, not your tuition bills or what not.

But today I got the J.Crew catalogue* in the mail! My mom said I scared her when I shrieked. Yes, I shrieked because I love love J.Crew and wish my life could be the catalogue (is that weird?) but I don't know if I would have gotten the same excitement from looking at their clothes on the website. Part of the excitement was getting it in the mail!


Oh jeez the number of times I would rush to the post office on campus and peer into my little window. Man, was I usually disappointed! But when I got something that was not an ad for something on campus -- which would just go straight into the trash -- that could really make a day!

I now realize that my 87th favorite thing is actually getting good mail. Because let's face it, a reminder for class registration, when you already got 5 e-mails about it, is nothing to write home about. **

*Example of how rare mail is -- the computer thinks catalogue is misspelled! Oy, technology!

**Sorry, I couldn't help it.

86. Rockin' out in the car

Don't worry, I always fully obey traffic laws as well as have a complete and thorough understanding of my surroundings.

But while obeying said traffic laws there is nothing more satisfying than rockin' out to the radio! I hope that people in neighboring cars don't notice while we're stopped at red lights, but whatever, I'm fine with being that person. Although, I don't know what I look like while belting out along with the Glee soundtrack so maybe I should be embarrassed? Nahhh

Another fun favorite are car air instruments! Playing the seat belt guitar, the dashboard keyboard and the steering wheel drums ... please how can you resist a steering wheel drum solo??

No picture. I'm sure me in mid-solo in traffic is terrifying and would burn anyone's retinas.