all the single ladies

"If you are single, after graduation, there isn't one occasion where people celebrate you." 
Says Carrie Bradshaw in one of my favorite Sex and the City episodes, 'A Woman's Right to Shoes.'

Charlotte quickly chimes in with the mention of birthdays! And Carrie says but that's not about you as a single girl. And she's right. As we get older, birthdays become less and less of a big deal. And that's really OK. As long as I get some form of cake and enough Facebook wall posts exclaiming Happy Birthday!! I'm really justified.

But when you are a couple - there are so many occasions where it is about you. You and only you. And by you I mean you and your partner, of course. Not that I've had much experience with all of this, but I've seen enough TV shows, and read enough random blogs, and I know it to be true.

Yesterday, I came upon an absolutely ridiculous idea. Make my relationship status on Facebook 'single' (it had previously been nothing) and see if I could garner some 'likes.' Obviously I would never get as many as when people get into a relationship, with the humongous couple photo, but I want people to celebrate ME. The me that is single, and frankly nowhere near being in a relationship, and who is OK with that.

Yes, I would love to be a part of a couple. I do believe in monogamy and yes I have dreams as big as any romantic comedy.

But that isn't my life right now. And as Nora Ephron (rest in peace) once said:
"Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim."  


Yes, yes a thousand times yes. Why mope when there are huge necklaces to wear, and cupcakes to bake, and margaritas to drink and friends to laugh with and yourself to be happy with?

I'm trying my hardest not to be bitter when I see pictures of cute couples on Facebook, and walking down the street and just living their lives because let's face it, people are penguins in that we are drawn to each other. We all want a partner, but there are some of us who will put our life on hold until he waltzes in. Life is too short. And I have a lot of jewelry to wear.

Why you gotta be so mean?

Anyone remember back in the Livejournal days when you'd make the title of your post a lyric from something that you were listening to? Or did I just make that up?

OK I promise my favorite things are coming back ... but I don't think anyone is reading this thing so no real need to apologize eh?

So last week I wrote about some things that I was looking forward to in order to lift me out of a funk. It worked ... for about three minutes. But I'm going to try again. This week, I am looking forward to:

- My daddy *hopefully* taking me out to lunch here
- Wearing a new statement necklace - a J.Crew bubble necklace knock-off woohooooo!
- Seeing Rock of Ages with Margie and Jowa. Should be cheesy and amazing.
- Going to Happy Hour at American Sector. I've been perusing the drink menu and it'll be hard to decide, it all sounds so good. Leaning toward a Moscow Mule - never had one!
- Finally getting around to watching my DVR-ed episode of Sunday's episode of Girls. So sad it's the season finale though. I've become obsessed.

So this vodka makes me very happy :) (Hi Mom)

A lot of awesome

OK, so this isn't one favorite thing. But today was kind of a downer, despite having a lovely smoked salmon salad at lunch with a lovely friend, and drinking this surprisingly lovely glass of flat champagne while watching the Wonder Years on Netflix ... so I'm trying to see the glass as half full.

Some awesome things to look forward to:
- I have a near empty jar of peanut butter just waiting for oats in a jar tomorrow.
- Free yoga tomorrow night!
- One of my besties will be back in town for the weekend and I can't wait to see her.
- A new yummy smelling body scrub my mom bought for me
- Riding the streetcar to work tomorrow. I've been doing this every once in awhile and I didn't think I'd like it as much as I do. Quite the treat, just for $1.25

Well can't think of much more off the top of my head right now.

So that is a picture of my cat, enjoying the sun. He is a pain in my behind but he makes me happy :) Have a happy Thursday!

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.