Meditate Awhile

Image via Tornados in Brooklyn

Am about to go work on some internet-guiding meditation. Thank god for my stumbling upon this helpful website. Meditation both baffles and eludes me--whenever I've attempted it, I've encountered a lot of difficulty with focusing my inner eye and maintaining a momentous stillness. Because of the trouble I have with it, meditation takes a long time for me to get into and for this reason, along with my lack of success with it, I don't do it as much as I'd like to. Maybe this website will help that change.

in dreams begin responsibilities

pictures from this past weekend's Travel section that had me sighing--taken on the Tuscan coast

Today, while surreptitiously reading The New Yorker at work, I stumbled upon a phrase that struck such a momentous chord in me that I stopped to write it down as a reminder for myself in my journal: in dreams begin responsibilities.

Some of you may remember this as the title to the final episode of My So-Called Life. My most distinct recollection of this beautiful phrase goes back to junior year of high school, AP American Literature. My awesome teacher, Dr. Ayres, had us read In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, a short story by the Brooklyn writer Delmore Schwartz--his most famous work.

I've just re-read it here and I highly recommend it. It's only 9 pages and it's a fascinating, strong story about a young man who dreams that he is at a movie theater, plagued with hindsight while watching a film depicting his parents' courtship. Meanwhile, I'm going to keep pondering this combination of words (I love it!): in dreams begin responsibilities...

Things to Do Before I Die: 3

from the New York Times

Be Mary with a little lamb for a day...or a week.

Dinner Parties Part Deux

(scallop ceviche with watercress, caviar, and fried leeks)

(shrimp kebobs with roasted peppers, chana masala, and saag paneer)

Dinner Parties

On my way to a dinner party! (By "on my way", I mean sitting wrapped in a towel nowhere near ready to go.) Speaking of dinner parties, this is what I want my next one to look like:




via Sunday Suppers


P.S. Just found out these people do sunday supper cooking lessons. Ahh! HEART ATTACK! Who wants to come with? Fanny?!

i'm loving it

that's me!

via flickr

This afternoon I went on the loveliest bike ride all around Williamsburg, stopping to wander around the aforementioned craft fair, meet up with girls, drink Sunny D, run around at the gym, and eat a spicy fish taco. Sometimes, I put too much lime juice and habanero hot sauce on my tacos and my mouth burns for an extraordinarily long time. Then, I forget to wash my hands, or don't wash them thoroughly enough, itch my eye, and then my eyeball gets to burn for an extraordinarily long time, too. It was a good day today, though, because that didn't happen to me. When I got home and took a shower, I took special care to wash my face with the back of my hands to avoid any burning. Take that, hot sauce.

Observing Kids

I'm currently taking a Moscow Art Theater workshop led by a former teacher of mine. Each class, we are given an observation assignment, which we then bring in the following class to present as an etude. For Monday, we're doing children between the ages of one and six. I thought that I had found a gold mine at the party I catered last night, which was a "bring your kids to work" extravaganza at the Intrepid Museum featuring gluttonous carnival food and 500 lbs. of candy. However, I've just stumbled upon this video and am seriously considering doing this instead:


via dark lamb