Things I Love Thursday

Decluttering: I got rid of two of my old Coach bags this week, and I even managed to get some money for them on eBay. Later today, I'm going to take some clothes to the Garment District to see if I can get a little cash for them, too. The rest are going to Goodwill. It feels so good to look into my closet and know that I'm wearing all those clothes. And eventually making room for new clothes ;)

I also cleared off my bulletin board, which now actually looks somewhat organized and inspiring, and this week we were able to eat at our kitchen table for the first time in about a month.

Winning Things: I won a free exercise DVD from SparkPeople on Tuesday. I can't wait until it comes!

Amazon: They consistently under-pomise and over-deliver when it comes to their shipping estimates. And it never fails to elicit warm fuzzies in my tummy—especially when their products are also consistently the least expensive.

Typography: I am loving this class I am taking. I love type. I love learning about type. I love wearing typographic T-shirts to class (I have TONS) and finding signs all over the city whose fonts I can identify. This is the first time in my life that I know a bit about the classes I'm taking as I go into them, and I am eager—no, thrilled to learn the rest.

DNA Staircases

When Architecture and Science collide

from EeStairs

Things I Love Thursday

Chamomile Tea: I caught a cold over the weekend, and since Monday have been nursing it with soup, lots of water and chamomile tea. It reminds me of my grandmother, and makes me feel a little bit better. I like to drink it with lime and honey.

My boyfriend: J's company awarded one of the teams he was on with gift cards to thank them for a grueling project they completed last year. The team leader mentioned that he had given his wife his card the year before because he didn't know what to do with it, and she bought a dress. J thought this was a great idea, and gave the card to me to thank me for "putting up with" all the travel he had to do for that project. So far I have gotten a pair of shorts, but I still have most of the gift card to play around with! This is one of those things that would have been appreciated either way, but because we don't have much money to play with at the moment, it was really special. Maybe dinner out in our future?

Brimfield: I went to Brimfield again this year, and instead of coming home with five unusable vintage cameras (for display!), I came home with something useful: Pyrex mixing bowls. I am so in love with them, and they match my kitchen color scheme. I also found a charming necklace for $5 and some pendants I might use as Christmas presents.

Sweater Weather: It is the season for colorful tights and hand knits! YEY!

Things I Love Thursday

Jogging: I never jog. I can't think of anything more pointless than running around and sweating when I can be on a bicycle (and sweating). Anyway, some days the bike seems too big to handle at the moment, and jogging felt like a good substitute. So now I "jog." I kept pace for 20 minutes today! What a sense of accomplishment.

Falafel!: Before today, I had never had the falafel wrap from the food truck in front of MIT. I was missing something really special. There's no competition, not even the falafel palace in Central Square (and they're great, too!). Next time I might skip the pita, though.

Updating my resumé: Not really, I actually loathe updating my resume, but boy does it feel good to be up-to-date. These days it's changing on a bi-weekly basis!

Fancy shampoo: I had some fancy shampoo left over from some boutique hotel I stayed at in D.C. once because there was some ridiculously good rate that weekend. I don't know what I was saving it for, because it smells delicious, and my hair actually feels soft! I didn't know what soft was until I tried this shampoo.

I Love it When Other People Are Embarrassed; For Once It Isn't Me

I was on my bike today riding home from an appointment when I encountered a near-miss by another cyclist who was running a red light straight into me (I was turning, though, so even if he hadn't had time to stop, I would have been able to avoid him). Because I was in control and in the right, I was completely serene during this encounter, and while I know human suffering is never the answer, I would have been even more pleased with the outcome if he had actually fallen from his bike when he tried to swerve since the street was dead at the time - although I know I wouldn't have been remotely amused if he had run into me or put either one of us in danger of being hit by a car.

Unfortunately, he managed to stay on his bike after the near miss which made sitting at the next red light with him incredibly awkward, yet totally hilarious and satisfying because obviously he didn't try to run that one.

Things I Love Thursday

Having a Puppy - We only had her for five days, and I am a little bit sad now that she's gone, but puppy sitting for our friends has got to be one of the most exciting experiences I've had this summer. It was also nice that we got to give her back in the end, because our allergies were pretty violent by that last day. The conversation of "can we get our own" is only tempered by the fact that our lease won't currently allow it (and aforementioned violent allergies). Stay tuned...?

Mastering the Weber - A coworker friend of mine gave us her old Weber charcoal grill last summer. It's red and happy and always ready for burgers. We didn't get much use out of it last summer, but this summer we have tried to find many opportunities to grill. Thanks to another friend we found great sirloin burgers at Whole Foods, and that coupled with learning the grill has made for the perfect burger.

Finishing my First "Whole" Project - I have been paid for design work before, but designing an entire website start to finish felt like such a big accomplishment, and I'm terribly happy with the result.

Jessica - I love my friend, Jessica. That's basically enough said, but I could expound on that to say that I'm really glad she moved back to Boston. I would have been thrilled regardless, but she moved here as three other friends moved away, so it's twice as exciting to have here here. Now she'll have get to deal with me All The Time. I'm sure she can't wait.

Phenomenally Proud

I just finished my first freelance web design project. There are a few changes that the site owner would like to make, but my part - the design and coding - is done!

Click on the image to visit the page!

Seen on the Boston Globe

Non-motorists include children, construction workers, cyclists, family pets, farm/wild animals, homeless, illiterate pedestrians, those confined to wheelchairs. Traffic laws were expressly written to protect them. None of them require a license to be on a public right of way. Motorists, however, do. All the onus for safety falls directly upon them. If you don't agree, as you signed on when applying for a license, you should immediately surrender yours

getting better

I had a rough night last night, but it was one of those situations that you simply can't do anything about. The resulting conversation actually made me feel way better, so even uncomfortable and sad situations can happen for a wonderful reason. I read this quote in zen habits after I'd calmed down, and so creating this today felt natural.

Melt Down

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Thoughts On My Bike by Andrea Dorfman

From the NYC Bicycle Film Festival '09:

Who glued these quarters down?

"I don't feel that I need to explain my art to you, Warren."

Bike Accident - For Real This Time

So, earlier this summer I was involved in a "hit and run" of sorts with a Boston cab driver (Boston Cab Associates, for the record - one of their hybrid cars). On the [very busy] Mass Ave. bridge, the cab had "stopped" [for me], but when I took my right of way he decided to go instead. He just hit my back wheel, and I managed to keep control of my bike and more importantly, I stayed on. It all seemed so scary at the time, but it really wasn't. I wasn't even hurt—just shaken.

But I survived it. I survived my first "accident." I felt victory as an urban rider.

Well, I spoke too soon, because on July 25th, I was thrown from my bike here. It was actually kind of funny because there were no cars involved in the accident part of my accident. I was too busy paying attention to the cab (go figure) that had cut me off, and my wheel got stuck in the train tracks, locked, and then I was thrown.

I lost a little bit of blood, but mostly I felt stupid. I felt stupid because it didn't occur to me that coming parallel at the tracks would catch my tire and that it would lock when I tried to turn.

Anyway, I had a lovely array of injuries:

I also had a pain in my shoulder. I couldn't move all day Sunday, but I laid on an ice pack for hours and then went to bed with one, and I felt fine on Monday. Again, I was grateful. Again, I had avoided a "real" accident. Yeah, I fell off my bike, because I'm stupid. I wasn't thrown in traffic. I wasn't hit by a car.

Well, I had my laughs about it, but I'm not laughing today. Mostly because it HURTS to laugh. It hurts to cough. It hurts like HELL to sneeze. I think I have a rotary cuff injury.

Has anyone experienced something like this? Is physical therapy the way to go? I'm running out of Ibuprofen and also the hope that this will heal itself. I thought it was a bruise, but I know I'm not qualified to diagnose my insides.

Where to Seat the Attendants

by Talley Sue Hohlfeld, Etiquette Expert

After the guest list, the seating chart is probably a bride's biggest headache. And the hardest part of THAT is, "Where should our attendants sit?"

The classic is the head table with all the wedding party, including bride and groom. But this has its flaws; if your attendants are married, or if their sweethearts are attending, this means you'll have to find those people a seat assignment elsewhere that they'll enjoy* (I'm sure you can imagine some of the complaints that result). You can weave the spouses into the head table, of course, but that can get to be pretty big!

Have you thought about seating for your attendants? What are you considering? And have you seen a solution you particularly like?

*emphasis mineto finish reading the article (which offers a great solution), you can go here

Or you could forgo the seating chart, put everyone your age in the wedding party, seat them all at the enormous head table while the "sweetheart" fends for herself, and then accuse the "sweetheart" of knitting during your wedding—but not to her face, of course.

It seems like a sure way to make your wedding the funnest fun times, ever.

On Disordered Eating

I just read this on a website I stumbled across while looking for reviews about outofyourlife.com:

Show me a woman who loves her belly (thighs, ass, nose, etc) and I'll show you a woman with an eating disorder...

I literally did a double-take.

I re-read the sentence a few times, and I know where she was going with it, but I think that the insensitivity of the statement knocked the wind out of me. I probably agree with the overall sentiment - find me a woman without insecurities and I will show you a liar, maybe. I would venture to say that even the most confident women I know still have hang-ups, although as someone who feels more comfortable with my neuroses than without, I'll be the first to admit that I wouldn't know what that feels like. And let's just remember that sometimes people with eating disorders aren't thin. But they are incredibly insecure.

I read something on sparkpeople.com recently about eating disorders and just how scarily common they are. Obviously all eating disorders have self-esteem issues at the root of them, at best, but by broadening the definition of "eating disorder" to include "disordered eating," one starts to include many women they might know... it's sad, really.

Anyway, that was my lol for the night - except for the part where the topic isn't particularly lolsy.

it's the little things

from tea and toast

I saw these adorable journals on flickr today: what a wonderful idea it would be to document things I am thankful for every day. Also a creative use for those gocco supplies hiding in my drawer.

Friday Inspiration

HP - invent from Tom and Matt on Vimeo.

This is such a clever video! It's a creative idea with a brilliant and well done set-up. It makes me want to go to design school.

Gift Idea for Architects

This awesome memo book from geografia would make a pretty cute gift for any civil-design oriented people in your life. The contours and altitude marks make each notebook a playful and unique landscape.









The only problem is that I don't know if I'd be able to bear to write on these, myself!

Beautiful Stop Motion

I couldn't help but share this beautiful stop motion save-the-date video. What a beautiful way to announce your wedding.

Monday Spark

J and I have been traveling a lot lately which means I have gotten behind on a lot of things. Aside from work, which piled up like omfg, the one I regret the most has been my diet/exercise routine. I had a pretty good thing going about a month ago, and I even lost some weight. Sure, most of my weight loss was directly involved with swine flu related loss of appetite, but I'll take the help where I can get it.

from Articulate Matter

In the past three weeks, I have dropped yoga, entirely, and my back, hips and asthma have not thanked me for it. I haven't taken a class in about two years, now, so all of my yoga has recently been done either with help from free internet videos, or the Basic Yoga Book which is a decent guide for beginners and people who, like me, have a hard time coming up with sequences on their own.

This morning, I did Yoga Today's Happy Hips and Hamstrings video. By the end I had my heels on the floor during a downward facing dog, which is not something I have been able to accomplish since I was taking yoga at MIT during my undergrad years. So here's to yoga and its amazing ability to make me feel like I've accomplished something even though I have barely started my day.