Slow Dancing

They more John Mayer I listen to, the more impressed I am by his lyrics. So many of his songs do such an amazing job of eloquently putting words to an every day situation or feeling that most of us can't articulate. Like Daughters or Neon or my current favorite, Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.

It's not a silly little moment,
It's not the storm before the calm.
This is the deep and dying breath of
This love that we've been working on.

Can't seem to hold you like I want to
So I can feel you in my arms.
Nobody's gonna come and save you,
We pulled too many false alarms.

We're going down,
And you can see it too.
We're going down,
And you know that we're doomed.
My dear,
We're slow dancing in a burning room.

I was the one you always dreamed of,
You were the one I tried to draw.
How dare you say it's nothing to me?
Baby, you're the only light I ever saw.

I'll make the most of all the sadness,
You'll be a bitch because you can.
You try to hit me just to hurt me
So you leave me feeling dirty
Because you can't understand.

We're going down,
And you can see it too.
We're going down,
And you know that we're doomed.
My dear,
We're slow dancing in a burning room.

Go cry about it - why don't you?

My dear, we're slow dancing in a burning room,
Burning room,
Burning room.

Don't you think we oughta know by now?
Don't you think we shoulda learned somehow?
Don't you think we oughta know by now?
Don't you think we shoulda learned somehow?
Don't you think we oughta know by now?
Don't you think we shoulda learned somehow?

This is your Life

Childlike Men

My mind is a scary place and goes down all sorts of random tangents. Often I find myself trying to envision those around me as children, partly because I enjoy the challenge of seeing through their current features and partly because I find pleasure in picturing adults as wide eyed, innocent, energetic children. It seems that this is easier to do with elderly folks, and some people are nearly impossible to do this with.

I've recently discovered (and I hope this doesn't sound racist because I truly don't mean it that way) that when I look at people from the middle east it's incredibly easy. In fact most Indian men look like little boys with mustaches to me. I really like this quality.

Just a little window into my wacky mind.

2012 - The Year of the Vegetarian?

Over the past few months Chris and I have managed to enact a lifestyle change.

It started the week after Thanksgiving when we both committed to a Raw Diet Cleanse. We agreed to eat only raw fruits and vegetables for as long as we could. After some research we decided that at least 7 days was required. We found some quick and easy raw recipes on about.com which got us started. For me I had a headache on day 4 but suddenly on day 5 I had tons of energy and felt amazing. After 7 days we decided to allow cooked fruits and vegetables, but still no meat dairy or really any carbs. After 14 days I had lost 20 lbs, I was more clear headed, I was sleeping better, waking up easier and felt great.

Some friends recommended that we check out the documentary Forks Over Knives. We always try to be subjective when watching documentaries, keeping in mind that they have a natural bias etc, however we found the studies and evidence presented to be very persuading. They suggest that consuming a 'whole foods plant based diet' is not only healthier but can prevent and even reverse heart disease and cancer. That combined with the dietary changes we'd already made led us to decide to give the whole foods diet a chance.

So for Christmas Chris bought me the book by one of the scientists featured in Forks over Knives, Dr. Esselstyn, in it they outline the dietary 'Rules' and about half the book is recipes that fall within the Rules. However, we believe strongly in the 'moderation' philosophy and the Rules are pretty darn extreme.

We've been watching other documentaries as well such as Food Inc and Ingredients. All of which also have us thinking about where food comes from and the amount of energy used to get it to us and the hormones and pesticides used on our foods.

My brother and his wife took on a food experiment about a year ago and started a blog - withrespectforfood.com - and I think over time we're growing more toward a slightly moderate version of their way of thinking. Stuff we've learned from them, combined with reading, documentaries and simply how we feel on our new diet has convinced us to make the following changes in our house going forward.

•  Meat has been rare in our house for years, ever since I went back to a vegetarian diet, however going forward our house will be entirely vegetarian. On rare special occasions I will get meat for Chris from local sources only.
• Carbs are now a treat, especially complex carbs like bread and pasta, when they make an appearance we stick to wheat or whole grain
• Whenever possible leave fruits and veggies raw
• No more milk or cream - we've both switched to Almond Milk
• Cheese is now a rare treat - we thought about no dairy but yogurt and cottage cheese have stuck around

Because we've cut back so drastically on carbs and meat is gone, most of our meats are completely vegetables. We keep trail mix around for snacks, and have experimented with lots of new recipes and spices.

It's been fun in some ways though it can be challenging when I've worked a 10 hour day and just want something easy. But we're learning new tricks and recipes to fill the gaps we find.

I got my parents to watch ForksOverKnives and they surprised everyone and decided to cut out all meat and dairy as well. John and Laura only eat local, happy meat so now the whole family is basically vegetarian which makes it even more fun since we're all on the same adventure together.

DMB 2010

Chris and I splurged and used a small piece of our tax money to buy Dave Matthews Band tickets so we could join my cousin and aunt for some good times. It was my aunt's birthday gift and coincided with mine as well.


Since I just started a new job it was a bit complicated but completely worth it.


We spent a couple of hours in my cousin's RV before the concert. They happened to park next to the bathrooms which they turned into a huge Plus. People were offering all sorts of payment from food, to alcohol, to cash to sexual favors to skip the line for a porta-potty and use our clean, airconditioned option. We spent hours meeting new people, eating good food and bonding with strangers over DMB song quotes.



As we moved the party inside you could almost see the excitment of the crowd in the air, it was that tangible. When the band came on stage the roar was deafening.


The band played for three hours! This was my fifth DMB concert and this was the best song line up by far, hands down. It included Satelltie, Crash, Tripping Billies, Don't Drink the Water, Proudest Monkey, Why I Am, Dancing Nancy and so many more including a couple of never before heard songs. Chris took some great video of them performing Crash:

My man Tinsley was on fire. I have a huge crush on the Violinist - not only is he hot but incredibly talented which I also find attractive. Last night he went insane, dancing around the stage playing insanely complex solo's, challenging the other musicians... yum....

Everytime someone took a solo the crowd would progressively get louder and louder encouraging the artist to push harder, play longer. To me, the transfer of energy from the crowd to the band was inspirational. Sitting on the lawn, eyes closed, swaying with the music, the ground literally vibrating with the beat as those standing jump or dance - that is what DMB concerts are all about.

The Gorge last year was awesome but it was all about the environment and connecting through that. Last night was the best overall DMB performance I've been to yet.

It was a good night.

It's a Small World After All

A few months ago I randomly bumped into a friend from early high school, Sarah. We hadn’t seen each other in FOREVER – in a department store. We decided to meet up for dinner the following week and successfully caught up on old times and she subsequently invited me dinner at her house with all of her girl friends. Among other people, it was here that I met Rachel.

Rachel and I have a lot in common, similar history and passions. Through random conversation we discovered that her friend and tattoo artist is the same guy who did my first tattoo, a guy names Thomas. I was told about Thomas by an ex from ages ago who was friends with Thomas and they had an ex in common. So I’ve just connected my ex from 9 years ago to my new friend by only two degrees.

One of the things I have in common with Rachel is an enjoyment of group games and game nights as well as a desire to be more social. We have both utilized meetup.com to facilitate both of these passions. At one such even Rachel met and befriended a guy names Andre. Andre is a guy that worked with both my mother and my brother for a few years and I have become acquainted with through game and movie nights at my house.

So, involving only one new person I have managed to connect an old friend, a new friend, an ex and a tattoo artist from different areas and times in my life together.

This is just one of many random, full circle type of connections that have been occurring lately. A friend just told me that one of her co-workers is married to another ex's buddy so I know the co-worker and the hubby. My cousin showed me pictures from a Princess Ball which he took his daughter too in which I saw an old co-worker of mine dressed up as Cinderella AND I found that C's cousin was the photographer at the event. This list goes on...

On top of reminding me that the world is small so you should be mindful of who you hurt or shun and which bridges you burn it also reminds me that Orlando specially is smaller than you would think. It equal parts annoys me and makes me want to leave for some place new and makes me happy that I have such a deep history and connection with a place. At this point in life I'm choosing to latch on to the latter and be grateful that I have a balanced reaction.

Lent Fast Food?

It's getting to be that season, where little girls where frilly dressers, little boys where bow ties and vests, purple and orage egg salad is found at lunch time and rabbits especially cute. Easter is coming.

I'm always reminded of this by the seafood commericals on TV, suddenly everyone from Wendy's (a burger joint) to Popeye's (a chicken joint) is pushing a seafood dish. It must be Lent season.

Last night, though, I got to thinking about this....Lent - "The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer—through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial—for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus." It is most common to give up red meat during lent, especially on Fridays, this satisfies the "self denial" part.

So around this time of year we see commercials for the juicy, delectible seafood options in fast food restaurants.

Isn't this a bit self defeating? I will deny myself the pleasure of red meat but then as a substitute I will eat this deep fried, yummy peice of fish? The fast food joints are making a killing off of successfully enticing devout, lent practicing Christians into enjoying a meal when they're supposed to be in self-denial.

I know, a bit extreme, but I still found it ironic. If I ate fast food I'd be in heaven, this is prime pescatarian (vegetarian + seafood) season in that market!

PS - while I do not participate in any of these religious traditions, I respect those who do, so please don't take this offensively, it's the fast food industry I hold at fault, not the un-suspecting lenter.

My Media Misgivings

I typically avoid the news. The media has become such experts at exploiting negative angles, blowing things out of proportion and promoting their own biases that I just get tense, stressed and enraged when I watch. So for the past 5 years or so I have essentially boy cotted the media taking the approach 'if something important happens, I'll find out' and the stuff that isn't so important won't get through. I've essentially been using my friends, family and co-workers as a media filter.

My only media weakness is Good Morning America - I like Robin and Diane and occasionally will turn the program on. For the past couple of weeks I've been turning on GMA in the hotel room each morning as I get ready for a day at the office. I'm already regretting it.

For the past week they have been obsessing about the 'recession' that is coming upon our country. Today they interviewed a Wall Street specialist and the author of Freakonomics on to help inform us how we can 'recession proof our lives'. The experts were saying 'this isn't that big of a deal' and 'we have a recession every 6 years or so' and GMA kept trying to say, but, but what about this horrible thing and that horrible thing?!? By continually pushing the issue and encouraging people to go into crisis mode, aren't they actually in essence promoting a recession?

This news makes me very sad. I've long since had a crush on Heath Ledger, I even went so far as to purchase A Knight's Tale in support of him. I was shocked this morning to hear that he is gone. Naturally GMA already had a 2 minute montage of his life and career ready to go. It makes me wonder if they already have footage on all public figures ready to go in case of death or emergency...As usual though I find myself getting angry as the media takes any possible negative angle and exploiting the bugepus out of it. The poor guy hasn't been dead for 24 hours and they're already pushing a suicide angle - isn't it possible that it was an accident?

I will say though that I have learned some useful things during my few weeks dabbling in the media. For instance Dr. Jarvik isn't really a doctor even though he says he is in the Lipitor commercials. I personally hate the prescription drug commercials and think they should be banned - maybe this will be an instance that will help eliminate or at least curb those advertisements

I also learned about the Inter Faith Youth Core which is a group of people dedicated to focusing on the commonality of religion and the opinions and experiences that people of various religions have in common vs. the differences in hopes of uniting. I thought that this was a great idea and refreshing break from all of the negativity in the media. However when I went to find the details of the story I had to hunt for 15 minutes to find the details and video clip...

I'm still frustrated with media and will likely still continue to avoid it's exaggerated reporting.

Wow - Look at Me Ma!

Sometimes when I look around my house, at my cat, my husband, our things, accomplishments and the life we've created together I think to myself, how did I ever end up here? What did I do to deserve all of this?

If you had asked me five years ago where I would be now, this is the last thing I would have come up with. I never would have thought my best friends would be members of my family, that I would be married, with my own business and living in a house...

I need to dream bigger. :)

For those who are curious this tangent of thought was triggered by our upcoming anniversary - 4 years since our first date. Nothing compared to my parent's recent celebration of 35 years, but it's still a lot to us.