« November 2005 | Main | January 2006 »

December 30, 2005

Everybody Put Your Best Suit or Dress On

A couple of weeks ago, when I first started to write this thought, I had just written to a friend that for once I am in a place where I don't feel as if I'm waiting for my life to happen. I was pretty proud of it. Things weren't happening to me, I was happening to them. And although there was something to look forward to on the horizon, I felt that that was part of the life I was leading, not the one I was waiting for. You see, I was always waiting for life to begin. When I was young and moved to Dallas, I wanted a car to drive so I could actually have some control. In high school, it was college I sought. In college, it was 21. 21, it was a serious ladyfriend. Serious ladyfriend, a better one. And on and on. But the point was that at that very moment, when I was about to go to law school, when I was about to finish exams, when I was about to graduate, all the way through sometime late this fall, I was always waiting for the next thing to happen so that I could finally be living life. Woody Allen, I believe said something along the lines of life being what happens to you while you make plans. And that's what I was doing. So finally, the other day, I had this moment where I thought that I finally had it. I'm healthy, my family is well, and I am living an adult life, about to be married. Nothing wanting. Sure there's ambition, and absolutely, I don't plan to sit in this shared office or in this particular sphere of industry forever, or live in one apartment for the rest of my days, but I am happy with what I'm doing, who I know, where I'm going. And so for my new year's resolution, I promise only to continue living my life, rather than waiting for it.

This was Perspective , and it appeared on December 30, 2005 9:34 PM. | Comments (3) | TrackBack

December 27, 2005

Top Ten

This isn't really a music blog, but in the attempt to get myself back up and running at a somewhat more regular pace, I thought I would add in the ten albums of this year that I found myself hopelessly addicted to at one point or another. This would be my top ten, were it for the fact that I actually had an objective, listened-to control set to mark against, rather than having only bought 12 albums all year. In other words, this is my top ten of albums that I bought. In no particular order: 1. Imogen Heap -- Speak for Yourself 2. John Mayer Trio -- Try! 3. Our Lady Peace -- Healthy in Paranoid Times 4. Ani DiFranco -- Knuckle Down 5. Death Cab for Cutie -- Plans 6. David Gray -- Life in Slow Motion 7. Stereophonics -- Language. Sex. Violence. Other? 8. Coldplay -- X&Y 9. Mike Doughty -- Haughty Melodic 10. Gomez -- Out West

This was Musical Musing , and it appeared on December 27, 2005 11:12 AM. | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 22, 2005

We Wish You A Merry Crash-mas

In the middle of all this strikery, I noticed yesterday what I had been waiting for for so long--the whiff of Christmas spirit on the air. The thing about New York--and this holds true even for the people who hate the city on principle--there are a couple of times of year that are simply magic in this city. One is the springtime, because when the flowers come up on Park Avenue, and everyone starts going back to Central Park for the first time, there's nothing like it. Springtime's rebirth is emphasized by all the concrete and glass, and somehow the city feels calm, as though it were taking a deep breath again. This is actually one of the main reasons S and I are getting married in late spring here. While there are others, to me, the most magical time is late evening during the second and third weeks of December, especially if a bit of snow comes down. Somehow you feel transported back to the 1950s, with people holding hands, scurrying along to some new shindig, dreaming of mere (i.e. not entirely crass) material gifts, and the city feels enveloped in an uber-familial glow. To me, the scent of Christmas trees being sold on the corners just encapsulates all of this. And last night, as I saw neighbors helping neighbors with rides to wherever-it-was, I was struck by that piney whiff. It made me happy. Ironically, the other reason why I'm remembering it is because I'm not being distracted by my computer at home, which croaked out a miserable hard-drive failure for the holidays. I'm thrust back to actual experiences, while simultaneously researching new computers, trying to figure out just what I want. It's sort of like Christmas, except I'm being Scrooge to myself, trying not to spend good money without reason.

This was Geekery and Love and New York and Perspective and Politics , and it appeared on December 22, 2005 12:55 PM. | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Commercial Break

Thanks to comments in Defective Yeti's most recent post, I've discovered my favorite online kitsch-boutique. I'm thinking S won't go for the Wedding Slinger for the post-nuptial celebrations.

This was Amusing To Me , and it appeared on December 22, 2005 12:01 PM. | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 21, 2005

Cold As Ice

When I was a but a little shoe, I had a friend who rode horses. For some reason, a lesson he told me stuck with me. To this day, I don't know if it's accurate or not, but I remember it from time to time. He told me that when you're riding a horse at a gallop, you can't just make it stop; you have to slow it to a walk and then bring the horse-rider combination to rest. If you don't--he said--you end up making the horse's stomach tie up all in knots and kill it. When I first heard the story, I wondered if that was something that could happen to humans. I doubted it, but I wondered anyway. And we all know the benefits of cooling down. But this is what is frustrating me, personally, about the transit strike. I won't get into the politics of it, because I make a very healthy wage, and I recognize that sometimes drastic measures are needed to call attention to issues. I also won't get into the fact that I would really have preferred that the workers went on strike in the springtime, where I didn't freeze myself on the 25 block walk to work. I also recognize I've got it pretty good on that front. This week, I've been coming to work with nothing to do and leaving without having done anything. It may be letting the cat out of the bag a bit to say that the majority of my clients are investment managers running hedge funds, and that many of them were required to file their registrations with the SEC last week. This means that the majority of my work suddenly was completed, and my superior from whom I get all of that work has gone on a (well-deserved) little vacation. At the same time, I've had a project with a very senior member of my firm who doesn't seem to be very concerned with making forward progress. In reality, I know it's that he's worried about the forward progress of far more lucrative and time-sensitive clients, but the fact is that my emails don't get returned and my voicemail take at least 3 days to provoke a response. Which is why it's a true delight to call him and check in (what a bizarre situation that one of the most-junior people in the firm is calling one of the most senior to ask him to pay some attention) only to find out that he has gone on vacation for the week without telling me. Result: no work on that project for Shoe. Which brings me back to being the horse--I was busy, I was very busy, and then suddenly, I have literally nothing to do. I spent 18 minutes yesterday doing client-related work. Yet I had to walk to work, and I had to walk home. And when you are forced to dress up nice-like, trek in eye-watering cold to a job at which you need to be, but have nothing to do after having raced all year…well, that's just a recipe for getting your insides all twisted up.

This was Law and New York and Politics and Serious , and it appeared on December 21, 2005 11:16 AM. | Comments (1) | TrackBack