I'm sailing! I'm a sailor

I've always wanted to learn how to sail. So when the "I've Always Wanted To..." meetup group offered a sailing lesson, I signed up immediately.

Saturday at noon, the class started at Lake Johnson in Raleigh.  There were 8 of us in the 6 hour class. Our instructor was Margaret, a 77 year old woman who had been sailing and teaching it since she was 17. So with 50+ years of being on the water, she was a firecracker.

We learned on Sunfish sailboats, a cute little boat that skims easily across the water.

There's nothing quite like catching the wind in your sail and taking off. One hand on the tiller and one hand on the line holding the sail taut. I was a sailor!



I will definitely be doing this again.

Duke Gardens

Every time I explore the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area, I find something that makes me love North Carolina even more.

Yesterday my group of girlfriends who I call the Carolina Girls (they're a separate group from my sorority sisters but who are equally as awesome) all met at Duke Gardens for a picnic. The day started off gray and a little chilly, but the sky eventually cleared up and turned very warm.

We found a bench at the edge of a huge open space and laid out our picnic spread: chicken salad, mixed greens, fruit, cheese, french bread, chocolate cake and mimosas. It was a lovely, relatively healthy and easy meal. This was not your typical peanut butter and jelly picnic. We had some style.

We lounged on our picnic blankets and tailgating chairs and chatted for four hours as we sipped our mimosas and watched families playing on the lawn. In the distance a string orchestra played for the Duke University alumnae weekend event and the Easter Bunny even made an appearance.

It was such an enjoyable afternoon. I was gastronomically and mentally satisfied as I was stuffed with good food, good conversation and good company. I didn't really want to move because that would have required me to unbutton my pants.

At 3:30 in the afternoon, we reluctantly gathered ourselves and our belongings and as Kristin called it, "headed back into reality". As the ladies went back to their cars, I wandered around the tulip garden a little bit longer to admire the color display.

A second job?

One of the things that keep us (mentally) young is to explore new things.

I explored a chair dancing / pole dancing class.

It was actually a workout class, and damn if I'm not sore. All those squats and hip gyrations and those fireman swings around the pole.

The best part about this class is that it was all women. Real women. With curves.

It was fun to not worry about what you look like or who's looking at you. There weren't even mirrors in the room so you couldn't see if you looked like an idiot.

The class was at a gym in downtown Raleigh. Aradia Fitness has a studio in one of the gym's rooms and from the ceiling are suspended silk ribbons for another class. They also have another location closer to me and I really think that I'll be checking them out for more classes. This was way too fun.

See the video about Aradia Fitness.

The Scrap Exchange

I was in Durham this weekend for the farmer's market and was strolling around when I came upon this ridiculous elephant.

Intrigued, I wandered into the door and found this magical place called The Scrap Exchange.

The Scrap Exchange is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote creativity, environmental awareness, and community through reuse.

We collect materials from hundreds of individuals, businesses, industries, and municipal sources and distribute those materials through our retail store in Durham, North Carolina as well as through workshops, parties, and outreach events across the Southeast.

This was such a fun place to explore. There were giant blue bins of...stuff, or crap, depending on how you see it.

There were cassette tape holders, wire, bumper stickers, computer keyboards (without the keys), puzzle pieces, plastic things, and other stuff that I really didn't recognize. Then in the back were piles of fabric just waiting to be used in something wonderful.

You could use one of the different sizes of bags and fill it up from the blue bins for a specific dollar amount.

Or you can just purchase things separately. They even have workshops where you can get creative and make stuff from the things you find. That's sounds like a great birthday part to me.

Expressing my creative side

Last night my alum group went to a local paint studio for a painting lesson. Well, it was more of an evening of copying what the instructor was doing, while drinking wine, eating cheese and cookies and doing a lot of laughing.

I started by painting the sky. The original had a vertical streaky sky and looking at it now, I don't really like it. If I could do it over I wouldn't make it streaky.

The grass was done in the same fashion as the sky. I cheated and flipped my canvas upside down to paint the grass.

Then I added in white gloppy things to indicate where my poppies were going to be. And to make a base to allow the colors to pop better against the grass.

There are a few colors I missed taking a picture of, but on the poppies are washes of yellow, orange and red.

Finished off the poppies with brown and purple centers and some white and blue swirlies just for visual interest.

I added in some leaves, clouds and voila! The finished, and signed, project.

Everyone with their masterpieces.

Three second decision

Friday. 4:00 pm. The phone rings.

It's Charles.

"Hello?"

"You haven't checked your email!"

"um..."

"I'm about to ride into Daytona. You need to get on a plane and come down here."

Three second pause...

"Ok. Let me check Expedia and call you back."

"Pack light."

With barely hesitation, I was looking for flights to get me from Raleigh to Daytona that night. Because he called me and wanted me to be there. And there was nowhere else that I would rather be.

I know the things I said and the things he said. And I haven't changed my mind about how I want to spend my time doing things that I enjoy.

But in those three seconds it took me to decide I knew that we would have fun, it would be an adventure and it would make me happy. Which are generally the requirements for most crazy-ass shit that I do.

So after some searching, I booked myself on a flight the next day. I'd be in Daytona Saturday afternoon. Just 24 hours from then.

It would be either a really good decision, or a really bad decision. There would be no in between.

Surprise weekend

What did you do this weekend?

Me, I went to Daytona for Bike Week. To meet up with Charles. And it was awesome!

 

More to come, I promise!

My MOMA trip

Wednesday was an adventure day. I was meeting @vivzan at the Museum of Modern Art to see the Tim Burton exhibit.

I started my day in Jersey City as I waited for the Path train to take me to midtown Manhattan.


It was a nice day so I walked the 20 blocks from Herald Square up to 53rd Street.

I often forget that New York is a tourist spot. To me, it's just an extension of my neighborhood. So when I walked into the museum lobby at 10:30 on a Wednesday morning, I was a little shocked to see it to packed and humming with a dozen different languages.

I was thankful that I ordered and printed out my entry ticket last night because the lines were just too much to bare. I found a spot on a comfy ottoman and waited for @vivzan as I watched the people take pictures.

There were two things that caught my eye in the lobby. The first was this inflatable Tim Burton creature with many eyes. Even though he has a grotesque style, this thing seemed friendly and cuddly.

The second thing was a large painting hanging above an information desk.

At first glance, it looked like a silly painting of sailors with big noses. But upon closer look, I realized. Those weren't noses.

Viviane arrived and we set out immediately to the exhibit space for Tim Burton.

I really had no idea how talented he was as an illustrator and painter. I was even more floored when I learned that he was an animator for Disney. But the detail and shading in even his notepad doodles were so amazing.

Soon we were hungry and tired and needed a break. We went to the cafeteria on the 3rd floor and MOMA even made the meals another art instillation.

Each plate was presented as beautifully as it tasted. I had a tender chicken pannini and Viv had the yummiest pollenta I ever tasted. Then dessert... I had a rich, chocolate torte that could only be enjoyed with a glass of cold milk.

After lunch, we forced our tired and full bodies to the rest of the museum. I loved the Monets and Van Gogh, the Seurat and Cézanne. I can even appreciate Picasso, Warhol and Pollock. I loved the photography exhibit where everyday, mundane pictures made the cut. Some, no more impressive than a candid shot of my dog chasing a squirrel outside.

But then we got to the strange stuff and I just have to wonder, what makes it art? There was an instillation of a chair, and another of four pushpins stuck in a wall with string all around them.
Then my favorites are the canvases painted one solid color with a line of white running down the side.

Seriously? WTF?!

But then we'd come across something interesting again.

It was a long day and by 4:30 we were all tired out. Damn, we were getting old.

I walked back down from 53rd through Times Square and came upon a little NYC drama.

I have no idea what happened. But 7th Ave was blocked off with tons of fire trucks, cop cars and a couple of stretchers. There were lines of people taking photos and videos but no one had a clue what happened. Typical. Just another day in New York City.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Tim Burton to Showcase Art at MoMA (pastemagazine.com)
• Photo Gallery: Tim Burton Exhibit At The Museum Of Modern Art (splashpage.mtv.com)
• Tim Burton exhibition opens at MoMA on Sunday (timeoutny.com)
• Salute Your Shorts: Tim Burton's Short Films (Part 1, 1971-1982) (pastemagazine.com)

Things I like: Edible Art

This is the coolest thing I've seen. And its making me hungry.

100 Games Cupcake Game
100 cupcakes were decorated like board/video games. They are amazing!




(found this from my geek-lover Wil Wheaton)

things I like: Best Songs of 2009

I love it when the Universe delivers exactly what I was looking for.

I've had this soulful need for some more music. I've been reading this book, "Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time" by Rob Sheffield. This biography tells the story of this Rolling Stone writer's life through the mix tape he's created and received over the years. Much of the music is new to me and has started this treasure hunt into locating and listening to the tunes.

Then today I came across the Said the Gramophone which had a listing of the Best Songs of 2009. None of these songs are played on mainstream radio and for a limited time, they're all free downloads.

I can't wait to go home, download them, and become intimate with my new friends.

things I like: Website Stencil Kit

I wish I had a need for this because I love it. A website stencil that can help you create wireframes for online stuff.

Website Stencil Kit, $17.95

No autographs, please.

Oh how I cringed and screamed when I first saw myself on the screen.

"OH MY GOD!"

Is that what I really look like?

Thankfully, I didn't make too much of a fool of myself. During the interview I forced myself to speak slowly and clearly because when I get excited, I have a strong tendency to stumble over my words. Like my brain works faster than my mouth can handle.

Of the 60 minutes or so that I spent talking with the filming crew, my portion got culled down to about 15 seconds. I talked about the reason why I took my road trip and how my friends and family were able to follow me through my blog, Twitter and Facebook. Then they cut to my enlightening lunch in Joshua Tree among the rock formations.

When I was being interviewed, I was asked what kinds of feelings did I experience while I was in the parks. My answer was no where as near profound and I would have liked it to be. I think I was worried about taking time to formulate a real thought because I knew they were running out of tape, so I blurted out the first thing that popped into my head.

But now that I've taken the time to think about it, this is what I would have said:

Being out in nature, especially in Arches, something primal happens to you. In the stillness and silence of the red rock canyon you feel incredibly small. In the millions of years it took for these canyons and arches, my life is just one fleeting wink of an eye. But my existence is significant. Standing there I felt a connection to all those who stood here before me in awe of the grandeur of nature. I wondered if everyone was able to experience this 'knowing', that there is something bigger than all of us that binds us together, if this world would be a different place.

This idea of connectedness is something stirring and growing inside me. I know I will have to explore this further and find an outlet to express it. The idea has been there for a while slowly forming until it became something I am finally aware of.

Maybe it is enlightenment. Maybe it will point me in the direction I've been looking for.

My spiritual GPS.

My Premiere - National Parks: NY's Memories

Ha! It aired.

I watched anxiously for my debut. You can find me at 9:34. I feel ridiculous.

Excitement rising

I'm getting excited! The day is quickly arriving when I'll be on tv.

National Parks: New Yorkers’ Memories
Sunday, September 27th at 10PM

Shot primarily by CUNY students and featuring narratives and videos sent directly to THIRTEEN from members and viewers, National Parks: New Yorkers’ Memories is a unique collaboration with film students seeking a real-life, hands-on experience in television production. This is one of THIRTEEN’s first on-air and online projects shot by students.

NATIONAL PARKS:
New Yorkers' Memories
Sunday, Sept. 27 at 10 PM on THIRTEEN

Visit thirteen.org to watch clips
Get CDs, DVDs & more

Program will be rebroadcast Mon., Sept. 28 at 12:00AM on WLIW21 and 3AM on THIRTEEN; Sat., Oct. 3 at 5:30AM and 7:30PM on THIRTEEN; Mon., Oct. 5 at 5:00AM on THIRTEEN; and Thurs., Oct. 22 at 8PM on THIRTEEN.

My 15 minutes

When my road trip this summer was over, I didn't think anything more would come of it. But when I saw an invitation from my local PBS station to share memories of the National Parks, I thought that it was speaking directly to me. I mean, I just came back from two and had the videos and photos to prove it. I sent an email with my story, a link to my blog and to the photos and videos I took along the way. That was a few weeks ago and didn't think too much about it since.

Last week, I was reminded of my submission when I got a phone call from a journalist from Channel Thirteen wanting to talk to me about my post. Wow!

Dan, the journalist had read my blog and was interested in my story. He liked how I took my job loss as an opportunity and recorded my experience of traveling across the country and stopping in a few National parks along the way. "Do you think you would be able to come into Manhattan for an on camera interview for the segment they were creating?" he asked.

Um, duh. Of course.

So I waited to hear back from him.

The date was finally set for my interview and I cleared my calendar for my fifteen minutes of fame.

---

Yesterday afternoon, I arrived in Penn Station from NJ Transit and since it was such a nice day, I walked north to W. 57th street where I was supposed to meet Dan. I made it there with 30 minutes to spare, which is good because I hated being late. I checked my iPhone again just to confirm the location when CRAP. I wasn't supposed to be at W. 57th St, I was supposed to be at W. 67th St. I checked the map to see if I could still make it in time, it was only 10 blocks, right?

No. I had to walk to the west side of Central Park, then walk up 10 blocks. And I was already sweaty. Cab? I need you now.

Finally I made it to my destination, the right one this time.

I met Dan and his colleague Cathy as the interview before me was finishing up. They were telling me about the cute couple who had gotten married in 1970 and went traveling around the National Parks out west for their honeymoon. Then 25 years later they recreated their honeymoon, even recreating the photos that they had taken the first time around. They were naturals in telling their story. They knew when to pause in the story to allow the other one to finish a thought or to elaborate. After years of marriage, they had their storytelling down to an art.

Dan also told me about other people they had interviewed: one woman who traveled to the Redwood Forrest to scatter her father's ashes; another man who went rockclimbing in the parks and was sponsored by Red Bull.

These stories seemed so amazing to me. And that got me nervous. What did I do? I just drove to California and back. It suddenly seemed so pale in comparison.

Soon it was my time to go on. I sat in the hot seat and waited as they adjusted the lighting, put on my lavilear microphones and I touched up my makeup. Then Dan took his seat off camera and told me to relax.




I talked about the reason for my road trip; my blog, tweets and the virtual company I had from my friends' comments; my impressions of the parks; what was going through my mind as I was on the road.

I also talked about my parents and how they we would always take road trips for our vacations. I remembered sitting in the back of our station wagon, waving to truckers and playing those road trip games where you had to find words on signs starting with each letter of the alphabet. I inherited their spirit of adventure and now love to just get in the car and drive.

I think I did pretty good. I answered Dan's questions succinctly. I was animated. For the most part, I was pretty relaxed. But in the back of my mind I kept thinking "Please God, don't make me look or sound like an idiot."

After the interview was over, I gave Dan copies of my videos of Arches and Joshua Tree and my link to all the photos I took. I signed my release forms and said my goodbyes.

So that's it. Now I wait until it airs on Channel Thirteen, Sunday, September 27 after the Ken Burns documentary "National Parks: America's Best Idea". Check your New York TV schedule. Set your DVRs.

Hope that I don't wind up on the cutting room floor.

You Get Me

I took a personality test on the site YouGetMe.com. The survey was a 40 question tool where I rated myself on each. Here are the results. I have to say that I think they're pretty accurate.

Your personality tendencies in a nutshell...

You enjoy making plans and commitments but you sometimes don't follow through. You are curious about many different things and highly value artistic expressions and ingenious thoughts. You tend to be relaxed in most situations and can handle stress well. You are typically respectful toward others and dislike confrontation. You show some tendency toward being outgoing and sociable.

YouJustGetMe.com's guest psychologist Dr. Peggy has a little more, uh, informal interpretation of your traits...

About those "Casual" and "Disciplined" bubbles... Conscientiousness is not one of your defining traits, meaning that you are neither anal retentive nor anal expulsive. What does that mean? In a nutshell, you keep it together fairly well, but you do not suffer too much if you let things fall through the cracks every once in a while. If you make plans with a friend, chances are good that you will show up at the designated time. Then again, something better may come up or you just might forget. Either way, you're good. Another possibility is that you are very conscientious about some things, but more relaxed about other things. For example, you might demand the utmost rigor and discipline in your scholarly/work life, but keep your home looking like a garage sale gone terribly awry, with various articles of clothing and personal belonging strewn about. Where's Fido? Hopefully he hasn't been eaten by the alien life that has developed since the last cleaning.


About that "Alternative" bubble... You are intellectually curious, imaginative, and literary. I do believe the technical term is "artsy fartsy." When reading poetry, the images may move you until you quiver with delight, or perhaps quivering from all of the espresso that you've been drinking. Speaking of caffeine, it would not be a big surprise if you indulged in other substances to heighten your senses. After all, whoever heard of creative geniuses who were sober? Freud was a coke-head, Hemingway was a fall-down drunk, and Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil, probably while high on wacky tabacky. You have quite the active fantasy life and are often in la la land, earning you the well-deserved nickname "space cadet" from your loved ones. Mostly, you're a lot of fun to hang out with because you're always game for whatever idea your non-medicated (but should be) friend has in mind. The next time someone suggests that you streak naked in the dead of winter, do think twice, or at least wear some mittens.


About that "Unemotional" bubble... Some people consistently react emotionally to their environment and freak out over little things. You, my friend, are not among those people - at least not usually. Worrying and stressing are not your typical style. Even faced with absurd circumstances, you are calm and may pride yourself in your ability to use logic and reason. As a consequence of your Dalai Lama-like persona, you seldom experience the highs and lows of more emotionally reactive folks. Rather, your moods could be graphed like the flat-line of an ER patient. That analogy may seem grim, but *really*, who is more placid than the person who ceases to be? Anyhoo, if you're annoyed with my analogy right now, it's probably because you only scored medium high in the emotional stability trait and have some tendencies to be easily disturbed and offended.


About that "Cooperative" bubble... Your scores would suggest that you tend to be more agreeable than you are competitive. What does that mean? For starters, it means that you have a fairly strong tendency to believe in social harmony and cooperation. You are a nice person. You want people to get along and do the right thing - for each other, for the greater humanity. That's not to say that you are a total pushover, but that you believe in the niceties of life. This is probably why you are very popular with people and have many friends. The difference between you and someone who is very high in agreeableness is that you have a bit of an edge. Maybe you laugh when people fall down and hurt themselves, maybe you secretly occasionally think people suck. Whatever it is that's holding you back from winning Ms. or Mr. Congeniality, that's also what makes you more interesting.


About that "Extraverted" bubble... I have a friend who can strike up a conversation with anyone: Nobel Peace prize nominees and winners, muppets, sanitation workers, perfect strangers, my crazy uncle Harry. My friend is a bona-fide extravert. Your scores indicate that while you tend to be extraverted, you also have some degree of reserve. Perhaps in some situations, you prefer to say less or maybe you have duct tape over your mouth. Either way, you may save your high energy for the situations when you have a need or desire to be "on" and your quiet moments for those with whom you feel most comfortable.

Internet Meme Timeline

Dipity created this awesome Meme timeline. Normally songs and smells bring me back to a specific memory, but now you can think about where you were when the first South Park Spirit of Christmas cartoon circulated the web in 1996. Ah... such good times.

Don't Stop Googling My Twitter

I was killing time at work this afternoon and decided to Google my online handle. I was amazed at just what results came up: Twitter posts, posts on blogs, blog comments, my name on other people's blogs. And most amazingly, a lot of my photos that I have hosted on Flickr have been used in online presentations, articles, and travel sites all over!

Here are my photos:

• on a Chicago travel site
• used in a slide show (slide #68)
• on a Huey Lewis artist site
• a stock photo aggregation site
• in a hotel review
• on a wiki type page
• a Philadelphia travel site
• a consumer advocate site
• on a Tampa travel page and on their iPhone app page
  

A few reporters have even found me through my photos on Flickr.

The first time was in March 2007, when a Wall Street Journal reporter was doing a story on VIP only areas of exclusive vacation hotels. She found this photo of me lounging in the infinity pool of the El Conquistador Hotel in Puerto Rico. First she sent me questions over email and then she called me for a phone interview. You can read the final article Class Warfare at the Infinity Pool. I was even quoted!

At the El Conquistador Resort in Puerto Rico, Claudine Caro infiltrated the infinity pool during her four-night stay last August. The pool is meant for use by guests of Las Casitas Village, a small complex adjacent to the main building. (There, current peak-season room rates start at $269 a night -- about $40 more than a room in the main resort. One-bedrooms start at $485.) Ms. Caro, a 33-year-old in South Brunswick, N.J., who develops educational courses for a pharmaceutical company, and her cousin visited the pool twice around dinnertime, when there weren't any attendants around. "We walked in like we owned the place," she says.

After my 15 minutes of fame were up from that, I got another 15 minutes. CNN was preparing a series of stories of road trips, and being that I just finished my Laid-Off Blues road trip, I sent in my story. Not only was it featured in a CNN iReport piece, I was interviewed again over the phone and they developed a multimedia slide show with me narrating!



It blows my mind how this crazy thing called the internet, which I dove into head first in 1995, now chronicles my life in ways I could never have imagined. In some ways, its a little frightening and I do need to be aware of what I'm putting out there, but for the most part, it makes the world a much smaller place.

4th of July Weekend

I found a very cool site, Animoto. It takes your photos from your computer or from a sharing site and mashes it together with music (again from your computer or from their selection) to make really awesome videos.