Etsy sales donated to Haiti -- deadline extended!

I have decided to extend my Etsy fundraiser until Sunday, Jan. 31st! It has been quite a success so far -- over $200 of critters have been sold and 100% of that will go directly to Partners in Health. A HUGE thank you to those who have already purchased a critter! This is very exciting.

Proceeds from Etsy sales donated to Haiti!

I have decided to donate 100% of purchases made this week (minus shipping charges) to Partners in Health, a really awesome organization that is providing some pretty substantial relief to Haiti. This will go on until next Saturday, Jan. 23.

Basically you get to take home a quirky critter who will remind you that YOU have helped the citizens of Haiti.

I made this announcement yesterday via Facebook and email, and so far I have raised over $150. This is pretty extremely awesome.

Funnest Footwear Ever.

Ok, so I'm usually not one to go blah-blah-blahing about stuff, but this is a certain "stuff" that I must yee-haw about.

I recently purchased a deeply discounted pair of Ariat Legend Cow(girl) Boots from RueLaLa.com. Now, I have never owned a pair of cowboy boots. I have always admired them from a distance on others, but I never got around to owning a pair. My man-friend, who is a Southerner, sports a rather fabulous pair that used to belong to his father, and I must admit that these old boots (and he) have inspired me.

So I was browsing RueLaLa... and usually nothing comes up that I'm interested in... and then they had this fancy "FINAL SALE BLOWOUT" thing going on. "Oh crap," I said to myself. "I have to look." I'm glad I did. It took a few shots to get them. That is, I originally put a brown-ish pair in my "cart" but they sold out before I was able to pay. So I tried a half-size up. I was ready to pay, and then they sold out too. It wasn't looking good. But these black ones seemed oh-so-purty... so I added them to my cart. Again, my size ran out. "Shit." So again I ordered a half-size up, paid right away, and BAM, they were mine.

They are so incredibly fun to walk in. Oh my god. They are a little bit too big, but I guess that gives me an opportunity to retrieve my barely-used thick socks (see previous entry) that I purchased a few years ago.

The boots arrived in the mail just a couple of days ago and I have had two full days of fun in these puppies. Unfortunately I can't wear them convincingly with my colorful yoga pants, but they do work with jeans and less-festive yoga pants (and skirts, of course, but I have yet to try this). This is all good.

So, it seems as though my feet think that it's Halloween. Every day. It's awesome.

Reflections on the cold weather coming from a native Angeleno...

...or is it "Angelina"? Whatever.

So, this is my fourth "real" winter. Before I moved to Boston, so many people said, "Oh, you're going to freeze your butt off!" or "You're going to miss LA so much once the winter hits!"... and many other life-will-suck sorts of comments and warnings.

But I must be honest, it's really not that bad.

In a given winter, there are probably three or four days where I say, "Ok, this isn't wonderful. In fact, it's quite awful." But seriously, the extreme cold (below 20s with windchill...you know, snot-freeze temp) does not last forever. Most buildings are heated (sometimes too much). When the weather is gross (snow with freezing rain and slushy stuff in the streets up to your knees), it comforts me to know that I'm not the only one dealing with it.

I believe I have the keeping-body-warm thing dialed. The key is layers. Ok, so here are my tips. I'm sure everyone knows all of this information, but it's nice to lay it out:

*A lightweight short-sleeve shirt, long sleeve shirt over that (or vice versa with the long sleeve under the short sleeve),
*Perhaps a sweater on top of that....
*A good coat.
*Tights under jeans is always a nice touch. I'm not sure how guys deal with this, although there's that lovely advertisement for women's pantyhose from Joe Namath.
*Leg warmers are awesome...
*Boots with fuzzy stuff on the inside (sorry, sleek and fashionable lady-boots don't really work. I've tried it). My first winter I didn't quite get the sock-thing down. I thought the thicker the socks, the better. Not true. Thick socks make tight boots make no oxygen make very cold feet. There must be air between the foot and boot to actually get warm.
*Arm warmers. These are a definite staple of the LadyRay uniform from October until April (sometimes May). That's why it's worth getting a few cute ones (check out Etsy!)...
*Those awesome 180 ear-muff things. I still can't believe how well those things work.
*A hat.
*Scarf. Maybe two (on the particularly bone-chilling days)...
*Gloves. I'm definitely a fan of the "convertible" gloves that are half glove-half mitten. That way you don't have to take them off all the time (like when paying for groceries or whatever).

Ok, so it's mid-January and we have about two or more months of the cold. At this point I'm definitely used to it. I am looking forward to that glorious spring day where 50 degrees feels more like 75 and everyone is shining...

Observation of the Mind Getting Super Pissed... and then Laughing it Off

Last week my man-friend and I went to see the "Slutcracker" at the Somerville Theater. That's right, a burlesque take on good ol' Tchaik's "Nutcracker." I heard it was good, so I went ahead and bought a pair of tickets.

We arrived at the theater and the place was completely packed. We found a couple of empty seats up on the balcony and plopped ourselves down. In front of us was a walkway separating "our" portion of the balcony from the rows in front of us. This means nothing now, but later it will. Now, the purpose of this blog is not to give "Slutcracker" a bad review, but I must mention that I was an unhappy customer. Anyway, a few minutes before the show started, a woman sat down in front of me (across the walkway) who happened to have huge hair. I started to roll my eyes, telling myself, "Of course she sat right in front of me...right in my line of vision." The show started, and I realized there really was no way around this mass of fuzz. Man-friend and I switched seats and it was slightly better. But of course during this I start mentally comparing her hair to the un-felted wool I use when I needle-felt... wondering "Why can't she just pull it back, I mean doesn't she have ANY IDEA that her hair is a huge annoyance??"

Okay, so that was just the beginning. After I got over having this negative fantasy about dryer-filter-like hair, I started to pay more attention to the performance itself. Although it was difficult for the first 20 minutes due to the fact that many audience members arrived late and kept walking around the aisles asking "IS THIS SEAT TAKEN???" Anyway, the performance was...well, silly. The choreography was not very interesting, it wasn't "sexy" (as reviews said), and the dancing was okay at best. Going down my laundry list (while I'm at it), I may as well mention that the show was predictable, pretty boring, and not even sort of "shocking." What I did not quite understand at first was that the audience was loving it. They were hooting, hollering, and doing the whole bit. After all there were boobies of all sizes, pasties, dildos, and humping going on. Now, I'm no prude, but there really wasn't anything very interesting about these particular "raunchy" things happening on stage. Basically we felt totally out of place; we were definitely not a part of this "in" crowd that seemed to somehow manifest as its own separate part of the performance. Again, I'm not writing in order to review the show, but mentioning my dissatisfaction with everything is important.

Alright, so this whole thing was set up so perfectly for me -- a recipe of crap to allow my brain to feast on and chatter negatively about. During intermission, which we stayed seated for, man-friend and I shared our thoughts about how stupid everything was, how the audience was so ridiculous.... and how two men seemed to strategically place themselves right in front of our faces, giving us a grand view of the derrieres. That's right, middle-aged-man-ass right at face level. Total cake-topper.

Of course the mental chattering stew of negative experiences continued as I asked myself, "Why do they have to be so ignorant of their respective places in space? I mean, can't they be more mindful about where they put their butts? WTF? What is WRONG with people? This whole production, the audience, the big fluffy mass of hair..."

And then I caught myself. I noticed that my breath had become short and restrained. My neck was tense. All of these things occurred simply because I had been attaching myself to the plethora of my negative thoughts. And for what reason? Well, none. I took a deep breath, looked around at all of the smiling faces, which were stilled partially blocked by two pairs of butt-cheeks, and I reminded myself that these people were having a good time. Even though I did not agree with them or like their behavior, they meant no harm. And it was not very skillful of me to let my thoughts get the best of me.

So at this point of realization, I was able to laugh at myself and the whole experience. The ass cheeks became sort of funny. The fuzz-ball-head-lady became just a goofy lady with big hair. The performance continued to suck. OK, big deal!

We left before the end of the show (we gave up on it... and trying to navigate through a post-performance crowd didn't seem like it would be particularly enjoyable) and made our way to Orleans for a much-needed glass of wine. After our drink we attempted to exit the restaurant but were blocked by a couple of gentlemen. And who were they? Why, the same two ass-men who had just graced us with their booty-licious presence at the theater. Of course! What a perfect ending to our evening...

A Thanksgiving Unlike the Rest

This Thanksgiving was quite different than nearly all versions of the holiday that I have celebrated over the years. And I am so thankful for this change.

Firstly, a teensy bit of background info. My man-friend, who I have been with for just over three years (and living with for one year) and I have never been on a vacation. So we thought it would be a good idea to take a lil' mini vacation for T-day. I did a little investigation of some cutesy New England towns and Burlington, Vermont was recommended by more than one friend. So I booked a room for two nights, did pretty much no research on any sort of touristy destinations (although I did know about Church St), and that was that.

Thursday started off with a very slippery, sweaty, and probably unsanitary yoga session at Baptiste (I go there only a few times a year... when my gym is closed...heh...). Then I went home, cleaned up, packed, and we took off. Two episodes of "This American Life," some not-so-interesting local radio shows, Ani DiFranco, and a gorgeous drive later, we arrived at our cheap hotel. This was going to be awesome.

We took a nap, and by the time we woke up it was time to find dinner. We had no idea if anything was even going to be open. So while most families in America were either consuming thousands of calories or napping it off, we were starting to get grumbly tummies. First we went to Church St, walked up and down the four-block stretch, and found nothing. Well, Old Navy was open and I asked them if they knew of any place that was open. The cashier said, "Well, I'm not sure, but if you drive down the road a bit you'll see an Outback Steakhouse. There are other restaurants too..." Yeah right, Outback. So man-friend and I headed back to the car, went driving in the direction of Outback where "other restaurants were too," and weren't finding much. We thought of getting a bottle of wine and maybe stopping at some Chinese place for take-out (there was one open place, but we're not exactly fans of greazzzy Chinese food). Well, finally we stumbled upon Trader Duke's, which is the restaurant that's attached to the Double Tree Hotel in South Burlington. This was mostly likely a better option than oily string beans and wine.

So we go inside, and the place is packed. Probably 50 families chomping down on their Thanksgiving meals surrounded by three large television screens in the bar area playing "King of the Hill," local news, and sports. Trader Duke's had been taking reservations all week and of course we did not have one, but they were able to squeeze us in. It was 6 o'clock and the host said, "if you could finish by 7 that would be great so we can fit in all of our 7 o'clock reservations." Sure, whatever. We'll be out of there for sure. We go from not being able to find squat in town to being rushed through a meal. Go figure.

The vibe of the place was interesting. Yellow-ish lighting, wood panelling, maroon carpet with "wild" patterns, gold light fixtures, and floral "art." Also I don't believe there were any non-caucasian customers. Make what you want of that one. Anyway, the menus were all set for the evening, so being a vegetarian I had one option: vegetarian lasagna. It came with stuffing, sweet potatoes, roasted veggies, rice-or-mashed potatoes-or-baked potato, and a bread roll. And apple-or-pumpkin-or-pecan pie for dessert. I don't think they squeezed enough carbs into this meal. Well, I ordered this meal sans lasagna, asked for extra veggies, chose the rice, and took the dessert to go (which I knew I was not going to eat, but luckily my sweet-toothed-man-friend did). And yes we did, indeed, order a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. Also our waitress was just an added quirk to the whole experience; basically she was a huge spaz and demonstrated a variety of quasi-accents: Southern-esque, British-esque, New York-esque, and possibly more. Quite entertaining.

Anyway, the meal was actually really enjoyable. Not the food so much, unfortunately, but sitting down with my best friend and loved one is really what mattered most. We laughed at the whole deal, about how we "had to get out by 7," our lack of real plans for the weekend, how "King of the Hill" kept drawing our eyeballs to the screen (we don't own a TV), and how it was most unlike any other Thanksgiving we had ever had.

Kindness, Acceptance, and Things Like That

Several weeks ago I was at Shaw's grocery store in Porter Square. After I had fetched my groceries I went to the checkout line and there was one woman ahead of me. She seemed to be in some sort of terrible mood as she almost violently pulled out her wallet to pay. The cashier was a very smily older Asian woman, who continued to smile at this scowling customer.

Pointing to the receipt, the kindly cashier said, "If you call this number on your receipt you will be entered to win a cash prize."
"I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT, I DON'T USE A COMPUTER!" replied the woman.
"Oh, you don't need a computer, you just have to --"
"NO!" And she snatched the receipt, grabbed her groceries, and stormed off. The woman who bagged her groceries most definitely threw her a disapproving look.

So it was my turn to pay, and I said to the cashier, "Well, that wasn't very nice." She just smiled and said, "I guess she's having a bad day!" I couldn't help but giggle...I thought, "Wow, what a grounded person. Most people would be pretty pissed if someone else projected all that unnecessary crap onto them for no reason."

It's so easy to have negative feelings towards others when they act unskillfully (to use Buddhist terminology). But if you try and look at it from their point of view, it's easier to have compassion for them. My initial instinct was to start cursing silently at this rude customer..."What the hell is your problem? The cashier is only doing her job and she's being totally nice and you start yelling at her..." etc etc etc. But it's so important to look beyond these actions and realize that there is a human being with a heart underneath the sheath of negativity. Perhaps she was having a bad day. Perhaps she was having a REALLY bad day and a loved one passed away. Who knows. I most certainly will never know. But assuming that this woman is inherently mean doesn't help me feel compassionate towards her. So even if there was not one remotely redeeming quality about this person, the only thing left I could do is just hope that she doesn't continue to suffer.

By the way I'm currently reading Joseph Goldstein's INSIGHT MEDITATION. It's amazing.