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Tomorrow's the big day. During this holiday I wish you lots of love, happiness, and good food.

Will be back after the break.

India Calling

“WHAT are Papa and I doing here?”

These words, instant-messaged by my mother in a suburb of Washington, D.C., whizzed through the deep-ocean cables and came to me in the village where I’m now living, in the country that she left...

Which raises a heart-stirring question: If our parents left India and trudged westward for us, if they manufactured from scratch a new life there for us, if they slogged, saved, sacrificed to make our lives lighter than theirs, then what does it mean when we choose to migrate to the place they forsook?

If we are here, what are they doing there? "


I can't stop thinking about this article, and find it to be quite touching.

I also think there's something to be said about "Third-Culture" and "Second-Culture" kids. Where are our roots? Where do we settle down? In our parents' homeland? In the place(s) we lived when we were younger? Or do we continue the cycle and settle somewhere new and different?

Anyway, you should read the article. It's very well done.

T minus 2 days until my second favorite holiday!

I'm really excited for Thanksgiving this year. It's going to be a little chaotic, because this is the first year I'm attempting to do two Thanksgivings. John always comes to my house for Thanksgiving (and Christmas, for that matter), but we've been dating for a little over 3 years, and I think it's about time I let him know that I value his family as much as my own. Plus, the prospect of having 2 delicious Thanksgiving meals is way too good to pass up.

I'm going to attempt to make 2 batches of delicious treats, one for John's family and one for my own. This is dangerous because 1.) This means I have to get into the kitchen before my mother on Thurday morning, and 2.) My mother wakes up at 6 a.m. to prepare a meal that will inevitably be on the table by 9 p.m. Oh well, the chaos just adds to the warm and cozy setting of the house...I hope.

I'll be missing my older younger brother this year; he'll be staying in California until Christmas. He just moved out there, but holidays just aren't the same when your family can't be together. John's just going to have to pick up Adam's slack, something that I'm sure he'll be willing to do. John is the only person I know whose stomach seems to expand solely for the holidays. Last year, he had Thanksgiving dinner at his house (eating multiple portions), and then came down to my house (his family lives about 30 minutes away from mine in Connecticut) where he continued to eat. We had no turkey left by the end of the night.

I'm having a little get together on Friday with some old friends, which is nice because I haven't seen them in quite a while. Should be fun, with lots of drinks and catching up.

Saturday, John and I are going to his Aunt's birthday party, where we will have another feast and promptly pass out when we get home.

Sunday's home time, where I will try and convince John to decorate our apartment with Christmas knick knacks and doodads. It's going to be a busy, busy weekend, but so much fun!

What are you lovelies doing for the holidays? Do you have any delicious holiday recipes for me?

Er, this is interesting...

“Today we’re beginning this sexperiment, seven days of sex,” he said, with his characteristic mix of humor, showmanship and Scripture. “How to move from whining about the economy to whoopee!”

Read the whole article here.

"Congressional copulation" anyone?

I found these photos on smosch.com

I really like the chandelier in the first photo, and I find the composition of the second photo to be quite appealing.

Ah, the beautiful things you find in every day life.

Single Ladies

I have no shame in admitting that I love Beyonce.

You know it's good if your boyfriend sings "If you like it then you should have put a ring on it" in all seriousness.

Holiday Volunteer Time

The holiday season is upon us, and I need to start thinking about volunteering somewhere. I've always believed that it is my responsibility to give- no- to lend a hand to members of the underserved community. However, I'm somewhat ashamed to say that I haven't played that part in a year.

It's always easy to tell yourself that you're going to do something- volunteer at a soup kitchen, or a battered women's shelter, but for me, it's a lot harder to put these ideas in motion. I got complacent. For the most part, I've always been involved in some sort of community work, throughout high school, college, and post-college. This is the first year that I haven't done anything to benefit the community I live in.

I used to work in a community oriented position for a not for profit children's health insurance company in Connecticut. I was responsible for creating a liason between our company, and those who didn't have the resources to get the best possible health care for their children. I went to numerous health fairs, taught nutrition classes, and reached out to people aged 0-87. I volunteered at soup kitchens on Thanksgiving, and wrapped presents for churches at Christmas.

You know what? It was stressful, but it was the most rewarding job that I had. I once thought that doing these deeds would make me realize my value and self-worth as a person, but volunteering is so much more than that. How selfish of me to think that helping others would be a way for me to prop myself up, and and to deem me worthy in the eyes of others.

That's not what donating your time is about. You donate your time so that you can help others recognize their own potential and self worth.

And that's why I need to find somewhere to volunteer in the coming weeks.

Another fake animal to replace the cat I'm not getting for Christmas.

Here's another Christmas idea: a dog lamp! I was tooling around on Fubiz and came across this awesome lamp that's built like one of my favorite kinds of dogs, the Dachshund.

The lamp is made by a Korean company called Needs and Wants. The lamp acts as an LED light; you must touch the dog's "body" in order for it to light up. Awesome!

Chicagoooo

John and I are going to be in the "Windy City" from January 16-January 18, 2009; me for a law school interview, him because I begged him to come along.

I've heard that Chicago is a great city, but I've never been. Any tips on what we should do/see? I basically just want to go and see the Bean (pictured above).

Adorable

To brighten your Monday.

Another hilarious post about Twighlight

I must admit, I very much want to see this movie due to the snarky reviews in the New York Times and New York Magazine.

NY Mag's "28 Reasons That 'Twighlight' the Movie is Better than 'Twighlight' the Book" is so funny. And comes with a slideshow!

Here's a tidbit:

"We're sure plenty of superfans of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series will complain loudly about the movie adaptation of the first book, Twilight, after they leave tonight's midnight screenings. They won't like the casting, or they'll be upset the filmmakers left out their favorite line, or they'll think the sparkle effect looked stupid.

But let us disagree in advance. As far as we're concerned, Catherine Hardwicke's movie of Twilight does what most movie adaptations can't: It dramatically improves the book it's based on. It's more exciting, it's more fun, and — most important — it's way less annoying than Meyer's gazillion-selling blockbuster. (The sparkle effect, though, did look better in our imagination.)

How can you say such a thing? indignant Twilight fans will howl. Let us count the ways, in our spoiler-filled slideshow."

I might have to take back my vow to watch this On Demand and go see it in the movie theater...

Squishables

Oh. My. Gosh. I just came across these giant squishable animals and I'm in love.

Squishables are giant, round stuffed animals that are just begging to be hugged. I WANT ONE. I'm putting this on my Christmas list (*AHEM* John...and it's not real, unlike a kitten).

These animals are solely meant for hugging, which is great, especially after you've had a bad day. Plus, it's cold outside, so it'll be nice to snuggle up to during the winter months. They have all sorts of animals, from a panda, to a giant chicken, to an octopus.

Oh, they're great big balls of love!

DAMN.

It really hurts when you don't feel like you're needed/valued somewhere.

Especially when you're working REALLY hard.

I'm not giving up!

John said that he would deduct $5 off my Christmas gift every time I mentioned how much I wanted a kitten. He should know by now that threats aren't going to stop me!

Plus, everyone loves little kitten photos.

Twilight

I find this movie review to be hilarious:

"The Twilight Saga” (four doorstops and counting), this carefully faithful adaptation traces the sighs and whispers, the shy glances and furious glares of two unlikely teenage lovers who fall into each other’s pale, pale arms amid swirling hormones, raging instincts, high school dramas and oh-so-confusing feelings, like, OMG he’s SO HOT!! Does he like ME?? Will he KILL me??? I don’t CARE!!! :)"

I might have to watch this movie when it comes out on On Demand. Ahahahhaha.

--from the NY Times

Bedroom Wonderland.

I found this while looking around on design*sponge. I know white's tricky, but what do you think? I kind of like it, and John and I are looking to redo our bed. This can still be seen as masculine, right?

The Girl Effect

In love with words.

Is there anybody out there who loves words as much as I do? When I say that I'm in love with words, I mean that I'm in love with the way the word sounds in my mouth, my tongue rolling around to create the different syllables, the gradual sounding of the word, and its exit from my mouth.

Words fill me with a kind of joy that still makes me feel like a small child, giggly and wiggling around, back when my life was full of little curiosities that made me smile.

The word that makes me grin right now? Bailiwick. The definition itself is nothing too exciting; bailiwick means a person's specific area of knowledge, authority, interest, skill, or work.

But isn't it a fun little word? For some reason, I imagine a big old Scottish man using the phrase. And that makes me smile.

I bet jackets like this would make some people read more.

Aren't these book spines lovely? The design is by designer Coralie Bickford-Smith, who according to The Book Design Review, designed book jackets for the Penguin Gothic Horror series. This series above, are all great works of literature including Sense and Sensibility, Jane Eyre, and Crime and Punishment.

What do you think? If all books were designed like this, would you read more? I would certainly be inclined to at least flip through the pages.

Check out more book covers here.

Indexed

My friend Meredith just sent me this BRILLIANT blog called Indexed, which is now one of my favorite blogs. The blog is run by a girl named Jessica who uses graphs and charts to make fun of some things, and make sense of others. The posts, some of which you can see above, alternate between sweet and hilarious. I've been snorting to myself quietly for the last 15 minutes because of this blog.

I guess I know what I'll be doing this afternoon. Not doing work, reading Indexed, and listening to some Christmas music. Probably Mariah Carey.

SLR Cameras!

This post is mostly for my friend Meghan over at Newbie New Yorker who is looking for the perfect SLR digital camera. I think her best bet would be a Canon, mostly because I have been lusting over the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS (in the photo above). This camera does everything that a real SLR would do, except that it's much smaller and much less expensive. The picture quality is awesome too.

Megs, if you are looking for a giant, holy-shit-this-weighs-more-than-me camera, the EOX 50D camera is supposed to be good. I just can't even look at cameras that cost more than $500. Okay, $200...

Then you've got the big camera giant, Nikon. I tend to stick with Canons, because all of the cameras I've ever had are Canons. However, my father, who has a bit of an obsession with cameras (and photography, I suppose), says that you can't go wrong with Nikon. The Nikon D80 looks beautiful and it's also an award winner (American Photo Editor's Choice 2007 Award, July '07), so you know you'll be getting your money's worth. And it will probably be a little cheaper because it's not the '08 version.

I hope this helps you out!

I bet this would have made my math grades go up.

Check out this chocolate pie chart from Mary & Matt! If I had had this in high school, I bet my math grades wouldn't have been so abismal. The chart is organized according to the most popular kind of chocolate, which of course, is milk chocolate (70%). Dark chocolate follows up with 20%, and for all of you poor saps like me who actually like white chocolate, we've got a measly 10%.

This pie chart comes after M&M's great idea for Chocolate Scrabble. Playing with your words would be oh so much fun.

What a great gift. This little one would love one of these for Christmas, and you'd best bet that I'll be sending them out too!

I found this on one of my favorite blogs, fubiz.

My sappy heart is melting...

...for this blog

I am such a sucker.

Free lunch for a later day.

I just remembered that I have to fast until my Dr's appointment today. So sad.

Free lunch will have to be tomorrow.

Oops

I've been a little lazy with the posting lately. I'm super busy with work and studying, but I'm still going to keep trying to post multiple times a day!

ANYWAY, yours truly was just given a free lunch for ordering food for all the lawyers a few months ago. In my mind, that's awesome!

Wheeeee! I wonder what I'll get?

Everything Will Be Fine.

Via ungtblod

Guess where I am!

...Did you guess that I was at work? So much for lazy Sundays (grumble grumble).

I hope the rest of you are having lovely, relaxing Sundays!

Hold a rainbow in your hands.

Bon week-end mes petites!

Via A Cup of Jo via Tatielle

What I wish life was like every day.

How could you not smile every time you passed this?

ffffound

I love cheese.

This is how I feel today; like Emile, La Machine A Manger!

ffffound

The best night.

Snuggled up on the couch with fuzzy socks on. Ate two whoopie pies and a spoonful of John's frozen yogurt. John is sleeping and snoring slightly, but it's cute. I'm going to go snuggle with him in a moment.

Life is good, and it's worth every single bump and bruise that has come my way.

Good night.

Election Night with the Obamas

I know I said I'd stop posting about the election, but I came across David Katz's Flickr set of the Obama family on Election Night. I've been looking through them obsessively. You should too.

Aren't the Obamas one of the most beautiful families in the world?

Phrase of the Day

Get After It

Definition:

To aggressively get fucked up. To go big. To consume party drugs and alcohol in an effort to become extremely wasted, yet still fired up enough to stay up late.

Sentence: Hey guys, let's get after it tonight!

From Urban Dictionary

Have we forgotten?

How quickly have we forgotten Rwanda's genocide? 1.5 million people were displaced when a peace deal collapsed and new fighting appeared between Rwandans and the Congolese. Since then, 200,000 civilians have fled on both sides, and hundreds are dead.

"The international community failed to stop Rwanda’s genocide and promised not to let it happen again. Has the world forgotten so quickly?"

Why is nobody paying attention to this?

NY Times article

If I had some money...

...I would buy this scarf.

Christmas present perhaps?

Mashallah

My dear friend Sarah is teaching me Urdu. I love learning new languages and soon we'll be able to speak in "code" when we don't want anyone to know what we're speaking about...as long as they're not Pakistani ;)

This is what I learned today: ladki= girl

Resampled Space

I love this little house. Photographer Filip Dujardin samples photos of buildings to create new structures.

Dujardin creates buildings with new structure, all from composite photographs. Read more about him here.

Found out about him here.

I'm laughing...

...because I hid Swedish Fish from myself earlier this week, and when I went to look for them, I found Mike & Ikes in another hidden spot.

Polaroid

This is lovely.

via Flickr

Pretty Awesome

Who wouldn't want a pair of gloves that say Hi-5? I live for high fives and like to give them anywhere I go. These gloves are awesome, and are handcrafted by women in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Buy a pair and "directly support a woman as she rebuilds her life, family, and community." By Kate Spade.

I would like a pair...as soon as they come back in stock!


I found these via A Cup of Jo via Hi+Low

What I want for Christmas.

Please John, pleeeeeease?

omgsh!

I would wear any one of these headbands. They make me happy just looking at them! The seven year old in me has come out again!

From ban.do

The Book Design Review

Book covers, play a huge role in determining with book I'm going to read. The blog Book Design Review is devoted to book covers. How great! I'm sure this will help me to determine which book I'm going to read next.

Santoki Vintage

I just bought a beautiful purple dress from Santoki Vintage on Etsy, and I can't wait for it to arrive! I can't decide what's best about it: That it was under $50 or that nobody else is going to have it. The picture from the site went away as soon as I bought it (boo), but I'll show you the next best thing. I really wanted this dress (above) as well, but the other one was more practical and I don't have that much money (or really, any) to burn. Spring, perhaps?

Oooh, I can't wait!

I like.

I came across this print today while parsing through Design * Sponge. I really like it, and can see it hanging quite nicely in my home. The artist's name is John Murphy and his collages, such as this one, sell for $35-$60.

Hear Hear!

http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/2/2-28.htm


You would think that they could at least have chosen the bran muffin.

Paradise

Isn't this the most idyllic-looking setting you've seen in a while?

Via The Selby

Passport to Trespass

I found this blog via Fanny Bostrom and I love it! Great find Fanny B!

Passport to Trespass

Happy International Human Rights Declaration Day!

"I choose to sign this declaration because:

I wish to take responsibility for upholding the goals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in my daily life and in my community. I will do my best to speak out to protect the freedom and rights of others in my community.

I affirm the following principle: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

I believe Every Human Has Rights."- Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Sign up folks!

Birthday Love!

Adam C. Seaton, born November 10, 1986. I love you little brother!

Weekend Update

Hello lovelies! Sunday is coming to an end, which means the start of a new work week. I hope you all had great weekends. My weekends have been becoming better and better, despite the fact that I've been in bed before midnight every single night.

Friday night, I drove down with Sarah to Providence to see our close friend Korto and her friend Mimi for dinner. Despite the fact that Sarah and I got lost for an hour (neither of us have commendable directional skills), dinner was lovely. We went to 10 Steak and Sushi for dinner, which serves, of course, steak, and sushi. I had the Dice-K Maki, which consists of salmon, cucumber, eel, avocado, and eel garlic sauce. Yum.

Saturday, I took a 3 hour LSAT, got a manicure, met my friend Abbey to see Changeling, with the Most Beautiful Woman In The World, Angelina Jolie (warning- the movie is very disturbing--bring tissues), and finished off the evening with my old friend Kerice, John, and our friend Reggie at Miracle of Science for burgers and beers.

Today was the best day! It was family day with the Shea family! I went with John, his sisters Margaret and Katie, and Katie's boyfriend Ben to have brunch with his counsins, Caitlin, Jeff and their scrumptious baby Lucy. After a Barefoot Contessa bruch, we took a walk around Jamaica Plain and all bought great hats from this store Salmagundi. Then John and I came back and watched The Fall- a visually stunning movie. Currently, I'm in sweatpants on the couch watching Dexter. So far, not a great episode.

I hope tomorrow is the greatest Monday ever for all of you!

Mike and Ike

Why do I do this to myself? I just ate an ENTIRE BOX of Tangy Twister Mike and Ikes. And then I wonder why I feel sick. Damn.

They taste yummy though if you can practice some self control. My favorite flavors are the pineapple, raspberry, and cherry. So basically, all of the flavors. Don't judge, just try.

Tara Donovan

I'm excited to get down to the ICA to see Tara Donovan's sculptures. Donovan takes ordinary, every day items and transforms them into giant works. Most of her sculptures are layered, piled, and clustered in such a uniform way that these patterns work to assume forms that evoke natural systems.

For this exhibit, the ICA has gathered 16 of Donovan's sculptures from the past decade, and commissioned a new installation.

Why do I like Tara Donovan? Because she can take a bunch of buttons and create something completely unthinkable, like stalagmites (or is it stalagtites?). I love that kind of work.

Her sculptures are on display at the Boston ICA until January 4, 2009.

The sculpture above is made of paper plates!

Balloons

Oh, this image makes me happy!