All We Need Is...

Image courtesy Snippet & Ink

Well kids, we're in the waning hours of 2009 - what has turned out to be a pretty good year. I won't bore you with end of year - or (gasp!) decade - best of/worst of lists... nor will I regale you what I plan to do in the coming year (or weeks or days - let's not kid ourselves).

Instead let's keep it simple.

Let's just try to love more this year.

Here's to Mona & Vahid starting the party right! Congratulations! (even if I'm day early...)

As the World Turns...

Some years are ending and beginning - and others just keep rolling along... but I always look forward to these little 'end of year mashups'. I find them to be more palatable and certainly more entertaining than the 5,000 DIY wall calendars floating the blogosphere (but I digress).
Enjoy!

Pop Life...

Vintage...

My grandmother just sent me some mail (ahem) and enclosed was this little gem. What's funny is that I'm currently sporting that haircut - if just a little darker. It's amazing to see yourself so clearly when you look at your 'baby' pictures. It's like the essential me - my fundamental self or personality smiling for the camera. Glad to meet you. ...I mean me.

Aimee & Bill Piper - the 80s, of course!

San Clemente, CA

Thanks, Nana!

The Weekend Update...

Okay, I know that it's Monday night already - but give a girl a break, huh? Thanks!
Remember way back in August when I waxed excited about the pending arrival of my friend's little one's? It's official! Mrs. is a Mama! (And a hot Mama at that!)
Welcome, M&V!

On Mixed Messages...

I am your typical southern Californian girl... and since I've been living abroad for the last 2.5 years, I finally feel comfortable in my own skin. This post is meant less as 'therapy' and more as not-so-casual observation, but find what projection you may.
The word of the day from 25 December 2009 is embonpoint \ahn-bohn-PWAN\, noun: Plumpness of person; stoutness.
Here's where the mixed messages come into effect: it's from the French, literally "in good condition" (en, "in" + bon, "good" + point, "situation, condition").
Wondering when annorexia became a good thing - or, as the case may be, a good condition.
Image via 'weheartit'.

Without Further Ado...

I'm generally opposed to (well... not a fan of, anyhow) blog posts sans pictures. I think it gives the reader (I mean me) something nice to look at - maybe it's a conversation construct, or maybe I miss picture books.
Anyhow, I've got no picture today, kids. Sorry.
What I've got is a two-day old cold (ewwww. I know) & a bundle of nerves. You see, tomorrow morning I'm getting a cardio-echo. When I had to do my stress test for water polo (it's routine for the team), they found an anomaly. So to rule out complications from said discovery, I'm having an ultrasound of my heart. This is actually pretty cool. The result will be a complete 3D color-coded image of my heart - and I'm really excited to see what that looks like.
Except for the part where I'm sort of (okay, actually) a prude. Do you know where your heart is in relation to the rest of your body? I do. And I know that doctor's see boobs (for the mature among you: breasts) all day long and twice on Fridays. But they don't see my boobs. For some reason, I don't feel like a concession will be made for the shy/modest girl. Sigh.
Merry Christmas to me?

Do It... Do It Now

...preferably in 3D.

In case you're confused, James Cameron killed it. The world he's created is phenomonal. It has (hopefully) clearly blown my mind.

The part I find particularly fascinating and important is the conversation he has about unity - between people, nature & the supernatural. The way that we see this interconnectedness, and tap into it, in our own lives is something that is coming - increasingly - to the forefront of social consciousness. Think, for example, on the environment summit of Copenhagen, or the global-minded direction that human rights has taken. These are all areas of our collective human psyche that have transcended old world thinking of "my problems, my solutions" into something more. It's truly amazing and wonderful to be part of that transformation.

How do you connect with people, with nature, with God?

*In case you don't have "wide screen" - see the trailer here.*

Rejoice!

Yesterday and today mark the Twin Holy Days: The Birth of the Báb and the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh, respectively. If you've visited here before, you likely know that I am a Bahá’í, and that I am living in Haifa, Israel serving at the Bahá’í World Centre. What you may not know is that the Báb (a title meaning "Gate") is the Herald of the Bahá’í religion and that Bahá’u’lláh (a title meaning "the Glory of God) is the Prophet Founder of the Bahá’í religion. From the Bahá’í Writings:

Glory by to Thee, O Lord my God! Make manifest the rivers of Thy sovereign might, that the waters of Thy Unity may flow through the inmost realities of all things, in such wise that the banner of Thine unfailing guidance may be raised aloft in the kingdom of Thy command and the stars of Thy divine splendor may shine brightly in the heaven of Thy majesty.
Potent art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee. Thou, verily, art the Help in Peril the Self-Subsisting.
- Bahá’u’lláh

Image credit.

Silent Night...

So I read an interesting article in the BBC today: "US moves to ban 'excessively noisy' TV advertisements ". The House of Representatives has approved a bill that will limit the maximum volume of television commercials.
Okay. I get it - I too hate when you're chilling out with some classic tv time and all of a sudden there's an overwhelming and annoying hike in volume as soon as the commercials come on.
What I don't get is why the House of Representatives can figure out the volume crisis, but not - say - the health care crisis faced by so many Americans.
Don't mind me - I'm just the crazy 'thinking out loud' girl....
As you were.
Image credit.

Happy Chanukah...

You may not know this, as I've been keeping it sort of on the DL, but I started playing water polo here in Haifa a couple of months ago... and I love it. I play three times a week - with 2 different teams. Lucky me - I got to experience my first and second Chanukah celebrations all in one fell swoop!
*Happy Chanukah*

Window to the Soul...

So I'm still dabbling in the arts... alas the art class has moved to a night I play water polo, so I'm having to get creative in finding time to practice my creativity. With me? Cool.
Anyhow, one of the things I've always been drawn to in art (pun not intended) is the artist's ability to convey the essense of the her or his subject. My art history/criticism books always warned me how difficult that was to do with oil, and - for example - was why William Blake preferred water colors or charcoal in his mission to portray the spiritual and ethereal realities of his subjects.... Now that I'm practicing with different media, I'm realizing just how true this is.

When I lived in Southern California (2.5 years ago, now!), I regularly visited the Getty - and the above portrait has always been one of my favorites in their collection. Gericault painted this as a study for a larger painting about a sunken ship off the coast of Africa - major news at the time - that had very few survivors ("The Raft of the Medusa", at the Louvre). What is amazing and profound to me is the simultaneous sorrow and dignity conveyed here. The man seems to me to be narrating a story - and is at a point in his tale where he must somehow collect himself from the staggering heartbreak of it all.
I tell you truly, friends... if I could paint nothing else, I would love to be able to paint eyes like this.

Dear Vancouver...

Saw this on a little blog I sometimes look at and thought of my good friend Kadria - who just so happens to be one of my favorite photographers.
...so. How's it going?

Liquid Beauty...

These people are so smooth - and the choreography is so tight... it hurts me.

Thanks to Ashley (everyone's favorite ghettoblaster) for the head's up.

Technological Ineptitude...

I often make the joke that if my computer and I were the Dynamic Duo, that I would be the sidekick in the really (ahem) cool tights.
As is evidenced below, I'm actually really fascinated by technology - I think it has amazing and wonderful potential - and I'm reading Coupland still (somehow desperately hoping that my computer will know & my tech/information superhighway cred will miraculously and exponentially increase). Alas....
One thing I learned (and rather quickly, I add) how to do when I came here was to utilize the alarm clock function on my cell phone. ...I'm old fashioned - I get it. Anyhow, so a few weeks ago I left my cell phone at the office & went into a minor panic about how I was going to wake up in the morning. A friend pointed out that it was possible to program an ipod to function as an alarm clock.
To make a long story short... I can't figure out how to get it to stop! Twice a day - at increasingly random times - my ipod starts playing Milosh. And I love the music - but it's getting a little weird. Just saying.
Check the video below for some of the cool things you can do (if not me) with an iphone/pod.

If You Build It...

We Three Queens...

Well - we are in the Holy Land. It's my story... I'm sticking to it.

(clockwise from top)
Sholeh, Aimee & Abi
‘Akká, Israel

And oh yeah - I'm a brunette, now.

Basketball Is My New Jam...

So as you know, Thanksgiving (and a myriad other things) isn't exactly traditional here - but we get sort of close. We streamed a little football - but no one's team was really playing, so we wound up watching various youtube highlights.... Including the gem above.

Glorious.

Happy Friday.