Monday, Monday (Can't Trust That Day)

It's not yet noon, and I fear I have once again reached the end of the internet(s). How will I entertain myself for the rest of the day? Your assignment: send me your questions for research, and I will gladly tackle them and report back to you. As Juan and Chantal can attest, I will endeavor to provide concise and pertinent info to enlighten you on any subject of your choosing, be it the Chupacabra or the Gregorian calendar. I will even use Excel spreadsheets to present my findings, where applicable.

In other news, from my cubicle I can peer through my boss' office window and glimpse the outside world. My view includes: a) the side of an office building (where I used to work, ironically) and b) one (1) tree. This morning I noticed that my (1) tree had gone green by sprouting leaves over the weekend. Spring is so surprisingly instantaneous!

The recent bout of nice weather made for some good people-watchin' this weekend. From my table at Cafe Pick-Me-Up (quickly becoming a favorite coffee place) I surveyed the varied mix of people streaming in and out of Tompkins Square Park. Behind me, a producer of a music video was hiring a costume designer. To my right, an elderly French woman with bright red hair finished typing something on her Mac and gave up her seat, so a college-aged girl could eat her breakfast at 4pm in the afternoon. I love the East Village.

Isn't this article on honeybees terribly fascinating and disconcerting? Who knew their extensive role in agriculture? And where are they all going - Honeybee Rapture?

I also enjoyed this article on saints, speaking to debate on whether or not Pope John Paul II should be canonized. By detailing the flawed lives of saints through the ages, the author reminds those who would oppose PJPII's elevation to sainthood that "perfection is not a requirement for holiness." Praise God! I'd be lost if it were.

And now, back to Monday...

Lyrical Life

I've started a handful of posts recently, but haven't finished any of them. I'm having trouble deciphering my own thoughts about anything these days- when I'm over-tired and over-caffeinated after recent travels, when my home state dominates national news in the worst way, when life decisions need to be made and I don't feel prepared to make them, when I worry my imagination has been dulled by 8hrs daily spent staring at cubicle walls lit by florescent lighting - here I sit, just not knowing.

What I do know is that the following song lyrics have been stuck in my head, so in the absence of my own thoughts, here are some from Sixpence and Patty G.:

"Tension is to be loved
when it is like a passing note
to a beautiful, beautiful chord."
-Sixpence None the Richer

"It's a mad mission
Under difficult conditions
not everybody makes it
To the loving cup
It's a mad mission
But I got the ambition
Mad, mad mission
sign me up."
-Patty Griffin

One other thing I know - it's quittin' time on a beautiful, sunny Friday afternoon! Park Avenue sprung alive just this week with spring plantings - who told them tulips were my favorite? Sweet, sweet weekend, thanks for getting here right on time.

So Much Things To Say

1) It was snowing outside a few minutes ago. In April! Hooray for the unexpected.

2) My gym, being part of a local Jewish cultural and community center, is currently closed for Passover. So I've had to seek out exercise elsewhere, by taking a few laps around my old haunt - the Jackie O. Reservoir in Central Park. So pretty! And added bonus: I find I get good thinkin' done more easily while walking around the reservoir than when I'm treading nowhere on the elliptical machine at the gym.

3) I have never actually met my next-door-neighbor; I know him only by the music he plays, which I hear clearly through the walls. His taste in music seems pretty limited: Primarily he plays Norah Jones (her first cd only). Some Saturday mornings he switches things up with a little Seal. Those are seriously the only 2 things I've ever heard him play, until Monday evening, when he blasted the soundtrack to Fiddler on the Roof (apparently in honor of Passover?). I had to smile. I enjoy a little "Tradition" myself.

4) Last weekend, while I was recovering from my jet lag, my roommate and I ordered food from a nearby diner and re-watched "You've Got Mail." That movie always makes me glad to live in New York. With the movie's theme of Underdog Small Business versus Big, Bad Chain Store still fresh in my mind, I want to take a moment to salute 2 of my favorite neighborhood spots: Glaser's Bakery & Logos Bookstore.

Glaser's is the sweetest place - both for their yummy baked goods as well as their ambience. The staff is friendly, in no hurry, and greet their regular customers by name. The store has great fixtures - old-fashioned cabinets and cases holding such treasures as gingerbread, eclairs, danish, and the New York requisite: the black-and-white cookie.

I love Logos in part for its fixtures as well: their books are displayed beautifully on built-in carved wood shelves (very reminiscent of YGM's "Shop Around the Corner"). As you browse their impressive religion, poetry, and travel sections, the hardwood flooring creaks softly beneath your feet. (I love creaking floorboards!) The man who runs the store is well-trained and helpful, the lighting is soft and cheery, and I hope this place sticks around for awhile, despite the presence of two (2) Barnes & Nobles looming just down the street.

Choice

Hidden away on the 5th floor of an old office building in New York's Financial District is Seaport Yarn, a store specializing in - you guessed it - yarn. Skeins of yarn in every color and fiber imaginable are piled onto shelves lining the rooms & hallways of this former office suite. When I go there, I am overwhelmed by the potential presented by each skein - it could become a scarf for a friend, a sweater for a dog, a hat for a baby. Too many choices.

My parents had given me a gift certificate to the store for my birthday, several months back, but I delayed visiting Seaport until recently. Partly because all my crafty powers were presently focused on the Pope, but mostly because I feared I would be stymied by indecision once inside Seaport's doors. What to make? What yarn to use? The limitless choices stressed me out, so I chose avoidance instead.

Eventually I decided to just get it over with, so a couple of weekends ago I headed downtown. Once inside the store, a smiling employee asked if I needed help. Yes, please! As I started to explain my lack of direction, she interupted to explain that Lily Chin was there completing a book-signing, and she might be able to help. The employee then ushered me into the next room and delivered me to Ms. Chin.

Not being an avid knitter, I had never before heard of Lily Chin, but apparently she is something of a big deal. She has written several books on knitting, has her own line of yarn, and my mom informed me later that she has seen knitting shows on TV featuring Lily. (There are knitting TV shows?!) According to her website, Lily is also the reigning Fastest Crocheter in the world. Yowzer.

I became a Lily fan right away. After I explained that I was a beginning knitter looking for a project, Lily processed me through a series of questions to determine what might work best. Can you do a garter stitch? Yes. Can you knit in the round? No. Are you project-oriented or do you knit just to relax and not think? Relaxing/not thinking, definitely. Do you have a preference for type of yarn? I'm adverse to wool. Spring and Summer are coming; are you looking for a seasonal project, or are you ok with working on cold-weather apparel? Something seasonal, I think.

Armed with this information, Lily began sketching a pattern and scribbling instructions on a piece of paper. She disappeared into a back room and returned with several skeins of pretty light pink ribbon yarn and a pair of knitting needles. Coaching me through the first few rows of stitches until she was confident I could handle the rest, Lily got me started on what will eventually become a super-cute shawl/capelet-type-thing.

I left Seaport satisfied; my choices had been made for me! Lily picked the pattern, Lily picked the yarn, and they were perfect for me. Then I thought: Wouldn't it be great to have a Lily Chin in all areas of my life? Someone to make decisions for me, to tell me what to do - what a relief that would be!

I mean, it's great that God gives us free will and wide berth to figure out how we're going to live our lives, but sometimes the responsibility of that freedom can feel overwhelming. I often wish He would just tell me what to do. Obedience I can handle; it's discernment that is giving me trouble lately.

I try to trust that even though I can't see/feel/hear God guiding me in the way Lily Chin did, He is somehow guiding me nonetheless. And the process of discernment will no doubt be better for me in the long run than if I were blindly following orders; certainly there are lessons to be learned about myself and God whilst wrestling with indecision. Still, part of me wishes that my major life decisions could be sewn up as neatly as my pretty pink shawl/capelet-type-thing.

More Vancouver Notes


Vancouver gets a lot of rain, the results of which I enjoyed last week - lots of greenery, flowering trees everywhere, with daffodils and other spring blooms pushing up from the ground already. (Still waiting for those signs of spring here in NYC!) When speaking with a professor at the school I was visiting, he commented on the rainy climate, saying, "Yes it rains alot, but rain puts snow on those mountains."

And oh - those mountains. Rising up from the water's edge, stony black and topped with snow, the mountains are an ever-present part of Vancouver scenery. I grew up down the road from the Shenandoah Valley's Blue Ridge Mountains and these remain my first love, mountain-wise. But I have to admit, while the Blue Ridge are a sweet & lovely range, the mountains around Vancouver are awesome & inspiring in a way that can't compare.

From the moment I spied them, as my plane began its descent to the airport, I had a hard time looking away. They are completely captivating elements of creation. No wonder the Psalmist makes such frequent mention of mountains when praising God! The idea of creation came up further in conversation with that professor, as he extolled the beautiful scenery as a selling point for attending the college. Being located in the Pacific Rim gives students ample opportunity to reflect on the creation around them, and the pace of life there allows for such reflection.

The professor, borrowing language from another faculty member, said that he didn't like to talk about environment so much as creation. Environment implies an ego, a focus on "I" (my environment, of which I am the center). Whereas creation naturally implies a Creator, and moves the focus away from myself.

We take care of our environment because it is where we live and we want to reap benefits of healthy surroundings. Whereas we take care of creation because we respect the Creator who made it, and has charged us to be good stewards of it. Of course the end result is the same (taking care of the earth), but I like the semantic distinction between environment/creation because it helps me check my motives and reorient myself before God.

Lest the mood here grow too serious, however, let me mention that I also saw Blades of Glory while in Vancouver. It was pretty hillarious and I think you should go see it immediately. (JT - we must watch it on DVD the next time you're state-side!)

In a Den of Canadians*

I have long made a hobby of trash-talkin' Canada, but truth be told, I had never before visited our neighbor to the north until this past week. Upon arrival, I found it to be...a lot like America. This was somewhat disappointing and somewhat disorienting.

When traveling to a foreign country, I always expect said country to feel foreign. However, things in Canada pretty much look the same, sound the same, work the same. Turns out they drive on the right side of the road, shake hands in greeting, put their pants on one leg at a time (or so I assume. I did not actually observe a Canadian getting dressed). I didn't once hear an "Eh?" while I was here. I did hear a "Cheers!" (instead of "thank you") but it was an isolated incident. With the exception of their currency and occassional bilingual (French/English) signage, there was little to remind me I had traveled across an international border.

No, any culture shock I experienced while visiting Vancouver was not so much due to Canadian culture, but rather west coast culture. From architecture to attitudes, pace, fashion style and a preponderance of outdoor gear stores, west coast culture seems to be a salient aspect of Vancouver life. And never before have I realized how strongly I identify with the east coast. Could I trade in my J.Crew catalogue for a Patagonia catalogue? Eh? Answer: Not sure quite yet.

*Borat reference. High five!