MY new tall girl jeans...

After I passed by 5 9 all hell broke loose in terms of finding pants not intended for a flood. I remember the first time I had a pair of jeans that were long enough...they were boys 501 Levis, with a 34 inseam. Heaven.

This problem obviously has not gone away...but after working on a closet clean out for several weekends in a row, I see how desperately I need new clothes.

I now have time to shop and FIND new pants that are long enough (I have been wearing flat shoes way to often over the past two years of graduate school). I went shopping last weekend, Filenes Basement. Tried on 37 (NO, I am not exaggerating) and found one pair that was long enough. Ran to the cash register and purchased them. Next day, headed out to the local outlet stores, specifically targeting Benneton and Saxs. Tried on 10 pairs, no luck.
Math
GAS: probably about 30 miles of driving
TIME: Two weekend days.
Result: One pair of pants

Results of this equation spell out the obvious: I will pay for pants that fit.

Its funny how life just works out. A few days later, I was out to dinner with P and we walked by a lucky jeans store. Went in on a WHIM and wow--they have LONG and EXTRA LONG!!!! WHOOO!!! It was a major jackpot. I almost started crying when I tried some on and they totally fit! AMAZING!

Smoke Free for 10 Days...and continuing to count

I love the FRENCH! Look at this great diagram about all of the BAD things inside cigarettes. Even if you don't know any French you can latch on to the SKULLS!!!

I am going to print this out and put it somewhere...

New Years Resolution? people keep asking...no I resolved to quit smoking after graduate school when I could give myself a chance for success.

Its always funny to quit because I tell people (you know for accountability) and inevitably they respond with --YOU SMOKE? I had no idea. WOW you totally don't fit that profile...you are so healthy, like the healthiest person I know.

These folks are right-I am so damn healthy its insane. Gluten allergy keeps me from eating most American foods that come in a box, or bag for that matter. I have to constantly monitor what I am eating to make sure I am getting way more iron than I need...poor absorption. All of this has been made much easier with myfooddiary.com. LOVE THIS SITE. You can track everything you are eating, including all of the recipes you make which you enter manually ingredient by ingredient and save in your "Frig", and at the end of the day you get a geeky chart telling you all about what you ate....today I got up to 32g of FIBER and 7 g of IRON. WHooo!

ANYWAY, back to the smoking quitting project. Things I am doing:

1.) YOGA--starting a practice at a local studio and going to my gym twice a week.
2.) PILATES-Continuing my practice with the awesome teacher at my gym. Starting private sessions.
3.) CARDIO--Trying to hit the gym twice a week, 30 minute pops to get some cardio in.
4.) MEDITATION--Started meditating a few months ago...its not easy but I am trying to expand my practice.
5.) Stop-IT! Smoking tablets--I bought the whole STOP IT! Smoking system at Whole Foods (LOVE IT!). While these are chalk full of herbs that are suppose to help decrease cravings...they are also prescribed on a tricky regimen that I believe helps more than anything. Its like a small ongoing project all day to remember oh, I just ate a lozenge so I can not eat anything for 10 minutes..or I need to suck on this lozenge, not bite it.

10 days and I continue to count down. I read recently that it takes at least 21 days to incorporate new habits into your lifestyle...I will keep you posted.

T-10 Days Until GRADUATION

This week I have noticed..

My step is lighter
My laughter is louder
My stress level is decreasing
AND...
I am sick of writing, writing, writing..

Today I was occupying myself with things I want to accomplish next year. It started off with one simple thing:

Go on to the roof and see whats doing.

Yeah, I came up with other ideas..but this idea has been dancing in my brain all day (swaying of course to the song selected by the jutebox(the music machine endlessly playing on in my brain), It will be a blue Christmas without you).

These thoughts spanned after reviewing a new yorker magazine article this week about how few hours the french work and how many hours we work in the US. Okay, so before reading this I was PRETTY jealous of the french with their mandated 35 hour work week and their 6 weeks off a year...

But the author had one point I can't get my brain off of: Because we work so much in the US we create a whole pile of jobs because we don't have time to do things ourselves.

Case in point: going up on to the roof and seeing whats doing.

Now, lets be reasonable here, someone is up on my roof at least 3-4 times a year. His name is Adam. I "saw" him a few days ago when I peered out my window and saw him streamlining toward my home with a very, very tall ladder. This guy drops by every few months, leaves a note to say "Hey! I am cleaning gutters in your neighborhood...Are you interested? If so leave me a check". This is not the last letter I receive from Adam. This guy is the best! He writes me notes about the roof....whats the status, whats good, whats not etc.

So, do I trust Adam? Of course! I mean my gutters are not spilling over and I have seen him in action and his logs of roof top details are very interesting and very consistent...seems he is not happy with the DirectTV installation something about a cable cord being in the gutter...and he says the fan is "well sealed" and the gutters are "tight" .

It just seems like it might be time for me to get up there myself....perhaps if I moved to france these luxuries would be much easier to obtain.

Back from ATLANTA!

P and I had a great getaway weekend in Atlanta. Warm breezes, good food, cooking, museums, and lunch with Julie filled our weekend with happiness! This was the India detox trip and it was just what I needed before buckling down and finishing graduate school! WOW--do I have a great boyfriend or WHAT?

We stayed at the Georgian Terrace, and old hotel in Midtown. It was a beautiful place with a kitchen in the room! We were very excited about the idea of cooking breakfast...until we realized that the hotel wanted to charge us 25 dollars a day to borrow some pots and pans AND 25 dollars a day to loan us plates and silverware! Always the problem solvers we headed over to the grocery store around the corner and found a 12 dollar pan, plastic plates and cutlery, and a much needed knife! The best thing we bought was some seasoned raw shrimp! We asked the woman to add some spices she had sitting on the counter and she happily obliged. These guys cooked up in a flash for a great snack.

We checked out the Botanical Gardens on our first venture out. They had a train exhibit set up outside. It was amazing!












All of these exhitibts were created out of organic materials...and made to look like local attractions. Here is a picture of Turner Field.

We had fun checking out the indoor plants as well. P is standing near this weird tree that has very soft bark.
















A lot of plants were from South Africa...making me excited to view the landscape of this country with my own eyes in a few months.

We headed over to check out Olympic Park on other day. During our outing P and I have decided to rate all of the Olympic locations that we visit. Atlanta will be our second following the winter trip we took to Munich. I think we both agree that Munich was much cooler than the area put together in Atlanta. Munich's sky lounge and elaborate glass structures created to cover the swimming pools and other exhibition halls were unbelievable.

Atlanta does have some interesting components. They allowed people to purchase bricks so there are sidewalks made of personalized bricks throughout the park.












The fountain is amazing. It resides on the ground, forming the olympic rings in brick. It is coordinated to music at different times of the day. Its HUGE!





It is a very peaceful place in the middle of this bubbling city. I appreciate the quiet of America so much more after returning from India. We take the clean air and quiet city afternoons for granted here.




Finally, the quilts. There are several of them on one side of the park. Each has a message it is trying to convey. This one is showing the evolution of the Olympics through out time.

Other quilts included tributes to the medal winners, statements about terrorism and the importance of the global event. I imagine these were added after the actual games ended which give the park a sense of historical record not evident in Munich. If anything, the Germans have conveniently forgotten the terrorist incident that occurred on their grounds. There is no tribute or any information available on the kidnapping event that took place there.

All and all it was a GREAT WEEKEND! So wonderful to spend some time with P, see an old friend, relax and check out the city!