Under the Bamboo Tree

In defense of human rights, love, and common sense I'd like to think that all people have an open lease to live Under the Bamboo Tree.  

Guys Like Girls In Yoga Pants: The Ultimate Grassroots Marketing Effort

Just last week I found myself falling victim to the marketing trap that is Lululemon.  Beyond the fact that they do actually sell a premium product, and that I have been a yoga enthusiast since high school, I knew why I was really buying the gear.  Because guys like girls in yoga pants.  No, this is not Lulu's actual marketing campaign.  It just kind of emerged as a grassroots effort by a very niche demographic: college aged/entry-level working girls with a "limited" support allowance looking for their next full-time support allowance.  And by-golly if their strategy didn't work.  I know this because it has been confirmed by several males I trust (in matters such as this).  So there I was, not once, but twice at the Lululemon register and feeling just awesome walking home in the freezing cold with my environmentally friendly shopping bags.  I knew in some ways what a lollipop I was, but it just really didn't matter.  These legs are going to look good.

{Image Credit: LithoShop via Swissmiss}

#Obsessing

Lately I've been obsessed with obsessing.  Well to clarify, I think so much has always been true.  And that's exactly what I have been obsessed with most recently.  That I can easily become obsessed.  The matters range widely.  Let's see the earliest real obsession I can think of were book series (Berenstein Bears, Little House on the Prairie, The Baby-Sitters Club, and Gossip Girl to name a few).  Then I discovered love in the name of Leonardo DiCaprio, which oddly enough faded to the background for Peyton Manning (a sense of taste being developed).  My current obsession is this past week's Season finale of Girls and the ending credits song performed by Fun. I have been obsessed with Christmas, restaurant lists, berets, test taking, Sex and the City (duh), classic films, presidential elections, Moroccon oil, Ross and Rachel, Kate Spade sample sales, Sting's "Ten Summoner's Tales album, baking muffins, closet space organization, online photo ordering, manicures, Beanie Babies, award shows, juice cleanses, Mad Men, the Kennedy family, The Today Show, the year 1946, family photos, Broadway revivals, #11in11 and other lovely October baseball nights, When Harry Met Sally, stationary, the European stock market, eggs...and well now I've already lost track.  Some go, many stay.  Typically about three to five major obsessions are held at any one time as it is much easier to focus my time that way.  Focus of time has been another obsession.  Quite frankly it all sounds exhausting, and I suppose at times it has been.  When you get to the end of one obsession's line that void can haunt you just as much as Florence + The Machine's cover of "Addicted to Love."  It's a disturbingly comforting thought though to know that the next second-level-of-Starbucks-on-Oak-and-Rush is probably just right around the corner.

{Image via Pinterest, found originally by Christine!}

Happy {It's Alright} Weekend!

Sometimes when you have a lot on your mind, the best thing to do is...well not think much about it at all.  Hope your weekend comes bundled with some carefree moments.  Spring is just around the corner, so start cleaning out those gutters!

A Holiday

I used to think it was cute and cheeky how the British use the word "holiday" instead of "vacation."  Oh, those Brits.  After the past week and a half or so though I might be starting to catch their drift.  A vacation can actually start feeling like a holiday very quickly.

Just the other weekend I had the great pleasure to have a weekend away in San Francisco where my dear friend Margaret recently moved to.  From the moment of buying my ticket on a Southwest fare sale the month prior, the anticipation built.  Eventually it soon became the eve before, and if it weren't for the spa night I had treated myself to in honor of Valentine's Day, I'm not sure if I would have caught a wink of sleep.  Not necessarily because my level of excitement was so high, as much as I was in a state of utter confusion over what to pack for the temperatures.  Nothing is more confusing than the range of 50s to low 70s Fahrenheit in just a weekend's time.  Scarves?  Jackets?  Tights?  Was more less or less more?  It was California after all.  Again, thankfully the massage (and facial) had wound me down...

The state of disarray that was my luggage did turn out to be the lone symbol of stability of that weekend.  I say that because all it did was sit.  My friends and I on the other hand did anything but.  We tackled the busy crowds at the market.  We waited in lines for just one cup of coffee (okay actually that was just me).  We dined on oysters and artisan sandwiches.  Sipped on craft cocktails and wine.  Climbed the steepest of hills.  Then we had to have a driver take us to Napa so we could tour wineries and have a gourmet lunch complete wines.  Oh, and the shopping.  The things we had to go through to enjoy such a lovely city. Of course I don't even have to mention the fact that we all had to deal with each other for the entire course of it.  It was simply exhausting.

A lot of work goes into holidays.  You scour the sales and put in weeks of preparation in finding just the right things and making sure the packaging is just perfect-or at least shows as little distress as possible.  Crowds are fought and lines waited out, but all in the good name of friendly faces and holiday cheer.  Sometimes you find yourself in a squabble, though only for a good meal and more help from the wine, to turn it into a fit of giggles.

The most exhausting part of any holiday though is when you sit down.  Everything before that moment you were just having a blast, even with the squabbles.  The minute you sit down though you realize your aches, pains, and general mental fatigue.  Then you get right to thinking about your next joyful holiday.