9/52

{in anticipation: midterms week vs. spring break}

a view from where i stand, every week, every month, this year. 

"go all the way with it.  do not back off.  for once, go all the goddamn way with what matters."

- ernest hemingway, the complete short stories 

lessons from my city.

things new york has taught me, part uno.

o1.  i'm now in a hurry to get EVERYWHERE.  not only because the trains are so conveniently spaced 12 minutes apart right when i need one, but because i now live in new york city.  i'm constantly weaving around people, even if there isn't really a purpose.  i feel as if i'm running that half marathon i ran sophomore year in college when i signed up for the time-group that included blind people in wheelchairs because i wasn't sure how fast i would be able to run.  slow is now too slow.

(the other day in hoboken, while i was walking after dinner with friends, i cut off a couple on the sidewalk so intensely that you would have thought i had somewhere to go.  i didn't.  "THIS ISN'T NEW YORK CITY, AMY," my friend jabbed.  the subsequent long walk in front of them was a bit awkward, to say the least.)

o2.  sometimes you have to sacrifice your body for a more spacious floor plan.  because i moved my full-sized bed into the little nook that would have been cute and cozy when i was eight years old, i can no longer open my closet door all the way.  in order to grab something from the back, i have to strategically squeeze the smallest part of my abdomen into the small space left between the door knob and the wall, and let's just say that this isn't the most comfortable position.

o3.  leave for everything ~20 minutes early.  baby fell on the subway tracks, chick held the subway doors open for too long, it's finally 50 degrees outside and the winter gods don't want you enjoying the warm weather.... basically anything and everything will delay the subway.  especially when you're on the 1 train, which is the dumbest train on the face of this earth, and is also the only train i ever take because i'm too lazy to walk to the D.

"i thought new york city was going to be the most exciting, magical, fraught-with-possibility place that you could ever live; in a place where if you really wanted something, you might be able to get it; a place where i'd be surrounded by people i was dying to be with.  and i turned out to be right." 

- nora ephron

found.

the oscars this year blew my mind.  another speech given at a black women in hollywood luncheon that i could watch over and over again.

"beauty was not a thing that i could acquire or consume.  it was a thing that i just had to be.  and what my mother meant when she said 'you can't eat beauty,' is that you can't rely on beauty to sustain you.  what actually sustains us - what is fundamentally beautiful - is compassion.  for yourself, and for those around you.  that kind of beauty enflames the heart and enchants the soul."
- lupita nyongo

8/52

{going into hibernation: snowcopalypse part 34}

a view from where i stand, every week, every month, this year. 

"being generous of spirit is a wonderful way to live." 

- pete seeger 

sounds good to me.

{a daily view}

"i do not trust people who don't love themselves and yet tell me, 'i love you.'  there is an african saying which is: be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt." 

- maya angelou 

7/52

{because of sunshine and a blinding white shirt and a tiny peak at a fleeting snow-free street}

a view from where i stand, every week, every month, this year. 

"the only thing i know is this: i am full of wounds and still standing on my feet."

- nikos kazantzakis

a snowy massachusetts weekend

{skiing at butternut}

{a winter wonderland}

on valentine's day weekend i realized that the only way to actually like snow is to fully embrace it.  and embrace it, we did.  73% of the weekend, there was snow up to my knees.  also, i skied my first black diamond!  and i went sledding for the first time!  and that little man in the last picture lying on his back in the red jacket is my boyfriend, the one and only.  the one and only, that is, that completely ate it while sledding amongst the 8-year-olds bouncing up and down the mountain around us.  i presume this means we're getting old. 

also: how i feel about winter. 

"we need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible. to have real conversations with people may seem like such a simple, obvious suggestion, but it involves courage and risk."

- thomas moore 

found.

THE GAP by Ira Glass

on days when i feel off, or days in which i'm too busy to properly function, i've come to realize that i subconsciously turn to inspiration from others for a proper pick-me up.  i thrive off their creative ventures; their tantalizing stories; their form of this-is-why-i'm-on-this-earth mojo.  which is why i'm starting a new series in this little space appropriately called "found," which will remind me that i'll find my way eventually even when i'm feeling lost. (get it? lost and found? i hope my transparency hasn't been lost on you yet.)

today, a bit of inspiration in video form: from ira glass, host of this american life.  

"nobody tells this to people who are beginners, i wish someone told me.  all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste.  but there is this gap.  for the first couple years you make stuff, it's just not that good.  it's trying to be good, it has potential, but it's not.  but your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer.  and your taste is why your work disappoints you.  a lot of people never get past this phase, they quit.  most people i know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this.  we know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have.  we all go through this.  and if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.  put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story.  it is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.  and i took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone i've ever met.  it's gonna take awhile.  it's normal to take awhile.  you've just gotta fight your way through."
- ira glass 

6/52

{a valentine's day ski trip}

a view from where i stand, every week, every month, this year. 

"art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."

- pablo picasso 

sounds good to me.

{a watercolor view from my subway stop}

"when you come out of the storm you won't be the same person that walked in.  that's what the storm is all about."

- haruki murakami 

l i f e l a t e l y.

{because jon stewart is a ridiculous human} 

{because 5 britney spears are better than 1}

{because money for life & chocolate for the soul}

{because i love a little reunion and some mouth-watering pizza}

because new york, because youth, because a really chilly weekend meant nights with good people and good food. 

"just slow down. 

slow down your speech.

slow down your breathing.

slow down your walking. 

slow down your eating. 

and let this slower, steadier 

pace perfume your mind."

- doko

5/52

{year of the horse | an afternoon in chinatown}

a view from where i stand, every week, every month, this year. 

"ask her what she craved and she'd get a little frantic about things like books, woods, music.  plants and the seasons.  also freedom."

- charles frazier

lunar new year + sigmund's pretzels.

after much contemplation, i finally decided this weekend that the cutest asians are those under the age of 5, followed closely by those over the age of 65.  i spent friday and saturday stalking humans of new york's cute asian confetti-covered little people, and then proceeded to find them myself on sunday.  the temperature was in the balmy 40's (amiright, new york?), and we soaked it all in by following the parade from mott to east broadway. we saw hundreds of dragons and tons of glitter and even conceded the tops of our heads as arm rests for the pushy people who taped the whole festival via iphone. tag me!

"the most wasted of days is one without laughter."

- e.e. cummings

sounds good to me.

{central park reservoir, a few weeks back}

i thought i was the only one who made up stories in my head about strangers on the subway... until i read this.  i love the way books can do that.

"i was fascinated by strangers, wanted to know what food they ate and what dishes they ate it from, what movies they watched and what music they listened to, wanted to look under their beds and in their secret drawers and night tables and inside the pockets of their coats.  often i saw interesting-looking people on the street and thought about them restlessly for days, imagining their lives, making up stories about them on the subway or the crosstown bus." 

- from my current read, the goldfinch

4/52

{where are my feet, part two}

a view from where i stand, every week, every month, this year. 

"i want to be lost among your thoughts the way you listen to new york city when you fall asleep."

- leonard cohen 

life lately.

{J's birthday trivia in alphabet city}

{early mornings and late nights}

{dim sum with some lovely people in chinatown}

{an all-you-can-eat chili festival at chelsea market}

life has been really, exhaustingly, busy lately.  i've taken the L train four times this week - which is on the opposite side of the island - so that's saying something.

i'm still unsure which conditions i function best under - those days in which i wake up at 11, go to yoga, take a nap in the late afternoon, curl up with a good book or a movie inside my apartment, out smarting the vicious single-digit degree winds that pound on my window? or those days in which i slip in a quick workout and a few meetings here and there and a class or two and THEN go out to that hip-place-for-dinner i've been eyeing on the nytimes for the past few weeks?

also, can we just talk about this weather for a second? actually, i'd rather not, as the rest of the world is in a current state of "OMG THE WEATHER" word vomit.  i remember in december when i would ask my roommates "ha ha, do you guys think that it will be this cold in january? that would be crazy!" and then it proceeded to get colder.  that's kind of funny.

my dad also spent last week sending me pictures from his view in hawaii.  that wasn't funny.

keep warm out there!

"you gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face.  you are able to say to yourself 'i have lived through this horror. i can take the next thing that comes along.'  you must do the thing you think you cannot do."

- eleanor roosevelt