I have a big, big crush . . . and not on a boy!

Shelly posted this dress on facebook the other day (she works at Anthropologie and she bought it!), and since then, I've been a woman obsessed.  It's pretty much perfect.  I'm trying to brainstorm all the essentials from which I can abstain in order to buy this dress:

Anthropologie--Frida Maxi Dress

My cousin's getting married in Georgia in July--great excuse, right??

And how ridiculous is it that I've already spent half an hour looking for the perfect wedges for this dress that I don't even own yet?  I might need to focus on something more productive.  Happy Saturday!

A Slow Weekend is Good for the Soul

It's quite rare that I get to enjoy a laid-back weekend.  But it's so nourishing, and I'm ever grateful when it happens.  Here's what I did:

Friday night:
My friend Anna came over with take-out Thai, and we chatted on my couch over wine and delicious food.  It was great catching up with her, and it was also great being in bed by midnight. ;)

Saturday:
I slept late!  Then read some of this:

which I love so far, and then eventually moseyed on out of the house, and hit up the Jeremys 60% off sale!  Bought this little dress and this robe:

Goodness I think that robe is pretty.  And both for a grand total of less than $30, thanks to the megasale. It was worth wading through the crowded aisles of women clamoring at designer deals!  Although my heart is crushed that I missed the 60% off SHOE sale the weekend prior.  People, Jeremys carries Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo, Louboutin, Prada, etc. etc. . . what did I do to piss off the gods enough to miss the 60% off shoe sale?!  Then again, had I known about it, I very well might have emptied my bank account, so perhaps it's a blessing in disguise.

After shopping, a bunch of errands, and darting around dodging raindrops all afternoon, I came home and stayed in by myself Saturday night, wearing slippers that Summer sent me and watching a movie that Micaela sent me.  So cozy!

Sunday:
Despite wanting to sleep in, I woke up early and ate some yogurt, granola, & raspberries so I'd be energized for yoga with my friend Audrey.  We went to the Berkeley lululemon's free Sunday morning class, which was mellow and energizing at the same time--just what I needed.  I managed to hold my crow pose for about 2.2 seconds, but then toppled over and twisted my wrist.  Eh, no pain no gain, right?

crow pose, from

Can y'all do crow pose?  I can get there, usually, but I can't hold it for long.  Something to work on, I suppose.  My favorite pose is pigeon, cause it stretches my hips so gooooooood . . . 

Audrey and I walked across the street for coffee after class, and sat for an hour chatting about boys and work and all those kinds of things.  I love girlfriends, seriously.  They make life infinitely better.  Female solidarity--can't get enough.

I got home a little after noon, cooked up some delicious veggie curry, and worked on my San Quentin lesson plans/critiqued last week's homework before heading to babysit Freeman in San Francisco at 5:30.  Slow weekends with free afternoons make me so happy.  It makes a world of difference in my energy level.  If I had time for yoga, savoring coffee, and reading every morning, I'd be a much more balanced person.

Butttttt . . . here's to Monday!

"Outfit Post"

As you all know, Summer has gone through a lot of sadness lately.  So, sometimes we like to make fun of ourselves.  Sometimes, we like to send each other photo documentation of our less fashionable moments.

I sent this to Micaela, and then she wanted in on the action:

Hahaha, I crack myself up.

A "Genius" Idea

Friday night, after a fun happy hour with coworkers (hello, cucumber vodka cocktails, I love you), my dear friend Doro and I had a belated birthday celebration over a fantastic meal at Zero Zero. We had grenache, one of my favorite salads of the summer (heirloom tomato, avocado, pickled onion, and bread), and pasta they make in-house. Mine was full of eggplant and cherry tomatoes and ricotta, and I ate every last bite!

Doro gave me a lovely pair of earrings that I've worn twice but have yet to take a picture of, but even more awesome than that . . .

She made me a genius cd.

I mean, literally, it's an iTunes "genius" cd, but it's also just genius:

My sweet (and smart!) friend Doro took my very favorite song in the world, Nightswimming by REM, and plugged it into iTunes' Genius, which finds similar sounding songs in your library. The result (with some sharp-minded editing) was this:

1. Nightswimming--REM

2. Fake Plastic Trees--Radiohead

3. The Boxer--Simon & Garfunkel

4. These are the Days--10,000 Maniacs

5. Pictures of You--The Cure

6. Tonight, Tonight--Smashing Pumpkins

7. At My Most Beautiful--REM

8. No Surprises--Radiohead

9. Colorblind--Counting Crows

10. Disarm--Smashing Pumpkins

11. Caring is Creepy--The Shins

12. Stay--Lisa Loeb

13. Close to Me (Closet Remix)--The Cure

14. Drive--REM

15. Just--Radiohead

16. Ode to My Family--The Cranberries

17. Blowin' in the Wind--Bob Dylan

18. This Must be the Place--Talking Heads

19. Lovesong--The Cure

20. Fall at Your Feet--Crowded House

I guess iTunes' Genius really is a genius cause those are some damn good songs. Disarm has always been my favorite Smashing Pumpkins song--throwback to 9th grade--and Colorblind is on my top 5 songs of all time list, I'm pretty sure.

Oh, and re: the Emmy's, this pretty much sums up my opinion:

Happy (manic) Monday!

None of these things have anything in common with each other:

1. So everyone's putting on facebook that Dennis Hopper died, but not knowing who on earth he was meant that I had to do a google image search. I found a few pics of Dennis Hopper (still don't recognize him), but this is what caught my eye . . . a picture titled "Paul Newman by Dennis Hopper, 1964." No idea if the photographer is the same Dennis Hopper, but it's one of the HOTTEST, most gorgeous photos I've ever freakin' seen:

seriously! can't stop staring!

2. After having now seen Sex and the City 2 twice, I still haven't conclusively decided on a favorite outfit (Carrie's cream/blue accented, long, flowy nightgown? Miranda's dress at Stanford's wedding? The gray, rope-waisted, mid-calf dress Carrie wore on the airplane to Abu Dhabi? The light pink billowy one shoulder dress with sequined turban? Carrie's Dior ensemble when she sees Aiden at the spice market?). The only thing I can say definitively was that my favorite thing worn in the movie were Carrie's gold glitter Louboutins from the opening scene. What was your favorite? Although it's always fun to look at SATC fashion, I'll admit that I was more stunned by the outfits in the first movie.

3. This morning I'm lazily drinking coffee and grading finals at my kitchen's bistro table when I get to ZT's final (some of you may remember ZT from here or here or here). Here are two (of many hilarious) answers to questions on his final exam:

I don't know how to rotate them, so you'll have to click on them to really see. The question in the first picture says: "In your opinion, what are some of the problems with the prison system in the U.S.? Use examples from things we've discussed in class." I was looking for answers such as: high recidivism rates, disproportionate incarceration of people of color, over 200 people exonerated from Death Row in the past 30 years, racial segregation and violence, and/or billions of dollars spent on the prison system that could be going to education, etc. Instead, I got ZT's answer. Notice how he switched up each "gang rape" with inverted/upside down letters, symbols, etc.

In the second picture, the question states the Miranda Rights as they currently are, and then asks the students to, considering what they've learned about arrest and incarceration, rewrite the Miranda warning to best protect the rights of arrested people. ZT's response:

You have the right to shut the fuck up. Any fucking thing you say will be used in court. You have the right to speak to a cracker. You will get a cracker if you can't afford one.

What do y'all think I should give him on his final? ;) Happy weekend!

TAKE a Napa!

"When you're tired, you TAKE a Napa, you don't MOVE to Napa!"

--Carrie Bradshaw, in one of the greatest episodes of Sex and the City ever: I ♥ New York

The high school where I teach has a funny sort of block scheduling in which we skip one period a day. On Tuesdays, we skip 5th period (the last class of the day that I teach), which means that I am technically done teaching by about 11:30. Usually I stick around and work in my office, meet with students, sometimes meet with teachers/my nonprofit/etc . . . but today, I went to Napa!

I'd ordered this pretty BCBG dress from the outlet store, but since I am never home during the day (I live in Oakland/work in San Francisco), it got returned to the Napa store. Which gave me a lovely excuse to head up to the wine country this afternoon! It took less than an hour to get there from work, and when I got to BCBG, not only did I pick up my original dress (which I've designated for this Saturday's PROM!), but I found the perfect LBD and two sweaters for $9 each. WHAT?!

Wanna see??

hello, glittery prom dress! (BCBG Runway, on clearance for $39!)

hello, adorable silk little black dress! (BCBG, on clearance for $39!)

It was a beautiful, sunny, breezy day in Napa, so when I was done at the outlet, I had one thing on the mind: vino. Um, who goes to Napa and doesn't drink some wine? No one, that's who. So I drove five minutes to downtown Napa and stopped at this adorable wine bar/tasting room called Bounty Hunter where the bartender gave me a few too many tastes--"this one's from an oak barrel, this one's from a steel barrel . . . see if you can tell the difference!" (I poured some out, btw)!

Everyone there was so nice and friendly that I just had to buy three bottles of wine. ;) Since it was happy hour, they gave me a 20% discount, so it was all quite the steal. I stopped at the coffee shop on the corner for a soy latte on my way out, and 45 minutes later was in my apartment in Oakland.

All this in a Tuesday? Damn, I love California.

The Best Runway Show of the Year:

the Oscars! Now, as I'm sure I've already indicated, I'm not so much a movie person, and I hadn't seen a single film that was Oscar-nominated. Not even Precious, which was based on one of my all-time favorite books. I definitely couldn't care less about all the technical awards, but to be honest, I'm not even really invested in the big awards, except for political-ish feelings like being proud that a female director won, and excited that a movie like Precious got recognition.

That said, I get nearly giddy waiting for the beloved Academy Awards, so excited for the glamour and couture and satin that will inevitably be on display. I play little games with myself: Who will have the best dress? Can I guess who designed that dress before the actress reveals it to the pre-show interviewers? Will the dresses I hate the most be on the "Worst Dressed" lists the next day?

My favorite gown, by a landslide, was Miss Rachel McAdams's strapless Elie Saab beauty. I've been thinking about it all day . . . bandagey up top, perfectly fitted to the waist, and then flowing into something reminiscent of an exquisite watercolor painting. Here it is:

It's pretty bold to wear a print to the Oscars, and I seriously applaud that well-taken risk. Speaking of prints, I nod an Honorable Mention to Maggie Gyllenhaal's gown (and another toDemi Moore's pretty, perfectly-fitted dress).

Let's move onto the heinous:

WTF is that hot mess, seriously??? I can't stop wondering at what point Zoe Saldana looked at that dress and thought, "That's the one!" Wow. Those look like humongous plastic Hawaiian leis at the bottom. That woman is WAY too pretty to be wearing this tragedy. It almost seems like she did it as a prank. Which come to think of it might be pretty funny.

Today our 6-week grades were due, which means that I stayed in my office furiously catching up on grades until 6:45 pm. Ugh. It's pretty depressing when you finally leave work and it's pitch dark. Which then meant that I was so drained when I got home that I frittered away two whole, valuable hours watching Jason & Molly's Wedding on tv. I mean, seriously? Another televised Bachelor wedding? What's worse is that I actually got all emotional when Jason saw Molly at the end of the aisle and took a big gulpy breath and then started to cry . . . I'm so lovehungry that even cheesy nonsense like the freakin' Bachelor gets me going.

But is it too much to ask to want a man who will gulp and tear up at the sight of his bride in her dress? My romantic heart just can't be quieted, I guess. ;)

Lady Gaga & Strawberries

are currently Freeman's two favorite things. Here he is tonight, eating a strawberry, transfixed by Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" video:

Another highlight of the day: I had a great speaker come in and talk to my students today about his time in prison, his rehabilitation, and ultimately giving back to the community. At one point he asked the kiddos: "Does anyone have a spiritual practice? Anyone pray or meditate?"

GM: "I be meditatin! I meditated up in Health class today."

Speaker: "Did it help you?"

GM: "I don't know. It was my first time."

hahaha! That kid (the one who just got out of jail) cracks me up every single day.

Our speaker spent some time talking about his involvement with the RSVP (Resolve to Stop the Violence Program) in the San Francisco County Jails--pretty incredible. San Francisco is lucky to have such a progressive sheriff . . . and he's been the SF Sheriff for 30 years!

I just finished a book that Gaela lent me called He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not by Trish Ryan. It has certainly made me think a lot . . . it's a memoir about a woman's search for the right relationship and her simultaneous discovery of spirituality. Although at times her practices are a little extreme, I'm pretty inspired by her commitment to self-realization, prioritizing love, and tuning into her spiritual center. Having recently been once again disappointed by a relationship (everything was going great with my rugby boy . . . till he moved to Chicago a couple weeks ago), I need little jolts of encouragement and occasional reminders to be PATIENT. I think patience needs to be my new mantra.

And last but not least, the sad news that Alexander McQueen was found dead in his London home today (only 40 years old!). Rest in Sweet Peace Mr. McQueen . . . and I leave you with some of my favorite of his designs:

Maggots are not God's creatures.

Above is my best attempt at a photograph of one of the vile, slinky little villains that have invaded my home. We haven't been able to pinpoint the source, exactly . . . all the websites say maggots go after garbage and rotting things (I had a bag of potatoes on the counter that were going bad, but they didn't seem to be located around it specifically), everyone keeps telling me there may be a dead animal rotting in our ceiling/wall (WTF), or maybe I did something REALLY disgusting in my past life. Their evil parents are these tiny little moths that kind of look like flies--we've found a few of those in the kitchen as well. Wish us luck eradicating them from our lives! I'm normally so sensitive that I don't even kill spiders--I put them outside--but I have no qualms stomping the shit out of these little @#$%ers. UGH! And in the meantime, please invite me over for dinner, lest I starve to death. I've developed a phobia of eating anything from my kitchen for the time being . . .

In happier news, my dear friend Heather (who lives in Chile, and whom I want back in California!) and I have started a writing project in which we're giving each other poem assignments, hopefully weekly! I'm so excited for this very concrete impetus--it's hard to sustain the discipline required to be a writer when you're no longer in school. Our first assignment (due tomorrow) is to write a poem that includes the word "Tuesday," is "yellow" in mood/tone, and somehow involves synchronicity. :) We'll see what happens . . . Oh, and check out Heather's blog, because she is a beautiful writer.

What did y'all think of the Grammys? Here are some of my thoughts:

1. Pink's performance was pretty stellar. And whoa, she was straight-up wearing RIBBONS.

2. I'm mesmerized by the beauty of both J. Lo and Beyonce.

3. I never like the dresses at the Grammys as much as at the other red carpet events. "Rocker chick" just isn't my style.

3. Rihanna's dress was WACK.

4. Amazing duets! Lady Gaga + Elton, Taylor Swift + Stevie. Damn.

5. Stephen Colbert was pretty funny with his daughter and the iPad.

6. Imogen Heap looked pretty cute:

from grammy.com

And with that I'm off to compose a letter to my 5th period class. Something has got to change if we are going to continue this teacher-student relationship . . .

Have a great Monday!

Things that Glitter . . .

First of all . . . have you ever seen a cake HALF this adorable??

This weekend a big group of us went to Russian River Valley to celebrate a friend's 30th birthday. On Saturday we got a driver (Dane!) who carted us around to various wineries. Though I was disappointed to miss the Freeman Winery for obvious reasons, we had plenty of fun at the ones chosen by the birthday girl--HopKiln, Matrix, and a few others whose names were far less important to me than the copious amounts of wine I imbibed. ;) At one of the stops we had a personal wine guide--an older gentleman named Don who was brimming with naughty jokes, at one we had a delicious picnic, and at another there were hula hoops . . . now hula hoops and wine is a pretty stellar combination!

After a break back at our hilltop cabin (and a stint in the luxurious hot tub), we had dinner here, a fantastic Sonoma restaurant and garden that serves locally grown food and is famous for their pork. While I, of course, did not indulge in the salumi/prosciutto/bacon that came out plate after plate, everyone else seemed to think it was the most heavenly meat in the world. Zazu, the restaurant, cures their own pork, which is pretty darn impressive if you ask me. I asked the chef to make me a vegetable concoction (my only rules were no meat and no mushrooms), and the waitress came out with the most gorgeous plate of house-made pasta and all kinds of greens: kale, spinach, brussel sprouts, and shaved Italian cheese. Incredible.

Now back to the cake. Below is a picture of Cheryl, the birthday girl, posing proudly with her Barbie cake. The cake was created by the talented Ms. Morehouse, who went through several thorough and meticulous steps in order to yield this ridiculous, amazing creation:

All in all, an incredibly fun and restorative weekend. I'm so lucky to have such wonderful, beautiful, talented, passionate, hilarious friends. I need to remind myself of that every day so I never take it for granted.

In other news, as I'm sure most of you know, the Golden Globes were this weekend. I'm only vaguely interested in the awards, as I rarely see movies and I don't know most of the tv shows, but every year I get incredibly psyched about the gowns! Each year, after scrutinizing all the gowns, I deem one of them my favorite. This year's Claire's-Favorite-Red-Carpet-Gown Award goes to Ms. Chloe Sevigny, who wore this stunning, silver-lilac Valentino ruffled dress:

Can you believe it?? I'm not sure I've ever seen something so breathtaking. It's just LOVELY. That's the best word I can come up with. Anyone else have favorites?

Last, please keep one of my best friends in your hearts and thoughts and prayers and positive energies today as he had surgery this morning to remove cancer. I'm very worried about him, but encouraged by his determined, positive outlook. I'm working on a "positive vibes" playlist for his recovery . . . any suggestions?

xoxoxoxo