27 Jan
I was about to cross the road this morning when I noticed a black, sports car tearing down toward me. I quickly jumped back on the pavement and as the car passed me, the very attractive driver threw me a grin and made a spanking gesture implying that I had been a very naughty girl for nearly getting in his way.
I almost melted right there on the street.
Are you ever flattered by behaviour that could be interpreted as derogatory to woman? Or is it just me?
16 Jan
According to a friends’s Facebook status in 17 days, 917 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza including 284 children and 100 women. Over 4000 people have been injured.
You know what phrase I’m really tired of hearing?
Israel has a right to defend itself.
Yes, we all have that right.
But the images I have seen, the arguments I have heard, the strategy that Israel seems to be employing seems to have gone way beyond this broad and vague definition of ‘defense’.
This is not a post about who is right and who is wrong. This is not a post about religion because this is not a conflict between Jews and Muslims. I am not a politician. I am not Israeli. I am not Palestinian.
But there is something fundamentally twisted that innocent children and women and yes, even men can be killed on the streets of a city of a country of a world that I live in and be treated as acceptable collateral damage. There is something fundamentally twisted that all of this is allowed to happen. There is something fundamentally twisted that the world community can just watch it unfold and not insist that something be done. There is something fundamentally twisted when Israeli soliders deny access to the Red Cross to go into Gaza to feed starving children who have seen family, friends and neighbours die in front of their eyes.
Can’t we all, in our sweet Western oblivion, converge and agree on this one point.
That there is a stark difference between defense and blind violence. Can’t we all, despite our bias, our prejudice, despite our fear of people we don’t understand, can’t we all agree that this can not–and should not–happen on our watch?
Please watch this video.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfhoU66s4Y&eurl=http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=686705890&ref=ts]
That is all.
14 Jan
Despite appearances, ‘being single’ is not one of the first or second or third terms I would use to describe myself. I think about it less than people think I do.
You know when I am actively aware that I have been single for a really long time?
When I need to have a medical procedure done and have to resort going to the hospital with my mother. Of course, I feel lucky and blessed to have her here and close enough that she can cook for me whenever my little heart desires but I would rather have cut that part of the umbilical cord a long time ago.
When are you actively aware that you are single?
8 Jan
The first time his dirty blond hair had stood out in a room full of dark and hairy mommy’s boys. The second time, I felt his breath on the back of my neck before accepting the drink he offered to buy me. The next moment came months later at the gym, where I fixated on his broad shoulders as he ‘rowed’. Finally, during a lazy afternoon in 2005, we played a coy game of hide-and-seek.
Initially, my eyes skimmed the room and involuntarily stopped at him. By the time my brain had realized who I was looking at, his eyes had gone back to grabbing the attention of the barman. Then with an expectant expression they shot straight back to me. Involuntarily, I smiled. He hid the smile, that was so obviously directed to me, behind the pretense of finding something someone else did amusing.
He looked again, I met his gaze again. We both looked away. Every once in awhile his eyes darted slowly to my side of the room. Darted slowly to me; glances that lasted a mere second of a second. I felt time stand still because I had found what I had been looking for. He felt that he could not turn back time. He could not rewind the moment; delete the first instance that our eyes came together.
The eyes behind the black rimmed glasses looked intelligent. They sparkled arrogantly with a confidence that only an achieved man dares flaunt. Now, those eyes lingered hungrily on me. He was not looking at passion; he was searching for it. I smiled wistfully, disappointed that he could not recognize that he had already found it.
Instead, his ambiguous desire continued to fill the room like the smoke from our cigarettes. Between the distance that separated us, the smoke from his cigarette danced in waves to find the smoke from my own. They floated in a thin, white line towards each other and as they were about to collide the sun creeped out behind the clouds as if to light up this unholy of unions. At that same moment, an oblivious stranger walked straight into the smoke, on their way to the bar. It dispersed in every direction; the climax gone.
5 Jan
A new year cannot really feel like a new year until the previous year has been dissected, right? So in a nutshell, this was my year.
1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?
A guy on the second date.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I do not recall making any resolutions last year. This year I’ve decided to make a list of small goals I want to achieve each month.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope. But, my sister is pregnant again!
4. Did anyone close to you die?
No but people I am close to lost people they were close to.
5. What countries did you visit?
Zero. This makes me sad.
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
A social life.
7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory and why?
January 20st. You can read all about it here.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Quiting my job and cigarettes.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Starting the cigarettes again.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yes. I refer you to this post and this post.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
The Complete West Wing Box Set.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
My nephew’s. Each time he entered a room he was applauded. Each time he made a new sentence-ish six ‘bravo’s’ exploded around him. Just yesterday he used the superlative ‘bigger’ and this merited a scream, a hug and an Eskimo kiss from me.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
All the citizens of Greece that threw rocks at buildings and burned public and private property.
14. Where did most of your money go?
To doctors. For both physical and mental ailments.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Most of the things I got really, really, really excited about this year were potentials, hypotheticals if you will. Take for example: Barack Obama and the entire US election. I was far more excited about what could happen if he was elected than the moment it became official. Or like how the ‘relationship’ I had with The Man in my head was ten times better than the actual experience. Or how Real made my heart a-flutter when he wasn’t there.
Perhaps, my expectations are too high?
16. What song will always remind of you 2008?
My Mistakes Were Made For You| The Last Shadow Puppets
17. Compared to this time last year, are:
a)happier or sadder?
b)thinner or fatter?
c) richer or poorer?
Sadder, thinner and poorer.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
More acting.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Less thinking.
20. Did you fall in love in 2008?
No, no I didn’t. [So we're now entering Year Six of Hope's Hopeless Love Life for anyone left counting.]
21. What was your favourite TV program?
New Show: Life on Mars
Old Show: Grey’s Anatomy.
22. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Hate is such a strong word. But the writer’s of Grey’s Anatomy really pissed me off this year regarding the whole Return of Denny Fiasco.
23. What was the best book you read?
Don’t Move | Margaret Mazzantini
24. What was your greatest musical discovery?
The Kings of Leon
25. What did you want and get?
I wanted a pet and I got one in the form of crazylovely Diego.
26. What did you want and not get?
*Cough*Boyfriend*Cough*
27. What was your favourite film of this year?
There was no film that really resonated with me this year. The Dark Knight left me wanting, Sex and the City made me want to gorge my ears out with all the adolescent shrieks and Burn After Reading was just OK. (Although, I desperately loved George Clooney in it.)
28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I drank some beer, laughed, blew out candles and wore shoes that hurt. I turned 27.
29. How you would describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
The older I get the closer I get to dressing the way I wanted to in high school. In fashion terms that would probably mean I’m only 20 kilos and 40 absurd outfits away from resembling Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen.
30. What kept you sane?
My mother, my sister, my brother-in-law and my brother.
31. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Jon Stewart.
32. Who did you miss?
The Best Friend, my Sister From Another Mother and The Man.
33. Who was the best new person you met?
Hit myself over the head, spit on my neck, step in a piece of poo because the truth is? Real. Fuckity fuck fuck.
34. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Make sure to remove all racy undergarments from car before having it washed.
35. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
To the Universe: ”You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl.” U2 | One
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