tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28122541880160885462024-03-27T10:44:45.285-07:00The Force ExpansiveArianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.comBlogger500125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-56859470365347932412012-02-01T20:52:00.000-08:002012-02-01T20:52:36.336-08:00We've moved!As of February 1, 2012, come read us at our new, very own url: www.theforceexpansive.com. So exciting, so pretty, so grown-up!
Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-69482466475227767352012-02-01T06:32:00.000-08:002012-02-01T06:32:31.509-08:00this is what i'm talking aboutThis, right here, is what I'm talking about.
An article about some Sausalito school children recording an album of world music in a studio owned by former member of [i refuse to use their name] is front-page news over here. An album made by children gets more space than rail, an issue that affects not just Marin but also Sonoma Counties.
An album of world music, for heaven's sake. Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-1765174529302938982012-01-31T05:53:00.000-08:002012-01-31T05:53:10.055-08:00free books: sign me up!Turning the package over and over in my hands, I wondered what it was I'd ordered from Amazon that had just shown up, leaned against the front gate, left for me to discover upon my return from work. I'm pretty good about ordering judiciously, keeping my huge book appetite in check so that I've only got a small To Read stack waiting for me here at home, while the mental stack remains miles Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-72506406717837620422012-01-30T06:43:00.000-08:002012-01-30T06:55:17.265-08:00Be awesome when your friend has cancer"Don't Be a Jerk When Your Friend has Cancer," recently posted on Elephant Journal and re-shared by my friend and writing teacher, Susanna Harwood Rubin, provides 6 practical tips for friends of cancer patients, 6 tips to avoid jerkdom. Danielle Foushee, the writer, is an artist and yoga teacher who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in November 2011. Look at her art on her website. &Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-135698944977941162012-01-29T08:43:00.000-08:002012-01-29T08:43:00.580-08:00Day 17,912: Pretty kick-ass so farWhat's crazy is that it's never too late to change things, never too late to make new habits, never too late to look around and say, hot damn, this is really great and let's make it even better. After a night playing cards and laughing with friends, waking up in my own cozy bed with puppy and husband was never sweeter. And then getting up, having lemon water, then coffee (with milk inArianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-65347093410849533482012-01-28T13:48:00.000-08:002012-01-28T13:51:47.981-08:00So long Paramount, hello Del RioThis must qualify as a rite of passage in a woman's life, that day when you realize that you can't rock the same super-intense shade of lipstick you've worn for almost sixteen years. When you realize that that beloved shade that you've worn out and replaced countless times over the years, is no longer doing you any favors -- is making the lines around your lips a little more pronounced, Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-77526002549520545402012-01-27T07:06:00.000-08:002012-01-27T07:14:47.500-08:00Day 7: almost there
Smoothie 7? Check!
OK, so as I mentioned elsewhere, this was a tough morning, one on which I nearly caved and made myself a delectable slice of toast. Which would be completely absurd considering that I'm almost done, have almost completed this 7-day body cleanse de-tox that I embarked on last Saturday with the wonderful Dr. Kate Tenney, ND. How silly would that be, to bail when theArianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-38047231485564044592012-01-26T07:01:00.000-08:002012-01-26T07:05:16.761-08:00Day 6: and nope, still not veganCrazy, I start a detox cleanse and promptly stop posting here. Is blogging toxic? Have I been eliminating it from my system along with all other accumulated crap that's been in there?
Truth is that I have been writing but not finishing things. I felt pretty spacey the first three days, fine on Day 4, more focused on Day 5. Oh, and on Day 5 I forgot to eat lunch -- just Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-49933164754382130282012-01-22T09:16:00.000-08:002012-01-22T09:24:52.496-08:00day 2: i signed up for thisIt's Morning #2 of the 7-day cleanse I'm doing, and may I just say I am feeling super-weird. Day 1 was easier than I expected, especially since I had that Board meeting from 8am to 2pm, and some worry in the back of my head that I'd be excusing myself to the toilet every 5 minutes for cleanse-induced reasons. But no, it was completely fine. I didn't feel hungry, really, until around dinner, Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-10531846326506543392012-01-21T07:16:00.000-08:002012-01-21T07:16:32.071-08:00oh you pretty thingsToday is the first morning of the 7-day cleanse I'm doing. My wrist-alarm woke me at 6, since I knew I'd need time to check off tasks associated with Aforementioned Cleanse (AC) before leaving for work at 7:30. Sure, it's Saturday, but I have to be at a Board meeting at 8 this morning for my job, make a 5-minute presentation sometime between 9 and noon and then get back to the stuff Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-691264145497405302012-01-20T06:52:00.000-08:002012-01-20T06:52:17.361-08:00Paying for what was once free :(
Well, I finally caved. In a matter of hours, I managed to hit the limit of free articles on the New York Times website and so have now been forced to pay for what was once free. Right now it's hard to complain about it -- 99 cents for 4 weeks -- but soon it will go up, in four weeks it will go up, to the equivalent of paper delivery. But since I have been reading the Times for Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-23254114987526526262012-01-19T18:21:00.000-08:002012-01-19T18:21:05.876-08:00Swinging from extremesIn the span of just one week, I'm going from this glistening tower of chocolatey goodness eaten at one of my three birthdays dinners this past weekend:
To this:
Yes, on Saturday, January 21st, I'm beginning a 7-day detox and body cleanse with the fabulous Dr. Kate Tenney, my friend and also a Naturopathic Doctor with a practice in Tiburon, CA.
I've never done something like this, Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-80226065195931745802012-01-18T06:55:00.000-08:002012-01-18T06:55:05.590-08:00keeping what you LOVE right in front of your noseFortunately the night-before-last was the coldest we've had all winter. I say, fortunately because I forgot the tulips I'd bought in the back of my car where they spent the night, completely out of sight and mind, until I got to work yesterday morning. And remembered my new resolve to have fresh flowers on my desk.
You see, I'm trying to make my environs as beautiful as possible thisArianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-40029138830474961882012-01-17T07:40:00.000-08:002012-01-17T07:40:12.301-08:00You! You! You!I heard Martha Beck speak at an Oprah Winfrey event, O, in San Francisco in October 2008. Two of my dearest friends and I made a weekend out of it: we booked a hotel, got in Friday night, had a shopping blitz, dinner, drinks and amazing conversation with strangers at our downtown SF hotel, where we barely slept a wink thanks to the almost constant sound of sirens. It didn't matter. Those were Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-52894953486897762392012-01-16T14:25:00.000-08:002012-01-16T14:35:49.754-08:00Quiet! Can't you see I'm creating over here?Our friend John has naturally very curly hair. A parent in his kids' school always insists that John has a perm. When John says, ‘No, my hair’s just like this,” the guy invariably retorts, “No. That’s a perm.” They’ve had this exchange multiple times, and what makes us all laugh when we ask for the story to be re-told, is the guy’s certainty that he’s right about John’s Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-54925087047872189742012-01-15T17:02:00.000-08:002012-01-15T17:03:59.706-08:00by jove, i've got it: 2012 is the Year of ...Apparently it's not enough to lay out a two-page Chart for each new year. Maybe it used to be enough, but then it growed. A few years ago a theme emerged when I reviewed all the items in each labeled section. Then, thanks to Laura Christensen, the Chart grew a sutra, too, a short easily-memorized phrase that summed it all up for me, that when repeated would bring me back, in an Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-12969405427769028282012-01-15T11:11:00.000-08:002012-01-15T12:11:55.562-08:00Ego causes injury? Go thank yourself.Before I say another word, I’d like to acknowledge my enormous debt of gratitude to Michelle Marchildon for her genius “Thank You is the new F* You.” Sister, deep pranams to you for the radical and instantaneous e-nlightment of that post.
Now, to the rest of you currently writing and expressing the opinion that injury is caused by ego, let me say, as an injured person, that you can all go ThankArianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-32246059174417123022012-01-12T15:08:00.000-08:002012-01-12T15:08:00.856-08:00Days Without Incident: some rulesThe thing about making up games is that you get to make up the rules. I don't know about you, but when we were kids making up games, making up the rules took the most time and it generally seemed true that playing the game was less fun than that whole process of creating the construct of the game.
And it's still the same.
The rules might be the funnest part.
In my Days Without Incident Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-64774030884716227032012-01-12T05:54:00.000-08:002012-01-12T05:54:16.273-08:00two things I learned from heartbreakLosing Jasper last year, may he rest in tremendous doggy peace, was the biggest heartbreak I have ever known. Even now writing about it, almost a year later, I can barely see the damn laptop screen through my own tears. I have never ceased missing him, even as the charming and ridiculously cute Mr Burns has come along to fill the enormous void left by Jasper's passing. And oh how Mr Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-88312690079068444082012-01-11T18:56:00.000-08:002012-01-11T18:56:17.768-08:00a lifetime of dunceryI have spent most of my life feeling stupid.
I said, feeling stupid, so that means there's no point you arguing with me about it. It's the worst feeling in the world for me. Absolutely unbearable. And also, unfortunately, super familiar.
Now instead of feeling stupid at school, which is where I perfected my early-life stupid, I feel stupid constantly at my job. &Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-63044317969621964362012-01-10T07:35:00.000-08:002012-01-10T07:35:14.687-08:00The Piriformis AdventureAll things considered, I am not too unhappy to make the acquaintance of The Piriformis Syndrome. Given I already know Herniated Disc quite well, having married and divorced that asshole about 13 years ago, after a fling with microsurgery, yes, Piriformis Syndrome is not too shabby.
If nothing else, it gives new meaning to having a pain in the ass and/or being a tight ass. And makes Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-86979929985237954562012-01-07T15:30:00.000-08:002012-01-07T15:30:39.439-08:00Resolutions, shared, more powerfulWoody Guthrie's resolutions for 1942 have been making the rounds for a few weeks. In case you didn't see them, they go like this. I love that they're handwritten, along with doodles, at the middle of the book, and include beating fascism and wearing clean clothes.
It got me to thinking about how interesting it would be to see certain people's resolutions at key moments in their lives. &Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-53145487728680649222012-01-05T06:41:00.000-08:002012-01-05T06:47:25.928-08:00Ming and friendsMaybe you know this story already. It's kind of old, from 2003 -- the story of Ming, a 400-pound, 2-year-old tiger, kept as a pet in a 5th floor apartment in Harlem. I stumbled across the story through some bizarre route that I can't re-create, in a series of photos called New York's Urban Jungle on the New York Daily News. From there I googled onward, hungry for details. Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-90901595991323539902012-01-04T19:01:00.000-08:002012-01-04T19:01:38.482-08:00Starting the 2012 Clock: Days Without Incident
Ever since an early 70s New Year's Eve parked in the living room of friends of my parents, wishing they'd just left me and my sisters home instead of making us go to these weird people's house and hang around with their weird kids while the grown-ups all laughed too loud about inane things like the eggplant, leaving us to be bored silly by the only thing their tiny black-and-white television Arianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2812254188016088546.post-18925443421679910222012-01-04T07:03:00.000-08:002012-01-04T07:03:50.140-08:00my thing with the resolutionsI've probably got a couple more posts in my system this month regarding resolutions, so if you're sick of the subject, consider this fair warning. In my opinion, resolutions get a bad rap, so I'm staying in my corner, cheering, wishing their beneficial effects for all.
Maybe the problem is the word. Resolutions is so non-specific and tired. As you can see at left, I prefer theArianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15057310809123193387noreply@blogger.com2