06.25.10

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= Afternoon with Carlos & his adventures traveling from New York to Atlanta and back.



First henna of the summer.

We passed a number of women at Union Square doing henna, but there was one who had a sign about fighting modern day slavery. After Carlos headed back uptown, I turned around and found her. We talked for half an hour about henna & human trafficking, exchanged information, & had her do my hand (first time on the hand -- I always get my feet done but I had Keds on). She told me all the money she was making that day would go to a coalition to fight slavery in Florida.



[img via]

Spent the night [into morning] sitting on the rooftop of Brass Monkey, overlooking the Hudson River, with KP, Katie, & occasionally Miss Ireland. Not the best rooftop I've been to but it had a good vibe for the most part.

Hello Rewind's latest laptop sleeve: Hope.

This past week, Hello Rewind announced their newest laptop sleeve design -- a celebration of the World Premiere of the movie Redlight. The sleeve is a tribute to the message of hope and renewal that is delivered in the movie, as well as a great way to support the survivors of sex trafficking here in New York.

Already have a laptop cover or sleeve? Pass it along to someone you know who needs one. Or purchase one as a gift! Practical, useful, a conversation starter, AND a great way to give back.

Each sleeve is $49 and can be made to fit your 17", 15", or 13" laptop, or even your iPad or Netbook.
Colors may vary but will be of a light color, from white to light gray.

You can pre-order your sleeve here today. Pre-ordering ends July 5th and sleeves get shipped by July 12th.

Candles.

[Photo by Kim Anderson]

Last night after visiting a friend's new & gorgeous apartment, I stood on the platform at 33rd St. thinking about how glad & fortunate I am to have met her. I happened to also be on the phone with another friend who, over my college years, has become someone that I value greatly. That led me to thinking about how blessed I am to be surrounded by amazing people.

I was considering having a post dedicated to a handful of specific women in my life that have really inspired & influenced me -- old roommates, current roommates, mentors, friends, etc. -- but then I had another idea: to have occasional posts dedicated to one person. Kind of like a highlight or profile...or a candle at a girl's sweet sixteen.

Despite my mom's desire to throw me one (more specifically, renting a weekend house out in the Hamptons for my friends & me), I never had one because I never wanted one. I found them to be silly celebrations that were oftentimes outrageously overdone (as clearly exhibited by MTV). The one part of sweet sixteens that I did really love though was the idea of the candle lighting. Ever since the first sweet sixteen I attended when I was much younger, I always wanted a reason to commemorate the beautiful, inspiring, & influential people in my life, but felt that I had missed a chance when I bypassed the 16th birthday mark.

Pretty silly of me. Who's to say that I can't just celebrate people on a daily basis?

I know that these people-posts won't mean much to the readers of this blog; many will just skip over it, especially when I write about someone they don't even know. The actual person I'm writing about might even skip over it. But I think that, in my efforts to rejuvenate my life, it's important for me to remember the good that's around me & to recognize the people who have helped me to get this far.

Toy Story 3!

I will be honest & say that while I am a Pixar fan, I rarely take the initiative to go & see animated movies. I will also admit that I have never been a huge Toy Story fan (but that's probably due to the fact that I watched Toy Story once as a kid & don't really remember much of it since I was even less into animated movies then).

But fortunately, a dear friend of mine bought me a ticket & pushed me to go see Toy Story 3 on the opening night. I am very grateful as the movie deserves every good remark & rating it has received so far -- aka, it was AWESOME.

PLUS, it features my childhood pal Totoro (Miyazaki's first 3 films were of the few animated movies I adored as a child) along with a plush edamame doll! Toy Story goes Japanese.

Seriously though, it was a really superb movie. I was completely engaged the entire time, finding myself laughing at the clever comments, gripping my friend's arm at the scarier moments, & (yes) trying not to tear up at the sad parts. Brace yourself for some emotional moments, but overall it's a pretty touching, cute, & entertaining adventure of a movie. I approve. Completely.

Happy day, Popsicles!

Late 1970s.


2008.




2010.

Process of renewal.

For a decade now, I've been aimlessly blogging about random events of my life -- sometimes ridiculous, sometimes emotional, often times trivial. I think my dear Jeannie would say that I "vaguely" blogged.

Therefore I'm going to make more of an effort to meaningfully document my life (& for your sakes, try to actually edit what I write rather than just type as I speak out loud to my laptop). I'm hoping to record my journey in becoming the person I want to be/need to be/was made to be, along with the amazing things that inspire me. Yes, it sounds cheesy but for far too long now I've been disappointed, wanting to revamp myself & really be that new creation that I'm supposedly meant to be (2 Cor. 5:17). So I'm scratching everything from before & starting over.

These are the first few of many resolutions that I am undertaking:

1. Document & update life more: take pictures, take videos, blog, post -- & do it in a timely fashion.
2. Listen to more sermons.
3. Call Timothy as often as possible.
4. Stay in touch with positive people, especially my former roommates.
5. Criticize less.
6. Live more minimally.
7. Seek out & listen to new music more often.
8. Develop my hobbies further.
9. Read at least a book every [other] month.
10. Be self-educating.

On a somewhat separate note, when I was about 13 or 14-years-old I made a List of Things to Do Before I Died. It wasn't in any particular order, just whatever came to mind first. What was #1? To own a futon. Guess what I'm sitting on right now (& what I've been sleeping on for 3 weeks). At least I've come that far in the past 9 years. Hurrah!

Namaste.

My name is Gabrielle.