Lighter

I did an experiment today. It wasn't intended to be an experiment, it was just supposed to be a walk. I left the house with only a set of keys for a 20-minute brisk walk. It took me a while to decide to do this. I don't really usually like leaving the house, especially not alone. This is not because of safety issues.

So, as I used to do especially right when I first got here, I let myself walk in whatever direction I liked, turning when I pleased, with the vague idea of reaching either a park half an hour away or a neighboring district (maybe 15 minutes away). The idea of walking - no, the actual walking with no possessions on my person save for my keys and the clothes on my back, as it were, was physically light. I generally like to lug around my (currently) 6 x 8.5 inch journal, pen and marker, book to read, wallet, tissues, a water bottle, and (recently) a set of colored pencils. Individually, they are all light enough, but together they form a collective burden on walks exceeding 15 minutes.

The going out without money was interesting too. I have a friend who did an experiment where she would go out with neither money nor possessions on alternate days for a period of her life. She had to walk everywhere, even if she had an appointment all the way across the city unless she had a ride from someone (no possessions = no car and no cash and so no cabs).

Like my friend, the lack of possessions carried with cut down on my options. No stopping for coffee or buying something impulsively or giving a dollar to someone asking for change. I always think that money gives people options, in a bigger sense. And there is of course the inherent assumption that options are good. More options is just better. I'm not saying I want to wake up tomorrow morning and discover my bank account has been depleted - and there is no point in glorifying poverty from a position of privilege like the one I have essentially been born into. I guess I'm just saying that options, in certain contexts, can be maddening, and I think can create shortened attention spans. I rotate in five-minute intervals between crocheting granny squares for a blanket, perusing my laptop and the time-consuming wonders of the internet, reading an Italian-American woman's 'food memoir', and checking my new cookbooks for recipes to try. Sitting on the lime green couch in my living room, surrounded by my things, switching back and forth from one activity to another, not knowing which to focus on, because there are so many choices at my fingertips.

The One Thing

Yesterday the mr. made a few announcements. 1 - that I am good at a lot of things, but not excellent at any. 2 - that I should choose one thing to be excellent at and dedicate my life to it.

He tried to lure it out of me: "What do you enjoy doing the most? What could you do all day?"
"I like doing lots of things. Right now I like cooking and crochet."
"Then you should do that. Go to cooking school. Become really good at it."

Just when I'd pretty much decided to give up this idea of the One Thing and half-heartedly pursue uhm, pretty much everything.

Throwing Yourself

One of my friends advised me, before moving to Seattle from Cairo to join my already-established husband, that I had to find something. That I had to throw myself into something there, anything. Art class starts Monday.

Today: library (the new Oprah magazine is out. I just read the new one two days ago - that's like a whole new magazine) and park?

Yesterday: fettuccine with classic tomato sauce.

Today: Mossakah? Still intimidated. Mother-in-law advised:
Chop eggplants, deep fry in oil with garlic, layer in baking dish and cover with tomato sauce. Sounds simple enough, right? Might still wait for tomorrow and have the mr. make it himself. I don't even like "mossakah."

DIY Reality TV

We all love to hate reality TV. Hell's Kitchen, Survivor, Supernanny, Brat Camp - there seems to be an endless stream of innumerable genres of reality TV.

I wondered, how does watching reality TV impact us in our everyday relationships and interactions? Does it maybe make us more dramatic? How would we behave on a reality TV show?

What if we could be in our own reality TV show?

Part sincere, part fine line between genuine inner drama queens and a satire on the whole reality TV show concept...

How best to go about doing such a thing? I think a vacation with all the participants would be ideal, except for the fact that it would be hard to round up a group of people (I'm thinking at least five) together to go on vacation. So the next best: a large gathering.

No, I wouldn't seek syndication with ABC, Foxx, or O TV. Not even youtube.

Watch this space for updates.

About SkethCrawl

• SketchCrawl: "a world wide sketching marathon event."* According to the website:

  The basic idea: to record nonstop everything I could around me with my pencil and watercolors. A drawn journal filled with details ranging from the all the coffee I drank to the different buses I took.

Upcoming on Saturday December 9... again you can let me know if you're interested in such a thing. You can also check out the Sketchcrawl blog. So every three months roughly a day is chosen when we all come together and sketch. Holding hands optional. I've never taken part before. *The founder of Sketchcrawl Enrico Casarosa describes it as such on his personal blog...

• The films I've seen so far at the film festival have been great. Finally the first year when I was free to go (in previous years exams prevented me).
  
• Finally this was something I felt a strange compulsion to make. I actually made it two weeks ago so it is Old, and it's kind of boring to post Old things on my blog, but I haven't been taking pictures, and I haven't really been drawing either (bad!), but oh well. So there you go, Old Stuff. Maybe the SketchCrawl + Open exhibition will change all that, or at least be some kind of catalyst for change/ interesting diversion.
  

Marker-on-cardboard thing

I'm into the marker-on cardboard thing right now. Maybe it's something about making my mark on the world, so the thick dark marker black appeals as it meets this ... requirement.

If you're bored, like me, you too can visit the US' "Postal store" and check out different stamps they issue.

Or. go to afore-mentioned No Media Kings site and read Jim Munroe's interesting idea about selling out to the mainstream after being "indy" (as in, independent). He says cool stuff about hypocrisy. Quote:

Nowadays, consistency seems to have replaced virtue... If someone kills children because he hates them, and is wholly dedicated to eliminating the toddler set from the earth, this person is somehow less contemptible than a vegetarian who wears leather shoes.


My advice, kind of in-line with what Mr. Munroe says, is to get over this obsession, or phobia, of hypocrisy.