Free trip to the Caribbean?

These frequent flier miles can be a pain. I'm currently working on trying to cash in my frequently flier miles to go to Trinidad for my cousin's wedding this April. I've seen tickets for $550, plus taxes. But I have have miles on United, and I can top off my Delta (and cash 'em out on Continental.) However, I can't get a flight home. These damn airline alliances!

(Y'all know that I don't mean that. How else did I get to Australia on a $101.12 ticket but on my Mileage Plus Awards on Star Alliance carriers?)

However the issues are: if I travel to Port of Spain (POS) on BWIA West Indies Airways redeeming my United miles, I can only travel on UA or BWI flights. Or I can take the StarAlliance to POS, the only reasonible carrier to take from North America to Trinidad is Air Canada.

Traveling to POS is fine, but coming home there are no United flights available within the US from my BWIA flight. (Sure there are US airways flights, but I can't get them because of the redemption rules that BWIA has with its partner carriers.) There just aren't many Air Canada flights for YYZ (Toronto) from POS, and they are all booked for three days out. (Oh, and the flight back is not direct, there's a lay over in Caracas.)

Well, tomorrow is another day.

Valentines

So I'm watching "Just Shoot Me" on the WB and I remembered how much I enjoy that show.

While watching and trying to think about what to write, and I saw two different valentine day themed commercials. Instead of being jaded about the upcoming Hallmark holiday, I thought that I'd relate a funny-to-me story.

My co-worker still had all of her Christmas/holiday cards on her door and I commented saying "It's getting closer to Valentine's Day then Christmas, shouldn't you be taking them down now?"

She replies, "Until I get a Valentine, I'm keeping these cards up."

I knew I had to make a valentine for her. I asked for some pink paper and cut it into the shape of a heart. This co-worker is a fan of karaoke, and I knew that I should put some reference to that. I google-imaged karaoke machines and printed out one I liked. I put the picture on the heart and needed to think of what to write.

I came up with:
You put the " 'A O.K.' in karaoke, Valentine."

I put the valentine into an envelope and placed it into her mailbox.

When she got it, she took down all of her Christmas card and slapped the valentine, front and center on the door.

Dorky? Yes. But did she love it? Totally!

Goblet of Fire

I can't believe that the Nazi pope had JP2's ear and called out JK's novels as not Christian. He's an old eff you sea kay!

Ms. Rowlings claims that she did not write with any underlying Christian tones, and I believe her. However, I feel that if I wanted to, I could read tons of Judeo-Christian mores in her story. I'm just annoyed that Ratzi hasn't. Pompous German blowhard.

(I think that I just sealed my fate for an Espicopal rite of burial. And maybe I'm a little ticked that I wasn't chosen the next Pope -- techinically I could have been, you know.)

Seriously, though, I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on the IMAX screen, and that was COOL! 70-foot-tall screen. The graphics were amazing and the special effects dazzling, however they didn't seem to distract me from the crux of the Harry Potter universe: Choices are decisions based on picking between what is right and what is easy. The battle of good versus evil always highlights the fact that it is a challenge to rise to the occassion of doing what is correct, just, fair and merciful. Those who do evil find it easier and simpler to turn away from these vaules.

Who cares if there's a Hungarian Horntail thrown in to wow you a little bit?

Clueless

I've thought of it, and it was through not so divine revelation... the last movie for my 10 favorites. Rounding out the list is Amy Heckerling's hit Clueless. I was watching "I Love the 90's: 1995" and they highlighted the movie as one of the defining pop culture phenomena.

Today, I've been racking my brain trying to remember my favorite dialogue/quotes from Clueless. (Oh, were there a box that I could put a question into and an answer would come out? I didn't think of googling it until now.)



Cher: So like, right now for example. The Haitians need to come to America. But some people are all,
"What about the strain on our resources?" Well it's like when I had this garden party for my father's birthday, right? I put R.S.V.P. 'cause it was a sit-down dinner. But some people came that like did not R.S.V.P. I was like totally buggin'. I had to haul ass to the kitchen, redistribute the food, and squish in extra place settings. But by the end of the day it was, like, the more the merrier. And so if the government could just get to the kitchen, rearrange some things, we could certainly party with the Haitians. And in conclusion may I please remind you it does not say R.S.V.P. on the Statue of Liberty. Thank you very much.

Tai: I could really use some sort of herbal refreshment.
Dionne: Oh, well we do lunch in ten minutes. We don't have any tea, but we have Coke and stuff.
Tai: No shit. You guys got Coke here?
Dionne: Well, yeah.
Cher: Yeah, this is America.

Murray: He's a disco-dancin', Oscar-Wilde-readin', Streisand-ticket-holdin' friend of Dorothy, know what I'm sayin'?

Cher: I am totally butt crazy in love with Josh.

God, I love this movie!

Ben at 300

If you live in Philadelphia, yesterday, there was no way you couldn't know that it was Ben Franklin's 300th birthday. Well, unless you stayed home and didn't turn on any of the local stations, then you would be ignorant of the invasive fact.

As an employee of the University of Pennsylvania, I was swept up in the "Benergy." (Not my word, but I can't give proper attribution.) I spent the day celebrating: laying a wreath at his burial site, throwing a nickel on his grave and luncheoning with others from Franklin-affiliated organizations.

It was just interesting that I was at the grave of a man who so greatly influenced America. He's only one of two men on US currency who was not president. Monroe isn't on any currency, and he came up with the Monroe doctrine -- and I always thought that MD was a big diplomatic deal! It is amazing that people to this day still dress up as Franklin, and that many people are so moved to remember Ben and his accomplishments.

It's a testament to immorality.

Hanging out in the ER

This weekend, I ended up with a few others taking a friend to the ER. Don't worry, our friend is fine. So, there's nothing to worry about.

However while we were waiting for the results from tests that needed to be done, we couldn't help but overhear that the person in the bed next door was just given about 2 hours to live. It's an ER, so yes, we've seen it on NBC and we know that people do die. (All attempts were made by the doctors to deliver the news in a private, confidential way, but you're in the middle of a busy ER, that place doesn't exist.)

We all started talking about dying and death, quietly. None of us were in our 20's, and we realized that we're just beginning to think about our morality and questioning where will we be in our last hours?

This woman had her family with her, and ER staff was going to transfer to a private room and make things comfortable for her as possible.

But what about us? Where will we be? Alone? With loved ones?

I couldn't answer how I hoped I would die. I could only provide funeral directions. To which one of my friends quipped that I wanted everyone to have a party over my funeral. And, yes, of course, I do!

If a Catholic Church won't celebrate my funeral mass because of the music I pick, then we'll go to an Episcopal one. I want Like a Prayer as my processional hymn and Ray of Light as my recessional. Throw in Hosea. That's a pretty hymn. If I am outlived by Nikki, Laura, Nisi, Terry and a boyfriend/partner, I want them to plan the rest.

But, how much of a comment on my life would it be if I got to leave the church with Ray of Light playing and everyone singing "And I feel// like I just got home."

Movies

There's something wrong with my household's coaxial cable on the living room tv. This means that I can't watch tv, and that, if Brian can't fix it, that we have to get a new coaxial cable. The other thing that means is that I can't use the DVD either.

Fie.

My brother got me for this past Christmas, Moulin Rouge, one of my top 10 favorite movies. I can't wait it. I also I was waiting in line earlier today and I thought I heard a song from Love Actually, other of my top 10 favorite movies, and when I thought I heard a song from that movie, I started to want to be able to watch it. I own it, thanks to Terry's foresight in last year's Christmas present. In thinking about all my favorite movies, I wanted to watch When Harry Met Sally... which I have on DVD thanks to Nick and his Christmas gift of two years ago. (Nick trapsed through all five bouroghs of New York to get me a copy of When Harry.... on DVD.)

Now instead of complaining about no cable or access to DVD's, I'm left around out my top ten movies:
Jurrasic Park
Fight Club
The Hours
Steel Magnolias
Interview with a Vampire
Brokeback Mountain
(and I'll have to get back to you on the 10th one)

Quizzo, et. al.

What's a crappy night it was tonight. I had neublous plans earlier this evening that got cancelled, so I was able to attend Quizzo with my co-workers. However, when I was just to go outside, the skies opened up. The big umbrella that I had with me was not enough to keep the knees-down dry.

I get to the bus stop about five minutes before the bus comes, and about four minutes before the bus come, the rain significantly slows down.

I walk into Fado, immediately after my other co-worker arrives. No one else is there. The rain slowed everyone down, since we called to confirm that people were actually coming. Since we were there, we guilted a few more into joining.

Next was the team name. There's major pressure in coming up with a goof, funny team name. I deparately wanted to make a pun on Alito... Like Alito e olio (Aglio e olio - Garlic and Oil) but I couldn't think if the phrase "aglio e olio" actually existed. No one on the team knew either, not even the resident foodie.

I found out that Fado doesn't actually call this triva game, Quizzo, but just Pub Quiz. It also lasted forever... 2 general triva rounds, a picture round, 2 more general triva rounds, a music round, 1 more general triva round and lastly a themed round.

Interesting.

We didn't win, but we had a good time with each other, and we really didn't get to talk about work that much.

Oh, there was an Australia, a Jurassic Park and Olympic question.

O! Linguistics

While I was working, I came across a vignette on the Penn home page about Bill Labov, the father of American linguistics.

Profressor Labov was an interesting teacher. He didn't feel that it was neccessary to learn the subject materal in class, therefore his general lecture class never had an attendance requirement. However, unless one were a linguist, Bill didn't think that one could actually understand everything in the course material without being in class.

My favorite trivial item that Bill shared with us was a humorous one-up on George Bernard Shaw. Many of you know about suggested Shavian spelling of fish, as ghoti. (with the "gh" from cough, the "o" from women" and the "ti" from nation.) Labov, first alluded to Shaw's fish spelling, and then wrote the word "breakfast" on the blackboard. He asked the class to pronouce the word and in unison the lecture hall said, "breakfast." He said, "No, it's pronounced [silence]." He paused and continued, saying if one takes the "b" from comb, etc.* etc. the "a" from aisle, etc. etc. and finally the "t" from ballet, one gets a word pronounced as [silence].

* Unfortunately, I don't remember whence each of the silent letters came, but I promise you that all of the letters of breakfast, including two examples of a's, are silent in words used enough in English.

Isaac

On "Confessions on a Dance Floor," there's a song Isaac, which I have fallen in love with. There's a great Yemenite chant intermingled in the song, which is translated into "if all of the doors of all of the generous peoples' homes are closed to you, the gates of heaven will always be open."

Of course, it's controversial. Some rabbis has called her blasphemous (Madonna blasphemous?) since they believed the song to be about a 15th century Kabbalist, Isaac Lurier. It is forbidden to invoke his name in order to make a profit. Madonna's response is that she named the song after the cantor, Yitzhak (Isaac in English) Sinwani, for lack of a better name. (Seriously, who cares, Madge is R.C. and she's known for blasphemy. Didn't she really give JPII a heartattack that finally did him in in April?)

Madonna's lyrics are:

Staring up into the heavens
In this hell that binds your hands
Will you sacrifice your comfort
Make your way in a foreign land

Wrestle with your darkness
Angels call your name
Can you hear what they are saying
Will you ever be the same

Remember, remember, never forget
All of your life has all been a test
You will find the gate that's open
Even though your spirit's broken

Open up my heart
And cause my lips to speak
Bring the heaven and the stars
Down to Earth for me

The combination of the lyrics, the meaning of the chant, the pizzicato violin and the techo-drum beat blend into a aural Odyssey. I open up my mind and travel around the world and among different cultures. It swings between tumultuous and tender; it's stretches my mind.

Blog gratia blogis

As my one of my resolutions is to write more, I thought that I'd start a blog to help encourage that trend.

Well, tonight is the first mental block. I don't really know what to write about. I could tell you all about the fun I had last night going out, but on the off-chance that my mom reads this (and I know that she could) I don't want to have deal with the topic of her questioning me why I'm freely telling the world my business. She's right. You don't need to know everything. Let's just say, the MPAA would have rated my evening a PG-13. (I think that the f-bomb was dropped a few times. "Why is the bartending taking so effing long to acknowledge me?" "These hand-driers are so effing powerful!") I had fun -- socialized with friends, talked with new people and didn't have too high of a blood alcohol level when I got to my bed at 2:15am. (It could have been the hot dog and caffeine-free diet Coke that helped with that.)

So, perhaps, the point of tonight's blog is that I just defined one of my guildlines for my posts -- write it like my mom's gonna read it.

(*waves* Hi mom, I love you)

It's sharp, so give me a penny.

Has anyone heard of this custom of paying a penny when one is given (versus just borrowing) a sharp object like a knife or a pin? According to the legend, one should always make the giving of a sharp object a financial transaction, because giving someone an object of this ilk will cut the friendship. Therefore, if one buys the item say for the nominal vaule of a cent, there is no risk of endangering the relationship.

On the other hand, I've been trying to take a disco nap, because I should go out with friends tonight. While I've been trying to rest, I've had this poem form in my mind. I don't know what to do with it, except put it on the blog:

I am just broken
Things don't feel right
My head is heavy
And my heart ain't light.

Will I get through
This everdarking night?
Maybe just with hope
As my guilding light.

Pandora, it's not your fault,
But the wounds won't get better if you keep pourin' in salt.

Epiphany

It’s Epiphany: the day that the Magi come upon the Christ child, and give Him the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

It is the day that I take down all of the Christmas decorations: the penguins in my office and the holiday cards from the door, the boughs of garland and the tree itself.

But I have on occasion read "The Dead" by James Joyce on the Epiphany since the action of the story takes place on January 6. At the end of the story, there is a scene in which Greta, wife of the main protagonist, tells Gabriel, the protagonist, about a former love, Michael Furey, and how he dies from catching a cold while throwing pebbles at bedroom window. This is the crux of the story – that the dead still can have a major effect on the living. The action of this story takes place on Nuns' Island in Galway.

When I first read "The Dead," it was years after college, and the year after I had traveled to Ireland. I was floored when I read this part of the short story. I had spent my stay in Galway at the St. Martin's Bed and Breakfast (and if Mary Sexton is still there, God bless her! She embodied my archetype for an Irish B&B proprietor. If you travel to Galway, stay there – rob, steal, lie, cheat, do whatever to stay there. It was €35 a night in 1999, but I'm sure that it's more now. However it is worth it.) The B&B is located on what’s left of Nuns' Island. The address is something like 41 Nuns' Island Road. (I just googled it, 2 Nun's Island Street and the St. Martin's B&B gets rave reviews. I see that Mary is still there.) It gave me chills to think about the story and how I slept on the very island that this moving storyline was located.

Those who study Joyce emphasize the connection of the feast day to the sudden manifestation of comprehension or perception. Gabriel has an epiphany about his love of his life on the feast of the Epiphany. Joyce, who did like to pepper his works with symbolic references and Biblical/religious insinuations, also wrote that it was snowing on January 6 in Dublin – a rare meteorological event in Ireland. Snowing is a common-known allusion to death.

Outside the drudgery of this allegorical talk, I love Epiphany and epiphanies. There’s something about the feeling of Eureka! when "it all makes sense" that is so comforting and empowering. I welcome them.

My Idea of a Songline, part I

Originally I was going to comment on this article I saw about the John Cage composition "organ2/ASLSP" which is a 639-year-long opus.

Also, I wanted to comment on my brother’s blog which eludes to my new blog.

However, I am settled on writing about my karaoke night at Bonner’s. Bonner’s is this watering hole about a block away from my house. It’s an Irish bar that does karaoke on Thursday nights.

I was out with a group of co-workers, celebrating someone’s last day, and, of course, all of us encouraged each other to sing. In the mix, as a friend of friend, was an Aussie from Melbourne. They called him up to sing; he had chosen "Land Down Under." Of course he did, any Aussie worth his weight in opals would have picked that.

This triggered a great memory of mine. I had been in Australia for over a week. Everyday since I landed, David and I would hop a bus, usually the 288, and leave North Ryde and head to the QVB. We crossed Harbour Bridge. We walked around the Opera House. We stopped to watch Aboriginals play didgeridoos. Once, we even trekked out to Featherdale Wildlife Park, and I got photographic evidence of my petting wombats, koalas and kangaroos. However, it was not until after watching a match of Australia Rules Football, when the Sydney Swans lost to the Melbourne Demons at the Sydney Cricket Grounds (located on ANZAC Parade) and venturing into the Flinders Hotel, on the corner of Oxford and Flinders Streets and hearing a local Aussie band play a cover of "Land Down Under" did I actually feel that I was in Australia.

We ordered two Tooheys and drank the irony all in.

Eight a day

In the land of New Year's Resolutions, I am working on gradually adding mine to action step by step. (This is just a ploy to make me feel better that I haven't started them immediately on January 1 and that I probably won't stick with them.) But if at first you don't succeed, you're not a crack shot.

I ramble...

Today's New Year's Resolutions are brought to you by Dansani, Aquafina, Poland Spring, et. al. In the big scheme of things, I am going to work on my health and fitness this year. My dad had been diagnosed with diabetes for a few years now, and I know I have to work on my weight. Also, I want to enjoy the Gryphons' Spring Season and to go to the Bingham Cup Tournament in New York to play hard and to have a great time. (Also, I have my brother's wedding in September to look good for.) So, I'm making sure that I'm drinking at least 64 ounces of water a day.

I can't cite any of the work, but clearly there is evidence that 64 ounces of water daily is good for the body. It’s something – a little token of health consciousness. Soon I can tackle the gym, caffeine, running, walking TO work and everything else.

I started the day with 16 oz in the morning. I had about 4 glasses of water during the day at work. I had another tall glass with dinner. Before working on this post, I poured myself another 16 oz glass, and I've been sipping on it while I type.

So, in the beginning, there were resolutions and they were good.

Fiat blog

It's that time of year -- New Year's. We all think about our resolutions, and again this year, I have added the item of "writing more" to my list. Therefore, I figured that I would break down and finally start a blog.

For those who don't know me: In 2005, I went to Australia which was a dream about 25 years in the making. In addition to the grand effects this trip had on my personal, relationship and work lives, it had made a significant impact on me. I have changed. I am motivated to take many big next steps in the next few years.

So here's my start.