post this on a wall...

...where you can read it and refer to it regularly. And  by "this," I mean this. I'm printing out these 40 life-isms as we speak/type/read, and highlighting numbers 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 20, 22, 25, and 28 in pink. Which of these will you highlight?

p.s. In honor of National Pancake Day—I wolfed down 5 yummy banana silver dollars (not the ones below, unfortunately). However now I. CANNOT. MOVE. So I strongly urge you to not follow in my footsteps. Choose your own pancakes, but tread lightly. Don't eat 5 all at once and perhaps skip the butter and syrup, oh—and the side of bacon, altogether.

Photo: D'Arcy Norman

on being a teeny-tiny bit fearful to fully commit...

...hannah had this great advice for me...and while I can't post the entire email (out of respect for her/my privacy), I posted the eloquent and supportive little snippet I loved most of all...

...perhaps it's the expectation that may be getting in the way. maybe when we tell someone something about the past, we expect that "chosen" person to then be so affected that they'll be there forever, as a blanket to cover us, as love to protect and house us, so we'll belong... we're all like this... everyone's heart gets broken because that's the inevitable progress to adulthood. people break promises and sometimes they leave and disappear, but you'll always have you, and the universe, and the love in it. and sometimes that love brings people back to you as well.

p.s. This week is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. What will you do to promote good health and acceptance of all bodies? For me, it'll be iyengar, followed by copious amounts of comfort food, a few glasses of Cab Sav, and lots of dancing (hello, cardio!)...because in my opinion, being healthy isn't always about moderation...it's about harmonizing the extremes.

in my mind, i'm a ballerina...

Unless you're one of the lucky few, everyone has an alter-ego, make-believe job. Or that magical artsy career you always wanted when you grew up that never happened because you opted for a "real world" grown-up degree in Poli-Sci or Journalism over the Theater Arts one. Feel free to blame your parents for that one.

In my magical-artsy-career mind, I've always been a ballerina. And although I've never taken a class (hopefully that'll change soon), my-friend-Peter says I move like a dancer...and another friend once remarked "are you a dancer? Because you have very strong toes." ;-) At 32, I'd have to say it's a little too late for me to pirouette or plié on the New York City Ballet stage...but one can dream. And by dream, I mean play dress-up...

I came across this skirt today on the UO sale web site (damn them for those sale reminders!). How lovely for Spring! My first impulse was to go for the pink for the sake of fantasy and flair (plus, anything goes in nyc, right?). But on second thought, gray might be more practical, more down-to-earth, more suitable for real life. What say you—gray or pink?

I typically don't post pictures of naked men...

...on my blog, but I'll make an exception today.

On my way home from yoga class a little bit ago, the sneakiest smile crept onto my face thanks to this 100-foot high billboard of sweat-laquered loveliness. The oiled-up gentleman is Parisian model David Agbodji—and I don't think I care or need to know anything else about him (the ad speaks volumes, doesn't it?). I'd like to thank Calvin Klein for giving ad space to the beautiful specimen that is darker-skinned gentlemen. Of course, he could very well be simply capitalizing on the fashion industry gimmick trend of shining the spotlight on models of color. Either way, I now feel the way men must've felt when they had the pleasure of looking up in the sky at Eva Mendez's deliciously barely-covered bits for the past year.

If you'd like to see more of David, here's a handful of pics of him in the Spring 2010 Calvin Klein campaign (fyi, includes a NSFW backside shot I really didn't need to see). Of course, if you live in NYC, get down to Houston and Lafayette for an up-close-and-personal drool-worthy ogle fest of your own.

I guess now the burning question is who was the lucky person who had the painfully tedious task of shellacking this guy (oh, and has he been shellacked everywhere?)—and where does one apply for such a job?

p.s. Happy Chinese New Year—year of the Tiger.

Photo: Vanity Flair

"I want women to look stronger"

"I grew up with three older sisters, and I saw them go through a lot of shit, I always wanted to be able to protect them. They would call me up to their room and I'd help them pick out clothes for work. Just, you know, what skirt with what cardigan, but I was always trying to make them look strong and sheltered."

"I design clothes because I don't want women to look all innocent and naive, because I know what can happen to them. I want women to look stronger..."

"I've seen a woman nearly beaten to death by her husband. I know what misogyny is...I want people to be afraid of the women I dress."

—Alexander McQueen

in your nightmares...

...that's where you find monsters like these. Or in a dark Tim-Burton fairytale. You've really gotta wonder what goes on inside the mind of a person who brings this theatrical goth-erotic sort of imagery to the runway...full-body leather butcher's suit...blood-splattered waistcoat...sickly, ashen faces.

When hannah emailed this slide show last Fall, I watched the entire thing right then and there. Only two weeks ago, I shared the same slideshow with two fashion-loving girls at work, and "how vampire-ish!" "so Johnny Depp" and "wow, so dark. i love it..." spilled out over email.

There will be a little less beauty (the hauntingly terrifying sort) in the world now. farewell alexander.

Photos: New York Magazine

please don't touch me with your pork bun.

There's a reason I'm smiling on the subway today...and it's not because of the stellar cup of coffee with hazelnut agave (you must try it) I'm holding—it's the near-certainty of a full-fledged snow storm tonight in my wonderful city. And when it snows here, all city workers have to slip and slosh in to their lofty Manhattan offices, but not me. nope. I work in Westchester County—and when it snows here—even if it's only 5 or 6 inches, we get a snow day. So for a day, I love Yonkers, better known as the armpit of Westchester, also known as "an unimaginable fate far worse than death."

Make no mistake, it's not the warm cinammon-sugar-flavored civility of suburban life that forces resentment into my heart during my 1-hour-plus trek to work everyday—it's my 1-hour-plus trek.

Oh the horrors of my smelly, claustrophobic commute. Today I had the divine pleasure of watching a teenage boy devour a greasy, fleshy pork bun in front of me. yum. Add the wondrous olfactory sensation of stale vitamin odor, which was very likely just old piss, and we've got a winner of an F-train ride today. We don't really need to mention the man who at this very moment is leaning over my shoulder watching me write this, or the guy sitting across from me with his knees spread so far apart, he's likely to give birth to his balls at any moment.

I get emotional and my left eye twitches a bit when I speak about my commute, and people who work on 34th Street or drive up the FDR to work don't get it. Three weeks ago I burst into my apartment in a fit of tears after a 300-pound Hasidic "gentleman" sat on me. Not next to me—but literally—ON me. After a shiteous day at my 9-to-5, Schlomo mistaking me for a Lazy Boy was the icing on my catastrophic cake.

Yet and still, the things I detest most about the almighty MTA on some days become the things I love on others. Like when the train car morphs into an elbow-to-elbow jam-packed tuna can and I get to hover 4 inches away from my morning-rush goth-boy crush, picturing what he might look like sans the long face and leather arm cuffs, and umm, naked. ahhh... Where was I? Oh yes...if all goes well tomorrow...oh nevermind...just buzz me when the snowmageddon starts...

Photo: taniworld

what i love most today...

...is this coffee cup sweater. Really—I cannot stop ogling it and feeling warm and snuggly about it. Damn it, I don't know how to knit, but I will learn ASAP if only to create adorable little knit wonders like this one. I MUST have one...and apparently, I can get one right here on Etsy for the low-low price of 10 to 15 bucks. (Gotta love Etsy.)

The only downside I can see (for me) to having one of these cup Snuggies, is that it might very well cause me to wolfishly absorb more than my 2 to 3 cups of coffee a day—which could result in even stranger behavior than usual—and perhaps an increase in my already high level of nervous energy. Oh well...sometimes one must sacrifice sanity for art—or in this case, arts and crafts.

Photo: Design Sponge