merry merry!

I've been quite remiss in blogging lately, but I chalk it up to the busyness of the season, and my efforts to spend more time with my family when I'm home instead of in front of the computer.

We drove to New York City yesterday to get our fill of Christmas cheer; we went to Bryant Park & watched the ice-skaters, visited a few exhibitions at the New York Public Library, sat in St. Patrick's Cathedral and admired the beautiful creche, and had delicious coffee and hot chocolate on the 8th floor of Saks. We finished up the day with dinner at The Spotted Pig, and after walking through the West Village from the subway to get there, I've decided to save all my money and one day, move there. What a great little neighborhood.
There's also nothing better than wandering down a street, the scent of something amazing in the air-- and find yourself standing at Magnolia Bakery.

It was a great day, just one of many we've been having since Meg finished up school and Niamh came home from Villanova. My presents are wrapped (in brown paper with pretty ribbons), my flannel plaid nightshirt is laid out, and tonight we'll go to Christmas Eve mass and then to celebrate with some family friends. Tomorrow brings a full Irish breakfast, presents being opened, and cooking and eating the rest of the day away, finishing up with a movie all together.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

snow!

I had been wishing for a snowfall before I depart for summertime in South Africa, and I got what I wanted! Our region was hit with about two feet of snow from early morning hours on Saturday until this morning. It's really beautiful, and although it forced me to reschedule my farewell party, I'm really enjoying the wintery scene outside my window.

Here's a little collection of songs I've been listening to this weekend; I think they make for a nice wintertime playlist. Enjoy the snow!

doctors without borders.

Every Thursday night in high school, Mum and I would settle down in front of the TV, like millions of other moms and daughters, to watch ER. I really loved it; I fell head over heels for Noah Wyle in his role as Dr. Carter, and, in his final days as a member of the cast, his character traveled overseas to do humanitarian medical work with an organization called Doctors Without Borders (or Medicins Sans Frontieres).
I was spellbound. Though you wouldn't know it by the large volume of paperbacks on my bookshelf, or by my college diploma and degree, I dreamed for a long time of going to medical school and becoming a doctor. I've always loved helping people, and I saw medicine as a field in which I could be a professional "helper". And who knows, maybe one day I'll relearn biology and science and don a white jacket, but I'm not sure my English degree will be much help.

Nonetheless, I really got interested in MSF. I did some research online, and in college, applied for a few internships in their New York offices (to no avail). I get their monthly newsletter by email and have a map of the world hanging in my bedroom that they sent me, marked with the quote by Nicolas de Torrente, executive director of the group: We find out where conditions are the worst-- the places where others are not going-- and that's where we want to be.

So when I found out that a documentary had been made about the organization, I was eager to see it, and tonight, at 7:30pm, it's being shown in 450 movie theaters nationwide. It's called Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders.

Here's the trailer, and if you're interested, you can head over to their website to see what movie theaters near you are playing the movie. There are even rumors of some Oscar activity... I can't wait to see it.

san francisco!

This past (extended) weekend, my friend Colleen and I took a trip out to the west coast to visit our college roommate Becky who is living and working in San Francisco as a volunteer.
I'd been there once before, years ago, with my family, but didn't remember much of my trip. This time around, I absolutely fell in love with the city.

San Francisco is one of the coolest, most interesting cities I've ever visited. It's cosmopolitan without being flashy, artsy without being (too) pretentious, and its location in the northern part of California and on the ocean means the weather is a bit more interesting than elsewhere in the Golden State. It also happens to be the site of 826 Valencia, the first of Dave Eggers' writing centers for kids (disguised as a pirate supply shop!) and McSweeney's, his venerated publishing house. Visiting those two sites was one of my favorite parts of the trip, but I decided they deserved a blog post of their own sometime soon.

Photographic evidence:

I finally got to try In-N-Out! It was pretty delicious, but as a french fry connoisseur, I was unimpressed by their attempt. Luckily, In-N-Out has a reputation mostly for burgers, not french fries.

We hung out in the Mission a lot, the neighborhood where Becky lives. In the background here, you can see Mission Dolores, the mission for which the area was named. I was also pretty happy about including a palm tree in this photo.

We warmed up one night after a walk around Fisherman's Wharf with Buena Vista's famous Irish coffees.

We danced at a bar called Holy Cow! (or tried to...)







Then we napped in a park with the Tanners and the rest of the Full House cast...





...after getting pretty silly at a brunch at Lime in the Castro, featuring bottomless mimosas for SEVEN dollars.





I made Becky take silly jumping pictures with me at the Palace of the Fine Arts in the Marina district.





Coll attempted to swim to Alcatraz, but the Pacific Ocean is just way too cold for that.





And of course, we posed with the Golden Gate Bridge, our last sightseeing stop on a fantastic weekend.

It was such a great trip, mostly thanks to Becky, who was an absolutely amazing tourguide. She knew exactly what we'd want to see, gave us lots of options, and knew lots about the city she's come to call home. Seeing her living with her volunteer community also made me really excited for my new adventure, just a short month from now, when I'll be moving to South Africa to start my volunteer year. I'm also really glad I got see Beck before I leave; a year is a long time to go when you're thousands of miles apart.

Thanks, Becky! I miss you already.

coloring for a cause.

I saw this and just had to share, as most of you are probably like me & scrambling for Christmas gifts for the people you love.

For the indie rock lover in your life, who may happen to also need some good old-fashioned coloring therapy once in a while, comes.... the Indie Rock Coloring Book!





Released by the Yellow Bird Project, based out of Montreal, the coloring book features artwork inspired by musicians including The Shins, Laura Veirs, and Bon Iver-- and the profits from the sale of the coloring books goes towards charities chosen by the musicians involved.

I'd love to color a picture of Devendra Banhart's beard!!

EWR -> SFO

In about twelve hours, I'll be coasting through the air on my way to... San Francisco! I'm headed to the west coast to visit Becky, my best friend (and roommate) from college. But it's doubly great because my other best friend/roommate Colleen is coming too! We're meeting up at Newark tomorrow morning & we have the makings of a delicious picnic to eat on the flight.

Becky is spending the year as a Jesuit Volunteer in San Francisco, so I'm excited not only for our reunion but to see a slice of her volunteer life as well. She's got a lot of great things planned... I'm most looking forward to In-N-Out, Irish coffees, seeing the Golden Gate Bridge, and bottomless mimosas at brunch on Saturday. Yum.

Stay well & have a great weekend, friends. See you on Tuesday!



Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/futurowoman/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

getting Nothing for christmas.

The "holiday season" is a very exciting time-- the prospect of bundling up against cold weather, family-friendly Christmas movies on weekend television, and the comfort that comes from being surrounded by evergreen and tinsel decorations, twinkling with tiny lights. Personally, I look forward to Christmas especially for the quality time I get with my family. Most years, my parents and two sisters are the people that I spend the few days with (the majority of our extended family lives overseas). We order extra Netflix movies, Mum makes dozens of her delicious mince pies, and we hole up with good food and each other's company to enjoy a few days rest from school and work.

I can't say, though, that I remain unaffected by the other side of Christmas; that is, the decorations in the mall, the special deals on electronics and other gifts, and the small joy that is a red Starbucks cup. I'm as subject to clever marketing and advertising as the next consumer.

But, this clever site brought me back to reality. Check out the one of the most-wanted items this year & see if it changes your mind about the things on the Christmas list you still insist on writing to Santa, all these years later.


Found via The Uniform Project (another site I highly recommend-- an interesting project!)