oh, hey there, december! let's make it a good one, no?

my manhattan: not so different.

sometimes life in this city is just like anywhere else. i clean my home. and i cook my dinner. and never sleep in quite enough. and i work a lot. and there's never enough time. i nest and burrow. and i chop vegetables while sipping white wine and listening to whichever folk singer is sitting heavy in my chest. i try to build a home here. and new york is the variable, not the definition.

getting over the hump.

a little mid-week eye candy to get us all over the hump that is wednesday...


this tumblr is right up my alley. {especially this one. and how bout this?}

holy heck, this wedding is one of the most beautiful i've ever seen.

uh-oh, i best start reading. and really fast.

this girl just gets it. talk about wisdom.

so does this one: it's all going to be okay.

political and religious views aside, this is really something. (in the end it's all about love).

one of my very favorite noah & the whale songs in perfect video form.

i'm gonna level with you, my mind keeps coming round to these two blog posts: first this one. and then the central notion of this one--that two people have to come to a relationship after choosing, fighting, working for personal happiness.

(image found here).


here's to the rest of the week!

tip-of-the-tongue.

i got off the A train at 181st street around midnight last night.

from the train platform to the entrance of the street is nine stories. you can choose to take the stairs or long escalator up.

i hurried off the train last night, toward the towering, long escalator, and found myself in step behind a taller man, blond, dressed in an impeccable suit. and walking behind him i thought, this man reminds me of someone.

but i couldn't put my finger on it. couldn't dislodge it from that proverbial tip of a very real tongue.

it started to drive me nutty, who does this person remind me of? it wouldn't come. there were murky images and half-formed thoughts, but still, even now this morning as i sit with my coffee, a lit spiced egg-nog candle just off to my side, i haven't really a clue.

the strongest thought or sense or notion, is more that it's someone i've yet to meet. not the man i followed behind, this really has nothing to do with him, it's that he reminds me of someone i've yet to meet.

nonsense.

and yet.

not.

i don't know.

it's been happening a lot lately. this pervasive feeling that i have exciting news to share and then thinking, well, what is it? and coming up blank.

everything feels so on the cusp. just over the ridge. beyond that next hill. so close--closer than ever before.

but what if it's not?

you know when you've can hear a really great song in your own mind? and it sounds so good rattling around up there that you attempt to sing it aloud. it's clear as a bell to you, perfectly crystallized, but when it comes out, oh dear, hideous. the journey between your mind and the mouth, the surfacing that has to happen, it distorts, mistranslates.

i feel like that's where i am: a song surfacing. coming through water for air. on the way up, so very near to the surface. but what comes out, well, that has yet to be seen.

it could be nothing short of disaster.

or not.

i don't know.

i just feel like i'm nearing the end of this nine-story-long-escalator. and as for my sense of what's waiting at the top when i get off? murky, half-images, at best.

on beauty.

i am so honored to be over here today. talking about beauty. and how it has almost nothing what to do with what i look like and definitely nothing to do with what the scale says or how my thighs do or do not jiggle when i attempt a morning jog (or walk).

i think reachel is glorious. all you have to do is read her about section to know why. and this series? well, if only we could all put down the pages of glossy magazines, cease the comparisons, and hook into what makes us--each, individually--really gorgeous.