Resolutions for 2005

(I don't really make resolutions or keep them, but I thought I should at least have some goals to try and accomplish this year)

* Will let my office crush know how I feel ... some time this year.

* Find at least one vegetable that I could possibly like besides potatoes and corn, since my friends say those are hardly vegetables to begin with and that I need to explore greens.

* Sign up for yoga classes again and actually exercise; after all, my daily walk to the subway is not a "real" workout no matter what I have said in the past.

* Stop answering you know who's calls and being his bitch.

* Go to Magnolia less frequently and to Thai restaurants more often.

* See more Broadway plays/musicals.

* Write an ending to the book I've been writing for 5 years so I can move on to the hundreds of other stories that are in my head.

* Actually do the reading for my graduate courses instead of just skimming.

* Do my homework assignments *before* watching my recent NetFlix rental.

* Make myself feel uncomfortable and do what comes to my mind when going out with friends, since those are the times when I end up having the most fun.

* Finish Mary Tyler Moore Season 1 DVD--I've only owned it for 2 years now.

* Try Pink Champagne -- I've been wanting to since seeing "Affair to Remember" and "Love Affair," before I could even drink alcohol legally.

* Next New Year's Eve will do the midnight 4 mile run in Central Park and drag my friends too. There's fireworks.

Overall: Blog more, drink more, laugh more!

Find out what the 10 most common resolutions are at EclecticBlogs, and of course loose weight is on the list.
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Auld Lang Syne
(you knew it was only a matter of time before I put in a When Harry Met Sally quote or photos, so I thought I'd do both now :)

Harry: "What does this song mean? For my whole life I don't know what this song means. I mean, 'Should old acquaintance be forgot". Does that mean we should forget old acquaintances or does it mean if we happen to forget them we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot them!?

Sally: "Well maybe it just means that we should remember that we forgot them or something. Anyway it's about old friends."

In the year 2005 I resolve to: Spend more time snuggling puppies. Get your resolution here

Houston, we have a zipper down!
Ahhhhhhhh! :-X I just spent the last 10 mins talking to cute office boy at his desk, only to walk away and realize that my fly on my jeans was halfway down. dammit! And damn casual dress days! No, I don't mean that, I like wearing my nice Angel jeans with my fun blazer and lacy camisole. The ironic part is that I dressed today intending to look good for aforementioned crush and I definitely blew that. LOL it's funny now that I think about it, in a pathetic almost funny way.

Blogs Provide Raw Details From Scene of the Disaster

By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: December 28, 2004

For vivid reporting from the enormous zone of tsunami disaster, it was hard to beat the blogs.

The so-called blogosphere, with its personal journals published on the Web, has become best known as a forum for bruising political discussion and media criticism. But the technology proved a ready medium for instant news of the tsunami disaster and for collaboration over ways to help.

There was the simple photo of a startlingly blue boat smashed against a beachside palm in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, at www.thiswayplease.com/extra.html. "Every house and fishing boat has been smashed, the entire length of the east coast," wrote Fred Robart, who posted the photo. "People who know and respect the sea well now talk of it in shock, dismay and fear."

At sumankumar.com, Nanda Kishore, a contributor, offered photos and commentary from Chennai, India: "Some drenched till their hips, some till their chest, some all over and some of them were so drenched that they had already stopped breathing. Men and women, old and young, all were running for lives. It was a horrible site to see. The relief workers could not attend to all the dead and all the alive. The dead were dropped and the half alive were carried to safety." (Read More)
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This article is definitely true, I read actual eye-witness stories from the disaster on blogs before the newspapers had them. Also many sites in the blogging community have listed disaster relief sites for visitors to donate to in order to aid victims.

For outrageous and powerful amateur videos of the tragedy check out this Blog

Fashionistas and Foodies aplenty
OK what is up with the recent weird pop-culture names for people, like Fashionistas and Foodies?

These are not words! Right now my spell check is freaking out and underlining both words in red.


Over the last month I've ordered a fruity vodka drink called fashionista, read articles that referred to women as `fashionistas' and even received an email from Red Herring with a subject that read "laptop fashionista." There are also chick-lit books incorporating the phrase in their titles.

Although many articles, blogs and sites use this term freely, none of them really seem to define it. From the context of how the term is used though, I gather that Fashionista's are people who like designer clothes and the latest fahsion trends, thus most New York women.

According to World Wide Words Fashionista is a gently sarcastic term for a person who is an enthusiast for fashion. It covers not only the dedicated followers of fashion who wear the clothes, but also those who write about them. And it can refer to those who design, make, model and publicize clothes, and the fashion buyers whose decisions determine the success of a collection.

The site says the term goes back to 1993, to a book by Stephen Fried entitled Thing of Beauty: the Tragedy of Supermodel Gia, but became more popular as of late.

I have yet to see men referred to as Fashionista's though, so the term makes me a bit uncomfortable since it labels women as solely fashion minded and materialistic. Yet, I can somewhat deal with the stupid sounding name, because at least it seems fun and trendy if not ditzy and derogatory.


There is also a soup commercial for Cambell's Selects that really annoys me and uses the term Foodies. It is always on the Oxygen Channel and it shows women food shopping when a voice over goes "They squeeze they chop, they sniff they wash, their Foodies!" So just because they select food at the grocery store and seem to take some care in the items they pick, they are foodies? Wouldn't we all be foodies? I know I never select bruised fruit. Plus who does not like to eat and enjoy food? Come on, everyone is a foodie then. Foodie, what a stupid name it sounds like booties.

Even Newsweek has resulted in using the new nickname. In an article about a chef called "A Foodie Unmasks."

My father was an Italian cook all his life, he barely liked the term chef. I know he would have hated it if someone called him a foodie, lol just thinking about it is making me giggle.

Merry Christmas, to whom it may apply

(I stopped the car to take this photo...Where did they find the bow?)

Have you heard the lyrics to the following Stevie Wonder song? They're chilling.

Someday at Christmas

Someday at Christmas men won't be boys
Playing with bombs like kids play with toys
One warm December our hearts will see
A world where men are free

Someday at Christmas there'll be no wars
When we have learned what Christmas is for
When we have found what life's really worth
There'll be peace on earth

Someday all our dreams will come to be
Someday in a world where men are free
Maybe not in time for you and me
But someday at Christmastime
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I actually saw Stevie Wonder several years ago at LAX airport, and no he did not see me (insert drum roll here). He looked like he does on tv, the long braids and elaborate wardrobe. He took a picture with me and I still have it. He's actually my favorite male singer and all I could say to him was, "My name is Tara." I was so excited that I saw him that I called my father at a pay phone (pre cell phones) to tell him, but he was like, "did he say you were the most beautiful women he ever saw?" I was soo annoyed with his non plussed attitude that I almost hung up the phone, lol.

I'm off visiting all my Italian Aunts and Uncles today (my dad had 6 brothers and sisters). I'll be collecting boosts and eating lots and lots of yummy food. I make all the same stops I used to make with my father when he was still alive, just by myself now. I even go to relatives houses where no english is spoken and we communicate through hand gestures. I have to eat something at each house, because otherwise would be disrespectful. Meetballs, Pasta Fagoli, chocolate chip cookies, prime rib ... fa la la la la, La la lah!

Newsweek Article: Into each life some really atrocious presents must fall. A how-to guide to re-gifting