Buddhist monks freak me out

I was getting ready to cross the street, and while waiting for the light to change, two Buddhist monks walked up next to me, and I flinched. Why would I flinch as these two friendly looking men in yellow robes stood next to me, you may ask. Well, because I got a PTSD flashback in their presence. The reason for this flashback was an incident that happened to me well over 10 years ago, and I apparently still haven't gotten over. So much so I was just recounting this story to some colleagues at work when I heard the Dalai Lama was in town a few weeks ago, and here I am, telling it again.

I was taking an Amtrak train home from visiting friends/family one weekend – I think it may have been Easter since the weather was spring-like. The train was packed, but I found 2 empty seats. I sat next to the window, and a Buddhist monk who boarded at the same station ended up sitting next to me. A little while after the train departed, the monk started trying to have a conversation with me, something that was complicated by the fact that he didn't speak much English. He had recently arrived to the US and (I think) was visiting some friends or going on a retreat or something. Anyway, after a few minutes of awkward chit-chat in broken English, I turned away and started reading my magazine.

Just as I was starting to get into some article on mascara or whatever the hell I was reading, the monk shifts and starts saying that he’s cold. He repeats it. I ask if he has a blanket or a jacket, but he just had his robes. A moment later, he leans in to snuggle next to me, since apparently he loves the softness of my sweater, and then proceeds to sniff me. I am horrified, but somehow frozen. He sniffs me again. This sweet looking little old man who looks like the Dalai Lama JUST SNIFFED ME??!! He tells me I smell good. I catch the eye of the man sitting across the aisle and look at him in horror, while he just looks on in amusement.  I think, "am I on Candid Camera? Is someone trying to punk me?" I shrug the monk off my arm, press myself up against the window, and say thank you to his compliment. (I’m only good with witty comebacks several days AFTER weird things happen to me. Plus, it's always nice to know the deodorant is working in stressful situations.) The monk kept staring at me, then grabbed my hand and started looking at my palm, then into my face. Internally I was thinking, “is this some gypsy fortune telling monk?” but externally all I did was start to panic and pull my hand away. The monk then proceeded to take a ring off his hand and put it on my finger, telling me it would bring me good fortune. At this point, every self-defense alarm system in my body is going off, and I’m panicking. I was also wondering if I was just an unwitting participant in a marriage ceremony of some sort.

I tried to give the ring back, but the monk said I needed it for hard times ahead. I grabbed my bag, told the monk my station was up next, wished him luck, and walked over to the next car, where I stood for the next 25 minutes until my station stop, all the time looking around for the damn cameras, because surely this had to be a joke. Not having seen Ashton Kutcher or ever having to sign a release form though, it seems the incident with the sniffing /snuggling monk was all too real.

I took off the monk's ring when I got home, and tossed it in the corner of a drawer. I didn't throw it away because I thought I would look up the symbols on it to see what they meant, but then decided I didn't want to know, and then forgot about it. Years later, it didn't make the move up to my condo with me, but I'm not sure if I ended it putting it in the giveaway or trash pile. (I also took off that sweater and washed it twice before wearing it again.)

I hope that ceremony wasn't binding, 'cause he's not getting the ring back in the divorce.

My soundtrack

I love music and I love movies. Nothing blends these two loves as well as a good movie soundtrack. The first album I remember buying was the GREASE movie soundtrack, and I have had a love affair with movie soundtracks ever since. FLASHDANCE, FOOTLOOSE, TOP GUN, PRETTY IN PINK, TWO OF A KIND, PURPLE RAIN, WHO'S THAT GIRL, LOVE ACTUALLY, JUNO, BOOMERANG, GARDEN STATE....I have purchased a lot movie soundtracks over the years.

So the other day while listening to music during my commute into work, my mind started to wander, as it often does. I started to think - if I could score the soundtrack to the bio film of my life, what songs would be on it? And I kept thinking about it - tough choices would have to be made. Because it would have to be songs that I not only love, but that would match a particular period of my life, or would work for particular scenes. Many of my all-time favorite songs would not make the cut. My weakness for pop music would probably make this an impossibly expensive album to put together in terms of licensing. But I put some thought into it, and I pared it down to this: the soundtrack to my life, so far.

More junkie recommendations

While packing for a trip, and trying to cull my beauty supplies down to a semi-reasonable travel bag, I realized that I have quite a few more current favorites and "holy grail" products than those I just wrote about. So in case you're one of the people who have asked me for product recommendations recently, or you're looking for something new, or are buying a present for someone and want some tips, or are secretly a junkie too: here are some more things I think are great. If you are none of these things....well, thanks again for stopping by.

Love songs

I take public transportation, and my commute into work can take anywhere between 45 minutes to almost 2 hours depending on what kinds of issues the Metro system is having that day. During that time, subject to my mood, I will either do some reading, listen to podcasts, and/or put the iPod on shuffle and see what comes up.

Today I went for random shuffle. Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes came up, immediately followed by The Cure's A Lettter to Elise. I love both those songs. Like, a lot. I have cried listening to them, although not for the same reasons. They are two very different kinds of love songs. The first is all epic, and deals with finding that perfect someone with whom you feel complete, with choice lyrics like "I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive" and is for many of us linked to Lloyd Dobler and that boombox. Whereas the latter is about a relationship that is probably ending, with lyrics like "I let the dream go and the promises broke and the make-believe ran out."

So because my mind often wanders when I'm just sitting on a train listening to music, I started thinking about love songs, and how they're split in the two camps, sweeping/hopeful/romantic, and mournful/heartbroken. And it seemed that many of my favorites fall into the second category. (Not sure what that says about me, but I don't feel like doing any self analysis right now.) Then I started trying to make a mental list of what all my favorite love songs are. Although my musical taste tends to be pretty cheesy overall, and I do enjoy a poppy love song, most of my favorites in this category don't really fall into that guilty pleasure category. I also concluded that a lot of my favorite love songs make really great background music for movie montages. (Again, let's not analyze that.)

Here are some of the songs I thought of right off the bat, besides the two already mentioned. They all stir up all kinds of feelings every time I hear them. There have been a lot of worn-out tapes and bad sing-alongs tied to each one of these.

• Donny Hathaway A Song For You If you don't get feels when you listen to this song, we just don't have much in common.
• Madonna Crazy for You - This songs transports me back to middle school, and that ridiculous crush. Who apparently never did feel the weight of my stare, or, if he did, didn't give a shit. 
• Elvis Costello She One of those sweeping love songs I like to imagine is being sung about me.
• Etta James At Last - A classic for a reason. I don't want no remake, give me the original every time.
• U2 Bad I have a real weakness for dudes that sing their hearts off onstage.
• Indigo Girls Love Will Come To You and Ghost both sung loudly and off key many a time.
• ABBA The Winner Takes It All - No list of my favorite songs doesn't include ABBA. If you've seen THE TRIP or MAMMA MIA, you know this one is a classic.
• Mecano Me Cuesta Tanto Olvidarte Pretty perfect song - trust me, even if you don't understand Spanish. (Also, please click on that link if only to check out the questionable and very 80s fashion and makeup choices.)

So those are a few of the love songs that get me so emotional...wait, did I leave Whitney off the list? Oops, my bad. If I thought about it more than a few minutes during my commute this would be a REALLY long list. So I'm going to stop thinking about it.

What are some of your favorite love songs?

A junkie recommends

The word has gotten out about my beauty junkie status. My close friends and family have always known about my habit - they've seen how my eyes light up when I step inside a beauty supply store, and laughed at the amount of products I deem as essential for travel (while then borrowing liberally from the stash). But for the most part, colleagues and casual acquaintances have been in the dark about my addiction, other than perhaps noticing that I change my nail color frequently.  But when your boss mentions your habit in an all-staff meeting, along with an accompanying slide show that really hammers the point home - the jig is up. Suddenly folks I barely ever talked to before are asking for product recommendations. And I am in hog heaven. :)

So since just this past week I've gotten questions and requests for recommendations from half a dozen different sources, I thought I'd write about my current favorites and "holy grail" products - in case you're one of the people who have asked, or you're looking for something new, or are buying a present for someone and want some tips, or are secretly a junkie too. If you are none of these things....well, thanks for stopping by.

Fickle passions

I love cooking, eating good food, and watching people cook on TV. I'm not all that particularly fashionable or into trends, but I do try to at least not to look like one of those "don't" pictures in fashion publications, so pay attention to style trends. I love "girlie" things like makeup and jewelry, peruse magazines, blogs, and pop culture websites on a regular basis, and watch entirely too much TV. I start off every morning listening to a local radio show, which in addition to offering some news, humor, and information on upcoming concerts, provides me with enough knowledge of professional sports my eyes don't immediately glaze over when I run into folks who want to talk about "the game" last night. And I love movies. I like going to the theater, I like watching them at home, and sometimes the in-flight movie is the best part of a work trip.

The thing about having so many interests is that I tend to be seasonal about how much time I dedicate to any one thing in particular. I'll go through a period of reading 2-4 books a week, then not pick one up for months.It would probably take me years to get through all the books I own in my "to read" pile, both printed and electronic. I will do movie marathons, then not see a new movie until I happen to win passes to a free movie screening. I'll get a new cookbook or a new kitchen gadget and whip up all kinds of delicacies, then go for weeks without doing any real cooking. I have drawers full of beading supplies from my occasional periods of fancying myself a jewelry maker, but I can't remember the last time I pulled them out to use them. I have enough beauty supplies to be a professional makeup artist, yet will often go days, if not weeks, wearing no makeup other than maybe lipstick. My love, it would seem, is fickle.

The end result of all these seasonal interests is that I have a lot of stuff. Not quite ready to be on an episode of HOARDERS or anything, but definitely creating some pretty junky areas in my home. And probably some pretty junky areas of my brain too - I have forgotten most of my education to make room for a ton of useless movie trivia knowledge.

Which brings me to yesterday, and me staring longingly at a picture of a fancy waffle maker on sale at one of those discount sites you have to sign up for. I'm pretty picky about breakfast foods, but waffles aren't one of the things I turn my nose at. I like waffles. The thing is, I hardly ever eat them. I don't buy the frozen variety you can toast up at home, and I rarely order them when I eat out. I eat waffles maybe once or twice a year. Yet I found myself spending way too much staring at the picture of the waffle maker on the website, and trying to justify why I should buy it. (Over 50% off! It's your birthday, treat yourself! You can experiment with fillings! It would be great for a brunch party!) And then I thought about the lack of counter space in my kitchen. And all the other kitchen gadgets I own that are gathering dust due to lack of use - the bread machine that hasn't been used in years, the rice cooker that was only used once, the mandolin that just sits there all by itself. And I clicked away.

Unfortunately, I then got an email about a new set of eyeliners, and remembered that 15% off coupon I had in my purse, and.... well, I am a makeup junkie. And it's my birthday! And I can experiment with new looks! And it will be great for a costume party.... Ok, so maybe not all of my passions are fickle.

Home improvements

I haven't posted anything in this blog in awhile. Not because I haven't had anything to say, but because I haven't taken the time to sit down and actually write about anything. And I've discovered so many fun makeup and food things to share too! I'll get to those soon.

The thing is, I've been in a bit of a funk. Maybe because in a few weeks I'll be turning 40 and I'm doing that silly self-contemplating thing we sometimes do when turning an age that ends in "0", maybe because a lot of what I'd like to share involves my (somewhat negative) feelings about other people and this is the internet where anyone can find anything and I don't want to be accused of libel or anything. So, I haven't written.
But then I went on vacation for two weeks. I escaped winter in the the mid-Atlantic of the U.S. and flew south to a land where everyday was sunny, warm, and low humidity.

I did a lot of staring at the horizon. I spent time with loved ones. I got a pedicure from a cute heterosexual male. I drank some great wine. It was a pretty fabulous vacation.

Then I got home. There was leak in one of the pipes, and a big chunk of the carpet in my condo was flooded. My refrigerator had stopped keeping things cool. And my dryer had stopped getting things hot and dry. So after 10 years living in the same place, my condo decided to tell me it too was in a funk.

I had originally planned on going to a big makeup trade show in New York to celebrate the big milestone birthday - get some cool tips, and expand my stash at a discount. But now I have to save those pennies and get paints and polishes for my home. I knew it was time for a change, but sometimes it takes everything falling apart at once to kick change into high gear. Besides, let's be honest, I already own way too much makeup, and I haven't done any home improvements in way too long.

So this coming year, in addition to looking at pretty makeup pictures on Pinterest, I'll be looking at home decor pictures, and hopefully by giving my home a makeover, help us both through our funk.