casa de kaloi

Thrifty Style: tribute to George and more (wannabe)FRENCH-NESS

So first things first: I’m kind of maybe? changing the name of the Thrifted series to Thrifted Style. While probably 85% of my wardrobe comes from thrift stores, I do every so often score really sweet deals on brand-new items, and I want to share those, too. Case in point: my Bensimon shoes that came in the mail like… an hour ago. I’ve been obsessed with Bensimons since I read about them on A Cup of Jo and have been scheming ways to get my hands on a pair of them. They’re usually $55, which just seemed a little crazy to me (especially since I have no way of knowing if they’ll last a long time or give up after a few measly months like OTHER SHOES) (TOMS). I found a site that had a gray pair for $28, so after quickly looking up my European shoe size (40. That sounds so much bigger than 9.), I snagged them. Now Sean’s obsessed and wants his own, and I secretly really want to get some for Jasper, as well. But $55? For toddler shoes? Shit must be off the hook.

They of course have a million adorable cute colors, but I’m happy with my gray ones. For now.

I also found this short-sleeved denim shirt the other day for approximately $2 at one of my favorite thrifting spots. It’s the kind of shirt I usually wouldn’t look at twice, because it’s just not really my thing…. but Kim and I have been scheming a George Harrison and Bob Dylan-themed photo session for a while now. It occurred to me this morning that I could ALSO wear it tonight, when I watch the first of the two-part George Harrison documentary that’s coming on. PS: I’ve never been so happy that my sister has HBO.

I almost don’t even want to mention what’s on my legs, because I don’t know what to call them. They were sold to me as jeggings, but these things are so loose that they’re basically the JEANS (read: not. jeggings.) that I wear every day. I bought them very hastily on my way to shoot a baby shower one day, because I was having one of Those Days where everything you own sucks and I was miserable about it, and I’ve pretty much regretted the purchase ever since. But you see.. I say that, and I still wear them 3 out of 7 days a week. What. Why.

I can’t at all predict if I’ll blog in the next few days. I expect to be totally mid-breakdown tomorrow (until the GH documentary concludes), and after that is GeekGirlCon. SO UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN… (probably Monday).

10/5/11

the only thing there’s just too little of

Mubarak has stepped down.

I received the news on Facebook, via Mohammed Omer. If you don’t know of him, he’s an internationally-celebrated Palestinian journalist. He started Rafah Today in 2001, and just a quick Google search of his name will yield more information than you may ever want to know. I have no idea how many Facebook friends he has (you can’t see them on his profile), but I was so crazy stoked when he accepted my request, even if it means he accepts all of the requests he receives.

I wanted to bring this up again on the blog because I think the liberation of the Egyptian people from a thirty year reign is remarkable, and that it does prove that you can accomplish huge and important change. I think it also shows that you need hundreds of thousands of people to bring it about. That large a number isn’t necessary for small, but also very important changes, and I think people forget that.

I feel like when it comes to social and political injustice, there are two big modes of thinking: there are people who accept early defeat, who see the wall in front of them and feel like there’s no way they can scale it, and will call it before it’s over. And then there are people who see small changes they can make, and they go about doing those. Sure, it doesn’t really contribute to the ENTIRE WORLD if I don’t eat meat, but if my family opts out, at least it’s a little bit less environmental destruction. Maybe riding a bike doesn’t really lessen the strain on the planet, but it still contributes, in a small way. No one in this city really notices us when we protest the war or rally for free and fair health care for all, but maybe ONE person does, and maybe that person rethinks his or her stance on the issue.

There are constantly numerous examples of injustice and violence all around the world. Constantly. All of these are important. Most of these are going to get worse. But sometimes, enough people can get together and cause a HUGE change. And possibly more importantly, sometimes a small group of people can get together and make something beautiful out of something dark. It’s not enough to change or save the world, but it might have a small ripple effect, one that you can’t see or predict, and that in and of itself is important.

On a mostly unrelated note, I wanted to embed this:

and share it, because I spent a solid 10 minutes rocking my little (currently-cutting-his-2-year-molars) wonderkin to sleep while listening to it, and it was perfect.

02/11/11

Mixtape Masters: Vol. 4

I have attempted many, many times to explain this thing I have for George Harrison, both on this blog and to many, many people. I’ve tried to do so without sounding totally crazy, and I don’t think I’ve often succeeded, if ever. I can count on one hand the number of people that I’ve felt have truly understood what I’m on about. I can maybe even count on half a hand.

Slip inside the eye of your mind, don’t you know you might find a better place to play.*

Monday marks nine (9?!) years since George died. I will never, ever forget the day it happened, and I’m totally about to tell you the story.

I was in the grocery store.

Ok, back track. In high school, my friend Katrina and I wrote on the newspaper staff. One day, one (or both?) of us were assigned to write about the theater group’s next play. Luckily for us, the theater kids practiced at the same time that we had journalism, and we soon discovered that if we said we were going to watch play practice to get material for the article we could just hang out in the theater for most of class. So we started doing that, and quickly were dubbed the theater groupies. We accentuated this nickname by baking cookies and painting t-shirts about the theater group. After the article was published, we just started skipping journalism altogether and hanging out, watching rehearsal, etc. Our teacher didn’t really mind because we were practical jokers of sort (I almost got suspended for making the desktop of her computer Sid Vicious’s death certificate. Seriously. This is the kind of place I went to school.), and..I don’t know.

So, I was in the grocery store the morning of a theater trip out of town to perform the play, buying snacks or something, and the girl in front of me, Sandra (I will never, ever forget) turned and said, “Oh, Stephanie, did you hear about George Harrison? I know how much you love The Beatles.” And I’m all, “Ooh, what?!” I knew he was recording what would become Brainwashed, and thought she might be in on some album news I had missed. Noooo, oh no. She looked at me, all sad and wide-eyed, and said, “He died early this morning.”

I was actually truly devastated. I remember being very, very quiet on the bus ride up, wishing I had anyone, someone who would get it, to talk to about it, looking out the window, watching…(is it lame to say the wheels go ‘round? Can I get a Lennon in here?). When I started hanging out with Kim, one of the first things she ever said to me was that I was lucky, in that I at least roamed the earth at the same time that he did, whereas she completely missed that chance with both of her great loves and soulspirations, Kerouac and Lennon.

Please don’t put your life in the hands of a Rock ‘n Roll band and throw it all away.

Much to the chagrin of my mother, I stayed out of school the day Brainwashed came out (November 18, 2002), went to the store at the time of the first bell, bought it, and listened to it all day long. Over and over again. That album is…more than gigantic or personal to me. More than crucial to my being. I feel like it’s necessary to note this because I didn’t put any of the songs from it on the playlist. It’s the only one that I was old enough to know about at the time of its release (Cloud 9 came out in 1987, but I was two). It’s the one I’m most protective of, the one that I physically (as in loan to people) share rarely, the one that I put so much importance in. It’s the one that flits in and out of my mind all the time, like a daydream, almost like it’s too good to be ever have been real, but it’s absolutely real.

There are some days that just stick with you.

You ain’t ever gonna burn my heart out.

So, anyway. This is by far the longest entry I’ve written for these little mixtapes, but it’s the one that deserves the most. These songs are some of my favorites, but if I’m in a world that doesn’t require favorites, they’re the ones I’ll play first. “Long Long Long” is my top Beatles tune that George penned, even though there are several that are equally lovely. “Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp” is close to “Apple Scruffs” in that those two are the songs I have, since I have known of them, always played when I need to be comforted, when I feel lonely. In fact (and I know some of you will think I’m totally nuts here), I used to play “Apple Scruffs” when I was sad because George says “how I love you,” and it meant (means) something to me. I didn’t choose “Apple Scruffs” because “Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp” is gentler, a little more broody. There’s a little more soul there. “Here Comes the Moon” is a perfect blissy nighttime lullaby, and “Got My Mind Set On You” is basically the opposite.

The last one comes from the Anthology, and it’s just a bittersweet moment shared between three friends who should have still been four.

Enjoy.

11/26/10

the case of the three earworms*

I’ve been listening to same two or three songs (“Apple Scruffs,” “Oh Take Me Back,” and “Green Eyes”) for like three days in a row. I mean, other songs have bounced in and out of my listening space, but I keep going back to those three.

Anyway.

The other day Jasper and I had one of those perfect afternoons, the kind that seems like it’s out of a movie, because everything’s just so incredibly blissful and astounding and like sunshiny…perfection. We went to the bookstore, where I stumbled upon what will surely become one of my all-time favorite books once I go back tomorrow and get it, and Jasper played with trains. I met a mom I had never met before, someone who is almost twice as old as I am, and she was awesome. I’m very happy that I’m working around this whole mom/parent dilemma I’ve been facing and starting to make friends outside of my comfort zone, because it’s so far working well. After that, we walked around outside (we were at this outside mall thing) for about an hour, and laughed at the clouds and waved hello at people, sang John Lennon songs (“Mind Games” came on) and talked about George and John and the sky and the universe (literally, I was telling him that the person singing was John Lennon, who was in The Beatles with George, and he waved at the sky without any prompting from me whatsoever), and then about these absolutely ridiculous stone horses that are outside an equally ridiculous restaurant (no offense). And then Jasper went up to a housewares store and pointed at a coffee maker and said “mmm” over and over again with such gusto you would think we let him drink buckets of it all day (it’s like, one drop, off our fingers, here and there).

So that was really awesome. Speaking of other parents, Jasper and I are meeting a whole new GROUP of moms (I’m assuming, because the group name says “moms,” but there may be dads in the mix) tomorrow morning. I am totally ambivalent about this, but planning on going into it optimistically.

*earworm: March 1, 2005 Urban Word of the Day

Song that is stuck in your head

I have an ear worm. I keep hearing the “Jeopardy” tune over and over and over.

11/3/10

any road will take you there

Sean and I were out walking Jasper and Kali (can you say you’re walking your baby? We four took a stroll) about fifteen minutes ago, and two girls stopped and awwed over the dog and the baby, and we engaged in conversation with them. They were at least eight, but not older than ten, and the older of the two asked about our dog, about Jasper, and about the two of us. And then she said “You guys are a happy family, huh?” and we smiled and said yes, and then she said “Aww, that’s what I want. To take the baby to the park, to be happy and married, that’s what I want.” And, yet again, a child is the voice that matters the most. Because seriously, isn’t that what we all really want? To love and be loved, to be happy, to smile more than we frown, to feel at peace with the people we love the most? To have moments of greatness and moments of serenity that outweigh moments of doubt or uncertainty?

I love children. I love George Harrison. I love my family. I love you.

03/12/10

casa de kaloi

Thrifty Style: tribute to George and more (wannabe)FRENCH-NESS

the only thing there’s just too little of

Mixtape Masters: Vol. 4

the case of the three earworms*

any road will take you there

pleased to meet you

our NICU experience

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