I'm Nicole and I live in DC. I'm a writer, knitter, cat lady, social media lover, nonprofit worker, and beer and food enthusiast. Want to know a little more about me? 
Filed under: Pop Culture | Tags: 2009, academy awards, avatar, movies, oscars, the hurt locker
Thankfully, tonight, the 82nd Academy Awards will conclude all the countdowns, year-end wrap-ups, and discussions of film in The Aughts. I actually agreed with the Academy’s choice to raise the number of Best Picture nominees from five to ten. Over the past few years, there’ve been some crazy years where one film really dominates the entire landscape of award shows leaving perfectly good great films out of the Best Picture category. Unfortunately for the Academy, 2009 happened to be a year of a bunch of good films that grossed a lot of money, and no actual standouts that achieved (near) perfection of the cinematic arts.
In 2009, I can really only compile a list of movies I enjoyed, but that didn’t necessarily move me. On the enjoyment scale, I’d say the best movies of 2009 were District 9, Zombieland and Where the Wild Things Are. Other than that, only one movie truly moved me, and I didn’t even watch it in 2009.
The night of the Golden Globes, I decided to watch The Hurt Locker. Normally, I’d watch the award show, but I was so disappointed with the films nominated that I couldn’t even watch. I’d seen a good portion of the films nominated except for Avatar and THL and I refuse to pay $13 for a movie, because it’s best viewed in 3-D.
I have to admit, THL is a subtle film about an explosive (literally and figuratively) issue affecting my generation right now. Honestly, whether bomb detonators in Iraq say the film is factually accurate or not doesn’t matter to me. The bombs and the war are secondary characters to Jeremy Renner and the emphasis is placed on the relationships he does and doesn’t build with the people around him. Film isn’t supposed to be reality; instead, they’re supposed to be thought-provoking interpretations of what’s going on in someone’s story. I truly believe THL is the best movie/story of the year.
If I was a voting member of the Academy, these would be my winners of the 2009 (I left a few categories out that I simply do not know enough about or didn’t have time to consider):
Best Picture :: The Hurt Locker
(I think Avatar will win)Best Actor :: Jeremy Renner
(I think Jeff Bridges will win)Best Supporting Actor :: Christopher Waltz
Best Actress :: Carey Mulligan
(I think Sandra Bullock will win)Best Supporting Actress :: Maggie Gyllenhaal
(I think Mo’Nique will win)Best Animated Film :: Up
Best Art Direction :: Avatar
Best Cinematography :: The Hurt Locker
Best Costumes :: The Young Victoria (period pieces always win this right?)
Best Director :: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
(I would not be upset if Jason Reitman won, I’m a big fan of his)Best Documentary :: Food, Inc.
Best Writing (Adapted) :: Up in the Air
Best Writing (Original) :: Inglorious Basterds
We’ll see how I do a little later. For now, off to see another movie instead of watching the awards show.
Riding the metro in the morning is one of the most somber experiences I’ve had. No one makes eye contact, no one smiles, no one talks. You don’t want to be that guy who has the sniffles because the few people who are awake, will look up from their books or newspapers to give you a dirty look. Other times of the day, some passengers seem to think there are no rules applicable to them.
If there’s one thing I hate more than anything, it’s people who willfully break the unspoken rules of general politeness. I’m not a always stickler for rules (unless it involves board games) and have a lot of different parts of my style and personality that contradict each other (i.e. having a ton of tattoos while also owning practically the entire Ann Taylor Loft collection), but there are certain ways you must behave in public, especially if there are others around.
I never seem to have an exceptionally good or bad metro experience; they all seem to be equally infuriating. I’m not one of those people who is an impatient traveler and commuter, so it takes a lot to ruffle my feathers. It seems like every trip I take on metro I get put in the direct path of the few types of people that really get my blood boiling.
So, here are the four worst metro passengers I come across every day:
- Parents with strollers: I’m not a horrible person; I understand that you need to bring your kid on the metro. I will probably do the same. But let me ask you a question: would you bring your double-wide stroller on the escalator at the mall? No, you’d take an elevator. Why can’t mall-etiquette/safety be applied to the metro? Not only is it frustrating for the people who like to walk up or down the escalator, but it’s extremely dangerous.
I once watched a woman pushing an empty stroller on the escalator while holding her very young baby in her arms. After two steps, the escalator jolted slightly causing the stroller and the woman (who was still holding the baby) to fall backwards. People behind her fell like dominoes and the escalator jammed. This is still the worst, and most terrifying experience I’ve had on the metro.
- The Seat Hoarder: I loathe anyone who thinks their bag deserves a seat more than my tiny self. I also think it’s pretty selfish to sit so you’re purposefully taking up just the teeniest amount (so it looks like you’re not purposefully doing it) of the seat next to you so someone won’t sit there. Look, I get it. I don’t want to sit next to you either, but as my dad reminded me so frequently when I was sick in high school, you have to do a lot of things in life you don’t like.
- Tall People (yes, all of you, I’m sorry): It’s not that I have anything against tall people, they just can’t understand the plight of the short person on public transportation. You really shouldn’t lean against the entire vertical rail just because you can. There may be people, like me, that would appreciate being able to hold on to the vertical rail because we can’t reach the ones more than a foot above our heads.
- The Important Guy: This is the guy who thinks he’s more important than everyone else on the train either because he’s wearing an expensive suit, has a lot of messages to check on his BlackBerry, or has a messenger bag with a defense contracting company’s logo on it. Everyone in DC is important (or at least they think they are) and has somewhere to be, you’re not the only one on this halted 8 car train that’s annoyed. Take a cab.
Filed under: Updates | Tags: exercise, friends, middle school, new balance, pheobe, running, sweat
Everything I know about running, I learned from my 9th grade gym class teacher. However, I didn’t pay much attention in 9th grade; I was more interested in the boy in my journalism class and how I could make sure I got to class fastest from the gym to sit at his table during class.
Running around a track or a field outside wasn’t stimulating and seemed pointless at the time. The boys would always lap me and taller girls would finish first. I hated running then, and have been afraid of it ever since.
A few years back, these New Balance commercials really intrigued me and almost made me want to run… but not quite enough to get me off my butt to do it.
I’m not sure what took me so long to get on the treadmill… I’m not afraid of a little a lot of sweat, I thoroughly enjoy working out, and am trying desperately to get into shape while still in my mid-twenties.
One of the biggest fears I had prior to stepping on the treadmill was the possibility of having bad form. How freely should your arms really move? Would I run like Pheobe in that episode of FRIENDS?
Also, what happens when you let go of the bar in front of you? Will you slide right off the back end like in a bad movie? What if you wind up running from side to side? Will I sound like a heard of elephants running down a bowling alley?
The only thing I remember from 9th grade gym class was our teacher telling us to hold our hands like there was a delicate potato chip between our fingers. Don’t ball your fingers into a fist and don’t squeeze your energy into your hands.
Once I stepped on, I realized that I didn’t need to answer any of those questions until I just did it.
I began doing intervals of 10 minutes – seven minutes jogging/running, three minutes walking. After three of those, I then did three more 7 minute intervals – four minutes running, three minutes walking. All in all, I ran/walked for nearly 60 minutes straight and it’s safe to say I got a good workout; I think even my fingernails are sweating.
More than anything, I feel accomplished. I’ve lived on the Blue/Orange line for 90% of my adult life and never really had residential areas to run in. Now that I live in a tree-lined, residential neighborhood with a bunch of rich yuppies on the Red line, people are constantly running… and constantly making me feel bad for not running.
Now, I can’t say I don’t know how to run. Or that I’m a bad runner. Yeah, it may take two sports bras and a super tight athletic tank to strap my chest down, but I can run!
Filed under: Updates | Tags: crafts, etsy, knitting, lisa, photography, sold
I’ve long debated launching an Etsy store for my knitted items. I regularly get people complimenting my scarves and asking where I got them and, after thoroughly cleaning my apartment, I found 16 completed items I’d never worn.
I often wondered about the actual earning potential on Etsy. Last summer, my former roommate and I hand folded, dyed, and ironed nearly 40 silk scarves. We took gorgeous photos of them, posted them to Etsy, and didn’t even have many “views.” A month later, we attempted to sell them at a craft fair in Brooklyn. Again, to no avail.
This time, I made sure I was going to do it right. With support from my Twitter account and blog, I knew I could at least get some views and get some friends and family to pass the link along to their friends. A friend came over and helped me photograph my handknits which I promptly resized and touched up.
After four hours of grueling Etsy uploading, my store was created.
Just 12 hours later, I had my first sale and, yesterday, had my second. I currently have two or three custom requests coming in and I’m going to start networking on the discussion forums with other users. Sunday, I went out and bought a bunch of spring-time yarns to get spring knitting started so I can put the winter knits on sale and get more items in the store.
I also rushed to get “finishing products” to wash, wrap, and send my knits in: I bought a beautiful blue, geometric tissue paper that was on sale at Target, blue metallic Thank You cards, and spring-time gentle soap. One of the most important things about Etsy is that everything is about having that extra special personal touch, and I really wanted to make sure to include that when I ship items as well. Today, I mailed my first Etsy sale and I was so excited that I took pictures of it.
In the summer of 2005, I dropped nearly 20 pounds doing Weight Watchers, eating properly and exercising, and having a very active job as an intern at a concert promotions company. The weight came off in a matter of weeks and then I started to slack and begin ‘rewarding’ myself. Not too long after that, I started dating and stopped eating healthily and making time for the gym.
The other day I had one of those realizations that, in 10 years, I could be one of those people on The Biggest Loser who wakes up and is over 200 pounds. I’ve slowly gained all that weight back – and more – in a matter of 4.5 years. Keep it on this pace, I could be more than 250 pounds by the time I hit 34, and that’s not something I’m okay with.
One of the major issues I have with my body is that I’m completely proportional and I hold my weight well. Yeah, that may not seem like a bad thing, but, when you gain and lose, nothing really changes. When I tell people what I weigh, they’re completely floored thinking I weigh at least 15-20 pounds less than I actually do. Maybe that has do to with my athletic background as a child and having a muscular build, but being proportional has a lot to do it with it, too. There’s no “oh, hey, my gut’s getting out of control” or “wow, my butt looks big in those jeans.” Unless I can’t buy a pair of jeans in the store, I never really notice that I’ve gained or lost much weight.
So, what am I doing now to lose weight? I haven’t changed my lifestyle that much, actually. Here are the things I’ve focused on so far:
- Getting to the gym no matter if it’s crowded or not. I love watching the activity points rack up on Weight Watchers. An hour on the elliptical is rewarding in many ways – it’s worth 8 activity points, I get a very good sweat on, and it wears me out so I can go to sleep. Also, it relieves the guilt of having a late-night snack.
- Choosing skim milk when drinking coffee/Don’t drink your calories. One of my long-term goals is to completely rid my diet of unnecessary/empty calories, especially those consumed through drinking. They offer very little nutritional value and don’t even come close to filling you up.
- Making sure to evaluate food at home before choosing to eat at a restaurant. I have a lot of food in my house. I could survive another snowpocalypse without having to worry about groceries — I really shouldn’t be getting takeout from the Thai place or Chipotle on my way home three times a week. Not only is it bad for my waistline, but it’s also bad for my wallet.
- Eating leftovers. For anyone who knows me, they know I basically can’t stomach leftovers. I blame it on the fact that I basically only at three things for the bulk of my childhood. This week, I cooked a pack of chicken up one night and vowed to eat all of it over the course of the week. I just seasoned it with pepper and salt when I cooked it so that I could use it in a variety of ways – on a sandwich, in tacos, or just plain… hot or cold. I wound up finishing the entire pack in four days.
- Setting an alarm for counting my points three times a day. I’ve actually been on Weight Watchers since my birthday and, six weeks later, I’m just beginning to count my points. There’s no bigger motivating factor than tracking your points and realizing “wow, that Pop Tart has 1/5 of the calories I’m supposed to consume in a day.” Even if you think you’re making a ’sacrifice’ by eating Pop Tarts without the frosting (I did a calorie check in the store; some flavors without frosting have more calories than their frosting-less counterparts).
- Not counting daily routine in activity points. I generally walk 2-3 miles a day, but if I were to stop exercising, this wouldn’t change. While WW suggests that you track all activity, I’m not going to go with this method because it inflates how much actual exercise I’m finding the time to do.
When you can eat things like this on a diet, why would you not diet? (I apologize for the slightly blurry picture)
That’s a mozzarella, tomato, and arugula panini on whole wheat artisan bread with a chickpea, pepper, carrot and onion salad on a little bit of spinach. Grand total: 6 Weight Watchers points.
Filed under: The Internet
While I was job hunting, I signed up for a lot of different things – Twitter feeds, e-mail alerts, listing services… you name it. Many of the subscriptions went away shortly after I unsubscribed from them, or unfollowed them on Twitter.
The one resource I used the least has also proved to be the most annoying – Vault.com. I originally subscribed to Vault a few years back when I was looking for paid internships, but found absolutely nothing, and resubscribed during the Big Job Hunt of ‘09.
I’ve unsubscribed dozens of times, yet I continue to receive emails. First, the unsubscribe feature was down for a few weeks. I’d go to unsubscribe through the bottom of an email, but I’d receive an error message every time. Instead, I used the “Spam” function for the first time in Gmail, but obviously to no avail.
After dozens more emails the spam filter didn’t catch, the unsubscribe feature began working and I found out I wasn’t even subscribed to a list. At one point, I even took a screen shot showing just that.
Now, I’ve resorted to setting a filter to automatically delete every email from Vault.com that comes into my Gmail account. Let’s see if that works… If not, I’ll have to resort to writing a much more scathing blog post about Vault.
When you’re gearing up for certain death and the impending apocalypse, there are two things that immediately come to mind: food and sex. So, maybe certain death wasn’t approaching, but everyone in the DC metro area sure as hell acted like it was. People all across the area stocked up on food and condoms, like never seen before.
I didn’t succumb to the fear of impending starvation or a few days without sex. Instead, I headed out to Arlington to get snowed in with two friends with a well-stocked pantry. They had plenty of food to keep the three of us alive (and very full) for several days without having to go to the grocery store. On my way, I stopped at a vegan bakery to get some delicious cupcakes, but the next day, we really started cooking… literally.
A few weeks back, a friend invited me out to the Peacock Cafe in Georgetown where I had the best breakfast I’ve had in my 6 years in DC and I’d been wanting to recreate it ever since. My friends had all the ingredients – pancake mix, bananas, walnut, and maple syrup – to recreate this magnificent concoction and it was almost as good as the restaurant.
Not too long after breakfast, we gathered more ingredients to make some slow-cooked chili. If you don’t know me personally, you wouldn’t know that I’ve never consumed an entire burger in my life, and have only attempted to eat ground meat three to four times. We added a package of cooked, ground turkey, kidney beans, six cloves of grated garlic, spices galore, and onions. My lack of experience with ground meat excluded many other things from my diet including chili, but I was bound and determined to give it a try and see how much I hated it.
This was actually my second bowl of chili that evening. Immediately afterwards, I told my friends I felt I’d been cheated by parents who always told me I didn’t like things before I had a chance to try them.
Throughout the course of the weekend, we spent most of our time eating, playing board games, and watching people shovel out their cars too early. I was so moved by my chili experience that, before the second storm, I decided to brave the storm and get ingredients to make my own chili. I have a new affinity for black beans so I found a recipe that was more suiting to my taste. Not only was it my first time making chili, but it was also my first time cooking ground meat. I was surprised at how much moisture the turkey had, so I strained all the juices out of my tomatoes – big beginner’s mistake. Instead of coming out as a chili-type thing, it’s more like a ground turkey stew (but delicious nonetheless).
While all this food was delicious, I don’t know if my stomach – or my waistline – can take any more back-to-back snowstorms like this for awhile.
I grew up in a log cabin on a mountain no fewer than 3 miles away from the nearest paved road. We had a land line for phone calls, but didn’t have cable. When it snowed, we stayed indoors for days at a time and never expected anyone to come plow us out. We had winter tires and still put chains on them if we wanted to go out and the only time ‘we’ tested this was when my mom delivered me during the blizzard of January ‘86.
Finding out you had a snow day as a kid was so different than it is now. I remember begging my mom to let me go to sleep later because school was going to be closed tomorrow… then waking up super early in the morning to watch my school closing to scroll across the news screen. My county started with a W, so I had to wait a really long time to catch a glimpse of the official closing. If a commercial break came while my school was scheduled to be announced or I blinked for a second and missed it, TOO BAD, I had to watch all the A-V schools be announced again.
While I understand that that was almost 20 years ago, it’s still amazing to think about how much has changed since then. During last week’s historic storms, I got 99% of my information from the internet (mostly on my cell phone) moments after announcements – closures of metro, government, or businesses – were made.
My office goes by the federal government’s snow policy, so if they’re closed, we’re closed. Well, Office of Personnel Management closed the government four days in a row last week. Unlike growing up, they did so promptly – almost every night before 8pm. The first day or two, I kept refreshing the OPM website anxiously hoping they’d update the site. Then, I discovered that following the right people on Twitter gets me the information much quicker!
While I was reflecting on the differences between snow days as a kid and snow days as an adult, I thought about this incredible article I recently came across in The New York Times about the rapid implementation and integration of technology and cyberspace in our daily lives. The article discusses how quickly generational gaps will develop, and how small those gaps will be among age groups. Conceivably, vast differences could be seen when comparing say my little brother’s first grade class to the kids in his elementary school’s Pre-K program.
I don’t see myself personally falling victim to this new digital divide at this point in my life… I mean, I did find the article online because I have Google reader that picks out articles like this for me to read. But, I do notice my friends falling behind already. Practically none of my close, personal friends are on Twitter or Facebook and, while they understand the value of what I do with my life and how I do it, they have very little comprehension of what goes into it and how it can be beneficial to my organization. Also, this sentence rings true for me already:
“They’ll want their teachers and professors to respond to them immediately, and they will expect instantaneous access to everyone.”
I absolutely want instant gratification when I send an email, @message to someone on Twitter, or a Gchat message. Sometimes, I’ll get it, but not always.
I recently had a conversation with someone where I basically got all my online neuroses out, verbally… for the first time. These are some online pet peeves I have:
- You should be on Gmail. If you’re not, why? There’s really no web-based alternative that is superior to Gmail. I promise.
- If you’re not in highschool, your screen names should be your real names or something close. Everything you do can be found online whether you want it to be or not, so you may as well put your real name on it. Try something out, Google your “Firstname Last name” (in the quote marks like that) and tell me that your first few results aren’t your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (assuming you have those… which you should!).
- Don’t act like privacy settings will actually block people from seeing information you publish online that you don’t want them to see. Yeah, no one reads the fine print and it’s generally accepted that no one will. For all we know, we’re signing away our first-born to send out messages in 140 characters or less, but don’t expect the information to not be indexed by a search engine or republished by the platform you’re using to publish information. Also, don’t expect someone else you’ve deemed suitable to read your information to not republish it. Online publishing and conversation isn’t about controlling the conversation you’re involved in, but being a positive part of it.
While I have, and recognize, these online neuroses, I think the most important thing is that I still have the foundation to go out and find the information on my own. Technically, I may sit back and wait for things to come to me, but it’s because I’ve signed up for a newsletter or an update to be sent to my email address as soon as breaking news occurs or because I’ve figured out the best news sources to follow on Twitter (@welovedc and @DCist_Updates).
My dad and stepmom might not be the most tech-savvy people, but my little brother still gets the coolest electronics for Christmas and his birthday (this year he only got a Wii and called to let me know he opened just a few presents). Every year, I make a stringent effort to buy my little brother as few “tech” toys as possible so he gets a lot of handmade things and books so that he still has a thirst for things he can touch, feel, and investigate himself.
When I think about things like this, I do think I’m being a little old-fashioned (or an old fogey as the article so kindly terms those of us in our mid-to-late twenties). But, as much as I love working with the internet and the interesting way you can communicate via this forum, I still love to create things with my hands, repurpose items in my house, and explore things without using the Google Maps app on my iPhone.
Maybe he won’t be helpless as the article suggests, and maybe the internet and over-connectedness of my little brother’s generation will spark more insightful ways to discover new information than Googling and Tweeting. Only time will tell. This old fogie will be sitting back and watching from the comfort of my computer the whole time.
So it’s just the sixth week of the new year, and I’m already falling behind on my resolutions. But there’s nothing like a little fresh snow to wash away the sins of resolutions failed and to start anew.
For now, I’m going to leave you with a picture of the Snowpocalypse 2010, and a list of potential upcoming posts:
- My take on an article from the New York Times (The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by their 20s)
- Unsubscription policies from e-newsletters
- Snowpocalypse 2010 in Pictures: food edition
- and … a few more that I can’t think of at the moment
After three days of being snowed in alone with cats, it’s time to tackle the third thing on my list by getting a jump start on spring cleaning and tidying up/clearing out this messy apartment.
I don’t have many resolutions this year because I want to make sure I only resolve to do things I’ll actually accomplish. If you put these crazy, lofty goals out there, you’ll never accomplish them within a year and you’ll just feel let down because you won’t accomplish them.
So here are mine:
Lose 30 pounds by July 31 (my best friend’s wedding)
This date is more of a deadline to complete the goal instead of a reason to lose the weight. Being back in DC has made me a lot more sedentary than I was in New York. Also, I drink more coffee and beer… all bad things for my waistline, thighs and upper arms.
Blog more (at least three times a week).
I’ve been doing well lately, posting several times a month or a few times a week, but I want to make writing a habit. I’ve even come up with a blogging project for the year that I’ll be posting later!
Learn to live with less.
I simply own too many things and certain things… I just have too much of. I’ve had all my belongings with me since I was 17. What started out as a few suitcases, some sheets, and knick-knacks, has grown into an entire furnished apartment or small home with wall decorations and small animals included.
This means that my apartment is always kind of messy and I’m growing tired of it. I have a few projects in mind that relate to the previous resolution that I’ll write about later!
Learn to manage my money better.
I’m getting ready to move into another, more expensive apartment in my building because I currently live under a bridge like a troll. The added expenses will force me to rearrange my finances.
I recently joined mint.com to organize everything and I saw how much money is spent on coffee, eating out, and random things. The nice thing about Mint is, they immediately send you a grumpy email when you exceed your “restaurant” budget. I plan on learning the system a little better and using it to properly organize my spending.
Wish me luck!
