Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Frommer's Travel Photo Contest

Since all of my 2010 travel photos were taken with a sub-par camera, my own, and overtly amateur hands, my own, I bow my head in respect for those who went to make memories prepared. Frommer's Travel Photo Contest has a slide show of the Winner and Runner-Ups. My favorite is the Runner Up, which might have been third place below. There's something about a lazy, wild, Alaskan Grizzly Bear napping like a puppy that I can't not coo at.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Time's Top 10's of '10

Time put together a great list of a slew of Top Ten's for 2010. At least, I think. I can't judge. I have decided that instead of lightly scanning this list, and chuckling or wiping away tear of remembrance, I am going to study it in depth, and do research. Why, you may ask? So that in 15 years from now, when I'm sitting around a table with friends playing Trivial Pursuit of the late 2000's, I will maybe have a slight, almost insignificant inkling to lean in the direction of not-the-worst-answer possible. It's all about realistic expectations.

Here's THE List.

And in an effort to save face, I knew about the Volcano (I was there), and Breaking Bad (Awesome), and bedbugs, because my life is cloaked in fear commuting publicly into the infested playground for disease that is New York City.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Marriage Without Divorce?

A long time ago, I decided that my generation wouldn't experience divorce en mass anywhere near as much as my parent's generation did.

This is what I do: Make over arching political and socioeconomic decisions that I have zero control or influence over in my own head.

And contrary to my personal arguments for my opinion, the track records of those around me, in my generation, speak to the opposite of my opinion. Keep in mind, these preconceived notions on everlasting love were created and determined and decided upon when I was probably 12 years old. Sitting in my room, singing along to some Toni Braxton, knowing that if Michael Douglas' wife in Fatal Attraction could forgive him, then marriage without divorce would be real for my generation. Maybe Fatal Attraction isn't the best place to learn about weighty issues like: Rabbits are edible, or Opera lovers are not of sound mind. Or is it?

I always thought how when my parent's generation made irrational decisions jumping into marriage, it was because they could. Arranged marriages and abstinence and dating and young adulthood and independence were words and phrases that were re-defined. And as they continue to be defined, I was sure that we would be able to see what worked, and what definitely did not work, and to make smart, permanent decisions. It just seems like those decisions are defined differently from person to person. I have friends happily married, for now, but more of them are either happily or unhappily divorced. And a few of them are sticking it out Old School: staying unhappily married.

But those people, these examples, all thought marriage was a next step, the way to go, the only option or their best one. What is more interesting is listening to the social echo of the unmarried. I have a good friend of mine, as single and unattached as a person could be, and