April 28, 2015

Benefits and Drawbacks of Facebook

neon facebook likes sign

Disclaimer: As a relatively paranoid person, I’m inclined towards lots of deep thoughts on the benefits and drawbacks of social media like Facebook.   Disclaimer 2: I don’t go on Facebook much. After a breakup several years ago that involved some “extracurricular” Facebook-inspired sex (not on my part, mind you, but I consider it a major drawback of Facebook all the same) I sort of lost faith in the institutions of mainstream social media. Because hey, it turns out a lot of people use Facebook for bad sex, and ex-stalking, and a myriad of other non-fabulous activities that I generally do not have time for. So without further ado, here…

April 25, 2015

Summer Fashion 2015

summer fashion floral dress woman dancing road

You know its summer when they change the mannequins at the mall right? Let’s take a look at some of the clothes that have been popping up for summer 2015. Summer Fashion 2015 Is it just me or did Laura Ashley throw up all over the spring runways H&M collections?  Over here in Spain we are deeply rooted in some late 1990’s, flowers and floppy hats, Blossom-type fashion statements.  (What up Mayim Bialik!)  Not that I am complaining!  I, for one, did not look nearly as adorable in flower prints when I was nine as I (think I) do now. In the interest of trying to stay fashionable moderately fashionable…

April 23, 2015

Morning Sunshine!

pink and white beauty products

In my modern working girl life fantasies, I know how to feel fabulous when the alarm goes off. I spring out of bed in the morning fashionable and fresh, efficiently iMessaging about important appointments and ready to change the world every day. Like this:                                                In reality, this morning when my alarm clock went off I stretched, blinked half heartedly and spent 5 minutes trying to think of something exciting enough about my looming day to get me out of bed. Like this:          …

April 21, 2015

Wait Time

Greyscale photo of woman with silent sign

Before we discuss wait time, I want to engage in a little warm up activity:   Step 1: Close your mouth and breathe in through your nose Step 2: Silently, slowly count to 5 Congratulations! You have just practiced the art of “how to shut the f#ck up for 5 seconds”.  It’s something I’ve realized recently I need more of in my life.  As a teacher, a female and a general eager-to-please type of person, I am not a huge fan of gaps in conversation.  It makes me uncomfortable-in that itchy, social-hives, am-I-boring kind of way.  However, while googling ways to have better conversations with my boyfriends students and professional colleagues,…

April 19, 2015

Happy Spring

Flowers and sunset

Happy Spring! Much like the sweet breeze and the afternoon sunshine, I’m back! It’s been a long winter with lots of work stress, dry skin and writing about the general and consuming frustrations of life in my paper journals.  Then I thought, “Self…this is the year 2015.  Take this self-involved diatribe back to the interwebs!” So here I sit, clicking away self-consciously, trying to find a way to reconcile all of my innermost thoughts and problems to this very public forum. The first thing it makes me realize about my problems…they’re stupid. I’m not very good at my job.  Who cares?  My clothes don’t fit very well over my newly-acquired…

October 30, 2014

Pick and Choose

meringues

I spend a lot of time every day asking myself pick and choose questions. Do I really want that croissant?  Will I still be able to button my pants if I eat that croissant?  What is going to happen with Ebola?  If I am going to die of Ebola anyway, why not just eat the stupid croissant? Etc. This type of internal dialogue is what gets me through the day. I have perfected my, “Oh, of course I’m paying attention to what your saying. You are so INTERESTING. Please go on.” face so that I can happily talk to myself inside my head while people are blathering on about….well, frankly…

October 30, 2014

Always Be Nice

ballons

It’s important to always be nice. Even when you don’t like the person you are talking to.  Even when you’re bored and hungry and late for something.  Even when the November doldrums set in and instead of being nice you are just desperately trying to get from one cup of vodka wine coffee tea…yeah…tea to the next without losing your mind. Why, you ask?  Well, funny enough I have been asking myself the same thing lately (the above scenarios are not simply a matter of blog-land fiction).  Here’s why I think it’s important to be nice: 1. It’s good for your blood pressure. When I am having a pleasant conversation…

October 17, 2014

The Busy Trap: Passion vs. Busy-ness

boat water sunset

Tim Kreider recently wrote an opinion piece for the NY Times titled “The Busy Trap”.  If you are too cheap for a NYT subscription, you can read my summary below:     What is the busy trap? People create ‘The Busy Trap’, full of busy-ness for themselves.  Busyness is an annoying, distracted state that allows people to focus on being annoyed and distracted instead of processing any real information or real life experiences.  Mr. Kreider makes a particularly striking and beautiful point about feeling like he has to shout over the self-imposed hysteria of “busy-ness” in order to make simple plans with friends. The idea of busy-ness taking the place…

October 5, 2014

Multiple Intelligences

plant book

High school teachers talk a lot about Professor Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences. But if you are not a high school teacher, you might not be familiar. Here is the basic idea: In the 1980’s Gardner, a long-time Harvard professor, applied his his Ivy League mind to describing the different ways people convey ideas. As a result, he classified the major types of communication. To this day, his ideas are widely celebrated and used in the education philosophy classes. His efforts are summarized below:   Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences What it means  There is more than one way a person can present themselves as intelligent. As a result,…

September 12, 2014

Interesting Questions for Friday Happy Hour

doughnuts flowers

Here is a universal truth about work: It’s important to have interesting questions for Friday happy hour. Happy hour is a chance to get to know the people that you work with on another level.  This, in turn, WILL allow you to work better with them.     It is the curse of the Friday afternoon happy hour–the awkward conversation with the boring coworker.  Luckily, my co-workers are fabulous (hi, co-workers!) but for those of you not so lucky, happy hour is an important time to be well-versed in your communication skills.  No one wants to talk about work and if you don’t have something interesting to say you will just…