The blog has moved
I’ve migrated this blog over to my own domain! From now on I will be posting to laurenmagistro.com so check in there.
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Pop Music on the Decline
Quick Rant: yesterday I heard a radio DJ compare the Jonas Brothers to The Beatles. Come on now! To even put them in the same sentence disturbs me.
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Growing up
I boarded my Southwest flight home from Portland last night, number 56 of the A boarding group. I grabbed the first window seat I could find and got settled in for the non-direct flight through Oakland that would eventually take me back to Orange County. Hey, you can’t complain about layovers when it’s a free flight.
One of the interesting things about air travel is you never know who you might wind up sitting next to. You always hope it will be some really cute, interesting, and funny person with whom you will instantly strike up a conversation. You will have great chemistry, fall in love, and have a great story of how you met. I myself have never had this experience despite having been on 20 flights in the past year. Oh well, we all have our dreams.
I’m getting off topic, back to this specific flight. I did not meet my future husband, but rather a man and his young son were my row-mates for this first leg of my journey south. The little blond haired boy looked to be about 4, but I can’t be sure as he got really shy every time I tried to talk to him.
As they took the center and aisle seat, the flight attendant, fun and friendly as Southwest employees are, commented on the cool police car he was holding onto. Without saying a word, he pulled down the sleeve of his jacket to reveal the police patch on the shoulder of his navy button-up shirt. This little boy was mini-cop. He had a full on police uniform shirt, complete with patches, badges, and the obligatory “POLICE” stenciled across his back. The get-up looked like it was a Halloween costume he’d refused to take off. Not only did he have the attire and the police car, his suitcase was also a giant police car. I took note of the fake badge stickers stuck all over it. Probably collected from police station open houses.
The flight attendant said something along the lines of, “I can bet I know what he is going to be when he grows up.” I smiled to myself and then went back to what I was doing. I sat on the hour flight writing in my journal about my own confusion of growing up, transitioning into the adult would, and trying to decide what it is that I really want to do. I began to question what is it about being a child that makes the question of “What do you want to be when you grow up?” seem like a question with such a simple answer. Everything about this little boy screamed, “The only thing I want to do in life is be a policeman!”
At what point does it get so much more complicated? Or is it really not all that complicated? I seek the sense of excitement that this little boy had in my own career. Maybe that is silly and idealistic, but is that really too much to ask for? Perhaps it is, especially right now, when we are thankful just to have a job. But in the long run of my life, I pray that my path leads to something exciting, fulfilling, and interesting.
As for the boy, I hope he becomes a cop. He’ll probably turn out to be a lawyer or something though.
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Tags: growing up, policeman, southwest
Rain
It’s been raining on and off here for the past few days. I love the rain, especially when I’m warm and cozy inside. Since we hardly ever get weather like this in Southern California I thought I should document.
Oh and I’m going to Portland for the weekend, so in the spirit of rainy weather I threw this together.
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Toes
Since I’m not very superstitious, rather than talking about Friday the 13th, I was thinking about how yesterday was the anniversary of good old Charles Darwin’s birth. Interesting what that led me to think about…
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Office Humor
Had some free time this afternoon and was able to veg out and get caught up on the past few weeks of The Office. FYI: If you are living without The Office, you are living an incomplete life. Every time I visit the show’s website to catch an episode I missed, I get sucked in by some ridiculous webisode of character blog. The Fake PSAs are probably the highlight. Enjoy a few of my favorites– Jim on black jelly beans & Ryan on being short. Dwight’s blog, Schrute Space, is a close second.
And now for some notable quotes from the past two episodes–
“The Duel”
Dwight Schrute: Rule 17: don’t turn your back on bears, men you have wronged, or the dominant turkey during mating season. There are forty rules all Schrute boys must learn before the age of five. [sings] Learn your rules. You better learn your rules. If you don’t, you’ll be eaten in your sleep. [makes chomping sound]
Andy Bernard: What? You stupid idiot! [Andy honks his horn] You’re like, you’re like a Sasquatch! You live in the woods…
Dwight Schrute: Sasquatches are the strongest animal on the planet! So fine, call me a Sasquatch!
Dwight Schrute: A duel! The winner gets Angela. So what weapon?
Andy Bernard: My bare hands.
Dwight Schrute: That is stupid. I will use a sword and I will cut off your bare hands.
“Prince Family Paper”
Michael Scott: So when, uh, when did you set up shop.
Prince Paper Owner: Ah I opened this place after I came back from Vietnam.
Michael Scott: Ooh, Vietnam. I hear it’s lovely.
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Tags: Dwight, PSA, The Office
Reaffirmation and Renewal
A few months back I wrote a blog post on Nov 4th, the day Barack Obama was elected to become our 44th president. Today I write again on inauguration day. I write to reflect on this moment for myself, to preserve my thoughts to look back on years from now and remember how I felt. I write to share the emotions I felt today, listening intently as Obama addressed millions. And I write to respond to this momentous occasion, thrilled to have the opportunity to do so.
It is difficult to put the significance of this day into words, but as President Obama opened his address, humbled, grateful, & mindful, I couldn’t have been more proud. Those are the virtues of a great leader.
While I enjoyed his speech in its entirety, there were a few moments that really hit me. I was particularly happy to hear him renew the sense of American values on which this country was founded, equality, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. As he proclaimed, “The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness,” I wanted to jump up and cheer.
His speech wasn’t all grand rhetoric and generalities, which is what made it real and timely. He never tried to downplay the tasks that lie ahead for fixing what is broken in America. He did do what he is so good at though, and that is being hopeful. Making it all seem possible. And not because of some miracle that he was going to bring, but because we as individuals, as American citizens, have the power to come together like so many have before us. In his words,
Our challenges may be new, the instruments with which we meet them may be new, but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old.
What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.
Listening to those words I don’t know how you couldn’t feel hopeful and proud to be an American. I love quotes, especially inspirational ones, and as I took in the inaugural address there were many phrases that touched me, but the one that stood out most was this:
America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more.
A country that leads through peace and dignity is one I am happy to be a citizen of.
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Tags: Inauguration, Obama, President
365 Photo Shoot
Since I haven’t taken any videos lately I thought I’d share some photos from last week. Natalie Williams and Vu Bui are working on an awesome year-long photo project. Every day for a year Vu is taking a creative portrait of Natalie. Check out their work so far at 365daysofnatalie.com!
Below are some pics I jumped in from when I crashed their photo shoot. Vu assembled a full on studio complete with lighting and backdrop in Natalie’s living room. I tried to do her make up (to Vu’s endless criticism) and put the peacock feather in her hair. Other than that I was there for moral support.
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Camera Mystery
Somehow in the course of the day at Disneyland my trusty camera decided to committ suicide on me. It just won’t turn on or do anything. Sadly that means the videos are on hiatus until I fix it, or most likely buy a new one. It is probably time for an upgrade anyways, despite the fact that my bank account does not agree. It really is too bad, because the English, Dan and Dave, do some pretty funny shit.
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Its been a while since my last post, but I’ve only recently found some funny material. My friends from London have been visiting and Chiara and I are giving them a grand California tour. That of course includes a day at the Happiest Place on Earth, the Magic Kingdom, where dreams come true….Disneyland!
Here’s a bit of how we killed time in line for Space Mountain. Literally at the end of the day my face hurt from laughing so much.
Filed under: Humor | 1 Comment
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