30 Before 30

Yay! After one week of a LOT of work, the promotional video for EFA has been finished.

Many thanks to all those involved in making this video happen, including my wonderful colleague Jess who pretty much learned how to edit overnight!

Here’s the link to watch the video. Rachel, you’re an inspiration. Everyone - please donate to the cause.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8Vt4AdsIKk

One of my goals is to produce a piece outside of work, and it has proved to be quite timely! My very dear friend Rachel, who is co-founder of a non-profit called Education Fights AIDS, has asked me to produce a promotional video that she could email around or put on her website for fundraising purposes.

EFA works with AIDS-infected and AIDS-affected people in Cameroon to educate and empower them, offering them not simply access to ARVs and healthcare, but also giving them the tools and the skills to live as normal of a life as possible. Those supported by EFA are encouraged to start businesses, generate income to cover the costs of AIDS treatment, work on community projects and participate in support groups to maintain psychological health as well.

I’m so proud and honored to be doing this for Rachel as she is one of the most inspiring people I know. It’s been really tricky trying to line up my schedule with that of the generous editors working on this project, but I can see the light as we are almost done putting this piece together.

I shall send it out when it’s done, and please feel free to donate to this great cause!

DONE! Finished The Imperfectionists. It was excellent and I highly recommend it. I won’t say anything more, but if you are a journalist (or enjoy learning about the lives of journalists) then you will find the book very entertaining.

If you’d like to borrow it, I’ll lend away…

I cannot swallow pills. It’s completely psychological. I had a scary encounter when I was young, and literally freeze up every time I’ve tried to do it. But I’ve come to learn that not being able to swallow pills is quite scary itself! Imagine how many pharmacists all over New York must HATE me because I always ask them to convert every drug into liquid form. Or how much my tongue hates me when I chew advil. Or how my father shakes his head when I empty my capsule into jelly and swallow it in one fell swoop.

*Sigh*

My friend Juliet, who I love to pieces, has purchased a tube of M & Ms and apparently we will be starting with those. I’m already nervous, but she’s assured me she’s licensed in the heimlich maneuver.

Well, it’s worth it. Learning how to swallow pills may be the biggest life-saver on this list…literally :)

Ladies & gents: I’ve enrolled in a tango lesson next Tuesday @ 6:30 at Triangulo, a renown Argentine Tango studio. I’m super excited, and hope that by the end I can dance as well as Al Pacino did with Gabrielle Anwar in Scent of a Woman.

Can I get extra credit if I do it with my eyes closed?

Wahoo! I am now a true American!!!

…So I just walked up and down my building stairs until I was winded.

I also just did 50 sit ups and 20 minutes of pilates-esque exercises I would have done at Exhale.

Now. What to do with all the Hershey’s marshmellow-snowmen sitting on the kitchen counter…

Eeeeeyup. that’s right. I’ve never watched Star Wars. No, I wasn’t raised under a rock or as Omar said in “a culture-less gap.” I am tempted to blame it on the fact that my parents are foreigners except for the fact that my brother has seen every Star Wars movie that ever came out (damn you Joey.) Ok. Well, maybe it’s a girl/guy thing. Eeeeya no. I know plenty of girls that are big fans…like that girl who’s been all over the news because she got bullied for loving Star Wars so much.

Sigh. I dunno why I’ve never seen it. Maybe it had something to do with men fighting with lightening swords, space craft thingies, weird animals and ridiculous costumes. Why is there a breathing sound every time Darth Veder is in a scene??

Either way, I’ve made my way through IV, and am halfway through “The Empire Strikes Back.” Some thoughts: quite good, although the dialogue is a bit slow/flat in IV. It picks up in V, as do the visual effects. (I get the fact that this was quite groundbreaking for the time, yeah yeah). I’m happy I can now trace all the pop-culture references that came out of the movie script…and the music, too. Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia = great actors, although Luke calling the latter “beautiful” is, in my view, a bit of a streeeeetch. And who knew Harrison Ford could be so funny —- he’s had several LOL moments thus far. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a light-hearted role! Oh. And my friend has been calling his cousin Chewbacca for years now —- and I can now understand the reference, and chuckle quietly when I see him ;) He’s very handsome - his hair is just a bit long!

Well, hopefully the series will continue to entertain me. The Empire Strikes Back is quite gripping so far. I hear Luke meets Yoda in this one. Yay. I’ll be able to understand yet ANOTHER pop-culture reference.

Omar’s keeping me honest on this project. I’m almost doing this so he can’t give me any grief anymore for not having seen it. Well, he hasn’t seen The Notebook so I think that after this whole thing is over, that may be next on the list :)

In the past couple of years, I’ve been to a lot of weddings…like, A LOT. And it’s been a pleasure watching my wonderful friends take these next big steps in their lives.

Of course, one of the standards of going to weddings is of course giving the beloved couple of a gift. And for a few of them, I haven’t been too good about it, mainly because I am that person who wants to give them something off the registry to make it a bit more personal. The problem is that couples pick registries for a reason, because it’s practical for all parties involved AND what they need.

So I owe gifts. And it’s time I buy ‘em :) Juliana, one of the most organized people I know (she microsoft excel-spreadsheets her vacation plans) has been appointed to push me to do this. In fact, shortly after being given her assignment, I received this:

“Enough blogging more doing! You owe me a list of the people you need to send wedding presents. WHERE’S MY LIST?! WHAT, YOU THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH NOT GETTING ME MY LIST?!? DON’T MAKE ME COME OVER THERE AND OPEN A CAN OF WOOP-ASS….I truly hope Fe isn’t on the list.”

Sigh. Fe’s on the list.. 





1. Get to know Dmitry Shostakovich
2. Have a guitar lesson…with Dan Smith
3. Finish a book in its entirety (something I haven’t done in a while)
4. Take a ballroom dance class
5. Exercise twice a week 
6. Host a Lebanese cooking class and invite people over
7. Go to an exhibit other than the MoMa or the Met
8. Respond to all my starred emails
9. Write a handwritten letter
10. Enroll in a conducting class
11. Produce a non-work piece
12. Send out my voiceover reel
13. Cook a 5-course meal for my family
14. Memorize a poem in Arabic & French
15. Take my vitamins every day
16. Write the 1st chapter of my book
17. Get all outstanding wedding gifts to their rightful owners
18. Learn to swallow pills
19. Make sure I maintain my blog
20. Go to a really good party or concert in another borough
21. Watch Star Wars 4, 5, 6
22. Forgive and be forgiven
23. Volunteer/Join a charity or cause
24. Get published on .com.
25. Fill the mandatory elements of my wardrobe
26. Take a spontaneous day trip somewhere
27. Become friends with a total stranger
28. SECRET GOAL
29. Go to my high school and let my teachers know how much I appreciate them
30. Write a complete song and record it

Yeah, I know. Everybody and their mother wants to write a book. In my family, it’s my dad. Just the other day he was talking quite seriously about hiring a ghostwriter for his autobiography.

So, if my dad is motivated enough to be planning it out, it’s all the more reason why I should put on paper the ideas I’ve had simmering in my mind for years now.

So with the help of Fe, my muse for many things in life, I hope to complete the first chapter of my book in the next few weeks. Now, my book isn’t Ulysses-length or anything, so this shouldn’t be too too difficult. The important part is that I actually start it, and I hope that doing so will help alleviate the anxiety and self-doubt that’s held me back!

I’ll keep you posted on my progress, and for all of you book-idea-entertainers out there, stop entertaining and start writing!

…and mail it. Envelope, stamp and all.

When was the last time you did that?

It’s a momentous occasion. My current pair is nearly 10 years old.

I’ve been putting off getting a new pair for so long, I seriously considered making it one of my 30-before-30 tasks.

Hoorah for proactivity.

Anyone who knows me knows that music is pretty much my life. Listening to it, playing it, going to concerts, pretending I’m Gustavo Dudamel conducting Beethoven’s Eroica, the back of my head vigorously bobbing in front of thousands of people, inspiring them all to tears…

…did I just admit that outloud?

I digress. Over the past couple of years, I’ve gotten into the habit of writing and recording my own music. Some of you have heard my songs, others not - but, like many things on the list, I often sing/songwrite in bits and pieces. I’ll record all the chords for a song, but fail to put words to them. Or I’ll have written all the lyrics to a piece, but will have not gotten around to composing the music…you get the drift.

Confession: I have journals and journals full of lyrics. And tracks and tracks of promising piano chord progressions. What better time than now to marry ‘em together, in a SERIOUS way.

It’s not to say I haven’t written songs before - I have. But they’ve been rusty, and first-draftish, and lacking in developed harmonies. So it’s time to write a song that is strong, and complete…and somewhat produced. And to add to the fun, I plan on inviting some of my insanely talented musician friends to record their own musical lines on the track.

Sergio, my very dear friend from G-town, himself a singer/songwriter/philosopher living in London, is the enforcer on this one. He’s the perfect person to support me on this task because he’s always living by the creed of unihibited self-expression; and many times, believe it or not, it is my shyness with musical self-expression that often prevents me from throwing myself fully into it.

So, one last note - to get over the shyness, I am promising to publish the song I record on this blog.

Maybe.

OK. I am not exactly shy. Nor am I what you’d call “unfriendly.” And I certainly have made friends with total strangers before —- but it’s been a while. 

For some time now, I’ve been saying I want to meet new people. It isn’t always easy when you’re in the comfort zone of cool colleagues, great friends and a city you’ve grown up in.

So, it’s up to me in the next 6 weeks (and my amazing goal partner Sam) to become friends with a guy or girl that is not connected to anyone I know, or my work or anything related to me. A TOTAL stranger.

This should be easy, right?

Well, we’ll see. It is NYC. People are immediately suspicious of unabashed, non-opportunistic friendliness. And exactly how do you ask a new friend out? Or tell them you’re interested? What if i get rejected on the playground?  

Well, in any event, I’m pretty confident that I can meet someone cool, laidback and normal. And, just in case, I’ll be sure to carry mase with me everywhere I go.