Philly

After I graduated college, I got a job at Baxter in Thousand Oaks, CA. I worked in drug manufacturing and I worked 4-10s, which meant I worked Sunday - Wednesday, noon-10pm every week. I worked with some really fantastic people and, for a while, I really loved that job. My shift lead was Nicky, a late-twenties body builder and ex-football player. He was a big, lovable lug and he was a great boss.  We worked on Sundays, and all the guys followed football, so I decided to learn about football too. In our downtime, Nicky taught us a lot about the game and the teams. He told me to choose a team to follow. He followed the Miami Dolphins. I picked the Philadelphia Eagles because I liked their logo and I had been to Philly a couple times and I loved it. Following the team taught me more about the game and it was always awesome when the Eagles would win and the Dolphins would lose. It made me feel like I had picked a good team.

In 2003, I moved to Philly and football became a weekly interest, especially when the fall cold came and days got shorter and it was harder and harder to stay outside. The Eagles had been my team and it was so fun to get together with my friends from grad school and watch Sunday or Monday night football. One friend, Marcus, was obsessed with the Eagles. He would have dozens of people over to his house on Sundays and he projected the games on a huge wall in his house. They would mute the game cast from the national TV station and they would play the local radio station instead. The vast majority of national TV broadcasts were super negative about the Eagles, while the local radio was always singing their praises (or recalling super random and obscure sports trivia about the team). Marcus would get so worked up, screaming and yelling at the TV. It was great fun.

When I first moved to Philly, I went to the Wawa (like 7/11) to get some groceries. I remember the clerk saying, "Go Iggles" instead of "Thanks" or "Have a good one". The city literally stops when there is an Eagles game. Nobody on the streets. The cabs are empty. The bars are filled with screaming spectators. When you walk past houses, you can hear the game. You can hear people cheering or screaming. If you ever wanted to start a conversation with someone you didn't know, you could always say, "How about them Iggles?" (or Phils, or Flyers, or Sixers). That's how I got to know so many of the people I worked with at Penn. We always knew what was going on with the home teams and it made me a lot of friends, for sure.

In bars, it was normal for an Eagles cheer to break out, anytime, anywhere. (Bar singalong were also common - I miss those...). You could hear Eagles cheers at any sports games, not just Eagles games. I remember hearing them at Phils games.

But Philly has always been an underdog. A ragtag group of boys. Coaches who always made the wrong call. Quarterbacks who could only take us so far. And I think, to a certain extent, we liked being the underdog. You can't expect much and we just might surprise you (a bit like Philly itself). It shows we are tough. We can take the punches. We are loyal, not fickle. We stay with a team for life. It's part of our culture.

Last night was a triumph. It was honestly the most beautiful football I've ever seen Philly play (offensively). Foles was on. The coaches were calling the right plays. And the offense was on fire. And Brady was not. The Pats fell, but not without a good fight. So many superbowls are one sided and super boring. This game (for many reasons) had me on the edge of my seat. I am thrilled the Eagles brought the Lombardi trophy home. Philly deserves it. I am so proud of my adopted city and my team. And you can bet my family will be wearing some Eagles gear to represent! I wish I could have walked Broad St last night with the rest of the city. I did it when the Phils took the World Series, and I'd be proud to do it again. And I'd love to see the parade. Philly always does a parade right.

Suffice it to say, it was the best superbowl ever. Go Eagles!

Fly Eagles, Fly
On the road to victory
Fight, Eagles, Fight
For a touchdown 1,2,3
Hit em low,
hit em high
and watch those eagles fly
E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles!

Staying Stylish

Look, don't judge me. I'm 40. I'm allowed to read what I want, OK? Also, I've been traveling and job interviewing lately, so a mindless book on the Kindle is just about all I can handle.
Haha!
I downloaded Staying Stylish by Candace Cameron Bure (yes, that's DJ from Full House) for the discount price of $1.99 on the Kindle. I read it in less than a day. It turns out that Candace doesn't really have a lot to say in terms of staying stylish, so I thought I would run down what she tells you just in case you wanted to know.

• Be true to your sense of style (seems obvious, no?)
• Invest in pieces that are timeless so you will get lots of wear out of them
• Try to find balance in your outfit (e.g. if shoulders bare, legs are covered; if shirt is loud, jewelry is muted, etc)
• Try to get things tailored so they fit better
• Try on lots of sizes and styles - don't limit yourself to just one
• Invest in outerwear - it can make or break your outfit.
• Organize your closet so you can easily pick out things that work together. 
• When packing for a trip, roll your clothing up and choose one color palette and stick to it. 
• She recommends skin care products that cost at least $200 so there's not a chance that's accessible to anyone
• She tells you how she does her makeup
• You should not be afraid to try different hairstyles or hair colors.
• She tells you how she does her ponytail (I found this interesting...)
• She tells you about her favorite foods and snacks
• She gives you a fairly intense workout circuit
• She tells you to pray and write in a journal, read,  practice gratitude, take time for yourself and spend time alone.

Honestly, this book was super simple and sort of interesting which is just what I wanted it to be when I downloaded it. I don't read a lot of fashion magazines because, honestly, they are not written for a 40 year old scientist mom. I don't shop a ton and I don't spend a lot of time on myself and it was nice to be reminded that maybe I should stop and spend some time on myself. Anyways, it was an interesting read if you're into this kind of thing. Plus, I really like CCB for reasons that I can't really articulate so there's that.

Jane Austen

For the last year or more I have been reading works by Jane Austen. Faithful readers of this blog will know that I use my brain extensively at work, requiring more gentle and easy reading at night. I took many Austen works from my mom's library and have been slowly working my way through them and I thought I would tell you what I think.

Northanger Abbey: I just finished this book and I really enjoyed it. It follows Catherine, a young girl of 17 who enjoys "fiction" - as far as I can tell, this means Victorian novels. She lives a somewhat normal life, but injects aspects of this fiction into her life using her imagination. She is lucky enough to be invited to vacation in Bath with Mr. and Mrs. Allen, where she meets several friends, including Isabella, Eleanor Tilney and Henry Tilney . Of course, she falls for Henry, and is invited to stay with the Tilneys for a period of time. A period of drama ensues, partially due to Catherine's imagination, and the story ends with our heroine finally landing the man of her dreams. I liked this book for its ease of reading, but I have to say that Catherine didn't hold much interest to me. She didn't seem to have much personality or opinions, and the most interesting thing about her was the people she surrounded herself with.

Emma: I loved this book. Emma is spunky and funny and ridiculously snobbish and is always trying to mess with people's lives. Emma lives with her hypochondriac father in a giant mansion overlooking the town. She is by far the most clever of the people in the town and she thinks, therefore, that she must help them with her cleverness. She sets out to (disastrously) find a mate for her "dear friend" Harriett, she decides she must be in love with a town newcomer, Frank, and she completely ignores that she is actually in love with Mr. Knightley, a man who has been a constant companion for her family. This book is funny, entertaining, and completely ridiculous because our heroine does not even have a clue of her own feelings.

Masnfield Park: This book I thought was so-so. Fanny Price is one of many children and is sent to live with her very rich aunt and uncle because her family can no longer afford so many kids. She is sent there at age 10 to be what? A servant? Sort of. A companion? Maybe? Definitely inferior. She turns out to be the moral compass for the whole book, resisting temptations of intrigue, sex, and general naughtiness. My only problem with this book was the resolution. She falls in love with Edmund, her cousin, but he does not return her affections. At the conclusion of the book, she and Edmund are finally together, but the actual climax of the book does not revolve around this. Most of her books, the climax involves conversations among characters, while, this book just involves a third person narration telling the reader what happens. Needless to say, I did enjoy this book, just perhaps less than the other. In addition, there is much about slavery (and apparently the name Mansfield would have been synonymous with abolition) but I don't know much about English history so I will leave that to the actual proper book reviewers.

Pride and Prejudice: Of course, the most popular of the books, Elizabeth meets obnoxious and snobby Mr. Darcy and proceeds to contradict him and challenge him to the point of his falling in love with her. One of my favorite Austen books, I have now read this twice and each time was most enjoyable. I love a ballsy heroine, especially one who knows what she wants and Austen absolutely provides in this book.

I have yet to read Sense and Sensibility or Persuasion but I possess them both. I will let you know what I think when I read them!

You know, there's that....

About last night....

I couldn't sleep last night, and neither could Alex. We both tossed and turned and tossed until I finally decided to get up and watch TV. I was sitting on the couch, watching New Girl when an enormous flash of light, like a bolt of lightning, lit up the sky. It was accompanied by a bzzzzzt sound (not thunder) and the general decrease in our electrical power.
It reminded me of the Northridge earthquake, standing in my parents' bedroom in the early morning light and watching the sky light up with transformers blowing up.
Turns out it was a fallen tree that had hit a power line. the road going west out of town in closed. We are so lucky that a fire didn't start.
I have to admit, things are so crazy lately, I was first thinking - could that have been a bomb? Could North Korea have sent a missile?
Needless to say, I didn't sleep much last night...

And today, the smoke is so thick over SV that we all can barely breathe.
Yeah....

Tom Petty

In high school, I worked at my Dad's business, answering phones and doing paperwork. It was a good job and I liked it - mostly because I worked with Patty. Patty was a woman with an amazing outlook on life. She always found the funny. She was always upbeat. She knew how to deal with customers, even when they really made me mad. And she listened to the radio incessantly. For a while, it was Howard Stern. Then it was some other talk show. I remember the OJ Simpson trial in there too. But we also listened to classic rock. We could get the "new" classic rock station from LA - was it 93.1? Anyways, they played all kinds of songs and Patty knew them all. She started to teach me and we ended up playing "Name that Tune" almost every day. I would borrow her tapes to play in my car. I loved the music. I started to listen to the Beatles. I would write out song lyrics - like, longhand. I loved the poetry. And I remember that Tom Petty had a hit at the time - Mary Jane. Everybody loved it because we all knew it was about pot (OMG - so cool to like a song about POT!) and the video was super creepy with Tom dancing around with a dead girl...
Patty told me that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had been around for a long time. I got their "greatest hits" cassette tape and I was surprised at how many songs I knew. That tape was on repeat in my car. Over and over.
When I was a bit older - after college, I could afford to go to concerts and I got tickets to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the Santa Barbara Bowl. The absolute best venue to see a show, hands down. It's set in the mountains, in a schwanky neighborhood with oak tree lined streets and a beautiful view. I had gotten tickets for the actual second to last row. We were in the nosebleeds. So far away from the stage. But that night was magic. It was the first time that I had just seen a band play. A band who knew each other. Nothing else. No fireworks, no set changes, no big screens.  Not a big show or a big production. It was just Tom Petty, a stunningly dynamic performer, and his band. They played all our favorites, and I'm unsure they even had a set list. One song blended into another and the whole crowd sang every song. I danced and danced up in the nose bleeds and I made friends with all the people surrounding us. I remember a couple of women, "much older" than I was (at the time, probably 22-23 - they were probably 20 years older than me) and the music affected us the same way. The music spoke to us all in that audience that night.
One vivid memory I have from the concert is Tom playing guitar and looking over at one of his bandmates with a huge grin on his face - then the music changed. They had anticipated (or felt? or known?) the change coming up. They communicated without words. What a remarkable thing.
Since working with Patty, Tom Petty had been a constant presence in my life. I always return to his music, and there was nothing better than his concert. It's by far the best I have ever attended. The best for, oddly, the lack of showmanship. Allowing the music - complex, upsetting, melodious - to speak for itself. And showing the audience what true musical talent is. What a joy it is to hear a band of people who know each other inside and out to produce this wonderful art that deeply affects us all.
It's been a rough year - it's hard to deny that. I thought this year would be better because it couldn't be worse than last year, but here I am eating my words.
The world is full of awful people and awful things. It's art and artists who get us through these times. Tom Petty was one of those for me and I will never stop listening to his music as long as I live. I'm sad that he's gone.

6 years

This is a picture from our honeymoon in Yosemite. We hiked the Valley floor that day. It rained but it was still fun because there are always fewer people when it's raining. But rain at lower altitudes means snow at higher altitudes. We tried to drive out of the valley back to our cabin, but the snow was coming down, the road was slippery, it was dark, cars were getting stuck and my Dad's car that we had borrowed wasn't going to make it. Oh yeah, and we had no gas! We turned around and got a hotel room in the valley. I wished I had PJs and my glasses, but otherwise, it was a great adventure. A fitting start to our marriage, if nothing else.

A few days later, Alex planned a 17 mile hike with over 3000 feet of elevation gain (and loss, eventually). We started at 6am and had a lovely view of the sunrise hitting Yosemite falls across the valley from us. But the climb was slow going, the trail was icy and I had a meltdown. I don't do well on hills and I'm afraid of heights. At one point, the trail was slippery, icy granite and a sheer drop on one side. I was terrified. Also, we kept getting passed by people just reminding me how much I sucked at hiking and being outdoors in general. At some point, I accused Alex of trying to kill me on our honeymoon. We finally made it to Glacier Point around noon and we decided to call it a day. I was exhausted, emotionally at least. We had to pay $50 to get a bus down to the valley floor.

Marriage is an interesting thing, from a lot of perspectives. I really like Alex (obvi) and I think we balance each other well. He's calm when I'm crazed. He's over the top, and I bring him back down. He sets out to do something in the most complicated way and he generally listens to me when I tell him there are easier ways to do things. He lets me make crazy plans and do outrageous things without questioning me. He lets me be me and I think I let him be him.

You are around this person the most of anyone else, save for maybe your kids. You become almost the same person. I know how he will react to lots of situations and I'm sure he knows how I will react too. But we still have fun. We still laugh. He still goofs around and makes me question my sanity in marrying him. And sometimes the boring mundanity gets to you and I go a little crazy and he just takes my craziness. Or my imposter syndrome. Or my anxiety. Or whatever it is I have at the time.

Turns out, marriage is both wonderful and awful. You face the world together and sometimes that's really hard. There are disasters, personal, professional, local, world-wide, etc. Sometimes you don't agree. But you still wake up next to this person. We've both finished our graduate work. We've moved across the country, started over at Stanford. We spent 2 months on the road. And we are gearing up to do it again next year. We've had a kid, who is probably the coolest one I've ever met. Also, the one person who can drive me the most crazy too.

You choose to be in this relationship every day, every hour, six years (actually longer)... Nothing else could be better. I am sure of that.