the fourth year & the gestalt stage

This marks my first post of 2009, albeit a bit late for the new year.  

It seems appropriate that I feel drawn to this humble little blog now, even though it's been entry-less and collecting dust for months.  I began this blog when my plans to study abroad in Egypt started to blossom.  I blogged pretty fanatically, as many westerners in cairo do, and then blogged only intermittently -- totally abandoned it until recently.

I've reached what I'll call the gestalt stage in life.   This is the fantastic stage where all the various pieces, personalities and problems of your life arrange and align themselves in such a way that your mind or soul finds a clear image amidst them.  

In the same way that psychologists explain the ability to perceive more explicit spatial information from a stimulus than the stimulus itself is projecting, so the gestalt stage of life enables one to perceive the greater pattern and smooth idea of their experiences.  I had a high school teacher who always told us to refine our essays in a way that kept a smooth idea  subtly projecting in the background.  While that doesn't sound too ground-breaking, something about it stuck to my teenage soul and I've always wanted to have "a smooth idea subtly projecting in the background" of my life.  

Something about that smooth idea in my life definitely has to do with sunny days and sinai beaches, so this summery dc evening, as  I'm on the cusp of another trip to الشرق المجنون - الشرق الحلو and feeling particularly gestalt-y,  seems to be a fine time to dust off my blog.  

  

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I remember quite vividly passing newYear's eve tipsy in my grandmother's bathtub in Phoenix where I was dog-sitting by my onesy contemplating what 2008 would bring my way. I remember confiding in my closest friends that if I survived 2008, I would look back on it as a mind-blowing, personally challenging, deeply enlightening year of international hijinx, mild debauchery, and epicurean gluttony.

Without shame or hesitation, that is exactly what this year has been.

And so, as a newYear creeps along the horizon, I find myself wondering what subtle expectations, personal goals and happenstance revelations the universe has in store for me in 2009. Will it be a year of normalcy, as I had hoped at some point during adventurous, turbulent 2008? Will it be a year of unprecedented hijinx and enlightenment? Will it be the year that darkens retrospect with irreparable mistakes and shoulda-woulda-coulda-but-didnts? Will it be a year characterized by sweet turnign points and waltz-like steps towards the life goals?

Who really knows. But in the meantime, a few newYear's resolutions...

If I had any doubt that the Royal Palace Nightclub was actually a strip joint, it was erased by the fact that the ATM outside dispenses singles. Resolution #2: Write more. Whether it's unleashing the mediocre fiction ansty to pour out at the wee hours of the morning, or quality blogposts that make people laugh and want to forward them on to their friends, or - heaven forbid - publishing something academic!

اوباما



America's Newest First Family
يبارك الله فيهم

Saturday Night Steak In.

redWine-stonegroundMustard-balsamicVinegar-Marinated Steak dressed with grilled onions and asparagus, served with buttery-basil-peppered mashedPotatoes topped with parmesanCheese.

  

Soy Parmesan Cheddar Macaroni

Ingredients: Macaroni Wheels, Butter, Flour, Parmesan, Sharp Cheddar, Soy Milk, Sea Salt, Black Pepper.

  

Tangy Tuna Rotini

Ingredients:  Rotini, White Tune, Olive Oil, Diced Tomatoes, Onions, Garlic, Cilantro, Soy Milk, Parmesan Cheese, Sea Salt, Black Pepper. 

Dare-Deviled Eggs

     

Ingredients:  Hard-boiled Eggs, Finely-chopped Onions, Red Bell Peppers, Cilantro, Stoneground Mustard, Olive Oil, Mayonnaise, Sea Salt, Black Pepper, Smoked Paprika.    

 

Beer-broth Pea Soup

Ingredients:  Sweet peas, potatoes, onions, butter, garlic, beer, and black pepper.  Topped with parmesan. 

So people have a lot of boring things to say about post-college life.  They bitch about the mind-numbingness of the  9-to-5, they remind you that you have to 'pay your bills' and they usually inform you that office jokes and happyHour become highly-valued forms of sustenance.   After only a few months they use phrases like, "God what I would give to be a student again" or "Whew...I gotta get out 'here'...back into 'the field'...I wanna travel".  Sure, all of these are true.  Especially the deep-seated insecurities that your degree is apparently useless and that a general lack of desired direction stare up at you from your second cup of mediocre coffee every morning.  But there's a few things that people don't tell you - or certainly never told me - about post-college life.

Firstly, it's all about pleasure and balance.  For the first time in a long time your life is punctuated by shifts. Yea, this is rotten considering the human body and psyche simply isn't designed for 8-hour shifts BUT it also means that from a bit after 6p until a bit after 8a the next day, you are more or less free from all 'work-related' responsibilities.  This liberation is intensified around 5p on Friday for what follows is usually a genuine weekend.  The key is filling those between-work hours with as much pleasure and balance as possible.  Which given your regularly arriving paychecks, is quite easy to do.

Additionally,

You get to feel calm and secretly superior when mid-October rolls around and it is simply mid-October and not midterms.

And even if you join the cattle heard on the daily 'commute', you get to pleasure-read while doing. You realize you haven't used the word syllabus in ages.  And you yet remarkably you STILL learn something  new - several things, actually, and they're usually quite practical - everyday. 

Ok. I lied.

The optimism and fresh-page feeling of the other night has dissipated into the reality that my blog will actually not become anything more than a glorified journal that serves as an outlet for idle moments. But hey – that’s OK too, I guess.

Highlights of this idle moment include:

* I still love my new job.

* I’m running a 5k.

* Aside from my family, I apparently only have 5 friends and they are all unreachable because they are (a) out-of-the-country, (b) extremely busy, or (c) incapable of picking-up their phone, making phone calls, or checking voicemails. Yes, you, Amanda Craig, do not pick up your phone. Ever. I figure if I type your name a google search might draw you to this page and you might, might, might find that worthy of a one-liner email in my direction :)

* I have recently developed a deep longing to be a squirrel. This one is totally new to me considering that previously I was most interested in being a fish or bird (or hermit crab, but that’s a long story) if I wasn’t blessed to be the complicated and irrational creature that I am… But now it seems this bushy-tailed rodent also has a place in my realm of escapist fantasies.

Yes, it's albino.