Formula 457

So much talk about renewal, spring has sprung, life is breathed anew in what feels like an ephemeral, fleeting sequence of days. Really there isn’t that much of a difference from one day to the next, even our bodies shed each cell continuously at the rate of every 10 hours or 10 days or whatever it is. Regardless of this continuous renewal that every aspect of our life is subject to, there are these overarching threads that maintain continuity in our lives, and the more I think about this, the more I think that thread is memory and nothing more. Which is both deflating and empowering.

#lovelisafranksomuch

I think I’ve conditioned myself to selective memory. Or selective listening. Look at those Lisa Frank unicorns. When I look at them my heart and stomach feel soft and I get giddy. Yes, Still. That shouldn’t be normal, but it is! I was probably 6 when I started my first Lisa Frank sticker collection, I loved them then and I love them now because my brain still remembers  (and loves) this. One of my friends has told me countless times about there being watersnakes at Walden pond and my reaction every time he tells me is one of incredulous surprise. Obviously I remember it now… I just don’t think I’ll remember it soon. Because I am going to forget it, this will be a choice, just like anything we ever do-which I know is subject to debate. What we can all agree on is that snakes are gross, innately vindictive and malicious animals.

Anyway, that brings me to Landmark! I’m doing the landmark forum, which is not a cult–something the organization has spent a lot of money on making absolutely clear. It’s kind of a cult in that they get a lot of lifelong “volunteers” and people who devote a lot of their concious awareness to partaking in classes and workshops for free. Everyone else who doesn’t do that has to pay them a lot of money, people like me! From what I understand about it, it’s the kind of thing you do right before you tell the world your darkest secrets and get on with your life. I’m not sure what that means for me, but regardless, I’m doing it this Friday-Sunday with an evening session on Tuesday and I’m going to try and livetweet every minute. I’ve also quit my job and am on the threshold of a new professional opportunity, in a new industry (software), so all of this talk of memory, continuity, belief systems and principle will be coming at a good time. And as you can see from the charts below, I pretty much fit their main demographic.

I often think about the types of thoughts that cloud people’s heads as they go about their day and whatever that is will dictate the things they will resonate with in their lives. Who they want to date, what kinds of friends they want to have, what kinds of activities they’ll entertain–so much of that is subject to change from one day to the next. This then brings us to neuroplasticity and it makes sense that this natural progression we all go through is a means towards evolution, or maybe it’s vindication from all the thoughts and feelings that prevent us from excelling in life. That’s probably the same thing. Forgetting about the things (unicorns, glitter, kittens) that prevent us from seizing opportunities (more kittens, job skillz, boyfrien?) is probably all there is to it. That and investing in new thought patterns that favor a breaking of old behavioral patterns, I suppose.

More on this and other enlightening discussions (probably) later. After a thorough education.

I got this brand new iPad app called “Blogsey”. I’m not entirely sure how it works and there are way too many videos to watch. Which is fine, it just means getting familiar with it the right way is going to mean spending quite a bit of time. Which is prompting me to create a post using only my intuition and part of my brain that is responsible for fighting. And street smarts.

Speaking of streets: I saw three complete disasters when I was trying to go out in Boston last night. Crying, falling, body parts that shouldn’t be exposed, exposed, drunk. I’m not going to say I’m too good for that because everyone has issues and that’s fine. I will say, however, that I’ve segregated my own such past experiences to times I’ve been out of the country… Thus perpetuating any stereotypes europeans hold over Americans.

One thing Europeans do have over the Americas is getting a drink somewhere when you want to. Pretty much whenever. Because getting a drink should be like stopping to get a slurpee at 7 Eleven. It should NOT be like waiting in a communist bread line.

I was in the middle of Chinatown/financial district, waiting outside of a “lounge” wanting to just go someplace that isn’t crazy that would serve us at 11:30 on a Saturday night. We didn’t want to get sloppy. We didn’t want to have an EPIC night. We just wanted a drink. 11:30 turned into 12:50 and most places stop serving at 1:00.

I don’t even know why we waited for so long. We lost track of time through a combination of talking amongst ourselves and talking to the people next to us in line. Then, outraged at 12:50, we decided to go somewhere else. And no other bars were open.

I hardly ever go out downtown because most of the time, it’s a miserable experience. Boston is otherwise a metropolitan city. There are fun things to do at every hour of the day except after 10:00PM. Why. Why.

And then you have people constantly comparing New York to Boston. Including me, I do it too. And every time I do it makes me so mad. I don’t want to be envious of another city just so I can enjoy something as simple as being able to go out for a drink with three of my girlfriends and RELAX at 11:30 on a Saturday.

Is that really such a luxury?

Let’s get it together BOSTON.

Otherwise I’m never going to come back.

NEVER.