"Everyday now I feel myself pressed harder in to this life."

I'm going abroad for the first time in my life in a few months, completely alone. I hope I don't get mugged, among other things, but words can't explain how excited I am to soak in a different culture and gain perspective.

On a different note, I'd like to complain about the fact that I don't like when art work accompanies words, especially poetry. The words should speak and paint a picture for themselves. Images on post-secret are fun to browse, however.

To give a few words their glory, this is a poem by Carrie Fountain I really enjoy. It's slightly morbid, honest and I love it.

Burn Lake 2
Carrie Fountain

We found a duck, a mallard, dead
on the shore, head split, eyes loose,

yet when someone poked it with a stick
it shuddered suddenly

and stood up, then collapsed again
and died for real, which to me

explained a lot.

For a while I’d had a vague idea
I could kill myself by holding my breath.

Yet when I locked myself in my room
and tried it, I fainted, fell face-first

into the closet, and came to in a panic,
thinking for a moment that

I’d done it, and death

was just my little blue room
at the back of the house,

my brother’s stereo thumping in the bathroom
while he labored over his pornography.

I was shocked then
by my body, its plain intention to continue

with or without me.

Every day now I feel myself
pressed harder into this life.

Sometimes it’s so near and docile
I can feel my hand take hold of it.

Other times it’s that old, alarming
grief, that animal scrambling

to its feet, desperate
to be living. Because it’s

mine, I wait for it to die.
Then I bury it.

Carrie Fountain is a poet and a Creative writing professor at my University. I use her work as an inspiration for the creative outlet I love most- my writing. Now that I'm not in a course that requires me to blog por le grade, I can write freely and post however I want. We'll see how much I take advantage of this... bear with me as I explore the possibilities. -J

Pop-up Shop: JNBY

Yet another reason why the big apple calls my name every winter: Pop-up Shops.

Whether it's Topshop, Rordarte or Asian designed brands brought to the US, I completely love the idea. This season China-based brand JNBY is setting up shop in NYC's Soho district before it permanently finds a home in the city. I suppose you could think of pop-up shops as the airstream trailer of restaurants. Still delicious, but more unique because it's produced on a smaller scale. This season JNBY's pop-up shop is holiday inspired with jackets, hoodies, socks, leggings and dresses in loud prints.

Here's a look at what the shop is offering...(I am green with envy as a type this entry)

How to Be Mindful During the Holidays

Yes, The Holidays are full of merry and cheer but they can also be a really stressful time for everyone with get-togethers, holiday shopping, work and all kinds of other stresses and worries. Thankfully, our good friend and guru Leo Babauta of Zen Habits has turned being mindful during the Holidays into three easy steps:

1. A Simple Practice- Take an action, like eating a fruit, and do it mindfully. Savor it slowly, take in the tastes and smells. Think about the way that eating it makes you feel, and concentrate on that feeling.

2. A Simple Mantra- Each time you feel yourself getting stressed or overwhelmed, remember the fruit. Say to yourself "apple" or "banana" or whatever fruit you ate and remember what it was like to be mindful as you ate that fruit. Now do the same thing with whatever situation you are shopping, spending time with loved ones, or doing a work task. Focus on that one thing and really be in the moment with that thing or person.

3. Remember What's Important - During the stressful Holiday's remember what's most important to you. That might be your loved ones, friends, spouse, kids, significant other, or even work. Whatever that is, be passionate about it and and focus on it throughout the holidays. The rest is just noise. It's not important. Fully experience what's important to you and let the rest fade away.

Via: Zen Habits

What Women in London are Wearing to the Disco: Lingerie

Fact: Women in London are wearing lingerie to the Disco.

Women will always look for new ways to wear less clothing, and no one will stand in their way. After the lingerie trend on the spring 2010 runways, the trend was bound to hit the streets also. I'm not talking corset tops, women are making conscious decisions to shop in the lingerie section for clothes to go out in. According to WWD UK Department store Selfridges has sold 70% more corsets this winter than it did last year already. The four-figure priced corsets have been selling out in less than 24 hours a piece and when Rihanna performed in her toilet-paper-esque slip costume at the American Music Awards, sales of the likewise Selfridges slip skyrocketed.

So, when shall the trend hit us here in the United States? Hopefully later than sooner, but my vote goes to Lady Gaga when guessing who will be the first to sport the new trend out.

Portland's Foodcart Scene: An image of What Austin's to Become?

Austin isn't the only city in America trending the non-fastfood, non- restaurant convenience food service. Portland, Oregon is far ahead of the game, apparently. With over 400 of what they call foodcarts, serving hundreds of different ethnic foods to city-goers curbside, the city is a model of what Austin may looking like in the future, based on the recent air-stream trailer trend.

The benefits are similar, little fees for space, good profit. But are these "foodcarts" as hip as air-stream trailers? Doubtful, Portland.

A journalist for the NYT investigates the city's trend.

"Your Own fat, Relocated"

The latest kind of recycling has nothing to do with soda bottles, according to a recent New York Times article. Instead, it concerns your body fat. Wherever it may be thighs, butt, tummy, surgeons are now liposuctioning it and injecting into breasts for clients who wish to enlarge their breasts without going the silicone route.

The procedure isn't new. Infact, in the early nineties it was completely condemned but currently is generating a new wave of excitement. Recently the Plastic Surgery Society announced that this procedure "can be considered a safe method of augmentation" and doctors have discussed the fact that the only way to create a natural-looking breast is to use your own body's tissue.

Of course their are risks involved. Such as the fact that injected fat can cause mammograms to be offset and misread. Also, the likelihood fat will survive being suctioned out, and transplanted is sometimes low. However, as the procedure becomes more popular, surgeons are becoming more advanced in their techniques.

My opinion- silicone or not, it's still unnatural. However, I do recognize that everybody's insecurities are different and maybe women like the idea of not having to put something foreign into their breasts to make them larger. Even if it is say FAT.

Breakfast Recipe: Couscous with Oranges and Dates

Now that my semester is virtually over, I have the time to actually take care of my body again, actually feed it the right things and exercise more. Sitting top on my healthy-habits-to-return-to list: eating a healthy breakfast.

A breakfast recipe I am trying this week: Couscous with oranges and dates! Mmmm.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of water
2 to 3 tablespoons of brown sugar or honey
1 teaspoon of orange flower water (optional; find at Middle Eastern markets)
3 tablespoons of chopped dried apricots
2 tablespoons currants or raisins
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (optional)
1 cup couscous
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 navel oranges
6 dates, pitted and cut in quarters
pomegranate seeds (for garnish!)

1. Combine water and brown sugar and honey in a saucepan and boil. Turn heat to medium and continue to boil until the sugar has dissolved. Still in the orange flower water, apricots, raisins or currants and set aside for 5 minutes.

2. Place couscous in 2-quart bowl, and add the cinnimon and salt. Stir. Pour on the hot syrup and mix together. Set aside for twenty minutes (if not eating right away-refrigerate).

3. Shortly before serving, strain the couscous and stir in the butter and then cover again.

4. Peel oranges over couscous (so any juice drips into it) and add the four slices atop with couscous along with date slices and pomegranate seeds, if desired, and serve.

(Via: Cookbook writer and NYT contributer- Martha Rose Shulman)