Kristin Is Here

So,  I will be participating in the UCLA Dance Marathon on February 18-19. It’s 26 hours of dancing! And it’s all in support of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Project Kindle, OneHeartland, and the UCLA AIDS Institute. In an effort to represent the mental and physical challenges faced by children suffering from HIV/AIDS, I will be raising funds to provide hope for thousands of families around the world.

While thinking of ways to fundraise, I saw the SNL version of this video. I was so inspired by Robyn and Taran, and I thought, hey! I can do that! (Sort of. Maybe?) To prove I can dance like champ, and I am worth supporting.

And with a little help from my friends, far too many hours in front of a computer dancing, and a sister who happened to own a puffy pink coat…I did it.

So, if you got a buck, or two (three, four, or more) to donate to the cause, please visit my fundraising site and do so. Help me fight Pediatric AIDS. I will love you forever and ever if you do.

<a href=”http://support.pedaids.org/site/TR/CUGFC/General?px=1316924&pg=personal&fr_id=1190″> CLICK HERE TO DONATE!</a>

If not, at least enjoy the video.

Many thanks to my friends Willie Witte, Chrystal Heintz, and Mariana Iglesias for helping me make this ridiculousness happen, and the encouragement from many others.

Alright, I haven’t been keeping up on this site as of late. It’s been a great, and busy holiday season.

From spending the holidays at home again, to having some time off from school, to spending some time with Benstina at Disneyland. I have a new iPhone too. I’m already hopelessly addicted. The future is now, and I am not sure what to think about it all.

I think there will be a major re-think of what this site means to me over the next few months. How to make it interesting and doable while in the midst of graduate school. My life isn’t necessarily as exciting to write about in grad school. Could you imagine? Oh, I stayed up last night and read 200 pages, drank a lot of coffee, and lesson planned for kindergarten…it – was – crazy!

There will be a big post coming up soon, so do check back in the next 3-4 days. Important stuff!

Photo Credit: AP

Until then…

Finals….Finals….Finals….Write….Write…Projects….Presentations…Finals….ALMOST DONE WITH MY FIRST QUARTER!

Pretty much that’s my life right now.
But, Friday I did get to take a break from all my projects and papers to go spend some time in Costa Mesa at good old Roadtrip Nation’s 10 year anniversary.  It was amazing to see some old faces, enjoy the evening with friends, and celebrate everything that Roadtrip has done in the last ten years.  I am proud to have played my small part in it.

If you have some spare moments, please watch the 10 year video. It’s great, and I do make an appearance. I am not telling you where though, because I want you to watch all of it! See how far they have come!

Ok, back to work.

I am thankful for all the things I have always been thankful for. Friends, family, health, and my experiences.

But I am very thankful to be in the States, after spending a holiday season away last year.

Here’s some photos of Thanksgiving in the US of A!

Rylee!

Family!

FOOOOOOOOD!

Ready...set...go...

PIE!

Pre-food Table

Papa Jack

The kids.

mom

*Note: I am writing this partially as a way of avoiding a five page final that I should be writing.*

I found this video right now, as a part of my avoidance of my final paper.

And it really got me thinking about my love of Shanghai.

I can’t put a finger on how exactly to label what I feel towards Shagnhai. It’s a sort of love that I have never experienced before.  It’s a love that resonates deep in the pit of my stomach when I see videos like this, and pictures of the city floating around the internet. I have physical reactions, and audible evidence of the emotional responses I am afflicted by.

There is only one other physical environment that I love, and that’s Disneyland. But Disneyland is different, Disneyland is a steady sort of love. A love that has always existed and I know how to cope with. Shanghai’s love is webbed together with feelings of loss and distance. Shanghai is not down highway 5, and a short visit from the area of the world I call my birthplace and home. Shanghai is part of a distant world, that has physical, financial, and political barriers. I need to access a visa, purchase a flight, and find a good reason to travel the 6000 miles to the city I love so much. In essence, it’s unreachable and inaccessible.

Yet, it is a part of who I am.  I walk this earth with the thoughts I have, the way I perceive the world, and the way I think of others because of the experiences I’ve had in this vast metropolis that sits in the swelling Empire we know of as China.  I want so badly to be able to access this world occasionally. To roam it’s streets in the fog with the smell of restaurants left overs rotting  in the streets and alleyways. I want to wander amongst the crowds, bumping into people without having to apologize, and feel small as I wander through the bright lights of Puxi and Pudong. I want to feel a loss of control while sitting in the passenger seat of a taxi, and ward off street vendors trying to lure me into buying a bag, a watch, or some dvd’s, with the simple phrase “wo bu yao!”.   I want to misunderstand people, and have them misunderstand me. I want to feel the cold air as I wander by the Suzhou creek, or a stroll through Zhongshan park, as I see Chinese families walk and the elderly citizens dance in public. I want to trace my steps, and see the world through that lens again. To give me perspective. But I can’t get that perspective by going there right now, I can only get it through videos, images, and memories.  And I guess I do. When I see these images I mentally remove myeslf from the present, if just for a moment, and am right back there again. In a world I don’t fully understand and just for that reason, I love it. So much more than worlds that I understand all too well. I often contemplate if I will ever feel that sort of sense of wonder and awe by a city again? Perhaps I will, or maybe not, but at least I have.

I will visit again. That I am sure of.

I just read this on my tumblr account and had to repost it here. If I could make this a poster in my house I would.

I love Sir Eggers, who happens to run the amazing non-profit, 826LA that I occasionally make my way over to when I am lucky to enough to have some free time for.

Anyways, after reading it, all I could think was … thank god I am older, and hopefully have moved out of that judgmental time and place. I was there, it was called college. I think everyone has to go there once, but then we have to leave. Please do read it.

”

The thing is, I really like saying yes. I like new things, projects, plans, getting people together and doing something, trying something, even when it’s corny or stupid. I am not good at saying no. And I do not get along with people who say no. When you die, and it really could be this afternoon, under the same bus wheels I’ll stick my head if need be, you will not be happy about having said no. You will be kicking your ass about all the no’s you’ve said. No to that opportunity, or no to that trip to Nova Scotia or no to that night out, or no to that project or no to that person who wants to be naked with you but you worry about what your friends will say.

No is for wimps. No is for pussies. No is to live small and embittered, cherishing the opportunities you missed because they might have sent the wrong message.

…

What matters is that you do good work. What matters is that you produce things that are true and will stand. What matters is that the Flaming Lips’s new album is ravishing and I’ve listened to it a thousand times already, sometimes for days on end, and it enriches me and makes me want to save people. What matters is that it will stand forever, long after any narrow-hearted curmudgeons have forgotten their appearance on goddamn 90210. What matters is not the perception, nor the fashion, not who’s up and who’s down, but what someone has done and if they meant it. What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say. Do not be critics, you people, I beg you. I was a critic and I wish I could take it all back because it came from a smelly and ignorant place in me, and spoke with a voice that was all rage and envy. Do not dismiss a book until you have written one, and do not dismiss a movie until you have made one, and do not dismiss a person until you have met them. It is a fuckload of work to be open-minded and generous and understanding and forgiving and accepting, but Christ, that is what matters. What matters is saying yes.”

-Dave Eggers

If there ever was a photograph, in which I looked like I was a teacher, this would be it.

Sit down, and listen up!

I’m am so amused by my first class photo in years.

Tonight, I am attempting to multitask like it’s nobodies business.  The amazing thing about Graduate School, is that suddenly you have absolutely no free time. It’s Friday night, and if I want to attend a Halloween party tomorrow night, then I have to do about 5-7 readings tonight. On my FRIDAY night. This is every night. Fascinating I know.

But even little things, like writing this blog, or organizing my photos on flickr … the small pleasure and calming effect that documenting life gives me, is taken away from me. So, I am attempting to multitask homework, blogging, and archiving old Myspace blogs. Yep, I said it. MYSPACE! Remember that outdated social networking site that was all the rage via 2004-2008. RIP!

But it still exists, and my profile is still there. And logging into it, and grabbing my old blogs was like opening up a time capsule. Complete chunks of my life, ways I expressed myself, and the way I identified myself I have completely forgotten about. Until I read about it. That’s why I blog, that’s why I do this. So that one day, when I forget how I got here, I can look back and see progression. I can remember that life isn’t totally one big accident.

And in one of my blogs, I wrote about receiving a letter in the mail. The letter was from my 12th grade self. My senior English teacher had us compose letters to ourselves, that she would mail to us five years later. When I received it, I was astonished at how on target my 12th grade self was. She was cheesy, but I still am. But I was right on target. And even more years later, I am still shocked at how my priorities still remain the same. I thought maybe my priorities came from going to college away from home, or traveling with Roadtrip, or going to China. But no, they were always the same, and thus I was lead made the choice to go to college away from home, work at Disneyland, travel the US with Roadtrip, and move away to China. I like to dance, I like music, I like movies, internet, silly TV shows, and travel. That still pretty much sums me up perfectly. Crazy really.

Here the portion I transcribed from the letter to my Myspace blog, and now to my personal blog (oh the evolution of my virtual self!).

“… my best advice I can give to myself is to remember what is important; keep working, don’t be afraid of love, and don’t give up. And remember to never get too selfish, greedy, or cranky.  Always have fun, dance, listen to music, I love music, watch dumb TV shows (haha), chat on the internet, love movies, travel, make sure life is fun. Its not supposed to be a drag. Also, hopefully don’t do anything stupid that will ruin what I work for.
Kristin-go out there, don’t be afraid of life. Do the things you want to do and love life. If any hard times come, remember this too shall pass. And don’t forget the world that made you who you are, the world I am in right now, high school.   Because that world will be far away when you will read this. Good Luck Friend! You will be just fine.”

I will be just fine, you hear that?

P.S. Via my Myspace blog, which didn’t have auto-correct, I realized I am the worst speller perhaps ever.

On my walk from my apartment to Barnes and Nobel tonight; I walked through a filming set, I had a woman waiting for a bus stop me and take a photograph of me to send to her daughter because she loved my custom made coat (made while I was in China, just for me), and Weird Al was browsing around the bookstore when I walked in.

Los Angeles, you are so strange. Really.

And yet, you barely manage to impress me. Celebrities, film sets, strange people. Meh. It seems so normal. Something other people might be impressed with, but me, I want to see strangeness of other varieties.

Also, here is a photo of the class I am student teaching in. They are Kinders and I really enjoy them.

Class

Magic in A Box

Oh my goodness gracious.

Let me tell you. Feeding yourself when you live alone is either one of two things:

1) Tasty, because you spent a lot of money making it or eating out.

2) Cheap, but boring and dull.

BUT, that is not the case with what I think I can eat for every meal for awhile.

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I tell you that I am a huge advocate for Trader Joe’s stacked Eggplant.  You guess it, it’s stacked eggplant. But wait for it …. wait … it’s layered with ricotta cheese, roasted peppers, pesto, marinara sauce, and mozzarella cheese.  What does it taste like? Magic.

I am so impressed right now. I am never this impressed with my frozen meals.  It probably does help that I have a love for eggplant already.  A love that runs deep.