Love Now

A cheesy little diddle I wrote last night (this may make an appearance in this year's Christmas cards).

The holidays are just around the corner

The fireplace is burning bright

The first snow is falling out our window

There's no leaving the house tonight

The lights are up and shining

The ornaments hung on the tree

And we're sitting here smiling

Because next year baby will make three!

Love Change

As the end of the year is quickly approaching, I think of what's to come. I attempt to think beyond final school projects, presentations and the looong paper I have yet to write. I try to think beyond hectic days at the office, last minute client deliverable changes and tying up loose ends. I try to think beyond the to-do lists because frankly, there IS so much more to look forward to in the coming days, weeks, months and year.

To start, I'm looking forward to Friday, when I find out if this palm-sized adorable swimming in my belly is a girl or a boy. From there, I'm afraid I'll think of nothing but strollers, nursery colors, and miniature socks...but is that so bad? :)

Then there's the office holiday party, which I'm really excited about this year. I got the perfect dress over the weekend - one that will hopefully still fit in two weeks and I'm ready to celebrate with the people that make work such a pleasure to come to each morning. Not one day goes by that I don't feel grateful for having the luck of loving my job and the people I work with.

The holiday party coincides with one more exciting day - one we've been celebrating since first grade - the last day of school! This semester has been a great one. I remember wondering if I can handle it all and whether I should take the semester off to focus on family. I definitely made the right decision to stay. I've learned so much both about account planning and the powers of social media - all things I can apply to my everyday work.

Soon after it's time to celebrate the holidays with family and then the babymoon! (Thank you to whoever invented this concept) - we are SO excited to see a new place and enjoy being a family of two for the last time.

In many ways, this year has been one of the most important ones of my live...but I have a feeling the fun is just beginning. So here's to the new year - chasing dreams and never resting until they're realized.

Happy New Year, all.

Love Who You Are (And Who You Want To Be)

After a short self-reflection I decided I'm a wild child on the inside but on the outside I resemble a grandmother so the only solution was to paint the outside to match the energy on the inside. So, I designed a whole new look for myself and last night I went home with the blue prints. They were not appreciated.

Since I feel you may be looking at me and expecting a drastic change any day now, I feel like it is my duty to let you know the extreme won't be so extreme. My plan was threatened by an unmentionable boy who was not fond of my pulp fiction haircut plans. I believe the exact words were "Ya do it, and I'll shave my head and grow a mustache." Given his Greek genes, growing a pedophile-like mustache can happen overnight so I dare not play with fire. I am a strong believer that a woman should stand on her own two feet and never give up who she is for a man but I suppose that when a man picks you because of who you are, you shouldn't drastically change that person - inside or out. Perhaps, this unnameable gentleman would not have chosen a black lipsticked gal for his life partner.

Well, we may never know. I do want to thank you for being supportive but sadly it'll be plain Jane for a bit longer. Take me as I am.
 

Love (and Headbang) Like Crazy

**I wrote this two years ago but the memory is still very much with me**

So Tuesday is our two year anniversary. Two years ago we were standing in the Nassau, Bahamas airport with Fat Joe (serious) taking pics and enjoying our last days as singletons. So of course we have to celebrate all week. Last night, I surprised my husband with a home-cooked dinner (his favorite: lamb) and truffles. Tuesday, we're going to our favorite French bistro and Wednesday, we're going to the theater. But tomorrow night's plan trumps all of these events.

Tomorrow, we will be going to see Anvil. You see it all started a couple weeks at work, when someone sent out an email with Anvil tickets. I Googled the name and found it was a delightful play about following one's dream. Lovely, I thought as I bid on the tickets. I was ecstatic to win just seconds later and bragged to my whole group at work. That's when I found out the Anvil the tickets were these guys: I was far too embarrassed to admit my mistake so I took the tickets and tomorrow evening, we will be moshing with other fellow rockers.

Rock on (is that what one says at these events)?

Love Lots

Given this blog is about love, I feel the need to pay homage to my team's Halloween costume this year since it was about loving lots. Though I've never actually seen an episode of Sister Wives, I jumped at the chance to dress up as one of them, especially since this gave me the opportunity to play pregnant when no one knew that I really was. Our costume was a big success (minus the unnecessary tummy punches that apparently come with mildly stuffing your shirt).

I don't know any true life polygamists though I've spent some time in Utah, but I would be inclined to say love one, love many (unless of course you are my husband). :)

Happy very belated Halloween to all - now we look forward to the holiday of Thanks where I will blog of my love for all things Turkey.

Produce Love

A little smile on his/her face, a big smile on mine.

Love Life

I can’t breathe. My wheel is wavering between the bike lane and the street and my eyes can no longer tell which side I should be on. Another hill is up ahead and I’m not sure if it’d even be sane to attempt it. It’s been twenty miles in the blistering heat and I have many more until I reach the top of this mountain. I petal faster to gain enough momentum to climb the hill but my breaths become shorter and more shallow with each push. I want to stop and throw my bike down but I can’t. I’m doing this for her, for Eva. Every breath I take is for her, because it’s a breath she can no longer take.

Eva’s last post – the one she wrote before her untimely death left out the poetics and called for help, for help breathing. She had been suffering from Cystic Fibrosis for twenty-five years - the disease would claim her life just 48 hours later. 

Eva blogged every day she could for four years. Her posts were honest and heartfelt, and I imagine left many readers with a puddle of tears on their keyboards. At this age, girls talk about boys, fashion, and dancing. Eva wrote about oxygen tanks and what it’s like to live her life between four hospital walls. 

Before she died, she wrote:

“A mark on the world
A difference
Some proof that I had been here
Something to say that I mattered
That when my body left this world my soul had made its imprint.”

I can’t breathe but I won’t stop until I reach the top. My legs ache and I push faster. The sun burns but I’ll worry about that after. For the first time I notice the leaves changing colors around me and I smile remembering how much Eva loved the fall.

Love Facing Fears

          This seemed like a good idea a month ago. I mean it was so easy. I called, gave my name, credit card number, and smiled patiently as the nice lady on the other end of the line went through the obligatory list of warnings. Now, however, as I sit in this small office, initialing each line next to words like “parachute malfunction” and “Risk of pain, suffering and death,” I begin to wonder if this is really the best way to face my fear of heights.

            Each scribble becomes more illegible as my quivering hand fights to sign the last few pages. I stop reading the words because with each warning, the lump in my throat balloons into the size of grapefruit and my stomach may just cartwheel right out of my body. I gaze hopeful toward the clouded sky. With any luck, rain will begin to pour and they’ll hand me my refund and I’ll be on my way home like nothing happened.  No one has to know. Who am I kidding?!  I told everyone back home I’m going to do this. No one believes me. They’re all waiting for the video to be posted on YouTube and even then, you know there will be skeptics like Uncle Tony who will say the whole thing was doctored. “Ana,” my name is called and my eyes shoot to a smiling man holding a helmet. The sight of the helmet’s dangling clasps makes me laugh, a very nervous laugh, of course.

            The roaring engine does little to distract me from the altimeter strapped around my wrist…11,000, 12,000, 13,000 feet. I promised I wouldn’t look out the window but my body is being pushed toward a glass door. “Hold on to the bar above you,” the instructor shouts. With one swoosh, he opens the door and my feet are dangling over the clouds. I breathe in the cold air and without another thought, I jump.

Give Love

Last week, several people at the office dedicated their lunch breaks to creating fleece blankets to be distributed to underprivileged, single-parent families with babies in eastern Massachusetts.

As we're complaining about the office temperature being two degrees too cold, there are families in our backyard worrying about how they'll pay for heat this winter. Building Impact and its partnered agencies, including the Lowell Wish Project and Room to Grow, have helped many such families throughout the years.

Polartec generously donated the fleece for blanket-making events throughout the state to ensure every family has a cozy winter. The blankets are a piece of cake to make. They don't require any sewing - just clever cuts and ties.

Here is our dedicated team below:

Do What You Love

In 2005, Steve Jobs addressed the Stanford graduating class with a memorable speech. He spoke about his humble beginnings and the inevitable destination we all face: death. He said our time is limited and so we mustn't waste it living someone else's life. But what stuck to me most was the part about how in order to do great work, you have to love what you do.

I've had my share of jobs that didn't make me feel that way. I tried my hardest to like the task at hand and produce great results but I guess he is right, you can only turn lemons into lemonade for so long before you run out of sugar. 

But like in love, each job has a way of  leading you to the next, until it leads you to the right one. In a job world where it's easy to stay put purely out of comfort, Steve's quote reminds us not to settle until we feel inspired and absolutely in love with what we're doing. I am grateful that after a few interesting beginnings of my own - well there was grab n' go sandwich shop (need I say more?), washing cars in a suit and my mama's heels at a car rental company, and of course one certain job where the boss man would forget to pay us every other month or so - I have found one that makes me happy and so the good work comes naturally.

Thank you Steve for the legacy you leave behind and for simply reminding us that life is too short to spend it doing something we don't love.

A Couple That Color Coordinates Together, Stays Together

They walk hand in hand, strolling around my neighborhood in the mornings. While the city streets are bustling with people rushing to work, late for meetings, and hailing cabs, they take their time enjoying a different pace of life. But it's not their slow strides that catch my eye. It's not even the way their fingers tangle like two teenagers in love that can't get close enough. It's their outfits. She wears a navy sweater, khaki shorts, bright white sneakers and a baseball cap of her favorite team. He mirrors her with his more masculine navy pullover, khaki shorts, and white sneakers. And look at that - they like the same team.

This is nothing out of the ordinary for them. This level of coordination takes years to perfect.  Sometimes it's jeans and red shirts, other times it's black pants and yellow polos; but each time, it's white sneakers and a mirror image of each other's better half.

As I enviously stare, I try to envision their morning conversations. She is making his coffee, wearing a plush robe and casually asks "What will it be today, honey? The greens?"
"Nah," he shouts from the other room, "The orange button-ups and cords."

As they walk out of their house, hands connecting like magnets, she straightens his collar and they make their way to their bench in the park.

I smile thinking of them as I choose a green tie for my husband to wear to church. He smiles back and compliments my green dress and off we go.

Why Love

I initially started a blog entitled Business that are Changing the World as a class assignment. My first post was a breeze because I was truly inspired after hearing a speech from the guy who invented TOM’S Shoes. But as I began my second post, I realized that my inspiration didn’t draw from the businesses themselves but rather from the love and compassion that was founded in the very idea of  helping others. So in short, I’m changing my blog to feature stories of love rather than business – after all, I spend enough time in a cubicle all day.

The inspiration came in a moment of desperation early Tuesday morning as I was racking my brain for a post due the next day. There in my inbox lay the answer. A YouTube video – a proposal video to be exact. It was the perfect combination of old people and new love and I don’t know what it is but when these two are weaved together, I just lose it (in a very discrete and professional way of course – hello, I am at the office). As I sat there quietly weeping at my desk, my intern handing my tissues, the light bulb went off (or on, I never know which one it is).  

I will write about love, about observations of people in love, about proposals, about Friday nights watching Say Yes to the Dress (Just kidding, I don’t really do that…well not every Friday..I’m sure I’ve missed one or two!). Writing about love just comes so naturally, so if you’re in love, read this. If you want to be in love, this is for dreamers like you. If you’ve stopped believing in love (à la Kristin Wiig in Bridesmaids), renew your faith by looking at all the proof I will bring to you right here on this little blog called Good Ol’ Fashion Love.