Happy Thanksgiving!

So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, feeling personally very blessed and happy, I would like to dedicate this blog entry to things I am thankful for:
1) My incredible family and loving friends
2) My new job that I love
3) BARACK OBAMA and the American people that voted him in
4) Funny people and awkward situations... especially the combination of the two
5) Beautiful music and dancing
6) Good health
7) The wool socks I am wearing right now because they keep my feet toasty warm
8) Whoever invented coffee
9) Whoever invented tweezers
10) Whoever invented the post-it note
11) Chocolate and all things delicious and sinful (Only in the edible sense of course)
12) The 400 pound woman living inside me who reminds me why I love chocolate, coffee, and all things delicious every day
13) Turkey neck
14) Thoughtful gestures that are totally unexpected


Please share something you are thankful for this year! It'll be fun :)

Pay It Forward

Another great weekend in Boston. Saturday night was spent with my delightful Sirens which is always the best. Did some singing - and by that I mean we sang Happy Birthday more or less in tune. Annnnd then ate a cake that had enormous frosting turkeys on it. My pants were significantly tighter this morning.

Went to church today for a chance to chill and think and be thankful... and the priest had an awesome message/thought for the week: don't pay it back, pay it forward. Given the current state of the economy, world and particularly now as the holiday season is approaching, I felt the need to share that with you all. In a time of total conservation, scrimping and saving, we need to be looking out for each other more than we ever have. The priest suggested per the movie Pay It Forward that we all try it... if you help someone out and they ask how they can repay you, tell them not to worry but to help someone else out when they can.

So I challenge you all to try it this week. Think of others... be as selfless as possible. Good things will come.

Amazing a la Whitney Simmonds style

I get into work this morning and find an email from Whitney telling me how she found an email that I had written her senior spring at Colby. And I read it and almost fell over laughing at how random/weird/gross it was :

Whitney: "and now, hem hem, your amazing email to me:"

Dear Che,
I am sitting at Elise's computer eating bbq soy nuts, licking my fingers, then touching her key board again. She'd probably be really mad if she knew that.
We missed you last night. I am going to give Jorge, Consuela, and all of their illegitimate children a spanking when I see them next. We taught FEO (which means ugly) and sang without the lights on. Hot.
I just did the eat the soy nut and lick my finger thing again.
Today was a good day. I did pilates, went to the teen parent school, watched "Real Women Have Curves" and am now about to prance around naked, embracing my "beauty." Speaking of which, Holly locked me outside in my underwear yesterday and then called Mikey. Luckily I escaped before he saw me. But John and Ann did. They live next door. I was embarrassed.
Well, what more can I tell you... nothing I guess. I hope USD or California Western get back to me soon and accept me so we can move to San Diego and I can be tan. And talk like a REAL valley girl. Could we buy a bunny AND a chihuahua?
Did I spell Chihuahua right?
Viva Peron. Y que te sientas bien :)
Mariah




Wow. WHAT WAS I SMOKING?
Yikes. This is why I DON'T do drugs.

Hey Elise? Sorry about the soy nut thing.

The bizarre ways of men...

Men puzzle me. I love them, I can't stand them and I categorize them as one entity that follows the same rules. This is admittedly a flaw of mine.
So here are a few questions I have:
1) How is it that in an elevator, a place where NO ONE ever talks, I was asked to lunch by an extremely friendly man who works next door? And how did he know that I was not from Maine the second he met me after accusing me of being "too friendly for Boston" when in fact HE prompted the conversation in the first place? Silly.
2) Why don't all guys know how to moonwalk?
3) THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT AND THIS IS ACTUALLY A POLL A FRIEND OF MINE AND I ARE DOING SO IF YOU ARE A MALE 20-23, PAY ATTENTION AND RESPOND: WHY DO GUYS TELL YOU THEY ARE SO INTO YOU AND THEN STRUGGLE TO TAKE ACTION OR CALL BACK? WHY ARE THEY AFRAID OF US? I know the female praying mantis eats her mate's head off after sex, but aside from a few gals I know, this not normally the case. AND WHY DO WE WANT TO KEEP LOVING THEM EVEN THOUGH WE WANT TO STRANGLE THEM? What is it about the quiet, sheepish remarks of love and affection from them during a heated argument where we accuse them of not caring that pulls us back into the web time and time again?

Mariah's hypothesis: guys DO care. They DO want you in their life and possibly even see a future with you. They are just SO torn between the unsettled, fresh out of school, hardworking bachelor lives they are leading and the one where they have a woman who truly means something to them that will love them completely and support their dreams... and maybe even cook sometimes...except for me. I certainly don't do that. SO they try desperately to keep the poker in the fire, so to speak, in the hopes that dream girl will still be floating around ready to settle when they have worked themselves out and are ready to take the plunge.


THOUGHTS?!

Only kindness matters

I was on my way to work this morning with my iPod plugged in and the song "Hands" by Jewel came thru the shuffle. I love this song because of its message- "my hands are small I know but they're not yours they are mine own and I am never broken..." "In the end, only kindness matters." There is nothing more poignant and simple than that. Only. Kindness. Matters. Think about it- what do we remember fondly in our lives? What do we treasure? When we die, what is the legacy we want to leave? That we were kind. That our presence in the world was valued. That we will be missed.

And then I got to work and read an article in the NYTimes about a Mexican immigrant who was stabbed to death in Patchogue, NY by some high school kids who liked to "get drunk and mug people" as a diversion. They decided on that fatal night to "mug a Mexican" so they went into a largely Hispanic neighborhood, punched this man and stabbed him. This man who labored in the U.S. for 16 years night and day to send money back to his mother in Ecuador who has been fighting cancer.

My heart stopped. My blood pressure is still up.

What the HELL is going on in our world??????? I'm sorry. When 5 17 year olds "get drunk and mug/kill people" as a diversion, I want to vomit. Then I want to pray for them. Then I want to show up at their doorstep and tell them I think they are ATROCIOUS and throw their asses in jail to rot.

I am getting sick to goddamn death of hearing people talk about "minorities" with disdain or following thru with hate crimes for FUN. Is your life THAT awful that you feel the need to KILL someone you don't know because they're different?

And you know what? Live for a day in their fucking shoes. I'd like to see any of these poor schmucks from NY or elsewhere, living in upper-middle class whitebread communities survive for a DAY in the shoes of a poor immigrant who hardly knows English, working 3 jobs to send BACK to their sick families in war-torn, impoverished countries.

They are doing what our great grandparents did and trying to make a better life for the people they love. They are human beings. They are not "aliens" or "less than." They are HUMAN. Get rid of the geographical lines and colors. PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE and people deserve love.

To you kids who were trying to have "fun?" I abhor your kind. Go ask daddy for some more money for an iPod upgrade you bastards. Pathetic.

There is a fascinating woman living near me. Every morning as I approach my T stop, I see her sitting on the sidewalk, pigeons surrounding her and perched on her arms and legs. She brings seeds in a little brown bag and smiles serenely for a good few minutes as the birds flock to her side. Then she stands up, throws her long blonde hair over her shoulder and walks towards the entrance. She is the happiest person I see in the morning. She takes time to enjoy nature and animals, she smiles, she holds the door and she doesn't walk 900 miles an hour as if she will absolutely be fired if she does not trample other people to get to the train.
I love the pigeon lady because she reminds me that there are people who are kind, observant, and happy with simplicity. She reminds me of Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Gentle, quirky, and sweet.
Some people may find her actions odd- she gets many stares. I find her awesome. And brave. She is somewhat of an anomaly in my fast-paced city life.
Is there a person like that for you? The one who is always there, hiding in the background, that brings calm to your mornings or days and reminds you to breathe and be happy?

Zen&Dancing&Nudity

I love the Zen spot I am in right now. I love that I take everyday in stride and know that life is beautiful and good. I have so many positive forces in my life right now that anything even remotely negative is pushed out of my head almost instantly.
It was a good first weekend in Boston... Kristen was here with the glee club and we got to spend Friday night out with Allison and Ash. Had some delicious food at the Purple Shamrock and roamed around the city for awhile.......Saturday I got up early and made some yummy scones. You know, the just add milk and butter kind. I haven't gotten THAT classy with my cooking yet :) Spent some time with Jen and Amanda and then saw Kristen's amazing concert at a church in Milton. They all sounded amazing- I was blown away!!!!!!
Today was a trip to the North End for Italian food and scones with Brittany, Lesley and Mimi....Brit was visiting colleges in the area and I am definitely rooting for her to pick a school here in Beantown. I've eaten cannolis twice this weekend. It's a good thing I walk EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!
Tomorrow starts week two at work. I'm pumped and ready. What an awesome feeling to look forward to going to work!!!!! Also, think I might pop by a tap class with Julia Boynton this week. My feet are itching to dance. They even have this sweet jazz/tap improv night at the Lily Pad once a month and apparently you have to be considered an "advanced" tap dancer to participate. I mean, anyone can watch, but I would love to do improv tap. How do you know if you're advanced though????? MAINE advanced is probably not BOSTON advanced. Guess I'll have to watch for the first session to see.

In other interesting news, saw an amazing break dancing performance in front of Fanueil Hall today. I wish I was a street performer. This reminds me of the time Mer and I went to dance camp in Boston and put a hat out in the middle of the city and danced... probably kick line style. We made a nickel. Better luck next time.......
OHH and speaking of dance......all these thoughts made me think of an AWESOME story: AWKWARD Mariah moment #5540680985690849689.
SOOOO I went to LA for a performing arts competition with my dance team when I was 14. Being the nudeaphobe (ummmm... sure?) that I am, I decided that I would NOT change costumes in the CO-ED dressing room we had. So I go out to this alley way and strip down. OHH Mariah, you clever girl, I kept thinking..........I got fully changed into my lovely leotard and watercolor ballet skirt and when I turned around, I was face to face with 11 Japanese cooks staring at me through a window of the, yes, restaurant I was changing in front of. They had NOT been there at the start of this adventure. Yet, there they were, grinning while giving me the "thumbs up." Mortified, I went TEARING through the alley back into the hotel and have never been the same since.
For all of you men out there who wonder why I am an asexual mutant, my nudeaphobia is a direct result of this moment from my childhood. Ahhh the trials and tribulations of a Catholic girl in LA....

More later my loves....keep on shinin'.

Thought for the day

I realize I have strayed (as promised) from the actual point of this blog, but I was reading this morning and was feeling really peaceful so I decided to share this passage with you:

'"To the Western mind,' I observed, 'patience and tolerance are certainly considered virtues, but when you are directly beset by others, when someone is actively harming you, responding with 'patience and tolerance' seems to have a flavor of weakness, of passivity.'
Shaking his head in disagreement, the Dalai Lama said, 'Since patience or tolerance comes from an ability to remain firm and steadfast and not be overwhelmed by the adverse situations or conditions that one faces, one should not see tolerance or patience as a sign of weakness, or giving in, but rather as a sign of strength, coming from a deep ability to remain firm. Responding to a trying situation with patience and tolerance rather than reacting with anger and hatred involves active restraint, which comes from a strong, self-disciplined mind.'"- The Art of Happiness


My whole life I have let myself be convinced by others that my tolerance and patience and "inability to express my anger" have been signs of weakness and things I need to "work on." I've admitted this to friends, boyfriends, etc. And today, for the first time, I'm starting to realize that maybe instead of being a weakness it's a strength. Not always, of course, because sometimes you HAVE to say how you feel so you don't internally combust. But to get through most days with more love than hate, more compassion and generosity than selfishness, and an ability to understand things from multiple perspectives? That is a POSITIVE trait. Re-vamping my mind today.......

THANK GOD.

OBAMA WON.
Someone I actually WANTED in a position of great authority WON.
Glory be.
That is all :)

OHHH! ANDDD!!!!!! SEAN FLAHERTY WON FOR DISTRICT REP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's my boy. Much love to you. You're gonna shine! Make Scarborough proud.

I heart Boston

Well, kiddos, today marks my first day at my new job with the Make-A-Wish Foundation of MA. It was phenom. Yup, I'm abbrev-ing. Shudder, I know. Anyways, I have to tell you, nothing makes my life better than walking into an energetic, positive work environment. I mean, there's a stuffed lion in the conference room and framed artwork done by children on my walls. HELLO!? Awes. I walked outside after my day was done and it was dark and Boston was lit up like a Christmas tree. I plugged in my IPod and buttoned up my jean jacket with scarf to look cool and trendy and thought, "Ahh, heaven."

Funny thing: on my way to my job this morning I got off at the wrong T stop. Obvs. I mean, in true Mariah style, I simply can't get anywhere the right way. So I walk by this sweet homeless man who asks for change and I say, "No, I'm sorry" because the truth is, I have no change. Those of you who know me know if I did, the man would have the damn quarters in his cup. He said it was ok and "God bless you," then he told me I needed a heavier jacket. WHAT??????????? I felt like a jackass. I laughed with him and told him to stay warm and forged on.

But wait. At this point I was still lost. So I found another homeless man and asked him how to get to Fanueil hall. He helped me. And I, again, felt like a jackass for not having change. Tomorrow morning? ATM stop first.

Final note. I'm pretty sure Chelsea (new roomie) and I are going to be doing a real meditation sequence man with an elderly Indian gentlemen. We met him by chance and learned all about yoga and centering the mind and how to stay young without face cream. Then he told us sex was very, very good and helped with our "oneness" and with clearing the mind. SWEET. So different from my Catholic upbringing that promised that with sex came babies, disease, a trip to hell upon death, and probably dismemberment. I'm switching religions. Damn.

More later, my loves. Sleep sweet and make the most of tomorrow.