New Year's Resolutions

It's so cliche, but as K can attest, I am someone who loves setting goals. Last month when we went to see The Secret Garden - a lush production full of gorgeous voices and overflowing with personal nostalgia - I declared smilingly that "We should set a goal to attend a play or concert every month." K groaned, good-naturedly, and reminded me that I always do that. It's true - I find something I life and try to set a goal to add it into my life more often!

So in the officially-sanctioned season of resolutions, I am in my element. I revel in it. I try to think hard and carefully before making the commitment, but couldn't stop myself from spewing out goals and breaking them down into SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound) objectives.  Okay, I didn't go that far. But that just makes me more ambitious for next year!

As part of my accountability, here they are:

Contribute to my community

• Educate myself on issues that people of color face and amplify their voices and perspectives
• When I hear racist/sexist/homophobic/ableist and other unacceptable language, I will speak up whenever I am safe to do so
• Participate in at least one march or rally about a cause that is important to me
• Engage with people who voted differently than me in order to exchange ideas, build empathy, and find common ground
• Practice ways to recharge, stay safe, and take care of myself and make a list of what works best for me

Music

• Play the piano once/week minimum and memorize at least two entire pieces
• Join a choir
• Listen to a new music playlist or a new album once/week
• Listen to the weekly classical playlist on Spotify

Art and Culture

• Attend at least 10 plays or concerts in 2017
• Attend the State of the Arts concerts whenever possible
• Take more photos - and - extra credit - take a photography class (yes, I’m giving myself the chance for extra credit here!)

Professional Development

• Attend at least three lectures/discussions about work topics per month to gain fresh perspectives and meet people working on the same issues
• Meet with someone outside of my office at least once a week to build networks and learn about different ways we are all contributing to solving problems
• Travel to Morocco and Algeria at least once this year
• Take refresher Arabic lessons and practice/study for at least two hours/week outside of lessons

Read more books

• Goal is 25
• Choose fiction books written by people of color or women 
• Non fiction books on five topics - Middle East/North Africa, New Zealand, Marriage/Relationships, Having a Baby, and Race/Class divisions in America  - make a concerted effort to choose books that are written by people from diverse points of view (not just white native-English-speaking men)
• Read one book in French

Fitness and Weight Loss

• Take off 20 pounds
• Reduce body fat percentage 
• Increase body water percentage 
• Track every day, even if it’s just one meal. Try to stay under 40, ideally maximum 37/day
• Walk a minimum of 10,000 steps on work days and 7,000 on non-work days
• Work out a minimum of 30 minutes 5 times a week

my brother the resident artist

Last night I finally got the chance to see my brother perform at the Vampire Lounge, where he is the resident artist on Wednesday nights. He and a friend with a cello entertain the crowds sipping the "blood of the vine" from about 9pm to 11pm.

M, that's my brother, is a very talented musician. And just like Malcolm Gladwell suggests, he's put in those 10,000 to get where he is now. He not only sings, plays guitar, bass, piano, and drums, but also has taught himself to produce, mix, and edit the music he creates. It's so impressive how dedication and sheer time put in can yield such wonderful rewards.

Last night he brought along two guitars, a ukelele, and a keyboard. My favorite songs were his collaborations with the cellist. With the anchoring notes from the cello counterbalancing M's tenor voice, the sound flowed over us fluidly and was mesmerizing. I can see why a vampire-themed bar would love to have his music fill the space.

It also made me think about my own music and how I miss making it. I've decided to try to join the choir at the UU church and see where I go from there.

Plus... we're going to make a Lindgren family holiday album ... coming soon to a soundcloud near you.

To hear some of M's music that he plays at the Vampire Lounge, check out this youtube playlist, and this live recording , and this one that includes both ukelele and cello!

Making music in California

I'm in California!

I booked a last minute trip out to California since I'm only funemployed for another 2 weeks and probably won't make it out here again until May for my sister's graduation.

As my Dad and I talked while we were waiting for my bag to show up I realized it has been nearly two years since I've been to California! The last time I was here was for Christmas 2014. I've seen my family in the interim - at cousin's weddings, packing up my house, and in Paris, of course.

But I hadn't actually been back to the house where I grew up in 23 months. It still feels like home :)
I love the wooden porch facing the park, the lovely wood floors, the walls filled with art and photographs. Even the smell of the linen closet is the same.

Best of all, I had the chance to hang out with B and M all day and we decided to lay down some tracks for Christmas songs! I learned a piano riff for Rockin' around the Christmas Tree and we've got that recorded. And tonight I'm off to the Vampire Lounge to see M play - he's the resident artist on Wednesday nights.

J'aime Paris, je t'aime à Paris

K and I closed out the month of August in Paris. It was a gorgeous weekend full of laughter and tears and scrumptious, indulgent food.

It's hard to put into words how important, how essential it was to see one another after more than two months apart. And then how devastating it was to get on separate planes and travel in opposite directions.

But let's focus on the beauty of our cheeky long weekend in Paris.

I arrived in Paris at Charles de Gaulle six hours before K. I was looking forward to wandering through beautiful Terminal 2 and maybe getting a massage or even paying to access a first-class lounge. I didn't realize until we were all shuttled off the flight into a dark hallway that arriving planes drop off passengers in an entirely different area than the gorgeous halls full of duty-free that I was expecting.

We had a short, dark hallway, a quick line through customs, and then were spit right out into baggage claim.

What a disappointment!
I mean, seriously, CDG, I was hoping to spend a bunch of money in your airport while I waited for my partner to show up. I can't be the only one who's ever wanted that!

Luckily, things started looking up when I found a Paul's with seating overlooking the Grandes Lignes trains. When I heard a solo piano piece start playing, I was impressed at the choice of music in the train station. A trip, a pause in the music made me realize that it was live! I looked around and spotted a piano tucked underneath one of the escalators and a frumpy, wrinkled, young traveler playing those beautiful pieces.  It was a combination of classical easily-recognizable tunes and more contemporary pieces, some of them probably of his own composition. That was a lovely way to enjoy an espresso and a pain aux raisins.

After we finally found one another, K and I made our way to the hippest of the hip hotels in Paris, Mama Shelter.  Somehow we roused ourselves from our jetlag nap to make it out to a beautiful little grocery/restaurant that K had found called Le Comptoir de la Gastronomie where K had foie gras ravioli (who knew that existed?!?!) and then we wandered out into the rain and stumbled upon the glass pyramid of the Louvre.

We turned and, exclaiming with joy, found the Eiffel Tower, lit up and sparkling with its nightly light show. It was a magical start.

On Friday, we found the most delicious bakery just outside the door of the hotel. Fortified with quiche lorraine and another pain aux raisins (for me - they just don't make them the same outside of France!) we braved the metro system and made our way from the 20th arrondisement to the 8th arrondisement to check out the Palais de Tokyo. We loved the two major exhibits - acquaalta by Celeste Boursier-Mougenot - and l'exposition de Patrick Neu.  But unfortunately we were left disturbed and uninspired by the others. K lamented that she wished Sarah Urist Green from PBS's The Art Assignment were there, she would undoubtedly help us plumb the depths of the art we'd experienced and find something meaningful.

As it was, probably the most exciting moment of our visit for K was spotting the dead drop.

"I've been looking for these for almost a decade now!"

My favorite moment was getting to be the gondolier in the acquaalta exhibition. It brought me back to reading The Passion aloud with K on our New Year's trip to Williamsburg.

My favorite orange summer jeans didn't match the dark and brooding atmosphere.

To be continued...

Learning a language is like learning to play the piano

As I face only 24 more weeks of language study before my test (and presumably/hopefully before I have functional use of Arabic  إن شاء اللة ), I have sought out guidance from every corner of the language study world to aid me.

Thankfully, the language consultation service at FSI is excellent and they host seminars on proven effective study techniques regularly. It's been quite a learning experience just hearing about all the work that is being done around how adults learn, retain, and employ new languages.

Last week, the session was called "On the Tip of your Tongue: Speaking Strategies for Fluency". Being far from fluency myself, my interest was more on tips and tricks to get my tongue to sync up with my brain - to start actually using the knowledge that I have about grammar and verb conjugations and have it come out of my mouth correctly!

We talked about how learning a language is more like learning to play an instrument than learning a subject like science, mathematics, or history.

Right now, I need to focus on the basics – learning to read, identifying differences between the notes, and beginning to connect them like chords.

I have nothing complex, my best sentences are:

My name is Rose, but in Arabic my name is Werda. I work at the foreign ministry and study at the foreign service institute. (editor’s note – my Arabic keyboard isn’t working well right now, I will try to insert later.)

And anything more complicated tends to be memorized rather than impromptu.

I am developing an ear for the sounds and the rhythm. But most importantly, I am beginning to love it.

My instrument is piano and I love how the piano sounds, even if, perhaps even more, if I am not currently capable of producing that sound.

I began learning to play piano when I was 7 or 8 – I never became a professional pianist (or even close to that!) but I know enough to enjoy playing, accompany myself when I sing, and play Christmas carols for my family.

If I can get that far with Arabic in the next 24 weeks, I will be delighted.