She Said Yes: Away to Connecticut

Saturday
This weekend, I've accepted an invitation from C. and gone off to Connecticut to stay with C. and her family in her hometown and have a lovely, relaxing weekend full of great food, shopping, and friends. I'm simply having too much fun to stay and write so I'll say adeiu for now. More to come later!


Well it's Monday and I'm back at work, after arriving back in Williamstown after 10 last night. I had a lovely weekend with C. Friday night after having a yummy summer dinner with her parents we went to see Julie and Julia. I feel much more inspired after seeing it, and my hopes of being discovered here in my own little corner of the internet, as Julie puts it, have been raised, but it was also a lot easier in 2002 when no one knew what blogging was!

I loved C.'s hometown and the surrounding greater Hartford area. The houses are so beautiful! There's lots of English manor houses and although I've always considered myself to be contemporary in my design and architecture tastes I really love the mixed stone and brick. C. and I had a great time driving around and creeping on houses.
West Hartford Center itself is so funny-- like C.'s friend H. said, it looks like a movie-set-city that was just plopped down. The area is surrounded by beautiful houses with lots of land and then suddenly there's a few blocks of a squished city that are so well-planned, clean and perfect they look fake. We went to a restaurant called Max Burger for dinner and I was really disconcerted by all the pictures of live, happy cows on the walls as I sat down to order my burger. How funny is that?

This trip was definitely exactly what I needed to break up this summer. It's just been so long and lonely being on campus without the life of having everyone else here. "Yes" is doing wonders for these last few impossible-to-get-through weeks!

[Images from AOL Real Estate,]

She Said Yes: Children's Theatre

Monday night was my first yes-inspired event; it was an event which I'm not particularly sure I would have said "no" to, but may have found an excuse to not attend.

My friend C.'s family friend invited her to attend a performance put on by the Greylock Theatre Project, an organization that brings professional theatre-makers together with local children to get them involved in the arts, specifically, creating their own ten-minute-plays. C.'s family friend was directing one of the shorts and thought C. would love to come along, and in turn C. thought I'd love to come along, since we're both a little obsessed with children. The way she pitched it to me was "It's adults acting out plays that are written by little kids." How could I have said no, even if I wanted to?

The event was being held in Goodrich, our campus coffee bar, so C. and I made our way in along with parents, siblings, and friends of the playwrights. I'm not sure the same demographic that the Williamstown Theatre Festival attracts showed up at this particular performance. The theme for the night was "On Top of the World!: Plays With a View," and included six plays written by four 11-year-olds, one 10-year-old, and one nine-year-old. Sample titles included "Fancy & Houle Sneaking Out of the Farm," "The Pirate Treasure of Togetherness," and my particular favorite, "Stem." Stem was written by a hilarious 11-year-old girl, and the plot line was, essentially, that a beautiful flower that looked exactly like Leighton Meester didn't want to be picked by a crazed mad scientist who looked like a gray-haired Kramer. My favorite line was probably the following:

Leighton Meester Flower: "What is that you have?" [It was a beaker]
Kramer Scientist: "It's a beaker. It's a scientific method for doing science experiments, duh, so don't ask again!"

Oh, duh.

All-in-all, it was really probably the most I've laughed in awhile. Little kids are just so weird. I have no clue how they come up with the ridiculous things they say, but honestly I wish my mind still worked like that a little, since self-editing is the bain of all writing endeavors.

I'm pleased that my first yes-inspired event was a grand success, but I'm hoping for a juicy disaster. Those are always more fun to write about.

In other news, L. is on a plane right now, and of course I'm freaking out. It's going to be a long three hours.

Image from [Frugal Fe$tival]

She Said Yes: Inspiration

I've taken on a new project, one half-designed with this blog in mind, and half-designed with my need for finding something rewarding to do. In light of needing a focus this summer on developing something other than my career (i.e., soul, heart, mind, chakras, etc.) I've decided to undertake a very un-original but, simply, great plan. We've all seen or at least probably been told not to see the Jim Carrey movie Yes Man (I actually liked it, I am not afraid to admit it!) and that principle--the principle of saying yes to everything that comes your way and every opportunity that presents itself, is a truly great one. So I'm going to try it for the rest of the summer. Within reason, to any opportunity I am presented with--any legal, safe, and somehow spiritually, emotionally, or mentally fulfilling opportunity--I will say yes without hesitation, excuses or expectation of anything in return but the simple completion of that opportunity. Everytime this happens I'll let everyone here know about what it was and how it turned out. Honestly, I'm hoping for some horror stories just to keep this interesting! Here are some specific exceptions:

I will not stray from South Beach if the offer is food-related. I know everyone's all about trying new things, food being high on that list, but it just wouldn't be fair to all the ice cream I've turned down up to this point! You always need to think of the ice cream.

I will not commit infidelities to L. You know, for any potential would-be suitors who saw this as a tear in the net of committed and 99.9% blissful monogamy.

I will not harm any person or living thing in any way.

I will not shirk obligations to my job for this new incentive. For any would-be day-trips popping up in friends' minds as I speak.

I don't want to make the list of "no's" any longer (no limitations! I mean...yes to the lack of limitations!) so I think that covers most reasonable things I would not, in fact, say yes to.

More updates on the yesses as they come!

[Image from ZeroDegreesArt]

[Disclaimer: As per one of my above restrictions, ironically I would not, in fact, be able to consume that Yes pie. But doesn't it look delicious? Hint: Yes!]