#BeALight

Tonight I went out of my comfort zone and attended a Ghostlight Project (an awesome way to make theaters across the country open to all as a safe haven) event where I only knew one person.  It was scary and awesome at the same time.  I learned that I'm perfectly able to make small talk if everyone I'm talking to is lovely and kind.  I learned that there are about a million theater-ish things happening in Maryland that I know nothing about.  And I learned that theater critics are awful (that was my second choice for the title of this post...) What was only going to be an hour long event, turned into a good almost 5 hours.  I loved it and the people I was fortunate to chat with!  Here's to new adventures in 2017!  And fighting for kindness and hope!

Unexpected

The aforementioned ceiling at Hudson Yards

When I was in NYC last weekend, trucking through the city in 95 degree heat attempting to get to the MegaBus stop on time - even though the bus was ultimately 30 minutes late - the Bestie said something that surprised me.  At the time, I was attempting to take a photo with my phone of the ceiling of Hudson Yards subway stop on the escalator while also trying to juggle my luggage.  She said "I'm always surprised by your ability to find pretty stuff everywhere we go."  She was being fairly sarcastic when she said this, mostly because I looked just a wee bit ridiculous and my only excuse was that the ceiling was pretty.  But I've since taken it to heart, and decided that that's something I really like about myself.  

I like that I can find beauty and fun in the unexpected.  After all the best part of travel is the surprises you find along the way.  So in that vain, these are my favorite shots of the unexpected from this past NYC trip. After all, New York in the summer is always unexpected and surprising.

Wouldn't you just love to walk out this door everyday?

Street art right on the street

Look at the cool workmanship on these overhangs - so pretty!

For some reason this doorway was tiled over

It must be said, I have a thing for cool doors

I also have a thing for street art

A super cute garden in Chelsea - I should have taken a better picture of the sign too.  It said something about buzzing off and refraining from picking - the flowers for looking not for taking.

Friday Five: Austin Edition

1. Tiny Pies! - In 6 days in Austin, we visited them 3 times.  I'm usually more of a cake girl, but I'm in love with these pies.  Whether it was the Chocolate Cream or the Coconut Cream, I was swooning after each bite.  Not super sweet, but super delicious!  In all the sweets I ate in Austin, these pies were my favorite. 

2. The Murals! - It's well known that Austin is well known for their murals around town.  There are some very famous ones, and some not so famous ones.  Each and every one is beautiful in its own way.  These murals are just one of the things that makes Austin weird and wonderful!

3. The HOPE Gallery - Another artsy installation that makes the city beautiful.  Instead of hating and outlawing graffiti, the people behind the HOPE Gallery understand that graffiti is actually artwork that should be celebrated.  So they made the walls of concrete on castle hill to allow these artists a safe place to work.  What's even cooler is that you never see the same works twice.  The walls are always changing.  Such a creative idea!

4. Sunset Bat Cruise - I'm a big fan of the sunset.  It's beautiful over the city.  I'm not such a fan of the bats.  It seemed like a cool idea at the time, but thousands of bats screeching over head in the dark when you can't be sure what they're going to do, is actually terrifying...

5. Tacos!  I estimate that I ate about 15 tacos in my 6 days in Austin.  I think I might have a problem...

Friday Five

1. #ALSIceBucketChallenge: Like I said yesterday, I don't really get it.  But that hasn't stopped me from watching a ridiculous number of videos on Twitter.  Apparently they're making tons of cash for the ALS Foundation which is fantastic - confounding, but fantastic nonetheless!  My personal fave so far is Matt Bomer's, though the video "isn't listed."  I don't understand what that means so I didn't want to post.  You can find it on Twitter though using the hashtag above.  So very, cute!  It may not be the most original way to make money for a cause, but anything used to raise awareness is wonderful!

2. Also, sort of obsessed with the new card I made this evening as a special order for a wedding.  After an inordinate number of times trying to get the stamps straight, I finally nailed it (though to the trained eye, it's still a teensy bit crooked - but not crooked enough that I couldn't handle it).

3. Random Acts has some pretty crafty and creative ideas to get people to be kind, but none so creative and awesome as the one they shared today.  I believe this week's theme is the Arts and if this idea isn't perfect to get art to the community, I don't know what is.  I'm so going to do this.  I'm thinking Naptown is the perfect place!

4. Travel Planning: I know it's a geeky thing to geek out about, but it's a means to an end.  Doing the research and seeing all the fancy pins (yes, Pinterest is how I research, deal with it) gets you all sorts of excited for the trip to come.  Of course when said trips are 5 months and 12 months out, it proves a bit hard to concentrate on anything else...

5. As a gift to myself, I promised myself, I wouldn't get overly stressed out about Christmas this year.  You heard me, Christmas. It's a little over 4 months out.  So I've already started planning and shopping.  Don't get too excited, I've only bought 2 gifts so far, but I like the idea, that some of the shopping is already off my plate.  I even have a few other ideas for people that I just haven't bought yet.  Hopefully, this will save me from the November freak-out of 2013, but that remains to be seen.

Peaceful Art

I recently read this article about the changing face of the arts in Belfast. This resurgence of arts and theatre is just an extraordinary thing to see.  I've always been a little leery to travel to Northern Ireland.  I know, in my head, that the scars are still there from the conflicts, whereas the conflicts have pretty much vanished.  But in my heart (and this is a terrible thing to admit) but I hear "Bloody Sunday" by U2 whenever I think of this beautiful country.  That all ends today!

This change in outlook is what makes this cultural uprising so exciting.  In a world that's literally exploding each day with conflict and war, they're using creativity to rebuild the broken sections of their world. I would give my left arm to be a part of a project like that!  Between live theatre, and paintings, and museum installations, how exciting must it be to live in the middle of all this growth, after living through such pain and tumult? 

 Like the article says, they're choosing to focus on their bright future instead of the painful past and isn't that just (for lack of a more intelligent word) awesome?!