Life Lessons from The Bachelorette: Episode 8 and 9

Here are some more life lessons:

Week 8:

Sagging pants are not cute

Kissing in a skating rink can be fine (making out- not so fine)

Greek people are allowed to make other types of food (not just Greek food)

Dressing a dog up is usually super adorable, but sometimes it can be over the top

Shows like this expect the woman to move to the man at the end of the show (not the other way around)

It takes time to know someone well

Throwing money at anyone dancing can be awkward

There is a lot of magic in the ordinary (so opposite of the TV show really – unless ordinary to you is flying on a helicopter over crystal clear water regularly).

Week 9

Putting sunscreen on for someone’s back is sweet – applying it to their whole body on national TV is weird

Fantasy suite card – I can’t pull any large life lessons from this one….just overwhelmed by the awkwardness of the show!

First step to recovery: knowing you have a euro mullet

Taking time and putting in effort to make sure your partner is “the one” is usually a good thing

Wanting a man-cave is not necessarily a good sign that the guy is ready to commit

Honesty is a good thing

Back muscles can be lovely

Nerd Alert: Settlers of Catan: Might be my gateway to LARP'ing (Live Action Role Playing) and other strategy games

So before I begin about Settler's of Catan, let me give you an overview of Gaya's game history

1) Spectra (my sister) and I would draw elaborate paper dolls (well done ones too), and we would create story lines for them (all of this is normal), but then we would sometimes role play and take on the persona of the paper dolls, for example we would be in the mall and rather than Spectra and Gaya chatting and window shopping, it would be Tiffany and Whitney  (this begins to transcend normal).  It was quite fabulous, Tiffany and Whitney had such great lives and it was so fun taking on these identites. They were smart, athletic, popular, and awesome. I don't remember all the details, but I would say this went on for at least a year or two!

 

{The paperdolls}

 

{Spectra and me being bird like}

 

 

 

2) Tetris and other computer games  - my parents decided that they would pay Spectra and I to play computer games (interesting parenting strategy- but I guess we both turned out ok). BOYYYYYY - it was awesome.  One day I literally spent 8 hours playing Oregon Trail (forge the river!) and made sweet sweet cash (that I would stash to pay for my math camp for 4 weeks at Mount Holyoke college - no I am not kidding). Needless to say, I was quite good at these games.  But sometimes it showed a negative side to myself (a competitive side (Spectra would call it my slythein side)).  In colonizaiton (a game about colonizing the new world), I would often attack other settlers, stealing the resouces, and destroying those that stood in my way. In the game civilization I would conquer the wonders of the world, explore new lands, and was always prepared for barbarians to attack!!!   I am pretty sure I was awesome at these games.  I also really excelled at tetris -  I was so good and could play for hours (this addiction resurfaced my 2nd year in grad school when I should have been working on a thesis). 

 

{pic of Colonization and Civilization - old school versions}

 

 

{Oregon Trail - thanks to http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2007/06/the_history_beh/ for the pic}

 

{Pic of Tetris, thanks to http://vadim.oversigma.com/Tetris.htm}

 

3) Traditional board games- my family loves normal board games too, although to be honest they don't often take advantage of my ruthless nature.  I just can't compete at the scrabble and badlerdash's of the world - my parents are just too well read and have decent vocabularies!

 

4) Other - I love that werewolf murder game, where you sit in a circle and close you eyes....yes, that one!

 

All of this history leads me to this: Settlers of Catan: A few months ago my friend Lauren introduced me to this board game....oh it is awesome, according to wikipedia, "Players assume the role of settlers on the game board, each attempting to build and develop their settlement while trading and acquiring resources. Players are rewarded points as their settlements grow; the first to reach a set number of points is the winner."  The games rules are initially intimidating and complicated, but soon, you might start dreaming about your strategy and how to get more bricks, or wood!  Literally, I had a dream about my strategy, I needed more stone!!

 

{pic of Settlers http://www.catan.com/}

I am thinking this might be my new addiction.  I really need to be careful or before you know it I will be LARPing (Live Action Role Playing).

 

{Pic: A larper  Photo by onionsaregross}

 

Growing up time does not mean no more game time, right?

 

2 questions for my readers (including those lurkers out there):

1) Any other games I should get my hands on?

2) What game addiction have you had?

 

 

Melanie and Eric's commitment ceremony

So this past weekend I attended my very first Lotus Certified Green commitment ceremony http://livegreenlivesmart.org/default.aspx.  Commitment ceremonies are held by couples who are not legally free to marry and by couples who want to celebrate their devotion without marrying. Melanie and Eric reached a point in their lives where they wanted to make a public statement of their commitment to each other in front of their community of friends and family to show them and future children [I am assuming that includes their super obese cat Dora] that they are committed to each other as a family. The ceremony was held in Chapel Hill in a barn (only about a mile from the barn where I got married!)

{This is Melanie and Eric}

Melanie and I lived together in Mexico and Singapore.  I don’t get to see her often enough, but I consider her a great friend as was so excited to celebrate with them.

Some highlights:
1)      The vows they wrote, were truly lovely, very personal – definitely showed their true voice
2)      Pie!!!! Tons of flavors of pie
3)      Popsicles – my favorite was Mexican chocolate (a spicy cinnamon flavor)
4)      The Awesome Indian food
5)      The Awesome lavender lemonade
6)      The wish lanterns (more to come on this shortly)
7)      Dancing with Melanie’s mom - an unforgettable moment - she kicks my (beep) on the dance floor
8)      Elliot being awesome at corn hole
9)      The party favors – handmade cookie mix in a canning container (see pic)
10)    It was a great opportunity to attempt to use my new camera

Cool aspects from the ceremony/reception:
1)      Vimala’s Curryblossom Café – did catering – great story – go google if you want to learn more
2)      Flowers from Blue Bird Meadows Farm – sustainable methods without fertilizers or pesticides
3)      Clothing from Chrissy Wai-Ching and Rawganique – sweatshop free baby
4)      The pies - Scratch Baking – a local bakery in Durham that uses local ingredients
5)      Beer and Wine from local NC breweries
6)      Local Pops – nuff said – Popsicles made locally.
7)      All sorts of other people involved that Melanie has known throughout the years. I particularly enjoyed sending the the wish lanterns into the night.  Little did Melanie and Eric know I was an expert on wish lanterns...drum roll - because I watch the bachelorette and 2 episodes ago, when they were in Taiwan they went to this festival where you had wish lanterns, and you made a wish, and sent it into the night like a mini hot air balloon.  Now neither Melanie nor Eric watch the show (their loss), but I guess great minds think a like (the producers, the Taiwanese, and Melanie and Eric!!)

{Melanie and Eric}

I love you guys - happy commitment ceremony!!

Here are some other fabulous pics from the commitment ceremony and the reception

{My squirrel}

{The Barn}

 {The favors....don't even ask me how many we took!! - Thanks Mrs. Singer}

{Me and Mel}

More life lessons from the Bachelorette - episode 7

I believe it is unadvisable to set a time line for when you plan to fall in love

Wearing a suit that makes you look like the “offspring of an ostrich and Elton John” is a tough look to pull off

When you go to places of worship in foreign countries, it is important to dress appropriatley

Talking about water heaters on a date can be risky

It is hard to know if the person is “the one” if you have only been on ½ of a date alone with that person

To get a dog, or not to get a dog, that is the question

Ever since October of last year I have been begging Elliot to let me get a dog.  I would love the little sucker sooo much, I just know it! 

Pro's:

- Someone greeting me at the door when I get home from work

- Someone who actually wants to go on a walk/jog with me (I wonder if a dog would be down with my Jeff Galloway running approach?)

- Someone who eats the food I prepare for them (I hope I don't have a picky dog!)

Con's: 

- Animals can be expensive

- My husband does not want one

- I would need to train him/her

- Hard to go do fun things after work

But don't these cute faces make all those con's just wash away?

{Photos from Atlanta Pet Rescue}

Even better than all these cute dogs, are ugly dog. I love ugly dogs

{Photos from ugliestdogs.net}

All dogs need lovin!

Gaya’s extreme couponing, minus the extreme part

So by now most of us have heard of the hit TV show “Extreme Couponing” (notice the 684 dollar sub-total, and the -676.29 coupons!).  Here are a few highlights of the show, and then my attempt at extreme couponing.

Some general strategies I learned from watching the show

i)     Getting rain checks for items on sale, so once you have a coupon for that item you use the rain check and the coupon together

ii)    Use store sales with store coupons and manufacturers coupons. Some stores double coupons, and even offer overage if the coupon is worth more than the item's price.

iii)   You can donate some of the bounty to others in need, or you can stock pile it in your house (I for one, sure as heck have room for 600 candy bars, 2500 diapers, and a 400 rolls of toilet paper). For tax purposes you can also define your house as a warehouse, and get a tax license.

{pic from show of a stockpile}

v)     You can dumpster dive for coupons. Americans throw away 57 billion dollars in coupons every year, and those dumpsters are ripe for the picking.  It is the most affordable way to use the 500 coupons a week.  I have had friends in Atlanta see people do this at the farmer’s market…awesome

{pic from the show….side note, the lady is wearing a 150 dollar Anthropologie jacket, I am not kidding}

Recently stores (Rite Aid, Kroger, Publix and Target) have been changing their coupon policies to prevent these shenanigans.  They are making it tougher to create that perfect stockpile.  So I wanted to go test my talent at this….

Gaya’s extreme couponing….

So I clipped a bunch of coupons from my parents Sunday newspaper and a lovely co-worker who graciously gave me the coupon section.  Elliot wanted none of this coupon crazy-ness, and was really raining on my coupon parade “Gaya, we don’t need that” “Gaya, I don’t even like cheerios” “Gaya don’t buy that, that looks disgusting” “Congratulations of spending money on crap we don’t need”…..and so on and so on.

Now, I was also buying normal groceries, so not just coupon items.  So my savings are not obvious from the receipt, but I did alright.

Here is a pic of the coupons I did not use (I forgot to take a picture of the ones I did use)

Here is a pic of the receipt. As you see I saved 6.60 from manufacturs coupons, and 7.81 from Kroger in store savings. I also had my husband check out separately and buy another bag of stacy’s pita chips (soooo delicious) which were originally 2 for $7, on sale for 2 for $4, plus a coupon, leaving the grand total to 1.53 after tax…not bad for delicious pita chips indeed.  I also got a box of mini penne pastas for like 50 cents (don’t be jealous!)

But overall, this was not a success, I also ended up with a bunch of crap spilling out of my pantry, that I would never have bought in the first place (dangit, Elliot was right), it also took a while finding those coupons, clip them out, find an envelope to stuff them in to, sort through them at the grocery, and spend extra time in the grocery store.

Summary: Domestic fail

To do: Next time I want to save some cash, go to the stores with good sales that week (for example right now Kroger is having a sale on berries).  I also want to go explore in various supermarkets that might be more affordable (so maybe Aldi (I hear if you are not happy with a product they will give your twice your money back) or IGA foods)

Flash mob = bucket item check mark

According to Wikipedia, a flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment and/or satire.

According to this definition, I did not really participate in a flash mob. But I think it was close enough!  So I plan to count it.  I know flash mobs are so 2003, but I just think they are fabulous.  Here are a few pics of successful flash mobs:
{thanks http://teamaltman.com for the pic}

{pic from telegraph.co.uk}

Here was us:

Here is what Elliot said when he saw the video of the flash mob I was in: “that's awesome. I've never seen a flash mob with NO music before. I think this is a new trend!!”

Some reasons it was awkward:
1)   Word leaked to a lot of people
2)   It was not super spontaneous
3)   We almost all started at the same time, no build up
4)   We also did not disperse after it ended, we just stood there talking laughing and giving each other high fives
5)   The music was impossible to hear (because of construction and airplane over head and the world's tiniest speaker), so everyone was a little off beat
6)   Because we were dancing in front of our bosses, yes, our bosses, including the Director of CDC, it was extra awkward. I mean, he saw me participate in a flash dance to Beyonce’s Let’s Move song.  Doing the ‘Dougie’ in front of your boss will always be awkwardBUT as you all know – I love awkward!!!!  It was a pretty exciting moment for sure.  Major bucket list item for me!

Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1lLJO6oWwM I am in the 3rd row in a turquoise shirt. It takes a while (1-2 minutes) to actually see me!

Wait...I thought all parents have the United Nations flag hanging in their dining room

So I got to visit my parents over the long weekend and decided to share a taste of my life with you guys....are you ready?

My parents are fabulous hippies.  Not the drug using music loving hippies, but the protesting liberal to the core hippies. Throughout the blog I will share tidbits of their awesome-ness, but for now, I will just share photos of their house.  I realized while taking these pictures, that all of this seems really normal to me - having Balinese art next to the UN flag in the dining room.  Let's just say my parents are not boring.

Here is a tour:

Frogs in a water fountain outside - my mom loves frogs, my mom also loves water fountains. Even more than frogs and fountains, she loves birds.  She is also happy when birds come to drink out of the fountain.  

Random hippy art

A gong, that my dad painted.  Behind the gong is some Balinese art

A Balinese mark at the entry way of the house.  Welcome to the Myers/Peeples household - don't be scared

Another mask to welcome visitors

Typical art hanging on the wall in the office

Not sure really, I think Mayan art

Shiny things hanging from the ceiling

More Mayan art - also notice the Christmas lights - my family loves lights all year round (even though we are Buddhist/Unitarians)

Art I bought dad when I was in India (he requested specific pieces that I was supposed to buy him when I was there)

This wall art actually looks like water is really flowing (yes, I am not joking), this is in the downstairs basement and represents the waterfalls of the Havasupai in the grand canyon

A painting my dad did inspired by the same waterfalls:

Yes, my father has a shrine....wait....yours does not? I thought everyone had a shrine?  The next two pictures are from the shrine

Here is a painting my dad did (I think?) from our time living on a Hopi reservation

Some religions have commandments and strict rules.  Us Unitarians have seven principles which congregations affirm and promote.  My dad has created art and pictures to explore these, here is one photo he took titled "imbalance begets balance"  Notice the 20 dollar torn bill in the corner of the picture....ask me for the story in person sometime.

 Here is another one

More art from Bali and India (picked it up on my 2nd trip over there)

Yes, that is a buffalo skull, yes, a buffalo skull. My dad is creating an elaborate piece of art

We also like nifty stuffed animals

We also like masks, here is a mask of an owl

Here is a painting my dad did of a dove

Here is the UN flag hanging in my dining room:

Typical reading materials (typical for my mom, but probably too mainstream for my dad)

In the guest bathroom, we have M&M Christmas lights up year round.  You might ask why?  My family would ask "Why not"

Some more of my dad's paintings/art

Star trek and the wizard of oz - typical

My parents love this one

Here is the gong from earlier - but my dad wanted to move it where I could get a better picture.  Notice yoda sitting on top with his head shaking to the vibrations.

Gnomes and nukes and other things on our refrigerator

"Mommy when I grow up I want to help smash the white racist homophobic patriarchal bullsh*t paradigm too!"

This is just the beginning really. Hope you enjoyed a taste of my family.  Now you know why they named me Gaya