Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Friends are family you pick

I remember the day I officially moved from New Jersey to California. I barely made my flight, I was so late in fact, that I wasn't even allowed to check in my luggage and had to run onto the plane. As the plane pulled away from Newark airport, and as New Jersey grew exponentially further and further away, I burst out crying. I just couldn't stop. Roberto was sitting next to me and was dumbfounded. I'm sure he was thinking that he was bringing a certifiable nut with him back to the Bay Area (and he was absolutely right). Anyways, I bring up this memory of mine to relay the reasons behind my tears. I of course was lamenting the fact that I was leaving behind my family on the opposite course, but I also shed tears for all of the friends and the amazing life I had on the East Coast. I was excited and happy to follow my dreams of having an adventure in San Francisco, but I was heartbroken as well thinking of all I was leaving behind. Plus I seriously had the most kick-ass goodbye party EVER.

evidence of kick-ass good-bye partaaay

My friends were the reason I had this amazing life, and as I am currently back in the East Coast running around like a crazed hyperactive chicken as I travel to four states due to conferences, job interviews and visiting my family (both biological and adopted), I am still amazed at how well my friends take care of me. It's really something special when a person opens their home to you, hands you an extra key and tells you to come and go as you please. Or when a friend takes me out for wine and gourmet lamb burgers after an 11 hours intense interview process just to help me relax. Or drives me and a carload full of people to another state to enjoy an all night spa. Or let me crash at their place at 4am because I'm obsessed with how comfortable their sisters bed is (don't worry said sister is out of country). And when I get taken to a Korean BBQ buffet and am not allowed to touch the bill. Or when a family lets me crash on their couch for as many nights as I want, just as they did for two years (long story, for a future post one day). I just feel continuously blessed and overwhelmed by the love shown to me, It really makes me feel like extending my arms like Stretch Armstrong to envelope my buddies in a huge super bear hug.
GROUP HUG!

And boy have I been getting FED. Back in California, I'm on the unemployment diet, which usually consists of starvation, Ramen noodles, and coffee (oh and occasionally pasta). But HERE my god, I've been taken out, been given home cooked meals and been able to express my gluttonous self to the fullest. Yes it's great but I think I will be needing to buy spanx soon to fit into my clothes for my conference. But I do I enjoy all of this "soul" food, and getting fattened up on some love.

my "I need Spanx" photo

The point is that I feel super duper lucky. I'm not writing this post to brag, I just want to express my gratitude for having these amazing people in my life. I remember that in high school, the highlight of my life was going grocery shopping with my mother on Saturdays. Yes, that was the extent of my kickin social life back then. I remember taking pictures of people I sorta kinda hung out with in class just so I could look like I had real friends. But now I have REAL friends, as opposed to the imaginary ones, and that's probably why I can't stop taking pictures. (imaginary friends also don't photograph as well). Sometimes I still get shocked that people actually want to hang out with me. Funny how that doesn't get old.

So I just want to say to my buddies that YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME. Just like I wrote in my title "Friends are like family you pick" and I am so glad that I got to pick you dudes and dudettes. I also need to include my sister who happens to be my family and friend. If I were picking out a dodgeball team, she'd be my first choice for sure.

I'm sure some of you reading my blog will see this, so you should just know that I love you all to ooey gooey pieces, and to my friends who pretend to read my blog, I love you guys too =D.

Peace from NYC, off to Washington DC to spend some fun times with my dear friend Tom and other eclectic mixes of characters. Can't wait!!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

A Creative Process...

Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, and in honor of this day, I was planning on writing this awesome, knock-your-socks off post about women and awesomeness and fighting the good fight and...

yea well I'm sick ....I've been sick since Friday and these coughing fits just won't quit.

So you have this post instead. This past weekend was the culmination of an absolutely amazing and inspiring experience for me. It was my first time performing at Yoni Ki Baat, which is the South Asian Vagina Monologues. After practicing for two months, I got on stage, along with a bevy of diverse, creative and wonderful women to express our unique monologues and poems to our audience in the Mission District of San Francisco.

There are so many emotions involved in this for me. For one, I remember coming to San Francisco as a tourist almost two years ago,
(Me being a tourist in San Francisco)

running around the Mission Dolores and the Castro clicking away with my camera since I pretty much figured I wouldn't be coming back to the Bay Area anytime soon, if ever. And now here I was performing IN the Mission. Funny where life takes you, from tourist to local performer, I definitely didn't see THAT coming.

Back to the show though. When I first submitted my poem "Mother May I" to Yoni Ki Baat, I had no idea what to expect. I was stoked to get picked, but I still had no idea what I was getting into. As I came to the first rehearsal, I felt sorta weird. I vaguely knew one person, and I had no idea if I would be totally out of place here. Although I'm loud and extroverted, I'm not a seasoned stage performer by any means, and yea I was very nervous.

From that first nervous day, so many things have changed. The women I met became my friends and my teachers, as they gave me tips on how to improve my performance, use my stage space and SLOW DOWN (which I still can't say has quite happened). There were times when I felt totally lost, thinking "wow I can't do this, many of these woman just GET it". Yet the comfort came came, as the pieces were memorized, and there were times when I saw some of the vulnerabilities and strengths of my fellow performers. I think that helped, and it also made me feel closer to them and to the pieces we were putting out there for the world to see.

The amazing thing is, each and every one of the pieces in the show was special to me. It was exciting to see words on paper transform into an actual performance, with feeling and expression. It was a pretty cool process to see how each woman made their piece their own, whether they had written them or not. Every performance was a journey, and I was glad to have been a witness to that journey.

Most of the YKB women are not professional performers. Roberto mentioned how so many of the performers looked completely at home on stage. I told him it was because of practice, practice, practice. The truth is, these women came from very diverse backgrounds. From a Harvard trained doctor who works at a community health center using her experience working with families to inspire a piece on delivering babies, to a high school teacher, a lawyer, an environmental activist, a recording artist/electronic musician, a scientist and so much more. All of these women came together to become fast friends, performers and yes, sisters to put on Yoni Ki Baat.

This experience has certainly made me follow through with my own creative process. Following through with a performance in front of 200+ crowds was quite an undertaking. I even cried after my performance, when all of us took the stage after the final show. It was all such a rush, and it was overwhelming to just give your all to a performance and have it be over. Roberto held me as I blubbered like a baby, they were tears of joy to be sure, and grateful tears to have have the opportunity to be a part of this.

This blog is also part of my creative process, which is continuing, changing, evolving (I hope). I just started another project, which is sort of my baby right now, it's a new photo essay blog called (Extra)Ordinary People at usordinarypeople.blogspot.com. I have also joined a sort of "women's circle" of writers, to inspire each other and push each other to continue the creative process even when we don't feel like it (writing is truly a discipline that needs to be cultivated and tended to!)

So I am still in this process, Yoni Ki Baat was a fantastic part of it, and I can only hope for more amazing ventures and experiences in my future.

Love you ladies, Yonis forever!