Pleasure Notes

What was the resolution you wish you’d stuck with in 2009?

I no longer make resolutions. In years gone by, I did. They usually had something to do with losing weight. I had an astounding ability to transmute my behavior and achieve the opposite of the desired results. So, I no longer make resolutions. Thus, I have none by which I wish I’d stuck. And yet…

For the past few years, I made WISHES. I set aspirational goals, really. This shift served two purposes. First, it let me off the hook of attaining the goals because, as we all know, wishes don’t always come true. Second, the ephemeral nature of wishes– aspirations– DREAMS alludes to very little action. In fact, the best place to dream is in bed, comfortably curled up under the covers. This second purpose is the one that has suddenly given me pause. Inaction no longer works for me, not this year.

So, for 2010, I have created INTENTIONS. I’m so excited, actually, AND MOTIVATED, that I haven’t limited myself to 2010. Some might call what I’ve created a Bucket List, or a Life List, or even just a really long To Do List. I’m going to give it a home here at Pleasure Notes, with it’s very own page. I’ll add to it, and let you know when I’ve accomplished something on it. Think of it as my on-going brainstorming session about moments I intend to experience. There is no order or degree of importance attributed to the items on it, though some may be more easily and more quickly accomplished than others. Each action is vital in its own right.

Without further ado, here are my intentions:

• Live in gratitude every day.
• Take hip hop classes.
• Learn Spanish.
• Finish updating and modifying my blog design.
• Create an Etsy presence to showcase my jewelry line.
• Feed the homeless.
• Visit the ocean once a month.
• Become involved in a non-profit supporting empowerment of girls.
• Go apple picking.
• Visit Watts Towers.
• See a whale breach.
• Eat vegan for a month.
• Bake a pie.
• Hike in Joshua Tree.
• Create a pillow with the Kimono fabric craps.
• Make waffles on my Foreman Grill.
• Obtain a digital SLR camera.
• Learn Italian and live in Italy for a year.
• Visit Bhutan.
• Visit India.
• Swim with dolphins.
• Bungey jump.
• Take a hot air balloon ride.
• Learn to swing from a flying trapeze.
• Write a novel.
• See one of my novels reach the NY Times Top 10 Best Sellers List.
• Get married to the love of my life and have a long honeymoon.
• Do a back bend from a standing position.
• Own a home with a yard.
• Pay off all my debt.
• Safari in Kenya.
• Visit the mountain gorillas in Rwanda.
• Collect shells on a beach in South Africa.
• Support myself and my family through my writing and art.
• Show my photographs in a gallery exhibit.
• Learn SCUBA and dive at Great Barrier Reef.
• Learn to read Arabic.
• Surf a wave upright.
• Visit Yosemite.
• Cook a Thanksgiving turkey.
• Stomp grapes at a winery.
• Drive a race car.
• Take a vacation with my brother and his family away from home.
• See Tiger Woods play live.
• Ride a zip line through the top canopy of a rain forest.
• Visit Petra, Jordan.
• Take a bicycle tour of Holland.
• Participate in a beach clean-up.
• Visit Egypt’s pyramids with my dad.
• Visit a spa in Mexico with my mom.
• Organize an annual girlfriends’ weekend retreat.
• Take a gondola ride in Venice, Italy.
• Purchase a Mona Kuhn photograph.
• Get laser hair removal done – no more waxing!
• Learn how to change a tire.
• Wear a Movado museum watch.
• Design a cocktail ring with my grandmother’s diamond as the centerpiece.
• Fly a kite.
• Meditate every day.
• Act in a film I’ve written.
• Remain actively involved in my niece’s life and the Kid’s life.
• Visit Pete’s grave, LeeAnne’s grave and Scott’s grave.
• Return to my childhood grocery store.
• Have a song written for and about me.
• Ride an elephant and a camel.
• Take a self defense class.
• Skinny dip in the ocean.
• Be a mentor.
• Meet the Dalai Lama.
• Do a boudoir photo session.
• Take a road trip with Sofia.
• See the Northern Lights.
• Swim in every ocean.
• Finish the scrapbook of my trip to China.
• Witness a meteor shower.
• Spend a week on the beaches of Thailand.
• Take a road trip from Los Angeles to Vancouver.
• Have an elaborate dinner at Craft.
• Go inner tube sledding.
• Go to a costume ball, in costume.
• Get a monthly massage.
• Get a monthly facial.
• Own a cabin in the woods.
• Record a song I’ve written, in a real recording studio.
• Sit in the front row at Paris Fashion Week.
• Gallop a horse along the beach.
• Hold monthly dinner parties / game nights.
• Visit Kam, Tibet.
• Go to a Bjork concert in Iceland.
• Finish reading Casanova’s autobiography.
• Relearn how to hula hoop.
• Read W.H. Auden and Rilke.
• Participate in a 3-day AIDS walk in another country.
• Go to a dance club and dance unselfconsciously all night long.
• Dance naked in the rain.
• See pink dolphins while traveling down the Amazon River.
• Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.
• Visit Mt. Everest base camp while on a road trip.
• Volunteer at Nepalese shelter for child prostitutes.
• Visit the thermal heat vents.
• Learn to water ski.
• Swim in a lake.
• Sleep in a castle.
• Spend an entire summer staying in a cottage at the beach.
• Have a hot stone massage.
• Have a photo of mine published in National Geographic Magazine.
• Perform a pull-up, unassisted.
• Obtain season tickets to a pro hockey team.
• Help someone through college.
• See gay marriage fully legalized in the United States.
• Create a retirement savings plan and open a Roth IRA.
• Purchase stock.
• Have lunch with Helene Gayle, Ruth Levine, George Clooney, Greg Mortenson, Angelina Jolie, Alyson Warhurst, Mavis Leno, Jennifer Buffett, Swanee Hunt, Nicholas Kristof, and Maria Eitel to discuss the plight of girls around the world.
• Attend Wimbledon Center Court Men’s Finals Match.
• Publish a coffee table book about coffee.
• Meet Hillary and Bill Clinton.
• Publish a book of Pleasure Bouquets.
• Throw a birthday party for myself with an open bar and a guest list that includes everyone I know.
• Attend an American Idol finale taping and a So You Think You Can Dance tour stop.
• Meet Maya Angelou.
• Return to Telluride Film Festival.
• Attend Sundance Film Festival and Cannes, as a participant.
• Wear a bikini, regularly and proudly.
• Get bathtub re-enameled.
• Play roulette in Monte Carlo.
• Make the traditional family Christmas breakfast for my own family.
• Take a helicopter ride.
• Take glass blowing classes.
• Knead bread dough.
• Visit polar bears and penguins in the wild.
• Spend a week in a villa on Lake Como…

Whew! Did you make it all the way through my gargantuan list? Congratulations. Just one more thing. Now, I’d love to know your intentions for 2010 and beyond. Perhaps I’ll be inspired to pursue something you intend to accomplish, as I hope you feel inspired to take on one of the adventures I intend to tackle.

Happy New Year, my lovelies!

What was the best ad of 2009? What advertisement made you think this year?

This ad not only makes me think, EVERY SINGLE TIME I SEE IT. It makes me cry.

Every. Single. Time.

Powerful, no? Please explore the website too. The whole project fucking rocks.

What was the best laugh you had in 2009? What was the biggest belly laugh of the year?

To be honest, this year wasn’t exactly chock full of belly laughs. But life has a funny way of reminding me that this journey is a full spectrum of experiences. Pain has an equal and opposite counterpart – joy. There is no Yin without the Yang. Laughter never strays too far from tears. And somehow, I’ve been lucky enough to have people in my life who make me laugh.

I belong to a book club. I’ve mentioned it before. The club consists of a phenomenal group of smart, witty, empathetic, conscientious, beautiful women. And every year, in December, we participate in a White Elephant gift exchange. For five years, now, we have tried to one-up each other by bringing the most ridiculous, outrageous, trite, horrific, embarrassing, and plain ole ugly-ass gifts to pawn off on each other.

This year, I laughed more in that one evening than perhaps the sum of moments in the entire rest of the year.

Thank you, ladies. I feel blessed to have girlfriends such as you.

Now, what made you snort with glee in 2009?

What was the best stationery that you found in 2009? When you touch the paper, your heart melts. The ink flows from the pen. What was your stationery find this year?

I am a paper products whore. I love, love, love all paper products. And really smooth ink pens. I kind of have an obsession. I’ve dedicated an entire drawer to stationery. I constantly add to it. Alas, I rarely open it to draw anything out. I don’t write letters very often any more. I have been remiss about thank you notes. But every time I look at the beautiful paper, I find myself smiling.

Even Christmas cards can put in me in a tizzy.

I could blame the obsession on Uncle Baboo. He has a printing shop in New York. He still, upon occasion, uses the old, hand tooled machines to create designs, though the computer is taking over the printing industry as easily as it has taken over the means of correspondence. He made me beautiful book plates and a personalized storybook when I was a child. And he shared his passion for paper.

I could blame the obsession on my mother. She taught me how to make paper when I was young. She is a connoisseur of stationery and writing utensils as well as penmanship and communication etiquette. She writes beautiful letters.

I could blame the obsession on Papyrus and Soolip and Etsy.

But I won’t. I’ll just embrace my obsession. Perfectly content. And who knows? Maybe one of these days, I’ll send a note via snail mail your way…

What was your best social web moment? Did you meet someone you used to only know from her blog? Did you discover Twitter?

Well, you already know that Twitter was an integral part of my social web experience this year, but I didn’t discover it in 2009 and it didn’t hold my best social web moment. In fact, my best social web moment was offline.

I had the opportunity to sit in a room with some powerhouse women – all of whom I met first through the internet – and just shoot the shit over champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. There was some structure to the evening, but we had one of those conversations that bounced and leaped and flew from one topic to another – the past, the future, fears, accomplishments, hopes, and dreams. At least that’s how I remember it. As I mentioned, there was a bit of champagne involved. And Utah’s Red Mountains out the window to distract me.