Life Without iPhone

I shattered my iPhone screen a week or two ago, and while I'm waiting for my cheapie replacement screen to  complete its long trip from China, I've been using the only back-up I could find... my phone from 2010 that, gasp, doesn't even have a data plan. 

No Instagramming the adorable pet moments and attractive meals I've experienced, no group iMessaging, no Googling on the go, no blingy apps to keep me occupied during the whole five minutes my dinner companion is in the restroom. 

I am more than a little ashamed of how incredibly attached I have become to technology. A mere three years ago, I was more than content to just sit alone at a table without scrolling through Facebook or making a move on Words with Friends, and I was elated to capture the spontaneous moment on my phone's 3-megapixel camera, without vintage filters and framing. I'm still able to call and text, and yet without all of the extras, I have still felt a bit like I'm missing a limb. However, yesterday, while waiting for a friend to arrive for happy hour, I updated my (paper) planner, and then I just sat there. I sipped my drink, I listened to the conversations around me, and then I had the company of my own thoughts until my friend arrived. And it was lovely. I have a suspicion that there is a link between my lack of iPhone and my increasing desire to daydream and think and write, and my increased quality of sleep may be due to the same. 

Is a few weeks enough time to break my tech addiction? I am in that state of half-hope, half-fear -- hope that I will be a bit more mindful of constantly grasping for my phone to check for new texts or social media updates and fear that I will just immediately Instagram my beaming smile into my now-functioning iPhone camera (#selfie) and immediately forget the lessons I've slowly been learning. For now, hope is winning. Here's to loosening the ties to technology and letting a little radio silence take over, for the good of my technology-pickled brain. 

A New Year.

 This New Year's Eve, we hid out at home and let a serious party animal entertain us:

(Pip is modeling the past three years of New Year's chapeaus from St-Germain... they're the best)

 We made a stop to our favorite cheese shop, goat. sheep. cow., and got a bevy of treats to snack on till midnight.

 (Maya brought a lot of hope into 2013... hope that we'd step away from the table and not miss a slice or three of soppressata.)

(Our few guests looked great for the occasion but didn't add much to the conversation.)

We downed our champagne, lit off a few fireworks and called it a night. Besides the fireworks, it wasn't much different than many other nights we've spent at home, but over breakfast, we talked about our resolutions and they've geared us up for taking on 2013, head first.

 

(New Year's Day calls for a port-infused French toast brunch with Bloody Marys and lots of bacon.)

One of my resolutions was to writewritewrite just for myself and also a little more in this blog, and so I am haltingly, falteringly starting again.

And tomorrow (or, in about four hours, rather), Steven and I will be taking on another of my resolutions!

Happy 2013!

A new year and a new year.

So, it's 2012, and as of this weekend, I am 28 years old. This is the first time I have ever been a little bit scared for a birthday. Everyone I've told this to over the age of 28 has told me to shut up, but everyone younger than 28 has nodded furiously with furrowed brows. I am now in the middle of my late 20s, and it's weird. But that's OK! It really is! That's what I've been telling myself in the mirror each morning for the past few days.

On my birthday, we threw a Celebration Party to group together Housewarming, Christmas, New Years, and me getting closer to being middle-aged, and this is a little of what it looked like:

Over my nearly five years here (has it really been that long?), I've met such fun people. It was really neat to get them all together in the same place. I actually probably wasn't that good of a hostess, because I was having too much fun playing Mario Kart and making s'mores outside. Hopefully everyone else had a good evening, because, for me, it was a perfect way to ring in my 28th year.

These Days.

I was always something of a morbid kid. I was anxious and an overthinker. Whenever I was on the brink of something wonderful, like at trip, a birthday party, or time to open Christmas presents, I always had the fear that I'd be struck dead, either by an asteroid, a semi-truck, or some other likely scenario. As of late, my life is so indescribably good that, in the middle of all of these wonderful moments, I'm yet again faced with the irrational fear that I'm going to die in my sleep because life is simply too good, and something is sure to go wrong at any moment.

So yes. The subject of this insane, fearful happiness. It could have a bit to do with me attending yoga more regularly this year, or the gorgeous weather we've been having (up until last week), or it could most likely be the recent addition to my life. Anyone who may read my blog with any kind of regularly might remember a post from the end of January, where I decided to repurpose my blog, and use it as a place to over-share those funny and awkward (generally boy-and-dating related) moments that had occurred and were sure to occur during my present life. And then, less than a month after writing that post, I meet this person. This boy who I still can't wrap my brain around. I haven't been posting that much because I didn't want to get all swoony and fawny and then jinx the whole thing. But then, I thought, "Screw it."

So hear I am, throwing caution to the wind to ramble a bit about this boy who I met on the cheesiest of all holidays--Valentine's Day. I was supposed to meet a friend at a F*** Valentine's Party so we could check out the Stripsters, but she never showed. I have never in my life been more happy to be stood up. It's funny that we only met then, because everyone in Charleston knows there's this point where you feel like you've seen and met everyone in town that there is to meet. Yet, over the course of this time in Charleston, going to the same shows and events and even the wedding of a mutual friend, we never made the connection until the right moment. Thank you, Cupid? Aphrodite? Baby Jesus?

Basically, I'm constantly marveling at this boy who is a crazy fit to this checklist-of-sorts, who is wildly adorable, who makes me laugh constantly, who sings songs in my house with the windows open and the curtains blowing, who loves thrifting almost as much as me, who adores my friends and has great ones himself, who likes to take long and meandering walks, who calls my dog a Muppet, who is talented and driven, who will spend entire Sundays watching bad television with me, who has the cutest kitten of all time, who owns a vintage typewriter, who quotes ee cummings, who whispers in the dark, who makes me so happy that a small part of me thinks that an asteroid is going to strike me dead.

In short, life is good. Damn good.

Weekend

Dorothy Parker: "Inventory"

"Inventory"

Four be the things I am wiser to know:

Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.

Four be the things I’d been better without:

Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.

Three be the things I shall never attain:

Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.

Three be the things I shall have till I die:

Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.

~Dorothy Parker

The World of Jenks

MTV is a channel I associate more with guilty pleasures (ehem...Teen Mom and Jersey Shore) rather than thought-provoking programming. Then I saw the show The World of Jenks. Andrew Jenks is a 20-something filmmaker who spends time with people in all walks of life to try to get a bit of their perspective and documents it. Rather than the usual hands-off approach to documentary film-making, Jenks builds these unique relationships that are quite touching. Apparently he first broke into the film scene with a documentary he made of his experience of moving into a nursing home for a few months during the summer when he was 19 to get a grasp of the day-to-day of people who are nearing the end of life.

Needless to say, I really like the show. It's funny and sad and good.

This is a clip from a post-show meet-up with Chad, a guy living with autism:

Rule #455

455. The heart is the strongest muscle in the body. Use it.

 

1,001 Rules for My Unborn Son never gets old. Never gets old.

Art and life. Life and art.

When I was in high school, I had a book. It was part sketchbook, part journal, part collage. I carried it with me everywhere, pasting in photos, jotting down notes, having friends doodle in the corners of pages. The artist featured in the documentary Beautiful Losers treat their whole world like I did that book. They make things with whatever is around them and have been the group that influences today's advertising and creative culture. This film was the jam. Especially Margaret Kilgallen. Her life and work are extremely inspirational. Wow. (Also, this film is on Netflix Instant. Watch it. It's literally at your fingertips.)

On a related artistic note, how cool are Miranda July's scripted pillowcases? I want them:
Don't you love it when something inspires a creative spark in you? Anyone else have a run-in with creativity lately? I want to do another sketchbook...not just a journal, but a multimedia snapshot of my life as I'm seeing/living it.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

After much moral support and encouragement, I've finally been convinced not to bring everything in my wardrobe. Here's what I've settled on for the icy north:

I've packed:

• iPod, stuffed to the gills
  
• camera
• passport
• magazines
• sweets from a sweet one
• gray jeans
• black jeans
• gray thigh-high wool socks
• gray wool armwarmers
• plum fingerless gloves
• gray hat
  
• black skirt
• oatmeal wool skirt
• plaid peplum skirt
• a variety of striped shirts
  
• brown riding boots
• black high-necked peacoat
• gray military coat
  
• black platform heels
• black and brown flats
• black and gray leggings
• black tights, textured and plain
  
• off-white cowl
• necessary underthangs
• exercise garments
• gems and jewels and other belted accessories
  

While I'm gone, if you feel so inclined, leave me some inspiring things. Quotes, movie/music recommendations, knock-knock jokes, secrets, bits o' trivia, declarations of love, or whatever else you feel like.

I will return on Tuesday with photos, tales of adventure, and a new French-Canadian wardrobe.

Vlog 3, The Trilogy

Vlog Three, The Trilogy from Sabrina Heise on Vimeo.

Last Day Dream

Faith always finds cool things on the internet.

I particularly love this mini-movie because each year that I get older, I feel like time passes more quickly. I can't help but look back on the moments that have left an impression on me--this film captures those moments in someone else's life.

Things I've Learned While Being at Home:

* I love soft-boiled eggs.
* No matter how many times I watch my videotaped rendition of "Feliz Navidad" from a Christmas program when I was 8, it never gets less horrifying.
* I will never be able to beat my sister at any sport, besides Wii Bowling or Wii Boxing.
* The sound of a tile cutter makes me feel like my ears are about to bleed.
* There are few things better than sipping a beer around a fire pit on a breezy spring night.
* Deciding to move around an entire room of furniture the night before a large family gathering is not the best idea.
* While my family may talk too loud and too much, be too boisterous and a little too eccentric for some people, they make for a mighty fun group and are a rad bunch of individuals.
* More specifically, my parents are angels. They listen to my worries, whether at 3pm or 3am; they make me feel confident that everything will be OK; they show me how to laugh at my mistakes but also learn from them. They basically rock.
* Teeny, tiny oak trees have very big, strong roots.
* I really enjoy making lists.

Another one bites the dust.

Today is my first day of unemployment, since, well...ever! I went from high school to college, only quitting my job when I was about to leave for Chapel Hill. I maintained the same job as an office assistant from my sophomore year until I graduated. I interned, and the internship evolved into a job. I was an intern on a Friday, graduated on a Sunday and was an employee of Algonquin Books by the following Monday morning. I went from Algonquin directly to my last job, where I worked for about two years, until I got laid off yesterday.

Needless to say, I am at a turning point. My world has been flipped, in almost every way, these past few months. And I don't think it's an accident. I'm going to freak out a little bit and then dust myself off and start to search--for new opportunities, experiences and everything else life has to offer, and be open to the people and places that come into my path. I'm so thankful for everything I've learned so far, and all the people I've met along the way. I'm scared but also excited for what comes along.

Stay tuned. I'll let you know what happens.