100 Things About Me

So one of the downsides of my old blog was the lack of memes and tagging. Beauty blogging did not embrace that anywhere near as much as the larger blogging world. And while I could think of 100 Beauty-Related Things to post there, I’m really excited to post the basic blogger’s 100 Things About me.

That probably makes me self-centered. Oh well. So here it is:

100 things about me

1. I am a city girl
2. The suburbs are nice to visit, but I like city living better
3. I am an attorney
4. But I won’t talk much about work on this blog
5. I will talk about some of the challenges facing professional women today, especially professional lawyers
6. And career topics interest me, so I will talk about work some
7. I like to think I balance my long work hours with mindfulness, beauty and creativity
8. But I cannot ever get on board with the term “work-life balance”
9. And it’s not just because I have bad workaholic tendencies
10. Making my life greener is important to me
11. I work in a very conservative work environment
12. I wear a suit 5 days a week
13. Which really means I wear a pantsuit 5 days a week
14. I have yet to wear a skirt suit this year
15. I realized a few years ago that even though I like classic clothing and dress conservatively for work, I’m so not preppy
16. My weekend style is somewhere around downtown city girl
17. But I am so not a hipster
18. Not being a hipster comes up a lot when you live in Brooklyn
19. Yes, I live in Brooklyn.
20. Despite liking my more downtown casual style for weekends, I often wear my version of easy on the weekends: black yoga pants and a black top
    
21. That definitely contributes to my non-hipster label
22. Though I also don’t like the term yoga chic
    
23. My favorite purse is the Large Multipocket Hobo from Marc Jacobs
24. The one with the classic design – namely black cowhide and silver hardware
25. I loved it before a Marc Jacobs bag became a status bag
26. Brooklyn is my favorite place on earth to live
27. I might like parts of Queens though
28. I can’t imagine living in Manhattan
29. It’s not because I mind small apartments, noise, city crowds or dirty sidewalks
30. But I do mind ridiculous rent amounts that being on the island of Manhattan usually require
31. And I will not live more than two blocks from the nearest subway station
32. I lived on Avenue B for a couple of months in 2003
33. No, I have not seen the musical Avenue Q
34. I did love Wicked though – it was much more clever than I expected
35. I was several long avenue blocks from the subway stations when I lived on Avenue B
36. I will not ever do it again
37. Actually I did it again, for another two months in 2006 (in Arlington, VA)– but now I really will not ever do it again
38. That was the only time in my life I wished I had a car
39. My husband knows the no-more-than-two-blocks-from-the-subway rule for any place we live
    
40. Fortunately he’s ok with it
41. We get along very well despite the fact he spent his first 26 years in a land with no subways, and not much public transportation, and far away from city living
42. Fortunately he does not want to go back to that
43. The whole point of public transportation is that it’s easy to access
44. I have nothing against walking – in fact it’s my favorite mode of transportation
45. If I have the time, a typical weekend day will usually involve a very long walk – like from Midtown East to Union Square through the East Village to Bleecker Street
46. Or walking to Park Slope, and then the length of 7^th or 5^th Avenue
47. In fact, I will routinely walk a couple of miles to get somewhere
48. I am obsessed with the Food Network, even though I don’t think it’s putting out as good programming as it used to
49. The only city I would live in other than New York is Washington, DC
    
50. But probably only in or near Dupont Circle, where I lived for several years before living in New York
51. I do like parts of Arlington, VA though
52. The parts that feel like a small city, with sidewalks and restaurants and apartment buildings
53. I used to write a blog called Beauty Musings
54. Then I wanted to write about things other than beauty products
55. So I renamed it Beauty and Occasional Lifestyle Musings
56. It was still too constraining
57. So this blog was born
58. I have stopped writing my old blog but am leaving the content up for internet infinity
    
59. I believe in car-sharing
60. As in Zipcar
61. I hope to never own a car, but if I did, it would be a hybrid, probably a Prius
62. I love to cook
63. I love farmer’s markets and specialty markets
64. I love beauty products
65. And have a strong interest in indie beauty brands
66. And a stronger interest in paraben-free skincare
67. I read a lot
68. I love fragrances and wear a fragrance every day
69. And lip balm and tinted moisturizer
70. And usually more makeup than that, but the above three are the bare minimum
71. I loved Eat, Pray, Love – especially the Eat part (Italy)
72. Go read it if you don’t know what I am talking about
73. Under the Tuscan Sun was lovely too
74. But I never want to leave my life of long hours at work and become an expatriate
75. That’s probably because I became an expatriate just shy of my 16^th birthday
76. That’s when I moved to the U.S. from Switzerland
77. To go to Wellesley College
78. And 14 years later, I still live in the U.S.
79. I wonder if/when one ever stops being an expatriate
80. Most people assume I am American because I have assimilated so well and because I speak English with almost no accent
81. Even though the Wellesley brochure said the campus was 12 miles from Boston and there was a bus from campus and a commuter rail from the town which immediately adjoined campus, getting into the city always took forever
82. Snow did not help
83. Despite it taking forever I went into Boston at least once a week to walk around, have some coffee, see a movie, go to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
84. I would also not leave my current life for somewhere where the pace is slower — like Maine
    
85. I am 29, turning 30 October
86. No, I am not ok with it
87. I still have a couple of months to get ok with it
88. People tell me I should be ok with it since I am married
89. But I didn’t plan to be married , so I never worried about not being married by age 30
90. In fact, I didn’t think I would get married until I met my husband
91. Though I didn’t think living together before marriage would work for me
92. So basically I assumed I would not find a life partner I wanted to live with
93. Clearly, I was very wrong, which is good
    
94. I was 27 when I got married
    
95. Suburban dwellers who say city living is hard are right
96. It’s definitely not as comfortable
97. And even if you have a big apartment, you have less space and privacy
    
98. But I don’t care, even on the days where life got very hectic very fast and some disgruntled commuter ran into me with her 20 pound purse
99. No matter how much stuff is in my purse, it only weighs 5 to 10 pounds most days
100. At a bare minimum, my purse always has wallet, blackberry/cell phone, keys, a water bottle and a journal or notebook