Author Archives: MALA


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Passing the time

latte

It was supposed to rain.

So instead of meeting for a run, we met for decaf lattes.

Coffee shops, or cafes, are an integral part of my life. I run in and out of them at least three times a day and freak out a little when I visit a place without one.

I remember getting stuck someplace in Tennessee for a week with no coffee shops. It was insane. There was a pizza hut and a few greasy diners but no coffee shop. At the very minimum I expected a Dunkin Donuts – but I was in the middle of nowhere surrounded by hills.

Some of my best conversations, most memorable “Aha” moments, occurred in a coffee shop. I often meet people in cafes and remember the ones I visited in Amsterdam and Paris and Lisbon and Glasgow.

Here in DC there are few independent coffee shops left and almost every city block houses one of the chains – Starbucks or Cosi or Caribou. But I prefer Soho (on the corner of 22nd and P Streets NW) or Kramerbooks in Dupont Circle.

So three coffees later, we parted company at the entrance of one of DC’s many Cosis. And although our two-hour conversation was already turning into a fond memory, I couldn’t think of a better way of passing the time.


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Fragments of a night out

spy museum

I drifted in and out of sleep from about 3:30 a.m. til the phone rang at 10:00 a.m. It was Casey, my best friend.

“You were in rare form last night.”

“Well good morning to you too.”

“You grabbed some guy on the sidewalk and dragged him to the Irish Channel.”

“WHAT?!!?!!”

“Don’t you remember?”

<MALA groans into pillow and tries to disentangle self from sheets>

“Wait – we met him at DC Chophouse.”

“We weren’t at the Chopper.”

“Oh yeah… we were. We went there after Poste. And then it all gets a little hazy.”

“Well, you met that guy Daniel on the street.”

“HOW did I just meet some guy on the sidewalk?”

“Not sure… he came out of the MCI Center…. some game.”

“Did I give him my number?”

“Uhhhhhh… yeah you did – Hahaha – but you wrote it down with the spy pen.”

“Invisible ink? And he didn’t notice?”

“You folded the napkin into a tiny square and we ditched him before we got to Fado.”

<Groans loudly as memories from Fado flood murky mind>

“Your brother’s friends were all there.”

“Oh yeah.”

“We acted like asses.”

“We went dancing at midnight.”

<GASPS>

“I blame it all on those martinis at Zola.”

“Right. So. What’s on deck for tonight?”


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Motivation for Fitness

Nike

Some people are motivated by deadlines —– >

A wedding

A reunion

A tropical beach vacation

Other people are motivated by guilt —–>

Stuffing your face with food over the holidays

Seeing commercials on tv for Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig and LA Weight Loss

All those newscasts about global warming and how you should garage your car and run or bike instead

And for many others it’s all a matter of pride —->

The waistband of your favorite jeans starts feeling snug

You get paranoid that your legs won’t look so good in short skirts

You notice you’re huffing and puffing after climbing up five flights of stairs

For me, it’s the sneakers. There’s nothing like a brand new pair of running shoes to get me off my butt and jogging a mile or two or ten.

What’s your motivation?


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Killing Cinderella

cinderella

I grew up with the Wonderful World of Disney.

My first movie, seen at the drive-in from the hood of my aunt’s green Bug, was Bambi. I fantasized of guest-starring on the New Mickey Mouse Club. I carried a metal lunchbox to school, with the monorail running through various scenes from Disney World. I learned to tell time on my most prized possession — a Donald Duck watch, secured to my wrist by a big-girl white leather band (not plastic). And, of course, there was Cinderella’s Castle, which featured prominently in my dreams and daydreams.

I was a Disney Kid.

My parents stubbornly prescribed that their kids only watch G-rated movies. So while my friends were waiting in line to see Grease, I was stuck watching Pete’s Dragon and Return from Witch Mountain and Midnight Madness (which served as the inspiration for all those scavenger hunts in high school… but that’s another story).

And while my all-time favorite Disney movie is The Little Mermaid…. I have a soft-spot for Cinderella. Her step-sisters were oh-so-mean. And that wicked stepmother… tripping the valet so the glass slipper shattered on the marble floor. She was pure evil.

But now Disney is warping the whole point of the Cinderella story.

It’s such a classic because the moral is beloved – the underdog trumps the sure bet…. the poor kid rises from the ashes to great success…. better to be kind than selfish …. good karma will reward the humble servant and bad karma will fall on evil relatives… yada, yada, yada.

Consumerism is killing Cinderella.


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The Wizard of Oz

silver shoes

For five consecutive years I went trick-or-treating as a character from the Wizard of Oz. One year, my mom spent hours curling my pin-straight hair into a cascade of spirals for my debut as Dorothy. The next year, I went out as the Scarecrow. Then, I went out as Glinda the Good Witch… two years in a row.  The year after that I was the Wicked Witch of the East – complete with crushed hat, roof slats, striped stockings and ruby slippers.

Those legendary ruby slippers……

Last week, I read the L. Frank Baum classic in anticipation of the release of the 2-disc special edition. It was my first time reading the story and boy was I in for a surprise.

First off, the film is better than the book.

MUCH better.

Second, Dorothy’s ruby slippers are pure MGM magic. In the book, Dorothy wears silver shoes. Silver!

I did a double take while reading. How could Baum not have realized that the slippers were RUBY? Couldn’t he see the story running in his head? Did he picture Dorothy wearing blue shoes before he settled on silver?

Thank the movie gods that someone at MGM got it right!


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A shadow of its former self

ALIAS

I was a loyal ALIAS fan. But not anymore.

Seasons 1 and 2 were amazing. Season 3 was better than Season 4 but not as good as the previous two…. although the cliffhanger at the end of the season finale inspired such hope for Season 5.

I thought maybe JJ Abrams would return to ALIAS’s roots….. bring back some of the original SD-6 bad guys and storylines. But NOOOO… they kill off Michael Vaughn, they bring in these other flimsy characters, and there’s no character development for the original cast. Why is Victor Garber still on this program? He’s been reduced to reciting instructions into handsets/headsets in the scenes he’s in.

It’s a waste of my time.

And it breaks my heart – just a little bit – because ALIAS was the first smart show on tv in a very long time. And the producers managed to wreck it. ALIAS introduced so many novel concepts and complicated plot twists. Each and every episode was new and exciting.

But the creators dumped ALIAS because LOST became such a phenomenon. I’ve tried watching LOST and just don’t get it.

I popped in an episode from Season 1 after watching tonight’s show. I shouldn’t have done that –  the contrast proved that season 5 is just a mockery of the original.