So I’ve been thinking about the topic of trends. An email ad just landed in my inbox from Blue Nile, an online jewelry e-tailer. And their ad featured a silver key necklace. Over the past year, I’ve been seeing these key necklaces popping up in all manner of places: first Tiffany unveiled them as a new collection, then individuals on DIY sites such as Etsy started making them to order at lower cost , and finally large retailers such as Blue Nile, Nordstroms and Macy’s now carry them at various price points. The trickle down effect is obvious. And people who buy one of the key necklaces that are infiltrating the market because they think they are pretty, may have no idea where the trend originally started. They probably would not be wearing the necklace they are wearing today without X Big Brand to propagate the trend at some point so that the style was readily available. I’m not denying that people made keys into necklaces prior to this point, but it certainly would not be as prevalent without brand help. Just something to think about. How long does it take for something to become mainstream? I wonder how many people choose to wear something less often because it has become a trend?

I immediately thought of a scene from the movie The Devil Wears Prada, where Meryl Streep plays Miranda Priestly, a powerful fashion magazine editor, and Anne Hathaway plays Andy, a non-fashion oriented journalist trying to move up in the world:

Miranda Priestly: [Miranda and some assistants are deciding between two similar belts for an outfit. Andy sniggers because she thinks they look exactly the same] Something funny?
Andy Sachs: No, no, nothing. Y’know, it’s just that both those belts look exactly the same to me. Y’know, I’m still learning about all this stuff.
Miranda Priestly: This… ‘stuff’? Oh… ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.

Courtesy of Tiffany & Co. Keys splashpage.

So I’ve been driving for 10 years, but have only driven automatic transmission vehicles the entire time. For the last two years, I’ve been wanting to learn how to operate a manual transmission, as I can only operate one of the two vehicles that we have. On our first outing (maybe a year ago?), I think Mike was in for a fairly bumpy ride, and stalls aplenty. Now time for business. Round 2 was 2 weeks ago at the DVC overflow parking lot- not a car in sight, except one other would-be driver. Managed to shift from 1-2-3rd gear (low gear jeep), but didn’t downshift, or reverse. Stalled a few times as I attempted to get comfortable with how much to release the clutch.

Try #3 happened today, and it was the most successful yet. I only stalled once trying to reverse out of parked position over a period of an hour and a half. As the bored passenger, Mike decided to start playing a game with me to try to speed up how long it took me to shift gears and response time by yelling out, “Stop!” “Go!” “2nd gear!” “Park!” “Reverse!” and timing how long it took me to reverse out of a parking spot and move forward in first gear. I wanted to swat him like a fly at one point when he sped up his maniacal commands, but I must admit that my response time and shifting smoothness improved quite a lot as a result. Woohoo! I think it’s time move out of the parking lot to tackle driving in a neighborhood next. A flat one please.

I’ve been thinking about kitchens. Namely, what items I use constantly for 95% of my cooking, and what things are just sitting around taking up space until they are used twice a year. While I sometimes dream of upgrading what pots and pans and kitchen knives we have, I don’t actually want to expand our existing collection, because I think what we do have is sufficient for my cooking needs.

Our pots and pans are fairly basic, and can be counted on one hand:

1. saute pan
2. sauce pan
3. stock pot
4. Non stick fry pan
5. cast iron fry pan
6. hot pot pan

Okay, I lied. I forgot about the hot pot pan. I would say that 99% of my cooking utilizes the first 4 items, while the last two are very specialized items. I would say the hot pot pan actually gets more usage then the cast iron fry pan, and comes out of it’s drawer every 1-2 months. The cast iron fry pan, on the other hand, only makes an appearance for bacon (twice a year at most) and pizza. I don’t know why I don’t use it more. While I lust after certain le creuset items and all-clad pots and pans, these relatively inexpensive pots and pans have lasted me a good number of years- and for the amount of use I get out of them, are an amazing deal.

Of kitchen knives: 1 chinese vegetable cleaver, 1 9-inch chef’s knife, 1 santoku paring knife. Necessary and sufficient for all my vegetably and meaty and otherwise-y needs.

Mike trying out the Wii FIt

1. I’m a procrastinator at heart. It’s a tough battle.
2. I can become very fixated on food when I’m hungry. Don’t get in my way.
3. I’ve never met a food type that I wouldn’t at least try once.
4. I’ve been playing violin for 17 years.
5. I started off playing piano when I was 8 and absolutely hated it. Then I switched to violin and was happier.
6. I have eight piercings in my ears. I don’t wear earrings much anymore.
7. I have contacts, but I only wear them on weekends.
8. My hair has been completely blue, purple and red at different points in my life.
9. I kill plants for a living. I like plants.
10. I’ve never owned a pet.
11. I’ve only ridden on a motorcycle once, and it wasn’t with mike.
12. I lived in the Berkeley Co-op system for the entire duration of my undergraduate career.
13. I’ve played at Davies Symphony Hall and in Miami with my community orchestra.
14. In high school, I’ve toured the eastern coast of Australia and New Zealand for a month, playing with a philharmonic group in portland. It was amazing.
15. I like to follow food blogs.
16. I know random weird things.
17. I have a habit of running people I know off the sidewalk. Their gravity trumps mine.
18. I enjoy minimalism, and like occasional pops of bright colors.
19. I don’t have a favorite cuisine.
20. In elementary school, I messed up in a spelling bee. The word was “balloon”.
21. I don’t like clowns.
22. I prefer walking to bicycling
23. I don’t like to drive, but will if I have to.
24. I once got lost in SF, pulled my car into a parking garage, and called for help. I was one block away from my destination.
25. Vanilla ice cream serves as a vehicle for my crushed pistachios.