Cari Stewart

About a month ago I had the pleasure of returning to one of my very favorite places with a few of my very favorite people. I wasn’t sure how to write this post as it would end up being a boring list of all the things we did. So instead I’ve decided to share one choice – and totally embarrassing – experience with some pictures. Here we go…

Doug and I had just gotten off the redeye from SLC to NYC. The flight was sufficiently horrible. Between the two of us, we probably got an hour of sleep. We made it through baggage claim and got a cab around 5 am.

Around 6 am, we pulled up to my dear friend Monica’s apartment. We were so excited to get in and take a nap but before that could happen, we had to haul our bags up a 5-floor walkup. Naturally.

After napping for a couple hours, we got ready for the day. When I got out of the shower, I thought it would be a fine idea to wear the same shorts I wore on the plane for the rest of the day. So in a tired stupor, I slipped them back on.

Doug and I proceeded to walk EVERYWHERE. We went all over the Upper West Side to check out my old neighborhood, took a short jaunt through the park, went all through the Museum of Natural History, grabbed lunch, then walked back to Monica’s for a much needed second nap.

When we woke up we met Monica when she finished work. We walked through the park and ended our travels in Lincoln Square. The night was beautiful, so we decided to sit and talk on the fountain in the middle of Lincoln Center (you may know about this fountain from such blockbuster hits as Ghostbusters).

The night was truly magical. It made me miss the city so much. Then I noticed something. Something troubling. I felt the back of my thigh and wondered what had happened to me. I stayed calm as not to startle Doug and Monica. There was a long lump going all the way up my thigh. What could have caused such a thing?!

The lump was almost to the bottom of my shorts, so I did a quick swipe with my finger to discover something hidden from my earlier trip … my underwears! Hahahahaha! Yes, that’s right. They had come along for the long ride without my knowledge or anyone else’s, for that matter.

Without telling Monica or Doug, we walked over to a nearby restaurant. While we were eating, Doug had to take a call, giving me the perfect opportunity to tell Monica of my misfortune. She and I laughed and laughed then she was insistent that I remove the foreign piece of clothing. With the sexiest move you’ve ever seen, I pulled them quickly out of the bottom of my short and stowed them safely in my purse. Again, without anyone being the wiser.

For those of you who don’t know what glass blowing is, I’m about to blow your mind. I watched a documentary a few years ago about Dale Chihuly glass and I have been dying to do it ever since. Then one day I was walking through Thanksgiving Point and found this place that lets you do it!

I was crazy excited about my discovery, so I made Doug go with me for his birthday. ☺ This is how it goes down:

1. They take a pole and dip it in this a cauldron of hot flowing magma/liquid glass. Already the thought of liquid glass is nuts, but it’s even more nuts when you look in the furnace it sits in. It is seriously like looking into the center of the sun. Even though the walls of the oven and the bowl holding the glass are metal, everything in the oven is the same glowing orange color. You’re not really sure what you’re looking at. But you’re pretty sure it will cause you to go blind. Oh, and the oven is about 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. You take the pole out of the oven and start to spin it. The glass is super malleable, so if you hold the pole in one position too long, the glass will start running off the pole. So you have to keep it moving to maintain a round little blob.

3. Then you add your color. There are little colored glass beads you dip your glass blob in. This is way harder than it sounds. You have to continue spinning the pole while you dip the blob in the beads, without making a huge mess with the beads … Doug. ☺

4. Once your beads are stuck to your blob, you take your blob to another oven that seals your color in.

5. When everything is sufficiently melted together, you take the pole and blob over to your little workbench where the magic begins. You start by making your blob into a disc.

6. You grab giant tweezers and start pulling little pieces around the edge of the disc as you spin the pole, forming the flower. P.S. This was way harder than I thought it would be. The Youtubes made it look like it was pulling taffy, but then you realize, “Hey, this is hardening liquid glass.”

7. Once you have the shape you want for your flower, you grab the end of your flower and pull out to form the stem. If you want a curling stem, you just hold your flower still while you spin the pole.

8. Then they take a blowtorch to seal the end of your flower.

9. Cool down. They put the flowers in ovens that cool the glass at 200 degrees per hour.

When you’re done making your flower, the glass is about 900 degrees, despite the fact that it’s totally hard. Crazy.

There you have it. This is seriously one of the coolest things I have ever done and I insist that everyone tries it.

Here are our flowers. I went a little crazy experimenting with my camera. Sorry …

Dear Google+,

You should probably think about a new name. Or at least consider spelling out ‘+’ so my punctuation doesn’t look stupid and so I can use an <h1> tag without my theme freaking out. I just hope you’re better than Buzz…

Anyway, I’d like to be the first to welcome you to the social network space and give you a snippet of my initial thoughts about you. That being said, are you going to take the place of Facebook? No way, Jose! But I like what you’re bringing to the table.

Circles

My favorite part of you is the Circles feature. I like that I can update only those in certain circles with information specific to them. Let’s be serious, if I can avoid being a circles where acquaintances say things like “It’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when the walls are closing in on you,” that would be great.

I also appreciate that I can add a person to more than one circle. So I can have my grandma in my “family” circle, my “friend” circle, AND my “thug life” circle. So efficient. I love you can just drag-and-drop contacts where you want them; definitely a step up from trying to create groups and lists on Facebook.

Huddle

If you’re able to get Huddle to catch on, you will singlehandedly take down SMS. Not that it needs to be taken down, it would just be exciting. For those reading my letter to Google+ who doesn’t know what Huddle is, it is essentially a group text chat service. So you can chat it up with multiple people from your phone. I’m excited about it.

Contacts

I’m not a huge fan that I can’t take my contacts from Facebook and integrate them into Google+. It’s going to be so embarrassing when I only have a few hundred contacts when you launch. :/ But I guess that’s Facebook being stingy, not you being dumb.

Search

Since you were invented by the gods of Google, it’s only fitting that search is integrated into your UI. It’s kind of nuts to think that my search results will become connected to my social information. This is just going to make Google a better search engine as they will have more information about my preferences, but it’s also a little creepy. Google, you’re really starting to freak me out. But you still have lots of great.

Despite all your fun features – only a few of which I mentioned – I’m still seeing some holes in the initial snapshot of Google+. However, I’m excited to see where it goes. At the very least, if it gets Facebook to step up their game, I’m all about you.

See you when you launch!

Love,
Cari

P.S. I’m still waiting to hear back about my résumé …

We’ve all been there. Something hilarious happens right before the prayer starts or you happen to open your eyes at an inopportune time. Suddenly you find yourself trying to suppress a laugh that does NOT want to be contained.

Your gut reaction is to close your face. Yeah, that’s right. Closing your mouth, and sometimes nose, so tight to ensure no giggles can escape. Some people choose to cover their mouth with their hand for reinforcement.

All your instincts are telling you this is your best option. However, this will inevitably result startling outbursts. These outbursts can be in the form of embarrassing snorts, nose laughing, mouth trumpeting, or a full-on explosion. Once one of these happens, you’re a goner. You just end up giving up and cry-laughing with your arms folded.

So how do you avoid such a disaster? I’ll tell you. It’s quite simple. However, it will require you to do the exact opposite of what feels natural. In the words of Troy Jennings, you have to embrace the laugh to hide the laugh…

Open your face. Yep, keep your mouth and nose open. Now that your airways are unhindered, you can breathe easier while avoiding embarrassing mouth or nose noises.

The key is short, shallow breaths. Again, it seems counter intuitive, but it will keep your breathing quieter and will allow to truly embrace your laughter.

NOTE: This technique is best used only during prayers as people’s eyes are supposed to be closed, preventing them from seeing you do a stupid face.