What I’ve Learned:

A Tribute to Esquire magazine

It has been a rather slow day at work, so I sorted through this week’s pile of new magazines and came across the December Esquire. Johnny Depp is featured on the cover. This month is a review of the year in terms of fashion, politics and entertainment. Most of the magazine is a list of ten things that various famous names (previously interviewed in 2007) learned this year. It was a welcome change from The DaVinci Code, so I’ll share my own list in hopes of. . . well, I don’t know.

> The best quotes come from the oddest places: phone conversations that last until 3 am, that old song on the radio that suddenly sounds new, an article in a men’s magazine, a personal truth you didn’t know you held until it was challenged. There is something to be said for patience and observation.

> There is no simple a pleasure that will defy age gaps as opening a brand new box of Crayola crayons.

> Any reader, writer or english teacher will tell you: It’s not what you say it’s how you say it. They’re right.

> The hardest thing I’ve had to learn to do this year is stop in the middle of complete chaos, take a deep breath and tell myself Thank god I have something to do, because those moments become critical when I’m inbetween books and throwing pencils at the ceiling tiles.

> Michael J. Fox is almost 50. I’m not ok with this. Neither are you.

> As far as rating things goes, I prefer the 1-10 scale rather than the 1-5 scale because theres more room to be indecisive.

> I don’t have a favorite book, I have a top 10 list that needs to be in alphabetical order, otherwise certain books get jealous. I like to think that I’m not the only one with this problem.

> Its perfectly fine to be supremely contradictory! That is how the world works. It needs balance.

> My inner-child runs the place, but has to share a room with my inner-gypsy. I am becoming more and more aware of my tendancy to ferret away odd jewelry or trinkets that are shiny, jingly, or visually borderline-obnoxious.

> Sometimes, the only way to escape into a world of sanity and reason is to turn off all electronics, light a candle, and read until the sun comes up.