Washington, D.C.

Hello friends! Since I last dropped by these parts, my boyfriend and I moved to Washington, DC! I've started working from home full time, begun the job search for a new gig, and even had my first guest visit for a few days. It's been a very busy month since we left Boston, but here's what I've learned in short:

- When you move, unpack the kitchen first. With a functioning kitchen, you can fix meals and snacks and save tons of money by not having to eat out constantly during the week or so it takes to properly unpack everything else. Learn from our mistake; moving your stuff around all day makes you very hungry, and we spent way too much on sub-par sandwiches and salads from random restaurants in our new 'hood. You'll eat much healthier too.

- While everyone looks for something different when choosing a new abode, there's a lot to be said for location. We opted to pay a bit more to live in a spot that puts us just a few blocks from the metro, multiple grocery stores, the farmers market, a darling tea shoppe, a second hand bookstore, a yoga studio... pretty much everything a girl could need, and I couldn't be happier with our new home. I've removed the stress of having to drive from my life and my legs are feeling happy and strong from all the walking, it's a win-win!

- Job searching can be exhausting and trying for even the most patient among us. Tip for the loved ones of job seekers: please refrain from uttering that dreaded question, "Find a job yet?", even in jest. Stick with, "How is the job search going?", and prevent an awkward moment of genuine frustration and annoyance.

- It turns out making bagels from scratch isn't as tricky as one might think. Check out this tasty little basket of goodness my sister-in-law and I hand crafted.

- If you frequently work from your laptop, like I do, investing in a few additional tools can make your workspace much more comfortable and ergonomic. A laptop stand that raises your laptop up to meet your natural gaze will keep your neck comfortable after hours at your desk. I also highly recommend a wireless keyboard (I went for the Logitech solar powered model and have been very happy with it so far) and a wireless mouse to keep your workspace clutter free.

- Speaking of desks, if you're looking for an inexpensive option, check out the Ikea Vika Amon table top with the Vika Lerberg trestle legs. This set-up only cost me $40 and was very easy to assemble, you just have to put together the trestle legs and the table top balances sturdily on top -making it easy to disassemble and move. I do not, however, suggest getting lost in your new city and making it to Ikea a mere 30 minutes before closing time with no idea what you want... but that's another story.

Cha-Cha-Changes

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Big happenings around these parts. My boyfriend and I are moving to Washington DC in just one month and there seems to be endless work to do. First things first - finding a place to live! I'll be jetting down tomorrow to apartment hunt and lay the groundwork for my upcoming job search. For now, here's a few fun things from around the web...

I recently discovered the incredibly delicious Maharaja Chai Oolong tea from Teavana (the flavors are so intense and full of depth), and it turns out they have a great website with tons of helpful tea information. Check out their Types of Tea guide and this great How Tea is Made visual complete with instructions for how to brew the perfect cup depending on type.

Did you get up early to watch the royal wedding? I only saw a bit of the recap coverage on TV but thought both Kate and Pippa's dresses were gorgeous.

Speaking of weddings, did you know that J.Crew has a wedding shop? Their relaxed, feminine dresses are simple perfection.

Fresh Idea

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I read a statistic today that I had heard before but had since put to the back of my mind - 95% of our thoughts are repetitive. Wow. That certainly helps explain why making progress can sometimes seem so difficult. And it's no wonder why negative thoughts can be so debilitating - they could quickly become a skipping record, playing over and over in our heads.

I started to wonder what the cause of this high rate of repetitive thought is. Perhaps it's just the human wiring, the way our synapses fire reaffirming our thought process. Or maybe it has more to do with our 21st century culture, with the inundation of information which is often very repetitive in nature (who hasn't heard the robotic Tiger Woods apology by now?).

But regardless of the cause, who wants 95% of their musings to be unoriginal? We may not be able to actually change the percentage of our thoughts which are repetitive or not (that's for the neuroscientists to analyze), but I know I spend a lot of time pondering, discussing, and wearing out the same tired topics and I will bet I'm not the only one. So what are you doing to inspire fresh ideas, new experiences, untrodden paths, and original thoughts in your life?

Just a question to take into the new week...

Winter Solstice

Photo found here

If the dark days have been getting you down, rejoice! Today is the Winter Solstice, which in layman's terms is the shortest day of the year. Now while that may not sound like means for celebration, the result is that every day from now until the Summer Solstice will be longer and longer (Wondering when the Summer Solstice is? It's typically on June 21st - 6 months from the Winter variety). More scientifically speaking, the Solstice is the day that the earth's axis is tilted at it's most extreme degree either towards or away from the Sun. In today's case, we in the northern hemisphere are leanin' back like Fat Joe (if you don't get the rap reference, we're leaning back a lot) while our friends south of the equator are leaning in for a kiss of sunshine.

The Winter Solstice has been celebrated in countless ways by cultures around the world for well over a thousand years. Many interpretations of Sun Deities are honored at this time - such as the the Incan sun god Inti, or the sun-goddess Beiwe who was believed by the Saami (the indigenous people of current-day Finland, Sweden, and Norway) to travel across the sky through a structure of reindeer bones. Many cultures and faiths have viewed the Winter Solstice as a time of rebirth or renewal - including various Neopagan and Christian sects which celebrate the rebirth/birth of prominent figures of their faith during this symbolic time of year. Whichever tradition you choose to carry-out this season, it's likely rooted in the current angle of our round, spinning home.

If the change in weather and the stress of the holidays has you down, why not celebrate your own renewal of spirit today? Do something that helps you feel rejuvenated - be it heading to the gym to sweat out toxins, drinking a big green juice to revitalize your body, or booking a massage to rub yourself anew. Honor yourself by being mindful of your needs as you prepare for the winter ahead. Don't forget to be patient with yourself; the short days and long nights may affect us biologically, mentally, physically, and emotionally. And even at the most challenging of times, remember; it'll only get brighter from here.

More or Less

Sometimes more just feels right. We yearn for more hours in a day. We want more time with the ones we love. We need more money in our pockets. We crave more sweetness on our tongues. We desire more shoes to fill our closets. We ache for more sleep in the morning. Sometimes it feels as if life would be so much better if there was simply "more".

But there's a counterpart to more that we often forget about when we proclaim that more will solve our conundrums, and that counterpart is less.

It may seem counter intuitive that less can fill the same needs as more. After all, any kindergartner well versed in opposites can tell you that more is to up as less is to down. But sometimes less provides us with the real solution when more is still but a dream.

We won't gain more hours in a day any time soon, but less commitments can provide us with the hours we yearn for. Less time spent planning for picture perfect memories (for example an ideal vacation), or working to save up for said memory producing events, can give us the time to recognize and appreciate the simple moments we have with those we love. Less money in our pockets may not be ideal, but it enables us to internalize that money and the various things we buy does not define who we are. Less sweetness, just like less saltiness or spiciness or tartness, will refine our palates and develop a finer and wider sense of culinary delights. Less clothing in our closets can remove the stress of deciding what to wear each day and help us to see that is it not just how we adorn ourselves that makes us beautiful. Less sleep... well okay less sleep is really no fun no matter which way you dice it.

There are times for more and times for less in all of our lives. Sometimes we turn to more because we need to feel filled from the moment we awake to the moment we drift to sleep. Lately I've been feeling the need for less, and it's filling me up in a way more rarely does.

New Features!

I'm excited to announce that new features are coming to Apartment 303 in the near future! What kind of features, you ask? Original video and photo content are on the way, along with lots more tips and inspiration for living brilliantly. Look for new recipes, how-tos, and personal development exercises to come. In the mean time, here's a super quick video I made to get familiar with the editing process. Please excuse the drab coloring - natural lighting is in the cards for next time ;)

Apartment 303 from Paige Doster on Vimeo.

Apartment 303

Photo via Chinese Garden Scene

Rain drops trip from leaf to leaf on the trees outside my bedroom window. The constant buzz of insects rings in my ear, a harmony to the hum of the air conditioner down the hall. A faint breeze from the doorway kisses my cheek as I quietly wait for the temperature to become sleepable. My limbs rest heavily on the mattress, still warm from the rays of the afternoon sun, smelling slightly of pool water from today's dip.

Tonight I will fall asleep 2,015 miles from apartment 303, and a world away from the academic life I have left behind. Back on the east coast, in the bedroom that was my only piece of the world for 18 years, I have returned to begin the newest chapter of my life; one which involves a full-time job search, the rediscovery of my hometown and the city to the south (where ,with any luck, I will be relocating), and the anticipation that only uncertainty can bring.

It was somewhat sad to see apartment 303 packed up into suitcases and boxes, stacked in lonely piles next to the backdoor stoop, awaiting an alleyway pickup. The unit was my haven for the past year, and the place where so much creativity bloomed. But I have lived enough to know that places and possessions serve only as the context we give to experiences - the tangible assets that help us to quantify and make physical our emotions and experiential memories.

And so it is that I look forward to whatever will come next. While I may have said goodbye to the physical apartment 303 in Denver, it is with my whole heart that I embrace the less tangible essence of what apartment 303 stands for. Apartment 303 is about learning continuously, exploring indefinitely, and finding peace and true satisfaction in the simple things - exactly what this blog is all about.

The Graduate

It's official.

The Writing's on the Door

Photo found here

Since I live in a graduate housing apartment on the DU campus, my building has a community adviser (also known as a CA; the slightly more grown up version of a dormitory RA). Since the apartment is all one-bedroom units inhabited by graduate students there is rarely, if ever, anything rowdy going on that needs dealing with. As a result, our CA's main purpose is to make different name plates (door decs in CA/RA-speak) for each resident's door each quarter.

Well this morning as I left home, turning to lock the door, something new caught my eye. There, below the hand-holding, banana-eating monkey cutouts that proudly proclaim "Paige" lives here in fading forest green magic marker, stood a freshly adhered picture of a snowy mountain peak rising atop a lush Colorado valley. My initial reaction was to go knock on "David" (or so claim's his own name plate) the CA's door and let him know that I appreciated his craftsmanship but that I indeed would be moving out on Saturday. As I began to stroll the hallway, however, I realized that the black type hovering just above the mountain's peak didn't resemble the characters of Paige Doster after all. Nope this plate was not made for me, but for "Nicole" someoneorother. There it is. The writing's on the door, and it's almost time to go.

Monotasking

Image via Owlnet

Like many people I know, I have a tendency to try and accomplish eight things at any one given time. Frequently I will be packing my lunch, brushing my teeth, and trying to compose a grocery list simultaneously - only to later wonder where my soup spoon ran off to (left on top of the fridge), why there is something stuck between my molars (oops, forgot to floss), and how come the pantry is empty (mental grocery lists never seem to materialize in full in my shopping bags). Perhaps it is having to eat soup with a fork, my fear of cavities, or the unsatisfying nature of roasted vegetables paired with a granola bar and edamame, but I have hit my breaking point. Every Monday and Wednesday morning I am reminded by my yoga teacher, Natasha, in her soothing accent of unknown origin, to move my arms "mindfully", to "let the excess go", and to "focus my whole being" on a pose. I'm starting to think she has a point.

See, after a few days of monitoring my own multitasking habits it became evident that I was not really saving time at all - I was just displacing it. Sure, I may have saved a minute or two when I sent an email in class, but the time I spent getting caught up on the course material I missed and composing the subsequent email I had to send when I realized my first message did not really make sense... well... it ended up taking longer than had I done both tasks "mindfully" to begin with.

In addition to saving time, I also thought that my multitasking was helping me get the most out of each minute in the day - a neat trait that ensured I experienced life to the fullest and would not miss out on anything. Well. it turns out that is not the case either. You see, inherent in multi-tasking is that nothing is experienced fully. Certainly I was not experiencing the book I read fully while I simultaneously listened to music and intermittently sent text messages, nor was I getting the most out of my workout as I slowed my jogging pace on the treadmill to read a magazine. In either scenario I would have gotten a much fuller and satisfactory experience if I has "let the excess activities go".

The most profound realization for me, however, was recognizing that a multitasking person is not a fun person. In fact - a multitasking person is generally an annoying person. Think about the last time you had lunch with someone who was constantly sending messages from their Blackberry or texting someone else while you tried to carry a conversation. Majorly annoying, right? What about the lady driving to work while eating a McMuffin, applying mascara, and talking on the phone? Also majorly annoying and dangerously oblivious. And then there's the coworker that is always so preoccupied you end up having the same conversation day after day because they are never really listening to you. Annoying to the nth degree.

Photo via MSNBC

Well I am embarrassed to admit I have recently become that person. I have been called out on my annoying behavior by my boyfriend while talking to him on speakerphone and washing my face, brushing my teeth, checking my email... the list goes on. It has finally hit home that if I am not giving someone else my whole attention I am wasting their time and missing out on developing a deeper relationship. Plus, I am majorly annoying - not a description I strive for. You see, if we are not "focusing our whole being" on the person or people we are with, we risk missing out on truly connecting with others - one of life's greatest gifts. We also risk being an annoying person no one wants to hang out with.

Photo via Ron Martin

Given my recent multitasking myth-busting, I decided to turn over a new leaf and embrace monotasking. Maybe it seems a little boring and lackluster amid a world of bluetooth technology in an endless sea of gadgets that encourage us to do more in any one moment in time, but it feels surprisingly refreshing to focus on just one thing at a time. There are many benefits to monotasking I have noticed, most notable of which is an increased satisfaction with each thing I do. Consciously completing a task effectively and knowing it has been done with care is oddly fulfilling - sort of like when you are young and tying your shoes was a triumph worthy of acknowledgment. Plus, I know I won't be annoying my boyfriend, or any friend for that matter, with my lack of participation in our conversations.

Looking to add a little monotasking to your life? Start with these mono-tips and you'll be on your way to more focused, mindful living in no time:

• When it's time to eat, just eat. Don't watch television or work at your computer while you munch. Not only is eating mindlessly bad for your waistline, but you are depriving yourself of fully experiencing the joy of your food when distracted by the TV. Remember, multitasking doesn't save you time in the long run - you can take 30 minutes to enjoy your meal and be a more productive worker when you return to your desk.
  

• When you're talking to someone, listen. This may seem like a no-brainer, but how often are we truly listening to someone when they speak to us? Even if we are not actively doing something else physically, we are often predicting what the speaker will say next, pondering our own personal issues, or trying to find a place to interject our own thoughts. Spend a day trying to fully engage in conversations with others, with an emphasis on listening - you might be surprised by what you hear!

• Talk yourself through it, one task at a time. Lately, when I start doing one task and then find my mind or my body trying to do something else too, I will say (either in my head or aloud), "It's not time for X right now, I'm doing Y". This may seem silly, but it is a very effective way to stay on task and strengthen your resolve to complete one task before starting the next. A quick reminder is often all it takes to finish what you started with full attention.
  

The First Boxes

Image via MamaLaw

I had the best intentions of getting homework done today. I made a list, I organized the list, I itemized the list, I even went so far as to number the list - but as for the execution of the list... no dice. I blame my own lack of follow through on the fact that it is a Saturday in June.

So instead, I spent the afternoon cleaning. I like to think of cleaning as more than a routine chore, and more like therapy. After all, you are forced to see your current situation as it truly is, deal with the realities and consequences of the situation as such, and when the time comes - move on. For me, cleaning today was not merely about sweeping the crumbs of snacks past off the kitchen floor or wiping down the neglected bathroom sink - it was about taking stock of my earthly possessions in terms of U-Haul square footage and likelihood of repeat use. 

In seven weeks I will be on the road, relocating from Denver back to the East Coast to begin life after school. I am so excited to make the move, and especially for the opportunity to go through my many "things" and discover what is working for me and what is not. My growing library of books? Heavy and voluminous, but definitely working. My collection of old sweat clothes for "wearing around the house"? That's a resolute "not working" (and who am I kidding about not wearing them in public). 

Image via The Chef in Stead

It's possible I am just caught up in spring cleaning fever again, but I think every transitional experience is enhanced by a little bit of change. For example, a few simple wardrobe alterations can give you the extra boost of confidence you need when taking on new responsibilities at work. A quick rearrangement of your bedroom in accordance with Feng Shui practices may help balance your energies and yield a refreshed view the next time you need a pick-me-up. Donating a no-good ex's leftover jacket, CD's, and other unwelcome reminders to the Goodwill are a great way to speed up the rebound process too. If you're in a process of transition - or if you want to be - what small change can you make today to enhance your experience? 

As for me, I sought to mentally prepare for the physical and emotional changes ahead and initiated that process by packing my first few moving boxes. And as for my homework, well that's what Sundays in June are for anyways. 

Transformation

Photo found here 

Change is about, but it’s not in the air. Okay, it may well be in the air too; but lately I have been too consumed with what is brewing inside me to notice any external shifts. From sudden clarifying thoughts to moments of renewed understanding, I have begun learning things about myself at a rapid rate and recognizing themes that have remained hidden until now. Can I be more specific? That I don’t know.

At moments it feels like waves of enlightenment, sometimes clearly connected to a discovery or an event while at other times the catalyst is completely unknown. I have found myself making decisions with more confidence and internalizing new possibilities with enthusiasm. Perhaps this inner metamorphosis is the result of my changing perspective on the future and acceptance of the uncertainty so prevalent in my life right now.

Whatever the cause, transformation is under way. It is both exciting and confusing. I feel more open to change than ever and ready to embrace the person I discover along the way. Regardless of the specifics, I am certain that good things are on the way - and I look forward to sharing them with you as they become more clear. 

Have you gone through a period of profound renewal before? How did it influence your path in life? Your relationships? Your sense of self?