Last year I frequently heard people complain. It would actually be fair to say that complaining seemed to be the main form of communication: anywhere from minor griping and bemoaning daily struggles to major dissent and protest. There were complaints about poor health and the deadly effects of the changing weather, magnetic storms, disobeying ( Read more... )

I think a lot can be said about a person's life based the inventory on his garbage: some people are wasteful, others squeeze the last drops out of everything, some people hold on to mementos tightly, others preserve the memories and not the souvenirs.  You can watch a person grow through the different stages of life by observing at first the ( Read more... )

I go for a walk just after the rain, when the dust has settled, the air is still brisk, and the city sparkles in its newborn pink tufa glow, rising from the ashes of the scorching summer fever. My steps take me downtown, to the main square and then to Vernisage. There is something I absolutely adore about that place, something that cannot quite ( Read more... )

Another discovery I have made having spent all this time in the motherland is how fond we as a nation are of keeping up appearances.  This tendency runs a very wide spectrum actions: from minor daily acts to major lifechanging decisions, we always wonder what the neighbors will think.

Growing up one constantly gets told at every misstep "Have some ( Read more... )

I sit in the park I used to sit in a decade ago.  Things have changed since then.  I'm civilized now: I sit on a bench as opposed to the grass.  I have Huxley open in my lap as opposed to Dickens, but I still love my brits. ( Who would ever pick Bleak House as the first book they read in a foreign language?  How I suffered through it.  Now the ( Read more... )

 Overheard yet another gem of a phrase, this time at Nexus:

"Я вышел из дому и вошел в интернет."

If laughter prolongs life then I owe that guy a whole year.  Thanks dude!

 Sometimes I think that Armenian men should all just give up their day jobs and enlist in the army of contemporary Aristotles and Platos.

I heard something rather brilliant on the street yesterday:

Աղջիկ կա` լավ ա հագնվում, աղջիկ էլ կա` լավ ա, որ հագնվում ա:

Ու տենց... © norayr  ;)

Running late to work as always, I burst into the cab and tell the driver to step on it, please.  I rolled out of bed only a few minutes ago, but the crisp air  and the chocolate bar in my hand (breakfast of champions!) have managed to wake me up after having gotten only about 4 hours of sleep.  I'm genuinely glad it is Friday, because I don't think ( Read more... )

 In the pitch black of the night we are flying together occasionally passing half drunk young men driving their SUV's home unsteadily, from whatever questionable deeds filled their Saturday night.  They look like they want to race, but there is no catching us.  We are flying ( Read more... )

Me and my reflection in the mirror have been rather good friends since early childhood.  We shared a lot of tears and a lot of laughs.  The girl in the mirror taught me my best angles when taking pictures. She was brutally honest when my butt looked fat in a particular pair pants (sorry friends, sugarcoating is all well and good, but I still don't ( Read more... )