It’s been exactly 20 years since Britney Spears released the hit of the century.  This song manages to never get old and it also happens to stay relevant as each decade passes.  Britney is a fascinating vision of the American Dream – she has been a phoenix who has risen from the ashes of Hollywood’s ruthless nature, over and over again.  She has embodied the innocence of the ideal American dream and the downfall of the perils of achieving everything and being caught up in fame from a young age.  There is so much to appreciate about this hit and how Britney Spears has weathered many, many storms…

Pamela Reif’s workouts are not for the faint of heart.  As I have stuck to them (3 days in a row!) I have found myself feeling stronger and more agile in continuing them.  I have also committed myself to keeping a Fitness Diary everyday to hold myself accountable for doing her routines.  Her routines are along the lines of a Barry’s Bootcamp style class minus the voyeuristic aspect of millennials low key competing over whose body is hotter (those are the types of classes that I loathe; it just reminds me of Amy Schumer in I Feel Pretty and the scene when she falls off her bike in a Soul Cycle class).  Pamela Reif’s TED speech on authenticity resonates with me, and it speaks to the fact that if you do commit yourself to achieving goals, you can achieve what you put your mind to.  It certainly is mind over matter.

My entire life has been spent in the San Francisco Bay Area – and more recently, homelessness has become an all-out epidemic, and it’s shocking.  The shock for me never goes away.  Some mornings, when I am stepping off BART, I can count more than 5 homeless people on the street in less than a minute and the rest of my walk from the Embarcadero BART station down Market Street is horrifying to witness in what is the world’s tech capital.  It’s alarming and it’s unconscionable that this go on for any longer.  When Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce and SF native, published an article in The New York Times, entitled, “The Social Responsibility of Business,” you know how bad it’s gotten.  When a scion of business takes a stand for an issue on a platform such as The New York Times, you know that the issue is out of hand.

The problem is that people too often try to rationalize homelessness, perhaps they do so because it is so challenging to process how people are degraded from their own humanity, and so it goes that narratives are wrongly perpetuated that the homeless “did something wrong” to get to where they are.  Furthermore, it is no one’s place to judge anyone’s circumstance, it is quite the opposite, it is a travesty that so many Americans have rationalized the “why” of homelessness rather than looking at themselves and wondering why they have allowed this to happen to their communities.  The issue is complex – it’s weaves together the public and private sectors, but it’s not insurmountable to solve.  Affordable housing and opportunities to assimilate the homeless back into society are all possible.  The first step is acknowledging the inhumanity of the state of homelessness in today’s America. Mr. Benioff, thank you for taking a stand on an issue that needs attention now.

I am so thrilled to introduce my lifestyle blog where I’ll be writing on everything from beauty, fashion, celebrity trends, and great places to travel.  I’m also passionate about topics such as philanthropy and sustainable development, especially in keeping up with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Please join me on this journey into the Rosy BVM!